Neon Genesis Evangelion (2019)
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I hold NGE in much higher regard than other similar IPs, and would continue to do so even without the excellent art direction. Like many other stories, NGE asks "what would happen if a young boy with an unusual ability was entrusted with the saving of humanity?" However, unlike many other stories, the show answers "he would fail, be driven insane in the process, and humanity would fall."
FLCL, which I’m sure most Eva fans have seen, follows a similar conceit about the ineptitude of kids to cope with circumstances beyond their understanding, and is another show that I hold in similarly high regard. Incidentally, it also references Eva a lot.
Also, I feel that FLCL is a more true coming of age story than a commentary on teenage psychology. You're taken along for the ride too, so the viewer can connect on multiple levels if they're also coming of age. That's in part why I enjoyed it so much as a teen.
I'm glad I did, because it's become one of my favorite animes at this point. I think a lot of the veiled references to erections and the analogies strangeness of a 14-year-old-boy forcing his way through puberty were lost on me the first time, and it took until I wasn't a teenager anymore to step back and view it in an almost "nostalgic" sense.
NOTE: I have only seen the first six-episode run of it. I can't speak to the newer reboot series that came out in 2016.
EDIT: to make it clearer, Major's clothing choices in Manga were definitely her own and it didn't feel like it's just random cheap sexualization, but then you have to consider that some of the off-the-books income streams Major had were censored from some releases, and she definitely knew how to play off people's looks at her (explicitly called out in GitS 2.0 manga)
The 1995 movie is easily in my top five favorite movies, and I think a large part of it was because I liked that specific version of her character.
> Major's clothing choices in Manga were definitely her own and it didn't feel like it's just random cheap sexualization
I mean, I guess? These are fictional characters, so these depictions are still created by people. Yes, it's the character's decision in-universe, but it's still the author's decision to put her in situations that require her to be in skimpy outfits.
I don't mean to come off as super social-justicey, I guess I just never really liked the trope in anime of every female character being hyper-sexualized.
SAC Major feels like 15 year old me felt when I first started playing EverQuest and discovering that I could "be" a woman and take all my clothes off in public.
Edit: re the last sentence this is the sequence I'm thinking of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARTLckN9e7I
But the coming of age narrative is so poignant it actually rounds the corner of touching and heart sickness.
I actually found Eri’s story (the girl who was the daughter of the mayor) in episode 3 of the original series to be the most compelling. You love to see a character where you absolutely know what they must be feeling but they are clearly trying to meet some social standard of behavior (see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”).
New thread: Does anyone else know an anime show with hapa characters like asuka?
On haafu characters: Revy in Black Lagoon is. Another Rebecca at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is Becky-sensei in Pani Poni Dash.
Probably a better example would be Li Shaoran (or Xiaolang). In Cardcaptor Sakura, he’s descended from Clow Reed; in Tsubasa, it’s even more complicated. A more interesting one is Tina Foster, who is genetically 100% Anglo-American, but culturally 100% Japanese. She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere, and the overall theme of Ai yori Aoshi is estrangement and finding one’s own family.
> "You had to be a weapon, Ender. Like a gun, like the Little Doctor, functioning perfectly but not knowing what you were aimed at. We aimed you. We're responsible. If there was something wrong, we did it."
> "Tell me later," Ender said. His eyes closed.
> Mazer Rackham shook him. "Don't go to sleep, Ender," he said. "It's very important."
> "You're finished with me," Ender said. "Now leave me alone."
The most-salient parts are excellently dramatized during tracks 9-12 of Julia Ecklar's "Horsetamer":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD6Lj0OPZAc&list=OLAK5uy_kBD...
It's a shame Ender's Game hasn't received a quality visual adaptation. I think Evangellion being animated helped a lot with it being able to seriously depict children in a dark story.
For years people have told me that the books in the series are way better than the movie but I still haven't gotten around to reading it. Maybe I should.
The sequels are good too, but they're also unnecessary if you aren't curious to experience more of the world. The ending of Ender's Game is roughly like the slideshow epilogue of a movie saying things like "Johnny went on to medical school and got married". The sequels and side-stories go into things like what happened while Johnny was at medical school, how he met his future wife, or what their retirement looked like, but the epilogue itself doesn't leave you hanging on anything.
