Anime & Manga Teh CX Anime Review Thread
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prinCZess
Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Any show that has the first episode center around the main character brutally, brutally murdering the author of the work it's based off of...
Well I don't know if I can say 'you know it's going to be good' because Excel Saga is about the only show I know of that starts off that way. But still...
A lot of dumb, contextual humor and gags--so many I know I only remember some of them. But I do recall giggling at the credits (only of the dubbed version? Not sure if those change) where they pull a Monty Python and have just weird nicknames, stupid one-liners, and little tidbits snuck in.
And, of course...The already-mentioned motormouth.
Well I don't know if I can say 'you know it's going to be good' because Excel Saga is about the only show I know of that starts off that way. But still...
A lot of dumb, contextual humor and gags--so many I know I only remember some of them. But I do recall giggling at the credits (only of the dubbed version? Not sure if those change) where they pull a Monty Python and have just weird nicknames, stupid one-liners, and little tidbits snuck in.
And, of course...The already-mentioned motormouth.
Puni Puni Poemy
(2 episode OVA)
It showed up toward the end of Excel Saga as a show within a show, as a gag to make fun of the magical girl anime, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that this gag would have been followed up on. Actually this OVA is pretty much just episodes 27 and 28 of Excel Saga, parodying magical girl anime, yuri (lesbian) relationships in anime, and of course fan service. Yes, I imagine they had a lot of fun making fun of fan service.
The anime anatomy and other self censorship kind of ruined that a little for me, but all the cracks about it made up for it, a little.
The major running gag of this OVA is the constant breaking of the fourth wall. I didn't really find it all that funny, but then I didn't find it unfunny either. Basically Poemy constantly refers to herself as the name of the Japanese voice actress who plays her, and just to rub it in, said voice actress actually shows up in the opening theme as she sings it, and at the very end of the OVA after the credits. It loses a little of its effect that she's dubbed over, you know, in the dub, but I have to admit that it was still a little amusing, especially since she was cosplaying as the character.
There actually is a plot about aliens trying to take over the world, but it's actually pretty pointless and pretty much just serves as a means to set up the jokes.
You're welcome.
In any case, if you liked Excel Saga, there's a pretty good chance that you'll like this, too. I mostly did, though I have to admit that I didn't really enjoy it as much as Excel Saga proper. To be fair, that might just be from overexposure, but either way I'm giving this a 7/10.
(2 episode OVA)
It showed up toward the end of Excel Saga as a show within a show, as a gag to make fun of the magical girl anime, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that this gag would have been followed up on. Actually this OVA is pretty much just episodes 27 and 28 of Excel Saga, parodying magical girl anime, yuri (lesbian) relationships in anime, and of course fan service. Yes, I imagine they had a lot of fun making fun of fan service.
The anime anatomy and other self censorship kind of ruined that a little for me, but all the cracks about it made up for it, a little.The major running gag of this OVA is the constant breaking of the fourth wall. I didn't really find it all that funny, but then I didn't find it unfunny either. Basically Poemy constantly refers to herself as the name of the Japanese voice actress who plays her, and just to rub it in, said voice actress actually shows up in the opening theme as she sings it, and at the very end of the OVA after the credits. It loses a little of its effect that she's dubbed over, you know, in the dub, but I have to admit that it was still a little amusing, especially since she was cosplaying as the character.
There actually is a plot about aliens trying to take over the world, but it's actually pretty pointless and pretty much just serves as a means to set up the jokes.
You're welcome.
In any case, if you liked Excel Saga, there's a pretty good chance that you'll like this, too. I mostly did, though I have to admit that I didn't really enjoy it as much as Excel Saga proper. To be fair, that might just be from overexposure, but either way I'm giving this a 7/10.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Naw, I'm in agreement, I found Puni Puni Poemi unworthy as a successor to Excel Saga. Partly I think because it was so hyperfocused on parodying a single narrow anime genre while Excel Saga went more for the "Full Broadside of Grapeshot" approach, but also the type of humor became much narrower. Poemi turned the sex joke aspect up to 11, right down the sister's salute being the "International Symbol for Cameltoe," which I think hurt things as it crowded out a lot of other potential humor.
Two movies:
1.Memories/1995/
made from:
a.Magnetic rose - good space horror
b.Stink bomb - good parody of science experiment incidentally killing Japan.
c.Cannon fodder - good parody of war movie.
2.Otlander/1986/ - space romance.Not bad,if you have 48 minutes and need something simple.
1.Memories/1995/
made from:
a.Magnetic rose - good space horror
b.Stink bomb - good parody of science experiment incidentally killing Japan.
c.Cannon fodder - good parody of war movie.
2.Otlander/1986/ - space romance.Not bad,if you have 48 minutes and need something simple.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
(26 episode series)
I'm sure some people reading this review are going to be upset, because frankly, I didn't particularly like this series. Mostly it suffers from "too frakking long and drawn out" syndrome, but there's also the fact that there isn't really a single character who doesn't have some form of mental or emotional malfunction, and there's so much whining that I've pretty much decided to call this "Emo-gelion."
Now let's get something straight up front – I do like it when a work goes into some depth to explain things, to set them up, or to give me a sense of mystery. Evangelion does do this, and I liked those parts of it. The mystery about what exactly all the angels were trying to get at inside NERV headquarters is eventually revealed, leading to more mysteries about what exactly Lilith is and what will really happen if an angel gets there, as well as why it's being kept secret. After all, the characters are always complaining about their budget being too small for them to effectively protect this mysterious creature/thing/whatever, and how the world is going to end if an angel ever touches it, so why not just explain this to the bean-counters so they can get more money to do their jobs? Instead, everything is kept secret, even from most of the people working at NERV, including Misato Katsuragi, who is a major and the operations director of NERV. In a way, though, that makes things a little more interesting, because the nature and origin of the Eva units is slowly revealed to us, as well as just what "second impact" is, and why the world seems to be a lot warmer than what it is now. There is a bit of a disconnect, though, in that while it's said that basically half of humanity has been wiped out and the above-ground city appears to be in ruins, there seem to be no shortage of people that we see, anyway, and nothing ever seems to disrupt or change the "normal high school" we see various characters attending.
Which brings me to my next area of discussion, the characters. Now most of them might have been somewhat interesting just because they had some rather complex backgrounds, and this usually makes for some complex characters. For instance it was somewhat interesting to learn that Gendo had changed his last name upon marrying rather than following the tradition of having the wife change her family name. Even though Gendo is a complete bastard, it still says something about his character and gives some indication about how he felt about his wife, which also goes to explain something about his relationship with Rei Ayanami. Well, sort of. Anyway, the real problem here is just the shear amount of characters who are completely messed up. I like ensemble casts, and this is one, and the series does try to pay each of them some service, but there's just too much malfunction. In the end, that's all that I really got out of this series. Finding out that Rei acts like a robot because she's basically a genetically engineered clone isn't much of a revelation, and to be frank I saw that one coming even without spoilers. Finding out Asuka is a bitch because she had a messed up childhood and a horrible mother doesn't really make her any more sympathetic. Finding out Misato is a slut because she had bad parents didn't really do a whole lot either. The fact that there is just so much of stuff like that kind of cheapens what it might otherwise do for a character. Misato was a somewhat interesting character, even if she was somewhat stereotypical and accounts for a lot of the fan service. The thing is, by the time the series gets to her background, I really wasn't in a mindset to much care anymore, because the series had already gone into so much with so many other characters. Hell, Asuka might have been a bit more sympathetic even if she'd been the only completely messed up one, though she also would've had to cut back on the whining. Then there's Shinji, who is pretty much just completely pathetic. He whines a lot, seems to have no will to stand up for himself, and when he finally gets a bit of development and starts to tell people off, he ends up going right back to being a whiny loser. There were even some indications that Shinji might swing for both teams at one point, but by then I just didn't care and could pretty much only laugh at how it played out.
