Did Eva redefine you?

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Postby C.A.P. » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:33 pm

Nope. It did taught me interesting story ideas, and it opened my eyes on another way you can do animation with a minuscule budget while keeping artistic integrity using that budget, but it never got to the point where I decided to make big decisions in my life because some animated show taught me intriguing theories I never knew.

Can't help but think that Anno would still call me crazy if I told him that.
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Postby symbv » Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:30 pm

View Original Postliquidus118 wrote:That is ironic. Anno would probably have a sad if he read that, considering the show and EoE in particular were saying "Go outside and stop obsessing over anime!".


I am not so sure. Anno has a strong sense of being two-face about all the otaku thing. He made Eva and allowed it to grow into one of the biggest merchandise franchises (not to say pachinko franchise too) from anime. He is rolling in money, feeding on anime fans (and pachinko fans), and he knows it. It does not prevent him from creating more Eva to keep the franchise fresh and new range of merchandise from being made. This time he made sure his production company would own most of the rights. If he really only wants the fans to get off anime, then it would be a very cynical way to do it. My take is that he is of two minds about the whole Eva thing -- while wanting the fans to get less obsessed but also can't help being pulled in by its appeal. I think if we substitute "fans" with "Anno himself", the previous sentence would also hold true as well.
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Postby C.A.P. » Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:46 pm

^Don't forgot that he's making Rebulid because he wants to get away from the "curse" of Evangleion.
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Postby symbv » Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:53 pm

View Original PostC.A.P. wrote:^Don't forgot that he's making Rebulid because he wants to get away from the "curse" of Evangleion.


Yes, another irony -- he may want to get away from it but at the same time he is pulled by it. He may want otaku to spend less time on eva (or anime) but he also created a lot of ways to get otaku to spend time and money on eva (anime).
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Postby Bagheera » Wed Apr 27, 2011 8:00 pm

View Original Postsymbv wrote:Yes, another irony -- he may want to get away from it but at the same time he is pulled by it. He may want otaku to spend less time on eva (or anime) but he also created a lot of ways to get otaku to spend time and money on eva (anime).


I think the way to make sense of it all is the phrase "moderation in all things." Liking and appreciating works of art is part of what makes life worth living, after all, and this extends to NGE as surely as anything else. So long as you're not obsessed with it, and get outside once in awhile and live life and don't lose your perspective, it's fine.

IOW "be an Otaku and have fun (and give me money), but don't let it destroy you."
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Postby Warren Peace » Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:30 pm

The lesson of this thread is that Anno's every action is ironic. Also, he hates whatever you think about everything.

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Postby Monk Ed » Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:51 am

I have thought for a long time that Anno was simply self-loathing at the time, and burned that feeling onto the film. He is everything he claims to hate. He vilifies and punishes the male gaze even as he revels in it. Or at least that's the attitude of the very confused, schizophrenic "author spirit" directing the camera and painting the imagery.
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Postby tomrule123 » Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:47 pm

Yes... yes it did. It changed the way I look at films/shows. Passion of the Christ? Not as f*cked-up as EoE (but still brutal and cruel.) The Alien films? Oh, Please, that's child stuff compared to EoE. Inception? THAT HAD NEVER GOTTEN AS DEEP AS NGE. Robocop Uncut? Do I really have to discuss this?

Ok, aside from films and shows, I'm actually not afraid of dying. If it happens, it happens.

Come, 2012: BRING IT ON!!!

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Postby Korgan » Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:57 am

Thanks for sharing with me, and, concerning Anno's attitude, I just suppose that he only dislikes the absolutely batshit jap otaku, you know, the despondent messed-up hikikomori types. After all, he and his team portrayed Kensuke, a total military nerd, as a decent, honest kid who's loyal to his friends and one of the few sane people in Tokyo-3.

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Postby GoGoGengar » Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:21 pm

I wouldn't say it redefined me but it certainly enlightened my view of certain points like the alternate reality in episode 26 where Shinji is who he would like to be and the sense of perfection SEELE hopes to achieve

These are just 2 examples of a wide range of philosophies that changed my world and individual view of many dilemmas

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Postby violist » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:52 pm

I think Eva forced me to reevaluate myself, certainly. There were finally a couple of characters I could really relate to and that really got under my skin, and it forced me to think differently about the world in some ways, or at least see in a more "intensified" way (I don't know a word for it; things feel differently, but not so much qualitatively as quantitatively). In some ways I've become even more cynical (though that could also be attributed to the George Carlin binge I've had in the last couple of weeks) and depressed in some aspects of life, but also more confident and hopeful in others. I know they seem to contradict each other, but it's in certain aspects of life (I'm a musician; it makes sense).

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Postby flapjack » Wed May 04, 2011 6:17 am

Eva helped me directly get over being a confused, angsty 14 year old. I communicated directly with this show. Weird? not so much.

"And to all the children (me included), Congratulations".

