Category: Movies & Television Page 3 of 4

The Hymns of Evangelion

On September 6, 2023

In Animation, Evangelion, Science Fiction, Shinji Aramaki, Tadashi Hiramatsu, Weeb Shit, Yuhei Sakuragi

Hideaki Anno loves animation. More than that, Anno has positioned himself similarly to his mentor and friend Hayao Miyazaki as the guy with enough clout and money to pay his animators a decent wage, foster new talent, and put the fear of god in major anime production studios by showing how amazing and innovative animation can really be. To that end, Anno has used the Evangelion IP as a means to get promising newcomers involved in major projects, just as Anno got his start in Miyazaki’s Nausicaä.

The Japan Animator Expo then makes perfect sense as something Anno and Miyazaki would do. A weekly series of animated shorts, during its brief period of existence the Expo paid up-and-comers in anime that most coveted of all currencies: exposure. And since Anno and his Studio Khara were fronting the bill for the Expo, of course sooner or later they would give animators a chance to use the most popular toys they had in their catalog. During its run, JAE would drink from the Evangelion well three times. So, before we hunker down and conclude this Eva retrospective, let’s take one last detour and check those shorts out.

until You come to me.

Pretty straightforward, this is essentially just a series of pretty pictures, but what pretty pictures they are. It’s also the only one of these shorts where we directly see Eva characters we know, most of the runtime focusing on Shinji walking around a beautiful, barren landscape, and Rei appearing briefly as well. Given the plugsuits and background, this is clearly set some time during the latter half of the Rebuild films, but where exactly in the timeline is a bit fuzzy. If I wanted to fan-theorize, I’d say it was most likely a dream sequence Shinji experiences during his hibernation, with some premonitory foreshadowing in the imagery. However, while the short is possibly a premonition, it’s probably just pretty. I don’t think you need to think too hard about continuity or the short’s place in it, because the ultimate aim is most likely just to give you a little extra Eva. You don’t need to watch it, but you’ll probably enjoy yourself if you do.

Evangelion: Another Impact (Confidential)

Even simpler than its predecessor, this one is really just an extended launch sequence of a new Eva unit before it goes rogue and blows some stuff up. You hear Rei’s voice at one point, hinting that some deeper machinations are afoot, but there’s really very little to this other than seeing a really cool robot being really cool. I wish there was more I could say about it, but that’s about all there is to say. Pretty colors robot smash. Yarg.

Neon Genesis: IMPACTS

This has the most ambitious plot of the three shorts, and explores a side of Eva that was always present but usually in the background. One of the strengths of NGE was how it didn’t ignore the impact frequent kaiju attacks had on the civilian population of Tokyo-3. And in this story, we see three young girls whose friend group is split apart, as their families move away one by one in the wake of Angel attacks. Said friend group had put together a band, and when the second girl moves away, she promises the last remaining girl that one day the group, and the band, will be reunited.

All that is sweet. Seeing a group of friends trying to soldier on even as the world is ending is truly compelling, and listening to one of their songs while images of happy memories flash on the screen drives home how precious this friendship is, and what Shinji and the other children are fighting to protect.

And then the short cuts to a shot of the last girl alone and miserable in a shelter, as explosions reverberate in the background. If that had been the downer note the short ended on, I would have been bummed out, but still on board. But then the screen goes black just as an extra-loud explosion sounds off, heavily implying that the girl was blown to bits and died. It all leaves the short feeling like an especially mean-spirited joke, the punchline being “Oh, did you want to see these kids happy? Well fuck you! LOL, butthurt!” And man, fuck you! Fuck off with that kind of shit, man. I know innocent people die in war and disasters and shit, but don’t structure that death like it’s a god-damn punchline. It all left me distinctly cold, and was a shitty note for the experience to end on.

So I guess now there’s only one thing left to watch.

The Excursus of Evangelion

By Mark

On July 26, 2023

In Comedy, Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, Kaiju, Radio and Audio Dramas, Science Fiction

Should have worked. Didn’t.

Wait, you want me to go into more detail? Okay, okay, fine.

After the End

Evangelion: After the End is an audio drama made shortly after the end of the original NGE tv show, wherein after the massive success of the show’s finale, NGE is suddenly granted a second season, which leaves the characters struggling to come up with an appropriate plot. It’s something of a footnote in the larger history of Eva. I didn’t discover it until I was midway through my article on the other Eva manga (coming soon), and even after learning of it, my main thought was “Huh. This looks interesting. No way in hell it’s available in English though.”

But I was wrong! As luck or fate would have in its way, a fan-translation has been available since the early 2000s, and is readily viewable on Youtube in three parts. So, despite it not being part of my initial retrospective plans, I figured After the End was worth taking a slight detour to check out. The synopsis promised fun metatextual humor, and with Hideaki Anno writing (and guest-starring), surely his creative vision would steer the story in a satisfying direction, right?

