The rebuild movies are best viewed as an alternate, or branching timeline. It's never stated, but it just kinda feels that way. So in a sense they're good companion pieces to the original series. But IMO, you can't watch the original series without watching EoE.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Watching all the Anime Classics for the first time, list in the OP & suggestions welcome [Previously LTTP Eva Thread]
- Thread starter TheDutchSlayer
- Start date
The series doesn't really explain a lot of its set-up because, by the mid-90s, "kid pilots dad-designed giant robot against weird aliens" was as cliché as it got. Anno basically took that and mixed in an anime adaptation of Arthur C Clarke's novel Childhood's End.
Yes, the rebuilds have a confusing titling structure because they all have both a Japanese title and a number with an accompanying English title. So people refer to them in a variety of ways (like the third one is often referred to as "Q" like it's Japanese title and the final as "Shin" or "Thrice"). But really just follow the numbers which thankfully is how they are titled on Amazon lol.
OP
OP
Now this is something I can 1000000% agree with and that is whitout any EoE context yet. [edit] typo
Last edited:
It was incredible, ear to ear grin the whole way through, certain scenes hit different when you're watching the film in an actual auditorium, if you know you know, but damn watching end of eva in a cinema was a dream of mine and I still can't believe I got to watch it, and the cinema was only down the road from my house too!
Without a doubt my favourite film of all time, I love evangelion so damn much.
My brother. You have no idea what's waiting for you. I'm trying to contain myself but you're going to see what is most likely one of the coolest movies ever made and possibly one of the best overall. EoE is entirely on another level. Unfortunate that you're missing the historical context.
I personally wouldn't watch the rebuilds until long after you've finished the series, they start off slow boring and repeat a lot of stuff you will have seen in the series as they were made decades afterwards.
You still have a lot more to watch, but if you want to make sense of those last couple of episodes it would help to know more about the creator and what he was going through at the time he wrote it.
As I understand it the author was dealing with severe depression and he was basically working his way through it when he wrote those final episodes. I know I was lost when I first saw them but things really clicked for me the second time I went through the series and saw it through that perspective.
As far as the End of Evangelion, I was told that the reception to those episodes was really harsh and they basically reset the ending in an effort to to minimize the backlash. (kind of sad when you see those other episodes from the author's perspective)
I think the rebuild movies started as another way to try to appease the fans / cash in by reworking the series but they wound up taking on a life of their own and found a way to tie everything together while letting the author add more of himself into the mix.
As I understand it the author was dealing with severe depression and he was basically working his way through it when he wrote those final episodes. I know I was lost when I first saw them but things really clicked for me the second time I went through the series and saw it through that perspective.
As far as the End of Evangelion, I was told that the reception to those episodes was really harsh and they basically reset the ending in an effort to to minimize the backlash. (kind of sad when you see those other episodes from the author's perspective)
I think the rebuild movies started as another way to try to appease the fans / cash in by reworking the series but they wound up taking on a life of their own and found a way to tie everything together while letting the author add more of himself into the mix.
I enjoyed the Eva video Crunchyroll put out explaining the canon. Aka everything ever released in any media is canon lol
it's gross op.
And somehow worse in super HD with the rebuild movies.
I don't know how Amazon was okay letting some of the imagery in rebuild on their Prime streaming service. Especially from the last movie that I ASSUME tries to skirt the issue by saying
🤮
Somehow though this is all overlooked and people proclaim Anno as some kind of auteur. 🙄
And somehow worse in super HD with the rebuild movies.
I don't know how Amazon was okay letting some of the imagery in rebuild on their Prime streaming service. Especially from the last movie that I ASSUME tries to skirt the issue by saying
Asuka just LOOKS 14, so it's totally okay all of these half naked provocative poses she's making… because due to reasons she's really 30 or something.
Somehow though this is all overlooked and people proclaim Anno as some kind of auteur. 🙄
OP
OP
Thank you so much that really helps a lot
Rally appriciate this.
Is that only on CR or on youtube as well? I don't have a paid CR account.
Rebuild, especially 4.0 was pretty disgusting in how it treated Asuka. I honestly could not believe how much worse 4.0 was on Asuka. Haven't finished the movie because of it.
