The Neon Genesis Evangelion Thread - Death & Rebirth & Rebirth & Rebirth & Rebirth & Rebirth & Rebirth & Rebirth...

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If you hate Evangelion, you are either being an edgelord contrarian or are a literal subhuman. There are very few exceptions to this.
 
I just want Rebuild to be concluded and be done with it already. I don’t even like or dislike Evangelion anymore, I’m just tired of it. Maybe that’s what Anno wants.

The new bridge bunnies in their new power ranger gimp suits were of no interest to me whatsoever. This felt like the beginning of 3.0, a lot of meaningless action that had no bearing on the plot but sure had a lot of crazy camera angles to trick me into thinking it’s good choreography. It’s basically a lot of hot air and a load of nothing on the actual story, but Rebuild stopped trying to make a story years ago. I am impressed by the quality of the 2D animation as always, though.
 
It's not my personal favorite anime, but I think NGE is pretty fucking great.

It's a very intense series to say the least and that's going to be off putting for some, I can see why it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it deals with emotions in such a way that few things do, anime or otherwise, the closest comparison I can think of would be Pink Floyd: The Wall.

Although I also think of it as the anime equivalent to Watchmen, taking a pulpy genre (superheroes/giant robots) and applying it to the "real world" and what that would really be like (spoiler alert: things wouldn't go well)

But beyond all that I just love NGE's art direction, the character designs, the technology designs, the mech designs, the Angel designs, it's all very top notch stuff.
 
I like how EoE is basically the world's most visually stunning and high effort dump ever taken into the mouth of a fanbase. It's an amazing film, but comparing it to the original series ending it definitly feels like Anno is pissing on his autistic hyperfans by making shinji be a stand in for the audience, and then making him a gross creep who ultimately does nothing and experiences zero personal growth.
 
Shaved Kiwis said:
It's not so much the weird shit that bothers me so much as it's the weird shit being inconsistent with the rest of the story. The weird shit in something like a Miyazaki film feels tonally consistent and doesn't drag me out of the story. Whereas I was having a grand old time watching the first 30 or so episodes of Initial D which basically boiled down to a race car driver soap opera until like series 3 or whatever when the magical woo woo shit comes out of nowhere and was never established beforehand.
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Ehh. Just watch Cowboy Bebop. No weird shit there apart from the mushroom drug trip and the episode with the Fridge Monster.

I think Anno was trying to pull a Kubrick by stating the anime had no religious significance, then cramming a lot of Illuminati / Kabbalah bullshit in there. To what extent he believed it, I don't know. Maybe he just wanted exceptional people to sperg out about it:


There's also a theory that each of the main characters represent a major mental illness (Rei= Schizoid Personality Disorder, Asuka=Narcissism, and Shinji=Avoidant Personality Disorder). And another theory that states that the plot of Eva represents, on a meta level, the making of the series itself, and all of the mental pitfalls and real world issues that Anno went through in order to do so.

Plotwise, the main TV series unfurls a pretty good "monster of the week" mystery up until the last few episodes, when things start to feel rushed as hell. Shinji's meeting with Kaworu, the breakdown of the relationships between the main characters - it all felt like it should have taken twice as many episodes to unfold as it did. The EOE movie was pretty trippy (even tripper than the TV ending) but I wasn't sure exactly what it meant for humanity.

I suppose it meant that all people could emerge from the LCL if they chose to- like Shinji did, but what exactly were they going to do once they got out? What were they going to eat? There were no animals around, or plants that i could see. Maybe everyone could feast on the bloody Rei corpse for awhile, but I have to imagine it would start to spoil soon. Or was everything we saw on screen allegorical, like in the ending to The Prisoner? Or does none of it matter because the Rebuild series (which I haven't seen yet) erases it?

Anyway, this is my favorite track from the Original Series:


It plays when Shinji is talking to the Angel in his own head. Sounds like you're exploring the deep jungles of the mind. Adds a real air of mystery to the proceedings.
 
