Your first thoughts on initially watching NGE.

[Princess Asuka]

What was your first impression on initially watching it and why did you stick with it?

Mine was oh boy, a giant robot anime, it might not interest me. Then came the characters, this unique story, something so brilliant, that I could relate to, I just had to continue watching it. It wasn't like my other favorite anime Sailor Moon, but I love it and now I have a list of anime to watch because of it. I found something I could relate to personally. It's not something I'd normally watch, but I'm glad I did.

[Gorbatschow]

Ep 1 -2: "Oh neat, rather dark, kinda sad and not a stereotype cliché shounen character."
Ep 3-6: "It's continuing to be dark, great."
Ep 7-13: Ermm, this is the same show, right ?*
Ep 14-22: "Yay, Ep. 1-6, but incredibly more intense and depressing."
EP 23- 26': "I'm going to fucking kill myself."

* Today I'm loving the action arc, back then I was kind of -ed [/i]

[Aiko Heiwa]

what the hell is this shit

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Gorbatschow has the right idea here. Now, it's worth noting that before Eva, I had only ever watched Miyazaki films. I also started watching Eva when I was 12. Make of that what you will.

1-6:Ooh, is that a giant robot? OH MY GOD ITS MOVING. Okay, lots of teenage angst. Episode four is lame. I hate episode 4. Hehe, boobie touching. D'aww. Rei's so cute.

7-15: Ooh, lots of action! Asuka! Robots! Angels! Dancing! That really cool running scene from episode 12! I love anime!

16-19: This is getting really dark, really bloody, and really good. I love this show.

20: HORY SHET

21: Okaaaay, this is kinda cool but it's a bit boring.

22-23: This show is amazing. I find it so hard to understand but it's amazing. Oh noes, Rei! Angel, stop being a dick to Asuka. That's not nice.

24: WAT.

25-26: WTF is this crap, Anno? You didn't even end the series properly!

EoE: *sits slackjawed on sofa, blankly staring at television* I...I think I'm in love and shock.

Now, I went back and rewatched the entire series two years ago, in around two sittings. Since then I've watched in bits and pieces. I still liked the beginning, but I didn't like the action arc. The rest of it I loved- it was around this time that I started getting into the analysis. I plan on rewatching the show soon, likely in one sitting, and pulling a Stryker (making a thread and talking about each episode as I watch it.)

Long story short, I really liked the show when I first watched it, and it was my introduction to anime! More on that topic here.

[Justacrazyguy]

"Cool opening."

Seriously though, when I first watched it, I was worried about Shinji. What little I had seen in the Internet was people saying he was a wimp and a coward. So, when I started watching the show, I was afraid that I wouldn´t like him. Heh, after watching episode 1-2 my reaction was: "Really? That´s why they called him a coward? Those reactions were perfectly normal for a boy in his situation!"(my thoughts were probably not this elaborate, but still...)

[Giji Shinka]

NGE
1.---Dad is asshole. Shinji do something, you're main character....!!
2.---Misato is the best girl. Shinji, be manly. Cool fight, I love this "berserk" thing.
3.---Those classmates are assholes too. Shinji fight FIGHT! God, why you cry, you won!
4.---Shinji is still an idiot. Yeah, yeah just angst, I don't care.
5.---Rei is best girl. Shinji dodge that laser! ....Again, he lost again....Fuck this shit....
6.---THAT was awesome, finally Shinji became badass main protagonist!
7.---HAHAHAAA! Those idiots, why would they built that robot....
8.---Yep, Asuka is stupid bitch, I hope Shinji punches her.
9.---Asuka is still bitch, but that "dance" and music was great.
10.---Die Asuka, die in magma. OOHH, Shinji came and saved her like REAL man!
11.---Dad isn't that bad after all. Best fight so far!
12.---NO! THIS was best the fight!
13.---Ritsuko ftw!
14.---Recap...Nope, not gonna see thi---Oh there was more.
15.---Shinji and Asuka kiss! O__O Holly shit Shinji is dense piece of sh---
16.---YEAAAHH! "Berserk" is back! Why was Shinji talking weird stuff in his mind, I don't get it.
17.---Toji new pilot? Too obvious.
18.---Cool black Eva! Shinji fight or you die! Jesus, that was intensive episode.
19.---Why you run away Shinji????!!!! YEEEEEEEEEESSSS, KILL THAT ANGEL!!! BERSERK STATE, YEAAAHHH!!!!!!
20.---Wtf is this inner monologue thing. Boring.
21.---Finally some backstory. Is Shinji's mother same as Rei...?
22.---GOOD! Asuka deserved that mindfuck. Though, I didn't get it. Too creepy.
23.---Rei, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Rei is a clone, wth???
24---HHA, GAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! I'm glad that homo died!
25---Whaaaaatttt theeeee faaaaaaakkkkk
26---@#$$$@@##!!!!!%%%%%!!!!@@@??????????????!!!!