After that novel is a whole series of novels that follow Ender into distant futures and places, as he literally runs from his past to keep it from defining him. The first one, Speaker for the Dead, is very recommendable for follow-up reading. The others I would only recommend if you've already decided that you want to read more of the series.
However, there is also a different set of sequels, and the first of them is the first book I would recommend to anyone who wanted to read more: Ender's Shadow. (Like Ender's Game, it won both a Hugo award and a Nebula award.) It takes place during the same time as Ender's Game, but from the perspective of one of the secondary characters. This second series of sequels generally takes place on Earth in the time shortly after Ender's Game, and follows Ender's siblings and the other Battle School characters. Like the first series of sequels, I won't go out of my way to recommend these to people who haven't already decided they're interested in reading them.
AS I write this comment, I learn that Orson Scott Card has been writing prequels: a trilogy in 2012-2014 (Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, and Earth Awakens) describing the First Formic War (which took place ~50 years before, and is heavily referenced in, Ender's Game), and a not-yet-complete trilogy since 2016 (The Swarm, The Hive, and the not-yet-published The Queens), which appears to be about the actions that were taken after the First Formic War to produce Ender. The reviews on Goodreads are promising; I might read some of these.
Hell, I've only read the novella, and don't really see how it'd be improved by being extended into a full novel. Even a short one.
While I don’t usually care about spoilers, even knowing that there is a big reveal feels a bit like a spoiler.
It really is similar to Neon Genesis Evangellion in many respects. If NGE had existed first as a novel, it's hard to think that the TV adaptation would be anywhere near as good as what was actually made.
I highly recommend the book, with almost no reservations. It's not very long, and a very stimulating read.
If you enjoy that one, and want to read more, then I'd recommend reading either one or both of the immediate sequels (Ender's Shadow and Speaker for the Dead). Iff you read either of those, and enjoyed it, and want to read more, then (and only then) should you concern yourself with the trails of sequels.
It would probably be better as a miniseries.
I feel the same way about the Honor Harrington series, which is basically a riff on redoing Horatio Hornblower in space. The books are quite engaging if you like the gimmick, but the author is a conservative monarchist (in the UK sense) and it comes through pretty strong in most of the books. In the later ones he balances it out a bit though, so I'd guess he's grappling with some view changes of his own.
The movie completely missed this point.
On the other hand, it's an excellent book, and I recommend reading it.
I'm not telling you what to do, but personally I make it a point to get books like that used, if not borrowed.
So you believe in 'bad blood' then? Genetic evil? Or just in the sins of the fathers following their children?
Cool. What other scientific beliefs do you have?
[1] https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2012/may/11/barack-oba...
I still wish I could play the fantasy game, decades after I read the original book last.
edited to add: I arrived at this opinion when I first read the book sometime in the early 90's, which I think is decades before the author's bigotry became public.
I remember when we watched the finale (the first version) one of the members of the anime club lost his cookies so hard he stood up and screamed a rant and walked out of the house in a state of rage.
Somewhat similar for magical girls in Madoka Magica and Kill la Kill.
Trigun is another show that does it well. It's a sci-fi western that slowly reveals the origins of the hero and the villain and the philosophical underpinnings of their conflict, as well as the miserable desert planet all the characters live on.
Elfenlied does the same with harem animes, but nobody should ever watch Elfenlied.
Care to elaborate ?
The story is about girls who are born with a mutation that causes telekinetic powers and sociopathic impulses, and the shadowy organization trying to contain and control them... and a teenaged orphan boy who has multiple stay at his house, including one prolific serial killer recovering from a massive concussion, as an ultra-dark subversion of the harem anime template.
The premise is ruined by a grotesque amount of lolicon.
Warning: TVTropes links
This is what I didn't like about it. It reminded me a lot of Christopher Nolan's work: way too meandering and stoner-bro-what-if
Too late to edit it now I guess.
I think the calendar on spoiler tags being necessary for NGE has long, long since expired.
