Anime - Oh No! Oh My God!

[Bartimaeus]

2 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

So you're saying that you like Pegasus?

If they aren't currently romancing young children, then Pegasus is probably fine. Probably.

(e):

Spoiler

Though Pegasus did not appear in this...but a monstrous flying dinosaur thing that flew Arion into Olympus to slay Zeus and Gaia did.

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

No, not that again. Please. No more Pegasus. Can we talk about Charlie the Unicorn instead? Onegai?

Halfway through Evangelion 2.22 by the way. That's a little better than the first one, at least, even if I don't like how it apparently put Asuka into aggressive insanity overdrive mode and introduces new and totally unnecessary characters, a weird new EVA unit built on the moon and the early reveal that the Fifth Children (sic, for those that did not watch the original) isn't human.

And lots more Biblical/Jewish/Christian terminology. Whatever guys, you do you.

Is it just me or is Asuka moving in with Shinji and Misato a bit weird without the context of them needing to coordinate their attacks to fight an Angel? I mean, what the hell.

gg on replicating the scene with Shinji, by the way, only to have Asuka kick Shinji for seeing her naked. Man really, please spoil me, does Ritsuko later comment on how they're all the same?

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I was basically treating the first movie as a more competent Death (True)^2, because Death really super sucked and basically did not work even slightly as an abridged "catch up on the entire show so you can watch The End of Evangelion" movie. Also, my brain has been melting trying to remember all of the exact differences between the show and this especially what with me having watched the entire original show in one sitting - makes it hard to recall all of the specific details, guess I'm going to have to eventually watch the show again at some point. The show feels and looks a lot better anyways, so I might as well over this...but I guess since I'm halfway through this already, I might as well finish it too.

It probably really is a function of having watched NGE only fairly recently then, because that added exposition in the form of unnecessary dialogue was really grating. "I wonder if Shinji can see through my act!" what now Misato, really, you're not at all sure of yourself? Good thing you told me. Well, yourself.

I, uhm, yeah. The movie is probably not as bad as I make it out to be, to be honest, but it's such a strange contrast, and the quality of the animation compared to the original which was made with constant budget overruns isn't helping.

Miyu:

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

If you ever read the manga, make sure to give me a synopsis of each book, . And it almost feels like there should've been a movie to sort the issues with Reiha out...she was important, show - can't just push her and her issues aside like that! Plus, Miyu promised to wait for her...

Also...did I understand the one dude correctly, that Miyu actually eats (and retains) the souls of those she drains? If so...yeah, I don't know, maybe she think she's granting them mercy, but that's kind of really messed up. Would this also mean that, if this is also true of the OVA, that she possesses the soul of her mother? Ay, caramba...

 

 

Spoiler

Not going to lie, that's a big "if" that would require that I voluntarily walk into a minefield of hunting for used comic books, which... I can hold off on as long as I don't start reading the first volume.

That's a though one to answer. It seems like Miyu is capable of consuming blood at least without causing "eternal happiness" to overcome the victim. This is fairly evident in a  few characters she has "exchanged" blood with. Larva, Himiko and her mother when she drank from the glass. The problem here is that they're all - except for Larva who was a special case anyway - based on the OVA.

That brings up an entirely different can of worms that I've only seen Blade pick up on so far. In a contemporary setting with vampires, why would Miyu still drink blood from human victims instead of visiting a blood bank every now and then. The chance to be found out, as proven by Hisae and Yukari, is much higher if you leave soulless husks incapable of caring for themselves in your wake. But that's overthinking it a little.

However, I guess, she can extract the soul of anyone with or without consuming their blood. Or did she drink Chisato's blood after Larva decapitated her? That didn't look like it, but it might have happened. She was mostly human anyway. But the ending would really suggest that she just transports the souls into her private realm to stay and be happy forever. Which is, arguably, really worse than just letting them die.

Or maybe they vanish when Miyu dies? Is that her private sub-plane or just a guardian sub-plane?

