Eva's Strongest Point?

[light444]

Hi, new here! I watched Eva about a year ago. I liked it's story but not that much. I didnt care but I see lots of ppl rating it as a masterpiece. Well naturally, if something's popular its good, so I thought Im missing something, I mean there must be something they like about Eva, not just its story, but something that makes it a masterpiece. So i saw this recently in MAL http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=692401 . I know theres a reason why Eva is so popular that I even found this site.

Anyways, thats how it is. thanks!

[Asukaner117]

For me the strongest point were always the characters. The evangelions, as cool as they may be, are just a plot device, not the main point of the series. That's what separates NGE from most of the other anime's of it's kind.

The heroes in NGE are not what you would expect. They are flawed, act selfish, and lack even the most basic skills of human interaction to a level where you feel like yelling at the tv but they are still likeable. You see the reasons why they are acting the way they are, you see the pain and the fear that eats there hearts. And you want them to succeed, you want them to evolve, to live the happy live they deserve. because in the end they are just helpless pawns in a game they dont unterstand, played by powerfull men who fear death more then anything else.

You may say that NGE shows you the deep black abbys that lurks in everyone of us. And it shows what happens when you stop to swim against the stream and allow the abbys to win.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

[The Eva Monkey]

I like Eva for the story, the characters, the use of religion and science, and the experimental elements in filmmaking. I mean, when was the last time you remember watching a show where someone talking to their subconscious was expressed by a horizontal line talking to a vertical line?

[gatotsu911]

I'd say the absolute strongest points of the series would have to be Anno's genius visual compositions and formidable talent for characterization.

[SimplyMason0]

The characters and their relationships with how they stick to the Hedgehog's dilemma. Rewatcining it again it feels more like a drama with mecha rather than a mecha with drama like most sci-fi.

The Evas and Angels are great and creative.

[Mr. Tines]

Another vote for the characters here -- the only fiction I've encountered where I've encountered a true identification character in the warts and all sense. All that and world-shattering conspiracies too!

[riffraff11235]

Characterization, definitely. They just feel so... human, especially Shinji. I haven't seen any other show treat so many different aspects of the human condition as skillfully as NGE does.

[Xard]

Anno's directing comes first, easily, from superb sense of framing to luxurious editing. Then rich characterization, daring and brilliantly deviant narrative structure third.

[pwhodges]

Getting repetitive - but it's characterisation for me as well.

[Princess Asuka]

The characters, I can easily relate to Shinji and Asuka. I thought, oh it's gonna be a typical giant robot anime, I watched it and boy was I wrong.

[Rei IV]

I agree with the five previous posters in regards to the characterization.

Also, Evangelion was the first anime that brought out my inner little boy.......and masculinity.....I'll leave it to your imagination by what I mean. It being a lolmecha anime is another factor too.

[Reichu]

Characterization, richness of setting, direction, and the way everything is so thickly interwoven with everything else.

[Chuckman]

Characterization plot direction creativity blah blah blah

Screw that crap! BLOOD AND THUNDER!

Also something something magic something something

[gatotsu911]

luxurious editing

daring and brilliantly deviant narrative structure third.

Yup and yeah.

Related to the structure part but the way the series handles narrative tone is really incredible.

The murky start, gradual ascent into energetic optimism followed by a sharp and violent descent into catastrophic bleakness and pain capped off with a supremely cathartic apocalyptic/suicidal finale, feverish epiphany and return to square one eerily mirrors the trajectory of severe depression. Out of everything I've seen, only The Sopranos has managed to capture the cyclical state of living with such a condition with that kind of fidelity, albeit in a very different way (more muted and realistic, in contrast to Evangelion's colorful symbols and screaming dramatic highs as befitting the visual and narrative language of anime that it so knowingly appropriates).

So as another aspect of Anno's skills as an auteur I would add its really incredible level of boldness and emotional intimacy as a work of self-expression, along with his willingness and ability to try on all sorts of compositional techniques from the most accomplished formalism to the craziest of the avant-garde as a means to pursue that devastatingly personal vision, and somehow managing to make it all work in tandem. It's the kind of searing, intensely personal window into the very soul of an artist that typically only shows up once per generation in any given medium, let alone one as typically escapist and impersonal as anime.

(sorry if all that reads as pretentious but I just can't bear to let Xard one-up me for artfaggery. HE'S THE GARY OAK TO MY ASH GOD DAMN IT.)

[Giji Shinka]

Almost everything in Evangelion is amazing.

IMO NGE's strongest point=Characters.

NME's strongest point= Plot.

[gatotsu911]

Rebuild's strongest point is SPLOSIONS

[Rei IV]

Rebuild's strongest point is SPLOSIONS

Beautifully animated, SPLOSIONS!1

[monitoradiation]

Anno's directing comes first, easily, from superb sense of framing to luxurious editing. Then rich characterization, daring and brilliantly deviant narrative structure third.

OT: I'm not the biggest fan of the characterization (albeit good) but I think what stood out more to me was the oppressive and menacing atmosphere starting with the descent arc.

Also, EoE. The whole thing. I know it's not in the series per se. but. just putting it out there.

[Sgt. Griff]

I would say the Core is probably an Eva's strongest point.

[CJD]

Mark me down for characterization I guess. Really hard to pick just one thing when what makes Eva so great is all of it combined, though.

I would say the Core is probably an Eva's strongest point.

Well played.