"Why would ground soldiers fighting in a bunker carry a flame thrower?" Because that's actually what they were designed for, clearing out enemy bunkers. The idea is you can just stick it into a door or window and fill the room with fire instead of charging in and getting shot at.
+Meep “the” Changeling Except they were in a building with easily collapsible walls and supports, not an armored concrete bunker with only narrow slits to shoot the occupants through with conventional guns.
Lazy Miko Easily in that a man who is angry enough could leave a dent in them with his bare fist, never mind what a bunch of guys with medium-caliber rifles and machine guns could do. Plus, you can't set concrete on fire and bring the roof of a bunker down on yourself when you go in looking for survivors or intel.
God, I can't say the same for the show but if this movie is anything to go on, wow. This movie SUCKS, aside from the artsy fartsy stuff it just ends in apocalypse and pure psychopathic visions from Shinji losing his friends and mind. If this is the end, then tell me what the point of this whole series was? You want a good story fine, but make it into a story, don't make art out of it. Not all good works have symbolism but when they do it includes straight up show and tell, not mind fuckery. Given Sage didn't finish the review but still the movie itself was all over the place
@@gaminggoof1542 The show from my perspective was better written than the movie, it's just that the reason this movie was so bad was because Headeki Anno was pressured by the toxic part of the fanbase to make this movie because they didn't like the ending of the og series. He literally made this movie just to shut them up.
So, the fate of everyone is held in the hands of a depressed, suicidal, psychotic 14 year old with an Oedipus Complex. Well, I'm going to meet Jesus. Farewell, doomed world. *bang*
I want to see an alternate reality take on Evangelion where Gendo Ikari dies in the first episode. And they get a competent therapist with mandatory sessions for all the pilots.
Tony Davis there was kinda a therapy session in young justice, and in teen wolf when a guy attacks a school... oh yeah and Michaels therapist in gta 5 but other than that I can't think
Tony Davis just in young justice and teen wolf. long story short the cast think they did something horrific and aren't happy with how they reacted to a scenario, and black canary helped talk most of them through it. The moment in teen wolf was helping stiles get past his sleep deprivation caused by a massacre caused by someone he knew from school, and him nearly being killed by lizard man with paralysing venom which helped (for a bit). michaels shrink was just a dick
Asuka WAS overcompensating. That was the point. It was a fake persona to hide from near suicidal self-loathing. When Asuka was very young, her mother, Kyoko, went insane and ceased to recognize her as her daughter. When Kyoko committed suicide, Asuka found her body, with the doll Kyoko believed to be her own daughter hanged right beside her, in a sort of would-be murder-suicide. Her father seemingly never cared about her mother or Asuka in the first place, and began having an affair with the head nurse in charge of her. So far in her life, the people she cared about either a) killed themselves or b) revealed that they didn't care at all. Asuka threw herself into learning how to pilot EVA-02 in a desperate attempt to earn affection from others. She also feels that anyone she cares about will leave her, so she developed a fake arrogant personality to hide her real insecure self and push everyone away.
@@TyRiders2 Because you're expecting someone who's gone through so much trauma to be "likable" rather than finding her sympathetic. You don't have to like a character for a character to be good, but to judge a character just through their "likability" and hate them when they "do something logical/I wouldn't do" then you're probably not going to really understand a character. You're just gonna find reasons to hate characters who don't conform to what you think "should" happen. Or at least that's Bennett's smooth brain logic.
+TheMegaUzumaki I view that as a redeeming quality for her and a trait which plays into her shared psychological baggage with Shinji and Misato. She needs attention and recognition so much, she fails to realize how pointless her very existence is and how ultimately futile her mission is. When confronted with the fact that she's increasingly inept at her job, her existential angst begins to eat away at her until she's reduced to a snivelling child who has to resort to delusions of acceptance and love to function at a basic level. That singularly human experience is very endearing to me in the pity is elicits.
+TheMegaUzumaki Neither Gollum, Mr. Freeze or Roy Batty act in a self-described moral manner. They all act in a purely self-interested manner, Gollum in his obsession with the One Ring, Mr. Freeze in his quest to resurrect his ailing wife and Roy Batty in his existential search for his identity, as determined by his technical specifications. Rorschach does so due to severe ideological extremism born from his childhood trauma. None of them acknowledge their personal problems, or if they do, forget about it out of habit. Asuka is most closely related to Rorschach in that they share a massively traumatic childhood which forces their extreme attitude, Rorschach in the form of his ideological extremism due an instilled perception regarding justice over a long life of severe injustice and Asuka with a forced sense of maturity born out of childhood neglect and a constant need for parental approval from Kaji which takes the form of pure bitchiness, teenage angst and transferred sexual frustration. These are extremely common and readily sympathetic psychological problems which, if you can't identify with, most likely means you never experienced a similar situation or react in a negative way to such situations as presented in a fictional setting due to any number of reasons. I'm done with this discussion. I should have realized earlier that your opinion of this series is, as it is with everyone who's seen it, too extreme to change. Just... Enjoy what you want. I'll stick with what I enjoy.
+TheMegaUzumaki she is kay a kid. that's why I pity her. even in her moment of epiphany she gets brutally killed. it's not really her fault she was so naive.
When I watched this review I always wondered about something; You clearly express your dislike for Evangelion, which is something I not only respect but actually can relate to. I believe I can call myself a big Eva fan, that much is clear. I was introduced to the show in 2001 and to this day it still remains the work of fiction that has affected me the most. It opened me to other anime and science fiction shows and I know I wouldn't be who I am now without it. The thing is, when I saw The End of Evangelion it really hurt. It hurt me so much I couldn't help but feel angry at myself for ever liking the show. I felt sick, I felt confused, I felt angry... I began to question a lot of things. I was just a young teenager back then, I didn't have all the knowledge or insight to understand most of the movie; hell I think I can safely say I didn't get most of it. I just remember going for a walk under the rain that day, feeling a really big emptiness inside. I was angry at Evangelion for a long time. I began to think ''Did the show trick me?'', ''Is that show pretentious?'' ''Did I not understand anything when I was watching it?'' It made me want to get rid of my Evangelion stuff. I wanted to take my posters off the walls, put away the few figures I had and just forget about the show. I don't remember how long that lasted, but for a while whenever a friend asked me about Evangelion I would tell them I didn't want to talk about it. One day on the bus I decided to listen to the Evangelion soundtrack on my walkman. I remember how scenes of the show began to come back to me as I was listening to the music. I began to remember the show little by little, thinking back to how I felt when I first watched it. I thought to myself maybe I could give the show a second chance; maybe I could give it another watch. For the next couple of months, I would watch the show a lot. I watched it out of order, read about it online, showed it to friends... I wanted to know what other people thought about it and how it made them feel. I became really interested in how people felt about Eva and what impression it had left on them. After a while, I understood something: I truly am an Evangelion fan. I love the show just as much as I hate it. It brought me a lot of fun but it also really hurt me. There's a lot of things I dislike about the show, but some of these things are actually fascinating to me now. Sometimes I'll say to someone I can recommand the show to them, but sometimes it will be the complete opposite. There's just one thing I can't deny; I have a passion for Evangelion. This brings me back to my main point: When I saw your review I was taken by surprise when you dropped the review around 24:15. Of course I know that you took the time to write a script for your video and that you must have gone through many takes and editing to make it look this natural. I know that your review is not improvisation. The thing is, the last part of this video really got to me. The way you dropped your review and began to question yourself about what you've been doing with your life to this point reminded me of how I felt after watching The End of Evangelion. You even went outside like I did, talked to people about your insecurities and about how confused you felt. I could really relate to that situation, even if it was scripted for the review. I makes me wonder: did you intentionally include this segment in the review because you felt it was ironically fitting to Evangelion to have the internal monologue of a single character take over the script during the last part? ...or did The End of Evangelion truly make you feel this way? I can't help but feel like it's a mix of both, but I might be wrong. In the end I have to say I really like your review. Good job on taking on Evangelion, it's not an easy beast. =)
+Nicolas Gravel This should be one of the top comments for this video. I´ve just watched the series and the film (not the reboots yet) these past weeks, and your thoughts make a lot of sense to me. I wanted to hear differents opinions on the show, and I enjoyed watching this video, even though for me it was a bit harsh and over the top. I think the ending of this video was the best part, and really what the series is all about, besides delivering a cool story: introspection, asking yourself important questions, going outside of the anime world for a while (as a comfort zone), and finding your own meaning to life. Nice work, both of you! ;)
Nico Neko There's this video I had seen from a guy called Dan Olsen, and it was what actually made me not only love the show and "End", it is why I consider them works of art. It certainly cleared up my view of the franchise as a whole and I hope that you take something from it. I hope you are doing well and thank you for your comment.
@@monetum1392 so true. I’d argue at least the third rebuild movie was more likely meant to piss off eva fans especially the ones that didn’t like the first two
Having read what Evangelion fans have to say about the series, the ending, the films, etc., I am starting to become convinced that NO ONE actually likes eva. And people who call themselves fans might just be doing it more for the social clout than any other real reason. I admit, it's a ridiculous conspiracy theory on my end, that is probably not true and I cannot prove it. But it makes a lot more sense to me than genuinely liking anything about this series or any merits it may have. I tried to watch it all with an open mind, and I just couldn't find very much appealing about it. That said, many fans of the show seem to have a more thorough grasp on what exactly bothers them about the show, and are better at describing its flaws than I am.
Watching these old reviews of Evangelion, as someone who not only got into anime fairly recently (a couple of years ago), AND whose introduction to Sage was with, surprisingly enough, his re-review he did of Eva the same the year I discovered and was obsessed with it, and watching this for the first time knowing how Bennett currently feels about his old work and Eva....is quite the emotional trip. A guy who for some time, infamously hated one of the most successful, acclaimed and influential anime of all time, but secretly couldn't help but relate to it. Dare I say: Bennett sometimes makes me feel like I'm watching Evangelion again. Out of the Evangelion analyses I've read/seen, his are the ones that have stuck with me the most (so far anyway, but still).
His old work was so much better, ironically he's become so pretentious and takes himself, and wants everyone else, to take him soooooo seriously it's outright obnoxious, and it's ironic your introduction brought you to this video where he makes the same criticism about NGE
This show and the old TV series changed my life. Anno at his best. Absolutely brilliant artistry. Most people didn't "get it", but it has a lot to teach about finding value in your life. It took me a second watching before I was convinced my life could matter.
I'm confused to what it is you are fighting for. I looked through every link you gave out and all of them seem to show that he is saying seele correctly. Is there something else I'm missing?
In terms of you rnumbered questions about SEELE: 1. Because their goal was never to permit the Angels to usurp humanity's reign. They knew what was coming, but instead decided to battle them and hold humanity's control over their own world. Just because there is a prophesized "successor" that doesn't mean that you have an unparalleled need to abide by the limitations of the prophecy, especially if it means your own destruction. 2. The Angels aren't in league with one another, and are not at all connected beyond belonging to vaguely similar species. It's not as if there's some League of Angels in space that decide weekly to attack earth. Angels appear from their own pockets in the cosmos in search of Adam. Kaworu is one such Angel, and chose to instead interface with humans rather than recklessly and mindlessly progress towards Adam like most of the others did. The end goal was similar, but the means of acquiring it was different. All Angels fight in a different manner, many with similarities, none are identical. Especially not the Lilim. 3. Because Kaworu didn't ever merge with Lilith. Rei did. Kaworu was killed a long while back. The only thing you saw resembling Kaworu was a phantom. Not to mention Kaworu's goal was never to interface with Lilith, it was to understand the Lilim that inhabited Earth, and it chose Shinji as a subject because Shinji was extremely willing to communicate with anybody who wanted to communicate with him, so when Kaworu 's unconditional friendliness was presented to Shinji, there was an inherent mutual benefit. He isn't in league with Seele, he's just following their orders to achieve whatever mysterious agenda he has at the end of the day. 4. Because they had been expressing their desire to battle the prophecy as thoroughly as possible. This is as obvious as can be the moment you realize they created Evangelions to battle the Angels at all. They have no desire to allow the prophecy to continue as stated, only to exploit what was happening along the way and get their true gains out of it. They attacked Nerv because Nerv would get in the way of their final gambit, which was to control the process of Instrumentality when it finally began occurring, but unfortunately for them, it behaved in a manner they didn't expect when Rei III took Adam into herself and fused with Lilith, causing Instrumentality when she interfaced with Shinji. 5. Like any good leader, Keel realized that there's no point in immediately hunting down an insanely useful and versatile asset even though they know that there is betrayal in the future. They were using him for his immediate, necessary assistance in keeping Nerv perfectly prepared for all Angel attacks, because if they failed, they would have lost their world to the Angels. The Angels were attempting to communicate with Adam, whose Embryo is buried inside of Gendo's hand. If Seele killed Gendo, Adam would have either died, or it would have run rampant and caused another Impact on its own and more than likely would have destabilized Nerv and all of the Children fighting for them, leading to a lack of defense against the Angels and more than likely the destruction of humanity, destroying Seele too. None of this is explicitly stated, but very subtly implied due to the fact that Gendo knew immediatley that he would be hunted down the moment the Angels stopped surfacing. The only thing is that he couldn't protect himself against humans because Nerv had almost zero budget by the time Seele attacked, and the JSSDF is much stronger than glorified bodyguards. This isn't much bitching, just answers for fans who feel like there could be an answer that's just not being covered here.
Also as to why SEELE tried to hack into the Maji before sending in ground troops; well isn't that a tactically sound move to make your take-over go much easier. Keel Lorenz even says he wishes he didn't to take extreme measures. And as to who threw the Lance; it was one of the mass-produced evas because they can keep going despite their injuries.
The Asuka/MP Eva battle is awesome The Komm Susser Todd sequence is awesome The opening scene can be used to make people who dont know the film lose their shit This is all you need to know.
10:50 Do you seriously not understand that Asuka's mother IS the Eva? Wow, if you were unable to pick up on an explicitly clear and important detail of the plot such as that who knows what else you missed while watching the show. Sure explains a lot about this review...
To be fair, most people who watch this series through only once (and some more than once) never pick up on this. I personally found out about the dead moms' souls inhabiting the evas, as well as other interesting background lore, from articles explaining the story AFTER I already watched the series. There is a lot that is not made explicitly clear in the show, the exposition just isn't really there, because it takes a backseat to inner-techno-mumbo jumbo at NERV during piloting scenes, Shinji's interactions with other characters, and casual school setting dialogue. There's the occasional flashback with Misato describing the groundwork, but a lot is missed.
@@FeministCatwoman He said that he watched the series and the movie multiple times. I honestly think that the psychological aspect of Evangelion completely flew over his head. On multiple occasions this comes to light when spouting some odd shit, the part with Asuka is a good example. I think it is a Broney thing, they are on the spectrum. If he is not one, then he really needs to get better at social cues and human nature in general, some of his "conclusions" are very odd.
Maybe there is smth wrong with me, but I like the movie and the whole series exactly for the reasons you hate it. I like how the characters are fucked up, I like how Asuka fails even when everything is built as a badass moment for her cus she IS just a kid who has pronlems, I fuckn adore the final scenes. NGE and The End of Evangelion helped me realize that no one is 100% fine. Eva is and ever will be my 10/10 anime of the year (any year)!
I don't know what you guys thinking with the actual evalutation. But he sums up EoTV and EoE the best way you can get on the internet. He is not telling something we couldn't have know on our own. The only reason for hating him is the way he thinks about Asuka. But the message and the meaning of the Third Impact is ... Thank you ***** for making the effort. *clapping*
Oh yeah btw, Asuka is badass because she's a real human being. She's the most accurate definition of a narcissist in psychology terms, she's always putting on goals and desires that are above her because she feels the need to be better then everyone else but at the same time she needs affirmation from those people to feel as she has achieved those goal. She's an unlikeable bitch? No she's a real girl suffering from mental instability caused by her mother that has resulted in her gaining these narcissistic traits, much similar to alot of people that goes through the same thing. She's a great example of a fantastical well written, 3 dimensional and realistic character and that's why people like her and that's why seeing her being a skilled pilot makes a her feel all the more badass. She's not some 2 dimensional power dream character, she's real person sitting in that cockpit.
***** She's a real person. She's a real and proper person suffering from narcissism and that's why I love her. So many bitch characters in fictional media are so terribly written but Asuka is the genuine stuff, she's a character you can see is broken and flawed by nature like real human beings. Real people aren't as simple as we think. We all have serious flaws that makes us unlikable and we don't change as much as we like to think we do. Evangelion makes us face that uncomfortable reality and that's why the fans love it.
DevilfishFace That's the key world, Realistic. She does what she does but in difference to other btich, tsundere and badass hero archetypes she's a real person. That's one of the reasons why people love Evangelion, its cold, hard, depressing and realistic representation of it's characters in a fantastic setting.
garowice being realistic in her tendency to be an annoying twat is not a character trade that is exemplary as attractive or good or "to root for", there's so much negative polarized characters and depression in this anime, it's not even funny, and that is why i could never stand this series, because i don't like absolute saturized puberty problems in my "entertainment".
Necroid000 I don't view Evangelion as entertainment. It's blatantly obvious that this series and especially the movie that it's very artsy in both in it's writing and presentation. Like an independent movie but with a higher budget. The characters aren't meant to likeable they are used to explore the mentality of depression, narcissism and mental sickness. If you just want entertainment and fun I can get behind people saying it sucks because as a piece of entertainment is horrible (Only a sociopath would come out of this series saying "Man! That was fun!") but as a piece of art it's almost a masterpiece. This series falls more in lines with movies like Requiem For A Dream, Nightcrawler and Gone Girl rather then a blockbuster popcorn movie.
Some points I'd like to make in EoE's defence: a) you either edited the brightness in that first scene to boost your point, or you have some kind of bum copy. My copy doesn't go anywhere near that bright, and it's from Manga. I'm not saying it isn't bright, it is, but this looks like it's been edited to a point of exaggeration. Though, this can be affected by lots of external factors, so I'll just drop this point. Take it or leave it. b)Just wanted to point out, Asuka's in a coma because, well, she gave up on life. She wasn't gravely wounded as you say, she just gave up after all of her failures, resulting with her being in a vegetable-like state. I don't know if the science behind it is correct, but that's what happens in the show. c)Actually, the jerk off scene is related to the plot, in my opinion. The plot of Shinji's psychosis, which is spiraling into a pit of unadulterated madness. I believe this scene reflects how he has undergone some serious mental damage, and this scene is just trying to sum it all up for the viewer. "I'm so f***ed up." d)Your questions: 1)If you believed that a race of alien monsters were the true successors of the Earth, would you allow them to wipe you out? Of course, despite knowing the truth, they'd try and stop them. THEY WANT TO LIVE (long enough to start Human Instrumentality anyway.) 2)The Angles and Seele were never cooperating. I don't understand where you got this idea from. Kowaru was captured and raised by Seele, and knowing he was an Angel sent him to Nerv headquarters. However, I have to agree, the reasons for this are unexplained, and they were certainly tossing a coin by sending an Angel straight to where Lilith was being kept. Fortunately, Kowaru had goals of his own, but if he didn't, I have to agree that Seele made a bum move there. 3)They didn't want to Kowaru to merge with Lilith. Their motives, like I said above, are a little unexplained, but they DEFINITELY didn't want that outcome. They wouldn't be able to control Instrumentality if it was an Angel merging with Lilith. Some people believe they were trying to force Shinji into the mental state that he ends up in as a result of killing Kowaru, so that they can predict Shinji's decision when the time comes. 4)The plan didn't fail in the way you're suggesting. It failed because Shinji managed to overcome his feelings about humanity, but up to that point everything was going great for Seele, they almost accomplished their goal. You see people turning into LCL, this is what Seele wanted. However, Shinji eventually decided to bring everyone back. In fact, you need to want to come back TO come back, so in a way, because Seele doesn't want to come back, they accomplished their goals just fine. d)You make it sound like Seele had no difficulty hacking into the Magi. They didn't, but the point you're making is that they didn't have the security to deal with it. They did. Unfortunately for the guys in Tokyo-3 though, all the other branches of Nerv still loyal to Seele were hacking Tokyo-3 with THEIR Magi. Fifteen or so super computers against three, which super computers are going to win? They didn't lack the necessary security, the were just overpowered. e)If Ritsuko's mother is the one who designed the Magi, then Ritsuko is going to know ways to use the Magi more effectively than everyone else. So, it does make sense, though they are pushing it a little, that Ritsuko could deal with the problem single-handedly. It's her mother's system. f)No, it's not pronounced Zeela. I don't know where you got that from. Seele is German for soul. It's pronounced almost completely accurately, though the S should sound a little more like a Z. Do some research before you start picking on tiny things like this. You just look stupid when you get it wrong. g)Seele doesn't think humanity is a mistake. You're getting it all wrong. They want humanity to be a single, united being. They don't think it shouldn't exist. You've really messed up their motives, which is what has created these plotholes in your mind. From your perspective, yes, Seele applies a hell of a lot of circle logic. But you're wrong about their motives. With their actual motives presented in the series, Seele is using no circle logic at all. Sure, they don't explain much, but what they do explain does make sense. h)Can I just point out that her mother is in the eva unit. She's the resident soul. Asuka wasn't hallucinating. i)There are lots of theories as to why Eva 01 only chose to break out of the bakelite after Asuka died. My personal favourite, but in no way confirmed, is that the resident soul, Yui, who has her own designs for Instrumentality, needed Shinji to reach the breaking point. Allowing Asuka to die pushed him over the edge, which she then took advantage of. What a great mother she is. j)I completely agree the religious imagery is meaningless. But now it's your turn to miss the point. It IS just aesthetics. Anno said himself, he isn't trying to use it to gain any religious meaning. He is recorded as saying that they went with it because it looked cool. Here in the west, Judeo-Christian imagery is commonplace, not so much in Japan. In the east it made the movie and series seem more different and interesting. That's why it's there. You have to remember it was made with an eastern audience in mind. h)Shinji's interior monologue, especially during Third Impact, is what the movies and series are about. Saying you don't care about them begs the question, why are you watching this? Eva is NOT an action show with a background story about the character's psychology. It's a show about the character's psychology with a background story revolving around action. The meat of this show isn't the Angels. You may as well not watch the film if you're going to choose to ignore these segments. I really don't know what point you were trying to make with your little end video. It wasn't funny. It made no good points nor furthered your argument. You also insulted everyone who likes Evangelion by saying that only people with more than half a brain stem know how bad Eva is. I respected your points up until this point. You just blew it. Your opinion is your opinion, but that's just insulting. Note: Everything in this is my view and my view alone. You're welcome to agree or disagree to my points, but please don't feel the need argue with me because you disagree with me. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope Sage read this too. Ciao!
