Unfair Evangelion reviews

[Guy Nacks]

Before I even watch it... is it the angry yaoi lover??

I'm pretty sure that's affirmative.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

OMG THIS IS HILARIOUS.

[ChaddyManPrime]

^
I was laughing my ass off when it first came out... now it's just sad.

[LordThaeon]

Define what you mean by an Unfair review.

[Stillborn]

Unapreciating of its GENIOUS!

[Reichu]

As much as people like to go on about elements such as the Lance of Longinus, the FAR, etc., what they don't realize is that it's not the point of Evangelion.

I'm pretty sure that most of the people who talk about that shit do in fact realize it's "not the point"... and a considerable number people who don't care about that stuff have no fucking idea what the show is really about.

[TehDonutKing]

All this talk of Bennet the Sage has me wondering one thing:

Why does anyone still care about TGWTG? Doug had a playful altercation with James Rolfe, and that's the only good thing from them; everyone else is pretty much Chris Chan tier, left the website, or, in the case of Amazing Atheist, both.

[cyharding]

I think it depends on the individual reviewer. For the most part, I usually watch Atop the Fourth Wall. I also have a related question: Would SF Debris's (who is also on the site) reviews of the two Rebuild movies be considered unfair? I did find his reviews were pretty good and he did try to come into the point of view of someone new to the franchise, which is what the film series is designed for.

[Rosenakahara]

Well cinemasnob has his own website so i just watch his stuff there, linkara also has his own website and again why support the asshat that doug has become when i can just go onto linkaras site?chris stuckman and rantassmo both have their own youtube channels, etc.

so there is really no reason to go to channel awesome at all anymore.

[GoatJesus]

The whole reason Bennet derailed the review towards the end was to poke fun at Anno for essentially doing the same thing to the series and EOE. Essentially ending the story to talk directly to the audience/characters about his problems/ their problems. and when they didn't take the advice to screw the audience over royally.

He mentioned in his Outlaw Star review. . .



and there you have it. Bennet is a fan who want's characters to be defined beforehand, and have their character serve the plot. Not have them developing (and in his view not for the better) to the very end. He wants a hero who can win the fight or at least fight to the bitter end, not give up and succumb to his demons.

I like some of Bennett's material, but he's a comedian who uses Anime as source material for humor. He usually makes a few good points, but often fails because he instead chooses to make a joke at the expense of the source material.

Also. . . (and I hate to do this to you GJ). But Goatjesus made a pretty unfair review of the Rebuild series a couple years ago. While he has since softened his opinions towards the Rebuilds . . . his argument at the time was that the rebuilds were narratively unsound, capped off with him going into a Semi-Tangential rant where he (poorly) imitates the characters acting the way they should have acted in the films.

While he did make a few good points, specifically that the last film has to tie together roughly a billion loose ends, and fill in several by the end credits if it wants to be anything but a shallow rehash of the originals themes and messages with a bigger budget, assuming Anno is even going to bother with that.

But overall I found the review to be very unfair and biased against the Rebuilds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFultzPN7nU


But like I said. He seems to have softened and changed his opinion in the time between 3.0 and now. So take it with a grain of salt.

The point I think he makes the best of in his critique is. . . .

SPOILER: Show

Right now these movies are a confusing mess. If the fourth Rebuild Movie is a masterpiece and renders the rest of the films sensible, then I’ll be the first one to make an hour long video telling you all just how amazing 4.0 is. Even if it does manage to make the other films work on a level of Secondary Belief, It still wouldn’t change my opinion of the others.

Because without 4.0, they wouldn’t have worked within a logical context and thus rendered my enjoyment of it at the time null and void. Besides, from a personal perspective I don’t think these characters will ever be as special to me as the ones in Neon Genesis. ROE is telling a hero's tale so far. Neon Genesis told a tale that was unique strewn with misery but lined with silver. Just because the last movie clears up the mess made by the others, the fact remains the others were still a mess of confusing logic and lack of development and progress.

Sure it’s typical for a movie franchise to leave loose ends for the rest of the films to tie down, but I argue that this is just far too much to answer at this point. Do I think 4.0 will blow me away? Probably not. There’s a lot of ground to cover. For 4.0 to be a success, it needs to answer all of the questions and progress the plot and end it. The only way I can see it doing this though is to backpedal like crazy with so much exposition it’d be insane and then leave us hanging with an ending that would otherwise be rushed.

We must also consider 3.0, which brought up so many more questions involving the nature of angels, impacts, spears, resources, back-stories, characters etc. For example, what is the nature of the Impact Shinji caused by pulling the spears? If it was a normal impact he could have just wished for everything to return to the way it was before, which is what I THOUGHT the entire goal was about. But Kaworu’s like (bad dub voice) , "no Shinji, is bad." But why’s it any different?