Actually, I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised at how character-oriented this series was. I was pretty much under the impression that this was just another giant mecha series, but while in some ways the series did revolve around the mecha, in others it really didn't. Which, ironically enough, makes it like a lot of other mecha series that I've seen, though to be fair they were probably influenced by Evangelion. There were plenty of aspects of this series I liked, which I described above in a bit more detail. I liked the build up of mystery, I liked the ensemble cast vibe, and I liked how complex the characters were, even though this turned out to be something of a double-edged sword.
Which brings me to the main reason I could barely stand to watch this series – the constant whining. I'm already pretty biased against anything that uses internal monologue. To me, having the character mentally explain everything to the audience is a cheat, because part of the fun of a good show is trying to guess what a character is thinking and/or feeling. That actually made Gendo somewhat interesting because he never really had any internal monologue to conveniently explain everything for us. Everyone else, though, had tons of it, especially the children. Whether it was to whine in voice only while we watched them curl into the fetal position, or to enter a strange mental world, pretty much all of it was purely exposition and it all really got on my nerves, in no small part just from the shear fact that 90% of it was to whine about something. Yes, I know that the creator of this series was off his meds and depressed at one point and he put a lot of that experience into making this series, but to be frank he went overboard with it. It would have been a lot better had only a few characters been messed up/depressed instead of basically everyone, but that isn't all. Shinji in particular is a pathetic loser and I lost all sympathy for him because of it. Characters can be sympathetic because of something messed up happening to them, and Shinji does have a bastard father who basically robbed him of a childhood, but my god the whining. Not only did it seem somewhat disproportionate, but to be frank, I really didn't need to hear all that, and all the time given to have him whine using internal monologue was ridiculous. And making him a complete push-over didn't make things any better. I mean, it could have, maybe, if there had been some development from that point that actually stayed with him, but he pretty much was just always the whiney push-over and nothing else. Another way this could have been better would have been if Shinji had actually interacted with any of the other characters who could have maybe helped him to get over some of the issues he had, even if it was kind of in a messed up way, like they almost seemed to be doing with Misato but never really went anywhere with it. In any case, all the time given to have the characters whine to themselves is what killed my enjoyment of the series. There actually were times I shouted, "do something!" at the screen, and I got more than a few laughs from the rest of the people watching this with me.
Then there are the other aspects of this series that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Like why were children needed to pilot these giant mecha? I mean, they very briefly mentioned an excuse at one point, but I never really felt that it was explained. How is it that the mechas themselves were able to combat the invading alien "angels" when no conventional weapons could touch them? I get that it had some technological reason, but again, I never felt this was explained very well, so all we really got were giant monsters beating each other up, played entirely straight. Occasionally they used guns, too, and I have to admit that this is just an area in general I've never gotten the whole mecha design, because to me any guns should be built into the machines rather than just making them giant guns they can use. In this instance it makes a little less sense because we watched all kinds of conventional military attacks being thrown at these angels by the time NERV steps in, and they're still shooting what amounts to conventional weaponry at them. The big laser gun was about the only thing that made much sense as a separate weapon that might do something to these extremely hard to beat invaders, though making it a giant sniper rifle made me laugh a little. Then there's the cause of all their problems, Lilith. It is apparently what touched down in Antarctica and caused "Second Impact" (on another note, was there a "First Impact?") and what is drawing all these alien "angels" to it. If they touch it, it is said all life on Earth will be destroyed. How and why? What is the nature of this threat? If they just shot it into space and away from the planet, would all life on Earth still be destroyed? Would shooting it into the Sun eliminate this threat? If not, why not do either of those and save everyone the trouble? You could still make an interesting show out of that, after all that's basically what Argento Soma was about, except the only reason all life on Earth was going to end had to do with the size of an approaching "angel" and not for any mystical, quasi-religious reason.
Oh, and what was the deal with Pen-Pen? I mean, they mentioned he was a genetic experiment of some kind, and I realize he was basically only there for comedy relief, but did they ever mention what the reason for his creation was or why Misato was able to adopt him?
Which, I have to say, the comedy relief really helped keep this series watchable, and I will say that I think it was fairly well balanced. The show was depressing enough as it is, but the comedy relief made it so that it wasn't completely depressing, you know, like the Battlestar Galactica reboot, which is how this series easily could have been with all the depression that was being focused on as it was. It was also nice that they didn't go completely overboard with the comedy relief, much like the recent in name only reboot of Star Trek, or so many examples of it I've seen in other animes.
So to be fair, Evangelion does have many strong points which I hope I covered. The problems I have with it are the overwhelming negative aspects which I also described. You also might notice I haven't mentioned the original series' ending up to this point either. While I'm going to be reviewing The End of Evangelion separately, I'm hoping that it at least does a better job than the last couple of episodes of the series, which made no sense at all, and frankly didn't even fit with the rest of the series aside from just the general weirdness factor. The only other thing I'll really say is that if the series hadn't wasted so much time with the whining exposition, and the flashback clip episode, they might have had a bit more time to give it a better ending. Having some budget left over to animate it probably would have helped, too, but that's another matter.
I could see why this anime is liked by so many anime fans; I just don't share their feelings for it. I will say that I am somewhat interested in the storyline, to the point that I want to see The End of Evangelion and that I'm somewhat interested in seeing if the Rebuild of Evangelion movies are any better at telling it. But there were still a lot of times that almost made me want to stop watching, so much so that only the fact I was providing the speakers for my local anime club to watch this kept me there. That and the fact I had some friends there riffing it with me helped. I don't want to insult anyone who's a fan of this series, and please don’t be if you are, but I can't rate this series very high. I just wouldn't recommend this for someone who hasn't seen it unless they're just curious to see what the big deal is, and this comes with ample warning of the boring depression aspect of it. 6/10.
(26 episode series)
I'm sure some people reading this review are going to be upset, because frankly, I didn't particularly like this series. Mostly it suffers from "too frakking long and drawn out" syndrome, but there's also the fact that there isn't really a single character who doesn't have some form of mental or emotional malfunction, and there's so much whining that I've pretty much decided to call this "Emo-gelion."
Now let's get something straight up front – I do like it when a work goes into some depth to explain things, to set them up, or to give me a sense of mystery. Evangelion does do this, and I liked those parts of it. The mystery about what exactly all the angels were trying to get at inside NERV headquarters is eventually revealed, leading to more mysteries about what exactly Lilith is and what will really happen if an angel gets there, as well as why it's being kept secret. After all, the characters are always complaining about their budget being too small for them to effectively protect this mysterious creature/thing/whatever, and how the world is going to end if an angel ever touches it, so why not just explain this to the bean-counters so they can get more money to do their jobs? Instead, everything is kept secret, even from most of the people working at NERV, including Misato Katsuragi, who is a major and the operations director of NERV. In a way, though, that makes things a little more interesting, because the nature and origin of the Eva units is slowly revealed to us, as well as just what "second impact" is, and why the world seems to be a lot warmer than what it is now. There is a bit of a disconnect, though, in that while it's said that basically half of humanity has been wiped out and the above-ground city appears to be in ruins, there seem to be no shortage of people that we see, anyway, and nothing ever seems to disrupt or change the "normal high school" we see various characters attending.
