Does the Eva fanbase have "genwunners"/"GEEWUNNERS?"

[Charizard]

In this case, it'd be fans that overglorify the original series and bash and hate on Rebuild and any other sort of spinoff/sequel?

[NemZ]

Yes. Several.

[The Eva Monkey]

Yes. Every fandom has them.

[Mr. Tines]

bash and hate on Rebuild

Rebuild? Why should we worry about johnny-come-lately fan-movies when the DC episodes and EoE are already suspect, on account of all the ret-conning that went into them?

[Charizard]

Rebuild? Why should we worry about johnny-come-lately fan-movies when the DC episodes and EoE are already suspect, on account of all the ret-conning that went into them?

They're still part of the original series

[Mr. Tines]

They're still part of the original series

I don't think you quite get this G-1 thing

Material added after the original airing is supplementary by definition. And when it reinterprets the original material, it can't leave a G-1 story.

[Reichu]

Generation 1 of My Little Pony has many, many instances of later figures "reinterpreting" earlier ones. So Soft Lickety Split doesn't suddenly become Generation 2 just because she "contradicts" the existence of the original not-So Soft Lickety Split. They're all Generation 1 regardless. The cut-off point between G1 and G2 is quite clear: G1 ends when Hasbro stopped manufacturing new lines of the toys in the early 90s, and G2 begins when they later decided to re-launch with completely overhauled branding.

That is to say, determination of franchise "generations" is based on overall product continuity. It doesn't matter if NGE has (supposedly) "split timelines": the work itself (not to mention the story) didn't stop when the show finished airing on TV, but continued until the movies and DC episodes were completed. Fan-created constraints are nothing more than that; they are wholly external considerations. It's no great mystery why the NGE TV series, theatrical features, and overhauled episodes are grouped together in those big, expensive NGE box sets: they form a singular creative canon. Packaging them any other way would be incoherent.

Incidentally: hearing my boyfriend drone on and on about the way that DC Comics has actually been cataloging every single storyline variation as its own parallel dimension put the lid on my patience with the general nerdish preoccupation with justifying alternate interpretations or takes upon a work as all equally "correct" with pseudoscientific insanity like alternate timelines or dimensions. The feeling I get is one of self-serving myopia, wherein stories are forced into immutable boxes -- any change whatsoever and you need a completely new box for an irreconcilably different story! -- and we become increasingly estranged from their underlying essence as tools of social communication.

With regard to the OP, marking NGE as G1 and ENT as G2 is the most logical route. Tines and NemZ probably require a more specialized sort of label.

[Director Black]

It's inevitable that whenever a beloved franchise gets a piece of media relating to it or rebooting it, there's gonna be some backlash. Look how many people were worried that The Force Awakens was going to suck, and it turned out to be a damn good movie.

So, to put it short; yes, Eva's fanbase does have something akin to genwunners. It was always going to happen even when the Rebuilds weren't announced.

[NemZ]

There WAS a noticeable gap between the end of the series and EoE though, and again between EoE and the DC episodes. The fact the latter two explicitly replace parts of the TV release makes it difficult to justify calling them the same work. More like G1 and G1.5 really.

also Trukk not Munky.

[Reichu]

Only about a year between final episode airing and D&R hitting theatres. So that's theatrical plus eventual DC episode content going into production more or less immediately after the show ended.

[Sachi]

The only generation that matters was back when there was the missingno glitch, ghost and psychic types were overpowered, and the move wrap/bind prevented you from moving for several turns while also hurting you each turn.

Oh wait, Eva?

The two series are different enough, IMO, that I don't even compare the two for quality anymore. It's like apples and organes. They're clearly doing different things and should be judged on an individual basis. There's a lot of things about NTE that I like more than NGE, and vice versa, but I could never in good conscious say that one is "better" than the other.

[CommanderFish]

That is to say, determination of franchise "generations" is based on overall product continuity. It doesn't matter if NGE has (supposedly) "split timelines": the work itself (not to mention the story) didn't stop when the show finished airing on TV, but continued until the movies and DC episodes were completed. Fan-created constraints are nothing more than that; they are wholly external considerations. It's no great mystery why the NGE TV series, theatrical features, and overhauled episodes are grouped together in those big, expensive NGE box sets: they form a singular creative canon. Packaging them any other way would be incoherent.
[...]
The feeling I get is one of self-serving myopia, wherein stories are forced into immutable boxes -- any change whatsoever and you need a completely new box for an irreconcilably different story! -- and we become increasingly estranged from their underlying essence as tools of social communication.

Well said.
Personally the DC's never bothered me too much. If the creator says its canon, then it's canon. But to be fair though, I'm probably pretty biased on this, since I watched the DC episodes from the get-go... (I was a fool and did not know any better).

[Dildry]

Seen one rate Rebuild of Eva 1.0 a 3 because (reasons)

Yeah they exist

[Mr. Tines]

Seen one rate Rebuild of Eva 1.0 a 3

That's harsh -- even I* rated that one an 8, back at the time (i.e. stand-alone, without any influence from the later goings on), if only on the strength of the redone Ramiel.


*MAL tells me that on average my scores are about 1.4 points below those assigned by the general population. And my opinion of the later Rebuilds is a matter of public record.

[Sykes III]

I'd say I'm definitely an NGE+EoE purist. The Sadamoto manga is an interesting supplement. But I can't say as I've really enjoyed the NTE and certainly none of the varied AU Eva products. "Campus Apocalypse" was like seeing "hey, what if Eva was a modern anime made today with nothing interesting to say and just another bland manga product?" At least the films are a step above stuff like that, but I've definitely felt like they are hard to judge until the last one comes out. And even then, Eps 1-20, and 21'-26' are my canon, supplemented with stuff like the CI and so on. I do think the difference between the OA and DC episodes is likely seen as less pronounced in Japan given there was in reality a short amount of time for them there between them. I mean it was, what, four years between the OA version of the series being released in the US and the DC episodes and EoE coming out? Whereas it was it was basically a continuous series of releases in Japan. EoE was out before the first US release shipped. So I don't really see a "canonical" distinction between the OA and the DC episodes -- they're revisions, not retcons, in my eyes.

[GAP]

I don't know if I am much of a GENWUNNER but I do admit that I have a special fondness for the anime series and I kind of want the series intact.

[Gendo'sPapa]

Oh yeah, there are a lot.
But it's to be expected with any long running series. Series change as time moves on & what was appealing with the series when it started - in Eva's case, a young hungry filmmaker & his crew overcoming massive budgetary limitations to tell an angry story about there emotional outlooks on life - evolves into something drastically new - in Rebuild's case, a very well-established filmmaker returning to his greatest story with all the money at his disposal to do whatever he wants, in this case meaning lots of big explosive action scenes & also telling a wiser story about how our lives are cyclical & we repeat our past mistakes again & again.

I'm sure if/when Eva continues past Final without Hideaki Anno & other filmmakers tell completely different stories in that universe I'll berate those if they're anything less than stellar.