Evangelion
 

I absolutely love this series and how it explores philosophy and psychology while being a love letter to the sci-fi genre

Misato is a gorgeous wonderful woman, but Ritsuko's hot too


I haven't seen the rebuilds, just the 1995 anime and end of eva film which was incredibly surreal and chaotic but very enjoyable

here's a thread to discuss your thoughts on this series and if you've seen the rebuilds you can mention those too.

I did not like the reboot movies at all. They were terrible.

I felt so sorry for both Shinji and Asuka. And I wanted them to stay a couple in the Rebuild series.

I see them more as friends, but it was nice to see them work together in the dancing episode

It's kind of always inferred that they always find themselves drawn back to each other regardless of where they end up in when the resets happen.

I've read a little about it, and it sounds intriguing but also very hard to follow. So I never got into it. Is there an easy way to do so? I know very, very little.

well, it's a sci-fi show that also talks about topics like philosophy and mental illness, there's some lore in the show that has to do with references to Jewish and Christian mythology but not everyone who watches the show watches it for the lore, a lot of people just watch it for the interesting characters and storylines.

for example, the character of Misato is a lot like April in how she's a responsible career woman and den mother figure to the others, but Misato does like to kick back and relax, she enjoys the occasional beer and has a pet penguin, she's like April mixed with Homer Simpson.

Misato has a colleague called Ritsuko who's a scientist, she uses her work to hide her problems, there's also Kaji, a spy of sorts and love interest to Misato, he's kinda of a voice of reason, giving words of wisdom to the others when they aren't feeling good, when not spying or flirting, he tends to his garden.

Gendo Ikari is in charge of the organization that makes the Evangelion robots (Nerv), he is interested in changing instrumentality and human evolution using his robots and "angels", but this is mostly so he can bring his wife Yui back to life, he neglects his son Shinji a lot.

the robots fight "angels" which are alien-like beings based on Jewish mythology.

the main kids or pilots are all kids with issues,

Shinji is very depressed due to abandonment problems about his dad,

Asuka is an arrogant german exchange student who uses her role as a pilot to look like she's better than everyone else (it's a metaphorical way for her to hide her own insecurities),

Rei is an android created by Shinji's father, she mostly keeps to herself until Shinji helps her open up,

there's Toiji and Kensuke, who are mostly side characters/classmate friends of Shinji, Toiji being like Raphael and Kensuke being like Donatello (he almost always has his camera with him and geeks out over seeing military gear, he wants to be a pilot like the others, unaware of how tough that job can be),

then there's Kaworu, his episode will elaborate more about him (it's near the end)

I never understood the point of that girl with the glasses that was added in Rebuild. Like other than being another 'anime waifu' what did she actually contribute to the plot?

A bunch of 14 year olds have to pilot giant mech robots to stop an alien invasion of Earth, but the show deals with mostly psychological issues and mental trauma between the characters rather than being a generic action show.

Also the show sexualized 14 year old girls but one of them is a clone girl grown in a lab so she's technically not a real person.

Japan gotta Japan.

And right now Japan is kicking America’s a$$ in the comic industry.

Imagine writing a cartoon where a 14-16 year old is drawn naked and it being aired no problem.

Well, Netflix has “Big Mouth”.

Cultural differences and all that. I think the thing is Japan isn't afraid to portray teens as being full of hormones. Several high school settings deal with characters dealing with their own urges, wether it being pervs sneaking into the girls locker rooms, or a more innocent date where both the guy and the girl are nervous and thinking 'omg what if they want to go all the way??'

I believe a lot of these shows are meant to be watched by kids in high school that can relate to the characters because they also are dealing with their own puberty issues, and I suspect is why so many of these stories take place either in high school or the main character happens to be a high schooler. The issue lies in the fact that high schoolers aren't the only ones watching. Then it gets awkward.

That is a bit of a bugbear, isn't it?

Like, most writers are adults, and if you're writing about teenagers and want to portray them "realistically", you can't shy away from certain things because those things are a huge preoccupation at that age. Like, when I was 13-14 and thereabouts, among everyone I knew "getting laid" was the main priority above all else. So if a writer is gonna write about teenagers, if they don't at least touch on topics of puberty, sexuality, etc., they're not being in any way realistic. But the flip side of it is that such a writer can, and in modern times often will be, accused of being a "pedo" simply for approaching their characters with an eye for verisimilitude. And as Coola said, an audience member of a younger age group might look at such material and go "Wow, that's pretty true-to-life, I appreciate that,", while an older audience member might go "Why are you writing about the romantic lives of kids, you freak?"

Personally I miss the days when writers could just write and not everything needed to be Freudian and over-scrutinized, but that's me.

You know.... now that I think about it.... I don't really hear that sort of thing coming from people that do the adult comedies where characters like Meg Griffin or Steve Smith obviously want to (and try) to get laid on several occasions. Where's the moral outrage there? Hell, the characters even appear in the underwear on several occasions.

More than that - it was initially aired at the very prime time for kids shows as FW TMNT before.

Bad news: there were never such good days.
Everything, involving romance between teenagers was always scrutinized. At least in the "collective" West.

it must've been quite the change for young Japanese children going from watching the fred wolf tmnt cartoon to watching Evangelion