Anime: Emotions on a Rollercoaster

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

three almost JoJo-esque gym gods (hehehehe)

They don't pose nearly as well though.

@Bartimaeus

Yeah, the thing that really gets me is that Shinji's arc makes complete sense yet you still end up disliking him. Like looking at the other pilots Asuka literally has a mental breakdown and ends up catatonic, Shinji's friend gets crippled or killed in the first outing, and both Rei and Kaworu aren't actually human. There's really no way you can come out of this not ****ed up, yet here we are disliking Shinji for not being able to take piloting a mecha-alien (who is also his mom) for his abusive father. As if any of us could do anything but cope.

[majestic]

9 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

They don't pose nearly as well though.

@Bartimaeus

 

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Yeah, the thing that really gets me is that Shinji's arc makes complete sense yet you still end up disliking him. Like looking at the other pilots Asuka literally has a mental breakdown and ends up catatonic, Shinji's friend gets crippled or killed in the first outing, and both Rei and Kaworu aren't actually human. There's really no way you can come out of this not ****ed up, yet here we are disliking Shinji for not being able to take piloting a mecha-alien (who is also his mom) for his abusive father. As if any of us could do anything but cope.

 

That sounds like I really should finish watching NGE.

[Bartimaeus]

@ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP Big Evangelion spoilers don't read anyone else who hasn't seen it if you ever plan on doing so:

Spoiler

And yet, I still can't stop wanting to smack him. I think it must be the fact that he's the protagonist so we're with him constantly combined with the 'style' of how he copes - he's whining and crying and doing nothing constantly. Asuka? Asuka's either down for the count or flying into a rage and doing stuff, take your pick - not too much crying on her part. Not none, but not much. Also, I don't know which version you watched, but I watched the original English version where both Asuka and Rei's voice actresses are like perfect for their characters (I initially tried the Netflix version and was kind of split between the two different versions up until I heard both Rei and Asuka, as the original two VAs were significantly better than what Netflix replaced them with). I don't know what the Japanese version of Shinji sounds like, but in both English versions his voice could not be any whinier - it really doesn't help him out any. Know what else doesn't help him? His actions (or rather, the lack thereof) directly getting the better characters horrifically killed. Misato is literally taking bullets for him and he does nothing. He hears Asuka getting murdered out there and more or less begging for his help and he does nothing. Hell, even "Rei" bites it because he neither prevented the...uh...thingy...Third Impact? from happening nor committed to letting it complete. And never mind his endless introspection bits during End or the final couple of episodes. It's a tough scene.

@majestic

In terms of relating characters, I feel like I'm...40% Minako, 30% Rei, and 30% Ami - I can't really relate to Usagi at all, while Makoto...whatever Makoto I feel I can relate to is stuff that's already present in at least one of the other three, though I understand and am obviously much more sympathetic towards her than Usagi given her constant state of getting screwed over while soldering on like...well, like a soldier! Funnily, even though Minako is the biggest character I relate to, she is probably also the character I would least get along with if she were a real person out of everybody - as I've mentioned before, relating to a character, liking a character, and also liking a real world person that embody those same character traits are all three vastly different subjects for me, and often don't overlap, .

I agree with your take regarding Rei and Usagi. And maybe it's the fact that I have several siblings and I feel like I literally grew up with some family dynamics like they have (my two older sisters, the older of which was smarter, more logical, but also easily frustrated and could be meaner...the younger of which was a complete airheaded crazybrain...) that nothing about it really feels out of place to me.

@SU:

Spoiler

Okay, in my defense for calling it "like a Sailor Moon movie", there are some things that specifically reminded me of a Sailor Moon movie. Revolves around a character that hitherto was never mentioned or seen, check. Plot...has nothing much to do with the original series, not really, check. It does *resume* the continuity of the original series at least, albeit after a bit of a timeskip, which the SM movies didn't, so I'll give it that. Introduces some crap that begs some SERIOUS questions like the scythe gem resetter thing - why would you ever shatter a gem when you could just reset them and turn them back into loyal soldiers? Like...what? Worse, Bismuth specifically says they were around the time of the Gem War, whereas if she had kept her mouth shut, at least you could say "well, Homeworld probably invented it in the thousands of years since the Gem War!". I know it's just...details, but details that big kind of matter! Or, as you said, Spinel getting the injector out of nowhere in literally like an hour, or the fact that just ONE INJECTOR is enough to apparently destroy an entire planet? wot. And that's another thing - the plot for this is yet another one of those very rushed "THE WORLD IS GONNA END" movie plots that are so incredibly typical of TV movies like this.

There's also the fact that I really, really struggled to like this movie upon the first watch - and while the other person I watched the show with first loved it, the other two people I watched it with in my rewatch *hated* it, so I was kind of intentionally attempting to lower your expectations in case it fell flat with you. I felt more confident that you'd be the type to like it more, because you already love other stuff like this, but just in case... For me, the fact that it was a musical was extremely off-putting (while I always loved the original sung music in the show, it was greatly helped by it not happening that often AND the fact that songs almost always came about extremely organically - mostly not the case for The Movie outside of the songs at Sadie's concert), the fact that it so quickly went through character developments that used to take many episodes made it feel very rushed while not having enough room to breathe, doing some weird overexplaining stuff that felt super out of place given the fact that the movie already felt like it was too dense and had no time to do anything...and the other problems I mentioned above and some others I'm not remembering right now. It was only upon a rewatch that I was able to appreciate it a lot more.

In regards to Spinel herself, she was widely adored by the fanbase, and this little incident just made everyone hate RQ even more. But as you said, RQ's actions, while utterly regrettable, make sense in the context of who she was at that time and the oh so little universe that she was occupying. I think it's now a common fan theory that...uh, wait a second...never mind! I think for a lot of fans, the fact that we see RQ's tale in complete reverse over the series (starts off as this perfect space goddess and gradually becomes more and more gray until you finally see her character at its lowest point - multiple times even!) makes it difficult for people to appreciate that she had good points too! It's just...been a long time since we saw them, that's all!

Also, thanks re: grandma - she's having blood clotting problems right now but is still hanging of for the time being...we'll see what happens.

(e): Thank goodness this posted - I forgot to CTRL+A CTRL+C this and had a moment of terror that it wouldn't go through when I clicked submit.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Very quick post, the original Japanese seiyu for Shinji was Megumi Ogata.

Or in other words, Haruka / Sailor Uranus.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

That sounds like I really should finish watching NGE.

It is a classic for a reason.

@Bartimaeus

I think it was intended that people dislike Shinji while coming to the conclusion they wouldn't really be different in the same situation. Maybe not to that degree of just sitting around while everyone you've been close to just dies, but enough that we be massively traumatized if we got the same deal as Shinji. All in all I think Shinji works extremely well as an unlikable protagonist.

[majestic]

Was Usagi in the finale really as bad as Shinji sounds, or is that NGE trauma and Usagi-hate by proxy?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 minute ago, majestic said:

Was Usagi in the finale really as bad as Shinji sounds, or is that NGE trauma and Usagi-hate by proxy?

Yes.

[Amentep]

 

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