I watched the show about a decade ago, and I remember disliking it. I gave it another chance.
The OG Series:
It's a good show, at least up until Kaworu shows up. The story then devolves into a bunch of sanctimonious asinine ramblings about how Shinji is a coward, and how you should not ask for help from others. It's all pretentious trash.
Shinji is good kid, and I don't mind him at all. Asuka and Rei are barely characters, and I don't care for them. The SEELE organization makes no sense, and it's never explained. The Human Instrumentality project is absurd, and your typical "The world sucks, so we must destroy it to rebuild it our way" nonsense.
I know they ran out of budget by the end of production, and it shows. I can respect their artistic attempt at finishing it, but the last few episodes just plain suck.
End of Eva Movie:
This movie is where Shinji becomes whinny and useless. Doing the "he doesn't wanna pilot anymore" a third time just doesn't work. All because he killed Kaworu, whom he barely knew at all. Misato goes from mother figure to child predator, Gendo is a complete bastard, everyone fucking dies, and the bad guys essentially win. Animation is incredible, but make no mistake: FUCK this movie.
Rebuild of Eva:
It's alright. I like it more than the OG show. Character relationships and world building are way better. More importantly, Asuka and Rei (both Reis) are actual characters now, and I appreciate that immensely.
New story is good, if a bit flawed. WILLE treating Shinji like crap at the start of Movie 3 was stupid, and made things harder for everyone. Kaworu is also here, but he's alright now. Bonding through playing music together is rather cute. Then he dies, but you actually kinda care this time. Other than Kaworu though, Movie 3 sucks.
Movie 4 is much better, but it drags. You could cut Movies 3 and 4 into a single better movie. The entire village section is great. I just find stories about human resilience and "life after death" far more interesting than stuff like the utter disaster that End of Eva was, where it all boils down to "and then they all die".
Gendo is a self absorbed delusional selfish genocidal maniac. It's truly awful and painful to lose someone, but that doesn't give him any right to control and destroy so many lives.
I like the cheesy happy ending, and that's just who I am.
Overall? It's alright. It gets rather pretentious, but I enjoy a good part of the story and characters. It's also great visually, so that should translate well to both the fights and glam.
One thing though: Evangelion as a whole has a very weird obsession with constantly showing teenagers in different stages of nudity and sexually charged poses. This weird degeneracy better be left out entirely from XIV's raid series.
Cautiously looking forward to the collab.
Re-Watched Evangelion for Raid "Preparation"
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05-07-2026, 09:29 AMDiaDeemRe-Watched Evangelion for Raid "Preparation"
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05-07-2026, 10:32 AMDestatiThis is one of the reasons - if not the biggest reason - why I've been put off from watching the show. I've seen clips of it here and there and picked up the gist of the story through osmosis. Between the sexualization of underage characters and Shinji coming off as a very unlikable character I don't really care to watch it.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiaDeem
I get that it's iconic, and I'm happy for the people who are excited for it. I personally haven't been intrigued by any of the alliance raid series since Heavensward (Endwalker's piqued my interest but let me down almost immediately on release) so I'm pretty ambivalent.
If I'm hoping for anything it's that they'll do what they did with Nier and have a mash-up song of Cruel Angel's Thesis and some FFXIV song.
Was gonna say that I expect FFXIV to veer away from that kind of sexualization but then I remembered what they did with Ryne in Refulgence, so.... -
05-07-2026, 10:39 AMStBelenus
Final cutscne in 8.5
https://media1.tenor.com/m/FAqm3wJTI...n-clapping.gif -
05-07-2026, 01:30 PMImmutFrankly I would be extremely disappointed if we did not get a congratulations at the end. In fact, the DUTY COMPLETE screen should just be replaced with CONGRATULATIONS.Quote:
Originally Posted by StBelenus
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05-07-2026, 01:43 PMFawkesI haven't watched the rebuild stuff yet but your takes on the original series and movie are pretty much exactly how I remember feeling about them.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiaDeem
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05-07-2026, 01:52 PMDiaDeemShinji truly is nowhere near as bad up until End of Eva. For most of the OG show, he's just a kid dealing with complex stuff, but he's insufferable once you get to End. And yes: The gratuitous sexualized teens got on my nerves. It's just freaking weird.Quote:
Originally Posted by Destati
Yeah, I still hate that fight just because of that. I hope they do better this time around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Destati
Rebuild is much better, imho. Sadly, it still carries a lot of the BS from the OG show. Gendo has this thing where apparently he can predict everyone's moves like 10 steps ahead, and it's so contrived that it would make Sheev Palpatine blush. I'd still recommend... but with caution.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fawkes
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05-07-2026, 10:05 PMHanayumi
Considering we still got roughly a year till 8.1, got to wonder if most of it will be based off Yoko Taro's version...
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05-08-2026, 12:32 AMviriannaHonestly i wouldn't be surprised. We have like a year until 8.1 so it's enough time to get the anime going. Unless, as it is with eva media... it will be cooking for years to comeQuote:
Originally Posted by Hanayumi
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05-08-2026, 12:45 AMWildheaven182
Now watch Gurren Lagann. Some of the people worked on Eva went on to form studio trigger and made Gurren Lagann as a sort of response to the premise of Eva, and even an antithesis to Eva.
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05-08-2026, 12:54 AMArriusDepression and existential dread?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanayumi
That's right's right up his sleeve, giving us a broadside of both.