Evangelion making you picky

[BeoX2]

Since Evangelion is so deep and smart and etc, etc, I find that very few other things can match it or come close to it. For instance, lately I've been rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender (it was late at night with Netflix on demand) and I was thinking "man this is so cheesy." Then I remembered that this was made for Nick, and was for like 10 year olds. I realized that it was a great show for what it was made for, and I was pissed at myself for being such a pretentious dick. It's affected my views of other shows and animes as well, with the only one not affected being Cowboy Bebop. Like I've been trying Wolf's Rain lately, and although I like it, I expect more from it.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[LeCapEtan]

Yes and no.

It hasn't stopped me from liking things (or really changed my opinion), but I still do "compare" the series to things I watch quite frequently.

The one thing the series (and EoE in particular) has done to me is make me realize how few other shows and movies are as genuine as Evangelion.

You can argue all day about the "depth" of Eva, but the passion and emotion and imagery displayed by the series is virtually unmatched.

Honestly, try to sit down and think of shows and movies that you would put on the same level as Eva. And I mean anything, not just anime. I'm sure some people have a lot (particularly people who don't like Eva), but I think most people would have a bit of trouble coming up with a list.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I think it has, in a sense, but I've also gotten used to enjoying/appreciating things in context. I can certainly enjoy mindless action films (for example), but I simply don't go into them expecting anything remotely similar to an NGE experience. But NGE definitely raised the bar for what I expected from the best narrative visual art, and it's probably why I've gotten more and more interested in classic film and literature, because they equal NGE's depth and artistic richness in equal but different ways.

[BeoX2]

I think it has, in a sense, but I've also gotten used to enjoying/appreciating things in context. I can certainly enjoy mindless action films (for example), but I simply don't go into them expecting anything remotely similar to an NGE experience. But NGE definitely raised the bar for what I expected from the best narrative visual art, and it's probably why I've gotten more and more interested in classic film and literature, because they equal NGE's depth and artistic richness in equal but different ways.

I'd love it if you could tell me some of those things. I love classic movies. I can think of only a few that I could even compare with Eva though. Casablanca, beause of all the cliches it started (and cause I fucking love both of them), and movies like Memento, Inception, Fight Club.... philosophical yet fun movies.

[tomrule123]

After watching Evangelion, I now expect some films and/or shows to give me unpredictable conclusions and excellent suspense. Some succeeded and some didn't. Of all the shows I have seen, this one kept me thinking more than any other show.

SPOILER: Show

(actually, "Inception" somewhat had the same level as Evangelion, which is rare for Christopher Nolan to do.)

[planet news]

Certainly so for anime. I doubt if it CAN be matched. Even the other loldeep ones like Haibane Renmei are just not the same.

Not other mediums though. The jump is too violent.

[LeCapEtan]

Requiem for a Dream is one movie that always comes to mind.

And at the opposite end of the spectrum, Wall-E is one of my favorite movies of all time.

To name a couple.

[BeoX2]

Requiem for a Dream is one movie that always comes to mind.

And at the opposite end of the spectrum, Wall-E is one of my favorite movies of all time.

To name a couple.

I never actually saw Wall-E, but the Toy Stories literally blew me away. I can't even describe how much I love them, and Pixar in general.

[LeCapEtan]

I never actually saw Wall-E, but the Toy Stories literally blew me away. I can't even describe how much I love them, and Pixar in general.

See Wall-E NOW.

Wall-E is a huge love or hate it movie, but the vast majority of people do love it, and if you appreciated the Toy Stories, you should like it too.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I'd love it if you could tell me some of those things.

A comprehensive list might be nearly impossible, but some I would list from different mediums

-2001: A Space Odyssey
-The Seven Samurai & Ikiru
-The Seventh Seal & Persona
-The Passion of Joan of Arc
-Mulholland Drive
-A City of Sadness
-Once Upon a Time in America
-Three Colors Trilogy & Dekalog
-Satantango
-Shakespeare, or a good chunk at least. Definitely Hamlet and King Lear.
-War & Peace
-In Search of Lost Time
-Moby Dick
-The Magic Mountain
-Neil Gaiman's Sandman
-Paradise Lost
-Four Quartets
-The Divine Comedy
-Goethe's Faust
-Jerusalem, The Emanation of the Giant Albion

[Joseph the PRPD]

[redacted]

[BeoX2]

A comprehensive list might be nearly impossible, but some I would list from different mediums

-2001: A Space Odyssey
-The Seven Samurai & Ikiru
-The Seventh Seal & Persona
-The Passion of Joan of Arc
-Mulholland Drive
-A City of Sadness
-Once Upon a Time in America
-Three Colors Trilogy & Dekalog
-Satantango
-Shakespeare, or a good chunk at least. Definitely Hamlet and King Lear.
-War & Peace
-In Search of Lost Time
-Moby Dick
-The Magic Mountain
-Neil Gaiman's Sandman
-Paradise Lost
-Four Quartets
-The Divine Comedy
-Goethe's Faust
-Jerusalem, The Emanation of the Giant Albion

Of course I've seen 2001, and I liked it a lot, but I'm not entirely sure of what to make of it. I'd love it if you would help me with that. I've heard a lot about Paradise Lost, I've seen all of 7 Samurai (loved it, but not quite sure how it compares to Evangelion).

Also, books wise, I REALLY loved To Kill A Mockingbird and Farenheit 451. I HIGHLY recommend them to everyone, although most have already read them both.

[Darkman.exe213]

After watching Evangelion, I now expect some films and/or shows to give me unpredictable conclusions and excellent suspense. Some succeeded and some didn't. Of all the shows I have seen, this one kept me thinking more than any other show.

SPOILER: Show

(actually, "Inception" somewhat had the same level as Evangelion, which is rare for Christopher Nolan to do.)

This. I loved that movie.

SPOILER: Show

Coincidentally, Inception was heavily inspired by Paprika, which is an anime movie. Directed by Satoshi Kon, the master of psychological anime, of all people.

That sort of happened to me a while back, but I've eased up a tiny bit on my standards since then. Though, I still did manage to find a few series that I would put on the same level in terms of storytelling and depth.(namely Rahxephon, Infinite Ryvius, and Planetes)

For novels and whatnot, I would put The Catcher in the Rye and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime on the same level as Evangelion. The former actually started reminding me of Evangelion at some point, whereas the latter was an interesting novel that is similar in more subtle terms and had a protagonist that heavily reminded me of Rei.

The issue I have now is that I've seen a lot of series out there that are pretty much the best of the best in terms of depth, and when people tell me to watch an anime that they think is fantastic, I automatically start expecting that kind of depth from that anime. So while I do enjoy the anime they show me, I find it really hard to get nearly as excited as they are. That's actually why I lost interest in anime for a while.

[WonderBug]

I think it's affected me in a roundabout sort of way. This mostly applies irl, but if someone rejects NGE for some incredibly inane reason (e.g. "Shinji's emo and emos are dumb hurr") and in the same breath recommends I watch Fullmetal Alchemist* or something because it's the greatest anime ever, even if that series is actually halfway decent, it's poisoned for me. Regardless of its merit, in the back of my mind I'll be thinking that douchebag thinks this is better than Eva? Forget this show.

*Not that FMA isn't good or capable of making you think or whatever

In general though, I'm lucky enough to not share your problem. Not every movie is going to be groundbreaking or even though-provoking, but it can still be enjoyable on a different level. This is why my two favorite movies are Once Upon a Time in the West and Robocop.

Like I've been trying Wolf's Rain lately, and although I like it, I expect more from it.

Wolf's Rain was a big ol' disappointment from start to finish.

[BeoX2]

I think that my optimism for entertainment is affecting the way I feel about other shows, movies, books, etc. I feel as though people should watch Eva and think, "Wow. This is incredible. It has a lot of big flaws and things that won't appeal to a lot of people. It's hard to understand and uses a lot of deep concepts and is confusing, but DAMN! Look at the characters! Look at the story! I want to make something like that, but better." So far, I've seen very few things that can do that. Perhaps it's just the way the entertainment business is today, or perhaps it's just that people aren't smart enough to appreciate the good aspects of Evangelion and work to improve upon them. I want people to make something incredible, that works on all levels of entertainment, and so far, I've found nothing that can do it. Not even my precious Bebop.

[The Abhorrent]

NGE has certainly raised my standards in some respects, at least in regards to what I consider an intelligent piece of entertainment. Multi-layered complexity in both plot and characters, all the while giving a very powerful emotional response? Evangelion is hard to top, no question.

That being said, I wouldn't say it gets in the way of it me enjoying other forms of entertainment. Perhaps it just put everything else in a different sort of context. I guess you could say I know what I get out of a show better (though I'm not too sure that's a byproduct of NGE or TV Tropes.... eh, maybe a bit of both).

When I want mindless action or something plain fun, it's easy to identify and enjoy. Quite a bit entertainment expects the viewer to "veg out", and knowing when that's the entire point.... well, you just forget what the hell happened 5 minutes ago and just have fun. And once it's all done, you can just leave it be.

There are some series with a measure of depth, but nothing overly much. They can be great fun too, being both simply entertaining with just enough to flex the mental muscle for a few minutes. But perhaps the greater challenge would be finding something with actual depth, very few things can really compare to NGE and manage to maintain my interest in them.

So to answer the general question.... I suppose yes, Evangelion has made me a tad picky. The series raised numerous standards, many of which remain to be matched (as far as I know). As a comprehensive work, even moreso.

[BeoX2]

Oh, I'm not in any way saying that I don't enjoy other entertainment anymore, I just find that things that claim to be "smart" or "though provoking" can't really stand up to it, despite them being smart and thought provoking. I was very upset with myself after I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender cause it really was a fantastic show, but cause I had just watched Evangelion, I was like "meh."

[Gamer137]

I can't say it really raised my standards, but it did short of put cement my interest in such deep works. It can't raise my standards because as good as it is, NGE is about as deep and dialogue oriented as I can handle. It balances the work/entertainment scale. Any more deep and less visually stellar would just bore me. I can't read the declared "must-read classic masterpiece" novels because they generally just make me fall asleep despite how deep and revolutionary the old college professors and critics say.

[Mr. Tines]

I was already a picky bastard before I got around to NGE, though my tastes have always been idiosyncratic. As a measure my MAL dropped list contains a number of popular/acclaimed titles with very low ratings.

In the broader world of media, there are things I just have blind-spots for; and often the less fantastical or out there something is supposed to be, the more it strains my suspension of disbelief.

[Zenithfleet]

I'm in complete agreement with BeoX2: NGE utterly wrecked my appreciation of other anime, because it was the first 'proper' anime I saw. I went looking for stuff of similar quality and churned through a huge amount before it dawned on me that I just wasn't finding it (with rare exceptions, e.g. the Ghibli films).

I should add, though, that this ended up backfiring and poisoning NGE itself for a while. With only my memories of my VHS tapes and dub to go on, I eventually decided that the show hadn't really been that good, and that my first impressions had been skewed by never having seen anime before.

After watching plenty of anime in which the central mystery or conceit turned out to be nonsensical, I assumed that NGE was - from a worldbuilding standpoint at least - just another case of 'making it up as we go along' pretending to be complex and well-planned. (For instance, thanks to Manga's botched translation of EoE, the identity of the Angels seemed to be hasty gibberish on the part of the writers.)

Mind you, the action, characterisation and psychology still made it special for me. But it's only after going back to it in the last few years, watching it subbed, seeing the director's cuts, realising just how excellent the art direction is, noticing how the content is so densely packed that it demands multiple viewings to spot everything... that I decided: no, I was right the first time. It's ace.

For instance, lately I've been rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender (it was late at night with Netflix on demand) and I was thinking "man this is so cheesy." Then I remembered that this was made for Nick, and was for like 10 year olds.

Interesting that you mention The Last Airbender. For me that show's never been affected by any NGE-inspired criticism, because I've never thought of it as anime. It might look like anime, but it's behind the intercontinental and intergenerational AT Field known as "American kids' show". I have a different high point for that category of show - Gargoyles - which had the same effect on my appreciation of other kids' shows that NGE had on other anime. Although at this point in time, I'd say Airbender has knocked Gargoyles off the pedestal. And I haven't even finished the series yet.

Actually, I watched Nadia from the same standpoint - I was comparing it to anime I thought of as "kids' stuff", like Astro Boy, Pokemon, Dragonball Z, etc, so it got top marks (except the island/Africa eps of course...)

And at the opposite end of the spectrum, the first 30 minutes of Wall-E is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Fixed.