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 Neon Genesis Evangelion, as written by someone who isn't suffering from severe depression and quickly running out of budget.
It's 2015, and Ordinary High School Student Ayato Kamina lives in a sharply delimited world. Three years earlier, something happened that enclosed Tokyo in an impenetrable shell. As far as Ayato and the other inhabitants of the city are concerned, the rest of the world simply vanished, and they are all that is left. His painting, and getting by day-to-day while his widowed mother spends all her time on her secret job for the government are more important to him. At least, until mysterious invaders pass through the barrier and attack Tokyo with advanced fighters while strange, sculpture-like war machines protect the city.
In the midst of that attack, two women enter his life. The first, Haruka Shitow, claims to be there to "rescue" him and take him out of walled-in Tokyo. The second is Reika Mishima, a strange girl who looks like she just stepped out of the most recent painting Ayato has been working on. Reika approaches the boy and sets him on his way to discovering RahXephon, a giant robot as sculptural as the weapons defending the skies above, encased in a giant "egg" deep below the city. But when Ayato awakens and bonds with RahXephon, his life will never be the same again.
Based on the 1970s mecha show Brave Raideen and science fiction literature , most Western audiences will compare it to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Where Evangelion is about dysfunction and despair cloaked in Kaballah and Judeo-Christian religion, Rah Xephon is about transcendence and revelation, blending musical imagery and Mayan lore to produce a result that is thematically the total opposite to the bleakness of Evangelion's climax. Despite the two series having plot points which are suspiciously similar, RahXephon stands in its own right as an excellent and thoughtful Super Robot series.
There is a Character Sheet for this series, albeit under construction. See also Eureka Seven, another mecha production by Studio BONES
This show provides examples of:
- A God Am I - Ayato, when he merges with the RahXephon.
- Bähbem considers himself a god by way of creating the Rah Xephon system.
- Played for irony when Futagami shoots him in the back right before the tuning.
- Alien Blood - Mulians have blue blood; some human characters have a "Mu phase" in their genes that turns their blood blue when it activates.
- Fridge Brilliance moment: the color is also used for symbolism. "Blue blood" is a metaphor indicating royal or noble status. Some Mulians (Mamoru being the chief offender) have a very condescending attitude towards humans, not unlike nobility and peasants.
- Alternate Continuity - Manga, TV, movie and a game with 40 alternative endings; there is also a print novel series based on the TV version.
- A Mech By Any Other Name - "Dolems", "Xephon", "Vermilions".
- Ancient Conspiracy - What the Mu and Bähbem have been planning for millennia.
- Anyone Can Die - By the time the tuning occurs, the only main cast members still alive are Futagami, Rikudoh, Megumi, Watari, Quon, and Ayato. Maya and Haruka are technically alive, but are both physically dead.
- Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence - The ultimate goal of the series is to get Quon and Ayato to achieve Yolteotl, the Mayan equivalent of Nirvana.
- Haruka and Maya both get there by dying during the tuning. Reika/Ixtli pretty much resides in that realm. Itsuki managed to get there too. How much of that was because Quon wanted to see him, and how much of it was his relation to Ayato is left to the audience.
- Beach Episode - one subverted, one played straight.
- Beehive Barrier - The RahXephon's shields and the visuals from the cockpit appear as hexagonal grids.
- Big Bad - Ernst/Helena von Bähbem
- Book Ends- Ayato's painting.
- Boring Invincible Hero - In twenty-six episodes, only once does the Rah Xephon suffer more than a scratch, and even then, the fight is barely more than a few seconds.
- Bridge Bunnies - Subverted, an even gender mix and individuals have whole episodes dedicated to them.
- Butt Monkey / Love Hurts - Megumi Shitow can not catch a break in love. Fellow coworker Souichi? Too bad, taken by coworker Kim (plus, Ayato later kills him accidentally). Ayato? Your sister's got you by a 15-year lead.
- Furthermore, it's implied that Ayato was her old boyfriend before Tokyo Jupiter happened/appeared.
- Cherry Blossoms - The "death" mythos is played with; one conversation jokingly mentions that if a human buried under the tree turns the petals red, would a Mulian (who have blue blood) turn the petals blue?
- City In A Bottle - Tokyo Jupiter
- Cloning Blues - Several characters; Isshiki in particular.
- Colour Coded For Your Convenience - Humans are red, Mulians are blue.
- Also, Elvy's squadron: her plane is vermilion, her wingmates are green. This carries over when they get their Mid Season Upgrade mechs.
- Combo Platter Powers - The Obligatto, in addition to the standard Dolem Magic Music, also has a Disc-Dolem to carry it around, Super Speed extensible claws, and a third arm.
- Cool Plane - The Vermillions seem to straddle the line between this and mecha.
- Compilation Movie - Your Mileage May Vary on whether it was good or not.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome - There are many in the latter half of the series, but the most spectacular ones are Kunugi's long-awaited revenge against Kuki, and Isshiki being simultaneously Mind Screwed and Out Gambitted by Ixtli.)
- Crowning Music Of Awesome - Par for Yoko Kanno [1] Super Robot Wars noticed. Here it is without the Crowning Moment Of Awesome action drowning it out.
