RahXephon the liveblog take three or so

In general it would be niceto get an impression of what you think of the show, what's your theories about what's going on? What's each character's motivations? Favourite character? Least favourite character?

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Get your updatin' on.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Yeah, Poni next time you update tell us more about which characters or plot points you like/dislike.

Your lack of updates disturbs us.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

I second this sentiment. Please, update for us, or this thread will descend into the sea of mud.

an heroic gesture would do the world good

I...return! Hopefully things won't be too fuzzy from the fact that there was a big gap in between. Some general thoughts on the series, or what I remember of it: Despite the Mulians/dolems being pretty obviously evil(what with rampaging over Australia), we still don't know what exactly they're fighting for(Maya seemed quite unfazed by the fact that Ayato just destroyed one of her dolems and left her), and I don't quite trust TERRA, and especially Watari(that's the name of the guy with the eyepatch, right?), and especially considering the stuff with Lord Bähbem. The characters are a bit fuzzier, but I'm still quite curious about Mishima. I mean, I think she's Mulian but she might be something even more.

Episode 7 act 1

I still like "Hemisphere". We start out on a plane, with the reporter from the previous episode  ^*

reading a travel guide and talking about how he can go swimming, holy crap! Kunugi complains to Watari about having this reporter cover them, and Watari makes a comment about the USDF going on more joint missions with them, and that they won't be able to keep the RahXephon hidden for long. He also makes a comment about having "a cutie" as the reporter's guide, which seems to excite him. And suddenly, we reach the island, and get to see it.

"Seventh Movement: Day of Assembly / Phantom in the Cloud" Not sure what either of these titles mean.

Sidenote: The TERRA seal says "Tereno Empireo Rapidmova Reakcii Armeo", which I don't think is proper Latin, since "kc" does not appear in Latin ever.

We start out looking at Ayato looking at a cone with the TERRA seal on it, with a few other people surrounding him. The characters make comments about something picked up from the Nariya Shrine. Apparently they want Ayato to "give it a try", whatever "it" is. The constant references to "it" without me knowing what "it" is make me think of "What is it? It's it". Ayato puts his hands on the cone and suddenly the TERRA logo on the cone starts to light up. Okay, this is odd, and adds evidence to my suspicions about TERRA not being what people think it is. His hands then sink through the glowing logo, and he walks through it. I can't see this as being very good, but everyone in the room claps. Megumi is as confused as I am, and Kim says that Itsuki probably knows, since he knows everything. The cone then glows again, and causes something to light up in the RahXephon. And then we cut to Itsuki, wondering how all of this works. I guess he doesn't know everything. And then we see a connection between the cone(which is actually two cones) and the RahXephon, and Ayato being sent through said glowing connection. Once he's in the cockpit, all the glowing things stop glowing.

I don't think I've described Ayato's cockpit yet. It sort of looks like a cross between a hand and an angel's wings holding him up, and the room is filled with water. There's also a giant halo above Ayato's head. Ayato seems quite depressed that Mishima isn't in the cockpit with him.

Next, we see an airplane landing, presumably on Nirai-Kanai. We get a discussion between four people in TERRA outfits about the maintenance crew on the unmanned fighters or something. The actual discussion is about half as interesting as the way the characters are drawn. One of the characters is Elvy, who has already been discussed. One of them is very, very black. One of them has light skin, blonde hair, freckles, and a cowboy hat, and doesn't seem to be concerned about "soul" and the like, all obvious signs that we're dealing with an Eaglelander.  ^*

The fourth has somewhat darker skin than most of the characters but not even as dark as Elvy's, and I'm not quite sure of his origin. Apparently, they're all old friends, and they also seem to be the only evidence in the series so far that TERRA is an international organization. The black man puts his hand out, and everyone puts their hands on his in an obvious gesture of nakama. "I'm grateful that you invited us to join this squadron, Bunga Mawar."

