Why people hate this show nowadays?

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Why people hate this show nowadays?

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Postby TBsq » Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:55 am

I just don't get it. I don't think it is a perfect show by any means, I find the first half of the show passable, but even then I consider the show as a whole and not as a sum of its parts, and the progression is what makes me love this show.

One of the first complain I read online is "it's pseudo-philosophical" or "pretentious". So, what's the difference between philosophical and pseudo-philosophical? It's like a cheap way to say you weren't receptive to the way the message was conveyed. Before watching The End Of Evangelion, Persona (1966) was my favorite film ever, next to Stalker (1979). They are as deep as Evangelion if you ask me, the ideas and dialogues are relativly simple, and yet they are (rightfully) critically acclaimed. They are no philosophical essays, but it's absolutely not the point of fiction. It's about what expression, emotions and aesthetics you put in this ideas, and Anno's work is totally idiosyncratic in this way. So I don't get this criticism.

The other is there are not likeable characters. Even if I don't agree, how is this a bad thing? The world is plagued with unlikeable people. It is a way to remind us how flawed and vulnerable we all are. Being unlikeable is what is likeable about them.
Last edited by TBsq on Sun Jun 17, 2018 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Why people hate this show nowadays?

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Postby Sachi » Sat Jun 16, 2018 12:18 pm

Do people hate this show nowadays? Moreso than before? What people? Should we even care that some people don't like it, and if so why? Must Eva be something that is forced upon everyone?
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Postby TBsq » Sat Jun 16, 2018 3:29 pm

No but I wanted to see if I was wrong somewhere in my reasoning. And I see a lot a negative reviews on the internet. Maybe I'm being irrationnal because this series really affects me, and to see this kind of reviews really bugs me.

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Postby AdamMalkovitch » Sat Jun 16, 2018 3:38 pm

I assume that most people have a negative outlook on the series and film because of how it's presented to them. Gainax and Khara have absolutely zero presence in the West in the mainstream, and it doesn't help that Starchild Records is so fuckin greedy that it's literally impossible for any anime distribution company to purchase the rights and publish the series and films without going bankrupt. Because of this, the most people are exposed to NGE is through memes, almost always dumb surface level shit like "lol Eva opening hurr durr" or this one http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1076412- ... evangelion (which I admittedly love, as it partially got me into the series). This distance and alienation caused by Starchild itself has caused Western audiences to see Evangelion as snooty and high-and-mighty, similar to how most kids perceive things they aren't allowed to watch. It's a thought process I've seen far too often as of late, 'I don't have access to this thing, but it probably sucks anyway so I shouldn't feel bad', which eventually leads to actually believing that the subject they are restricted from is of poor quality.
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Postby VUX » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:47 pm

I love Evangelion, I just hate watching it because the ending makes me extremely sad, sad to the point that I get almost depressed.
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Re: Why people hate this show nowadays?

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Postby hui43210 » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:12 pm

View Original PostSachi wrote:Do people hate this show nowadays? Moreso than before? What people? Should we even care that some people don't like it, and if so why? Must Eva be something that is forced upon everyone?


Yea, I was going to says haters have been around since the 90's, doesn't seem like anything has changed.
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Postby DarkBluePhoenix » Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:28 pm

To refute AdamMalkovitch's point, there is some kind of access to series online, you just have to be willing to give the show a chance and actually search for it, because it's honestly not that hard to find.

And, when I was told not to watch something (like Power Rangers, DBZ, Sailor Moon, South Park and Ren & Stimpy), it made me want to see the show even more because I wanted to know why I wasn't allowed to see it.
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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Wed Jun 20, 2018 6:18 am

I would say that people who get on the Eva hate train get on for one of two reasons.

1) They watched the show and didn't like it, which is fair. It is bleak, and Shinji doesn't play the role of a typical hero. If that wasn't what you were looking for (or otherwise needed in your life), then the show will have a very low milage for you.

2) Their first experience with Eva were the "2DEEP4U" memes (or some variant of that expression on the internet), and never bothered to explore Eva past that.

But, yeah. Both of these negative opinions have been around in the US since the 90's, and nothing has really changed since then.

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Postby kuribo-04 » Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:44 pm

I dunno about the nowadays, since I've been a fan since 2012, long after Eva came into being, so I can't contrast it.
But I guess some people want a character who is awesome as a protagonist for escapism, and Eva is a show which actively avoids that.
Also to many people picking on somebody else makes them feel superior, here they have several characters with flaws to pick on. They aren't necessarily interested in the why and how of these flaws since their lives might be very removed from that (although depression and self doubt I think are common human feeling most people deal with at some point).
I don't think there's anything wrong with these people, but their view on the show isn't interesting to me. I also think it's better to try to engage with art.
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Postby Celepito » Sun Jun 24, 2018 2:22 pm

Does "Not re-watching anything Evangelion because you like the characters and watching the stuff feels like torturing them for your own entertainment." count as hating? Because then I would fall into that category.

