Merciful heavens, I did not expect this.
Ever since I watched Evangelion (at an age that was really not appropriate to see it, I might add) I had promised myself never to go, “Well, I have to see what everyone’s talking about” with something again. Watching Eva is like getting invited to have a wonderful feast at somehow’s house and then finding out you’ve been really invited to be tortured with hot needles all over your body. I won’t completely condemn it, there are some interesting ideas and some competent directions in a few parts, as well as some very original creature designs and some good action scenes. Everything else though…what I really hate about Eva and anime like it, is that it isn’t just a mindfuck, its a soulfuck. I feel like I must have done something to deserve the experience of watching it. It makes me feel depressed for the state of storytelling everywhere that it exists.
So it was that a little while ago I was incredibly bored and looking for something to do and stumbled upon something I do every year and a half or so, which is rent anime titles from Tsutaya and fill in the gaps of the episodes I saw on TV for the more promising stuff. This is where I ran into RahXephon, a show I had avoided because of what I know now are very braindead protestations that its simply a rip-off of many big robot shows, especially Evangelion. And here I am, not so huge on big robot shows in the first place either. (Patlabor movies and Giant Robo are the ones I really like.) But the bits of episodes I glanced in passing had a wonderful, surreal, dreamlike quality to them that I was quite attracted to and exuded a warmth and charm that was absent from worse stuff. I decided to rent it from the beginning and see what the fuss was about, and the minute I got the sense that the show was trying to rape my sense of propriety, back it would go to Tsutaya.
Not only did that minute never happen, but I got addicted to the show. I simply HAD to see what happened next. And when it was all over, I immediately bought the full set, because I knew it would be worth watching all over again. And it was.
I was expecting a competent show with some slight higher artistic aspirations of dreaminess and surreality that you can see in some of the best anime.
What I got was a true masterpiece, with the kind of regard for quality storytelling that is way, way, way too often shrugged off in anime. Plus, an absolutely stellar soundtrack. (Those piano pieces are amazing, as is the main theme and the piece that plays over the final credits.) The director seems to have learned from his past experiences (most notably in the great Patlabor and the um, not so great, Gasaraki). Here, once again the mecha may be cursorily important to the plot, but are really just a foil and a tool for the characters, yet much like newer mecha plots, they kind of take on a characterization of their own.
Better yet was the somewhat unique way (for an anime), the plot unravels. There’s been lots of discussion of stories that are more like onions with one layer after another unraveling, but RahXephon is more like a song or a composition with plot and character as its notes. That may sound pretentious, but its actually very simply implemented into the show (hell, a big theme is sound and music in the actual show) by not being any more blunt or subtle about it than need be. That is, we see a story with an underlying plot, but what’s on the screen are a series of images and scenes that could have revealed the same thing if they had been entirely different scenes, characters and images. I hope I made that sound intriguing, rather than just confusing.
You see, its very simple, we see an opening scene that is really, later on, revealed to be in the middle of the tale and ending scene that reveals (and I mean literally the last thirty seconds) a completely different take on what’s been seen so far. Both are valid and both are true, but as you rewatch RahXephon, you come to realize that if you take it as a science fiction tale, it has a very different mood and layer, yet as a mythology, a significantly different slant. The only meaningful point the series seems to want to make is show us how different the interpretations between these two kinds of tales can be and what kind of person would be drawn to which interpretation, which is in itself, I think a pretty worthy and original idea. But that’s not all. No, not at all. Despite all the fantastic elements, you could also take it to be general interest slice of life or a love story. And these are not all parts of the same plot, there are different plot lines entirely. They don’t mix together so much as they all exist at the same time. They’re like different instruments, or parts of melody and harmony that you can single out and identify as worthy of being regarded on its own and self-reliant on its own plot and story that you don’t need the other parts.
