You know what's always baffled me?[Evas 15's Rating]

[Squigsquasher]

EDIT: Changed thread title to clarify mystery topic - OMF

...How the FUCK did End of Evangelion get rated 15!?!?

I mean, really. I never knew Amazon could shock me so much (apart from the prices on the Samus Aran Figma, that thing costs a bloody fortune). I was looking for the End of Evangelion DVD PAL release and came across one, and saw the rating...




What the hell were they THINKING!?!? I swear that film was the most disturbing thing I have ever watched in my life. 15....HOW!?!?

If EoE had been live-action, it would have been banned, no questions asked. Especially the scene with Gendo merging Adam with Rei...UGH.

And yet the original Alien (which as much as I love it, is pretty corny) is still rated 18?

I need a stiff drink.

[Justacrazyguy]

...How the FUCK did End of Evangelion get rated 15!?!?

...

Guy 1: This anime is incredibly disturbing!
Guy 2: But it´s a cartoon, right?
Guy 1: Well thecnicaly yes, but...
Guy 2: Rate it 15.

[Darkwing]

Not to mention the idiot parents who won't even look at the rating, and just assume that because it's a cartoon it's for kids.

[Guy Nacks]

Yeah....they're more lenient cause it's a cartoon, primarily.

Plus, censors (at least American ones) tend to lose their shit more because of sexual content rather than violence. Since most of the sexual content of EOE is either implied or occurs off-camera, or just hyper symbolic (Forehead Vagina), it tends to get more of a lenient pass.

The hospital scene is still pushing the boundary between an R and an NC-17 in terms of the American ratings scale. I can think of one live action film right off the top of my head where an boy masturbates, culminating with semen on his hands, that film being The Squid and the Whale, it's slightly more disturbing in that he spreads his splooge all over books in his school library rather than just staring at it in his hand. That film received an R rating.

However, the fact that EOE depicts a boy masturbating over a comatose teen girl and having her breasts exposed gets into really tricky territory. I honestly don't think that scene could ever be filmed in live action exactly the way it was shot in EOE without getting in some type of legal trouble.

It would definitely be interesting though to see what American rating EOE would receive if it were ever submitted.

[Chuckman]

Now I have to give up my favorite hobby, licking library books.

[fizz450_03]

i'd give EoE an R for all the violence on it...plus the really disturbing scenes...



...but i was like 13-14 yo. when i first watched EoE so..................

[TehDonutKing]

EoE is rated NC-17 in the US.

[Guy Nacks]

EoE is rated NC-17 in the US.

Nah, son.

IMDB lists it as "US:Not Rated". And the MPAA's own website has no rating for the film. Most of the NC-17 fluff has come from the fact that it's listed on Amazon as being rated NC-17, when in actuality, it hasn't even been rated.

The Amazon rating is probably just a suggested rating, nothing more.

The only evangelion film that has been given an MPAA rating was 1.0, which got a PG-13.

2.0 was only given a television rating of TV-14 on the dvd case.

[Kendrix]

German rating systems tend to be fairly reasonable - the entire thing got +16nd, they're way more focussed on how something is depicted.
Basically, bad things depicted as bad get lower ratings than bad things depicted as glorious, so things with sex in it may get away with a +16.


...But seriously, who the fuck here was actually 16/15/18 when they saw it?
I surely wasn't, and I'll freely admit it.
Hopefully, you won't need something like this show that much by the time you're already "old enough to watch it.".
If I hadn't found this when I did, it may have been too late, or I would have completely wasted four mour years, I don't know.

In these times, the news are filled with violence every day and every elementary schooler knows what all holes are for, the internet also exists, and they've found fucking fetuses touching themselves on ultrasound pictures...
I'm not saying that this is is any way good, I'm saying that it is a reality we can't change in any easy, swift manner, so we need to adapt to it, to resonably mitigate it, if you will.

Childhood innocence is and was always an illusion. Anyone who ever witnessed, say, bullying, can attest to that. No, ignorance is what makes people cruel and instinct-driven, not knowledge.