We just saw two movies that refused to acknowledge Mari in any significant way on top of lacking any sort of symbolism to allude to complex solutions. In fact, 3.0 wasn’t even an important part of the plot. Shinji sees Kaworu die, but doesn’t kill him directly. He’s depressed by the end of the film, but for how long? You could have actually just skipped the whole Kaworu dying thing completely and went straight to finding the sages of Lilin or whatever.

Mari's probably not going to be developed in 4.0. She magically disappeared at the end of 3.0 anyway. It's very unlikely with just how many questions we have, plus we need to know her backstory, her purpose, why she knows so much in 3.0 about Seele and the nature of "ADAMS", and does everyone realize how much exposition this would need? She hasn't had any meaningful interactions, any meaningful actions in general that couldn’t have been done by using another cast member, nor any redeeming flaws or characterization.

Not to mention Sakura, who probably SHOULD be developed in 4.0. She has potential, she wasn’t just thrown in out of nowhere, but most likely won’t be given any time just because of how many other characters they introduced and plot elements they should explain. Speaking of which! Why introduce so many members to the Eva cast three fourths of the way in?

: ““there was so much anticipation for the new character [MARI] among the viewers that I felt I had to respond to that. So, I decided to increase the number of the new character's appearances.”

So it was by popular demand. Huh. Well. Now we have a new set of characters that are irrelevant and can’t possibly be developed in the last movie of the Rebuild franchise. ((sarcasm voice) But let’s not forget, these movie’s were made out of:

: “The desire to fight the continuing trend of stagnation in anime.”

Seriously?

Introducing an entire ensemble of pointless characters.






Tons of fan service.





Having a character that’s utterly perfect in every way?





Did I mention that Sword Art Online is NOT a very good show?

Implying Anno is a huge hypcrite.

I don't really think Anno is a huge hypocrite. This was a video kinda' made when I was really angered by 2.0 specifically--which still stands as my least favorite of the films. But I definitely don't feel he's a hypocrite. I definitely also have warmed up. I should make an update video about it because I certainly don't feel these ways anymore. At this time, I was heavily influenced by Draconis March (since he got me my start.) So I took on a lot of philosophies of film analysis that I simply do not have any longer.

I feel bad about skewering 3.0 specifically because it's the one I feel that redeemed the other two most heavily.

[Ray]

I didn't expect this to come back to haunt me.

DO IT! It's always nice to see more stuff from you man! Welcome back.

still think it's a valid point. Only one movie left to tie all these different plot lines together, and end them? I dedicated a thread to talking about the issues we have with the runtime.

When it comes to explain the characters changes, the state of the world, getting Shinji out of his depression even though he has literally no reason to continue, developing Rei Q as a character, Shinji getting some kind of reconciliation with Misato, Asuka and Company, and giving Mari some development as a character. And at least one big ass fight scene, is 90 to 110 minutes really going to be enough?

Anyways, if you could address things like that in your next video I'd greatly appreciate it. I love all the effort you put into your videos man.

Also, and it's just a request. Could you skewer this guys review of 3.33 now that you've softened in your opinion of it?

http://thaeonblade.deviantart.com/art/L ... -430297360

To keep it on topic this is a VERY unfair review.

[GoatJesus]

I didn't expect this to come back to haunt me.

DO IT! It's always nice to see more stuff from you man! Welcome back.

still think it's a valid point. Only one movie left to tie all these different plot lines together, and end them? I dedicated a thread to talking about the issues we have with the runtime.



Anyways, if you could address things like that in your next video I'd greatly appreciate it. I love all the effort you put into your videos man.

Also, and it's just a request. Could you skewer this guys review of 3.33 now that you've softened in your opinion of it?

http://thaeonblade.deviantart.com/art/L ... -430297360

To keep it on topic this is a VERY unfair review.

OH GOD. Remind me to skewer this tomorrow. 3 parts? Damn.

[Bagheera]

Oh man, I love DouchebagChocolat's take on the Rebuild series. I don't think you're giving him enough credit; there's a reason why it's not good to pack a bunch of main characters into a relatively short movie series.

I'l re-watch DBC's review and come back later with my thoughts.

I'm making my way through it now (finished part 1), and I'll say this: I'm not sure about his take on the new movies, but his assessment of NGE is pretty damn solid. He knows why it works, what makes it relatable, and why people appreciate it. I think the main problem with his position is that he assumes the NTE is trying to do the same thing, which doesn't seem to be the case. I think he missed that, and that that makes his comparison effort moot. But I have to give him props for at least understanding the original and its success, which in and of itself is damn rare.

I feel bad about skewering 3.0 specifically because it's the one I feel that redeemed the other two most heavily.

