Newtype - popularity polls

Discussion of the new series of Evangelion movies ( "Evangelion Shin Gekijōban", meaning "Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition"). The final instalment made its debut in Japan on March 8, 2021.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby BernardoCairo » Thu Jun 24, 2021 1:14 pm

Unfortunately, the image you posted is "broken". I'm actually very interested in seeing it.
EDIT: Thanks for fixing it!

FelipeFritschF wrote:it's even made fun of in After the End, and I think Animate Voice Cassette too

I like After the End. Talk about something that is very aware of its own scope. I think it's really funny how they mischaracterize the characters and make fun of the franchise. Anyway, I remember Gendo commenting on Ayanami's popularity in a comical tone (lol).
I vaguely remember the Animate Voice Cassettes making fun of it too. These are really funny as well. I love how Asuka says that her favorite number is one, but she's technically the second hahaha! It truly feels like Evangelion (its serene, mundane and funny bits, that is)!
The only problems with these materials are those weird jokes that haven't aged well. But that is beside the point.
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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby TyroLuuki » Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:40 am

For those curious, this is the newest Newtype character poll released this month:
Image


Rei Ayanami ranked in 5th place for females
Shinji Ikari ranked in 3rd place for males
Kaworu Nagisa ranked in 10th place for males

No other Eva characters ranked.
Kaworu and Asuka deserved better tbh

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Konja7 » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:08 am

View Original PostTyroLuuki wrote:For those curious, this is the newest Newtype character poll released this month:
Image


Rei Ayanami ranked in 5th place for females
Shinji Ikari ranked in 3rd place for males
Kaworu Nagisa ranked in 10th place for males

No other Eva characters ranked.


I'm surprised Kaworu appears in this Newtype poll. I've noticed Shinji and Rei appear in Newtype magazine more than other Eva characters.

Curiously, Asuka only appears and defeats Rei in Newtype magazine polls with a strong bias towards Eva characters.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby TyroLuuki » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:18 am

View Original PostKonja7 wrote:Curiously, Asuka only appears and defeats Rei in Newtype magazine polls with a strong bias towards Eva characters.

Yeah, Asuka only appeared in Newtype once this entire year...that was the previous month where Kaji, Misato, and Mari also ranked. The rest of the year Shinji and Rei were the only Eva characters that ranked. Honestly I think the numbers were probably skewed that last poll to hype up the movie in its final run...Kaji genuinely ranking above Char and Gojo just does not seem very likely to me lol.
Kaworu and Asuka deserved better tbh

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Konja7 » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:36 am

View Original PostTyroLuuki wrote:Yeah, Asuka only appeared in Newtype once this entire year...that was the previous month where Kaji, Misato, and Mari also ranked. The rest of the year Shinji and Rei were the only Eva characters that ranked. Honestly I think the numbers were probably skewed that last poll to hype up the movie in its final run...Kaji genuinely ranking above Char and Gojo just does not seem very likely to me lol.


I susspect the appearance of so many Eva characters is because a lot of Eva fans vote in that poll.


In May 2021, this Newtype magazine with interviews to Rebuild of Evangelion staff and VAs was released:

Image


Now, the Newtype magazine poll with many Eva characters was released in June 2021. However, the poll was likely realized in May 2021.

So, the Eva fans who buy Newtype magazine in May 2021 likely influenced the poll in the Newtype magazine released in June 2021.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby ElMariachi » Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:58 pm

View Original PostTyroLuuki wrote:
View Original PostKonja7#927649 wrote:Curiously, Asuka only appears and defeats Rei in Newtype magazine polls with a strong bias towards Eva characters.

Yeah, Asuka only appeared in Newtype once this entire year...that was the previous month where Kaji, Misato, and Mari also ranked. The rest of the year Shinji and Rei were the only Eva characters that ranked. Honestly I think the numbers were probably skewed that last poll to hype up the movie in its final run...Kaji genuinely ranking above Char and Gojo just does not seem very likely to me lol.

