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[NecrosaroIII]

I first saw NGE about 5 years ago. I was heavily into mecha anime at the time, and so it was something that was kind of unavoidable. At the time, I thought it was just kind of "alright". Kind of meaningless and noisy. I'm watching it with my best friend now. He'd never seen it before, and we both want to watch the EVA Rebuild movies.

I'm liking it WAY more this time. It's still mostly empty noise. But the way the characters behave is more interesting to me. Shinji isn't as bad as I thought he was the first time. He's actually pretty stoic most of the time, except when he has mental breakdowns. Asuka is still annoying, but there is some depth there. Misato is the stand out though. Gendo is kind of lame.

I guess now that I don't have any preconceived notions of what the show is, I'm enjoying it more for what it is rather than what it's supposed to be. It's still no Ideon though

 

[J-Roderton]

Agreed. I still pop in the old DVDs from time to time.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I'm so fucked up

 

[NecrosaroIII]

I'm so fucked up

Man,
I can't wait for my friend to watch End of Evangelion.

 

[Master Of Illusion]

Studying Twin Peaks and Evangelion has helped me get out of a lot of roadblocks when writing.

 

[Mopey bloke]

I agree. I also watched it for the first time around 2016. I really liked it and it became a favourite upon rewatch. Something I remember Arkada of Glass Reflection saying is that it is "the best monster of the week show ever". I ain't sure it's the best ever because I don't watch that type of thing often, yet the battle sequences are very entertaining to watch. The battles are almost exclusively against angels who all essentially have the same weak point and method of defeating, yet all battles, if not the scenes happening around them, are different and enjoyable. This series is fun to watch should you have tolerance for negativity to go with your fun.

 

[Rat Rage]

Neon Genesis is best when you are in puperty, haven't had sex yet, and are an introvert. Man, it can't get better than that!

 

[PaddyOCanager]

I literally just started watching it on Netflix. I'm only 5 or so episodes in but I'm enjoying it.

 

[AJUMP23]

Trigun is much better.

 

[West Texas CEO]

you remember the part when the dude masturbates on an unconscious woman?

top-shelf anime right there.

 

[The Cockatrice]

No it's not. It's absolute garbage, well at least the last half of it.

 

[Kev Kev]

Neon Genesis is best when you are in puperty, haven't had sex yet, and are an introvert. Man, it can't get better than that!

you remember the part when the dude masturbates on an unconscious woman?

top-shelf anime right there.

No it's not. It's absolute garbage, well at least the last half of it.

Lol exactly, I saw it once when I was 18, and watched again recently and it is shit. It’s so overly complicated that I had to watch a 30 minute analysis video just to understand what the fuck I just watched

But it’s basically this:

Spoiler

depressed boy with daddy issues can’t get laid and doesn’t save the world.

the end.

why tf does anyone think that’s good?

 

[Jon Neu]

It's still mostly empty noise.

No, it's not. It's a savage deconstruction of otakus and a beautiful essay on existentialism.

He's actually pretty stoic most of the time, except when he has mental breakdowns.

That's because Evangelion treats it's characters like they actually have a psyche. They are not the archetypical superheroesque badass teenagers. They are 14 years old forced into the adult world who have all kinds of problems and necessities and don't know how to deal with the situation to the point of being overwhelmed. But EVA not only shows the fragility of children coming into adulthood, it also shows how the adults in charge are completely broken too.

It’s so overly complicated that I had to watch a 30 minute analysis video just to understand what the fuck I just watched

Imagine having to watch a 30 minute analysis video and still don't understand one bit.

 

[Mopey bloke]

Evangelion was awesome, and also inspired two badass games, Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears. Even if I didn't like it, I'd been glad it came out and succeeded. Still, Evangelion isn't super complicated. It's a conspiracy plot so of course most characters in the know have no intentions of confiding on people enough to reveal to the audience the finer points of their motivations. Still, at the end, Misato essentially dumps exposition on what happened after much digging.

I think towards the beginning of the series, some of the stablishing exposition to the scenario gets delivered as background talk which is hard to hear and most people assume is unimportant. It pays off to read subtitles though it isn't the best way to watch the show.

 

[Kev Kev]

Imagine having to watch a 30 minute analysis video and still don't understand one bit.

Lol oh no I understand perfectly. The worst part is you actually have to also understand what was going on with the studio, the harassment and death threats they were receiving, events and culture that happened in the real world around the time Eva was being produced and how it altered the course of Eva’s story. Without understanding all that you honestly can’t fully understand the story.

