Forum - View topicNEWS: Hideaki Anno Releases Statement About New Evangelion Movies
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MokonaModoki
 Posts: 437 Location: Austin, Texas |
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I like to think I'm looking forward to the NGE movies, but that feeling is waning, and stuff like this doesn't help. I've long been of the firm opinion that the series was an under-delivering, over-budget, over-hyped, deliberately obfusticated bundle of tripe. One whose primary achievement was making legions of fanboys say "Look at all the religious symbolism, philosophical meanderings and psychological exploration!. It must be great!"
It was pretty terrific (in a variety of ways) for 1995-96. But it wasn't Finnegan's Wake, kids, no matter how incomprehensible they tried to make it. At least James Joyce understood symbolism when he used it. NGE's creators threw a bunch in just to be strange (i.e. the whole "No, none of us were Christian, were those symbols supposed to actually mean something?" attitude). The movies certainly couldn't be any worse. And the articles in December's NewType certainly made it sound like they might try to tell a comprehensible story with the movies. This statement from Anno, however, does precisely nothing to instill any hope that this time they actually will get it right. |
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MugenKeiji
Posts: 59 Location: San Francisco |
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Strangely, I'm reminded of what Kajishima noted about Tenchi back in 2000 before considering the 3rd OVA...
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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 Case in point, Death And Rebirth is not a substitute for the TV series.
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chicogrande
 Posts: 190 Location: Huntsville, Alabama |
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Armchair media critics aside, Evangelion is the most influential anime of the mid-1990's in my opinion.
Hideaki Anno directed one of the most talked about and discussed animes outside of Studio Ghibli releases, IMO. Disney would sacrifice children to Satan if they could have a franchise make so much money. 
To call Eva misogynistic is to say that most all other Anime was approved by NOW. (Does that make sense?  )
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digitalrexAM2
Posts: 6 |
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Ok where to begin.....
Evangelion is one of the best Anime if not sci fi shows of all time, an anime that even 12 years later holds up very well against anime made today i think that it is about time gainex did a re evaluation of the series, you can say all you want about them milking the series, but aside from a few video games, the eva anime as stood on its own regardless of all the toys created in its wake. the characters are amazingly well developed, the mythology is good, not perfect, but good......etc. my evaluation of Anno is that he is an otaku geek like the rest of us, someone who will walk around a convention for hours looking for that perfect Asuka figure that somewhat matches her personallity (much like i personally did over the weekend) at the same time he hates that part of his life and that is why he created eva, to tell the otaku world to get out into the real world.....that is the real story of eva. eva is actually not that difficult to understand if one opens there mind and reaserches the series it is also true what he says about nothing aproaching eva in the last 12 years, think about it, Tomino tried to tackle Eva with Brain Powered and failed...... also what he says about he industry is also true, aside form FMA and Haruhi there are not that many anime's that have the deep story of eva......just look at gundam.....the Amuro - Char saga is one of the best in all of anime, now look at Seed and see that it pales in comparison...... PS James Joyce is unreadable, eva is at least watchable if for only the art |
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digitalrexAM2
Posts: 6 |
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also i forgot to mention eureka seven, which is a good series, and as much as it wants to be eva, its not even close......
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RogueJedi86
 Posts: 501 |
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I gotta say, Eureka seveN never tried to be EVA. I read that it didn't even have mecha in it at first, but while developing it, Bandai forced them to put in mechs for merchandising's sake. That's probably the worst thing I've gotten from Evangelion: the fact that everyone says any anime even remotely similar to Evangelion is ripping it off, or trying to be like it, or trying to top it. |
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mufurc
 Posts: 612 |
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You can research Eva all you want, you won't 'understand' it simply because there's nearly nothing to understand, and what sense it makes is quite obvious and can be understood easily. But the symbolism of Eva makes no sense, as any research will prove. Of course if one devotes one's time to it, it's possible to devise a personalized system in which it mostly works, but that doesn't mean it's really "deep" and well-thought out, especially as the creators themselves hadn't made it as such. Anything can be overanalyzed. Want an anime series with complex symbolism that actually all makes sense? Try Utena. Now that's a show that's worthy of being analyzed. (And I find it funny that many "Eva is teh best liek evar" people brush Utena off as "stupid weirdness".)
So? The fact that no-one was successful in 'tackling" Eva (not to mention the fact that anything remotely similar to it is automatically regarded as a rip-off) doesn't mean it's the quintessential anime. There are many shows, like the aforementioned Utena, that are much more mature, intelligent, poignant and simply better. It's just that these are not trying to ride Eva's coattails but are going their own way. And as for the state of the industry, yes, I agree that it's pretty sad - very good anime get lost under the hundreds of "loli moe fanservice" and "angsty bishounen fanservice" shows - hell, the audience laps up shows like Code Geass which are nothing more than heaps of shameless fanservice. Still, the general situation wasn't any better back in the "good old times." Only back then we had generic adventure shows with scantily clad girls instead of generic love comedies with lolis. |
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subaru
Posts: 120 Location: Australia |
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No anime has generated the kind of hype that eva created in the anime history. I mean, yes, it seems like gainax has been milking the franchise way too much, with the endless release of figures and products..... but if no one buys them, they won't release more..... it just shows that there is still a huge fan base for it. FMA, Suzumiya are good, but would their popularity last that long? I doubt so..... there will be fans still loving them.... but its not going to be anything like eva. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I'll watch these movies and likely enjoy them, probably because I won't walk in with all this nonsense baggage, blinded by how "important" my opinion of the original series is.
