Neon Genesis Evangelion

I have seen only the first few episodes but already I like it . At first I thought that the main theme of kids piloting giant robots was rather silly but clearly it’s more a story of the main protagonist, and his relationship with the other characters. As usual with the best anime the characters and story are built up with great skill and the visual style, the city, the robots, the people etc., also draws you in.

BTW does anyone find the opening sequence really good? The combination of the song and the visuals.

Anyone else like NGE? (Oh and don’t forget to hide your spoilers)

Love it, and was solidly hooked within the first three episodes. I have most of it on DVD.

I won’t spoil anything for you - it’s too much fun to watch - but, unless you can get hold of a copy of Death and Rebirth/End of Evangelion movies, be prepared for howls of frustration at the conclusion. The final two episodes are…curious.

I watched the first two episodes and I don’t like it. Is there something wrong with me? It seems to silly and unrealistic, even in “anime world” - and I like Slayers, Cowboy, Bebop, Trigun, and even an occaisional dose of DBZ (when I want to watch somebody blow the freakin hell out offa planet). Plus, I found the main boy to be very annoying.

I’m 34, slowly shaking off my internet addiction, and consider myself to be rather “normal.”

I watched the complete series a few months ago, mainly because I had heard some positive things about it (including a bit about the controversy regarding the ending).

Anime is a legitimate entertainment form and I wish there was more of it for adults (not sex-oriented, I mean stuff that was mature). My biggest problem with anime is that plot is often merely an afterthought and many series are the same. It burns me that beautiful images are wasted on a skimpy storyline.

Neon Genesis Evangelion changed that for me. The intense focus on the characters actually spoke to me. I found the series to be amazing, forcing me to think and analyze myself. I actually wasn’t looking forward to the last several episodes because I was disappointed that it was going to end. But the last two episodes impressed me like no other anime.

After, I read some commentary/blogs/reviews that gave those episodes a negative rating. And I also read many opposing reviews that loved the finale. I fall in the latter camp.

Global Citizen

I loved NGE when it was shown on SBS in Australia a couple of years ago. For me it was the opening sequence and song that got me hooked, such a haunting tune.

Havn’t seen it in ages, think I’ll be looking for this one on DVD soon.

“For me it was the opening sequence and song that got me hooked, such a haunting tune.”
I am glad there is someone else who really liked it; it’s one the best I have seen in a TV show, anime or otherwise.
I have heard a lot about the last two episodes which apparently almost caused a riot among Japanese fans until the director announced an alternate ending in the movie version. I am looking forward to seeing both the TV ending and the movies.

I have seen the first 8 episodes now which have done a good job of introducing the main characters and the basic plot but from what I have read it will get darker, more complicated and more philosophical soon and I am looking forward to it.

I watched the whole thing a while ago, including part of the movie. I enjoyed the series for the most part, but it really began to get repetitive towards the end (“oh no, another angel that has a power that we never planned for!”) ad infinitum.

The end gets reeeeeeeeeeally bizarre. And the movie is also way out there- I turned it off halfway b/c it was just too much for me and I kept saying to myself, “what does this mean? what’s going on? whaaaaa???” So, yeah. Enjoy the series while it actually makes sense.

I tend to watch more fantasy type anime (Princess Mononoke, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D) and was somewhat turned off with the bizarre endings of Akira and Ghost in the Shell. I don’t know, maybe I just don’t understand futuristic anime :frowning:

I had heard many good things about NGE, so I decided to watch one episode of it on Cartoon Network. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would have. I think it’s because of the exceedingly, shall we say, American voice acting which began to really annoy me.

Being bi-lingual in English and Japanese, I hope to track down the DVD to watch with Japanese dialogue. I’ve recently renewed my interest in anime (well foreign film in general I suppose) but I find that I prefer reading subtitles to listening to voice overs.

Yes, I loved the series! I’ve seen every episode!!!

But I always did wonder… Why the heck is the main character so depressed all the time? He’s surrounded by super-hot babes!

Anyway, what was up with the movies, huh? The regular 26 episodes were great, and I could follow them pretty well (except for the last two, of course).

Then there were the movies. WTF!!! Man, I guess you need to be doped up or something to understand them.

Great TV series episodes, though!

I love NGE. I didn’t think I would (I’m not usually a big mecha fan), but they had all these tapes at the local video store, so we decided to give it a shot. This was a few summers ago. I knew I was hooked when I found myself actually singing the theme song (in, I’m sure, badly mangled Japanese) while riding my bike one day.

This is the anime that changed my relationship to anime. I was introduced to the genre by Ranma 1/2, but NGE was the first series where I was inspired to go out and collect every tape. (I do kind of wish I’d waited for DVD now, though.) I needed to own it.

I love the opening theme. I’d love to sing it “American Idol”-style :wink: I also like the ending theme (“Fly Me to the Moon”). Who knew that song could be so ironic?

