The New Kids Are Weird

[SawItAtAge10]

What I find so striking in a hilarious "and history repeats itself" sort of way are how all the newbies have come out of the woodwork asking the same questions from like 15 - 20 years ago about the basics upon watching the show + EoE...Putting the dub debates aside, we never had it so easy and they need to get off my lawn Lamo

No, really it's just funny because it feels like a surreal cycle in a way.It's kind of amusing to be able share the wealth of knowledge I've acquired from my fellow Evageeks and give my thoughts to the newbies just learning about NGE.

What I do find kind of alarming is how many of them have cropped up discussing depression and how the show has either helped them or it has triggered/slightly worsened it.

So that begs the question are the lower tier gen y and z kids more prone to depression?

[AdamMalkovitch]

"Evangelion is a story that repeats" ~Hideaki Anno

I don't think this new cycle will stick around very long, it's likely that most people who have wanted to see the show and EoE have now seen it. I've only been a fan since around 2016, and I managed to catch up to the rest of y'all by about 2018. Those who want more lore have this forum and it's parent site to pour over for hours on end like I did back when I was a different person than I am now.

On your question of depression, I was born in 99 (October 4th too, what a fuckin crazy coincidence), and I was actually suffering from clinical depression BEFORE I became an Eva nerd. I became more depressed in my last two years of high school, from 2016-2018, but it was actually through Eva that I remained sane. The positive messages in the endings for Neon Genesis, the Neon Genesis manga, and EoE, all helped me retain my sanity and stumble through the rest of grade school. So, although kids around my age may seem to be more likely to be clinically depressed or to feel depressed at times, in my experience this "depressing" story has actually made a massively positive Impact on my life.

[HARVEST]

"Evangelion is a story that repeats" ~Hideaki Anno

I don't think this new cycle will stick around very long, it's likely that most people who have wanted to see the show and EoE have now seen it. I've only been a fan since around 2016, and I managed to catch up to the rest of y'all by about 2018. Those who want more lore have this forum and it's parent site to pour over for hours on end like I did back when I was a different person than I am now.

On your question of depression, I was born in 99 (October 4th too, what a fuckin crazy coincidence), and I was actually suffering from clinical depression BEFORE I became an Eva nerd. I became more depressed in my last two years of high school, from 2016-2018, but it was actually through Eva that I remained sane. The positive messages in the endings for Neon Genesis, the Neon Genesis manga, and EoE, all helped me retain my sanity and stumble through the rest of grade school. So, although kids around my age may seem to be more likely to be clinically depressed or to feel depressed at times, in my experience this "depressing" story has actually made a massively positive Impact on my life.

Same here. I was born in September 11, 2000 (just two days before Second Impact/Kaworu's birthday and a whole year before 9/11) and I was suffering from clinical depression since I was 13 thanks to school bullying because of my autism and sexual harassment.
It went on an even worse spiral since some of the members of my extended family outright despise me and keep berating me, but not actually abuse me.
And worst of all, I am often abused by my manchild older brother.
I was actually considering suicide at 13 and I had to endure the pain for a few more months before I finished elementary school.
It got even worse during the first year of high school, when the bullying escalated with actual physical violence towards me and even rape.

At this point, I had to take a break from school and I had to go to therapy.
It was a step on the right direction and it helped me a lot.
Now, this was also the time I discovered Neon Genesis Evangelion, I borrowed my uncle's old Perfect Collection bootleg DVDs and copied them (I knew this stuff even as a kid) and I watched them on my old tube TV.
I have been hearing a lot of good stuff about this series and how it apparently helped people so I wanted to watch it.
I was around 14 when I discovered it and the year was 2015 A.D..
The characters, they were very well-developed and I related to a lot of them, especially Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Misato.
The story and action were interesting but the philosophical and psychological stuff was what drew me in.
The "Congratulations" scene actually also felt like a congratulation to me, especially with the "and to all of the Children, congratulations!" text.
I also tracked down Death (True)² and The End of Evangelion since I wanted to see the alternate ending (my uncle doesn't have it on DVD so I hunted it down through different means) and Yui's speech on EoE got me.
Neon Genesis Evangelion changed my life for the better. It helped me a lot as well and it inspired me to live life.
My conversations with my therapist and Evangelion also inspired me to take up Psychology as my college course.
My new high school classmates treated me well and I am now looking for a college (I was delayed for one year because of the bullying and because we moved to the big city and we couldn't find a school).
My depression sometimes returns from time to time (with my brother and all but our relationships are improving) but I am mostly happy now and I'm better than I ever was before, even before I was bullied.
Like with Misato, scars still remain in me but I am now stronger.

I rarely watch TV series (even popular ones like Game of Thrones) that aren't sitcoms because of the investment required to watch them (while sitcoms are mostly episodic and are much easier to watch) and because they're very long but I watched Evangelion and it was really worth my time and investment.
It's a series I'm willing to re-watch again and again.

Evangelion actually had a very positive impact on me, despite being notorious as being one of the most depressing stories of all time.

[kuribo-04]

Neon Genesis Evangelion changed my life for the better. It helped me a lot as well and it inspired me to live life.

That's beautiful.
I feel the same way about it.

[robersora]

Oh wow, this kind of meme-y opening post cascaded into something so much more powerful!
It's amazing that still today Evangelion is able to help people... It's a testament to its greatness... And I dare to say, if something manages to stay so acutely relevant, it deserves to be seen not just as an amazingly crafted series, but belongs up there on the upper echelons of the art world. Like Beethoven's 9th, or that famous Pollock, or Dali, ok Kafka.

Needless to say, HARVEST, AdamMalkovitch, congratulations! And thanks for sharing.

[kuribo-04]

∆ I'm convinced Evangelion will stay relevant and might be more seriously studied in the future.

[ErgoProxy]

Oh damn, since you've stepped in such topic already...

Well, I am not a kid anymore. But I am diagnosed schizophrenic, of paranoidal flavor, and some ten years ago I was going through some serious shit with psychotic states of mind and whatnot. Curious about the whole situation I decided to document it and study my notes later, when I'll be sound again. But I chose rather unorthodox method: instead of writing a diary of my life (which was and is rather boring anyways), I borrowed characters (mostly) from the Evaverse and started to document their dialogues. The clue of this approach was that I flushed Freud and adapted Jung, so I could assume that Shinji and co. are just archetypes of my mind, and thus they can speak through my writings about what is going on deep down in my troubled brain.

Now the most idiotic thing about the whole business (remember that I'm a paranoid) is that this material contains a number of concepts more or less present in Q. For instance, I stated somewhere in my writings that Gendo is an archetype of psychologist. Is he? I don't know that. But remember that EoTV-like stage, where Shinji meets his father in Q? Exactly. There are more of such fishy details in Q. And I could not be possibly inspired by this work of Anno, since I was writing my stuff a year or two before Q was released at all.

I still have these messy files buried on my machine, combined with several sets of pictures and music pieces, so I think I will eventually edit them and disclose, even though they are somewhat personal and even embarassing in parts due to topics that Shinji and co. discussed there. But the problem is, the material is written mostly in casual Polish that I am unable to properly translate myself. So Sailor Star Dust, I am looking at you, if you have some time to spare and a wish to meet with the great language of your ancestors.

[Tumbling Down]

Evangelion hasn't helped me hate myself less or get along better with others, but it has made me feel much less alone. That is of no small significance. I'd go so far as to say that I now understand the desire to feel represented in media, because I feel represented by this show.

[SawItAtAge10]

To everyone commenting. I didn't mean for my initial post to be insulting or anything like that. I was honestly just having fun with the whole thing seeing as the show's been around for a long time and we're getting this new wave of fans in, so the title was more or less me just being tongue in cheek about the whole thing.

On the one hand, I do find it amusing that some of the same questions we used ask are being pondered for the first time by the new fans.

On the other hand, I did want to start up a conversation about mental health and nature NGE. It actually warms my heart to see so many having been helped by the series or feel less alone because of how the subject matter is approached or through the nature of the characters themselves.

Of my own personal experiences, I can't say that the show helped me. But, I could identify with Shinji quite a bit when I when I did a re-wtach of the show as a teen. namely, I have problems with finding it difficult to talk to people and having a habit of closing off. This is actually something I still struggle with as an adult wherein I get some social anxiety or straight up nervousness. Its funny though, because as I've gotten older the perspectives of characters like Misato and Kaji make a lot more sense to me now and just sort "click."

There's a scene in 2.22 in particular where she and him are sitting around at dinner where she laments the loss of innocence that comes with growing older and how they are both aware of "so many more burdens." That scene always struck. chord with me.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that my silly response to the new NGE fans has actually helped to create space for discussing those deeper issues regarding emotional and psychological well being.

[ErgoProxy]

I'm glad that you're glad and I don't find your post insulting. That's because - as far as I understand the world around - the machines are becoming more and more smart, so the ordinary people have to move and find other jobs to get money. Eg. they can work as psychologists or salesmen for the pharmaceutic industry. And they have to prove somehow they are professionals who work hard. So the overall outcome of this process is that people get diagnosed with shit that nobody would recognize as an illness some quarter or half of a century ago. Of course some would eventually snap like me, but most of them would get up on their own and with no stigma or trauma.

To conclude, I don't think there's any epidemic of depression among the youth. It's the epidemic of diagnosis among the "medicine-men" (and women).

[xtr00kvltcorex]

I had seen NGE a good decade before I took the deep dive that brought me here, but it was in that deep dive, amid being alone, in the closet and a burgeoning bipolar disorder, that Eva offered some solace. It's far from fixed me, at most offered some aid and introspection, both things I'm grateful for. Mostly, it offered solace, in its own weird ways, and I think that was Anno's intent; completing Eva while learning how to compliment ourselves (pardon the sap).