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Evangelion Live Action Movie
Rob Sollanych writes "ADV Films has just announced the production of a live action movie based on many people's favourite anime series of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Special Effects will be developed by Weta Workshop, Ltd, the company that made the Lord of the Rings look so good."
Im glad Weta got this. They might have dissapeared after lord of the rings.
I wonder how many people will want animtrix stuff?!?
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So, does anyone have a top ten list of their favorite anime movies?
I don't.... But here's one I found.
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Why when I saw this did I think "POWER RANGERS MOVIE" ....?
Some things just shouldn't be done
im only just getting into anime. who can tell me more about EVANGELION??
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I can't see this movie doing anything but hurting the rest of the plot of the series. If they want to do a live action they should do cowboy bebop. You can fit another cowboy bebop film in about anywhere you want. But Neon Geneis is completed. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I do security
So they are going to condense the 26 episodes into some live action fiasco?? Ughh.. are they going to include the freak out in Shinji's head in the last episode..
Beat up an angel every 10 minutes in the film?
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...perhaps because low-budget live-action anime adaptations do not have a reputation for quality?
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But Since Lorde of the Rings looked pretty good, maybe they won't screw it up.
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What is needed is a live action Gundam film, and yes i know there already is one, i want one i can see in theatres. With the current crop of superhero/sci-fi action films doing so well (spider-man, x-men, the matrix) i thikn a movie about giant city smashing robots would do pretty well, its a fairly new concept to americans.
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Im surprised Taco didn't post this. Perhaps he's dancing in the street or something?
Yeah, I think this really might bite the big one. There is so much stuff that they are going to have to use computer generated images for and I'm not a believer that it will look good. Lord of the Rings looks good, but things in LOTR that have the heaviest computer manipulation are things that are magic or take place in the ring's netherworld (e.g., the wraiths). My satisfaction with CGI trying to emulate the real world has been less than complete.
Shin Seiki Evangelion took over my life for a good year-and-a-half...until the long-delayed release of The End of Evangelion in the US finally brought sweet release. NOW THIS? Please, Gainax...I want my life back.
PS - evaotaku.com
I know WETA and Gainax do good stuff.
Lets just hope that this doesn't end up like the terrible G-Saviour Gundam Live Action Movie.
doesn't that detract a bit from series familiarity? and the anime style? wouldn't it be more cost effective to animate this?
I never really thought much of Anime in general. I grouped anime watchers in with goths, freaks, Magic the Gathering players, and others i just ignored.
I'm a Matrix fan, and as such, i downloaded The Animatrix: The Second Generation, Part I. I was astounded. Rather than large mouth monkey drawn, slow plotted, boring anime, such as is found on the Cartoon Network, instead, something more akin to what i thought Asimov's robots would be like was presented. I've since downloaded all the free short stories from the Wachowski bro's, and plan on buying the DVD.
What i want to say though, is that perhaps this anime converted to real life will have the same effect on people, perhaps to a larger audience, showing more people that anime isn't just a cartoon for the vast unlaid, but rather something more meaningful, with great plots and scriptwriters. On another note, I'm going to watch Spirited Away this weekend, due to its great reviews, and the fact that i saw the first 5 minutes, and was impressed at the overall feel of it.
Good luck with this project, i hope it does great!
Seriously.. Alot goes on in the anime.. 13 angels to destroy.. a shit load of character development and thats not even including the End of Evangelion movie.
The series is done. Let people look back and say.. "damn that was an awesome series" instead of " What the hell was that live action POS"
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"I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away"
ok, I predict that this will probably suck. but presuming that more rational heads will not prevail, who would you cast to make it not suck? Sinji Ikari - Toby McGuire? naw. wouldn't survive the 1st angel what with his bad back and all. McAuly "i hate homealone" Caulkin? trying to think of who to cast of Risuko (presuming we get to see her naked....)
Nothing says good career move like playing a character that everyone wants to beat up.
I hate you Shinji.
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
Your just mad cuz they cancelled Facts of Life. It's ok we all make program watching mistakes...
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but things in LOTR that have the heaviest computer manipulation are things that are magic or take place in the ring's netherworld
That's just completely untrue. What about the thousands of warriors at the Battle of Helm's Deep? The majestic fortresses, the grotesque oliphaunts?
LOTR was filled with CG from head to toe, for subjects neither explicitly magical nor netherworldly. (I won't go into Golum- one could say he's magic too, instead of simply malnourished)
The CG needs for an Evangelion movie (an ill-starred project if there ever was one) will be similar to LOTR. They'll have to create realistic depictions of huge, improbable structures for the actors to be projected in front of. Then they'll have to build large creatures which look natural when stationary (like the Ents) and command them to move in ways that are smooth and life-like, but far from human-like.
Yeah, considering the number of anime fans it's driven into therapy, I'd consider Evangelion "influential".
So they are going to make a movie about some kid who pilots a huge robotic weapon to battle alien invaders.
How can you watch Shinseki Evangelion and not understand:
- They aren't alien invaders (in fact, they're 98% human), they're angels. You know, as in from Heaven? They've come to earth to bring about the 3rd Impact which will (pressumably) destroy humanity.
- The fight with the angels is secondary to the plot. The story of Evangelion is about Ikari Shinji who embodies the inante human fear of other humans (hence the existence of the Absolute Terror Field or AT Field). The goal of his father, Ikari Gendou, is to eliminate the AT Fields so that all humanity can be united and thus ascend to the level of God.
Evangelion is intensely deeper than that and I've shaved off most of the details, otherwise this post would be pages long. But those two things are obvious if you've only seen the episodes (in which Gendou is successful and a "positive" 3rd Impact is achieved). The movies turn that around and show what would happen if things went wrong (because of Shinji's own emotional strife).
I could go on and on, but Eva is not just about action. In fact, the action often carries meaningful undercurrents (especially when Shinji first fights Sachiel).
*sigh*
Nevermind.
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I don't think they could start from the beginning and cram it into two hours. I suppose they could pick up at the end of the movies. Everyone has thier own way they think it ended, but I always got the impression that Shinji was given the choice of what to do with the world. It's a movie after all, you can get away with just about anything and not really have to explain yourself. Take Hulk for example. They changed how he became the Hulk. From gama rays to nano if I read correctly.
(warning, sarcasm threat level today is at RED)
How can you possibly say that? Look at all the great work that has been done bringing anime and the like to the silver screen. I mean, just look at Fist of the North Star.
And besides, the effects studio not only did LOTR, but also gave us the effects in such quality shows as Andromeda, and Mutant X!
How can this NOT be good?
OK, all sarcasm aside, I don't see how this can be anything but a bad thing. Even so, there is some potential, but it will still PO lots of fans. The only way that this could have some merit is if they did the same thing Sam Raimi did with SpiderMan, that is don't try to duplicate the story exactly, but try and capture the "feel" and the essence doing a stand-alone movie that doesn't really fit into the existing material. This has the greatest potential for success, but also, as with SpiderMan, the greatest potential to tick off the purists and the avid fans.
I don't have much hope for it though. Pity. I'll have to wait and see what happens.
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I really enjoyed watching the characters interact in the Evangelion. But the last episode was a total letdown, which really ruined the series. So I thought about watching "End of Eva" but several reviews that said "don't bother, it's basically just screwing over the fans."
Skipping this one. Let me know when a GOOD anime is going live action.
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I was thinking more along the lines of "Please don't rape my mind!"
*shudder*
what's funny is... I'm gonna be peeved if they leave that scene out, yet if I do see it it's gonna fuck up my head.
Gainax... we hatessss it! We hatessss it forever!
