RahXephon

RahXephon:  B

"A story taking place in a world that has already been devastated in the past by poorly understood monstrous forces which appear alien but possess qualities which link them to human religion, in which a teenage boy meets a flirtatious woman and a mysterious girl, and shortly thereafter finds himself piloting a monstrous humanoid robot that only he can pilot to fight these monstrous enemies.  The boy finds himself living with the members of the secret organization to fight the monstrous enemies, which includes the flirtatious woman and a red-headed girl who is strongly in denial about her feelings for the boy.  The cast also includes a quiet, ill girl who may or may not be involved in an illicit relationship with someone in a position of authority and a female scientist who has feelings for that same authority figure.  The boy must conquer his own doubts and demons, and he will also learn about those which surround the other members of the secret organization.  In the end, the boy must choose to destroy or rebuild the world with the divine power he now possesses, which is the final result of an ancient mystical conspiracy."

If this sounds familiar, it's probably because you've seen or heard about Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is why it's surprising that that's not what I'm talking about.  This is a series called RahXephon, which came about several years after Evangelion.

Now, as much as I would feel totally in my rights to say that RahXephon is ripping Eva right the heck off, I won't say that, because while it may not be precisely original, that doesn't prevent it from being good.

Both series explore similar themes of self, redefinition, apocalypse, divinity, love, hate, loss and finding a place.  I personally liked Eva more but I saw Eva at the tender age of fourteen and was very deeply affected by it, so I have a tough time admitting that anything is better than Evangelion.  It also makes it very difficult for me to talk about RahXephon on its own merits, because the similarities are so strong.

I enjoyed it.  It has less of what might be accused of being 'dithering,' RahXephon moves more quickly and feels less episodic even in the early stages, which might appeal to some more.  It also explains its weirdness even less than Evangelion does, which might annoy some people even more, and I found RahXephon to be less elegant in its design.

Overall, if you're interested in a semi-surreal series about supernatural giant robots and all of the secret organization politics, self-loathing and emotional trauma that entails with a strong South/Central American mythology (as seen through the lens of Japan) bent, you'll probably enjoy RahXephon.