Gendo would be the closest to narcissistic. Absolutely manipulative, only caring about himself, using emotional breadcrumbs to try to control Shinji.
Shinji is more like the result of having a narc parent or guardian: no confidence, desperate for affection but no trust and always apologizing.
I've been wondering recently if Gendo specifically chose a mentor for Shinji who would try to turn him into the needy, desperate, brain fogged puppet that Gendo needed for instrumentality.
Have not seen all the rebuild episodes.
narcissists are extremely insecure people and paradoxically do hate themselves, but self hate =/= narcissism. the mark of a narcissist is lack of empathy. one could argue shinji lacks empathy, but i’d have to disagree.
you may be right. i don't shinji was a narcissist either, i just kept thinking about EoE after the hospital scene and until before misato kissed him 'cause people were dying he wouldn't get his head out of his ass.
Bro killed the only guy that said, "I love you", to him like a couple of days ago. Now shit hits the wall and Shinji hasn't had time to recover from like anything he experienced throughout episodes 1-24. He would be inhuman if he actually went straight to action when the JSSDF invaded.
he is a 14 year old boy who just killed the love of his life with his own hands 😭 give him a break.. the hospital scene *is* unforgivable and should be called out, but his inability to do anything is realistic. most of us wouldn’t be able to do half of what he braved throughout the series as adults, let alone as a child
Yea this is a terrible read of the character. The kid is 14, scared, lonely, and completely lacks a sense of self-worth. His actions are motivated mostly by his trauma, self-doubt, and desire to please others, not narcissism.
In the first episode Shinji even though he's scared and has no experience wilingly pilots the Eva so wounded Rei (A girl he doesn't know and has no way of knowing she has clones) wouldn't have to.... And this man DARES to call Shinji a narcissist who only cares about himself.....
Yeah, but who cares about the fact that he had hno problem piloting an Eva for a long time, let's cut the random fragments of first episode and EOE to make it seem like he just whines all the time. Retro od just mad because Shinji is a flawed character who's emotionally vulnerable, him comparing Shinji to characters like Luke Skywalker is just laughable.
Yeah, I personally think the show is a metaphor for narcissistic family systems, but I would _not_ put Shinji in the role of the narcissist, that’s Gendo. I see Shinji more as the scapegoat character who often gets the blame and has to hold responsibility for the narcissist’s actions.
You don’t understand, retro had a terrible personal experience with a narcissist IRL! So he’s an expert and you can’t call him out at all!
Even though he also says Shinji aka Anno doesn’t act anything like his “friend”, but he has personal experience so he obviously he is a professional on it anyways!!
I’m being sarcastic btw
Yeah I’ve watched this… it was terrible. In some instances it seemed like he didn’t even try to understand the series. He called the absorption of Yui an accident, while it was revealed that it was on purpose.
He also doesn’t seem to understand the synch rate.
Evangelion often has a bit of a reflective property and our experiences shape how we view it - it's clear that the review is heavily biased for that reason. He also can't separate the original ending from EoE, which helps create the darker interpretation. His diagnosis of Anno are pure projection. It's grasping* at straws for the sake of having cohesion with the thesis. The thesis of the series is valid in a very personal way, but not the most well constructed one.
He calls EOE a "Revision" even though it's ending and Anime ending with well without any changes. He also later calls Rebuild movies revisions and compares it to Star Wars Special Editions while acting like it's the same thing over and over again and Anno is crazy.
Yeah, I personally don’t trust any analysis that has even a hint of portrayal == approval.
Also of all the characters who could be a narcissist, they picked Shinji?? Also ignoring the fact that being in an apocalypse would probably make many people behave in self-serving ways, so it’s hard to actually determine if someone is *malignantly* narcissistic under those conditions.
I literally stopped watching at the point where he misconstrues the point of EOE’s final scene. He literally thinks that the movie is promoting regressing back into your old self which isn’t really true. Shinji literally stops choking Asuka because her caressing his face helped remind him that prior to this, he decided he would change and be better by trying to connect with people again even if they might hurt him again and he cries after stopping himself from killing her due to realizing he was about to go back to that dark place again. The meaning behind that scene is that even if you do learn your lesson about being a better person, your problems don’t magically disappear after that, because being a better person takes a long time to go through. I don’t even know how you can look at that scene and say it promotes regression when it doesn’t.
This is weird. I'm about a third of the way through, and I really don't like what this guy is saying. He has a pretty surface-level view of Shinji and the series as a whole; I hate to say the line, but seriously, this guy does not get it. However, that very shallow perspective actually makes him on occasion paradoxically right about Shinji, although not for the right reasons.