Honestly, having seen the first part of your review I think much of it is spot on. We still don't have any backstory for Mari or Asuka, a lot of the plot elements came out of nowhere for no good reason, and as far as basic narrative structure goes the movies are a mess. However, that doesn't mean they're nonsensical -- it just means they're maddening, because stuff is happening and we have no clue why. I think the mistake many people make is that they assume this is the result of sloppiness on Anno's/Khara's part, whereas I tend to think it's quite intentional: if everything was explained in a manner we expected we wouldn't be talking about the movies today, but since it isn't we're still chewing on them and interpreting them and thinking about them, and I think that's the point. I think that's the goal of the exercise, to break with the expected and get us otaku to think in different ways for a change. Final might tie everything together and it might not, but I'm noticing more and more that I'm coming to appreciate the new movies for their own sake rather than comparing them to anything that came before. NGE was a very different story with very different goals, and it was effective at doing what it set out to do. But the NTE is doing something different, and should be judged accordingly. I'm just . . . not altogether clear on what that is just yet.

[Ray]

OH GOD. Remind me to skewer this tomorrow. 3 parts? Damn.

3 parts AND a follow up where he talks about the setup Anno has left us for 4.0.

[robersora]

I'm just . . . not altogether clear on what that is just yet.

3.33 leads me to believe that it's a very intimate look into the fragile psyche of a broken young man from a less angry, but much wiser angle than Evangelion.
I think all the extensive window dressing is there to make us realize how pointless it is. It is Shinji's journey, thrown in a messy world he doesn't understand, and nobody will hand him over answers, because they don't have it themselves. It's not driven by plot, it's driven by inherently misinformed character motivations. Do we need to know them? Does Shinji need to know what drives them? Is there a reason to know everything about everyone when in the end only oneself's determination and the willingness to work together counts? Even if motivations of others lie in the dark, so what? Maybe we can still work together so reach a similar goal. Do we need to know every motivation of our fellow men? Won't it suffice to be kind to each other and accept our inherent brokenness? It's about trying to go on, find answers about oneself for oneself's sake only, while understanding, that answers won't get you anywhere anyways. Figure it out, or don't. It doesn't matter. Accept that the world is a mess, but do your best to find a place where you can contribute. It's about the pain of loss and social exclusion. It's about the pain of responsibility.

Of course it's turned up to 11, but this is Anime.

It's louder, less raw, more polished and garish than Eva. Immediately pleasing and incredibly alienating, it's Anno's mind taking us on a trip, never assuming that he needs to pick anybody up - get his vibe, flow with him, or get left behind.
I think NTE is even more niche than Evangelion, because it converses directly with people broken by the same thing Anno himself thinks has started.

[Arcadia's legacy]

I think NTE is even more niche than Evangelion, because it converses directly with people broken by the same thing Anno himself thinks has started.

And what would that be exactly?

[robersora]

Hehe, I feel like I'm in EoTV with you being the narrator holden the title cards.

And what would that be exactly?

The Otakufication of Anime. I know, this notion is incorrect on many levels, but I'm pretty sure, that when Miyazaki says, that "Anime was a mistake", Anno had times he thought, that that mistake was his.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Evangelion Review Cycle:

1) Watch.
2) Rage.
3) Reconsider.
4) Repeat.

It was like this back with the original NGE series. Just like then we're gonna see a lot of people go on and on about how stuff prior to Eva was better and how the series is simply terrible, then after a while they'll either come around to like it or at least learn respect it in light of its growing influence.

[Kuseirou]

I prefer not to give any names, but basically any NGE review that goes like 'Asuka a tsundere bitch, Shinji a whiny brat, Rei an emotionless doll', etc etc... so any review basically that fails at understand the characters or what was going on, they make me wonder if we watched the same show. Or reviews that solely focuse in praising a single character, usually Rei/Asuka, and not even mentioning the rest of the cast, yet they're called "Evangelion reviews" and not "my waifu reviews".
But at least those reviews are relatively "harmless", so I just ignore them. When those words come from 'important' people, however... I still cringe when I remember the english commentary track about EoE, or one of the staff saying 25 and 26 are the episodes happening in the real life, and I have to hear someone ACTUALLY believing those things... still, in 2016...

[Gendo'sPapa]

I wouldn't say "unfair" but I would say almost every review I read of 3.0 has been sorely lacking. Partially I feel this is because most of the longer reviews of 3.0 written have been done by people who exclusively write, talk & obsess over anime. Either way the reviews are almost always focused exclusively on surface level details & not what the film is about or what the filmmakers are trying to say.

Of course the 3.0 reviews have also been hilarious because these same people who can accept the most garbage of anime concepts - We're schoolgirls who look 25 who pilot giant lolcats by putting on body armor that only covers our nipples & we control them by sliding ourselves onto a joystick & my best friend is actually a tiger ghostboy who's part girl & I'm secretly in love with her but we can't be together because I'm 1/10th Jupiter Princess which means I always bleed out my nose whenever things get sexy and I don't want to pilot my lolcat but rather just be the managing chef at my 5 star Peruvian bakery located in downtown Japan right next to a shinto shrine where people with animal masks engage in orgies to bring forth the spirit of the great squid god who can imbue us with the power of the horny mongoose that once was the headmaster of our school! - can't seem to grasp the idea of 14 years passing & they get so hilariously furious over it!