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I started printing my memoir last night. I continued at 8:00 am today. I'm still printing the thing. With my advance check I will buy a new printer that isn't slow, evil, and insane. You don't want to know.
Since I'm stuck here apparently indefinitely, I will amuse myself by reprinting my thoughts on this o/v/e/r/r/a/t/e/d controversial anime series.
First report, from about half-way through the show:
As most of you probably know already, the Earth is under attack by giant things called angels, which look like robots, but later developments suggest that they're living, presumably bioengineered things. The first two attacks killed half the population; fourteen years later, everyone's hunkered down in fortified cities.
The only defense against the angels is the Evas-- giant robots (three so far) which can only be piloted by certain kids born nine months after the first attack. The kids are Shinji, a passive boy who's understandably depressed because his asshole father, who runs the program, doesn't love him; Rei, a girl who I suspect is either a clone or an android, because she has no past, no emotions, and no personality; and Asuka, another girl who's an annoying brat.
Despite the almost complete lack of likable characters, the story is gripping enough to keep me watching. Actually, the story per se is only so-so, but the hints of a larger plot occurring out of sight are quite intriguing: What are the angels and what do they want? Is someone sending them? Are the Evas based on angel technology? Are the Evas alive? What's so special about the kid pilots? Who or what is Rei? Is Shinji's horrible father plotting the end of the world, and why? Etc.
It's not uncommon in sf for the background to be more interesting than the foreground, but this show is a particularly notable case.
That being said, and admitting that I'll watch to the end to see how it comes out, I have to ask: what is it that's so special about this show, again?
It's supposed to be a dark, intense classic, but so far it hasn't been all that dark and intense-- angsty, yes, but not as much as a bunch of the other shows I've checked out-- and nowhere near as intense as its obvious comparison, that other story of kids fighting a war against aliens because their abusive-parents-by-proxy don't want to get their hands dirty, Ender's Game.
The animation is OK, nothing more, though some of the character, angel, and Eva designs are pretty good.
The weirdness quotient, so far, is pretty low. Actually, it's nil except for the strange use of Christian imagery and the presence of a penguin (the obligatory cute animal, here totally out of place).
Second report, of the complete show:
At about the halfway mark, the series switched from a somewhat generic sf show about angsty kids piloting giant robots called evangelions for an organization called NERV to save their post-apocalyptic world from invaders to a really interesting and weird sf show in which all the elements noted above are called into doubt, and Christian imagery begins to run amok.
Huge spoilers, including details of the worst ending of anything ever.
It turns out that the nasty commander and father of Shinji, the chief angsty kid pilot, may have caused the extremely mysterious first apocalypse and may be secretly plotting another.
Angsty kid number two, Rei, is a clone and may have been cloned from Shinji's mother who died in a mysterious evangelion accident, or may have been cloned from the corpse
of Lilith, which is possibly an angel and is crucified under NERV headquarters, or from Adam, also under HQ and also possibly an angel. Lilith is impaled on the Lance of Longinus, an anti-angel weapon.
The evangelions may be cloned angels, or possibly cloned Liliths or Adams. The Dead Sea Scrolls are involved. Maybe the angels are really angels. Rei's soul may be powering the evangelions. The AT Field (stands for Absolute Terror (!)) which is a sort of super force field surrounding the angels, may also be possessed by all people, which would imply... I have no idea.
All these fascinating mysteries lead up to an intriguing but mysterious climax, in which the last angel sacrifices itself for the sake of humanity. It is suggested that Shinji's creep father intended something to happen which would cause people to become a group mind in order to end loneliness. (I have noticed that the ultimate horror in many anime shows is loneliness. In fact, that may be true of most of the ones I've seen.)
