Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Terrier]

You don't have to read the FAQ or anything, but otherwise you would have to pay a lot of atention and re-watch the series (The director's cuts if possible) and the movie at least a couple of times (Chances are there will always be a detail or a clue one missed or forgot), and many things are open to personal interpretation. Not everyone is willing to go that far.

And by the way, did you see the scenne after the credits? It's quite relevant.

About Zeruel, remember how in the series Eva-01 eats Zeruel's core and becomes a "god", with both "the fruit of wisdom" (From Lilith) and "the fruit of inmortality" (From Adam)? Here its Zeruel who eats Eva-00 (And Rei inside of it), and becomes even more poweful than ever before. Eventually Eva-01 absorbs him or something, and we'll have to wait to see what happens.



For anyone interested, here you can read the originally intended live action sequence from the movie (I was mistaken; it's Rei, Asuka and Misato in the alley, there is no Shinji) and two alternative endings: http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/mdwigs/ ... uence.html


Also, this song was intended for the movie, but never used; ain't it beautiful?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TRVDgndr30

[Rody]

I went through the FAQ; that cleared things up fairly well.

I might as well bring this up, though: I was less than pleased when I read the comments about Maya. Why did they do that?? On a similar note, why did they do that with Kaworu as well? What was the point in either case? Were they targeting a niche fan group? Was it added for shock value? I just don't get it.
(I thought I heard somewhere that the Japanese are much less tolerant of that stuff anyway.)

[Terrier]

When Instrumentality "comes to get you" in the movie, it does so by taking the form of what you want and desire the most, regardless of how (in)sincere you were about it while living. Fuyutsuki, for example, was in love with Gendo's wife/Shinji's mother/her student Yui, while Maya was in love with Ritsuko. It wasn't put out of mean spirit, it is part of her character.

Kaworu is the one who shows apreciation and love to Shinji when he needed it the most. Opinions may vary on how far it would have gotten, but that's beyond the point. What matters is that Shinji could actually bond with him. He turned out to be an Angel (Wich is important, as his perspective is obviously different than that of a human/lilim), Shinji felt betrayed, but in the last moment Kaworu decided that humans were more worthy of living than (the rest of) the angels, so he left Shinji kill him to ensure their survival (Or was that the reason? Who knows?)... All of wich contributed to Shinji's insanity. He also made his part in the movie on helping Shinji stop instrumentality.

[Rody]

I figured Kaworu was supposed to be a bonding character for Shinji; but to me, the character was poorly executed. Seriously, he was introduced and killed off in a single episode! I thought it was very rushed. At the very least, they should have introduced him sooner.

I'm very curious about how they will handle him in the next movie, though. Things are shaping up to be very interesting.

Speaking of which, I wonder when we'll start seeing more trailers?

[Bret]

I figured Kaworu was supposed to be a bonding character for Shinji; but to me, the character was poorly executed. Seriously, he was introduced and killed off in a single episode! I thought it was very rushed. At the very least, they should have introduced him sooner.

I'm very curious about how they will handle him in the next movie, though. Things are shaping up to be very interesting.

Speaking of which, I wonder when we'll start seeing more trailers?

I never got up to the Kaworu part of the anime. He got quite a few chapters in the Manga.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

He arrived after Zerueland before Arael in the manga, giving him significantly more development, and could actually be considered a fairly major character. In the anime he appears for like ten minutes before going for Lilith.

[Rody]

Random thought: I wonder if Shusuke Kaneko took any inspiration from the angels when designing Irys? Gamera 3 came out not long after Neon Genesis Evangelion.

[Rody]

Ah, I see. That's neat to know.


Time for a question: what's everybody's favorite angel so far?
Sachiel is probably my favorite. He has that creepy human-but-not-human look to him, without looking quite as - abstract as the later angels. However, the Rebuild designs of Ramiel, Sahaquiel, and Zeruel are really cool too.

[Legionmaster]

I've made it clear that Ramiel is in a separate tier all by himself.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

Ramiel is my favorite of the lot. I prefer the Rebuild one for the shapeshifting shtick, but both are really cool. Zeruel and Sachiel are also quite awesome.

