Aesthetics of Eva

[Xacebans]

Is there anything about the art style you really like or dislike? What's your favorite character design? Your favorite Eva design? Any character designs that just rub you the wrong way?

Personally, I like the art style as a whole but it irritates me when I see Rei and Asuka with unrealistically long legs for their heights, and sometimes these really elongated torsos. They'd be around 5'10 if they actually had proportions like they have in a lot of official art!
For example,

SPOILER: Show

See what I mean?

[Azathoth]

Sadamoto's character designs are wildly impossible in proportion at any rate. I sometimes wonder if the Eva designs aren't a bit of snide commentary on that by Yamashita. The broad shoulders, large heads, wasp-waistedness, narrow hips...

But no, there's nothing I really dislike except for Unit 00's perpetual O( face.

[NemZ]

I don't understand why the plug suits aren't more uniform in design. Of course they have to be somewhat tailored to the individual user, but there's no reason for them to have wildly different little valves, hard chunks of plastic and random doohickies slapped on here and there. Whichever design works best would be sensible to adapt to all pilots rather than giving each something unique. It seems pointlessly wasteful that they even produced multiple designs in the first place rather than testing some alternatives before sticking to just one.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I loved the aesthetics by the time Ep 8 came around. It looked like all the character animation was finally in-house, rather than out-sourced and ammusingly off-model. Ep 1-6 seemed to have very little in-house character animation, and, as mentoned before, it looked rediculous by Yamashita.

[BulletShoot]

I quite like the designs for Eva, it doesn't have the over colorfulness that a lot of anime tend to have nowadays. Also on the proportions of characters, they're pretty bad but I have seen much worse. I'm looking at you CLAMP.

[Sachi]

Especially toward the latter half of the series, I really enjoy the animation for the faces of each character. It really manages to grasp the emotions that were nonexistent in some other episodes. One thing that bothers me nowadays is the lack of more interesting camera angles, though it can't really be helped. If I want pretty animation, I can go to Rebuild.

[LeoXiao]

The animation of faces could be more uniform; in this regard I liked EoE's style quite a bit. In terms of general art, I thought NGE had good style. I liked especially the use of contrasting light and darkness, as well as captions, which did a lot toward embodying the setting of the underground NERV base and Instrumentality/mindrape scenes, respectively. One example I though was cool was when a SEELE guy would speak, and then a light would turn on and then we'd see the person in question (liek Gendo, Ritsuko, or Misato)., and that this technique was reused in the final episodes.

[Fireball]

Sadamoto style was one of the first things that attracted me to the series. It combined the old school with modernism and has that perfect balance of style and realism. In that regard, he and Kenichi Sonoda are one of my favorite artists.

I like the character designs very much. It's so 90s with the hard edges and scrawny limbs but still managed to preserve itself to this day. Can you say timeless? Just look at Rei for example. She radiates grace and inviolability when she stands infront of the moon. It is a picture for eternity. A tastement to conceptional branding.

And the mecha design is so avantgarde and animalistic. It really challenged the status quo of what robots looked before. The Angels all feel so out of this world but still have this organic structure despite looking so extraterrestrial.

Was never too fond of Jet Alone and the VTOL units I guess, and those exaggerated big rockets (however they look awesome when they explode) but overall everything is in touch with the setting.

[Cruel Thesis]

Sometimes the waists of the female characters are drawn too thinly for my taste. I also don’t like it when the noses are too sharply pointed.

I don’t think the characters are overly idealised. Though Rei and Asuka push it a bit. Im glad that the hair colours aren’t too crazy. Again Rei pushes that but she’s meant to stand apart from the others.

Overall I think i liked EOE's style the most.

Today a lot of shows seem to want to out-cute each other and produce stuff that seems really gaudy to me. I liked that eva presented some fantastic things from a grounded perspective. It didnt try too hard to dazzle.. I wont comment on the new movies though.

[ReiAyanami25]

I like the way that the different eva units all look diffrent in some way, such as the colouration or the head design. That excludes the mass produced Evangelions.
I also like the way the characters expressions are drawn, and the fact that the faces can display so much or so little emotion. Also, the way that Rei's smile was drawn, especially the version featured in Death, made that particular smile she made seem very special, as if she had never smiled that way in her whole life. It was one of the rare moments where Rei looked completely happy, the smile seemed so sincere.
Some of the faces Shinjii made seemed very expressive too, almost providing us with a small window to glimpse his thoughts and inner feelings with, such as this shot here:

SPOILER: Show

I also like Sadamoto's drawing style a lot, in the way that he does not use computers to create the art, so more traditional art mediums such as pencils and inks can be put to good use. They also have a very pleasing look to them overall.