We see a platform rising with Watari, Kunugi, the reporter, and that white-haired jerk. The four pilots all salute as the commanding officers come up. Elvy mentions herself as being commander of the squadron, and white-haired jerk mentions that she's the only one who made it out alive from "Operation Overlord"  ^*

which pisses Elvy off, as well as the American, but her complaints are cut off by the reporter asking questions about Tokyo. Kunugi sends Elvy to the administrative office, and then the white-haired jerk and the reporter make a few comments about Lady Luck. Next, we get Kunugi and Watari explaining to Souichi that he will be the guide to the reporter, who introduced himself as Futagami from the Amato News.

Next, we get Itsuki and Sayoko in the control room doing yet more testing with Ayato. Itsuki is very impressed with Ayato fighting so far away from home. Next, we get Ayato changing after the tests, and Sayoko comes in. Ayato asks what he should get Haruka for a Christmas present, and some more discussion. Ayato mentions that the outside world isn't that much different from Tokyo Jupiter. Next, we get Haruka talking to Kunugi about transferring to the Tactical Division, and about how well Ayato is doing. Souichi comes in and wonders if Ayato's found a girl. When Kunugi asks where Futagami went, Souichi mentions that he's headed towards Kanai Island(the old island), which makes Kunugi rather mad.

Next, we get Itsuki and white-haired jerk talking about an observer come to observe Itsuki. They then start talking about old times in a way that seems to be designed to make Itsuki uncomfortable. Something about it being a spectacular failure and Itsuki being alone around all these people. However, they then pass over a waterfall, and Itsuki has an umbrella, which white-haired jerk doesn't have, so Itsuki gets his revenge by soaking white-haired jerk. I'll be honest, it's kind of enjoyable to see him get soaked.

We then see Futagami trying to drink that weird soft drink, but failing because of the marble, and Ayato makes a comment about it, which probably signifies that he is now pretty well integrated into the outside world. This then leads to Ayato and Futagami getting into a conversation. When Futagami asks Ayato what his job is, he mentions "driving around in a vehicle", since "mecha pilot" is classified information, and then says that he delivers pizzas. Suddenly, though, work calls asking him to deliver a pizza, so he has to leave. Futagami mentions that he's a nice boy, and the eyecatch.

So, this seems to be more prelude to another important battle. I'm led to wonder why the dolems only seem to be attacking in earnest now that the RahXephon is out(since if they attacked earlier, it seems like the outside world would be devastated). I'm guessing that it either has to do with the fact that the Mulians want Ayato back, or there's some collaboration between TERRA and the Mulians, probably both. I can't remember if it's been mentioned yet in series that the RahXephon's goal is to tune the world or if I read that by accident, but I'm wondering what that means, if it's linked to the time dilation within Tokyo Jupiter, and whether the Mulians will be here at the end of the series. And I'm still not quite sure what Mishima's deal is or why Ayato's so obsessed with her.

the future we had hoped for

It's indeed not proper latin: It's Esperanto.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Humorously enough it isn't even proper Esperanto. They took some liberties with it for the sake of the acronym.

I'm disappointed: You make so many posts asking me to come back, then don't post when I do!

Oh well, I'll come up with another of these soon.

the future we had hoped for

Unfortunately, you're still kinda in the 'Setting everything up' part of the show. There's still a lot going on in these scenes, but pointing them out to you would be spoiling things a bit.

Yep, hence my constant exhortation to liveblog faster :p

EDIT: Next one is a good one. Ep. 8 has a LOT of stuff. Actually, I just re-watched it and theortically it DOES reveal more or less everything, good luck catching it though...

edited 12th Sep '10 1:40:15 PM by Arilou

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Also, I've been checking through the DVD extra material. S Ome of it is amusing.

Quon's voice-actress: "When I first read her lines I was like "WTF!?"."

Also, the english VAs: "HARUKA IS SO COOL!" ROFL.