Could it be that Asuka ranks above Rei among Evangelion fans specifically, while Rei is more popular among anime fan in general?
I seem to recall that Rei's design and character traits had a very big impact on Japanese animation, bringing forth a lot of characters inspired by her, to the point that there's a trope about it: the Rei Ayanami Expy.
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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Konja7 » Sun Aug 08, 2021 1:33 pm

View Original PostElMariachi wrote:Could it be that Asuka ranks above Rei among Evangelion fans specifically, while Rei is more popular among anime fan in general?


I don't think Rei is so popular among anime fans in general. The trope Rei started is still popular, but the character doesn't seem so big among general audience anymore.


In itself, Newtype poll is extremely limited, since the poll is from people who buy the magazine. So, the results are affected by the audience of the magazine (for example: the mecha genre is pretty popular in this magazine).

Shinji and Rei are likely popular among the audience of Newtype magazine. In fact, Shinji seems more popular in the Newtype magazine than Rei.


PS: That's one of the reasons why I'm surprised Kaworu appear in this poll, since I'm pretty sure the main audience of Newtype are men.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby TyroLuuki » Sun Aug 08, 2021 2:54 pm

View Original PostKonja7 wrote:since I'm pretty sure the main audience of Newtype are men.

Nah, I think it's pretty equally read by men and women Anime fans. Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen ranks so consistently high in these polls because he's very popular with girls. That's why I'm very suspicious of Kaji ranking above him and other popular Anime characters last time. Sure, Kaji is decently liked among Eva fans, but definitely not enough to rank that high or else we would've seen more merch made of him ages ago.
Last edited by TyroLuuki on Sun Aug 08, 2021 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kaworu and Asuka deserved better tbh

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Konja7 » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:16 pm

View Original PostTyroLuuki wrote:Nah, I think it's pretty equally read by men and women Anime fans.


The Newtype magazine has a female audience at some level, but it has mostly a male audience.

There are pretty popular male characters between female audience (for example: Eugeo from SoA) that appeared very little in these polls.

I've already seen a Japanese article about Newtype that says male/female ratio is 72.6%/27.4% on average.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 8454773952



Regarding Kaji, I think Kaji ranks so high in that poll, because many Evangelion fans voted in that poll. That said, I don't think Kaji would be so profitable in the merchandise aspect.
Last edited by Konja7 on Sun Aug 08, 2021 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby TyroLuuki » Sun Aug 08, 2021 5:38 pm

My mistake then, the majority of readers do seem to be male. Going by the NHK poll from last year Shinji had like 60% male and 40% female from those who voted for him while Kaworu had 75% female and 25% male so I guess their ranking placements here do make sense. But that just makes the absence of Mari and Asuka from this poll even stranger considering they were so high up last time, I'm not sure what to think of it.
Kaworu and Asuka deserved better tbh

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby kuribo-04 » Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:39 am

Best girl won.
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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby penguintruth » Sat Sep 25, 2021 10:58 am

Pen Pen should have scored higher.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Kendrix » Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:06 pm

View Original PostTyroLuuki wrote:For those curious, this is the newest Newtype character poll released this month:
Image


Rei Ayanami ranked in 5th place for females
Shinji Ikari ranked in 3rd place for males
Kaworu Nagisa ranked in 10th place for males

No other Eva characters ranked.


Best girl is back in her rightful place
Also it's always heartening to see how Shinji is actually beloved in Japan.

Though there's really 2 ways to interpret it, depending on a second number - how many ppl are involved EVA fans.

You could indeed conclude that Asuka is more popular with hardcore audiences (if that poll had a lot more EVA fans responding than usual), or, on the other hand, if the higher placing of all EVA characters was temporary hype right after the movie, then those would actually be the temporary hype following the anticipation/release, & it's the long term fans that always vote Rei in every poll

Without additional data, that's hard to determine.

In any case, whoever recently got screentime always gets a temporary boost & Rei got to be pretty cute in TuaT.

