Neon Genesis Evangelion

[sgtdraino]

I recently inflicted this one on my fiancee. She was resistant at first, but then we burned through them all in a matter of days. Good series, excellent characterizations. Perhaps a bit too abstract at the end.

I like the way the series starts off semi-lighthearted, then gets progressively more dark and effed up as it progresses.

I once jokingly suggested an "Evangelion" theory for Lost. That Lost Island is the surface of a geofront, with the people there working to find special children as pilots for the coming war with the Angels.

And now, some videos:

The opening (Cruel Angel Thesis):
EgATlhZFAfs

Music video set to "The Hell Song" (some spoilers):
DW8mm4_UwlY

Music video of the entire series set to extended version of opening theme (spoilers):
_my-EJaWDEU

A nice, very apt acoustic video "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" (spoilers):
ngmACpIGZr0

Another AMV set to "Mad World" (spoilers):
JtfvTgHxu0E

[Deus Ex Machina]

sgtdraino, you shoulda visited us over in the anime forum (http://www.losttv-forum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=259) for this one! Well.. Evangelion is my very favourite anime (geez, it's probably my favourite anything) ever. I do dislike aspects of it - I would even say I hate some things about it - but the good outweighs the bad by far for me. I was originally drawn to it back when it was new (through articles in a gaming magazine - they had a little anime section), but I had no internet access back then, so it was a year or so before I could actually watch it. I still have the whole series on VHS (though of course I purchased the DVD version when that surfaced years later).
Come to think of it, even if I had internet access back then, would any form of video have been available? This was the mid 1990s, I don't remember what the intarwebs was like at that time.

Not only was I deeply interested in many elements/themes featured in EVA - it also fostered my interest in many other things (classical music for example). At risk of sounding like a crazy person, the fact is that it's probably had as big a part of shaping me into I am today as my parents have - it's had an insane impact (pun intended) on my life.
As my all-time fave anime it's also the source of my fave character, songs and artists of all time. Hell, I enjoy things more when I can get a little bit extra out of them by linking aspects of them back to Evangelion. I probably enjoy LOST quite a lot more because of EVA. Honestly... I probably enjoy moments in life more due to this, too - sunsets, mountains, darkened clouded skies (in a beautiful sense, not a dull or depressive sense - they feature prominently in Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's art), ambient noises of environments...

However, I don't visit EVA fansites, because I really dislike the kind of personalities that EVA fan communities unfortnately tend to be comprised of. I also feel a little wary whenever EVA comes up in other communities' forums, but I reckon that the folks at MyMedia/LOST-TV are a real good bunch and there's not much risk of venturing into any negative territory here.

sgtdraino, I know the post you're referring to! Back a couple of years ago when I was only a lurker, I did a search here for Evangelion and found the comments in - I think - the Hollow Earth thread. I loved that! I'd long had similar little joke Lost/Eva theories and it was so cool to come across a little Easter Egg type thing like that here on LOST-TV. So thanks for that :D When I read that, I wanted to add that the light/dark duality theme of Lost is then explained by the White and Black Moons (AKA Egg of Adam and Egg of Lilith).

Heh, in watching season 2 of Lost I found myself having little daydreams of Jack finding the EVA cage in one of Dharma's underground facilities, or of that 'Hurley Bird' taking the form of an MP-Eva, or that the Others were Adam-based whilst 'we' (normal humans including the 815ers) are Lilith-based. Lots of crazy fun little ideas. ...Yes, I am clearly nuts >.<
I've been working on a sig that has the Hanso Foundation logo as SEELE and the DHARMA logo as NERV (and vice versa) but my P/Shop skills kinda suck so I haven't actually completed it yet.

I dont know whether you want to see if the thread can be moved or not (I mean, it does fit in this forum too), but whilst the TV series is long over, the franchise is still going strong, with the original manga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelion_manga) still going and Gakuen Datenroku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion:_Gakuen_Datenroku), Puchi EVA at School (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebuild_of_Evangelion#Merchandising) and the Rebuild films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebuild_of_Evangelion) being the prominent things in Evaland at the moment.

Thanks for letting me gush my fanaticism, I apologise to all who had to witness it :D

[sgtdraino]

sgtdraino, you shoulda visited us over in the anime forum (http://www.losttv-forum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=259) for this one!