EoE
25'---Man, this is bleak as hell. Did Shinji just, eeewwwww!!! NOOOOO, Misato AND Asuka!!!
26'---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111-------------!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1.0---Better animation, better quality!!

2.0---Everything is so awesome!!! This is what Evangelion should be!!! Shinji is badass, Asuka is not a bitch, Rei is not creepy, better fights. AAAHHHH.......

3.0---What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.

4.0---;;;;_____________________________;;;;; (Likely reaction)

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

24---HHA, GAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! I'm glad that homo died!

*waits for onslaught of angry KxS shippers*

[Giji Shinka]

^THEY DON'T EXIST.

Also, those sentences (NGE and EoE) were from 15-old me.

[Stratomeister]

I'd heard so much about Evangelion over the years preceding my viewing of it, that it was only a matter of time before I watched it. Honestly I'm not sure why I waited so damn long in the first place...

Anyways, I can't remember having a really powerful reaction until the end of episode two. Once EVA-01 cranial plating crashed to the ground, revealing in fact that it wasn't actually a robot, but some monster/human/cyborg/awesome thing, I was just like "WHAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?!"

At that point I was hooked, plowing through the series and ignoring my looming exams. But really, after that scene, how would I possibly be blamed for wanting to follow the series to it's conclusion as quickly as possible.

That being said, I did initially fall asleep while trying to watch episode 25. Twice....

[C.A.P.]

Me during the last half of EOE.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Episode 1 - 2: I'm not even into mecha anime. Heck, I don't even know that much about anime in general. But I liked Nadia, so.... This is paced a bit differently than I thought it would be.

Episodes 3 - 6: Not sure why, seeing how this pacing is more gradual then what I was expecting and there's no stereotypical hero or heroine, but this is really interesting. Could it be because there's no stereotypical hero that this keeps my interest? Also, when do we get to meet that red-head that keeps popping up in the opening titles? This director seems to have a thing for red-heads.

Episodes 7 - 12: Hey, this is the pacing I was expecting from a show involving robots punching things! The show doesn't seem worse for having it either. OMFG! IT'S THE RED-HEAD!

Episode 13: Oh.... That was different, even for those re-cap episodes I hear these "anime" things tend to have. At least I know the pacing of the first 6 episodes were leading to something.

Episode 14 - 16: Things are escalating quickly...

Episode 17, 18: ...This is a bad thing...

Episode 19 - 23: STOP EFFING MY MIND AND DESTROYING CHARACTERS!

Episode 24: I'm sure that guy has a fan base. Also, they don't just lay down Beethoven's 9th for nothing.

Episode 25 - 26: I vaguely remember the name of the thing that these characters are calling that which is occurring on-screen. It's tripping balls. And why do I feel so happy at the end of it?

(skipped Death & Rebirth)

The End of Evangelion: ...I think I finally found the movie that could follow AKIRA in just how messed up the end of the world is... And why do I feel so sad at the end of it?

[Kendrix]

^THEY DON'T EXIST.

*exists*

@topic.

In retrospect, I didn't get anything back then, I remember thinking, "Oh look, an ambigous character who's actually revealed as Evil."[Gendo], and "I guess this show why the typical shonen protagonist personality a is somewhat necessary weasel." and I didn't catch this whole, "everyone can return" part.

While the Ikaris took me some deciphring, Rei and Kaworu were pretty much instalove, the latter in particular impressed me a lot at the time.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

I think I covered this back in some other thread (I think), but we'll recap just in case:

Ep1-7: Well, it's yet another good mecha anime. Shinji's kinda whiny, though. Teen angst, ahoy! And his dad's a serious prick. This 'Rei' is very mysterious...and kinda cute. Cool battles, too.

Ep8-14: Ooh, redhead! Oh wait...she's kind of a bitch (yeah, this was my actual first reaction to the force of nature that is ALS). At least she can kick ass, though. Really digging this part of the series, hope it keeps being this badass.

