RahXephon: The Motion Picture

Fireaxe Oct 5, 2009

8.8

Originally posted on the forums on May 4th 2008 I tend to realize how awesome an anime is the second time around, so when I re-watched RahXephon The Motion Picture for the second time, it made me love the series/franchise even more. The characters and storyline are very unique (can we stop with the NGE comparisons plz? RahXephon is superior in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY).I will just say that the movie adds a lot to the original series, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone who has yet to see the original. The action moves a bit too fast at times, and I'm sure you'll kinda get lost if you don't already know "what's going on". Still, a very good movie.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Extra:Story: Like I've said in a comment on ohtoriakio's review of the movie, RahXephon the Motion Picture really is a complement to the original series and should be watched as such. If you haven't seen the series before getting into this movie, the odd editing job will most likely and the complexity of the story will most likely be fatal. The scenarists here take for granted that you already know the major elements of the story, so they don't bother explaining every little detail. Animation:Lots of shots (even whole scenes) were simply recycled from the original series. It's a shame but then again it emphasizes the fact that this movie is meant to be a complement to the series. Some of the news scenes are very pretty to look at, and the new designs for young-Haruka were a pretty nice touch.Sound:Not much to say here, except that the soundtrack is above average. The theme song by Maaya Sakamoto (tune the rainbow) is wonderful though, I just love her voice.Characters:This was, imo, the strongest element of the original series. This time around, the cast was shrinked but the core is still there. Haruka has always been one of my all-time favourites so I might be biased when I say 9 /10. Pardon me. :P

Garyuu May 21, 2010

6.5

I watched the series a while ago, so I thought I would watch the movie. I really only watched it because it was part of the series box set. Since I bought it, I decided to watch it. My main problem with the series was that I thought it was really boring. I thought since they would have to condense the show, it would have a faster pace. While it did move faster, it was too fast. It was probably the most confusing movie I've ever seen. It already had a story that made little sence, but it didn't help that they were all over the place. It was like they took all of the important scenes from the show, but did little to tie them together. A scene would suddenly end, and the next thing you know, he is fighting in his mech. Suddenly, he is back talking to people. The only reason it made any sense, is because I saw the series. I was really disappointed at what they did with the characters. They left so many important characters out, or they just got very minor parts where they were only in the movie for a few seconds. It was really confusing when they never really introduced a character, and they would have a scene later. They act like we are supposed to know who he/she is, but all they did was show their face for a second in the beginning of the movie. It just made me feel sad watching it. I thought it had a good story, and atmosphere. They just took a good thing and screwed it up. I really wanted to like it a lot. I feel like the movie and series could have been in my top five. I complain a lot about the movie, yet I gave it 3/5 stars because at its core it has something good about it. Good music, and animation though.

Exiakaiser Nov 24, 2015

8

Okay, I won't say it was great, but it did cover a larger scope, even getting some of the plot holes from the series itself (aka Haruka Mishima being Haruka Shto) out of the way so that people would actually understand what the hell it was going on. Story Wise, unless you have watched the series, this is a compressed retelling of the events in the anime series, with a surprise ending.  It has a lot of things different, but the story is kept the same.