The climax, which explains none of those mysteries, is followed by two episodes of GIBBERISH. Apparently the plan for a group mind-merge succeeded. This causes Shinji is to be subjected to philosophy 101 lectures on the self, the world, perceptions influencing the world, mixed with a therapy session on his low self-esteem, father complex, and tendency to value himself as pilot rather than a person. He decides that he's worthy after all. Every single character who ever appeared on the show says "Congratulations" one by one. He says "Thank you." Yay! The end.
ARRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!
Apparently there's a movie with an alternate ending which ALSO doesn't explain anything. I am supremely irritated.
But probably not as much as all the fourteen-year-old boys who watched it week after week when it first came out.
Since I'm stuck here apparently indefinitely, I will amuse myself by reprinting my thoughts on this o/v/e/r/r/a/t/e/d controversial anime series.
First report, from about half-way through the show:
As most of you probably know already, the Earth is under attack by giant things called angels, which look like robots, but later developments suggest that they're living, presumably bioengineered things. The first two attacks killed half the population; fourteen years later, everyone's hunkered down in fortified cities.
The only defense against the angels is the Evas-- giant robots (three so far) which can only be piloted by certain kids born nine months after the first attack. The kids are Shinji, a passive boy who's understandably depressed because his asshole father, who runs the program, doesn't love him; Rei, a girl who I suspect is either a clone or an android, because she has no past, no emotions, and no personality; and Asuka, another girl who's an annoying brat.
Despite the almost complete lack of likable characters, the story is gripping enough to keep me watching. Actually, the story per se is only so-so, but the hints of a larger plot occurring out of sight are quite intriguing: What are the angels and what do they want? Is someone sending them? Are the Evas based on angel technology? Are the Evas alive? What's so special about the kid pilots? Who or what is Rei? Is Shinji's horrible father plotting the end of the world, and why? Etc.
It's not uncommon in sf for the background to be more interesting than the foreground, but this show is a particularly notable case.
That being said, and admitting that I'll watch to the end to see how it comes out, I have to ask: what is it that's so special about this show, again?
It's supposed to be a dark, intense classic, but so far it hasn't been all that dark and intense-- angsty, yes, but not as much as a bunch of the other shows I've checked out-- and nowhere near as intense as its obvious comparison, that other story of kids fighting a war against aliens because their abusive-parents-by-proxy don't want to get their hands dirty, Ender's Game.
The animation is OK, nothing more, though some of the character, angel, and Eva designs are pretty good.
The weirdness quotient, so far, is pretty low. Actually, it's nil except for the strange use of Christian imagery and the presence of a penguin (the obligatory cute animal, here totally out of place).
Second report, of the complete show:
At about the halfway mark, the series switched from a somewhat generic sf show about angsty kids piloting giant robots called evangelions for an organization called NERV to save their post-apocalyptic world from invaders to a really interesting and weird sf show in which all the elements noted above are called into doubt, and Christian imagery begins to run amok.
Huge spoilers, including details of the worst ending of anything ever.
It turns out that the nasty commander and father of Shinji, the chief angsty kid pilot, may have caused the extremely mysterious first apocalypse and may be secretly plotting another.
Angsty kid number two, Rei, is a clone and may have been cloned from Shinji's mother who died in a mysterious evangelion accident, or may have been cloned from the corpse
of Lilith, which is possibly an angel and is crucified under NERV headquarters, or from Adam, also under HQ and also possibly an angel. Lilith is impaled on the Lance of Longinus, an anti-angel weapon.
The evangelions may be cloned angels, or possibly cloned Liliths or Adams. The Dead Sea Scrolls are involved. Maybe the angels are really angels. Rei's soul may be powering the evangelions. The AT Field (stands for Absolute Terror (!)) which is a sort of super force field surrounding the angels, may also be possessed by all people, which would imply... I have no idea.
All these fascinating mysteries lead up to an intriguing but mysterious climax, in which the last angel sacrifices itself for the sake of humanity. It is suggested that Shinji's creep father intended something to happen which would cause people to become a group mind in order to end loneliness. (I have noticed that the ultimate horror in many anime shows is loneliness. In fact, that may be true of most of the ones I've seen.)
