Neon Genesis Evangelion

CitizenGeek said:
Whoa, Warmaster. You didn't think Evangelion was "intelligent"? That strikes me as absurd; most people that watch Evangelion think it's an intelligent series. And it really is. It deals with sexuality, human suffering (depression, loss etc.), has themes centering around existentialism - it's very definitely more intelligent that the overwhelming majority if anime out there.
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I will admit up front that I have not watched it since 2002, so any specific details will be lost on me, but my general impressions continue to stick in my mind. Make of that what you will and realise that it is the impressions of something I watched only once 6 years ago. :wink:

Perhaps it is more intelligent that most anime - a lot of anime doesn't do intelligent that is true, it does fun. That is fine - I like Excel Saga for one! 8) However my memories of Eva generally are of the 'Monster of the week' feeling, especially early on, which to me is never a good start.

(A point of comparison, the new Doctor Who - monster of the week - all flash and rubbish stories. The old Doctor Who, 4-6 episode serials, at least 90 minutes long, upto 140 minutes, and in a few rare occasions even longer - gives lots of time for intelligent storytelling if the writers try hard, even if the sfx do let the old one down now, the stories are often extremely good)

I mean one of the main reasons I love Anime is the fact it still does what the british tv used to do - serials. I like a story to be given time to breathe (most 90 minute films I always find too short for the story) Anime with 13 and 26 episode linked series is perfect for that.

Anyway, ending the digression, Monster of the week doesn't work with me, especially if the series is not a comedy - hence Eva loses points with me. Equally a lot of really basic stuff made no sense at the time. I never understood what the Angels really were or why on earth they just randomly turned up like that (reminded me of power rangers OH THE HORROR! :eek: )

Joking aside there, the setup isn't great for that - I mean it has all the ingreedients for a good series, secret organisations, big battles, even some interesting characters (Rei - though I believe she is there to be eternally interesting and not do that much) but Shinji I found just to be such a horribly boring protagonist. I mean deep is one thing, making a character unlikable and boring is something else.

Finally, which cannot be excluded from the equation (which I find many Eva fans try and do with the films in mind) are the last two episodes. Now I have never seen the films, but a series has to stand on its own merits, and by the state of the last two episodes the series is a distaster. They are simply inexcusable in every single way. I mean Martian Successor Nadesico rushes its ending - but at least it has one! Eva just seems to 'end' but there is no resolution, only a case of 'what the hell was that' I still remember watching it, and just feeling cheated. My journal entry of the time says i quote: "Saw the endings of my three anime series tonight, Nadesico was ok, Blue Gender was pretty good, but Evangelion was crap."

I mean, I have seen worse series in my time, don't get me wrong there is a lot of stuff which is far worse that put me off after only a few episodes, but I find it extremely mediocre and am still shocked it has the following it does. Perhaps it did do something new for Anime when it came out, introducing religion and pyschology into it or whatever. That doesn't mean a thing to me unless it works as a whole, has a reasonably coherent story, and has an ending. If I had to pick a psycological/religious anime, I would chose Serial Experiments Lain over it any time, and serveral others certainly.

Right, I have waffled enough. Take that apart as you will. It is just my view of it. If I could I may well rent it at some point and see if my old views have changed, they may well have in parts, but somehow I doubt those last two episodes have got any better at all. :roll:

Alright, flame away :wink:
 
@ Warmaster: TL;DR, YOUR OPINION SUCKS, MINE IS BETTER, EVANGELION IS THE BEST ANIMU EVAR, NO EXCEPTIONS.

With that said, here's the best EVA manga, ever:

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Warmaster said:
If I had to pick a psycological/religious anime, I would chose Serial Experiments Lain over it any time, and serveral others certainly.
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I don't think SEL is psychological or religious. As was said previously it's existential. I don't really think Eva is religious though either. It just uses religious symbols to add a layer mysticism to it. Much like many other science fiction films do.
 