I keep meaning to rewatch these. It's a kind of annoying show though in that yeah you need to dig for some answers in the earlier bits, but worst of all is like you say the sexual scenes. They're largely unneeded with only a handful actually having story relevance, and yup the age makes it gross.
Tbh this and the severe anti epilepsy approach the show took bugs the hell out of me. I know my wife would love the show but the former would make her raise an eyebrow and the latter, well you can guess. I'd hoped the new movies would be an option for her but they also have the same issue. I've debated removing all the white frame insertion on davinci but rendering the whole show and all films would take me an age
Tbh this and the severe anti epilepsy approach the show took bugs the hell out of me. I know my wife would love the show but the former would make her raise an eyebrow and the latter, well you can guess. I'd hoped the new movies would be an option for her but they also have the same issue. I've debated removing all the white frame insertion on davinci but rendering the whole show and all films would take me an age
Definitely watch End of Evangelion, it's the "real ending" in a lot of peoples' minds. The last few episodes are still "the ending" but End of Evangelion is a much more traditional sort of big finale that will also help those eps make more sense.
Rebuild is for watching after EoE. The first movie is mostly a remake of the earlier parts of the series, but all I can say for the rest is "watch and find out."
I generally didn't mind the sexual content in the original Evangelion. It could get very uncomfortable, by design, but it didn't feel totally inappropriate in the context of a series about puberty, trying to relate to other people, depression, setting boundaries, etc. End of Evangelion unfortunately handles it a lot worse, which is one of my major gripes about it.
Rebuild is for watching after EoE. The first movie is mostly a remake of the earlier parts of the series, but all I can say for the rest is "watch and find out."
I generally didn't mind the sexual content in the original Evangelion. It could get very uncomfortable, by design, but it didn't feel totally inappropriate in the context of a series about puberty, trying to relate to other people, depression, setting boundaries, etc. End of Evangelion unfortunately handles it a lot worse, which is one of my major gripes about it.
Last edited:
No problem; I just know I was in the same spot when I first saw it lol. I was confused about it for years and then I watched it with a different perspective when the new movies came out and my teenage son said he wanted to watch the series.
This time I went in with more of an open mind and did some digging into it because I knew it went over my head the first time around.
I'll write things out more clearly:
Original series
I recommend that you watch the entire thing, including the Rebuilds. In many ways it's all one large continuous story.
Original series
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (26 episodes)
- The End of Evangelion
- Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
- Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
- Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
- Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
I recommend that you watch the entire thing, including the Rebuilds. In many ways it's all one large continuous story.
My suggestion OP is that you cherish the two final episodes from the TV show because that's as close as the show comes to a 'happy' ending for a while (until the last EVA movie)
Yeah, and Shinji being considered "an anime trope" himself lacks historical context as well, because when Eva debuted giant robot pilots were almost always super-excited to get in the cockpit, Gundam (17 years earlier) being the exception. All the imitators that came after Eva doubled-down on that emo aspect.
OP, I feel like there's a particular historical context you should consider and how/where Eva sits in that. Successful or not, it inherently is a piece having a conversation about a long-standing, cliche-ridden genre.
I'd also recommend checking out this podcast if you're interested - all but 1 of the hosts were new to Evangelion, and it was explicitly being viewed because of the show's rerelease on Netflix.
View: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yiEu5pfBSpxOvgk52BA1F
When you finish, I'm going to share a video that gives some context (and I know some people disagree with it, but I really don't care, it makes for a fun bit of BTS mythology around a deeply influential work that is interesting regardless.)
The four Rebuild films begin as a kind of retread of the show but make a deliberate point at the end of the first that "this is not doing the same thing."
I'd also recommend checking out this podcast if you're interested - all but 1 of the hosts were new to Evangelion, and it was explicitly being viewed because of the show's rerelease on Netflix.
View: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yiEu5pfBSpxOvgk52BA1F
End of Evangelion is the end/retcon/kinda sorta explanation of the final two episodes. It's filled with absolute spite from the creator and it's fascinating for it, whether or not you actually find it satisfying as a narrative conclusion.