Which brings me to my next area of discussion, the characters. Now most of them might have been somewhat interesting just because they had some rather complex backgrounds, and this usually makes for some complex characters. For instance it was somewhat interesting to learn that Gendo had changed his last name upon marrying rather than following the tradition of having the wife change her family name. Even though Gendo is a complete bastard, it still says something about his character and gives some indication about how he felt about his wife, which also goes to explain something about his relationship with Rei Ayanami. Well, sort of. Anyway, the real problem here is just the shear amount of characters who are completely messed up. I like ensemble casts, and this is one, and the series does try to pay each of them some service, but there's just too much malfunction. In the end, that's all that I really got out of this series. Finding out that Rei acts like a robot because she's basically a genetically engineered clone isn't much of a revelation, and to be frank I saw that one coming even without spoilers. Finding out Asuka is a bitch because she had a messed up childhood and a horrible mother doesn't really make her any more sympathetic. Finding out Misato is a slut because she had bad parents didn't really do a whole lot either. The fact that there is just so much of stuff like that kind of cheapens what it might otherwise do for a character. Misato was a somewhat interesting character, even if she was somewhat stereotypical and accounts for a lot of the fan service. The thing is, by the time the series gets to her background, I really wasn't in a mindset to much care anymore, because the series had already gone into so much with so many other characters. Hell, Asuka might have been a bit more sympathetic even if she'd been the only completely messed up one, though she also would've had to cut back on the whining. Then there's Shinji, who is pretty much just completely pathetic. He whines a lot, seems to have no will to stand up for himself, and when he finally gets a bit of development and starts to tell people off, he ends up going right back to being a whiny loser. There were even some indications that Shinji might swing for both teams at one point, but by then I just didn't care and could pretty much only laugh at how it played out.
Actually, I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised at how character-oriented this series was. I was pretty much under the impression that this was just another giant mecha series, but while in some ways the series did revolve around the mecha, in others it really didn't. Which, ironically enough, makes it like a lot of other mecha series that I've seen, though to be fair they were probably influenced by Evangelion. There were plenty of aspects of this series I liked, which I described above in a bit more detail. I liked the build up of mystery, I liked the ensemble cast vibe, and I liked how complex the characters were, even though this turned out to be something of a double-edged sword.
Which brings me to the main reason I could barely stand to watch this series – the constant whining. I'm already pretty biased against anything that uses internal monologue. To me, having the character mentally explain everything to the audience is a cheat, because part of the fun of a good show is trying to guess what a character is thinking and/or feeling. That actually made Gendo somewhat interesting because he never really had any internal monologue to conveniently explain everything for us. Everyone else, though, had tons of it, especially the children. Whether it was to whine in voice only while we watched them curl into the fetal position, or to enter a strange mental world, pretty much all of it was purely exposition and it all really got on my nerves, in no small part just from the shear fact that 90% of it was to whine about something. Yes, I know that the creator of this series was off his meds and depressed at one point and he put a lot of that experience into making this series, but to be frank he went overboard with it. It would have been a lot better had only a few characters been messed up/depressed instead of basically everyone, but that isn't all. Shinji in particular is a pathetic loser and I lost all sympathy for him because of it. Characters can be sympathetic because of something messed up happening to them, and Shinji does have a bastard father who basically robbed him of a childhood, but my god the whining. Not only did it seem somewhat disproportionate, but to be frank, I really didn't need to hear all that, and all the time given to have him whine using internal monologue was ridiculous. And making him a complete push-over didn't make things any better. I mean, it could have, maybe, if there had been some development from that point that actually stayed with him, but he pretty much was just always the whiney push-over and nothing else. Another way this could have been better would have been if Shinji had actually interacted with any of the other characters who could have maybe helped him to get over some of the issues he had, even if it was kind of in a messed up way, like they almost seemed to be doing with Misato but never really went anywhere with it. In any case, all the time given to have the characters whine to themselves is what killed my enjoyment of the series. There actually were times I shouted, "do something!" at the screen, and I got more than a few laughs from the rest of the people watching this with me.
Then there are the other aspects of this series that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Like why were children needed to pilot these giant mecha? I mean, they very briefly mentioned an excuse at one point, but I never really felt that it was explained. How is it that the mechas themselves were able to combat the invading alien "angels" when no conventional weapons could touch them? I get that it had some technological reason, but again, I never felt this was explained very well, so all we really got were giant monsters beating each other up, played entirely straight. Occasionally they used guns, too, and I have to admit that this is just an area in general I've never gotten the whole mecha design, because to me any guns should be built into the machines rather than just making them giant guns they can use. In this instance it makes a little less sense because we watched all kinds of conventional military attacks being thrown at these angels by the time NERV steps in, and they're still shooting what amounts to conventional weaponry at them. The big laser gun was about the only thing that made much sense as a separate weapon that might do something to these extremely hard to beat invaders, though making it a giant sniper rifle made me laugh a little. Then there's the cause of all their problems, Lilith. It is apparently what touched down in Antarctica and caused "Second Impact" (on another note, was there a "First Impact?") and what is drawing all these alien "angels" to it. If they touch it, it is said all life on Earth will be destroyed. How and why? What is the nature of this threat? If they just shot it into space and away from the planet, would all life on Earth still be destroyed? Would shooting it into the Sun eliminate this threat? If not, why not do either of those and save everyone the trouble? You could still make an interesting show out of that, after all that's basically what Argento Soma was about, except the only reason all life on Earth was going to end had to do with the size of an approaching "angel" and not for any mystical, quasi-religious reason.
Oh, and what was the deal with Pen-Pen? I mean, they mentioned he was a genetic experiment of some kind, and I realize he was basically only there for comedy relief, but did they ever mention what the reason for his creation was or why Misato was able to adopt him?
Which, I have to say, the comedy relief really helped keep this series watchable, and I will say that I think it was fairly well balanced. The show was depressing enough as it is, but the comedy relief made it so that it wasn't completely depressing, you know, like the Battlestar Galactica reboot, which is how this series easily could have been with all the depression that was being focused on as it was. It was also nice that they didn't go completely overboard with the comedy relief, much like the recent in name only reboot of Star Trek, or so many examples of it I've seen in other animes.
So to be fair, Evangelion does have many strong points which I hope I covered. The problems I have with it are the overwhelming negative aspects which I also described. You also might notice I haven't mentioned the original series' ending up to this point either. While I'm going to be reviewing The End of Evangelion separately, I'm hoping that it at least does a better job than the last couple of episodes of the series, which made no sense at all, and frankly didn't even fit with the rest of the series aside from just the general weirdness factor. The only other thing I'll really say is that if the series hadn't wasted so much time with the whining exposition, and the flashback clip episode, they might have had a bit more time to give it a better ending. Having some budget left over to animate it probably would have helped, too, but that's another matter.