- The entire sound track is a Crowning Music Of Awesome.
- Yoko Kanno may have composed the opening theme, but the rest of the music was actually composed by Ichiko Hashimoto. Credit where credit is due, and all.
- Crouching Moron Hidden Badass - From his first appearance it was clear that Johji Futagami was more than just a nosey photo journalist. He goes on to solidify his badassness in the finale when he, of all people, kills Big Bad Ernst von Bähbem.
- Cryptic Conversation - Quon speaks like this most of the time, and the Bähbem foundation isn't much better. Heck, everyone other than the protagonist has a bad habit of doing this until the plot threads start untangling.
- Curb Stomp Battle: Pretty much every single fight between the Rah Xephon and a Dolem ends in only a few seconds, not including fights where Ayato is being Mind Raped.
- Dangerous Seventeenth Birthday - "Instrumentalists" gain the ability to pilot a Dolem at a certain age.
- Deranged Animation - Allegretto in particular is generally drawn against extremely realistic backgrounds that make it look incredibly eerie.
- Deus Ex Machina - Literally, and the episode is even named "Deus ex Machina". It also avoids being an Ass Pull and works well.
- Dramatic Wind
- Dreaming Of A White Christmas - ...with an energy-absorbing Dolem invoked to justify it.
- Earn Your Happy Ending - And how!
- End Of The World Special - Ayato essentially remakes the universe through the tuning.
- The End Of The World As We Know It - Tied in with a 2012 explanation, even!
- Erotic Dream - The surreal fantasy that Ayato gets trapped in — he has a minor Freak Out when dream!Haruka starts making advances on him.
- Esperanto The Universal Language - TERRA is an Esperanto acronym: "Tereno Empireo Rapidmova Reakcii Armeo", which means "Earth Empire Rapid Response Army".
- The Everyman - Ayato
- Evil Albino - Makoto Isshiki
- Evolving Credits - The RahXephon itself was shown as a silhouette with glowing eyes in the opening until a few episodes in. Later on the members of the Bähbem Foundation and the Vermillion work their way into the credits too.
- Eyepatch Of Power - Shirow Watari has a rather unique one.
- Face Fault
- Falling Into The Cockpit - Subverted — Ayato was guided to the RahXephon, and before that, was being groomed to be its pilot. He just didn't know he was being led there.
- Fantastic Romance - Probably one of the best-kept secrets of the show until half way through the series.
- First Church Of Mecha - Near the end of the series, as Yolteotl approaches, the Mu start to devolve into a cult.
- Floating Continent - The Mu's flying cities.
- Freeze Sneeze
- Fridge Logic - Where does Tokyo Jupiter get its food and other supplies from? It looks prosperous and comfortable instead of the scarcity-ridden ruin you would expect a city to be if it had been cut off from the rest of the world for three years.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man - Elvy to Haruka.
- Golem - Most of the mechas in the show are made of clay, and the enemy ones are even called "Dolems".
- Grand Theft Me - this is how Bähbem manages to stay alive for so long.
- Gratuitous Nahuatl - ...particularly in terminology relating to the RahXephon.
- Heroic BSOD - Ayato has one after he learns about Asahina's death. We aren't shown what happens, but it's noted that he was found with her body, "in a state of extreme emotional distress", and had to be physically restrained by the TERRA personnel sent to recover him.
- Hot Scientist - One of each gender.
- Hot Shounen Mom - Lady Maya and Quon.
- Humongous Mecha - Goes without saying...
- I Know Mortal Kombat - In reverse: Ayato does well in a dogfight game because he has learned to fly with the RahXephon.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot - ...of the good variety, not the Ass Pull variety.
- Kill Em All - Subverted at the last second.
- Kill The Cutie - Asahina. Jesus Christ on a Jacob's Cream Cracker, Asahina.)
- Large Ham - Masayoshi Kuki. It's debatable whether he destroys more scenery by chewing or by Beam Spam.
- Latex Space Suit - Ayato's pilot suit.
- Love Triangle - Several of them; if you include non-romantic love it becomes a Love Dodecahedron.
- Luke I Am Your Father - Nearly everyone is related to each other by blood or adoption.
- Magic Music - Used by Dolems and the Xephon to send messages or attack.
- Make Me Wanna Shout - See Magic Music above.
- May December Romance - After a certain point, it seems like this for Ayato and Haruka. Turns out to be much more complicated.
- MIB - The generic Mulian agents in Tokyo Jupiter.
- Mid Season Upgrade - The RahXephon gains access to a vast array of new weapons and abilities and Elvy's squadron's planes are replaced with Vermillions, human-made mechas designed to imitate Dolems.
- Mind Screw - If you don't pay attention, you'll probably end up feeling this way about the Grand Finale. It's even worse in the movie version.
- Mo Cap Mecha - The RahXephon's upper body moves in sync with Ayato's upper body.
- Monogender Monsters - The Dolems are all feminine except for two, and have women instrumentalists.
- Monster Of The Week - Though most of them make repeat appearances.
