The cover of the 2009 series
Two animated series have been developed based on the franco-belgian comic, both titled Rahan.
The first series aired in 1987 and was created by RMC Audiovisual.
The second aired in 2009 and was created by Xilam, France 3, Rai Fiction and Castelrosso Films.
Both series span one season with 26 episodes. Each follows Rahan on his adventures. Though while the 1987 series is a faithful adaptation, the 2009 series includes actual magic, which is never real in the comics.
Tropes applying to the 2009
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: A few of the monsters Rahan encounters in this otherwise 2D world are noticeably CGI.
- 0% Approval Rating: Enok's tyrannical and warmongering ways as chief quickly result in him being disliked by his tribe.
- Accidental Murder: During the peace celebrations between the two tribes, Enok accepts Sagan's axe from Drak and challenges Rahan to a fight. During the fight, Rahan kicks Enok's arm as he raises the axe to strike. As it is loose, the head comes off flying into the crowd and killing Mogo. Despite recognizing it as an accident, Enok still pins the blame on Rahan.
- Action Girl: Noama is one of the most skilled fighters of the Wolf Clan.
- Amazon Chaser: Rahan, Enok and Darrow, all of whom are in love with the Action Girl Noama.
- Amicable Exes: Despite having broken up the previous episode, episode 19 shows that Rahan and Noama are still close friends.
- Amnesia Episode: Rahan suffers amnesia in episode 23 after hitting his head on rocks in the water.
- Badass in Distress: Despite their fighting skill, Rahan and Noama still end up captured or in peril a fair amount.
- Badass Normal: Despite being only human, Rahan is in peak physical condition and regularly defeats dangerous wild animals, monsters and fully grown warriors of the two tribes he shares the valley with.
- Big Bad: The Shadow Queen, a powerful entity that feeds on the souls of humans but requires Drak to influence the living world.
- The Big Guy: Both chiefs are the biggest and most muscular members of their tribes.
- Combat Pragmatist: Unlike his father, Enok is willing to do whatever it takes to kill the Cave-Dwellers, including burning their bear pelts so they may freeze in the winter or create a mud-slide to destroy their village, then besiege them until they are too weak to fight back.
- Crusading Widow: Sanga is consumed by revenge against the Cave-Dwellers after falsely believing they killed his wife during a battle.
- Death Is Dramatic:Sagan is erased from existence after confronting Drak for killing his wife. He dies in Rahan's arms with tears in his remaining eye trying but ultimately failing to warn him of Drak.
- Deal with the Devil: Drak made a deal with the Shadow Queen to prolong his life offering her the soul of everyone else in the valley instead of his own.
- Dehumanizing Insult: The Wolf Clan frequently refers to the Cave-Dwellers as "savages" while the Cave-Dwellers regard the Wolf Clan as "beasts".
- Did Not Think This Through: A running theme in the series is Enok doing something to prove himself to his father only for it to make things worse. For example, in his debut episode, he stole a sacred idol from the Cave-Dwellers to show his bravery to his father and Noama thus starting a war between the two tribes.
- The Dragon:
- Drak, the shaman of the Wolf Clan, acts as the earthly minion of the Shadow Queen.
- Sagan acts as the right hand of Drak until finding out he is responsible for the death of his wife.
- The Drifter: Like in the comics, Rahan wanders the earth aimlessly. While he sets up camp in the valley, it is only until he had established peace between Wolf's and Cave-Dwellers. At the end of the series, he leaves again.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Mogo is killed the same way as Sagan's wife after Drak gave Enok Sagan's axe. The death is quick and instant.
- Dude Magnet: Between Rahan, Enok and Darrow, Naomi certainly counts.
- Easily Forgiven: Enok never faces consequences for any of his numerous crimes or his warmongering.
- Enemy Mine: Whenever both clans are after Rahan, they usually manage to unite in their desire for vengeance against him, be it not without tension.
- Face Death with Dignity: When they are about to be sacrificed to the water spirit by the Cave-Dwellers, Noama and Rahan show no fear and do not beg for mercy.
- Face–Heel Turn: Enok's jealousy of Rahan and Darrow and hatred for the Cave-Dwellers leads him to accidentally kill his father and break the newly-forged peace between the two tribes. He also takes Rahan captive and intends on killing him. By the end of the series, however, he makes a Heel–Face Turn
- Fictional Earth: The series takes place on a version of Earth where magic and demons exist.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Rahan doesn't believe in magic despite having encountered it several times.
- Foil: Rahan and Enok. While Rahan is a great yet humble warrior who believes in peace and doesn't kill, Enok is a proud warrior who thoroughly believes the Wolf Clan's superiority to the Cave-Dwellers. Unlike Rahan, Enok sees nothing wrong with killing and when the tribes finally make peace, he is outright disgusted by it.
- Frazetta Man: The Jungle Prowlers are nomadic, ape-like people notorious for stealing food and women. While they understand the language of the tribes, they do not speak it and are otherwise portrayed as stupid, violent and primitive.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: The series often sees the light sorceress Tetya and the dark shaman Drak fight against each other, either directly by interfering with each other's spells or indirectly by helping or hurting Rahan.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Enok is jealous of Rahan for his skill in battle and his closeness to Noama. He also becomes jealous of Darrow after he and Noama wedded. This jealousy eventually leads to his Face–Heel Turn.
