* please note that this post does contain harsh language and may – WILL – offend fans of the series *
Right, so I guess most of you know Neon Genesis Evangelion (if not, read the Wiki page). Basically, a very good friend of mine from the good old uni days warmly recommended me that anime. And in fairness, when it started I did quite enjoy it. The drawing style was very well executed, the overall feel of being in future Japan fighting against ‘Angels’ looked very well and the soundtrack was this nice mix of classic and electro-pop as many animes have it.
So why did you not like it, Alex?
Well for starters I do oppose work done by someone who half-way though thought it would be a great idea messing the whole story line up thanks to losing funding and allegedly turning insane. If you lose funding then stop working on a project until money frees up. State your case, seek funding elsewhere. This is how every project works. Even anime.
Half way through the season we all notice a shift in the quality of the episodes as well as the tone of the series. Not only does out main hero have personal father-son and ‘The world hates me’ issues, but also does one of the heroines begin to think about her dead mother half-way through a fight with one of the angels. Seriously, she could not have picked a better time, her mech (I know they are called Eva’s, but an Eva is something beautiful [Adam and Eve, or ‘Eva’ in German], and these mechs are far from that) refuses to work, she cries, our hero has self-existence issues. Hows that for a cool story line?
What else is there…oh yes, how about the fact that in episode 16 (I may be off here and it is ep 15 or 17, then again I don’t really care about too much to want to watch it again) one of the mechs has the idea of going berserk. Wow, I may be off here, but wasn’t this screened in afternoons for a younger audience? Great idea!!! What about the semi-sex scene a few episodes later?
Let’s have a look at the characters and the story line…sorry, I meant that thin thread the episodes try to connect each other in the second half of the series. We are greeted with a lot of personal story lines, but nothing does actually move the story forward. I remember the story being something along the lines of “Defend Earth from the Angels”, then again I might have misread it and it should have said “Let’s save Earth – no wait, let’s all have our own emo-problems and turn fucked up!” Oh come on, thanks for that!
Right then, let’s think about the episodes called ‘Death & Rebirth’ and the ‘End of Evangelion’: In a futile attempt to save something from the anime’s original story line (and to keep the fans not that pissed off with the studio) the studio thought it was a good idea to mess about a bit more. Great, now we see the hero jacking off to the heroine (who is in a coma – I am amazed that no institution of over-protective whiny parents or individuals wrote a long letter to their senator, major, whatever) and after some random fighting, crying, shouting, dying, razing, killing, maiming, making ones body explode….well after some time of that the hero tries to strangle the heroine and (obviously at this point) fails just to be greeted with the word “useless”.
At that point I felt really bad – mainly because I realised that the hours I put into that anime would never come back, that I have wasted precious time of my life on watching something with so much potential, just to see it get fucked over by the studio and its ever so slightly ‘socially misguided’ director.
Dear Mr Sadamoto, I am sure you had only the best in mind for this series, thank you for ruining it.
Lastly, I am sure that I offended 99% of all anime-fans, and this was my intention. Instead of crying like babies, think about what I wrote first, and then try and tell me you didn’t feel cheated.
urbankid101
April 12, 2008dude!! i f***ing agree with u. i watched d whole anime last night. i heard so much about it, the “best mech anime” so i gave it a shot. i was so f***ing pissed last night. the last few episodes didnt even make sense and i couldnt bear to watch the last episode. the stuff was so freaky n creepy and is extremely overatted. in fact it is so bad that it should be classified in the worst anime section. i hate it so much. i couldnt bare to watch.
somekid
May 11, 2008After reading your comments I can understand where you are coming from, but I ultimately see your review as, may I say, “useless”, and that it is apparent that you have completely misunderstood the plot.
I’ve only stumbled upon this… “Blog”, because I was looking for an opposing point of view on the series. I just hope I find something more critical than this tabloid.
So yes, instead of crying like a baby, I have considered what you wrote; and instead of feeling cheated, and demanding back my time, I suggest you reconsider your point of view, and give the series a second chance. Perhaps this will give you an opportunity to write something worth considering.
“Lastly, I am sure that I offended 99% of you, and this was my intention. Instead of crying like a baby, think about what I wrote first, and then consider how you will approach writing your next review…. Blah, Blah, Blah”
Better Luck Next time.
Alex
May 11, 2008Hi Somekid,
Many thanks for your reply, and rest assured that you cannot offend me on this matter š
As you may or may not have seen with regards to the writing of this article, it is a rant, NOT a review, a rant consisting of nothing more than personal experience when watching the series, backed up loosely on what I know of the background of the series, to not prove my point, but to hint on why I do believe I felt cheated out of my time and money on this.