TL;DR: agreed on no need to be afraid to spoil NGE, but we gotta be explicit that it applies only to NGE (+the end of evangelion movie, which is the true ending to the show that is absolutely a must-watch; also imo past the expiration date on spoilers), and not to Evangelion as a whole (which would include recent Rebuild movies). But there is no harm in putting a spoiler warning at the beginning, and that’s a nice gesture towards those who might want to watch it for the first time without the storyline being spoiled.
I wouldn't be surprised if millions of people first experienced the plot of Dune this year, even though the book is over 50 years old. When I talk with friends who are still reading the books (or waiting for part 2 of the movie) I try to avoid spoiling things as a courtesy.
At this point some endings like Citizen Kane have become so memetic that it's impossible to avoid spoilers, but some people still prefer to go in as blind as possible.
Honestly - super lame that there was no warning on that. Top comment, too. :( A downvote for you.
Formulas don’t have to be boring, Chronicle was excellent despite following the classic Greek tragedy.
Whichever one of it you would prefer, each ends of NGE are open ended turbulent static and never happily thereafters.
Even the latest one could be a bubble of dream in the hell - no one came back out of it, and the thing in his hand might have changed the order of couple events but didn’t change the end result.
The coloring, fonts, monsters, sets, and UIs of NGE are so pleasing to look at
Couldn't agree more. The music is also brilliant and endlessly mixable. https://youtu.be/26P1s88rDCc
Plus I love how Evangelion falls into a middle of exaggerated UIs to have the "hacker look" of /r/itsaunixsystem/, and at the same an amazing level of detail that make sense in their own world.
Like when MAGI it's being hacked by the Computer Angel or SEELE, you can see they use a form of assembly and a Unix System to fight it.
And then, the MAGI system by itself it's an amazing use of redundant architecture with 3 computers that should have the same output. That a system that it's resistant to data corruption, but at the same time working as an GAN AI.
Amazing to think this it's from the 90s, and the most amazing part that those details are just 1% of what makes evangelion interesting.
If you like this, you may as well enjoy: https://scifiinterfaces.com/
https://wiki.evageeks.org/images/e/e1/Nigoki_synch_graph_low...
https://wiki.evageeks.org/images/2/2c/Nigoki_synch_graph_hig...
Episode 13 also has programmers saving everyone against an enemy hacking attempt:
https://wiki.evageeks.org/images/1/18/Ireul_Hacking_Magi.jpg
The UI is pretty timeless in that regard.
And then, of course, it subverts that portrayal by revealing that (ROT13) gur Rinf jrer npghnyyl perngrq ol na bpphyg frperg fbpvrgl hfvat napvrag nyvraf, naq abar bs gur grpuavpvnaf be bcrengbef unir n pyhr jung gurl'er ERNYYL pncnoyr bs.
It's also a nice touch how, as the series goes on, the EVAs end up with different colored parts because they just use whatever replacement was on hand at the time. The city, too, goes from being a semi-normal modern city to barren, dystopian landscape. Not all at once, but in stages.
[0]: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/05/12/studies-on-slack/
Evangelion is full of amazing thoughtful details, I love how they mixed the pseudoscience with the pseudo-mystical concepts of the series[2].
https://youtu.be/R7jXJ1UfOvo?t=1195
(i should note that while this is a terrible but entertaining lightweight comedy anime, as wikipedia puts it, "while the OVA is not strictly a hentai animation", it might not be something to watch in the office)
Need to rewatch it one of these days, it's already on the watch-list.
The sequels that stop tracking so close to the original is where it takes off. I still prefer the original but it didn't feel like a simple re-make at that point.
It was entirely technobabble and metaphysical nonsense with no character development.
I agree that the CGI scenes where kind of weaker than the old animated fights.
The 4th brings it back somewhat, but ultimately the finale is still the typical Eva "here's a bunch of religious babble half-explaining what happens overlaid with crazy imagery" which imho had its last hurrah in EoE.
They are well worth watching too, but you need to be aware of the context to fully appreciate the message.
This guy explains it perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIvs0Q-uKI
Ex: there are few things in life as utterly satisfying as watching gigantic mechanicals lock firmly into place and a big screen filling digital display say something of the effect of “ENGAGEMENT OK”. I don’t know what it is, but it _works_.
