I've been watching through Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I just finished episode 24. Despite an uneven and occasionally flat-out godawful first half, I can safely say that this it has become one of my favourite shows of all time.
So, bearing this in mind, should I watch the last two episodes or skip directly to End of Evangelion? I'm aware of what to expect from End and it seems right up my deranged alley, but I'm not too sure about the original ending. I already know that the budget disappeared and that it basically ends with two episodes of psychobabble. What I want to know is this: is it at the very least interesting psychobabble? If it just turns into pure, boring nonsense I think I'll skip straight to End.
A common interpretation is that episodes 25 and 26 are what's going on in Shinji's head during End of Evangelion. If you're interested at all in Shinji going through a bit of a mental breakthrough, then give the E25+26 a shot. I personally watched that ending first and End later, but my suggestion is that if you decide to watch both endings, to watch End first.
I'd be inclined to watch the the last two episodes first, and then EoE. You definitely have to watch both, and if you watch EoE first the TV ending is going to feel flat-out boring by comparison, there's no question about that. Besides, it'll take less than an hour to watch, so you might as well do so.
You have some patience sir. I decided not to bother with Evangelion on the 5th episode.
No, I don't care if gets better later and no never plan to come back. The worst part is when someone explain all the story to my it all sounds really interesting and great, watching is another beast all together.
So my advice is the same from the Soviet Heavy. Now if I was in your situation I would watch both if only for OCD sake.
You have some patience sir. I decided not to bother with Evangelion on the 5th episode.
No, I don't care if gets better later and no never plan to come back. The worst part is when someone explain all the story to my it all sounds really interesting and great, watching is another beast all together.
So my advice is the same from the Soviet Heavy. Now if I was in your situation I would watch both if only for OCD sake.
Oh believe me, I sympathize: the first half really is quite shit. It only really becomes great at around episode 17, which is far, far too long to give it a whole-hearted recommendation. If you do ever change your mind about going back to it, you could easily start on episode 14 and go on from there: reading synopses of the previous episodes would be enough to get filled in.
Soviet Heavy said:
Advice? Get out while you still can and watch from a distance. Hideaki Anno's animated mental breakdown should be observed, not invested in.
I'm not too sure about Rebuild, I saw number 3 and despite seeing the first two as well as the original series I have absolutely no clue as to what happened.
The effects were nice and the production values were obviously high although.
Go do the episodes then End and prepare for a complete mindfuck.
It's an hour of your life. I'd personally go with watching 25+26 first and then EoE. Just wait til you see Asuka... and Rei, holy crap Rei.
DO NOT TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF IT! At least not immediately. If you do try to make sense of it, wait a while. Mull it over in your head and then probably realize that it still probably doesn't make any sense.
Ignore the religious imagery. It was made in Japan and uses Judeo-Christian religious imagery. Culturally, we put a lot more into it than they did(Since this is Gainax, I'd say it was put in because it looks cool).
Finally, I was alright with 25+26 because I like somewhat(IMO, I realize some people consider it really pretentious) pretentious psychobabble that hurts my head when I try to think about it. Oh, and watch/read(the anime doesn't nearly finish the story) Gunslinger Girl. Same kind of meaty philosophy involving young girls rebuilt as cyborg assassins.
Oh, and don't think I'm ragging on it. I actually quite like NGE and tend to recommend it to people who have seen a few mecha shows just to completely fuck with expectations.
Just watch it. I rather liked the original ending. It was an hour to examine the human condition, and to examine your place in it. I'm a rather patient person in general. If you can sit through this then 2001: A space oddessy is a piece of cake. Right....Right!?
Maybe not, but you have to be the type of person that enjoys this kind of stuff. I'll gladly take this over all those cute, Moe shows ANYDAY!
OT: Yes, watch episode 25 and 26, if only for the sake of comparison when watching End of Evangelion. Just don't expect to come out of either one with a clear head. EoE especially is pretty ruthless, but that's why we love it.
I'd say at this point, go for it. I mean, it's been nearly 20 years and you know what to expect and what comes afterwards, so I can't imagine a scenario where you'd be disapointed or even angry like most people were at the time. The original ending is interesting, to say the least, but I do prefer End of Evangelion, personally.
