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Discussion do you like neon genesis evangelion

do you like neon genesis evangelion

  • yes

  • no

  • 50/50

Results are only viewable after voting.
Mostly yes, but I've never really been a big fan of episode 25/26 or EOE. I also thought the first three Rebuilds were bad but really liked the fourth one.

It's not a series I'm emotionally attached to, but I respect the impact it had and a lot of its stylistic choices.
 
Never watched it and have no intention to. Seems like a sad show which I wouldn't wanna go through. Also just doesn't seem especially interesting to me from the little I know of it.
 
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Yes, but I also don't agree with the vast amount of praise it gets necessarily. I never derived meaning that was as deep from it as many do. Especially End of Eva, I actually thought the fourth Rebuild movie did a lot of what it set out to do better.

I watched the original series once as a teen and thought it was a 7/10, and then I rewatched it a couple years ago and thought it was an 8/10. I related a lot more to the adult characters by that point.
 
I have complicated feelings about it, but probably one of the most important series I've watched due to being at the right place at the right time. Related too much to Shinji lmfao. 😅

My bf hasn't watched the series yet so next time I subscribe to Netflix I'll watch the series with him.
 
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there was a rumour that Robin Williams suggested including that figurine in the movie. and it was from his personal collection.
though word from the film's director says that it was just a coincidence.
 
It's pretty good, I love how much happier Shinji is after her transition

images
 
Right now, my grade is incomplete. I tried watching the series when Netflix licensed and redubbed it then got distracted and never finished it. I’d like to give it the ol’ college try again because a lot of anime fans treat Neon Genesis Evangelion as something of a rite of passage. I’ve always been curious though it always came across as particularly dense, and I have to be in a certain mood for that kind of thing.

Additionally, I’ve watched some straight up garbo anime on Netflix, and there’s just no way it’s worse than those.
 
I don't consider myself an anime fan (I've finished maybe 8-10 series total in my life) but I really enjoy Evangelion, both the original series and the Rebuild movies. That Anno was able to pull of what's widely considered a good ending in 3.0+1.0 is extremely impressive.
 
I'm actually 50/50, like the themes it touches are good, but a lot of the message is lost in the execution, at which point it becomes this for me (Just change war for eva themes):

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It's cool. I think everyone goes through a phase of rejecting it, but to me it is the work of a real artist. Sometimes that artist is expressing messy and difficult things, but it always feels honest. I thought the Rebuild movies ended on such a beautiful note of hope and healing.
 
Loved the show all the way through, felt meh about EOE. Still need to watch Rebuild? I think?
 
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Loved the tv show and End of Eva, I watched it for the first time a couple years ago. Haven't gotten around to the rebuild movies.

I actually enjoyed the tv ending and understood what Anno was going for, although it seems a lot of people hated it.
 
Not really, but I still want to rewatch it sometime and check out the Rebuild movies.
 
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I was impressed by it as a teen, and absolutely adore it as an adult. I think when I was young I just really enjoyed the quality of the animation and the spectacle of it all, as the themes whooshed over my head. EoE did feel like a more fitting ending, but overall yeah, it was pretty grim so my appreciation was the execution of the visual spectacle.

Then Rebuild happened.

I saw the first Rebuild when it was new, and was impressed how they managed to translate so much of it to a higher-quality level of feature animation. I thought it was a neat way to refresh the series. Then Rebuild 2 came out and I heard some things were different, but I had this thought of "I think I'll wait till the whole trilogy is out and marathon them." At the time I was under the impression there were gonna be three, not four, not sure why I thought that but either way.

So lessee, that means I saw Rebuild 1 in... probably 2008 or 2009. Because it was relatively fresh when I saw it. And then I followed the news that there were gonna be four, not three, and that 3 was being delayed past the two-year span that there was from 1 to 2. Okay, no big. It eventually came out and I was like "definitely sticking to my guns about marathoning them when the series is complete" and... no word on 4.