I could see why this anime is liked by so many anime fans; I just don't share their feelings for it. I will say that I am somewhat interested in the storyline, to the point that I want to see The End of Evangelion and that I'm somewhat interested in seeing if the Rebuild of Evangelion movies are any better at telling it. But there were still a lot of times that almost made me want to stop watching, so much so that only the fact I was providing the speakers for my local anime club to watch this kept me there. That and the fact I had some friends there riffing it with me helped. I don't want to insult anyone who's a fan of this series, and please don’t be if you are, but I can't rate this series very high. I just wouldn't recommend this for someone who hasn't seen it unless they're just curious to see what the big deal is, and this comes with ample warning of the boring depression aspect of it. 6/10.
Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
I didn't like it that much either. I thought it was a 6/10 fine. Great art and animation. Pretty cool and original ideas for its time. Most of the characters are unlikeable (and not in the good way; they actively detracted from my enjoyment of the show). Show becomes a slog about 2/3rds of the way through. Unsatisfying ending (the EoE movie is a bombastic disaster movie and 10x cooler than the show's ending, but the ending is still unsatisfying). Massively overrated.
Evangelion is one of those shows were people constantly wank about the "character study" and the "deconstruction" and the "themes", but they were far and away the most dull part of the show and total nonsense. The fights against the truly alien angel monsters... the creepy cool EVA units that are giant monsters that are grown and enslaved and mindcontrolled... the ominous evil SEELE councils of doom... the backdrops of skyscrapers submerged in the ocean and a huge high tech underground city... now that is what I was excited for. It's just really aesthetically cool. The episodes were also just enjoyable to watch. Digibro had a few videos on Evangelion (sadly he flipped out and purged all of his old videos) that covered the directing choices, like the frequent use of camera pans to make the world feel larger, or how shots often begin and end on movement to catch and direct the audience's attention.
EDIT: Ah, looks like someone archived Digibro's videos.
prinCZess
Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Evangelion...I honestly dunnow how to feel about?
Watched it in the mid-00s after a decent bit of knowing other anime. It was...what it was. I'm personally kind of a sucker for the 'long, drawn-out internal monologue' (too much so in fact, since it colors my own writing far too much) because I like character studies and shows/books that do the mind-poking exhibition of how a character thinks or views things. But even at the time and since...Evangelion's characters somehow manage to accomplish flatness in any complexity they might have (or vice-versa to be pseudo-complimentary).
Hell, maybe it's even that the characters get flanderized or simplified in the show itself in the process of attempted depth being added. Rei starts out as this shell-shocked with PTSD from aliums but going to by-god pilot the giant robot to save the world type...and then drops to 'clone with crush'. Asuka starts out as the overconfident but-for-reason ace who's comfortable in her own skin...and then drops to 'utterly dependent on others view of her because mommy issues'. Misato goes 'doing her best in circumstances' -> 'woman-child'. Scientist-lady goes 'Cold pragmatic scientist' -> 'crazed/jilted lover'. Everyone just gets more stereotypical and worse rather than deeper...Except Shinji, I guess. He begins as the emotionally abused pushover-kid and after much monologuing is implied to overcome that. Even if the show actually 'shows' that in the most 'telling' manner possible. Congratulations indeed, Shinji! 🤬
At this point, I'm pretty sure it's more important in terms of impact and such rather than objective quality--because in the US it has a massive status because of where it landed in the development of anime and being the emblematic 'serious' one that wasn't curse-words, bloodsprays, and tentacles going after teenage girls in sailor uniforms. (I have no earthly idea why Japan went ga-ga over it. Super robots and waifus? I seriously don't really know and have always half-wondered, because near as I can tell it IS a going and big touchstone there as well, and that would--I assume--be disassociated from the US where it's partially because of how it's a 'serious' show).
There's a lot of very well-done animation in it (and then episodes of black-and-white panels ) but...I honestly think part of the reason it's popular is part of the reason Worm seems to have been popular (to steal a theory from other people I've seen on the internet, having never read Worm). It creates this setting that's very interesting and does a good job on it...But then has some MASSIVE GLARING FLAWS or missteps or oddities that people are encouraged to take up their own pen and 'do it better'. People see Evangelion for its potential, that boiling down to, I suppose?
*shrug*
I've never felt much desire to go back to it, either for the ending movie or the rebuilds or to reexamine for a closer appreciation of the 'character study'.
Watched it in the mid-00s after a decent bit of knowing other anime. It was...what it was. I'm personally kind of a sucker for the 'long, drawn-out internal monologue' (too much so in fact, since it colors my own writing far too much) because I like character studies and shows/books that do the mind-poking exhibition of how a character thinks or views things. But even at the time and since...Evangelion's characters somehow manage to accomplish flatness in any complexity they might have (or vice-versa to be pseudo-complimentary).
Hell, maybe it's even that the characters get flanderized or simplified in the show itself in the process of attempted depth being added. Rei starts out as this shell-shocked with PTSD from aliums but going to by-god pilot the giant robot to save the world type...and then drops to 'clone with crush'. Asuka starts out as the overconfident but-for-reason ace who's comfortable in her own skin...and then drops to 'utterly dependent on others view of her because mommy issues'. Misato goes 'doing her best in circumstances' -> 'woman-child'. Scientist-lady goes 'Cold pragmatic scientist' -> 'crazed/jilted lover'. Everyone just gets more stereotypical and worse rather than deeper...Except Shinji, I guess. He begins as the emotionally abused pushover-kid and after much monologuing is implied to overcome that. Even if the show actually 'shows' that in the most 'telling' manner possible. Congratulations indeed, Shinji! 🤬
At this point, I'm pretty sure it's more important in terms of impact and such rather than objective quality--because in the US it has a massive status because of where it landed in the development of anime and being the emblematic 'serious' one that wasn't curse-words, bloodsprays, and tentacles going after teenage girls in sailor uniforms. (I have no earthly idea why Japan went ga-ga over it. Super robots and waifus? I seriously don't really know and have always half-wondered, because near as I can tell it IS a going and big touchstone there as well, and that would--I assume--be disassociated from the US where it's partially because of how it's a 'serious' show).
There's a lot of very well-done animation in it (and then episodes of black-and-white panels
) but...I honestly think part of the reason it's popular is part of the reason Worm seems to have been popular (to steal a theory from other people I've seen on the internet, having never read Worm). It creates this setting that's very interesting and does a good job on it...But then has some MASSIVE GLARING FLAWS or missteps or oddities that people are encouraged to take up their own pen and 'do it better'. People see Evangelion for its potential, that boiling down to, I suppose?*shrug*
I've never felt much desire to go back to it, either for the ending movie or the rebuilds or to reexamine for a closer appreciation of the 'character study'.
I actually kind of like the rebuild movies a bit better, but not by much. I've only watched the first two so far, though.
My impression of why Evangelion seems to be so popular in the fandom (at least of my generation) is that they tend to see themselves in one of the characters, usually Shinji or Asuka. And of course there's the waifuism between angry redheaded jerk and robot girl, because they'd rather fight over which 14 year old girl they think is hot than even consider the drunk and easy busty adult who was totally not grooming a 14 year old boy at all.
My impression of why Evangelion seems to be so popular in the fandom (at least of my generation) is that they tend to see themselves in one of the characters, usually Shinji or Asuka. And of course there's the waifuism between angry redheaded jerk and robot girl, because they'd rather fight over which 14 year old girl they think is hot than even consider the drunk and easy busty adult who was totally not grooming a 14 year old boy at all.
