Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Arcee]

Is anyone here into Evangelion? For those who don't know, it's an anime series from the 1990s widely considered one of the most influential and controversial anime series/films of all time. It's basically a mecha series with lots of stuff like biblical motifs and Freudian psychoanalysis mixed in and it's pretty excellent if you're into that kind of thing.

 

Currently it's being "rebuilt" into a tetralogy of films that uses current film technology to create a "remake" with a lot of new plot points and characters.

 

I figured it was relevant cuz 3.0 just got a subbed version (I still have yet to watch it) and FINAL is coming out pretty soon in Japan.

 

Personally my favorite parts of the series were Misato and Ritsuko's character arcs and also how the apocalyptic scenario dealt with human psychology a lot more than most fictional apocalypses do--Shinji's exposure to instrumentality is probably the high point of the series to me, aside from maybe the beautiful streamlined mecha designs.

 

[[aah i accidentally posted this in otc instead of cot..........posting again here......]]

[Terminus]

3.33 was great, it's only problem was that it didn't do too much to advance the story, which is forgivable since it was originally supposed to be half as long (which it really could have been) and released with Final, and it was basically Rebuild's End of Evangelion: which I am hoping means Final will actually have an ending.The endings are actually my biggest problem with Evangelion, mainly because they have pretty much zero closure. I'm kinda hoping that changes in the manga (which I haven't read, but I'm getting the 3-in-1 volumes soon, and I'm not really expecting much of a change), and it better change with Final. The NGE: Campus Apocalypse manga (which I didn't like, by the way, but I can't read newer shoujo stuff anyways), probably had the best ending out of all the NGE stuff I've read/watched, and that really isn't saying much.Anyways, I might say it's one of my favorite series up until it becomes a psychoanalysis of the characters' minds (I know some people liked that, I didn't), and that's probably why I think Rebuild is superior to NGE.

[Arcee]

I'm a bit of the opposite--I loved episodes 25 and 26 but couldn't quite come to enjoy End of Evangelion. As silly as the psychoanalytical themes seem in the present day when genre-subverting anime series are way more commonplace, I think the characters were developed well enough for such an extreme ending. As for EoE it was pretty good visually but it came off as trying too hard to be edgy and adult-oriented because of the theatrical release and the psychadellic stuff is just downright confusing.

 

Tbh I didn't even know 3.33/3.0 was a parallel to EoE, I thought that was what FINAL was gonna be. I'm pretty excited to see the final two rebuild films if that's the case because as cool as the "inside story" of instrumentality was imo I really didn't like the "outside story"

[Terminus]

I just feel that the psychoanalysis stuff was overdone, to the point where the staff was like "oh let's insert a little comedy bit here to keep everyone interested" (and that was actually the best part of episode 26, IMO). EoE really didn't need it for any other reason than keeping it longer than an episode, it had enough substance to stand on it's own without that, but then it might not have been more than an extra episode.3.33 is basically parallel to episode 24 on and EoE(if you can call it parallel, since, at this point, Rebuild is something completely different). Only (important) thing it's really lacking from EoE is the mass-produced Eva battle, but that'll be in Final.

[The Lonesome Wanderer]

I want to watch Evangelion, but idk which to watch first, the original or Rebuild

[Terminus]

Watch the original first. It's complete, and the two Rebuild movies available outside Japan are basically the first 20 episodes shortened into two movies, with a few differences, and the stuff from the series left out of rebuild is definitely worth seeing.

[Arcee]

The Rebuild, at least 1.0 and 2.0, are good but also lack a lot of the characterization on Misato's, Kaji's, Ritsuko's, and Asuka's parts in favor of Shinji, Gendo, and Rei. As interesting as the latter three characters are, you don't get the same understanding of the characters from the Rebuild and as good as the films are I feel like they serve better as a supplement to the series than an alternative.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the battle against the Eva Units. That was definitely a cool point in EoE, their design was so...creepy. Also hoping to see more of Asuka berserker mode since they're delving more into the primal aspects of the Evangelions in the Rebuild.

[Terminus]

Yeah, I'd suggest you check out the preview for 4.0 shown at the end if 3.33. It's pretty different from what you might be imagining...

First off, there are two things you notice right off the bat: the MP Evas are now dark green versions of Mark 06 (although I expect that this'll change, they probably just used a recolor of the Mark 06 CG model so they wouldn't have to make a new CG model), and units 08 and 02 have been combined into Unit 8+2, so no more Beast Mode (at least, the regular Beast Mode we saw with Unit 2 in 2.22). Anyways, the action looked pretty good, and at the end of the preview, you see Unit 8+2 jump down... To fight hundreds of mass-produced Evas.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Terminus24

[Hodor]

I want to watch Evangelion, but idk which to watch first, the original or Rebuild

Original first, then go nuts with everything else.I've got the most recent Rebuild downloaded for when I'm out of school or in the mood for it. Haven't heard very much good about it, though.