Standalones in Eva?

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tehprognoob
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Standalones in Eva?

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Postby tehprognoob » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:04 pm

So, while discussing Eva with clannies, realized that the Touji/Hikari relationship could have stood alone as a separate anime and have been okay. Their relationship developed pretty much as free of Nerv/Eva influence as can be, given that they are part of the main cast. Little sister stomping and slaughter by Unit 01 notwithstanding.

Just thinking; are there more, do you think, stories that could've been standalone free of Eva and have worked?

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Postby Tribblepoo » Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:36 pm

This would actually make for a pretty good spin-off. A mini-series format would probably work best.

I can imagine the opening scene being Toji witnessing the [s:xkdaklck]ass-stomp[/s:xkdaklck] battle between Unit-01 and Sachiel, then digging his sister out from the rubble.

From there we only see the main characters of NGE tangentially, such as when Toji punches Shinji, or a handful of interactions between Hikari and Asuka. One scene I would love to see is Dr. Akagi giving Toji the news that he has been selected.
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Postby ONIAgent150 » Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:29 pm

That's one of the things I love about EVA. Everyone has their time in the spotlight, enough to care about them all but not enough to distract from the main story. I would love to see separate series that focus on other elements of Evangelion.
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Postby esselfortium » Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:46 am

Indeed. It would have probably made a much more convincing critique of the mecha genre to focus not on Shinji, but on an average person in Tokyo-3 like Toji, whose life gets tossed directly into the blender for the sake of our hero's epiphanies.

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Postby gatotsu911 » Tue Apr 03, 2012 3:11 am

One of the few highlights of the ADV Platinum commentaries is Allison Keith remarking that one of the really neat things about Eva is how nearly every character feels like they could have their own full-fledged spinoff show and have it be just as interesting. I've always liked that comment and agreed wholeheartedly.
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Postby Kendrix » Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:57 am

Yeah, it's surprising how much characterizations even the three technicians or the school children get in so little time - those three are particularly well-done minor characters: They are similar enough to common homeroom drama cliches for comic relief, but have enough depht to be likeable characters:


- Touji, the immature, macho-ish class clown, who is actually a responsible big brother guy
- Hikari the uptight class rep who is only that way because she had to take the mother role for her sisters and still is a regular girl with a wish for a lovelife
- Kensuke, the geeky one (using a geek for commin relief is, of course, yet another ever so subtle way of Anno's to nudge the audience with his elbow) who is actually an excellent judge of character and very understanding of those around him - he's a 14 year old who thinks mecha battles are cool despite much evidence to the contrary, but when no mechas are involved, he's actually the reasonable one of the duo. ("Then why don't you just apologize?")

Another interesting thing is that Kensuke and Touji represent your classical Shonen Hero archetypes:

Touji is the gritty, tough, reluctant one with the protector's instinct (Most triumphant example: Ichigo Kurosaki, or Edward Elric) and Kensuke is the "big dreamer" type (Think Naruto Uzumaki or Luffy), and, in fact, pretty similar to Jean (the male lead of "Nadia") 'cept Kensuke doesn't get chosen and Touji doesn't get the heroic beginner's luck, leaving the role of the chosen one to Shinji, whose heroic qualities are less apparent.
Just a bit of realism there, because, Ichigo's so insanely strong because his father's a shinigami and Naruto got the Nine tailed fox sealed into him 'cause his parents were who they were, but actually, there was no guarantee that the guy who happens to get the superpowers will be the one with the heroic personality.


It's not just that you could give them all their own story, some video games (like, EVA 2, where you can play almost every named character) have actually done it...
I mean, just list all we know about the techies of all people...
But, of course, EVA's level of charecterization is loveably detailed on a general rule: With the major characters, this extends to *philosophic opinions* that actually relate to and come from their backgrounds and actions...
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Postby Henry Spencer » Fri Apr 13, 2012 5:32 pm

I feel like something depicting Gendo's fall from grace after his wife merged with a Giant Cyborg would be interesting. It isn't likely that he became a giant asshole over the course of a few minutes.
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Postby valshon » Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:21 am

Kensuke was interested in military maneuvers and surplus equipment. he was even playfighting in a field all by his lonesome until Shinji showed up. Something about his day to day life with shcool and Touji would be interesting. Wasnt he like the only person not to develop an interest in someone?
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Postby Jornophelanthas » Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:06 am

View Original PostHenry Spencer wrote:I feel like something depicting Gendo's fall from grace after his wife merged with a Giant Cyborg would be interesting. It isn't likely that he became a giant asshole over the course of a few minutes.