I mean, I tend to agree that really astonishing works - like Evangelion - do not really 'need' to be re-made in a new way, but at the same time, I don't think it hurts anything. The Gus van Sant remake of Psycho, for instance, was nothing special at all, and not as good as the original... but who cares? I could have ignored it. It's not like it *replaces* the old film.
Besides, WETA kicks heroic amounts of ass, and they get an automatic vote as far as I'm concerned for the top-notch work in LOTR. They deserve some credit.
My question is, how 'live-action' can it really be? Live actors surely, but I'm guessing the bulk of the action will be CG... and do I want to see a top-quality CG adaptation of an Evangelion battle sequence? Hell yeah.
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I find anime peaceful and amusing to watch.
when i saw this series (probably missed some episodes but i dont remember any of them so its ok) i thought it was really good but movies that are deep tend to alienate the majority of viewers, just like people saying matrix:reloaded had no plot. the only thing that would attract people is the action (cg evas done well would really be a treat) but then the focus would most likely be on the action would it and the rest would suffer. i with i had a dvd player :P
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
I have to agree with most of the criticisms. I don't think there's any way you can fit another plot within the tight Evangelion storyline. I hope ADV doesn't add some bogus plot-like like "Asuka and Shinji re-create the world, but, then the angels come back! Mwa ha ha! Let us save the world again!"
This just in.
Tux, the famed mascot on the Linux world, has been cast in the role of Penpen!
Also appearing, the BSD Devil will make a special guest shot as "the guy who sent the angels to destroy Earth!"
They're kidding, right? A live action NGE flick?
Things I'd like to see next:
Live action Dragon Ball Z. The movie would have to be about 19 hours long with frequent intermissions, and roughly 3 battles during that time in order to make it feel like the show.
Live action Tokyo Pig. What would be more exciting than a pig that can do magic, FILMED IN REAL LIFE! And that reporter chic is HOT!
Live action Dirty Pair. Okay, this isnt a joke. Remember Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft? Multiply that by two, add in tons of explosions and skimpy clothes, and BAM you got a winner!
I could go on all day, but I think I'll stop now!
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No, I think the only question is whether it'll suck "real bad" or "wicked bad".
On the other hand, they could just shave it down to a 20 minute demo reel of giant robot effects and make everybody happy.
I love how ADV pats themselves on the back as often as possible in this "press release." My favorite line: "The Japanese anime and game studio Gainax Network Systems was one of the original production studios responsible for "Neon Genesis Evangelion.""
Not like they conceived, wrote, designed, and directed the series and movies as well...
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Does this mean that it won't go all wacky and weird in the end, like every anime?
Akira was great until the weird-ass things started happening... like giant blobs of flesh and stuff.
Spriggan was good until the exact same thing happened.
Serial Experiments: Lain was absolutely FANTASTIC until all that supernatural stuff started to take over the plot.
What's with the freaking out? Do Japanese anime creators resort to drugs to finish off their masterpieces? It's as if they were on to something good and then they just decided to rush the ending... "umm... err... oh screw it, I'll throw in some freaky psychosomatic flesh monsters... that'll do it!"
But with all honesty, I hope it turns out good. With the advent of a live action Battle Angel Alita, it'll be nice to see some non-anime mech footage hitting the screens.
My vote is for Dominique Swain to play Osuka! She's a hottie
Evengelion is too complex to fit into a two-hour (or even 6 hour) movie. If you try and chop it down, it loses all it's substance and becomes meaningless drivel.
It will become a movie simply about CGI robots beating each other up.
"The Big O" Would be a much better choice. Fairly simplistic plotline, with familiar characters (It's Batman with Giant Robo), but intriguing nevertheless.
And yes, those CGI robots from Big O would be much more fun to see bashing each other.
Besides, I'd love to see who would be cast as R. Dorothy Wainright....
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Is that mixing metaphors too much? At least does Tokyo get destroyed?
This is what happens when confused pseudo-philosophy makes US$100 million in it's opening weekend at the box offfice.
Eva was annoying. Shinji just whines. It's a Japanese tit/fuck/pedofest with some philosophical mublings in there to give the smarties an excuse to watch it.
See, it's crap like that which kills me. Open-ended text with no point and can be interpreted a million different ways. Then you're told to "find your own interpretation". Way to go jackasses.
what kind of drugs the actors will have to take to be able to have really big eyes. Will there be gratuitous overuse of the two finger "V" salute/pose as well? ;)
Ahh I am only joking...I'm as much an anime addict as many of you.
I couldnt be more excited!
Rather than ruin good, classic american characters with crap like the Batman sequels, Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil and now the Hulk, they can focus on ruining crappy Japanese cartoons that noone knew about in the first place.
Actually I think they simply ran out of DC and Marvel superheroes.
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A couple of points...
- The uniting of humanity is not Gendo's aim, but rather his dead wife's (Shinji's mother). Gendo's aim is to be reunited with her; everything else is secondary for him. The reason for her attempt was to ensure that humanity survived effectively forever (at least until the heat-death of the universe).
- The Third Impact was not really "positive" in the series; some people think that the series ending was just Shinji tripping out. Anno dropped several hints as to what actually happened (in the series, there's a couple of very short cuts showing a certain death scene (don't want to spoil it for others). A more cynical view is that Anno's lack of funding at the end simply lead him to give a giant 'fuck-you' to the production company by producing the most unsuitable closure possible.
They'll have a hard time looking for someone as autist as Shiji is...
Someone that can't recognize ceilings!!!
Maybe Leo Di Caprio can do it *evil grin*
May the source be with you!
Is this May announcement of the NGE live movie the same thing that was announced back in March vis-a-vis the new box set? I can't be the only one that remembers this.
AnimeFringe (read down to "There is no end to Eva")
Or are there going to be TWO live versions?
This new announcement makes it sound like the live movie is not yet in production, but the earlier announcement talked about a film that was unreleased, which implies that one live film was already made.
I hope that it's better than the live confusion at the beginning of "The End of Evangelion."
Is anybody going to watch a live action movie so filled with angst and self-loathing as Evangelion? I mean, leaving aside the attention span of the average movie goer, the plot of Evangelion is so damn convoluted it's scary. I'm firmly convinced that anybody claiming they really knew what Evangelion was about is A LIAR. Sure, the action is good, and some of the plot elements are well done, but it's going to have to be heavily edited and altered before this becomes anything but painful feature to watch.
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Thats pretty much my opinion too. The last two episodes of the TV series were just there to screw with the minds of everyone who sat through the rest of the series thinking "what a great action show", and were done as cheaply as possible with leftover scraps of film from all over the place.
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If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
As one of the previous commenters posted, I don't know how on Earth a live-action Evangelion movie will work. I'm a HUGE fan of the series, watched it more times than I can count, love every single one of the characters, and so on. And, while I just about pissed me pants in joy the second I saw the story, I can't help but think that this live-action movie will give the series a bad name.
;)
The Evangelion series has a beginning, and two alternate endings (Episodes 25/26, and End of Evangelion). Now, if they're going to do something like the Cowboy Bebop movie, and try to fit the Evangelion movie "in between" a couple episodes in the series, the movie may have a chance... Well, oh yeah, except for the fact that THERE WOULD BE NO ANGELS TO BATTLE!
However, I could see the movie as just a "wrapper" over a few of the anime episodes, or maybe just End of Evangelion in live-action form. Either way though, it just sounds like a ploy to make some cash off of a popular anime series. With that said, I'm really hoping my criticisms are wrong, and the movie turns out to be a huge success, and also an integral part of the series.
Unfortunately, I just don't see that happening. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that they're going to be casting real people as anime characters. Are we going to see people with light-blue hair in the movie? As we going to be seeing the Evas move with the same fluidness as their anime counter-parts? Are we going to see all of the blood that tended to spill out excessively during battle? I doubt it.
(MILD SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE THAT HAVEN'T SEEN THE SERIES) I guess it could be interesting seeing Rei grew to universal proportions, and then all of the Earth melting into primordial ooze.
Trent Polack
www.polycat.net
Please enlighten us. What does the TV Show "Facts of Life" have to do with Eva?
Sounds like the only one here thats angry is you.
As for the Eva Live-Action movie, it all smells like a repeat of Zieram. I just hope there are some cute chicks in it. I won't get my expectations up for anything else.
As for Anime in general, its becoming too popular. If anyone asks you questions about anime, please misdirect them. As anime becomes more popular, I fear it will go the way of all things that become popular. Increase in quantity and decrease in quality. Espcially if it becomes something to push in the Amercian market.
"Last one in is a rotten goblin!" - Kepp
The uniting of humanity is not Gendo's aim, but rather his dead wife's (Shinji's mother). Gendo's aim is to be reunited with her; everything else is secondary for him. The reason for her attempt was to ensure that humanity survived effectively forever (at least until the heat-death of the universe).
That's true. It's been a while since I've watched the series, but it can still be said that Gendou wants humanity united, even if only for purposes other than the good of all. Funny how in End of Evangelion, Yui's goal of humanity existing forever was accomplished when Eva01 was sent out of the solar system. A human soul can live forever enthroned in the Eva.
The Third Impact was not really "positive" in the series; some people think that the series ending was just Shinji tripping out. Anno dropped several hints as to what actually happened (in the series, there's a couple of very short cuts showing a certain death scene (don't want to spoil it for others).
Could you give a spoiler for this? I didn't catch that. I've seen 25 & 26 many times and as far as I'd gathered, Gendou's plan went about as intended. Certainly Shinji was tripping out (as any human mind would after experiencing that), but I basically saw it was a relearning/reeducation in a "perfect" world.
A more cynical view is that Anno's lack of funding at the end simply lead him to give a giant 'fuck-you' to the production company by producing the most unsuitable closure possible.
You mean with the "cheap pencil" drawings? I saw this process as being similar to Descartes. Throwing away everything and starting from scratch, building in the details as you go along. First Shinji starts with nothing and pieces are filled in as he searches for meaning.
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Please enlighten us. What does the TV Show "Facts of Life" have to do with Eva?
Sounds like the only one here thats angry is you.
As for the Eva Live-Action movie, it all smells like a repeat of Zieram. I just hope there are some cute chicks in it. I won't get my expectations up for anything else.
As for Anime in general, its becoming too popular. If anyone asks you questions about anime, please misdirect them. As anime becomes more popular, I fear it will go the way of all things that become popular. Increase in quantity and decrease in quality. Espcially if it becomes something to push in the Amercian market.
"Last one in is a rotten goblin!" - Kepp
I don't disagree but I think people are acknowledging that this project has a lot going against it.
Romeo and Juliet (this is what we're talking about, yes?) Is a relatively simple story (young lovers kept apart by families' conflict, plot to unite young lovers goes awry, young lovers die...oops, Spoiler Warning), about fairly universal themes (the universal nature of love, the futility and consequences of conflict), and a plot that fits pretty well in a feature-length format.
Evangelion is a dense, complicated, and sometimes barely coherent tale of youth hijacked by world events, father abandonment, mother love, the loss of self in technology, fighting monsters with giant robots, with a lot of wacky theology, philosophy, conspiracy, pseudoscientific babble and PG-13 sexuality thrown in for good measure. It's original scope covers 15 hours, it's totally dependent on lavish special effects to work, and let's face it - it's not exactly Shakespeare.
I'll certainly wait and see but my hopes are not high.
One good thing that could happen if they get it right... Think of the therapy that the MPAA raters will have to endure after sitting through a well done EVA movie... :-)
If it IS well done though, I could easy envision an NC-17 rating. That much violence, blood, and most damning of all: Religious References and Inferences.
i guess you guys didnt think about all the possibilitys, thats what fan fiction is all about! who said the plot was going to be placed in about the same time as the serries? it could be past, present (some lost episode or whatever), or future. both present and future could also be in some other alternate story line type thing. i guess we will never know until someone leaks that info or they start showing it to us bit by bit via trailers. i personoly would like to see it on some lost episode.. or a difrent ending (as i understand it the ending presented in the two movies was made the way it was because of lack of money). i sencerly hope they do this right and make shinji, asuka, rei they way theye were in the serries.. i felt like i have somthing in common with all 3 of them.
one Disc to rule them all one Disc to bind them
The first time I heard this guys were making "the lord of the rings" , my first reaction was to think : "Its impossible to do that movie"... Well , now I think they did it fine.
With evangelion I give them the benefit of doubt.
I am a fan of the lord of the rings, I have read it about 4 times since I was in high school.
I am also an anime fan ( about 20 anime dvds at home, a lot of divx in my HD, and about 350 kanji in my head)
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For some reason when I hear "Live Action" I think of " on Ice." or a play, since a movie isn't really live action. I guess saying "non-anime version" would be a better description.
I keep picturing guys in foam Eva costumes, with ice skates on, having crapy simulated fights with Angels while not trying slip and fall down. All that to a snazzy opera type music and a few number where Shingi sings about running away.
...he'll post it two or three times tomorrow.
FreeBSD for the impatient.
21:09 21/5/2546
... something like that. some super-coole animated battle scenens in the wrecked-city, mountain tops that get blow off, and some super huge end battle of the earth-force against the alien armada. ... ... wait and see.
TOPIC: Anime
i would prefer, really, a nice GUNDAM movie. like earth being invaded, by technicaly supperior aliens.
the whole world going to wrecks. just a small bunch of tech-savy improve their battle-mechs and fight back, thus obtaining alien-technology
which in turn they use to improve their battle-mechs (like space-cabability of their mechs). in the whole plot the military, that outlawed our heroes in the first place has to cooperate with them, so they in turn can fight back at the aliens.
in the whole plot some romance and love-story. two mech-pilots (our heros) fighting for her love. aliens kidnapp her and try to extract the information about human-technology and the secret hiding place of the mech-rebels.
of course she gets rerscued, because our rebel heros scavaged the alien technolgy. in the process of the rescue one of the hero dies
and of course some of these typical japanese "the-hero-is-alone-sitting-on-a-rock" thinking about his responsability towards the world and all while the sun is setting (deep-red).
etc...
waeh, but no it's just paranoid-schizophrenia Neogenesisevangelion. all this supernatural stuff makes me think
of this anime more of the "excorsist", then a battle-tech-movie. i just hate it when they mix technology and superstition. but alas
i just watch the parts of neo-genesis, when an "angel" shows up. the rest i really, really ignore.
the only anime where they mixed technology and superstition nicely is probably "Akira". but there the weight is on superstition/super-natural not technology.
anyway
According to this article, the project will be on an "aggressive timetable." Does that mean the last 20 minutes will end up being taken from footage filmed with an old camcorder on a shaky tripod? It would at least be consistent with the last 2 Eva episodes...
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Just Fluff implies that the action sequences didn't have value besides being fluff. Although they weren't the Drive of the series, they were spectacular combat sequences. Also, without the action Shinji loses some of his psychotic side.
One thing which, I feel, makes Evangelion so spectacular is that it is good as a philosophical piece and an action piece completely independently and together. Without the philosophy, it is good as action, and without the action it is good as philosophy. However, they are interworked so that either builds off of the other.
Thanks for the thoughtful response - much appreciated.
Could you give a spoiler for this? I didn't catch that. I've seen 25 & 26 many times and as far as I'd gathered, Gendou's plan went about as intended. Certainly Shinji was tripping out (as any human mind would after experiencing that), but I basically saw it was a relearning/reeducation in a "perfect" world.
If you watch closely (can't remember if it's 25 or 26), there's a very quick flash that shows Misato's death scene, as well as another that shows Ritsuko floating in the liquid around Lilith. It all seems to indicate that what was happening in the 'real world' matched EoE, but Shinji was just rejecting it all (again, a more pragmatic explanation exists - Anno had already done some of the scenes for 25/26, following the plot of EoE (which wasn't planned at the time), so he put them in the mix).
Anno had already used up almost all of his funding by the time he reached episode 23 or 24 - that's why there's so many silhouette scenes, not to mention the roughs (pencil drawings) used in place of completed scenes. He wasn't able to get more funding until the fan outcry about 25/26 convinced the production company to cough up some more money.
...something tells me the money shot from death of evangelion is out :)
I leave my sig the way it is so that I can say, "I was using Google when there were only 65,400,000 hits for 'b'!".
I guess CGI fooled you this time around, huh? I'd declare that good enough. :)
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
Alan Rickman as Gendo Ikari.
The important thing is that there's no sign of any hollywood studio being involved. I suspect that means that most of the creative work will be done by Gainax, with ADV providing the $$$$ and Weta obviously doing the special effects. If Gainax and Anno are left to do their thing, then the project might turn out alright. The special effects might look a big cheap due to a (relatively) small budget, but I can't imagine Gainax and Anno sanitizing Eva like everyone says.
But then again, this is Gainax we're talking about
Shinji: Whine whine whine whine whine.
Asuka: Ego driven retort with subtle sexual undertones.
Shinji: Whine whine whine piss moan.
Rei: Creepy silence followed by one-word retort.
Shinji: Whine whine bitch piss whine bitch moan.
Gendo: Evil overlord smile.
--Chag
many people's favourite anime series of all time
Really? You mean Gigantor or Tobor, the Eighth Man? I ain't seen them since I was 11 years old. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any anime since I was 11 years old.
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
The movie should be based solely on the episode where the chix are naked.
I think "influencal" is the proper spelling here ;)
The Ask John over at Animenation.com has a few interesting short essays about the meaning of Evangelion and observations on the strong impact it has on its fans:
Can You Explain the Meaning of Evangelion?
Why is Evangelion so Popular?
Can You Explain the Final Episode of Eva to Me?
Full archive of Ask John questions. Fun read for anime fans.
My knee-jerk reaction to this was utter disgust. How dare they take my favourite anime and make it to a crappy big budget live action movie. But I thought about it more, and now I don't mind as much.
This can sorta be a good thing. People not into anime could watch the movie, be amazed and want to see where it all started. So they get the anime. Find they like the anime. Watch different anime shows. Become anime fans. More anime fans means cheaper anime...right? Right?!?!!
Can the 26 episode series be condensed into a movie?
Probabaly. Cut out all the fluff episodes near the begining(the octahedron angel, the dance episode, The Day Tokyo 3 Stood Still) and it could fit. As long as it's at least 2 hours, then a good portion of the story could fit, probably missing a few key important scenes. It should be better than Death.
I am really curious as to how this will turn out. Maybe they can get Anno to help work on the script. Maybe it will suck. Maybe it will be alright. I'll go see just to see how it turns out.
But please dear god don't change the names!! I couldn't stand that in The Ring. Samara?!?! It's Sadako!!
I am abeyant on this. On the one hand, we have Neon Genesis Evangelion with the producers being ->Gainax-, on the other hand we have A.D.V. acting as future live-action producers with the same studio, which made the FX for LOTR...
Should I laugh or should I cry?
Did you suffer through the entirety Eva and for some reason weren't granted the same level of transcendence that most Eva-faithful appear to have gone through? Sure, parts were fun, parts were exciting, parts were a bit emotional, but you simply can't find it in yourself to declare that Eva somehow ties everything together into a logical conclusion filled with actual meaning? Are you certain that the random Judeo-Christian imagery, surreal character development, and insane ending are actually a high school level attempt to fake depth of plot, philosophy, and maturity?
Take your suffering and at least get a good laugh out of it with Toastyfrog Jump's Neon Genesis Evangelion Thumbnail Theatre.
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Perhaps the poster's comments are more of a testiment to the quality of the CG than anything else.
He most likely didn't even know that many of those scenes were CG.
I figure he's busy making more images for his Poopaganda Desktop Excrement Graphics website.
Not funny is YOU.
So since you're interested in Evangelion I'd assume you're most likely a fan of most anime. Not to mention that Any fan of anime should have seen the Bio Booster Armour Guyver series released by Manga [for those who have not, shame on you, the dvds have recently been released so you have no excuse]. Now Guyver was taken and made into two live action movies. Guyver and then Guyver II: Dark Hero.
Now the point I'm trying to get across is your illusion that all anime will turn into Power Rangers. The first Guyver movie was. Please, if you value your sanity, do not see it. The second movie was much better. Used live action footage for the action scenes and managed not to look like Power Rangers.
However, the second movie was made quite a few years ago. Now consider the recent action movies you have seen. Most no longer have live action actors for the really nifty stuff. It's all computer generated. So now, when you have something as spiffy as Evangelion, why do you think the producers will use poor action scenes when they are trying to make money from the movie?
There was also a gap in time between Guyver and Guyver II: Dark Hero. The gap in time allowed for much improvement. The logical assumption is that with the advancement of time the means of creating realistic action scenes has been developed. Which is true. Go see The Matrix Reloaded [and don't you Dare tell me that was a horrible film because I truly enjoyed it, so there =oP]. So it's also logical to assume that this new method of creating action scenes would be used as well. Which means that 'Power Ranger' films are very rare nowadays.
I'm actually quite anxious to see this movie.
-- (me): Root! One should bow down before it. It is powerful. -- (my hopeless twin): You mean a guy's *ahem*?
...when Toatyfrog's interpetation is just as accurate and 1300000x cheaper?
So let me get this straight, ADV is announcing a movie without actors, a director, or even a script for the project?
Just a time table and vague alliance of partners, Thar's freakin' hilarious.
That wasn't too bad an intro for a single sentence that didn't want to give any spoilers. The combats with the successive waves of "Angels" were pretty much the anchors for the series, as far as the writing goes.
The series was awful dribble. Most of the time it was just Shinjii bitching and once in a while a bit of a lame plotline was thrown in to appease the mind numbing idiots who actually enjoyed this tripe. I really hope this movie crashes and burns. Still, it can't be as bad as the LaBlue Girl live action...nothing could be that horrible. It was almost as awful as the original anime itself.
'Proposed Sailor Moon Live-Action'
-Jellisky
While it's true that the original BattleTech mech designs were stolen lock, stock, and barrel from Macross, the two actually represent opposite ends of the giant robot thought spectrum.
In Macross, giant robots move at the speed of a fighter jet and the grace of a ballet dancer, all the while spewing death in all directions. In BattleTech, mechs are clanky, lurching, usually unreliable, mobile gun platforms. Gundam is somewhere in the middle (the Gundams themselves usually being closer to Macross while the hapless rank-and-file mechs are closer to BattleTech).
All that aside, this is a completely horrible idea. The worst bit, to me, is that ADV is producing it. These are the people who so totally respected the original work that they plastered English-language overlays on top of signage in the DVD edition of Eva. They are the single most mercenary distributor outside of the porn merchants, always willing to pander to the lowest common denominator for a few dollars more, and it certainly shows in this decision.
So, do you think they'll use their usual crew of no-talent melodramatic hack voice "actors" onscreen, or will they just dub them over the unfortunates who do end up on screen?
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Ben Afflack as Kaneda...Matt Damon as Tetsuo...Liv Tyler as Kei...Vin Diesel as The General...Christopher Lloyd as the scientist.
Nooo!
wow...new insight! can you explain the basic? at the end of EoE why did the huge Rei's neck break off.. how did shinji and the german chick end up on the beach? why is shinji trying to kill the german chick? didn't gendou at the end not get what he eventually wanted? If the final outcome is the same for selee and gendou, why are they fighting each other at the end of the series? Its been a while since I saw the series but those are the questions that still linger at the back of my head.
Gainax... we hatessss it! We hatessss it forever!
The secret to watching a Gainax series is this: NEVER watch the last episode. That's when they screw you. After that last episode of the second season of Mahoromatic, I can't watch Gainax anymore. They're just too evil. I bet they are all still laughing over what they do to good series.
On second thought, the secret to watching a Gainax series is to not watch a Gainax series.
One thing I like most about NGE is the score. I can only hope that with this movie they keep the music the same. I also think they have the potential to make Tokyo 3 and the Geofront look really cool...I just hope they don't screw that up (in addition to everything else).
Another issue is that it could be, in the end, like a comparison between the series and the movies: they change the characters and the general plot so damn much that you start wondering what the writers were smoking. I hope that they don't do that.
Whatever happened to the real action Akira?
One anime I'd absolutly love to see live action is probably ghost in a shell. That one they could do real action, and have it really work. Or metropolis. (Anything but those stupid hairdos, nooo!!!)
Considering that EVA creator Hideaki Anno has done live action before (the feature film Love and Pop), I think he should be the one to direct a live-action Evangelion (as much as the idea itself disgusts me). Also, how much control will GAINAX have over the script and casting?
if they fuck this up, i'm seriously going to kill myself.
As I understand it:
Rei's neck breaking off represents the failure of the immanentization of the eschaton, as Shinji decides not to unite humanity into one soul.
Because he rejected this, he and "the german chick" (Asuka) are reborn into the strange world left over, with perhaps the rest ofhumanity too.
Genoud got to see his wife again for a while, but if he still exists he must feel pretty screwed over now if he still exists, since Yui is floating away in EVA 01.
I'm not sure exactly how Seele's and Genou's visions of the Imanentization of the Eschaton differ. Gendou seems to just want it so he can see his wife again, so its not suprising that they're desired implamentations differ.
I hope that clears everything up.
This sig wasn't worth reading, was it.
The uniting of humanity is not Gendo's aim, but rather his dead wife's (Shinji's mother). Gendo's aim is to be reunited with her; everything else is secondary for him. The reason for her attempt was to ensure that humanity survived effectively forever (at least until the heat-death of the universe).
While this is essentially true, I really don't appreciate people trying to talk about me behind my back like this. I do have feelings, you know.
Second, I hate the American spelling of my name. Help a brother out and spell it right.
You seem to have watched Eva a lot more than I have, and I was wondering if you could clear up something for me. Specifically, how do Seele's and Gendou's visions of the Third Impact differ?
I know that Gendou wants to see his wife again, and my take on Seele is that they want to imanentize the eschaton, but I don't see why there should be any conflict between those two goals.
This sig wasn't worth reading, was it.
1) I understand 0.005% of the story
2) I understand 0.05% of the story
3) I understand 0.5% of the story
4) My name is CowboyNeal Ikari,
you insensitive clod
Remember, all of this is just speculation - Anno has never come out and said precisely what he was intending with all of this; he's stated that everything he wanted to say is in the series/movie.
***************MAJOR SPOILERS***************
That said, here's my take on each of your points:
1) Rei's sudden growth and destruction
Rei was a clone of Yui, Gendo's dead wife (possibly mixed with material from Lilith; this is suggested by Rei's remark of "I'm home" on entering Lilith). He intended for her to act as a 'guide' to lead him to Yui upon the unification of humanity. Gendo attaches Adam to his hand in order to combine Adam (either the source of the Angels, or from the same source) and Lilith (probably the source of humanity). It's not clear exactly how he intended this, as Rei rejects him at the last moment, but it appears that he intended to merge with her and then enter Lilith (although if Rei already contained some Lilith material, the merge with Lilith may not have been necessary - the location does suggest that this is what Gendo intended, though).
After Rei's rejection of Gendo, she merges with Lilith and grows. It appears that she is intended as a receptacle for the souls of all humanity, merging with Shinji (who is the 'trigger' for unification) and Eva01 (where Yui resides).
When Shinji rejects unification, this process breaks down as humanity reverts to individualism, leading to the destruction of the giant Rei.
2) Shinji and Asuka on the beach
Opinions vary a lot on this, but my concept of what happened is that after Shinji and Asuka reverted to individuals, they returned to their bodies (contraindicated by the likelihood that Asuka was torn apart by the unmanned Evas), they reformed from the remains of Rei, as she was partially Lilith, the originator of humanity (the blood-red sea may be an indicator of this, but there's a few holes in this theory as well - where did their clothes come from?), or it was simply a 'miracle' requiring suspension of disbelief.
3) Shinji's attack on Asuka
This one's a lot easier to explain - Shinji turned down unification with humanity because of Asuka's rejection of him, and his shame and anger at this lead him to attack her (his mental state is obviously not very normal). A more complicated explanation is that she's proof that people other than him exist, causing him to try to erase her. Remember, Shinji's main motive throughout the series is to avoid being hurt by others - if there are no others, he cannot be hurt.
4) Gendo's failure to merge with Yui and Eva01
When each person's body liquifies and their soul goes to join the giant Rei, they each seem to experience it as an invitation or seduction by the person they care for most. Gendo, on the other hand, loves nobody (as he admits, he doesn't believe he deserves to be loved, and thus is afraid of being hurt - just as Shinji is). Instead of being invited into unification by a loved one, he is destroyed by Eva01 (and thus Shinji) - this is Gendo experiencing what he believes he deserves. It's not clearly stated, but it seems likely that this is what prevents him from joining with the rest of humanity. It's possible that Gendo knew it wouldn't be possible for him to join humanity without the help of Rei, Lilith and Adam, and thus when Rei rejected him, he knew what awaited him.
5) The battle between NERV (Gendo) and Seele
Gendo's aim was to be rejoined with Yui. Seele's aim was not to enter Eva01 and drift through the universe for eternity, but rather to be the only humans to ascend to the godhood that unification offered - this is stated in the first half of EoE, where Seele say 'there is no need for us to ride in the Ark of Eva'. In order to do this, presumably they needed to control Adam, Lilith or Eva01 - all of which NERV had.
Hope that provides some hints...
As long as there's slash, "The Facts of Life" will live!
It had all started when she popped Blair's cherry, crude as that may sound. Just three short years, yet sometimes she wondered how it could possibly have gone on for so long.
They'd been, amazingly, alone in the house. Both Nat and Tootie had left for the weekend to visit their parents, and Mrs. G had taken the opportunity to go for a long overdue visit to a friend, trusting them to be mature enough to handle things on their own. So, they'd found themselves with an uneasy truce, both deciding that it was easier to call a cease fire than it was to spend what could otherwise be a relaxing weekend caught up in the midst of fighting. It had been working too, with each free to spend time indulging in their hobbies. Blair took the opportunity to sort through her wardrobe, discarding things that had been worn one too many times or that were so insufferably last season that she unconsciously excluded it from the possible pool of outfits that she had to chose from every morning and Jo, well Jo spent the better part of the day on her back, looking up at the guts of her motorcycle, doing little more than tinkering with it, lost in a state of mechanical nirvana.
It was when the day was drawing to a close, and both found themselves bumping into one another in the hallways and shifting uncomfortably on couch seats as the television blared in the background, that all the trouble started. Being that close to one another and not fighting just wasn't natural, didn't feel right at all, and though Jo had enjoyed her day of peace and didn't want to do anything to upset the fragile balance, if something didn't break soon, she knew that she would. Break, that is, no doubt managing to shatter any illusion of camaraderie. As it was, she was barely managing to stay in her seat, wanting nothing more than to jump up, to stalk over to the television and to turn it off of the insipid program that they'd compromised on. The tension in her shoulders was growing, and she fought the urge to turn her head, to throw out some biting remark, just to cut through the air of discomfort surrounding them.
"This is rather awkward." The words drew her out of her thoughts, and with a sigh of relief, she turned to face Blair, noting the other girl's drawn brows, the purse of her lips as her teeth worried the skin inside her mouth.
"Yeah, it is," Jo replied. "I just... it just don't feel right, us sittin' here like this. Not that we always gotta fight, but this... I dunno."
"I could always insult you, if that would make you feel better," Blair offered hopefully, and for a moment, Jo tilted her head, as if in deep concentration.
"Nah, I gotta better idea. How's about we sneak a bottle of Jack Daniels from the stash Mrs. G keeps for makin' fruitcakes," she offered, wiggling her brows conspiratorially.
"And do what, exactly?" Blair asked haughtily, chin raising a fraction of an inch.
"We drink it, Princess." There was a hint of disgust in her voice, as if the answer to that question was painfully clear.
"Oh, well that sounds like loads of fun," the blonde shot back, sarcastically. "We just sit across the table from one another, staring and drinking foul-tasting alcohol. A beautiful plan, Jo. I should have you contact my mother. Perhaps you can help her plan her next big soiree."
"Hey, we can play cards too," Jo replied, indignant. "And I ain't hearing you throwing out any suggestions."
"How exactly are you going to explain away the missing liquor?" Blair asked, softening a bit. She really was bored, and uncomfortable, and this might not be the best plan she'd ever heard of, but at least it was a plan.
"We ain't. A little bit of water, and that bottle'll be just as good as new," Jo smirked, her eyes mischievous.
Blair laughed, Jo's cocky expression bringing a smile to her lips. "Lead on then, my juvenile delinquent friend. Cards and whiskey it is."
After a while spent haggling over which game to pl
Well, at least like this : Hollywood Produces BIG Budget Evangelion Film
(unfortunately, original page no longer exists, this link is from "Wayback Machine" )
Personally, I hate the explicit romanization of extended Japanese vowels with a 'u' because it makes all the non-Japanese speakers think that it should be pronounced '-dow' rather than '-doh', and "Gendoh" or "Gendoo" looks even worse, so we're even.
One of the only things that keeps eva from being a serious work of art is the amount of filler in it. The first 15 episodes are very slim on content, and are often painful to watch (for a non-anime fan like myself). It's only when the whole cast is assembled that things start to really get going. The series could have easily been pared down to a far shorter length if most of this commercial oriented filler was removed. For example that one episode where Asuka and Shinji had to fight the eva together was utterly retarded. The only purpose that ep seems to serve is to show Asuka in a bunch of skimpy outfits.
That being said, it's doubtful that the full effect of the imagery and mystery of the series will be conveyed in this movie. The eva creator was very unhappy that he had to do additional movies after the series was over, as he felt it had been finished when the tv series ended. IMO they should just dub the eva movies and release them in theaters. It'd be interesting to see people's reactions to the general weirdness that goes on.
For Gainax to stop trying to squeeze as much money possible out of an almost ten-year-old, overrated (up there with the works of Miyazaki, in my opinion), franchise. First this whole "re-mastered" version being released, and now this? Please. But I guess I'll have to wait and see how it actually turns out before I pass a proper judgement on it.
I think it was called Robot Jocks :)
I also distinctly remember that it was horrible.
It's amazing how spiritual an elaborated beer commercial can be. -- Philip K. Dick
Too bad. No one heard of NEON ,on the other hand everyone knows of the DBZ series. A computer 3d series of that would have been penultimate cool. Someone mentioned a hollywood co. bought the rights for DBZ.
Well I for one am being optimistic about this. It's really the only way I can look at it. I've seen a lot of pessimism here and a friend of mine is doing nothing but whining about how bad it will be. He's saying how all the actors should be Japanese or he'll lose all faith in Hollywood or something. :)
Well, for one I don't care what nationality the actors are. Asuka, a German, looked just the same, stylistically as Shinji and co. No problems there.
Yes, it should be strange and wierd, like the series, because that's what ultimately stays with me about the series. Sure it was at times silly, perhaps a little too much so, but if it wasn't it would be SO depressing! Also, I think the casting will have to be spot on. Get some competent child actors in there. Perhaps haley Joel Osment, though he seems to have lost his magic. Also, Gendo will have to be completely badass.
If there's one thing I have confidence in it's the visual FX. As bad as I thought the Two Towers was compared to the Fellowship, it did LOOK fantastic, and it didn't seem to scream "LOOK AT ME I'M CGI!"
So here's my shortlist of hopes that I haven't covered already: Should be set someplace unrecognisable, Tokyo 3 was post second impact, a fictional city with buildings that could go underground. Essential to make the place familiar, yet alien. I mention this because I hear that the live action Akira movie planned will be set in New York. Blech.
The sense of scale is 50% of the visual experiance. Even from the start of the series, each step and Eva took smashed nearby glass windows, and they can move incredibly fast. This overall feeling was perfected, in my opinion, during the fight sequence in End of Eva when Asuka fights the production EVAs. So in short, I hope that I can see something worth putting the DVD of next to my Evangelion DVD boxset and DVD movies. Yes I am a fan of it. Oh oh! And keep SEELE's Kubrick style monoliths! They were cool...
Yup...
If you watch closely (can't remember if it's 25 or 26), there's a very quick flash that shows Misato's death scene, as well as another that shows Ritsuko floating in the liquid around Lilith. It all seems to indicate that what was happening in the 'real world' matched EoE, but Shinji was just rejecting it all (again, a more pragmatic explanation exists - Anno had already done some of the scenes for 25/26, following the plot of EoE (which wasn't planned at the time), so he put them in the mix).
---
That's actually kind of interesting. I never considered EoE to be a part of the text of eva, just some weird offshoot. From what I understand, Anno only did the movie because the fans were so pissed off about the tv series ending, and that he was very unhappy with having to redo his creation.
But it's interesting to view the different endings as expressions of the problem of Shinji's free will. Shinji is given the freedom to choose what happens with humanity, with the two versions expressing different outcomes. The fact that it isn't clear which one is the correct or intended outcome seems to fit with the general vaugeness surrounding the series. Or perhaps he is unable to choose, with each ending occuring only in his mind.
EoE was originally supposed to be 25/26, but Anno's lack of cash forced him to give that up. After the fans 'objected' to the released versions of 25/26, Anno got more funding that allowed him to create his intended ending as EoE.
Why exactly would anyone choose to do this to EVA? There are so many more marketable and less plain old unappealing series out there. Why not Trigun? Why not Cowboy Bebop? At least those shows really were deep, as opposed to the pseudo-surrealistic claptrap that was EVA.
The effects to really do EVA in a way that isn't going to look ridiculous are years off. I cant see how or why they chose this series.