Well, one would think.

The Resurrection of Evangelion

By Mark

On July 6, 2023

In Animation, Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, Kaiju, Weeb Shit

The ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion is not the ending Anno originally wanted. After real-world tragedies forced the animation staff to rewrite the finale, and deadlines forced them to cut corners, the last two episodes of NGE ended up being the best they could do under the realities of tv production. Audience reaction to these episodes was mixed. While it’s commonly assumed that fans overwhelmingly hated the NGE finale, a better description is that most people were simply confused. They weren’t quite sure what to make of the ending, and like myself, while they still loved the show, the last two episodes coloured their overall experiences.

However, controversy attracts attention, and with the already sizeable fanbase that had developed over the course of the show’s run combined with newfound publicity from the controversial finale, home sales of NGE on VHS generated a massive profit for GAINAX, to say nothing of the money made from merchandise, manga, and mmmvideo games (I’m sorry I couldn’t think of an appropriate alliterative aaaa… y’know what let’s just move on).

The point is, Hideaki Anno was now in a position to do something few artists get to do: have another go at the ending of his story. He had the money, he had the audience, and he had the passion for the project. All he needed was to get to work. But with this opportunity came expectations; expectations from studios that they would get a return on investment, expectations from fans that they would get the ending that they wanted, and expectations from Anno himself that he had the ability to see his vision realized. And with these expectations came pressure.

The Genesis of Evangelion

By Mark

On June 26, 2023

In Animation, Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, Kaiju, Movies & Television, Weeb Shit

This article can also be read at AJET Connect here.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a phenomenon. Like Sherlock Holmes or Gundam, even if you’ve never seen a single episode of the show, you’re probably at least aware of it on some level, due to the sheer ubiquity of media, merch, pastiches, and parodies out there. If I tell my students most of the anime I watched when I was their age, they stare at me blankly, or even gasp at how old I am to have watched such ancient animation. But if I say that I watched Evangelion, my students light up as they gush about their own love of whatever piece of Eva media they first encountered. That is the ubiquity, the longevity, that is enjoyed by Evangelion in Japan, to say nothing of its popularity outside its home country.

Given the sheer scope of NGE’s popularity though, it raises the obvious question “Why cover it here?” What more is there to say about a show that has already been so thoroughly dissected and discussed? What new insight could I, Marco Cian, possibly lend to the series? It certainly is a daunting task, and one that gives me slight trepidation.

And yet, after I recently bit the bullet and watched the last two Rebuild of Evangelion films (something I’d been putting off for some time), the ending of the series left me with a morass of emotions, which I found difficult to process and put into words. Whenever I thought I’d settled on an opinion, some new aspect of the movies would remind me of itself, and my feelings would once again be cast into chaos. The only thought that remained consistent, the one conclusion I was able to come to, was that I needed to go back and explore the whole series. And not just the original tv show and Rebuild films, but everything Eva I could get my hands on. It felt like, if I could just see the full picture of Eva, I might be able to come to terms with its ultimate conclusion.

More than that though, I’m a different person now than I was when I first watched Eva over a decade ago. I’ve changed, my tastes have changed, and perhaps my perspective on NGE has changed in new and interesting ways. It’s certainly something I’m interested in exploring, and as any content creator will tell you, if you’re going to make content out of something, it better be something you’re genuinely interested in.

So, to start out with, let’s take a look at the show that started it all.

Dose Wicked, Wicked Bwack Wowduhs

By Mark

On May 30, 2023

In Action, Animation, Fiction, Horror, Movies & Television, NSFW, Urban Fantasy, Weeb Shit, Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Warning: This review contains mild spoilers and discusses rape and sexual assault.

Let me tell you a tale. In the summer of 2015, instead of going home for vacation, I stayed on my college campus to work at the library. It was fun, a great time all around. I was a model employee, and given my bibliophile nature, I was effectively a kid with the keys to the candy store. Literally. As part of my duties I was given the library keys and could come and go as I pleased. And while I took that summer to check out as many books as I could, I also took the time to work my way through various DVD’s that had caught my eye, one of which was a seemingly innocuous film called Wicked City.

When I popped the DVD into my laptop, I confess my expectations were simply of action, synth-music, and not much else. But what I got was my first proper exposure to adult anime, and signaled the start of my journey into unrepentant degeneracy. It’s been a long time since that first fateful viewing though, and I couldn’t help but wonder recently if my opinion on Wicked City would change, now that I am an older, wiser, and kinkier fellow. Would it still hold up? Or would I be embarrassed at my younger self for having ever liked the film as much as I did?

Spoilers: I had less discerning tastes when I was young and inexperienced.