I've seen a bunch of comments by ppl who never liked her but finally looked at her in a different light there.

There's that wannabe pseudo feminist contingent that was int on dismissing her as "meant to teach dudes a lesson" as long as she existed vaguely in a love interesty role (& mysteriously not applying the same to Asuka or Misato - probably because it's a rightheous-sounding rationalization for either their ship preferences or dislike/misunderstanding of introverts or task oriented personalities), but here she is having basically the same plot she always has (among other things, experiencing & seeing a broader range of human existence after living a very limited, overfocussed life & philosophizing about it, making other characters & the audience maybe reevaluate or break it down to its essentials because the presence of an outsider PoV forces you to actually examine things everyone takes for granted & underlying its simple, basic value - like when she says thank you to Shinji & then realizes she's never said it to anyone before, it makes you think about what gratitude even is, why it would apply in some situations and not others, why you express it... ), but rather than having just this one or at most two friends (if you count og series Touji as a second one from their brief interactions), here's a whole community's worth of ppl that she's interacting with that they couldn't write off from that lens.

It's not actually so different in the Rebuilds, they're only just for the first time seeing Rei with their own eyes as her own character instead of prefabricated opinions off the internet.

Or well, the difference is of course that she got a break in the sense that she actually had the chance to be part of a community, which her upbringing & circumstances had previously made difficult.

She could have gone & talked to her classmates more, but she'd have this preconceived notions that "my purpose is piloting & this doesnt serve it" or that it all wont matter in the end.

But this version of her that didn't remember anything was more able to be shaped. Like getting to have a second childhood, or all the stuff she missed out on from never being a toddler.
This is probably going to be reflected in how she'll act after she returns - she's got, if not the memories, then at least some 'soul impression' of it, judging from the doll in the instrumentality sequence.

She doesn't "only talk to Shinji" cause she's obsessed with him or "being a doormat" or otherwise making a deliberate choice, but because he's the only one that bothered; Before that she made do with Gendo's distant, only half-sincere presence cause that's all she had.
And to be fair to everyone else, Rei wasn't even conciously aware that she wants more contact, or that what she feels even matters, so she's not doing anything to actively seek it out or make herself available/accessible.

In psychology there's this concept of 'mirroring' & how a child learns to identify & deal with their feelings through the way the parents react to it & reflect it back to them. Parental neglect can interfere with this happening properly, trauma can mess with it, & some personality structures are just more suceptible to the inevitable momentary misses that even good parents make. It's pretty clear that regardless of what her base temperament may be, Rei has been very much neglected & traumatized - & the only one who interacted with her on a personal enough level for her to copy them is the famously emotionally constipated Commander Ikari, who did not do a good job of it.
OG Rei is not really too far from what you'd get from certain personality types and/or neglect or trauma; The version from Q is more like a full-on feral child except that, through Sci Fi means, she can talk and understand instructions, cause Gendo needed her to be able to follow orders - to explore, throuh this device, what such a person may say if they could talk or experience the emotional component of that basic toddler-level learning while already having speech & advanced reason (and also confuse the hell out of poor Shinji cause the plot required it)
So perhaps in some ways she's more like someone who fled a cult, or north korea, than a baby. A traumatized or cult-raised teen would have to catch up to the experiences they didn't get, & remold the bad or missing patterns through new experiences, though they'd probably not be as receptive to it

However, you see Hikari and the village ladies very much doing 'mirroring' throughout the sequence, responding to her & explaining/modelling things, until Rei starts being able to point it out herself ("Ah, this is being embarassed")
See also when she's seeing the old ladies talking with relief about how that pregnant villager had a safe delivery, & then Rei spots that cat she's been visiting with healthy kittens, and probably makes the connection that she's happy & relieved just like the old ladies, & that's the first time she smiles in the village.
Hence why she says in the end not only "I like it here", but "I'm glad that I know that I like it" (which is a callback to that first exchange in Q, but not JUST that)

Eh... I think I veered of topic.
Bottom line is: The more people appreciate teh Rei the better.
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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Konja7 » Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:48 pm

View Original PostKendrix wrote:Though there's really 2 ways to interpret it, depending on a second number - how many ppl are involved EVA fans.