Go for it and give it a watch. EoE is worth a watch too, but it literally gave a friend and I headaches, which is MORE than what the last episodes did for us. Those we were just kind of confused by. On the flip-side End of Evangelion does give us some more closure to the 'real-world' events that we've been following, so there's merit to that too. But they're both just trippy and fun in their own way.
OT: Yes, watch episode 25 and 26, if only for the sake of comparison when watching End of Evangelion. Just don't expect to come out of either one with a clear head. EoE especially is pretty ruthless, but that's why we love it.
To be fair, wasn't Anno going though depression and being somewhat disillusioned with Otaku, calling them "forced autistics" or something and, in exchange, receiving death threats. I would certainly argue that EoE is him trying to rip into the fans a bit while making his themes a bit more clear.
As for the endings both in the original and Rebuild, the original is an odd mix, starting off as a standard show but then becoming a bit of a deconstruction of heroic ideals, character types and the mecha genre at the time. I will admit it has it's head up it's ass but it's pseudo-symbolism does have some backing (the lava angel child, sandalphon, being the angel of children, the mind rape one, Arael, being the angel of birds, that sort of non-symbolic but still connected type of thing), Shinji's breakdown is actually somewhat realistic for his age and situation (despite the jokes of "he gets to pilot robots and have a harem", he clearly has mental issues such as attachment disorders, slight PTSD and I might say some depression which is bound to temper his mind) and all and all is an interesting piece of work from a clearly unstable mind.
The Rebuild movies are generally more stable in mindset and with a bit more stable charcters and a Shinji that was a bit more "happy" for lack of a better word before the third movie but the third movie is definably a mixed bag, with some of anno's old insanity popping up in both good or bad. My suggestion is to wait and see who Anno actually handles the ending
Shinji has just lost another friend, Karou, after realizing that he is shunned and alone in the world after third impact and after almost causing a fourth impact in a vain attempt to reverse the damage. Now Asuka, Rei 3.0 and a broken Shinji walk a wasteland that was Toyko 3.0
If anything, this is almost like watching the autobahn after an idiot has wondered on; the possibility of a disaster is tempting enough for me to see the final rebuild movie. If Anno actually makes sense of the insanity of 3.0, It will bring some new insight into Eva. If not, we get to see a glorious train wreck on the internet and anime fandoms.
Yes, watch episode 25 and 26, if only for the sake of comparison when watching End of Evangelion. Just don't expect to come out of either one with a clear head. EoE especially is pretty ruthless, but that's why we love it.
To be fair, wasn't Anno going though depression and being somewhat disillusioned with Otaku, calling them "forced autistics" or something and, in exchange, receiving death threats. I would certainly argue that EoE is him trying to rip into the fans a bit while making his themes a bit more clear.
Oh, I'm not critisizing it, I like both endings. Or should I say, I think both endings are fitting. If there's one thing I love about the series and EoE it's that they expose the characters down to their nitty gritty core.
That doesn't ofcourse change the fact that after I first watched them I suffered a small brain hemorrhage.
Yes, watch episode 25 and 26, if only for the sake of comparison when watching End of Evangelion. Just don't expect to come out of either one with a clear head. EoE especially is pretty ruthless, but that's why we love it.
To be fair, wasn't Anno going though depression and being somewhat disillusioned with Otaku, calling them "forced autistics" or something and, in exchange, receiving death threats. I would certainly argue that EoE is him trying to rip into the fans a bit while making his themes a bit more clear.
Oh, I'm not critisizing it, I like both endings. Or should I say, I think both endings are fitting. If there's one thing I love about the series and EoE it's that they expose the characters down to their nitty gritty core.
That doesn't ofcourse change the fact that after I first watched them I suffered a small brain hemorrhage.
Yeah, same, in fact I find it odd that a good anime director (and let me state that he is a lot better compared to a lot of writers doing crappy moe during the boom, regardless of what you think of his style or bluntness) can have such odd stylistic choices and with such a sudden shift at the half way point of the show
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