I'm a Yea Forumsfag and watched this + the movie (my previous experience with anime was occasionally watching stuff like DBZ and Pokémon on TV as a kid) and I'm thoroughly fucking impressed. I'm sorry I have shitposted against anime in the past, I had no idea it could be this superbly done.
That said, I have a few questions:
1) Gendo obviously knew beforehand only Shinji could pilot Unit 01, so why didn't he/NERV bother giving him proper training? His age should have been no deterrent, Asuka was raised as an Eva pilot. To call him in as a pilot at the last moment (because Rei, whose synchronization with Unit 01 was up to luck even with her being healthy, couldn't pilot) seemed like taking a shitload of risks. I feel they would realistically have involved Shinji with Eva way sooner, and can't handwave what feels like a plot hole in any way
2) This isn't as serious as the first one, but I found it odd that they present Shinji as very sexual (even amidst mentally turbulent times, like for the fap scene in the movie), constantly looking at the women in the show, but he turns Misato down. I try to put myself in his place and I can't see how he would do that, there's no way he wouldn't be feeling a need (even greed) for pleasure and human warmth at that point. It's hard to imagine a horny 14 year old having objections on the grounds of "seeing her as a mother figure", considering how attractive she is
Evangelion
Gendo really didn't want to involve Shinji at all. He was forced to since he was out of options. That's how much he hated him.
Well, it's not porn. Besides that, even having showing/implying the bits is contentious because of their ages, regardless of how risque anime tends to be in regards to people of drastically different ages becoming involved in a sexual/romantic relationship. I know in literature most people wouldn't really bat an eye, and the normies would pick up the book because, "dude the hot teacher sleeps with the nerd lmao!," but these are different mediums. I think the kiss was symbolic enough of the insecurities of both characters: how Shinji just latches on to anyone that'll show him any attention, and how Misato prefers to develop physical relationships in lieu of emotional ones.
I'm surprised Misato DOESN'T have flame tattoos.
Unless I'm not remembering correctly Gendo did not hate Shinji, he just didn't want to cause him pain by being close to him ^^
>^^
this is an imageboard dumb newfaggot.
I didn't feel like quoting nigger
>pretentious pseud writes off entire mediums
I am absolutely shocked. Flabbergasted even.
>Evangelion
Pleb shit. Go watch K-on for real depth.
> constantly looking at the women in the show, but he turns Misato down.
This was something that I got confused by too, after my first watch. I remember one theory said that a big contribution to his refusal stemmed from his want for a family.
Shinji wanted Misato to remain as a mother figure, and to sleep with her, or to even entertain the notion that she had a sexual appetite, would've tainted that motherly interpretation of her that he had. The theory also referenced how disgusted he looked during instrumentality when he saw Misato and Kaji during their sex-spree, due to it contrasting with his desired perception of her.
Asuka on the other hand was fair game to viewed in a sexual manner in his eyes (she was a peer and *relatively* normal, I guess), and Rei was far too alien for him to interpret in such a way after seeing all the laughing clones swimming in the primordial soup mix.
I think his division of the women in his life into these very specific roles also kind of calls back to Ritsuko's mother compartmentalizing different parts of her personality into the NERV super-computer (woman/mother/scientist); Shinji sought the comfort of a maternal figure through Misato, and the closeness and sexual fulfillment brought by a feminine figure through Asuka.
Granted, I know relatively very little compared to the hardcore Eva fans, so I could be misguided.
Gendo was absolutely sure that Eva-01 would work for Shinji, all further Eva development was actually based on the connection Shinji was known to have to Eva-01, and Gendo sent him away at that point. He literally made a new kid to use instead for experimentation and to train for life as a pilot. Then after he resorts to bringing Shinji in and Shinji's a valuable pilot, there's never a point Gendo tries to force Shinji to stay, he accepts Misato cancelling Shinji and he accepts Shinji himself resigning without any fight. Gendo didn't want to be a dad, but I thought it was obvious he didn't view Shinji just as a resource to exploit.
Forced memes from shit boards don't become acceptable for Yea Forums just because you edit in some anime faces.
I'm conflicted, because it's a shitty pic but it's also one of the best threads on Yea Forums right now.
grrr everything I don't like is forced
Good for you user, widening your horizons.
Now go watch Utena.
>I can't see how he would do that
Shinji's a confused gay kid, no? Why else would Kaworu appear as he did?
I think Shinji was way too obviously sexually interested in some of the women he knew to be outright gay. I feel like part of what Kawaru meant to Shinji was an affectionate, positive relationship with someone that wasn't "tainted" by compulsive sexual feelings.
Hey man, I'm just glad you got to enjoy eva, reminds me of me when I discovered that anime could have some depth to it.
For your second question, Shinji is usually characterized as someone who is afraid of getting hurt; they bring up the hedgehogs dilemma in the show to illustrate this. This means that however much he may want to act on his urges, he wouldn't because he was scared of being hurt. Also, he's a bit depressed, so he probably shoots himself down before even attempting to reach out to someone. We can kind of see this in the kiss scene between him and Asuka, where he just stands there without even trying to hold her even though he likes her.
Also, no pressure, but do you have any other things to discuss about the show? This thread has the makings to be a good one, and I want it to last like some of the other good ones we had recently.
Hes how to understand eva
>first you think its about robots fighting ayy lmaos with kabbalistic overtones
>then it becomes group therapy for all the fuckedup shitty characters
>finally you realize that you are actually in a therapy secession with the director who is doing a Freudian analysis of himself giving the characters negative traits he sees in himself
>then you realize Freud was a retard who thought everyone wanted to fuck their mom because he did too much cocaine which is basically what happens during third impact
>positive
He introduces the defeatist, suicidal ideation to Shinji that he can't do anything right and was wrong for trying that Shinji comes back from in both versions of the ending.
Just take the thread wherever you want, the subject is very clearly just "Evangelion"
Why do people like Rei as a character? What do they find so engrossing about her? Is it her slowly but surely becoming more human as the show progresses?
I felt that she became almost a background character as the show went on, and her death only made her have even less of a presence.
TLDR: Reifags, why Rei? (as a character, no waifu wars please)
I can't offer you a high level analysis, but one reason I liked Rei is because I appreciate girls who are more in the background than front and center.
I liked it too. Eva is an anime that cannot be enjoyed without understanding its core themes
I can give a better answer in the morning but the short of it is that I can relate to her and appreciate her reserved character. Never liked her in the waifu sense and look down on anyone who does.
I found myself wondering about this too. For over a decade, I would sit on the sidelines of wars between Asukafags and Reifags playing out over various places online. I finally got around to watching the series last year and was thinking about which side I would take within the first few episodes.
By the time I finished the show I couldn't believe that Rei had such a gigantic following. It's one of the few things in life I'm unable to see from the opposite perspective.
Asuka is an actual character. Rei is a doll.
>Rei is a doll
I fucking wish, man. I would hug her the whole day.
>I don't understand why the basic metaphors at the heart of the show take precedence over trivial plot details that might increase the realism of an inherently unrealistic work
I feel bad for Yea Forums if they have to put up with idiots like you.
You'd be a terrible screenwriter. These things matter, and all the other details of the show that actually do make sense were thought of in a way that the things that slipped by weren't. So you can't even claim they didn't want believability