[Posted from
my other fandom journal.]
So, what does Branch do when she feels sick and out of sorts? Researches anime! Well, everyone has their own sort of escapism, I suppose.
*pauses to make more tea*
First off, everyone who wastes time comparing this to Evangelion should just hush. Yes, it initially left me with the same sort of “WTF was that?!” reaction. Yes, there are a fair number of structural similarities, not least some of the fight choreography, but the content is very different. The characters are different, the point of the show is different, and the way the source-mythology is handled is extremely different. Eva uses only the most superficial aspects of Christianity in general and Genesis in particular. RahXephon delves very deeply into Churchward and Blavatsky, and seems to be having a great deal of fun doing so.
About that mythology. For those unfamiliar with Churchward’s Mu/Lemuria and Blavatsky’s cosmology in general, this site offers an overview both reasonable and humorous. Myself, I was particularly interested to note that, while the white egg/black egg has strong associations with Hindu sources and the whole idea of birth/rebirth cycles of the world, it also connects back to Mu via Blavatsky’s assertion that the ‘ancestors’ of humankind were hermaphroditic egg layers, and humans proper weren’t produced until these forbears discovered sex and started fooling around. This, after the fashion of 19th c spiritualism, represented a degeneration. This fits very well with the manner in which Ayato was produced, also, and, supposing the Mu/Lemurians themselves to represent the ancestors, explains to some extent their callousness toward humanity. Of course, since Churchward’s alleged sources for his book were tablets found in a Hindu monastary somewhere, that association is still just as strong.
The cosmopolitan approach to naming things also fits with Churchward’s idea that Mu colonized Maya, Egypt, etc.. Ra (RahXephon), is one of the Egyptian sun gods. Ollin (the tuners’ ‘title’), which seems to translate to “movement”, is an Aztec calendar term applying to particular days as well as the current age. Two different deities, male and female govern this day, depending on whether the day-sign or 13 day period is referred to; the associations with those deities are extremely appropriate to Ayato and Quon, respectively. In both cases, Ollin is a time for purification and transformation. (note that this calendar appears to derive from the Mayan calendar, but well-attested Mayan sources are kind of thin on the ground) Ishtar (my own vote for what Ishitori derives from), is a Babylonian goddess associated with fertility and war, with conflict and birth, which fits very nicely with the conflict leading to rebirth at the end, between the two potential tuners. I have seen Ixtli suggested for Ishitori, which almost kinda sort of works; ixtli means, I believe, face or personality in the Aztec language.
Xephon, itself, is driving me nuts trying to figure out. It looks distinctly greek, and the “phon” for sound would fit, but I’m buggered if I can figure out what the “xe” is doing hanging off the front.
