Never Watched EVA
- Thread starter Jaymii
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WTFDaveMustaine said:
I agree that Eva shouldn't be judged on the first episode alone. At least watch the first two episodes, preferably the first four.
Now I'm somewhat biased towards Eva given that it's my favorite anime, but I do think that people who complain that Shinji is nothing more than a whiny git have completely missed the point of the series. Yes, he's angsty all the way through the series, and yes he's far from the only character in the series with issues. But, the series is about how he and the other characters deal with the issues they face and they do deal with them and develop considerably over the course of the series. Of course, if you simply can not tolerate angsty characters than it's not surprising that you don't like the series.
As for how to sample the series for cheap? Try renting the first volume of the series. If you don't want to do that both HMV and Play.com are selling the series for £9.99 per disc at the moment.
I personally think you can't judge Eva without seeing the entire series and the films. There's no point otherwise. The story goes through a number of mood changes and the first few episodes are not a great representation of the rest of the series.
On a side note a problem with a lot of series from the 80's (including many of the "classics") I find is that they only really start to get good in the second half.
On a side note a problem with a lot of series from the 80's (including many of the "classics") I find is that they only really start to get good in the second half.
The problem I had with the series and this is a personal thing, is that it failed me on the first rule of storytelling: the characters (at least the leads) must be sympathetic. In other words you must be able to empathise with them on some level. I just could not do that with them and they represent the kind of people I tend to avoid, simply because they annoy me. There is no possible way that I could enjoy a series under those circumstances and the whole thing to me was a dour, depressing journey through the minds of people who I could not care if they lived or died. That, of course, is a subjective opinion based upon clashes between my personality and those of the characters in the anime and does not categorically state that the anime is the worst ever but that it is one of the worst for me.Noratav said:
hopeful_monster
Thousand Master
Eva is as far as I’m concerned a curate's egg, some parts are excellent, other are dire, most notably the ending. The while the 1st 4 episodes give a very good flavour of rest of the series it does speak poorly for the series. Episodes 1 and 2 were very much 'wow' episodes, very much going for the shock and awe tactic, and they do it well. 3&4 are the more introspective episodes diving into Shinji's character and Psych. From then on there are the lighter, funner episodes with Asuka, and these are what a lot of the other media is drawn from as it leans more standard anime format (monster of the day, school life and the such). This continues to about episode 16-17 where thing take a darker turn, until you get to 24... After which they things can’t get any darker. So it turns to a pink invisible unicorn. If that makes sense to you will ‘get’ the last episodes of Eva, if like me it doesn’t you are vaguely sane. They basically completely destroy all the remaining characters, not physically (well they may have but you are never sure) but mentally and it is not enjoyable to watch, and I mean it in a ‘makes you nauseous’ kind of not enjoyable. It also had the sequence which inspired the god awful ‘Angelic Days’ and countless other vile fan dojiun. Only one that was decent that I’ve seen so far is Re-Take.
Now will admit Eva was my favourite anime, great action, character development (I noticed it), intriguing plot, and then two things happened. One I watched the end(s), and it almost completely ruined the series for me. EoE and Death & Rebirth were better but still a that’s not saying much. The second thing was I watched more anime. There is a lot of anime out there and I see no reason to be tied to something that has as many ‘less that excellent’ parts.
As for Shinji he didn't really irriate me (kinda been there myself), as some one wiser than me said ' all he needs is the better half of a bottle of whiskey and a <lady As for Shinji he didn't really irriate me (kinda been there myself), as some one wiser than me said ' all he needs is the better half of a bottle of whiskey and a hooker
Now will admit Eva was my favourite anime, great action, character development (I noticed it), intriguing plot, and then two things happened. One I watched the end(s), and it almost completely ruined the series for me. EoE and Death & Rebirth were better but still a that’s not saying much. The second thing was I watched more anime. There is a lot of anime out there and I see no reason to be tied to something that has as many ‘less that excellent’ parts.