Ayato's english VA: "I enjoyed the freaking out the least."

edited 12th Sep '10 2:49:54 PM by Arilou

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

That may explain why Quon sounds so detached from reality. That and generally being a spacey character.

New character roll-call: Alpha Squadron, Elvy Hadhiyat's old pals. The squadron (complete with call-signs) is as follows:

Jean-Patrick "Maestro" Shapplin

Donny "Tonpu" Wong

Cathy "Crazy Horse" Mc Mahon

Elvy's nickname "Bunga Mawar" means "Rose Blossom" in Indonesian.

I won't comment much on your speculations and opinions - I don't want to spoil any surprises - but I will say that the mystery of Mishima is an ongoing theme, and that it's good to see you posting again.

edited 13th Sep '10 12:42:40 PM by hollow49

Cathy's english VA was incredibly amused by the fact that "She's a cowgirl... From Connecticut!"

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

So like George W Bush?

the future we had hoped for

Now I'm imagining George W. Bush in a swimsuit and cowboy-hat

Thanks a lot Ponicalica

edited 13th Sep '10 8:22:03 AM by Arilou

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

That's horrifying.

the future we had hoped for

Yes, yes it is. And it's your fault.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

And now, to get that horrifying image out of my head...

Episode 7 act 2

From the eyecatch, we can hear the action music as the RahXephon's wings open to show its face. It then moves its hands and such and opens up out of its "standby" position. We then see four planes on a runway, and the first one, which is also red, taking off from the runway. I'm guessing those are Alpha Squadron and the red one is Elvy's. Watari looks on, and finds the spectacle "awesome". Megumi rattles out some information on the location and ETA of the Dolem, and demonstrates that Ayato is not aware of military time. Haruka gives off a much less military-jargony description of the dolem, which is that it has legs five kilometers tall. That is incredibly big. And the reason they're talking about the legs is that it's all they can see. Next, we get to see, obscured by clouds in the sky, a pair of giant legs, walking through the ocean. That will probably be a very tough pizza to deliver, and I don't even want to think about the amount of blue blood that it will release when killed.

However, the action is interrupted by a switch to the front plates of Rikudoh's house◊. Now, obviously, Ayato's plate is much newer than the other two, and Rikudoh's own plate is slightly older than that showing the Shitows, but what I find interesting is that one of the characters on the Shitow's plate seems much more...scribbled than the rest of the characters on that wooden plate. I'm not sure what the significance of that is or even which sister that represents. Anyways, we now see Futagami walking up to Rikudoh's house, and Rikudoh asking who he is. But before we can see anything more than Futagami saying hi, we switch back to the sky, RahXephon, and Alpha Squadron.

Elvy gives out some orders, having Alpha Squadron approach the dolem while the RahXephon stands back. I'm kind of curious as to why she'd do this, as it seems like an attack from the dolem would be far more deadly for those planes than for the RahXephon by the Standard Mecha Law of Power, which is that a mech is always more powerful than any tool of war that isn't a mech. And then, "Revenge...for my friends...is mine!" and all the planes launch missiles at one of the giant legs, and...holy crap, I was wrong(at least partially), as a huge chunk of the leg is destroyed, and falls to the ground. Of course, it can't possibly be that easy, so we'll soon be seeing the rest of the dolem, I suspect. And, the dolem doesn't fall over, because it was actually floating, not walking on those legs that were, although quite huge, incredibly skinny for something kilometers tall. And then, from the sky, the dolem releases fighters of some kind. These fighters have lasers, but, not actually being mechs, are easily dispatched by Alpha Squadron.