[user-02]

I've worked with the MPAA before, and with various other ratings boards. Basically, it takes a LOT to get a mature rating on an animated movie or TV series. There's an unwritten rule in the censorship/ratings system that animated depictions of violence, sexuality, etc., are less offensive than live-action depictions. This is why a cartoon with a lot of blood and gore can get a more generous rating than a live-action show with maybe a single violent scene in it.

Pretty much anything shy of hardcore animated sex would be hard-pressed to get a mature or adult rating in the U.S. Also, there's very little middle ground to set historical precedent. Typically speaking, you've got your kids' cartoons on one hand, and you've got your sraight-up hentai on the other. The ratings boards aren't used to dealing with cartoons that fall somewhere in between in terms of sexuality, violence, nudity, foul language, or what have you. (I know, I know; plenty of middle-ground cartoons are out there! But many of them have not been imported to big enough audiences to even warrant being sent to ratings boards, or at least historically).

Side note: weirdly, video games seem to be held to far less generous and more live-action-like ratings standards. This is probably because the video game market is massive, much moreso than the anime import market, and hence, video games are sent in front of the ratings boards constantly. There's also a general fear of video games amongst the uber-conservative set in the U.S., and the ratings boards typically cater to the opinions of this crowd.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

I watched the series when I was twelve, because it was only rated TV-14. The same went for EoE. I think I'm a very well adjusted individual. No I'm not

[Jadley]

I watched the series when I was twelve, because it was only rated TV-14. The same went for EoE. I think I'm a very well adjusted individual. No I'm not

You are definitely (Not) alone in this one.
i watched the series for the first time when i was 11 and watched EoE when i was 12.........
So yeah that's primarily one of the reasons why i am what i am today.
Although i don't regret it, i really wish i would've watched it later on my 15ns ... so i wouldn't be that fucked up about it.
But if any of that hadn't happened, i would've never discovered my favorite anime/tvshow of all times.

[Mr. Tines]

What the hell were they THINKING!?!? I swear that film was the most disturbing thing I have ever watched in my life. 15....HOW!?!?

No sex, next to no swearing, some violence but without glorifying it, one brief scene of giant humanoid entrails. Just go down the checklist and the fact that to fans of the series, well loved characters are being put through the meat grinder doesn't figure.

[Shinoyami65]

And yet the original Alien (which as much as I love it, is pretty corny) is still rated 18?

I need a stiff drink.

Well, at least Alien is genuinely scary and has pretty visceral imagery. I still can't figure out why Prometheus was given the R+ rating (except for that one scene with the automated surgery table).

In regards to EoE, who knows? Possibly it's because it was "just a cartoon", instead of a live-action film.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

No sex, next to no swearing, some violence but without glorifying it, one brief scene of giant humanoid entrails. Just go down the checklist and the fact that to fans of the series, well loved characters are being put through the meat grinder doesn't figure.

Nope. Even though it technically isn't sex, I think that instrumentality sequence still counts. Besides, I would prefer to think that it is sex, at least over fusion of the genitals. That's just messed up, not considering the fact that this person is partially his mother.

[amitakartok]

Don't forget the earlier sequence where Shinji is being ridden cowgirl-style by a pissed Asuka.

[Chuckman]

EoE only has one "Fuck" in it, so it's PG-13.

It's emblematic of how stupid the MPAA system is that everyone knows you get one instance of the word fuck per PG-13 movie, and the way it's used has become a meta-joke. (X-Men First Class did it best, I think)

This post has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of American for language and adult situations. No one under 17 admitted without parental accompaniment.

If you are under 17, please unread it and ignore the toy line and animated cartoon adaptation.

[Jayfive]

Don't forget the earlier sequence where Shinji is being ridden cowgirl-style by a pissed Asuka.

Pissed is an understatement, as I take it this is to what you are referring.

That there is PG-13 on its own. Lord knows it scares the bojangles out of me when im not prepared for it.

[amitakartok]

Yup, that's the one. The camera angles intentionally leave everything ambiguous but Shinji is clearly lying on his back, with Asuka's hair over his bare chest.

[Squigsquasher]

Yup, that's the one. The camera angles intentionally leave everything ambiguous but Shinji is clearly lying on his back, with Asuka's hair over his bare chest.

I'm sorry, I don't remember this scene at all. Could someone link a video? I really don't remember that bit.

Saying that I have only seen the film once, and it was a free streaming.