That was my original intent, but I couldn't find it at the time. Couldn't figure out why it wouldn't be in one of the TV or Movie sections, and never dreamed it would be a subforum under Community!

If the mods feel this thread would be more appropriate there, they may feel free to move it.

Well.. Evangelion is my very favourite anime (geez, it's probably my favourite anything) ever. I do dislike aspects of it - I would even say I hate some things about it - but the good outweighs the bad by far for me.

Well, nothing is perfect. I'd say NGE ties with FLCL as being my favorites, with Cowboy Bebop, Tank Police, and Project A-ko as runners up.

I was originally drawn to it back when it was new

Wow, long-time fan! I had been an anime fan for a while, and simply stumbed onto FLCL by accident while flipping channels. That was fantastic, but super-short. Hungry for more, I was intrigued by the references to NGE in FLCL, and the realization that both were made by Gainax. I did a little research into the storyline, which sounded intriguing. Set up my tivo to start recording them, and was enthralled. Eventually I invested in the original Platinum Edition (the one with special features). Very pleased.

At risk of sounding like a crazy person, the fact is that it's probably had as big a part of shaping me into I am today as my parents have - it's had an insane impact (pun intended) on my life.

One thing I like about both FLCL and NGE, is that both have strong messages about the need to overcome your fear, open up to people, be yourself, and take decisive positive action to achieve your goals. That fear of failure, causing you to not take action, ultimately only leads to bigger failure. In that respect, both of those shows had a big impact on my life as well.

As my all-time fave anime it's also the source of my fave character,

Who's your favorite character? Mine is Asuka.

songs and artists of all time.

On that note, here's (I think) the official video for "Come, Sweet Death" (spoilers):
JmZBOY6Mczk

I also feel a little wary whenever EVA comes up in other communities' forums, but I reckon that the folks at MyMedia/LOST-TV are a real good bunch and there's not much risk of venturing into any negative territory here.

Hmmm, now you've got me curious. What is "negative" territory?

sgtdraino, I know the post you're referring to! Back a couple of years ago when I was only a lurker, I did a search here for Evangelion and found the comments in - I think - the Hollow Earth thread. I loved that! I'd long had similar little joke Lost/Eva theories and it was so cool to come across a little Easter Egg type thing like that here on LOST-TV. So thanks for that :D When I read that, I wanted to add that the light/dark duality theme of Lost is then explained by the White and Black Moons (AKA Egg of Adam and Egg of Lilith).

lol. Yes! I find it hard to believe that these references are intentional, but it's actually possible to find quite a few similarities between Lost and NGE. Such as the DHARMA Initiative's mission to change the course of the future, to prevent the destruction of mankind.

Heh, in watching season 2 of Lost I found myself having little daydreams of Jack finding the EVA cage in one of Dharma's underground facilities,

Ha! Hey, we may not have seen everything underground yet!

I've been working on a sig that has the Hanso Foundation logo as SEELE and the DHARMA logo as NERV (and vice versa) but my P/Shop skills kinda suck so I haven't actually completed it yet.

Ha! Not a bad idea... A Hanso/SEELE merge sounds tricky, but DHARMA/NERV doesn't sound too tough... here ya go:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/sgtdraino/Lost/DHARMANERV2.jpg

I dont know whether you want to see if the thread can be moved or not (I mean, it does fit in this forum too), but whilst the TV series is long over, the franchise is still going strong, with the original manga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelion_manga) still going and Gakuen Datenroku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion:_Gakuen_Datenroku), Puchi EVA at School (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebuild_of_Evangelion#Merchandising) and the Rebuild films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebuild_of_Evangelion) being the prominent things in Evaland at the moment.

Eh, whatever the mods think is best. As long as people interested in it can find it. I hope we get English dubs of the new movies. I know that's not the "cool" position to take on anime, but I thought NGE had an excellent english voice cast, and I hear many of them are interested in reprising their roles.

Thanks for letting me gush my fanaticism, I apologise to all who had to witness it :D

No apologies necessary! And now to close, a couple more music videos!

"End of All Hope" (spoilers):
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Bizarre spoof of EVA done as the opening to MST3K (hilarious! No spoilers):
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If there is one video I would most recommend from the first post, it's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark." Excellent.

[TheBigCat]

If the mods feel this thread would be more appropriate there, they may feel free to move it.


Doing just that.

That was my original intent, but I couldn't find it at the time. Couldn't figure out why it wouldn't be in one of the TV or Movie sections, and never dreamed it would be a subforum under Community!



The link is in my signature. :D

[2fingers]

I once jokingly suggested an "Evangelion" theory for Lost. That Lost Island is the surface of a geofront, with the people there working to find special children as pilots for the coming war with the Angels.


I never really got into this Anime for whatever reason. I watched most of it but the beginning of it reminded of one of my favorite series of books (yeah amazing I can read and stuff :D).

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game_series
This series is one of my favorites of all time. It's kind of Freshman Sci-Fi but it's awesome and to boot I have met Orson Scott Card many times because he lives just a couple hours away and he is an awesome guy.

[sgtdraino]

I never really got into this Anime for whatever reason. I watched most of it but the beginning of it reminded of one of my favorite series of books (yeah amazing I can read and stuff :D).

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

Never read it, but from what I have heard, the series is in some ways similar to the first Halo novel. The Halo novels are actually pretty good reads as well. You also might enjoy the Kurt Russel movie "Soldier."

Here's an early trailer for the upcoming live-action Evangelion movie:
XjU1gX-YvEw

This trailer is... fake, but it fooled the heck outta me!

[Deus Ex Machina]

Set up my tivo to start recording them, and was enthralled. Eventually I invested in the original Platinum Edition (the one with special features). Very pleased.
Heh, it's always funny/strange for me to hear about people watching anime on TV, because we just don't get it here (asides from stuff aimed at the younger generation). I did see EVA in the TV guide a few years ago though, airing at midnight on a pay-for channel. We only have five free to air channels in NZ.

I have the 'Perfect Collection' DVD set. When the 'Platinum Collection' came out I was really considering buying the series again, but I didn't end up doing so. I would have enjoyed that cleaned-up picture quality though. What are the extras like? I have seen the live-action movie related stuff online, but that's it.
The extra stuff on the DVDs for the movies (which I actually haven't bothered to watch myself) was very much based on the interpretations and theories of the localisation crew, rather than providing any information from the original staff, and thus it's really just their opinion. The 'Decade' DVD set (japan only) supposedly has a whole bunch of really worthwhile extra stuff... if I was going to get something for the extras, that's where I'd go, based on what I've read. But then, I'd have to know japanese, wouldn't I? It's going to take me years to get that good.

Who's your favorite character? Mine is Asuka.
Rei. Zutto zutto zutto.

On that note, here's (I think) the official video for "Come, Sweet Death" (spoilers)
Though I know it's hated by people who can't take a bit of down with the up from time to time (and I bet that in this day and age it's labelled 'goth' or more likely nowadays 'emo' in a bashing connotation), I love Komm Susser Tod. I think it's really beautiful, and it was actually one thing that helped me through a really tough time years ago, believe it or not.
Anyway, for that video link I believe you deserve a Beautiful World (from the first of the EVA Rebuild films, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone). It's by Hikaru Utada. When I first heard she was doing the main songs for Rebuild, I was very skeptical. I certainly didn't expect she'd come out with something this ethereally beautiful and so well suited to Evangelion. You can see the video here (http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/eva/beautifulworld.htm). I hope you like it!

Hmmm, now you've got me curious. What is "negative" territory?
Human relationships is a big central theme in EVA, and of course sexuality is a part of that. Shinji is growing as a person (and as an adolescent, coming into understanding sexuality), Misato and Kaji are in an adult relationship, and there are Freudian references in the series, etc. I understand all that, I can handle that.
It's just that for a show with this rich characterisation - some quite deep and complex personalities, much of the fandom I encountered was pretty shallow, and I found many of their comments quite distasteful (it's clear that a large portion of them were heavily into a certain type of anime, and seemingly pretty happy over the fact 13 is legal age in Japan).
Anyway, it's not worth talking about.

lol. Yes! I find it hard to believe that these references are intentional, but it's actually possible to find quite a few similarities between Lost and NGE. Such as the DHARMA Initiative's mission to change the course of the future, to prevent the destruction of mankind.
Totally! It's really cool. Also here on the forums, was it Yung that had the 'Human Connectivity Formula' theory? That and his Homoplasmate pic completely resonated Human Instrumentality Project and MP-Eva (respectively) to me.
But yeah, agreed - I seriously doubt there is any legitimately intended references going on in the show. TPTB do reference popular culture, myths and legends, great philosophers, etc in the show and in the extended universe type stuff (eg; TLE), but I don't think they would do homage when it came to big important things like that.

