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The classic Neon Genesis Evangelion stands as a towering icon in the world of anime, particularly influencing the mecha genre with its groundbreaking narrative and psychological depth. In its wake, the anime landscape saw a flood of similar surreal and introspective works, not all of which matched its quality. However, among these, RahXephon emerged as a standout, deserving of recognition beyond being merely a shadow of its predecessor.
RahXephon offers more than just echoes of Evangelion; it establishes its own identity through a fresh narrative and significant deviations from the older series. While certain elements invite comparisons to the 30-year-old mecha classic, RahXephon carves its own path by sidestepping some of Evangelion‘s more contentious choices. Unfortunately, its limited availability on streaming platforms has contributed to its diminished visibility over the years.
Released in 2002 by the animation studio Bones, RahXephon made its debut seven years after Neon Genesis Evangelion. The story centers around Ayato Kamina, a young man caught in a battle against the Mulians, beings nearly indistinguishable from humans except for their blue blood. These Mulians have encased Tokyo in a mysterious barrier, allowing them to seize control of the city. This conflict escalates into a nuclear clash between humans and Mulians, with the latter deploying colossal “Dolems.” These adversaries, formed from clay, serve as the series’ enemy mecha, despite not being mechanical in nature.
RahXephon Reimagined Super Robot Imagery
RahXephon was produced by the studio Bones and released in 2002, with this being seven years after the release of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime. The protagonist is Ayato Kamina, a young man who becomes embroiled in the fight against the Mulians. These are nearly indistinguishable from humans beyond their blue blood, but due to their encasing Tokyo in a barrier, they’re able to take over the city entirely. This manifests into a nuclear collision between the two species, with the Mulians (also known as Mu) utilizing gigantic “Dolems.” These clay-like constructs are the enemy mecha of the anime, despite the fact that they aren’t actually mechanical.
Combating these Dolems is the RahXephon, an almost angelic mecha that’s bonded to Kamina. Beyond the unconventional designs, the mecha in this anime attack through sound and singing, reflecting the musical themes in the mythos. All the while, a key part of the story involves Kamina’s relationship with Haruka Shitow, and her importance to him and his memories become more obvious as the plot goes on and the mecha anime reaches its conclusion.
Besides the comparisons to Evangelion, RahXephon is also noted for evoking classic Super Robot anime. The comparisons were obvious to make with Brave Reideen, which included a species called Mu and a mecha made from the Earth. Both of the titular mecha also attack through their voices, and this is similar to the less militaristic scope of old-school Super Robot concepts. Before the original Mobile Suit Gundam invented the Real Robot mecha anime subgenre, giant robots in anime rarely had guns or similar weapons, instead employing outlandish and almost supernatural attacks. The nature of the RahXephon itself feels very supernatural, to the point where these esoteric aspects aren’t always explained. The result was an anime that had a unique take on both the general coming of age subgenre and mecha.
In the case of Kamina, he was a clearly young character who still never came off as completely impotent or annoying, which is something that wasn’t quite the case with the early version of Amuro Ray from the Mobile Suit Gundam anime. It also as a somewhat unorthodox love story that works surprisingly well, and the inventive use of sound and music as attacks makes for some of the most unique battles in the genre. Despite all that it has going for it, however, it’s largely forgotten beyond mecha aficionados, and there might be some tangible reasons for that.
Why One of the Best 2000s Mecha Anime Has Been Forgotten
Though it’s still well-regarded by some, RahXephon isn’t frequently brought up in the pantheon of 2000s anime, and it’s remained somewhat obscure. Part of it may stem from the genre itself, which was definitely on the way out from its former mainstream prominence within the medium. Mecha anime had been one of the biggest genres in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. During the latter two decades, however, it had all become rather played out, with mecha being seen by some as oversaturated. It didn’t help that there were now so many alternate universe Gundam anime (including the now 30-year-old New Mobile Report Gundam Wing) that made things feel even more overdone.
Thus, by the 2000s, mecha was simply too common to be interesting to the mainstream, especially since battle shonen anime were soon cemented as the face of the industry. Even for as unique as RahXephon was compared to more generic works, these nuances were lost on an audience that was increasingly uninterested in mecha as a whole. It’s worth noting that, beyond some of the other entries in the Gundam franchise, the only prominent 2000s mecha anime were Gurren Lagann and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.
Easily the biggest drawback to RahXephon‘s popularity was the comparison to Evangelion, with some accusing the former of being a ripoff of the themes in Neon Genesis Evangelion. In the case of these franchises, neither of the main mecha is truly a mecha in the traditional sense, and they have more organic and even otherworldly aspects to them. Likewise, the Angels from Evangelion were similarly unique in the same way as the Dolems from RahXephon, and they didn’t at all look like robots.
Kamina has a romantic relationship with an older woman who’s almost sisterly to him at points, and it’s more than a bit comparable to the relationship between Shinji Ikari and Misato Katsuragi. There are also several esoteric and unexplained elements to the storylines of these anime, with Evangelion thriving on how seemingly dense it can be at times. The main difference in this regard is that Evangelion has a lot of Judeo-Christian symbolism, whereas RahXephon does the same with Shinto concepts.
Thankfully, these similarities are a lot more surface-level than many are led to believe, and RahXephon shouldn’t be lumped in with other anime that poorly emulated Evangelion. For one, it actually explained most elements of its conclusion, whereas the sometimes nonsensical Evangelion required the End of Evangelion movie to actually reveal what happened in its bizarre, surrealistic final episodes. There’s not nearly as much dependence on “seeming deep” through symbolism and supposed references, and usually when these concepts are seen, they correlate with something else of actual substance.
After all, for all of its Judeo-Christian symbols, Evangelion had very little in the way of discussing the religions in question. On the other hand, there’s an episode of RahXephon where the cast discusses what it means to even celebrate Christmas as part of an otherwise secular society. In a lot of ways, RahXephon is a more “complete” take on what Evangelion had done years before, and it’s far better than outright ripoffs such as Genesis of Aquarion.
Evangelion’s Best Successor Is Almost Impossible to Watch
RahXephon may be one of the best mecha anime of the 2000s, but this hasn’t afforded it much renown in the modern era. Beyond the aforementioned reasons as to why it was criticized upon release, it’s suffering in the current era because of perhaps the biggest reason that any anime would become obscure. It’s not available to readily stream on platforms or services such as Crunchyroll, Netflix or Hulu, and this means that the overwhelming majority of today’s anime fandom will be unable to simply be exposed to it.
The discussion surrounding anime today is dominated by the biggest mainstream hits, many of which are themselves adaptations of an already highly-successful manga franchise. At the same time, anime as a whole is bigger than ever, and as a result, streaming is a way for the medium to prosper overall. This can lead to fans of one franchise checking out one that’s entirely unrelated, simply due to the proximity provided by streaming services.
Given that it was already somewhat questioned upon release, the lack of streaming options is a deathblow for RahXephon finding modern redemption. 23 years after it came out, it only recently saw release as a Blu-ray collection that has the entire anime. On the other hand, Neon Genesis Evangelion remains a constant hit that frequently gets new merchandise, and this is due in part to modern streaming services. Evangelion has seen immense success on Netflix, with the pandemic era and the rise that it gave to streaming really helping to put it on the map.
Since RahXephon doesn’t have that, it’s only become even more obscure over the years through this lack of continued presence. Conversely, the lack of new toys and merchandise or appearances in mainstream crossover works (beyond the largely Japanese-exclusive Super Robot Wars video games) furthers this. It remains to be seen if this will ever change, but for now, RahXephon remains an unsung gem that gives even the acclaimed Evangelion a run for its money.
