Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion-part 5 and a half: TV ending and Death & ReBirth

This is a bit of an odd post this time 'round, as I actually wasn't planning on talking about this part of the series. However, I am an hour and a half away from seeing You May (Not) Advance at my local cinema, so I figured to get in the mood, I'd rant about Eva on my blog. So, here we are.

First, some history. Both the TV ending and D&R (not to mention the director's cut episodes) are basically a product of Studio GAINAX running out of money halfway through production, making it necessary to replace the epic conclusion Anno had in mind with a new, funky ending made entirely out of reused footage. However, as you can imagine with the most popular anime of all time, the fans REALLY wanted to see the real ending, and as we all know, anime fans always get what they want. And so, the outlandish masterpiece End of Evangelion was produced, made with such care and patience that they needed to produce a clip show recap, Death & ReBirth, to keep the fickle public interested. Anyway, they exist, so therefore I better say some stuff about them.

TV ENDING (Episodes 25-26)
Quickly cut animation sprinkled with philosophy and random words flashing past the screen. If you love Evangelion as much as I do, you are likely to be drooling at the moment. I know I am. Joking aside, this is really great. Though it's annoying how this whole thing lacks any context with the rest of the series (Uh, is instrumentality happening? Did it already happen? Why were the big robots important again?), it can very much be said that this is what made this show unique, if not what made it great. Lots of vibrant imagery and characterization is at play here. However, I take issue with one thing.
It is the happy ending. Part of the reason this is here in the first place is the TV ending's fundamentally different portrayal of The Instrumentality Project of unifying all the souls (Movie = be alone, TV = be with others) but that does not change the fact that a happy end contradicts the very nature of Evangelion's narrative. The whole moral of this story was that life can be harrowing, life can be terrible, but life is still necessary. Seeing everyone smiling while stating "CONGRATULATIONS!" just cheapens everything. And why is the last shot of Penpen? I mean, we all love Penpen, but he does not deserve those final moments! I feel terrible... :)

Death & ReBirth
OK this is a clip show recap, and some work-in-progress footage of End of Evangelion. That's is, guys. The editing's good, I guess. Cover art's nice. Death and rebirth is a major theme in Evangelion, so that's there. But really, since I am not a Japanese otaku in 1996 waiting patiently for EoE, there is nothing here. Don't fall for Manga Entertainment's cruel trap of advertising this as part one of two in the conclusion of Evangelion. Ignore this.

Zyword of the Week episode 4: Five Dubs I Will Never Watch

The dub industry rocks. I respect what they do, and everyone in the dub industry seems to love what they are doing. However, when the dub is butchered, there  may be no going back. I raise my fists to the sky and wish a plague of locusts on everyone to ever english dub an anime EVER. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but you get the picture. Here are five dubs in no particular order that made me fume.

1. Naruto
Come on guys, one...two....three..."SAAAAAAASUUUUUUUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" Of course, Naruto was already annoying in the first place, but somehow, the good folks at Viz made the Naruto anime UNWATCHABLE. Naruto, our hero, was so annoying I actually could not root for him, which, despite the fact that he never made sense to me as protagonist in a "train-to-be-the-best" Shonen, was something I was able to do before.

2. Fullmetal Alchemist
Man, if someone were to actually read my blog, I would get so much sh*t for saying this. The dub of Hagaren is generally agreed upon as Best. Dub. Ever, and indeed, it's quite good. But I just cannot STAND the voice actor for Ed, and since he's the main character, that is a problem. Also, I do not mind the butchering of the english names in the Japanese, because right now I am learning Japanese and find this fun. However, if I were to watch this with a friend (the best way to watch anime in my opinion), I'd watch the dub. I don't hate it so much not to give it a second chance, but that is certainly not true with...

3. End of Evangelion

I don't mind the TV series dub so much, though I prefer the japanese track, but after getting the license from under ADV's nose, Manga Entertainment proceeded to create a big eff you to every Evangelion fan ever. Though some of the performances are good, great even, everything is wrong about this. Serious scenes are turned into "jokes." Words are intentionally mispronounced. The video quality is crud. Recast side characters sound totally different from the TV show's dub. The commentary track reveals the AV director's total lack of understanding of what is going on, while the normally down to earth Tallison Jaffe natters on about a book he read about the Kabbalah. I happen to be against fan subs and scanlates, but you know what? Go for it, dudes. They deserve it. Fan dub it, too.

