The Neon Genesis Evangelion Thread

[The Pit of Mystic Cave]

I adore Evangelion. The series was great, even if the ending was horrible... but that's why we have End of Evangelion. I hold that movie in such a high regard and I consider it to be the true ending to the series. It gave us the robot fighting conclusion we wanted without losing that Evangelion charm of fucking with your head. Seriously though, I cried myself to sleep after watching the series/movie; it damaged me on a psychological level. It's also ambiguous enough to spawn tons of fan theories, which are always fun. The "sequel theory" is a really neat one that ties the series and the Rebuilds, and some of it is very hard to ignore. Check it out if you care for that stuff.

 

The Rebuild series is a different beast all together. I hear some people saying it's a dumbed down version of the main series, and while that's definitely true for the first film, I'm going to have to disagree.

1.0 is essentially an abridged version of the first part of the original series with better animation and flashier visuals. It's definitely my least favorite of the three.

2.0 follows the same structure as the first one, but it tosses in some interesting new things as well as a new character (I'm indifferent towards her). By the end, it also establishes the Rebuild series as a different continuity from the original series.

3.0 begins long after the end of 2.0... and it's a strange one, I'll leave it at that.

I love the Rebuild series and I can honestly say I'm stoked for the final entry. That being said, these new films can't hold a candle up to the original series, not yet at least. I'm interested to see how it will end.

 

And while we're talking about music...

[Urban Flow]

Take it as a cue then, go get the original show and watch it. It's dubbed, if that makes any difference, and the actress who does Asuka is obcessed with the character and has her room filled with NGE merchandise.

 

... that's all I know about the eng dub, really :V I first watched this when I was like... 10? 2002, I think. There were DVDs with the Portuguese dub and the Japanese one, and I remember renting them and recording the episodes on VHS since my tv set was set up like that. Good times. Not a bad dub for the time, I think. Maybe I'll try finding it to show my 13-year-old nephew.

 

Yeah thats around the time when I first watched it. The dub was actually pretty decent and I like how the voice actress for Asuka had some german accents instilled in the voice. Sounded rather cool hahah XD

[Salamander]

It's pretty clear that they made up the plot of the original as they went along, and I don't really approve of that approach.  But I understand that the series really pushed boundaries in terms of character psychology in anime and redefined the limits of what you could do in an ostensibly monster-of-the-week mecha show, and that does impress me.

[Mauro Fonseca]

I don't really know if it's that clear they made up the plot as they go, at least until SEGA pulled the funding. Everything else seems a honest downfall into despair.

[DocAzure]

Watched the movie for the fourth time today, and after some of the stuff I've read up on, I THINK I'm starting to get some of it. I still find it insane, and honestly, the effort it took to get my head around.

 

Also it still kinda ruins me for a good half hour afterwards. I honestly always need time to adjust after watching. It causes some real emotions in you, I mean, sadness, clearly, over the fact that all of the characters you've developed intimate 'relationships' with, through seeing their inner psyche, over the course of the series, are fucking murdered. A particular death that hit home is that of Asuka, who, after putting up an insane (literally, her repetition of the phrase "I'LL KILL YOU", and those eyes, those eyes) fight against the unmanned Eva units, is inevitably killed...and then devoured.

 

Then Shinji's scream after discovering the fact.

 

http://youtu.be/-3Uge0DljYA

 

The English dub version of this is OK I guess, just a bit more controlled. The Japanese original however...how crazy is that scream? It doesn't sound like a noise a human would make.

 

...also I cried when Misato died.

[Linkabel]

It's pretty clear that they made up the plot of the original as they went along, and I don't really approve of that approach.  But I understand that the series really pushed boundaries in terms of character psychology in anime and redefined the limits of what you could do in an ostensibly monster-of-the-week mecha show, and that does impress me.

 

I hear this a lot, but a lot of stuff on the show from beginning to end is on the proposals they made before production of the series started. Granted, somethings changed or they had to find clever ways to show what they wanted because of the budget cuts and deadlines.

 

Though i think that's what made the show so awesome, because the despair and depression the creators were feeling was leaking into the show giving it this special "feel" that honestly it's what made the show popular at the end.

[Salamander]

I hear this a lot, but a lot of stuff on the show from beginning to end is on the proposals they made before production of the series started.

