Anime vs. Manga vs. Rebuilds

Shoryu said:
The anime TV series, along with EoE, remains as the complete package to me. It is so genuinely the most valuable because I really felt as though Anno's depression displayed itself in the best possible ways; walking me through his characters that are glaringly broken and then guiding me to a conclusion where life does have meaning and value. In essence, this complete package was like self-therapy where I could see the development unfold slowly and purposefully paced its story to illustrate that development alongside the author. This can never be replicated.

The manga, is somewhat underwhelming in that regard. Certain moments are pretty well crafted, but they serve as moments that help enhance the story, but not specifically expand upon or build on the characters I already seen on screen. Its ending seemed more like a meet half-way kind of ending in term of tone. TV End = Happy. EoE End = Looks more bleak (but still leaves room for hope). Manga End = Soft bittersweet end. It's not a bad ending by any means, but it just didn't quite leave that impact that the anime versions had. Still a nice and alternate conclusion to end off though that I can accept.
I've often considered the manga as a nice supplementary work too; it kind of fits into places where the anime had gaps (like Rei was less fleshed out in the anime, but in the manga, she felt and stood out more as a character). However, the key difference is that the series/EoE stands boldly on its own, while the manga can't.

Rebuilds...
There just isn't enough substance there for me to latch onto, and that's probably because it's inherently a movie, so it's not something to fault it that harshly for. Still, it loses its Evangelion charm, in my opinion, because it feels... too polished and aims to be 'perfect', trying to correct things that didn't need correcting to begin with. Certainly, the action scenes are eye-candy heaven, but these action scenes are less enthralling to me simply because the stakes didn't feel that tense. Take for instance Eva Unit 01 vs Eva Unit 03 in 2.22. I found myself extremely disappointed because the way it was handled here, it managed to be less impacting as it was in Episode 18. Why? Shinji was forced to see the events unfold in front of him in that episode. I could feel his sense of desperation to stop his Eva Unit. In 2.22, he's greeted with this flashy Dummy Plug wallpaper graphic. Why?? It just lessens the impact of him having to endure the loss of control he had. Perhaps I'm being nitpicky here, as I haven't mentioned the story switch done to put Asuka in that entry plug; I was largely unfavorable of this choice.
1) It removes the necessary reason for Touji being in the story. What was remarkable about using Touji for Eva Unit 03 in the series was that despite being a background character, he was given a purpose in the story, a purpose to make Shinji feel even worse for piloting and further grow detached from others in order to avoid causing pain. 2.22 is basically saying Toji wasn't needed at all.
2) Most praise this decision because well, it's a major character, and it's fucking Asuka! Well, Asuka gets shafted in favor giving screen time to Mari. Dear lord, Mari. We could had had more Asuka development and attachment to this alternate version of Asuka, but no, we get some unnecessary and flat character who still remains unappealing in 3.33. Asuka would had served better as a sacrificial lamb against the last angel in 2.22. So then, it would had given MORE impact to Shinji returning when he sees BOTH Rei and Asuka failed to destroy that Angel. Instead, by the end of 2.22, you pretty much forget about Asuka, and the focus shifts primarily to Shinji/Rei.

This is an unrelated tangent to the prior examples, but damn 2.22!Mari remains to be that unnecessary character replacing the roles of characters fulfilled way better within the series in execution. For instance, it bothered me that Mari had to take Shinji from the evacuation bunker and forcibly show him the ugly state of affairs. In Episode 19, it was far more enriching to have Shinji retreat out of the bunker and then run into Kaji in order to have that quick heart-to-heart about doing what you think is right and protecting those close to you. It was a clear sign that Shinji chose to do something because it felt right morally, and not because someone dragged him along, like Mari, in order to illustrate that. She simultaneously stripped down Kaji and Shinji's roles.

Rebuilds are just soulless reboots, but I don't mind their existence actually. It keeps Evangelion topical and it continues to bring in new and curious viewers willing to see the originals.

So there ya go.

Swagernator said:
Original Anime + EoE: definetly best, what else can i said ?

Now there is a manga, which i didnt read(lol) in NGE fanbase there are two types fans, those who consider manga canon and those who not, i personally consider manga as non-canon. For me is manga more like supplement to the original series nothing more than that, thus i dont feel like i need to read it, i dont say its bad, just for me nothing special. (wiki is enough).

As for the rebuilds: i like them, first two movies were more like "HD remakes" but yes they were very different from TV series . But the third movie was best of rebuilds for me. I really like that first sequences of third movie the emptiness and feeling of "What he hell is happening here". Personally best of rebuilds and i like it almost same as EoE. Cant wait for the 3.0+1.0

Here is interesting interview with Anno about future of EVA: http://www.anime-now.com/entry/2016/12/03/000006 there is a sentence which i really want to became reality

i hope this will happen sometimes.

At the end i wish for "Evangelion Anima" gets anime adaptation, or at least propper eng. translation.
(sorry my english is bad).

InsaneLeader13 said:
Having consumed all three, here is my very brief stance:

NGE/EoE: Best experience in general. I'll typically recommend this to someone without exception. Very self-contained, deep and complex, very powerful. If someone does have a few questions, normally a quick talk with another EVA fan can solve the most general questions. However, it does have several significant issues. The main two being the topic of Karwou and Shinji's relationship being rushed, and the events surrounding Adam and Lilith aren't fully fleshed out, along with a few other small issues.

Rebuilds: I watched these about four months after completing the original and EoE. The first movie is a danm fine start for the series, relatively faithful to the original series. The second film is a good movie also, but it stumbles in alot of areas. And as an Eva film, it lacks the depth and complexity we've come to expect from the series. The third rebuild. *Sigh* I wrote a scathing review on that already. Save for giving some depth to Karwou and Shinji's relationship, there isn't anything here that makes the Rebuilds worth tackling. I've not seen 3.0+1.0 yet, obviously, it hasn't released yet. Maybe when that drops my stance will change. But the Rebuilds are the films I'm least likely to recommend to someone unless they want to see more of the franchise. It doesn't have the stuff that made the original memorable.

Manga: Controversial (Maybe?) opinion, but I believe this is of higher quality then the original series. The situations surrounding Adam and Lilith are explained much better, it doesn't have an Episode 24/25/26 where everything just falls apart, and instead, it places the noteworthy moments from these into focus. Asuka gets slightly more focus here, Rei doubles, if not triples, development in her character arc, and not to mention that Shinji has a much more receptive personality that still has the same issues. And again, the relationship between Karwou and Shinji is given significantly more depth.
Furthermore, it cut out the Shinji masturbating to a comatose Asuka scene out completely, a scene that I always felt was very out of place in what was an otherwise perfect movie, and replaced it with a much more powerful scene that linked up better with the decisions that Shinji made during Instrumentality.
But with that said, the majority of the story and themes are close enough to the original series, that I would only recommend it to someone who is a franchise completionist, or has more questions then one can quickly answer. Or they are just a diehard fan of the story, like I am.

Personally: Manga.
For Recommending to others: Original anime/EoE

Rei366 said:


I choosed the TV show without the movie (25' - 26' ).

I won't go into details because I am not good to argue about such things.

- the End of Evangelion: it lacked the impact and sense of accomplishment the TV version offered me. And a good part of it was just shiny robots action to me (I'm a client for this kind of thing, I know it because of the faces I made while exposed to Char Counterattacks and F91, but it inexplicably bothered me here).
I regretted a good period of time to have watched this movie, maybe because it was my first ever DVD (thus making it a bigger disappointment than if it had been a random purchase).