4. Dragon Ball GT
GT itself is not a great show, seeing as not even the manga dared to keep the undead franchise rolling on THIS much, but at the end of the day, it's fun to watch and soothes my soul from the troubles of the world. This cannot be said of the dub. It is so lazy production-wise, not to mention performance-wise, that I could literally make a better one with Garage Band. Even worse is the re-dub of the theme song, that sounds like it was done in five minutes.

5. Every 4Kids Dub Ever
While I like the Pokemon theme song, which is basically every shonen ever set to music, that's about it. How dare they do what they did to the anime version of Cardcaptor Sakura, to Shaman King, to (oh god) ONE PIECE! WHY GOD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I wish this didn't exist.

Review: Fractale Episode 1

    
Thank god for streaming. Without it, I would not get the immense joy of watching Fractale, a new show directed by Yutaka "Yamakan" Yamamoto (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and from a concept by famous otaku  scholar Hiroki Azuma, ONE HOUR after it aired in Japan. I've became curious about the show after reading this article in witch the director spoke out against the moe symptom that has infected all otaku products lately. It shocked me that the director of Haruhi would be the one to be saying these things about moe, seeing as Haruhi was basically the moe show that worked. Needless to say, I was intrigued by the idea of a show that "will target non-anime fans and one-time fans who have shifted away from the genre," and I was not disappointed. This is good, nostalgic fun with a nice hint of the demented bent I can expect from a Yamakan production.


 This show does absolutely nothing new. Not an ounce of originality. It is a rehash of many things we have seen before. But these things are things that have not been seen for a very long time, so I welcome this show like a friend who has been on vacation for months. This show contains no moe, no pushy-in-more-ways-than-one breast shots, no "sexy" helium voices. Here's what the show does contain: A youthful, wide eyed hero. A mysterious heroine. A unique setting. A leisurely storytelling pace. Incompetent, bumbling, but still plenty dangerous initial villains. Miyazaki-inspired (okay, rip-off) aircrafts. And a hint of that WTF that only Japan is capable of crafting. Now if this is not enough to make you immensely curious, then there is nothing I can do to make you watch this show. However, unless your heart broke the moment I said no moe, then you are probably immensely curious about this show. However, this show needs more than that. Only moe gets produced with a list of guidelines and nothing more. And sadly, this show may be like that. Because what I just described basically IS the plot at this point. And really, why watch this when I could just watch Castle in the Sky, which this show dubiously resembles. There are two reasons.

First of all, the fanservice in the first episode was handled carefully and tastefully. At this point, fanservice (which, if you don't know what this means by now, I will just say that it fairly obvious when most of the fans to service are male) is a necessary evil of anime (and manga), and it was refreshing to see one that left things to the imagination, something that I think/hope otaku still have, and did not shove panties at the screen every ten seconds. After all, when you are creating something that fans can probably already find mountains of doujin based on the minute it is publicly available, is stuff like fanservice that needed?

Secondly, the weird sci fi setting. The world of Fractale at first looks like the bajillionth calm countryside to  grace an anime like this, but in reality, it is much more sinister. Other than the protagonist and a handful of other charaters, everyone is hooked to the Fractale system, the "twenty second century god", which makes life more convenient, and allows everyday life to be handled by bizarre avatars called "Doppels". It's like if The Matrix was also based on Castle in the Sky as well as Ghost in the Shell.

Anyway, the first episode was actually kinda light, so I can't say the quality will hold up, but as you can see by my feverish praise, I'm happy with what I see. And I haven't even mentioned the rad opener.


UPDATE: The Fractale simulcast has been shockingly put on hold by Funimation after a bunch of illegal torrents and streams of the first episode were put out by some @$$#*!#$.

Fractale is currently streaming via Funimation

Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion-part 5-directors' cut episodes 21 thru 24

(note: Though it is unlikely to specifically matter within this review, I am specifically discussing the director's cut versions of these episodes because they feature much more content than the cheaply-made TV broadcast version. I suggest you skip them in your viewing as well.)

In the last set of episodes, we watched as Shinji's world fell apart, and now the world crumbles around him. Shinji's closest friends lose themselves in a sea of depression, and those who dare to be stable are met with death.

Episode 21"The Birth of Nerv/He Was Aware That He Was Still A Child" is an extensive flashback of Gendo's backstory, and features lots of cryptic info on the MYSTERY of the series. This episode is actually my favorite of the entire TV series, giving Gendo and many other characters the element of pathos that defines their roles for the final act of the story. We see Gendo in his prime, friendly and happily married, and watch as he falls apart, morphing into the monster of a man who calmly traumatizes his own son. We soon realize the Gendo is what Shinji might become. At the end of the episode, someone dies and someone else falls apart, and the very idea of Eva being a normal robot show falls apart. Now the series progresses to show Rei die bravely in combat, replaced by an emotionless doll calling herself "the third one", Ristuko revealed to be psychotic, and Asuka literally get mentally defiled. Truly great merchandise fodder.