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Man really, please spoil me, does Ritsuko later comment on how they're all the same?

Spoiler

 

[Bartimaeus]

Miyu:

Spoiler

In the flashback during the finale of the show, the one guy took a soul and stuffed it into her mouth and triumphantly exclaimed that she had eaten a soul. My assumption would be that this "soul-eating" is the same power that she uses to grant "eternal happiness" to people, which yeah, suggests she's actually "eating" their souls. Eating is probably not the perfect word to use, really, because it seems as though they're still in-tact in...whatever and wherever that "place" is, whether it's actually completely internal to Miyu and just shown for our understanding and edification, some kind of spiritual representation, or actually a physical sub-plane/reality. My first inclination would be that it should be the first option, but then I think back and remember that there are times she's been able to draw other people into it without having drained them, so it's more probably the middle option...and hopefully not the third option, because that would just be too weird, . And my assumption would be that said souls are freed upon her death...or deciding to let them go, if she so chooses, which doesn't seem particularly likely to ever happen at least as of the conclusion of the show. Some posts back I mentioned that it doesn't seem like she exactly has the best grasp over what she's supposed to be doing or what anything she does really actually means, she seems to kinda just do "Guardian" things pretty unquestioningly while relying on her instincts for the rest. Didn't get proper vampiric OR guardian edumacation, .

 

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Halfway through Evangelion 2.22 by the way. That's a little better than the first one, at least, even if I don't like how it apparently put Asuka into aggressive insanity overdrive mode and introduces new and totally unnecessary characters, a weird new EVA unit built on the moon and the early reveal that the Fifth Children (sic, for those that did not watch the original) isn't human.

And lots more Biblical/Jewish/Christian terminology. Whatever guys, you do you.

Is it just me or is Asuka moving in with Shinji and Misato a bit weird without the context of them needing to coordinate their attacks to fight an Angel? I mean, what the hell.

There's no room for any of the scenes to breathe or develop, of course, since everything's at a breakneck pace...but for what's there, I thought Asuka actually seemed *nicer* than she did in the original show...then again, I am watching the weird Amazon English dub, .

I remember there being an internal discussion while making the English dub for the original show about "Child" vs. "Children", and apparently one of the translators was absolutely insisting that it *had* to be Children instead...but they were overruled because no, that's just dumb and doesn't work in English, .

Yeah at the weird and inexplicable scenes. Of course, seeing how 2.22 ends, I then kinda understood a bit why everything feels so absurdly rushed...

Spoiler

I liked the second Rebuild film significantly less than the first one, personally, .

(e): Guess I'm going to watch Evangelion 3 now...

Edited August 19, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

My gosh, Mari is so freaking incredibly grating, makes Shinji look downright pleasant in comparison. Could they have designed a more despicable character to add to Evangelion? ...Yes, they could've, easily (her name isn't End of the World, after all), but even so.

3.33 stuff:

Spoiler

OH MY GOSH, QUIT FREAKING HUMMING OVER ASUKA TALKING! Lmao, then Asuka screamed at her literally right after I unpaused to shut the hell up - love ya, Asuka. I was actually plugging my ears until I read that in the subtitles (note: yes, I like to have subtitles enabled even when watching in English, especially stuff that originally comes from a different language).

Also, I have no idea what's going on during this first sequence. Felt like I was watching Transformers or something for a few minutes there, just about started to have a headache, had to close my eyes for a bit. ...Uh, actually okay, this seems to be totally different from here on out from the original, so I guess I just have to assume I know absolutely nothing about what's going to happen. Lmao, Maya is a "chief" now, nice. Not exactly the role I envisioned for her, but that's great even so.

...Man, the animation in this one looks noticeably worse than the previous two somehow. Woof, it's like they've full-on embraced the CGI-ness of it: ugly, ugly stuff. Well, that was a really weird, inexplicable cut down to Asuka's crotch...and then her butt...for an extended period in the middle of her angry speech to Shinji. Yeah, **** you too, Hideaki Anno.

