#so tl;dr while i can appreciate nge as good content

[marshmallowgoop]

Your opinion on Evangelion?

I wrote about my opinion here. As a reminder, you can find my non-Kill-la-Kill-related ramblings right here!

Anyway, to the question at hand, here’s the post linked above:

I enjoyed Neon Genesis Evangelion more than I thought I would.

Coming into the show, I thought the story would be a “Bad People Doing Bad Things” kind of deal, which… as a complete and total sap, is not particularly my jam. Works of that sort aren’t bad, of course; they’re often excellent pieces of art. But personally, it’s rare for me to ever grow particularly attached to those types of stories. BoJack Horseman, the absolute epitome of “Bad People Doing Bad Things,” is probably the one rare example that I seriously do enjoy and care about. I never thought I would like that cartoon, but then suddenly it’s 3:00 am and I’m crying about Princess Caroline.

Unlike BoJack, though, it only took me one episode into Eva to realize that this “Bad People Doing Bad Things” impression I’d gotten from the series was totally wrong. Aside from the obvious baddies like Gendo, none of the characters are kind of awful people whom I still care about (like BoJack himself); they’re simply human. They’re flawed, they’re imperfect, and I was so pleasantly surprised to find that Eva’s cast isn’t made up of a bunch of terrible people, but rather people who feel like people. Shinji, Asuka, and Misato in particular stood out to me as wonderfully realistic characters. They had all these traits that might be considered “ugly”—insecurities, jealousy, cowardice—but the fact that they did have all these qualities only endeared me to them more. They didn’t feel like pretty cardboard cutouts. They felt like people I could actually come across in real life.

But all that said, I’ve written in the past that I’m basically a Kill la Kill blog rather than an Eva blog for a reason: “I am a total cheeseball and I prefer something wacky and silly over something deeply uncomfortable and depressing.” And this statement still holds true. As much as I can appreciate Eva, and as much as I can say that it’s largely well done (goodness those hand-animated mechs!), it’s far from my favorite work and far from my favorite story. It’s dark and unsettling when I’d much rather engage with something more cheerful and cheesy—after all, I’m the lady who absolutely craves a kid-friendly Kill la Kill and even has the best tag on her blog for it (#dark sushio show me the forbidden kid friendly kill la kill).

I’m also not too proud to say that I totally didn’t get a lot of the show. It’d probably take a few more watchthroughs to really appreciate Eva, and even then, I’m not sure I’d ever get anywhere near totally getting it. Of course, I’m sure some aspects of the series will never make any sense at all; for example, I’m flabbergasted that practically all the women in Eva were in love with Gendo, and for all the accusations DARLING in the FRANXX gets for ripping Eva off, I can at least say that Dr. Frank was kind of cute in his younger years, and I can see why Karina was into him. Can’t ever say the same for Gendo, who’s always come across as creepy!

But I digress.

In the end, Eva strikes me as one of those 2deep4me anime, kind of like Devilman Crybaby, a series I would tell you is absolutely excellent but that I don’t particularly understand at all. In the same way, I can appreciate and applaud Eva for what it’s doing, but I know so much of it is flying right over my head.

I still intend to watch End of Evangelion and the rebuild films, but for now, my personal feelings on the franchise are rather lukewarm. I enjoy the characters, there’s a lot I can laud about what the work is doing, but it’s still not particularly my own cup of tea, and I know that I’m not really getting it, either.