You could indeed conclude that Asuka is more popular with hardcore audiences (if that poll had a lot more EVA fans responding than usual), or, on the other hand, if the higher placing of all EVA characters was temporary hype right after the movie, then those would actually be the temporary hype following the anticipation/release, & it's the long term fans that always vote Rei in every poll

Without additional data, that's hard to determine.


As I mentioned, these polls are from people who buy the Newtype magazine. This ranking wouldn't necessarily represent what general Japanese people like.

In Newtype magazine, Rei seems to be more popular than Asuka with the regular buyers of the magazine. That said, Rei's appearances in these polls are benefited by the 3.0+1.0 too (she or Shinji didn't appear in these polls in the months before this movie).

It seems Asuka win a magazine poll, because more Eva fans buy the magazine (so, they affect the polls). The Magazine issue where Asuka has the first place was one month after the issue with Eva Girls in the cover

The Eva Girls cover (with interviews) attracted more Eva fans to buy Newtype magazine, so many Eva characters (including Misato and Kaji) appear in high positions for the next month.


PS: I'm more surprised that Kaworu could get the 10th place between male characters in a regular poll. Newtype magazine has mostly a male audience.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby bogusman » Sat Sep 25, 2021 11:08 pm

I wonder why Mari hardly had high position on the poll, even though she had a very important roll in the last movie.
Yea...

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Kendrix » Sun Sep 26, 2021 6:14 am

Wasn't she actually surprisingly high in the last one?

But in the end she's more of a side character, I wouldn't expect her to make it in if Kaji, Ritsuko & the bridge bunnies don't. that doesnt mean ppl hate her.
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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby FelipeFritschF » Sun Sep 26, 2021 3:20 pm

Mari never reached very high popularity. Recall she was at #6 on the NHK poll, behind Misato and just ahead of Kaji - I wonder how big the vote difference was. In that Eva Store poll ranking the characters by their movie appearences, she came out in 9th place:

Asuka (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance): 2,187 votes
Kaworu (Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo): 1,871 votes
Rei (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance): 252 votes
Asuka (Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo)
Shinji (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance)
Rei (Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone)
Kaworu (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance)
Shinji (Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone)
Mari ( Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance)
Mari (Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo)
Shinji (Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo)
Rei (Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo)
Kaworu (Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone)


Also worth mentioning she barely appeared in spin-offs and games. Her first appearence was in 2008, in the Nintendo DS Petit Eva game. Anno-tachi actually expanded her role in 2.0 because fan pressure was too high. But after 2.0 she peaked and never really recovered, as far as I can tell: she has a very minor appearence in ANIMA (2008-2013) and Sadamoto's manga, both in heavily altered forms, and both ended in 2013, right after 3.0, and with her 2.0 appearence already established. She's completely absent, however (or am I missing something?), from other conteporary spin-offs: she's nowhere to be seen in SIRP (2005-2016), Campus Apocalyse (2007-2009), Detective Story (2010), Miraculous win (2006-2015), Piko Piko (2014-2018) and more. Same for the games, except for Super Robot wars, IIRC.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby kuribo-04 » Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:03 am

I'd say even a minor character among Eva characters is a really popular character among anime characters as a whole.
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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby Archer » Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:41 am

@felipe SIRP already had Mana, whose character has about an 80% overlap with how Mari likely would’ve been portrayed. If it had started a few years later (at least after 1.0) I wouldn’t be surprised if Mari had been used instead of her, but as-is I doubt it made much sense to write in a new character whose dynamic was already mostly incorporated by an existing character.

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Re: Newtype - popularity polls

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Postby FelipeFritschF » Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:46 pm

I get what you're saying, but... SIRP never needed to make sense, it was pretty cheap commercialism. Mana herself replaced Kaworu in almost exactly the same role. And the other spin-offs are also telling.


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