Personally what surprised me on re-watch and through the rebuild-series is how much emphasis there is on the beauty of industry itself - so many scenes of machinery on landscapes. This is particularly notable with Ramiel, the beam-weapon octohedron - in the original series they explain that the weapon to defeat it will require all of the electrical power in Japan. In the rebuild, they make the effort of "we have to build electrical equipment to get all the power in Japan into one spot for a few seconds, and we have to do this in like a day or two" feel real and amazing.
As much as Evangelion is a story about isolation and loneliness, visually there's a sort of celebration of industrial civilization - especially the rebuild. Not just individuals, but kind of a "together look what we can achieve" thing. In most other series, the images of machinery and industrial equipment weaponry splayed out over beautiful mountain landscapes and put to task would be dystopian... but in Evangelion, the artists instead make it heroic.
The original series has this too - everybody loves the machinery of Tokyo 3, even poor Shinji, it's just amped up in the rebuild.
Some viewers might see this industrial aesthetic as just eye candy (and in the Rebuilds, it mostly is), but I actually think it's at the core of what makes the original series great. The most memorable part of the series, the fragility, anxiety, and despair of its characters, doesn't land nearly as hard without a foil to contrast against. This is provided by the aforementioned machines-as-characters, not just because they reliably perform their basic duties, but also because they're physical evidence of what other humans could accomplish, people who weren't consumed by doubt, fear, and mistrust. We're constantly seeing juxtapositions between frail man and stable machine, whether it's the elevator patiently clicking through floors while someone inside seethes, the telephoned voice that falls upon would-be-closed ears, or the commuter train being used not to go places, but rather to avoid all places entirely. (And that's just at the surface level --- the broader plot, of course, goes much further and deeper into these themes.) It's only because the industrial aesthetic is so heightened in Eva that the opposing human-fragility aesthetic can reach as low as it does.
I never seen it that way before! Some things reliably melt into the background, but MAGI was not predictable in EoE, it performed its duties with no problems until it was featured as an attack vector, the weapons against angels were reliably useless unless Eva were involved, and sudden power surges could also occur to make estimated reliability/functions work better. A lot was in the background and I never thought of it that way, but the problems I mentioned are when the reliability goes awry.
It's got a fair bit of the classic "teens in mechs" tropes to it, but there's definitely more to it under the hood, and it's universe is rather well put together in my opinion.
I'd try to walk into it without focusing on it being animated though. It's cinematography like anything else, it's just a different medium and a different style that makes use of the flexibility it's medium provides.
Thank you, I will. The only thing I know about NGE is that ending(?) song, Komm Susser Tod.
The more off the beaten path animes like NGE, Hellsing, etc. didn't become as popular until a few years later when I hit high-school.
NGE is quite Freudian and psycho-sexual. If you're worried about fan service moments, I'd say stay away. NGE isn't quite the worst when it comes to fan service, but its pretty up there IMO. This ain't a "waifu-simulator" or a harem but... its like 80% of the way there.
I mean, full on themes of Oedipus complex, teenagers discovering their sexuality, and other such sexual issues. Its certainly a mature theme and if you're worried about it... maybe its a better idea if you do stay away.
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There's a reason why I push "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood" in my other post. There's almost no fan-service in that show. (Like, "Lust", the character representing the deadly sin has a low-cut dress but that's about it in Full Metal Alchemist, and its kind of acceptable for her character to do that cause she's Lust after all. Despite the name, she has almost no themes of sexuality and mostly serves as an incredibly powerful villain for the heroes to take down).
In contrast, NGE takes sexuality front and center in many episodes. In most cases, I think it does advance the story and is therefore acceptable, but plenty of blush-worthy scenes that are largely explained by "fanservice".
* The Promised Neverland (Thriller / Shonen)
* Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (Comedy)
* Spirited Away (And really, virtually everything by Miyazaki has no fanservice)
* Oddtaxi (Film Noir / Zootopia world)
* Little Witch Academia (Iyashikei / Healing genre / School)
* Full Metal Alchemist (Battle / Epic Journey anime)
* Fate / Zero (while the Fate/series in general has fanservice and/or harem tropes, Fate/Zero has none)
* Your Lie in April (Romance / Drama)
I know some people just find the fanservice scenes icky, so I try to keep an eye out for the fanservice-free shows for them.
