Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime)

[rachelmanija]

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

Comments

Evangelion

[zen_amako]

A lot of fans were riled by the TV series' ending. The director, Anno Hideaki, even put some of the hate mail he received from angered fans into the "End of Evangelion" movie (although it zooms by pretty fast). The movie was not really an alternate ending, because it didn't depart from the series' ending that much. The movie showed what was occuring in the outside world as Shinji was having his internal struggle (GAINAX probably didn't have enough money to animate this in the TV series -- they are notorious for running out of money by the time they reach the end of a series). Scenes that were perplexing in the final episodes (Misato slumped against a wall?) were explained in the movie, so the two endings actually complement one another. "End of Evangelion" is a movie with a definite message, however, which seemed to be: Stop living in the fantasy world of giant robot anime and get a life. :) As you might imagine, a number of fans were not too happy with this. However, I think the Anno may have been directing this message to himself as much as to his audience.

Re: Evangelion

[rachelmanija]

That's interesting, thanks. A friend of mine claims that Anno Hideaki had a nervous breakdown during the show and ran through the halls yelling "I'm a genius, I'm a genius!" But he could not provide a cite for that, so I'm taking it with several spoonfuls of salt.

Re: Evangelion

[rushthatspeaks]

Actually, he had a nervous breakdown well before he started making the show. The Quintessential Anno Interview, in Newtype magazine (sorry I don't have the year) explains that he was suicidal when he started writing the series, which really makes sense, frankly. He decided to do Evangelion because he was searching for a reason to live.

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.

Re: Evangelion

[rachelmanija]

Yes, I've seen the first few episodes and I was very impressed. I haven't gotten back to it yet because I have to be in the mood to watch something that hyperkinetic, and the characters talk so fast that it wasn't helping my Japanese any. But yeah, I liked those techniques a lot better in the service of a less esoteric story.