Neon Genesis Evangelion

That actually does explain a lot of Japanese stories and the like that I've experienced.

Also, been looking up Eva Geeks again. Apparently, Anno really dislikes the Shinji x Rei ship because, in his eyes, to quote the site if the ship happens in Rebuild:

"Rei's character now completly represents "Running away from reality" The doll/ the waifu. Giving any substance to her would be the same as giving substance to otaku's fantasies. It just won't happen. There may be a goodbye scene, but it will something along the lines of her simply blinking away as if she was never there in the first place. Or Shinji and Rei's final meeting will simply be a "Will you face reality, or will you come to me and run away again?" open question kind of ending."

Your thoughts? To me, that would really be doing an injustice to both her and her relationship with Shinji. Rather than have their relationship be something that is two characters bonding with each other and showing that even a clone can learn to love and care for someone, Anno would rather have it be some sort of commentary on the Otaku's unwillingness to face reality, regardless of whether or not their relationship even counts as this.

Basically, he's letting the themes that he wants to convey take precedence over telling the story and letting the characters act for themselves. Not something I'm a supporter of.

That seems informed by the fandom's reaction to Rei more than what Rei initially may have been in the original series. Rei was, emphatically, not a doll on the TV show. Here, however, he's using her exactly as that to try to push people away from embracing such things.

It's very different from what Rei was on TV, yeah, but that part of making the movies a commentary on what the otaku community failed to learn from Eva.

Changing stuff like that on the small scale, in service of the bigger picture? That doesn't bother me. Of course, I can imagine ways in which Rei could be used to refute the waifu obsession and concept (maybe Shinji chooses her, expecting her to commiserate perfectly with his issues and not really introduce upon him with issues of her own, only to be surprised and betrayed just as Rei betrayed Gendo on TV), but hey, this is what Anno's doing.

The small scale stuff of a clone learning to be human and such, finding herself and her desires when she's suppressed them for so long—that's always been incidental or secondary to Anno's rebuke of the otaku community and what, in his mind, they've come to embrace despite how unhealthy and isolating those obsessions may be.

Author of The Second Coming (NGE) and The Coin (Haruhi).

I think it's doomed to failure.

If they didn't get it all those years ago... What makes him think they will get it now?

"Please crush me with your heels Esdeath-sama!

The interesting thing is that, from what I've gathered, most of the viewers in Japan didn't like Rei Q because she was portrayed like the way Anno intended her to be shown (emotionless creepy child). In my opinion, it shows that they liked her predecessor not because she was an emotionless sex-doll, but because of her opening up and her character growth, as well as her interactions with Shinji.

Heck, Shinji's reaction to her in the film mirrors the audience's reaction. We wanted to see the Rei we know and care about; the one who was beginning to show emotions and whose interactions with the main hero were making her more human, not the one who is just an emotionless doormat.

I wonder where this will lead to in the next film.

I think Anno is too fixated on his own negative perceptions of Rei's fandom and otaku culture in general to see the real bigger picture and how stupid he is acting regarding Rei. If fictional characters could express themselves to us living humans, I'd think she'd be most upset with him rather than the supposed Misaimed Fandom he speaks of.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Anno is rather critical of Rei and her fandom but then again, did Rei ever stop being emotionless?

"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."

I dunno, I'm more inclined to believe a creator about an insufferable fanbase than to believe a fanbase's rhetoric about a creator's intentions.

Unless that creator is a massive douche, and even then the fanbase might be garbage anyway (i.e. Phil Fish and the people who brute-forced Fez's puzzles over the internet to spite him). I like Rei, but I have no doubt that there's a Brony-level fanbase dedicated to doing gross things to her, sexual or not, and basically being the kind of people Anno doesn't want playing with his characters.

edited 25th Jun '15 11:34:24 PM by MrMallard

Emotionless? Really?◊

That can be said of literally any character. It's meaningless garbage to apply it specifically to Rei and not, I dunno, Seven of Nine, and pretend it somehow justifies Anno.

edited 26th Jun '15 6:16:21 AM by Night

Nous restons ici.

The thing with Rei and emotions isn't that she's emotionless, but that she doesn't know what to do with them.

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

My point is that for all that Anno's complaints do have a core of truth in them, he is taking it way out of proportion and consequentially stunting Rei's potential as a character for no good reason.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Yeah, he seems to only think of the characters by way of what themes and messages he wants to get across, rather than actual development and growth. In other words, and this is especially the case with Rei, the opportunity for them to change and become more than they are is compromised just so he can communicate a message that he thinks the audience must live by.