(Continued) Okay, I could have phrased that a lot better. What I mean to say is, "please don't feel the need to get aggressive or offensive in response to you disagreeing with me." I'd love to here people's counter-counter-arguments, but I'm only going to listen to you if you back it up in fact, using ideas and evidence presented in the show. I don't want you to argue with me if all you're going to say is: "You're wrong, I don't share your opinion, so you're wrong."
it isnt just this video he's a contrarian who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about his perfect blue and grave of the fireflies videos are FILLED with contradictions and lack of research on his part.
Incredibly thorough counter-arguments; the only thing I'd have to correct you on is that the quote about the symbolism is from Kazuya Tsurumaki, not Hideaki Anno.
This just something interesting I thought I'd share. During Shinji's big freak out while in Unit one a couple of scenes go by that are mostly made of text and pictures of letters, those are actual death threats the author received over the ending of the original anime.
i'd just like to remind everyone that in the beginning of EoE, Asuka was mind raped by an angel actually, those questions you asked actually get answered; tho to be fair they didn't say it out loud
Rehardless pf what you said about the sub. I still would watch the dub any day of the year. I much prefer the dub cast, and their performances and delivery.
@@BradleytheDavis I know this post is 2 years old, but I can't imagine how ANYONE prefers the ADV dub over the sub, unless they just love to laugh at it. The new Netflix dub may have wooden performances here and there, but at least the new cast members fit the models and the overall tone of the anime better. And yeah, I get that there's a big controversy over Fly Me to the Moon and Kaworu's sexuality being downplayed. Quite frankly I really couldn't care less.
@@goji3755 I know this post is 11 months old, but maybe you just gotta realize that people actually have preferences. I love both the original Japanese and the ADV Dub equally (even if it has flaws), and I'm honestly tired of Sub vs Dub elitists. Watch the damn anime however you want. Seriously, who cares. Also, Shinji's Netflix VA is good but I don't like hearing a girl's voice coming out of Shinji. And yes, I know. Shinji's original VA Megumi is of course a woman as well, but she did a much better job at making herself actually sound like a pubescent 14 year old boy, whereas in Netflix it just sounds like a girl talking.
@@Paradox-hv6wr I'm not saying you can't have your own preference, I just really don't get the appeal of the ADV dub compared to the other options, or the controversy around the Netflix dub, apart from nostalgia. Subs vs dubs is certainly a case by case basis and which one you PREFER is certainly subjective. I just think a lot of the fuss mostly comes from older fans disappointed in the streaming options. Hopefully a physical distributor will pick up the series for Blu-ray and can cover all the bases.
@@goji3755 @goji3755 Well, besides the Netflix dub and the OG Japanese dub, there really are no other options (besides the other multi-language dubs). Even though I started Evangelion with the ADV dub, I still really love the OG Japanese dub. Even the Netflix dub, I don't think is god awful or unbearable to watch. I just don't think it carried or invoked that much out of me as much as the ADV dub did. I will agree though, that the Manga dub for EoE is riddled with flaws, inconsistencies, and weird sound effect placements. There's just no competition when comparing it to the OG Japanese dub (leaving out the incredible performance from the main cast, of course) People like the ADV dub because they themselves simply like and enjoy it. They like the cast, they like the energy of it, etc. Hell, I could even point out with what you said about not understanding the appeal for the ADV dub, is exactly the same thing other people think about the Netflix dub. "Why do people even watch it? There's no emotion. It feels so soulless. Where's Fly me to the Moon? I don't understand how there could be people who like watching this." Of course, that's not how I view the Netflix dub. It's just not for me. Anyway, I don't even know how I ended up in the comment section of this video in the first place or why I'm still here at all. This was an absolutely terrible "review" of the movie lol.
The comatose scene.. well, on one hand it's a pretty blunt statement from Anno. On the other hand it shows even more how low Shinji's psychee has gone, how utterly destroyed he is at that point, which is the part of the entire point of the show: character study. The final line of the movie "I feel sick" ("How disgusting" isn't the correct translation) is meant to sum up the entire experience of the series. It doesn't want to give you a satisfied feeling, no, it doesn't want to. The entire show tackles the topic of escapism and all the characters escape reality in their own ways, have hard time accepting themselves. If the show wants to show a negative side of escapism, it would be contradictionary to this message if it tried to please the viewer with an ending they wanted. And the movie actually gives everyone the ending they wanted and shows why they shouldn't have wanted it in the first place. It's an experimental anime, deconstruction of a genre and multiple tropes. It has no reason to please the viewer. By the way, Asuka wasn't hallusinating. Evas.. well, let's just say that they have their mothers' souls in them. Shinji's mom didn't die in an accident, she voluntarily became part of the project. Yep, Asuka is a whining bitch. She is complete opposite of Shinji from outside, but absolutely same from inside. She simply dealt with her trauma differently with denial and having a huge ego. And it didn't take long until her psychological defenses begun to break down and the problems caught her again, and thus she slit her wrists and took a bath in her own blood. Shinji runs away from problems, Asuka is in denial and tends to give up easily. Everyone in the show is sick, except for Pen Pen. But then again he is the only penquin we see, so maybe he is going through some psychological trauma of-- GAAHH!! Everyone's sick, and that's that. Oh and.. why is he reviewing the dub and then complaints about it being horrible? Good dubs are incredibly rare, and back in 90's they were even more rare. DBZ is one of the only animes where the dub is good, another being Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. ... wait, did he actually get the movie? The end of this review highly implies that he actually understood some of the main messages.
I agree with everything you said, but I have to COMPLETELY disagree with what you said about dubs. DBZ? Haruhi? If you've seen those shows you would have to have heard about Cowboy Bebop, largely regarded as THE best English dub of an anime ever.
***** Was never interested in that show that much. This is just my personal opinion. Seriously, the main character of Haruhi has just the most fitting voice for the main character, who is sarcastic and down to earth. And DBZ's voices are just iconic. Very cartoony, but fits for the show. It's a very silly show after all.
"Some of these scenes I can't possibly put into words" Isn't that the point of using a visual medium to express concepts? I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have a hard time trying to express a Salvador Dali painting in words, that's why Dali didn't write an essay. I'm by no means an expert, but I'm quite sure this is one of the underlying principles of art.
StopMinecraftVIOLENCE Well that's subjective. It affected me in an amazing way, so for me it was art. I guess one person's masterpiece is another person's gimmick? And seeing the world end, and the collective souls of the world being gathered together by a god-like being would be kinda freaky. So freaky seems appropriate in this case.
Matt Ell Oh God. Do you realize how pretentious you sound? Just because something is _weird_ or _unconventional_ does not mean it is world-class 'art' or instantly brilliant. It's nothing more than exploitation, and that is definitely not art.
StopMinecraftVIOLENCE I didn't say that being weird or unconventional makes something inherently artistic. End of Eva isn't objectively good or bad, its subjective like all media. I'm not forcing my opinion on you. Its fine if you don't agree with me. I was merely stating that EoE had artistic merit from my point of view, since it had emotional impact for me. I'm sorry if you think I'm being pretentious. I'm only trying to justify my point. Let's not turn this into another nasty comment exchange on youtube. There's enough of that already. Just remember that not everyone defending EoE is out to be a pretentious asshole. Some people just genuinely enjoy it.
The interesting part about NGE is that it is practically irrelevant wether it's good or not. You almost never hear someone watch NGE and say it was boring, or they felt indifferent about it. Even at worst NGE tends to piss people off to the point that they need to express themselves and on the other hand you have an equally large crowd that adores the psychological tour it takes you in. The point of good art isn't to be pretty, or pleasing, but to be both provocative and thought provocing. NGE most definately does both brilliantly.There's a very good reason why NGE remains as one of the most controversial animes made so far, not because of its plot, story, or characters, but because of what it represents. The people that hate it, hate it for various reasons (Mostly due to Shinji) and the people that love it, mostly love it because of Shinji. Not because Shinji is likeable, or even identifiable to most people, but because of how Shinjis character, actions and story perfectly represents peoples depression, fear and anxiety. How it can make reasonable situations into world threathening monsters and how people either deal, escape, or just shut down in the face of such high stress. This type of emotions are something that people find it extremely difficult to not only talk about, but also to describe. Shinji offers a window to a depth and type of depression that most people could never even begin to try and dress into words even for themselves. This is why I feel a lot of people love NGE, it helps people identify and even demonstrate how they feel and how they can't just "snap out of it".
"You almost never hear someone watch NGE and say it was boring, or they felt indifferent about it" please don't hate me, but I am one of the people who definitely fit into that group. I didn't hate it, but I did feel like watching the series was a chore and it was really difficult for me to follow it through all the tonal changes and shifts in mood, the delving of the character psychologies and how disconnected it was from the overall premise, and the disjointed themes. I really couldn't enjoy it, and I think I spent more time trying to research why more people liked it rather than try to rewatch it and see if there was something important I had missed.
@@FeministCatwoman Must have still envoked something within you to make you feel you need to understand something about it, or how it interacts with people. If you're doing all that, I would say it's hard to argue that you're entirely indifferent about NGE, which was my point.
i am just disappointed with Sage and people in general who bash this movie. I love this film and the series. I don't expect anyone to agree with me. But at least give actual problems and flaws of the series and actually try to give a decent explanation for why you hate this movie or anything in general. Actually give accurate facts and give a detailed but honest opinion. This review was just a guy getting mad without actually giving a legitimate reason on why. Just acted on pure hate. Anyway most of the plotholes Sage said are actually explained in the series and in this movie.
whitedwarf13 but most of his issues are solved with the original series. This isn't a standalone, this was clearly an ending to the series. Something like the Rebuild of Evangelion was suppose to be a standalone and that's relying too much on the original series anyway so it fails on that. It's not only plot issues but he skipped THE most important scene in the entire movie which explains the message of not just the entire movie, but the entire freaking series. It was an honest review but it was really just sage nitpicking the movie without the context of the series. The series isn't perfect but it isn't complete shit as Sage make it seem.
I'm fine with people not enjoying NGE, but I can't say I understand some of the arguments against the characters. Obviously you don't have to like them, and you're really not supposed to like some of them, but to say they're not well written is (in my opinion) wrong. Shinji is not a hero. He's a kid. A cowardly kid. A kid who hates himself more than he hates his father who abandoned him after the death of his mother and later manipulated him into piloting a giant death machine to defend the earth from giant monsters without explaining why. Not liking Shinji is one thing, but calling him a pussy and then trying to justify your statement with "If I was 14 and in his exact situation I would definitely pilot a giant death machine in defense of Earth with two emotionally broken teenage girls with their own giant death machines." Sure you would. You edgy, badass you.
Sean Snyder not to forget that if he does not pilot the eva everyone dies and if he does he gain nothing from it . everyone keep tell him that he does have the choice in piloting the eva or not , but in reality he doesn't . i'm not exactly sure if I hate or love evangelion , but something i'm sure i like about is character because i really relate to them especially shinji and atsuka .
Sean Snyder Also, don't forget almost every time he gets in said death machine, he goes through intense pain. Having a giant alien bird skeleton thing cracking my skull open does not sound like a fun time, or two laser tentacles stuck inside my abdomen.
Sean Snyder Cowards don't work through their abandonment issues, depression, and avoidance issues to get into giant robots and fight giant monsters. They don't challenge their emotionally abusive father's judgement and attempt to save their friends. Shinji does what he does out of habit, sure. He doesn't exactly know how to behave when people don't tell him what to do, but at the same time he often shows that he wants to try and do (what he thinks is) the right thing.
Sean Snyder . Shinji's behavior is so pathetic because even children GROW through trial and tribulation. He does not. He is in many regards in the exact same position here in E.O.E. he was when the entire affair started at the beginning of the original series: passive/aggressive and despondent. And frankly that's difficult to swallow given that he actually SHOWED some character development during the course of the series. Hell, if he had leapt to action initially, there is a chance he might have launched EVA 01 BEFORE it was sealed in Bakelite and averted Asuka's fate. But no, clearly he hasn't learned to put the lives of others before himself as he has done with increasing frequency in the series; nor does he calculate the BASIC logic that would suggest he would perish if he did nothing (the guards prepping to kill him indicates this). Or perhaps we'll entertain another idea. Perhaps we'll entertain the idea that Shinji MAGICALLY learned that he was in instrument of the "rebirth/death" of humanity, and THAT'S why he had a sudden relapse. Well if THAT was the case, why did he consent to ever getting into the EVA when dragged there by Misato, or say ONE WORD about his revelation to her? No, no let's dump out both the character development AND all forms of rationale because THIS movie's about ART. Funny thing about 2001, a Space Odyssey. It set a tone early on to establish it wasn't the traditional genre in question (the evolution of man preceding the adventures in space). Such things are CRUCIAL when you want to try to be deep and create something that transcends a given medium's genre. The creators did NOTHING OF THE SORT. They created a compelling if dark story about defending humanity from annihilation, then used a shadowy organization and it's baffling goals as a macguffin that would go on to be the justification to ruin the focus, alter characters' personalities entirely without rhyme or reason, and shift the audience forcefully into an introspective (something the formerly mentioned 2001 didn't really have to resort to by the way). This movie didn't provide a window into insanity, it's just insane. There's a difference.
TymeTwyster Last "Shinji's behavior is so pathetic because even children GROW through trial and tribulation." This is an abysmal comparison for two reasons. Normal children don't have the entire world to save. And Shinji Ikari is not a normal child. "Hell, if he had leapt to action initially, there is a chance he might have launched EVA 01 BEFORE it was sealed in Bakelite and averted Asuka's fate. But no, clearly he hasn't learned to put the lives of others before himself as he has done with increasing frequency in the series; nor does he calculate the BASIC logic that would suggest he would perish if he did nothing (the guards prepping to kill him indicates this)." He was fine with dying. He had just killed Kaworu, busted a nut on Asuka's chest and had just been with Misato in her last moments. So yea he moped for a bit. Holy shit who the hell wouldn't be mentally broken after all the shit that had happened through the series? But once he heard Asuka he got into the EVA and went up. And yea he was late. And yea he did blame himself for her death. "Funny thing about 2001, a Space Odyssey. It set a tone early on to establish it wasn't the traditional genre in question (the evolution of man preceding the adventures in space). Such things are CRUCIAL when you want to try to be deep and create something that transcends a given medium's genre. The creators did NOTHING OF THE SORT." Are you joking? In the first episode Shinji is reunited in the most fucked up family reunion of all time and gets his shit kicked in. Doesn't sound like any other mecha anime that I can think of. "They created a compelling if dark story about defending humanity from annihilation..." Since when has EVA's focus ever been it's story? The majority of the series has always been it's characters and how the story effects them and not the other way around like most shows. "...then used a shadowy organization and it's baffling goals as a macguffin that would go on to be the justification to ruin the focus, alter characters' personalities entirely without rhyme or reason, and shift the audience forcefully into an introspective (something the formerly mentioned 2001 didn't really have to resort to by the way)." Ruin what focus? The characters along with the viewers are hardly told jack shit about what's going on behind the scenes so SEELE has really nothing to do with the story until the final quarter of the show. And using 2001 for comparison is hilarious considering that it hardly has ANY narrative or characters. But I've wasted enough time responding to NGE haters. No one ever changes their mind about NGE no matter how long they argue. And that's fine.
Why are some people saying Eva fans should stop defending their opinons? Isn't the guy in the video defending his opinion too? So... If the maker of the video doesn't like the anime, and you agree with him. That automatically means that anyone that disagrees with the video or with you should shut the fuck up? Wow... very mature way of thinking.
No, I think most people are sick of people that like Eva, saying that others do not understand Eva, regardless of points or anything else. And probably at some point that makes people say stop defending it. Mostly because we have heard it all before. Its a tolerance thing. Its the same when I hear a dumb backwater creationist make the same stupid argument for creationism over and over. After some point its enough. .
I agree that people how like EVA should defend their opinions. But most people defend EVA in a very rude and ignorant way. " Ohh Sage don't like the anime because he is fat and stupid. " That is mature to you, Calling somebody is fat and stupid just because they don't like your favorite anime?
Hn Henrique Not at all. But if we do take our time to defend it or explain scenes that a lot of people don't understand, some dick is probably gonna go "tl;dr", and without even caring about how we're trying to get people to understand it better and make their OWN conclusions out of it, (instead of being ignorant to the meaning of the series), they just go and tell us to shut the fuck up. It's the same thing as *chosing to be ignorant.*
Actually the pronountiation is correct in Evangelion : it is spoken like "sele" (with a long first e(since its a double e) and without silent second e) and not "seala" as Sage says here.
They do pronounce it with a S sound as opposed to a Z one. Although that isn't really important. Pronouncing those words adapted to fit their own syllabary is what Japanese people would do if one organisation adopted German words in Japan, and that's what they do in the anime. Pronouncing it correctly is a concern more at home in the US.
I liked your review of Ghost in the Shell, but my goodness did you ever miss the mark with EVA. I am by no means a fanboy of the series (and don't even get me started on Rebuild of Evangelion) but...comeon. You have to give it more credit than this. It is not the greatest anime ever made, perhaps not even a masterpiece, but it is a landmark. The audio-visual play durin the climax is incredible, the story is thoughtful and rich (though, yes, it has holes in it), and the character development is more than memorable. It is simply put a great anime, and something everyone that appreciates the art should sit through at least once.
I don't think Bennett really understood what eva was about in the first place. Evangelion is not a show about heroes over coming something bigger than them, and if that is what you think it was than you really missed something. The first scene with Shinji played an important part for the last scene, and is the reason Asuka says what she says. This played another important part as two major themes, sex and death. The scene where Asuka was a "badass" was more how she was never able to succeed without Shinji, and that even when she things she is about to, she is dragged down with no one to save her. It is things like this that someone is suppose to look into, and while what I say might not be "official" it is clearly suppose to be deeper than just "Shinji is a weird dick head" or "Asuka is a stupid bitch who thinks she is bad ass". This is why I don't think you understood what this movie was to represent.
True. Almost everyone who hates Eva argument can be traced back to the point that "the characters suck"; Shinji is a whiny bitch, Asuka is a brat... blah blah blah. If you go into the series thinking it's going to be about characters believing in themselves and overcoming impossible odds, then you are going to be infuriated with the show and movie, because that is NOT what Eva was going for. How many people in real life actually go through a typical arc that we see in so many shows-whiny bitch to confident badass- that we see in so much fiction? The characters in Eva are all terribly flawed, but that is the whole point, you're SUPPOSED to find them despicable or unbearable and then relate to them because their problems are all human issues. It annoys me to no end how people just say the show sucks because they can't see what it was trying to do.
***** Exactly, I understand if you don't like the show or even if you hate the show, but I feel you should understand it at least a little bit before you say whether you like it or hate it.