And we go back to the house where, despite having seen the front plates and noticing that there were three with four names, Futagami asks if Rikudoh lives there alone, to which his response is that he has no spouse—I'm guessing that there was a translation issue that made me have that misunderstanding. Next, Futagami asks about the nameplates(three last names) and if they're related, to which Rikudoh responds "Two nieces and one other." Also, somewhat interestingly, they're playing go. Next, we see the dolem's fighters swarming around in the air around Ayato, leaving him confused. Their main attack against him seems to be to crash into the RahXephon, which, honestly, doesn't seem to do much. The first time, it leaves him a bit disoriented, but the second time, it produces the ISO standard hexagonal barrier. Ayato, for the benefit of those in the audience who can't follow, asks "A shield?" Elvy makes a comment deriding the fact that she has to fight next to Ayato(sorry, Elvy, but this is a mecha show, and mechs can only be piloted by dysfunctional teenagers) decides that her best bet is to fly up into the clouds to fight the dolem head-on. Back to the house, Futagami remembers an elementary school art contest Ayato participated in in the ninth grade, and notices that the math doesn't quite work out regarding his current age.

Elvy bursts out of the clouds, and the D-1 aria starts acting, having a Mind Rape-like effect on Elvy. Kunugi tries to get Elvy to pull back but cannot get a response. Therefore, Ayato decides to go up there. We now get a good look at the top part of the dolem—it has one of the most disturbing-looking faces I've seen so far on a dolem, arms that look like they have inverted mountains on them, and where the armpits would be there's something that looks like the top of a salt shaker and has those fighters pouring out of them. This is definitely a monster of a dolem. Elvy continues to be mindraped, although it seems that it's somewhat mitigated when the RahXephon comes between her and the dolem and starts its own aria. Megumi uses the term "quantum wave", which blargh grargh bad science rarr  ^*

, and we then see the curved bean shape on the screen that represents a dolem aria combine with an inverted one of the same that probably represents the RahXephon's, and they turn into a circle. Elvy asks how she's doing, and she tells him to focus on the enemy, which then starts trying to fight against the RahXephon by engulfing its legs in clouds and launching black-and-red lightning at it. Haruka is shocked, but Itsuki has the eerie calm about him of a character who knows too much. Then we see Ayato in the cockpit struggling with the dolem's attacks. Elvy decides to try to help Ayato by launching a missile at the dolem, but all it does is demonstrate that the dolem's shields look like a spider web.

Next, we see a worried looking Quon, a worried looking Kunugi, and reports that the RahXephon has ceased to function. As Haruka cries out to a sweating, helpless-feeling Ayato, he notices something in the distance—Tokyo Jupiter. Seeing Tokyo Jupiter allows him to extend his arm, interspersed with images of his annoying friends, his almost certainly evil mother, and the maddeningly mysterious Mishima Reika. Soon, his arm starts letting out Iron Man-esque balls of blue light, which hit against the dolem's shield much more powerfully than Elvy's missiles. He keeps repeating the mantra "Get through! Get through! Get through!" as the camera decides to focus on what appears to be a smaller face on the larger face of the dolem. Finally, it does get through, but at the same time, the dolem launches a spear-like extension of its own body at him, and the larger face followed by the rest of the giant dolem breaks apart and collapses into the ocean. Ayato then looks out at Tokyo Jupiter, and Quon says some stuff about time and timbre and the only comprehensible part of the entire sentence was "You're wrong, Ollin."

We're back to Futagami and Rikudoh playing shogi(not go as I suspected), and I think there was a checkmate, and Futagami says he'll come back another time. We then see Haruka chewing out Elvy over flying up into the dolem. But before Haruka gets into the main part of her rant, Kunugi stops her and asks Elvy why she did it. Elvy's response is "gut feeling". Kunugi's decision is just to ground her for two days. And then he says "There you have it, Mr. Observer.", and we get to see white-haired jerk(who I don't even want to refer to by name here) take off his glasses. We then see Elvy, mad at Haruka for the fact that she brought Ayato out of Tokyo Jupiter to fight the dolems. Ayato, as he's walking home, sees Futagami. Futagami asks him why he works. Ayato says "It's not a family circumstance thing, it's just...", and then asks which way Tokyo is, and says he just feels connected.