- Multinational Team - TERRA
- My Grandson Myself - An interesting take on this; technically the "new" Bähbems are descendants of the original, but he overwrites their personality with his own when his current body gets too old. When Isshiki turned out to be a dud, Ernst BodySurfed into a female clone, Helena.
- Naive Newcomer - Ayato
- Narm - Sometimes, Ayato shouting "Rah Xephoooon!" at the top of his lungs isn't as impressive as it should be. Makoto ordering "Deploy resonance field!" is pretty hammy, too.
- Naughty Tentacles - Subverted, Quon simply takes a single step back and they miss.
- Not A Date - Ayato and Megumi. They even scream this at people if asked.
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo - Averted. A hydrogen bomb was used in the first Mu-Human war.
- Obfuscating Stupidity - Johji Futagami
- Oh Crap - Isshiki gets one when he brings down the Tokyo Jupiter barrier, only to find things...not going to plan.
- The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness - Two of them.
- Oracular Urchin - Quon
- Ordinary High School Student - Anyone in the cast under twenty.
- Parental Abandonment
- Perpetual Molt - One of the series's dominant images is a storm of feathers every time the RahXephon unfurls its wings.
- Phenotype Stereotype - Cathy, the hot-tempered, rock-and-roll playing American.
- Pose Of Supplication - The RahXephon in episode 3. Justified somewhat in that it's on a large ship at sea, which would make standing a bit of an issue.
- Power Crystal - And how! Just about any Dolem of importance has a few on it. One whole episode revolves around one and what it can do in the wrong hands.
- The Power Of Love - Pretty much the entire point of the series, and the Rah Xephon is explicitly powered by it.
- Refusal Of The Call - Ayato refusing to pilot the Rah Xephon in episode 5 and telling Ixtli to go shove it when she later tells him about his role in the tuning. He comes around both times though.
- Replacement Goldfish - After losing Ayato to Tokyo Jupiter, Haruka beings dating Itsuki because he's actually Ayato's twin brother and looks exactly like him. Their relationship implodes because, well, he's not Ayato.
- Ayato does the same thing (inadvertently) with Ixtli, who takes on Haruka's appearance in order to guide Ayato to the RahXephon and to protect him once he starts piloting it.
- Reset Button Ending - Ayato remakes the world, erasing the Mu from existence and preventing the Tokyo Jupiter incident from ever happening. This allows him and Haruka to stay together in the same timeframe, get married and have a family.
- Say My Name - "Ayato!" Haruka shouts this quite a bit.
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Second Episode Morning
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong - The ultimate purpose of the RahXephon
- Shout Out - ...to Japanese science fiction movies, and at least one each to Sailor Moon and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Haruka Shitow is a defender of love and justice!
- Shower Of Angst - Elvy, after Donny gets sliced to pieces by Obbligato.
- Smug Snake - Makoto Isshiki. It seems to run in the family.
- Spanner In The Works - Haruka Shitow
- Spiritual Successor - ...to the 70's Super Robot series Brave Raideen.
- Standing In The Hall - Kisaragi jokingly threatens Ayato and Kim with this when they're bickering like school children.
- Stranger In A Familiar Land - Ayato has this happen to him several times.
- Summers Family Tree - Just trying to diagram Ayato's family tree is sure to induce a headache.
- It made even worse by the whole Year Inside Hour Outside effect.
- Even worse: it completely changes with each iteration (series, manga, and movie).
- Synchronization - Definitely the case with the Dolems; seems to be the case with the Xephon, though it's not clear.
- Super Robot Wars - MX. Includes a truly demented Player Punch: the player is forced to reenact Ayato killing Asahina.
- Take Five
- Tear Jerker - Episode 19. That is all.
- The Atoner - Kunugi's motivation for joining TERRA.
- Theme Naming - Almost all Dolems are named after music terms.
- Time Travel - Sorta...
- Tomato In The Mirror - No less than three of them, including Ayato himself.
- The Umbridge - Makoto Isshiki
- Trippy Finale Syndrome
- Universe Compendium - Rah Xephon Bible, although it only covers the first half of the series.
- Victorious Childhood Friend
- Villainous Breakdown - Isshiki gets one towards the end after one of his plans backfires spectacularly.
- Waif Prophet - Quon
- What The Hell Hero - Near the end of the series, Ayato accidentally kills Souichi and Elvy in a moment of Power Incontinence as the new RahXephon. Souichi's lover, Kim, calls him out on this and actively tries to shoot him, to no effect.
- Xanatos Sucker - Isshiki's need to prove himself turns him into one of these.
- X Meets Y - Raideen meets Evangelion while replacing all Freudian elements with musical ones.
- Year Inside Hour Outside - Time passes six times faster in the outside world than it does inside Tokyo Jupiter.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Mostly averted, and then you see Quon...
- Flashback Lady Maya, too. Megumi isn't exactly normal either, but to be fair she is a teenager and possibly dyed it.
- Your Mileage May Vary - To some it's just an Evangelion rip-off, to some it's Evangelion but better, to some it's not Evangelion at all. Beware Internet Backdraft!
- Zip Me Up - Done between Ayato and Quon in the fourth episode.
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