The end of Eva for instance is basically the shows creator giving a giant robot sized middle finger to all the rabid super fans who were writing the death threats and literally vandalizing and trying to burn their studio down. But their is no way anyone would understand all of that context without big outside of the show and say watching a 30 minute analysis that explains all that. You should check it out, it’s a fascinating story. Unfortunately, Eva as a show suffered for it, and as a result the show is shit in my opinion.

 

[Jon Neu]

The End Of Evangelion has literally nothing to do with the death threats, neither with "what was happening with the studio", whatever that means.

The End Of Evangelion is literally the ending that Anno wanted to do for the original TV series and he couldn't do it because the TV show run out of money and time pretty quickly. That's why the last two episodes of the show are full of recycled frames, super long still shoots without any animation, etc...

Anno actually did a masterful job with the TV ending with the very little money he had, but obviously his original vision of what he wanted to do was what we later saw in The End Of Evangelion.

 

[Joelenheimer]

I hate the remake and adore the original, manga is great too.

 

[Mitsuda Maniac]

Neon Genesis is best when you are in puperty, haven't had sex yet, and are an introvert. Man, it can't get better than that!

Partially true, but I would rather grow up with media such as NGE as opposed to woke garbage like the new MCU and Star Wars. Watch that crap and you will end up being a Resetera user.

 

[Jon Neu]

I hate the remake and adore the original, manga is great too.

Have you seen the last movie?

The manga is great, I absolutely love Sadamoto's drawing style, he gave the characters a lot of emotion and expression.

Spoiler: Manga

 

[TrainedRage]

I recommended to one of my 8th grade students. It fucked him up. Lol he loved it

 

[YCoCg]

The original or the Netflix "inclusive" non-binary cast?

 

[Kev Kev]

The End Of Evangelion has literally nothing to do with the death threats, neither with "what was happening with the studio", whatever that means.

just check this out, it explains everything. the guy presents a solid case for why EoE was basically a giant troll courtesy of Anno



i had to watch this to fully understand what the hell was going on. but even after it was explained, i still think its shit. it could have told the story it wanted to tell in a much easier to consume way, but they went bonkers with the weirdness and it just becomes overly complicated towards the end. i would have liked it had i not been so lost throughout the end.

 

[Reality Czar]

I loved it all, including the ending. The weird abstract shit, I loved it. Do I understand it? No, but I don't need to.

Shinji, I feel your pain. You are every teenager.

 

[Jon Neu]

just check this out, it explains everything.

I highly doubt it explains "everything", and a quick looking at the comments tell me so. If you want to understand everything, every scene, every symbolism and the overall intention and meaning, you have a wonderful forum called Evageeks filled with brilliant in depth analysis with people that have a much higher knowledge of EVA & EVA's lore, Hideaki Anno and japanese society and culture.

But the core of it isn't that difficult to understand, really.

 

[Kev Kev]

I highly doubt it explains "everything", and a quick looking at the comments tell me so. If you want to understand everything, every scene, every symbolism and the overall intention and meaning, you have a wonderful forum called Evageeks filled with brilliant in depth analysis with people that have a much higher knowledge of EVA & EVA's lore, Hideaki Anno and japanese society and culture.

But the core of it isn't that difficult to understand, really.

lol come on man. just check it out, its a really good analysis even if you dont agree with it. i promise you will understand what i am saying after watching it.

 

[Jon Neu]

lol come on man. just check it out, its a really good analysis even if you dont agree with it. i promise you will understand what i am saying after watching it.

You owe me 23 minutes of my life.

He didn't express anything I haven't heard in the last 20 years.

 

[Jon Neu]

Just for the sake of giving the time spent some productivity, I will enumerate the things he got wrong:

EoE and TV endings are different: No, they aren't. They are both the same ending, but the TV show happens in the metaphorical psyche of the characters (mainly Shinji) during instrumentality, while in EoE you can see what happens both inside and outside the minds of the characters.The only thing that differs is that EoE goes a little bit beyond (One More Final).

EoE is Anno trolling the audience: Anno doesn't want to troll the audience, Anno wants for the audience to become self-aware and improve their lives, but Anno didn't make The End Of Evangelion as a middle finger to his fans, that's just a silly edgy take. Also for some reason he blows up out of proportion the importance of the death threats or the significance of a very small part of the audience wanting escapism instead of psychological drama and self introspection. Evangelion was one of the most succesful franchises ever precisely because it was different from anything else.