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Iridium
 Posts: 3 |
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Don't worry about Anno's judgment on the state of the industry. Many of the people at the top of the creative chain have been bewailing for years that the end was in sight. Miyazaki himself once pronounced that anime had reached a creative "dead end". Of course that was in 1988. I'd say it's navigated that particular dead end fairly well. And, of course, those who were around when Eva actally came out might remember all of the analysts who were certain that this was the end of history as far as anime was concerned. And then Bebop aired and we forgot all about that. Personally I hope that Anno does believe his own hype and that he can show us something special. Which side of Anno's personality eventually shows up to direct these films, however, remains to be seen. |
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digitalrexAM2
Posts: 6 |
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thats your opinion, when i watch the series, it just seems to very simular thats all......and the mechas in eva or eureka 7 dont matter, what i was talking about is the genra of philosophical fiction as a whole.....and in my opinion eva is better.....i still dont know what reaching the limit of questions is...... i have never seen utena, so i cant say anything about it, sounds like a good recomendation, but what i can say is that eva does make sense.......if you want you can ask me a question regarding it.......also Anno intentionally left the series up to a certain amount of interpritation, and understanding this fact is another way to make sense of it in the end if you dont like eva dont go see the movies and stop complaining about it......i for one cannot wait to see if he lives up to his own hype Last edited by digitalrexAM2 on Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:42 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8499 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I'm sure what Anno meant by all that was that this Evangelion will have more Pen Pen, and thus be a superior product.
Seriously though, Tomino talks just as meglomaniacal as Anno does, except about all his terrible newer works like the Z Gundam movies (and the opposite about all his greater older works like the Z Gundam series and Victory Gundam). Nishizaki and Matsumoto were talking like this too, back in the days of Space Battleship Yamato. Anno's just very confident (albiet a tad arrogant) in his vision. Evangelion isn't terribly original, though, I have to say - not nearly as original as Anno would say. Maybe for it's time there was nothing quite like it, but it's not as though a show with similar concepts hadn't been pulled off (Space Runaway Ideon, anybody?) or have been done in greater detail today (watch anything from Satoshi Kon for a true vision of fractured minds and altered reality). If he means that there hasn't been many great action-mystery mecha shows over the past few years, he's right. Eureka Seven is often lauded, but it is more of a character program than a concept program like Evangelion, though. However, if he's going by the mecha action angle, Eureka Seven has Evangelion beat. If he wants to argue concept, Evangelion probably edges out shows like E7 and Rahxephon. Nor is Evangelion terribly complex. It has been said that the symbolism was largely cosmetic, although much of it does have meaning within the context of the show (just don't go looking to make Shinji, Gendou, and Yui the Holy Trinity or Keele the Wandering Jew). But it was a little more complex than the shows coming out around it's time. It wasn't the greatest show, it just managed to hit the right cords at the right time and became a phenomenon. However, the Evangelion hate is laughable, though. It's as if the detractors have discovered something that all the Evangelion fans don't know - *GASP* it's not "deep"! "Deep" is a pejorative term, even when used seriously. You can't take anyone seriously who argues pro or con "deep", unless there's an explanation, which their usually isn't - it's usually the con side debunking simple misconceptions. Why you would even give enough leeway to an unsophisticated viewer to anger you as much to want to tear down what you view as a paper thin screen of vaneer. is beyond me. It's like the anti-Haruhi crowd. Certainly they were born out of the Evangelion hater group. All they do is take the most superficial fans as an example of why to not only condemn a show they might not have given a chance because of its popularity among less sophisticated viewers, but to actually hold out as a concrete example of why a show "sucks". Everyone wants to be Charlton Heston in Soylant Green, screaming to the people that Evangelion is made out of people. Evangelion is, for all intents and purposes, a very interesting (if not always coherent) action/mecha/drama with an all too real main protagonist and some very provocative material. I don't know about Anno's claim that this new Evangelion will be better, but I know that he probably wants to do as well as he can, so it's easy to understand from a creative perspective why he might strive for a better product.. |
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digitalrexAM2
Posts: 6 |
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i see eva as very much a character piece, Gendo, Shinji, Asuka, Masato, Ritsu... are all very well developed characters
the only exspetion is rei......but she is still interesting if you disect the personallities of the three rei's in the story...... after seeing the series its the characters that i found most impressive also the religious aspect is rediculous and should be ignored, becuase eve, lilith, adam are just convienent names and have nothing to do with theology.... however the psycological and sociological aspects are very true think about the AT field for instane, it is a wall that seperates the human mind from the outside world, we can at times look over that wall to see what other people are like, but we can never break through it and totally know someone 100 per cent, there will always be something hideing behind that wall |
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Doddler
Posts: 20 |
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I've gotten incredibly attached to whatever gainax is putting out. I've had a great time watching Gunbuster 2 and Re Cutie Honey, and older stuff that they've put out, Mahoromatic, Abenobashi, FLCL, even Petite Princess Yucie make up the majority of my shelf space. Though to be honest I watched and enjoyed eva, I didn't hold it very high. Still, I think that if they will try thier hand at an eva project in this day, I don't think that it will live up to the legend that eva has made for itself. They're going to come out of this with something that at times is funny, at times intense, but when you look at the package as a whole, its just going to be a whole lot of fun, and thats the one thing gainax hasn't been slacking on.
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