"What the hell? How did this happen?" What the hell indeed, Shinji...what the hell indeed. What an absolute load of bollocks that all was. Then again...as I keep saying, so was the original series. The Kaworu/Shinji stuff wasn't too terrible, at least...I think - would've liked more character stuff in Rebuild, but alas, all I'm getting is almost entirely non-character stuff, and this displeases me...greatly.

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

her name isn't End of the World, after all

I get the impression you really did not like Akio.

By the way, I've been meaning to ask this, between NGE and Utena, which one made less sense? I'd like to think it was Utena, but it's hard to gauge.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I get the impression you really did not like Akio.

By the way, I've been meaning to ask this, between NGE and Utena, which one made less sense? I'd like to think it was Utena, but it's hard to gauge.

Uh. Er. Hm. Ah. Well. Ergh. That is... I guess, really, as I've said a number of times now, everything usually comes down to characters for me, and so long as the characters and how they're acting sit well with me, I'm usually A-OK. Everything else is usually just bonus. Assuming...assuming that they matter at all and don't feel like a complete cliff-note to everything else that's going on, that is. With Evangelion, I may not understand a danged bit of what's going on plot, theme, or action-wise all of the time, but at least the characters (in the ORIGINAL series that, is) made sense and sat well with me, and that's the lens through which I try to interpret events, and yeah, though it was frustrating, it at least mostly worked. There's a reason I gave NGE as a whole a 7.0 while Utena got a 5.5, so there's your answer.

Now this Rebuild crap is an entirely different matter...

(e): I was going to watch the final one, but it's 2 hours and a half. ...Yeeeaaah, I'm going to wait until tomorrow.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): I was going to watch the final one, but it's 2 hours and a half. ...Yeeeaaah, I'm going to wait until tomorrow.

Indeed!

I'm a little further into Evangelion 2.22. I have to take back some of the things I've said,  I was nowhere near halfway through - that I am now, and it quickly deteriorated. It does feel like it has less direct exposition through dialogue than the first one, but it's gotten worse, actually, and the pacing of the movie made it necessary to invent something silly like the Vatican Treaty. Does Asuka piloting EVA-03 mean that her entirey arc of self-doubt is going to be replaced with Shinji dummy plugging her to... to what, then? Death? Losing an arm? Nothing? The angel just activated where I paused watching for the time being.

Anyway, this is really not going to well. The Vatican Treaty is needed to explain why Asuka needs to get into Unit-03 because you can't use any of the other characters because they're so underdeveloped noboy would care if Toji lost an arm. Or died, as was the original plan (which was, from what I've read, one of the few instances of studio interference with the original NGE).

For fun I decided to look up the Vatican Treaty on EvaGeeks, and what do you know:

Quote

The treaty's ostensible reason for existing could be simple politics, in order to prevent any one country from amassing too many of the most potent weapon on Earth. However, given that a policy restricting Japan's access to Evangelions is wholly counterproductive in light of their position as the world's defense against the Angel threat, Seele would probably have been able to pull some strings were there not a "deeper" reason for the three-Eva limit. One reasonable speculation that has been forwarded: four Evas active at any one place and time would risk recreating the conditions of Second Impact, by assembling the equivalent of four Adams.

Sure, speculate on, guys. It's a narrative band aid to get Asuka into Unit-03 because with a total of three minutes of screen time so far, nobody is going to give one flying f*ck (pardon the language) about Toji if he were to pilot that thing, that's all there is to it.

Then there are all the scenes of... fanservice.

In part they were also around in the original series, but they had meaning beyond looking at Asuka or Misato (or Rei). Instead we get an extended version of Asuka sleeping next to Shinji where they actually talk for no reason some more exposition.

Sure, the scene where Asuka is wearing Misato's shirt where here breasts spill out because it's too big for her could have been drawn differently in the original series, but it was also there to show us that Asuka is trying to get a sort of attention and validation from Shinji that he's currently incapable of giving her, and using means that he neither understands (granted, so didn't most of the audience, I'd guess) nor cares for (using the shirt to imply availibility, I mean - misinterpreting Shinji's reactions and all that).

