- Mark Schilling; Contemporary Japanese Film 1999.
When talking about Evangelion, it's imperative -and inevitable- to also digress about the people and elements involved with the production of the anime. It's already inserted in the common sense the idea that this series isn't a "regular" one, however most people don't know why is it neither what makes it different.
That said, the objective here is expose a bit of it, starting with its director/creator. The name: Anno Hideaki.
Hideaki is one of the most notorious and referenced names in post-modern anime, being one of the strongest names into mecha/SciFi series and the precursor in the use of surreal/psychedelic elements as a tool to tell the story in the major anime industry.
He became famous undeniably because of Evangelion, but sure had other great works before and after it, being Gunbuster and KareKano wonderful examples. However, besides being personal favorites of mine, for the general masses "what the hell is KareKano?".
This success with EVA, putting in simple terms, can be explained as a series of factors that (by luck perhaps) came together. First, in 1996 we were living the "era of the mecha" so an anime about giant robots was absurdly popular. At the same time it content was a epic about Japanese people fighting to protect the humanity against the forces of evil, an (nationalist) trump card that always works. This mixed with bearable animation, with interesting scenarios and a gorgeous OST was enough to catch a decent audience.
Still, it wouldn't turn out as the phenomenon EVA is today. What made it grow in audience and in "importance" was the perfect symmetric balance between these elements mentioned above and a pretentious -and well played- christian/jewish symbolism, which concealed a metaphorical meaning for the entire story.
Anno sure did his homework and most of this symbolism is placed and act at perfect continuity and follows the same school of thought during the entire series, but at the same time, by being eccentric it also got the attention of the people who weren't interested -or didn't even get- this symbolism using it as an excuse to push the story to deeper and deeper levels of complexity that anime as an entertainment usually didn't/don't have.
We've all seen things fail at this before. It's easy to cite series that tried to bring this complexity to the story and failed to it or didn't succeed at commercial (profitable) areas. EVA did it, and continue to do it throughout the years as we see the re-popularization of it now in 2014 with the "Rebuild" series and its conclusion coming up soon.
Other key factor at this scenario is GAINAX. Perhaps if EVA was produced by any other anime studio we wouldn't see the same results and -I dare to say- it (maybe) wouldn't reach the same levels of popularity.
It's well known that GAINAX likes surreal scenarios and eccentric angles/settings in their series. An easy to spot characteristic of their productions is definitely the deconstruction of the linearity of a storyline. It shifts from past to present, with flashbacks and memories introducing new characters and explaining past events thru monologues and -strongly in EVA's case- imagery.
Another characteristic of the studio, which also fits Hideaki's style is the extensive use of black screens with huge text. Sometimes part of the dialogue, sometimes just words.
The use of this resource at the time when EVA aired can as well be related to the financial issues the studio was going through. Simply, right during the conclusion of the series eps 16 onwards, they were running out of money.
But what does it means? It means that they had to cut production value and with that reduce the effects, the rendering and the expenses with intricate battle scenes or editing/coloring and probably the most dangerous part of it, deviate from the original script in order to shrink and compact it.
This resulted in longer static scenes, repeated footage and more black screens with text, however -an this is were the "magic" exists- due to the series' extensively explored symbology, it didn't feel awkward, it just fit perfectly the whole piece and the mood of those last episodes in a way one could hardly tell the company was bad at their financial sector just by watching it.
It's definitely a question without an answer what would be of NGE if it wasn't produced under those specific circumstances.
The story is simple and the quote at the beginning of the review explains most of it. The pacing of the beginning of the story is typical of a battle shounen and there's nothing exceptional to it.
things will get interesting middle on.
First of all, there are no biblical undertones in this series, those are OVERtones. So if you find something in the series "similar" or that "might" be a reference to a real object, happening, history, whatever you can bet it is.
It's extremely hard to "review" this story without getting into the badlands of the spoilers section, so let's just leave pieces of advice.
Anno wrote Evangelion after recovering from clinical depression, that's why the story has this feeling of self-discovering and self-analysis. Some of the struggles the characters face during the development of the plot are reflections of things he went through himself.
Besides other things, EVA strongly addresses violence of all kinds and intensities. Mostly shown through symbolism but also graphically. It's not "inappropriate" but I personally wouldn't recommend for children or anyone PG-13.
The show indeed leads to a psychoanalysis towards the ending. No need to question of you missed something or is watching the wrong sequence of episodes, that's how it works.
If the ending isn't satisfying, try the End Of Evangelion (movie, 1997). It's not allegedly a sequel, but could be considered one.
Characters are also "spoilerful". To be honest, the series itself will review them for you. Every single aspect of them, even more than you'd be interested to know.
There are some reasons why people come to NGE's page or get interested in the anime. One, is the already mentioned GIANT FREAKING ROBOTS. Another reason -more hilarious than the first- would be because you encountered an Ikari Shinji MEME, joke or even a "hate-thread". Things like "Get in the f**king robot, Shinji!!" could be considered anime pop culture.
Shinji is our male protagonist and as will be shown in the very first episode have some issues that will conflict with his "duty" that is riding the giant mecha. He ends up as the Christ for all the mocking and jest, but the point of the story is show that every single character have issues, after all, we're all humans but at the same time we can all deal with it and move forward and sometimes...
-"Shounen become a legend!"
The third reason why people get interested in this anime, the opening.
It's addictive, it's beautiful, the instrumental is wonderful and those first 17 seconds are priceless. Even the harsher critics I've read this far all agreed with one thing about the series: The opening was great. You watch it 26 times and it never gets boring.
Not only the audio segment but also the animation and editing of it. As the review have been suggesting 'till this far, you might imagine that the OP also holds a symbolism to itself. Well, guess what, it does. It's interesting that you will get it piece by piece as the series progress, just like completing a puzzle.
Shin Seiki Evangelion, literally "Message/gospel of a new century/age" translated to 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' basically because it sounds "cool and complicated" set a cultural landmark to 90's anime and a new anchor point to many drama and mecha series that would come after it.
Its references and symbolism requires at least one rewatch for fully comprehension and if one is interested in the franchise should catch up with End Of EVA as well.
This is not something everyone will enjoy, but if you're at least curious, it's worth checking it out. Not as a series that will be forever remembered by you, but as an experiment. Likewise, anyone who takes his/hers animu "seriously" should have it marked on its list.
...what a horrible conclusion for a review.
Well,
Congratulations!
