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Just finished watching Neon Genesis Evangelion

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    #1

    Just finished watching Neon Genesis Evangelion

    I know I'm probably whacking the hornets' nest with a stick here, but am I the only one that thought this series was just drek? I'd heard a lot about it being good, and virtually nothing about the story itself, so it's not as though I came into it with a lot of preconceived notions about what I expected to see, save for a smidgeon of quality. There are a lot of conventions in anime and I'm not about to detail them here, but it seemed to me this series embodied the worst of them in one very concentrated package. From it's teen angst and sexual fantasies to parental abandonment issues to the industrial-strength melodrama to the hackneyed religio-philosophy ending, somehow it managed to refine itself into the very epitome of drivel. It started with very high aspirations and ended up defining the genre of bad mecha-related cartoons. Japan's very own 'Glen or Glenda?' so far as I'm concerned. Transformers had less ambitious ideas and still said more about the human condition. In the end, I felt like my intelligence had been insulted and I was very relieved I had not paid anyone to watch it.

    To the Japanese: No hard feelings, you gave us Godzilla, so I'll try to let this one slide.
    So you're a fish out of water...
    Keep swimming.
    What else can you do?
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

    YES! EVA SUCKS!
    Im glad im not the only one who hates it.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

      I'm not much a fan either.




      Of Anime in general.
      Last edited by Caciss; 10-13-2005, 05:12 PM.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

        So what anime besides Transformers and Godzilla do you prefer, Shard?

        edit: And what exactly is it us calm fanboys (there is a number of us) are supposed to do? I thought about, y'know, listing the reasons why I enjoy it but that would be a redundant waste of time and wouldn't convince anybody.
        Last edited by Magus; 10-13-2005, 05:22 PM.

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          #5
          Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

          I'm not anything more than a casual watcher of anime so my depth of experience in the genre is limited. Akira was a joy to watch...the story itself didn't grab me, but neither did it put me off. The 1930s Superman cartoons fall into the same category...the stories are way out of date and obviously intended for a different audience, but the animation is incredible. Cowboy Bebop...goes without saying. Generally speaking my sense of humor lines up more in favor of the British than the Japanese, so most of their comedies just don't appeal. I don't mind if something is light-hearted, or if it's just pure action fun, but when anime starts getting preachy there better be some damn meat to it. And a rule of thumb for me is, if five minutes or more of the twenty-three in an episode are spent screaming, it's not worth anyone's time.

          edit: If you're aware of Eva's faults and still able to enjoy the series, I suspect you've stumbled into bliss as there doesn't seem to be any shortage of like-minded cartoons. I call this the FF7 effect, despite obvious shortcomings one turns a blind eye in favor of remembering what charms it had at the time.
          Last edited by Shard; 10-13-2005, 05:45 PM.
          So you're a fish out of water...
          Keep swimming.
          What else can you do?

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

            The Akira manga is what you really want to look at. And I too would be hard-pressed to think of any Japanese comedies that are worth seeing. FLCL and Takashi Miike films are the only ones that come to mind at the moment.

            I think it would be a mistake to say Eva doesn't have any meat to it. It seems to me that a decade's worth of hype just took its toll out on you.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

              I would say that by the end, Eva had shown what the worst of anime was, and was showing the audience how stuff like "OMG HAVE U SEEN MAH PANTEEZ?" and "heat expansion" was meaningless drivel ON PURPOSE. You had to have realized they were going for satire with that little alternate universe schtick in episode 26.

              And the religio-(exactly what about this series was ACTUALLY religious?)philosophical ending was hackneyed? Before Eva, one or maybe two anime had actually taken a serious look at philosophical/psychological issues. It's a little hard to judge how original Eva is ten years later when every other mecha show wishes it could be Eva and tries as hard as it can to copy it, mostly to disastrous results.