Terthna
Professional Lurker
As I understand it, it's because they're inhabited and powered by human souls, and only someone whom said soul had a strong emotional connection to can be their pilot. Shinji's and Asuka's mecha has their mothers inside them, while Rei's has Ritsuko's mom (who absolutely despised her, and killed one of her predecessor clones in a fit of rage; so that connection doesn't necessarily have to be a positive one). That's just what I heard though; I think I only made it to episode 8 before I got bored and dropped it, so most of what I know about the show comes from other people talking about it and fanfiction, and I could be completely wrong.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
I feel like Evangelion was quite important for it's historical position and the influence it had on Anime, but it was basically what it was because it had little competition. You can kinda compare it with Star Trek TOS which, well it's import historically and laid a lot of the foundation for modern sci-fi shows and movies, but trying to actually watch it today can be a bit painful. I don't think Evangelion would be such a success in the modern day.
Evangelion also draws on an entirely different emotional set than most mecha shows which deeply affect which fans it appeals to and how. It's fundamentally hurt/comfort rather than heroism/adventure.
Evangelion also draws on an entirely different emotional set than most mecha shows which deeply affect which fans it appeals to and how. It's fundamentally hurt/comfort rather than heroism/adventure.
Slayers
(26 episode series)
While not a horrible anime series, it definitely isn't good. This is more one of those boring shows that tries to be funny and occasionally manages to be, kind of like Ah! My Goddess, only without a group like the Motor Club to make things slightly interesting. I can honestly say that after a few episodes I would have given up on this series. But as it turns out, I'm the sound guy for the local anime club, and this was one of the series they elected to watch this semester.
Now to be fair, this series does have its moments where it actually succeeds at being funny, whether intentionally or not. It's obvious that this series doesn't take itself entirely seriously, and it frequently goes over the top with things and breaks the fourth wall. The thing is, a lot of the things that are supposed to be funny, like say main character Lina Inverse's eating habits, generally aren't. There are also a few other moments that lend themselves very well to being riffed and just generally being easy to make fun of. Bad voice acting was one of those things, and interjecting "so when do I get paid?" after an example of it was a fairly easy way to get a few laughs. Then there was a fight toward the end of the series that happened to fit very well with a YTMND that consisted of a loop of Harry Plinkett saying “I’m a fuckin’ badass” and “titty cleavage,” which my friends and I quoted over and over during said fight scene. You'll probably have had to have seen this series to know what I'm talking about, so if you haven't, don't worry if you don't get this joke because frankly it isn't worth it to watch just to find out.
Unfortunately, for the most part this series was just plain boring. Usually this was when the series actually got into its plot, which was a very typical quest plot for what was a very typical medieval magic fantasy story. This is actually one of the things I think of when I think "generic anime," mostly because it seems like there are a lot of them, which I hope to never ever watch. There's some magical big bad who wants to take over the world and some random hero(ine) with some kind of special skill slowly gathers up allies and goes on side-quests to gain those allies as well as experience. And since this one tries to be funny most of the time, hijinks ensue. Oh, and they end up fighting the big bad twice. Kind of like a BioWare game now that I think about it.
I have to say that I was relieved when this show was finally over. It seemed like it wasn't going to end for a while, like it would just keep on going around in circles, doing the same tired old crap over and over again. I have to wonder if part of the problem isn't that this series might not have been aimed at a younger audience. I mean, there were more mature jokes in there, but that could have just been parental bonuses. Either way, the humor tended to be rather childish and I tired of it rather quickly thanks to the same types of bad jokes being done constantly.
Now this isn't the most horrible anime I've seen, but it is one of the most boring ones. Chobits still has it beat there, as well as in the "jokes that aren't funny" category, but not by a whole lot. 1/10.
(26 episode series)
While not a horrible anime series, it definitely isn't good. This is more one of those boring shows that tries to be funny and occasionally manages to be, kind of like Ah! My Goddess, only without a group like the Motor Club to make things slightly interesting. I can honestly say that after a few episodes I would have given up on this series. But as it turns out, I'm the sound guy for the local anime club, and this was one of the series they elected to watch this semester.
Now to be fair, this series does have its moments where it actually succeeds at being funny, whether intentionally or not. It's obvious that this series doesn't take itself entirely seriously, and it frequently goes over the top with things and breaks the fourth wall. The thing is, a lot of the things that are supposed to be funny, like say main character Lina Inverse's eating habits, generally aren't. There are also a few other moments that lend themselves very well to being riffed and just generally being easy to make fun of. Bad voice acting was one of those things, and interjecting "so when do I get paid?" after an example of it was a fairly easy way to get a few laughs. Then there was a fight toward the end of the series that happened to fit very well with a YTMND that consisted of a loop of Harry Plinkett saying “I’m a fuckin’ badass” and “titty cleavage,” which my friends and I quoted over and over during said fight scene. You'll probably have had to have seen this series to know what I'm talking about, so if you haven't, don't worry if you don't get this joke because frankly it isn't worth it to watch just to find out.
Unfortunately, for the most part this series was just plain boring. Usually this was when the series actually got into its plot, which was a very typical quest plot for what was a very typical medieval magic fantasy story. This is actually one of the things I think of when I think "generic anime," mostly because it seems like there are a lot of them, which I hope to never ever watch. There's some magical big bad who wants to take over the world and some random hero(ine) with some kind of special skill slowly gathers up allies and goes on side-quests to gain those allies as well as experience. And since this one tries to be funny most of the time, hijinks ensue. Oh, and they end up fighting the big bad twice. Kind of like a BioWare game now that I think about it.
I have to say that I was relieved when this show was finally over. It seemed like it wasn't going to end for a while, like it would just keep on going around in circles, doing the same tired old crap over and over again. I have to wonder if part of the problem isn't that this series might not have been aimed at a younger audience. I mean, there were more mature jokes in there, but that could have just been parental bonuses. Either way, the humor tended to be rather childish and I tired of it rather quickly thanks to the same types of bad jokes being done constantly.
Now this isn't the most horrible anime I've seen, but it is one of the most boring ones. Chobits still has it beat there, as well as in the "jokes that aren't funny" category, but not by a whole lot. 1/10.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Slayers fits into the same category as Evangelion, as something critically important for when it happened but out of date now and hard to watch.
To quote an old joke, "I can't figure out what people see in Hamlet. It's just a bunch of famous cliche lines strung together over and over."
If it seems staggeringly generic now, that's because Slayers is over 40 years old now. It was a contemporary to the first Gundam (Yes, the original Mobile Suit Gundam) and is actually a few years older than Sailor Moon. It has been copied thousands of times in those years and many of the hackneyed, tired jokes and tropes in Slayers were fresh and new when it was written. I also admire that it actually has an ending which is unfortunately one part the rest of the anime world didn't copy.
I think you might enjoy the sci-fi wing of the show, Slayers Lost Universe where the various magic weapons are all Clarketech starships. As it was written about 18 years after the first Slayers, it's not quite as far behind the curve.
