Watch This Anime to Understand Evangelion

I kindof underrated how funny Kare Kano is as a comedy

Music:
Neon Genesis Evangelion OST
Kare Kano OST
Nightcall, Hatsune Miku x Astrophysics (cover of Kavinsky)

[jdhill]

This video is so obscurely niche to my exact tastes in anime it’s honestly horrifying, I rarely comment genuine things on YouTube, but it’s good to know I’m not the only one who thinks about this stuff consistently.

[violet_turning_violent]

I mean, here is my short elevator pitch for Evangelion.

It's a character study on the hedgehogs dilemma that uses mecha fights as an expression of responsibly and the human need to get close to someone.

You could litterally take that Gundam meme where they shoot the "war is bad" beam over the guy's head who can only see the Gundam and say "wow cool robot" and now change the "war is bad" to do "humans need social contact" and bam it's Eva baby.

Very good video though. You are right, people get hung up on the superfluous buts of Eva and ignore the characters so forcing them to sit with a short and not as well animated anime will force them to absolutely pay attention.

[mangus]

NGL, karekano endings was pretty cute

Thanks for a good essay about underrated part of Hideaki's works

[enthusiasmholstered]

Surprised you haven't blown up by now. Really enjoyed this one, keep up the great work!

[atomu]

KareKano and NGE are goated. I dont feel the same way about the episodes after 18 at all. Sure, they are not the same quality as the rest but definitely worth watching. In regards to how it can benefit NGE watchers, yeah, I guess. Eva's action is super entertaining and the show's plot is well written. The adverse reactions are part of it, and always will be.

[eely]

Always appreciate some love for Kare Kano. I have very fond feelings for the dub on this one.

[TK-_-GZ]

algorithmic punch
(enjoyed your use of compare/contrast to make your point)

[LiquidInertia]

Funny I was just thinking how going from Eva to KareKano to Eva again was how I became an Eva fan.

[RafeLaet]

So Karekano is a more serious Kaguya-sama?

[peppermillers]

"now watch every show made by GAINAX"
Jokes on you, I actually have watched majority of them. That's much more painful of a journey than you'd imagine.

I also think that the final stretch of the show is great still, the only episode that sucks is Episode 25. Hate that episode so much.

[drksideofthewal]

I’ll be blunt, the character writing of Kare Kano ain’t shit compared to Evangelion. The guy exposition dumps his whole backstory to the girl in the third episode. But, I guess it does make me appreciate Eva more.

[coucvte]

What I agree with is that NGE has amazing fight scenes and generally everything that involves mechs. Too bad that to really appreciate it, you need to understand this is one of pinnacles in the genre, not a standard. In other words, you need to see a lot of shows that tackled it worse, and regular animu consumer typically only watches three mecha shows in total, two of them being Gainax masterpieces.

What I don't agree with is that NGE is the pinnacle of Anno's creative abilities. Out of three great mecha shows that Gainax studio released, NGE is (in my undoubtedly controversial opinion) the weakest. At times it does feel like authors didn't know what to do. It didn't make me feel the way Gunbuster and TTGL did. Maybe those are simplier stories with less nuances, but they work perfectly.
Ultimately, it ended up working against their popularity, at least in case of Gunbuster. Gunbuster is amazing, there's nothing to argue about. NGE, on the other hand, is extremely divisive. You either love it or hate it, and you can't help but voice your opinion on it whenever you get an opportunity. And this ability to spawn heated discussions is primary thing that keeps NGE afloat as cultural phenomenon (that, and what I call "merchandise inertia").

What I can't agree with more is that people who contrapose NGE and other mecha animes... simply don't watch other mecha animes, brushing them off as "rubbish", "kiddie stuff" and "Eva rip-offs". I, for one, can tell how much Anno loves mecha, from NGE footage alone. And that love is even more pronounced in Gunbuster.

What I noticed is that fiction aspect of NGE and the "actual" plot - that of interwoven character relationships - don't get along all that well. It's almost as if I'm watching a mashup of two different shows with identical character casts. Ultimately the fiction aspect turned out to be completely irrelevant by authors' idea, and remained unresolved, which infuriated me on my first watch-through. I still like NGE a lot less than I like certain other series because of that.
There is an extremely underrated OVA, "Giant Robo: The Day Earth Stood Still". Characters in it are at least as fleshed out psychologically as NGE characters (if not more), and that actually matters and influences the global plot.

Overall, I like NGE. I merely *like* it, and for me it's by far not the best mecha series in existence. I think I understand this show, too. Yet too many people love NGE for all the wrong reasons...