In four phases... first heard of it through an "I Think I'm A Clone Now" Evangelion AMV, then was reminded of it when the Internet was talking about Haruhi a decade or so ago, (and TV Tropes was comparing Yuki to Rei) then my attention was drawn to it further by /a/ threads about Evangelion, and from there watching the first episode and feeling reminded of Sonic X (especially with everyone's eyes on Shinji as he struggles with a tough decision) I was hooked.

EDIT: Revisiting this post weeks later I'm not sure why I felt compelled to bother with all the extraneous details. Whittled it down.

Guess this is a good virgin post (hi, I'm new here)
I first stumbled into Evangelion in the late 90's when I was in high school, working a part-time job after school, having frequent conflicts with my parents, and feeling pretty isolated socially. I'd often blow my money on anime DVDs at a local video store which carried lots of anime and sci-fi/fantasy titles. I didn't know what Eva was at the time although I took notice that the ADV DVDs were consistently selling out of stock. I bought the penultimate disc on a whim (where all the biggest reveals occur, including reveals on the dummy system) because it was the only Eva disc in stock. Became obsessively fascinated from there on and little by little was able to buy the whole collection with the help of my part-time job. I immediately related to Shinji and lots of his issues, but was also intrigued by the hybridization of various Eastern and Western mystical elements ...which lead to me to read and study Eastern and Western Thought & Esotericism in my free time. Haven't thought about Eva much in the past few years, but on the heels of its 25th anniversary, I showed the whole series, EofE, and the rebuild films to my wife and fell in deep fascinating with it all over again.

I got into it because I got a friend into anime, he started watching it and recommended it to me, then I just fell in love with it

I first got into Evangelion through the TV broadcast of EVA 1.11 back in 2012. I was immediately hooked for the franchise although I only really became a huge fan after I watched 2.22 as well. This was in May 2013 and while I watched 1.11 again in TV, I watched EVA 2.22 the next day because my dad recorded it for me (I was only 12 and therefore not allowed to stay up this late since 2.22 started running at like 10:15 pm). Ever since then I love the franchise and literally watched and read everything related to it.

^
o_o

First of all, Eva at the age of 11! Did you even understand a thing except giant mecha fighting aliens at that age? Don't mean to offend, just curious. How's that even possible?
And then,your dad recorded it for you. It would've been totally normal if it was something like ghibli or something. But Eva!? How? Even at this age, i don't even think about watching anime with my parents, let alone watching eva with them.(telling them to record something is the same as inviting them to watch together for my parents)

^
Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I too watched Evangelion at age 13, no problem. While EoE might have been a bit much my parents wouldn't bash an eye if I asked them to record Evangelion 2.0. Like, when I was 12, there were runs of Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Roh on TV... My parents recorded all of them for me, and while I didn't grasp everything GitS was talking about, and found Jin-Roh kind of boring, they never objected to the content... it's just cartoons, after all. Like not in a "lmao, it's Disney" more in a it's not real, it's just drawings. Then again, I watched South Park with my parents at that age as well. We talked about it if I understood it was satire and stuff... My Mother always at the attitude, that she won't be able to shield me from media, so I might as well learn how to read it.

robersora wrote:watched South Park with my parents

...I got nothing to say.
You guys ever heard of strict religious parents? I don't think i need to explain more than that.

As someone who grew up in America with strict religious parents, I can tell you that even parts of the Bible are not “Christian” enough for them. The culture has definitely thrown out any sense of approaching a child as a unique individual with their own pace and style of learning and they’ve replaced with strict, legalistic “No cigarettes until you’re 18, no booze until you’re 21, and I don’t even know how to answer your sex questions until you’ve reached the age of consent.” So naturally depictions of all of that in media on almost any level is gonna he considered “taboo” for a lot longer in life that it probably should feel. I think my first “R”-rated film was The Passion of the Christ, and it took them hearing from other Christian families making exceptions to their rules with this film before my parents decided it was something I could watch.

NTE is more than okay to watch if you’re 11 and into that sort of thing. They’ll probably find stuff in the movie as adults that went over their head at 11, but it’s fine.

I think i made a mistake. Asian,strict,religious parents. Also to them, it's not religiously "wrong" cause it has biblical reference. It's because there's things like sexualization,homosexuality,nudity, etc etc. It doesn't matter because i'm an adult now, not that i didn't watch anime and movies back then. Just had to watch alone without letting them know anything. But still it's quite uneasy to think of watching anything with them, even now.