Eva showed me that I wasn't alone, and that other people can help me get over my problems. I had the exact same questions as Shinji. Thought by thought, in 25/26 these questions were answered. Eva brought me out of the usual teenage slump and into enlightened thought.

So, if Anno wants to rekindle this connection with his fans, 3.0 better be about how to pass my finals.

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Postby Kendrix » Wed May 04, 2011 7:38 am

View Original Postflapjack wrote:Eva helped me directly get over being a confused, angsty 14 year old. I communicated directly with this show. Weird? not so much.

"And to all the children (me included), Congratulations".

Eva showed me that I wasn't alone, and that other people can help me get over my problems. I had the exact same questions as Shinji. Thought by thought, in 25/26 these questions were answered. Eva brought me out of the usual teenage slump and into enlightened thought.

So, if Anno wants to rekindle this connection with his fans, 3.0 better be about how to pass my finals.


XD LOL

It served a similar function to me, I stumbled upon durting one of the hardest times of my life, and I see the world different/more positive now.
It just has awesome philosophy and helped me understand myself and others better, as well as to stop acting like a stupid kid.
Last edited by Kendrix on Thu May 05, 2011 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Eva Yojimbo » Thu May 05, 2011 11:57 am

View Original Postflapjack wrote:Eva showed me that I wasn't alone, and that other people can help me get over my problems.
Indeed. To quote the relevant bit from my essay: "There could not be a better title for the upcoming Eva film than “You Are (Not) Alone”. Many who never feel the oppressive solitude of depression so strongly that it’s as if you’re sitting alone in darkness while the shadows eat away at your soul may never understand the power in knowing that in that darkness, you aren’t alone. One quote, that might best describe the power I felt after the series could be that from a wonderful novel called “The Man Who Was Thursday” by GK Chesterton: “Through all this ordeal his root horror had been isolation, and there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy.” ...hopefully in my mentally drained state I have achieved on a much smaller level what Anno achieved, and that was to share a powerful life experience with others. And if even one person reads this, relates, and realizes they are not alone then I have, in the smallest sense, returned the favor for my own realization of that same truth."
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Postby Kendrix » Thu May 05, 2011 12:18 pm

I agree about the title choice - the prologue arc is all about Shinji building a home for himself, with a purpose/job (Ep 1and 2 - the EVA), friends (eps 3, 4) a home (eps 2 and 4), a love interest (or at least someone he made a significant impact on) (5 and 6) and some sort of family (ep 7)
(Asuka does not count as part of the initial "home/established world"- she is something that arrives into that world later from the outside, throws it into dissaray and has Shinji experience new feelings)
During that arc, (which some say basically tells the entire story with all its themes in minuature) Shinji does throuhg a lot of character developement, he bocomes a fighther, he gradually learns to allow himself hope and reach out to others - but that "home/social circle"-building is still one of the most important parts - he is scared and depressed over the throught of having to fight scary horrors all alone, but gradually realizes that he is not alone - in the big climax/finale of that arc, all power plants in Japan contribute to the plan, everyone works together to provide him a plan, weapons and useful computer programs - He just has to pull the trigger. He has to do it and no one can do it for him, but he's not the only one who's doing his best - cue the epic scene with Rei and the spaceshuttle where Shinji expected to get hit and then statres ahead in disbelief to realize that he's not the only one on this battlefield.
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Postby BiQ » Thu May 05, 2011 12:26 pm

Well, maybe redefining is a bit too strong a word, but it did actually make me think about how people perceive each other. Considering I was far too self-conscious at the time I saw it (17 yo), I think it was one of the things that let me get over it in some degree. The emotional nuclear strike that is EoE hit me hardest only at the 3rd time I saw it, which helped me to concentrate on the message side of things. I guess.

And it certainly changed my view on animated visual media and its possibilities forever.

And the hedgehogs dilemma about meaningful human relations always being painful to some degrees was also something that Eva helped me to... accept.

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Postby 93rd » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:15 pm

During and after my first viewing of Evangelion, which would've been in 2012ish, I came out with a wildly different perspective on religion, mostly based on how skeptical I was of it at the time. Most of the things that I was thinking were very flawed and hypocritical, if that makes sense. I didn't believe any less in what I believed in, but it made me rethink a lot of stuff that I would've never given the time of day without Evangelion. As far as I know, I was alone in these thoughts, so I ended up disregarding them.

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Postby Reichu » Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:02 am

Definitely didn't redefine me. When I look at my pre-Eva art and writing, all the same basic preoccupations are already in place. What Eva did was hone me into a state of greater self-awareness, and part of how it did this was by intensely focusing my preoccupations. The feelings and ideas it brought out of me helped establish what I, am a person, am "really about" (if one can be said to "be about" anything at all).
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Postby kuribo-04 » Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:03 am

Sounds hyperbolic but it truly made me understand myself.
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Postby Blockio » Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:37 am

The main thing that happened in my case is that it made me understand how to consciously use what would essentially be my own ATF; who to let in, who to shut out and how best to do it
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