Axx°N N. wrote:Sexual content in general, no. Sexual content that can be read as misogynistic or sexist, yes.

I've had this debate way too often to muster up the energy for it, and it's outside this topic's subject matter anyway. And there must be several posts of mine on the forum discussing this.

But basically I don't see anything wrong with Shin's fanservice. It is pretty tame even.
And it definitely isn't mysoginistic or pedophilic lol.

unless you have a good reason for why Sakura's butt was given so much camera focus and illustration detail during a tense drama scene.

Because she has a nice butt, because it was gonna be seen with the composition they were going for (the rest of the cast underneath her legs, implying she is in a position of power before she falls down).
A butt doesn't really distract me from a tense scene. It probably wouldn't be that tense if that were the case.

kuribo-04 wrote:And it definitely isn't mysoginistic or pedophilic lol.

Regardless of whether it is or isn't, it's liable to be viewed as such. I have a really hard time believing that the Oscar committee would be more accepting of fanservice than anime fan webspace, where the higher- and sleazier-than-normal level of Shin's fanservice has been a frequent criticism, even among those who otherwise thought highly of the film.

If the composition was meant to visually suggest Sakura's control, there were ways to do that that didn't involve the amount or detail of her buttcheek in the camera. Again, I'm not the first, last or only to say it took them out of the scene. Similarly, if Asuka rolling around in bed is, as it seems, supposed to demonstrate her sleeplessness, there were ways to do that that didn't involve drawing her panties in such close-up detail that you can see into them along one of her nooks and crannies.

If it seems like petty grievances, don't blame me, and that's kind of the point; anime is often seen by the film crowd as being pretty close to smut in some cases, and something needs to be Oscar-friendly to get an Oscar, animated or not.

I'm glad Shin didn't aim to get an Oscar, cause I'd rather films not be sanitized like that (which is what a lot of mainstream films have been doing).

Well, questionable camera angle choices aside, even if Eva was eligible I don't think Amazon wants to roll out a massive Academy campaign for it and would rather spend the money on their originals. I don't know what originals they're releasing this year aside from Cinderella, but the previous years' films like Manchester by the Sea have a pretty good track record in awards circle.

As I said, it has better chances on domestic or Asian territory in general than in the West. Although the western reception has been surprisingly really good even from major publications like Polygon and IndieWire (it got a freaking A- from IW).

It's my personal favorite film of the year but even if 3.0+1.0 had been given the best of circumstances - no pandemic, given a robust theatrical release in US theaters, supported by a studio like GKids that knows how to run an Oscar campaign, etc - a nomination was an impossibility. Thrice Upon A Time is too entwined with the rest of Evangelion to really make a mark. The film is great but it doesn't work as a standalone film. Just to get the basics of the story the Academy voter would have to watch, at minimum, the previous three Rebuilds. If it's a domestic title like Toy Story there's leniency - though it helps that each Toy Story was made independently to tell one contained story while the Rebuilds by design are 4 chapters telling one grand narrative and none of them can really stand alone as a complete story - but for an anime it's too much of a reach. Hell, even if GKids had gotten to do a similar release for Eva like they're planning for Belle - it'll play in a few major cities before the end of the year, go wide early 2022 - they would give the Hosoda film more support cause it's an easier that doesn't need people to watch other titles as well.

Enjoy the film. Oscars are pretty meaningless and mostly a self-congratulatory night for the Hollywood film industry. It especially doesn't help that most of the people allowed to vote don't work in animation and so they either don't watch the film or just go with "the Pixar". Nominating anime outside of Ghibli is already a real stretch for the Academy to notice. Nominating anime that needs them to

Unless Netflix sneaks in Guillermo Del Toro's stop-motion Pinocchio into the 2021 calendar at the last minute the nominees this year will be :

Belle
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon OR Encanto

Like GhostlyOcam said earlier in this thread, the more interesting topic is how Eva will do at home during awards season. Eva is currently the biggest Japanese film of the year by a large margin and is well loved but I see Belle continues to hold well two months after release and has gotten a lot of positive feedback too. Will Anno's Final Eva take the top awards or will Belle take the wins. That's a more interesting subject of discussion.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:
Like GhostlyOcam said earlier in this thread, the more interesting topic is how Eva will do at home during awards season. Eva is currently the biggest Japanese film of the year by a large margin and is well loved but I see Belle continues to hold well two months after release and has gotten a lot of positive feedback too. Will Anno's Final Eva take the top awards or will Belle take the wins. That's a more interesting subject of discussion.

Yeah, after Anno did so well over there with Shin Godzilla, it'll be interesting to see. And I forgot about the Hosoda film.

I feel like Eva has the upper hand in terms of sheer sentiment alone, like being the final film of a tetralogy that took 9 years to come out and from being the director who very recently revived Godzilla's popularity among youngsters in Japan, but Belle's 14-minutes standing ovation at Cannes is heavily publicized and used to promote the film everywhere, and its strong box office leg for an original work is not to be underestimated, everyone loves an "underdog" surprise win story. (Not saying Belle is of a lesser work artistically, but Eva has been around for 20+ years with a massive worldwide cultural impact, a case of cultural behemoth vs new original work)

For audience reception, here's some comparison (on a 1-5 scale)

Shin Eva: 4.1 on Eiga - 4.3 on Filmarks - 4.2 on Yahoo! Movies
Belle: 3.2 on Eiga - 3.7 on Filmarks - 3.8 on Yahoo! Movies