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Rahxephon: City of Two (Welcome to Our Town)
Is anyone else reminded of that Twilight Zone short called "Two"? Maybe because the only two visible characters are Ayato and Haruka, a (young) man and woman on what one could argue as opposing sides of a war, albeit a war Ayato wasn't even aware of until this point. The two wander around a desolate fishing village that was abandoned in the wake of Tokyo Jupiter's creation.
This is one of those eps that is much more entertaining upon re-watch. Initially I was almost deterred from watching the rest of the series because I found this ep to be so boring. I'm glad I decided to continue anyways.
The problem was I just didn't really know what was going on, and I didn't care about Haruka and Ayato's dynamic at first. What I was really interested in was who was Mishima Reika? Maya recognizes her at the beginning, so who is she? And why, when the Rahxephon crossed the barrier, did she say "No worry. You'll be return to me again, Ayato; you and Ixtli."
I don't think that was something I picked up on at first, and if I did I completely forgot about it in the confusion of "Wait, did Mishima just die?" I think at first, Maya didn't recognize Ixtli as Ixtli, but as the memory of young!Haruka that she tried to erase. She sounded frightened, as if she was caught off guard. Of course, she's completely clueless to the fact that present Haruka is right there in the room with her.
I admire how much resistance Haruka has to not blurting out everything that's happened. Obviously this would be a terrible idea, but it must hurt her to see that Ayato doesn't remember her, and that she's aged while he's only grown a couple years older than when they last saw each other. When I first watched, I was just as mystified as Ayato as to who Haruka is and what she wants, and why she brought him to the outside. At first I thought it might be a little creepy if Haruka started hitting on Ayato, but she never really does. She doesn't make many active advances on Ayato.
I love the scene where they're changing into new clothes and Ayato shyly looks away from the tattered curtain Haruka is behind while she dresses. It's a quiet scene.
So this is the ep where Ayato finds out that the carefully constructed reality he was living in, Tokyo Jupiter, was partly a facade. True, Ayato's mother, friends, and classmates are still living in TJ and actually exist, but the idea that the rest of the world was blown off the map in a catastrophic war is complete propaganda. Not only that, TJ is stuck years in the past.
When Ayato asked "Does that mean you're...from the future?" I LOL'd just as much as Haruka did. Interestingly, the short story that inspired Rahxephon, Dandelion Girl, has a woman from the future.
Ayato's inner conflict of who he is starts this ep. TJ has always been his home, but it isn't the only reality anymore. He's the pilot of a mysterious mecha. He leaves Haruka and rides a bike all the way to the edge where, beyond a ten mile chasm and a barrier, lies Tokyo Jupiter.
Maya calls him on a nearby blue telephone, somehow. It's never revealed how she does this. But she warns Ayato that the people who took him (Haruka, but she doesn't know this) will try to make him hate her and turn against her. She's not entirely wrong, either...
TERRA shows up at the end of this ep, thankfully. So many interesting characters to be introduced!
Also, that part where the cat Haruka finds runs off and Ayato yells "Just let him go! Maybe he has a family somewhere..." That line had the subtly off getting hit in the face with an aluminum bat.
Is anyone else reminded of that Twilight Zone short called "Two"? Maybe because the only two visible characters are Ayato and Haruka, a (young) man and woman on what one could argue as opposing sides of a war, albeit a war Ayato wasn't even aware of until this point. The two wander around a desolate fishing village that was abandoned in the wake of Tokyo Jupiter's creation.
This is one of those eps that is much more entertaining upon re-watch. Initially I was almost deterred from watching the rest of the series because I found this ep to be so boring. I'm glad I decided to continue anyways.
The problem was I just didn't really know what was going on, and I didn't care about Haruka and Ayato's dynamic at first. What I was really interested in was who was Mishima Reika? Maya recognizes her at the beginning, so who is she? And why, when the Rahxephon crossed the barrier, did she say "No worry. You'll be return to me again, Ayato; you and Ixtli."
I don't think that was something I picked up on at first, and if I did I completely forgot about it in the confusion of "Wait, did Mishima just die?" I think at first, Maya didn't recognize Ixtli as Ixtli, but as the memory of young!Haruka that she tried to erase. She sounded frightened, as if she was caught off guard. Of course, she's completely clueless to the fact that present Haruka is right there in the room with her.
I admire how much resistance Haruka has to not blurting out everything that's happened. Obviously this would be a terrible idea, but it must hurt her to see that Ayato doesn't remember her, and that she's aged while he's only grown a couple years older than when they last saw each other. When I first watched, I was just as mystified as Ayato as to who Haruka is and what she wants, and why she brought him to the outside. At first I thought it might be a little creepy if Haruka started hitting on Ayato, but she never really does. She doesn't make many active advances on Ayato.
I love the scene where they're changing into new clothes and Ayato shyly looks away from the tattered curtain Haruka is behind while she dresses. It's a quiet scene.
So this is the ep where Ayato finds out that the carefully constructed reality he was living in, Tokyo Jupiter, was partly a facade. True, Ayato's mother, friends, and classmates are still living in TJ and actually exist, but the idea that the rest of the world was blown off the map in a catastrophic war is complete propaganda. Not only that, TJ is stuck years in the past.
When Ayato asked "Does that mean you're...from the future?" I LOL'd just as much as Haruka did. Interestingly, the short story that inspired Rahxephon, Dandelion Girl, has a woman from the future.
Ayato's inner conflict of who he is starts this ep. TJ has always been his home, but it isn't the only reality anymore. He's the pilot of a mysterious mecha. He leaves Haruka and rides a bike all the way to the edge where, beyond a ten mile chasm and a barrier, lies Tokyo Jupiter.
Maya calls him on a nearby blue telephone, somehow. It's never revealed how she does this. But she warns Ayato that the people who took him (Haruka, but she doesn't know this) will try to make him hate her and turn against her. She's not entirely wrong, either...
TERRA shows up at the end of this ep, thankfully. So many interesting characters to be introduced!
Also, that part where the cat Haruka finds runs off and Ayato yells "Just let him go! Maybe he has a family somewhere..." That line had the subtly off getting hit in the face with an aluminum bat.