The Neon Genesis Evangelion Thread - Page 8

The original ending was a byproduct of his depression, his company circling the drain and weird as shit anti-depressants.
Like, even the VA's were asking what the hell he was on.

On September 13 2012 16:33 Lord Zeya wrote:
I have yet to watch Rebuild, is it better/worse than original series?
Is it for the fans, or to remake the series in a more honest and effective way?

On September 13 2012 13:01 Sentenal wrote:
Evangelion is pretty bad. But before I get to why its bad, I'll be fair, and highlight the good parts of the show real quick. Also note that everything I'm about to say is simply talking about the TV Series and End of Evangelion, not Rebuild.

One, at least the first two thirds of it look nice. The battle scenes are (mostly) great, and the mechanical detail they put into the series is really good. EVA-01 going berserk was good. Asuka's fight in EoE was really cool. But that is essentially where the good things stop.

Shinji Ikari is the most insufferable main character of any anime I have ever watched. I think everyone knows what I'm talking about when I say this, even the people who somehow like the show. Hes a spineless little wimp with daddy issues. That in itself, wouldn't be crippling. Often times main characters start this way, and they grow and develop over the course of the show. Shinji? Nope. Shinji eventually has a mental break down, and resets. As a note, if people cite this as a reason why its a "deconstruction", I'm going to laugh at you. Anyway, never once was he enjoyable to watch, unless you happen to take pleasure watching an autistic kid with daddy issues struggle and suffer in his circumstances, and eventually crack.

There are 3 different "parts" to the plot of Evangelion. One is that the plot is filled with tons of pointless religious symbolism. Anno himself has said this was done because it "sounds complicated". So we can strike that right off as fluff. The next part can basically be summed up as a Monster of the Week Super Robot anime, at least on the surface. Earth is under attack, an organization of crazy scientists puts together a 3-man team of young people to fight them. The final part, the part that "makes Evangelion Evangelion", the part that makes the anime what it is, is all the mental drama of the characters. And this is the part that makes it crap. Shinji's character, his mental state, and everything annoying about him that makes me hate him as a character, is a central, driving force of the plot. Not only that, the same could be said of all the other characters. There isn't a single, likable character in the entire cast. Asuka, Rei, Misato, Gendo, you name it, they are all horrible characters, all of them are either autists, sluts, or sociopaths (or a combination). People will tell me "Well, thats the point". Well, okay, good job, Evangelion, you made your point, and it sucks.

Is it enjoyable to watch a group of autistic kids and sociopaths fight to save the world, and ultimately turn everyone into tang? Personally, I'd say no. Clearly, people disagree. But I didn't get any pleasure watching that, or watching the story of a bunch of people who I can't stand for 26 episodes and a movie. Recently in the Anime Discussion Thread (where topics like this belong, btw), Shauni put forth a new argument about this part. He argued that Evangelion was good because it "brings something new and stimulating to your mind, [and you] benefiting from the added experience and perception." And if you think that Evangelion is something new and stimulating to your mind, well, congrats, but I can't agree. We will completely put aside whether or not any of the events that happen in it are "new" or not. What is so stimulating watching Shinji jack off on Asuka, or everyone in the world being turned into Tang? Is it stimulating because "Well, if a kid like Shinji was actually put into this situation, this is a realistic portrayal of the out-come"? And this is supposed to be stimulating my mind?

Before people bust out the strawman on me, I'm not saying something like "The anime has to be like Gurren Lagann to be enjoyable!!" or "The main character has to be a hot blooded badass!", or anything like that. But there has to be SOMETHING in Evangelion to make you care. In the end, do you care about any of these characters, that the series has gone to extreme lengths to show you how much of a terrible human being each and every one of them is? If not, why would you care about anything that happens in the anime? So, like I said, there has to be SOMETHING to make me care, and in Evangelion's case, occasional cool battles isn't enough.

On September 13 2012 16:09 RockIronrod wrote:
I was referring to those weird flashes in the second half of the movie, a bit after the scene where Shinji watches Misato and Kaiji have sex if I recall correctly. It was just random flashes of Asuka and Shinji and in one frame she's shown to be breathing heavily and from what we can see of her shoulders, she's not wearing any clothes.

On September 13 2012 16:38 Tabbris wrote:

Umm. I think rebuild is alot better. I liked both original and rebuild but hadcore fans of the original tend not to like rebuild because shinji is less of a pussy

On September 13 2012 16:06 a176 wrote:


Shinji dealing with being abandoned by his father, dealing with being thrust into a situation where only he can pilot the eva01, dealing with trying to reintegrate into society, dealing with basically just completely fucked from the stress of everything.

watching the character struggle and deal with these conflicts, is that not the basis of all good stories? if you have no conflict of the human condition then yes, you'll just end up with gurren lagaan.

you just sound like you didnt even want to bother to watch the series in the first place.

On September 13 2012 16:49 Flonomenalz wrote:
NGE definitely changed the anime industry though, although... I'm not exactly sure it was for the better.

On September 13 2012 16:41 Manit0u wrote:


But you can do it so much better. There are shows like Serial Experiments Lain or even Darker Than Black, which do a lot better job at that. And if you want normal people in abnormal situation (and mecha) you can just as well watch Visions of Escaflowne, which is a gazillion times more enjoyable than this bullshit.

Damn, I so hate all this shows about whiny kids... I didn't like NGE and I thought that Code Geass was absolute rubbish thanks to the shitty characters in it.