[Rebel]

So I certinly found rahxephon to be very good in it's own right, but, at the same time it was strikingly similar to NGE. The animation is different and "improved" the characters appearances are different, but there are still many things that are too similar to simply be overlooked.

I'll list...
The Mu, and the Angels. While the Angels were not controlled by a humanoid faction, this ascpect takes a realtive backseat. Since TERRA and NERV both take the approach that their enemy cannot be reasoned with. Added to that the battles are oh-so-slimilar to NGE. military tries something, and fails, then the Rahxephon/Eva shows up and battles a strange looking monster thing.

Ayato vs Shinji. They are both whiny although Ayato is less so tha Shinji, they are both rather forced into a place where the closest thing they've got to a freind is a 30-something intelligence officer with a crush on them. neither one ever feels they belong and the "commander" always seems to be on their case to fight for them.

Rei vs Quon. Both are rather silent, loner types who either dont speak, or speak very bluntly. With Quon adding in riddles for some twist. They are both pale and being used by various people to enact a certian agenda. Rei becomes the Lillith-Rei in EoE and Quon merges with the black Raxhepon to become Ayato's counterpart in the Tuning of the world.

The End. Given we take EoE to be the end of the evangelion story, both NGE and Rahxephon end with a "resetting" of the world. Raxhephon is rest into a more peaceful and ideal world, the way that would be best for everyone, while NGE is turned into a psychotic Adam and Eve setting. Unless you go with the Black Room episodes, where I think Shinji keeps everything the way it is.

Both are great series, however, Rahxephon is dissapointingly similar to NGE in my opinion. Granted NGE was a rather unique twist on the old "one boy/man/girl/woman saves the world" concept, which the majority of anime's hold to, I feel that Rahxephon could have been more unique than it was, but in some respects when somebody creates a unique thing like NGE, it's hard to be original again.

So, what do YOU all think?

[darktruth]

Although I've never seen Evangelion fully (only saw 2 episodes of the series) I won't argue that there isn't any similarities between the 2 because that's just plain ignorance.

In MY point of view I see comparing NGE to RahXephon is alot like comparing Rurouni Kenshin to Samurai Deeper Kyo, both series have a similar plot and main character BUT the way it is executed is where the line is drawn and how different they can be from each other. Nowadays it's hard to have an anime that can be truly unique without having drawn some influences from other series.

From what I saw of RahXephon, its music is what I would say is unique and used more strategically. With Evangelion I did try and give it a chance but it just didn't really grab or interest me like RahXephon did with its first episode, it may seem biased but I ended up falling asleep by the end of the 2nd episode of Evangelion. For RahXephon it kept on making me more and more interested and wanting to find out what happens next by each episode.

[Rebel]

NGE has poor music, very flat. Sometimes it works, most of the time it sounds like soemthing from a 50's B-movie. I dont think Evanglion ever really grabs your interest until some more characters start coming in, in which case you'd just have to watch more of it.

[darktruth]

I would watch more of Evangelion but at the moment it just doesn't interest me enough to give it a 2nd chance, partly because I'm more into watching newer animes lately but maybe sometime in the future I may try and give it another go.

[Analog]

Both are excellent series in their own rights. NGE gets a nod for originality, but Rah was as much of a copy of NGE as it was a tribute, even going as far as having some of the crew from NGE involved with the making of Rah.

With that said, there were times during RahXephon that made me wish for a little more difference from Eva. However, the plot for Rah was so complex, those points were really very few and far between. In some ways, I view Rah as a alternate telling of NGE because they are so closely related and with staffs involved with each other.

[Lynk Former]

I was just reading through the essay-ish type post I wrote in the last version of C3F about this... you remember the Evangelion | RahXephon thread.

I still agree with what I wrote in there, that these two series do compliment each other and should be watched together. With Evangelion showing the darker side of humanity while RahXephon shows the good in us all. I agree with Analog about the fact that RahXephon is a tribute to Evangelion rather than just a copy and that it very well is an alternate telling using different sources but overall telling the same story.

It's also fair to say that RahXephon did borrow a little from Gundam and also from Macross as well, it's just not as apparent but it's there. Funnily enough, some of the people who worked on RahXephon had also worked on a few Gundam and Macross series... XD

But RahXephon also has a very unique element, one that is very much my favourite part about it. The love story between Ayato and Haruka. That also needs to be recognised if there is going to be a comparison between Evangelion and RahXephon. And that is also the major element that turned RahXephon from a potentially negative series (such as Evangelion) into a positive one.

As for the way the two series was executed. There were a lot of similarities between the two in that aspect, sorry to say darky. However as stated before, the thing that made it seem different was the fact that RahXephon has that love story element. Evangelion, while it had some romance, of sorts, took a much darker and sadistic tone. Overall the way the two series were both executed were similar with the only difference being the lack of sadism in RahXephon compared to Evangelion.

And as for the music, the music in both RahXephon and Evangelion is very well done. The music for RahXephon is great but as for the comment made about Evangelion's music... The series is so extreme and the music very much reflects that. I have no idea where the idea came from that Evangelion's soundtrack is flat because it definitely IS NOT. Have you actually put on the soundtrack, turned up your stereo to max and actually listened at some of the tracks? It is FAR from flat. The fact that the music does sound older than the actual anime itself is deliberate and echoed the sounds of classic movies that more people should have watched.