Here's the two eva@school shorts that are out,Poor shinji!
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RetroRainbow said:
It's not, I'd have know it otherwise. D: It's very trance-like, j-popish, and it has a girl singing on it.
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Do you have any of the lyrics or a sample? Pretty sure I can identify any real Eva song after the wallets full of cash I've spent on the CDs over the years ;)

R
 
Lupus Inu said:
You are (not) alone is out and subbed, geiz. I'm waiting for Nyoro~n subs though.
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Watched it.
Shinji's whinning killed me, removed a lot of memorable scene's and a lot of fight's seemed rushed.
On the plus side angel 5 is ******* awesome ,it looks good bright and colourful at time's, Rei shows nipple :D

But honestly i can sum it up
"shinji go fight that angel"
"i don't wanna"
"I SAID YOU'LL GO FIGHT THAT ******* ANGEL"
"fine i mus'nt run away"
 
Just got my copy of 1.01 today,complete with shiny film strip :D
Hve yet to watch the fim though,i've only watched the reailer for 2.0 so far and have noticed some stuff i miseed when it was on youtube.
 
Lupus Inu said:
You are (not) alone is out and subbed, geiz. I'm waiting for Nyoro~n subs though.
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I thought it was quite decent as far as film adaptions go. It lost some bulk, but nothing it couldn't spare I reckon. I'm more concerned about where the story will go in the next films, it could go really wrong.
 
I think there's pros and cons of it being so popular.

Firstly, the pro is obviously that there's the new movie series, which is interesting in giving a different depiction of the series.

However, it's also negative in that it degrades any integrity of the original series - I can't help but to see it as a scheme to make money rather than out of a desire to create more of the series, thus degrading its integrity.

I'll probably check it out. I enjoyed eva, wasn't a total fanboy but it was good enough so I'll probably look into it if I have time
 
Cago1020 said:
However, it's also negative in that it degrades any integrity of the original series - I can't help but to see it as a scheme to make money rather than out of a desire to create more of the series, thus degrading its integrity.
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I think you'd have to have a fairly shallow feeling towards Evangelion for the endless merchandise to degrade it in any way. Evangelion's 26 episodes and one movie are not changed by the availability of Sachiel-styled pasta meals or any otherkind of merch. It doesn't matter to me how much the popularity of the series is exploited (and it certainly is exploited; though I think Anno genuinely wanted to make Rebuild of Evangelion), Eva is still Eva and still great.
 
I enjoyed it when I saw it in the cinema; will probably wait for the inevitable blu-ray though before seeing it again as prior experience has taught me that they know how to rerelease Eva and it will be a bigger upgrade ;)

I wish there were firm dates for the next one. I'm not going to download it but suspect I will miss the cinema roadshow this time around so it'll be a long wait.

R
 
Cago1020 said:
.However, it's also negative in that it degrades any integrity of the original series - I can't help but to see it as a scheme to make money rather than out of a desire to create more of the series, thus degrading its integrity.
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You are one who is not blinded by compassion or longing for the eighteenth retake of Evangelion. But it does not matter, we all succumb to it anyway, it's Evangelion, no one can resist.

I personally think the new EVA female should be Noriko Takaya. >_>
 
I watched it purely 'cause I felt I had to, defining genre, etc, just like ol' Akiralolz.

Enjoyed it up until, liek, episode 22 where Asuka goin' batshizzle insane just pushed it tooooooo far for me, and I got so totally bored.

The themes were interestin' enough, I just didn't enjoy the presentation of the whole shebang. Often it felt like it was tryin' too hard to push the philosophical 'deep' nature of it, instead of findin' a happy medium between crazeh mecha beatemup and meaningful discussion of humanity.

All in all, I'm glad I watched moooost of it, but even more glad I didn't bother followin' it to the end, since it sounds like something I'd snoooore through. Zzz.

That and Shinji was a whiny lil' bitch, "Waa waa, I don't wanna Pilot 01, waaa waaa, daddy look at me, waa waa, okay I'll pilot it so you look at me, waa waa!"; I wanted to find a way to reach into me ol' TV and slap the little crybaby.

P.S. I'm so shocked, I didn't go allllll "OMGF EVA SUX, UR ALL PSEUDOPHILSOPHIZERRZ", I'm so balanced tonight it's a'shockin'.
 
I just watched the movie, it was alright, I feel cheated, some of the scenes taken out I enjoyed, plus what the **** is the deal with Pizza Hut and Doritos advertisement, seriously? Apart from that, the Rei Ayanami fan service annoyed me too. But yeah, good movie, so far not as good as the series, far from it, let's hope the second movie is any better.
 
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