How did you first get into Eva?

How did I get into this??? - I have watched different anime from DBZ to Fullmetal Alchemist, to Suzumiya Haruhi and other recent anime - but everytime I went to conventions I would see EVA merchandise and see all of these Asuka and Rei toys and be like...what the heck is all of this???

So I decided to buy the Rebuilds when they were cheap during a holiday sale last year and was going to watch them...thinking I did not need to watch the originals, until I was recently at a convention and wound up speaking with some vendors on EVA and bought a little merchandise.

From here I researched the series and was intrigued by its depth, symbolism, and psychological emotion - something that seems to be missing from the majority of today's anime...my opinion of course.

So I bought the whole Platinum thin pack and the movies and what a masterpiece I have discovered...changed my life...and here I am

First got into anime in the early 90's and read a lot in anime magazines in the mid 90's about eva before its english release. When the english release came out I watched the dub on VHS(before I had a good old DVD player) I don't think they put the subbed versions out on UK VHS but i might be wrong. Anyhow I was hooked to the show from then on. I absolutely loved the fact the story was so intriguing and open to analysis, it truly felt like a more grown up mech anime with something to say rather than just 26 episodes of battle scenes.

how did i get into NGE?

hmm been watching anime since i was a kid, grew up in the later part of the 80's...


first heard of evangelion in 1998 (i know, i'm slow on things) and found a local video place that loaned the first 4 episodes in VHS =) borrowed those, thought it was crazy! but what i watched left me hung like a moose............

....finally landed myself a complete set of DVDs early 2000-ish at a local con, and started watching it. i've been hooked ever since.

I first saw a few bits of NGE when I was around 4-5. A picture of Rei with her plugsuit bathing on LCL, maybe a few episode tidbits...

Then I saw them in Super Robot Wars games. It was only really now that I got curious enough to watch them. Now I'm hooked and waiting for Rebuild 3.0.

It's quite silly, but the first time I ever knew about Eva was when I noted that my ex-boyfriend seemed to be spending a lot of cash on Internet purchases, manga and magazines. He wouldn't tell me what the deliveries were until I saw the pretty Asuka figure in his desk. Considering A:TLA was over, I needed something else to watch, so, one thing led to the other...

Re-posted from the 'Welcome' thread:
"I've been an Evangelion fan for almost 13 years now. I first saw the series when it aired initially on Australian television back in 1999. I think I was 10 at the time and it blew my mind. Ever since then, it has always been a part of me. Hope that doesn't sound weird, haha. I re-watch the series and the movie(s) at least once a year, sometimes more and just recently; I showed it to my GF and she's also become enamoured with it."

Seen a few episodes on Cartoon network when i was 8 or 9 and its just stayed in the back of my head up until last year when i bought platnium and the the two rebuilds, compelety hooked and it pretty much runs my life and a day to day basis atm.

I had heard a lot about Eva and during the summer before high school, I decided to give it a shot. I proceeded to watch the entire series and EoE (Which was a sobering experience for my thirteen year old mind) and it really got me thinking. I was hooked.

When rebuild came to a local art theater in my state, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement, and proceeded to drag eight people with me to go and see it. It only reinforced the obsession.

My first encounter with Eva was when I was in the second grade, and a local TV show was showing an episode where Shogouki got skinned. That was the earliest time I remember being thoroughly scared and disturbed so I turned the TV off.

Fast forward to around college time. I've been reading up a lot about Eva and since it's right up my alley (I do love a good mindbleeping anime -- Lain and Monster, anyone?), I decided to catch up on it. Never looked back since.

I recently got my girlfriend into anime. I wanted to watch Eva with her, but I don't think watching Eva as your first anime series is a good idea so I started off by showing her Cowboy Bebop (clearly the best gateway anime of all time, mirite?) and since then I think she's watched more anime than I have xD (netflix and shit).

so we just watched the series + End of Eva, with me explaining key details along the way to make it much more understandable (without spoiling key plot points). To my surprise she got most of the series on the first playthrough, which was nice. We discussed the ending of the series (EoE) and she was happy with it, saying how it wasn't the happy ending most people would've wanted, but it was the most logical end and very fitting. She appreciated how Shinji's first reaction was to strangle Asuka (I can't remember her reasoning at the moment).

She then quoted an Asuka line, and given her red hair she actually looked like Asuka for a sec. Naturally, I jumped on her and started strangling her.*

:: a little tidbit of psychoanalysis for all you psych-heads: when we were laying down afterwards messing around (yes, we fooled around after that ^ and watching EoE, don't judge us ;o...), she was smiling weirdly so I asked her what it was. She said she was thinking of a time when we were having sex and I told her I needed her (pfft, I dont remember that, she must be making it up... ). I asked her what made her think of that all of a sudden, and she didn't know. I reasoned that perhaps the subtitle of the last scene in EoE, One More Final: I Need You, made her subconsciously think of it, to which she agreed.

It's interesting seeing how Eva affects people in different ways.

*I've always hated Asuka ;p

My brother showed me the opening and I thought. "Looks Interesting". 2 days later I watched the first 6 episodes. I stayed forever hooked

How do I get into Eva? Kind of a boring story but here it goes:

As a kid, I remember seeing the movie End of Eva in Blockbuster. Having been raised on Disney cartoons, I was really intrigued by the art on the cover and thought it looked really cool. However, my mom didn’t think it look appropriate for kids so we rented something else.

Later in high school I met a friend who was really into anime and we watched Death Note and stuff like that together. We both tend to like series with a darker element to them and we had heard Eva was a classic so we got the Rebuild movies from the library (yeah, I was surprised too—there must be an Eva fan amongst the librarians where I live!) My reaction was meh toward them. I thought they were kind of cute and I liked the action but I didn’t see what all the hype was about. However, they were interesting enough that we got the original series (also from the library!) Sad to say, my friend hated it and thought it was awful. However, I am a psychology major so by the last half I was really excited. So much to analyze! I really think the original is best even if it doesn’t have Rei looking cute as she sips her miso soup. Anyways, when my request for the End of Eva finally came in, I was super excited because I recognized the cover from that movie I wanted to see years ago. I guess that’s one of the benefits of getting older—you can finally watch good cartoons

ThatDudeInTheSuede's top anime openings. It was of course number 1, and that was the first I had ever heard of it.

Plat Dubs,
Animax,
Ni nen bai.
Only animu I wasn't eventually disgusted/estranged by (poor variety, mind you).
Only recently have I returned to watching it.

It was one of the first things that got me into Anime. My friend is a massive, massive Evangelion fan, to the point of having a wall scroll and model of Eva Unit 02.

I wasn't very fond of anime at the time and he tried showing me Rebuild to try and get me into it. I was incredibly confused and yet still didn't have any interest in what was happening at all for some reason.

Eventually, my friend showed me other anime and I slowly got more and more into watching a variety of different things. During this process I eventually went back and started watching NGE (either by my own accord or because of my friend I can't remember) and enjoyed it a lot and was quite mind-fucked by it, but wasn't quite crazy about it yet.

After mulling over it and watching other anime I came back to it and searched for more information about it and searched for answers. I then became hooked as I understood it more and then became a massive fan.

So thats it I guess. Heh.

Not very climactic or anything, but I wanted to see the Rebuild movies and someone told me to watch the original series first, and so I did, and fell in love (but not before hating it and discovering this site).

I had a friend in early high school mention it to me. I regularly mocked the idea of giant robots with power cables to razz on him until I watched it and was forced to eat some humble pie.