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

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
After the final movie I wonder if they will make a crossover movie/TV series of that Transformers x Evangelion toy line 5 years ago:

tfheader.png


14136220231_5965357770_z.jpg
 
Last edited:
Recently re-watched the series and End of Evangelion because it was on Netflix and I wanted to see how it would have changed in my opinions.

Ostensibly it's a good anime series, it's not as great or ground breaking as people make it out to be, and it's not as psuedo-intellectual until it reaches the very end of the series. The very last two episodes of the original series are still as jarring as they were on first watch, but at least it made more sense when taken into the context of having seen End of Evangelion and seeing what the instrumentality project was. If anything it should be added into the scenes of End of Evangelion, re-edited to be more complimentary and add more context to the end of the series.

That said the End of Evangelion is a better ending in terms of understanding what happened to the plot, and while the series had some good elements in it, I was surprised that there were certain elements of Otaku culture that Anno seems to have been so against for the period. IE The dancing syncro angel battle. Not that it was terrible, but the episode lengths could have been spent focusing less on the individual Angel battles, and more on the development of the characters.

This as well was part of what I felt let the series down nearer the end as well, as there was so little development over the midpoint of the series, that it felt that story opportunities were either lost or glossed over. They should have started the Seele storyline and the instrumentality project earlier, as this would have given Rei more of a purpose, and made her storyline more tragic. As well as Kaworu. If anything he should have been there from the beginning or very early on, which would have worked with the story-line as the Angels were trying to find out if it was Adam or Lilith in Tokyo 3, it would have given him more time to actually develop an actual friendship with Shinji, and thus would have been more emotionally weighted when Shinji finally had to kill him.

Also the switch from the council to the Seele, should have been moved forward in terms of the plotline, it would have flowed better, but that might be down to just creative confusion and then refocusing, considering it was an original property with no Manga to base off of.

A few personal reflections.

Shinji is still a whiny bitch and there wasn't really enough of a build up to his loneliness and inability to form relationships to make the weird aspects of the actual ending work as completely as they should have done.

The best single characters in terms of being fleshed out were Asuka, and Misato, even with their foibles they made for more interesting characters than any of the other members of the cast, and I think the fact that Asuka and Shinji are essentially comparable in terms of their actual personalities vs their projected personas was well done. Especially when you consider that Shinji and Asuka have the most in common of any characters in Evangelion, and yet despite these dualities in their life experience, they both cope in completely different ways.

Asuka is more confident and outspoken even to the point of being provocative. However this is a false projection of confidence in order to seek attention and positive affirmation in order to help her character feel self worth, where she doesn't feel it herself. Shinji also has this same need for affirmation, but instead of being combative like Asuka is much more agreeable, even to the point of falsely going along with things in order to avoid conflict. The two support each other as characters much more than is focused on, and even though it's reflected through a semi-romantic lens in some senses, or played for laughs or drama the two characters don't have a lot of opportunity to actually ever discuss or share anything outside of a few small snippets. Asuka also is essentially written out of the series in the last four episodes aside from her downfall and the interview during the instrumentality project.

Misato is a tragic figure in the fact that she too is isolated and more could have been done to show the weight of having the Evangelion project essentially in her hands in terms of defense and care for the pilots. The weight of appearance vs the real Misato. (The Captain VS the happy go lucky drunk) Also the allusion to her feeling close to people by being physical with them is only realistically shown in her occasional on/off relationship with Kaji, and isn't as well developed. (She doesn't need to be a slut, but it would have been better to see her try it with a few people and get rejected or reflect on it.)

I never understood Rei fan boys at the time, and still don't because she's basically an autist in the form of a cute girl, and even now I feel there was an under utilization of her character. IE if she's a clone, it would have been more effective to have this flowering of personality in Rei 2.0 then have her death and Rei 3.0 be a completely clean slate. Aside from that, she isn't really given enough time to show a personality or frustrations at not having a personality, and is under developed.

Gendoh is a mixed bag. He's never really developed as a character beyond the distant and uncaring father, with the crack pot idea of instituting the human instrumentality project so he can be with his dead wife again, which is very fine but honestly it's very loose motivation when the audience is never given anything to show that Gendoh actually loved his wife that deeply or his regrets outside of a few snippets that show he was a dick early on. So again it's a failure to make him a more sympathetic antagonist, or use him to develop Rei's back story/Shinji's isolation.

Final thoughts.

It's a decent enough anime, and I can appreciate it for what Anno tried to do with the genre, but I don't think it was enough to make it as ground breaking for me as other people seem to think it is.

There is a rawness to the work, which I think is what made the intended ending and point of the series good, however at the time it wasn't polished and thus created the gap which most audience members fall through.

There was a lot of plot pushed through in the last four episodes, that probably on a more regular production schedule and with the author/director in a better place would have alluded to at a slower pace creating a better all around experience of the story.

I can appreciate the rejection or at least the attempted rejection of Otaku culture and Otaku expectations, though ultimately it failed as a commentary and created more of the current culture of Japan.

That said it's not as ground breaking as people make it out to be, if anything it was one of the first anime that actually didn't have a strong protagonist, that didn't have them overcome their issues, but instead seemed to be mired in the same problems and attitudes.

This was a started but incomplete idea and as such it didn't have as much of the desired effect as originally probably aimed at. Instead of true characters and injecting cold reality in the anime artform as envisioned, destroying or at least attacking the escapism of the audience.

Instead the industry created a generation of Shinji clones, overblown psuedo-garble plotlines, and lack luster clones because Anime writers aren't very original or creative unfortunately.

Happy to hear others thoughts, but generally that's what I thought on second viewing and 12 years to reflect on the story-line. I haven't seen any of the new remake/alternate versions yet, not until they're all released at least, so I can marathon them.

TLDR; Asuka is the best girl. Rei is human tofu. Shinji is a whiny bitch who needs to man the fuck up. Anyone who disagree's needs to have sex! Oh.... And..... CONGRATULATIONS!
 
Chester Rigby said:
First teaser. Confusing as fuck, of course:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wdjQe8rY4c4
Click to expand...

Fuyutsuki standing beside a shocked-looking Rei, Eva-01 pinned to a cross Lilith-style, Kaworu and Shinji in a school setting, Shinji with his SDAT recorder....

...Maybe Instrumentality's going to happen again? So the Kaworu scene would be more of Episode 26 in Shinji's mind.
 
God they are milking the NGE Cash cow until the heath death of the universe and even then some dumb fucks still won't leave it alone.
 
Sinners Sandwich said:
God they are jerking off the NGE Cash cow until the heath death of the universe and even then some dumb fucks still won't leave it alone.
Click to expand...

Are they really? The last Rebuild film was 6 years ago, what is probably the last Anno Eva film is going to be released, and they haven't even upgraded the original series or films to Blu-Ray outside of Japan. That's a very poor way of milking something; even Ghost in the Shell has had more content put out for it.

Unless you're talking about the Geeks or Monkey forums. Those guys treat that shit like a full-time job (probably is for some of them).
 
That Chris Guy said:
Are they really? The last Rebuild film was 6 years ago, what is probably the last Anno Eva film is going to be released, and they haven't even upgraded the original series or films to Blu-Ray outside of Japan. That's a very poor way of jerking off something; even Ghost in the Shell has had more content put out for it.

Unless you're talking about the Geeks or Monkey forums. Those guys treat that shit like a full-time job (probably is for some of them).
Click to expand...

And I really dont get who the latest NGE is even for
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom