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Rating: 
Summary: Another fine one
Review: Another fine addition, the story really builds on the characters instead of JUST big mechs etc... I mean giant machines piloted by humans is just too cool but the characters presented here are well done.
Rating:
Summary: harmonic convergence diverging
Review: I praised Rahxephon in my review for the first DVD but I criticized some of it's similarities to you know what. In disc 3, the similarities aren't really there anymore and Rahxephon is paving it's on course as a unique mech anime. At 10 dollars an episode it better be good. Yea, you only get 3 episodes but there's nothing you can do about it. Anime lovers are used to this kind of treatment. The first episode is pretty light hearted. The second episode is where the series really starts to shine. You might be able to compare this episode to Shinji's mind babbling psycho-analysis thingies in you know what but I don't see a huge likeness. Yet, there is one scene where Ayato sees a stuffed penguin and it expands, then explodes. If anyone thinks this is a reference to Pen-Pen please enlighten me. Maybe Japanese anime developers just love penguins. Of all the 3 discs, this one has the most beautiful artwork. It is dubbed sublime artwork. What a perfect word for the art, it has you in awe. The third episode is really intriguing because the nature of Quon and her role is revealed. Again, the music is above average. Quon's plays the violin in the first episode and sings in the third, both are quite beautiful peices. Oh and you think they've already put all the mysteries they can out there? Well you'll find yourself to be dead wrong after you watch these three episodes. Even more mysteries, fun stuff. One of the main themes on this DVD is how fragile reality is. It dosen't matter if you're dreaming of being a butterfly or the butterfly is dreaming of being you. Separate realities are forcing Ayato to come to grips with what really matters in his life. Good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: harmonic convergence diverging
Review: I praised Rahxephon in my review for the first DVD but I criticized some of it's similarities to you know what. In disc 3, the similarities aren't really there anymore and Rahxephon is paving it's on course as a unique mech anime. At 10 dollars an episode it better be good. Yea, you only get 3 episodes but there's nothing you can do about it. Anime lovers are used to this kind of treatment. The first episode is pretty light hearted. The second episode is where the series really starts to shine. You might be able to compare this episode to Shinji's mind babbling psycho-analysis thingies in you know what but I don't see a huge likeness. Yet, there is one scene where Ayato sees a stuffed penguin and it expands, then explodes. If anyone thinks this is a reference to Pen-Pen please enlighten me. Maybe Japanese anime developers just love penguins. Of all the 3 discs, this one has the most beautiful artwork. It is dubbed sublime artwork. What a perfect word for the art, it has you in awe. The third episode is really intriguing because the nature of Quon and her role is revealed. Again, the music is above average. Quon's plays the violin in the first episode and sings in the third, both are quite beautiful peices. Oh and you think they've already put all the mysteries they can out there? Well you'll find yourself to be dead wrong after you watch these three episodes. Even more mysteries, fun stuff. One of the main themes on this DVD is how fragile reality is. It dosen't matter if you're dreaming of being a butterfly or the butterfly is dreaming of being you. Separate realities are forcing Ayato to come to grips with what really matters in his life. Good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for a sci-fi fan
Review: RahXephon is a sci-fi anime with an intriguing story. Editorial review does a good job for summarizing the overall scenerio, so there is no need to lengthen my review. RahXephon resembles Neon Genesis Evangelion in many respects but it doesn't have the drawbacks of Evangelion that I mentioned in my review of its complete set. If you enjoy science-fiction books or movies having interesting and intriguing subjects, you will enjoy RahXephon as much as I do. If you need an example from anime to make your decision, I can say that the ones liked Gasaraki will probably like RahXephon, too. Video and audio quality of this DVD edition is very good. Most anime fans dislike dubbing and prefer to watch Japanese sound with English subtitles. However, subtitles are not that good. I found out that listening an important conversation, which you couldn't understand it at first, for a second time is much more efficient than figuring out what happened from subtitles. You should notice that there are actually two English subtitles. First subtitle is the regular one and the second one is similar to the "Pill" option of Akira, it only translates Japanese words on the video and background conversation on scenes such as a news heard from a TV. This second English subtitle is benefical to turn on. Leaflets on DVD's are very wellcome and useful. There are fully coloured drawings of mechas and persons together with a brief information. The leaflet of this first volume also includes short interviews with Japanese cast but no translation notes this time. Production sketches, opening and closing animations are there again in the extras, as well as ADV previews. Final extra of this volume is the early production promo trailer. As being early, this is not as good as the trailer in the first volume. To summarize, this volume has the weakest extras amoung the first four. Third volume has only three episodes. 10th movement, first episonde on this volume is among the weakest of those in the first volumes. This is only because of its slow pace but it contains some important key points. I would give the volume four stars if all the episodes were like this one. However, the next episode is very "Matrixish", making it up - 11th movement is to be praised by Matrix fans like me. I, as a science fiction fan, give five stars to this volume as well as the other three and I am looking forward for the rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Ahhhhh, RahXephon....please give us a tangible thread!