One of the parts of the drawings that I did not like was this shot from the OP:

SPOILER: Show

His nose is much to pointy, it reminds me of a rose thorn. I also dislike the fact that from time to time, the torsos of some of the female characters, especially those that wear plugsuits, appear to be too long to look even remotely realistic.

[Xana]

SPOILER: Show

D'awwww, that was one of Shinji's most adorable scenes, I actually wanted to pinch his cheeks there <3 I love it when Shinji smiles like that, I love happy Shinji.

Rei's character design has always been my favorite, especially her plugsuit, fell in love with it at first sight
I don't mind the exaggerated leg and waist proportions; however, I'm glad they didn't go overboard with Rei's and Asuka's breasts, I like my women long and slender

I admit that the Eva designs did turn me off at first, because I was so used to the generic mecha designs at the time, but I'm okay with them now. Though I still think they could have put more detail to Zerogoki's design, it looks rather simple compared to the other Eva.

Is it weird that I find pointy noses sexy?? some people here seem to dislike the pics where characters are drawn with pointy noses, but I find them hot.

[Cruel Thesis]

Sometimes the characters nostrils disappear. But i think maybe thats a stylistic choice.

Is it weird that I find pointy noses sexy?? some people here seem to dislike the pics where characters are drawn with pointy noses, but I find them hot.

Nasophilia is ok in my book. Just as long as your not into mucus.. That would be weird..

[ReiAyanami25]

Rei's character design has always been my favorite

That is the same for me, probably because Rei is my favorite character. I think that Rei suits the school uniform much better than Asuka does, she just looks better in it compared to Asuka.

Though I still think they could have put more detail to Zerogoki's design, it looks rather simple compared to the other Eva.

I actually like Unit 00 that way, it is my favourite eva unit. I think that the lesser amounts of detail allow it to contrast nicely against the other eva's appearances.

[Xana]

Sometimes the characters nostrils disappear. But i think maybe thats a stylistic choice.

I wish real people didn't have nostrils, or cavities of any sort.

Just as long as your not into mucus.. That would be weird..

Oooh of course not!

That is the same for me, probably because Rei is my favorite character. I think that Rei suits the school uniform much better than Asuka does, she just looks better in it compared to Asuka.

Rei looks great in anything she wears, really.

[robersora]

I really like the character design in general. It's not too flashy, but not boring, and it's straight to the point. Also the animators manage to say a lot with facial expressions, that's great.
As for the Evas, I am really fascinated, how they managed to make them so formidable although they have such flashy colours.
What I like most, is the cutting. Anno adds a lot of power to the scenes just due to the cutting and, sometimes, the camera angels.

But the most interesting thing is, that the show does not feel really outdated (yet?). I think the designs might become timeless.

Overall, I like the aesthetics very much, IMO they fit EVA perfectly.

[TehDonutKing]

I wish real people didn't have nostrils, or cavities of any sort.

How would we reproduce?

[Mr. Tines]

^by budding.

Now, back to the topic, please.

[svenge]

One of the parts of the drawings that I did not like was this shot from the OP:

SPOILER: Show

His nose is much to pointy, it reminds me of a rose thorn.

Exceedingly pointy noses were a hallmark of early/mid-90s anime designs. Trust me, we're all lucky that Eva wasn't made earlier than it was for that reason alone. Imagine if Eva's characters looked like those from say, "Saber Marionette J"...

[Lorkhan]

I don't understand why the plug suits aren't more uniform in design. Of course they have to be somewhat tailored to the individual user, but there's no reason for them to have wildly different little valves, hard chunks of plastic and random doohickies slapped on here and there. Whichever design works best would be sensible to adapt to all pilots rather than giving each something unique. It seems pointlessly wasteful that they even produced multiple designs in the first place rather than testing some alternatives before sticking to just one.

To be fair, its not exactly like NERV or any other organization out there is using money wisely and efficiently in the series. Yes Seele, I'm looking at you and your color coded tables. Ahem...

Aside from that, I've always enjoyed the series design overall, especially the Evas. Their just so...different in comparison to any other mech or giant construct you see out there.

[Final Messenger]

I like the visual style of Evangelion all around if I were to nitpick about one part though I guess it would be that I wish the body designs of the evas were diffrent but that is a minor complaint.