Shinji rejects instrumentality because he wants others to feel pain: That's the most retarded take you can make out of Shinji rejecting instrumentality in EoE, but it fits his edgy Anno is giving the middle finger narrative. The epiphany that Shinji goes through in EoE it's exactly the same he goes through in the TV ending; after becoming one with the world he actually learns about the thoughts and feelings of his friends, parents, etc... He actually has a meaningful conversation and understanding of how human relationships work and about what means being human, what means being himself in the dangerous world of human relationships (the hedghehog's dilemma). He then decides to bring everybody back because he decides it's worth it to live in a world filled with pain and fear, but also love, understanding and real emotions. He remembers his friends and he is longing to be with them again and make connections, he is absolutely happy when he decides to reject instrumentality, just like in the TV ending.

After that, then the One More Final scene happens, but that's a different story that he obviously didn't understand neither.

 

[Joelenheimer]

Have you seen the last movie?

The manga is great, I absolutely love Sadamoto's drawing style, he gave the characters a lot of emotion and expression.

Spoiler: Manga

The third movie flew off the rails too much for me personally. I'll check out the fourth movie for shits n' grins. Who knows, it might surprise me.

 

[Joelenheimer]

Lol exactly, I saw it once when I was 18, and watched again recently and it is shit. It’s so overly complicated that I had to watch a 30 minute analysis video just to understand what the fuck I just watched

But it’s basically this:

Spoiler

depressed boy with daddy issues can’t get laid and doesn’t save the world.

the end.

why tf does anyone think that’s good?

Because it's not every other anime. I legit loved that he got in the Eva and failed. Quite realistic, who the fuck would be able to just get in something completely beyond their comprehension and just win. Naw, Eva is sick af. A little bitchy at times, yes, but ya gotta have dark with the light. Great, great anime that deserves all the recognition and fame it gets.

 

[Jon Neu]

The third movie flew off the rails too much for me personally. I'll check out the fourth movie for shits n' grins. Who knows, it might surprise me.

I didn't like the third movie neither, but I appreciate that it was an homage to another one of Anno's work and one of my favourite animes ever: Fushigi No Umi No Nadia.



I wish he would do a rebuild of Nadia.

 

[DGrayson]

I recently forced my little sister to watch. she was 22ish when she did. I told her look, dont wait to get too old or it wont be as good. watch it now when you are younger. She loved it BTW.

 

[Rat Rage]

Partially true, but I would rather grow up with media such as NGE as opposed to woke garbage like the new MCU and Star Wars. Watch that crap and you will end up being a Resetera user.

With my comment I'm not bashing NGE (it's amazing actually). I just stated under which circumstances a viewer/potential new viewer will get the most out of this series . When I was younger, all of it applied to myself - and boy was it amazing. You can totally watch and enjoy it when you are older as well, nothing wrong with it. But NGE is definitely best when you are still in your teens.

 

[Fbh]

Rewatched it some years ago.
My opinion didn't change much. I still like it overall but I also still like the first half better, before it gets unnecessarily convoluted.

Same with the newer movies. 1 and 2 were great, then it all went to hell with 3

 

[Jon Neu]

Not only is true that watching the series when you are roughly the same age as the protagonists is the most perfect scenario, but I'm afraid you also need to be from that generation to truly understand what Eva did and meant for it's time.

It was not normal at all in the 90's to have your escapism media pointing a mirror to yourself and savagely telling you how pathetic you are, it wasn't normal to have your escapism media to launch random introspections of the psyche of it's characters, it wasn't normal to have your escapism media have a teenager girl being literally mind raped by an alien or having your 14 years old protagonist to cry and shout like a literal lunatic after seeing his friend being eaten alive or his other friends being transformed into giant naked beings while he descends into madness. It wasn't normal for your escapism media to delve in all kinds of metaphysical and symbolic ways of explaining the narrative out of nowhere and it was much less normal when all of that came in the form of fucking cartoons.

Evangelion didn't subvert expectations, it just completely annihilated them into fucking oblivion. You just can't experience Evangelion as it was with the lens of today.

 

[Kev Kev]

Just for the sake of giving the time spent some productivity, I will enumerate the things he got wrong:

EoE and TV endings are different: No, they aren't. They are both the same ending, but the TV show happens in the metaphorical psyche of the characters (mainly Shinji) during instrumentality, while in EoE you can see what happens both inside and outside the minds of the characters.The only thing that differs is that EoE goes a little bit beyond (One More Final).