At least i understood it so far, it is not that kind of anime, that some people were expecting. If you go into this thinking the same old stuff about a character who develops and become a bad***, more than often you're going to be disappointed. Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and some of the rest definitely have some problems with themselves, all while dealing against the angel threat. I don't really hate Shinji or all of them for the matter. I felt more pity and empathize with him, I don't know how people would assume much about this character, knowing he's flawed as heck, and its going to take more than criticism to get this guy to man up. He has problems with his own existence, to him, he's done what he's always told, yet feels constantly hated. He believed that doing what he's told from his father would make things better and so forth, but his own father didn't care for him that much, he left his kid hanging since he was a baby, I hardly call Gendo a bad***, but a fool. So many things he's tried to do yet faces more problems to the point that he's afraid of getting hurt or hurting others, so he shies away from others even more. I find it funny what people would say in real life, yet you can't expect that much from a person like Shinji who doesn't really know what to do, unless he gets some help and guidance til he can stand on his own.
***** Shinji's flaws are just astronomically terrible and constantly get in the way; he's usually being forced to comeback and fight. Shinji's the reason I hated Evangelion for years. The rest of the characters had development and/or somehow overcome their flaws to an extent (Asuka and Misato especially). Shinji's just shit.
Well of course he has to be forced to come back and fight. With the synch level of the Eva's he has experienced the full sensation of having his eye gouged out, arm snapped at the elbow, and being burned alive. Those are only a few instances from the first couple of episodes. You tell me you would be gung-ho enough to get back in the cockpit after all of that. Shinji does some really badass things throughout the series and gets shit done, I don't know why people overlook these instances and go right to point of him being a whiny and worthless character. Plus, at the time of the show he is 14 years old. I doubt that an adult would be able to handle or even comprehend the proposition of the fate of the world and human race being thrust upon them, let alone a kid.
11:38 I know it's around ten years too late but, if there's anything that Razorfist's review of the FFVII remake has taught me, it's that the Japanese have had a long, LONG running issue when it comes to pacing.
I think he was more focusing on how they pronounce it with an S sound, like "say-lay." After listening to some fluent speakers recordings, and speaking to my friend who is from Germany, I've heard near equal pronunciations of it with an E or A sound at the end. Often something sounding like a mixture of the two. IDK, I am not taking German, I am learning Japanese, so I can't really say much. But at the very least I think the fact that they pronounce it wrong is still a relevant point.
Arachi123 No offense, but I've never heard any of my countrymen pronounce Seele like Bennet did here, with an A sound at the end. Not even in the more weirder dialects like Swabian or Bavarian or Saxon.
I like Evangelion. I've watched it subtitled an dubbed, since it first came out in the States. The show suffers from Anno's mental instability at the time, budget issues (having blown its load far too early), and confusing people with religious imagery even though it has been explained by the Japanese staff that such phrases and images of Christianity were used "to make it look cool". Sage got it right in that the shows spends more and more time psychoanalyzing the main characters as the series progresses until the Angels become an afterthought. The orginal ideals that were scrapped for budget reasons was that aliens seeded worlds with Lillim (humanity created from Lilith) and Angels (those of Adam) They were never supposed to mix on the same world. An asteroid sent a vessel with Lilith to Earth that was already entrusted to Adam's Angels, hence the war between the two sides. This is only faintly hinted at in the show. You have to really dig deep to find the plot that should have been. End of Evangelion has its moments of badassary, but it is ultimately the middle finger to anime fans who bitched about the show in Japan back in the late 90s. This movie has a lot of needless stuff in it, Shinji splooge chief among them.
+alamian That's working under the assumption that what he's saying has no grounds. His position is well defined and highlights some of the glaring issues the series has. Love or hate the series as a whole, what he's saying is accurate
+CyberSurferXD Almost, he mostly bitches about the little flaws because he needs to make his reviews funny for the viewers, yes EVA is not perfect, love it or hate it is what it all comes down to but if you think for one second this series is bad on all levels then that you need to reevaluate your taste.
Stevey2578 I have... multiple times. You're completely right when you say that you're entitled to your own opinion and if you love the show good for you; I wouldn't dream of taking that away from you. But by that same logic I'm entitled to view this series as an absolute failure on every front (apart from it's mech design, which I will say is pretty good)
+Stevey2578 I still hate the series. Sorry there are much better shows out there than this Trigun, Gurren Laggan, Kill,la Kill, Soul Eater, Sailor Moon, Outlaw Star, martian successor nadesico, Princess Tutu, Baccano,Fullmetal Alchamest , just to name a few. Eva as a whole just pisses me off. Sorry.
+viraltang you can hate the characters and not like the story. I myself was pissed with a lot of things in this series. But I still like it because it was different from all the animes I watched, even the ones you listed.
I tire of people proclaiming this film/series as "self important." The hacky dismissal of the NGE characters as "whiny teenagers" is a signifier of the Americana, machismo, backwards attitude toward mental health issues. This series is deeply symbolic of serious, clinical depression, not unlike the kind NGE creator Hideaki Anno dealt with.
Ironically enough, it was this exact video that made me interested in the franchise. Happy to say I am fully converted and "EoE" is my 5th favourite film of all time, just under "Eraserhead", "The Passion of Joan of Arc", and every film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. The Netflix dub better not fuck up.
12:21 I wouldn't say the music was meant to call the scene necessarily "high-brow" but more to say there is something beautiful in how tragic it was; as in, it's tragic what Asuka is going through, but it's beautiful that the movie managed to get people rooting for her to the extent that they did. In the main series it would've been easy to gripe over how her personality wasn't as adorable as her face. But her more pitiable moments toward the end of that show are followed unforgettably by her boldness in this scene. Also, just because her Eva has armor doesn't mean it isn't impressive to face down that kind of military hardware without being scared out of her mind. People get startled when animals lunge at them at the zoo, even though those animals are held back by glass presumably regulated for strength. Maybe people don't trust zoo engineering (just as maybe Asuka doesn't trust a sketchy institution like NERV) or maybe it's instinct. Either way, Asuka going all in on that last stand in spite of both is unforgettable. There's criticisms of Asuka I'd consider valid, but "needing help from squadmates and/or armor" isn't one of 'em.
Before I go into a rant, let me say this much: I am not going to try to convince you to love Evangelion. I get it, no series is universally loved. I find Naruto to be the biggest blight on animation, but obviously there's something about it that people enjoy that I just won't ever understand. What I will ask you to do, however, is not treat the show like it's universally _hated_. Point in your favor: The animation/budget. It's a Gainax show. Their name has become synonymous with terrible money management. It's honestly a miracle that Gurren Lagann remained decently consistent through it's entire run. The last two episodes could have probably been a lot better had they not pissed away the cash. But honestly, when the show looks good, it looks really good (for it's time, anyways). And while I can't say anything to defend the infamous Kaworu Klutch, I will stand in defense of the elevator scene. It's long and uncomfortable...Which is exactly the point of the scene. Unlike the Kaworu scene, which was a single unchanging frame, the elevator scene was slightly animated, just enough to make it clearly intentional. So here's the thing: You've got it right that we aren't supposed to like Shinji. What we're supposed to do is _relate_ to Shinji. He's not a hero, he's a kid with a fucked up life. His mother is dead and his father is a cold-hearted megalomaniac willing to sacrifice the entirety of humanity to see her again. He has every right to bitch. _And then he fights giant monsters._ And I'll be honest, as someone who grew up practically alone in a broken family, I totally understood what it was like to be Shinji. He deals with his problems by ignoring them until he doesn't have a choice anymore but the face them. On the subject of Asuka, if it seems like she's being an egotist with nothing to back it up, that's because that's _precisely the point_. Again, she's a character who has a severely fucked up family history. The only positive thing in her life, the only purpose she has for existing, is piloting the Eva. So she puts up this massive front to defend herself. Misato and Ritsuko have a horrible family history each as well. Misato drowns herself in alchohol and a forced smile, Ritsuko turns to work and sex. Each of these characters has their own defense against the bad shit in their lives. And since each of them has suffered somehow at the hands of someone close to them, they protect themselves from other people as well. Gee, it's almost like they're surrounded by some sort of *field*. Like they're *absolutely terrified* thanks to prior trauma. If only there was some sort of hedgehog-related parable that would neatly illustrate the main theme running across the entire series. Are you getting the point yet? Evangelion is not a happy story. The characters are not heroes, and frankly they aren't even good people. The point of watching Evangelion is to watch realistic people suffering, occasionally triumphing, usually failing, and ultimately dying. Just like everyone else. It's about deconstructing the genre by putting realistic characters into a fantastical scenario and watching them lose their shit. And frankly, I find that to be cathartic. I truly believe that there is room in the world for media that isn't traditionally "entertaining," a show that intentionally tries to evoke an unpleasant feeling. After all, fear is not something that people normally want to feel, and yet horror is a massive genre. A negative emotion in a controlled dose can be a good thing. Sometimes it helps to see someone else have a worse day than you are. Or sometimes you want to see a hero win the day and be inspiring. In which case I watch G Gundam.
+AkuTenshiiZero So this show is the most likely to be liked by people who can relate to or really understand Shinji's suffering? That makes perfect sense. Huh. Now I know why I don't like SNK.
+AkuTenshiiZero And yet I think the main reason why the show has its detractors, least in my opinion, removing it from Sage perhaps for a moment, is mostly just due to the fact that the anime is -so- focused on the characters that it almost removes them from the show that its based around, especially in the original episodic cut of the show (I.E not death/rebirth or End). The story that the author wants so desperately to show and tell is the story of Shinji's mental issues, that may have in fact mirrored his own who knows. And thats admirable, but... in a story that is dealing with the actual death of the entire world as one knows it, it comes across as trivial. The reason why Sage and so many others are telling him to get over himself is not because, least I hope, they are being actively hateful or insensitive to a person with a mental issue or a broken home or what not... its just that the focus is so far in that direction, so focused on it, that the actual literal end of the world as humanity knows it is window dressing. The apocalypse, is in fact a side character in Evangelion. And it just seems like, if you wanted to tell a story about a man defeating monsters, metaphorical or literal, as a way of escaping his many problems, you could do it in a lot of better ways than putting it into this sci fi universe. Heck, a real weird comparison perhaps, and maybe a bit of a stretch, but Binding of Isaac touches on similar themes and tropes as Evangelion in terms of its dealing with a kid from a broken family, metaphorically dealing with the issues and detritus of his situation by dealing with 'actual monsters.' Its a very dark, gory, and surrealist approach to a kid who is clearly going through some serious issues in his home life, and dealing with it in a really awful way, because he has no other choices. It works, because the entire setting is in fact this conflict. But in Evangelion, the conflict of Shinji's emotional state is almost completely separated from the fight against the Angels. The two stories, the real life monsters he must defeat and the allegorical monsters in his head don't tie well together, and so when he retreats from the real monsters and into his own mind in the later episodes, it comes across as totally self absorbed and selfish. He is literally choosing his own idea of self worth over becoming the savior of the entire world. That's not the choice of a reluctant hero, that's the choice of an actual villain. Hopefully that explains my own feelings at least.
+AkuTenshiiZero The thing is, real people are actually capable of amazing things. I've seen people with some of the worst back grounds and child hood trauma's go on to be great people. So meh...
+TheMegaUzumaki I don't think I ever claimed to be impartial, outside of saying my views are not necessarily Sage's, especially saying how I ended my thoughts with the phrase "this explains my own feelings at least." Its how I feel about the work, and nothing else. If you like it great, you enjoy an anime you enjoy. I just found it kinda up its own ass and flawed in too many ways to be good.
+TheMegaUzumaki "And yet I think" "least I hope" "Hopefully that explains my own feelings at least." what are you talking about, three instances where we're told these are personal feelings. and it's funny, whenever someone criticizes Shinji, someone always has to come screaming "stop bashing Shinji, he's a realistic, relatable character" maybe you should prefix your personal taste. where is he even bashing Shinji? all he's saying is that Shinji and most of the other characters plights seem trivial and inconsequential to the literal end of the world, and that it detracts from the story when so much emphasis is put on them. that is a valid argument. tl;dr enjoy what you like. if someone disagrees with you, who cares. fan boying is the leading cause of red hair, which we all know causes the loss of your soul.
Guys, be objective: Bennett doesn't actually make very many points. He mostly says, "I don't get it" or "I don't like this character." The only times he actually makes an argument is at 4:55 and 10:00, albeit in a very pretentious way. These arguments have been debunked for years though, so I don't see the whole point of this video other than click baiting and to generate a safehaven for hipsters and people with shit taste to blindly agree with Bennett while shitting on Evangelion. Just because the video is long doesn't mean any actual points were made.
RuckaInc So basically you're just too immature to take in other people's opinions that go against your most beloved shows? Don't get me wrong, I like Evangelion, but jeez I didn't take it seriously at any point throughout the entire thing. It was improbable, convoluted, stupid - yet it had some really interesting characters and the lore of the world it was set in kept bringing me back for more. The religious symbolism was silly at best, and not subtle in any way. While Shinji (or however you spell it in Latin script) was a fucking brat most of the time, his small redeemable qualities made him three dimensional; may I add, only just. I think Benett was way too harsh on this show, but at the same time I think it receives too much praise. I didn't agree with all of his points, but I was mature enough to see _why_ he had his take on the aspects of the show he tackled and I didn't decide to hit dislike. You can keep on living as some sort of childish cunt who can't handle criticism or humour, that's your way of coping with your life. I, however, evolved past that stage when I was, like, twelve years old? I have long left that ignorant, denial-riddled part of my maturation in the dust of my intelligence, yet you appear to be clinging on to it. I strongly suggest you let it go, and realize that most of his points were valid, and if you didn't like it, argue with them in an equally valid and hopefully more mature way. EDIT: Oh, and nice one +1ing your comment. That's really pathetic.
How Sage kind of reflects on "His Life." And how Shinji rejects instrumentality are oddly similar. Evangelion seems like this big fit of OCD where people are just so terrified of the future that they just can't move forward. Adam and Lilith are like the mom and/or dad that we can't control being born to and then the rest of the story is focused on dealing with traumas and getting brutalized and over-sensitized repeatedly. In the end, you just have to pick up the pieces and move on just like in Evangelion when Shinji remateralizes out of the LCL and has to figure out what to do next. At least that's how I understand it.
Even though I gave the episode a thumbs "down", I appreciate the hard work you go through to put your time, effort and opinions on the internet. And I Did watch it all the way through to the end bcs I care. You are very Welcome.
This guy said Asuka's moment against the evas isn't bad ass because she fails at defeating them. He then goes on to show the definition of bad ass with a clip of the major from Ghost In The Shell FAILING to stop a giant tank............Why hasn't any one pointed this out and how can a review who claims to have critical thinking skills have missed this?
Asuka is fighting enemies that nobody thinks have a chance of winning with barely any resistance until she gets taken out by a lucky shot, while she does insane rambling. The Major is fighting a big tank unarmed. The only chance she has is forcing the hatch open, hoping it gives out before her body. Also it is a character moment (at least Sage claims it is, I haven't seen Ghost in the Shell yet). Had Asuka declared her comrades are more important than her ego and if her EVA is getting more and more wrecked as the battle goes on, then it would have been badass.
MarginalSC It doesn't matter if she succeeded or not. The context matters. Her fighting some unaugmented crooks would not be badass, fighting a tank is. At least if she has no other choice.
A friend of mine once said "Man, I remember when the Evangelion movie was announced, everyone was so pumped that it was going to fix the last part of the show... and then it came out and everyone wasn't so much livid as wildly and unanimously confused as to what on earth happened"
As for the masterbation scene, it is actually very important to Shinji's character development. However, Evangelion is definitely not for everyone, and that's okay.
Yep. I worked that much out when I first saw that scene: Shinji had hit rock bottom. All those buried feelings towards Oscar coupled with teenage hormones lead him to do something to despicable that even he realised what an utter mess of a person he had become. It was a very emotionally powerful scene. A real kick in the teeth.
To say nothing of the fact that Shinji was in such a state of thirsting for any human contact, that even this fake version of it seemed... better than nothing.
Casey J It's something difficult to understand. People often have some knee-jerk reactions to certain things, which are immediately "totally bad", without paying attention to context. That is a pity. Life is hardly ever black or white; we should know that by now. But people still have their pet peeves and triggers...
And sometimes people can see the point of the scene but other feelings outweigh that. To use myself as an example, I can totally see the above meanings, but I'm sqicked out too hard for the prevailing reaction to be appreciation for the visceral character development. It doesn't mean that the meaning isn't an integral part of the scene and its place in the film; it means that the vehicle for the metaphor and character development didn't work for me. It's a thing that happens. I cannot say for Sage how things are balanced in his opinion, of course, but I can say that internet reviews tend to be better-viewed if the expression therein is less nuanced and that videos like this are often fairly cramped as a medium. Those are likely factors in the way he expressed things in this video.
As one long-time otaku speaking to another, you're welcome, Sage. Keep it up. You're not wasting your life if you really have a passion for what you're doing. Keep the faith.
As someone who suffered from a long term depression from violence in my past, Eva was a massive, beautifully directed, animated (when things actually moved), intricately-written kick to the balls. Shinji encompasses everything that is bad about chronic depression: running away, turning down help, blaming yourself, and of course, crying a lot. Though Anno's depiction of Shinji is extremely accurate and fleshed out, it comes off as "Hey, all you people like this are parasites on society". Of course not all protagonists have to be likeable, but they have to be at least tolerable, which Shinij is not. The plot implodes whenever Shinji so much thinks something that makes him upset, taking away from the other characters' time to grow. Shinji never really becomes a functioning individual, and it further adds to the insult of "All of you other depressed people are crybabies" I basically did everything Shinji didn't to overcome my depression and become happy again. Awaiting 60 line comment telling me how dense and wrong I am filled with vocabulary intentionally bloated to confuse me and other readers. Even Anno hates his fans, he's said it multiple times in interviews, it's why Shinij wanks off; Anno's showing everyone what they did to his precious baby...
I suppose all those who went through depression have a hard time seeing it depicted so well in fiction. You have my sympathy -- from someone whose depression was perhaps not as long-term, but was just as deeply felt. I hope you're feeling well.
Oh yeah I'm feeling a lot better now. Shinji wouldn't have been as frustrating if he weren't mono-dimensional. All he was was a freakishly accurate depiction of adolescent depression. If he had grown a little bit or had just a few more moments of happiness, EVA would easily be one of my favourites. It's why I like characters like Vash so much; they have so many layers and the layers fold together perfectly, kinda like origami lol.
Neil McInnis But I suspect the point of the animē was not to depict a best-case scenario... That's Gurren Lagann, where a similarly self-doubting, depressive Simon grows up to become the savior of the universe in 27 episodes. The traditional Hero's Path. NGE was about something else: a more realistic scenario in which the people around the 'hero' are not so invested in (or are not really capable of supporting) the hero's happiness or helping him through moments of trauma and self-doubt. As I've said once, if Shinji had Kamina, Yōko Littner and Nia with him instead of Gendo, Misato, Rei and Asuka, he would have become a traditional bad-ass hero, since he obviously had all the potentitial (much more than Simon had... can you imagine Simon if he had to deal with Asuka, Rei, Gendo and Misato?...). But NGE is not a traditional hero story; it is the much less often told story of what happens when the hero can't get support and can't solve his problems by himself (like most depression patients). It is adolescent depression, no doubt -- and quite realistic at that. And that's something that, up until NGE did it, wasn't really part of animē. We had lots of dark (anti-)heroes that were part demon and thus "couldn't really be only good" or something like that; but we didn't have a hero with all the potential of a true bad-ass hero but problems he couldn't solve by himself and no friends to help him. Something more akin to real life, where we usually have to pay to get this kind of help... (One wonders why NERV headquarters had no staff psychologists. Didn't they ever think this might be necessary?...)
Well yeah I knew NGE was a super meta commentary on the hero's story and mech anime. My issue with Shinji is that he's boring; he never really changes, he's a flat character. All the other teens I've known with depression (basically all of them) had so much more going on than just self-doubt, comparing themselves to others, and abusive parents. They all had that and more: trauma, death of family/friends, bullying, the list goes on. Shinji frustrates people because his struggles and failures come off more as "If you're a depressed teen, fuck you, this is what the world will do to you." Obviously it's truthful, but the message is sent in a condescending way. Even when Shinji gets verbally bitch slapped, as Sage put it, he doesn't really change. It's why stories of how characters mask or overcome their depression are better received and more interesting to watch: there's simply more there than tears. If Shinji had just a little bit more to him he could get away with crying and running away constantly, but there isn't much more to him, and it's why he really, REALLY pisses people off. Anyway, thanks for the polite and informed discussion. I love talking about this kind of thing. Hell, reading your comment helped my own writing!
You know, when my friends and I saw this movie for the first time... When the "in Shinji's hands" line came along... We all said in a single voice... "Awww shit... Mankind is fucked..." I knew we couldn't be the only ones thinking that but, for the first time in years, we could agree to one single thing regarding Evangelion...
I almost feel that the Baseball scene was a subtle reference to Evangelion's Psychological aspects, i don't know... it was the feeling; the mood of the scene, if you will, that almost implied that BennetTheSage both liked, and hated Evangelion in multiple ways. I enjoyed Evangelion, but man... it had some F##ked up moments...