Review: The third DVD of RahXephon disappoints on several levels. To start, it only has 3 episodes, thus seemed like a let down in terms of sales price. Then on top of that, the episodes contained move along exactly like presvious episodes and explain little more. Instead, the creator/writer has thrown in a further potpourri of obtuse and intangible elements that establish little, confuse greatly, and solidify nothing. As if RahXephon wasn't hard enough to understand, and maintain interest, now it is a nearly unmaintainable burden! The first episode jumps into a kind of equivocal romance, comedy with the first act suddenly having the characters going into constant, uncharacteristic, anime, funny faces. Nothing is defined or resolved between any one. The second episode is a sorely paced hallucination episode that is just a kind of waste of space to occupy time. The sort of tense pacing evident in similar anime is lacking, and the imagination of the hallucination is bland. In the final battle, we find that Ayato (and thus RahXephon) had lost it's wits because a Dolem was deep throating him in a prolonged french kiss in the sky. I guess I can symapthize; love is consuming, but I never came out of it just to bash the girl's face in. The final episode tends to be similar to the previous episode, in that reality and hallucination (assuming it is hallucination) blur even worse. And now some very odd, intangible and ridiculous characters are introduced. You will have to read the DVD insert booklet to understand who these people are because they don't explain anything within the series. Could this man, Ernst Von Bebhem be the puppet master controlling the story? As of 12 episodes, RahXephon still fails to create anything truely captivating within the story. It is a jumble of post modern images and articles. But the ART is AMAZING! Much recent anime has dissolved solid stories, or writing, and has made the artform even more disjointed then ever before. Series like this make the audience do all the work, and keep them constantly confused, clinging to hopes that SOMETHING will be craftily resolved to make sense of the worlds they create. Instead of building expectations and then working inside and outside of the viewer's perception of a building story, they are afraid to write anything wholly corporeal in trepidation of putting themselves on the map and actually being quantified. Better anime series have made each episode of a series play as an individual story within a greater scheme. RahXephon tells less then cohesive episodal stories that appear to be building to a large train wreck/disappointment. But the ART is GREAT!
Rating:
Summary: This should have been titled Dissonance
Review: This is what I would consider a break away from the main series with three episodes that stray a bit from reality. This disk is going to be a love or hate. The art and color use are still great. Not much is revealed about the main story line and as I said its a few steps away from where the rest of the series has been so far. If you are looking for answers you wont find them here but if you pay attention you can intuit a few things that I feel will be major in the story line later. I liked departure from reality episode. It reminds me more than just a bit of the Twin Peaks TV series. The pacing could have been faster but I think it was done well enough. It also sets some interesting character relasionship umm.. dificulties. I'm interested to see if they intend to work through them or if they will just go away next episode and everyhting will be fine again. Could go either way.
I think it was a brave move for the creators of the series to take this kind of divergence from the formula people might have come to expect. I don't know that it would work for the whole series but I think it works on these few episodes. Like I said - love it or hate it, to each their own.