While Austria is still very much a Catholic country and people practicing Christianity is still going on, especially in more rural areas I have never, ever met a person who made it such a point of personal identification as you described. Like the Catholicism is a communal thing, it's Sacraments give a kind of order to people's lives in society - but refusing to engage in art because it's deemed inappropriate is very alien to me. People have gotten more health-oriented, but where I'm from it's pretty normal that kids start drinking at age 16, smoking was just recently put to 18, but also was 16 for the longest time. There is a big culture of going out, and as long as you do your work nobody will find it weird when a 16 year old starts having sex, drinking alcohol and watch movies which you call R-rated (our highest rating stops at 16 anyways).
What is it with America that people have such extremes points of personal identification?

Like when we watch the Gilmore Girls we are bewildered how tame and wholesome these people's lives is depicted.

Berserker wrote:First of all, Eva at the age of 11! Did you even understand a thing except giant mecha fighting aliens at that age? Don't mean to offend, just curious. How's that even possible?
And then,your dad recorded it for you. It would've been totally normal if it was something like ghibli or something. But Eva!? How? Even at this age, i don't even think about watching anime with my parents, let alone watching eva with them.(telling them to record something is the same as inviting them to watch together for my parents)

Don't worry, I get what you mean. Honestly I would think the same when I now picture an 11-years old watching EVA but as a kid I just stumbled through the movie because it runned on TV and seemed interesting. Sure, when I first watched Evangelion 1.11 I mostly just thought "wow the fighting and plot is cool and Rei is cute" but even as a 12- to 13-years old (the age I watched and read most of the EVA-stuff for the first time) I would say that I did in fact understand a fair share of the series. But maybe I was just a weird kid, I dunno. Of couse it is a whole different experience when I now watch EVA as an adult but I think that's also an interesting change of perspective.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:As someone who grew up in America with strict religious parents, I can tell you that even parts of the Bible are not “Christian” enough for them. The culture has definitely thrown out any sense of approaching a child as a unique individual with their own pace and style of learning and they’ve replaced with strict, legalistic “No cigarettes until you’re 18, no booze until you’re 21, and I don’t even know how to answer your sex questions until you’ve reached the age of consent.” So naturally depictions of all of that in media on almost any level is gonna he considered “taboo” for a lot longer in life that it probably should feel. I think my first “R”-rated film was The Passion of the Christ, and it took them hearing from other Christian families making exceptions to their rules with this film before my parents decided it was something I could watch.

NTE is more than okay to watch if you’re 11 and into that sort of thing. They’ll probably find stuff in the movie as adults that went over their head at 11, but it’s fine.

Damn, I can't picture myself growing up like this as my parents were always really open about media and I was given much freedom from a young age on. I once knew a girl that grew up in a strict, christian household as well and when she talked about how much her parents were controlling what she was watching (and how much she wasn't allowed to watch) it seemed like another world for me.

Yes, I think NGE might sometimes be a bit too much for a kid or young teen, but NTE is a little bit different. At least I had no issues with watching them at the age of 11/12 although as I rewatched them over the years I was of course able to see them in a different light and notice new things. Sure, I watched NGE when I was pretty young too but I just always liked apocalyptic settings (which NGE kind of is with the second impact and the angels attacking) and psychological stuff.

robersora wrote:^
Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I too watched Evangelion at age 13, no problem. While EoE might have been a bit much my parents wouldn't bash an eye if I asked them to record Evangelion 2.0. Like, when I was 12, there were runs of Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Roh on TV... My parents recorded all of them for me, and while I didn't grasp everything GitS was talking about, and found Jin-Roh kind of boring, they never objected to the content... it's just cartoons, after all. Like not in a "lmao, it's Disney" more in a it's not real, it's just drawings. Then again, I watched South Park with my parents at that age as well. We talked about it if I understood it was satire and stuff... My Mother always at the attitude, that she won't be able to shield me from media, so I might as well learn how to read it.

Yes, that's pretty much how it is with my parents as well. Actually a lot of anime runned in the night back then so my dad did in fact record a lot of them for me when I was around 11-14 years old. I still wouldn't even have issues to watch most animes with my parents (through I wouldn't watch EoE with them either) and as a kid/young teen I was just glad that they recorded anime for me which runned too late on TV.

Nao wrote:Yes, I think NGE might sometimes be a bit too much for a kid or young teen, but NTE is a little bit different.

"NTE"?

