Thoughts on Evangelion (original, end, or rebuild)
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Evangelion was always trash. Everyone just thought it was deep and meaningful because they were a retarded teenager when they watched it. It does not hold up.
The penguin was the only character I ever gave a shit about. I think that really says it all.
Was Akira trash too?
The movie? I wouldn't say it was as bad as Evangelion, but it definitely gets more hype than it deserves. Mostly it was bad because it tried to adapt way too fucking much source material. The source material was fine. That is not the problem Evangelion suffers from. Evangelion is just trash bags all the way down.
Hmm ok so you aren’t opposed to cerebral media in general, just NGE... I have a few questions if you want to share:
Do you recognize a value in the impact a piece of media has in spawning/inspiring other media? Akira for example, being very influential on not just later anime but cinema itself in multiple ways? Or is the value (or lack thereof) of a piece of media entirely contained within the media itself?
Roughly, are you old enough that you grew up with these media, or are you “looking back” at them from a purely modern perspective? What I mean is, are you the kind of person who can appreciate a black and white film, or something otherwise “dated”, with the acknowledgement that the art form in general has “improved” since?
What did you discern as the message of NGE? Do you find no value in that message, or do you believe it didn’t convey that message adequately, or what?
To your first point, it's something I admittedly have not given much consideration. My evaluation is purely on the artistic endeavor's own merits rather than an analysis on the influence it projected onto the rest of society. Magnitude of influence does not warrant adulation or praise however, for there are many things that project a malignant influence. I haven't given it enough thought to properly identify and evaluate the lasting influence that Evangelion produced. I maintain my stance that as a piece of art standing on its own merits...those merits are severely lacking. To my understanding, Akira's influence had a lot to do with the fact that it was one of the first anime movies to make it to western shores and introduce an audience to the artform as a whole. It that regard I'd say any anime could have been the one that accomplished that, Akira just happened to be the one that was in the right place at the right time.
On the second point, yes I am old enough to know the struggle of trying to download episodes of Trigun over a 56k dial up connection while praying that it finished before someone decided to use the phone. I missed the boat on Evangelion when it was initially airing because I didn't have cable, so no Toonami for me. When I was finally able to pick it up later in college, I found that it did not hold up to all the hype my friends had given it. At the same time I was also getting caught up on Cowboy Bebop, which I did find lived up to its hype. My conclusion at the time was that the people who had told me about their enlightened consciousness altering experiences, their divine revelations and their mind trips of watching their hand go through the screen when they went to turn the TV off after watching the final episode...those people were all dumb 14 year olds who thought the pretentious philosophical masturbation that Gainax had been putting on display was somehow anything other than pretentious masturbation.
Evangelion did not have a message. It was just Gainax luring the audience in with some giant robot fight scenes and then proceeding to wank off in your face and pretend it was philosophy or something and people, being stupid teenagers, decided it must be deep and insightful somehow and then proceeded to spend the next several years reinforcing each other's incorrect interpretations.