I find it wholly interesting how crazy intense these arguments were (this video is very old, so I'm speaking in past tense about the fire comments section below) discrediting Sage and taking up arms to defend this anime. I only think I've seen similar fights like this on his Aeon Flux video. I won't disregard the fact that they have a lot of fans, but Grave of the Fireflies didn't get nearly as much flame towards Sage (though I remember there was some). I wonder if the super defensive are that way because, with Aeon Flux and this movie, made them feel smarter by understanding it, and Sage tearing it apart as he did, was an affront to these peoples's intelligence. I admit, I haven't seen Evangelion, but from what I've seen, it appears to come off as incredibly smart, with all the imagery alluding to higher and more philosophical ideas. I don't know whether or not they deliver on said statements, but I do think that they both have the ability to make the viewer feel smart while watching it. That's my interpretation, at least.
+Commander Shepard You're most likely not gonna answer back to this since it's been two weeks since you posted this but I still like to give'ya my two cents on Evangelion. I think the tries too hard to be smart and the end result is something that's confusing and nonsensical, it doesn't help that there isn't anyone that stands out among the characters and everyone is more or less forgettable so ultimately it's a show with a lot of ideas but no clue how to execute them properly.
buck342443 Hey dude, I shall respond, as I kinda did want a response. And i agree with you. That's kind of the mood that I got from this review. A pretentious anime that was trying to pretend that it was saying more than the hollow, basic story it was actually telling. But I'm also saying that, at face value, it LOOKED smart. All the imagery made the watcher feel smart if they caught something that wasn't directly told to them. I think the people this defend this look at it as a shot to their own intelligence. They saw the movie as deep and intelligent, but here comes some reviewer telling them that they were being played and played right into the anime's hand.
Oh I agree that is does look very smart and I can understand how people can get upset when something they love is being attacked, I'm a Power Rangers fan so I know the pain lol, it's just that Evangelion failed to engage at every level. I think the show lacked a true sense of focus which is it's real problem, maybe if it wasn't as plot heavy it could have worked better.
We're on the same side here. I'm just trying to decode why there was so much debate. There must've been something to appeal to people with this, or it wouldn't be as defended as it is. It's not just something you like being attacked. It's something you like being attacked, and your intelligence as a person placed in question. I love the movie Ex Machina (watch if you haven't), and I thought that it was amazing in the way it expressed the ideas that it wanted to tell. But, if someone told me it was a pretentious pile of crap that didn't express anything more than "robots are bad", I would get offended and demand they try to see my side of things. And that's where I think the hate is coming from. I'm just trying to understand the other side, that's all.
I see now, my guess is that it's possibly the theme and the message that resonates with people so much is why it's defended so strongly. Even though I don't understand or care to understand Evangelion I will not discredit it's fanbase and say it has no meaning what so ever because that would be obviously not true, maybe the possible connection it has with it's fanbase is that it can be interrupted in many different ways, much like religious text, so basically it's strength is that you can take what ever you want from it pretty much?
Point 1-4 of your SEELE clipboard issues, it's the difference between humanity being destroyed + Angels achieving superior status, and humanity being the one to achieve the next step and become LCL where you have no bad issues between humans. Basically it's the difference between becoming "zero" and becoming "one".
I feel like this video is a good indicator of how Sage's videos have improved. A film angers him. Fair enough, but past Sage starts directing that anger towards the people who aren't angered by the film simply for not being angered by it, which neatly explains the ungodly amount of dislikes. (And for the record- no, I'm not just being butthurt because he didn't like it. I've never seen the film or the cartoon series it was based on. I wouldn't know if I like it or not.)
(WATCH OUT; MAJOR PRETENSE BELOW) Bennett's main argument falls kind of moot (at least with me) by his mere suggestion that visual flourishes, dreamscapes and non-sequitor symbolism and the like have to be relevant to a film's central story, whether in a narrative or thematic sense. Sometimes storytellers dabble in the nonsensical to stimulate awe and convey certain feelings that otherwise wouldn't be conveyable within the confines of any concrete plotting and Eva's brand of audio and visual cacophony is ultimately why Evangelion (despite its countless flaws) works so well for me. Faith, sex, violence, family and friendship are a big part of any adolescent's coming-of-age and Anno chops and blends those ideas into a feverish adventure that's confounding, frustrating, and often breathtaking. Picking apart EoE as a coherent narrative package is like going to the opera for the story and lyrics. Why not just enjoy the symphony?
A person's truth is so simple, that most ignore it to concentrate on what they think are deeper truths. -Kaji, Neon Genesis Evangelion Pretty much sums up the comment section. The casuals who don't get Evangelion are trying to read some kind of religious or existential symbolism into the show (that may or may not exist), and ignore the fundamental story and primary message it provides. They judge it vaguely because they immediately jump to the conclusion that the most vague (and complex) part of the story is it's main attribute. They fail to realize that the show offers so much more if they open their minds to it's inner moral and teachings. Either that or they are too fucking stupid to even get the show, and try to justify their inferiority by acting like the show itself is even more stupid than them.
Emil Vang I am not fully refreshed on the show myself, as I haven't watched myself in some time (I watched it last maybe a month after I made the first comment). However, there are some very obvious themes that shine through. Each Character in the show teaches us something if we dare to identify them on an individual level (examples being Asuka's Obsessive nature teaching us the danger of Ambition and Overconfidence, and Shinji's frail Integrity teaching us the importance of communication and openness). Are you happy, or are you going to continue to waste my time over a comment I made 5 months ago?
I disagree with you Bennett, but I do respect your opinion on the matter and overall I've got to say that your critiques are at the very least interesting and fun to watch. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a very polar series and the film the End of Evangelion intensified that schism between those who loved it and those who hated it. I tend to fall into the former category, but I don't see any fault with the logic of those who have actual reasons to fall into the latter. It's a personal preference thing though and if it isn't to your liking then that's perfectly fine, it has a certain niche to fill and it does its job in that regard very well. It all depends on how much you can relate to the characters in Eva and that boils down to "how badly do you hate yourself". Being that I've been a fan for longer than I can honestly remember, and that I still find excuses to talk about it whenever I can, says a bit about myself. What I am curious about however is how you see RahXephon, which is essentially NGE on anti-depressants. Since you haven't put out a video that I've seen it would be nice if you could post your thoughts on it and explain how you reached your conclusion (much like you've done here). If you don't that's fine too, but if it's at all possible could you at the very least post a small entry on it as a reply to this (if you can that is)
Well Bennett, the reason I clicked on this video was to be amused. And you have succeeded in that department. ...Also...what the hell is with all the dislikes...aren't people allowed to have their opinions anymore?
+HisHolyMajesty Interesting you saying that, as I saw another comment by you in another video, talking about how dreadful Neon Genesis Evangelion. I sometimes see that people who make the "opinion", not all, but often have the same opinion as the reviewer. I've seen this making up almost half of the comments for this review. I wonder if Bennett the Sage said Evangelion was the best anime ever, would you have still made this comment or would you have told Bennett his opinion was wrong and said Evangelion was a shit anime?
+Stupidnonmovingcartoon I would disagree with him, but people are entitled to have their own opinions. I certainly wouldn't dislike a video because someone has a different opinion to me. I dislike Evangelion immensely, but I can see why many like it, and I can respect that it's still popular these days. I just find it a little too depressing for my taste. Per chance, which comment of mine did you read?
Yeah man, why does everyone hate this movie, more importantly why hate the series itself? (I see nothin' wrong with it)... well maybe the dub, but still.
Roy Whitaker For me, it's nothing making any sense and all the pointless symbolism. But I do like the visuals, I think the characters do have some good story and emotions behind them. I wanted to like EVA, but I don't. I love what it tried to bring, I didn't like what it was. It's kinda sad for me really. But at the very least, this anime made history and invokes learning when it comes to story telling and such.
I know you posted this five years ago, so it would be cool if you replied and still had your account lol. I wanted to ask why. It’s my favorite movie, and I keep up with the sub reddit. What’s wrong with the fan base? They seem fine.
Lord knows if I was Shinji I would buck up and save the world. And I suffer from chronic depression. When the world is at stake, my problems mean little to noting. Seriously Shinji, GROW UP!
Good for you, but please admit that an unlikable character isn't necessarily a poorly written character. In fact, it's often the most flawed and selfish protagonists who are the most compelling (which is why a story like Macbeth can remain ageless). Part of what turns me off of the anime genre (aside from EVA and other examples) is how the main characters are often these male archetypes who are just too bland and one-dimension to hold my interest. Shinji's callousness and social exile is not only fascinating but essential to EVA's themes concerning adolescent coming-of-age, the dangers of child-exploitation in war, civil collapse, etc. If you're frustrated by Shinji then Anno was doing his job.
WheresPoochie Nah. I usually hate anti heroes. I like straight, unapologetic good guys who do the right thing because it's the right thing. Batman, Spike Speagal, The Punisher, I really kinda hate them. They're kinda dicks.
WheresPoochie Who said it had to have no weight. Good guys can still develop and learn. They can be forced to question their morals even if they never truly falter.
WheresPoochie That may be, but when the protagonist is unlikeable you fucked up as a writer. Death Note almost fell into this territory, but by the time Light Yagami became truly irredeemable you wanted him to fail and be caught, thus the end was satisfying for most. Shinji doesn't really have any good qualities.
+Crimson Vulpes Evangelion has a very strange fanbase. It is a very teenage oriented anime (pinguins, for instance) with a big whoop of drama and angst. But then has a fucking in his own ass ending and everybody was convinced that it mean something other than the director really really liked cocaine
It was really dumb how Gendo and SEELE's plans were never really mutually exclusive. Both got what they wanted; they never had to butt heads the way they did. The conflict felt forced. It was also dumb how SEELE planned to kill Shinji in the beginning, but later needed him as an integral part of the 3rd Impact - citing the destruction of his ego as the completion for the plan. Like, dude, you were JUST trying to kill him 5 seconds ago, and now he's needed?? Lmao. And if the counterargument was that he wasn't technically needed, and that that was just another way to achieve the 3rd Impact/Instrumentality, then wow, that's EXTREMELY convenient. Those were my 2 biggest issues with the plot.
"shinji's annoying" if I had a dime every time I heard that I wish people had more characters like Shinji. Truly fucked-up characters who have become utterly insane given the situations they're in. But nope, "I think you should throw out all that psychological stuff -- exploring a killer's sick mind," said Betty from Sunset Blvd. I see the same mentality stays here.
Thank you for this honest review. Personally, I did enjoy the vast majority of NGE, so my comment isn't focused on just "The End of Evangelion", and albeit that, I truly see where you are coming from. Our experience with what the anime left us with after the credits rolled, what you portrait from 28:00 onward, is fairly similar though, and I think that is the most important part about the work that is NGE.
Interesting....the responses I'm reading below are strangely similar to how people respond to this movie. Confusion. Anger. Praise. Depression. Ambivalence. End of Evangelion is like the Pandora's Box or Ark of the Covenant of anime...the series itself ended with two episodes devoted entirely to psychological introspection that we were left completely in the dark as to what was actually happening in the "real" world...something that the creators didn't want to tell us (or never got around to actually creating an ending due to the budget being pulled). We the audience demanded the box of reality be opened...and once that box was opened and you looked, you were forever changed (or you were so f'ed up to begin with that this didn't even affect you). Hats off to you Sage for a well done review.
I still come back to this review whenever I feel down about myself. Half for the speech Bennett gives about being something, half for Brett's speech at the end.
I like a lot of sage's reviews but I strongly disagree with his Eva reviews. All he does is nit pick and bash the crap outa it with out giving it any credit. I love NGE but I understand it's not for everyone. The old animation and average voice acting turns a lot of people off and the characters can be unlikable and the ending (even though I like it) gets a little full of its self and is confusing to most people. The thing I hate is how most people who don't like it just hate it because "Shinji is annoying and the ending is bad" and because of those problems to certain people they just hate the whole show and go out of their way to hate on it and anyone who brings up a good point about it just gets called an idiot or a NGE fan boy. It's fine if u don't like something, but you don't have to go out of your way to hate on it and bully anyone who likes it and give the show no credit to its good qualities.
lassi kinnunen Give the ending some thought. Read the interpretations of others - it will all start making sense, and I believe you will truly appreciate it.
This was great to watch. The breakdown and the baseball scene were well shot that made me look at you a bit deeper. You do us all a great service with your videos partner.
I initially enjoyed the show due to how more limited robots were compared to Gundam and Zoids, it gave it a nice sense of identity. Then you have to hear Asuka and Shinji be insufferable for hours, souring whatever enjoyable world building seemed to be around. Yet even then they decide to go full religious seizure and whatever interesting world building goes right out the window for sensory overload and sexual themes Delivery of a product is important because no matter how interesting the product may be, someone dropping it, kicking it, or getting it wet devalues it and may in fact ruin it
I feel like EOE has one of the initial plot set-ups I've ever seen, and then gets completely sidetracked by its own symbolism. I love the idea of Sele\UN launching a full assault against NERVE. This agency full of our protagonists is now a massive threat to everyone in the world. The sheer scale of their military might is matched only by their ability to peel back the philosophical curtain and show plebeians everywhere exactly what the elite power players never wanted them to see. But if the task force strikes now, NERVE still has one notable weakness. The EVA pilots are kids, and not even the most emotionally stable ones. This entire film should have been about every faction capable of supplying ammo clips giving NERVE the final middle finger. The movie would have been much better served if the filmmakers had just followed that basic plot line, and the characters' reactions to it. I love Evangelion, but I often love what it could have been. In my imagination, I see an alternate reality where the story's gonzo philosophy was somewhat more balanced against standard narrative conventions. As popular as the existing version was\is, the potential of that alternative seems limitless. I think that's the logic behind the rebuild films.
8 ปีที่แล้ว +8
1. Beacuse what they want was instrumentality in their own way, when all the humanity was joined as one and not the fucking angels destroying all the world. 2. ???? Some angels have intelligence, but they didn't cooperate with Seele, Kaworu was abducted by Seele the moment he was born (Second Impact), he was raised by Seele. They send him exactly knowing that he will be killed, he was the last angel. 3. He thought that Lilith was Adan, he was tricked by Seele. The merge of Adan's soul and body will mean the end of mankind, something that he realized he didn't want it to choose it, it was a decision that meant to be taken by the Lilin (mankind). 4. I already explain it, it was all a plan to kill him, the last angel. You could think "then why they don't kill right away?" mmm maybe beacude of his AT field and superpowers? maybe. 5. At the end the plan was mostly the same: instrumentality but in different ways. Gendo want it to merge adan and lilith with him as medium (adan's body was in his hand) to see Yui again (maybe in the ocean of LCL as when Shinji saw her), but what happened was that Shinji was the medium, Seele maybe predicted this I'm not so sure beacause it all felt down and at the end Shinji rejects instrumentality for the sake of mankind and for a chance to be happy. Woow that was fun, if you don't like Eva I get it but it's not that difficult to understand it...well maybe if you saw it SUB, with a good fansub (some are better than the official one), it will be more easy. This dub is awful so as the spanish one in terms of script (yes I'm an spanish speaker, sorry for the grammar). But hey it's all a matter of opinion, and I don't agree with yours.
+Cool I love videos like this. I get to scroll down and invariably see someone commenting out his distaste for how someone else offended them to anyone who'll "listen." You're shouting into the darkness and it's wonderful.
inferno hypocrisy noun: n. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness. For example him complaining about something being pretentious while being even more pretentious than said thing
This has got to be the most ignorant review of end of evangelion I've ever seen (granted, I've only seen a few). I think this not because his opinion is different than mine, (I personally liked it even with some of it's problems) but because Bennett the Sage clearly doesn't understand the story and the characters. It seems like he was expecting the explanations to be handed to him when EoE has a story that you really need to sit back and analyze to understand what happened. This was one of Anno's main goals when creating Evangelion saying that too many shows just handed everything over to the viewer and didn't make them think and try to figure things out for themselves. Now I don't have anything against Bennett, I just don't think he did a very good job with this review.
Once again Sage misses the forest for the trees. I can imagine his review of 2001: A Space Odyssey going something like "There was no character development. This movie is a slow and overblown pretentious mess. This is terrible."
"Why would ground soldiers fighting in a bunker carry a flame thrower?" Because that's actually what they were designed for, clearing out enemy bunkers. The idea is you can just stick it into a door or window and fill the room with fire instead of charging in and getting shot at.
+Meep “the” Changeling
Except they were in a building with easily collapsible walls and supports, not an armored concrete bunker with only narrow slits to shoot the occupants through with conventional guns.
+Ikrani "Easily collapsible walls"
Lazy Miko
Easily in that a man who is angry enough could leave a dent in them with his bare fist, never mind what a bunch of guys with medium-caliber rifles and machine guns could do.
Plus, you can't set concrete on fire and bring the roof of a bunker down on yourself when you go in looking for survivors or intel.
+Meep “the” Changeling
Also, they weren't fighting in a bunker.
+Ikrani they dropped a nuke on that thing and it was still standing
God. An Evangelion video comment section is like a battlefield.
It's on TH-cam too. Blood. Blood everywhere.
Truth
Full of poppy flowers?
God, I can't say the same for the show but if this movie is anything to go on, wow. This movie SUCKS, aside from the artsy fartsy stuff it just ends in apocalypse and pure psychopathic visions from Shinji losing his friends and mind. If this is the end, then tell me what the point of this whole series was? You want a good story fine, but make it into a story, don't make art out of it. Not all good works have symbolism but when they do it includes straight up show and tell, not mind fuckery. Given Sage didn't finish the review but still the movie itself was all over the place
@@gaminggoof1542 The show from my perspective was better written than the movie, it's just that the reason this movie was so bad was because Headeki Anno was pressured by the toxic part of the fanbase to make this movie because they didn't like the ending of the og series. He literally made this movie just to shut them up.
"The fate of mankind now lies in Shinji's hands."
Yep, we're screwed.
Yep in a depressed suicidal 14 year old kid hands.....
I think Bill & Ted would do a better job than Shinji.
So, the fate of everyone is held in the hands of a depressed, suicidal, psychotic 14 year old with an Oedipus Complex.
Well, I'm going to meet Jesus. Farewell, doomed world. *bang*
@@avremirine8986 I honestly want to see that
I want to see an alternate reality take on Evangelion where Gendo Ikari dies in the first episode. And they get a competent therapist with mandatory sessions for all the pilots.
Ya know, I always have to wonder if any form of medium ever had therapists in their universes...
Crowley9 Then humanity would get fucked over earlier then usual lol
Tony Davis there was kinda a therapy session in young justice, and in teen wolf when a guy attacks a school... oh yeah and Michaels therapist in gta 5 but other than that I can't think
james harrison Then which (show, game, etc.) made the characters feel/become better and not so much?
Tony Davis just in young justice and teen wolf.
long story short the cast think they did something horrific and aren't happy with how they reacted to a scenario, and black canary helped talk most of them through it.
The moment in teen wolf was helping stiles get past his sleep deprivation caused by a massacre caused by someone he knew from school, and him nearly being killed by lizard man with paralysing venom which helped (for a bit).
michaels shrink was just a dick
Asuka WAS overcompensating. That was the point. It was a fake persona to hide from near suicidal self-loathing. When Asuka was very young, her mother, Kyoko, went insane and ceased to recognize her as her daughter. When Kyoko committed suicide, Asuka found her body, with the doll Kyoko believed to be her own daughter hanged right beside her, in a sort of would-be murder-suicide. Her father seemingly never cared about her mother or Asuka in the first place, and began having an affair with the head nurse in charge of her. So far in her life, the people she cared about either a) killed themselves or b) revealed that they didn't care at all. Asuka threw herself into learning how to pilot EVA-02 in a desperate attempt to earn affection from others. She also feels that anyone she cares about will leave her, so she developed a fake arrogant personality to hide her real insecure self and push everyone away.
That just makes her even less likable
@@TyRiders2 ...you're really stretching
@@JCOdrjones How??
@@TyRiders2 Because you're expecting someone who's gone through so much trauma to be "likable" rather than finding her sympathetic. You don't have to like a character for a character to be good, but to judge a character just through their "likability" and hate them when they "do something logical/I wouldn't do" then you're probably not going to really understand a character. You're just gonna find reasons to hate characters who don't conform to what you think "should" happen.
Or at least that's Bennett's smooth brain logic.
And? Fuck her shit happens get over.
Asuka isn't badass; she's tragic. You pity her, you don't envy her.
+TheMegaUzumaki I view that as a redeeming quality for her and a trait which plays into her shared psychological baggage with Shinji and Misato. She needs attention and recognition so much, she fails to realize how pointless her very existence is and how ultimately futile her mission is. When confronted with the fact that she's increasingly inept at her job, her existential angst begins to eat away at her until she's reduced to a snivelling child who has to resort to delusions of acceptance and love to function at a basic level. That singularly human experience is very endearing to me in the pity is elicits.
