Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Terasawa]

Edit: On second thought, nevermind.

[gottatalktothefake]

I don’t remember if I ever posted my thoughts on Eva here.

I think the original series and EoE are great. Not the flawless masterpieces some say they are, but I really enjoyed them.

The rebuilds are garbage though

[Jetty_Jags]

I'll keep my post simple, because I know I've written "essays" here before. However, I don't think it's fair to say Shinji doesn't have an arch. Sure his arch doesn't end in overtly saving the world (depending on where you interpret the end I guess, but for simplicity I'll stick with NGE + EOE exclusively), but it does come with learning that life is worth living, even if you have to deal with the consequences. Regardless of tone, all eva properties I've seen have shared this life affirming stance that Shinji very much does not display at the beginning of each iteration. While it may not be satisfying to everyone, if that's not character development I've got no clue what is.

[LegendZilla]

As for Shinji, you're basing your entire critique on:
A) Anno projecting himself onto the character, which isn't evident within the work itself, and is only known to those familiar with the show's production - not only that, but Shinji is definitely not 1:1 with Anno, and it's pretty clear that Shinji's lack of initiative is a negative character trait. Every character on the show is grappling with some sort of mental illness and have different ways of coping, Shinji's way is but one.
Anno isn't glorifying or wallowing in depression here, he's simply exploring it, and doing a damn good job of it. I know what it's like to be paralyzed by depression, and Eva nails the nuances of such an experience.

B) The assumption that character development or a clear 'arc' is absolutely crucial to storytelling, but it isn't. Take another great series about depression: The Sopranos. Does Tony change throughout the course of six seasons? Not really. Is the show any less brilliant because of this? Hell no, in fact, it's completely appropriate for the character and for the show's psychological themes.

he does little more than just cry and mope over living in a less-then-ideal environment.

Lol what? A child fighting a war, with the fate of the world resting upon his shoulders, is a little worse than 'less than ideal'. It's a hellish situation by any metric.

Trust me, I am no stranger to depression myself. I have endured it on and off for 5 years now. Despite all that, Shinji still fails to resonate with me as a viewer.

[Voyager]

As for Shinji, you're basing your entire critique on:
A) Anno projecting himself onto the character, which isn't evident within the work itself, and is only known to those familiar with the show's production - not only that, but Shinji is definitely not 1:1 with Anno, and it's pretty clear that Shinji's lack of initiative is a negative character trait. Every character on the show is grappling with some sort of mental illness and have different ways of coping, Shinji's way is but one.
Anno isn't glorifying or wallowing in depression here, he's simply exploring it, and doing a damn good job of it. I know what it's like to be paralyzed by depression, and Eva nails the nuances of such an experience.

B) The assumption that character development or a clear 'arc' is absolutely crucial to storytelling, but it isn't. Take another great series about depression: The Sopranos. Does Tony change throughout the course of six seasons? Not really. Is the show any less brilliant because of this? Hell no, in fact, it's completely appropriate for the character and for the show's psychological themes.

he does little more than just cry and mope over living in a less-then-ideal environment.

Lol what? A child fighting a war, with the fate of the world resting upon his shoulders, is a little worse than 'less than ideal'. It's a hellish situation by any metric.

Trust me, I am no stranger to depression myself. I have endured it on and off for 5 years now. Despite all that, Shinji still fails to resonate with me as a viewer.

Not everyone's experiences with depression are the same.

[LegendZilla]

Not everyone's experiences with depression are the same.

You couldn't be more true. For those of us that have, the cause it is never on the same scale as what Shinji goes through, but it still is depression all the same.

[Rando Yaguchi]

I have no idea how this Asuka/rapper meme started, but I dig it.

[Voyager]

Just started to read another Doujinshi, this time it’s Epilogue of Evangelion, where Shinji and Asuka are the last two people on Earth.

[gottatalktothefake]

Just finished watching the second rebuild. I dislike both of the ones I’ve watched, and heard 3.33 isn’t much better

[LegendZilla]

Just finished watching the second rebuild. I dislike both of the ones I’ve watched, and heard 3.33 isn’t much better

Do you feel that The Rebuild films are to Eva as the Abrams Star Trek films are to Star Trek?