For like, uh.. eight years. At which point the news was that it was in production, but delayed. And then delayed again the next year. 😅

So it ended up being probably thirteen years between me seeing Rebuild 1 and me finally making good on my promise to marathon the series when it was done. And by that time it wasn't just about the content of the film series to me, it was the intent. I had by this time read all the stuff about how Eva was influenced by Anno's emotional states, which is why the series ends one way then he wanted to redo it and EoE ends another way, and so on. Even Rebuild 3 was apparently made while he was in a major depressive episode, and Rebuild 4 was made after he had come out of it and healed, which makes sense when you see the films. And how it recontextualizes certain things in the lore, pops little half-second shots in there that suggest maybe this isn't a reboot and it's actually all the same canon in a way and the way Anno's film inspirations pop up in wacky ways that still work because Eva is already a little wacky, and especially, especially the fact that where the other Evas basically ended at the "end of the world," with maybe only a hint or a glimpse of the aftermath, the Rebuild series pulls a fuckin FFVI and has the end of the world occur halfway through and then proceeds to follow the characters living through it and surviving it and making the goddamn best of it that they can, all the way up to the point where Rebuild 4 becomes actually uplifting and inspirational and fuckin beautiful. The surface-level theme of Eva can be easily seen as "lookit the cool robot fights" but then there's no escaping the theme of Rebuild is "the end of the world is not the end of all things, people persevere through their connections to each other." Which was definitely in the original series but buried. It took two decades before I even realized what the infamous applause scene probably even actually meant in canon. But Rebuild's themes are worn proudly and clearly. It's gorgeous. I loved it so much.

Eva the series was an impressive piece of animation for the 90s. Rebuild of Eva is a magnum opus. It's the definitive version of Eva for me, and I'm truly glad Anno got to see it through. Fantastic piece of art.
 
I like the themes and the creativity of the Eva and angel designs. I think the ending comes across as a rushed mess though, and the pacing is all over the place, in all of the multiple versions of it I’ve seen. Not a huge fan of most of the human characters either.

I remember thinking it was amazing as a teen in the 90s (back when I only got to see scattered episodes on expensive VHS tapes). Then just finding it a mess in my 20s as I picked up the alternate endings and watched it again. Now in my 40s, I still appreciate the unsettling alien designs of the angels and Evas, and its wider themes around mental health and depression. It’s obviously been hugely impactful too across so many elements and so much media. No wonder it gets talked about so much.
 
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I liked it a lot when I first saw it as a teen. There are things about it now that are a bit more challenging to look back on, but in a way that makes me like it more. I think it's a really messy and ugly thing in a lot of places, and that's what makes it so interesting to keep coming back to.
 
I gave it a try with 4-5 eps but didn't find it that interesting. Maybe if I'd watched as a teenager it would have resonated more.
 
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I love it's thematic storytelling, and it's attempts to bring psychological analysis to the kids-in-mecha genre. I like how bold and unapologetic it is in getting increasingly abstract, and the way it portrays the reality shattering nature of events taking place. It's actually one of the best examples of lovecraftian style Cosmic Horror I can think of, just for the way the Angels perfectly embody the mind-breaking insanity of trying to comprehend totally alien beings beyond human understanding.

That all being said: as time has gone on, I absolutely loathe the way the female characters are treated by the show's creators. While there are a number of prominent women in the story, they are all too frequently defined by awkwardly written relationships with the male characters, cringey fan service, as well as an abundance of fridging and being murdered off-screen by men.

I'm also not a fan of the attempt by the Rebuild films to retcon the series into some unfinished saga. Everything that needed to be said was said by End of Evangelion.
 
samouraï said:
i think it's super cool and i really love it's themes on one's self, depression, and connecting with others. what about you?
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I wholeheartedly agree! I really like Neon Genesis Evangelion. I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago as a teen, back when i wasn't in a great place in life to say the least and i had to deal with some pretty nasty stuff. But Eva helped me a bit, it was a nice escape from the things i had to deal with and at the same time Eva's messages helped me cope with them. Especially since i related to Shinji quite a lot. So uh yeah funny mech show indeed.
 
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Not a fan of anime, but after all the talk about this I had to watch it. Coming to it as someone in his mid-30s probably means I have a different perspective on it than anyone who watches it while young (and relates to Shinji) rather than me relating to the adults.

I thought it was extremely interesting at first, and became progressively more flawed. By the very end it was incoherent navel-gazing nonsense. I do wonder if a lot of the anime storytelling tropes I can't stand started here - those being relatively unexplained metaphysical phenomena with extremely unsubtle allegorical meaning arising in the final act to dominate proceedings. I simply can't abide that kind of thing.

It's just crazy watching all these imbecile adults let Shinji down again and again. I never once blamed the poor kid, and it's interesting that an examination of Shinji's character seems to be the main point of discussion of the series. He's set up to fail from the start by everyone around him. As a lonely outcast kid, I imagine I would have identified HARD with Shinji had I seen it as a teen, and the whole thing would have hit entirely differently. I also think that going into it KNOWING that Shinji fails (which I did) took away a lot of the surprise - people watching it when it released probably kept waiting for him to become the hero.
 
