NKO 3.0
FAQ #2 - Backstory Questions
- What is the origin of Mulians and Bahbem? Why was Bahbem helping Terra, an anti-Mu organization, if he's a Mulian himself?
- Who really is Reika Mishima... or WHAT is she for that matter?
- What was Futagami referring to when he was talking about the "Spirited Forth" story?
- What is the Shrine of Time?
- Why do the "robots" sing?
- What exactly are the "Dolems" anyway?
- Why did Maya establish Tokyo Jupiter?
- Who did Kunugi meet with during his day off and what was the importance of such a meeting? How is this linked to the Great Mu War?
- Why does Ayato destroy his painting? How come Itsuki did the exact same painting?
- So who's related to who in RahXephon? There are so many connections I've lost track!
11. What is the origin of Mulians and Bahbem? Why was Bahbem helping Terra, an anti-Mu organization, if he's a Mulian himself?
The history of Bahbem and the Mulians is a long and complicated one, so I'll just summarize. In case you don't feel like reading the history below, he's not just helping Terra, he made Terra. His goal is not the extincion of Mulians as TERRA would like it to be. In fact, Bahbem is quite indifferent as to which sides wins the tuning. He's even indifferent as to how he uses other people to achieve his goal. He aids both the Mulians and Humans into achieving the tuning. The only reason he made TERRA to fight the Mulians is because he's afraid the Mulians might not achieve the tuning's true potential. He can see that the Mulians are only concerned about a world that is ruled by Mulians only. He then entrusts the black egg of Xephon to TERRA so that the humans can have some defense and balance things out. And killing two birds with one stone, by doing this Bahbem also avoids suspicions from the Earth Federation that he's working together with the Mu.
Bahbem is originally from an ancient world where Mulians, an elite advanced humanoid race, existed in their own continent on Earth. This is said to have been ancient Earth before humans started to reign supreme, in other words, Mulians were the first humans to live on this planet. In this ancient world, Mulians have developed astronomical powers and extremely advanced technology. They eventually conquered their own continent and started to quiclkly spread around the globe; it is said that one of their colonies is the legendary city of Atlantis. During this time, Bahbem was working on a project on creating an artificial god (his motives are unclear to me) called the Xephon. The experiement resulted in a huge failure, the consequences were huge. Due to the magnitude of the power Bahbem was using in creating his artificial god, the world ended up being split in two. The humans were left on one side of the spectrum (what we now called Earth), and Mulians on the other (their own world, parallel to this one). Coincidently, Bahbem was forced to stay on Earth because the split established a barrier that would not let anybody cross over. He wasn't kicked out by his own people, but rather, his own project gave him the exile. He went on to study the reason as to why it failed and discovered that the system was flawless, so the problem was with the instrumentalist --himself.
When the world split in two, the Mulian continent went along with the Mu on an alternate reality of Earth and the rest of the world stayed in the reality as we know it in the series. This means that Mulian world was mostly just a giant planet of water and ONE contient. This forced the Mulians to develop technology that would enable their cities to fly in the sky to take advantage of the oceans, such as the city of Hiranipra we see in the series at the beginning and at the end. When the world split up, so did the Xephon. It got split into a black egg and a white one. The black egg stayed behind with the humans, and the white egg was left on the Mulian world. We later see that Maya, being the leader of the Mu, has possesion of this egg in the "Room of Rah."
Now it was up to Bahbem to get in contact again with his Mulian world so they could bring the white Xephon egg and complete his project. But waiting for them could take centuries, so Bahbem proceeds to clone replacement bodies and transfer his conscience until the Mu arrive. To finish his project, Bahbem would also need the perfect instrumentalist so he proceeds with those experiments, all of which resulted in failre. By creating the perfect instrumentalists, Bahbem was sure to create the right artificial God and have enough power to join the two worlds again before they turn into "mud." He later finds that the perfect instrumentalist needs to be aged 17 and have characteristics of both Mulian blood and Human blood. He struck gold when Shougo and Shirow found Maya and Quon, of which he used Quon to make Ayato and Itsuki as instrumentalists.
Thanks to Bahbem's technological achievements, the Mu are able to see and study humans very clearly, but they grow displeased from what they see of the human nature thanks to all thier wars and socio-political problems. They attempt to appease the problem by talking to Bahbem, but unfortunately the barrier between the two worlds is still too strong for the Mulians to act directly or transfer their bodies to Earth. Instead, Bahbem uses the basic plans of the Xephon and creates Dolems, giant beings made out of clay that enables Mulians to act directly on Earth by establishing a connection with a human. The connection is such that any damage inflicted on the Dolem both the human and the Mulian living in the alternate world are affected. A common problem is that often the Mulian decides to keep the human host resulting in this human to "awake."
With all of this, Bahbem was seeing more and more than the goal of the Mu with the tuning wasn't what he was expecting. He feared that the Mu would not use the Xephon to its full potential and use it instead for purely Mulian purposes, and so he proceeds to also use the humans and give them the other half of the Xephon and maybe this way both will reach the full potential of the tuning. He later creates the organization of TERRA to help the Mulians take charge of the Xephon and also hide from the Earth Federation that he's working with Mulians.
