Evangelion: What the Hell Was That?

[elfs]

So, I just mainlined the entire Evangelion original broadcast, all 26 episodes, no director's cut, no movies, in about eight solid hours. Up until about Episode 22 it was doing okay, and then it all fell apart. The end is a complete mess, the entire point of the show gets lost.

I even recognized the problem. The writer/producer/director thought he had something and then he woke up one morning, looked at his script, and said to himself, "I got nothin'." He flailed around for a week and then said, "I know, I'll tell everyone it's a deep mediation on the fact that I went through a really shitty depression phase in my mid-20s, throw out the story, and just mess with people's heads anyway." Who knows? Maybe Anno-san really did have something when he started and just ran out of steam. It was a beautiful, brilliant piece, it seemed to be going somewhere, and then... blah.

I also don't get why Ayanami Rei is such a popular character. She's a blank, a cipher, more annoying than Asuka ever could be. Part of the reason is that her relationship with Gendo is never clarified: why is she so damn perky in that one scene and then a complete waste the rest of the series?

And yet, I so wanted there to be more to this series. I'm so disappointed in it: I wanted Shinji to be more than a mouthpiece for Anno's fucking "I'm okay, you're okay" bullshit. I wanted Asuka to recover, and Rei to find herself, and all the other things that the characters deserved and didn't get.

I wanted to laugh, or cry, or have some reaction, however tritely elicited. Neon Genesis Evangelion failed, leaving me only annoyed and let down.

Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb and maybe piss someone off: Sousei No Aquarion is a better giant robot series than Neon Genesis Evangelion. The characters in Aquarion aren't as deeply wounded, and maybe that's to its detriment, but on the whole it's a better-made series. It has an arc, intent, and a proper ending, and, y'know, it's really made with as much courage, often for hilarity's sake as much as the dramatic ending, as Evangelion.

Comments

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

I think you're reaction to Eva is exactly what Anno was trying for. It is generally considered his big 'fuck you' to anime fandom. It also suffered from slashed budgets near the end, but then they made the movies and they don't really change it much.

Now they're making 4 more movies - apparently the first 3 will retell the story, and the 4th will be a new ending.

Like many things that are over-hyped, see also Akira, Eva changed the industry and we wouldn't have some good shows without it - like Nadesico, Dual!, and RahXephon.

Rei - I don't know. Maybe she hits the 'helpless girl who could be saved' nerve or something. I always liked Ritsuko the most of the women of Eva.

You can probably see why we got so much hatemail for writing Neon Exodus Evangelion - we messed with a sacred cow.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

So, Anno-san did it for the same reason Claremont did? Well, more or less. Anno seems to have run out of money, and Claremont ran into the idiot wall of Jim "No, you can't write the story you want" Shooter. Both then seem to have turned on their respective careers and written a Big F*cking Mess for the next generation to deal with.

[areitu.livejournal.com]

PenPen. <3

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

I think that explains some of why I never could get into Evangelion. Partly too, if I don't like the characters I'm not going to like the story, whatever the medium. The few episodes I saw, I just couldn't get into the characters. I have little respect for those who whimp out, as I perceived Rei to be doing. I just couldn't see any sign of her living up to her potential. Disappointing, 'cause the story itself had potential. I think I really would have enjoyed the show it could have been.

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

Never got around to seeing NGE, and then I read http://www.eyrie.net/NXE/ instead.

Now, I'm not sure I want to see NGE, 'cause I doubt it will hold up.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked NXE. :-)

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

You mean, you're...

Oops.

*blush*

I really should learn to actually look at peoples names on my friends of friends list.

*friended*

Love your work. Pretend I go all fan-boy here, ok? I'm too tired to do it all myself. :)

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

No problem. ;-)

[areitu.livejournal.com]

I've been told that the series doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you watch the movies that take place after the series. But to be honest, having seen the movies myself (though not the whole series) it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

People probably like Rei because she's got a cute little uniform.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

oh, I agree here. Aquarion did (Real-type) super giant robots better. RahXephon does a very similar story (at a base level, peripherally it's completely different). Ayato and Shinji are rather similar characters, but they just end up so very different. Part of it might be the horrid english voice acting in Evangelion, but though Ayato had problems, he wasn't a whiny little bitch who was impossible to empathize with. Really, the first Half of Evangelion was fine, with wonderful potential. The second half simply fell apart. Kind of like The Ninth Gate. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0142688/)

Rei's an archetype for later characters like Ruri in Nadisico and Dorothy in Big O. The pale not-quite-human, brilliant and socially awkward loli.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, Rei inspired a number of characters, and Eva influenced other shows. I really liked RahXephon, I TiVo'd that off TechTV I think. Quon is similar to Rei as a character - the quiet loli. I haven't seen Aquarion yet, but I'm curious now.

Ruri is basically a parody of Rei in many ways, and Nadesico pokes fun at a lot of other programs such as Tenchi and Eva. Hmm, I never did watch the last bit of Nadesico, I was watching it and then I moved and never got back to it. I should, I have it all.

Dual! also has a direct parody of Rei in the form of D. Dual! struck me as largely a parody of Eva with a healthy dose of Tenchi mixed in. I rather enjoyed it, and the theme song earworms me something fierce.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

I heard that Dual!'s opening montage is a direct rip off of Evangelion's. I'd love to see them side by side for comparison.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Sousei No Aquarion, but I liked Gundam Seed and RahXephon more than NGE. To me NGE felt like Arthur Clarke's Childhoods End and 2001 : A Space Oddessey, understandable, but in the end a rather pointless exercise.

RahXephon was very similar, as you say, and had some of the same problems, but managed to have some very poignant and moving scenes before it became stupid, and also had much better music, so I enjoyed the whole experience better.

In fact it as an episode of RahXephon that was the first anime to get me over the "what the fuck? I'm crying over an animation?" feeling.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

It's also a Gainax production, if i remember properly. They have a habit of running WAY out of money before the last episode. Hence the "Crayola" Episode.

[ewhac.livejournal.com]

NGE was broadcast about seven years ago on KTEH-54 (before it was acquired by KQED). It looked interesting, but the series ending was completely incomprehensible. The post-series movies clarified things slightly, but I emerged from the whole thing going, WTF?

your reaction is normal

[(Anonymous)]

don't worry, as you may know from the comments left by your peers, you are not alone in your disappointment with the series. but know this, you cannot know great gains with out first having great losses.