So, Transformers and Evangelion are crossing over... no, seriously.

[Leemaster777]

Yeah... I'm not joking about this. We're legitimately getting a crossover between Neon Genesis Evangelion and Transformers.

Don't believe me? Here's a magazine shot of Optimus Prime... sporting a NERV symbol on his shoulder:

https://twitter.com/yozakana_1/status/459297518384201728/photo/1

Apparently, a summary has already been translated, and reads as such:

The Angels are invading. Breaking a long silence, the mysterious life-forms known as the Angels suddenly appear. The weapons the UN forces gather together in retaliation can't even scratch them. In the end, they turn to the secret agency, NERV, to manage the anti-Angel strategy.

With Neo-Tokyo 3 in their sights, the Angels slowly advance upon the city...but suddenly a spaceship comes hurtling down from the sky above the Angels: the Sky Lynx! Out of the ship emerges warriors of the far-off planet Cybertron. They've come to investigate after noticing an unusual energy reading.

"We can't let a disaster like the Second Impact occur on this planet."
"What?! What are these monsters?!"

The shocked Cybertron convoy sets its sights on an enemy much bigger than themselves.

So... yeah, this is a thing now. I've never been the biggest fan of Eva, but this looks... interesting, I guess? I am curious exactly HOW this is going to come about. Is it going to be a comic book? Animated? Toyline? Not a whole lot of info to go on at this point.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ok that is a weird combination to say the least!

Either way if it has less angst/ Shinji whinny and more of Optimus Prime and co kicking Angels arses then I all up for it!

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

 

[Foolery]

Well, they're both giant sentient robots, right? I'm not familiar with Evangelion. A comic book would be cool. I finished reading IDW's All Hail Megatron a little while back and it was pretty decent.

 

[Leemaster777]

Ok that is a weird combination to say the least!

Either way if it has less angst/ Shinji whinny and more of Optimus Prime and co kicking Angels arses then I all up for it!

Any piece of fiction that includes less Shinji and more Optimus Prime is automatically doing something right in my book.

 

[VanQ]

I'm just happy that Michael Bay has nothing to do with this. Seems like a dumb combination but I'll watch it. What have I got to lose? Besides my already fragile sanity?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

I never had a problem with him, I just lost interest halfway down the anime. I didn't care for any of the characters.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

I never had a problem with him, I just lost interest halfway down the anime. I didn't care for any of the characters.

I might skip it then. I'm watching more mech shows since Gurren Lagann, I just started Captain Earth and it was awesome.

 

[Ratty]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

I never had a problem with him, I just lost interest halfway down the anime. I didn't care for any of the characters.

I might skip it then. I'm watching more mech shows since Gurren Lagann, I just started Captain Earth and it was awesome.

The one time I tried to watch it my then-roommate (who owned the DVDs) wouldn't stop talking over it and constantly dropping spoilers, so I've never seen it. Buuuuuuut

If what I've heard is true, it's a show that has a complicated history. The plot had to be significantly and quickly retooled about halfway through production into a more philosophical route after Christian terrorist attacks happened in Japan that mirrored attacks that were intended to take place in the show. Which utilizes Christian imagery in the same way that western media utilizes Greek mythology, "because it looks cool".[footnote]Though many Christian fans have fooled themselves into believing there's a "deep hidden meaning" in the imagery despite the mostly Buddhist creators specifically stating otherwise.[/footnote] So what was originally going to be a more standard-if-dark giant robot story shifted gears. Concentrating on the protagonist who is an unlikeable Otaku kid who refuses to take responsibility or have agency in his own life. And is unable to please his asshole father. This is explored and lots of dramaaaa ensues.

Also apparently the post-series OVA "End of Evangelion" (which retconned the philosophical ending in the series because fans bitched and moaned about it to the point of vandalizing Gainax's office) was a huge trolling of the entire Otaku fanbase.

 

[Zontar]

This can only end in one of two ways: a complete and utter disaster, or something so bad it's good.

I remember once joking that Evangelion should have a crossover with Transformers or Marvel or Gundam because the possibilities for derp-type fun would be awesome. If I had known someone upstairs in the art-room in the sky was listening, I would have said something like "DC making good movies" instead.

Sorry guys, this whole crossover is on me. My bad.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Well considering it's two of the most popular mecha/giant robot franchises from Japan, this is hardly a stretch. Still surprising, but I can't say it doesn't fit.

But the far greater revelation I received from this is that the moment I pictured Shinji and Optimus Prime together, Shinji's face just turned into Shia LaBeouf, and I realized he'd make a perfect live-action Shinji if he was younger. Think about it: who else has made the biggest movies of his career playing an awkward, skinny, stuttering outsider guy who just keepts getting led around by bigger people than him in a giant robot franchise?

 

[Casual Shinji]

The Angels are invading. Breaking a long silence, the mysterious life-forms known as the Angels suddenly appear. The weapons the UN forces gather together in retaliation can't even scratch them. In the end, they turn to the secret agency, NERV, to manage the anti-Angel strategy.