EoE is Anno trolling the audience: Anno doesn't want to troll the audience, Anno wants for the audience to become self-aware and improve their lives, but Anno didn't make The End Of Evangelion as a middle finger to his fans, that's just a silly edgy take. Also for some reason he blows up out of proportion the importance of the death threats or the significance of a very small part of the audience wanting escapism instead of psychological drama and self introspection. Evangelion was one of the most succesful franchises ever precisely because it was different from anything else.

Shinji rejects instrumentality because he wants others to feel pain: That's the most retarded take you can make out of Shinji rejecting instrumentality in EoE, but it fits his edgy Anno is giving the middle finger narrative. The epiphany that Shinji goes through in EoE it's exactly the same he goes through in the TV ending; after becoming one with the world he actually learns about the thoughts and feelings of his friends, parents, etc... He actually has a meaningful conversation and understanding of how human relationships work and about what means being human, what means being himself in the dangerous world of human relationships (the hedghehog's dilemma). He then decides to bring everybody back because he decides it's worth it to live in a world filled with pain and fear, but also love, understanding and real emotions. He remembers his friends and he is longing to be with them again and make connections, he is absolutely happy when he decides to reject instrumentality, just like in the TV ending.

After that, then the One More Final scene happens, but that's a different story that he obviously didn't understand neither.

 

[Dynomite]

I remember watching the VHS tapes over and over when I was a kid. #imold

 

[Halo is Back]

I recently forced my little sister to watch. she was 22ish when she did. I told her look, dont wait to get too old or it wont be as good. watch it now when you are younger. She loved it BTW.

I disagree with this sentiment. As I grew older, had more life experience, learned more about filmmaking, and went through my own mental health issues, I have SO much more appreciation for the show and the skill involved in making it.

 

[DGrayson]

I disagree with this sentiment. As I grew older, had more life experience, learned more about filmmaking, and went through my own mental health issues, I have SO much more appreciation for the show and the skill involved in making it.

My point was more understanding all the teen angst. As I'm older now its a bit tougher to empathize with. Everything else is amazing though

 

[lachesis]

Apparently there's a new translation of the series... for those of us who are past that puberty.

Spoiler: Shinji the hot blooded - warning very long...

(Just some translation of gag screen grabs from asia... )

I enjoyed it for its style and how polished the narrative/visuals were back then. I wasn't too into it, though - thought it was just way overly complicated plots and all.
I did recently watched it with more knowledge of what its about and all - it was still intriguing, but I guess I just moved on a bit in life.
I would, love to watch the 4th movie (damn you, Kensuke!) when it arrives in U.S. though. Supposedly its "super friendly" version, considering it's from Anno - but nevertheless a good wrap-up for the series.

 

[Labolas]

Eva is definitely one of goats for sure.

I highly doubt it explains "everything", and a quick looking at the comments tell me so. If you want to understand everything, every scene, every symbolism and the overall intention and meaning, you have a wonderful forum called Evageeks filled with brilliant in depth analysis with people that have a much higher knowledge of EVA & EVA's lore, Hideaki Anno and japanese society and culture.

But the core of it isn't that difficult to understand, really.

Man, Evageeks. That forum is still around? I remember finding that out when Youtube first started out and high speed internet became a thing. That brings me back.

Trigun is much better.

Meh, the manga's better.

 

[GymWolf]

Yeah they said the same thing about matrix 2...

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Just finished the Re-Watch. End of Evangelion is too dope. Episodes 25 and 26 of the series are still trash. I think next time I'll just skip straight to EoE.

Interesting that in the end, the main characters were unable to form a connection and all ended up lonely. I guess that's why the Third Impact stuff is so poignant.

 

[Celcius]

I watched this for the first time this year. At first I thought the show was cool and interesting (and I still think the ending song is amazing). But the last 3 episodes of the series sucked and hurt my opinion, and End of Evangelion wasn't good either.

Spoiler

EoE... The part where Asuka gets her mojo back and then kills the angles just before the time limit expires, just to have them come back to life as if nothing happened and then jump on her and devour her like a pack of wild dogs was messed up.

The show was an interesting experience and I don't regret watching it, but the ending was crazier than Kill la Kill.

 

[BlackTron]

Neon Genesis is best when you are in puperty, haven't had sex yet, and are an introvert. Man, it can't get better than that!

This is the exact scenario that I watched this show in, and I have to say, this is a great insight.

If I rewatched it now, it just wouldn't be the same.