neon genesis evangelion

Just finished my series + EoE rewatch. OK ready for 3.0+1.0

interesting twitter thread but do i wanna trust someone named "babysitter super sleuth"

i don't actually mind translations like "the first children" to refer to Shinji alone if it does capture some of the ambiguity of the original language since i could easily imagine that sort of choice being intentional or representing the vision of the original language

the thing is that 1. that's technically what they're saying 2. there are english titles for every episode and one of the episodes is called (iirc) "fourth children"

but also the insistence that the english translation refer to them as second child/third child etc. actually came from gainax at the time (iirc, this is sourced from my extremely distant memory of the commentary tracks on adv's release of the platinum edition)

i'll also say that (given my extremely basic understanding of japanese from studying it in college) the netflix translation... is not strict

I didn't mind the weird translation bits. If anything they only serve to enhance the unreality/enhanced-reality of it all.

so far my biggest issue with it is changing "the three stooges" to "the idiot trio"

episode 16 is the goddamn best

im 6 eps in, never watched before. I'm enjoying it but thus far it's kind of a piece with other mecha anime series i've seen. but the larger backstory hasn't been delved into and there's not been much in the way of religious imagery or what have you.

yeah, the first half of the show definitely plays much much more like a conventional giant robot show (albeit maybe with more mood and bleak angst). might be appropriate to think of it as basically the hook to draw in casual TV viewers on its original run... like if Twin Peaks started out as an even more conventional detective procedural or w/e.

yeah it's def very moody. i just am thinking like, mobile suit gundam. 15 year old amaro ray has a distant relationship from his mech inventor father, his mother stayed on earth when he went to side 7, he's a bit of a social outcast who keeps himself to himself and lives alone etc. in the first episode he ends up piloting his father's mech creation against the enemy. amaro is more grumpy and aggro than shinji but otherwise they are pretty similar

amuro even

So at the end of the one episode where Asuka and Mitaso visit a hot spring, Mitaso tells her not worry over something about her past... is this reference intentionally vague or did I miss something?

What I like so far (and I'm about 13 or so episodes in) about the series is that it keeps its plot moving briskly. That and its sudden eructations of the weird.

the reference is intentionally vague, it gets thoroughly explored later

i'm almost done and i think i dislike this new translation, but my overall feeling is that it could've been way worse (cf. the recent translation of sailor moon crystal which is just syntactically terrible empty garbage). the occasional exchange is very strong (most of the misato/kaji dialogue) but there's something v... basic about it (overwhelming fidelity to japanese grammar resulting in recurring awkward uses of "that [noun]") and sometimes the grammar is pretty tortured. (again the only way i would be satisfied with a translation of evangelion is if they let me do it or at least edit it)

The thing that's so amazing to me about the ending(s) - without spoiling anything for anyone who's not there yet - is the way the seeds for the EoE ending are planted with specific split-second insert shots only explained in EoE. They're lightning-fast, but without them you could easily have made the argument that the EoE ending was made up out of whole cloth as a reaction to the backlash from the series ending.

the subtitles fell a second or two behind when I was watching episode 2 yesterday morning (I'm evidently not up for binging this rn) and I was like "y'know this is fine"

i had dub and subs on for a bit and they're not the same. not sure which is better. my brother's japanese is pretty good and he's a huge nerd so i should ask him, but he's kind of busy with his first child immanent

i've been impressed with what i've seen of the dub so far. obv derived from the same translation but it feels pretty natural

also my criticisms of the translation are super super personal and a result of being a huge nerd about this show for 20 years so they should be taken with a grain of salt

the dub is good. all the anguished screaming is on point.

I found it interesting to keep the english subs and dub on at the same time to see how they diverged

yeah that is my main litmus test for the dub: can shinji's voice actor really fuckin scream? in this case, yes

xp

I've been watching with subs, and as far as Japanese-translated stuff goes I don't have major complaints. The only thing is that sometimes the dialogue goes by pretty quickly, and I've had to rewind a couple times to read what it sez.

lmao the new translation reinstated one of my favorite lines from the very first adv release (i can't say what it is but it's in episode 22 re: asuka), for all its clumsiness the emotionally damaging moments are sold well

ok i can't believe they mistranslated the final episode title. again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_that_Shouted_Love_at_the_Heart_of_the_World

late pass, should i assume i should try this?

if you enjoy anguish and/or giant robots, yes

if you like anime it is one of my top 3 of all time but if you have an aversion to the genre it's definitely an anime

it's super post-modern anime on top of that. but definitely one of the greatest.

oh no, i love anime! It's just been many years since I tried something new; this came out maybe two or three years after I stopped watching actively.
anguish and giant robots ahoy i suppose

i have three episodes to go and i just read a random tweet about elon musk which i think might have spoiled a major plot point :O

Mordy, what are the other two in your top three?

wondering what other things fans of this rate highly. I pretty much stopped with anime after seeing this, apart from the odd Ghibli.

maffew definitely give serial experiments lain a shot

haha wow.. seen that. Hadn't crossed my mind in ages. Same era isn't it?

it premiered two years after eva but yes, it is the other major mindfuck anime of the era. holds up really well and got a lot of things right about the internet and the development of computer technology

Right on, I'll pop it on again sometime.

btw not necessarily looking for a similar vibe to Eva. Just interested what else might get recommended here on a non-anime forum. Stop me if it's too off topic.

My other big one has been Orange Road. I'll stick it on basically for the music sometimes. I remember people loving the music in Cowboy Bebop but it never grabbed me.

if you haven't seen it, haibane renmei is a great midpoint between like... lain and miyazaki. lain's character designer wrote it iirc

also anyone who loves this show will have the best time watching flcl

Haven't seen either. Thanks!

Looking forward to watching Eva on Netflix sometime. I don't actually remember a lot of the plot ^^

haibane renmei is the best, the sin dialogue is something i still chew on

Lain & Haibane along with Mushishi are my 3 fav anime series, but then they were among the first shows I watched so I'm willing to accept that I have a "first love" sort of bias with them

i have no illusions that it ranks up there with Evangelion in themes or animation.... but man would it be fun to rewatch Escaflowne someday. giant robot high-fantasy adventure crossed with teen girl "which of these two guys??" serial drama.

i was gonna mention escaflowne. it’s not subversive like eva but it pretty much perfects its own extremely romantic giant mecha aesthetic

would also appeal very much to fans of e.g. Final Fantasy VI... steampunk mecha in a fantasy world kind of deal, with a very Kefka-esque villain. pretty sure there is also an airship at some point.

there is!

i sorta said top 3 flippantly so now i'm on the spot but probably Legends of the Galactic Heroes and Space Dandy (or maybe Cowboy Bebop) sorry for my conventional picks <bows apologetically a million times>

now that I know there's something called Space Dandy, I have to check it out

Space Dandy is underrated brilliance

also anyone who loves this show will have the best time watching flcl

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, June 26, 2019 6:04 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

watching FLCL was like the formative media experience of my teen years