Arilou has said a couple of things about episode 8. I can't wait to get there.

the future we had hoped for

The Dolem's name is Forzando, and the smaller fighters are "Dotem" and classed as D-2 by TERRA. The Dotems seem to be little more than unmanned drone fighters, and nowhere near the power of a D-1.

Next episode - it's the Christmas Episode (on a tropical island no less). Surprisingly, it's one of the better episodes in this arc of the story with a lot of character development going on.

Is it just a coincidence that the letter D in D-1 is the same as the first letter in Dolem?

the future we had hoped for

Probably. The military classifications were never really elaborated upon.

I can't sleep. As present for my insomnia:

Episode 8 act 1

We return to the RahXephon after the successful mission. Futagami is in the room with it, and asking Itsuki questions. Itsuki explains that the waterfall is used to heal the RahXephon's wounds, and when Futagami tries to take a picture of part of the destroyed dolem, Itsuki takes away the camera, and steals the film, as photographs aren't allowed. I'm guessing TERRA doesn't want people to know about the giant humanoid figures(mech isn't really accurate since I don't think they're mechanical, but the word sort of fits) fighting all the battles. Itsuki then starts examining the dolem remains, and notices something embedded in one of them. It's a crystal. This causes Itsuki to be alarmed. But then, to Futagami, he hides it. "Shall we go?"

"Eighth Movement: Bitterly Cold Holy Night / The Dreaming Stone" I can guess what the Japanese title means. But not the English one.

We start out with what looks like Haruka relaxing under an umbrella, followed by a shot of Ayato sketching yet another drawing of Mishima. Megumi comes up and asks what he's drawing; he refuses to say(Ayato is starting to learn how to withhold information from other characters much as they did from him), and Megumi makes a comment about her modeling for him. When he refuses, she takes away the canvas he's using, revealing a birthmark that he has. A few lines and one facefault later, we see Kim relaxing while Haruka works on her computer, doing something involving the dolem aria—apparently, she's "off duty" because she's at the beach, despite the fact that she's still working while she's there. My dad does stuff like that.

Suddenly, we see a car drive up, and it's Itsuki's. Itsuki comes to invite everyone there to a party at his house, as well as to celebrate Haruka's transfer, something that gets Haruka quite angry. Also, when he mentions someone named Yagumo, it causes Megumi to perk up and get very excited. Also, we get to see Sayoko looking quite pissed at the fact that Itsuki decided to stop there. We then get to see her driving like a maniac, and honking the horn a bunch of times because she's behind a big truck, and, he decides to give her a Christmas present: that diamond he pulled out of the dolem. Given the irregular shape of the crystal, I find it quite odd that Itsuki is giving something that came from a dolem as a gift. Sayoko hasn't seen that shape either, and finds it quite odd that Itsuki's giving her something so expensive. Then, as soon as Itsuki puts the crystal's necklace on Sayoko, it starts snowing.

Back with Haruka et al., we see it's snowing there too. Kim shows her excitement, with a word that someone like me currently watching through Canaan as well can barely register as a word. Also, Megumi has apparently never seen snow, since she's never left the island. We can tell that Quon doesn't like the cold because she's wrapped up in a blanket. And now we see Kim and Megumi discussing whether or not it will start to pile up, and how it would have been more fitting for the snow to have been on Christmas Eve. And we come back to white-haired jerk and Futagami. White-haired jerk starts talking about the fact that the early Church co-opted the winter solstice as Christ's birthday. The way he says it makes it sound like it's supposed to be some major revelation, but the fact that I've know this fact basically since middle school or so means that it's obvious to me, and just makes him look grumpy. (In terms of theological justification, it's far better than Saint Valentine's Day, that's for sure.) Futagami then starts to give a story about his grandfather about a whale that makes me think about Moby-Dick or something. I have no idea what that story's supposed to mean. White-haired jerk has no response.

