“Neon Genesis Evangelion”: A 20th Anniversary Adult Swim Retrospective

[wonderfly]

From the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:

"“Neon Genesis Evangelion”: A 20th Anniversary Adult Swim Retrospective"​

"Adult Swim Action was known for showing American fans the artistic achievements of anime as a medium and aired edgy, mature action cartoons unlike anything made in the West in that time period. The block’s offerings are often considered candidates for Greatest Anime of All Time, including Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, Trigun, and Fullmetal Alchemist. The subject of this retrospective is also a frequent candidate in the Greatest Anime of All Time debate, Neon Genesis Evangelion, which debuted on the block October 20, 2005. This title was previously released in the US on VHS way back in 1997 and a few episodes aired heavily censored during Giant Robot Week on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block back in 2003 (a debacle that is best left forgotten), but the 2005 Adult Swim airing is probably gave the series its biggest exposure to a widespread audience.

One thing that Adult Swim Action was known for was its tendency to obtain artsy and weird titles, and Neon Genesis Evangelion was very much artsy and weird. On paper, it has a premise that similar to a lowbrow blow ’em up action cartoon. A boy pilots a giant robot and fights giant monsters called Angels in a post apocalyptic earth devastated by an event known as the “third impact.” He hangs out with two cute and highly merchandised pilot girls and action happens. The thing is that this series is actually less about the teens blowing stuff up in giant robots and more about the characters’ mental health struggles as the entire cast has to deal with a great deal of personal trauma."

Read the full article here.

 

[Yojimbo]

It was probably the first or one of the first anime with a protagonist like Shinji or a show that wasn't just mechs v monsters. Trauma, kids scarred for life, flawed adults. Boy, idk, if there could be another show like Eva ever again.

Yeah, the block needed a balance of action anime and artsy stuff but well we saw happened, and now it's mostly action stuff and what's popular for the past x years.

The Rebuild had a less esoteric ending but a more optimistic one. I liked it. The 'original ending' always bothered me and Rebuild's felt like a more complete one. Shinji and Gendo's battle was what the original ending needed.

Then came 2 movies then came 4 more movies. The bigger problem with the newer movies is their releases and what dubs are on them and which is superior. The release for the 1st and 2nd Rebuild that came out have the really terrible translations but the I think it was Shout Factory ones from 2016 are out of print and you gotta spend. But that's all if you care about translations and dubs.

 

[Space Cadet]

It was nice after the whole Giant Robot Week fiasco that the show got a proper run on AS basically uncut. I wish End of Evangelion also aired on AS, but I understand why it didn't happen. It's unfortunate that the newer movies came at a time when Toonami moved away from airing movies on the block because they would have been perfect on there.

 

[PicardMan]

The Rebuild had a less esoteric ending but a more optimistic one. I liked it. The 'original ending' always bothered me and Rebuild's felt like a more complete one. Shinji and Gendo's battle was what the original ending needed.

Well, shippers are probably the most divided on how the rebuild movies ended. The ending caught me by surprise. I did like the ambiguous open ended ending of the original TV series even though lots of people disagree. Evangelion was absolutely mindblowing back when I first saw it, but watching it left me an emotional wreck. I might be one of those people who put it above Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist in the Adult Swim GOAT anime debate.

 

[Yojimbo]

Well, shippers are probably the most divided on how the rebuild movies ended. The ending caught me by surprise. I did like the ambiguous open ended ending of the original TV series even though lots of people disagree. Evangelion was absolutely mindblowing back when I first saw it, but watching it left me an emotional wreck. I might be one of those people who put it above Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist in the Adult Swim GOAT anime debate.

Yes, I liked it better than those two as well.

An abstract ending for an avant-garde show made sense at the time. After reflection, did Shinji undo the Human Instrumentality Project or did he and Asuka turn out to be the only ones able to reject the merging? Shrug. But Rebuild's ending felt like a full circle emotional catharsis that I appreciated. I get how some down it for being revisionist in a way. In the end, I see them as two different continuities - don't get me wrong - two powerful endings but I tend to like the Rebuild ending more as of now. Also, if I remember right, the manga had a similar reset ending as Rebuild did.

