chapotraphouse

shinji is a child soldier though, the popular opinion of him sucking seems to forget that

I hope you enjoy it and eventually watch the remakes, it's all good stuff

God I love Evangelion. A lot of people don't like it, and frankly there is a lot not to like about it, but honestly there is no more impactful media in my life. I can personally attribute a big portion of my development to Evangelion.

Anyway. Don't try to understand the lore, it's not important and doesn't make any sense. Things will just happen. Don't worry about how or why. The actual plot of this show makes next to no sense if you just watch the original 26 episodes.

Anyway, bit idea: Guy who only watches Evangelion for the fights.

Me as a teenager watching Eva. Came for the robots, stayed for the psycho-sexual drama.

(EoE's got a banger fight though).

episodes 24-26 and End of Evangelion are absolute cinema. kino. masterpieces.

Well, except for the groomer vibes she's giving off.

MISATO SLANDER SHE RAISED THOSE KIDS THE BEST SHE COULD AND WAS NEVER A GROOMER

dude get in the fucking robot the world is ending

He's a child suffering from PTBS and depression. He barely has the spoons to do anything but lie flat on the floor, yet he is supposed to save the fucking world. ofc he struggles under that weight, that's the normal and expectable reaction in that context and it's honestly surprising that given the enormity of what is asked of him, he somehow manages to pull through. Which he does. He just (very realistically) suffers like a dog while doing it instead of being some dumbass superhero fantasy who always keeps his toothpaste smile in spite of seeing everything he knows being flattened under an apocalyptic onslaught.

The show is a callout of a toxic culture that demands duty and functionality at all times, no matter if the person in question is even remotely capable of it. I don't know if somebody without a history of depression, ADHD or other issues that can actively destroy your ability to perform even the most trivial everyday tasks is capable of understanding this, but it's actually ableist af to expect a boy like him to get reliably retraumatized over and over again without ever complaining about hand-to-hand combat against giant cosmic horrors that need to be drawn with a dwarved aircraft carrier group next to them to demonstrate their mind-rending scale . Shinji acts heroically because he almost always does what is needed, but he doesn't perform the aesthetics of what we think heroism is supposed to look like, he is visibly vulnerable and struggling instead of bottling up his pain and hanging in there for the job and because the show dares to take the needed time to appropriately portray that fight with himself, this has led to several generations of reactionary incels getting mad at him.

Not calling you a reactionary incel, mind you. I understand how you arrive at your impression, i had the same when i watched the show for the first time when i saw it on nighttime TV back in the late 90s and had only the faintest glimpse of what severe executive dysfunction looks like. But that this view is so widespread is a sign of the ableism and toxic masculinity we've all internalized to some degree.

It was the show that really got anime to click with me, enjoy! Now I'm working thru all 1200 episodes of One Piece.

Only 600ish to go!

Thanks for reminding me that I need to actually watch this one of these days

Anyway, bit idea: Guy who only watches Evangelion for the fights.

(As a teenager) tuned in for the fights stayed for the mean red head.

Lmao I'm on episode 3 now and there's a guy who bullies Shinji and now Shinji is looking like he doesn't want to fight and some other guy goes "jeez seems like your bullying really messed him up" right as they're about to get stomped to death lmao

"I already dislike Shinji though, dude get in the fucking robot the world is ending."

HAHAHA YESS THE PERFECT EXCUSE TO START THE MUDFIGHT FROM 3 YEARS AGO AGAIN!!!

Honestly I think the “groomer” allegations with Misato are way overstated by people.
She has a difficult relationship with…well relationships and sexuality and this leaks out a few times, but when I watched the show I pretty much got to almost the end not really getting why it was such a meme.

yeah it's great, there are a few bits of filler which could've been worked into the story with a little effort IMO (maybe the remakes/rebuilds fix this, I didnt get into the artistic direction)

Keep in mind that Eva is also meta-criticism of mecha as a genre- almost every single child soldier pilot in all the shows before Eva kinda uncritically “got in the robot”, and Anno going “wait that’s kinda fucked up actually” is why Eva’s considered a deconstruction

Also I think a lot of replies you’re getting are from people who finished the show, and a bit further in the show is really going to dig into Shinji’s character and he gets a little more sympathetic there I think

I loved evangelion. I'll save you a write up and say:

He doesn't wannna get in the robot

I already dislike Shinji though, dude get in the fucking robot the world is ending.

U wot? Like someone else already said all my thoughts exactly but I just have to chime in and say "give the kid a break", too. Like if you're going to dislike Shinji for anything, dislike him for that scene in The End of Evangelion that made me start noting down any anime I watch that include at any point a POV shot of a character looking down at the palm of sy right hand with slightly bent fingers.

Anyways I've been watching Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water lately and it's been interesting seeing these common elements and motifs between that show and NGE, since Hideaki Anno directed both. Most famously there's the つづく and Shinji's character design being inspired by Nadia — Shinji was originally going to be a girl, in fact, which kinda-sorta adds to trans readings of NGE.

Blocking you.

Evangelion is like having a severe brain aneurism, but it feels good the whole time