Forum - View topicEvangelion in American popular culture.
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2906 |
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Well,ailblentyn. If you've haven't lived in Australia a whole lot since 1999,I suppose you have friends or family who still live there so hopefully you might talk with them about how "Evangelion" influenced Australian popular culture.
Also,I've seen some Australian stuff that have been imported to America. I've seen much of the "Dot" series of films that were imported here. I've also seen stuff like "Blinky Bill" and "Bananas in Pajamas" that were syndicated here during the 1990's. I'm still surprised that "EVA" was such a hit Down Under. It's so grim and dark and it doesn't really seem to match the Australian character at all. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1796 Location: South America |
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Ghibli films like Only Yesterday and Porco Rosso are anything but family in the western use of the term, these two movies are adult movies that were the highest grossing Japanese movies of 1991 and 1992, respectively. Princess Mononoke is an adult complex animated epic that managed to be the highest grossing film of all time in Japan. Animation considered nerdy in Japan is stuff like Legend of Galactic Heroes, which is nerdy by default. Fantasy and science fiction are nerdy by default. Specially if its sophisticated like Legend of Galactic Heroes. Still, even though EVA is clearly nerdy material, the last two EVA movies were among the top 5-6 highest grossing films of their respective years in Japan. The franchise is worth over 2 billion dollars. Clearly, EVA is part of Japanese mainstream popular culture, which cannot happen in the US, for instance. In the US the first Pokemon movie made about 50 times more money than Princess Mononoke (100 million versus 2.2 million), in Japan nearly the inverse happened: The first Pokemon movie made 7 billion yen, Princess Mononoke made nearly 20 billion yen. Clearly, the population of the two countries already had very different perception about the possibilities of animation 15 years ago. Today animation is becoming more popular among adults in the US (Arriety made 10 times more money than Princess Mononoke, though Arriety is much less adult and complex) thanks to stuff like Simpsons, South Park and Pixar's more complex films. |
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CrisGer A.A.
 Posts: 170 Location: 世田谷区 Setagaya Ward |
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Anime will probably never be appreciated by most Americans, even among Anime fans in the US i find very little interest and appreciation for the more complex and subtle sides and issues of anime, and most view the various series and genres of them in quite superficial terms.
As for American attempts at Animation, there are just none of any real quality and the cheap, shoddy and gross series like Family Guy, and the Simpsons and that horrible one set in Colorado are terrible beyond words in both style and content. and have nothing at all to do with serious animation such as Japanese Anime. So i am not sure what the point of talking about Evangelion in America is for it was a lousy series for Japanese sophisticated viewers of anime and the movies are entertainment but hardly taken seriously..it is a standing joke that they keep trying to get it right, and probably never can or will. |
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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Please set us right about what sophisticated and cultured viewers of material from that era value instead.
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SwerveCity
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As an Aussie, stop stereotyping. Sure some Aussies might be happy but we also have introspective people, sad people, angry people. Hell, I'd say most Aussies feel all these emotions. Aussies are no different than anyone born anywhere else, we just live in a better country. And using shows designed for children under the age of 10 as designating an entire nation's culture. Seriously, name a sad children's show. That's how silly that idea was. |
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3963 Location: New York state. |
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Relevance in American pop culture, eh? Hmmm. The only instance I recall Eva getting some sort of nod from our pop culture was Robin Williams in the movie "One Hour Photo".
Beyond that, any mention of Eva that I've come across within Americana is quite rare as most people associate anime with either children's characters (Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, Astro Boy, etc...) or the more graphic titles to the medium (hentai, Akira, etc...). |
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ailblentyn
Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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Mesonoxian Eve
Posts: 1858 |
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Sno,
EVA is to Japan what Star Wars is to the US. Regardless of its dark tones, the series was very raw for its day, and the franchise continues to keep its popularity because of the impact it had on its viewers. Gundam is another franchise that's very huge in Japan, and its merchandise is everywhere as well. In fact, Japan even erected a life-sized model of one of the units, if this helps put things into perspective. As for EVA's influence in US entertainment, it's there, but it may not be direct. Sci-Fi shows may toss it a nod or two, but it's not as often as Star Wars gets. Many US Sci-Fi writers will admit anime has an influence on what they write, but like most writers, they still try to develop something unique for its audience. It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit if Pacific Rim's writer was influenced by mecha anime. |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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I've seen quite a few references to it. Mainly from action cartoons with people who love anime on them and are influenced by them. Like Justice League and other shows. I'd say it's like the way anime influences the American public. The average joe might only know it from "that Pokemon craze", but the people in the animation industry here are heavily influenced by it and you can see it in pretty much all our cartoons pretty much. It's a certain group of people (animators) who it's relevant to, not everyone in the country.
Not really. You can just point to recent Iron Man 3 and showcase how it spits in the face of the comics. It's at the point where those dumbed-down-for-kids cartoons on TV are more accurate than the movies. Though that's the thing, "thousands" of source material fans complaining doesn't matter to studios as much as "millions" of average people who see movies. If they have to dumb down movies to get people into theaters, they will. |
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2906 |
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In all the time I've been interested in anime,attitudes like CrisGer A.A. really get to me. The snobbish,silly,stupid attitude that all American animation is bad and all Japanese animation is good. I wish whoever this CrisGer A.A. would read the anime reviews on this site. Not all anime are pinnacles of animation.
He also cuts short really great studios like Walt Disney,Hanna-Barbera,Warner Brothers,stuff like that. For decades,Disney animation has been one of the great pioneers in animation. Between the three of them,American animation has produced many of the most legendary cartoon characters of all time. Characters like Bugs Bunny,Mickey Mouse,Goofy,Daffy Duck,Tom and Jerry,Scooby-Doo,and so many others. Yes,I agree that "Family Guy" is a crass show,but not all American animation is shoddy. One great example is "Fantasia" by Walt Disney. That was made in the 1940's and can be considered a forerunner of the music videos we see today. A more recent example is "Samurai Jack,"an anime-style show which has a very artistic bent to it even though it's made for kids. It's visual style and great use of sound shows that American animation has it's gems as well as junk. I've also heard about Japanese anime that aren't on anyone's list of great animation. Stuff like "Apocalypse Zero,""Mad Bull 34,"and others like them aren't going to be winning any awards for great animation anytime soon. To me,"Neon Genesis Evangelion" was an immensely dark and gloomy show. I thought it needed a much lighter touch than it got. It seems to me that people like CrisGer A.A. needs to expand his or her horizons a bit. He or she needs to watch some great stuff like "Tom and Jerry" and "Scooby-Doo" and other things like that. I wish people like this would learn to look at the really great parts about American animation and not dismiss all of it as trash. |
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EricJ
 Posts: 876 |
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Oh, excuse US, Ninja Turtles expert! 
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2906 |
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Well,EricJ. I just said that there's a lot of great animation that's been made in this country. I'm not trying to step on your toes. Although,I doubt the "Ninja Turtles" have any "EVA" references.
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