Rating: 
Summary: Not great, but very good
Review: This review covers the whole series, because I didn't feel like writing a separate spiel for each DVD.
Rahxephon falls frustratingly short of greatness. I say frustratingly, because you can FEEL greatness so very, very close throughout the series. The production values are generally fantastic; the artwork is classic. The love story driving the plot is both convoluted and brilliant. Small moments and minor characters flesh out the world to the point where it almost seems real. There are moments of action and of character development that are glorious. And yet the series manages to fall just short, just shy of true greatness.
The similarities with Evangelion are the first problem. The parallels are too easily drawn, and in some episodes RahXephon feels almost like an elaborately conceived fan project. There's no reason to go too deeply into this, though, because it's really the sign of a larger problem, which is that the writing is frustratingly uneven. Although the script meticulously shows a number of tiny, important moments, other events are painted in such broad strokes that they become almost a form of caricature. For instance, the staff of TERRA consists almost entirely of attractive women, almost all of whom throw themselves at Ayato within days of his arrival in a transparent and silly display of adolescent wish-fulfillment. Only one of them has an excuse for this; after about the third it just seems stupid. It could have been better. The motivation behind the events of the show is also poorly defined. It's never made clear why the Mu (or Bahbem) are doing what they do. Why did the Mu attack? Why do they want our world?
The epilogue in the final episode neatly encapsulates the show's problem. It ties everything that has happened in the series, from its first moment to its last, into a neat, convoluted, and spectacular package. And at the same time, it leaves you thinking, 'Bahbem, Ayato, and the Mu went through all that... for THAT?' In a way, the mundane nature of the retuning has a message of its own... but it's a trite message, and it ultimately trivializes the rest of the series.
The show's music also shows the same frustrating lack of attention. The music is in almost all cases generic, bland, and western in character. In a show that admirably avoided the contemporary anime obsession with Judeo-Christian religious motifs, this is particularly disappointing. Native American music could have been mined in the same way as Aztec and Mayan symbology. Just a little more attention to detail would have done the trick -- and given that the whole series is predicated on the importance of music, it seems odd that more attention was not paid.
So, it's frustrating. The art (in particular some of the dolem designs), the characters, and much of the plot is fantastic, wonderful and worthy of mention with the best in anime. But there are so many places where RahXephon stumbles in its story and dialogue, and the music, which should have been a major strength, turns into a major weakness. So rather than greatness, RahXephon must settle for 'very good'-ness. That's not BAD, and RahXephon is a wonderful series in many ways. If you want to watch an anime that's occasionally thought-provoking and includes a deep, moving love story, then RahXephon is your ticket. It's a very good series.
But it isn't great. And it could have been.
Rating: 
Summary: This is one of my favorite series!
Review: This series is wonderful! I haven't seen disc 2 yet, seeing as I'm broke right now, but I'm hoping that will chance soon. Anyway... this series is comparable to Evangelion, but I only found my self doing that once or twice. It stands out with I think a different twist on the whole, "Tokyo is the centur of the univerce. We MUST save it," idea.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely fusion of sound, image and mecha!
Review: This show is simply beautiful - and so far refreshingly intelligent. It's stylish and solid too with none of the jaded, bored, we're-too-cool-for-words feeling of Cowboy Bebop. The overall designs are wonderful, the color pallet is subtle and effective, the music fitting to both mood and purpose and very listenable on it's own - which I can't say for most anime shows. (Winces at the memory of wildly inappropriate 'Rurouni Kenshin' title songs) The mood is atmospheric and almost dreamlike at times. All the characters are intriguing with just enough catch to their actions to make you want to know more yet are being allowed to develop slowly. It's nice to not have what often ultimately turns out to be most of the character development and plot stuffed down your throat in the first few episodes (okay, I've got my fingers crossed on that one since I don't know for certain!). And while the main character may be a 'stranger in a strange land' type, he still remains likable. He whines only a little at being torn from the only life he's ever known and told his entire life before was a lie - yet he doesn't seem to buy into his 'rescuers' ways whole-heartedly either. They've put together an intriguing storyline that I sincerely hope continues to hold up. Mysteriously motivated alien invaders, global war, giant robot suits and one boy with the key to saving the world... not exactly original material, but the handling of it in RahXephon so far is tantalzing and mysterious. The end of this disk leaves you defintely wanting to know more! For once, too, the dub actors so far have done a decent job and the dub script seems faithful. I far prefer watching my anime in the original Japanese with subtitles, but the dub crew on this one isn't bad. I can listen to them without wincing in pain, at least *grin* - and that's high praise from me, considering one of my all-time favorite seiyuu, Toshihiko Seki, voices one of the characters! I've read the comparisons between RahXephon and Neon Genesis Evangelion but since I've never seen Evangelion, I can't make a real judgement, but I do think RahXephon deserves to stand on it's own. The mecha genre wasn't begun with Evangelion and it certainly didn't end with it. I must admit I've mainly avoided Evangelion because I've heard the main character is pretty unlikable. However, there's no problem with that here. Ayato is sympathetic without being [too bad]; a boy just trying to understand the strange war he's suddenly been thrust into the middle of as a key player when he didn't even know there was a war going on anymore. And I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the next DVD release.
Rating: 
Summary: Rubbish
Review: What a complete and utter pile of crap. I cannot believe people are praising this anime. It is so unoriginal it makes me want to spew. I didn't pick up one thing that wasn't borrowed from Neon Genesis Evangelion and I don't know how the director can live with himself. If you're the type thats into pretty looking anime then sure, watch it. But if you have respect for anime, do yourself a favour and watch NGE instead.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing, deep but not heavy mech anime
Review: Yes. This is another one of those deep, brooding mech animes following the vein of EVANGELION and ARGENTOSOMA, and yet it's different--and what I like about it is that it's still deep, but not as heavy as Evangelion. Rahxephon follows Tokyo who is trapped in a "protective dome" and believing that the world outside of the dome is destroyed. But the world as the main character knows it becomes unravelling once he finds out that not only is the world outside fine (relatively speaking), but that his city is the attack base of a disguised alien race. Of course controlling mechas come into play but what makes it interesting is the theme of music that's important to the mech. How the secrets behind everything unravel (imagine finding out that your mother bleeds blue blood) and how time travels at different speeds inside and outside the city is really interesting. I'm only on episode five and the more I watch it, the more I'm drawn in.
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