Here we get a scene where she's cooking to show off her rivalry with Rei over the affection of Shinji, and she's wearing a bra and an apron. Why? Who knows. Then Misato comes in and neatly EXPLAINS THE GOD DAMNED SCENE, because unless you're hit over the head with it, you're not going to get it, right? RIGHT?

Sigh.

"Don't you think this suit is a little too revealing?"

Yeah, I think so too, Asuka.

More on this when I continue. Which might be tomorrow evening, or maybe a little earlier to get this over with.

And because it's become sort of customary, HORY SH1T, OH NO, look at this:

Honestly, what the hell? OH MY GOD, look at that audience. I don't even...

[Bartimaeus]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Then there are all the scenes of... fanservice.

Here, I'm going to spoil you about something I put in my spoiler for 3.33, because I'm a dirty rotten person, but not really.

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, that was a really weird, inexplicable cut down to [character]'s crotch...and then her butt...for an extended period in the middle of her [emotional moment]. Yeah, **** you too, Hideaki Anno.

Suffice to say, it doesn't get better. Framing of scenes matters, guys - most of the time, I gave the original a show a pass because at least there were usually plausible framing explanations (particularly because characters didn't then go and immediately explain the entire scene verbally immediately after in an a shockingly embarrassing display like you pointed out)...but zero forgiveness exists now in my heart after seeing [character] done dirty in the middle of her having a moment like that.

See, even Mr. Rodgers is mad now.

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Anyway, this is really not going to well. The Vatican Treaty is needed to explain why Asuka needs to get into Unit-03 because you can't use any of the other characters because they're so underdeveloped noboy would care if Toji lost an arm. Or died, as was the original plan (which was, from what I've read, one of the few instances of studio interference with the original NGE).

That's probably a good explanation as to why they were seemingly trying to melt my brain while I was trying to figure out why all of this felt so weird and wrong. This crap stinks, yo. The biggest enjoyment I've been getting out of this has been hearing Rei's and Asuka's VAs in their roles again.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

Ok, I rewatched the scene @Bartimaeus is talking about. First off the scene follows her clenched fist which ends with her punching the glass. Second they are wearing plug suits which no matter where you pan the shot, is going to be awkward. Third let's not forget that this is from Shinji's POV and that he masturbated to Asuka in the hospital.

As for the rest I'm waiting on you guys to finish the movies before joining the discussion.

[Bartimaeus]

Ironically, that particular scene in End of Evangelion was framed way more tastefully and actually had some kind of purpose, as messed up as it was (and actually, it literally showed how screwed up both Shinji and the entire idea of violating an unwilling or unaware person in that manner were). Again, I repeat: framing matters. It's not always about what you show but rather how you show it - if you show a scene in such a way that it is incredibly jarring and takes me right out of the scene...like cutting down to just Kyoko's crotch in the middle of her having an emotional moment or cutting down to just Mami's chest in the middle of her explaining something important (Madoka), it's going to feel incredibly jarring and like it was put in there purely for the sake of fan service - not to mention, it completely deflates whatever is currently being said or whatever is occurring. Maybe I'm just not normalized to this crap...but at this point, I'm probably not ever going to be, especially since I always have such a viscerally negative reaction whenever I see it, .

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/6yjtzx6c5bd05f0/WA8qVy5AFy.mp4

So what do we have here? In short succession, we have a cut-down to her "fists" (but actually dead-centered and with a focus on her crotch), then another crotch shot because she inexplicably got up on the glass wall and the camera went to her lower half, then a butt shot as the shot reverses, then a ridiculous reverse power pose where she's towering Shinji, and then her crotch again from a creepy underside shot. I don't know...just, uh, all of that just doesn't really feel like it's justified by the scene in question and the conversation going on in between our two characters. Feels slightly out of place to me, to say the least. There are better ways to do this, especially for "serious", "prestige" anime and animation like this is supposed to be.