Honestly, for how hyped-up NGE was for how "disturbing" it was, it actually seemed (relatively) milder than I was expecting. Most of the topics explored through the show have also been discussed on the Internet, main difference being that the Internet typically tackles them through plain text describing some vague hypothetical (or if someone claims to speak from experience, no one can prove it) while NGE comes up with a more in-depth story tackling the same topics and attaches cute and colourful visuals and beautiful music to them. Is that why people were so shocked? Are they so accustomed to seeing cute and colourful visuals associated with only the most sweet and saccharine of content? If so that's a shame. Cuteness and emotional intensity on their own are already two separate ways to make a story more interesting; it's even more interesting to see them blended together.

It's like what the characters said about the light from the night sky standing out when the city lights are out; the darker the setting, the more the light stands out. (Incidentally, that scene doubles as an example!)

Don't get me wrong, when that felt like a tipping point for convincing me its reputation for being disturbing was well deserved. But then if kids are believed to have no business watching it, why retcon "is she still wild in bed" to "does she still make a fool of herself when she's sleeping"? Is it more of a political correctness thing than a "for any kids who may be watching" thing? Maybe both?

EDIT: I'm kicking myself for starting a post about the show's reputation for being disturbing, ending on a reference to that ep 21 scene, and still neglecting to ask whether or not Nao called anyone an "old hag" any time since!

YTPrenewed wrote:"NTE"?

"NTE" stands for "New Theatrical Edition." It's basically synonymous with the "Rebuilds," but since the Japanese filmmakers (and by extensions, possibly the Japanese fan base?) seem to refer to "Rebuild" as the new technological tools through which the filmmakers created the new movies and refer to the finished films themselves as the "New Theatrical Editions," many here have decided to use the vernacular in a similar fashion.

YTPrenewed wrote:"NTE"?

But then if kids are believed to have no business watching it, why retcon "is she still wild in bed" to "does she still make a fool of herself when she's sleeping"? Is it more of a political correctness thing than a "for any kids who may be watching" thing? Maybe both?

It was clearly an attempt at making the translation what closer resembles the double entendre line Kaji intentionally dropped. Shinji in the scene is the only one who is apparently innocent enough to hear what he actually implied. I dunno, "is she still restless in bed" would be a better translation IMO.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote: but since the Japanese filmmakers (and by extensions, possibly the Japanese fan base?) seem to refer to "Rebuild" as the new technological tools through which the filmmakers created the new movies and refer to the finished films themselves as the "New Theatrical Editions," many here have decided to use the vernacular in a similar fashion.

It's just that Rebuild of Evangelion mistakingly stuck as the project's English name after being called that in one of the first teasers (I can't remember where), but vanished soon after from any official source. The only thing that's still called that way are the little featurettes on the bonus section of the home video releases detailing the production process of the corresponding movie. I don't think I've ever heard someone refer the creator tools being called that way, tho.

But if the movies were never actually intended to be called “Rebuilds,” then why is that name used in almost all English-language material talking about the movies? I’m pretty sure “Rebuild” is the valid English name for the movies. Eva material having different names in English is nothing new, and “New Theatrical Edition” just sounds awkward in English.

As I understand it "Rebuild of Evangelion" started out as the name of a bonus feature on the DVDs of Jo about the "rebuilding" of the story; I guess that was interpreted in other parts of the world as being about "Rebuild" meaning the film itself, and the usage grew from there.

IIRC, the name "Rebuild of Evangelion" was used to describe the creation of the new Evangelion movies as a project and that's the name used when the first information about the new movies was announced in the west. Hence the name "Rebuild" stuck and it's all it was known as in the west for a while. It certainly helps that "Rebuild" isn't verbose like "New Theatrical Edition".

On-topic, how did I get into Evangelion? I saw Ritsuko's name on an ancient listing of fictional scientists on Wikipedia back when it was small enough to have such listings, and the name "Neon Genesis Evangelion" was exotic enough for me to take a look. The rest is...well, history.

I decided to watch Evangelion in late 2018. I had been hearing about Evangelion for a while, and I knew it was apparently supposed to be this really heavy anime that'd make you question existence. I'd always been really curious, but I was a bit hesitant about it—but when I ended up biting the bullet and watching it, talking to my friends about each episode along the way, I turned out to love it.

i saw My dad watch it and then I got hooked

Edited out the red text - as pwhodges said, green and red text is reserved for moderation purposes in most cases. - Derantor