When you finish, I'm going to share a video that gives some context (and I know some people disagree with it, but I really don't care, it makes for a fun bit of BTS mythology around a deeply influential work that is interesting regardless.)
The four Rebuild films begin as a kind of retread of the show but make a deliberate point at the end of the first that "this is not doing the same thing."
Last edited:
Yeah, Evangelion is partially a commentary on several decades of toku and mecha media, with many of its main influences (Ultraman, Mazinger, Ideon to an extent) being pillars of pop culture in Japan but relatively unknown in many other parts of the world.
With all the old theories about what happened with the last two episodes, I love the actual events that led to them:
- Gainax was in crunch mode and hand-delivered episode 24 to the network twenty minutes before airtime (this is why there was a whole minute of one frame of animation)
- The network put the tape right in the deck and aired it nationally sight-unseen
- The network said "What the fuck did we just watch?" (a teenage boy getting decapitated), and called Gainax in the next day to show them a work-in-progress rough cut/animatic of the next episode
- The episode was essentially the first half of EoE, complete with that Asuka battle, and the network said "Absolutely fucking not."
- Ganiax had six days to put a new ending together from scratch, using clips from the cutting room floor to augment whatever they could animate in time
The recent Netflix re-release of the TV series contains the original next episode preview from episode 24, which was previously omitted from home video, and as a rough animatic beat-for-beat resembling the first half of EoE it pretty much confirms this story.
all the pilots got it bad, but asuka's treatment felt damn near sadistic
Hot take: Eva's popularity is due to its uniqueness even 20 years later in the larger animated landscape not because it's of an exceptionally high/consistent quality. I honestly don't think it's a very "good" show.
Basically take it for what you will. If you watch/bounce off it/hate it, your perspective isn't crazy or off base. If you fall in love with the IP that's cool too
Basically take it for what you will. If you watch/bounce off it/hate it, your perspective isn't crazy or off base. If you fall in love with the IP that's cool too
User Banned (3 days): Drive-By Posting, prior ban for the same behavior
Judging by many of the comments in this thread, the perversity is the attraction.
I'd rather not signal boost a show that depicts a young teen masturbating and coming on another teenager under the guise of "art" (oh, the boomer creator is depressed, so it's cool), but there's a lot of prominent fans on ERA.
I'd rather not signal boost a show that depicts a young teen masturbating and coming on another teenager under the guise of "art" (oh, the boomer creator is depressed, so it's cool), but there's a lot of prominent fans on ERA.
The entire point of the ending is that the ultimate conflict was the creator's depression and how self-acceptance was the ultimate challenge to overcome. And also to see the women as independent people.
OP still has a lot of work to do. I'd say the rebuild movies are just as essential as End of Evangelion to the whole series.
Loving all the people who are like "wait until you finish EoE." My experience with the series is the exact opposite of the OP. When I started getting anime during high school 20 years ago, I had several friends recommend I watch Evangelion. Thinking it was a movie series, not television, I rented EoE since that was the only Evangelion movie I could find at Blockbuster. I've never been more confused before or since. Finally watched the entire series when Waypoint did their podcast on it.
Loving all the people who are like "wait until you finish EoE." My experience with the series is the exact opposite of the OP. When I started getting anime during high school 20 years ago, I had several friends recommend I watch Evangelion. Thinking it was a movie series, not television, I rented EoE since that was the only Evangelion movie I could find at Blockbuster. I've never been more confused before or since. Finally watched the entire series when Waypoint did their podcast on it.
For anyone that's thinking of a rewatch, I highly recommend the Sync Ratios podcast where they do episode by episode breakdowns (and are both legit fans)
Sync Ratios 2021
Sync Ratios 2021
actually i think Evangelion is one of the few/only animes that portrays sexuality w/r/t teenage angst accordingly. there is fan service of course but its mostly treated as an afterthought
i was Shinji's age when i watched the show and nothing ever seemed "off" in this regard, even the hospital room fap (not that i wasn't like WTF but i fully understood how he got to that point)
i was Shinji's age when i watched the show and nothing ever seemed "off" in this regard, even the hospital room fap (not that i wasn't like WTF but i fully understood how he got to that point)
