Until recently my experience with Japanese anime was limited to Spirited Away and Animatrix, both of which I really loved. I also thoroughly enjoyed the small anime segment in Kill Bill. Then I saw various excellent clips in the Siggraph Electronic Theater earlier this month. All this left me asking for more, but with little idea or information about where to look!
Thanks to a casual recommendation, I found myself hunting down and watching all 26 episodes of the famous anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, followed by the epic ending End of Evangelion. The series completely blew me away and left me wondering why I was wasting time watching the usual hollywood crap all this long! If other anime series are half as good as this, there is little doubt about what kind of movies/series I am going to be watching for a while!
The series starts off in a typical superhero-saves-the-planet style. The superhero (Shinji Ikari) doesnt really like what he is doing, but does it for the sake of humanity. The first thirteen episodes has Shinji and friends fight off angels of different shapes and sizes, saving the world from destruction in each episode. Around episode 14, the series takes a dramatic 180 degree turn. With every subsequent episode the story gets deeper and more complex. Characters are fleshed out, and we start to realize that things arent as simple as they seemed at first. Very deep philosophical and religious questions about the very existance of humans and God are asked. Most of the questions are answered in a very indirect way. The final episodes, and the movie are nothing short of an artistic masterpiece which take the viewer through a roller-coaster ride of emotions, leaving one totally confused, exhausted, and stunned in the end. I found the ending very similar to a David Lynch movie where I could not understand much, but it was all so beautiful, painful and wierd, that I didnt want to miss a single scene. Viewing it a second time helps understand some, but much is left open to interpretation!
The series did not have a smooth sailing when it was first aired in Japan in 1995. According to imdb, TVTokyo wasnt too impressed by the graphic and disturbing scenes of violence in episode 18. They threatened taking the show off air, and had the main sponsor (Sega) reduce the budget of the show considerably for subsequent episodes. The effect is clearly seen in episodes 21 onwards. There are long pauses with dialogues going on in the background. The animation quality also came down considerably, until finally episode 26 has scenes that are nothing more than crayon sketches, or pencil drawings with no real animation to speak of. This only goes to show that all you really need to make a good movie is a good director and writer. The most expensive special effects and computer generated animation is nothing without an artist who can use it intelligently. And all a real artist needs is a paper and a pencil to convey a story in the most effective way. This is one of the things I really love about the series. A few years after the series was aired, the studio came out with “director’s cut” editions of episodes 21-24 that fixed some of the sloppy animation, and changed parts of the story.
Episode 25 is where the series really gets crazy. The original episode 25 was rejected by TVTokyo claiming it was too intense for TV consumption. The modified episodes 25 and 26 are something like a dream sequence where Shinji contemplates the meaning of life. Apparently most fans did not like this ending very much (though I thought it was brilliant). The studio, Gainax, and the director Hideaki Anno received several death threats from angry japanese fans for succumbing to TVTokyo’s demands. In 1997, the original episode 25 and a lot more was released as the movie, End of Evangelion. While the essence of the ending is still the same, this is even more complex and wierd than the series ending. It has a lot more action, but is not low on the thinking side either. I am not sure which ending I like better, I think it is the cumulation of the two that is really the winner.
The series has been through quite a lot. The director went into depression towards the end, the sponsor backed out, death threats, two subsequent animated movies, and now there are rumors of a live action movie on the same theme. The Untitled Evangelion Project message board is quite active. Speculations on the director include big names like Peter Jackson and James Cameroon. I hope they dont change too much from the series in the movie, and remain faithful to the ending atleast.
That is a really long review. I hope it can motivate someone to go and watch the series and the movie! I really loved it.
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone would just die?
The fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirith.
This is it, Shinji. Do you want to run away, or do you want to pilot the EVA? It’s your call. If you sit here and do nothing, then you’re already dead!
Giving up halfway is worse than never trying at all. Come on! Get up! MOVE IT!
I want to die. Just leave me here.
Stop talking like a stubborn little brat! Like it or not, you’re still alive. Get moving and DO something! You can die later!
God knows I’m not perfect, either. I’ve made tons of stupid mistakes, and later I regretted them. And I’ve done it over and over again, thousands of times; a cycle of hollow joy and vicious self-hatred. But even so, every time I learned something about myself. Please Shinji, you’ve got to pilot the EVA and settle this once and for all… for your own sake. Find out why you came here; why you exist at all! Answer your own questions. And when you’ve found your answers, come back to me. I’ll be waiting for you.
When Man created Evangelion, were we trying to create a clone of God?
Of course. Humans can only exist on this Earth. But the Evangelion will be able to exist forever, along with the human soul that dwells within it. When the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are all gone, EVA will exist, so long as one person remains. It’ll be lonely, but as long as one person sill lives…
… it will be eternal proof that Mankind ever existed.
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About 30 years after going out of business, Zeiss Ikon is coming back with a new camera. It uses the popular M-mount lenses, and Cosnia and Carl Zeiss will make a range of T* lenses for it. The FAQ blatantly claims that “ZI lenses better than other M bayonet lenses on the market” (obviously implying 