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Rahxephon - The Motion Picture Director: Yutaka Izubuchi Number of Items: 1 Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, Surround Sound Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 120 minutes Studio: A.D. Vision Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-07-20 Buy from Amazon

From Amazon.com RahXephon: The Motion Picture retells the story of the 2002 broadcast series with some minor changes. After a subway accident, high school student Ayato Kamina discovers the city he knows has been hidden by Mulian invaders inside "Tokyo Jupiter," a huge sphere in which time passes slowly. Ayato's half-human/half-Mulian blood makes him the "Instrumentalist" who can pilot the giant mecha RahXephon and "tune the world," which will somehow defeat the Mulians. Ayato undertakes this mission only to save Haruka Mishima, his former high school sweetheart. Condensing the plot of the 26-episode series into just under two hours proves a daunting task for executive director Yutaka Izubuchi and his artists. They leave big chunks of the story unexplained and send characters into the past to visit themselves, creating some thorny, unresolved paradoxes. The results feel like yet another unsuccessful Evangelion imitator. (Rated 15 and older: violence, brief nudity, sexual situations) --Charles Solomon From Description Return to the world of RahXephon, where humans and Mu fight for dominance over a shattered Earth, and giant statues are the ultimate weapons. Where music forms the fabric of the universe and the link between two hearts is the thread upon which the fate of humanity hangs. It is still a love story, but it is not the same story. Not exactly. Prepare for new visions and new revelations, as the other side of RahXephon is finally revealed. RahXephon was created and directed by Yutaka Izubuchi (Gasaraki, the Gundam franchise), and produced by Bones (Angelic Layer, Cowboy Bebop), Victor Entertainment (Noir) and Fuji TV (Astro Boy, Battle of the Planets). The RahXephon series debuted on Japanese TV in 2002 and became an immediate sensation, with fierce action and the multilayered complexity of the plot and characters drawing in viewers by the tens of thousands. RahXephon: The Motion Picture is a DVD-only release, containing a 120-minute feature in both English 5.1 and Japanese 5.1 language versions with English subtitles. Extras includes an 10-page RahXephon booklet and ADV previews.

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.0 "not really base on the series" Ayato Kamina was seperated from a girl he loved, Haruka Mishima, when an event occurred that was thought to have killed everyone outside of Tokyo. But one day three years later, invaders attacked the city. just see what happens next. rated 16 up: bloody violence, sexual situations, profanity, nudity "Boring and nothing really new" this movie is nothing more than a gimmick to swindle money from any anime fan. If you have already watched the series then you should be less enticed to purchase this DVD. It offers nothing new to what you have already seen in the series. As a matter of fact the movie is just compiled scenes of the orginal series. Probably about 15 mins of footage was added the rest is straight from the series. The animation isn't even different or improved. The story is basically the same and the ending is similar to the series. Nothing's different at all. There are no added battle scenes just a alternate beginning and ending which is the 15 min of footage that was made to seem like it was something new. If you want to see a anime movie based on a series, watch Escaflowne. Better animation than the series with no scenes pasted on the movie. Plus the story is rewritten for a new prospective. The movie and plot was okay it could have had a better story and plot plus more fight scenes. But Dammit! atleast they made an effort which I thought was great and I felt I got my monies worth! Unlike this turd that was hashed out! "Doesn't quite live up to its promise..." There seems to be quite a difference of opinion on this two-hour feature film based on the RahXephon series. I find my impressions are mixed, but that overall the film provides a different angle on the original story. One that touches more on emotional factors, and ekes out several things that are easy to miss in the series. The plot, for those who haven't seen the series, is the tale of Ayato Kamina, who is caught in Tokyo during an alien invasion. The city is separated from the rest of the world, and the human inhabitants are convinced that they are the only survivors. When Ayato reaches the age of 17, a sudden meeting with a secret agent (Haruka Shitow) turns his world upside down. He discovers the truth and finds that he is connected with a giant robotic creature called the RahXephon. He leaves Tokyo to aid humanity in stopping the aliens (Mu). Ayato is an instrumentalist, half human half Mulan, and badly torn over the path he should follow and his true nature. He is haunted by an old relationship and faces a complicated, metaphysical crisis or two. What I especially liked - The story isn't exactly different, but it focuses much better on the abridged romance between Haruka and Ayato. In the series, which has time to develop the detailed characters better, let time is spent on this theme. There are hints along the way, but only at the end does it achieve prominence. In the film Ayato's female relationships are the key element. This clarifies some of the confusion of the series. One the other hand - Either there was a very poor transfer or the film was made with sloppier artwork. Nor is the music of the same quality. Character development is seriously abridged, as is often the case in a feature length version. There are several cases, though, where it would have been better to leave out a character entirely. And poor Quon Kisaragi is barely a shadow of her series self, which is a shame. And finally there are some monologues which try to be lectures on the theory behind the action. These border on the tedious. It's certainly worth renting the film especially if you have seen the series and are looking for a bit more light. But while the series manages to combine action, romance, and some interesting ethical questions, the film is more monotonic. If you have a choice I would recommend viewing the series, which is beautifully made and acted. "This makes no sense!" I spent most of this movie trying to figure out WHY they made it. There are no especially shocking new revelations or things that made me go, "Ah, that explains such-and-such from the series." I consider myself to be fairly skilled at understanding anime, or at least letting drop what I don't understand. However, neither I nor my even more anime-literate friend could figure out precisely what the point of this movie was: what it added to the story, or what action scenes were supposed to appeal to our less intellectual sides, or even what was supposed to be going on. In other words, the dialogue was full of technobabble and half-formed theories that were never satisfactorily explained, the action was subpar compared to the series (and you can see most of it just by watching the series anyway), and no serious plotholes or loose ends were resolved. Thus, I can honestly say that I feel this movie has no special artistic merit and should be avoided. Rent it if you must, but save your money. I can only conceive of two reasonable excuses to purchase this movie: 1. You are a HUGE RahXephon fan. If you have the Instrumentalist signs tattooed onto your body, you qualify. And you need help. 2. You already own the entire series, feel a deep need to complete your set, and have $30 disposable income. In the end, I think I only liked two things about this movie: the fact that I got to see RahXephon's ultimate attack one more time (it really is awesome) and the ending song. Not nearly enough to amount to a worthwhile purchase. "Save your money and watch the series" As a huge fan of the Rahxephon series, I was eager to get my hands on this movie...After watching it I'm wishing desperately that I hadn't. Basically, the movie adds about 25 minutes of new scenes, and the rest is recycled material. HOWEVER, the recycled scenes are redubbed with completely different words, in some cases this is very bothersome, more often than not obscuring the original purpose of the scene. This movie could be considered a Rahxephon crash course, but it's pretty poorly executed, and honestly omits most of everything good about the series. Many of the characters and events are changed totally to fit in this tiny slice of a plot. In the series I found the Haruka/Ayato love story rather compelling. If you did as well, I'd suggest again skipping over this movie; it basically throws the relationship out in the open, and in doing so cheapens the emotions surrounding the original events. In general the things that took FOREVER to happen in the TV series are taken for granted. Without providing any spoilers I will say that the movie changes a lot of what happens, in ways that make it very confusing. The ending also feels a lot stranger and much less definitive than the original. Thus the only way I can really recommend this movie is if you're a huge fan of the series and don't care how the story is retold; you're too lazy to watch the original series, or simply like watching a series fundamentally changed and crammed into 2 hours. Otherwise, buy the complete collection, you won't be disappointed.