Anyone else falling out of love with Eva?

[Gus Hanson]

I've been having a problem with liking Evangelion lately. I haven't really seen the series in a long time since I have been so caught up in the issue of the Rebuild movie delay so maybe I have been ignoring the Eva roots while that gets cleared up. Also, it seems like every website or chat buddy I try to introduce to the anime that gave so much to me either isn't very interested or hasn't heard of it at all makes me feel like I am too old to keep caring about one show in particular when there are so many others waiting for me to invest in. I just don't know what to do about it and I fear that by the time the latest Rebuild movie does come in, I will have given up on the whole issue to care seeing how things resolve themselves.

[Rosenakahara]

This situation is also known as: being a twelve kingdoms fan before i convinced ironevangelion to watch it, seriously literally nobody talked about it or was interested until then.

anyway on topic, pfft hell no!
Evangelion is one of the few series where i actually care to invest some time in learning about fan theories, discussing new info on it and actively following news for it, only other anime i did this for was the above mentioned twelve kingdoms.
There is no such thing as too old when it comes to certain things, evangelion is one of them though you may be a little burnt out, my advice would be to take a break from the site a while.

[Mr. Tines]

Familiarity breeds contempt, they say; and memory turns most things neutral -- I know the fact that watching the series and EoE drove me obsessive for weeks after, but can't remember more than an echo of the feeling, even though it remains inextricably intertwined with my memories of Spring '04. Whether for good or for ill, the Rebuilds have made me step back a bit for half the intervening time, nor have I rewatched it to death; the fondness still endures.

[Sailor Star Dust]

I still love the series for what it is, and it's personally important to me, but I'm not as obsessed with it compared to my younger fandom days. Though, real life has me plenty busy so anime/manga interests aren't top priority. I just find the time to watch or read something every so often.

I did an NGE rewatch a few years ago, and the anticipation of FINAL has me plenty excited that I don't think I'll do another NGE rewatch until it's released stateside on Bluray.

Edit: Clarified about NGE vs NTE.

[Dima]

Well, it's on of my favorite franchises but i can't say that i am in love with it. Maybe it's because of the lack of updates, new release every 3+ years, no real news until it's time for the movies to come out, years and years of silence etc.

It's really hard to be an EVA fan.

[Gus Hanson]

^ The lack of updates on the English dub release of 3.33 as well as the official release date of FINAL also has me thinking whether it's worth it to keep pining for something that's not arriving anytime soon.

I also look at it as a dilemma in whether it's NGE or NTE that better satisfies me as a fan. For me personally, the changes that 2.22 brought were okay for the most part but 3.33 still takes some getting used to. It also doesn't help that I don't particularly like Mari due to the ambiguity she carries that should've gotten cleared up at least a bit for me to care about her more.

[Kamon-san]

When I read your post I simply feel like you are not in the ''Evangelion mood'' right now. I must not be the only who gets these periods of time when I'm the mood for specific things for a while. I mean, I can always say for certain that I am an Eva fan, but I won't spend the entire year concentrating only on this fandom.

I feel it's pretty normal to fall out of it for a while. It happens to me all the time; I have my Eva stuff on the shelf and a few posters on my walls but sometimes I won't even look at them for a while. Then, unexpectedly something triggers my passion for Eva again. Sometimes it's the coming of Summer, sometimes it's hearing a specific song, sometimes it's having an unexpected dream about Evangelion... it just sorta happens.

[jcmoorehead]

I still adore it but like anything you become a big fan of it goes in waves. Over the last few weeks I've began feeling that urge to rewatch the series and EoE and I've been browsing here a lot more so I'm starting to slowly get back into the fandom. It happens to me with what I like in music, my favourite artists are Meat Loaf and Dream Theater but sometimes I'll go weeks/months without listening to them but I'll always love them and have those moments where I get heavily back into them.

The lack of solid info on 3.33 DVD/Blu Ray doesn't help along with the wait between movies, you get hyped up and the hype gets replaced by disappointment and you feel slightly out of it.

[Rei IV]

Nah, given I've only been in the fandom for two years, just shortly after the theatrical release for Q (just in time!). Although the lack of news for Final does have me a bit agitated.