On the other hand, there is Fuyutsuki's flashback episode, where young adult Gendo is described to be not a lot more sociable than commander Gendo. Although it could be coloured by Fuyutsuki's jealousy.

View Original Postvalshon wrote:Kensuke was interested in military maneuvers and surplus equipment. he was even playfighting in a field all by his lonesome until Shinji showed up. Something about his day to day life with shcool and Touji would be interesting. Wasnt he like the only person not to develop an interest in someone?

Didn't Kensuke have a schoolboy crush on Misato?

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Postby tehprognoob » Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:02 am

Don't they all...?

All the teenage boys except for Shinji were fapping to Misato lol.

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Postby Jornophelanthas » Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:57 am

View Original Posttehprognoob wrote:Don't they all...?

All the teenage boys except for Shinji were fapping to Misato lol.

Actually, no. Since all of Shinji's unnamed male classmates appear to be pining for Asuka, rather than Misato.

I'm not sure about Toji, though, or I simply do not remember whether he had a thing for Misato, Asuka or neither. Or even if he was aware of Hikari's crush on him before his "accident".

Finally, strictly speaking, the set of "all the teenage boys except for Shinji" also includes Kaworu, who shows no interest in Misato at all.

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Postby Stryker » Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:27 am

View Original PostJornophelanthas wrote:Actually, no. Since all of Shinji's unnamed male classmates appear to be pining for Asuka, rather than Misato.

I'm not sure about Toji, though, or I simply do not remember whether he had a thing for Misato.


Toji had a crush on Misato. In fact, he obsesses over it, and I paraphrase, "You know, I envy you, Ikari-kun. You get to live with a beautiful woman." And, in the original Japanese script, Toji calls Asuka a bitch. Not paraphrasing.

And when it was Career Day at the school and Misato arrived, basically all the guys rushed to the windows to see Misato (who, in turn, was basically being smutty and such). This was a scene in Episode 3(?). I don't exactly understand what you mean by "pining for", but I am plenty sure they were more over Misato then Asuka. Sure, there are scenes where boys are selling pictures of girls in the locker room, but lets keep in mind that it might have been done on purpose by the creators of the series to emphasize Asuka. I'm sure there were plenty of pictures of other girls.
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Postby Kendrix » Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:48 am

View Original Postvalshon wrote:Kensuke was interested in military maneuvers and surplus equipment. he was even playfighting in a field all by his lonesome until Shinji showed up. Something about his day to day life with shcool and Touji would be interesting. Wasnt he like the only person not to develop an interest in someone?


Well, he's 14. And short and nerdish, to boot. He might get a girlfriend when he gets older, after all he did fanboy over Misato.

I once devoted a paragraph in a FF to explaining his obsession with military stuff (He is an only child, his father's gotta bring the cash home and the mom is dead, so he had to occupy himself with something.) and detailing how he and Touji met - which probably has a story behind it that would be relatively interesting if not for the big apocalyptic plot overshadowing it since they have somewhat different interests.


View Original PostJornophelanthas wrote:I'm not sure about Toji, though, or I simply do not remember whether he had a thing for Misato, Asuka or neither. Or even if he was aware of Hikari's crush on him before his "accident".


He was in Misato's fanclub and pretty much hated Asuka, saying that all the ppl buying pics of her just didn't know her true nature. Remember all the funny bickering?
Asuka is, apparently, fairly boy-repellant once you get to know her since the trio decides they hate her within three minutes of meeting her (even tough Shinji changed his mind somewhere during ep 9... perhaps Asuka is like an onion, one pretty layer on top, a boy-repellant layer beneath and yet another cute one at her core?)

But that's as far as the baka trio goes, concerning the rest of the school, from what we learn, half the boys on Shinji's shool lust after Asuka, half the girls lust after Shinji (see episodes 3 and 5: "Ikari-kuuuun!" He doesn't seem to have noticed, tough. ), and the other half hopes they get together so the other gender will pay attention to them again. XD
On the other hand poor Touji frequently gets a "yuck" response. (eps 4 and 5)

Asuka's popularirty seems to have been long-lasting, remember how Hikari was asked to arrange a date with her.
It makes sense that they'll fanboy over her since they see her daily and she's in the same general agegroup as them and thus at least theoretically available.
Misato's fanclub is mostly just Touji, Kensuke and whoever wondered what they were looking at and voiced their approval of what they see.


Of course, then Touji gets told that she disaproves of machismo XD but lucky for him, Hikari was already trying to romance him at the time.

PS: Does anyone else here remember that Fic of Adam Kadmom's that was written from the perspective of one anonymous Shinji fangirl?
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