Neon Genesis Evangelion

While the ultimate moments of EoE are very dark, I think ultimately, in both the film and the TV series, the overall arc is redemptive and if there’s a moral or meaning in it, it’s that there is value in life and that pain is a sacrifice worth bearing to ultimately be able to engage with existence on your own terms and as your own person.

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Misato was my first and last fictional crush and really I just wanted to eat noodles drink beer and hang out

Best theme tune of all time

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It’s ridiculous how much of a jaunty bop the theme tune is compared with what usually follows.

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The jaunty bop is not a patch on the penguins theme tune which is so magnificently out of place within the NGE universe

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Yeah the revelation that the AT field wasn’t some sci-fi force field, it was the boundary of one’s self kind of blew me away.

I hadn’t thought about the id / ego / super ego thing but that’s a really interesting idea to think about.

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Just rewatched the final scene thanks to Bam, so masterfully composed and edited, so tense and uncomfortable.

Interesting reading the comments discussing the translation of Asuka’s final line, people suggesting that “pathetic”, “disgusting”, “ew, gross” and even “I feel sick” are all valid ways of expressing the Japanese. Mind boggling how much of another layer it all adds to try and unwrap.

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Found this as well

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Sadly a massive issue in most male-orientated anime of the time (and maybe still now, I don’t know).

I was going to say here that the show always seemed fairly aware of it though, as the next episode previews (dunno if they’re on the Netflix version) always ended with the promise of “more fanservice” (gratuitous t&a), even in the final batch of episodes when everything and everyone was circling hell. But I can’t find work if that was in the original or just added in the old English dub. The only versions on YouTube for the most part are Japanese / no subs.

Anyway, contextually to anime, it was not uncommon to have shows with fairly well written and complex characters that also had loads of gratuitous nudity or lingering shots etc. It’s very weird. Bubblegum Crisis (which had an entirely female main cast!) and Tenchi Muyo are others that really stick out to me.

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Amazing

I really didn’t like it at first

By episode 26 full on miming along emotively

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I’ve seen that so many times over the years, it never fails to give me joy.

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I didn’t realise that was the case, I always just heard it as an AT field when watching, then the podcasts and stuff I read referred to it as anti-terror. That’s a really interesting (and bad?) thing to change.

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Welcome to the world of manga/anime fanservice - I believe the promises of more fanservice were there in the original Japanese next episode previewsfor Evangelion too, though aside from episode 2 they seemed to be more about mocking the viewer who was expecting it rather than actually delivering anything.

As you mention it’s especially prominent in ‘harem’ anime like Tenchi where there’s loads of women characters who are all after a guy

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I do think the fan service thing in the case of this is kind of that 90s thing where they do it smirkingly as if to act above it while still actually just doing it

Not that I have a huge beef with that sort of snarkiness or anything, just that it is a thing

I’m also generally forgiving of tonal mayhem. Like the sort of stuff where people would complain that it is serious one minute before goofing around the next. Nah love that stuff m862

Also this music has been in my head all morning

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After reading through this thread I think I might start watching this. For some reason anime TV series never hold my attention, apart from Cowboy Bebop. Hopefully this is different

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Watched ‘Death & Rebirth’ while stoned out of my tiny teenage mind and was obsessed with it for years. Got the series on DVD in HMV on Oxford Street on a trip to London with my family. My brother and I stayed up for hours watching the episodes in our hotel room with subtitles on while our parents were sleeping. Spent a long time after that rewatching it over and over again.

‘End Of Evangelion’ is still one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen. I’ve never watched something that gives me the same feeling of horror and resignation as that does, yet is still such a beautifully rendered vision of that horror.

I think I rewatched it two years ago and yes, the portrayal of women in it is difficult to endure now. I doubt I could show it to my GF without being laughed out of the house. It’s still a fantastic series and I’ve never seen anything that compares to it.

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I watched it all on my tod after Mrs HYG had gone to bed, one night she’d been out with mates and came back as I was settled in to watch a couple of episodes, she sat with me for about 10 minutes, I tried to explain the concept and why I thought it was so good, but all she saw was naked Misato, Asuka and Rei saying to Shinji repeatedly “Don’t you want to be one with me?” and I really couldn’t explain it away.

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Oh man, I can’t wait to watch EoE now (probably next week at some point)

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