There are also some kinds of nudity which are more artistic in nature rather than fanservice. I think Spice and Wolf handled that sort of thing well for example: Holo's occasional nudity is somewhat representative of her Wolf Goddess form / Pagan diety background, and I don't think it was really used too much for what most would call fanservice (and certainly fit the setting of "Pagan Diety travels across Europe with Merchant").
Now don't get me wrong, I like Konosuba, but if people don't like sexual scenes, I'm going to keep those kinds of shows away from them.
Its mostly a matter of matching tastes with people's expectations. If something thinks that sexy / horny scenes are bad, then its best to find anime that avoid those kinds of "fanservice".
Anime as a whole is pretty bad in quality, so its not surprising that people look down on anime viewers, especially if they are awkward men. There are excellent animes, and there are mature cartoons, but inexperience with the genre and the pareto principal gives it a very realistic assessment, especially since if you liked it in the 90s, all the anime fan sites linked to hentai in a few clicks. Remember this? https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fairy-bounce
Blast from the past: anyone remember the pink hair girl with green bouncing her anime titties? https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fairy-bounce
Episodes 25 and 26 are very abstract and rushed due to initial production budget. EoE is a more watchable ending to the series.
If you're craving more after that! The plot continues with the four Rebuild of Evangelion movies on Amazon prime video.
I'd push things like Spirited Away or Tokyo Godfathers first, as far as anime-movies go actually.
EoE is good for the Evangelion fans. But honestly, Tokyo Godfathers hit me way harder.
EoE probably doesn't even hit my top 5 list of anime movies.
#1: Spirited Away
#2: Tokyo Godfathers
#3: Girl who Leapt through Time
#4: Summer Wars
#5: "Voices of a Distant Star" for #5? Hmm, or maybe "Time of Eve" ?? A lot of things I wanna fit in here but not EoE yet.
Not even getting to the "classics" like Akira, Eden of the East, Ghost in a Shell or whatever. These above movies have some mainstream appeal but still manage to hit that thoughtful analysis and depth. I'd still put something like Ghost in a Shell or "Your Name" above EoE...
There are also 'kid anime movies' like Patema Inverted that really were excellent and deserve recognition.
EoE is niche and fine for Evangelion fans though. Absolutely beautiful, and some of the best fight scenes I've ever seen. But you gotta see some of the __good anime movies__ out there. They all stand above EoE IMO.
I mean, the scribbles are pretty out there, but the core concept written is about Shinji coming out of his depression thanks to human instrumentality project. Its a bit magical and I don't think depression works like that... but the optimism that you can talk through your problems with your peers is a good message.
It was a muddled ending with a weird storytelling style with a studio that obviously was running out of money. But it got the point across, to me anyway.
More so than the alternative ending, which I do realize more fans seem to enjoy because its got a really good fight scene in it. But the message of EoE is even more muddled and seems to just becomes an extreme parody of itself.
Evangelion always was very much introspective, but EoE crosses the line into navel-gazing. ROT13: V zrna, Fuvawv vf na nffubyr 13 lrne byq. Ohg... znfgheongvat va sebag bs na hapbafpvbhf Nfhxn? Zvfngb naq Xnwv'f frk fprar jvgu Fuvawv jngpuvat bire vg, qrpvqvat jurgure be abg gb xvyy rirelbar?
Like, there's a limit to what I can believe, and I do think that EoE crosses a line. I'm sure a young boy like Shinji can feel bad about his awakened sexual desires but... whooo boy. That's pretty out there.
Maybe? NGE is not very representative of anime in general. Its definitely its own creature.
These days, "anime" lovers like "That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime", "Naruto", "My Hero Academia", or "Demon Slayer". And back then, this "style" was carried by Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z.
You know: powerful hero collects a bunch of things and saves the world kind of plot. None of these shows are anything like NGE. I'd say people who like NGE will probably not like Demon Slayer, and vice versa.
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NGE is an existential mecha-pilot anime about depression, being forced into a losing battle with powers you don't understand. If you feel like dragging yourself through 26 episodes of that, yeah, go ahead.