I am done with giving the series a second chance, I have seen the series twice with all OVA’s and endings, and to be fair to the creators, it was drawn and illustrated in a very nice style, and I never complained about that. What I did complain about was the audacity of the studios to keep this series alive even after all the issues both the series and its founding father had, and even more so when the happenings of ep 16 were screened to a young audience in afternoon TV. If you would like to defend that then go ahead, fanboy, be my guest š
James Parker
May 11, 2008Hi Alex, I just stumbled upon this. LOL I agree with you, its one of those subjects you will get criticism for liking it and criticism and fanboy-whining when you’re against it.
I completely agree with your “review” (lol @ somekid), as I felt very awkward aswell when I saw the mecha going apesh** on the town. I am not sure why you went on and watched the whole thing in the end, I felt that “Death” was a good ending to the series as I thought to myself “wicked, its over”.
Keep sticking it to the fanboys,
JamesP!
TomasKell
June 1, 2008Hello webmaster, very nice site here, great work!
TomasKell
will
October 23, 2008To be honest I think it depends what you are looking for from an anime.
This was always aiming to be way more than mechs fighting monsters even though that was big part.
It’s always meant to be highly psychological/philosophical with religious symbology thrown in for stylism.
EoE/ D&B end the series in the way mech fans vs psychology fans preferred, funding issues aside.
It is pitched at a mature audience all the way despite child protagonists, hence the adult humour/themes.
When it comes down to it, you simply didn’t like what the director had in mind and that is absolutely fine. It does not, however, make it a bad series, just one that didn’t develop to many people’s tastes.
W – D
chi-san
November 14, 2008I always asked myself: why aren’t there more people who dislike NGE? The animation-quality was good for the time back then. But the rest is highly disputable. If you watch it for the brutality then you’ll find alot of it there. But the characters and the plot are disturbing and moreover disturbed themselves and thus a messy mess. In my opinion there’s no religious stuff in Neon Genesis Evangelion either. The monsters may have fancy hebrew biblical names attached to them, but they still remain plain monsters only producing gory splatter. I guess some people are just over-interpreting things into it. And while the world is facing armageddon, the character’s main worries are brooding over their psychlogical relationship-issues over and over again. Who agrees?
Gorilla
February 28, 2009Your completely right. Look, I dont care what anyone is looking for in an anime, we all can share one desire. Entertainment. When I watch 20 episodes, leading up to what may seem to be a shocking conclusion becomes 6 straight episodes of poor animation, constant whining, and my own boredom. Anyone who says that you are missing the bigger picture is full of it. The show builds up a great storyline, and becomes the biggest dissapointment of my life. I dont care about Shinji’s pussy psyche. I wanna see giant robots, or a satisfying and revealing conclusion. That was like a slap in the face. Excuse me, I have to go watch some violent anime that doesnt try to teach me a life lesson.
acebulet999
March 13, 2009I admit that the start of this anime was great. I was drawn in by everything.The last part of the series was horrible. I agree with all your points. The end kind of mess up my imagination for a while. It took months to cure the damage it had on me. They should of just ended earlier becasue then they might of have something beautiful. But they made it in to something horrid. I am an huge anime fan. Im not offended at all.
omnomnomnom
April 14, 2009I couldn’t get into the series either, even though I sat through it twice. While the plot might have something going for it (though it kinda fell through in the last part of the show, and I reckon a lot of young poeple who claim the show to be genious don’t understand it either), the characters were plain and less than memorable for me, and whoever did the soundtrack should have it redone by someone else. Well, my tastes in anime are pretty much off the mainstream though, so it may play into it.
andersmusician
April 26, 2009retty nice rant Alexander, well as you know human analisys over things/stuff/whatever/anime is always backed up by a BIAS, not that this bias is bad, its just there,
Therefore conflict appears with the two Point-of-views relating the analisys of NGE, the one that prefers the animation-easy plot-mecha fights, versus the one who rates more the psychological thriller aspect of the series.
As long as each of those are rational according to their own rules I don’t see any problem with them, the two are valid according the context..
So yeah, most NGE fans prefer it mostly as a psychological thriller, and diminish the sciencefiction-plot a little.
PS: me?, I go for the perfetc balance, I analize both.
John
October 30, 2010Alex
I completely agree with you.The main guy is very pitiful and always had an issue. The last episode on evangelion ending is done badly. The hero felt like doing nothing and was dragged on to pilot 01. How S**t is that? I reckon the hero is just a pussy who only looks for pity to everyone else in the anime. The director better do something better next time. Make a better anime with good plot that makes sense. Overall, Im so dissatisfied with the ending. The ending is s**t as. Fans, no offense but for, this anime only deserves 1 star (out of 5).
Blake
November 5, 2010Thank you. Thank you for showing me that a few anime fans have their eyes open and see this series for what it truly is.