Forum - View topic

Evangelion vs. Rahxephon.

The series was structured so that plot and character development were never neglected. Every episode it seemed had some new morsel of information regarding the complex and ever-relevant backstory, and at the same time meaningful scenes between characters. Sure, keeping track of all the questions that arise in the first five episodes alone can be difficult, but the series does tie all the loose ends up (or at least provides enough information to make an informed guess).

Most of us gave up long ago, which might be why you feel so alone. I'm firmly in the RahXephon camp, as I find Evangelion to be a decent, but far from stellar series. Many Eva fans just aren't willing to discuss it, and heck, many never bothered to watch RahXephon, or did so already bias under the notion that it was just a wannabe Eva, which made it the "enemy" to them. This, of course, doesn't account for everyone and it's entirely feasible someone could see both with an open mind and still prefer Eva, but there's plenty whose opinions on RX were swayed by preconceived notions and bias based on the arguments of the fans and their respect/love of Eva.

Complaints about RahXephon.

Most of us gave up long ago, which might be why you feel so alone.

So in other words, trying to raise critical flaws to Eva to a Eva fan is as persuasive as trying to get a Naru-tard or Inuyasha fan to expand their anime horizons (not that it implies to all people)?

o we really want to get into that kind of petty point-for-point debate? Because I will if you want to. It's a bad road to go down; it demeans both series, and it ensures the thread will end up in "locksville" sooner or later. But that said, I'm still willing to go in and bat for RahXephon. That's because I honestly believe it's better.

Evangelion doesnt need me to defend it anyway it speaks for itself

Evangelion doesnt need me to defend it anyway it speaks for itself

Evangelion fans have the right to defend the series they love.

Keonyn wrote:

Most of us gave up long ago, which might be why you feel so alone. I'm firmly in the RahXephon camp, as I find Evangelion to be a decent, but far from stellar series. Many Eva fans just aren't willing to discuss it, and heck, many never bothered to watch RahXephon, or did so already bias under the notion that it was just a wannabe Eva, which made it the "enemy" to them. This, of course, doesn't account for everyone and it's entirely feasible someone could see both with an open mind and still prefer Eva, but there's plenty whose opinions on RX were swayed by preconceived notions and bias based on the arguments of the fans and their respect/love of Eva.

So in other words, trying to raise critical flaws to Eva to a Eva fan is as persuasive as trying to get a Naru-tard or Inuyasha fan to expand their anime horizons (not that it implies to all people)?

I don't think that's really fair, at least not to most people currently into the discussion. There are certainly people like that, though.

Is this the sentence what you say when you may run out of things to help argue your point?

pretentious philosophical crap

I was just fuming and frustrated at that point since more people were arguing in favor of Eva and I was the only person arguing against it.

can you explain the seeming lack of emotion from Ayato after spoiler[the death of Asahina]. He simply goes back and gets on with life from what i see. It was instances like this where he goes back to normal life as if nothing happened that makes me say that sometimes I think Ayato as a charater is un emotional.

The Ending
We all know EVA has two endings, but I am going to compare the TV ending here. This may be the part where I am the least "objective", since my feelings about this are quite strong. Forgive me.
So, EVA has a fucked-up ending, totally changing the visual storytelling, or even not telling a story at all. It is by no means a "fitting conclusion", since that would mean answering some questions. However, it does what the series focused on, earlier, too, only in an extreme way: Exploring the character's minds (and reducing the cast greatly). I did understand the last two episodes halfway through the second one - when I thought that this is what's happening inside you when the HIP kicks in (horrible sentence, sorry). EVA's ending is different. It is interesting. It made me think and it made me cry.
RahXephon's ending is more like End of Evangelion: It shows what happens, too, but in the world. The last few episodes accomplished a lot too, I think, but it ultimately fails.
The feeling of "leave" was great when Haruka and her sister are boarding the ship. I thought they were going to reduce the cast, which they had done throughout the last few episodes.
Sadly, they throw some characters together in spoiler[a house with the creator of RahXephon who lives forever.] That was just so unbelievable. I felt they were basically pulling story elements out from thin air - a thing you can do, but certainly not to answer crucial questions. His explanations were plain ridiculous, I think.
The fight between spoiler[Ayato and Quon] was, I think, too long and somehow not fitting. I also thought the mecha designs were based on a good idea, but rather silly.