Fun fact: You can't cosplay as Naga (Not sure if you watched the parts she's in, there's a heck of a lot of Slayers). Most cons that allow cosplaying have a special "No cosplaying as Naga the White Serpent" rule. Naga's outfit in real life, no matter how hard you work at it, is so skimpy and prone to "Wardrobe malfunctions," and the spikes on her outfit are so prone to getting caught and stabbing people (Which is joked at in the series with Naga repeatedly stabbing herself with her stupid spiky outfit), that a supermajority of cons flat out forbid her after so many accidents.
Slayers was also responsible for some of the most bitter sub vs. dub arguments in the US. It had a fairly good voice cast, well above it's competition at the time which gave the dub crowd ammunition but also had terrible translator notes and sometimes very little to go on. This lead to significant liberties with the script, such as the spell "Dill Brando" being called "Explosion Array" in some of the series because the dub team wasn't aware those were supposed to be the same spell. This was made even worse since they named one of the spinoff shows after the spell leading to Slayers: Explosion Array.
To quote an old joke, "I can't figure out what people see in Hamlet. It's just a bunch of famous cliche lines strung together over and over."
If it seems staggeringly generic now, that's because Slayers is over 40 years old now. It was a contemporary to the first Gundam (Yes, the original Mobile Suit Gundam) and is actually a few years older than Sailor Moon. It has been copied thousands of times in those years and many of the hackneyed, tired jokes and tropes in Slayers were fresh and new when it was written. I also admire that it actually has an ending which is unfortunately one part the rest of the anime world didn't copy.
I think you might enjoy the sci-fi wing of the show, Slayers Lost Universe where the various magic weapons are all Clarketech starships. As it was written about 18 years after the first Slayers, it's not quite as far behind the curve.
Fun fact: You can't cosplay as Naga (Not sure if you watched the parts she's in, there's a heck of a lot of Slayers). Most cons that allow cosplaying have a special "No cosplaying as Naga the White Serpent" rule. Naga's outfit in real life, no matter how hard you work at it, is so skimpy and prone to "Wardrobe malfunctions," and the spikes on her outfit are so prone to getting caught and stabbing people (Which is joked at in the series with Naga repeatedly stabbing herself with her stupid spiky outfit), that a supermajority of cons flat out forbid her after so many accidents.
Slayers was also responsible for some of the most bitter sub vs. dub arguments in the US. It had a fairly good voice cast, well above it's competition at the time which gave the dub crowd ammunition but also had terrible translator notes and sometimes very little to go on. This lead to significant liberties with the script, such as the spell "Dill Brando" being called "Explosion Array" in some of the series because the dub team wasn't aware those were supposed to be the same spell. This was made even worse since they named one of the spinoff shows after the spell leading to Slayers: Explosion Array.
prinCZess
Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Unlike Evangelion, this one I will fight you over IRL. One-v-one. Mano-e-mano. To the
Slayers is wonderful. Biting parody of the cliche D-and-D fantasy-knockoff genre by way of imitating it in many ways. This positive opinion is also, of course, utterly not influenced by nostalgia-goggles as the first three or four episodes on VHS CASSETTE were one of a tiny handful of prinCZess-patented Blockbuster rentals a half-dozen times over that introduced her to Japanese cartoons when she was an impressionable youngster.
More seriously, it is dated now and yeah, it works off of old tropes and probably solidified those for fantasy anime so all the various more modern shows which run with the 'I'm a useless idiot with overpowered shit and garbage writing in a generic fantasy universe who will collect a harem' theme can do whatever silliness they're trying to do. BUT...I have an incredibly juvenile sense of humor at the best of times, and a lot more of the comedy landed well with me when I was younger and continues to this day (having rewatched it not too long-ago). Lina's a fun character and seeing the 'serious' broken so often by either the writing intentionally with Lina or another character snarking asides like they ARE a D&D party, or with events themselves always amused me. Ditto with the animation getting in-on stupid little gags like that--the ones I always remember Lina getting the 'drop of sweat' expression and then grabbing the drop to hit Galry with, or a eyepatch-wearing bandit getting his clothing cut to shreds, including his eyepatch...and having a perfectly functional eye underneath. Or Galry's cross-dressing...
Is it dumb? Unquestionably. And gags get reused in a season of mostly-filler as the episodes with real plot development are...half or less of the actual episodes. But the dumb humor worked for me and kept me interested throughout. Intro theme is really fun as well. I'd legit argue it's much closer to a 7 or 8 even from a modern perspective, and higher than that if viewed as a product of its time.
The two 90s sequels never quite live up to the original in my opinion but I thought were fun (Try the most entertaining and, at least at the end, dramatic and 'powerful' in that sense, even if you can see the writing struggles there) and I got very little from the modern pair of sequels and would easily put them as the lowest of them all.
...Really? Well poo. I guess it makes sense, but there goes a solid chunk of my desire to go to an anime con until I can investigate that bit for certain. Me and the sis always toyed with the idea so we could do a Lina-Naga setup. Even if it would require some strong push-up magic on the Naga's part.
I would normally recommend the movies Naga appears in unhesitatingly to someone (because she is easily one of the best companions...My god, it really IS Bioware-game as an anime!). But if @Captain X disliked the series, the movies are too similar to really be different...And also suffer the change in voice-acting that makes Lina much more grating to listen to in English.
Y'know, I would overdramatically chastise you for this opinion and ask what you have against endearing animated rom-com romps...But this reminds me I haven't actually seen much of Ah! My Goddess and my positive opinion of it is based purely upon memes about Urd and the perception of it being a Japanime-knockoff of I Dream of Jeannie with more genies. Which might be an incorrect perception or might not be.
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Urd is honestly the best part of that show. Belldandy is a real sweetie, but Urd is still "best girl" in my opinion. Ah! My Goddess is kind of strange in that I do have some love for it, but I still consider it kind of a slog to make it through, and don't really consider it to be all that "good."
As for Slayers, it's funny, because it and Evangelion seem to be everyone's special shows, which is how I ended up watching them back to back and reviewing them. Come to think of it, I think the anime club I was part of picked them to watch during the same semester just to see what the big deal was about, and ended up not minding as my friends and I ended up making fun of them as we watched them MST3K style. No, Pretear was their sacred cow. "Can't you tell from the music that it's serious?"
I get that they're important shows because everyone and their uncle ripped them off (ironically, there are some Evangelion clones I like better then the show they're copying), but even without the tropes being tired and worn out now due to this, they just had too much that annoyed me, I guess. I do love me some fan service, but that isn't enough to save a show for me, and if a show shoves it in my face all the time, I'm just as likely to make fun of it, too, especially if I think it's an attempt to distract from bad writing.
Cons... Man, I miss cons from back in the day. They're all pretty much getting puritanical now. ACEN is pretty much the only decent one left. Saw someone cosplay Anck-su-namun there one year when I was standing in line for Kenichi Sonoda's Bean Bandit premier, and she didn't do some lame body-suit or something like that, no, she went full out with golden pasties and body paint, and looked very much like she was right out of the movie. That's also the only con I've seen a Ryuka Matoi cosplayer who didn't use foam or otherwise fake boobs for her cosplay, and just used pasties to cover her nipples in case they came out (which they did, several times). Other cons they kick Cammy cosplayers out for being too revealing.