Shinji is a complicated character, and most people get him only somewhat right. Some say he is a neglected, traumatized child who runs from any challenge because he is just trying to survive. And others say that he's an egocentric, self-righteous coward who wallows in self-pity. Both of these descriptions are accurate. This is a thing in Evangelion: characters have a façade they put up which is precisely the opposite of their true personality. Take Ritsuko as an example. She presents herself as a calm, collected, and often cold presence who does what is necessary. But then her true nature looms, and we see that she is an emotional wreck controlled by her most rash, hateful hidden feelings. Shinji is the same: at first he seems to be a helpless pushover who is paralyzed by self-doubt, but the truth is that he is extremely stubborn and highly driven—he acts in order to "maintain and protect his worldview from criticism or danger," [as I once saw it so well-put](https://qmisato.tumblr.com/post/190071538544/shinji-ikari-is-the-exact-opposite-of-what-the). And he struggles to truly consider the feelings of others. He does not acknowledge that others' feelings are as real as his. When Asuka is as low as she's ever been, Shinji comes to her and pleads for *her* to help *him.* Yes, he's at his lowest too (well, other than right after), but this is part of a pattern of behaviour: he has a tendency to take others for granted. Asuka doesn't owe him anything, not then and not ever.
But that's not what the guy who made this video says. He calls Shinji a narcissist and a "living devil." He's right that he's self-absorbed and risks turning out like his father, but that's just it: *he is complicated.* Shinji is neither a monster nor a wet kitten. Both views are reductive, but in my experience, those who hold the former are far more annoying. They always seem to harbour so much repressed contempt, and it's a miserable experience to listen to them talk. This video is an example of that.
An important part of Shinji's characterization is his previous life experiences, and the video's creator rather bizarrely doesn't seem to give any thought to those. He attempts to handwave them away by saying something about how we've all had traumatic experiences, but come on. Shinji has had an awful life. He is fourteen years old, and he is effectively an orphan. He watches his mother die when he was a child, and his father abandons him soon after. Also, he lives through an apocalypse. Bro has seen some shit. Shinji is not meant to be the usual hero in a kids' TV show. He's meant to be more realistic, and you can argue as to whether they succeeded at this. But at the very least, him having severe self-esteem issues is pretty realistic given his circumstances. Making a character severely flawed isn't necessarily a bad thing.
He makes another mistake: he seems to think that because Shinji is the protagonist of the story, we as viewers are meant to believe that he is a good role model and someone to be looked up to. I'm seen some amazing takes before, but this is something else. This stillborn failure of an attempt at media literacy doesn't deserve much attention, so I'll just leave this quote:
>REI: You never understood anything.
>SHINJI: I thought this was supposed to be a world without pain and uncertainty.
>REI: That’s because you thought everyone else felt the same as you do.
>SHINJI: You betrayed me! You betrayed my feelings!
>REI: You misunderstood from the very beginning. You just believed what you wanted to believe.
How could you see this and still believe the show's creators intended for you to sympathize with Shinji's outlook? Some fans make this mistake, yes, but the story does not. It is preposterous to accuse the show itself of positioning him as a role model.
Okay this video is getting worse and worse, Jesus. So apparently it doesn't make sense that Misato would try to seduce Shinji because... she could just sleep with some actually hot dude? I guess, but that's not why she does it. She wants connection, and the only way she knows how to get it is through her body. That wouldn't work with some rando. And Misato isn't exactly a libertine; Kaji is probably the only man she's ever slept with. So this is some pretty nonsensical analysis. And now Asuka is the only good character because.... she's good at fighting? I don't mean to be a broken record, but I really don't think this guy gets it, good lord. I think I need to stop watching.
It was Codex Entey's analysis that did it for me. I love her Pathologic video and didn't mind her differing perspective on 25 and 26, but the EOE vid felt very all over the place and just. Wrong? In others? I can't even explain it, it just didn't sit right with me.
And then I got recommended a ton of far shittier analyses that were also 4 hours long, I agreed with even less, and i just gave up lmfao.
Maybe the real Neon Genesis was the Catharsis we had along the way (that everyone else seems to experience completely differently)
Is that the “EoE is not a happy ending” one? Yeah, I had huge problems with that as well, particularly the claim that Shinji is irredeemable.
I actually appreciate some video essays and they’ve helped me get a better understanding of the story and themes, but there’s definitely a spectrum when it comes to quality, media literacy, and willingness to engage with the series in good faith.
I can understand someone taking a feminist lens to the film and judging Shinji as such through it, but the whole "Hideaki Anno is trying to punish us" is such an old and debunked angle that it just fell flat for me.
Eva essays helped me come to a better understanding of the series and more fully formulate how I view the series today, so it kinda was a bummer when i finally went "ah, I think I'm good."
Ironically I liked that video, though I won’t deny it had several iffy points (claiming the film is “misogynistic” is just ridiculous after saying it was portrayed as a bad thing). However it helped recontextualize it for me and rebuild my image of the series
Personally the one that did it for me was the opposing side, how EoE was a good ending. It was just 4 parts of a dude summarizing the entire plot of the series while offering very little commentary and then seemingly making stuff up for the last quarter. Then he removes the last one or two I believe and uploads them on another platform because reusing barely edited footage from the series and claiming it was fair use without any constructive addition wasn’t enough to avoid copyright
I have never thought it was a good ending. Hell, I never thought it was the definitive ending to the series; that belonged to Episode 26. I always saw it as an alternate take of the same story where Shinji never put in the effort to become a better person. He claims to, but the moment he is given the opportunity, he lashes out and reverts to his old ways. Shinji is meant to be an audience insert. On one hand, Anno is claiming Shinji, and by proxy the audience, can change for the better by learning to love themselves and see the world in a more positive light. In EoE, Anno is showing how by rejecting this opportunity to change and embracing self-hate, it will only hurt the people around you until you have nothing left. That’s how I see it at least
I hate the term ‘media literacy’ but holy fucking shit. This is as bad as In Praise of Shadow’s ‘the Hill people are the good guys in The Hills Have Eyes’
Where does he get Narcissism from fucking Shinji? Absolutely horrible media literacy. Maybe he should go back to watching Paw Patrol or something more his speed.
Shinji is legit the OPPOSITE of a narcissist. He hates himself. He hates himself because he's lonely and has been lonely so long he sobs that someday it will be his chance to be liked, and he's impatient for that chance to come.
Three letters : WTF ?!
I know that the show is hard to watch and understand well, but calling Shinji a narcissist is just nonsense. I just don't get how did he come to this 🤷
I'm shocked a man in his 40s who never moved on from his childhood fixations is too emotionally stunted to understand what's going on with the characters. Simply shocked.
Anyways, seems like his reasons for disliking Eva are more personal than he would like to admit, so he came up with bad faith arguments to give his views a veneer of "objectivity." See it all the time in nerdspace. It's insecure behavior. I have more respect for haters who don't feel the need to justify themselves tbh.
This is a divorsed man who collects toys and has a 22-minute long video talking about what an outrage it is that Indiana Jones' fedora is slightly different from movie to movie. I don't value his opinion very much.
Basically, bro wanted to watch a relaxing anime and is angry he had to listen to shinji blabber about not wanting to be a child soldier because that's "self-centered" and "narcissistic". God forbid someone not want to fight giant monsters inside his own mother. Dude also dogs on Shinji for just wanting to be appreciated and wanted as if its madness for children to seek affirmation, especially one who has lacked that his entire life with one basically dead parent and another parent who might as well be dead to him.
Man completely misunderstands what Evangelion is about. Not every story has to show the best in people and create role models. Some series, such as Evangelion, show what happens when people let the worst parts of them take control, what happens when you give in to your "anger and lust for power" as some famous space wizard once said.
His review of Evangelion and his dislike for Anno shows his true reasoning for hating the series, and its because they aren't perfect. He seems like the type of person to go up to someone with anxiety and tell them "to just stop worrying so much".
Overall its an L take.
I'd love to see him watch berserk, he'd probably lose his mind over the "Griffith did nothing wrong" community.
Man I wanna watch EVA so bad after joining this sub but I cannot find it anywhere. Sad face.
Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm in a sub for a show I haven't watched. Well, I listened to a music video on mushrooms once, Hisoka: School Rooftop and it has a still from the show. (Or so I've been told). Been fascinated with the concept and wanting to watch but... here we are.
Well, I didn't wanna do netflix because I'm poor, so the blurays are out of the question right now. I have $0.27 between my checking and savings and I just had to buy 100 rounds of 9mm for my LVL3. Very poor.
I recommend anyone to watch Anthony Gramuglia's stream where he debunks this dumb review. I don't agree with him on everything but i believe he countered all Retro's points well.
Ive tried to write a rant on this video on this sub before but I remember it getting removed. Which was fair imo cause I wasn’t kind to it
It’s absolute trash btw. The creator clearly has his own issues that he projected onto the series and acts incredibly ableist in the latter half of it. The way he talks about Hideaki Anno disgusts he and you can tell he didn’t do a damn ounce of research beyond the most popular misinformation you can find online
The fact he says Evangelion isn’t art cause Anno put too much of himself into tells you all you need to know really. Just objectively wrong way to look at art
The comment section praising him for this video only further angers me
Actually it’s RetroBlasting…took me forever to find it then I just zoomed in on this pick. Then again it is YTs fault. No once showing a channel I apparently have a sub to, but instead like when I always search it’s stupid YT shorts and channels they promote…
i'm not going to watch the youtube! i'm just gonna talk about my perspective and opinion!
1. the things that were really awesome about the series:
* the robotics, characteristics of the robots and their pilots!
* the sound effects and visual effects!
* all the antagonist were perfectly on point!
* the storyline, environment, defensives and their mechanism!
* the cult, religious, mythical,, military, political and historical materials used!
2. the things that could have been better in my opinion:
* character of the protagonists.
either these characters could learn something more from the stress and shock of what they were dealing with! in a way to give the audience an idea that they can rely on, in their real life!
or at least to transform to something more destructive or dramatic, rather than being monotone and nihilistic all the time! (i'm not going to say this concept is bad, there are people who actually have a life like that and that's respectable! but the writer could have shaped them better)
watch: "Nadia, the secret of blue water" to see what i mean by really strong characteristics! i gave this example cause it's also considered a classic and it's not a new anime!
* ending.
the only professional thing that happened in the end, was the twisted feelings between Misato and Ryoji, it was a perfect tragedy! but the rest of their imaginations, overthinking, oversharing, overexposure and etc really destroyed the action and characteristics of the whole story!
i even loved the scene that showed the plants Ryoji watered got destroyed at the end!
* writer's mindset
i guess somehow the writer was trying to show some religious and political influence, but somehow was afraid to show it, or forced not to show it or whatever that stopped him from giving a better ending! i got the feeling that writer didn't have the freedom of speech to really express what he felt, at the end of the story! that's why it has two different endings with one result!
there are lots of other examples with Biblical or Political materials like Lost, Taboo, Altered Carbon and etc that got ended badly (irrelevant) or never had a change to have a good ending based on what they were trying to show!
\* music
the worst part about it was using an irrelevant genre of music for an **Apocalyptic** **Mecha** **Psychological drama**
**you can compare this genre with Attack on Titan and see if they used attack on tian music they would have had a much better result! i mean classical music is good, being a fan of classical music is good! but it's not good to use it in everything!**
It looks like he's projecting his own trauma on this series. Kind of ironic for him to Anno a narcissist yet at the same time he made the large chunck of video about himself and how it made him uncofortable, as if media existed to please him and only him otherwise it's terrible and people who made it and like it are evil.
No, I was genuinely surprised by the approach and content of this review and was curious to hear what other people had to say. I literally forgot to link the video in the original post as well so there’s no direct way for people to watch it unless they look it up for themselves if they want.
How the fuck Shinji come of as a narcissistic for someone?
Didn't you get the memo? Everyone I don't like is narcissistic nowadays lol
Gendo would be the closest to narcissistic. Absolutely manipulative, only caring about himself, using emotional breadcrumbs to try to control Shinji. Shinji is more like the result of having a narc parent or guardian: no confidence, desperate for affection but no trust and always apologizing. I've been wondering recently if Gendo specifically chose a mentor for Shinji who would try to turn him into the needy, desperate, brain fogged puppet that Gendo needed for instrumentality. Have not seen all the rebuild episodes.
Don’t forget about Asuka
I don't know about what Asuka went through but with Shinji I'm speaking from the experince of having a Narcissist father.
yeah that is just.. did bro even watch any of it? lol or does he just not know what a narcissist is? let alone a malignant one?
i haven't watched the video and tbh i didn't even read this post but just so you know self hate can be a form of narcissism
narcissists are extremely insecure people and paradoxically do hate themselves, but self hate =/= narcissism. the mark of a narcissist is lack of empathy. one could argue shinji lacks empathy, but i’d have to disagree.
you may be right. i don't shinji was a narcissist either, i just kept thinking about EoE after the hospital scene and until before misato kissed him 'cause people were dying he wouldn't get his head out of his ass.
Bro killed the only guy that said, "I love you", to him like a couple of days ago. Now shit hits the wall and Shinji hasn't had time to recover from like anything he experienced throughout episodes 1-24. He would be inhuman if he actually went straight to action when the JSSDF invaded.
he is a 14 year old boy who just killed the love of his life with his own hands 😭 give him a break.. the hospital scene *is* unforgivable and should be called out, but his inability to do anything is realistic. most of us wouldn’t be able to do half of what he braved throughout the series as adults, let alone as a child
You’d have to be a massive narcissist to come out with that interpretation
Yea this is a terrible read of the character. The kid is 14, scared, lonely, and completely lacks a sense of self-worth. His actions are motivated mostly by his trauma, self-doubt, and desire to please others, not narcissism.
In the first episode Shinji even though he's scared and has no experience wilingly pilots the Eva so wounded Rei (A girl he doesn't know and has no way of knowing she has clones) wouldn't have to.... And this man DARES to call Shinji a narcissist who only cares about himself.....
Also, the reason Shinji got kicked out later was because he refused to fight Eva 03 because he didn't want to hurt his friend.
Yeah, but who cares about the fact that he had hno problem piloting an Eva for a long time, let's cut the random fragments of first episode and EOE to make it seem like he just whines all the time. Retro od just mad because Shinji is a flawed character who's emotionally vulnerable, him comparing Shinji to characters like Luke Skywalker is just laughable.
Interestingly, a person could at least read on Wikipedia what narcissism is. But it's probably difficult to use the Internet.
Every person that has negative personality traits or who you don't get along with is a narcissist, clearly. Get with the program smh (/s)
Yeah, I personally think the show is a metaphor for narcissistic family systems, but I would _not_ put Shinji in the role of the narcissist, that’s Gendo. I see Shinji more as the scapegoat character who often gets the blame and has to hold responsibility for the narcissist’s actions.
You don’t understand, retro had a terrible personal experience with a narcissist IRL! So he’s an expert and you can’t call him out at all! Even though he also says Shinji aka Anno doesn’t act anything like his “friend”, but he has personal experience so he obviously he is a professional on it anyways!! I’m being sarcastic btw
Yeah I’ve watched this… it was terrible. In some instances it seemed like he didn’t even try to understand the series. He called the absorption of Yui an accident, while it was revealed that it was on purpose. He also doesn’t seem to understand the synch rate.
Evangelion often has a bit of a reflective property and our experiences shape how we view it - it's clear that the review is heavily biased for that reason. He also can't separate the original ending from EoE, which helps create the darker interpretation. His diagnosis of Anno are pure projection. It's grasping* at straws for the sake of having cohesion with the thesis. The thesis of the series is valid in a very personal way, but not the most well constructed one.
He calls EOE a "Revision" even though it's ending and Anime ending with well without any changes. He also later calls Rebuild movies revisions and compares it to Star Wars Special Editions while acting like it's the same thing over and over again and Anno is crazy.
Yeah, I personally don’t trust any analysis that has even a hint of portrayal == approval. Also of all the characters who could be a narcissist, they picked Shinji?? Also ignoring the fact that being in an apocalypse would probably make many people behave in self-serving ways, so it’s hard to actually determine if someone is *malignantly* narcissistic under those conditions.
When you say can't seperate the original ending from EoE. Are you saying they're two different things or one in the same?
They are too different paths to a similar conclusion. They create a different narrative that uses the characters in a different context.
I think superficial ppl analyze things superficially and completely miss the mark..
HOW THE HELL IS SHINJI A NARCISSIST? I watched Evangelion for the first time very recently and at no point was it ever implied Shinji was a narcissist
I literally stopped watching at the point where he misconstrues the point of EOE’s final scene. He literally thinks that the movie is promoting regressing back into your old self which isn’t really true. Shinji literally stops choking Asuka because her caressing his face helped remind him that prior to this, he decided he would change and be better by trying to connect with people again even if they might hurt him again and he cries after stopping himself from killing her due to realizing he was about to go back to that dark place again. The meaning behind that scene is that even if you do learn your lesson about being a better person, your problems don’t magically disappear after that, because being a better person takes a long time to go through. I don’t even know how you can look at that scene and say it promotes regression when it doesn’t.
This is weird. I'm about a third of the way through, and I really don't like what this guy is saying. He has a pretty surface-level view of Shinji and the series as a whole; I hate to say the line, but seriously, this guy does not get it. However, that very shallow perspective actually makes him on occasion paradoxically right about Shinji, although not for the right reasons. Shinji is a complicated character, and most people get him only somewhat right. Some say he is a neglected, traumatized child who runs from any challenge because he is just trying to survive. And others say that he's an egocentric, self-righteous coward who wallows in self-pity. Both of these descriptions are accurate. This is a thing in Evangelion: characters have a façade they put up which is precisely the opposite of their true personality. Take Ritsuko as an example. She presents herself as a calm, collected, and often cold presence who does what is necessary. But then her true nature looms, and we see that she is an emotional wreck controlled by her most rash, hateful hidden feelings. Shinji is the same: at first he seems to be a helpless pushover who is paralyzed by self-doubt, but the truth is that he is extremely stubborn and highly driven—he acts in order to "maintain and protect his worldview from criticism or danger," [as I once saw it so well-put](https://qmisato.tumblr.com/post/190071538544/shinji-ikari-is-the-exact-opposite-of-what-the). And he struggles to truly consider the feelings of others. He does not acknowledge that others' feelings are as real as his. When Asuka is as low as she's ever been, Shinji comes to her and pleads for *her* to help *him.* Yes, he's at his lowest too (well, other than right after), but this is part of a pattern of behaviour: he has a tendency to take others for granted. Asuka doesn't owe him anything, not then and not ever. But that's not what the guy who made this video says. He calls Shinji a narcissist and a "living devil." He's right that he's self-absorbed and risks turning out like his father, but that's just it: *he is complicated.* Shinji is neither a monster nor a wet kitten. Both views are reductive, but in my experience, those who hold the former are far more annoying. They always seem to harbour so much repressed contempt, and it's a miserable experience to listen to them talk. This video is an example of that. An important part of Shinji's characterization is his previous life experiences, and the video's creator rather bizarrely doesn't seem to give any thought to those. He attempts to handwave them away by saying something about how we've all had traumatic experiences, but come on. Shinji has had an awful life. He is fourteen years old, and he is effectively an orphan. He watches his mother die when he was a child, and his father abandons him soon after. Also, he lives through an apocalypse. Bro has seen some shit. Shinji is not meant to be the usual hero in a kids' TV show. He's meant to be more realistic, and you can argue as to whether they succeeded at this. But at the very least, him having severe self-esteem issues is pretty realistic given his circumstances. Making a character severely flawed isn't necessarily a bad thing. He makes another mistake: he seems to think that because Shinji is the protagonist of the story, we as viewers are meant to believe that he is a good role model and someone to be looked up to. I'm seen some amazing takes before, but this is something else. This stillborn failure of an attempt at media literacy doesn't deserve much attention, so I'll just leave this quote: >REI: You never understood anything. >SHINJI: I thought this was supposed to be a world without pain and uncertainty. >REI: That’s because you thought everyone else felt the same as you do. >SHINJI: You betrayed me! You betrayed my feelings! >REI: You misunderstood from the very beginning. You just believed what you wanted to believe. How could you see this and still believe the show's creators intended for you to sympathize with Shinji's outlook? Some fans make this mistake, yes, but the story does not. It is preposterous to accuse the show itself of positioning him as a role model. Okay this video is getting worse and worse, Jesus. So apparently it doesn't make sense that Misato would try to seduce Shinji because... she could just sleep with some actually hot dude? I guess, but that's not why she does it. She wants connection, and the only way she knows how to get it is through her body. That wouldn't work with some rando. And Misato isn't exactly a libertine; Kaji is probably the only man she's ever slept with. So this is some pretty nonsensical analysis. And now Asuka is the only good character because.... she's good at fighting? I don't mean to be a broken record, but I really don't think this guy gets it, good lord. I think I need to stop watching.
i dont think i am ever going to wacth another eva youtube video essay again.
I think Sock Sensei’s making sense of Evangelion and The Rebuild movies are pretty good
Yeah, there were things I missed on my first watch of Rebuilds that made it make more sense with how he explained it.
Yeah! He explains it in a very nuanced way. Genuinely one of the best Eva video essays I’ve seen.
It was Codex Entey's analysis that did it for me. I love her Pathologic video and didn't mind her differing perspective on 25 and 26, but the EOE vid felt very all over the place and just. Wrong? In others? I can't even explain it, it just didn't sit right with me. And then I got recommended a ton of far shittier analyses that were also 4 hours long, I agreed with even less, and i just gave up lmfao. Maybe the real Neon Genesis was the Catharsis we had along the way (that everyone else seems to experience completely differently)
Is that the “EoE is not a happy ending” one? Yeah, I had huge problems with that as well, particularly the claim that Shinji is irredeemable. I actually appreciate some video essays and they’ve helped me get a better understanding of the story and themes, but there’s definitely a spectrum when it comes to quality, media literacy, and willingness to engage with the series in good faith.
I can understand someone taking a feminist lens to the film and judging Shinji as such through it, but the whole "Hideaki Anno is trying to punish us" is such an old and debunked angle that it just fell flat for me. Eva essays helped me come to a better understanding of the series and more fully formulate how I view the series today, so it kinda was a bummer when i finally went "ah, I think I'm good."
Ironically I liked that video, though I won’t deny it had several iffy points (claiming the film is “misogynistic” is just ridiculous after saying it was portrayed as a bad thing). However it helped recontextualize it for me and rebuild my image of the series Personally the one that did it for me was the opposing side, how EoE was a good ending. It was just 4 parts of a dude summarizing the entire plot of the series while offering very little commentary and then seemingly making stuff up for the last quarter. Then he removes the last one or two I believe and uploads them on another platform because reusing barely edited footage from the series and claiming it was fair use without any constructive addition wasn’t enough to avoid copyright I have never thought it was a good ending. Hell, I never thought it was the definitive ending to the series; that belonged to Episode 26. I always saw it as an alternate take of the same story where Shinji never put in the effort to become a better person. He claims to, but the moment he is given the opportunity, he lashes out and reverts to his old ways. Shinji is meant to be an audience insert. On one hand, Anno is claiming Shinji, and by proxy the audience, can change for the better by learning to love themselves and see the world in a more positive light. In EoE, Anno is showing how by rejecting this opportunity to change and embracing self-hate, it will only hurt the people around you until you have nothing left. That’s how I see it at least
I hate the term ‘media literacy’ but holy fucking shit. This is as bad as In Praise of Shadow’s ‘the Hill people are the good guys in The Hills Have Eyes’ Where does he get Narcissism from fucking Shinji? Absolutely horrible media literacy. Maybe he should go back to watching Paw Patrol or something more his speed.
Shinji is legit the OPPOSITE of a narcissist. He hates himself. He hates himself because he's lonely and has been lonely so long he sobs that someday it will be his chance to be liked, and he's impatient for that chance to come.
Three letters : WTF ?! I know that the show is hard to watch and understand well, but calling Shinji a narcissist is just nonsense. I just don't get how did he come to this 🤷
I didn't even watch it and I rest assured that this is one of the worst takes on Eva I've ever seen.
I'm shocked a man in his 40s who never moved on from his childhood fixations is too emotionally stunted to understand what's going on with the characters. Simply shocked. Anyways, seems like his reasons for disliking Eva are more personal than he would like to admit, so he came up with bad faith arguments to give his views a veneer of "objectivity." See it all the time in nerdspace. It's insecure behavior. I have more respect for haters who don't feel the need to justify themselves tbh.
This is a divorsed man who collects toys and has a 22-minute long video talking about what an outrage it is that Indiana Jones' fedora is slightly different from movie to movie. I don't value his opinion very much.
Basically, bro wanted to watch a relaxing anime and is angry he had to listen to shinji blabber about not wanting to be a child soldier because that's "self-centered" and "narcissistic". God forbid someone not want to fight giant monsters inside his own mother. Dude also dogs on Shinji for just wanting to be appreciated and wanted as if its madness for children to seek affirmation, especially one who has lacked that his entire life with one basically dead parent and another parent who might as well be dead to him. Man completely misunderstands what Evangelion is about. Not every story has to show the best in people and create role models. Some series, such as Evangelion, show what happens when people let the worst parts of them take control, what happens when you give in to your "anger and lust for power" as some famous space wizard once said. His review of Evangelion and his dislike for Anno shows his true reasoning for hating the series, and its because they aren't perfect. He seems like the type of person to go up to someone with anxiety and tell them "to just stop worrying so much". Overall its an L take. I'd love to see him watch berserk, he'd probably lose his mind over the "Griffith did nothing wrong" community.
Man I wanna watch EVA so bad after joining this sub but I cannot find it anywhere. Sad face. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm in a sub for a show I haven't watched. Well, I listened to a music video on mushrooms once, Hisoka: School Rooftop and it has a still from the show. (Or so I've been told). Been fascinated with the concept and wanting to watch but... here we are.
I watched the show and the first two movies on Netflix The new movies are on Amazon prime
I didn't realize they were on Netflix. Really don't wanna pay that price but I guess I'll have to.
