Favorite anime

[nomercy]

I'm not too fond of NGE, although i've only watched the last three episodes, so that's probably why.

[Orphen]

NGE is a great anime, I own the series myself. :3 Good story, somewhat interesting characters. However, I really don't swear by it like many crazed fanatics do. Ah, the life of a critic is not simple.

Evangelion is hardly the thinking man's anime. The people who say they understand the last two episodes generally will be completely wrong unless they've been in a similar situation as the creator, which was actually drug withdrawal. It's not so much "the thinking man's" anime as much as it is "The post-addict's" anime. The only thing most "Thinking men" are thinking of is Shinji beating it to a comatose Asuka.

Trust me, there are plenty more anime series that make you think alot more than Evangelion. Philosophical anime is out there everywhere. There's Serial Experiments Lain, which I thought was the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen, but it's even bigger a piece of crap for the "Not thinking" man. Gadguard, the philosophical prologues to Outlaw Star, Fullmetal Alchemist (Chemistry,) even Heat Guy J. xD

[Particle Ghost]

Not in an intellectual way, more in the way it drove a lot of people to search for answers by discussing it and studying its symbology, etc. I know I ended up researching Christian and Jewish beliefs in an attempt to suss out a lot of what was being referenced and shown in the anime, and especially in the movies. Lance of Longinus, Tree of Life, the names of the Angels, the Black Moon, Lillith; the anime interested me enough to want to find out more about all this 'stuff with the cool names'. I developed a much higher understanding for what was going on as a result. And thus I leveled up my enjoyment.

Plus, and let's face it, the EVAs are just plain cool.

[nomercy]

Gad Guard! I love that show XD

[Particle Ghost]

But it looks so... cheesy... urrgh. :S

[Orphen]

Yeah, the EVAs were pretty sweet. :3 There were a few things I didn't like about them, but they were cool.

Well, if you already knew about Christianity, there really isn't much to think about.

Yeah, the animation is a little funky, but as you watch it, it begins to blend well with the atmosphere. Mind you, the animator of Gad Guard was also the animator of Heat Guy J, and he did an excellent job with that, too.
It's very unpredictable, and its story hits very close to home to make you think. Like a fanatic, 8D but still. It was on my mind for a long while after I watched it.

There's alot of very well-drawn Arashi Shinosuka doujin out there, too. xD I know too much.

[nomercy]

XD Would you be willing to part with locations?

[Mirinee]

N G Evangelion, the first (of two) mecha anime I managed watched all the way through.

Extremely promising first episode, and the first half of the series wasn't too bad. Shinji needs a kick up the backside at times and I thought Rei was a bit hollow, but that might just be because she's a clone. There were loads of stuff I just didn't get at all, like why they need little 14-year-olds to pilot the eva and what was with the God references.

Watch until about Episode 18ish. I liked it until around there. I was so, so disappointed by the ending. The last two episodes were just people talking about things totally meaningless to me. There's something about religion (I'm non-religious so I wasn't offended, but I still found it incredibly boring). I also got well confused to exactly what happened to the characters and the show didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Then there's a "End of Evangelion", which is supposed finish the series. Well, that was... anyway, I couldn't help but feel totally robbed afterwards. At least they all died XD.

I used to love characters who were very flawed, but it seems that absolutely no one is normal in this series! I mean, Misato liked Shinji and Ritsuko liked his dad and Shinji's dad liked Rei and at least she liked him back but those pairings seem pretty inappropriate. There were many cases of unrequited love. XD Apart from love interests each main character had plenty of other faults. More "believable"? Freaky. Recently I stopped liking flawed characters and now I'm more into pretty-much-perfect characters, or characters who change through the course of the anime. The Evangelion char's pretty much didn't.

Now for some good things about the series. The animation is really really good, although a bit disgusting at times. I like the three children and Misato's character designs. The original music isn't too bad. Then there's Shinji playing Bach on his cello, and in one of the final episodes (with Kaoru) there's some Beethoven's 5th Symphony (I like Classical Music >_>, but what the heck was that about Kaoru's head and Beethoven?). The best episode was when Shinji and Asuka had to do everything together. That was hilarious. ^^ A few parts were quite funny, and there's also some nudity and plenty of perverted stuff, but I'm just not into the latter, sorry.

5/10, heh.

p.s. I really really love Misato and Aoba's voice actors!

[Orphen]

Well met, Mirinee. Very well met. I think my rating would be around that number. I think it deserves a 6 at least for some credit of being something of a pioneer of mecha-based anime (Gundam wins this by a long shot, however.)

The creation of the OAVs (Death and Rebirth, End of Evangelion) was actually supposed to replace episodes 24 and 25, in hopes to redeem itself from the hour of yes, absolute boredom and blind philosophy. By the creation of those two episodes, the creator was so cracked up from withdrawal that...well, we all saw the result of that.
So, once he was clean, the two OAVs were created. Apparently his knack for making a semi-decent anime went with his drug addiction. Everyone dies, Shinji and Asuka become Adam and Eve V.2 and get to chill with a split open Rei head.

It takes a certain genius to end a story by killing everyone off so there's no story to be told. A genius, who quite frankly knows how to repeat a theme used in millions of stories.

Anime: 6/10
OAVs: 3/10 (A little generous.)

[nomercy]

No wonder I didn't get it...