+TheMegaUzumaki Eheh... Cause pity is synonymous with admiration.
+TheMegaUzumaki Neither Gollum, Mr. Freeze or Roy Batty act in a self-described moral manner. They all act in a purely self-interested manner, Gollum in his obsession with the One Ring, Mr. Freeze in his quest to resurrect his ailing wife and Roy Batty in his existential search for his identity, as determined by his technical specifications. Rorschach does so due to severe ideological extremism born from his childhood trauma. None of them acknowledge their personal problems, or if they do, forget about it out of habit. Asuka is most closely related to Rorschach in that they share a massively traumatic childhood which forces their extreme attitude, Rorschach in the form of his ideological extremism due an instilled perception regarding justice over a long life of severe injustice and Asuka with a forced sense of maturity born out of childhood neglect and a constant need for parental approval from Kaji which takes the form of pure bitchiness, teenage angst and transferred sexual frustration. These are extremely common and readily sympathetic psychological problems which, if you can't identify with, most likely means you never experienced a similar situation or react in a negative way to such situations as presented in a fictional setting due to any number of reasons. I'm done with this discussion. I should have realized earlier that your opinion of this series is, as it is with everyone who's seen it, too extreme to change. Just... Enjoy what you want. I'll stick with what I enjoy.
+TheMegaUzumaki How is she not?
+TheMegaUzumaki she is kay a kid. that's why I pity her. even in her moment of epiphany she gets brutally killed. it's not really her fault she was so naive.
Me and my wife have a running joke. When an ending sucks, we look at each other and say "congratulations"
After watching The End of Evangelion for the first time I was depressed for two days.
Yet the "happy ending" theory is the easiest one to argue for...
you're not the only one
Declan McEvoy You Are (NOT) Alone
........Anyone want to fanfic an ending more like "Monty Python's Life of Brian"?
@Warkon Shows what a shallow moron you are.
When I watched this review I always wondered about something;
You clearly express your dislike for Evangelion, which is something I not only respect but actually can relate to. I believe I can call myself a big Eva fan, that much is clear. I was introduced to the show in 2001 and to this day it still remains the work of fiction that has affected me the most. It opened me to other anime and science fiction shows and I know I wouldn't be who I am now without it.
The thing is, when I saw The End of Evangelion it really hurt. It hurt me so much I couldn't help but feel angry at myself for ever liking the show. I felt sick, I felt confused, I felt angry... I began to question a lot of things. I was just a young teenager back then, I didn't have all the knowledge or insight to understand most of the movie; hell I think I can safely say I didn't get most of it. I just remember going for a walk under the rain that day, feeling a really big emptiness inside.
I was angry at Evangelion for a long time. I began to think ''Did the show trick me?'', ''Is that show pretentious?'' ''Did I not understand anything when I was watching it?''
It made me want to get rid of my Evangelion stuff. I wanted to take my posters off the walls, put away the few figures I had and just forget about the show. I don't remember how long that lasted, but for a while whenever a friend asked me about Evangelion I would tell them I didn't want to talk about it.
One day on the bus I decided to listen to the Evangelion soundtrack on my walkman. I remember how scenes of the show began to come back to me as I was listening to the music. I began to remember the show little by little, thinking back to how I felt when I first watched it. I thought to myself maybe I could give the show a second chance; maybe I could give it another watch. For the next couple of months, I would watch the show a lot. I watched it out of order, read about it online, showed it to friends... I wanted to know what other people thought about it and how it made them feel. I became really interested in how people felt about Eva and what impression it had left on them.
After a while, I understood something: I truly am an Evangelion fan. I love the show just as much as I hate it. It brought me a lot of fun but it also really hurt me. There's a lot of things I dislike about the show, but some of these things are actually fascinating to me now. Sometimes I'll say to someone I can recommand the show to them, but sometimes it will be the complete opposite. There's just one thing I can't deny; I have a passion for Evangelion.
This brings me back to my main point:
When I saw your review I was taken by surprise when you dropped the review around 24:15. Of course I know that you took the time to write a script for your video and that you must have gone through many takes and editing to make it look this natural. I know that your review is not improvisation. The thing is, the last part of this video really got to me.
The way you dropped your review and began to question yourself about what you've been doing with your life to this point reminded me of how I felt after watching The End of Evangelion. You even went outside like I did, talked to people about your insecurities and about how confused you felt. I could really relate to that situation, even if it was scripted for the review.
I makes me wonder: did you intentionally include this segment in the review because you felt it was ironically fitting to Evangelion to have the internal monologue of a single character take over the script during the last part?
...or did The End of Evangelion truly make you feel this way? I can't help but feel like it's a mix of both, but I might be wrong.
In the end I have to say I really like your review. Good job on taking on Evangelion, it's not an easy beast. =)
+Nicolas Gravel This should be one of the top comments for this video. I´ve just watched the series and the film (not the reboots yet) these past weeks, and your thoughts make a lot of sense to me. I wanted to hear differents opinions on the show, and I enjoyed watching this video, even though for me it was a bit harsh and over the top.
I think the ending of this video was the best part, and really what the series is all about, besides delivering a cool story: introspection, asking yourself important questions, going outside of the anime world for a while (as a comfort zone), and finding your own meaning to life. Nice work, both of you! ;)
Nico Neko m
Kimochi Warui
Purhaps the perfect retrospect for Evangelion as a whole. From both ends of the spectrum
Nico Neko There's this video I had seen from a guy called Dan Olsen, and it was what actually made me not only love the show and "End", it is why I consider them works of art. It certainly cleared up my view of the franchise as a whole and I hope that you take something from it. I hope you are doing well and thank you for your comment.
In this review, we see Sage intentionally aiming to piss off EVA fans while breaking down a film that was also aiming to piss off EVA fans. Art.
The last part not even being true
@@monetum1392 so true. I’d argue at least the third rebuild movie was more likely meant to piss off eva fans especially the ones that didn’t like the first two
Having read what Evangelion fans have to say about the series, the ending, the films, etc., I am starting to become convinced that NO ONE actually likes eva. And people who call themselves fans might just be doing it more for the social clout than any other real reason. I admit, it's a ridiculous conspiracy theory on my end, that is probably not true and I cannot prove it. But it makes a lot more sense to me than genuinely liking anything about this series or any merits it may have. I tried to watch it all with an open mind, and I just couldn't find very much appealing about it. That said, many fans of the show seem to have a more thorough grasp on what exactly bothers them about the show, and are better at describing its flaws than I am.
@@FeministCatwoman Hi, I'm No One, have we met?
@@FeministCatwoman go back to school
Watching these old reviews of Evangelion, as someone who not only got into anime fairly recently (a couple of years ago), AND whose introduction to Sage was with, surprisingly enough, his re-review he did of Eva the same the year I discovered and was obsessed with it, and watching this for the first time knowing how Bennett currently feels about his old work and Eva....is quite the emotional trip.
A guy who for some time, infamously hated one of the most successful, acclaimed and influential anime of all time, but secretly couldn't help but relate to it.
Dare I say: Bennett sometimes makes me feel like I'm watching Evangelion again.
Out of the Evangelion analyses I've read/seen, his are the ones that have stuck with me the most (so far anyway, but still).
His old work was so much better, ironically he's become so pretentious and takes himself, and wants everyone else, to take him soooooo seriously it's outright obnoxious, and it's ironic your introduction brought you to this video where he makes the same criticism about NGE
This show and the old TV series changed my life. Anno at his best. Absolutely brilliant artistry. Most people didn't "get it", but it has a lot to teach about finding value in your life. It took me a second watching before I was convinced my life could matter.
*corrects German pronunciation*
*uses wrong German pronunciation in their correction*
fail
When did that happen?
right after 8:02 ..the part with Seele. ro.forvo.com/word/Seele/
what? Do you have hearing problems? That was not even close. Siehle != Seele
The way they pronounce it in NGE "say-lay" actually sounds better to me than "see-luh" or whatever this basement dweller thinks he's saying
I'm confused to what it is you are fighting for. I looked through every link you gave out and all of them seem to show that he is saying seele correctly. Is there something else I'm missing?
In terms of you rnumbered questions about SEELE:
1. Because their goal was never to permit the Angels to usurp humanity's reign. They knew what was coming, but instead decided to battle them and hold humanity's control over their own world. Just because there is a prophesized "successor" that doesn't mean that you have an unparalleled need to abide by the limitations of the prophecy, especially if it means your own destruction.
2. The Angels aren't in league with one another, and are not at all connected beyond belonging to vaguely similar species. It's not as if there's some League of Angels in space that decide weekly to attack earth. Angels appear from their own pockets in the cosmos in search of Adam. Kaworu is one such Angel, and chose to instead interface with humans rather than recklessly and mindlessly progress towards Adam like most of the others did. The end goal was similar, but the means of acquiring it was different. All Angels fight in a different manner, many with similarities, none are identical. Especially not the Lilim.
3. Because Kaworu didn't ever merge with Lilith. Rei did. Kaworu was killed a long while back. The only thing you saw resembling Kaworu was a phantom. Not to mention Kaworu's goal was never to interface with Lilith, it was to understand the Lilim that inhabited Earth, and it chose Shinji as a subject because Shinji was extremely willing to communicate with anybody who wanted to communicate with him, so when Kaworu 's unconditional friendliness was presented to Shinji, there was an inherent mutual benefit. He isn't in league with Seele, he's just following their orders to achieve whatever mysterious agenda he has at the end of the day.
4. Because they had been expressing their desire to battle the prophecy as thoroughly as possible. This is as obvious as can be the moment you realize they created Evangelions to battle the Angels at all. They have no desire to allow the prophecy to continue as stated, only to exploit what was happening along the way and get their true gains out of it. They attacked Nerv because Nerv would get in the way of their final gambit, which was to control the process of Instrumentality when it finally began occurring, but unfortunately for them, it behaved in a manner they didn't expect when Rei III took Adam into herself and fused with Lilith, causing Instrumentality when she interfaced with Shinji.
5. Like any good leader, Keel realized that there's no point in immediately hunting down an insanely useful and versatile asset even though they know that there is betrayal in the future. They were using him for his immediate, necessary assistance in keeping Nerv perfectly prepared for all Angel attacks, because if they failed, they would have lost their world to the Angels. The Angels were attempting to communicate with Adam, whose Embryo is buried inside of Gendo's hand. If Seele killed Gendo, Adam would have either died, or it would have run rampant and caused another Impact on its own and more than likely would have destabilized Nerv and all of the Children fighting for them, leading to a lack of defense against the Angels and more than likely the destruction of humanity, destroying Seele too. None of this is explicitly stated, but very subtly implied due to the fact that Gendo knew immediatley that he would be hunted down the moment the Angels stopped surfacing. The only thing is that he couldn't protect himself against humans because Nerv had almost zero budget by the time Seele attacked, and the JSSDF is much stronger than glorified bodyguards.
This isn't much bitching, just answers for fans who feel like there could be an answer that's just not being covered here.
Also as to why SEELE tried to hack into the Maji before sending in ground troops; well isn't that a tactically sound move to make your take-over go much easier. Keel Lorenz even says he wishes he didn't to take extreme measures. And as to who threw the Lance; it was one of the mass-produced evas because they can keep going despite their injuries.
I'm surprised how little reading comprehension he has regarding SEELE
you would never know any of that crap, only by watching the series and this movie.
The Asuka/MP Eva battle is awesome
The Komm Susser Todd sequence is awesome
The opening scene can be used to make people who dont know the film lose their shit
This is all you need to know.
10:50 Do you seriously not understand that Asuka's mother IS the Eva? Wow, if you were unable to pick up on an explicitly clear and important detail of the plot such as that who knows what else you missed while watching the show. Sure explains a lot about this review...
To be fair, most people who watch this series through only once (and some more than once) never pick up on this. I personally found out about the dead moms' souls inhabiting the evas, as well as other interesting background lore, from articles explaining the story AFTER I already watched the series. There is a lot that is not made explicitly clear in the show, the exposition just isn't really there, because it takes a backseat to inner-techno-mumbo jumbo at NERV during piloting scenes, Shinji's interactions with other characters, and casual school setting dialogue. There's the occasional flashback with Misato describing the groundwork, but a lot is missed.
@@FeministCatwoman He said that he watched the series and the movie multiple times. I honestly think that the psychological aspect of Evangelion completely flew over his head. On multiple occasions this comes to light when spouting some odd shit, the part with Asuka is a good example. I think it is a Broney thing, they are on the spectrum. If he is not one, then he really needs to get better at social cues and human nature in general, some of his "conclusions" are very odd.
Another detail he seemed to miss is how Asuka beat the crap out of all the production model....he seemed to omit a lot of stuff just to prove a point🤔
Maybe there is smth wrong with me, but I like the movie and the whole series exactly for the reasons you hate it. I like how the characters are fucked up, I like how Asuka fails even when everything is built as a badass moment for her cus she IS just a kid who has pronlems, I fuckn adore the final scenes. NGE and The End of Evangelion helped me realize that no one is 100% fine. Eva is and ever will be my 10/10 anime of the year (any year)!
same here! it's a masterpiece!
The character's being fucked up makes it a bit realistic no offense but you have something wrong with you I do as well not everyone is perfect
I don't know what you guys thinking with the actual evalutation. But he sums up EoTV and EoE the best way you can get on the internet. He is not telling something we couldn't have know on our own. The only reason for hating him is the way he thinks about Asuka. But the message and the meaning of the Third Impact is ... Thank you ***** for making the effort. *clapping*
*****
You are funny.
Dude, you are fucked up. What was with that?
***** This kind of worthless I-am-smarter-than-you-because-I-can-Google-stuff is all too prevalent in many contemporary reviews.
came back to this 9 years later......Different Sage differnt Anime Abandon. Like Eva in a Loop... Nothing ever ends...till it does.
Oh yeah btw, Asuka is badass because she's a real human being. She's the most accurate definition of a narcissist in psychology terms, she's always putting on goals and desires that are above her because she feels the need to be better then everyone else but at the same time she needs affirmation from those people to feel as she has achieved those goal. She's an unlikeable bitch? No she's a real girl suffering from mental instability caused by her mother that has resulted in her gaining these narcissistic traits, much similar to alot of people that goes through the same thing. She's a great example of a fantastical well written, 3 dimensional and realistic character and that's why people like her and that's why seeing her being a skilled pilot makes a her feel all the more badass. She's not some 2 dimensional power dream character, she's real person sitting in that cockpit.
*****
She's a real person. She's a real and proper person suffering from narcissism and that's why I love her. So many bitch characters in fictional media are so terribly written but Asuka is the genuine stuff, she's a character you can see is broken and flawed by nature like real human beings. Real people aren't as simple as we think. We all have serious flaws that makes us unlikable and we don't change as much as we like to think we do. Evangelion makes us face that uncomfortable reality and that's why the fans love it.
garowice That still doesn't make her 'badass'. It makes her a realistic bitch suffering from narcissism among other things.
DevilfishFace
That's the key world, Realistic. She does what she does but in difference to other btich, tsundere and badass hero archetypes she's a real person. That's one of the reasons why people love Evangelion, its cold, hard, depressing and realistic representation of it's characters in a fantastic setting.
garowice being realistic in her tendency to be an annoying twat is not a character trade that is exemplary as attractive or good or "to root for", there's so much negative polarized characters and depression in this anime, it's not even funny, and that is why i could never stand this series, because i don't like absolute saturized puberty problems in my "entertainment".
Necroid000
I don't view Evangelion as entertainment. It's blatantly obvious that this series and especially the movie that it's very artsy in both in it's writing and presentation. Like an independent movie but with a higher budget. The characters aren't meant to likeable they are used to explore the mentality of depression, narcissism and mental sickness. If you just want entertainment and fun I can get behind people saying it sucks because as a piece of entertainment is horrible (Only a sociopath would come out of this series saying "Man! That was fun!") but as a piece of art it's almost a masterpiece. This series falls more in lines with movies like Requiem For A Dream, Nightcrawler and Gone Girl rather then a blockbuster popcorn movie.
Some points I'd like to make in EoE's defence:
a) you either edited the brightness in that first scene to boost your point, or you have some kind of bum copy. My copy doesn't go anywhere near that bright, and it's from Manga. I'm not saying it isn't bright, it is, but this looks like it's been edited to a point of exaggeration. Though, this can be affected by lots of external factors, so I'll just drop this point. Take it or leave it.
b)Just wanted to point out, Asuka's in a coma because, well, she gave up on life. She wasn't gravely wounded as you say, she just gave up after all of her failures, resulting with her being in a vegetable-like state. I don't know if the science behind it is correct, but that's what happens in the show.
c)Actually, the jerk off scene is related to the plot, in my opinion. The plot of Shinji's psychosis, which is spiraling into a pit of unadulterated madness. I believe this scene reflects how he has undergone some serious mental damage, and this scene is just trying to sum it all up for the viewer. "I'm so f***ed up."
d)Your questions:
1)If you believed that a race of alien monsters were the true successors of the Earth, would you allow them to wipe you out? Of course, despite knowing the truth, they'd try and stop them. THEY WANT TO LIVE (long enough to start Human Instrumentality anyway.)
2)The Angles and Seele were never cooperating. I don't understand where you got this idea from. Kowaru was captured and raised by Seele, and knowing he was an Angel sent him to Nerv headquarters. However, I have to agree, the reasons for this are unexplained, and they were certainly tossing a coin by sending an Angel straight to where Lilith was being kept. Fortunately, Kowaru had goals of his own, but if he didn't, I have to agree that Seele made a bum move there.
3)They didn't want to Kowaru to merge with Lilith. Their motives, like I said above, are a little unexplained, but they DEFINITELY didn't want that outcome. They wouldn't be able to control Instrumentality if it was an Angel merging with Lilith. Some people believe they were trying to force Shinji into the mental state that he ends up in as a result of killing Kowaru, so that they can predict Shinji's decision when the time comes.
4)The plan didn't fail in the way you're suggesting. It failed because Shinji managed to overcome his feelings about humanity, but up to that point everything was going great for Seele, they almost accomplished their goal. You see people turning into LCL, this is what Seele wanted. However, Shinji eventually decided to bring everyone back. In fact, you need to want to come back TO come back, so in a way, because Seele doesn't want to come back, they accomplished their goals just fine.
d)You make it sound like Seele had no difficulty hacking into the Magi. They didn't, but the point you're making is that they didn't have the security to deal with it. They did. Unfortunately for the guys in Tokyo-3 though, all the other branches of Nerv still loyal to Seele were hacking Tokyo-3 with THEIR Magi. Fifteen or so super computers against three, which super computers are going to win? They didn't lack the necessary security, the were just overpowered.
e)If Ritsuko's mother is the one who designed the Magi, then Ritsuko is going to know ways to use the Magi more effectively than everyone else. So, it does make sense, though they are pushing it a little, that Ritsuko could deal with the problem single-handedly. It's her mother's system.
f)No, it's not pronounced Zeela. I don't know where you got that from. Seele is German for soul. It's pronounced almost completely accurately, though the S should sound a little more like a Z. Do some research before you start picking on tiny things like this. You just look stupid when you get it wrong.
g)Seele doesn't think humanity is a mistake. You're getting it all wrong. They want humanity to be a single, united being. They don't think it shouldn't exist. You've really messed up their motives, which is what has created these plotholes in your mind. From your perspective, yes, Seele applies a hell of a lot of circle logic. But you're wrong about their motives. With their actual motives presented in the series, Seele is using no circle logic at all. Sure, they don't explain much, but what they do explain does make sense.
h)Can I just point out that her mother is in the eva unit. She's the resident soul. Asuka wasn't hallucinating.
i)There are lots of theories as to why Eva 01 only chose to break out of the bakelite after Asuka died. My personal favourite, but in no way confirmed, is that the resident soul, Yui, who has her own designs for Instrumentality, needed Shinji to reach the breaking point. Allowing Asuka to die pushed him over the edge, which she then took advantage of. What a great mother she is.
j)I completely agree the religious imagery is meaningless. But now it's your turn to miss the point. It IS just aesthetics. Anno said himself, he isn't trying to use it to gain any religious meaning. He is recorded as saying that they went with it because it looked cool. Here in the west, Judeo-Christian imagery is commonplace, not so much in Japan. In the east it made the movie and series seem more different and interesting. That's why it's there. You have to remember it was made with an eastern audience in mind.
h)Shinji's interior monologue, especially during Third Impact, is what the movies and series are about. Saying you don't care about them begs the question, why are you watching this? Eva is NOT an action show with a background story about the character's psychology. It's a show about the character's psychology with a background story revolving around action. The meat of this show isn't the Angels. You may as well not watch the film if you're going to choose to ignore these segments.
I really don't know what point you were trying to make with your little end video. It wasn't funny. It made no good points nor furthered your argument. You also insulted everyone who likes Evangelion by saying that only people with more than half a brain stem know how bad Eva is. I respected your points up until this point. You just blew it. Your opinion is your opinion, but that's just insulting.