However, RahXephon doesn’t feel the need to pontificate on life or throw out cliched, pop psychology and philosophy. It also doesn’t want to be the kind of work where everything has meaning from beginning to end. Some of RahXephon’s purpose is to be like a dream, where you can interpret meanings, but some of it is just uncanny or surreal and has no meaning. This is the stated intent of the director. Usually this would be bad because you get this mess of abstract symbolism that reduces to characters to characterizations and makes the plot one huge ball of “huh?” and doesn’t connect with the viewer, but alienates them. But RahXephon separates the scenes it absolutely needs to be concrete and specific about in order to tell a good tale and the ones that are there to make the song stronger and more mysterious, so to speak.
The first time you watch RahXephon, you certainly don’t know which of these elements is which, because you’re still discovering the story in that dream image way. There are so many scenes that have a tense, unreal feeling of “this can’t be happening” to them. A kind of delightful paranoia, as weird as that may sound. It kind of soothing underneath the skin in an otherworldly way. But instead of going for disturbing, the effect for me was this weird kind of charming unease, like I’m looking at things in a museum that I like, but don’t know where they come from or what they are, even though I understand them on a certain level. This has the effect that when the scenes that are normal and average and everyday come around, they seem surreal, because the “reality” of the series, as in the majority of the scenes and tone and style is so surreal. Its a neat trick, used very well. That slice of life genre I mentioned that you can watch it as becomes a lot of fun once you realize the plot behind it given this context.
Most especially fun are the interactions with a certain group of characters. Everyone else has a relatively normal way of interacting, but these characters don’t seem to want explanations from each other or need them, they talk and understand and act with each other as if all the bizarre things they do are pretty normal. This wouldn’t make any sense if not for the brilliant use of tying the imagery they are involved in to their true identities which is a lightbulb that tells you, “Ahhhh, so that’s why they LOOK human and have human characteristics, but often act like they are broken, somehow wrong, or out of tune, operating on some other level.” If it had been everyone, the show would have sunk into incoherency, but they allocated this trait to just enough characters and scenes for it to dominate the overall resonance of the show in trippiness without unraveling everything into abstract glop where character motivation doesn’t exist. (In other words, characters who act like this are the minority, their reasons become clearer. But no matter you understand why, every time you watch it, you still can’t quite wrap your head around their sublime sixth sense that’s a different way of understanding how the world works that’s beyond human.)
I think the thing to be said about RahXephon is it fulfills the potential of good anime. And that would be a merge of more traditional animation premises of storytelling with the idea of freeforming, exaggeration and distortion, that at its definition has nothing to do with storytelling in manga (since manga exhibits far wider application as a medium than a storytelling one). It hasn’t forgotten to have the virtues all good stories have and simply nixes one bad anime trend after another:
-It doesn’t destroy tension or a scene that was trying to evoke our sympathy or interest by breaking it with a silliness or abstraction like calling out attack names or narrating one’s thoughts as they do something. The old adage about showing and not telling, ya know.
-There is no pretentious dialogue at all. Thank heavens. (There is one character who can listen to music and then kind of prophetize what will happen in the form of poetry, but its lovely, well-done and I’m unsure (since its mostly waka and haiku too) whether the poetry translates well, but some of them are marvelous quotes, some original and some a clever combination of the two. I hold that this doesn’t count as pretentious.) In fact, dialogue usually isn’t a strong point in even the best of anime, as the animation in the best ones proves to be the best storyteller, but here its often clever and subtle, with an outstanding performance by the voice-acting cast, one of the very best acting jobs in anything animated (Ayato’s mother and Makoto are particularly amazing). (Don’t know what the dubs sound like though.) Things do relate to a purpose that is, as with most mecha anime, world-changing in nature, but whatever meanings that has is, thankfully, left up to the viewer to interpret, as it should be, thanks to…
-A generous application of well-considered story-telling elements. Light moments of comedy are never inappropriate or jarring. All the allusion is not only well-considered and relevant, but uses much new and fresh material that hasn’t been covered and mined for ages. Symbolism is rare, used for good effect and only one is cliched. Imagery isn’t confused, the pacing is wonderful and the variety of story-telling angles is excellent.