We see Haruka running up to the house, and as soon as she gets there, she starts panting. She really seems to be overworking herself. Ayato makes a comment about how she's overworking herself, but then Haruka notices the fact that Ayato is wearing a dress, and he defends it by the fact that he doesn't have any winter clothes. Honestly, it probably still looks better than the outfit with the star on it. After seeing this, she decides to run over and get him a pair of mittens/gloves. We then hear Megumi complaining to the kitty(kitty! :3) followed by her getting yelled at to get out of bed. Unfortunately, we get bad news from Watari and Kunugi. Apparently, it hasn't been proven that the dolem from the last episode was actually finished off. For that matter, I don't think we saw the requisite explosion of blue blood that preceded the previous dolem destructions, we only saw the dolem breaking apart, and I think the smaller face may have actually remained intact, so the actual dolem is still alive, just much smaller now, a reasonable giant mech size instead of five kilometers. Also, if there's ever any doubt in a situation like this, always go with the solution that creates more tension for a giant robot battle.

Back to Megumi and Kim, where Kim is still pleased about the snow, and Megumi is so happy because she's never seen it before and this is the first time she gets to make footprints in the....*slide* *crash*. Kim makes a comment about Megumi's heels being too high, which Megumi responds to by talking about how Haruka was already that tall at her age. This triggers a flashback to Haruka somewhat dismissively calling her "kid sister", which makes Kim uncomfortable, so she asks about buying Haruka a present. Megumi's response is also quite dismissive—I think these two don't have a very good relationship with each other. We then get some more exposition about how Megumi doesn't hate Haruka, but she seems so perfect. Despite that, she does have a girlish side to her, as evidenced by the fact that she's totally crushing on Ayato. Megumi then mentions a boy that Haruka liked but was never able to reciprocate with(I suspect dolems are involved), but just as Kim asks about Ayato SUDDENLY OH MY GOD! She sees I think Souichi through the window and runs up to give him his present, and then has a chat about Itsuki's party, as Kim stands, sad that she won't be able to talk to him as well as Megumi does. Unfortunately for Megumi, she's convinced that he has a crush on Haruka instead. I'm thinking that Megumi has a major complex regarding her sister.

And a return to the base, Kunugi, and the dolem that is probably still not destroyed. He makes a comment on how it hasn't completely disintegrated much like I did. Itsuki takes it as a very interesting research case, which gets Haruka annoyed. Next, we get to see Sayoko and Haruka interacting. The dialogue makes it obvious that Haruka is harboring a crush on someone, which I think is Ayato, and then she notices Sayoko's gemstone, which she immediately hides. I'd also like to note that they cut to the windshield wiper during that dialogue, which makes me think in a playful, way that Sayoko is empathically linked to the windshield wiper much like Ayato or Mishima to RahXephon. And now we see Itsuki in full Scary Shiny Glasses mode, examining Ayato. Oddly enough, though, on the other screen, instead of Quon, there's static. Watari comes in and wonders if they're putting him through too much. Ayato decides to ask where Quon is, and Itsuki's response is that she hates the cold. This is a trigger for the camera to cut to her so that she can say something incomprehensible. Then we see Sayoko and Haruka just sitting there, pissed at each other or something, and Sayoko's necklace moves a bit. Haruka is brought up to the control room just before Sayoko's crystal starts growing, with what I assume is a Mulian behind her. And then the window behind her frosts up completely, and the eyecatch.

Why the fuck did Itsuki give her that crystal in the first place?

the future we had hoped for

Interesting question. He could just have been trying to pacify her for being in a bad mood, or he could have some sinister motive...

Yagumo is Souchi by the way, if you didn't get that already :p

You could probably try making a chart of the Love Dodecahedron i you feel like it :p

edited 14th Sep '10 4:42:54 AM by Arilou

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent