Anime • Page 126

Maybe, just the way 2 ends and 3 begins is so jarring and it never really lets you catch up. Really bothered me haha

 

I think it bothered a lot of people, haha. That's definitely a fair criticism if it didn't work for you but I think that was by design to kind of put the audience on the same level as Shinji. At least that's how I took it.

 

I’ll probably start watching the parts tomorrow but I’m still thinking about it all.

 

Yeah take your time, let it digest lol.

 

I dunno. I get this take, but it just doesn't really work for me personally? I think moments in End probably happened around the time of 25 & 26, but them both being fully the same timeline... There's too much dissonance in there for me.

Some of it might be that End as a whole doesn't really feel like it's "actually happening." Much of the first stretch feels like events that could be literally transpiring, but it eventually slips into its own version of abstraction. Except, it's a lot more bitter, all the way to the "disgusting" ending. And, also famously has all that meta stuff about the fandom. Taking where it goes and applying it to the rest of the film, I gotta look at Shinji's first act (masturbating to completion over Asuka's comatose body) as something Hideaki Anno is saying about otaku, more so than as something the Shinji who is told "congratulations!" in 26 literally did. Misato kissing Shinji as she dies also works better from this perspective, imo. And, while Asuka's futile last stand does make sense as something that could've literally happened, there's also an element of, "here's her badass hero sequence, but oops, it doesn't actually do anything! and Shinji is impotent while she's brutally murdered!" imo.

I do ultimately agree that the two endings compliment each other. Just... in a different way that doesn't and shouldn't fit perfectly in a single universe, lol.

 

Another reason End of Evangelion rules, in addition to that fandom bitterness, is that it at one point randomly has a vagina with an eyeball show up on the celestial giant Rei growing out of the apocalyptic earth, just so a red spear cross can plunge into it.

That shit's just dope.

 

I’m really just here trying to process everything like I don’t think any media has this kind of hold on me where I don’t feel like I understand anything at all.

 

My understanding was that 25 & 26 are basically canonically what is happening in Shinji's mind during the Third Impact? Like there are multiple montage/dreamlike sequences during Third Impact that are virtually the same as what is done in 25/26. And it also parallels them, as Shinji starts the Third Impact because he is so depressed and hates himself, but then grows to accept himself and functionally cancels the Third Impact because he sees his own worth, the worth of others, etc etc

 

That’s what my thought process was also. It was that is what was happening when he wasn’t even able to get up and go support asuka.

it was either that or they just wanted to give a good and bad ending where one he ends up alone in the world and another where he at least has asuka in it.

 

first time I watched end of evangelion was also the same day Frances the Mute came out. I was in a truly fucked headspace for at least three days.

 

Decided to look into it a little for the first time in a while, and yeah, they supposedly used an old abandoned script from the Evangelion series as their starting point for End. And, they talked about it in terms of showing the external side of the show’s internalized ending.

But, the project also evolved a lot as they worked on it. Which, makes sense with how certain details don’t work emotionally with each other. No clue how much official documentation (especially in English) there is of what the different drafts added, took away, or tweaked. But, it’s certainly enough where, even if it gets described “officially” as two sides of the same story, it doesn’t really work perfectly together. The emotional journey of Shinji in particular just… doesn’t match, even if it does rhyme in certain ways.

But, that tension is part of what makes the two so interesting when taken together.

 

On a completely unrelated note, I ended up watching the first few episodes of Blue Period with my sister tonight, and Ryuji Ayukawa is just my absolute favorite.

 

I think its part of what I love about art like Evangelion where you can engage with it and create your own interpretations of things. It's why I love David Lynch so much, even if there is an original or "official" meaning, the art itself is fluid enough to allow for personal interpretation to be just as valid and important as anyone else's and encourages more discussion and thought than they might have if everything was obviously spelled out.

 

The Orbital Children is up on Netflix now. Anyone watching? It looks good.

 

So I'm 15 episodes into Plunderer and I have some thoughts.

First, to get it out of the way, I'm not opposed to fanservice and I accept that it's just a part of anime that I'm going to encounter whether I want it or not. That being said the "fanservice" in Plunderer is incredibly cringe at times and distracting but I'm trying to not let it interfere with my general enjoyment of the work.

Putting that aside, I am finding the story the anime is telling to be kind of fascinating. I knew nothing about this show going into it beyond some clips I'd encountered on YouTube, so I thought it was just a straight up fantasy in another world. I had no idea it was going to transform into a present day Japan-set military school drama to prevent a post-apocalyptic future. Quite the genre shift.

The show also has some interesting ideas about time travel. The gang traveled back with the intent to save Litch from his fate but failed to consider how saving Litch would negatively affect the rest of the world. The scene where the gang gets taken out to a typical town and finds them all starving and fighting for scraps drives home the point that there's no quick fix to change the future when the present is already this bad.

Pretty grim stuff, which low key annoys me because I was hoping this show would be a break from that since I'm already getting grim with Psycho-Pass, but oh well.

Anyway, I'm enjoying it more than I expected considering all the negative commentary I'd heard about it. I'm going to try to finish it today and then I'll get back to more Psycho-Pass.

 

Just finished Devilman Crybaby. The ending is definitely influenced by Evangelion. It was interesting.

 

Other way around. Devilman ending is from 1973.

 

So Crybaby ended the same way as the original?

 

Yep, the general plotline is pretty much the same. Obviously the tone is different and the manga has a couple of arcs that arent in crybaby but its mostly the same.

 

I got spilled the ending of attack on titan on a random video that didn’t even have anything to do with anime

people made it the top liked comment and man people really do suck

 

I really fucking hate the internet sometimes.

And yes, I know there are studies showing that people enjoy things more when they're spoiled for them, but I think some of those studies are flawed and every person is different.

I'm sorry, man. After waiting so long for the anime conclusion I'm really bummed you got it spoiled.

 

Yeah that’s bullshit.

 

Man I’m just like damn. It’s especially worst since I was waiting out the whole season to watch it but I guess I can just watch it as a week to week show.

 

For what it’s worth, a lot of shit happens in the final chapters. You may have had the BIG thing spoiled (maybe?), but there’s still a lot of shit that goes down.

 

I think I got the main spoiler and another big one spoiled but I’m just trying to pretend it all besides the main one lol.