The problem with eva is it created so many misconception in the mecha genre, that I believe some of it's fans seriously damage the genre of mecha in eyes of the common folks.
I think the whole mess about Evangelion's (kinda undeserved) status in the wider anime fanbase comes from two things: 1) nostalgia 2) early reviews written by people who know exactly zilch about mecha. When it comes to the nostalgia, Eva has a very deserved place, for one reason only: it happened to be one of the first mecha shows to arrive in the USA completely uncut, no stupid Americanizations like what happened to shows such as Macross, GoLion, Bismark, Mazinger Z, everything featured in Force Five and so on. Without the overall kiddification Americans had their first real chance to see what mecha actually is as a genre - and it absolutely is a tour de force. The early reviews were when the talk about Eva became iffy. The people writing these reviews (specifically some of the early ANN writers) had this generally weird understanding that all the mecha butcherings that aired in America were actually the real deal, and when you have a comparison like that it's obvious Eva wins. To add, America didn't really have anything in the genre besides Transformers at the time, and the whole meddling of toy executives in the production process was something Eva escaped. Hence the whole meme "Eva is about the characters, everything else is about the toys" which got burnt into the fanboys' heads on sites like Evageeks. Overtime this caused a really bad rift between the Eva fanbase and the rest of the mecha community, as Eva fans became insanely mockable due to their frankly ridiculous fan theories and shipper wars, which in turn only helped to fuel this idea that Eva was pretentious, and eventually it became a pseud title that was watched for the clout rather than it's qualities, which I personally think is a shame.
Controversial opinion here... Evangelion was NOT a deconstruction. It's just a show created by people who deeply love mecha as a concept, riffing on older topics from shows like Gundam, Ideon, the first several Ultraman shows, Devilman and much, much more. Applying the idea, or term "deconstruction" to media (as in Derridean deconstruction) is a mistake that TV Tropes popularized. There's no such thing as a deconstruction in media. God I hate that site.
Its not controversial when its true. Often the term "deconstruction" is used by people who ultimately don't really understand the genre but wanna sound like they know what they're talking about. Like you said TV Tropes popularized it and I also hate it.
I would like to know your thoughts on RetroBlasting's Evangelion video. I won't say he's entirely off base with the show's characters, namely Shinji, but he kinda fails to take into account how horrifying the Evangelions are and how terrifying it is to even pilot one (which is another reason why I love Getter Robo so much, because our heroes are batshit insane, know they're batshit insane, and are just flaunting it to the bad guys).
What I've said before is that deconstruction and reconstruction should be viewed in a cyclical manner. Deconstruction can help add fresh ideas to concepts while also doing away with expendable ones, but after that, you have go back and tell a sincere example of that genre with those new elements. Think of it like a house. You need to do some deconstructing if the house is in disrepair, but if you just keep deconstructing without reconstructing anything, you'll eventually be left with no house at all. Fiction ought to be the same.
Wrong. "Deconstruction" and "reconstruction" aren't terms you apply to media itself. There is deconstructive and reconstructive CRITIQUE, stop misusing Derrida's philosophy. Anyways, Evangelion didn't really do diddly squat for anime other than it's success being a cause for studios to produce more anime. Anno never intended to piss on mecha anime, nor did the bout of depression he had in the 90s have anything to do with mecha. And yet Eva fans to this day keep preaching this stupid idea that Anno somehow hates mecha, that it's meant to dunk on mecha tropes and cliches... even though you already have all the real robot mecha from the 80s which are anything but cliche. Hell, even 70s super robot shows like Getter Robo or the Romance Robo Series aren't exactly "cliche-driven" either like most Eva fans claim it to be. The whole thesis that Eva was groundbreaking immediately fails if you ventured in any way, shape and form into older mecha shows... which most zoomers who're being inappropriate over Asuka and Rei can't get in. And I'm grateful for that, I don't want narrow-minded people in the fanbase. Tl;dr: Eva was a well-produced show made with a ton of love for mecha as a genre. It didn't bring in much new to the table, but people liked it.
patlabor movie 1 (the ark fight with a horde of zombie mechs as well as the fight with the evil ingram) and the entirety of patlabor 3 could be considered mecha horror (although patlabor 3 rarely shows off the mecha aspect of the franchise)
growing up loving Gundam, I knew of this show but could never obtain anything till my mid teens when the Rebuilds came out and i was able to obtain the original series vhs and dvds.
Because Evangelion in no way breaks down the pre-existing mecha genre as all of things mentioned in "Deconstruction" section have already been mecha genre staples by the time Evangelion came out.
The most INTENSE VIDEO with the Most Biting Question: Will Micah Curtis have the same opinion as Argent Templar in regards to the REAL REASON the Christian Iconography is in this show?
if i could describe my experience with Evangelion is that the more i watched it both the original and the rebuild movies the more i appreciate it. Sure it has it flaws but Evangelion is a lot more deep then people give it credit for. Especially the Manga and the Rebuild movies.
Glacial take: Evangelion is not a deconstruction. You mentioned three Super Robot shows that predate EVA by name: Getter Robo, Great Mazinger and Mazinger Z. And you bring them up specifically to point out that they are NOT the shows Evangelion is deconstructing. So what are examples of shows being deconstructed by Eva? You briefly mention the Brave series, but those have so very little in common with EVA that makes it hard to believe there is any desconstruction happening in the first place. Aside of both of them being mecha, they don't have anything in common. It would be like saying Game of Thrones is a deconstruction of Xena Warrior Princess because GoT explores a darker, more mature side of fantasy even though the setting, characters and plot are so vastly different that hinders any deconstruction in GoT completely irrelevant to Xena. Also, I'd like to point out that most Super Robot shows have adults and not young boys as their main characters: General Daimos, Grendizer, Steel Jeeg, Combattler V, Daitarn 3, Great Mazinger, Gaiking, Steel Jeeg, the Getter Robo manga and so on. Moreover, not finding the idea of being a pilot the coolest thing ever of even being scared of it its fairly common: Grendizer, Steel Jeeg, Magne Robo Gakeen, Gaiking and Getter Robo.
I think it is a semi-deconstruction of his own works like gunbuster and diebuster. I remembered the director directed other anime before Eva so I looked up douchebagchoclat (aka demolition D). Of course that could be a reach and Eva was his cope mechanism to vent out how his mother died before she got to her 70's (I think it was her early 60s when she passed) which is younger than all 1st world countries expect.
The problem with eva is it created so many misconception in the mecha genre, that I believe some of it's fans seriously damage the genre of mecha in eyes of the common folks.
I think the whole mess about Evangelion's (kinda undeserved) status in the wider anime fanbase comes from two things: 1) nostalgia 2) early reviews written by people who know exactly zilch about mecha.
When it comes to the nostalgia, Eva has a very deserved place, for one reason only: it happened to be one of the first mecha shows to arrive in the USA completely uncut, no stupid Americanizations like what happened to shows such as Macross, GoLion, Bismark, Mazinger Z, everything featured in Force Five and so on. Without the overall kiddification Americans had their first real chance to see what mecha actually is as a genre - and it absolutely is a tour de force.
The early reviews were when the talk about Eva became iffy. The people writing these reviews (specifically some of the early ANN writers) had this generally weird understanding that all the mecha butcherings that aired in America were actually the real deal, and when you have a comparison like that it's obvious Eva wins. To add, America didn't really have anything in the genre besides Transformers at the time, and the whole meddling of toy executives in the production process was something Eva escaped. Hence the whole meme "Eva is about the characters, everything else is about the toys" which got burnt into the fanboys' heads on sites like Evageeks. Overtime this caused a really bad rift between the Eva fanbase and the rest of the mecha community, as Eva fans became insanely mockable due to their frankly ridiculous fan theories and shipper wars, which in turn only helped to fuel this idea that Eva was pretentious, and eventually it became a pseud title that was watched for the clout rather than it's qualities, which I personally think is a shame.
🙏🏿 PREACH 🙌🏿 @@mechamaniac1567
Controversial opinion here... Evangelion was NOT a deconstruction. It's just a show created by people who deeply love mecha as a concept, riffing on older topics from shows like Gundam, Ideon, the first several Ultraman shows, Devilman and much, much more.
Applying the idea, or term "deconstruction" to media (as in Derridean deconstruction) is a mistake that TV Tropes popularized. There's no such thing as a deconstruction in media. God I hate that site.
TVTropes is a blight to media and righty deserves to be mocked in general. F*ck the mods, F*ck Fast Eddy and F*ck Fighteer.
What is the alternative to TV Tropes in terms of recording and cataloging tropes? The concept itself isn't a bad idea.
Its not controversial when its true. Often the term "deconstruction" is used by people who ultimately don't really understand the genre but wanna sound like they know what they're talking about. Like you said TV Tropes popularized it and I also hate it.
I look forward to hearing your take, mostly because I don't think EVA is a deconstruction.
I always thought it was just a different take on the mecha genre.
It is, but tell that to the Eva fanboys who keep gobbling up years of poorly-researched reviews.
I would like to know your thoughts on RetroBlasting's Evangelion video. I won't say he's entirely off base with the show's characters, namely Shinji, but he kinda fails to take into account how horrifying the Evangelions are and how terrifying it is to even pilot one (which is another reason why I love Getter Robo so much, because our heroes are batshit insane, know they're batshit insane, and are just flaunting it to the bad guys).
Oh god retroblastings video made me almost lose my mind
What I've said before is that deconstruction and reconstruction should be viewed in a cyclical manner. Deconstruction can help add fresh ideas to concepts while also doing away with expendable ones, but after that, you have go back and tell a sincere example of that genre with those new elements. Think of it like a house. You need to do some deconstructing if the house is in disrepair, but if you just keep deconstructing without reconstructing anything, you'll eventually be left with no house at all. Fiction ought to be the same.
Wrong. "Deconstruction" and "reconstruction" aren't terms you apply to media itself. There is deconstructive and reconstructive CRITIQUE, stop misusing Derrida's philosophy.
Anyways, Evangelion didn't really do diddly squat for anime other than it's success being a cause for studios to produce more anime. Anno never intended to piss on mecha anime, nor did the bout of depression he had in the 90s have anything to do with mecha. And yet Eva fans to this day keep preaching this stupid idea that Anno somehow hates mecha, that it's meant to dunk on mecha tropes and cliches... even though you already have all the real robot mecha from the 80s which are anything but cliche. Hell, even 70s super robot shows like Getter Robo or the Romance Robo Series aren't exactly "cliche-driven" either like most Eva fans claim it to be.
The whole thesis that Eva was groundbreaking immediately fails if you ventured in any way, shape and form into older mecha shows... which most zoomers who're being inappropriate over Asuka and Rei can't get in. And I'm grateful for that, I don't want narrow-minded people in the fanbase.
Tl;dr: Eva was a well-produced show made with a ton of love for mecha as a genre. It didn't bring in much new to the table, but people liked it.
patlabor movie 1 (the ark fight with a horde of zombie mechs as well as the fight with the evil ingram) and the entirety of patlabor 3 could be considered mecha horror (although patlabor 3 rarely shows off the mecha aspect of the franchise)
growing up loving Gundam, I knew of this show but could never obtain anything till my mid teens when the Rebuilds came out and i was able to obtain the original series vhs and dvds.
I have absolutely no idea how this guy can add the definition in this, and people are still saying “Dude it’s not a deconstruction.” Like…
Because Evangelion in no way breaks down the pre-existing mecha genre as all of things mentioned in "Deconstruction" section have already been mecha genre staples by the time Evangelion came out.
The most INTENSE VIDEO with the Most Biting Question:
Will Micah Curtis have the same opinion as Argent Templar in regards to the REAL REASON the Christian Iconography is in this show?
Argent is far more right wing than Micah.
Micah, just wanted to say, love your videos and that your videos have inspired me to a degree. Keep up the good work!!
Hope you make more pro-Vic videos. They were awesome.
Love the video. You might want to do a review on Betterman at some point as it is pretty obscure for some.
Pretty cool video I do wish the one that you did talk about the Eva and which ones are your favorite to least favorite cool video huh.
if i could describe my experience with Evangelion is that the more i watched it both the original and the rebuild movies the more i appreciate it. Sure it has it flaws but Evangelion is a lot more deep then people give it credit for. Especially the Manga and the Rebuild movies.
Glacial take: Evangelion is not a deconstruction.
You mentioned three Super Robot shows that predate EVA by name: Getter Robo, Great Mazinger and Mazinger Z. And you bring them up specifically to point out that they are NOT the shows Evangelion is deconstructing. So what are examples of shows being deconstructed by Eva?
You briefly mention the Brave series, but those have so very little in common with EVA that makes it hard to believe there is any desconstruction happening in the first place. Aside of both of them being mecha, they don't have anything in common. It would be like saying Game of Thrones is a deconstruction of Xena Warrior Princess because GoT explores a darker, more mature side of fantasy even though the setting, characters and plot are so vastly different that hinders any deconstruction in GoT completely irrelevant to Xena.
Also, I'd like to point out that most Super Robot shows have adults and not young boys as their main characters: General Daimos, Grendizer, Steel Jeeg, Combattler V, Daitarn 3, Great Mazinger, Gaiking, Steel Jeeg, the Getter Robo manga and so on. Moreover, not finding the idea of being a pilot the coolest thing ever of even being scared of it its fairly common: Grendizer, Steel Jeeg, Magne Robo Gakeen, Gaiking and Getter Robo.
I think it is a semi-deconstruction of his own works like gunbuster and diebuster. I remembered the director directed other anime before Eva so I looked up douchebagchoclat (aka demolition D).
Of course that could be a reach and Eva was his cope mechanism to vent out how his mother died before she got to her 70's (I think it was her early 60s when she passed) which is younger than all 1st world countries expect.
What's your opinion on the video _You're Wrong About Deconstruction_ by Study of Swords?
Never heard of it.
@@BigMicahC That somewhat reinforces your opinion on _Evangelion_ not being a deconstruction.
@BigMicahC make a video about the Vic case again.
It's done and dusted, sadly. Nothing to do a video on.
@BigMicahC do you think Vic still can bounce back from this?
Its not a deconstruction tf
No.
k
PLEASE! i know how to spell fashist, the easiest word in the dictionary.
If this is a joke comment, I commend you.