As you can see, I totally failed on the ending. Maybe someone else can do that better :/

Just out of interest and becasue it bugged me the most about Rahxephon, can you explain the seeming lack of emotion from Ayato after spoiler[the death of Asahina]. He simply goes back and gets on with life from what i see. It was instances like this where he goes back to normal life as if nothing happened that makes me say that sometimes I think Ayato as a charater is un emotional.

Reactions of people can be quite different, you see. Some cry, some don't. However, most people seek to talk to someone about it - if I remember correctly, Ayato does not talk to anyone about that, so his feelings cannot gush out. You might think this means he's unemotional, but I think this is more like an endogene sorrow.

I've never seen anything quite so disturbing or upsetting as the scene where spoiler[Ayato claims he is going to protect asahina and as he is fighting the golem....well you know what happens. That scene broke me slighty due to the way in which she writes notes as he is unknowingly killing her]. Its more disturbing than anything I've seen in a single Eva episode bar spoiler[Asuka's death in] EOE.

Rahxphon is a very good series but it does not; as it's supporters are claiming, have a constant flowing, cohesive plot. The first 10 episodes do nothing for me accept confuse. Its one of those situations where nothing will make sense unless you already know what is going on and watch over again. This is slightly simiilar to the way in which Eva has to be approached as a series but unlike Rahxephon, Eva does not confuse the most basic plot points such as who is good, and where they actually are in the world. These points will seem obvious to those who have seen it over again and who love the series but when watching for the first time I find Rahexphon to be confusing to the point where I'm so busy trying to digest what is going on with basic plot points that i cannot concentrate on character development and introduction.

My views and Stoic support of Eva are partially due to the fact that when i watched it and before i watched it, i had myself been suffering from serious depression. The themes it presents therefore, I find to be human and close to heart which is something that last night meant i nearly blew a gasket and threw my toys out of the pram with certain comments. Evangelion may not be as well thought out and planned as Rahxephon but it is certainly the more unique a series out of the two. It deals with issues not really explored in other anime. It also uses a huge variety of different cinematographic techniques such as the use of stills at the end. I don't see this variety in Rahxephon. It doesnt particularly matter to me that the plot flows better as I still find the quality of story telling, the atmoshpere and general execution of scenes within Evangelion to be more unique than anything I've seen before. This is something that I cannot say with conviction about Rahxphon with it's; to be frank, happy ever after ending for example. It was still effective and summed up more plot that evangelion's ending but was not as inventive as evangelion. The simple creativity and difference in style makes evangelion for me stand out more than Rahxephon even if it is managed better. Part of the appeal of evangleion is the way in which it bucks trends and goes out of the normal story telling boundries that I see attempted to be enforced within Rahxephon.

Evangelion might not be not be as good as Rahexphon to some people but you cannot take away the fact that it is very unique.

After saying all this, I suppose my views don't count as I'm the usual evangelion fanatic who wont admit any shortcomings about eva what so ever ( apparently). I disagree that the plot is a mish mash of ideas thrown together. It all makes sense to me but then thats because I've taken the time to watch it and understand it. Now with regards to the tabboo argument that no one is allowed to say tickity boo about Rahexphon borrowing from eva...It does and it does so alot during the end sequence, funnily enough borrowing from the so called pretentious philosophical crap scenes from the end of the series. Theres no escaping the fact the the series does borrow some inspiration from evangelion but although this doesnt in anyway affect my judgement of Rahexphon, I think people should bear the influence eva had on it in mind and think about what evangelion has actually done for many other series out there.