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Y2KKK Baby said:
That's not what happens though.
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I mean, the dude literally starts EoE by jerking off over Asuka's comatose tits, and by the end of it, even after going through the wild transcendent mindfucknof human instrumentality, it just ends with him on a beach choking the shit out Asuka while she calls him disgusting, cut to end credits. I'd say EoE makes Shinji look like an irredeemable fuckup, while the TV series ending he realizes that his self loathing and loneliness is due to his own way of thinking, and that by overcoming it he can be happy and create a better world for himself, and then everyone show up to congratulate him and he's finally happy for once. I think with EoE, Anno was so disgusted at his autist fanbase who sent him death threats and chomped out over the original ending, that he just used Shinji as a stand in for the fans, and then dumped on him viciously.
 
Gone_Fission said:
I mean, the dude literally starts EoE by jerking off over Asuka's comatose tits, and by the end of it, even after going through the wild transcendent mindfucknof human instrumentality, it just ends with him on a beach choking the shit out Asuka while she calls him disgusting, cut to end credits. I'd say EoE makes Shinji look like an irredeemable fuckup, while the TV series ending he realizes that his self loathing and loneliness is due to his own way of thinking, and that by overcoming it he can be happy and create a better world for himself, and then everyone show up to congratulate him and he's finally happy for once. I think with EoE, Anno was so disgusted at his autist fanbase who sent him death threats and chomped out over the original ending, that he just used Shinji as a stand in for the fans, and then dumped on him viciously.
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But Shinji also ended Instrumentality and decided to live. In fact, him being shown doing far more heinous things(and still forgiving himself enough to leave tang) is just more proof that he grew.

He also cried after he did it- dude had a rough day (and Asuka comforts him) It's not as outright positive but there's a silver-lining.
(Also, what Asuka said is translated more to be that she felt disgusting.)
 
Gone_Fission said:
I mean, the dude literally starts EoE by jerking off over Asuka's comatose tits, and by the end of it, even after going through the wild transcendent mindfucknof human instrumentality, it just ends with him on a beach choking the shit out Asuka while she calls him disgusting, cut to end credits. I'd say EoE makes Shinji look like an irredeemable fuckup, while the TV series ending he realizes that his self loathing and loneliness is due to his own way of thinking, and that by overcoming it he can be happy and create a better world for himself, and then everyone show up to congratulate him and he's finally happy for once. I think with EoE, Anno was so disgusted at his autist fanbase who sent him death threats and chomped out over the original ending, that he just used Shinji as a stand in for the fans, and then dumped on him viciously.
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I personally prefer the TV ending. I feel that it was the original intent while End Of Evangelion was a result of fan backlash and demand for closure from an ending they likely didn't understand initially. Ultimately Evangelion's greatest downfalls are due to it's popularity having a stranglehold on future production.
 
DDBCAE CBAADCBE said:
I personally prefer the TV ending. I feel that it was the original intent while End Of Evangelion was a result of fan backlash and demand for closure from an ending they likely didn't understand initially. Ultimately Evangelion's greatest downfalls are due to it's popularity having a stranglehold on future production.
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I think the ideal ending would be sandwiching the assault on NERV and the mass production Eva battle from EoE between episodes 24 and 25 of the series. I liked the portrayal of instrumentality and the happy ending for Shinji of the show, but I hated how it felt like a lot of plot content such as "how the fuck did any of this get initiated?" or "what's the deal with the SEELE/Gendo beef?" got cut due to time constraints.
 
DDBCAE CBAADCBE said:
I personally prefer the TV ending. I feel that it was the original intent while End Of Evangelion was a result of fan backlash and demand for closure from an ending they likely didn't understand initially. Ultimately Evangelion's greatest downfalls are due to it's popularity having a stranglehold on future production.
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Gone_Fission said:
I think the ideal ending would be sandwiching the assault on NERV and the mass production Eva battle from EoE between episodes 24 and 25 of the series. I liked the portrayal of instrumentality and the happy ending for Shinji of the show, but I hated how it felt like a lot of plot content such as "how the fuck did any of this get initiated?" or "what's the deal with the SEELE/Gendo beef?" got cut due to time constraints.
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The endings are complimentary.
 