Heron said:
It's just crazy watching all these imbecile adults let Shinji down again and again.
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Aye, this is something that also struck me hard when I first watched the show. Gendo doesn't care and you could argue he even wants this debacle to happen, Misato tries her best but also finds herself underwhelmed by her own predicaments and sort of gives up later on.

But given that these super giant robots supposedly rely a lot on the mental well-being of their operators, and not every teenager can become a pilot, it was always baffling and sometimes immensely frustrating to see how little regard there is for both Asuka and Shinji.
 
it's a dense, messy masterpiece that only gets more fascinating as it goes.

Síriocaz said:
Aye, this is something that also struck me hard when I first watched the show. Gendo doesn't care and you could argue he even wants this debacle to happen, Misato tries her best but also finds herself underwhelmed by her own predicaments and sort of gives up later on.

But given that these super giant robots supposedly rely a lot on the mental well-being of their operators, and not every teenager can become a pilot, it was always baffling and sometimes immensely frustrating to see how little regard there is for both Asuka and Shinji.
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Gendo absolutely wants this debacle to happen. His entire goal is to dissolve all humanity into a shared consciousness so he can be reunited with his wife.
 
Sure. As a general mecha enjoyer, I can say I enjoyed my time with it and it being a decent deconstruction of the usual super robot anime tropes. (Though others have done so as well.)

I just never thought of it as anything more than it was, and not the kind of thing that gave everybody who loved Evagelion reason to turn into a philosophy major.

But do I enjoy media like Super Robot Wars that gives Shinji better role models to hang with and learn from, plus maybe even get his happy ending? You bet I do!
 
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kvetcha said:
it's a dense, messy masterpiece that only gets more fascinating as it goes.


Gendo absolutely wants this debacle to happen. His entire goal is to dissolve all humanity into a shared consciousness so he can be reunited with his wife.
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He definitely will enjoy being with her as endless Fanta. I'll be honest, I kind of prefer how some things turn out in the Rebuilds compared to the classic works, the most important being how Shinji gets the chance to beat the hell out of his father lol
 
Síriocaz said:

He definitely will enjoy being with her as endless Fanta. I'll be honest, I kind of prefer how some things turn out in the Rebuilds compared to the classic works, the most important being how Shinji gets the chance to beat the hell out of his father lol
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I’ve been waiting to finish Rebuild until 3.0 + 1.0 gets a physical release. Aaaaaaany day now.
 
Top 3 anime for me, for sure.

Not so much of a fan of the Rebuild films, the but the fourth one was still very entertaining and impressive. Still felt good and satisfying as a definitive ending to the series.
 
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tangentially related: I rewatched Shin Godzilla yesterday and it is amazing how instantly apparent it is that Anno directed. And that’s before the Evangelion music kicks in.
 
I adore Eva to no end, one of the most impactful narratives I've ever experienced in any medium.

However - I am gonna drop a take here and say that the manga is much better than the anime. The anime to me is, like, surreal and bizarre and sort of jumps back and forth a lot and it can be hard to keep tabs, especially in End of Eva. The manga is more direct, concise and concrete, allowing for the story to shine in a more streamlined fashion.
 
It's my favorite work of all time. It's funny because since watching it I've experienced a lot of anime/japanese video games that try to capture that mix of philosophy / existentialism / internal politics, symbolism and character depth. But usually I end up just liking it or finding it kind of trite. I don't know how Evangelion did it so well.
 
First half is mediocre, second half and the movie are great. Not interested in any of the rebuild stuff, just the original series+film
 
Komm, süsser Tod is my favorite English song with a German title from a 1997 Japanese anime that sounds like it was made in the 70's.

Never seen the show though.
 
Zeal543 said:
First half is mediocre, second half and the movie are great. Not interested in any of the rebuild stuff, just the original series+film
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Conversely, I really like the first half, Ireul's episode being my favorite of them all.

The second half gets conflicting for a variety of reasons, but I still enjoy it a lot.
 
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It's very good. I watched it for the first time over the past month or so and can safely say it tackles a lot of interesting themes very well with it's engrossing story & narrative, and maybe there's a bit of something for everyone to find in Eva?

That being said, I used to dislike it in concept (before I decided to give it a watch), due to the Eva fandom being outright insufferable and totally weird about it, and I still stand by opinion that those people are morons.

It's a very good show that doesn't deserve to have the cult like status and fandom surrounding it, with people blowing out of proportion how philosophical and influential it is. I started to enjoy the show a lot more for what it was when I realised those expectations people built up for it simply weren't there.
 
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