"Evangelion is a Mindfuck."

[thegendopose]

The TV series was straightforward for the most part but some bits of EOE I had to think about before I fully "got" them.
Now serial Experiments Lain on the other hand....that truly was a mindfuck!

[fizz450_03]

it was mindf*ck when i was 11 years old.

watched EoE and that didn't help matters.


i'm now 26 and i still relish the awesomeness that took me years to understand - and not even fully at that

[SenorSquiid]

FLCL is literally about a young man coming to terms with his erections. It's pretty simple once you get that part figured out.

[GAP]

FLCL is literally about a young man coming to terms with his erections. It's pretty simple once you get that part figured out.

I figured it out too, I just wished that they didn't have to be that wacky. After rewatching the series, the amount of sexual innuendo that exist in FLCL tends to border on the line of disturbing.

[KnightmareX13]

I figured it out too, I just wished that they didn't have to be that wacky. After rewatching the series, the amount of sexual innuendo that exist in FLCL tends to border on the line of disturbing.

but that is what made it enjoyable.

[Fireand'chutes77]

...the amount of sexual innuendo... tends to border on the line of disturbing.

Welcome to puberty, age 14 or so.

[Henry Spencer]

FLCL is literally about a young man coming to terms with his erections. It's pretty simple once you get that part figured out.

So it's Evangelion with hormones instead of emotional security?

...Sounds like Gainax to me.

[Reichu]

So it's Evangelion with hormones instead of emotional security?

"Insecurity", surely. (And I didn't think NGE was lacking in the sex hormones department, especially.)

On topic: Evangelion has most certainly fucked with my mind, and so I qualify it as a "mindfuck". Simple enough, right?

[Der Kommissar]

Honestly, it depends on your definition of "mindfuck." Will Evangelion make you shit your brains out your ears like you'd just seen a shoggoth? Probably not. Can it be upsetting? Definitely.

A primary example would be the full version of Asuka being mentally assaulted by the Angel Arael. A singularly discomforting and harrowing scene. It's probably one of the most awful moments in the entire series, though End of Evangelion cheerfully competes.

[Sahara]

Perhaps there are different working definitions of 'mindfuck' at play here? I was thinking of something overwhelming, disorienting and generally leaving you with a feeling of "WTF did I just watch?"(... like NGE at it's weirdest such as inside Lilliel and EoTV) rather than something that is deeply puzzling in a lingering fashion.

That's exactly what I was thinking as I was reading through. I always thought that when people said Eva was a mindfuck, they meant it was unsettling and overwhelming to watch.

Although in terms of the "confusing" definition, I was a bit perplexed by the specifics of NERV's secrets and the origin/identity of the EVAs and Angels when I first watched the series. But then again, I was thirteen.

[Bender]

I was talking to buds and being a guy who likes the original of a franchise I'm much more preferential to it then the new one in Rebuild. Avoid potshots at it in this thread. So what'd you guys think of it?

[bobbyfischer's ghost]

The show to me was not much of a mind fuck, but more of a character study. The only exception being end of eva which was purposely a mind fuck.
The reputation that the show gets sprouts from a misunderstanding of the final episodes.

[Dream]

NGE always felt as having pretty much complete sense to me, even in the supposedly more mind-fucky parts (The Final episodes and endings, Ep 16, etc.)

In fact i always felt it made more sense than other more straightforward series, if that makes any sense.

[shiun]

Perhaps calling Eva an utterly mindfucking series is an overstatement. There are some things there that you really shouldn't deeply analyze because 1) you're just willingly jumping into a black hole and 2) even Anno said some things there are just plain bullshit (i.e. doesn't have a deeper meaning at all). However, I maintain that it still is a 'mindfuck' by definition.

A mindfuck, I think, is something that makes you think, period. It may shake your previous beliefs, it may teach you something new, or it may make you speculate on a particular topic. Eva definitely made me think and speculate, but there are things in there that didn't need much speculation, such as the Christianity references.

I guess it all boils down to if something makes you go "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?" then you can call it a mindfuck. It doesn't mean that you can't completely untangle or comprehend all its ~mysteries.

TL;DR I think it is.

[Sahara]

A mindfuck, I think, is something that makes you think, period. It may shake your previous beliefs, it may teach you something new, or it may make you speculate on a particular topic.

Absolutely could not have said it better myself. What people often don't realize is how easy most entertainment is to digest. It may be well done, and even profound. But it is not often that you stumble across something that makes you think on such large and yet simultaneously personal scale. After I finished the series, I distinctly remember laying down outside and looking at the stars (as cliche as that is) and just being blown away by the duality of the universe--how little we matter, but at the same time, how parallel the big picture is to our internal struggle for understanding. Evangelion literally changed my life. I guess that’s what people mean when they call it a “mindfuck”. Not every show leaves you thinking differently once you finish it.

[shiun]

I distinctly remember laying down outside and looking at the stars (as cliche as that is)

I hear ya. For me it's more just staring at some random wall and going, 'Oh. Ok.'

I guess some people wouldn't consider Eva a 'mindfuck' since it doesn't befuddle them for a long time, that eventually they 'get' it. Then again, people like complicating stuff, so there.

In any case, it's just easier to say that Eva is one, since it will confuse you at the beginning. /two cents

[Atropos]

I first watched Eva when I was in elementary school and it didn't confuse me at all. I guess I was more willing to rationalize the bizarre imagery in the movies(which I watched before the TV ending) and the final two episodes as metaphorical rather than strictly representational.

[robin007bond]

Perhaps calling Eva an utterly mindfucking series is an overstatement. There are some things there that you really shouldn't deeply analyze because 1) you're just willingly jumping into a black hole and 2) even Anno said some things there are just plain bullshit (i.e. doesn't have a deeper meaning at all). However, I maintain that it still is a 'mindfuck' by definition.

A mindfuck, I think, is something that makes you think, period. It may shake your previous beliefs, it may teach you something new, or it may make you speculate on a particular topic. Eva definitely made me think and speculate, but there are things in there that didn't need much speculation, such as the Christianity references.

I guess it all boils down to if something makes you go "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?" then you can call it a mindfuck. It doesn't mean that you can't completely untangle or comprehend all its ~mysteries.

TL;DR I think it is.

Agree.

[RocK01]

I didn't think it was that confusing the first time I saw it either(though one could say that the last 2 episodes did catch me off guard). I personally find stuff like Tenshi no Tamago to be way more confusing myself.

[Love Not Given Lightly]

If every episode was as psychological as the last, say 5 or 6, then I'd consider it a mindfuck. But the majority of the show isn't that crazy.