But this ain't the happy-go-lucky overpowered main character always wins kinda show that's popular by 2020 standards. That's for sure.
Don't get me wrong, I like both style of shows (!!!), and both have their place. But "anime" is so diverse that you really can't compare this story with other great anime stories.
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That being said, I'd say the perfect "starter anime" is "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood". This show has a lot of the crazy fights you'd see in some of the more battle-oriented anime, but also has some deeper self-introspection that was more common to 90s era anime.
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood hits a lot of themes and concepts that seem universal, that many people both anime-fans and non-anime fans can enjoy.
EDIT: In particular, the main character: Edward Elric, may be a kid but he grows up through the show and becomes a hero. Not your typical "anime superpower" growth (Naruto/Demon Slayer / Dragonball Z)... but instead actual outlook on life and maturity kind of growth. Yes, its a hero's journey but there's a reason this story is told over and over again, its a classic epic tale setup with widespread appeal.
What's exceptional is that Edward Elric is a mostly mature character even from episode 1. So starting from a largely mature character and seeing him grow even more is quite spectacular honestly. FMA just does the hero's tale extremely well, far better than most typical anime... with a few deconstructive bits thrown in here and there.
NGE is almost a self-loathing kind of story that makes you feel pitiful. Its good at it too, but I don't think it'd be popular or mainstream. NGE is really out there and goes 100% for whatever depressing feeling its trying to drag you into. I really don't think its something I'd typically share (despite its widespread acclaim, it really is a niche-storyline IMO that few people would enjoy).
EDIT: In contrast: FMA does have a couple of self-loathing parts (The early "Tucker" arc is especially a horrific ordeal), but never quite to the degree that NGE ever gets to. Its still horrific what happens in FMA: Brotherhood, but you never really lose hope in Edward Elric. You can root for the hero from the beginning and never lose faith.
In contrast, NGE absolutely expects you to lose faith in Shinji Ikari, his father, and the entire set of humans involved in the plot. These are not good people. You're watching a train-wreck in slow motion. This is very unusual, even by anime standards.
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Lets put this in terms of WW2 movies. There's lots of WW2 movies: like "Downfall / Der Untergang" and "Midway". Both have their benefits, both are WW2 movies.
But "Downfall / Der Untergang" is simply going to be more niche because the depressing stories are just less popular than the mainstream happy / boom boom fighting movies (like Midway).
If you were trying to get people into WW2 movies, would you start them on "Downfall / Der Untergang" ?? Probably not. Similarly, I wouldn't recommend NGE to a beginner anime watcher... I'd start you on something happier and more mainstream.
That said it seems to be a bit more grounded unlike the usual starter anime - for example Naruto where a promising story turns into a unstoppable train wreck of terribly written characters and stretched out plots
They make it the biggest, most absurd, comically over-the-top Hero's Journey ever. (With great references to those who know the Hero's Journey: Viral == "The Rival", anagram. Viral's mech is "Enkidu", who was "The Rival" to Gilgamesh, the original Hero's Journey story).
Gurren Lagaan is quite stupid at face value. But the writers clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the details of the hero's journey and how to make it incredibly over-the-top.
Stupid at face value, but actually well thought out in details / references, so you can just turn off your brain and have fun... or you can turn your brain on and try to see how the show plays with the Hero's Journey plot and take a more serious perspective.
I don't think its a bad thing. The Hero's Journey / Monomyth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey) has been told again and again in almost all media across all cultures.
Its just a storytelling style that's somehow got permanent, widespread appeal. Since its a "familiar story", I definitely think it plays to the advantage as a "starter anime". It gives a sense of familiarity to the audience, especially if they aren't used to anime yet.
Since the Hero's Journey / Monomyth is so popular, of course there's tons of animes that follow that style (and most "starter" animes IMO are a large-scale hero's journey).
Given the shear number of choices: Naruto, FMA, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Bleach, Dragonball Z, Soul Eater, Sailor Moon, etc. etc... there's a lot to choose from. FMA: Brotherhood just so happens to be the one I think is best.