Note: Everything in this is my view and my view alone. You're welcome to agree or disagree to my points, but please don't feel the need argue with me because you disagree with me. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope Sage read this too.
Ciao!
(Continued) Okay, I could have phrased that a lot better. What I mean to say is, "please don't feel the need to get aggressive or offensive in response to you disagreeing with me." I'd love to here people's counter-counter-arguments, but I'm only going to listen to you if you back it up in fact, using ideas and evidence presented in the show. I don't want you to argue with me if all you're going to say is: "You're wrong, I don't share your opinion, so you're wrong."
***** Why thank you, Manny. Thank you very much :D
it isnt just this video he's a contrarian who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about
his perfect blue and grave of the fireflies videos are FILLED with contradictions and lack of research on his part.
Incredibly thorough counter-arguments; the only thing I'd have to correct you on is that the quote about the symbolism is from Kazuya Tsurumaki, not Hideaki Anno.
@@Theybo2 don’t forget his akira ghost in the shell etc reviews
This just something interesting I thought I'd share. During Shinji's big freak out while in Unit one a couple of scenes go by that are mostly made of text and pictures of letters, those are actual death threats the author received over the ending of the original anime.
I came here for mad comments. I was not disappointed.
i'd just like to remind everyone that in the beginning of EoE, Asuka was mind raped by an angel
actually, those questions you asked actually get answered; tho to be fair they didn't say it out loud
Rehardless pf what you said about the sub. I still would watch the dub any day of the year. I much prefer the dub cast, and their performances and delivery.
@@BradleytheDavis I know this post is 2 years old, but I can't imagine how ANYONE prefers the ADV dub over the sub, unless they just love to laugh at it. The new Netflix dub may have wooden performances here and there, but at least the new cast members fit the models and the overall tone of the anime better.
And yeah, I get that there's a big controversy over Fly Me to the Moon and Kaworu's sexuality being downplayed. Quite frankly I really couldn't care less.
@@goji3755 I know this post is 11 months old, but maybe you just gotta realize that people actually have preferences. I love both the original Japanese and the ADV Dub equally (even if it has flaws), and I'm honestly tired of Sub vs Dub elitists. Watch the damn anime however you want. Seriously, who cares.
Also, Shinji's Netflix VA is good but I don't like hearing a girl's voice coming out of Shinji. And yes, I know. Shinji's original VA Megumi is of course a woman as well, but she did a much better job at making herself actually sound like a pubescent 14 year old boy, whereas in Netflix it just sounds like a girl talking.
@@Paradox-hv6wr I'm not saying you can't have your own preference, I just really don't get the appeal of the ADV dub compared to the other options, or the controversy around the Netflix dub, apart from nostalgia. Subs vs dubs is certainly a case by case basis and which one you PREFER is certainly subjective. I just think a lot of the fuss mostly comes from older fans disappointed in the streaming options. Hopefully a physical distributor will pick up the series for Blu-ray and can cover all the bases.
@@goji3755 @goji3755 Well, besides the Netflix dub and the OG Japanese dub, there really are no other options (besides the other multi-language dubs). Even though I started Evangelion with the ADV dub, I still really love the OG Japanese dub. Even the Netflix dub, I don't think is god awful or unbearable to watch. I just don't think it carried or invoked that much out of me as much as the ADV dub did. I will agree though, that the Manga dub for EoE is riddled with flaws, inconsistencies, and weird sound effect placements. There's just no competition when comparing it to the OG Japanese dub (leaving out the incredible performance from the main cast, of course)
People like the ADV dub because they themselves simply like and enjoy it. They like the cast, they like the energy of it, etc. Hell, I could even point out with what you said about not understanding the appeal for the ADV dub, is exactly the same thing other people think about the Netflix dub. "Why do people even watch it? There's no emotion. It feels so soulless. Where's Fly me to the Moon? I don't understand how there could be people who like watching this." Of course, that's not how I view the Netflix dub. It's just not for me.
Anyway, I don't even know how I ended up in the comment section of this video in the first place or why I'm still here at all. This was an absolutely terrible "review" of the movie lol.
The comatose scene.. well, on one hand it's a pretty blunt statement from Anno.
On the other hand it shows even more how low Shinji's psychee has gone, how utterly destroyed he is at that point, which is the part of the entire point of the show: character study.
The final line of the movie "I feel sick" ("How disgusting" isn't the correct translation) is meant to sum up the entire experience of the series. It doesn't want to give you a satisfied feeling, no, it doesn't want to. The entire show tackles the topic of escapism and all the characters escape reality in their own ways, have hard time accepting themselves. If the show wants to show a negative side of escapism, it would be contradictionary to this message if it tried to please the viewer with an ending they wanted. And the movie actually gives everyone the ending they wanted and shows why they shouldn't have wanted it in the first place.
It's an experimental anime, deconstruction of a genre and multiple tropes. It has no reason to please the viewer.
By the way, Asuka wasn't hallusinating. Evas.. well, let's just say that they have their mothers' souls in them. Shinji's mom didn't die in an accident, she voluntarily became part of the project.
Yep, Asuka is a whining bitch. She is complete opposite of Shinji from outside, but absolutely same from inside. She simply dealt with her trauma differently with denial and having a huge ego. And it didn't take long until her psychological defenses begun to break down and the problems caught her again, and thus she slit her wrists and took a bath in her own blood. Shinji runs away from problems, Asuka is in denial and tends to give up easily. Everyone in the show is sick, except for Pen Pen. But then again he is the only penquin we see, so maybe he is going through some psychological trauma of-- GAAHH!! Everyone's sick, and that's that.
Oh and.. why is he reviewing the dub and then complaints about it being horrible? Good dubs are incredibly rare, and back in 90's they were even more rare. DBZ is one of the only animes where the dub is good, another being Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
... wait, did he actually get the movie? The end of this review highly implies that he actually understood some of the main messages.
I agree with everything you said, but I have to COMPLETELY disagree with what you said about dubs. DBZ? Haruhi? If you've seen those shows you would have to have heard about Cowboy Bebop, largely regarded as THE best English dub of an anime ever.
*****
Was never interested in that show that much. This is just my personal opinion. Seriously, the main character of Haruhi has just the most fitting voice for the main character, who is sarcastic and down to earth.
And DBZ's voices are just iconic. Very cartoony, but fits for the show. It's a very silly show after all.
Oh for sure, I never said they were bad dubs. :)
Guessing everyone missed how he perfectly summed up the ending of the movie with ending of his review
This, I genuinely can't tell if Bennett is a genius or a dumbass.
"Some of these scenes I can't possibly put into words" Isn't that the point of using a visual medium to express concepts? I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have a hard time trying to express a Salvador Dali painting in words, that's why Dali didn't write an essay. I'm by no means an expert, but I'm quite sure this is one of the underlying principles of art.
Matt Ell I think they went overboard with those effects, and it wasn't art, it was just supposed to freak out the viewer.
StopMinecraftVIOLENCE Well that's subjective. It affected me in an amazing way, so for me it was art. I guess one person's masterpiece is another person's gimmick?
And seeing the world end, and the collective souls of the world being gathered together by a god-like being would be kinda freaky. So freaky seems appropriate in this case.
Matt Ell Oh God. Do you realize how pretentious you sound? Just because something is _weird_ or _unconventional_ does not mean it is world-class 'art' or instantly brilliant. It's nothing more than exploitation, and that is definitely not art.
StopMinecraftVIOLENCE I didn't say that being weird or unconventional makes something inherently artistic. End of Eva isn't objectively good or bad, its subjective like all media.
I'm not forcing my opinion on you. Its fine if you don't agree with me. I was merely stating that EoE had artistic merit from my point of view, since it had emotional impact for me.
I'm sorry if you think I'm being pretentious. I'm only trying to justify my point. Let's not turn this into another nasty comment exchange on youtube. There's enough of that already.
Just remember that not everyone defending EoE is out to be a pretentious asshole. Some people just genuinely enjoy it.
Matt Ell I must defend this shitty show! Symbolism instantly makes this a work of art! Huzzah for me!
The interesting part about NGE is that it is practically irrelevant wether it's good or not. You almost never hear someone watch NGE and say it was boring, or they felt indifferent about it. Even at worst NGE tends to piss people off to the point that they need to express themselves and on the other hand you have an equally large crowd that adores the psychological tour it takes you in.
The point of good art isn't to be pretty, or pleasing, but to be both provocative and thought provocing. NGE most definately does both brilliantly.There's a very good reason why NGE remains as one of the most controversial animes made so far, not because of its plot, story, or characters, but because of what it represents. The people that hate it, hate it for various reasons (Mostly due to Shinji) and the people that love it, mostly love it because of Shinji. Not because Shinji is likeable, or even identifiable to most people, but because of how Shinjis character, actions and story perfectly represents peoples depression, fear and anxiety. How it can make reasonable situations into world threathening monsters and how people either deal, escape, or just shut down in the face of such high stress.
This type of emotions are something that people find it extremely difficult to not only talk about, but also to describe. Shinji offers a window to a depth and type of depression that most people could never even begin to try and dress into words even for themselves. This is why I feel a lot of people love NGE, it helps people identify and even demonstrate how they feel and how they can't just "snap out of it".
"You almost never hear someone watch NGE and say it was boring, or they felt indifferent about it" please don't hate me, but I am one of the people who definitely fit into that group. I didn't hate it, but I did feel like watching the series was a chore and it was really difficult for me to follow it through all the tonal changes and shifts in mood, the delving of the character psychologies and how disconnected it was from the overall premise, and the disjointed themes. I really couldn't enjoy it, and I think I spent more time trying to research why more people liked it rather than try to rewatch it and see if there was something important I had missed.
@@FeministCatwoman Must have still envoked something within you to make you feel you need to understand something about it, or how it interacts with people.
If you're doing all that, I would say it's hard to argue that you're entirely indifferent about NGE, which was my point.
i am just disappointed with Sage and people in general who bash this movie. I love this film and the series. I don't expect anyone to agree with me. But at least give actual problems and flaws of the series and actually try to give a decent explanation for why you hate this movie or anything in general. Actually give accurate facts and give a detailed but honest opinion. This review was just a guy getting mad without actually giving a legitimate reason on why. Just acted on pure hate. Anyway most of the plotholes Sage said are actually explained in the series and in this movie.
i don't think you watched the review...he clearly explained his issues with the movie, 'a detailed but honest opinion'
whitedwarf13 but most of his issues are solved with the original series. This isn't a standalone, this was clearly an ending to the series. Something like the Rebuild of Evangelion was suppose to be a standalone and that's relying too much on the original series anyway so it fails on that. It's not only plot issues but he skipped THE most important scene in the entire movie which explains the message of not just the entire movie, but the entire freaking series. It was an honest review but it was really just sage nitpicking the movie without the context of the series. The series isn't perfect but it isn't complete shit as Sage make it seem.
Yawn, another mad fan
I'm fine with people not enjoying NGE, but I can't say I understand some of the arguments against the characters. Obviously you don't have to like them, and you're really not supposed to like some of them, but to say they're not well written is (in my opinion) wrong.
Shinji is not a hero. He's a kid. A cowardly kid. A kid who hates himself more than he hates his father who abandoned him after the death of his mother and later manipulated him into piloting a giant death machine to defend the earth from giant monsters without explaining why.
Not liking Shinji is one thing, but calling him a pussy and then trying to justify your statement with "If I was 14 and in his exact situation I would definitely pilot a giant death machine in defense of Earth with two emotionally broken teenage girls with their own giant death machines." Sure you would. You edgy, badass you.
Sean Snyder not to forget that if he does not pilot the eva everyone dies and if he does he gain nothing from it . everyone keep tell him that he does have the choice in piloting the eva or not , but in reality he doesn't .
i'm not exactly sure if I hate or love evangelion , but something i'm sure i like about is character because i really relate to them especially shinji and atsuka .
Sean Snyder Also, don't forget almost every time he gets in said death machine, he goes through intense pain. Having a giant alien bird skeleton thing cracking my skull open does not sound like a fun time, or two laser tentacles stuck inside my abdomen.
Sean Snyder Cowards don't work through their abandonment issues, depression, and avoidance issues to get into giant robots and fight giant monsters. They don't challenge their emotionally abusive father's judgement and attempt to save their friends.
Shinji does what he does out of habit, sure. He doesn't exactly know how to behave when people don't tell him what to do, but at the same time he often shows that he wants to try and do (what he thinks is) the right thing.
Sean Snyder . Shinji's behavior is so pathetic because even children GROW through trial and tribulation. He does not. He is in many regards in the exact same position here in E.O.E. he was when the entire affair started at the beginning of the original series: passive/aggressive and despondent. And frankly that's difficult to swallow given that he actually SHOWED some character development during the course of the series.
Hell, if he had leapt to action initially, there is a chance he might have launched EVA 01 BEFORE it was sealed in Bakelite and averted Asuka's fate. But no, clearly he hasn't learned to put the lives of others before himself as he has done with increasing frequency in the series; nor does he calculate the BASIC logic that would suggest he would perish if he did nothing (the guards prepping to kill him indicates this).
Or perhaps we'll entertain another idea. Perhaps we'll entertain the idea that Shinji MAGICALLY learned that he was in instrument of the "rebirth/death" of humanity, and THAT'S why he had a sudden relapse. Well if THAT was the case, why did he consent to ever getting into the EVA when dragged there by Misato, or say ONE WORD about his revelation to her? No, no let's dump out both the character development AND all forms of rationale because THIS movie's about ART.
Funny thing about 2001, a Space Odyssey. It set a tone early on to establish it wasn't the traditional genre in question (the evolution of man preceding the adventures in space). Such things are CRUCIAL when you want to try to be deep and create something that transcends a given medium's genre. The creators did NOTHING OF THE SORT. They created a compelling if dark story about defending humanity from annihilation, then used a shadowy organization and it's baffling goals as a macguffin that would go on to be the justification to ruin the focus, alter characters' personalities entirely without rhyme or reason, and shift the audience forcefully into an introspective (something the formerly mentioned 2001 didn't really have to resort to by the way).
This movie didn't provide a window into insanity, it's just insane. There's a difference.
TymeTwyster Last "Shinji's behavior is so pathetic because even children GROW through trial and tribulation."
This is an abysmal comparison for two reasons. Normal children don't have the entire world to save. And Shinji Ikari is not a normal child.
"Hell, if he had leapt to action initially, there is a chance he might have launched EVA 01 BEFORE it was sealed in Bakelite and averted Asuka's fate. But no, clearly he hasn't learned to put the lives of others before himself as he has done with increasing frequency in the series; nor does he calculate the BASIC logic that would suggest he would perish if he did nothing (the guards prepping to kill him indicates this)."
He was fine with dying. He had just killed Kaworu, busted a nut on Asuka's chest and had just been with Misato in her last moments. So yea he moped for a bit. Holy shit who the hell wouldn't be mentally broken after all the shit that had happened through the series? But once he heard Asuka he got into the EVA and went up. And yea he was late. And yea he did blame himself for her death.
"Funny thing about 2001, a Space Odyssey. It set a tone early on to establish it wasn't the traditional genre in question (the evolution of man preceding the adventures in space). Such things are CRUCIAL when you want to try to be deep and create something that transcends a given medium's genre. The creators did NOTHING OF THE SORT."
Are you joking? In the first episode Shinji is reunited in the most fucked up family reunion of all time and gets his shit kicked in. Doesn't sound like any other mecha anime that I can think of.
"They created a compelling if dark story about defending humanity from annihilation..."
Since when has EVA's focus ever been it's story? The majority of the series has always been it's characters and how the story effects them and not the other way around like most shows.
"...then used a shadowy organization and it's baffling goals as a macguffin that would go on to be the justification to ruin the focus, alter characters' personalities entirely without rhyme or reason, and shift the audience forcefully into an introspective (something the formerly mentioned 2001 didn't really have to resort to by the way)."
Ruin what focus? The characters along with the viewers are hardly told jack shit about what's going on behind the scenes so SEELE has really nothing to do with the story until the final quarter of the show.
And using 2001 for comparison is hilarious considering that it hardly has ANY narrative or characters.
But I've wasted enough time responding to NGE haters. No one ever changes their mind about NGE no matter how long they argue. And that's fine.
Why are some people saying Eva fans should stop defending their opinons? Isn't the guy in the video defending his opinion too?
So... If the maker of the video doesn't like the anime, and you agree with him. That automatically means that anyone that disagrees with the video or with you should shut the fuck up? Wow... very mature way of thinking.
No, I think most people are sick of people that like Eva, saying that others do not understand Eva, regardless of points or anything else. And probably at some point that makes people say stop defending it. Mostly because we have heard it all before. Its a tolerance thing. Its the same when I hear a dumb backwater creationist make the same stupid argument for creationism over and over. After some point its enough. .
Im an eva fan. I think people just hate to see us bitching about how someone is wrong just because they dont agree with us
I agree that people how like EVA should defend their opinions.
But most people defend EVA in a very rude and ignorant way.
" Ohh Sage don't like the anime because he is fat and stupid. "
That is mature to you, Calling somebody is fat and stupid just because they don't like your favorite anime?
Hn Henrique Not at all. But if we do take our time to defend it or explain scenes that a lot of people don't understand, some dick is probably gonna go "tl;dr", and without even caring about how we're trying to get people to understand it better and make their OWN conclusions out of it, (instead of being ignorant to the meaning of the series), they just go and tell us to shut the fuck up.
It's the same thing as *chosing to be ignorant.*
"Why The End of Evangelion Is a Happy Ending" by
JumpTheShark.
It's interesting coming back to this video after the newer ones.
Actually the pronountiation is correct in Evangelion : it is spoken like "sele" (with a long first e(since its a double e) and without silent second e) and not "seala" as Sage says here.
They do pronounce it with a S sound as opposed to a Z one.
Although that isn't really important. Pronouncing those words adapted to fit their own syllabary is what Japanese people would do if one organisation adopted German words in Japan, and that's what they do in the anime.
Pronouncing it correctly is a concern more at home in the US.
Or germany for that matter :)
I liked your review of Ghost in the Shell, but my goodness did you ever miss the mark with EVA. I am by no means a fanboy of the series (and don't even get me started on Rebuild of Evangelion) but...comeon. You have to give it more credit than this. It is not the greatest anime ever made, perhaps not even a masterpiece, but it is a landmark. The audio-visual play durin the climax is incredible, the story is thoughtful and rich (though, yes, it has holes in it), and the character development is more than memorable. It is simply put a great anime, and something everyone that appreciates the art should sit through at least once.
Finally found this episode,after watching the special one you recently did. And I get it.
7:26
No. That's the JSSDF. They're being manipulated by SEELE (who DID do the hacking attack), but that's the JSSDF you're talking about.
You're been kinda nitpicky really considering they're on Seele's side after they fed the Japanese government misinformation.
whitedwarf13 If Sage is going to be nitpicky about these things, then I have the right to be nitpicky about his criticisms if they're wrong.
I don't think Bennett really understood what eva was about in the first place. Evangelion is not a show about heroes over coming something bigger than them, and if that is what you think it was than you really missed something. The first scene with Shinji played an important part for the last scene, and is the reason Asuka says what she says. This played another important part as two major themes, sex and death. The scene where Asuka was a "badass" was more how she was never able to succeed without Shinji, and that even when she things she is about to, she is dragged down with no one to save her.
It is things like this that someone is suppose to look into, and while what I say might not be "official" it is clearly suppose to be deeper than just "Shinji is a weird dick head" or "Asuka is a stupid bitch who thinks she is bad ass". This is why I don't think you understood what this movie was to represent.
True. Almost everyone who hates Eva argument can be traced back to the point that "the characters suck"; Shinji is a whiny bitch, Asuka is a brat... blah blah blah. If you go into the series thinking it's going to be about characters believing in themselves and overcoming impossible odds, then you are going to be infuriated with the show and movie, because that is NOT what Eva was going for. How many people in real life actually go through a typical arc that we see in so many shows-whiny bitch to confident badass- that we see in so much fiction? The characters in Eva are all terribly flawed, but that is the whole point, you're SUPPOSED to find them despicable or unbearable and then relate to them because their problems are all human issues. It annoys me to no end how people just say the show sucks because they can't see what it was trying to do.
***** Exactly, I understand if you don't like the show or even if you hate the show, but I feel you should understand it at least a little bit before you say whether you like it or hate it.
At least i understood it so far, it is not that kind of anime, that some people were expecting. If you go into this thinking the same old stuff about a character who develops and become a bad***, more than often you're going to be disappointed. Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and some of the rest definitely have some problems with themselves, all while dealing against the angel threat. I don't really hate Shinji or all of them for the matter. I felt more pity and empathize with him, I don't know how people would assume much about this character, knowing he's flawed as heck, and its going to take more than criticism to get this guy to man up. He has problems with his own existence, to him, he's done what he's always told, yet feels constantly hated. He believed that doing what he's told from his father would make things better and so forth, but his own father didn't care for him that much, he left his kid hanging since he was a baby, I hardly call Gendo a bad***, but a fool. So many things he's tried to do yet faces more problems to the point that he's afraid of getting hurt or hurting others, so he shies away from others even more. I find it funny what people would say in real life, yet you can't expect that much from a person like Shinji who doesn't really know what to do, unless he gets some help and guidance til he can stand on his own.
