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Cartoon Network Acquires Neon Genesis Evangelon
The Fool writes "Anime News Network is reporting that Cartoon network will
be airing All of Neon Genesis Evangelon. You can also read the Toon Zone speculation as well as some more."
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Too bad it won't be intact at all unless it's in the Adult Swim line up.
In all it's gore, religious themes and sexuality?
Because I'm pretty sure it will be heavily censored and edited, like Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon were.
You can't take the sky from me...
Adult Swim sure is cutting edge, be sure to invest in them- I have a feeling they're about to break wide open..
Hopefully they don't do the "Foxbot" on evangelon. For those of you who don't know Neo Genesis Evangelon is considered to be one of the "ledganday" animes.
Whilst I'm glad to see it being shown, I feel that having it on that channel won't do much good for the popular perception of animé in the US. I'd rather see it on some culture-oriented channel that shows foreign artsy films and similar, although that doesn't exactly result in an accurate perception it's a closer one than we currently get.
I am trolling
I am firmly convinced that anybody who claims to know what this anime is really about is full of shit. Seriously. The moment they start telling you about the plot and all the accompanying existential quasi-religious mish-mash, tell them they're full of BS because they don't have a clue either.
On a side note, what's the big deal again? This franchise isn't just old, it's stale. FLCL airing on the cartoon network was bigger news than this. Wake me up when they get something not over half a decade old.
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I personally believe that there isn't a correct interpretation of Evangelion; instead the creators just took a normal giant robot anime and threw in a random mishmash of religious symbols so people would think it's profound.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is the defininitive of what the Japanese aren't afraid to do with entertainment: create something with the sole purpose of f**cking with your head.
First they take Christian themes, such as Angels and the Lance of Longinus, and twist them into something entirely different. Next they take 14 year olds, give them all psychological problems on a scale that you only can imagine, and pit them with the task of saving humanity's individuality. Finally, combine this with everybody else having complexes about being God, being worthless, and having one's existence recognized by others, and you have Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Forget the nudity, everything else is too intense for CN's demographic, and honestly, I don't feel comfortable showing the anime to others without a good sense of self. It makes you feel uncomfortable at times, and unless you can actually enjoy having your mind twisted likes a towel and twacked against the ass of Jesus Christ, don't watch this anime.
If I were a censor working at CN, I'd rather try to censor DVDA porn with clown midgets than Neon Genesis Evangelion. There is no point in trying without destroying the story. Really.
As it is, dubbing generally has improved a lot in recent years as there has been more money to put more time into the dubs. One of the reasons that a lot of dubs in the 80's were so bad is that a) the talent wasn't there, and didn't have as much experience and b) the money wasn't there for doing really proper studio work. More recently, dubbing studios have been able to create environments much closer to how it is done in Japan, which helps everyone.
Evangelion, being a show that was dubbed years ago, isn't going to be a particularly good example of this. But going back to experience, it's worth noting I think that some of the people who did voicework for Evangelion have definitely improved with experience.
Well, to me that sounds like a great starting point for a good book, cartoon, animation or a movie: to make an impact, to really affect the reader/watcher. It doesn't really matter if the subject feels elevated or deeply disturbed after the experience.
The owls are not what they seem
Genesis Evangelon
... please apply KY to all flames....
Thanks to the classical Greek I studied in college is translated: "creation good news"
Genesis=creation, beginning, origin
Evangelon=(eu)good, (angelion)=messege, news
In case anyone was interested that is
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Really, the choice of Christian elements was pretty arbitrary. For the most part, you could have just changed the names of a few things and the Judeo-Christian references would be gone. The few remaining references were mostly crosses and/or crucifixes. That part of the series was hardly profound at all - in fact, it appeared to demonstrate a superficial understanding of Christianity on the part of the writer/director. The only notable part of that storyline is the "Man Trying To Become Like God" theme, which isn't strictly Judeo-Christian.
Admittedly, CN/AS does censor the "Jesus" from "Sweet Zombie Jesus!" in Futurama. But I don't see the imagery in NGE as approaching that level of "blasphemy", simply because the imagery is confusing and really doesn't drive any particular offensive message home.
On the other hand, NGE makes a real impact, as you say, in its representation of mental illness. It examines the sort of mental illness that many Slashdot readers may have - most notably, depression - which has a tremendous internal impact upon the sufferer, while the sufferer's friends and family aren't aware that they need help. For this theme, the writer/director drew on his own experience with mental illness, and included themes related to what he learned during the course of his therapy. (If you like this concept, CN/AS is currently running Paranoia Agent, which shares the theme of mental illness but takes a somewhat more external view compared to the crushing closeness that NGE gets the viewer to its characters.)
