The series is a commentary on introversion and depression. More specifically, it criticizes many unhealthy coping mechanisms that socially awkward introverts and depressives tend to trap themselves in. And especially, it criticizes using hobbies and wish fulfillment (the director especially has himself and his fellow otaku in mind) as a crutch and an escape, instead of facing up to one's own struggles. The show names its target audience early on: Shinji, the protagonist with whom the audience is meant to identify, is "bad at living." So basically, if you're a completely normal, well-adjusted, socially outgoing, healthy member of society, Evangelion is literally just not for you. There's not a lot on offer, other than the aesthetics of it. But if you're the miserable, lonely, otaku type, a lot of the show makes much more sense. And it can be very powerful, either in a positive or a negative way, depending on where you're at with yourself.
The problem is, as the series goes on, that element begins to overtake everything, even over the sake of good story telling. Anno using the series as a platform to vent his own issues shows hard in the back half, culminating in the movies. It's a very approachable series in its front half, but it starts wallowing in itself as it draws to a conclusion. It's a very uneven experience. I think people's experience with Evangelion greatly diverges based on where in their anime-viewing experiences it occurs. If it's early in your years, with only exposure to relatively light fare like Shonen anime, then Evangelion can be positively game-changing for some viewers. But Evangelion changed the course of anime after its inception, bringing surreal and psychological concepts to the mainstream, with plenty of other series tackling similar subject matter or execution far better. So if you go into Evangelion with the knowledge of what came after, then quite frankly it comes off as a bit of a mess. I'm somewhat in the middle ground there. I had seen Evangelion quite early in those days of devouring any anime I could get my hands on, but it wasn't my first "mature" anime experience, after things like Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex and even .hack//Sign. So while its psychological, head-trippy nature was something on a level that I hadn't quite seen before, it wasn't exactly revelatory to me either, so it wasn't particularly affecting to me. I could appreciate what it brought to the table and how it evolved the medium in its presence, but it didn't "wow" me into worshipping its existence. Objectively, I could see how it paved the way for many more mature Anime series since, but in and of itself, it was a bit of a mess and became so entangled in its own conceits that it lost sight of its narrative and fell apart, IMO. While full credit should be given to Evangelion for paving the way, I maintain that RahXephon is its superior spiritual successor, taking much inspiration from its predecessor but forming a coherent, cohesive narrative around it, for a much more satisfying and complete experience. Less essays can be written about RahXephon's psyche, mind you, but in my mind that's less Evangelion's raison d'etre and moreso just what Hideaki Anno projected onto it.
I'm a noob to the series, just finished the core 26 episodes. I'm watching End of Eva later today, anything else to look out for? Rebuild doesn't interest me... By the way I like this but damn did a lot of things go over my head. I was aware there was stuff to look out for but damn.
I can agree with most of this, but the one small item I would differ on is pretty important, IMO. I don't think Anno allowed the narrative to fall apart. I think he tore it down deliberately and always planned to do so. The front end of the series is otaku bait, but when escape into fiction is part of what he's warning against, continuing to service the narrative eventually stops making sense. Whether destroying the narrative helps or hurts the narrative is pretty obvious, but it's also pretty much beside the point. The question is then how well it works artistically regardless of the narrative, which is certainly YMMV territory. Neither the narrative breakdown nor the self indulgence of the auteur are necessarily bad things. In a way, I would compare Evangelion less to the things it directly inspired, and more to other meta-narrative works like Adaptation, or Coheed and Cambria's Amory Wars story. The latter even features a very similar turning point where the story stops being about the story and becomes about what the story is about. It is arguably much more self indulgent, as Claudio destroys the story by inserting himself into a story about inserting himself into the story for the purpose of destroying it. But rather than being a downhill turn, this is where the band's work becomes more interesting and more emotionally powerful. But again, whether that's true of Evangelion is YMMV, depending on how well it speaks to you personally. As much as I enjoyed Rah-Xephon, I can't categorically consider it superior. It is absolutely more consistent and coherent. But it also seems more cool and analytical about its psychological themes where Evangelion felt more personal and desperately heartfelt, and in art, that counts for something. That's not to say Evangelion is superior either. Just different. Rah-Xephon is a Dali painting, and Evangelion is... I'm not sure. Maybe van Gogh or de Goya. I think Evangelion's biggest flaw is that it offers criticism with no solutions. It tells us in great length what isn't the answer to awkwardness and isolation, but never tells us what is. But I suppose that couldn't be helped, since Anno hadn't found his own way out yet. I'm extremely curious about where he plans to go with his next chapter in the Rebuild series.
Rebuild is very much worth watching, especially 2.22 and 3.33 - 1.11 is just episodes 1-6 or so with much better animation. It’s a hell of a fuckin’ thing, isn’t it?
Well, 99% of it, anyway. There are a few changes that seem minor, but might turn out to be important.
Oh hell yeah I’ve been looking for this. I’ll say some stuff about me. Favourite girl is Asuka, favourite robot is Unit-00, favourite episode is a tie between episodes 16 and 18. And I hate the rebuilds for many, many reasons.
Animation looks good, but beyond that not sure what to say. No clue how this relates to 3.0, or what Mari's grand purpose in the story is, but it's certainly fun to watch whatever it is happening
One thing I'll say for this series is that it never does anything I expect of it. So I'm curious to see how it ends. Even if its miserably.
Seems like Misato’s group is raiding the European HQ for eva parts for repair and resupplies in that clip so they can look for Asuka (and probably Shinji/Rei) after the end of 3.0, while Gendo and Fuyusuki are defending it with the 44s and 4444 and thay pillar thing that covers Paris in LCL or something that require people in plug suits.
If Anno is still using Evangelion to project his own psychological state onto our screens, then I think it will end... at least less miserably this time. Depression is a condition that never entirely goes away, but Anno seems to have found healthy coping mechanisms, a happy relationship, and a balance between real life and the hobbies and fiction he used to escape into, whereas all of these were still unresolved when he directed the TV series. I expect to see that reflected in the new work.
Per Anno's admission, the religious motif is just a motif. He and his staff thought it would look cool, and they wanted to show off some of the obscure information they learned in college (hence Christian apocrypha, Kabbalah, and dead Mesopotamian religions). It was famously stated that if Gainax knew Eva was going to be a hit in the West, they would've picked a different motif. It's kinda like how Giant Robo doesn't actually have anything to say about ancient Egypt.
I too am very, very interested to see where he ends up with this one. The imagery is there in service of aesthetic and a bit of visual flair. Not that it isn’t awesome - seriously Rebuild 2.22’s version of the Zeruel fight was the best fucking thing ever - but it isn’t consciously making any sort of statement or point about religion. And if the stars align on something it is most likely by accident.
Yeah I don’t think it’s necessarily saying anything about religion but if you have an apocalyptic end of the world story and populate it with a bunch of Judaeo-Christian imagery it’s going to have an effect on a western audience intended or otherwise. Simply because images and words have meanings all to themselves. It’s like having a naked chick in a picture it’s going to elicit a response.