Ha! Hey, we may not have seen everything underground yet!
Ha, very true... I just know there's plenty more underground secrets to be found. Who knows what could be discovered :D
BTW, the Hurley Bird thing I mentioned actually came from a dream I had where Jack and Kate were walking through that part of the jungle (season 2 H-Birds's appearance spot, where it crapped gold XD), and a huge dark shadow swept over the canopy (complete with heavy wing swooshing), and something landed in the forest ahead of them. They caught glimpses through the leaves of two giant white beings facing off. One was a Mass Production EVA and the other was Omegamon (from Digimon. Whose design echoes that of Unit-01, actually). My dreams well and truly jump the shark, man.

DHARMA/NERV doesn't sound too tough... here ya go
...Awesome, dude! That's great. I'll let you see what little I had done via PM sometime. Hmm, I really like what you've done...


I hope we get English dubs of the new movies. I know that's not the "cool" position to take on anime, but I thought NGE had an excellent english voice cast.
It's possible 1.0 could be (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-02-09/australias-red-ant-to-release-evangelion-1.0-on-dvd) seeing a release sooner than expected in Australia (where I am moving soon. And if I'm not there by that time, I can import - same DVD region encoding to New Zealand = no loss of quality due to NTSC vs PAL TV/frame sizing). I wonder if they will bother doing a dub or not. I'm with you when it comes to your opinion on the dub voice crew. Heck, it's how I first experienced the original TV show. You couldn't have both when it came to voice tracks back in VHS days, and back then I just preferred being able to listen to it in english.

In regards to the music videos you posted, I haven't had time to view them (apart from Come, Sweet Death) [I]as well as posting my super long replies, but I definitely will look at them once I have time, and let you know what I think.

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game_series
This series is one of my favorites of all time. It's kind of Freshman Sci-Fi but it's awesome and to boot I have met Orson Scott Card many times because he lives just a couple hours away and he is an awesome guy.
You guys have got curious about this Enders Game series of books now... hm. I also enjoyed the first Halo novel (haven't been able to read the rest yet, though I intend to).

Here's an early trailer for the upcoming live-action Evangelion movie.
I remember seeing that, though I saw this version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75GoCvuB8Ow&mode=related&search=) first. I knew it was fan-made going into it, and was well aware of the progress of the real live action EVA film (or rather non-progress), so I didn't have the chance to be fooled. But I've seen too many of the films that they used footage from though, so probably I wouldn't have been tricked for long anyway... but it's still really awesome, I love it. I hope I can find the another different LiveAc fan trailer I also liked... I'll link that too if I find it.

I've been super interested in the live action film ever since it was first mentioned. I don't know if we'll actually ever get to see it (it's been stuck in development hell - ie; still hasn't got past concept art, never actually even began - for a long time now), but I love to dream about it. Of course, in imagining it I assume it turns out good, though everyone has always rightly been skeptical about the likelihood of that. But just imagine if they did manage to do it right - with such a great licence to work with it could be truly amazing. If you want to discuss what it could be like, sgtdraino, I'm totally up for that conversation :D

[sgtdraino]

Wow, I never got around to replying to this!

I have the 'Perfect Collection' DVD set. When the 'Platinum Collection' came out I was really considering buying the series again, but I didn't end up doing so. I would have enjoyed that cleaned-up picture quality though. What are the extras like?

Well, there are the re-edited enhanced versions of episodes 21-24. I recall most of the other extras being mostly related to the english voice cast. Numerous commentaries, as well as a video tour hosted by Tiffany Grant (english voice of Asuka) of her collection of Asuka toys. Commentaries are my favorite features, so those are the features I remember most.

The extra stuff on the DVDs for the movies (which I actually haven't bothered to watch myself) was very much based on the interpretations and theories of the localisation crew, rather than providing any information from the original staff, and thus it's really just their opinion.

Meh. It's all just opinions, I still like hearing 'em.

Rei.

Which one? ;)

In regards to the music videos you posted, I haven't had time to view them (apart from Come, Sweet Death) as well as posting my super long replies, but I definitely will look at them once I have time, and let you know what I think.

Seen 'em yet?