The climax, which explains none of those mysteries, is followed by two episodes of GIBBERISH. Apparently the plan for a group mind-merge succeeded. This causes Shinji is to be subjected to philosophy 101 lectures on the self, the world, perceptions influencing the world, mixed with a therapy session on his low self-esteem, father complex, and tendency to value himself as pilot rather than a person. He decides that he's worthy after all. Every single character who ever appeared on the show says "Congratulations" one by one. He says "Thank you." Yay! The end.
ARRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!
Apparently there's a movie with an alternate ending which ALSO doesn't explain anything. I am supremely irritated.
But probably not as much as all the fourteen-year-old boys who watched it week after week when it first came out.
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From:
no subject
Actually, I'm one of those Evangelion-loving people, for reasons that I will go into deeply in my LJ at some point, but which center on: 1) the opening theme, still one of my favorites; 2) Kaworu Nagisa, who turns up and talks sense and behaves wonderfully and is one of the people I admire most in all of anime despite having precisely eight minutes of screentime; and 3) the ending, frankly. At the time I saw it I was coming out of five years thoroughly immersed in academic analysis of Christian and Jewish millennial esotericism and going into four years of immersion in academic analysis of Greco-Roman syncretism and the history of magic and alchemy, and, actually, the ending and the plot made perfect sense to me. Maybe you have to have spent too much time with Abiezer Coppe. At some point, actually, I want to do an annotated summary of the way I thought Eva resolved (which of course may have absolutely nothing to do with Hideaki Anno's intentions-- if there's one thing I agree with everyone else on about Eva, it's that the show is TOO insanely cryptic sometimes), but it would require a horribly extensive bibliography and I wouldn't be able to do much with it so I keep putting it off.
My love for the show may also have something to do with the fact that I assumed from moment one that the angels were really angels, which is a personal quirk of mine, so the switch in mode toward the end didn't surprise me.
Of course, I long ago accepted that much of what I love about Eva may well have a lot more to do with what I brought to it than what's there, but I honestly can't tell anymore, and I do think at least some of it is there. Especially Kaworu. Man, I love that guy.
From:
no subject
The funny thing is, if the show had ended when Kaworu... left... I would have liked that ending better, even though it was less resolved. Shinji's therapy session drove me batty. I'd enjoy hearing your analysis of the end (and middle, and beginning) though.
From:
no subject
I think that was in an episode of Witchblade, now that you mention it. They do like to drag that thing around.
From:
Evangelion
From:
Re: Evangelion
I love the cryptic mysticism and the backgrounded stuff. I am not strong on plot to begin with, so the deficiencies therein were less noticeable. I'm still perplexed by the ending, though. :-p Ah well, I can always watch Mobile Police Patlabor as an antidote. Or maybe Martian Successor Nadesico.
From:
Re: Evangelion
From:
Re: Evangelion
I guess that's one reason I'm really fond of the end, actually: Anno's still alive.
Did you ever watch any of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances)? The first half was directed by Anno, and is the narrative techniques from the last couple episodes of Evangelion made comprehensible and applied to a romantic comedy, which is fascinating. Mind you, I want the US translators taken out and shot even more than usual, and the show jumped the shark when Anno left. But it's worth a look.
From:
Re: Evangelion
From:
no subject
My favorite part is "Well, so far this looks like an interesting series, although I don't get what all the fuss is about." and then two lines later:
"Second report: (*%)(*#$(*$*(^!!!!!!!!! OMGWTFBBQ?!?!"
Which I feel perfectly sums up the EVA experience!
From:
no subject
(I was so desperate to read your Armageddon review that I wandered the apartment with my laptop, finally discovering the internet on the far corner of my bed.)
From:
no subject
I discovered to my chagrin that I had closed the YouTube window with the Mahabharat episode, which means I have to let the entire thing load again and probably sit through Krishna being ponderous.