You can read more details of Bahbem's and the Mulian's origins in Banks' Timeline.
12. Who really is Reika Mishima... or WHAT is she for that matter?
The figure of Reika Mishima is Ixtli (which means "true face" , it can also be interpreted as the RahXephon's soul), and Ixtli is represented as the person of whom the Ollin cares for the most. In Ayato's case, it's Haruka when she was young. However, Ayato barely remembers Haruka since Maya wiped out his memory when she created Tokyo Jupiter. With what little memory Ayato had left of Haruka, Ixtli took the figure of what Ayato remembered Haruka as (the same girl that is in his paintings). That's why we see that Reika has brown hair and not black like Haruka's, since Ayato only has a basic figure in memory.
Haruka's real name is Haruka Mishima, when her mother remarried, both her and Megumi changed their last names to "Shitow". That's why Ixtli took the name of "Mishima" and made up the first name, for Ayato's liking. Why? Because the Ollin HAS to want the Ixtli if the Ixtli wants to exist. For the Ixtli to do that easily, what better way than have the image of whom the Ollin loves the most? If you remember, when Ayato stopped caring for Reika Mishima, she started to vanish. Mishima said Ayato NEEDS to want her if she wants to stay. When Ayato decided to stick with her and go through this until the end, her vanishing stopped.
This is why the theme of the series (besides the music) is that love can eventually conquer all. Without Ayato's love for Haruka, the series would most like be over with Mulians joining the world and reigning supreme.
13. What was Futagami referring to when he was talking about the "Spirited Forth" story?
The story is about Quon and Maya when they got transported to the human world from the Mu world. They came through the Shrine of Time (in other words, they were "Spirited Forth," the opposite of being "Spirited Away"). They were sent by the Mu with plans of taking over the Earth. Maya would pilot the white Xephon and Quon would pilot the black Xephon that was left on Earth.
Though Maya came out fine, her sister Quon came out unconscious. Rikudoh and his assistant Watari Shirow found the two girls shortly after they came out. Rikudoh decided to adopt Maya as his daugther and left Quon to the Bahbem foundation for treatment. While Quon was in her stasis state, she was used by Bahbem as a test subject (referred to as "Human Specimen No. 1") in the project of creating the perfect instrumentalists for the RahXephon.
14. What is the Shrine of Time?
The Shrine of Time (the one in the picture above) is actually a gateway to the Mulian world. It's a place where time flows differently (at the same rate as Tokyo Jupiter) than Earth, which explains why Ayato and Quon were lost for 3 days outside, but were only a few minutes inside. This gateway is only activated in rare occurances, most likely a Mulian who originally came out of it can only open it. In essense, nobody new can go in, only those who came out of it can go in again. Which is why is worked fine for Ayato when he went in since he was accompanied by Quon, who originally came out of it with her sister Maya. If Bahbem wanted to go in, he probably couldn't since he was exiled before the time barrier was made.
15. Why do the Dolems sing?
That's just the way they fight. They sing to create what Terra refers as a D1-Aria which is what usually attacks the RahXephon, and triggers whatever ability that specific Dolem may have. Some create some sort of black hole, and some sing to call out to Ayato and Quon, in waves that they only can hear, etc. The reason they sing is because Dolems are offshoots of the RahXephon, meaning they were created from the same basic plans though perhaps with inferior materials (clay). The RahXephon also uses sound to manifest its power.
But if you want to get more technical, the whole theme of the show is music. So it only makes sense to have the bad guys be some sort of musical being, and the easiest way to do this is to have them sing whenever they attack, or do whatever it is they do. They even carry musical names such as "Fortissimo," "Allegrato," and "Ritardando."
16. So what exactly are the "Dolems" anyway?
Dolems are another of Bahbem's creations, believe it or not. In his search to connect the human world to the mulian world, Bahbem discovered a way to syncronize the beings from the mulian world to the human world by using human hosts. This link is made possible through the Dolems: gigantic beings with inmeasurable power made out of clay. With a dolem present, a mulian from the mulian world can take over the body of any prepared human they desire and control the Dolem through that body with the aid of a special helmet (to see what the Dolem sees). Once a mulian takes a human body as a host, they are usually tightly linked: if the human or dolem takes damage, so is the mulian controlling it on the other side of the world as well as the human host on Earth. If the Dolem is killed so is the human host and the Mulian.
However, finding a human host is not easy. Some are weak and are simply manipulated into doing so, such as Mamoru. But there are others who refuse to get hacked and have their bodies used for mulian purposes, such as the case of Asahina who was fighting all through episodes 18 and 19 to reject the mulian that was trying to possess her mind. In the end, she was held powerless and the mulian finally achieved her objective into forming a Dolem with Asahina. It's important to note though, that Asahina was still conscious throughout this whole event. That's why she was able to declare her love for Ayato as she was dying.