This definitely is an anime that you need to give a few episodes to get into. After the first tape, I thought it was OK. I could take it or leave it. By the time I got to the third tape, I was starting to get into it more. Then, there was Asuka Langley Soryu (!) and the series settles into a comfortable theme of kids piloting EVAs and kicking Angel butt for a while. This is like the top of the hill at the roller coaster. Then, you fall–and that’s when it gets really interesting.

It’s strange to see a series where Judeo-Christianity is sprinkled throughout to make it more exotic, isn’t it? We do the same with Asian religions and customs, though.

I didn’t hate the ending, but I was disappointed. There was a lot of setup that seemed unresolved. I am looking forward to seeing the movies. They are actually going to be officially released in the US soon, right?

Who doesn’t? Well, apparently, a lot of people. I have dubbed tapes because they were cheaper–but that’s why I now regret not waiting for the DVD. I don’t mind the Eva dub because I’m used to it, but I’ve found that if I listen to the original first, I’ll hate the dub most of the time. I’ve wondered why Cartoon Network, when showing anime, doesn’t just put the Japanese voice track on the SAP (second audio program–in some markets, “Simpsons” has a Spanish dub there, and on PBS, they have a special track describing the action for the blind. A horribly underused feature, if you ask me) and run subtitles through closed captioning? Perhaps it would just expose how much they edit.

Eva on Cartoon Network, huh? Perhaps I shouldn’t have cancelled cable. Then again, I have all the tapes already.

(a) No. Even for those who would get into it, it takes off kinda slow; for those who don’t, it would only make it even more frustrating to have to put up with it.

(b) And this is proof that there’s nothing wrong with you. He IS very annoying.
And yes, I liked the opening theme/montage. Nicely done.

Cyber Pundit, as stated, be ready for much “HUH?!?! WHAT!?!?!” towards the end.

JRD

<spoilers>

Yeah, but one was an alcoholic (besides being older), one treated him like dirt, and the other was almost zombie-like and sleeping with his dad, to boot! :eek:

NGE and Akira very nearly killed any desire I had in me to watch anime back when I saw them for the first time in HS. Not my least favorite series of all time but pretty damn close.

A Seven Episode OVA plot streched to absurb proportions for 26 episodes. Unlikeable characters (which, to be fair, is the point), incoherent plot, and poor animation and character design.

A lot of people swear by this series. A lot of people are entitled to their own opinion.

One could even argue that everybody is.

That came out snippier than I expected, sorry 'bout that.

Analysis of NGE, with some discussion of the Christian influences. There was a much better analysis of the Christian elements somewhere, but I can’t find the darn thing.

I have reached episode 16 by now and the story is really heating up. I am looking forward to seeing the mysteries resolved.

Incidentally I don’t find the characters unlikeable at all except perhaps Shinji’s dad. Misato, in particular, seems to be a very sympathetic character not least because she seems the only one who really cares about Shinji. In fact I find Shinji,himself , to be quite likeable despite his neuroses. I like the way the series takes time off from the eva-sequences to flesh out the personal lives of the characters. And both Asuka and Misato provide nice comic relief.

I had high hopes for this series and even went so far as to buy the DVD before renting it. While it isn’t the worse anime I’ve seen it’s popularity baffles me. Of course I feel the same way about DBZ. I think I’ll go ahead and watch the DVD again and see if I like it any better. If not maybe I can swap it with someone for another movie.

Marc

This is the series that turned me into an anime geek. It’s still my favourite.

Two things:
[ul][li]The series is a lot easier to understand if you know a thing or two about the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His stuff was the primary inspiration for Eva.[/li][li]The translation of several episodes was botched, so they redid the subtitled version for the DVD. The DVD subtitled of episode 24, for instance, is the only one that makes any sense.[/li][/ul]

I have my own theories about that.

Two words for you:

“Nagisa Kaworu” – Shinji cheered up pretty quickly after meeting him

:stuck_out_tongue:

Shinji’s a character people love or hate. People who see themselves in him usually like him – he’s the sort of sensitive and introverted soul the world is very cruel to.

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the character designer, said they were going for the antithesis of heroic in Shinji – they were trying to avoid the typical mecha-anime, entusiastic and courageous hero.

“People who see themselves in him usually like him – he’s the sort of sensitive and introverted soul the world is very cruel to.”
Yes, that might well be true. I am not like Shinji now, but I was a bit like him at age 14.

I have reached around episode 22 now. The bits and pieces are gradually getting clear especially in that episode about NERV’s history. Unfortunately I won’t get the last couple of episodes till next week.

From all the warnings I have read, I have a feeling that the last two episodes will be one long weird hallucinatory sequence like the ending of Akira or 2001: A space oddysey (I didn’t much like either film that much). Let’ s see.