But it is true that Evangelion really takes off once Asuka gets thrown into the mix XD lol. And it is very much apparent that RahXephon learnt from the mistakes that Evangelion made. This is why RahXephon has the more engaging introductory episodes than Evangelion does as it puts you in the shoes of Ayato, where you know only as much as he does and are thrown into utter chaos. It’s more of a mystery that way. Evangelion on the other hand takes a more subdued approach, rather than making the viewer feel like they are in the shoes of the main character it's more of an explanation of who this character is and why he has come to this place and what is going on initially.

[Rebel]

And as for the music, the music in both RahXephon and Evangelion is very well done. The music for RahXephon is great but as for the comment made about Evangelion's music... The series is so extreme and the music very much reflects that. I have no idea where the idea came from that Evangelion's soundtrack is flat because it definitely IS NOT. Have you actually put on the soundtrack, turned up your stereo to max and actually listened at some of the tracks? It is FAR from flat. The fact that the music does sound older than the actual anime itself is deliberate and echoed the sounds of classic movies that more people should have watched.

indeed I have most of the soundtracks. And the music is very much something from a b-grade movie.

Now when I say flat I'm not talking dry and boring. Certian music has a quality to it, most classical does this, where it's a whole world on it's own, it has a 3rd dimension to it. It has depth, sounds come from the back, the side, the back side, ect...while NGE's music often seems flat because it seems to lack this apparent depth.

[Lynk Former]

Evangelion = classic spaghetti western charged with a dose of 21st Century adrenaline.

That's why the music sounds the way it does and that's what's so good about it.

[Rebel]

Evangelion = classic spaghetti western charged with a dose of 21st Century adrenaline.

That's why the music sounds the way it does and that's what's so good about it.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. It works for the show, it just dosent sound too well on it's own..but hey, it was made for the show I suppose.

[Lynk Former]

Well if it does work with the show than it has done what it has set out to do XD Sondtracks aren't necessarily meant to be stand alone things.

[Ishita_Kanzar]

The only reason why I watched RahXephon was because I liked the music... And then I realised (by the time someone in the ep was explaining about the blue sakura trees) that I'd seen this somewhere... blue sakura... blue sakura... Somehow, I'd seen RahXephon before. But I don't recall it.

Anyway, I digress. After seeing a few eps of RahXephon... (and keep in mind that I've only seen like, fifteen eps and the movie ending of Evangelion), the first thing I thought was... THIS IS JUST LIKE EVANGELION. Perhaps it was the 'mecha' or whateva you call em. Perhaps it was the weird girls that the main character meets.

But ---- technology ensured that I kept on watching RahXephon while I did not with evangelion. My brother was watching the movie ending of NG:E with me - so many freeze frames!! My brother thought that was cheap... With RahXephon... I think the bit where the human military say they don't need him anymore was the best bit.

[Lynk Former]

I have an announcement to make in this thread and it only requires one word... and a lot of laughing my ass off XD...

FAFNER

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA... *runs away*

[Blue Confusion]

Is that a ripoff of a ripoff of a ripoff of religious texts?

[Lynk Former]

The first one was innovative.
The second one showed us an alternate take.
The third one... just shouldn't be attempted for the sake of the first two.

[Blue Confusion]

Oh but it should, because the first two will just seem that much bigger and better in comparison

[Lynk Former]

XD Reviews don't give Fafner any love but the strange thing is that the ANN user ratings rate it unusually high, see: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclop...hp?id=3870

I've seen the trailer, I laughed my ass off, I'm skeptical... I'm not prepared to see this any time soon but I hate it when I see conflicting information.

[Blue Confusion]

The dogfight scene I saw.... I'm not sure which is worse, the dub voices used or the fact that they've not been sued for breach of copyright. I was mentally expecting to hear that Ayato's signal had disappeared, blahblahblah.

*pushes Fafner far far away from her conscious recollections*

[Analog]

Actually I think I know what happened. Someone ordered a copy of the RahXephon script and had it delivered to their house. Unfortunately, when the package arrived, the person opened it and found another script instead... "Gundam Seed Destiny Drama Queens part 4.27"!!!!

In a related event, by the time Sunrise realized they had the wrong script, they were already 1/2 way done with the series. They decided to finish it anyway and just rename the thing to "Fafner" instead of wasting all that effort

[Lynk Former]

You can tell this thing is riddled with plenty of teenage angst.



Oh and:
"In Norse mythology, Fafnir was a son of the dwarf king Hreidmar and brother of Regin and Otr. In the Volsunga saga, Fafnir was a dwarf gifted with a powerful arm and fearless soul. He wore the Aegis helmet and guarded his father's house of glittering gold and flashing gems. He was the strongest and most aggressive of the three brothers."

[Analog]

Is this where Thor busts out the magical hammer? Oh, wait... that must only be in the English dub :P

[Sadipriss]

I think Rahxephon is nice to look at,
it DOES look like it's inspired after NGE in a way (much like discussed in the first post)

but Rahxephon qua story is lesser then NGE was/is

I've seen the movie and they re-used ALOT from the series, quite alot more then NGE ever did, which is dissapointing.. really


the Music is GREAT! better then NGE true, animation is better as well

but compared to NGE I think the creators of Rahxephone were a tad lazy when it comes to the movie.......

[Lynk Former]

The animation in NGE is still damn good considering that it's traditional cel animation vs computer assisted animation we're talking here.