[Voyager]

Just finished watching the second rebuild. I dislike both of the ones I’ve watched, and heard 3.33 isn’t much better

If you don’t mind me asking, why’s that? Personally, I think 2.0 especially is just a big, bombastic, batshit-crazy movie that’s really fun. The reinvention of Asuka and her loss of depth might turn someone off but I didn’t mind it.

[gottatalktothefake]

Just finished watching the second rebuild. I dislike both of the ones I’ve watched, and heard 3.33 isn’t much better

If you don’t mind me asking, why’s that? Personally, I think 2.0 especially is just a big, bombastic, batshit-crazy movie that’s really fun. The reinvention of Asuka and her loss of depth might turn someone off but I didn’t mind it.

The characters lose depth, the blatant fanservice (and I don’t mean “that was so cool” type fanservice, I mean the blatant breast and butt shots kind of fanservice), Mari, I didn’t like the change from Toji being the 03 pilot to asuka, I felt like a lot of the scenes from the original had changes that neutered how effective they were in the original.

Basically I feel like the rebuilds are style of substance so far. While I love the OG series, I don’t think it’s a 10/10. I’d say it’s like an 8. But these rebuilds feel like they’re trying to turn Eva into a generic modern anime.

Added in 51 seconds:

Just finished watching the second rebuild. I dislike both of the ones I’ve watched, and heard 3.33 isn’t much better

Do you feel that The Rebuild films are to Eva as the Abrams Star Trek films are to Star Trek?

I don’t feel like I can make a fair comparison because I’ve never seen the Abrams movies, but from what I know I think the comparison is pretty apt

[Major sssspielberg!]

Snip

I felt the same for a long time, but 3.0+4.0 was so friggin' good that it retroactively made the the whole Rebuild series better. It's its own thing, but as someone who loves NGE and totally hated the Rebuilds, it ties them all into a nice bow and really sticks the landing. Stick with them; you might be surprised.

[Jetty_Jags]

Yeah 3.0 plus 4.0 really helps, but it’s also important to realize the rebuilds aren’t remakes of the original series, or even trying to adapt the tv show to film (although the first one could easily be mistaken as such). Rather they are a remix of the story, and are trying to twist what people loved about the originals to further explore their ideas. Unfortunately, this means some of the characterization appears weaker because it expects the user to already be familiar with certain traits and at arches. On one hand this is decently efficient as there’s no way the movies would be able to go as far in depth as the tv show by differences in run time alone, on the other hand the movies appear quite shallow when taken as their own respective works (ymmv on how you enjoy this). I do agree with your points about fan service though, I accepted it in the og series because it was thematically often tied into the themes of development and puberty, the rebuilds are definitely more about ogling the characters (and I really don’t enjoy that). Overall the I don’t really see the rebuilds as trying to replace the series, rather offer some what ifs while also performing some meta exploration on the shows history and impact to the medium.

[Voyager]

3.0 + 4.0? Is that 3.0 + 1.0?

But yeah Evangelion has left such a big impact on me and I couldn’t thank Hideaki Anno enough for it. One of my top 3 franchises (other two being Godzilla and Star Wars).

[Jetty_Jags]

3.0 + 4.0? Is that 3.0 + 1.0?

But yeah Evangelion has left such a big impact on me and I couldn’t thank Hideaki Anno enough for it. One of my top 3 franchises (other two being Godzilla and Star Wars).

shoot yeah typo

[Voyager]

Jena Malone kind of looks like what I’d imagine live action Asuka would look like.

[LegendZilla]

Jena Malone kind of looks like what I’d imagine live action Asuka would look like.

Who the heck is she?

[G-Matt]

Jena Malone kind of looks like what I’d imagine live action Asuka would look like.

Who the heck is she?

She played the character Johanna Mason in the Hunger Games movies.

[Voyager]

Yeah, whenever I see her face, I imagine Asuka's ginger hair over it and... voila. It's adult Asuka.