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I'm mean... we're into what? The 14 year of Marvel movies following the Monomyth formula? This Monomyth / Hero's Journey is hardly unique to anime. The few other mainstream shows that come out with widespread appeal (John Wick, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc. etc.) are just more of the Hero's Journey formula.
Its not a bad formula, not by any stretch of the imagination.
If you have seen even a few episodes of Robotech/Macross/Gundam that's plenty. Even a bit of Voltron or having seen the movie "Iron Giant" may do.
That being said, if you are familiar with the general idea of "Only this one average/milquetoast/nerdy teenager can save the world for contrived plot reasons" it should still be enjoyable as that's where it dials the deconstruction knob up to 11 the most.
Power Rangers might be the most mainstream concept for US-audiences. (It helps of course that Power Rangers is somewhat loosely based on Sentai Zyuranger, but a large chunk of the scenes were replaced with American actors)
Power Rangers is a really good example of the mainstream trope that NGE is deconstructing.
A team of "teenagers" are given all-powerful giant robots to kick the ass of the bad guy. And... you just trust Zordon, right? Zordon doesn't have like, nefarious purposes or anything. And these "teenagers" have the right psyche for the job right? We won't need like, a sad commander constantly barking orders at these teenagers to get in the freaking robot to save the world.
And these teenagers won't get hurt right, in these fights? Like, if a heat-ray hits the robot and the internal fluids of the robot begin to boil, the pilots won't get severe burns or mental scars from these traumas? Oh... right.
Why 13-year-olds? I mean, there's an in-universe reason that I don't want to spoil. But its really because its a deconstruction of "teenagers in giant robots" trope that was all the rage in the 90s (like Power Rangers).
No. I recommend something by Satoshi Kon instead. Not the least because the time commitment is way shorter (movie instead of TV show).
Watch Every Frame a Painting’s video[1] and pick any movie. It’s Christmas season, so maybe go with Tokyo Godfathers[2].
A more recent version is the Rebuild movies (unrelated to the old finale movie EoE). The rebuild movies are beautiful and modern and tell a new story (after the first one which is almost a straight reshoot) but they just not as visceral as the original. They're called 1.11, 2.22, 3.33, and 3.0+1.0. Watch those after the original show if you're craving more.
And thanks for recommendation :)
I know, I know, misconceptions, but it's hard to break habits. Either way, thank you, I saved your answers, I will get back to them one day, I promise.
Though, I remember I wanted to watch Ghost in the Shell one day. Do you recommend it? And where to start - I saw there were many spinoffs, movies, and so on
Techy anime you might like Ergo Proxy, its more philosophical, and Serial Experiments Lain is very popular as your internet self becomes more real than you. I found gurren lagann the most enduring, animatrix is a bunch of short animated features of the matrix universe, I don't care if the boondocks isn't "anime", its drawn by the same animators animes use and it gets the most rewatches.
What shows or TV do you like? Yu gi oh abridged series is just goofy fun,
If I don't reply, feel free to message me on another thread, too bad I can't see replies!
Ichikawa was very keen on layout. While Ichikawa mainly focused on live action features, he began his career as an animator, where he honed his craft of laying out "deliberate" camera shots. Later in "Brother",[3] he was even criticized for a jarring camera layout, where characters sometimes bifurcate the shot composition by standing in the middle. [4]
Ichikawa continued with his "jarring" style; he would insert sudden bursts of opposite shots in the middle of characters speaking. The influence of Ichikawa's cutting style is evident in Anno's works too. For example, in the expository scene in the "End of Evangelion", he would also insert brief shots of the subjects the characters are talking about. (e.g. "Second Impact", "Adam", and such jargon)
Anno is like a Japanese Tarantino; he absorbed much influence from his predecessors, and refines their qualities in his own works. Right now in Tokyo, the Anno Hideaki exhibit is gathering much fanfare. A good portion of the exhibit is devoted not to his works, but the prior art he was heavily influenced by. Clearly, he wants to give more credit to his predecessors by giving them the spotlight they deserve.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074691/
[2] Opening title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkAryQPocLA
[3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054151/
[4] Ichikawa also innovated in film color processing, where he and cinematographer Kazuo Miyakawa left the silver while processing film, giving an eerie lush glow to the colors.
P.S. I've also commented on Evangelion in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15906758