(e): I'll be finishing this up today, I guess...

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

I'm looking at what you linked and I simply don't see it that way. Maybe I'm jaded after all the crap I have seen, but it all seems like a combination of POVs and scenes that want to capture both characters.

Spoiler

For me it did the job, it portrayed Shinji as confused/scared, that everyone and everything changed, overall frustrated by the treatment he is getting, that he considers unjust, and the unwillingness of anyone to explain what is happening. Now Asuka enters the scene, unchanged physically and seemingly as angry and dour as ever and we see Shinji being happy at the familiar face and someone who is going to explain what is happening, only for the scene to reverse and show him that she changed too.

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Sarex

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I agree with Sarex, I see that particular scene less about sexualizing Asuka and more about showing her looking down on Shinji with contempt. Now Mami's.... bouncing on the other hand is a different matter altogether. Iggy and Polnareff in DIO's mansion.

[Bartimaeus]

Don't think Asuka needs her butt to help her express contempt, but...

Sometimes...actually, most of the time, less is more, methinks. I'll remember this particular shot for quite possibly the rest of my life - I most likely won't remember anything from Rebuild in a week or two, . The artistry is simply not there for me with Rebuild.

(P.S. I was trying to avoid mentioning the character for majestic's sake, but KP mentioned her directly in the above post - it's not my fault!)

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

10 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

The artistry is simply not there for me with Rebuild.

Yeah, sadly I agree. Although they did try.

[Bartimaeus]

Ah, screw it, guess I'm gonna watch the rest of this. Was kinda hoping majestic was going to power through both 3 and 4 today to beat me (if you ain't first, you're last...and therefore the inverse if you ain't last, you're first, and lord knows I don't want to be first with this), but I just wanna get this over with. My other party that I watch shows with has never watched Evangelion, and they have tentatively opined that they want to watch NGE after we finish Nadia, so I should have an opportunity to re-watch Evangelion (and at a much more sane and digestible pace) in the coming months.

...That or Princess Tutu. I'm not sure which I'd prefer - two utterly dastardly shows sure to break the mind of any mortal, .

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

I would recommend finishing it, if for nothing else but to see what the point of rebuild was.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

43 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Don't think Asuka needs her butt to help her express contempt, but...

Worf has much to teach you about women.

I think the butt is more incidental to the plug suit. Like if you want fanservice the character @majestic does not want to talk about is right there with bouncing boobies in several shots. This scene with Asuka felt different, more like the shots of her were trying to avoid having her face be framed with Shinji's face instead of trying to show off her booty.

39 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Yeah, sadly I agree. Although they did try.

And 3.33 is probably the worst of Rebuild in terms of quality. 

[majestic]

Guys, spoiling that this is about Asuka, really, I already read @Bartimaeus' posts and the spoilers too. Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier. There comes a point in time when I start not giving any flying f...art about spoilers any more, and Rebuild of Evangelion passed that in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the first movie, and I don't mind spoilers nearly as much as most people.

Feel free to discuss anything you want. If you put it in spoiler tags, I'll simply read them anyway.

Evangelion 2.22: I WORSHIP HIS SHADOW

May you find mercy in my shadow. I shall reign eternal over the Cluster!

The breakneck pace at which this movie has been progressing dictated that we skip an assload of Angels and go directly to Zeruel near the end, who (which?) interestingly enough simply ingests Rei (which Armisael does in the original series, sort of). In case you don't remember exactly, Zeruel is the battle where Unit-01 should ingest the S² Engine and where Shinji gets absorbed into the EVA. Rei only semi-fuses with Armisael before she blows him away. Well, and herself. To protect her son. Here's it is the opposite and the same, but all with only Zeruel. Whatever, really.

Shinji goes from "I don't want to do this any more" to "please let me back into my EVA" with barely a minute to think about, and taking Asuka out of the picture and removing her entire self-doubt arc makes the scenes so much less impactful.