*****
Shinji's flaws are just astronomically terrible and constantly get in the way; he's usually being forced to comeback and fight. Shinji's the reason I hated Evangelion for years. The rest of the characters had development and/or somehow overcome their flaws to an extent (Asuka and Misato especially). Shinji's just shit.
Well of course he has to be forced to come back and fight. With the synch level of the Eva's he has experienced the full sensation of having his eye gouged out, arm snapped at the elbow, and being burned alive. Those are only a few instances from the first couple of episodes. You tell me you would be gung-ho enough to get back in the cockpit after all of that. Shinji does some really badass things throughout the series and gets shit done, I don't know why people overlook these instances and go right to point of him being a whiny and worthless character. Plus, at the time of the show he is 14 years old. I doubt that an adult would be able to handle or even comprehend the proposition of the fate of the world and human race being thrust upon them, let alone a kid.
11:38 I know it's around ten years too late but, if there's anything that Razorfist's review of the FFVII remake has taught me, it's that the Japanese have had a long, LONG running issue when it comes to pacing.
Erm, no offense Bennett, but I am a german, and it is pronounced Seele, not Seela. I don't know how you even get that idea.
I think he was more focusing on how they pronounce it with an S sound, like "say-lay." After listening to some fluent speakers recordings, and speaking to my friend who is from Germany, I've heard near equal pronunciations of it with an E or A sound at the end. Often something sounding like a mixture of the two.
IDK, I am not taking German, I am learning Japanese, so I can't really say much. But at the very least I think the fact that they pronounce it wrong is still a relevant point.
Arachi123 No offense, but I've never heard any of my countrymen pronounce Seele like Bennet did here, with an A sound at the end. Not even in the more weirder dialects like Swabian or Bavarian or Saxon.
I like Evangelion. I've watched it subtitled an dubbed, since it first came out in the States. The show suffers from Anno's mental instability at the time, budget issues (having blown its load far too early), and confusing people with religious imagery even though it has been explained by the Japanese staff that such phrases and images of Christianity were used "to make it look cool".
Sage got it right in that the shows spends more and more time psychoanalyzing the main characters as the series progresses until the Angels become an afterthought. The orginal ideals that were scrapped for budget reasons was that aliens seeded worlds with Lillim (humanity created from Lilith) and Angels (those of Adam) They were never supposed to mix on the same world. An asteroid sent a vessel with Lilith to Earth that was already entrusted to Adam's Angels, hence the war between the two sides. This is only faintly hinted at in the show. You have to really dig deep to find the plot that should have been.
End of Evangelion has its moments of badassary, but it is ultimately the middle finger to anime fans who bitched about the show in Japan back in the late 90s. This movie has a lot of needless stuff in it, Shinji splooge chief among them.
This review feels like a vegan made a video saying meat is bad...
+alamian That's working under the assumption that what he's saying has no grounds. His position is well defined and highlights some of the glaring issues the series has. Love or hate the series as a whole, what he's saying is accurate
+CyberSurferXD Almost, he mostly bitches about the little flaws because he needs to make his reviews funny for the viewers, yes EVA is not perfect, love it or hate it is what it all comes down to but if you think for one second this series is bad on all levels then that you need to reevaluate your taste.
Stevey2578 I have... multiple times. You're completely right when you say that you're entitled to your own opinion and if you love the show good for you; I wouldn't dream of taking that away from you. But by that same logic I'm entitled to view this series as an absolute failure on every front (apart from it's mech design, which I will say is pretty good)
+Stevey2578 I still hate the series. Sorry there are much better shows out there than this Trigun, Gurren Laggan, Kill,la Kill, Soul Eater, Sailor Moon, Outlaw Star, martian successor nadesico, Princess Tutu, Baccano,Fullmetal Alchamest , just to name a few. Eva as a whole just pisses me off. Sorry.
+viraltang you can hate the characters and not like the story. I myself was pissed with a lot of things in this series. But I still like it because it was different from all the animes I watched, even the ones you listed.
I tire of people proclaiming this film/series as "self important." The hacky dismissal of the NGE characters as "whiny teenagers" is a signifier of the Americana, machismo, backwards attitude toward mental health issues. This series is deeply symbolic of serious, clinical depression, not unlike the kind NGE creator Hideaki Anno dealt with.
Ironically enough, it was this exact video that made me interested in the franchise.
Happy to say I am fully converted and "EoE" is my 5th favourite film of all time, just under "Eraserhead", "The Passion of Joan of Arc", and every film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
The Netflix dub better not fuck up.
I can just imagine how much the soy is hurting your body.
@@w.a.hawkins6117 dude. Why are you so hostile to everyone?
12:21
I wouldn't say the music was meant to call the scene necessarily "high-brow" but more to say there is something beautiful in how tragic it was; as in, it's tragic what Asuka is going through, but it's beautiful that the movie managed to get people rooting for her to the extent that they did. In the main series it would've been easy to gripe over how her personality wasn't as adorable as her face. But her more pitiable moments toward the end of that show are followed unforgettably by her boldness in this scene.
Also, just because her Eva has armor doesn't mean it isn't impressive to face down that kind of military hardware without being scared out of her mind. People get startled when animals lunge at them at the zoo, even though those animals are held back by glass presumably regulated for strength. Maybe people don't trust zoo engineering (just as maybe Asuka doesn't trust a sketchy institution like NERV) or maybe it's instinct. Either way, Asuka going all in on that last stand in spite of both is unforgettable. There's criticisms of Asuka I'd consider valid, but "needing help from squadmates and/or armor" isn't one of 'em.
This was the anime that made me decide I was never doing drugs.
Before I go into a rant, let me say this much: I am not going to try to convince you to love Evangelion. I get it, no series is universally loved. I find Naruto to be the biggest blight on animation, but obviously there's something about it that people enjoy that I just won't ever understand. What I will ask you to do, however, is not treat the show like it's universally _hated_.
Point in your favor: The animation/budget. It's a Gainax show. Their name has become synonymous with terrible money management. It's honestly a miracle that Gurren Lagann remained decently consistent through it's entire run. The last two episodes could have probably been a lot better had they not pissed away the cash. But honestly, when the show looks good, it looks really good (for it's time, anyways). And while I can't say anything to defend the infamous Kaworu Klutch, I will stand in defense of the elevator scene. It's long and uncomfortable...Which is exactly the point of the scene. Unlike the Kaworu scene, which was a single unchanging frame, the elevator scene was slightly animated, just enough to make it clearly intentional.
So here's the thing: You've got it right that we aren't supposed to like Shinji. What we're supposed to do is _relate_ to Shinji. He's not a hero, he's a kid with a fucked up life. His mother is dead and his father is a cold-hearted megalomaniac willing to sacrifice the entirety of humanity to see her again. He has every right to bitch. _And then he fights giant monsters._ And I'll be honest, as someone who grew up practically alone in a broken family, I totally understood what it was like to be Shinji. He deals with his problems by ignoring them until he doesn't have a choice anymore but the face them. On the subject of Asuka, if it seems like she's being an egotist with nothing to back it up, that's because that's _precisely the point_. Again, she's a character who has a severely fucked up family history. The only positive thing in her life, the only purpose she has for existing, is piloting the Eva. So she puts up this massive front to defend herself. Misato and Ritsuko have a horrible family history each as well. Misato drowns herself in alchohol and a forced smile, Ritsuko turns to work and sex.
Each of these characters has their own defense against the bad shit in their lives. And since each of them has suffered somehow at the hands of someone close to them, they protect themselves from other people as well. Gee, it's almost like they're surrounded by some sort of *field*. Like they're *absolutely terrified* thanks to prior trauma. If only there was some sort of hedgehog-related parable that would neatly illustrate the main theme running across the entire series. Are you getting the point yet?
Evangelion is not a happy story. The characters are not heroes, and frankly they aren't even good people. The point of watching Evangelion is to watch realistic people suffering, occasionally triumphing, usually failing, and ultimately dying. Just like everyone else. It's about deconstructing the genre by putting realistic characters into a fantastical scenario and watching them lose their shit. And frankly, I find that to be cathartic. I truly believe that there is room in the world for media that isn't traditionally "entertaining," a show that intentionally tries to evoke an unpleasant feeling. After all, fear is not something that people normally want to feel, and yet horror is a massive genre. A negative emotion in a controlled dose can be a good thing. Sometimes it helps to see someone else have a worse day than you are.
Or sometimes you want to see a hero win the day and be inspiring. In which case I watch G Gundam.
+AkuTenshiiZero
So this show is the most likely to be liked by people who can relate to or really understand Shinji's suffering? That makes perfect sense. Huh. Now I know why I don't like SNK.
+AkuTenshiiZero And yet I think the main reason why the show has its detractors, least in my opinion, removing it from Sage perhaps for a moment, is mostly just due to the fact that the anime is -so- focused on the characters that it almost removes them from the show that its based around, especially in the original episodic cut of the show (I.E not death/rebirth or End).
The story that the author wants so desperately to show and tell is the story of Shinji's mental issues, that may have in fact mirrored his own who knows. And thats admirable, but... in a story that is dealing with the actual death of the entire world as one knows it, it comes across as trivial. The reason why Sage and so many others are telling him to get over himself is not because, least I hope, they are being actively hateful or insensitive to a person with a mental issue or a broken home or what not... its just that the focus is so far in that direction, so focused on it, that the actual literal end of the world as humanity knows it is window dressing. The apocalypse, is in fact a side character in Evangelion. And it just seems like, if you wanted to tell a story about a man defeating monsters, metaphorical or literal, as a way of escaping his many problems, you could do it in a lot of better ways than putting it into this sci fi universe.
Heck, a real weird comparison perhaps, and maybe a bit of a stretch, but Binding of Isaac touches on similar themes and tropes as Evangelion in terms of its dealing with a kid from a broken family, metaphorically dealing with the issues and detritus of his situation by dealing with 'actual monsters.' Its a very dark, gory, and surrealist approach to a kid who is clearly going through some serious issues in his home life, and dealing with it in a really awful way, because he has no other choices. It works, because the entire setting is in fact this conflict.
But in Evangelion, the conflict of Shinji's emotional state is almost completely separated from the fight against the Angels. The two stories, the real life monsters he must defeat and the allegorical monsters in his head don't tie well together, and so when he retreats from the real monsters and into his own mind in the later episodes, it comes across as totally self absorbed and selfish. He is literally choosing his own idea of self worth over becoming the savior of the entire world. That's not the choice of a reluctant hero, that's the choice of an actual villain.
Hopefully that explains my own feelings at least.
+AkuTenshiiZero
The thing is, real people are actually capable of amazing things. I've seen people with some of the worst back grounds and child hood trauma's go on to be great people. So meh...
+TheMegaUzumaki I don't think I ever claimed to be impartial, outside of saying my views are not necessarily Sage's, especially saying how I ended my thoughts with the phrase "this explains my own feelings at least." Its how I feel about the work, and nothing else. If you like it great, you enjoy an anime you enjoy. I just found it kinda up its own ass and flawed in too many ways to be good.
+TheMegaUzumaki "And yet I think" "least I hope" "Hopefully that explains my own feelings at least." what are you talking about, three instances where we're told these are personal feelings. and it's funny, whenever someone criticizes Shinji, someone always has to come screaming "stop bashing Shinji, he's a realistic, relatable character" maybe you should prefix your personal taste. where is he even bashing Shinji? all he's saying is that Shinji and most of the other characters plights seem trivial and inconsequential to the literal end of the world, and that it detracts from the story when so much emphasis is put on them. that is a valid argument. tl;dr enjoy what you like. if someone disagrees with you, who cares. fan boying is the leading cause of red hair, which we all know causes the loss of your soul.
End of evangelion : the most nightmare fueled anime movie I have ever seen in my life.
I love Eva but I see why sage hates it it's a hit miss anime with people I can't even explain why I love it so much
Guys, be objective: Bennett doesn't actually make very many points. He mostly says, "I don't get it" or "I don't like this character."
The only times he actually makes an argument is at 4:55 and 10:00, albeit in a very pretentious way. These arguments have been debunked for years though, so I don't see the whole point of this video other than click baiting and to generate a safehaven for hipsters and people with shit taste to blindly agree with Bennett while shitting on Evangelion.
Just because the video is long doesn't mean any actual points were made.
RuckaInc If you'd watched to the end of the video you may have not made this fairly obnoxious and mostly incorrect statement.
StopMinecraftVIOLENCE
Nah. I couldn't really watch the entire thing. I gave up at the part where he tried too hard to be like the Nostalgia Critic.
RuckaInc So basically you're just too immature to take in other people's opinions that go against your most beloved shows?
Don't get me wrong, I like Evangelion, but jeez I didn't take it seriously at any point throughout the entire thing. It was improbable, convoluted, stupid - yet it had some really interesting characters and the lore of the world it was set in kept bringing me back for more.
The religious symbolism was silly at best, and not subtle in any way. While Shinji (or however you spell it in Latin script) was a fucking brat most of the time, his small redeemable qualities made him three dimensional; may I add, only just.
I think Benett was way too harsh on this show, but at the same time I think it receives too much praise.
I didn't agree with all of his points, but I was mature enough to see _why_ he had his take on the aspects of the show he tackled and I didn't decide to hit dislike.
You can keep on living as some sort of childish cunt who can't handle criticism or humour, that's your way of coping with your life. I, however, evolved past that stage when I was, like, twelve years old? I have long left that ignorant, denial-riddled part of my maturation in the dust of my intelligence, yet you appear to be clinging on to it. I strongly suggest you let it go, and realize that most of his points were valid, and if you didn't like it, argue with them in an equally valid and hopefully more mature way.
EDIT: Oh, and nice one +1ing your comment. That's really pathetic.
StopMinecraftVIOLENCE
tl;dr
RuckaInc Well, you obviously are the intelligent one.
Note: Read that in the thickest, most sarcastic voice possible.
The idea that the protagonist has to be likable is probably the worst cliche in all media.
+Lazy Miko
Why?
Kaleigh Anderson Because it's extremely restrictive.
That's true. The character just has to be relatable. To someone. Well to enough people for the media piece to be accepted and liked.
+Kaleigh Anderson
But does that apply to our characters?
Our characters? To real humans?
How Sage kind of reflects on "His Life." And how Shinji rejects instrumentality are oddly similar.
Evangelion seems like this big fit of OCD where people are just so terrified of the future that they just can't move forward. Adam and Lilith are like the mom and/or dad that we can't control being born to and then the rest of the story is focused on dealing with traumas and getting brutalized and over-sensitized repeatedly. In the end, you just have to pick up the pieces and move on just like in Evangelion when Shinji remateralizes out of the LCL and has to figure out what to do next. At least that's how I understand it.
Even though I gave the episode a thumbs "down", I appreciate the hard work you go through to put your time, effort and opinions on the internet. And I Did watch it all the way through to the end bcs I care.
You are very Welcome.
Holy crap, that was really mature.
Sarah Carmack Why downvote the video if you're appreciative of the effort. Out of spite?
Alex Barber Probably because despite the effort it sucks
Romano Coombs I like your comments.
This guy said Asuka's moment against the evas isn't bad ass because she fails at defeating them. He then goes on to show the definition of bad ass with a clip of the major from Ghost In The Shell FAILING to stop a giant tank............Why hasn't any one pointed this out and how can a review who claims to have critical thinking skills have missed this?
Asuka is fighting enemies that nobody thinks have a chance of winning with barely any resistance until she gets taken out by a lucky shot, while she does insane rambling.
The Major is fighting a big tank unarmed. The only chance she has is forcing the hatch open, hoping it gives out before her body. Also it is a character moment (at least Sage claims it is, I haven't seen Ghost in the Shell yet).
Had Asuka declared her comrades are more important than her ego and if her EVA is getting more and more wrecked as the battle goes on, then it would have been badass.
The major was busy failing at way more than stopping that tank in that scene.
MarginalSC It doesn't matter if she succeeded or not.
The context matters.
Her fighting some unaugmented crooks would not be badass, fighting a tank is. At least if she has no other choice.
No. The major had no reason to go for that tank right away. Doing something stupid is not badass.
MarginalSC
Being cornered by a machine that can see through her stealth suit is not a good reason?
A friend of mine once said "Man, I remember when the Evangelion movie was announced, everyone was so pumped that it was going to fix the last part of the show... and then it came out and everyone wasn't so much livid as wildly and unanimously confused as to what on earth happened"
As for the masterbation scene, it is actually very important to Shinji's character development. However, Evangelion is definitely not for everyone, and that's okay.
Yep. I worked that much out when I first saw that scene: Shinji had hit rock bottom. All those buried feelings towards Oscar coupled with teenage hormones lead him to do something to despicable that even he realised what an utter mess of a person he had become.
It was a very emotionally powerful scene. A real kick in the teeth.
To say nothing of the fact that Shinji was in such a state of thirsting for any human contact, that even this fake version of it seemed... better than nothing.
EXACTLY. I hit the "dislike" button because he didn't understand that. Shinji wasn't being a "douchebag".
Casey J It's something difficult to understand. People often have some knee-jerk reactions to certain things, which are immediately "totally bad", without paying attention to context. That is a pity. Life is hardly ever black or white; we should know that by now. But people still have their pet peeves and triggers...
And sometimes people can see the point of the scene but other feelings outweigh that.
To use myself as an example, I can totally see the above meanings, but I'm sqicked out too hard for the prevailing reaction to be appreciation for the visceral character development. It doesn't mean that the meaning isn't an integral part of the scene and its place in the film; it means that the vehicle for the metaphor and character development didn't work for me.
It's a thing that happens.
I cannot say for Sage how things are balanced in his opinion, of course, but I can say that internet reviews tend to be better-viewed if the expression therein is less nuanced and that videos like this are often fairly cramped as a medium. Those are likely factors in the way he expressed things in this video.
18:57 That sounds like something someone would realistically say in real life, delivery and all.
German here. Actually Seele is correct, not Sila as you said. Sorry man, at least this was made well by the dub.
the ending was very heartfelt thanks for sharing that with us :D
As one long-time otaku speaking to another, you're welcome, Sage. Keep it up. You're not wasting your life if you really have a passion for what you're doing. Keep the faith.
As someone who suffered from a long term depression from violence in my past, Eva was a massive, beautifully directed, animated (when things actually moved), intricately-written kick to the balls. Shinji encompasses everything that is bad about chronic depression: running away, turning down help, blaming yourself, and of course, crying a lot. Though Anno's depiction of Shinji is extremely accurate and fleshed out, it comes off as "Hey, all you people like this are parasites on society".
Of course not all protagonists have to be likeable, but they have to be at least tolerable, which Shinij is not. The plot implodes whenever Shinji so much thinks something that makes him upset, taking away from the other characters' time to grow. Shinji never really becomes a functioning individual, and it further adds to the insult of "All of you other depressed people are crybabies"
I basically did everything Shinji didn't to overcome my depression and become happy again.
Awaiting 60 line comment telling me how dense and wrong I am filled with vocabulary intentionally bloated to confuse me and other readers.
Even Anno hates his fans, he's said it multiple times in interviews, it's why Shinij wanks off; Anno's showing everyone what they did to his precious baby...
And that's fine mate, you enjoy what you want to enjoy.
Thank you for being respectful and proving me wrong, I was really hoping someone would
I suppose all those who went through depression have a hard time seeing it depicted so well in fiction. You have my sympathy -- from someone whose depression was perhaps not as long-term, but was just as deeply felt. I hope you're feeling well.
Oh yeah I'm feeling a lot better now.
Shinji wouldn't have been as frustrating if he weren't mono-dimensional. All he was was a freakishly accurate depiction of adolescent depression. If he had grown a little bit or had just a few more moments of happiness, EVA would easily be one of my favourites.
It's why I like characters like Vash so much; they have so many layers and the layers fold together perfectly, kinda like origami lol.
Neil McInnis But I suspect the point of the animē was not to depict a best-case scenario... That's Gurren Lagann, where a similarly self-doubting, depressive Simon grows up to become the savior of the universe in 27 episodes. The traditional Hero's Path. NGE was about something else: a more realistic scenario in which the people around the 'hero' are not so invested in (or are not really capable of supporting) the hero's happiness or helping him through moments of trauma and self-doubt. As I've said once, if Shinji had Kamina, Yōko Littner and Nia with him instead of Gendo, Misato, Rei and Asuka, he would have become a traditional bad-ass hero, since he obviously had all the potentitial (much more than Simon had... can you imagine Simon if he had to deal with Asuka, Rei, Gendo and Misato?...).