I think most Japanese think of Christian, especially Catholic, imagery as lending a little exoticism the same way as Hollywood does in horror movies. They don't think of it as any more profound than most of us think religion in the remake of the "Amnityville Horror" is profound.
Basically there is two different endings in Evangelion: there are the original last two episodes of the 26 episode TV series, and two films that 'replace'/augment them. The two different endings seem to actually depict the exact same events, just in two very different ways. Though honestly, it isn't entirely clear to me if they literally end at the same point, but 99% of them depict the same events. The creators intend for you to watch the TV series (including the TV ending) first, then the two films (they haven't retroactively eliminated the last two TV episodes or anything).
The confusion is over the quality and (more importantly) fan reaction to the different endings. Towards the end of Eva's TV run the animators at Gainax were having budget, censorship (due to the show's increasing popularity), and even severe psychological issues, leading some fans to suggest that the last two episodes aren't what the creators actually wanted, or that it somehow is untrue to the episodes that came before them. Apparently there was a big fan backlash in Japan against Gainax because of the ending, leading to them creating the two films as a 'new' ending.
But that's just one perspective on the quality of Evangelion's TV ending. It's shouted so often by some very loud people that newbies to the series sometimes think it is some law or definite settled issue. So unfortunately a lot of fans who found the TV ending too bizarre or not filled with enough fanservice tell a lot of people to just not even bother with the last two episodes, which is a shame. I personally felt the TV ending was practically perfect, capturing entirely what the series was actually about - which is not giant robots, crazy religious imagery, and aliens, but the characters and their relationships (and on another more important level, our own relationship to the world and those around us). The TV ending does an excellent job dealing with this stuff. It's raw, it's brutally honest, it's even more experimental than the rest of the series is, and it doesn't give any clear answers (ie you have to figure it out for yourself what it exactly means). The films have some extremely entertaining scenes in them and some wonderful animation, but they are filled with an overabundance of things that were merely fun windowdressing in the series (like the religious imagery). IMO it's too focused on what the fans apparently wanted, partially at the expense of the creator's desires. It's almost like they confused the dessert/candy with what the real meal was. There is still some of this depth, but the ratio between candy/meal is far too slanted for the former. They also overexplain what exactly happens, which makes you lose some of that wonderful quality the series has in that the viewer questions their own values and perspective (though the film does have some of this too, I think it is a little too arty and pretentious for its own sake). I found the films to be admittedly enjoyable, but fairly weak/uneven by the standards of Evangelion (though the last few minutes are amazing). And it doesn't help that the US release of the last film has a killer translation error that can really confuse viewers...
Further confusion comes from the fact that there are multiple versions of the films. AFAIK in the US there is only one version of each film released, but in Japan there were quite a few. That's probably why some people get the feeling there are three or even more endings. But there aren't really any major story changes in the different film versions. It's interesting to read about or watch after you have seen it all, but it's nothing to worry about until after you see the series and two films.
And I am not happy with this news, largely because the Eva English dub is pretty bad (partially because the Japanese dub is so perfect). The inevitable censorship will suck as well. Please, just buy/rent/download the DVDs...
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
That depends entirely on your general taste in multimedia entertainment. If you enjoy action flicks, I would recommend starting with 'Cowboy Bebop'. Great show with a tremendous soundtrack, and the English dub is spot-on teriffic. You don't even have to watch it in Japanese and read subtitles if you don't want to.
If you prefer something more thoughtful, I'd recommend 'Grave of the Fireflies' (Historical drama), or even 'Spirited Away' (Think 'Alice In Wonderland' but with Japanese cultural Iconography instead of British).
If you prefer Romantic Comedy, something like 'Love Hina' might be a good choice, although it's a long series and kind of goofy at times. I also really enjoyed 'Chobits' (story exploring relationships between people and thier computers in modern society) But the main character is a bit of a twit.
Whatever you choose, don't let anyone tell you you HAVE to watch it in Japanese. Mostly the English dubs are carefully done and well casted. In the case of Cowboy Bebop, I felt the English cast did a much better job than the Japanese cast did. But that's just me. Enjoy your exploration of the world of Anime, it's sure to be interesting!
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