It'll be interesting to see where the characters go in 3.0 + 1.0, but that won't be for a couple more years, leaving the story on such a bitter and down note as of now. All just for the sake of a fricken Godzilla film. >_<

Do you see my name?

Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!

Well, it might has been good film....

"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."

I really do hope that the Godzilla movie will be a good film. Cause if it isn't, then I'm gonna be ticked that Anno wasted several years on it instead of finishing Rebuild.

No offense to the Godzilla fans out there. I just wish he finished the project he was already working on before moving on to other things.

I hope it's not as boring as the last.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

You do realize Khara in general is still working on the animator expo (in which Anno is the executive producer or something), right? Eva is not made by Anno alone. With that, Godzilla, English!3.0, and 4.0, he (and Khara) have lot on their plates. And to be frank, one does not simply say "no" when they are asked to resurrect Godzilla in Japan. And he's co-directing it, so that might help lessen duties in that regard.

We know that he had to step away from everything for his own sake after 3.0, and that with the help of his wife and Miyazaki he is able to deal with his depression much better than back in the 90's. We also know that at least the first draft of 4.0 has been completed, so its possible that whatever stage of revision the story is in, he simply might not need to be as heavily involved right now.

A delayed work can eventually be a masterpiece; a bad work is bad forever. Exhibit A: The End of Evangelion.

edited 27th Jun '15 7:40:10 AM by TheAirman

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

nvm, ignore

edited 27th Jun '15 8:29:57 AM by MrMallard

So between AX and the 20th anniversary, and the hoped-for winter release, we might actually get something concrete in regards to 3.0 and/or NGE Blu-Ray.

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

As someone with a very...diverse taste in pornography, I can attest to the fact that, for every "Rei the fuckdoll" doujin I've read, I've also seen the exact same type of thing for Asuka and dozens of other anime girls.

It's because the entire thing is a power fulfillment fantasy. Guys naturally want to imagine themselves as being so irresistible that the girls of their fantasies simply want nothing more than to have sex with them. Asuka might arguably get it worse than Rei because she is a "challenge." Rei will just lay down and take it but doujin writers tend to like portraying Asuka as something to be conquered. Asuka is a far cry from a strong woman but she's feisty and opinionated and so you'll see her being "conquered" just as much as someone like Erza or other empowered females.

My point is, Anno's complaints don't make any real sense. If his complaint was simply "I don't like my character being exploited for sexual gratification" I could understand him. But at the same time I'd advise him to give up now because Rei and Asuka will be hentai icons until Second Impact wipes out the human race.

But his fixation on Rei's representation, or misrepresentation, just seems really stupid to me.

A Lso ironic given that Sadamoto loves Rei and is a certifiable 110% Shinji/Rei shipper.

edited 2nd Jul '15 11:16:00 PM by Nikkolas

... If Sadamoto is a 100% Shinji/Rei shipper then how come they don't end up with each other after the Reset Button is pressed at the every end? Heck, does Rei still exist in the new timeline?

edited 3rd Jul '15 3:50:10 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Star-Crossed Lovers. A lot of people really eat up the concept that the truest love is something so powerful or tragic that it can't actually happen. It is unattainable because it is just that perfect and magical.

At least half the manga is about Shinji and Rei's relationship while Asuka is largely forgotten. Also Sadamoto had an entire little section commenting about how much he loves looking at girls cosplaying Rei.

edited 3rd Jul '15 5:08:16 AM by Nikkolas

I feel much sorrier for Rei than for Asuka.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

So what is everyone here's take on the Yui Was The Real Monster theory in the fandom?

I freely admit I have forgotten a fair bit from the anime, and I remember almost nothing from EOE, but a lot of people online say she was just as awful to Shinji as Gendo was and that she had some big, evil, retarded plan.

Now, I can't say if the manga is different in this respect, but at least in the manga she clearly stated she trusted Shinji to reject instrumentality. Her plan was, in essence, to screw over SEELE by ensuring that her son and her son alone decided the fate of the human race.

Of course, regardless of whatever end goals she had, she still got sucked into the Eva without telling Gendo that this was her plan, and thus is responsible for what he became.

edited 3rd Jul '15 4:54:30 PM by Nikkolas

Entirely plausible depending on continuity.

Nous restons ici.