[GojiFan]

Ramiel is just insanely awesome. Couple that with that high-pitched shriek every time it shoots, and it is easily the greatest Angel revealed thus far.

[Rody]

Sachiel's cool too, perhaps mainly because he's more "normal" than pretty much every other Angel. In a show full of such monsters, he'd probably feel pretty bland, but in Eva he stands out because of it.

This pretty much mirrors my own thoughts. Curiously, I don't care for Samshel, even though he also has a fairly "middle-ground" design.

[Terrier]

Leliel, because it's bizarre and "alien" like no other. Remember that kid version of Shinji talking to the real one? It has been confirmed that it was actually Leliel communicating with him.

Armisael too, it is stated that it feels lonely and in pain; I love that the angels can be so different yet have such traits even if they don't look human-like (Or alive-like for that mather), and there is that "tower of angels" that forms when it fuses with Eva-00... Needless to say, there is a lot that we aren't being told...

[Rody]

That was LELIEL? Okay, I may give that episode another watch just to see that conversation again.
I don't remember that "tower of angels", though. I must not have seen that cut...

Let's throw out another question: are there any angels you DISLIKE? Please say why.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

I dislike the clock-angel thing from 2.0, and am indifferent to the snake-angel thing, Materiel and Lilith/Adam.

[Plexton]

Yes, both in the remake and in the original it is clear that Ramiel is one of the strongest of the Angels, which might initially seem surprising; when I first watched the show, I expected the Angels to grow increasingly stronger, but some which come after Ramiel, such as Matariel, are clearly weaker.

Anyway, design-wise there is something interesting about all of the Angels in the series; it's one of the best 'monster of the week' shows, because no two Angels act or fight the same way, forcing the protagonists to constantly rethink their strategies.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

I like Arael. Very unique angel with powers much more cerebral than previous angels. Also the only angel Unit 00 ever killed apart from Armisael.

Speaking of Armisael I always got the impression he wasn't trying to inflitrate NERV unlike the rest, and more interesting in communicating with the pilots. Maybe because he was the last one, and there'd be little point in the angels being the only race on Earth if he was the only one left.

[Terrier]

Speaking of Armisael I always got the impression he wasn't trying to inflitrate NERV unlike the rest, and more interesting in communicating with the pilots. Maybe because he was the last one, and there'd be little point in the angels being the only race on Earth if he was the only one left.

That's the impression I got, too. The reason Rei destroyed it later was because Shinji was in danger, but as far as I remember it wasn't doing anything until it got to communicate with Rei.


Remember Iruel? That virus angel that infected Nerv, in an eva-free episode based on 'The Andromeda Strain'? While people may like some angels and hate others, Iruel seems to be generally ignored.



I like Matariel as an odd combination of spider-like creature with giant eyes that cry acid in a weird way, but I may be biased because of the fact that its episode (11) was animated by Ghibli. You may have subconsciously noticed that the episode had some very fluid animation overall.

[Rody]

Gonna mention Sandalphon, too. It's not that I particularly dislike him, per se (in fact I actually like him better, design-wise, than some other Angels I'm more neutral on), but he's just not as cool as his concept sounds. He's basically an Anomalocaris that lives in lava. That should be 10 kinds of awesome, but he's just... not. Probably has something to do with the way the battle played out. All he did was swim around, chew on Unit-02 a little, then get killed. If he'd gotten a more proper fight, I'd probably like him a lot more.

I think they could have, and perhaps should have, used Sandalphon in the beginning sequence of 2.0: You Can(not) Advance, instead of the new skeleton angel. Perhaps they also could have re-used Matriel instead of the new clock-like seventh angel.

Another question: have any of the soundtracks been released in the states? I like the music & would prefer to listen to it with a source other than YouTube.

[Terrier]

The first six minutes of the coming movie (You can (Not) Redo) have been leaked, starring "pirate" Asuka fighting some weird Angel in space:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 3X1NApkkdc


I don't know japanese, the video has no subtitles, so what they say could be gibberish for what I care... Because of that, when I heard Asuka suddendly shouting "Baka Shinji!!" near the end, even though Shinji is nowhere to be seen, I almost fell of the chair laughting.