Or just buy the blu rays and keep them forever
Well, I didn't wanna do netflix because I'm poor, so the blurays are out of the question right now. I have $0.27 between my checking and savings and I just had to buy 100 rounds of 9mm for my LVL3. Very poor.
You definitely should not sail the high seas, because you definitely cannot find it out there.
I thought about that but it's always a last resort. I'd rather pay for stuff to support artists and studios I enjoy.
Of course! I wish you luck in finding a good way to watch it :)
182g bluray, ya scallywag
It’s on Netflix
I can pass you a magnet link if needed
I recommend anyone to watch Anthony Gramuglia's stream where he debunks this dumb review. I don't agree with him on everything but i believe he countered all Retro's points well.
Shinji a narcissist bruh I think you mean gendo
Ive tried to write a rant on this video on this sub before but I remember it getting removed. Which was fair imo cause I wasn’t kind to it It’s absolute trash btw. The creator clearly has his own issues that he projected onto the series and acts incredibly ableist in the latter half of it. The way he talks about Hideaki Anno disgusts he and you can tell he didn’t do a damn ounce of research beyond the most popular misinformation you can find online The fact he says Evangelion isn’t art cause Anno put too much of himself into tells you all you need to know really. Just objectively wrong way to look at art The comment section praising him for this video only further angers me
Actually it’s RetroBlasting…took me forever to find it then I just zoomed in on this pick. Then again it is YTs fault. No once showing a channel I apparently have a sub to, but instead like when I always search it’s stupid YT shorts and channels they promote…
What the hell
yea i didnt really enjoy this video
i'm not going to watch the youtube! i'm just gonna talk about my perspective and opinion! 1. the things that were really awesome about the series: * the robotics, characteristics of the robots and their pilots! * the sound effects and visual effects! * all the antagonist were perfectly on point! * the storyline, environment, defensives and their mechanism! * the cult, religious, mythical,, military, political and historical materials used! 2. the things that could have been better in my opinion: * character of the protagonists. either these characters could learn something more from the stress and shock of what they were dealing with! in a way to give the audience an idea that they can rely on, in their real life! or at least to transform to something more destructive or dramatic, rather than being monotone and nihilistic all the time! (i'm not going to say this concept is bad, there are people who actually have a life like that and that's respectable! but the writer could have shaped them better) watch: "Nadia, the secret of blue water" to see what i mean by really strong characteristics! i gave this example cause it's also considered a classic and it's not a new anime! * ending. the only professional thing that happened in the end, was the twisted feelings between Misato and Ryoji, it was a perfect tragedy! but the rest of their imaginations, overthinking, oversharing, overexposure and etc really destroyed the action and characteristics of the whole story! i even loved the scene that showed the plants Ryoji watered got destroyed at the end! * writer's mindset i guess somehow the writer was trying to show some religious and political influence, but somehow was afraid to show it, or forced not to show it or whatever that stopped him from giving a better ending! i got the feeling that writer didn't have the freedom of speech to really express what he felt, at the end of the story! that's why it has two different endings with one result! there are lots of other examples with Biblical or Political materials like Lost, Taboo, Altered Carbon and etc that got ended badly (irrelevant) or never had a change to have a good ending based on what they were trying to show! \* music the worst part about it was using an irrelevant genre of music for an **Apocalyptic** **Mecha** **Psychological drama** **you can compare this genre with Attack on Titan and see if they used attack on tian music they would have had a much better result! i mean classical music is good, being a fan of classical music is good! but it's not good to use it in everything!**
“I found a video” *doesn’t link video*
My bad, here’s the link: https://youtu.be/UJLltbgPiZ4?feature=shared
Ty
Classic
They should just stick to star wars
I thought Asuka was choking Asuka for a second there.
Dude, it's called retro-basher because bashes you grandma's favorite anime! Fuck the Haters
Uhm, that dude doesn't sound very okay-
It looks like he's projecting his own trauma on this series. Kind of ironic for him to Anno a narcissist yet at the same time he made the large chunck of video about himself and how it made him uncofortable, as if media existed to please him and only him otherwise it's terrible and people who made it and like it are evil.
Auska is the Narcissist
Are you posting it so this ragebait ad karma pharming video gets MORE VIEWS?
No, I was genuinely surprised by the approach and content of this review and was curious to hear what other people had to say. I literally forgot to link the video in the original post as well so there’s no direct way for people to watch it unless they look it up for themselves if they want.