              I wouldn't even classify the drama in the series as "teen angst." I'm no longer a teen and I still have honest moments with myself where I don't like myself, don't think anyone else likes me and doubt whether or not I deserve affection. Whenever I hear of someone not understanding Eva or not appreciating Eva, I wonder what kind of life experiences that person has, or what kind of person they generally are. I bet it has a lot to do with how you take the series.

              The industrial-strength melodrama you refer to is probably just Hideaki Anno's directorial style. In Gunbuster, he somehow managed to keep upping the stakes even after he exploded half the galaxy. I realize how the drama can seem ridiculously piled-on to some people, but it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

              And Eva doesn't say anything about the human condition? Maybe you just don't speak Eva's language.
              Last edited by John Mora; 10-13-2005, 05:57 PM.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                it managed to refine itself into the very epitome of drivel
                The typical college-essay high-speak made me laugh. Just kidding.


                I'm also a casual watcher of anime, and I saw the Eva series and concluding movies this summer.

                It does feature many overplayed anime conventions, but I shrugged most of them off. "Well, it's better than most American TV."

                But End of Eva certainly "has some meat" to it, although I don't think most fanboys know what kind. It is obsessed with the human condition in a very particular way. Hideaki Anno basically borrowed ideas from a dense philosophical conversation on "the other" (involving Heidegger, Hegel, Nietzsche, Sartre, Buber, Freud and more!) and successfully translated it to mass culture. It doesn't "preach"; it enacts ideas about the human condition through visual imagery.

                Actually, I have a post in the works that treats (among other things) how End of Evangelion is actually very easy to understand (even predictable) when set to the conversation on "the other."
                Last edited by TheHonorableRyu; 10-13-2005, 06:01 PM.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                  I have spent alot of years of my life understanding EVA and its crack pot theories, and its one of my favorite animes out there. I love it when animes go so in depth with there characters, just about everything about the anime was awesome.

                  By the way, they aint exactly mechs, technically I'm a big stupid dummy that doesn't know what a spoiler tag is.

                  Edit: Oh, and Aeris dies in FF7.
                  Last edited by Biggie; 10-13-2005, 06:20 PM.

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                    #10
                    Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                    Well, now that the ball's rolling...

                    Eva is incredibly philosophical and very moving. It's a simple coming-of-age tale at its core. How anyone can reach adulthood without asking the questions asked in this series must have had an impeccably easy time growing up.

                    I gotta say, at one point in my life I was Shinji Ikari. I watched this anime when it was first coming out on dubbed tapes and, as I was just entering high school and a whole wide world of relationships and scenarios, it really, really, honestly spoke to me about the human condition and it still haunts me to this day.

                    Someone turned off by anime to begin with would have a very hard time getting into what some may call "THE anime." Although Eva is like the anti-anime in many ways. It's an incredibly postmodern work. Hideaki Anno breaks the fourth wall incessantly in the latter half of the series. He deconstructs the mecha genre and the entire anime medium and rebuilds it again. And now the genre is flooded with copycats. Eva set itself apart initially and what's the result? It set the new standard. Ironic.

                    A background in German expressionist and French new wave film would also really help in viewing Eva.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                      I'm not a huge fan of Eva, but I think can see why so many people like it. If anything, it's probably just an acquired taste, being incredibly philosophical as Magus said.
                      "They shouldn’t have called it Earth, they should have just called it the wipe-your-own-butt planet."

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                        From what I've read Eva seems to have have the reputation for being ridiculous with all kinds of crazy **** happening but it's still good.
                        The Cyclops having only one eye, needed to seek shelter from the harsh sun. The shadow cast by the spheres gave him temporary respite.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                          Originally posted by inragedcow
                          From what I've read Eva seems to have have the reputation for being ridiculous with all kinds of crazy **** happening but it's still good.
                          Yeah, watch the beginning of Death and Rebirth.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                            You mean the Second Impact video footage?

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Fanboys take a calming breath.)

                              No, I am talking when Asuka is in the Hospital.

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