Also, did any of you care for Ms. Anime Schoolgirl? I, uhm, mean Mari McWhatsherface.

Hello, my name is Mari, and I air-dropped into Neon Genesis Evangelion from an entirely different anime, I like to sniff Shinji and have my butt in focus of utterly weird shots.

How out of place can a character be? I'm guessing she'll have a better or actually a role at all in 3.33, but so far, what the hell. She's really only there to sniff Shinji and pilot Unit-02 because some dumbass thought it would be a good idea to have Asuka be hurt in the failed activation of Unit-03.

Obligatory Love Live! part of the post:

Do some push-ups now, Honoka!  Does that remind you of some other picture I posted in this thread? I'm so unsure...

You know, Love Live! turned out to be a treasure trove of YouTube videos of varying quality that all have one in common: They're simply amazing. Whether it is a real life µ's group that apparently can fill entire venues with their "music" to A-RISE cosplayers engaging the audience with their "dancing" and and horrible lip sync.

 

I generally find it unfair to judge Japan based on what we often get shown as "What the hell, Japan!" like the used panty vending machines (that no longer exist and never truly were widespread) or the TV show "Orgasm Wars" (don't look it up if you don't know what it is), which only ran on a pay-per-view porn channel, or the insanity of Takeshi's castle, but anime fandom sometimes makes it really, really hard not to... just judge. Ludicrous, that is. Just ludicrous. And yeah, I mean the audience, not the cosplayers. They're just doing their job.

I also watched the first three minutes of 3.33 before calling it quits until I'll go doing my ergometer rounds again, but are we doing the inexplicable Gainax thingy again? How original. Well, Kaworu more or less referred to this being some sort of parallel universe, cyclical timeline or something of the sort in each of the scenes he was in (including his scenes at the end of 1.11).

Hey maybe the Time Prophet will show up and tell us that the last Brunnen-G will the the downfall of His Divine Shadow.

Time as you know had a beginning and time has an end and then time begins again. As we shall each live our lives again exactly as before, I have been gifted to see into the old cycles of time. Not very clearly mind you, but I have learned that in the future-past the Brunnen-G, the great victor in the war against the insect civilisation, shall be destroyed at the hand of His Shadow. But after His Shadow leaves the Cluster they will be destroyed at the hands of the Brunnen-G. This has happened before and it will happen again.

 

 

On 8/20/2021 at 5:33 PM, Bartimaeus said:

...That or Princess Tutu. I'm not sure which I'd prefer - two utterly dastardly shows sure to break the mind of any mortal, .

Princess Tutu is much more readily digestible than Neon Genesis Evangelion is on a first viewing. Besides, you've already gone through the first episode. Or did you abort that immediately after the opening story narration? I almost did.

Not a spoiler:

Spoiler

No of course I didn't, because by then it already started and I need to see it through, but you get the idea.  

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

And 3.33 is probably the worst of Rebuild in terms of quality. 

Spoiler

Yeah, it was a mostly fast-paced action CGI nightmare with people constantly yelling and doing dumb stuff outside Shinji and Kaworu...and even that had Shinji ignoring Kaworu when he was begging Shinji not to proceed. *shocked pikachu face*

Did @majestic say anything about Mari? I was looking for it...I thought it was only me who despised her with every fiber of my being. Interpretation on Mari that I found, :

Spoiler

Non-edit: majestic just posted as I was about to post this and mentioned how much he despised Mari.

(Also, SPOILER ALERT: She doesn't appear to matter even one microscopic bit...but I do still have the second half of this last movie to go. I'll read the rest of your post soon.)

I didn't even notice that about her, but probably because I was closing my eyes and plugging my ears about every time she appeared on screen, the annoying and seemingly pointless fabrication that she is. If Hideaki Anno can re-make Evangelion, so can I, and Mari ain't gonna be in it, let me tell you! ...At least in my mind, .

4.0 stuff:

Sometimes I wonder how much it cost to make The End of Evangelion vs. one of these movies. With how ungoshly long credits in big CGI movies are, you'd almost think it'd be more expensive at some point to make the CGI...