But NGE is not a traditional hero story; it is the much less often told story of what happens when the hero can't get support and can't solve his problems by himself (like most depression patients). It is adolescent depression, no doubt -- and quite realistic at that. And that's something that, up until NGE did it, wasn't really part of animē. We had lots of dark (anti-)heroes that were part demon and thus "couldn't really be only good" or something like that; but we didn't have a hero with all the potential of a true bad-ass hero but problems he couldn't solve by himself and no friends to help him. Something more akin to real life, where we usually have to pay to get this kind of help... (One wonders why NERV headquarters had no staff psychologists. Didn't they ever think this might be necessary?...)
Well yeah I knew NGE was a super meta commentary on the hero's story and mech anime. My issue with Shinji is that he's boring; he never really changes, he's a flat character.
All the other teens I've known with depression (basically all of them) had so much more going on than just self-doubt, comparing themselves to others, and abusive parents. They all had that and more: trauma, death of family/friends, bullying, the list goes on. Shinji frustrates people because his struggles and failures come off more as "If you're a depressed teen, fuck you, this is what the world will do to you." Obviously it's truthful, but the message is sent in a condescending way. Even when Shinji gets verbally bitch slapped, as Sage put it, he doesn't really change. It's why stories of how characters mask or overcome their depression are better received and more interesting to watch: there's simply more there than tears. If Shinji had just a little bit more to him he could get away with crying and running away constantly, but there isn't much more to him, and it's why he really, REALLY pisses people off.
Anyway, thanks for the polite and informed discussion. I love talking about this kind of thing. Hell, reading your comment helped my own writing!
'Waaaaah why are these mentally unstable characters acting like mentally unstable characters?'
You know, when my friends and I saw this movie for the first time... When the "in Shinji's hands" line came along... We all said in a single voice... "Awww shit... Mankind is fucked..." I knew we couldn't be the only ones thinking that but, for the first time in years, we could agree to one single thing regarding Evangelion...
I almost feel that the Baseball scene was a subtle reference to Evangelion's Psychological aspects, i don't know... it was the feeling; the mood of the scene, if you will, that almost implied that BennetTheSage both liked, and hated Evangelion in multiple ways. I enjoyed Evangelion, but man... it had some F##ked up moments...
not literally implied, but the baseball scene compared the characters' issues with Bennett's own issues.
It was. He even started whining like Shinji.
Oh yeah. True...
I find it wholly interesting how crazy intense these arguments were (this video is very old, so I'm speaking in past tense about the fire comments section below) discrediting Sage and taking up arms to defend this anime. I only think I've seen similar fights like this on his Aeon Flux video. I won't disregard the fact that they have a lot of fans, but Grave of the Fireflies didn't get nearly as much flame towards Sage (though I remember there was some). I wonder if the super defensive are that way because, with Aeon Flux and this movie, made them feel smarter by understanding it, and Sage tearing it apart as he did, was an affront to these peoples's intelligence. I admit, I haven't seen Evangelion, but from what I've seen, it appears to come off as incredibly smart, with all the imagery alluding to higher and more philosophical ideas. I don't know whether or not they deliver on said statements, but I do think that they both have the ability to make the viewer feel smart while watching it. That's my interpretation, at least.
+Commander Shepard
You're most likely not gonna answer back to this since it's been two weeks since you posted this but I still like to give'ya my two cents on Evangelion. I think the tries too hard to be smart and the end result is something that's confusing and nonsensical, it doesn't help that there isn't anyone that stands out among the characters and everyone is more or less forgettable so ultimately it's a show with a lot of ideas but no clue how to execute them properly.
buck342443 Hey dude, I shall respond, as I kinda did want a response. And i agree with you. That's kind of the mood that I got from this review. A pretentious anime that was trying to pretend that it was saying more than the hollow, basic story it was actually telling. But I'm also saying that, at face value, it LOOKED smart. All the imagery made the watcher feel smart if they caught something that wasn't directly told to them. I think the people this defend this look at it as a shot to their own intelligence. They saw the movie as deep and intelligent, but here comes some reviewer telling them that they were being played and played right into the anime's hand.
Oh I agree that is does look very smart and I can understand how people can get upset when something they love is being attacked, I'm a Power Rangers fan so I know the pain lol, it's just that Evangelion failed to engage at every level. I think the show lacked a true sense of focus which is it's real problem, maybe if it wasn't as plot heavy it could have worked better.
We're on the same side here. I'm just trying to decode why there was so much debate. There must've been something to appeal to people with this, or it wouldn't be as defended as it is. It's not just something you like being attacked. It's something you like being attacked, and your intelligence as a person placed in question. I love the movie Ex Machina (watch if you haven't), and I thought that it was amazing in the way it expressed the ideas that it wanted to tell. But, if someone told me it was a pretentious pile of crap that didn't express anything more than "robots are bad", I would get offended and demand they try to see my side of things. And that's where I think the hate is coming from. I'm just trying to understand the other side, that's all.
I see now, my guess is that it's possibly the theme and the message that resonates with people so much is why it's defended so strongly. Even though I don't understand or care to understand Evangelion I will not discredit it's fanbase and say it has no meaning what so ever because that would be obviously not true, maybe the possible connection it has with it's fanbase is that it can be interrupted in many different ways, much like religious text, so basically it's strength is that you can take what ever you want from it pretty much?
Point 1-4 of your SEELE clipboard issues, it's the difference between humanity being destroyed + Angels achieving superior status, and humanity being the one to achieve the next step and become LCL where you have no bad issues between humans. Basically it's the difference between becoming "zero" and becoming "one".
Demo does it better.
***** dem legs...
I feel like this video is a good indicator of how Sage's videos have improved.
A film angers him. Fair enough, but past Sage starts directing that anger towards the people who aren't angered by the film simply for not being angered by it, which neatly explains the ungodly amount of dislikes.
(And for the record- no, I'm not just being butthurt because he didn't like it. I've never seen the film or the cartoon series it was based on. I wouldn't know if I like it or not.)
Evangelion is one of those things I love and hate at the same time.
(WATCH OUT; MAJOR PRETENSE BELOW)
Bennett's main argument falls kind of moot (at least with me) by his mere suggestion that visual flourishes, dreamscapes and non-sequitor symbolism and the like have to be relevant to a film's central story, whether in a narrative or thematic sense. Sometimes storytellers dabble in the nonsensical to stimulate awe and convey certain feelings that otherwise wouldn't be conveyable within the confines of any concrete plotting and Eva's brand of audio and visual cacophony is ultimately why Evangelion (despite its countless flaws) works so well for me. Faith, sex, violence, family and friendship are a big part of any adolescent's coming-of-age and Anno chops and blends those ideas into a feverish adventure that's confounding, frustrating, and often breathtaking.
Picking apart EoE as a coherent narrative package is like going to the opera for the story and lyrics. Why not just enjoy the symphony?
"It's not relevant to the plot, it's just a character moment."
Is this a joke? What do you think the movie is about?
A person's truth is so simple, that most ignore it to concentrate on what they think are deeper truths.
-Kaji, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Pretty much sums up the comment section. The casuals who don't get Evangelion are trying to read some kind of religious or existential symbolism into the show (that may or may not exist), and ignore the fundamental story and primary message it provides. They judge it vaguely because they immediately jump to the conclusion that the most vague (and complex) part of the story is it's main attribute. They fail to realize that the show offers so much more if they open their minds to it's inner moral and teachings.
Either that or they are too fucking stupid to even get the show, and try to justify their inferiority by acting like the show itself is even more stupid than them.
Azoonaloc13 That's pretty much the show's controversy in a nutshell.
Emil Vang
I'm not going into detail and answering a question that you could answer for yourself if you simply watched the show.
Emil Vang I am not fully refreshed on the show myself, as I haven't watched myself in some time (I watched it last maybe a month after I made the first comment). However, there are some very obvious themes that shine through. Each Character in the show teaches us something if we dare to identify them on an individual level (examples being Asuka's Obsessive nature teaching us the danger of Ambition and Overconfidence, and Shinji's frail Integrity teaching us the importance of communication and openness).
Are you happy, or are you going to continue to waste my time over a comment I made 5 months ago?
I disagree with you Bennett, but I do respect your opinion on the matter and overall I've got to say that your critiques are at the very least interesting and fun to watch. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a very polar series and the film the End of Evangelion intensified that schism between those who loved it and those who hated it. I tend to fall into the former category, but I don't see any fault with the logic of those who have actual reasons to fall into the latter. It's a personal preference thing though and if it isn't to your liking then that's perfectly fine, it has a certain niche to fill and it does its job in that regard very well. It all depends on how much you can relate to the characters in Eva and that boils down to "how badly do you hate yourself". Being that I've been a fan for longer than I can honestly remember, and that I still find excuses to talk about it whenever I can, says a bit about myself. What I am curious about however is how you see RahXephon, which is essentially NGE on anti-depressants. Since you haven't put out a video that I've seen it would be nice if you could post your thoughts on it and explain how you reached your conclusion (much like you've done here). If you don't that's fine too, but if it's at all possible could you at the very least post a small entry on it as a reply to this (if you can that is)
He misses so many obvious things it's ridiculous.
Bottom line: End of EVA cannot be deconstructed; it deconstructs YOU!
Also, awe that was such a sweet ending, :)
Well Bennett, the reason I clicked on this video was to be amused.
And you have succeeded in that department.
...Also...what the hell is with all the dislikes...aren't people allowed to have their opinions anymore?
+HisHolyMajesty Interesting you saying that, as I saw another comment by you in another video, talking about how dreadful Neon Genesis Evangelion. I sometimes see that people who make the "opinion", not all, but often have the same opinion as the reviewer. I've seen this making up almost half of the comments for this review. I wonder if Bennett the Sage said Evangelion was the best anime ever, would you have still made this comment or would you have told Bennett his opinion was wrong and said Evangelion was a shit anime?
+Stupidnonmovingcartoon I would disagree with him, but people are entitled to have their own opinions. I certainly wouldn't dislike a video because someone has a different opinion to me.
I dislike Evangelion immensely, but I can see why many like it, and I can respect that it's still popular these days. I just find it a little too depressing for my taste.
Per chance, which comment of mine did you read?
The dislikes are a way to express people's opinions.
I liked The End of Evangelion. I just don't like it's fans a whole lot.
Yeah man, why does everyone hate this movie, more importantly why hate the series itself?
(I see nothin' wrong with it)... well maybe the dub, but still.
Roy Whitaker For me, it's nothing making any sense and all the pointless symbolism. But I do like the visuals, I think the characters do have some good story and emotions behind them. I wanted to like EVA, but I don't. I love what it tried to bring, I didn't like what it was. It's kinda sad for me really. But at the very least, this anime made history and invokes learning when it comes to story telling and such.
I liked 12:06 but then I remembered, 'what'? Isn't he supposed to be a thing with Asuka? I like this girl MUCH better but since when are they a thing?
i kinda agree. its one thing to be trash, but its another to be trash and hailed as a masterpiece
I know you posted this five years ago, so it would be cool if you replied and still had your account lol. I wanted to ask why. It’s my favorite movie, and I keep up with the sub reddit. What’s wrong with the fan base? They seem fine.
Lord knows if I was Shinji I would buck up and save the world. And I suffer from chronic depression. When the world is at stake, my problems mean little to noting. Seriously Shinji, GROW UP!
Good for you, but please admit that an unlikable character isn't necessarily a poorly written character. In fact, it's often the most flawed and selfish protagonists who are the most compelling (which is why a story like Macbeth can remain ageless). Part of what turns me off of the anime genre (aside from EVA and other examples) is how the main characters are often these male archetypes who are just too bland and one-dimension to hold my interest. Shinji's callousness and social exile is not only fascinating but essential to EVA's themes concerning adolescent coming-of-age, the dangers of child-exploitation in war, civil collapse, etc.
If you're frustrated by Shinji then Anno was doing his job.
WheresPoochie Nah. I usually hate anti heroes. I like straight, unapologetic good guys who do the right thing because it's the right thing. Batman, Spike Speagal, The Punisher, I really kinda hate them. They're kinda dicks.
samuel will To each their own, but a good vs. evil tale without much extra emotional weight is probably more boring than you remember it being.
WheresPoochie Who said it had to have no weight. Good guys can still develop and learn. They can be forced to question their morals even if they never truly falter.
WheresPoochie That may be, but when the protagonist is unlikeable you fucked up as a writer. Death Note almost fell into this territory, but by the time Light Yagami became truly irredeemable you wanted him to fail and be caught, thus the end was satisfying for most. Shinji doesn't really have any good qualities.
Most of these arguments that are actually based on facts were misinterpreted or debunked by interviews/omake material back in 2001.
My god. that dislike bar. i feel so bad for those people...
It couldn't be disagreement. It's that his "points" were so amazing that people were hurt and had to re-evaluate their lives.
+Rakka of Glie "I DON'T LIKE THINKING!!! WHAT IS THIS, EVANGELION!?!?!"
+Crimson Vulpes Evangelion has a very strange fanbase. It is a very teenage oriented anime (pinguins, for instance) with a big whoop of drama and angst. But then has a fucking in his own ass ending and everybody was convinced that it mean something other than the director really really liked cocaine
+Yuzuru A It isn't oriented at teens. It's aimed at adults too. Who should at least parcially understand the show.
Penguins for instance lol.
It was really dumb how Gendo and SEELE's plans were never really mutually exclusive. Both got what they wanted; they never had to butt heads the way they did. The conflict felt forced.
It was also dumb how SEELE planned to kill Shinji in the beginning, but later needed him as an integral part of the 3rd Impact - citing the destruction of his ego as the completion for the plan. Like, dude, you were JUST trying to kill him 5 seconds ago, and now he's needed?? Lmao. And if the counterargument was that he wasn't technically needed, and that that was just another way to achieve the 3rd Impact/Instrumentality, then wow, that's EXTREMELY convenient.
Those were my 2 biggest issues with the plot.
"shinji's annoying"
if I had a dime every time I heard that
I wish people had more characters like Shinji. Truly fucked-up characters who have become utterly insane given the situations they're in. But nope, "I think you should throw out all that psychological stuff -- exploring a killer's sick mind," said Betty from Sunset Blvd.
I see the same mentality stays here.
Thank you for this honest review. Personally, I did enjoy the vast majority of NGE, so my comment isn't focused on just "The End of Evangelion", and albeit that, I truly see where you are coming from. Our experience with what the anime left us with after the credits rolled, what you portrait from 28:00 onward, is fairly similar though, and I think that is the most important part about the work that is NGE.
Interesting....the responses I'm reading below are strangely similar to how people respond to this movie. Confusion. Anger. Praise. Depression. Ambivalence. End of Evangelion is like the Pandora's Box or Ark of the Covenant of anime...the series itself ended with two episodes devoted entirely to psychological introspection that we were left completely in the dark as to what was actually happening in the "real" world...something that the creators didn't want to tell us (or never got around to actually creating an ending due to the budget being pulled). We the audience demanded the box of reality be opened...and once that box was opened and you looked, you were forever changed (or you were so f'ed up to begin with that this didn't even affect you).
Hats off to you Sage for a well done review.
That's always an option. :) But unfortunately, people are like cats when it comes to curiosity. >:)
I still like Asuka
Only true patricians appreciate the girls in Eva.
***** She is a great character.
+codafett me too. Bitchiness and bratiness and all
+Whirlwind Spiral I know many men that like cunts
+codafett I still like to bone Asuka
I still come back to this review whenever I feel down about myself. Half for the speech Bennett gives about being something, half for Brett's speech at the end.
Perhaps Seele are servants of Tzeentch, explaining their self-contradicting goals.
German here. They pronounce Seele right. Bennett pronounces it completly wrong. No idea how he got that idea :D
I liked your ending ♥️♥️♥️
It's like post con depression mixed with the actual movie, but you did it better. 👍
I like a lot of sage's reviews but I strongly disagree with his Eva reviews.
All he does is nit pick and bash the crap outa it with out giving it any credit.
I love NGE but I understand it's not for everyone. The old animation and average voice acting turns a lot of people off and the characters can be unlikable and the ending (even though I like it) gets a little full of its self and is confusing to most people.
The thing I hate is how most people who don't like it just hate it because "Shinji is annoying and the ending is bad" and because of those problems to certain people they just hate the whole show and go out of their way to hate on it and anyone who brings up a good point about it just gets called an idiot or a NGE fan boy.
It's fine if u don't like something, but you don't have to go out of your way to hate on it and bully anyone who likes it and give the show no credit to its good qualities.
lassi kinnunen Give the ending some thought. Read the interpretations of others - it will all start making sense, and I believe you will truly appreciate it.
Yeah, Evangelion is a deconstruction story. And a damn good one, at that!
Love this video I’m back here every year , that Brett weaver cameo is brilliant
This was great to watch. The breakdown and the baseball scene were well shot that made me look at you a bit deeper. You do us all a great service with your videos partner.
I initially enjoyed the show due to how more limited robots were compared to Gundam and Zoids, it gave it a nice sense of identity. Then you have to hear Asuka and Shinji be insufferable for hours, souring whatever enjoyable world building seemed to be around. Yet even then they decide to go full religious seizure and whatever interesting world building goes right out the window for sensory overload and sexual themes
Delivery of a product is important because no matter how interesting the product may be, someone dropping it, kicking it, or getting it wet devalues it and may in fact ruin it
I feel like EOE has one of the initial plot set-ups I've ever seen, and then gets completely sidetracked by its own symbolism. I love the idea of Sele\UN launching a full assault against NERVE. This agency full of our protagonists is now a massive threat to everyone in the world. The sheer scale of their military might is matched only by their ability to peel back the philosophical curtain and show plebeians everywhere exactly what the elite power players never wanted them to see. But if the task force strikes now, NERVE still has one notable weakness. The EVA pilots are kids, and not even the most emotionally stable ones. This entire film should have been about every faction capable of supplying ammo clips giving NERVE the final middle finger. The movie would have been much better served if the filmmakers had just followed that basic plot line, and the characters' reactions to it. I love Evangelion, but I often love what it could have been. In my imagination, I see an alternate reality where the story's gonzo philosophy was somewhat more balanced against standard narrative conventions. As popular as the existing version was\is, the potential of that alternative seems limitless. I think that's the logic behind the rebuild films.
1. Beacuse what they want was instrumentality in their own way, when all the humanity was joined as one and not the fucking angels destroying all the world.
2. ???? Some angels have intelligence, but they didn't cooperate with Seele, Kaworu was abducted by Seele the moment he was born (Second Impact), he was raised by Seele. They send him exactly knowing that he will be killed, he was the last angel.
3. He thought that Lilith was Adan, he was tricked by Seele. The merge of Adan's soul and body will mean the end of mankind, something that he realized he didn't want it to choose it, it was a decision that meant to be taken by the Lilin (mankind).
4. I already explain it, it was all a plan to kill him, the last angel. You could think "then why they don't kill right away?" mmm maybe beacude of his AT field and superpowers? maybe.
5. At the end the plan was mostly the same: instrumentality but in different ways. Gendo want it to merge adan and lilith with him as medium (adan's body was in his hand) to see Yui again (maybe in the ocean of LCL as when Shinji saw her), but what happened was that Shinji was the medium, Seele maybe predicted this I'm not so sure beacause it all felt down and at the end Shinji rejects instrumentality for the sake of mankind and for a chance to be happy.
Woow that was fun, if you don't like Eva I get it but it's not that difficult to understand it...well maybe if you saw it SUB, with a good fansub (some are better than the official one), it will be more easy. This dub is awful so as the spanish one in terms of script (yes I'm an spanish speaker, sorry for the grammar). But hey it's all a matter of opinion, and I don't agree with yours.
Evangelion isn't that bad.
It's not, the review is just hypocritical bullshit
+Cool I love videos like this.
I get to scroll down and invariably see someone commenting out his distaste for how someone else offended them to anyone who'll "listen."
You're shouting into the darkness and it's wonderful.
Mr Mosquito you like videos about one of the most pretentious anime reviewers complaining about something being pretentious?
+Cool hypocritical? How was the review hypocritical? Do you even know what the word means?
inferno hypocrisy noun:
n. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
For example him complaining about something being pretentious while being even more pretentious than said thing
This has got to be the most ignorant review of end of evangelion I've ever seen (granted, I've only seen a few). I think this not because his opinion is different than mine, (I personally liked it even with some of it's problems) but because Bennett the Sage clearly doesn't understand the story and the characters. It seems like he was expecting the explanations to be handed to him when EoE has a story that you really need to sit back and analyze to understand what happened. This was one of Anno's main goals when creating Evangelion saying that too many shows just handed everything over to the viewer and didn't make them think and try to figure things out for themselves. Now I don't have anything against Bennett, I just don't think he did a very good job with this review.
Once again Sage misses the forest for the trees. I can imagine his review of 2001: A Space Odyssey going something like "There was no character development. This movie is a slow and overblown pretentious mess. This is terrible."
Wow why does everyone hate this video it's sage saying hes happy to be doing youtube