[LukeMM95]

I'm a new fan to the series but I already consider Evangelion to be one of the best animes I've ever seen. I'm currently on my fourth viewing and it seems like I appreciate the show a little more each time. It's one of those shows that's so fun to rewatch and analysis. All the little details that you may not notice on your first viewing but mean so much when you spot them. I'm far, far away from falling OUT of love with the show. I'm even looking forward to the final Rebuild film, even though I don't really care for the second and third films.

I just wish I knew other people who watched the show

[pwhodges]

I'm lucky - there are two people on the same floor of my office who have watched Eva!

I'm also in the middle of my fourth watch through the series - that makes roughly once a year.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Lack of news of either Eva Shin or Funi’s Q release makes Eva fandom less engaging than it should be at this point. I mean, I understand that we literally were used to having nothing but various manga and video game updates since the final stroke that was EoE in 1997, but promises hold weight and waiting is what it is.

[robersora]

I still like and appreciate the show very much, though right now, I'm not in an obsessive Eva-mood. My fire might rekindle as soon Shin gets a release date, though.

[Ray]

Eva is like the Stockholm Syndrome of anime. It does nothing but torture us, but we love it regardless.

It's my favorite, but I'm not as obsessed with it as I was when I first got into it.

[Guy Nacks]

The trick is to not watch the show often or you'll engage burnout and lose interest. I saw the series for the first time in late 2009, watched it over again a couple months after that, then again half a year later. The next and last time I watched the series was with a friend in the spring of 2011, and probably won't again until either one of two things happen:


1) I get a girlfriend who has an interest in watching the series.

2) The series/EOE get a North American Blu Ray release.


So, I've watched through the series a total of four times. That's enough for now, unless either of those two things happen.

[Monk Ed]

I don't think I've ever sat and watched the whole series through; the closest I came was that one time NGE aired on Toonami. The only re-watching I do is of individual episodes or even individual scenes for fanfic or Discussion research purposes. My fire still burns bright and has for a long time, and any little thing in Discussion can still set me off on a research kick.

As for the lack of news, I've never been particularly strained by it because even though I joined this forum after Rebuild was already a thing (but not as much of one), I stuck almost exclusively to Discussion and was really only interested in NGE discussion up until Q (which reminds me of just how recently I actually started paying attention to Rebuild discussion!). To me after Rebuild things will just be the same business as usual that they were before the spring of 2013; my fandom never relied on a trickle of "new" to begin with, in fact the fact that NGE was actually pretty old was always a plus to me because it meant more time for other people to study it and unlock its secrets ahead of me.

Eva is like the Stockholm Syndrome of anime. It does nothing but torture us, but we love it regardless.

That might be how it is for you, but don't pretend to speak for the rest of us. Not everyone views the series as bleakly as you do.

[Ray]

I can totally respect dat.

[Dataprime]

This almost feels like my love affair with Star Wars.
I fell in and out of love with it thru out the years.
Currently I am in love with it again


You'll come back.. You always will

[Ispellnogood]

I have fallen out of Love with evangelion. I remember when I realised it too, sometime after Q, someone inquired "do you like evangelion?", I hesitated and went "ooohh, ahhh............. I....I do". It embaressed me to call myself a fan.

Personally I'm just weary of Anno's bullshit, I can't even see it as a story anymore, but more of a thinly veiled 'otaku public service message' with a bit of story plot stuck on.

I think fans being jerked around and being left unsatisfied, was the keystone to evas sucess. And I just don't it's excusable anymore or fair to the other animes, where you get some kind of closure and thus are able to let go it.

Rebuild too far-fetched and one sided for me to take seriously, so I have no anticipation for the final to come out, It would be all the same to me if it never came out.

I haven't watched the show or Eoe in years, but I still enjoy Fanfiction and will continue to do so. But sometime between Q and now i've washed my hands of eva.

[LukeMM95]

Personally I'm just weary of Anno's bullshit, I can't even see it as a story anymore, but more of a thinly veiled 'otaku public service message' with a bit of story plot stuck on.

I don't want this to turn into another Anti-otaku discussion but while I do recognise those undertones in the End of Evangelion, I see it as more of a bi-product, than a full-on "public service message" as you put it. The movie is about a psychologically damaged child who in spite of all his suffering, ultimately chooses to live. It's basically just a retelling of the TV ending but more meta.