As for Naga, I suppose it depends on the con. I've seen other cosplays with spikes on them and it seemed to be alright. I could see someone doing it at ACEN, but the trouble is finding someone who wants to cosplay something from such an old show. Occasionally I see stuff from Tank Police, but I have yet to see a Dirty Pair cosplay in person, and when my friends and I cosplayed Captain Tylor and Dr. Kitaguchi, my Dr. Kitaguchi kept getting confused for Dr. Eggman. Fun part is I had no idea who that even was until someone explained to me that it's the character I know as Dr. Robotnik. 😑
Anyway, found a good Naga cosplay using the power of DuckDuckGo.
As for Slayers, it's funny, because it and Evangelion seem to be everyone's special shows, which is how I ended up watching them back to back and reviewing them. Come to think of it, I think the anime club I was part of picked them to watch during the same semester just to see what the big deal was about, and ended up not minding as my friends and I ended up making fun of them as we watched them MST3K style. No, Pretear was their sacred cow. "Can't you tell from the music that it's serious?"
I get that they're important shows because everyone and their uncle ripped them off (ironically, there are some Evangelion clones I like better then the show they're copying), but even without the tropes being tired and worn out now due to this, they just had too much that annoyed me, I guess. I do love me some fan service, but that isn't enough to save a show for me, and if a show shoves it in my face all the time, I'm just as likely to make fun of it, too, especially if I think it's an attempt to distract from bad writing.
Cons... Man, I miss cons from back in the day. They're all pretty much getting puritanical now. ACEN is pretty much the only decent one left. Saw someone cosplay Anck-su-namun there one year when I was standing in line for Kenichi Sonoda's Bean Bandit premier, and she didn't do some lame body-suit or something like that, no, she went full out with golden pasties and body paint, and looked very much like she was right out of the movie. That's also the only con I've seen a Ryuka Matoi cosplayer who didn't use foam or otherwise fake boobs for her cosplay, and just used pasties to cover her nipples in case they came out (which they did, several times
). Other cons they kick Cammy cosplayers out for being too revealing. As for Naga, I suppose it depends on the con. I've seen other cosplays with spikes on them and it seemed to be alright. I could see someone doing it at ACEN, but the trouble is finding someone who wants to cosplay something from such an old show. Occasionally I see stuff from Tank Police, but I have yet to see a Dirty Pair cosplay in person, and when my friends and I cosplayed Captain Tylor and Dr. Kitaguchi, my Dr. Kitaguchi kept getting confused for Dr. Eggman. Fun part is I had no idea who that even was until someone explained to me that it's the character I know as Dr. Robotnik. 😑
Anyway, found a good Naga cosplay using the power of DuckDuckGo.
About Slayers - if they tried to create LOTR and produced this,it would be failure.But they were going after average parody,and we get it.
So,no reasons to complain.
Now, my turn -
Jungle wa itsumo hale nochi guu - excellent 26 episodes of pure madness.
Basically,average boy live in jungle with his single mother happy live,till she adopted strange girl Guu.And since she is not average girl,or even human being at all,we see his misfortunes with his new sister.
But - she love him and adopted mother,and story really have real happy end.
P.S i suspect,that Guu is benevolent eldritch abomination which really love her new family,but i could be mistaken.
So,no reasons to complain.
Now, my turn -
Jungle wa itsumo hale nochi guu - excellent 26 episodes of pure madness.
Basically,average boy live in jungle with his single mother happy live,till she adopted strange girl Guu.And since she is not average girl,or even human being at all,we see his misfortunes with his new sister.
But - she love him and adopted mother,and story really have real happy end.
P.S i suspect,that Guu is benevolent eldritch abomination which really love her new family,but i could be mistaken.
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The End of Evangelion
(1997 movie)
Right up front here I'm going to warn you that this will probably be one of the most spoiler heavy reviews I've written to this point, so if you don't want to be spoiled, just go right ahead and skip this review.
Now that that's out of the way, I have to admit that I really don't understand what this movie was about. I mean, I know it's an alternate ending to the series, and that they are essentially about the same thing. I get that while NERV and SEELE were both apparently working to destroy the attacking "angels" and keep them from reaching Lilith that they were always planning to begin "Third Impact" all on their own, apparently. What I don't understand is why. It's obvious that the people speaking through the black monoliths in that weird conference room were keeping that bit of information to themselves, too, because while they told the Prime Minister that NERV was planning on ending the world in order to get the JSDF to attack it, they apparently left out the part that they were planning on doing the same thing. Actually the only reason they seemed to have it in for NERV, or more specifically Gendo, was because Gendo wanted to do it in a slightly different way so he could be reunited with his wife. And yet they had the JSDF kill everyone in sight. I don't understand that either, but since I was technically in the military at one point I know from experience that most of the people in it would probably pretty resistant to the idea of killing fleeing and defenseless people and children, let alone acting so nonchalantly about it. Of course why Gendo didn't better prepare NERV headquarters when he knew an assault was coming is another thing that doesn't make sense. There was one guard at the entrance and that warship they had in the big lake underground ended up only being used as a big thing for Asuka to throw. Then there's the fact that the SEELE people had all the EVA pilots marked for death when they apparently needed Unit 01 to initiate Third Impact.
Of course, maybe I missed something. I still don’t get why any of them wanted to end all life on Earth and turn every living creature into Tang to begin with. In fact I was pretty much under the impression that they were trying to prevent that. There was a lot going on, though, so maybe I just missed something. Which, while I appreciate complex stories and all, I just didn't understand this one.
I also don’t get the characters. Shinji is a whiny bitch and I never sympathized with his character. During this movie, he basically curled up into a ball after he'd finished jerking off over Asuka (which the wiki article almost makes sound like it he had no choice in the matter). Misato, being awesome even if personally she's as fucked up as the rest of them, saves his ass, and apparently also has some kind of messed up feelings for him. Why she'd want such a pathetic loser is beyond me, but then he's also still a child technically, and that's a little messed up anyway. But I'm getting off track here. What I was getting at is that he's such a pathetic loser in this movie that I really wanted Misato to pistol whip him, because while she was risking everything and ended up dying to save his ass, he was pretty much just being a whiny emo bitch, crying about how no one understood him and how he didn't really want to live. Then there's Asuka, who's just a bitch, period. And she also apparently wants to die, because at the end of the movie, when Shinji is reliving his weird dream of choking her to death, not only does she not resist, but when he can't do it she calls him pathetic. And then there's pretty much everyone else. In fact, the only people with the will to live seem to be the random supporting characters who have always been there to provide us with whatever technobabble needed to be expositioned to us for the episode. Of course, we did get to see that Gendo was pretty much the same kind of whiny emo his son was, he just apparently held it in better. In the end, though, pretty much the only characters I cared much about as characters were the supporting characters who actually wanted to live. Well, there was that awesome fight scene Asuka had against the "production line" EVAs, that was pretty cool. Especially with as hurt as she was she was able to move her disemboweled and unpowered Unit 02 on hate alone. I couldn't help but think a bit of Khan's death scene at the end of The Wrath of Khan as she reached up into the sky, constantly repeating, "I'll kill you."
As far as the actual end, I can't say I much understand that, either. It apparently had something to do with Shinji's acid trip after he was absorbed by that huge Lilith/Rei ... thing. (Vera!? ) As in the original ending that showed us just how much it sucks when a show's budget runs out, Shinji apparently spontaneously decides to live and whatever the hell was going on ends, and Lilith/Rei literally falls to pieces. Then Shinji, Asuka, and Rei spontaneously turn from Tang back into people, conveniently with clothes. Asuka seems to have gotten the short end of the stick, though, as she apparently has still lost her eye, and apparently her split arm is still split and only being held together by a bandage wrap. Apparently the implication here is supposed to be that anyone can turn back from Tang if they want to, but I'm still left wondering just what it is I watched and don't really understand the vast majority of it.