In the episode where we see the childhood of Helena, Makoto and Itsuki, we see the remains of a failed dolem, it's the one that Makoto grows emotionally attached to, he even goes as far as to synchronize with the creature but is eventually brought down as it tried to escape. Here we see how exactly the dolems are made out of clay, and even further proof that Bahbem was behind their engineering.
17. Why did Maya establish Tokyo Jupiter?
Maya wanted to protect Ayato from the outside world. She didn't want Ayato to love the human world. If Ayato was left at the care of Maya, then Ayato's tuning would be in favor of the Mulians. You see, the way the tuning works, is that the Ollin recreates the world based on a perspective that is best suited for him and the people he loves. If he only loves his mother, who is a Mulian, then the tuning would turn in favor of the Mulians.
Maya wanted Ayato to love her and only her, but once Ayato started dating Haruka, she knew that Ayato would pick a future that is better suited for him and Haruka as well as anybody who's human. This is why Maya decided to erase all of Ayato's memory of the outside world including Haruka, and build a barrier around Tokyo to prevent anybody else from coming in, and more importantly, to keep Haruka's influences away from Ayato.
But this is only part of the reason why Maya decided to create the barrier. The fact that the Hiranipra appeared over Tokyo, Maya most likely wanted to establish a sort of protected HQ base for the Mulians. This barrier also serves as a safe-guard for most Mulians that are in Tokyo, and is a very convenient place for the Room of Rah, as well as the main Mulian military offices, where Maya holds command.
Maya has a rich history in RahXephon, check out her profile if you'd like to know more.
18. Who did Kunugi meet with during his day off and what was the importance of such a meeting? How is this linked to the Great Mu War?
That was his ex-wife. Kunugi seems to visit his daughter's grave every year, though his ex-wife usually never shows up. This particular day she did though, she wanted to hand him a musical composition page that their daughter had been practicing once. This piece was also the missing part in Quon's musical play that was incomplete.
The Great Mu War was actually an engineered war. We learn from the series that the Mulians appeared out of nowhere, but were passive, that is, they weren't attacking. However, they had other intentions. With Maya Kamina, Kuki Masayoshi,and Miwa Shinobu at the helm, they carefully planned out a war to wipe out humans. Kuki was assinged as a high ranking officer in Japan's National Defense; under his was was Jin Kunugi. Kuki, working under-cover for the Mulians, ordered Kunugi to execute an attack against the Mulian city hovering in the sky; Kunugi reluctantly issued the attack (he was threatened to be fired/court marshalled if he didn't do so). This set of events worked perfectly for the Mulians, as now they had an excuse to attack back. They set out their dolems across the pacific killing millions of people, including Kunugi's daughter, Michiru, and Kim Hotal's parents who were vacationing in Australia.
Ever since this day, Kunugi grew deep hatred for the Mulians and particularly Kuki Masayoshi, who conveniently disappeared after the Mulian attack (he went back to his Mulian offices). Since then, Kunugi started working under Watari Shirow and Bahbem in the Terra branch of the Bahbem Foundation. He's also been visiting his daughter's grave in memory of those events and to ask for forgiveness from his daughters. The reason his wife usually never showed up is because she couldn't forgive Kunugi for issuing out the attack that cost their daughter's life. The importance of his wife handing him their daughter's composistion page means that she finally forgives him and decides to move on with her own life (new husband); this also means that Kunugi can finally accept his daughter's forgiveness. This is why Quon says she's very happy for him.
19. Why does Ayato destroy his painting? How come Itsuki did the exact same painting?
At first, Ayato was very satisfied with his painting. But when Mishima came out to talk with him, Reika mentions that how that painting is the perfect world and it was created with her in mind. Ayato replies that this is not true, he had other intentions and other feelings when he did that painting. At this point Ayato realized that what he just finished drawing wasn't his. When Mishima proceeded to start the tuning (and so did Quon while playing her piano), Ayato rejected his Ixtli by destroying his painting. That is not the painting that Ayato wanted to show Haruka. It was a painting created with Reika Mishima in mind, not Haruka. We see further proof that Ayato was somehow programmed to make that painting when Itsuki, being a twin clone of Ayato, did the same exact painting.
When Ayato destroyed the painting he consequently stopped the tuning that was about to take place. In fact, by even rejecting his Ixtli the RahXephon reverted back to its egg form, and the Ixtli started to slowly disappear. This was pivotal point in the series as it shows Ayato finally making his own decisions of his own free will, at this point Ayato has a good idea of what he really wants. It isn't until the very end that he realizes he wants a world where he and Haruka could be happy.
20. So who's related to who in RahXephon? There are so many connections I've lost track!
Indeed, there's a complex web of character relationships in RahXephon. Though at the moment I lack the artistic talent to make a wonderful chart of character connections, you can check out the profiles in the FAQs page for the characters you're interested on and get a broader persepective. Perhaps in due time I'll make that pretty chart. =)