RAHXEPHON (Razefon), by Takeaki Momose, based on the series by BONES and Yutaka Izubuchi. First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2004.
PLOT:
For years, Tokyo has been a world onto itself. The city is enveloped within a giant bubble, leaving those within unaware of the world outside. That's certainly true for Ayato Kamina, who spends his days with his adopted sister Reika and living the ordinary life of a high school student. One day Tokyo comes under attack and both he and Reika are saved by a member of the Terra Force. They reveal that Tokyo was sealed away by a mysterious race of beings known as the Mu, and that Ayako is the only person who can pilot Terra's greatest weapon: the giant battle robot RahXephon.
STORY:
RahXephon generally has a good reputation. It's not only considered one of (if not the best) mecha series to follow in the wake of Evangelion, but as one of the better mecha series of the 2000s. Despite taking more than a bit of inspiration from both Evangelion and Brave Reideen, it manages to craft its own unique and interesting story. That's what makes it so baffling that Momose decided that it needed to be way more ecchi.
The most obvious change is with Reika. Early on in the show, she's a mysterious figure that haunts Ayato; here she's your standard Childhood Best Friend (tm), complete with awkward fanservice. I was almost thankful once the giant robots showed up, hoping that at long last the plot had finally come. It seems the trick was on me, though. Just as things are finally gearing up, the plot stops in its tracks to get back to the fanservice, with a love triangle between Ayato, Reika, and Haruka, a Terra operative who is a grown-ass woman. Needless to say, this is both incredibly frustrating and rather uncomfortable.
I only wish that the cast of this manga had the depth of that of the Evangelion manga, even at this early stage. No one, not even Ayato, has any personality to speak of, and somehow this highlights how derivative their roles are. Meanwhile, they (and the plot at large) pummel the reader with all sorts of terms and names for the Mu without much in the way of explanation, doubling the sense of frustration. The only reason that I didn't give up on this manga was because I had seen the first five episodes of the TV show and knew that the show was much different in tone and structure. Otherwise I would be wondering how RahXephon could be so acclaimed in the first place.
ART:
Momose was originally one of the candidates to become the character designer for the RahXephon TV series, a role that ultimately went to Twelve Kingdoms illustrator Akihito Yamada. After having seen the art here, Izubuchi clearly made the right choice. Momose's take on the characters is much less elegant than Yamada's, as they tend to possess oddly square jaws and some occasionally awkward anatomy. His panels tend to be rather plain and small, save for the points when he tilts the view to better accommodate the fanservice. He does manage to capture the strange beauty of the RahXephon itself, but he has no idea how to stage the fights featuring it.
RATING:
The RahXephon manga does a great disservice to what is otherwise a good mecha series. It turns out that focusing on empty fanservice instead of plot is a good way to wreck an adaptation from the start.
This series was published by Viz. This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available. All 3 volumes have been published and are currently out of print.
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