Spoiler

Some of these bloodied backgrounds during the beginning look nicer than any other background I think I've seen thus far in Rebuild. ...Also, since there was a 14 year time-lapse in the previous one, Katsuragi sounding older at least makes sense now, .

There's something kinda funny about Rei asking questions and wondering about the world around her while Shinji is zombie-ing it up. Although Rei not understanding literally anything is taken a little far... She doesn't know what a "bath" is...really? Not knowing how to reciprocate communication, not understanding idioms like "good night" or "good morning", even what a cat is, those I get...but "bath"? Hmm...

"I'm just glad you're alive, Ikari." That's where you're wrong, my guy - Shinji died in mind and soul when Kaworu... But hey, as Rei-Yui once said, anyone can return, so long as they themselves are able to will it.

For a bit there, this felt like a completely different show that just happens to randomly have Shinji, Asuka, and Rei in it.

"I'd never let him die selfishly while he still had his head up his ass." lmao, Asuka, ladies and gentlemen.

Dang, figured they'd make me like this Rei right before exploding her into a puddle of LCL. Rats. Oh my gosh, I was just getting used to Mari not existing anymore, and then that loathsome creature just inserts herself into this. If Rei hadn't died, we coulda just stayed at the village... Even with how on the nose some of that was, that's probably been my favorite bit so far.

Lmao, some of these CGI effects are just...like, advanced level of looking bad. What a headache-inducing snoozefest this final assault is. The difference between this and Asuka's beautiful, emotional melee battle with the Mass Production Evas in The End of Evangelion could not be more diametrically opposed. The movie had actually been holding up pretty well until then, I think. I don't hate action, but I think action should be clever, emotional, or...something, and this is...err, well, this is just a meaningless CGI seizure nightmare.

Okay, actually, I have to stop for now, I'm getting ill from watching this. That'll do...for now. Finish this up later or tomorrow.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Well, look at your Mari explanation picture confirming the multiple realities/parallel timeline thing. Yay, I guess.

 

[Sarex]

I did warn you that it was an acid trip.

[majestic]

1 minute ago, Sarex said:

I did warn you that it was an acid trip.

Don't eyeball me!

[Bartimaeus]

27 minutes ago, majestic said:

Guys, spoiling that this is about Asuka, really, I already read @Bartimaeus' posts and the spoilers too. Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier. There comes a point in time when I start not giving any flying f...art about spoilers any more, and Rebuild of Evangelion passed that in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the first movie, and I don't mind spoilers nearly as much as most people.

Man, do you know how many times I re-wrote and edited out her name in this little side-discussion about her because I kept remembering "wait, Majestic doesn't even know if she survived yet"? Good lord, give a guy a reaction emoji at the very least, my gosh!

1 minute ago, majestic said:

Well, look at your Mari explanation picture confirming the multiple realities/parallel timeline thing. Yay, I guess.

I didn't even notice that, to be honest - I guess I was already semi-consciously interpreting it that way because there's no way this could be considered to be simply a remake or "improvement" of the original. Had to be some kind of "alternative" telling. Mainly, it was the beginning and the end in that image that made me groan and laugh, . But seriously, she is the worst. You know what? She's worse than The End of the World. Yeah, there, I said it. What an ill-fitting, odious abomination from an entirely different universe to insert squarely straight into Evangelion. To have literally anyone else from the entire rest of the cast serve her "role" would have been grand. At the very least, The End of the World fit into their own little messed-up universe and was loathsome on a character level - Mari is revolting on even a meta-level. Gosh dang, I think I would've preferred even literally The End of the World to take her place. And every time I think Rebuild has shook her, there she appears again... It's slightly PTSD-inducing.

35 minutes ago, majestic said:

Princess Tutu is much more readily digestible than Neon Genesis Evangelion is on a first viewing. Besides, you've already gone through the first episode. Or did you abort that immediately after the opening story narration? I almost did.

No, I did get through the entire first episode.