I can picture BONES executives having said "You all said you wanted more Evangelion! Well, here you go!" when RahXephon was revealed to the public. The show is Eva all over again, complete with convoluted story, unsettling sound effects and music, deeply troubled main character, and giant robots (called Dolems in this show) that don't look like machines. But somehow, BONES made it GOOD. The studio has shown remarkable talent in recreating previously used concepts in a fresh and stylish way, so that people could have more of what they love without losing the novelty of the experience.

The premise of RahXephon is fairly simple: Ayato Kamina gets caught up in a struggle between Tokyo's defense force and an unknown enemy, and just so happens to be the promised boy who would pilot the strange and angelic looking RahXephon. This of course doesn't happen before meeting the big-sister-like Haruka Shitou and the mystic but strangely familiar Reika Mishima. Reika draws Ayato to RahXephon by singing (did she mistake it for the Macross?), and he decides to take the Dolem and Haruka to a new dimension, which really turns out to be just outside of Tokyo. The first volume is an eye-opener for Ayato, who discovers that there's a whole big world out there, where everyone is at war with his Tokyo. It seems that Tokyo (also called Tokyo-Jupiter, due to the strange orange cloud covering the city) has been taken over by an alien race called the Mu, which look like humans but have blue blood inside them. However, Ayato has red blood, like humans. Throw in the fact that Ayato also has Mu in him, that there is a strange red-haired Mu girl named Quon Kisaragi that calls him "Ollin" and seems to have taken a liking to him, that he goes to live with Haruka and her sister Megumi, and that he is inseparable from RahXephon, and I've told you just about everything there is to know about the first volume. I have also told you nothing.

The chemistry between Maaya Sakamoto and her character Reika are almost scary. They even LOOK alike.	Haruka looking very cool (for a 29 year-old), as she fights off some goons that are after Ayato.

This is part of the strength of RahXephon. The show offers plenty in terms of action and drama, and the story progresses through visible milestones, but it offers little in terms of what the show is really about. The fact that the show has so many similarities to Evangelion seems to offer reassurance that the loose threads will be tied together eventually, and it also works well in another way: creating curiosity. RahXephon has its own style, and its own unique ideas, so these facets of the show may prove to create a very different picture in the end. This makes me want to see what happens next. Excepting the overly spastic main character, the cast of characters in this show adds greatly to its entertainment value. Haruka has the quirks of a typical mid-to-late-20s woman, getting violent when being referred to as "older". Quon is an interesting character, with a mysterious quality that could be compared to that of Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), except that she is a bit more social. Megumi is cuter than a button, and is a great contrast to Ayato's "issues much" attitude. Reika gives off that unattainable mystery girl quality, and I look forward to seeing more of her (hopefully). Overall, the story has shown promise of greatness, but has held back on deliverance thus far.

Musically, RahXephon is both beautiful and grating. The beautiful part is the opening song Hemisphere, sung by the venerable Maaya Sakamoto. Her talents have been tapped not just for the opening sequence, but also for the voice of Reika. Maaya does not take on a voice role often, so her apperance alone in this show is reason to check it out. Another voice role of note is Aya Hisakawa as Haruka, a fitting match by virtue of the lively personalities of each. The show's background music had a more frigid reception by yours truly. Though obviously intended to help create an atmosphere of confusion matching that of the main character, I found much of the music and sound effects to be generally displeasing to listen to. This is not to say that all of the sounds in the show were this way, however. The voice effects used when the Dolems were battling were very well done and appropriately matched the mistique of the Dolems themselves. The audio in this first volume was clean, but I find it a disappointment that the Japanese track is only in stereo, especially in this day and age.

RahXephon's character designs are not what I would call spectacular; however, the overall art style (including the characters) fits really well with the show's theme. ADV did a terriffic job with the packaging and insert for volume 1. The cover art is a shot of RahXephon with wings extended. The insert is a booklet with character biographies and interviews with staff members. It has a near-transparent cover, which was a nice touch, and the information within is very useful at this point in the story. Extras on the disc include clean opening and closing sequences, production sketches, and a special promotion trailer for the show (in Japanese) which was subtitled by ADV. Perhaps the best extra is the production sketches, because the full version of Hemisphere is played in the background. To top it off, the video quality for this release may as well be considered perfect, as far as I could tell. All in all, this was one of ADV's better releases.

Switching gears a bit for the summary, this is a release that I can't safely recommend to anyone. Yet, I hope everyone with an interest in anime will watch it. As demonstrated in some of their other works, BONES productions have a way of letting the animation tell the story instead of offering up every important detail. This makes the studio's works much loved by some and much hated by others. The similarities of RahXephon to Evangelion will probably turn some people off, but others may like it. As for myself, I think it's clear that I found this first volume enjoyable, and wish to see more. It is difficult to tell where the story will go from here, but the stylish production and interesting characters are sure to keep at least some people coming back for more.

Distributor: ADV Films
Creator: Yutaka Izubuchi/BONES
Released: 2001

Video Quality: A+
Audio Quality: B+
Presentation: A+
Content: B
Overall: B+