Ep15-24: Awkward kiss? Yeah, I've been there. And what's next? Oh...oh shit. Man, did we ever take a hard left turn back there somewhere. 13th and 14th were both horrifyingly epic. And it looks like an apology is in order to Asuka, I take back every bad thing I said initially. Wait, Rei is...what? And who's this guy that looks like her? He's the final one? Oh dear...I'm so sorry, Shinji.

Ep25-26: Uh...the hell did I just watch? Really? Is that it?

EoE: What. The. Fuck. *cue short bout of crying followed by a week-long depression*

And I stuck with it because, well...what other choice did I have? It's one of the very few fictional things that broke me emotionally.

[Gorbatschow]

Also, those sentences (NGE and EoE) were from 15-old me.

I don't want to offend you but, this is still really imature for a 15 years old.

===

Since I forgot the rebuilds:

1.0 - "Better graphics, some plot details changed, it's probably going to be a remake sticking really close to it's source material*"

2.0 - "Somehow like Eva-Light. Really godd compared to other representatives of the genre, but is this really Eva ?"

3.0 - "Holy Shit! This is awesome, not Eva, but, damn, these action-sequences"

[Giji Shinka]

I don't want to offend you but, this is still really imature for a 15 years old.

Well, some mature slower than others, for one reason or another.

[Wanderlust]

I watched it early into my anime fandom after a string of fighting shounen anime, so while I overall enjoyed it in spite of not understanding some parts of it, my current level of appreciation for it didn't come until subsequent viewings a few years later, after I'd broadened my horizons some more.

But I remember that even the first time around I was rather spellbound by the downward spiral that was the last third of the series, and I distinctly remember staying up till morning marathoning episodes 18-26 or so. Just couldn't stop watching by that point.

Then the next day I watched EoE and hated it and claimed it made no sense since it was 2deep4me. It's now my favorite part of the series though.

[Dataprime]

Given that the first episode I ever watched was 19, my thoughts were the following:

"Who are you people?"
"Why does everyone hate this Shinji person?"
"What the heck is a Evangelion?"
"I don't understand anything!

[Gorbatschow]

Given that the first episode I ever watched was 19, my thoughts were the following:

"Who are you people?"
"Why does everyone hate this Shinji person?"
"What the heck is a Evangelion?"
"I don't understand anything!

At least you saw the best action-scene (EoE aside) in the whole show first. If I think about it, Episode 19 is a rather good "attention-magnet" (at least if you comapre it to episodes like 7 or 10 )

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

As far as NME goes:

1.11: Ooh, pretty graphics. Me likey. Wait, why are they ending the movie like that?

2.22: What? This is out? Wait, who's this? Okay, new Angel. Cool. D'aww, poka-poka. SAHAQUIEL I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Third impact. Okay. Zeruel is so sexy. Wait, they're ending the movie like that? THEY'RE ENDING THE MOVIE LIKE THAT?

3.33: See here.

[Mr. Tines]

I came to the series with the recommendation "If you watch one giant robot series, watch this one." but no real knowledge of the genre outside of what light things like the Robot Warriors RPG, or the odd skimmed issue of manga like Cannon God EXXaXXion, had shed on the subject. Oh, and that the last couple of episodes were controversial.

As I recall my initial reactions to the first few episodes, ahead of the sense that this was trying to be more realistic in its treatment of the main character, it was dominated by the dialog surrounding this part of episode 2

SPOILER: Show

-- there might be super-robot action in the foreground, but what was it that was really going on here?

Other key points were
- episode 6 : we clearly have the romance sub-plot set in motion -- this is clearly going to be a fragile wistful character study in between the battles.
- episode 7 : the conspiracy is back!
- episode 8 : who? Oh that girl who's in like 2 frames of the OP
- episode 10 : I thought characters died in anime, not get implausibly rescued like that! I'd been setting up for relief that the screechy red-headed stereotype had fried, and gritting my teeth for a few episodes of Shinji angst.
- episode 11 : That's more like it -- when she's in the cockpit, Asuka is clearly the trained warrior, and we're going to see the team develop together.
- episode 14 : well, we expect a recap at the halfway point. And Rei is clearly an important NPC, not just someone we haven't been following just to avoid premature reveals.
- episode 16 : Shinji, don't you have any tact? Poor Asuka -- I understand what you're going through.
- episode 18 : Shinji, were you born that useless, or did you have to practice hard?
- episode 20 (next episode preview) : At last! What's really going on!
- episode 21 : Forerunner tech, huh. That makes sense.
- episode 25 : They actually went there! They did not wimp out! Gendo, you magnificent bastard, you pulled it off!

Continued here -- http://forum.evageeks.org/post/190635/Y ... on/#190635