Why is Neon Genesis Evangelion so darn popular?

S

sanji no 1

Vampire Ninja
This anime gets good ratings EVERYWHERE!!!! People from the US say its good, People from the UK say its good, Loads of people everywhere say its good. i have been looking at peoples top ten animes on google and bebo and other websites, and NGE was in 1st place for most of them. you can even see reviews on it on youtube, and they give it things like 9/10.

What i want to know is: What is so damn good about this show? Ive seen clips of it on youtube. Giant robots with giant guns? hahahaha. sounds a lil silly if you ask me (no offence). But seriously, whats so good about it? The characters? The story? the robots? the fight scenes? Could someone tell me please?

Oh and dont worry i think i put this under general anime discussion. So theres no need to panic or moun or have a seisure. if it is in the wrong forum im sorry.
 
Before anyone rages, because it's a contraversial series which tries very hard to be deep and mainly because Hideaki Anno was going to commit suicide and other crap and this really effected his work, so the entire series is just... ****** up, literally. Evangelion will never be perfect, and Anno will milk it until his death. Evangelion RPGs, Evangelion manga, Evangelion H-games, Evangelion music games, Evangelion posters, Evangelion figures. You name it Evangelion has it.

I enjoyed it when I watched it, but really a lot of this "deepness" it has is all superficial and doesn't even exist people are looking into it way too much. Plus Evangelion theories are funny.
 
It tried to be Devilman and failed. And yes, this is true because Hideaki Anno is a Go Nagai fan.
sanji no 1 said:
Giant robots with giant guns? hahahaha. sounds a lil silly if you ask me (no offence).
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Oh yes. Giant robots with guns are soooooo hard to come by in anime. :roll:
Lupus Inu said:
I enjoyed it when I watched it, but really a lot of this "deepness" it has is all superficial and doesn't even exist people are looking into it way too much. Plus Evangelion theories are funny.
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I wouldn't say I enjoyed it or disliked it. I'm kind of indifferent to the series itself. It's the fanbase I can't stand.
 
sanji no 1 said:
what happens at the end? lol just joking
But i already heared that the ending was really bad.
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Depends on how you look at it. If you want a big epic end of the world mecha battle then yeah it'll probably suck but it focuses on the inner workings of the main characters mind through obscure imagery and often rather cryptic dialogue. On first watch I found it a bit of a let down but on a second viewing I wouldn't have the series end in any other way. It's very personal and thoughtful but bastardised by commercialism in recent years with remakes and merchandising losing that intimate feel.
 
I tried watching Evangelion on Anime Network when it first came on. I instantly stop watching it after the first episode because the dub does not appeal to me AT ALL.

But if this is what SEL gets compared to, even though there were no influence whatsoever, I will try and watch it "in it's Japanese Language' form.
 
I'd say it has a bit of everything and one outstanding quality. It has big robots with big guns, it has a mysterious enemy, it has the secret agenda of commander Ikari, it has amazing fight scenes.

Its outstanding quality is the character development that goes deeper than almost every series you can think about. It's also very dark in certain parts.

As Rainbow said, you should definitely see it and decide for yourself.

The addiction level of that series is also off charts.
 
Chrono Mizaki said:
I tried watching Evangelion on Anime Network when it first came on. I instantly stop watching it after the first episode because the dub does not appeal to me AT ALL.
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The dub is goofy and over the top as all hell, the people at ADV really don't know how to show restraint in their voice acting and that's all I'm gonna say about that.
 
Re: Why is Neon Genesis Elvangelion so darn popular?

sanji no 1 said:
This anime gets good ratings EVERYWHERE!!!! People from the US say its good, People from the UK say its good, Loads of people everywhere say its good. i have been looking at peoples top ten animes on google and bebo and other websites, and NGE was in 1st place for most of them. you can even see reviews on it on youtube, and they give it things like 9/10.
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Funny you say it gets good ratings everywhere, I put off watching it for several years since all I heard was 'it's so over rated' or 'the ending is crap'. When I finally did watch it I was surprised it was any good given how many bad things I heard about it.

Not everyones cup of tea perhaps, but I think there's as many negative ratings as good ones about it on the net.
 
Putting story & characters aside for now, I imagine there will be plenty of comments on these - But a lot of shows have good character development, so I'll concentrate on Eva specifics. For me, I love how it starts as Generic Mecha Show #1258 and ends up as Total Mindfuck. I love that a lot of people find the ending totally unsatisfactory. I love that Anno got death threats after it. I think one of the reasons I like it is because it pisses a lot of people off actually. I just sit back and laugh at the fact that they actually become angry thinking they deserved something different. I don't know of anything before or since in any medium which has provoked this reaction from people.

