Not to mention the pace killing scenes where nothing happens for minutes at a time. They paid for those incredible fight scenes with interminable shots of the interior of elevators or close ups of Shinji's walkman.
The show is not about mecha fighting monsters... it's about the spaces in between people, and how we fail and succeed to connect. The elevator scene, Misato and Kaji, Shinji's tape player, Shinji and Kaworu... those are some of my favorite scenes because they show the connection or disconnection between the characters.
Yes, it does save them money to not have to animate. Art always has to deal with the limitations of the medium, in this case budget.
Best part of the series.
May I recommend Serial Experiments Lain for more power lines and cicadas goodness? As every Anime sound director knows, those obnoxious bugs are the only available auditory shorthand for "it's summer".
In the background you can hear Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring being played on a piano and it transitions from animation to filmed live action footage which I think was shot around Tokyo it shows things like train lines, buildings and an empty swing set in a playground and yes there is a power line shot. Then it cuts to an audience watching a film inside a cinema as handwritten letters flash up on the screen, which were death threats the studio had received from obsessive fans.
I was blown away by the aesthetics of this scene watching it as a 15 year old and it's stuck with me.
After the... unfortunate opening scene of the movie I hadn't rewatched it but every time I see even a small clip of anything from Eva (the movie or the show) I'm just enamored. Hideaki Anno is one of the greatest artists of our time just from NGE and Shin Godzilla. It felt like every frame of the original anime was perfect.
Almost literally, since the still shots happened after the budget was cut.