I love Evangelion unconditionally. Ultimately I prefer the EoE version of the ending as you knew what was going on beyond what was inside their heads. If I recall it was implied that everyone could eventually return to reality so long as they had the desire to continue existing, and ultimately I took most of it as a positive after the initial gut reaction of, "WTF did I just watch?"

Y2KKK Baby said:
But Shinji also ended Instrumentality and decided to live. In fact, him being shown doing far more heinous things(and still forgiving himself enough to leave tang) is just more proof that he grew.
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Correct. He was offered a false paradise in Instrumentality where he could be given exactly what he wanted, yet he wished to return to reality where he could be hurt by others because at least there, he knew that reality and his feelings were genuine.

All-in-all I'm happy with the small changes to Shinji's character. He's more approachable in Rebuild, and the justification for him being unwilling to pilot an EVA is magnified significantly with 3.0.

Stab You in the Back said:
Think of Evangelion as an autism test. The more you try to autistically figure out the "why" of what's happening, the less you're going to enjoy it. If, on the other hand, you're able to accept the presence and escalation of dissonant weird shit and just go along for the ride, you'll be fine. Which category you fall under is something only you can answer.
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Understanding EoE and some smaller nuances of the series is fine to me, but beyond that, I agree. When you try quantifying every little nitpick like the S2 organ or what it meant when they told them to "reverse the tangent graph" is when you begin to step out of enjoying the show for what it is and fail to realise that it was made by people who chose the religious symbolism purely from an aesthetic point of view. Yet people will still attempt to tear it down frame by frame as if they're going to unlock some dark secret by doing so, which ultimately is a waste of time and energy imo.
 
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Y2KKK Baby said:
But Shinji also ended Instrumentality and decided to live. In fact, him being shown doing far more heinous things(and still forgiving himself enough to leave tang) is just more proof that he grew.

He also cried after he did it- dude had a rough day (and Asuka comforts him) It's not as outright positive but there's a silver-lining.
(Also, what Asuka said is translated more to be that she felt disgusting.)
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The actual intent of that line is an age old internet argument. According to the actress though Anno asked her what she would say if a random dude broke into her house and she woke up to him jerking off on her but not touching her in anyway and they both agreed on this line.

Also remember that Japanese as a language relies on heavily on context, and frequently avoids direct statements. This is a language that can't use the word "you" without it being incredibly rude. If you want to say "you stole my apple" you actually say something along the lines of "the apple was stolen" and rely on context to get the message across.
 
That Chris Guy said:
He's more approachable in Rebuild, and the justification for him being unwilling to pilot an EVA is magnified significantly with 3.0.
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That makes it worse.
Oddjob OTP said:
The actual intent of that line is an age old internet argument. According to the actress though Anno asked her what she would say if a random dude broke into her house and she woke up to him jerking off on her but not touching her in anyway and they both agreed on this line.

Also remember that Japanese as a language relies on heavily on context, and frequently avoids direct statements. This is a language that can't use the word "you" without it being incredibly rude. If you want to say "you stole my apple" you actually say something along the lines of "the apple was stolen" and rely on context to get the message across.
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I always figured that it was more in-character and meaningful for Asuka to be offput by being metaphysically naked. What Anno said is perfect for that but there's also a much more literal meaning (which requires more of a leap in logic to justify imo)
 
Oddjob OTP said:
Also remember that Japanese as a language relies on heavily on context, and frequently avoids direct statements. This is a language that can't use the word "you" without it being incredibly rude. If you want to say "you stole my apple" you actually say something along the lines of "the apple was stolen" and rely on context to get the message across.
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Seriously Japanese is dumb. I don't care how much you have to evolve never stepping on each other to cram into your island, if about a quarter of your jokes are "lol nobody knows what anybody fucking means" it's not really that funny any more.
 
I don't get why Misato and Ritsuko had to die. Like fuck Gendo....and poor Rei was already gone but still.

Does Anno have a dead mom fetish? All the moms are dead and crazy. Yui not so much. Obviously if Yui was alive, none of this shit would happen, but Shinji definitely wouldn't be so fucked up.

I like to think that his mom's spirit is there besides being in the Eva of course.

Shame about Asuka and Ritsuko's moms.
 
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