Product description

RahXephon - Vol 1 [2003]

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Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 0702727039027
Label : Adv Films
Manufacturer : Adv Films
Publisher : Adv Films
Release date : 2003-09-22
Title : RahXephon - Vol 1 [2003]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 12 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 2003-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 125
Studio : Adv Films
Theatrical releaseDate : 2003
MPN : DRX001D

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-06-18 rating:

if you dont get it you will regret it
I got this DVD and I'm very pleased and it has episodes 1 to 5 and it has a good amount of bonus stuff as well I like it a lot and its a great anime for any anime fan oh and its not a evangelion clone.

review by: date: 2008-03-30 rating:

Decent, but by no means as superb as others have stated...
I went into this series thinking 'Something as well rated as EVA must be superb, right...', needless to say I was somewhat disappointed.

I shall say this now, this is not as big a rip off of EVA as I feared it would be, sure the pilot of a mecha is a young Japanese boy with no real knowledge of the outside world, but it doesn't play out like that at all. The big issue here is the characters though, while there's no doubt in saying that the animation and dub are genuinely superb (rare for the latter), the characters are unconvincing and lack true emotion. I won't spil the story but Ayato lacks any real emotion in some of the key important scenes early on, especially as some of the early revelations are bigger than that of EVA. Regardless the 1st volume plodded on at a slow and somewhat tedious pace, more characters were introduced that failed to engage me at all, and the inevitable light hearted and somewhat comedic sections were poor as well.

Needless to say Vol 1 did not leave me salivating for more, and I don't feel a desperate desire to run out and buy the next volume. While it's certainly well drawn with a decent opening and closing sequence and a superb dub, it is a case of style over substance that ultimately failed to deliver what others say it has.

review by: dave_bissett date: 2007-06-04 rating:

RahXephon is NOT an Evangelion clone!
RAHXEPHON is an twenty-six episode anime mecha series, which ran on Japanese television from January to September of 2002. It was produced by Studio BONES, who would go on to produce more landmarks of anime TV - WOLF'S RAIN (2003-2004), FULL METAL ACHLEMIST (2003-2004) and EUREKA SEVEN (2005-2006), the latter which I'm planning to watch next.

The series focuses on seventeen-year old Ayato Kamina, who lives in Tokyo, which is believed to be the only remaining place for humans. The rest of the world has been attacked by the Mulians. One day, Ayato meets the beautiful Reika Mishima, who guides him to the RahXephon, a giant huamnoid robot which Ayato soon has the power to control.

Then, Ayato meets Haruka Shitow, who reveals that everything he has been told is a lie - there are more people on the planet, the year is 2027 rather than 2015 and Tokyo is under the control of the Mulians. Haruka takes Ayato and the RahXephon to TERRA, an Earth Federation organisation fighting the Mulians.

Along with Mishima and another girl, Quon - who often speaks in riddles - an epic jounrey begins for Ayato.

Five years since it's debut, RAHXEPHON has been wrongly accused for being a rip-off of the controversial NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (1995-1996). But it's just wrong to compare the two programmes. RAHXEPHON isn't as deep nor philosophical as EVANGELION. Plus, it doesn't get depressing as the show continues.

Despite that, RAHXEPHON is an excellent anime. The animation is beautiful, the story smoothly-paced and epic, while the characters are interesting. The set-pieces are so superb. My favourite episodes are 'City Of Two' (3), 'Nirai-Kanai' (5), 'Bitterly Cold Holy Night' (8), 'Kyoja Circuit' (11), The Children's Night (15), and from 'Return To The Labyrinth' (17) onwards.

My favourite scenes from this series is the heart-wrenching climax of 'Blue Friend' (19) and one scene with Ayato and Haruka in 'Twin Music' (24), although I won't go into detail. The ending of the series brought a smile to my face. Do watch the Japanese language edition, because the English dubbing is rather poor.

Don't listen to those who are saying this is an EVANGELION clone. It isn't. It truly is one of the best animes around. Buy it.

review by: date: 2006-06-16 rating:

Not just for mecha fans
I think that the mecha aspects of this series - though possibly the initial attraction for some - are much less important than the complex backstory and the human relationships. This is a brilliant series, well animated, beautifully scored, and which definitely benefits from repeated viewings. After finishing the series for the first time, I had only a vague idea what was going on - but the full emotiobal impact of the story was only brought home to me in the last scene of the last episode, a brilliantly understated scene that put everything into context. Seeing the whole series again, I realised how much I'd missed, and how much more I could have picked up if I hadn't underestimated it as just another mecha story.

Unlike some reviewers below, however, I found the English dub appalling - though no worse than most anime (Full Metal Alchemist is the only anime where I'd choose to watch it in English). Someone said they thought the Japanese voices in Rahxephon lacked emotion - I think they're just being more subtle about it than the shrill hysterics the American voice cast seem to go in for. So I'd recommend the subtitles.

review by: Rephaim date: 2006-04-17 rating:

Compelling.
My first anime was Evangelion. Ouch, heavy you might say and it certainly was. Having a love/hate relationship with that series (love the start, hate the ending, both of them) I moved onto something that would give me the same challenge as the prior mentioned series. RahXephon was the obvious choice. This DVD is the beginning of what I can say is by far the best series (for me anyway) I have ever seen. It is the only series I have watched the whole way through and not regretted it ending. You couldn't ask any more of it.

At worst, on the NGE comparison, is that you can say it is seizing of myriad aspects of various series (especially NGE) and making something better out. At worst it is NGE done right but I feel it is better than that. To be honest it deserves more than five stars. The series is complex (as you'll see from this DVD) but plotholes are non-existent and all important strands are tied neatly into place (unlike NGE) at the end in a sublime final episode. The characters are wonderful and quite human (or not when it is demanded of them) and the animation is next to (or often surpassing) movie quality. To put it simply. Watch this anime. No scratch that. Buy this anime and watch it many, many times (or have a very understanding friend who won't mind never seeing his DVDs again).

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