As for the fact that it is milked for everything by loli Rei figures, it just adds to the things that annoy some people off about it and make some people uber-eva fans. It really contradicts what Anno had to say about feeling disaffected by the whole Otaku lifestyle at the time, and I half wonder if it isn't the ultimate irony (and revenge even) that in the course pissing Otakus off he created the most succesful anime franchise of all time.
 
For me, the main plus points were Asuka and Misato, both being very fappable.

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I agree with Wildcard. I think I've seen far more negative reviews of Eva than positive reviews.

There is a point about the "top ten" factor though. A lot of fans claim that Eva is the greatest anime series ever. Lot's of people disagree but they can't really put forward a competitor for the title that will have as many people making the same claim. Look at all the other top titles of the 90's: Escaflowne, Lain, Berserk, Beebop. They're all very popular but not as many people really claim that they're the best even in terms of just the 90's.

In my personal opinion Eva is good for a few reasons:

The plot keeps you guessing and leaves you to fill in a lot of the blanks yourself. Despite what people claim there clearly was a lot of thought put into it and you will notice things you didn't each time you view it.

The characters are very well developed and are interesting even if you don't personally like them.

The show is very atmospheric (especially through the use of background noise) throughout and has this creepy feel to it that's difficult to explain but complements the plot very well.

Hope that helps.
 
I enjoyed Eva because of the characters. The mecha-that-weren't-really-mecha-sections weren't anything special, the religious references passed me by (mostly) and the the plot never made sense when it was 'explained' at the end. The only thing that kept me plugged in was the excellent cast of developed characters.

Aside from being very fappable, Asuka wanting to be a woman when she was still a girl and putting on a 'I don't give a **** what people think!' face made her very likeable, her 'last' fight in the movie being memorable because of her emotions.

Misato was also very likeable, her warm/lazy personality making her a very endearing character and her father complex adding depth to her. Like Asuka, she had a very emotional moment in the movie that, after watching her character throughout the series and seeing Shinji's immediate reaction, made her very memorable.

Then, of course, there's Shinji - The character everyone loves to hate. Although easy to dislike for being whiny, his problems were understandable and viewers could at least sympathise if not like him. You can't say the guy didn't go through a lot.

9-10/10 for characters, but as for the rest? Over-rated.
 
Aion said:
Aside from being very fappable, Asuka wanting to be a woman when she was still a girl and putting on a 'I don't give a **** what people think!' face made her very likeable, her 'last' fight in the movie being memorable because of her emotions.
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Agreed. For some reason loads of people seem to hate Asuka too. Fiery Redheads FTW!
 
Ark said:
The characters are very well developed and are interesting even if you don't personally like them.
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I personally detested it. From the get-go the characters were extremely annoying and to me broke the cardinal rule in story-telling that the characters should be sympathetic (ie have traits you can sympathise with). Each and every one seemed really weak and insecure, which just doesn't appeal to me. I couldn't find a single trait from the main cast to actually like and that is always a bad thing when it comes to a story. As far as character development goes, I didn't see any myself. Shinji started as a whiny bastard and ended as the same whiny bastard; Rei was the same doormat throughout; and Asuka was the same annoying loud-mouth at the end as the time she was introduced.
 
Gawyn said:
Each and every one seemed really weak and insecure, which just doesn't appeal to me.
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Whereas that's precisely the reason I found the characters so appealing and interesting. They're flawed, imperfect, and therefore more believable than the shallow, chichéd non-entities that many anime serve up. Or maybe I just have a thing for emotionally damaged characters...
 
Gawyn said:
broke the cardinal rule in story-telling that the characters should be sympathetic (ie have traits you can sympathise with).
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Cardinal rule according to who? There are quite a few anime that have characters who aren't very sympathetic.

Gawyn said:
As far as character development goes, I didn't see any myself. Shinji started as a whiny bastard and ended as the same whiny bastard;
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But he does develop in between those points. This wasn't a shonen series where the character's emotions have no relation to reality. Character development doesn't just consist of the generic going from zero to hero. How else was he supposed to react to what was going on around him.

Gawyn said:
Rei was the same doormat throughout;
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Have you watched the movie?
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Gawyn said:
Each and every one seemed really weak and insecure, which just doesn't appeal to me.
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Whereas that's precisely the reason I found the characters so appealing and interesting. They're flawed, imperfect, and therefore more believable than the shallow, chichéd non-entities that many anime serve up. Or maybe I just have a thing for emotionally damaged characters...
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Same here, I liked it because it didn't fall into some 'but they're really a nice person underneath' cliche for sympathy. I could sympathise with the characters because they were realistically selfish, bitter or unpleasant - and even when I couldn't it at least made for interesting development.
 
I forsee the emergence of the Geek, with him telling all us who don't appreciate the story how deep it truly is. 'Tis fate.

By the way, I'd just like to point out that my liking Asuka so much has everything to do with her personality and nothing to do with my fiery redhead fetish. It wouldn't matter to me whatsoever if she didn't look like jail bait and instead looked like a mini-whale.
 
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