Slashdot. It's Not For Common Sense
I agree that making a live action EVA is extremely risky. There are countless ways to screw it up. But I think this should also be considered an opportunity. The way I see it, most of the story in the anime unfolds from Shinji's perspective. It's his world, everyone else is just living in it. (interpret that how you will) Rei is just a wacko character I can't even begin to explain. But I thought there was a gem in Asuka which could potentially be better explored. Was I the only one who thought that whole bit about her mother was a bit rushed toward the end of the series? The psychological elements of the Eva story need not be truncated or discarded in favor of mecha action and angel battles. It could be recast into the character of Asuka, making her the central character through which the plot revolves. I'm sure there are other ways to refreash the telling of the story, but I definitely believe Asuka can viably carry a live action EVA movie.
On another note, no one seemed to have mentioned casting. In other anime communities I've participated in, it has been a morbid pastime to speculate on who could take on the mantle of our favorites. In the case of EVA, one needs to determine whether you stick with the original and have a japanese cast or go hollywood. The quality of Japanese actors can certainly be spoty. One need only look at some of the drama shows that makes it over here onto the foreign language channels. Japanese live action anything has not been the same since the time of Kurosawa. Some of the films I've come across seem plain crazy. Initially, I thought "Battle Royale" was some kind of low budget B-movie wanabe. However, I was pleasantly suprised at how enjoyable this well make film turned out to be. Nicely done in all arenas: script, cast, directing, etc. It was a big cast of young actors, many of whom could easily handle the roles of the EVA pilots, if their performance in "Battle Royale" is the benchmark.
But there is this one idea which is stuck in my head like one of those annoying commercial jingles:
Haley Joel Osment == Shinji Ikari
go ahead and laugh if you want.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Yes, well, we can wish.
There is a small problem that nobody here seems to have noticed. I'm not certain if the press release is wrong, or if everybody is assuming the wrong thing.
Weta DIGITAL are the people who do CG and special effects.
Weta WORKSHOP make costumes and physical objects used by actors.
The press release says Weta Workshop. If true that means there won't be CG effects by Digital. Also, I know that Jackson intends to do a King Kong movie next, and it'll be using Weta Digital resources.
So. Digital CG by Weta or not. You decide. I hope so, but it doesn't look like it. I suppose we'll need to know more.
No, he put on his Sailor Moon outfit, and has been searching for some tentacles.
all the series boils down to: accepting yourself.
spanned over 15 hours.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
oh yeah and who reads at 0 and mods down redundant that is already modded as redundant(even tho it wasn't really redundant it just didn't automatically say that the movie will probably suck, come oon you could have modded it as flamebait or something)?
come oon, what's the point in that.
besides the whole karma system is a joke as far as the karma bonus goes. having excellent karma is supposed to mean that your babblings are probably more meaningful than others, but as theres little boost it has little meaning. also getting excellent karma is achieviable so easily that even a robot could do that.
oh yeah heres a matrix reloaded spoiler: trinity loves neo.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Gollum, malnourished? Not really, he just looks like that because he makes Yoda look like a young pup. "When 2000 years old you reach, my precious, look as good you will not!"
"Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
While some of the action scenes were less useful than others in a character development standpoint, I disagree that they're just fluff.
I could go on and on, but Eva is not just about action. In fact, the action often carries meaningful undercurrents (especially when Shinji first fights Sachiel).
I disagree. Evangelion is nothing more than a troll against anime fans everywhere. It is the emperor's new clothes of philosophical anime. No matter how packed with superficially philosophical elements the series is, that does not make it anything more than a mishmash of unrelated topics from religion, philosophy and psychology poorly strung together in a highly abstract and "artistic" fashion. Just because something sounds profound does not mean that it is. Just because a message looks obfuscated does not mean that it contains any deeper message.
YHBT by Gainax.
YHL
HAND
How are they going to find 15 year old girls... talented... enough to fill the roles (cups?) of Asuka/Rei?
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
This sounds like a terrible idea. NGE wasn't as good as all the fanboys told me it was. It's convoluted, bizzare, and has no chance at atracting a main-steam audience without alienating its core audience of ubergeeks. You also have to factor in the fact that ADV is a distributor, not a production company, so the best they'll be able to do is straight-to-video quality work. I'm serious about my post title. Given the source material, and ADV being the production company, I cannot see this movie being anything more than Guyver 2K4 starring Jake Lloyd instead of Mark Hamil.
I would just like to point out that there has already been some live action work done with Evangelion. The original ending of The End of Evangelion was done in live action. Check this out.
Wake me up when someone makes a movie of The Killer Japanese Seizure Robots.
I only agree that dealing with to the main storyline of Evangelion with a movie would be stupid.
It's not that there isn't anything to add to the series, or that you couldn't fit more material somewhere in the series. There were enough open questions left throughout the series, and the timeline is not THAT tight.
But a movie could not be an OVA, it could not be some kind of extended episode that depends on the comprehensive whole that is the series. It would have to stand by itself, and I don't think that's possible because as you say, EVA is about emotions and character development. And a lot of it.
It couldn't be properly summed up in 2 hours, and it couldn't be taken out of EVA without destroying its narrative intent.
Because I suspect that's what the live action movie will attempt, I think it will be a waste of time and money.
However, this doesn't mean that a more sensible project could not add to the series in some other way. I would think, for example, that a prequel dealing with the whole SEELE/NERV/Ikari-family saga in either animated or live-action form would be a nice way of complementing the series with a story that can be as complex and messed up as the original (well, maybe less apocalyptic) without taking away the mystery.
I just wouldn't trust american hands on that one, though. American video/movie entertainment is not notorious for investing in storylines and universes in the long-term.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
For the most irritating, whiny male actor of all time to play Shinji Ikari!
You know, it has been imagined before that a live-action Evangelion movie could be done, but it ended with the conclusion : let's hope it doesn't happens.
There are a few reasons about this.
1. FUNDS. How can an adaptation of a series that's full of heavy steel, gunfire, apocalyptic explosions, mind-boggling psychotrips be correctly done, out of the "cellulo-space" ?
One of the reasons of why Anime earned such a success in Japan is that filmmakers there didn't have enough money to crank out movies without said movies seriously lacking... funds. Celluloid really IS cheaper for impossible scenes like some that are in Eva... And porting this to the silver screen should require some huge amounts of money. Where are they going to find the budget usually used for an announced blockbuster ? I hopa Gainax's not going to spend too much on that, I'd really get angry if they had to close before of the bankrupt following the release of that movie.
2. CHARACTERS. Ikari Shinji. Soryû Langley Asuka. Ayanami Rei. These surely sound European, heh ? What are they going do ? Rename all those people, thus moving the entire story in the US and getting American actors ? (yeah, "Washington-3", sure.)
Or will they stick with Japanese actors ? How can you even reproduce de-japanized japanese people drawn on celluloid well enough ? I'll be curious to see who gets the role for Ayanami Rei. If it destroys my dream vision of an almost-perfect (barring an introverted-beyond-autism personality) human being...
3. STORYLINE. How will you ever be able to summarize that twisted series that is Evangelion into something that can be seen in 2-3 hours ? Or if you take the problem the other way, how will you take a part of the series without screwing the entire context/continuity/complexity ?
And what about the complexity itself ? Will the scenario scaled-down for the non-depressed to understand ? I surely don't want to see an action film made out of THIS. Do you ?
4. WAY OF THINKING. There are things Japanese can stand that Americans can't, and the other way. What would be done about those things ? I mean, there are some in the storyline that are understood (and appreciated ?) by us nerds, but for the others... Remember the beginning of EoE, you'll get an idea of what I mean.
I spent too much weeks staring at the ceiling after having seen Eva to let it become a botched adaptation. Really.