On a less personal note, I think this show is polarising because you need to emphasize with the characters, or atleast understand and accept their situation and way of thinking. If you cant do that, for whatever reason, you wont like the protagonists and in turn not like the show. Due to the, sometimes extrem, problems and issues the cast has I can imagine that many wont be able to emphasize/see everthing from their eyes. That, combined with the fact that positive discussions are mainly happening on more fan-sites like here, thus the first contact and most content outside of fan-sites are often memes tinged with negativity to be funny, could result in someone thinking that most people nowadays hate this show.
(Did this get too rambly? If yes, sorry, havent had much sleep.)

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Postby pwhodges » Sun Jun 24, 2018 3:06 pm

IOW memes are evil. Gets my vote!
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Postby Gendo'sPapa » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:38 pm

People don’t.
Statiscally it’s still one of the most loved anime’s of all time. Certainly one of - if not the - most talked about anime that only runs for one season.

But, if something remains popular long enough there’s bound to a subset of people whose natural response will be to overreact negatively. With the internet the way it is those voices can be carried farther. Some dude makes a funny tweet about how “Evangelion is trash” & includes the right graphic then it could go far with every other person who naturally thinks the show is overrated.

Popular things are loved and hated with a passion.

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Postby The Flying Fortress » Thu Jul 05, 2018 9:42 pm

I already stopped caring about it, I was already on the side that loved and hated, in this interval it's been 4 years since I watch Evangelion, many users here who have known Eva much longer than I have been through same experiences, so I'm sorry I follow this natural path, at the moment I'm in the "stopping for awhile" phase, then I'll probably want to re-watch it for nostalgia.

As I arrived here, I finally realized that the negative opinions had the same weight as the positive reviews, I just accepted and went ahead preserving the good things of the anime and accepting the defects.

Is it Pseudo-Philosophical? Yes. (I do not know something deeply philosophical in an anime to be honest)
Even the work addressing complex themes, I think, her role is not to provide you with in-depth knowledge about Freud's theories and other themes used in this show, it just gives you the link to get to them if that is your interest. So, for me, everything is in its proper place.

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Postby Jersey Jimmy » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:01 am

I think the simplest explanation would be hype backlash. It's built up as flawless and The Greatest Thing Ever by so many people, and when someone watches it and it falls short of those (frankly, impossible-to-reach) expectations, their opinion is soured.

Or, again, maybe it's just not their sort of thing, which is fine.
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Postby Kenza59 » Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:18 am

It's popular.

Don't you know that if you hate on something popular, you gather attention, and that your e-penis gets bigger when you're getting attention?
This, and the fact that some people are "selling" it as the greatest single piece of visual media ever shown, which it isn't. It's awesome, it's among my 5 favourite titles (and I've watched 100+ shows, still not the biggest list ever, but it's still not just watching a couple episodes of Naruto and DBZ), but it isn't the messiah of anime.

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Postby kuribo-04 » Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:02 pm

but it isn't the messiah of anime

I haven't seen a better one.
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Postby TBsq » Wed Aug 15, 2018 11:11 am

On second thoughts I feel now that's it's better that people don't like Evangelion, meaning they can't relate to show therefore they're probably sane people and that's better for them (i.e unlike me).

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Postby Reichu » Wed Aug 15, 2018 7:47 pm

View Original PostTBsq wrote:On second thoughts I feel now that's it's better that people don't like Evangelion, meaning they can't relate to show therefore they're probably sane people and that's better for them (i.e unlike me).

Depends on the kind of "not liking". The topic title mentions "hate". Somehow who can't relate to Evangelion and finds nothing else of interest in it, and is "well-adjusted", will just be indifferent to it. There's no reason to dwell upon something that doesn't capture you. To HATE something, now, that means the person has some kind of issue going on. A human being can actively earn one's hate, as by doing harm unto your person or those you care about, but NGE is just a show. It can't hurt you. Unless, I suppose, it made someone think about things they didn't want to think about, and it was easier to call it a pretentious pile of shit than bother to look into just why it bothered one so much.

tl;dr: People often don't like things that remind them of their own worst qualities.
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Postby Clover » Thu Aug 16, 2018 5:38 am

View Original PostAdamMalkovitch wrote:I assume that most people have a negative outlook on the series and film because of how it's presented to them. Gainax and Khara have absolutely zero presence in the West in the mainstream, and it doesn't help that Starchild Records is so fuckin greedy that it's literally impossible for any anime distribution company to purchase the rights and publish the series and films without going bankrupt.

Is Eva that hard to see nowadays? I watched the series 9 years ago in 2009, when 2.0 was just coming out, and it was child's play to get your hands on 1-26 and EoE+D&R. It's disturbing that we've descended so far that westerners can't even watch NGE without great effort. PepeHands

Oh well, all culture is destined to become dust in the end /pretentiousShit

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Postby pwhodges » Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:21 am

It's not hard to see Eva with English sub/dub, but it involves getting second-hand or bootleg copies at somewhat inflated cost, or illegal downloading.

In Europe, the Italian version is also out of print, as is the German (which included English, curiously). But you can buy the French release of the series for €17 and the films for €20, as those are in print.

The French seem to do rather well; I even have two anime sets in French because they were either never released in English, or are totally unavailable at anything like a sensible cost (Bokura ga ita and Katanagatari).
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