With Neo-Tokyo 3 in their sights, the Angels slowly advance upon the city...but suddenly a spaceship comes hurtling down from the sky above the Angels: the Sky Lynx! Out of the ship emerges warriors of the far-off planet Cybertron. They've come to investigate after noticing an unusual energy reading.

"We can't let a disaster like the Second Impact occur on this planet."
"What?! What are these monsters?!"

The shocked Cybertron convoy sets its sights on an enemy much bigger than themselves.

That's seriously the discription?!

Maybe it's because I'm not too experienced in the world of cross-overs, but that sounds like something a pre-schooler made up.

So it's basically NGE, and then a space ship lands... with Transformers. Whatever helps Gainax squeez more money out of that good old teat, eh.

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

Ok that is a weird combination to say the least!

Either way if it has less angst/ Shinji whinny and more of Optimus Prime and co kicking Angels arses then I all up for it!

Who are you kidding? Shinji is going to be Voiced by Shia LaBeouf.

 

[El Luck]

This is going to be terrible.. I want it.

 

[verdant monkai]

EVANSFORMERS you can (NOT) transform

This will be GLORIOUSLY dumb. Therefore it NEEDS to happen.

What sort of magazine was it in? an anime or manga magazine? maybe even a video game magazine?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

I never had a problem with him, I just lost interest halfway down the anime. I didn't care for any of the characters.

I might skip it then. I'm watching more mech shows since Gurren Lagann, I just started Captain Earth and it was awesome.

A lot of people keep telling me I bailed out before shit got good but personally if you're down 15 episodes and it's still not very gripping what's so good about the promise of a stellar outcome?

 

[Zontar]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

I never had a problem with him, I just lost interest halfway down the anime. I didn't care for any of the characters.

I might skip it then. I'm watching more mech shows since Gurren Lagann, I just started Captain Earth and it was awesome.

A lot of people keep telling me I bailed out before shit got good but personally if you're down 15 episodes and it's still not very gripping what's so good about the promise of a stellar outcome?

If you watched the episode with the volcano and the episode with the synchronized mecha dance attack, you've seen it when it jumped the shark.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

I never had a problem with him, I just lost interest halfway down the anime. I didn't care for any of the characters.

I might skip it then. I'm watching more mech shows since Gurren Lagann, I just started Captain Earth and it was awesome.

A lot of people keep telling me I bailed out before shit got good but personally if you're down 15 episodes and it's still not very gripping what's so good about the promise of a stellar outcome?

IMO you're past the good bits. The series is at its most watchable around the "monster of the week" episodes. Episode 16 is probably the highlight of the series, but it and episodes 17-19 play up the mystery elements so heavily that I can't just say "watch 'til episode 19 and then make up your own ending", though I want to. Evangelion can be lauded and congratulated for many things, but a sublime outcome or a superbly executed narrative is definitely not one of them. Because of the infamous loss of budget after ep 19, the narrative just gets lost after it before breaking down completely. The movie which is supposed to be the "real" ending is completely insane, weird, confusing and doesn't make any sense at all.

Honestly I find it puzzling that anyone could call the last third or quarter of Evangelion the "good" parts. To me they
are just self-indulgent navel-gazing hogwash where Shinji just keeps talking in circles. Trust me, you missed nothing by skipping the anime. The manga offers as concise and sensical ending as could be salvaged from Evangelion, so I recommend reading that if you want to find out what happens. It's way better than the series or the movies anyway.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

If you watched the episode with the volcano and the episode with the synchronized mecha dance attack, you've seen it when it jumped the shark.

Yeah, watched those. Volcano was pretty routine, sync dancing pretty silly.

IMO you're past the good bits. The series is at its most watchable around the "monster of the week" episodes. Episode 16 is probably the highlight of the series, but it and episodes 17-19 play up the mystery elements so heavily that I can't say "watch 'til episode 19 and then make up your own ending". Evangelion can be lauded and congratulated for many things, but a sublime outcome or a superbly executed narrative is definitely not one of them. Because of the infamous loss of budget after ep 19, the narrative just gets lost after it before breaking down completely.

Honestly I find it puzzling that anyone could call the last third or quarter of Evangelion the "good" parts. To me they
are just self-indulgent navel-gazing hogwash where Shinji just keeps talking in circles. Trust me, you missed nothing by skipping the anime. The manga offers as concise and sensical ending as could be salvaged from Evangelion, so I recommend reading that if you want to find out what happens. It's way better than the series or the movies anyway.

I'll probably finish it someday (I still have the eps) but it was rather disappointing. I remember everybody talking about it back in the day and I felt like I was missing out something amazing. And as far as I watched it was like you said, a monster of the week thing. I liked the pilot episode, I loved the angel's design and how it kicked off in the middle of action. Second episode lost some steam, and from thereon none of the angels ever really caught my eye very much and they dispatched them rather easily. I stopped watching after the virus episode (or rather the recap episode that follows). Like I said maybe I'll pick it up someday but I dunno, thinking of other anime that blew my mind from the get go and kept me hooked throughout, there really is no good reason why Evangelion should get a pass for being good sometimes.

 

[Marik2]

I've never seen Evangelion, yet I love robot stuff. Is it any good? I heard the main guy was painful to watch

You should just on account of it being a big influence to the mech genre.