 

Is that the same proposal which has the ancient ruins of Arka, and the twelve strongest Angels descending from the Moon and vaporising North America?  I'm sure they had the very broadest brushstrokes planned out - mothers are in the robots, Rei's a clone - but a lot of the underlying detail and specifically the downward turn of the plot give the impression to me of being later inventions inserted only with difficulty.  Hence a lot of the backstory explanations that make some sense of the plot being scattered across compilation films and video game adaptations (Adam's Spear jumping up and stabbing him of its own accord in the distant past, Seele all want to live in a robot together, etc.).

 

I absolutely agree, though, that what makes the show special are what would be flaws in any other show.  It's a masterclass in art developed under the most extreme pressure, and how to turn the constraints of that pressure into part of the art.

[Vic Boss]

Great when I watched it, even though Shinji is dumb as a brick. Also wtf was that movie all about exactly it was likely the trippy-est LSD ever to come out of anime >: O!

[TheGerkuman]

I both like and dislike Eva. I've always been struck by how, as much as it seems cryptic I could sum up the backstory/plot in a couple of minutes. To give an example:

 

Adam and Lilith; they're aliens that crashed onto Earth and life grew from them. But since it was supposed to be 'One type of alien seed per planet' they're in conflict. That took two sentences to explain here.

 

That being said, you feel for the people because they're real. I see a lot of myself in Shinji, for instance, at least with the whole self-hatred thing. I just wish they didn't feel the need to dress it up in gnostic nonsense.

[Goldenlink64]

Goddamn it DocAzure I was supposed to make the NGE thread

 

Anyway, Neon Genesis Evangelion is easily my favorite anime of all time right alongside Cowboy Bebop and Death Note. One of the reasons I love this show so much is just how realistic it handles itself compared to most anime out there. I mean, a lot of animes are like;

 

"Oh no, my mom/dad/whatever died, LET'S LEARN KARATE, SAVE THE ENTIRE WORLD AND PUNCH THE CRAP OUT OF THE CLOSEST THING TO GOD, YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH :DDDDDDDDDD"

 

Or...

 

"I'm perfectly capable of piloting this military developed mech with no training required whatsoever even though I'm only 12 years old. Why? BECAUSE SHONEN, THAT'S WHY!"

 

So, how does Evangelion go about randomly shoving a kid into a mech without any training experience? It's just as realistic as you would expect.

 

 

 

Shinji falls completely flat on his face and almost gets killed by the Angel. If it weren't for the berserker foreshadowing (something 2.22 completely throws out of the window), he'd pretty much be dead right now. All this because they just shoved a random 12 year old into a giant robot with no combat experience whatsoever. I LOVE IT! It's a complete middle finger to all the shonen that try to shoehorn 12-14 year olds into mechs and/or other unrealistic shonen situations for no reason other than just the demographic (and NGE actually has a legitimate reason for all this too)

 

I just love the pessimism and realistic nature of the show. The battles are absolutely terrifying, watch Episode 3 in Japanese (I like the English dub but in this case it doesn't even slightly compare) and just listen to Shinji absolutely scream his lungs out, and by the end he's crying from just how traumatizing it was. Battling these Angels isn't supposed to be some kind of "fun", "satisfying" over the top "no prob bro" thing that most hero shows/movies make it out to be.

 

It's reasons like this why Shinji's [not] a bad character. Hell, he's one of the most realistic protagonists I've watched and people who just see this show as just "Get in the goddamn robot Shinji" are completely missing the point. I mean if you just want to watch some kid pilot a robot and whatever, go watch Gundam Wing or something (...not that I'm saying Gundam Wing is bad or anything but still)

 

If it's not just the realism I loved about Neon Genesis Evangelion, it's also the complete deterioration of everything going to complete hell that happens by the second half of the show ultimately leading up to End of Evangelion. Watching all the main characters completely break down emotionally is a really fascinating feature to me and is one of my favorite aspects from any anime that I can completely relate to.

 

 

There's also the completely hopeless and unsettling nature I get from End of Evangelion, especially this menu screen which I can use as a perfect way to describe everything I love about this show/movie. I can't put my finger on it, but there's just something about it that makes me want to know more about Evangelion. Makes me wish there was more to watch and learn from this universe (and no, Rebuild doesn't count).

 

Sorry if I typed a little much, I can't help but gush for my favorite series. I can't stop watching this show, it's soo good. <3