- In episode 18, Noama is jealous of Rahan's attention to everyone else, especially Tetya.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- In episode 20, Sanga realizes Drak killed his wife. As a result, he shifted the target of his vengeance from the Cave-Dwellers to the dark shaman.
- In the finale, Enok finally accepts coexistence with the other tribe.
- Impersonation Gambit: In the finale, Rahan lured both tribes into a cave. Meanwhile,Tetya send a butterfly, the messengers of the Shadow Queen, to Drak luring him to an adjacent cave of the one where Rahan lures the tribes into. Once Drak enters the cave, Tetya impersonated the Shadow Queen to make Drak confess to his crimes and manipulations. The echo of the cave ensured the tribes could hear every work.
- In-Series Nickname: Rahan is called "Fire haired one" by both tribes.
- Locked Out of the Loop: In a rare instance, by refusing to believe in magic, Rahan keeps himself from listening to Tetya's and Ursus' warnings regarding the Shadow Queen.
- Love Triangle: The show has two which follow up on one another. The first is between Enok, Noama and Rahan with both men loving Noama. Eventually, Noama and Rahan become an Official Couple. But when they break up, Darrow takes Rahan's place in the love triangle - and later his place next to Noama as the show's new Official Couple. Enok does NOT take it well.
- Manipulative Bastard: Drak frequently misuses his position as the Wolf Clan's shaman to manipulate his clan into war or trying to kill Rahan.
- Meaningful Name: In-universe, his name means "son of the brave". His adoptive father gave that name to him after his parents sacrificed themself to save him from a saber-toothed tiger.
- Minion Manipulated into Villainy: Drak enchanted Sagan's axe to break and kill his wife resulting in Sagan's warmongering attitude towards the Cave-Dwellers. After Sagan cut ties with Drak, the Evil Sorcerer manipulates Sagan back into his service by letting him dream about his wife telling him to seek out Drak.
- Official Couple: Rahan and Noama confess their love for each other and kiss in episode 12 becoming a couple. They break up again in episode 18. Afterwards, Noama and Darrow become a couple.
- Over-the-Shoulder Carry:
- In episode 4, Noama is knocked out by a bear she tried to kill. Rahan saves her by throwing the bear off a cliff before loading her on his shoulder to carry her to his camp. However, the bear returns resulting in him, her and his sidekick jumping into a river. After she wakes up, she attacks him. But as a torrent is coming their way, Rahan knocks her out again and loads her once more onto his shoulder to carry her to safety.
- In episode 5, the wolf tribe's chief knocks out his son when he wants to fight a battle they know they would lose and carries him away over his shoulder.
- In episode 13, Jungle Prowler kidnap Noama. One of them carries her over his shoulder to their camp.
- Reconcile the Bitter Foes: Rahan tries to build a lasting peace between the two tribes throughout the show. He temporarily manages to build one in episode 21 but when Mogo dies and Enok takes over his tribe at the end of episode 22, he breaks the peace. It isn't until the series finale that a lasting peace is built between Wolf Clan and Cave-Dwellers.
- Redemption Equals Death: Upon realizing Drak was responsible for the death of his wife, Sagan's anger towards the Cave-Dwellers subsides and he instead tries to kill Drak but is erased from existence in the process.
- The Rival: Enok sees Rahan as his rival both in combat and love.
- Seers: Both Drak and Blind Seer Tetya can see far away places in their fireplaces and can see through the eyes of animals. Tetya can also see the future.
- Ship Tease: There are many moments between Noama and Rahan hinting at their mutual attraction, from stares to flirtations to blushing upon physical contact. Also later on between Darrow and Noama.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Ursus can understand and speak to all living things, humans and animals alike.
- Third-Party Peacekeeper: The show sees Rahan trying to keep two enemy tribes from waging war on one another, refusing to align with either.
- The Unfought: Despite being the show's Big Bad, the Shadow Queen is never fought by any of the heroes. Rather, she simply takes Drak's soul and leaves.
- Victory Pose On Person:
- In episode 6, Ursus defeats a demon and proudly poses on him with one foot on his back.
- In episode 9, Rahan is jumped by the Tribe of the Cave-Dwellers. While he puts up a valiant fight, he is eventually knocked out. The Cave-Dweller who knocked him out then triumphantly puts his foot on the back of Rahan's head.
- Warhawk:
- After being tricked into believing that the Cave-Dwellers killed his wife, the vengeful Sagan allies with Drak to incite a war between his Wolf Clan and the Cave-Dwellers stopping at almost nothing to do so.
- ** Enok fiercely opposes the peace between the tribes. When he becomes leader of his tribe after the accidental death of his father Mogo, he breaks it immediately. Even when the Cave-Dwellers try to leave the valley peacefully, he still insists on killing them instead.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Part of Enok's dislike for Rahan stems from his desire for his father's approval which his father gives to Rahan more often. Though even after he receives it, his dislike for Rahan does not subside.
- Worthy Opponent: Whenever Rahan is on the bad side of the Wolf Clan, they may try to kill him but they also still respect him. Wolf Clan chief Mogo even invokes this trope multiple times.
- You Have Failed Me: After Drak's manipulations are revealed to the tribes, the Shadow Queen appears and takes his soul for his failure.