- Hadriven
They better get it right! NGE is one of those things that you can either make a great film from, or make a terrible film from. At least with Weta doing graphics we won't have to worry too much about the representation of the kind of huge-scale scenery (ie geofront, eva unit battles etc). What i'm more worried about is the characters. If they don't cast well, then it won't have any chance at all. The characters are pretty well defined so casting well is going to be a bit of a challenge. I also suspect that a fair bit of script hacking / artistic license will be needed to bring the anime style script (more pauses, still scenes etc. as you see in anime) to film. And hopefully they won't bridge (ie skip bits) too much.
Let's just pray that they get it right...and that GAINAX get a fair amount of input into the production!
I laughed. I cried. I got a stiffy.
Shinji - Josh Hartnett, because he can get pretty squinty when he wants to, no way we Hollywood types would ever cast a real Japanese guy playing the role
Rei - random cute japanese girl, the girls are okay, we will allow them into Hollywood
Asuka - call the Wilhelmina modeling agency and send over their stupidest, sluttiest chick who looks like she could pass for a pubescent kid
Misato - Lucy fucking Liu, again
Touji - Paul Wilson, why not, whoever heard of a blonde Japanese guy, we'd rather have Japanese girls creaming over a white guy than some Japanese wahoo, it's like we fat white bald eagles are living vicariously through him
Ritsuko - Denise Richards. She has the eybrows and was very convincing as an almost intelligent person in 007 The World Is Not Enough
Gendou - WTF, let's cast a Japanese guy for THIS role. GET MORITA.
PENPEN - CG, THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO BE DAMN WONDERFUL LIKE ANG LEE'S HULK.
ADV sucks. I knew it in 93, and now I'm sure about it.
"It's such an obvious genre to take advantage of modern CGI" ... "Hell, the powerloader scene was a favourite in Aliens."
I don't remember there being any CG in that one.
The problem I see with CG is that while we can make things look pretty believeable at this point, it still takes scads of effort to integrate said CG with real people. Recent examples might include odd movements by Spider-Man, or Merry & Pippin atop Treebeard (one of the better scenes in this case, but still odd-looking at moments.)
Until we get to the point where we can either motion track (or similar) easily, I will continue to worry about titles like these (unless they got clever and avoided the fights alltogether and made it a purely 'social' film, which would be appropriate, but might dissapoint a lot of fans...)
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
Asuka: Mary Kate (alternately Ashley) Olsen. Asuka's new catch phrase become "How rude!"
Rei: Christina Ricci. Has stoic written all over it.
Misato: Sandra Bullock. Minor depression, messy, drunk, but still a strong woman. Literally every role Bullock has ever played.
Gedou: Christopher Walken. Please. PLEASE get Walken to sit around grinning evil.
And finally, Shinji: Will Smith. Complete with music video.
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
It's not live-action if ITS NOT LIVE!
Hacking the Network
I hope they do the movie justice, otherwise the movie creators will be receiving hate mail like the creator of the series did.
Please don't take this the wrong way...it is an interesting theory, one which gave me a real head-trip when I first heard it...but it has been disproven from primary sources:
n 11
From the EvaOtaku web site:
http://www.evaotaku.com/html/evafaq2.html#questio
Q) What color are Asuka's eyes at the end of the film? And, is the person at the end of the film actually a combination of Asuka, Rei, and Misato? Is she, Shinji's 'perfect woman'?"
A) This perposterous theory has been around for a while now, but it was never as popular as it is now. Asuka's eyes are blue, not brown, at the end of the film.
This is a scan of the Cardass Wide Card for the scene in question:
http://www.evaotaku.com/other/IneedYou.jpg
As you can see, her eye is clearly blue (somewhat greyish, but this is because of the color tones/lighting of the scene - it is night afterall).
And further, no - the person on the shore with Shinji is Asuka and Asuka only. Shinji rejected Human Complementation Project, and as such he has no control over whatever happens next. He is an ordinary boy. Yui says that anyone who can "imagine themselves in their own hear" can come back, on their own. Apparently, Asuka is one of those people. A person with the will to live. A combination of people is impossible outside of the Complementation project that Shinji rejected.
Read through the rest of the linked FAQ. The author draws upon official Gainax materials for his answers, such as official trading cards, sourcebooks, and so on. He even has information on the missing live-action sequence that was originally supposed to be in EoE. Interesting stuff.
(On the other hand, Anno has been quoted as saying that each individual brings their own meaning to Evangelion...so if you choose to believe the "Shinji's perfect women" theory, he probably wouldn't mind.)
Its the story of a really fucked up kid that has to save the world and instead saves the life of a girl that hates him even though he thinks that hes in love with her ... mostly thought its about giant robats that fight strange and intresting alians .... i like chettos!
Long time anime freak and mostly i have to say that i have some mixed fellings at best over this. I own all the episodes and both american versions of the movies (sorry i havnt gotten a chance to see the uncut version cause i know there is one) Any ways im not shure that this is a very good move nor do i think that they will be able to put across the true story of Eva ... but alas it is truly another sign of the dumbing of america!
www.geo.front.ru is dedicated to the fictious NGE Live Action film and it's been online a while. The cast photos are here: http://www.geo.front.ru/THE_CAST_and_PHOTOS.html The rest is critical stuff, soundtrack, "scripts" - ah well, the usual site plugging Larnir W. Haigh, staff member of www.secondimpact.net
Obviously what is crap and what is good is subjective. So I won't get into that argument here. What I will say is today we are getting a larger percentage with what appears to be substantially larger budgets, especially dubbing (hoorah!).
The problem isn't what's out there now, but what profits tend to do to non-mainstream, semi-subculture forms of entertainment. My evidence? Look at natively popular movie stars (moderately famous in the states) that came to Hollywood from other countries. Look at American conversions of foreign flicks. I'm surprised Disney hasn't made a move on Anime. Fortunately for us they've kept themselves to the "family" market. Not saying I don't like Disney movies (Loved Prince of Egypt), but I like my anime the way it is, slightly confusing. There are some jokes and gestures that are Japanese, that I don't fully understand, I sort of "get", that would sadden me if they disappeared. Get where I'm going with this? If you don't think it will happen, look at Escaflowne. We chopped it up here to serve to youngsters.
"Last one in is a rotten goblin!" - Kepp
IT'S CALLED "SARCASM."
Read the context of the post before you waste your mod points.
More than just dealing with aliens attacking humans, Evangelion is about mankind at war with God. The level to which Judeo-Christian symbolism is incorporated into the techno-futuristic storyline is absolutely fascinating.
Example: the NERV supercomputer cluster has three mainframes, referred to in the story as the magi. Their names are Balthazar, Malchior, and Caspar. Those are also the names of the three magi, the three kings who journeyed to Bethlehem bearing gifts for the newborn Jesus.
Evangelion grapples with questions like what is a human without a soul? And what is man's relationship to God? Just how omnipotent is God, anyway? Consider the slogan on the NERV corporation's logo: "God is in His heaven, all is right in the world"
One of the "hooks" that really gets some people interested in NGE is that so many details are mentioned tangentially or at best only hinted at. The more you dig into what the various names mean, the more mysteries or possible links you will find.
Evangelion is not for the faint of heart, nor the faint of faith. If you are hypersensitive about your faith or are offended by any interpretation of scripture that deviates from (your) tradition, you should not view Evangelion. Period.
Anyway, here's one of many web sites devoted to Evangelion lore: http://www.sbs.com.au/NGE/ You can buy the DVDs on Amazon.com and at mall chain video stores like Suncoast Video. Most video rental places that carry serious anime should have NGE. Blockbuster had them for awhile, but seem to have rotated them out of stock (or removed NGE from the shelves because of complaints from people offended by the religious references). Comic book shops are another source.
Just go google for "Neon Genesis Evangelion". Plenty of reading material there.
-mazor