I’ll have more to say once these digest for a while. Every concept, every behavior, every image is so pregnant with meanings.

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i climb a lot.
learning doctor. i help people make computers do things.
but here it’s mostly manga
💖 @kaybee 💖
I’ll have more to say once these digest for a while. Every concept, every behavior, every image is so pregnant with meanings.
the rebuilds really didn't hit for me as someone who made the mistake of watching NGE at 15 and becoming absolutely obsessed with it. I really want to hear more from folks who ended up liking the rebuilds because I kind of just feel like something didn't click quite right for me. I'm exciting to hear what you have to say after you've sat with it longer!
Rei left a deep impression on me when I first heard about the show in the mid 90s and ordered tapes of the first few episodes from Japan, but I never saw the series through until we watched it all this year, then watched the films.
I just love the way the rebuilds take what came before, factor it in, then change it slightly, so that each character both is and is not their character from the show. I love how less specific the characters are, how much I kind of loathe Shinji for being a coward in particular ways, but also deeply understand and empathize with his situation. I love the augmentation of gender commentary everywhere. I love Asuka (best girl) and Mari (best girl) and they way they're developed and portrayed, though I wish both had more time; some of Asuka's backstory as explored in the show is similar to my own past and I was hoping that would be confronted more explicitly in the rebuilds. Mari is who I'm trying to be.
I didn't like some of how the fourth film ended, but I the ambiguity, and how it continues the project of having everything and everyone represents so many different and incommensurable concepts. I wish there were fewer robot fights, and more quiet moments, even though there are a lot of them. I love how the team had a budget to do beautiful things.
Thank you so much for the indepth response, I really appreciate it!
It's definitely interesting hearing from someone who watched the series the full way through for the first time in adulthood, vs my own experience of being captured by it when I was the same age as the pilot characters.
Shinji is definitely my Asuka, I saw a lot of myself in him as a teen and there were a lot of parts of me, including my own queerness, that I learned to accept about myself through appreciating and sympathizing with his character. I really love the kiddos, but Shinji especially.
I think for that reason I struggle a little more with the character changes but I do appreciate that they did try something new when revisiting Eva! I plan on viewing the rebuilds again with a group later this summer so hopefully I can find a greater appreciation for these new versions of the characters.
And like you I really wish they spent less time with the mech fights and more time with the quiet moments the show is famous for, but it's also fine if the rebuilds just want to do their own separate thing. Maybe that's better since the show still exists, no point retreading the exact same ground!