RahXephon: The Motion Picture

Having been a massive fan of the RahXephon series for a long time now, this movie flew into my DVD player faster than you can say “Mu”.

The Story

High school kids Ayato and Haruka are love sick puppies who are suddenly separated by an event no-one could have predicted. While Haruka is away from Tokyo on a family trip, a strange alien race called ‘the Mu’ attack the city and in the process, seal off Tokyo from the rest of the world.

Under this “shield”, time travels slower in Tokyo than the rest of the world; so while Ayato has aged only 3 years since the attack, 15-odd years have passed for Haruka and the rest of the human race.

The Mu inside Tokyo Jupiter (a nickname for this “shield’) look just like humans, but have blue blood coursing through their veins and have pioneered strange new technologies. The RahXephon is their ultimate achievement; a strange mecha with the potential to “tune the world”. The pilot of this robot is fated to be Ayato, though he knows nothing of this and as far as he’s been told, the world outside of Tokyo was destroyed 3 years ago, Haruka along with it.

One normal school day, some so-called ‘alien invaders’ attack Tokyo again. As he runs for shelter, he catches a dream-like glimpse of his old girlfriend Haruka. By following these visions, he is led into an underground subway where he meets a group of strange government agents who seem intent on forcing him to go with them. He is saved by a spunky young woman with amazing martial arts skills, and as Ayato wonders why those men-in-black had blue blood, the women offers him an explanation.

Content Review

With the advantage of hindsight, I always loved RahXephon for the bitter-sweet romance between Ayato and Haruka. Something about their tender relationship just clicks with me; and it is their scenes together which have stayed with me beyond anything else from the series.
RahXephon: The Motion Picture is basically a recap of the TV show, but places even more emphasis on their broken relationship, making for an interesting, nigh on compelling amalgam of romance and science fiction.

Coming from the perspective of having thoroughly enjoyed the TV show, it’s interesting how the movie starts with fresh glimpses of Ayato and Haruka’s blossoming “school days” love. It adds an extra punch to their painful separation and eventual reunion.

Compared with her personality in the series, Haruka comes across as a much more forthright and emotionally driven character. She doesn’t appear to be as content to wait for Ayato and she takes the initiative with him from their troubled reunion onwards.

Ayato on the other hand has lost much of his drive. Given he was never really an outspoken character; several important revelations have been muted to fit into the movie running time and thus his personality seems indifferent and almost uncaring. He talks about loving and wanting to protect his friends, but there are few reasons given for his sudden changes of heart.

That said and despite this character rejigging, the Ayato and Haruka relationship is still undeniably effecting. There is an honesty, an innocence about them that I find compels me to cheer them on.

Besides this central relationship, many of the characters from the series have been minimized or tinkered with. Quon is a “sleeping beauty”, while the calm and collected Itsuki is now a desperate, fawning lover.

Unsurprisingly, Asahina is almost completely unchanged, including her tragic confessions when slumming it with Ayato. These moments are just as beautiful as those in the series, though I question their inclusion. Despite her explosive nature, Asahina as a character adds very little to the movie storyline- making her climatic scenes lose their dramatic appeal and if anything, bog down the story with unnecessary diversions.

These sad scenes close what is a weak mid-section of the movie; in an attempt to fill the gaps of intrigue raised by the Mu invasion and the TERRA organisation, we are treated to a very ’empty’ period of mecha battles and frustrating jargon for the sake of explaining the technicalities of the story. At one point, Ayato seems reluctant to fight on the human side of the war and then a few scenes later he is pummelling an unfortunate Mu Dolem. It all comes across as rushed and blurred, forcing the viewer to jump to certain conclusions rather than giving us a chance to work it out for ourselves.

Thankfully, the last third of the movie is quite outstanding. Starting with a saucy turning point in the Ayato/Haruka relationship and several interesting insights into Ayato’s mother, the action quickly turns up a notch and the spectacular ‘world tuning’ begins.

While a lot of what happens in these pivotal moments will still leave many scratching their heads in frustration; the narrative should adequately convey the meaning behind Ayato’s definitive actions.

I left this film feeling warm, fuzzy and sentimental. As a science fiction fan, I feel strange saying this, but for once, romance was the key to my enjoyment of this story.

In Summary

RahXephon newcomers should watch the series first; it’s just superior in terms of character development, action and sheer emotional punch, but of course – this movie has it’s strong points too; a greater focus on the Ayato and Haruka relationship being particularly successful.

For fans of the RahXephon series, I feel there are enough differences here to make it a worthy purchase. While the animation is largely re-produced from the series, the story takes several different turns, providing a slightly different take on the central romance while also portraying a few important characters differently; most notably, Ayato’s estranged mother.