Hideaki Anno’s heavily influential deconstruction of the giant robot genre of anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion has been interpreted by fans in countless different ways due to its plethora of religious, psychological, & just plain weird imagery and themes yet at its core it’s the story of four emotionally fragile individuals trying to come together not merely to stave off an alien invasion but to also open their own hearts to one another.
The animation is for the most part just as good if not better than much of today’s anime and the character designs for the Eva units and monsters can be pretty original and sometimes surreal & disturbing to see in action.
The series is certainly not for everyone, with the 2 biggest faults technical wise being the drop in animation quality (or rather, drop in actual animation) and several plot points and story lines that never get as much explanation or clarification as they should have. The other big thing that might turn viewers off is the depressed and self loathing nature the characters often have along with all the “artsy” stuff the show uses.
Love it or hate it I think you’ll find some pretty darn interesting things about NGE that have been copied countless times but rarely ever executed to the same effect.
Episodes You Must See:
“Rei I”, “Rei II”, “Asuka Strikes”, “Both of You, Dance Like You want to Win”, & “The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still” are all great episodes with a mix of action, story, humor, & character interaction which do have a bunch of stuff that forwards the plot but can also stand on their own.
Episodes to Avoid:
Most of the technically bad episodes or just kinda boring also have a ton of story, plot, & character development so the only episode you really can skip is the not at all bad “A Human Work” one.
Buyer’s Guide:
This show has been released tons of times but I feel that the best one to get is the Platinum Complete DVD collection (I own it). It’s a simple cardboard box with Rei (blue girl) on one side and Asuka (red girl) on the other with 6 DVDs in slim cases contained inside. It has all 26 episodes plus the director's cut episodes in both Japanese and English language tracks along with subtitles. The audio/visual quality is the best we can get provided there’s no Blu-Ray remaster on the way. If you can get it for under $50 US dollars it’s a fair price.
4 mommy complexes out of 5
3 comments:
A flawed classic. We should have borderline psychotics make all our entertainment. Shinji is annoying. Has all the confidence of a used tissue. When a chick wants a make out session you could at least grab her ass.
I still feel for the little guy. Check out the Retake movies if you haven't. He's way more proactive in 2.22.
The rebuild movies are fantastic, especially 2.22.
I wish 3.33 would hurry up. It's called You Can (Not) Redo.
They might want to try CTRL+Y.
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