 

[Kitschensyngk]

Adult Swim and Toonami introduced me to a number of shows that I probably wouldn't have watched if they hadn't aired them.

I remember reading about Evangelion on the Internet (I was apparently lucky to have missed Giant Robot Week) and not wanting to watch it because I thought it was too heavy and violent.

Then Adult Swim put it on.

During its run, one of the Encore channels showed Death and Rebirth and End of Eva. I taped them both and watched them as well. End of Eva was such a mindfrag I bought the DVD.

I've kinda been avoiding it on Netflix since I heard they redubbed it.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

So in the early/mid 2000s I was a huge fan of Animemusicvideos.org. Remember a lot of time spent going on to that site and looking if they had music videos on songs I knew connected to anime I had seen which is actually how I wound up finding out about a variety of anime I only vaguely knew about or may not have heard before, one of which being Neon Genesis Evangelion. Like I had certainly heard the name for years and knew it was an important game changer and was this really changed how mecha anime played out but that was as deep as I knew about it until seeing a lot of clips of it on that site (especially in Asuka's introductory episode her and Shinji needing to synch up and the finale) that I got... somewhat more an idea of what it was about. I did check it out on Giant Robot Week but yeah due to how they structured the shows there and yeah super censored it was hard to really get any attachment of it but I did eventually check out the show properly when it came to Adult Swim. I think on a rewind cycle as I do remember doing that for some of the ASA shows especially when they used to reair late nights on AS back when we weren't bombarded with hours upon hours of just Family Guy and Bob's Burgers and American Dad and... okay moving off topic.

So yeah I watched it and... I do get the importance of the show and there are some decently impressive elements and yeah there's a lot to read into but it's not something I personally ever really got into. Probably helps that I'm not a fan of a lot of the characters (Misato I do like a lot, probably Ritsuko as well) as I find all of the leads pretty annoying and I get the depth and ideals they're going for but that doesn't mean the journey in getting there is usually that entertaining. And though there are some very impressive shots and fights... there's also a lot of obvious cut corners and panning shots and like experimental camera work to get over the fact that this is a series that had it's budget run out at points originally and they had to scramble to fit in the alloted time sometimes. And you know maybe if I cared about the story and characters or got entertainment out of these facets that'd be one thing; I mean AS has had plenty of shows that do that but yeah this wasn't one of them for me. It's just one of those classics I get why others have appeal for but I personally really don't and honestly feel some of the elements it first implimented are bad ideas at the time and became more bad when redone in other series.

 

[Space Cadet]

I can't remember the first time I heard of Evangelion but I do have a memory as a kid going to a local Suncoast and seeing either the VHS or DVD of the first couple episodes and I remember the scare quotes ADV used about how the show "shocked" Japan during it's initial run, so I knew there was something to this show. I also remember renting the show and seeing a couple episodes, so I knew what the content was like that I was shocked when Toonami announced it for Giant Robot Week. Even back then I knew the show was going to be heavily edited, even from the select episodes they chose.

 

[Nobodyman]

I'll always remember my first exposure to NGE was a friend of mine in middle/high school showing me this trailer:


I wouldn't actually watch the show itself until a few years later, which I assume was the Adult Swim Action run, but it's been a long time and I can't remember for sure. I did like it enough that I actually bought and rewatched the entire series on DVD along with End of Evangelion, and...yeah, no question this series is pretty extreme and hard to dissect, but it certainly sticks with you.

As it happens, I'm watching all the Rebuild movies this week. I'd already seen the first two when they aired on Toonami, but never got around to seeing the last two until now. So yeah, it'll be nice to check those off of my watchlist.

EDIT: Just finished the Rebuild. Overall, pretty good, though I have some issues with them.

Spoiler: Rebuild Spoilers

I guess it was a way for Anno to revisit the story, try some new things, and give it a more definitive and optimistic ending, which is nice, though I think there were still a few stumbles along the way.

Biggest complaint, I really didn't care for Mari at all. She feels like such a Mary Sue insert. Apparently Anno didn't even really want to include her and it was done at the insistence of the producer and, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Also, I think making Asuka a clone was a step too far.