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RahXephon is a series filled with mystery and music.
RahXephon is a stunning new work, telling the story of Kamina Ayato, a young resident of Tokyo who finds himself thrust into a giant humanoid entity called RahXephon, in which he is forced to battle the Mulians, aliens that have invaded the earth and made Tokyo --- isolated in a force-field called ``Tokyo Jupiter'' --- their base.
He is kidnapped from Tokyo by the forces of TERRA, humanity's defense against the Mulians. There he meets Shitou Haruka, a young TERRA commander who seems to know him.
Many have criticized it as ``an Eva clone'', and it is true that there are some Evangelion-like elements in the series: a large humanoid ``mecha'', piloted by a young man, humanity under attack by mysterious forces, a beautiful young woman in a command position, and an apocalyptic buildup. Where Evangelion used Gnostic and Cabbalistic symbolism, RahXephon uses music.
But people who criticize RahXephon for being derivative of Evangelion forget that Eva itself reworked themes of earlier giant-robot anime. RahXephon may not break ground the way that Eva did, but it still manages to tell an intriguing story and have interesting characters, told with high production values. Indeed, RahXephon manages to simultaneously itself less seriously than Evangelion while also being less goofy (magma diver? give me a break!).
The opening theme is by the brilliant anime composer Kanno Yoko (general background music is by Ichiko Hashimoto). The production is by Bones (which brought us Cowboy Bebop). This show is the directorial debut of Yutaka Izubuchi, known as the mecha designer for Patlabor. The script was supervised by Chiaki Konaka (Serial Experiments: lain, Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis 2040, The Big O, Hellsing).
The voice talent is also strong:
