Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby peripateia » Thu May 04, 2017 10:33 pm

@Reichu:

Do you think it's possible to get those things completely off your chest someday? EoE has left me unsatisfied by leaving everything open, strangely I feel as though the rushed ending of episode 26 from the original series would have given me more closure.

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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby Reichu » Fri May 05, 2017 1:07 am

peripateia: I think it's doable, eventually.

Finishing Crying Man (see sig) is super-important to me. Whatever form it needs to take -- my plan is to write the originally envisioned fanfic first, then do a non-NGE version afterward -- it's something that I need to completely expunge from my psyche. Frustrating that it's been over a year since I've been able to make any real progress, despite repeated attempts, but I haven't given up.

Aside from that, there's a fair amount of theory and analysis I'd like to have in polished, presentable form, archived as essays on the wiki or whatever. Doing more translation would be nice, too.
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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby big_big_bozo » Fri May 05, 2017 1:22 am

It's a bit of a nostalgia thing for me.

Strangely enough, aside from a few scattered DBZ episodes, End of Eva is actually one of the earliest anime related memories I have. My dad used to be really into anime, mostly Ghibli films, but on this occasion he happened to be watching EoE in his office while I was playing at his desk (think I was around 7 or 8). We watched all the way up until Shinji entered Unit-01, and I think you can guess why he stopped it there. Personally, I don't think you should show a kid something as "adult" and "explicit" as EoE, but this lapse in judgement ultimately created one of the few good memories between us (ironic, considering the nature of the film).

I recall enjoying the portions I saw, mostly Asukas last stand with the MPE's. Pretty sure it was the dub too, cause I remember asking my dad some dumb shit along the lines of "why is the red lady saying all these mean things?". The scene where Misato gave Shinji a lil tounge also confused me greatly, but my dad wisely refused to elaborate further.

After that, I didn't catch hide nor hair of Eva for many many years, not until highschool where this oddball chick that smelt like cheese-strings in our Robotics club (re)introduced it to me. And the rest, as they say, is history (you can imagine the realizations I had once I discovered the actual context behind the film). While I've gone months, even years, without mentioning it, this lingering memory always compels me to return. Wish I could convey this in a less sappy manner, but the show really does mean a great deal to me, even as I've gone through phases of both loving it, and utterly detesting it (long story right there).

As for a less cliche answer, the fact that a dedicated "community" still surrounds the show to this day helps keep discussion fresh and semi-relevant. Plenty of excuses to come back and shoot the shit with long time fans, or just poke fun at newcomers that have no idea what they're getting into.
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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby peripateia » Fri May 05, 2017 1:57 am

@Reichu:

I'm intrigued by your focus on Dr. Katsuragi, I'm impressed that you've managed to infuse so much backstory into a seldom-mentioned character in the original NGE. In Misato's flashback I recall only that his face is left blank in the Manga, and cut from the frame in the anime. What's your connection with this guy, if I may ask?

@big_big_bozo:

I also grew up with eva, in a personal sense. A friend I looked up to introduced me to the series and said it was like nothing he'd ever seen, when I was 14. I remember that I had to hunt around multiple Best Buys in the area to find a Manga Entertainment release of D&R/EoE on dvd, and that it was absolutely worth every penny as I finished EoE for the first time and sat still in a state of shock and bewilderment.

I think that nostalgia also relates to why I yearn so much to see a proper ending after EoE. I can't escape the feeling that I projected the depressive episodes of the characters onto my own struggles as a teenager, and that deep down I want these frail people to find happiness so that their struggles will have been worth enduring in the end, so that I can say the same of my own struggles.

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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby Reichu » Fri May 05, 2017 3:06 am

View Original Postperipateia wrote:What's your connection with this guy, if I may ask?

Back in 2005 or so, a fellow regular at AnimeNation's Eva forum wanted help with a fanfic exploring Kaworu's origins. I suggested Dr. Katsuragi for the donor, and it started snowballing from there. (This is from memory; the thread's archived, but I'm too tired to double-check exactly how it went.) Things started to get really weird around the holiday season, when I developed a hypomanic episode and -- not knowing what was happening, nor, apparently, having anything better to do at the time -- pointed my overactive brain at NGE's mysteries and went to town. There was a pervasive delusion of enlightenment: many good ideas arose from this time, but it seemed just as often I'd be putting together things that were never meant to be put together, or coming to conclusions no rational person would come to.

The basic framework of a narrative surrounding Dr. Katsuragi emerged during this time. And something about it stuck in my brain, long after my hypomania had ended. There was an untold story here that genuinely compelled me. Who was this guy? Why did he run away from his family into research? What exactly DID he research? What made his wife finally decide to drop him? How did he get involved in Gehirn? How did the Katsuragi Research Team come to be? What exactly was his team doing to Adam? Why was Misato at the base with him? And then add onto all of that the questions that arise from making him the donor (= Kaworu's father). The description of him as "sensitive" seems to have been a big part of the hook, as well.

Eventually I realized that this whole thing had grown far beyond a master's thesis in fanwanking and developed into something intensely personal. A great deal of this involves Dr. Katsuragi's struggle with mental illness, which seemed to grow out of my attempts to come to terms with my own brushes with madness. The character's journey became my own journey, in a way. (It's hard to go too deep into the explanation, with the story still so unfinished.) But it's all trapped in my head still. I need the catharsis of proper release. I also feel that, once it's all out there, others will get something from it, too. A bonus if nothing else.
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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby Mr. Tines » Fri May 05, 2017 4:06 pm

For me, because it had such an effect when I first saw it, acting both on emotional and intellectual levels like nothing else has quite done before or since. Now, long after the original shock has long worn off, it's become a part of the mental furniture, despite the best efforts of the Rebuilds to push me away.
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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby Magneto » Sat May 06, 2017 10:37 am

I watched the anime right 3 times I think, I have on my computer, I do not intend to watch everything again so early, so every time I have interest in some particular scene I see it. I really do not have as much admiration as I had 2 or 3 years ago when I watched the anime for the first time, at that time Eva was everything, perfection, it was a time when I was discouraged with the Japanese animations, tired of the same cliches Whenever I do not remember so well because I started to watch eva, but the first time I watched the first episodes, I remember how I identified with the main character, how I felt that Shinji's universe was similar to mine, I was excited that he was not just another kid "Let me, I solve" so many anime, looking for something more real, Gendo was also a stimulating character to motivate me to see him, he was so bad and cold with Shinji, That the first scene he tells the kid to pilot the robot was so remarkable to me, but at the same time it was a pleasure to see him that way, and a distorted way he remembers Shinji, also the feeling that when Everybody is Is afraid and afraid of a post-apocalyptic world and trying to avoid another disaster, it is there cold and calm knowing everything that will happen. I also like the Sci-fi universe of Evangelion, the robots attracted me for not being the typical "Robots Giant" of wicks, Tokyo-3 is simply amazing, this idea of ​​hiding the city was so consistent, I love it when Animes Basta Follow the real logic of things, nothing to destroy an entire city just because it's cool to knock down buildings, The NERV complex was interesting, the way they strategically hide Lilith down there, the angels attacking Tokyo-3 and I just do not understand why , Until he discovered which episodes after his goal was to reach the Terminal Dogma where Lilith / Adam was there, there was also the Magi System, three Super computers that decide the direction of a city. About the episodes, they were particularly interesting, even the episodes of "monsters of the week" had something to add to the story, one that I particularly disappointed the first time was episode 24, right at the top, is Kaworu an Angel? What a "big surprise", what were they thinking anyway? Today, I accept this better. Finally, the last two episodes, disturbing, obscure, no apparent sense, I do not know how I liked, All following the logic of happening and they just give it to you, I think it was a feeling of being in a nightmare, the whole Universe Of Eva that was created in 24 episodes ends with this and I LIKE IT. Finally it's tiring to talk about everything about this anime, some themes will be missing, I've forgotten some characters, Eva's ending and other things, it's also true that a little bit of this magic, I'm no longer so equal to Shinji When I watched the anime By First time, so I think if you lost a little fascination, why did not I leave Eva? , I think I'm already leaving, it's not something I think about discussing for life, but at the moment I met people that I can share all the knowledge of Eva that I have acquired over the years and at the same time take some doubts , Basically having something to talk about, the truth is that what really made me like Eva was what I got to understand, the theories are cool, but it's frustrating how I've never managed to get to them, so I just think it was no more What an animation.
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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby peripateia » Sun May 07, 2017 6:12 am

My famously jaded college roommate saw Eva, surprisingly, and when I asked him what he thought of it, he said there was a special quality about the show, which he couldn't explain, that distinguished it from all the other 90's anime he'd seen. He also hated Eva, but I don't blame him.

At the end of the day, it is only an animation, I totally agree with ya Magneto. But for some reason Eva's also like a familiar friend, an assuring presence. Maybe director Anno just understood moody teenagers very well, but as a teenager I felt like I could relate to those fictional characters more than my own classmates at the time. Now that 2015 has come and gone without an apocalypse, I return to the fandom in search of a proper ending for Eva's lonely lillin.

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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Mon May 08, 2017 10:16 am

Am I experienced enough in the fandom to be considered an "old-timer?" 2009 was my earliest experience with Eva, so maybe not. On the other hand, I have had multiple opportunities to replace Eva's place in my film philosophy with other, more recent titles, but despite that Eva still remains. So maybe I can be considered an old-timer.

Eva is great to me because it proves that all of the individual aspects of the show are sturdy enough to stand on their own, and yet are still used to create a greater whole. Episodes 7-10 prove that the giant monster fights are good enough to stand on their own without any deep or complex character development (tone is the only thing that makes the character-focused scenes stand out as more important than they typically would in other shows), while Episode 15 proves that the character development is good enough to stand on its own without feeling the need to rely on cool monster fights in order to keep the audience's attention. (Episodes 25 and 26 prove that the show's approach can be changed to French New Wave/Surrealism and still be consistent with itself.)

It's rare to see a show contain every element it presents at its fullest. Usually one element to a story is more subservient to the other. But in Eva, all narrative elements are complete, and none of it feels like mere, stitched-together tropes in blatant service to each other. (You know, the typical "boring parts" that audiences are expected to suffer through in order to get to the promised "good parts.")

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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby Magneto » Wed May 10, 2017 5:05 pm

@ Peripateia

Sorry if I was a bit insensitive, I just wanted to make it clear that Evangelion also has a special place for me, of course its lessons I will keep for life (episode 26 is still remarkable after a while), but I understand that the characters Are there only as a thematic purpose, it was this thought that I built over those years, before I really plunged into Evangelion and the universe of its characters as if they were everything I had, what I understood best, now I think More in the lessons that the author wanted to give us.

View Original Postperipateia wrote: and that deep down I want these frail people to find happiness so that their struggles will have been worth enduring in the end, so that I can say the same of my own struggles.


I believe that this is just an illusion for ourselves, we are all subject to the same laws of physics, wanting happiness to a person just because he had a traumatic life is our way of wanting to reward ourselves for our struggles, that is a Of the points that one learns in this show, we all survive by helping and praising ourselves, filling our faults, sharing our joy, thinking of a better future for our neighbor, is a cycle that results but does not make any difference to a being Like Pen Pen.
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Re: Old timers: Why do you keep coming back to Eva?

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Postby Kendrix » Fri May 12, 2017 6:22 pm

Because Rei.
I wanted to try harvesting the rice

I wanted to hold Tsubame more

I wanted to stay together forever with the boy I like


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