Rating:
Summary: Interior Dialogues
Review: This series has a particular fondness for exploring the inner workings of its characters. Frequently this is in association with RahXephon's battles, but the first episode here is an exception, playing the antagonistic relationship between Ayato Kamina and Megumi Shitow against Commander Jin Kunugi's painful visit to his daughter's grave. In a sense, fractured relationships are as much a major sub-theme of RahXephon as is the music that often expresses via the mysterious Quon Kisaragi. In the next episode, Ayato, pilot of the RahXephon, encounters a new Dolem, 'Vivace,' in battle. It thrusts Ayato into a strange dream world that is a partial replica of the Tokyo locked behind the time barrier. He finds himself more in touch with his on inner turmoil and fears of intimacy than he expected to be, creating a crisis that will resound through the rest of the series. The last episode is Quon's tale. Her role so far has been that of a beautiful, but physically weak woman who is most noted for her poetry and violin playing. In undergoing her own crisis - triggered by Ayato's in the previous episode, Quon comes face to face with her own potential, and very nearly overreaches herself. Often, this series will get compared to Evangelion, and not inappropriately. But there is much more going on here at the character level than it's forbearer offers - and correspondingly less action. If you can imagine Evangelion grown up a bit, with even better music and art you would have a good idea of what to expect. I find it fascinating both as art and concept, with a difficult to achieve naturalness to the acting. By all means seek this series out, it shows every sign of being a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: Interior Dialogues
Review: This series has a particular fondness for exploring the inner workings of its characters. Frequently this is in association with RahXephon's battles, but the first episode here is an exception, playing the antagonistic relationship between Ayato Kamina and Megumi Shitow against Commander Jin Kunugi's painful visit to his daughter's grave. In a sense, fractured relationships are as much a major sub-theme of RahXephon as is the music that often expresses via the mysterious Quon Kisaragi. In the next episode, Ayato, pilot of the RahXephon, encounters a new Dolem, 'Vivace,' in battle. It thrusts Ayato into a strange dream world that is a partial replica of the Tokyo locked behind the time barrier. He finds himself more in touch with his on inner turmoil and fears of intimacy than he expected to be, creating a crisis that will resound through the rest of the series. The last episode is Quon's tale. Her role so far has been that of a beautiful, but physically weak woman who is most noted for her poetry and violin playing. In undergoing her own crisis - triggered by Ayato's in the previous episode, Quon comes face to face with her own potential, and very nearly overreaches herself. Often, this series will get compared to Evangelion, and not inappropriately. But there is much more going on here at the character level than it's forbearer offers - and correspondingly less action. If you can imagine Evangelion grown up a bit, with even better music and art you would have a good idea of what to expect. I find it fascinating both as art and concept, with a difficult to achieve naturalness to the acting. By all means seek this series out, it shows every sign of being a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: The Series Continues To Set Up
Review: This series overall gets a five; and while this disc is essential to understanding RahXephon, it's one of the slower offerings that is used to set up the rest of this intriguing series. As a recap, the title character is a giant robot with yet unexplored but sound-related abilities, and uniquely pilotable by teenager Ayato Kamina. Kamina has just been freed from the space-time bubble surrounding Tokyo-Jupiter (where time runs at a rate years behind) and has been told that what he thought was reality is a construct by an alien race of Murians. The battle for Tokyo-Jupiter and its numerous human inhabitants is waged with Dolems--the Murian giant robots--and RahXephon, on behalf of the "real" Earth. Call Vol. 3 the Quon Disc, as it deals heavily with delving into exactly who this unnerving girl who calls Ayato "Orin" or "Ollin" (depending on the version) is. The two continue to find more and more connections with each other, and this volume spends most of its time exploring that. Each episode features one Dolem battle (one and a half in the first); one, in particular, is very important in setting up the series. As the battle progresses, RahXephon is swallowed by the Dolem and transported to a different temporal space, and Ayato proceeds to go through a hallucinatory dream/trance that takes him back to Tokyo/Jupiter and explores some of his hidden feelings. It's a necessary volume, but one that is a bit slow-paced, even for RahXephon fans. However, nearly everything shown will come back in some form in the series later episodes. The previously mentioned Dolem fight will seem like a preview for the things to come in the pivotal Vol. 4, which will kick this series into high gear. Great art, in the new modern style seen in series like Gasaraki or Full Metal Panic--cleaner, CGI-integrated, not line-y art; different music, mixing techno-pop with majestic orchestra. A great series that takes some time to develop...and this is the last disc in that slow process. Not recommended by itself, but necessary if you have started collecting the series.
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