Fanservice in Evangelion: Good or Bad?

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Fanservice in Evangelion leads to odd juxtapositions

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Postby QuantumPete » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:24 pm

Just a quick note on something I noticed while watching this series for the first time recently:

The "next episode" summaries at the end of each episode can sometimes be inadvertently hilarious, due to the combination of hard core philosophical questions with certain other elements... As in:

"Next time, Shinji must face the meaning of existence and decide which is worse: a life of isolated self-loathing in which one neglects one's duty as a member of society, or a life piloting a murderous beast in order to stop god's minions from bringing about a near-certain apocalypse. Plus, PLENTY OF FANSERVICE FOR YA! Looky dem boobies!" :?

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Postby Soluzar » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:38 pm

I have notice that she makes it sound rather like an old-time cinema serial, especially in the dub!

"Next Evangelion: As the dreary rain pours down, Shinji, overwhelmed and unable to overcome his weaknesses tries to run away from Misato! It's acceptable, however, considering that he is only fourteen..."
"The Organisation brings back the aimlessly wandering Shinji. There no kind words waiting to ease his feelings - except from the two boys."

"It's the next episode, Rain, Escape and Afterwards. Of course, I'll give you lots of fan service, too!"[/b]
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Postby DatDude » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:50 pm

You know i've never really watched these, but if their full of fan service i'll have to look into it.

Misato so pretty :)
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Postby sadsadshinji » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:00 pm

well, when they were airing, i'm sure it was a hook to get in people who didnt really want to see some teenager being depressed

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Postby DatDude » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:15 pm

sadsadshinji wrote:well, when they were airing, i'm sure it was a hook to get in people who didnt really want to see some teenager being depressed


Very true, but eva is like Lain, its a mind screw you watch it for that. Not that I don't mind fan service their not one unattractive women in Eva and I'll take all I can get. :twisted:
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Postby Reichu » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:33 pm

Not one unattractive woman, eh? Do you see something in Naoko that Gendo didn't? (Since, as we all know, he vigorously scrubbed his body for two hours every time she jumped his bone.)
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Postby sadsadshinji » Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:07 pm

Reichu wrote:Not one unattractive woman, eh? Do you see something in Naoko that Gendo didn't? (Since, as we all know, he vigorously scrubbed his body for two hours every time she jumped his bone.)

LOL
and he looked away, and had Rei over there (jk)

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Postby DatDude » Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:16 pm

Reichu wrote:Not one unattractive woman, eh? Do you see something in Naoko that Gendo didn't? (Since, as we all know, he vigorously scrubbed his body for two hours every time she jumped his bone.)


Theirs nothing bad looking about her see for your self.

http://www.THAT-BOARD.com/general/thumb/1121231419432s.jpg

She's not Misato but shes not ugly at all.
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Postby sadsadshinji » Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:21 pm

well..
after all, it is anime...
so unless they made her like one of the doll girls in EoE (sandbox scene), she almost couldnt possibly look ugly

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Fanservice in Evangelion: Good or Bad?

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Postby 0x2eleven » Sun May 30, 2010 3:07 am

Throughout the entire Evangelion franchise (and many anime franchises for that matter) there is "fanservice," or gratuitous sexual imagery and innuendo, typically focused on the female characters. At times, particularly in Rebuild so far, I've found the inclusion of most of this stuff to be pretty tasteless and potentially damaging to the image of what is truly a masterful work of art.

I would like for as many people as humanly possible to be able to experience Evangelion, but I fear most people unaccustomed to anime norms wouldn't want to sit through the continuous hyper low-angle boob and ass shots of girls in their early teens, and might even interpret it as sexism and depraved perversion.

I get that it's supposed to be funny/sexy, but I, personally, usually only find it to be extremely clever (when Asuka first meets Pen Pen in 2.0), mildly distracting, and unsuitable for such an otherwise distinguished work. Ultimately, I think Evangelion would have a better chance at gaining the mainstream recognition and acceptance it deserves outside of Japan if there was little-to-no fanservice.

How do you feel about the fanservice in Evangelion?
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Postby ZapX » Sun May 30, 2010 3:31 am

There've been other threads on this topic (you should make use of our search function and thread list up there in the menubar), the last of which turned bad fast and got locked. I'm willing to let this one go for now but it's going to be kept on a short leash. Let's not let it degrade into what the other one did.
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Postby Mr. Tines » Sun May 30, 2010 3:41 am

Having come to NGE after starting with approximately contemporary titles like Dirty Pair Flash and BurnUp Excess I kept on waiting for the promised Saabisu, Saabisu! to arrive, and meanwhile noting that they cleverly composed shots to distract us all from the fact that they were cutting costs by not animating lip-flaps.