Actually, I don't really understand why people liked this show all that much. Most of the characters aren’t really what I'd consider likable, which would require being sympathetic or at least being somewhat badass to offset a lack of more normal likability. I know some people probably do find them likable and/or badass, but the only main character I really liked all that much was Misato, even as messed up as she was. Pretty much all the other main characters just grated on me, Shinji most of all. Asuka was pretty much only cool during that short period she was kicking ass before she was impaled and eaten. Otherwise she was a prima donna and a bitch, when she wasn't busy being a whiny loser like Shinji. While the movie thankfully didn't have any extra time to get too boring, most of the series was. I guess there were the fight scenes, but really that isn't enough to carry a show any more than fan service can. I am somewhat hopeful that the movies will be a bit better, as the first one seemed to be somewhat of an improvement, but as for the original series and this alternate ending, I really didn't much care for it. The only thing The End of Evangelion has going for it is that it was better than the odd clip show that was the original ending of the series. 5/10.
Note: Since I've written this I've learned that apparently Seele and Gendo were adherents to a religion that all life on Earth was a mistake and had to be returned to primordial ooze or something like that. It doesn't improve the score any, though, especially since the show failed to convey this and only learned about it by reading about the show later on.
(1997 movie)
Right up front here I'm going to warn you that this will probably be one of the most spoiler heavy reviews I've written to this point, so if you don't want to be spoiled, just go right ahead and skip this review.
Now that that's out of the way, I have to admit that I really don't understand what this movie was about. I mean, I know it's an alternate ending to the series, and that they are essentially about the same thing. I get that while NERV and SEELE were both apparently working to destroy the attacking "angels" and keep them from reaching Lilith that they were always planning to begin "Third Impact" all on their own, apparently. What I don't understand is why. It's obvious that the people speaking through the black monoliths in that weird conference room were keeping that bit of information to themselves, too, because while they told the Prime Minister that NERV was planning on ending the world in order to get the JSDF to attack it, they apparently left out the part that they were planning on doing the same thing. Actually the only reason they seemed to have it in for NERV, or more specifically Gendo, was because Gendo wanted to do it in a slightly different way so he could be reunited with his wife. And yet they had the JSDF kill everyone in sight. I don't understand that either, but since I was technically in the military at one point I know from experience that most of the people in it would probably pretty resistant to the idea of killing fleeing and defenseless people and children, let alone acting so nonchalantly about it. Of course why Gendo didn't better prepare NERV headquarters when he knew an assault was coming is another thing that doesn't make sense. There was one guard at the entrance and that warship they had in the big lake underground ended up only being used as a big thing for Asuka to throw. Then there's the fact that the SEELE people had all the EVA pilots marked for death when they apparently needed Unit 01 to initiate Third Impact.
Of course, maybe I missed something. I still don’t get why any of them wanted to end all life on Earth and turn every living creature into Tang to begin with. In fact I was pretty much under the impression that they were trying to prevent that. There was a lot going on, though, so maybe I just missed something. Which, while I appreciate complex stories and all, I just didn't understand this one.
I also don’t get the characters. Shinji is a whiny bitch and I never sympathized with his character. During this movie, he basically curled up into a ball after he'd finished jerking off over Asuka (which the wiki article almost makes sound like it he had no choice in the matter). Misato, being awesome even if personally she's as fucked up as the rest of them, saves his ass, and apparently also has some kind of messed up feelings for him. Why she'd want such a pathetic loser is beyond me, but then he's also still a child technically, and that's a little messed up anyway. But I'm getting off track here. What I was getting at is that he's such a pathetic loser in this movie that I really wanted Misato to pistol whip him, because while she was risking everything and ended up dying to save his ass, he was pretty much just being a whiny emo bitch, crying about how no one understood him and how he didn't really want to live. Then there's Asuka, who's just a bitch, period. And she also apparently wants to die, because at the end of the movie, when Shinji is reliving his weird dream of choking her to death, not only does she not resist, but when he can't do it she calls him pathetic. And then there's pretty much everyone else. In fact, the only people with the will to live seem to be the random supporting characters who have always been there to provide us with whatever technobabble needed to be expositioned to us for the episode. Of course, we did get to see that Gendo was pretty much the same kind of whiny emo his son was, he just apparently held it in better. In the end, though, pretty much the only characters I cared much about as characters were the supporting characters who actually wanted to live. Well, there was that awesome fight scene Asuka had against the "production line" EVAs, that was pretty cool. Especially with as hurt as she was she was able to move her disemboweled and unpowered Unit 02 on hate alone. I couldn't help but think a bit of Khan's death scene at the end of The Wrath of Khan as she reached up into the sky, constantly repeating, "I'll kill you."
As far as the actual end, I can't say I much understand that, either. It apparently had something to do with Shinji's acid trip after he was absorbed by that huge Lilith/Rei ... thing. (Vera!?
) As in the original ending that showed us just how much it sucks when a show's budget runs out, Shinji apparently spontaneously decides to live and whatever the hell was going on ends, and Lilith/Rei literally falls to pieces. Then Shinji, Asuka, and Rei spontaneously turn from Tang back into people, conveniently with clothes. Asuka seems to have gotten the short end of the stick, though, as she apparently has still lost her eye, and apparently her split arm is still split and only being held together by a bandage wrap. Apparently the implication here is supposed to be that anyone can turn back from Tang if they want to, but I'm still left wondering just what it is I watched and don't really understand the vast majority of it.Actually, I don't really understand why people liked this show all that much. Most of the characters aren’t really what I'd consider likable, which would require being sympathetic or at least being somewhat badass to offset a lack of more normal likability. I know some people probably do find them likable and/or badass, but the only main character I really liked all that much was Misato, even as messed up as she was. Pretty much all the other main characters just grated on me, Shinji most of all. Asuka was pretty much only cool during that short period she was kicking ass before she was impaled and eaten. Otherwise she was a prima donna and a bitch, when she wasn't busy being a whiny loser like Shinji. While the movie thankfully didn't have any extra time to get too boring, most of the series was. I guess there were the fight scenes, but really that isn't enough to carry a show any more than fan service can. I am somewhat hopeful that the movies will be a bit better, as the first one seemed to be somewhat of an improvement, but as for the original series and this alternate ending, I really didn't much care for it. The only thing The End of Evangelion has going for it is that it was better than the odd clip show that was the original ending of the series. 5/10.
Note: Since I've written this I've learned that apparently Seele and Gendo were adherents to a religion that all life on Earth was a mistake and had to be returned to primordial ooze or something like that. It doesn't improve the score any, though, especially since the show failed to convey this and only learned about it by reading about the show later on.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
When you find fans who hate Shinji and talk about how spineless and pathetic he is, they're remembering this scene (and the EoE in general really). When you find fans defending Shinji and talking about how much pressure he was under, they're remembering the show itself where he never goes this far and holds up better.
The One Char
Well-known member
It's more that being in control of the Third Impact (or any proper impact really) makes you God. Seele wanted to be God for power, and Gendo wanted to be God to be reunited with his wife. Shinji got Godhood at his lowest point.