At this point, Shinji is, of course a wreck. It is only natural he find someone to turn to. By the way, that sound you hear is a million fangirls squealing. In Episode 24 "The Final Messenger/The Beginning and the End, or "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"", Shinji meets Kaworu, the new pilot of unit 3. Kaworu tries reaching out to Shinji, and pretty soon the two boys are very much in love. But this is not BL. This is so BL it is not even funny. Kaworu is the one bright light left in Shinji's crumbling world, and their love for each other is perhaps the one optimistic thing left in Eva at this point. However, Kaworu is actually the last angel (not exactly true, but I won't bore you with details), and Shinji is sent to stop him. One would think that would be traumatizing enough, but in this show, NOTHING is traumatizing enough! Standing in front of the giant Adam, now revealed not to be Adam, but another giant beast (remember that embryo thing on Gendo's hand? THAT was Adam), Kaworu is left with a choice: Destroy the world, or kill himself. He decides the latter option, and in fact, has Shinji kill him. For five minutes there is no animation but a single shot of the Eva clutching Kaworu's body. Then a brief shot of Kaworu's silhouetted head falling to the ground. And with that, the story enters its final phase.

Zyword of the Week episode 3- Get Off My Lawn

OK, so I have begun watching Mobile Suit Gundam, currently streaming on Crunchyroll, and I love it. Cool robots, expert plotting, smart protagonists, and some neat military flourishes to boot. It's only available in dub, but it's okay because the dub is good. However, there is one thing that bothers me, or rather, three:

Those dang kids! I HATE them! They are ugly. They are dated. They are completely out of place. Every time they appear, it runs the show into the ground. It's as if Yoshiyuki Tomino had some great plan with the characters, (apparently one of them has a big role in Zeta Gundam) but decided "Eh, whatevs," and made THIS instead. I am aware that Tomino was trying to avoid the Super Robot tropes as much as possible, so this really begs the question: WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING!?!?!?!?!? Oh, well. Great show otherwise.

Review: Summer Wars

 This is a review of the new anime film Summer Wars, but before I get to the real "review" part of things, I must describe my experience of the act of watching the film itself. In a push to get the movie an Oscar nomination, Funimation has decided to release the film in a larger number of theaters than normal for one week and two week screenings. I went to a screening at the IFC Center in New York, and it was amazing. It was in a larger theater than I'd expected, and though it was not exactly a full house, it was quite full. This impressed me, as the last non-Hayao Miyazaki anime at a movie theater I'd been to was an art-house screening of Tales from Earthsea that two other people went to. Very impressive. The review will now begin.

There are two people currently considered the Masters of Anime, Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon. Satoshi Kon recently passed away while working on his planned final movie "Dream Machine", and while Miyazaki is alive and working, he is technically retired and his post-Mononoke and work is a bit epilouge-y. Obviously, the new generation of anime fandom needs a new genius. And we have one in director Mamoru Hosoda, whose new film Summer Wars is a masterpiece.

There are many ways I could describe Summer Wars. I think Wikipedia describes it best as a "Japanese animated science fiction romance film". There are elements of bang-zoom action and blush-swoon slice of life, combined to create an engaging, somewhat surreal movie that Scott Pilgrim wishes it was. The movie tells two stories: one, a charming hand animated coming-of-age story about Kenji, and his visit to his friend Natsuki's family, the other, an computer generated action-packed adventure with a nice moral about the danger of over reliance on the internet, jammed with the amazing visuals I have come to expect from a Studio Madhouse production. The two stories often intersect in fascinating (and necessary) ways, creating an adventure full of heart that everyone can get something out of, be you a fan of the restrained thoughtfulness of a Miyazaki film, an admirer of the wild visual flair and psychology of Kon, or a family looking for something fun to watch.


Aside from the film itself, I was really impressed by the dub. Funimation has once again done a sublime job with the dub, with strong performances and natural dialogue. I am not even curious to see this in original Japanese.


If this film does get the Oscar nomination as I hope, there is a good chance it will get a wider theatrical release. The film certainly deserves it, for being both a crowd-pleaser and intellectually enjoyable. Good luck, Summer Wars, I hope you get that nomination.

My Christmas Present

I have long been put of by Tokyopop's logo, so out of date and ugly looking that it made me avoid their titles.

This bad boy can be seen running intrusively along the side of just about every title they've put out, breathing a foul curse on all their titles...until NOW.



Happy New Year.