How did you first get into Evangelion?

[peltzie]

Well, I recall stumbling onto a hentai game on Newgrounds circa 2004 featuring Rei and Asuka, though I don't think that really counts hahaha
Anyway, last January I remember seeing an article on io9 about 3.0 and figured it was about time to watch some "real" anime since my only prior experience had been Sgt. Frog. Ended up watching the series in 5 nights during exam wee, then EoE and 1.11 and 2.22 that weekend.
Strangely enough, my only other friend with any awareness of Evangelion is a cheerleader and class president, not your typical Eva fan.

[evangelist]

I first watched Eva as a 5 - 6 year old on SBS Australia although It wasn't until last year that I rewatched it and really made an effort to understand it. Back then It was just like Dragonball or Pokemon to me just robots fighting, 12 years later I was pretty amazed to see how in-depth and intricately woven the story and character development is, as well as the symbolism and didn't really realise how strange yet interesting the show is.

I'm sort of glad I didn't understand it back then, probably wouldn't have done me too good!

[Rj123541]

I first watched Eva as a 5 - 6 year old on SBS Australia although It wasn't until last year that I rewatched it and really made an effort to understand it. Back then It was just like Dragonball or Pokemon to me just robots fighting, 12 years later I was pretty amazed to see how in-depth and intricately woven the story and character development is, as well as the symbolism and didn't really realise how strange yet interesting the show is.

I'm sort of glad I didn't understand it back then, probably wouldn't have done me too good!

I understood eva at 4 years old, And I watched EOE at 6. People are still surprised that I understood it at 4. But I lead a very serious childhood. And Pokemon and DBZ will live in my heart as well.

[evangelist]

I understood eva at 4 years old, And I watched EOE at 6. People are still surprised that I understood it at 4. But I lead a very serious childhood. And Pokemon and DBZ will live in my heart as well.

That's pretty impressive considering many people have trouble understanding it as fully grown adults , which is why I actually came to EvaGeeks to help improve my understanding of this great series although I wouldn't consider myself a fully grown adult (not mentally anyway ).

Maybe you're just a mini Gendo / Keel :P

[Tankred]

I understood eva at 4 years old, And I watched EOE at 6. People are still surprised that I understood it at 4. But I lead a very serious childhood. And Pokemon and DBZ will live in my heart as well.

A very serious childhood!

[Gus Hanson]

I first heard of Eva when i was 11-12 years old through the ADV lineup that i was getting into and as soon as i bought the first volume DVD, i was hooked. The combat sequences grabbed my attention and the human drama was interesting. Though i never saw Eva on TV, i didn't need to since by then i had the whole TV show and 1997 movies on my DVD collection.

[phantom3757]

Got into it when I was like 14 in '04 or so. Saw some rant about it online and decided to check it out. its been part of(see ruining) my life ever since

[Stan]

My experience with EVA was very funny. Back when I was like 10, me and my friend were at my place just watching random stuff on youtube (when I say random, I mean stuff like-stick figures on crack random- aha). Then we stumbled across an AMV of NGE. The AMV used all the funny scenes form the show so I thought it would be a jokes anime. I started watching it that night cause I was bored hoping for a good laugh....and then after finishing the series I lost my innocence and felt that my mind=blown and corrupted for life. -The End-

*look at me now owning the whole series and discussing the NME on official eva forums* [huh, funny how that works] xD

[Kuma_nii]

Actually, it's kind of funny, around 5 years ago during my last year of junior high I started to really get into anime. I'd watch anything and everything, you know marathon random anime that I'd find, mostly ecchi I'm afraid. Anyway, I had just watched Eureka Seven and found out my love for mecha anime, so I'd search every anime in that genre. The first thing I clicked happened to be NGE, but after watching a few minutes I stopped watching claiming it was "too old and boring". Oh how naive I was...That was the end of that and I never looked back untill 2 years ago. I had been looking at stuff on DA and I frequently saw pics of Rei, Asuka and Misato. Finding them attractive *mostly Asuka* I decided to watch the source material which, at the time, I had no idea was the anime I marked as "too old and boring" 3 years prior. A little more mature and intelligent, I instantly fell in love with the settings and characters. Now I'm a proud Asuka fanboy and will jump at anything Eva. Hell, this anime is as old as I am, how could I not love it!

[riffraff11235]

Sounds quite a bit like my anime story...except for the ecchi. I was also influenced by a ton of sources saying NGE was overrated. Boy, were they proven wrong in my book! Glad you managed to find your way back to a great anime that you had overlooked! And while we're at it, welcome to EvaGeeks!

[Ayanamiangel151]

I first got into it because of the insane popularity it got and loved it!

[Kuma_nii]

Sounds quite a bit like my anime story...except for the ecchi. I was also influenced by a ton of sources saying NGE was overrated. Boy, were they proven wrong in my book! Glad you managed to find your way back to a great anime that you had overlooked! And while we're at it, welcome to EvaGeeks!

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome! And agreed, you have no idea how happy I am that I was able to find this revolutionary anime in the end!

[Morello]

Some friends came to my house to study for a test about 3 weeks ago. After a while, we start to watch random anime openings on the TV through the PC.

Then, one of those friends decide to open a video on YouTube. It shows Asuka dying to the EVA series.

That scene gave me nerd chills. I downloaded and watched the whole anime less than 2 weeks (I don't like to rush those really good animes). After blowing my mind, I watched Death&Rebirth yesterday and EoE today.

And here I am.

[riffraff11235]

Welcome! I haven't seen anyone find this forum so soon after watching Eva in a long time! It sucks that you had Asuka's "death" spoiled for you though. I know that was one of the most emotional moments of the series for me when I watched it the first time. Have you seen Rebuild yet?

[Morello]

Welcome! I haven't seen anyone find this forum so soon after watching Eva in a long time! It sucks that you had Asuka's "death" spoiled for you though. I know that was one of the most emotional moments of the series for me when I watched it the first time. Have you seen Rebuild yet?

Yeah, man. After watching Asuka appearing for the first time, I hated him so much haha. It was a huge spoiler, and the worse part is that I couldn't forget it, and that scene kept repeating in my mind while watching the episodes.

About Rebuild: just bought the BluRay of the first one. People around here say it's awesome and even better than the original scenes. A few ones are telling me to check the other media around EVA too. There's a manga, right?

[Mr. Tines]

There's a manga, right?

Which is still not finished; and any number of spin-off titles. See the "Everything Else" forum for more details.

[riffraff11235]

About Rebuild: just bought the BluRay of the first one. People around here say it's awesome and even better than the original scenes. A few ones are telling me to check the other media around EVA too. There's a manga, right?

Rebuild is great IMO. They really did wonders with the animation. You shouldn't really try to compare it to the series; let it stand on its own.

I haven't read the manga myself, so I can't really offer any judgment on it.

[Leuconoe]

I got into Evangelion when I was in 6th grade. Anime Network had it On Demand, I just finished Pani Poni Dash!, and I was looking for a new anime to watch. I believe I had seen snippets of it before then when I was young, so it was always subtly in my life. Episode 25, the first full episode of Eva I've seen, is what got me really interested. Granted, I had no idea what was going on, but I found Rei's psychoanalysis really interesting! I watched it backwards until episode 22 for more meta, and then I decided I might as well watch the whole series from beginning to end. I've been in love ever since.

[Redtophat]

In 10th grade I kept reading posts of people praising it on random forums and figured why not check it out. Then I marathoned the series with end of evangelion after it. It was cool but no one else watched it so I couldn't really talk to anyone about it. Saw the first two rebuild movies (Rebuild 2's camrip was a magical experience for me). By 11th grade I kinda lost interest in anime completely but in the beginning of this previous spring I saw a show called Steins;Gate and loved it, reminded me of my old love for NGE so I told my pal about both shows and he watched S;G first. Then I had him watch my copy of Rebuild 1, he LOVED it and Rei (He has a huge crush on her).Anyways after watching rebuild 1 we watched rebuild 2 and then I brought over my dvds of the NGE series and we marathoned through it in a day. And the third, final day we watched the End of Evangelion and he became a huge fan, he rewatched the series the next day by himself. Also I got another pal of mine to watch the series but he refuses to watch EoE due to laziness and i'm gonna show him the first two rebuild films. 3.0 is bringing the magic back in force folks!

[Rei IV]

I was actually introduced to Evangelion just about two weeks ago, believe it or not. I saw the Rebuild movies first and then I went on to the actual series and films. Well, to be honest, it was actually a certain scene in End of Evangelion that finally piqued my interest. Specifically, the depiction of the Third Impact, Rei becoming a God, and the catchy yet twisted song that was plays while the aforementioned events take place. That was a pure winner for me and I can honestly say that I'm now a proud (rookie) Evangelion fan, which is very interesting, considering I'm not that into anime.

One interesting thing was back in 1998 ADV (which no longer exists) had a promo for the series in a copy of Toho's Destroy All Monsters (VHS cassette, that is), a movie which happens to be part of the Godzilla series, that had classical music playing before the actual feature film started. There was also a brief time where they showed it on Toonami. You could say this where I at least acknowledged the existence of Evangelion but never got around to it.