As for Shinji he didn't really irriate me (kinda been there myself), as some one wiser than me said ' all he needs is the better half of a bottle of whiskey and a <lady As for Shinji he didn't really irriate me (kinda been there myself), as some one wiser than me said ' all he needs is the better half of a bottle of whiskey and a hooker
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hopeful_monster
Thousand Master
You liked Death and Rebirth? I thought it was a pretentious mess, much like most of the last two episodes. The End of Eva was a much better finale and was obviously planned as the original ending because they storyboards/animatics for it are in the preview at the end of the last few episodes.
End of Eva said the same thing as 25 and 26 but said it in a better way.
End of Eva said the same thing as 25 and 26 but said it in a better way.
Ark said:
You shouldn't judge any series on the first four episodes alone, but for Eva you should at least watch that many episodes before saying you don't like the series.
As for the ending, I'm one of those strange people who much prefers the TV ending to EoE. Up to episode 24, Evangelion is a very good series with flaws, it's those last two episodes which make it my favorite anime. I don't expect everyone to enjoy or even like episodes 25 & 26 because those two episodes tell the theme not the plot, although elements of the plot are present, we see Gendo and Rei initiating the third impact and there are hints that some of the events in EoE have taken place in this version of events too. As a result each person's reaction to the TV ending is uniquely personal, far more so than any other anime. If you don't like the style (and most people don't for understandable reasons) or have little to no interest in or understanding of the themes of the show of course you're not going to like it. Incidently, watching EoE made me appreciate the TV ending more by showing the plot of the ending in detail.
In Eva the theme is far more important and far more pervasive than in most shows including RahXephon, perhaps the only other show I know of that it compares with in this respect is Serial Experiments Lain. In fact in style and atmosphere Eva is probably a cross between the two, with the world's least popular anime character thrown into the mix as the main character. It's almost impossible to like Shinji as a person, but as the lead character of a mecha show I adored him in part because I could empathise with him and the issues he was facing.
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Noratav said:
It's definately a very theme based show and I did get a similar feeling from Lain in terms of the slightly haunting atmosphere. RahXephon tried to do a similar thing but it didn't work because ultimately the show has no substance. In Eva and Lain the atmosphere is expressive of something that lies beyond the service whether that's the existentialism of Lain or the tortured psychological states of the characters in Eva. Whereas RahXephon has no core themes to express.
hopeful_monster
Thousand Master
[quote="Noratav].In Eva the theme is far more important and far more pervasive than in most shows including RahXephon.[/quote]
What theme? Other than teenage boys that pilot giant death robots (that aren't robots) that shape the world there are no really common themes. Rahxephon at heart is a love story.., with the giant death robots. Eva is a look at the physcy.... psychy (or however you spell it). Despite what they have in common they are very different beasts.
What theme? Other than teenage boys that pilot giant death robots (that aren't robots) that shape the world there are no really common themes. Rahxephon at heart is a love story.., with the giant death robots. Eva is a look at the physcy.... psychy (or however you spell it). Despite what they have in common they are very different beasts.
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hopeful_monster said:
I think Noratav meant that in Eva the themes explored are very central to the show as opposed to everything being focused on the plot. I don't think he was saying Rah and Eva are similar thematically. That wouldn't even be possible since RahXephon doesn't even try to explore any themes as far as I can tell.
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arthur_webb
Adventurer
But yeah, back to the original thread :roll: .
DVD rental sites are a good option, Amazon and Tesco do fairly well-priced ones, and I've had first-hand experience with Amazon. They didn't fail to deliver.
Of course then there's the evil sorta-rhymes-with-bathtub method...
DVD rental sites are a good option, Amazon and Tesco do fairly well-priced ones, and I've had first-hand experience with Amazon. They didn't fail to deliver.
Of course then there's the evil sorta-rhymes-with-bathtub method...
arthur_webb
Adventurer
Ark said:
Yeah.. ^^;;; Sure...