Originally posted to r/anime [02.24.19]
So here I am, 02.34 in the morning. I can’t sleep, and I tried binge watching Inferno Cop until suddenly Crunchyroll decided that it didn’t want to work correctly today. I guess i’ll just write about my current thoughts on Eva.
Quick disclosure, I have not finished Evangelion yet. I’m currently on episode 15; but art is an experience and a well written story gives you things to think about every step of the way. So so far, what do I think of Eva? I mean it’s good, the animation makes this show a 7/10 on its own, like it is hella gorgeous. This and Cardcaptor Sakura basically proves to me that anime painted on cels just look better than digital animation. Or to make it a bit more fair: the best looking anime painted on cels will always look better than the best looking anime made digitally. But the story? It’s weird. I don’t quite get it, the Angels exploding into crosses was some cool symbolism and the mechs are cool but I really don’t understand what’s going on. I’m just kind of sitting here, looking at Shinji being a sad boy listening to his Walkman and sleeping. Waiting until the moment that the show decides that enough downtime has passed to finally do some cool action again.
Asuka is cool though. She’s cute (especially that scene where she says “guten morgen”) and all, the scenes where she‘s in the fat mech was simultamously the most tonally out of place scene as well as the only scene in the show so far where I actually felt scared that a character was legit going to die. I mean the scene basically screamed: “something is going to go wrong and you’re gonna feel hella tension“ and that did happen, but it was done really darn well too. Also, everyone is kind of an asshole? I don’t really know wether this is intentioal or not, like does Anno want me to think that all the adults are irresponsible adults who can’t seem to grow up or is that me just misinterpreting? Or maybe I’m just realizing that this is actually just a really good show with well written and characters with more than one personality trait.
When you spend your days one moe trash more complicated shit like this really fucks with your brain
Honestly, so far I’m conflicted. It’s good, but maybe I just over hyped myself. “Evangelion, one of the best anime ever! It’s so deep and it’s about all these relatable things and the relationships are so multi-faceted and”...Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe I need to finish it before I get it. I was honestly surprised how low it was ranked on MAL, it’s not even in the top 100. Looking at the reviews left me even more confused, the two most popular ones rated Eva 10 and 5. And now I’m just kind of disappointed that Eva isn’t this ultra amazing super cool action show with the best things ever.
Maybe this is what overhyping yourself does. I mean I rarely get hype for anime unless it’s got Love Live in the title, and I consider a 6/10 to be a good score so I don’t really feel disappointed that often. But I probably just need to finish it first. Or maybe I also need to watch the End of Evangelion movie in addition to fully ‘get it’. I don’t know, I wanted big cool robot fights with depressed main character and I’m kind of getting that but there’s also a fucking penguin that just... shows up every now and then and lives in the same apartment as the MC in Japan... and no one questions it?! I mean... like why the fuck is there a PENGUIN HERE?! Umm... I mean there’s also the fact that Rei has zero personality and I get that’s kind of the point, but... she literally doesn’t have one. If someone asked me: “hey, why don’t you describe Ayanami Rei as a character” all I would really be able to say is “she just kinda... follows orders.” She’s like Mikazuki from Iron Blooded Orphans. I guess it’s technically the opposite but whatever.
And as I said I get that that’s the point but it bothers me so darn much when every other character has at least some form of characterization except for one of the most important characters in the whole darn show.
Also the mechs are fuckin’ weird. They explain in the first episode that they’re like... bio synthetic things so I guess they’re not really robots and they seem to have a mind of their own, but they’re very clearly mechanical and being controlled by their pilot (except for when they’re not).
This show is just too fuckin *d e e p* man and would you look at that I wasted half an hour writing this YAAAY