Compared with currently airing shows like Seikon no Qwaser and Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou, NGE is essentially innocent.
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Postby Merridian » Sun May 30, 2010 9:31 am

There’s surprisingly little fanservice in NGE to begin with—there’s a bit more in rebuild, but only a few scenes that are all that jarring, and even they’re not that bad compared to most series out there.
0x2eleven wrote: I would like for as many people as humanly possible to be able to experience Evangelion, but I fear most people unaccustomed to anime norms wouldn't want to sit through the continuous hyper low-angle boob and ass shots of girls in their early teens, and might even interpret it as sexism and depraved perversion.
Evangelion was produced with the intent for people who were used to that stuff to be the target audience. Also, it sounds a bit like you’re exaggerating matters—NGE is pretty far from e.g. mindless ecchi crap where all the chicks in skirts fall over in front of the camera.

I’ve never had a problem with most of it simply because it all serves a greater purpose. It’s that bait that gets promised at the end of every episode that fails (for the most part) to deliver. It isn’t until near the end where the viewer starts to get glimpses of most of these girls naked, and by that point the atmosphere of the show is so twisted and dark that calling it ‘fanservice’ is to ignore the intentionally suffocating, pessimistic tone that the series had taken to.

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Postby Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion » Sun May 30, 2010 9:40 am

So long as it's funny I honestly don't care for fan service so long as it doesn't ruin fight scenes; amazingly, that rarely happens.
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Postby trueno_twentyone » Sun May 30, 2010 10:10 am

View Original PostMr. Tines wrote:...NGE is essentially innocent.


What part of it Mr. Tines? Haha. LOL.

Anyways, there's really not much of it in NGE. It is sexually innocent - I think... :\
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Postby NemZ » Sun May 30, 2010 10:37 am

most examples of fanservice in the series and movie I took as either subverting such impulses with massive awkwardness or illustrating Shinji's wandering eyes. Just be thankful we didn't get a misty crotch-cam of Kaworu in the bath.

:shinji_blush:

2.22 annoys me because it has instances that seem to serve no purpose other than to invite the audience to perv out, and often at times when there's nobody else around whose gaze we could be following.

that said, my current avatar would be an example that 2.22 handled well.
Last edited by NemZ on Sun May 30, 2010 10:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby ObsessiveMathsFreak » Sun May 30, 2010 10:37 am

0x2eleven wrote:How do you feel about the fanservice in Evangelion?

At the risk of being accused of responding with an image meme, I'll offer the following viewpoint.

[wkimg]File:Renaissance fan service.jpg[/wkimg]

Nudity, sexuality and their commercialised cousin "(fan-)service" have been employed in art for a very, very long time. The question really is not whether their use is justified in an of itself—morals being wonderfully subjective things—but whether their removal or non-use would reduce the quality of the work as a whole. In the case of Evangelion, removing nudity and sexuality from the work with obviously reduce both the impact and the meaning of the work in several ways.
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Postby planet news » Sun May 30, 2010 1:54 pm

View Original PostNemZ wrote:there's nobody else around whose gaze we could be following.

2.22 even had fan service during the shades of blue, night time reflective ceiling bits. This is definitely a reduction of the effect of the scene, I believe. Not just because of the strange shot angle included for the sole purpose of fanservice. There's also a "wtf why fanservice now?" distraction. Though, the redone Dance Like You Want To Win scene afterwards actually had less fanservice than NGE.
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Postby The Eva Monkey » Sun May 30, 2010 2:18 pm

View Original PostMr. Tines wrote:Having come to NGE after starting with approximately contemporary titles like Dirty Pair Flash and BurnUp Excess...

The first anime I watched, knowing it was anime, was Project A-Ko. So naturally, fanservice in anime hasn't really bothered me too much. It's when a show is entirely concerned with fanservice, like He Is My Master, that it's just not acceptable to me.

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Postby 0x2eleven » Sun May 30, 2010 2:34 pm

View Original PostObsessiveMathsFreak wrote:
In the case of Evangelion, removing nudity and sexuality from the work with obviously reduce both the impact and the meaning of the work in several ways.


There are legitimate uses of nudity and sexuality, but I'm talking about fanservice specifically. I don't care about nudity and sex being in the show. Do yo think removing fanservice would hurt anything?
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