-Everything is pretty classy. No one is assumed to be a likable character “just because” and then inserted into some nasty anime trope and given a voice actor just so they can spout something you’ve heard a million times before. Whatever irrelevant sexuality there is is so minor, it ought not to be counted as that infamous “fanservice” word.
-Eminently likable characters. Even that super-bitch, Helena, had the scene in her childhood where she was making the potion that was extremely charming. The lead is well-adjusted and adapts to his problems both without making them seem too easy to overcome and without making us hate him since he’s not being a spineless, idiotic retard. That scene with Megumi at the end is just too wonderfully awkward and hilarious for words and Asahina’s last scene is heart-wrenching. You know characterization is good when you can boast of a character who you have a strong, massive aversion to every time they appear on the screen, but can’t help feeling somewhat sad for them (Ayato’s mother). Her voice-acting was especially noteworthy, especially that freaky “phone call” scene.
-Not dependent on understanding anime’s past, present or future to enjoy, unlike so many shows today. Though RahXephon is working from a lot of material, both character, setting and plotwise that has similarities and predictabilities, it is that unique sense to use these things to their utmost level and play around with them in unique ways that makes you forget that we have certainly seen some of these scenes. Plus the whole music and painting angle. Can’t forget that.
Basically, RahXephon is what happens when the creators present are both talented and have the common sense and knowledge to know what to do with a show like this. My only complaints are that in one episode, the animation quality is a little more variable, whereas elsewhere its excellent and that the mythology angle isn’t as evident if you didn’t know its sources (like the Okinawana myth of Nirai Kanai and Nahuatl terminology), but here RahXephon is helpful by giving any watcher who watches closely the material with which to research it on their own and find out quite easily what the series is referencing. The only thing is, some of the character motivations would become a bit obscure if you didn’t know a little more about who they were with these mythological references, but again, there’s more than enough within the anime itself to let you reach that conclusion naturally. I have to say, the references to things like Faulkner and modern short stories were refreshing, and how entire episodes and scenes were cut in the cloth of famous painters and paintings (not all surrealist, but some, mostly Rene Magritte). One would also get more of out the show if they caught all the music references too.
Its this final thread that makes me like RahXephon the most. Certainly, it is a show that decides its not going to be accessible to everyone and such can be quite confusing until you figure it all out. However, watching it closely and rewinding every now and then to rewatch a scene is all you need to understand it on a first viewing. It isn’t some director’s ego laughing at you as he draws through muddled storytelling that is ultimately pretentiously stupid like Xenogears or something. Here, its simply the unique plot structure and the way the show is approached. The show will give away answers easily to anyone, its unwilling to hide all the plot behind layers of obscureness and pretend that that’s deep.
Its not just that, but the directory has said that what he wishes to do is make a show that is very mysterious, while still being a good tale and advance the giant robot genre’s boundaries. He succeeds on both parts and I think that was a wonderful goal to set. I hate hidden agendas in storytelling and art.
The mixture of what he has created is a something wonderful and set apart from all the comparisons you could make, that you would never guess from the seemingly cliched synopsis. You might have noticed I’ve tried to avoid mentioning the plot, but that’s mostly because if you’ve heard of what its about I want to convince you there’s so much more to it. Also because if you start talking about it, plot twists get revealed and this series is always throwing you on mad loops and reversals that would be mean to spoil. And to start talking about any of it makes it tempting to reveal some of the most masterful scenes (Hellloooo, episode 19! WOW!)
I will tell you that there is one character who is trying to paint a picture of a girl throughout the series and I thought that was the ultimate way of describing this work: instead of picture that becomes a story or a story that resembles a picture of a situation, or paints one for you. Its a strong, coherent story where the elements of the story work together to paint different, almost unrelated pictures – surreal pictures that sound like a song.
“Yo wa oto ni michita,” says Quon, our poetry spouting lovable lunatic. “The world is suffused with sound.” RahXephon flies you to the music.
-Kitsune