Neon Genesis Evangelion/Narm

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An important note here, Neon Genesis Evangelion has some of the most subjective narm in anime. The difference between a scene being hilarious and horrifying is very small, and sometimes divisive. On occasion things can be so over the top that they somehow cross the line twice and turn back to serious/horrible (the infamous "mind rape" scene can be seen as this by some).

• Neon Genesis Evangelion has a few.

"EVERY SINGLE MISSILE HIT THE TARGET! OWWWWWWW! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!"

• • Generally speaking, while the Evangelion dub contains a number of truly outstanding performances and scenes, it also "balances" this by also having a greater-than-average number of Narmy hiccups. How greatly the positive aspects outweigh the negative tends to be a matter of personal preference, and is the main reason for the dub's Love It or Hate It status among Eva fans.
  • A more specific example: the single frame held for about two minutes in episode 24 is meant to be a dramatic scene in which Shinji is realizing that he has no choice except to kill his new buddy. The scene is held so long that the audience is likely to forget what they're watching and why. AMV Hell 2' mocked the crap out of it.
    • To make it worse, this sort of animation fail happened several times during the series.
    • To make it even more ridiculous... (Admit it, you know that's what really happened.)
  • The infamous Mind Rape scene in Episode 22 was turned from Nightmare Fuel into purified Narm by the Hallelujah chorus playing alongside it. Plenty of people claim that the chorus makes it more disturbing, though.
    • Repeating of the same three bits of Stock Footage in the Director's Cut over and over again ended up making it some sort of incredibly inappropriate Overly Long Gag. It made more sense in the original Japanese; there, each time that scene was repeated, a different voice actress from the cast who played another character (Rei, Misato, Ritsuko, Maya, and Hikari) read Asuka's lines, making her statement of "No! This isn't me!" more sensible. But in the dub, it's just Asuka's regular VA. Either this didn't occur to the dubbers, or, because the dub for the Director's Cut was made afterwards, too many voice actors were unavailable. (Gendo's lines were re-recorded with a different voice actor as it was.)
    • The sound of Asuka repeatedly saying "CHAAAAAAANCE."
    • Honestly the show's frequent use of Soundtrack Dissonance can count.
  • Of course, there's the infamous moment at the very end of the TV series: "Congratulations!"
  • Misato killing the soldiers that tried to kill Shinji in End of Evangelion becomes hilarious in the English dub because of the cartoonish sound effect added when she shoots one in the head. It sounds like someone squeezing a piece of slime. That same sound effect was used almost as inapropriately during Instrumentality.
  • There's another narm-y bit in the English dub of the movie: when the JSSDF is raiding NERV headquarters, one soldier fires a flamethrower down a hallway twice. The dub adds someone saying "Hit 'em again!" before the soldier fires the flamethrower a second time.
    • They added it to block out the screams.
    • Funnily enough, both this and the previous example involved, you guessed it, everyone's favourite dub-director, Amanda Winn-Lee!
  • Every time Shinji yelled "Ayanami!" quickly. This was mostly done in episode six, and it makes the final battle scene hilarious.
    • "AYANAMEH!"
    • The way Shinji shouts "Misato-san" can be inadvertently hilarious, as well. "MISATO-SAGHN!"
  • After a while, the sheer number of mental problems the cast has becomes funny -- especially Ristuko's relationship with Gendo, which involves an insanely hot scientist being treated like complete shit by a balding ugly dude who spends most of the series in only one pose. This adds special meaning to "dysfunctional."
    • If Maury/Ricki/Sally/Jerry taught me anything, it's that there's a bit of Truth in Television at work behind this.
  • A Rebuild example, from the second film; in the Zeruel battle, Zeruel eats Unit 00, leaving nothing but ankles spraying blood. With Shinji watching this, this is chilling... until Zeruel comically spits 00's head out.
    • Another Rebuild example and this might just be the theatre this Troper went to go see it in but this, completely serious exchange between Rei and Gendo brought laughter to almost all at the theatre.

Rei: Commander... Do you find meals enjoyable? Gendo: Yes. Rei: And do you find pleasure in eating with others? Gendo: Yes. Rei: And the act of cooking, that's enjoyable, isn't it? Gendo: Yes Rei: Commander Ikari, would it be nice to sit down for a meal with your son and the others, sometime? Gendo: No.

• • • By the 3rd yes, everyone in the theatre was laughing.
  • Several of the musical pieces have cheesy English lyrics. "Showdown", "Keep Your Head Above the Mayhem", and "Fate" are examples.
  • The opening scene has Shinji and Misato survive a blast of the N2 mine. It sends their car flipping, but neither of them are injured even though neither of them were wearing a seatbelt.
  • The crappy (lack of) animation made episodes 25 and 26 amusing to some people.
    • Shinji's revelation, which takes about a minute, ends with everyone clapping. The only thing missing is that it wasn't a Slow Clap.
  • Asuka's expression right before a (fake?) Lance of Longinus breaks through her Eva's AT Field to stab it (and her) in the eye.
  • Being reduced to LCL is accompanied by an audible "pop." And the LCL looks like orange soda/banana pudding/Tang.
  • Kaji's introduction in Rebuild 2.0 and his AWFUL Gratuitous English. Behold: [1]
  • The scene in episode 9 where they train for an upcoming battle by doing synchronized DDR.
  • In one of the earlier episodes, Shinji is sitting in a movie theater, and we see a close up of his face with blank, bored looking eyes. It cuts to a shot of two people making out in the seat in front of him, and then back to Shinji, whose eyes then quickly accumulate a gratuitous amount of "shinies," making him look like he just morphed into a chibi.
  • Another English dub example: Ritsuko's breakdown in episode 23, played by Sue Ulu, flirts with Chewing the Scenery, particularly her delivery of "...NOT EVEN WHEN YOU MAKE LOVE TO MEEEE!!!!"
  • Japanese dub, Asuka struggling to speak German...which is the characters native language. While in the English dub it is solid, as Tiffany Grant speaks German fluently.
  • The dub of episode 26 had Rei utter one of the most nonsensical euphemisms of all time: "Are you riding his baloney pony?!"
  • Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...the English dub of Episode 13.

Shigeru Aoba: Intruder is accessing the main security banks...it's cracking the passcode! Twelfth digit...sixteenth digit...it's in! Kozo Fuyutsuki: MY GOD! Makoto Hyūga: It's broken into the main banks! It's reading all the files! We can't stop it! IT'S GOT ALL OUR CODES! Fuyutsuki: [bizarrely calm after just a second ago panicking] What in the hell is it looking for? Shigeru: It's scanning the main directories! Accessing codes for...OH MY GOD! IT'S GOING AFTER THE MAGI SYSTEM! Gendō Ikari: Shut down the I/O system. [Shigeru and Makoto proceed to produce keys from nowhere and insert them into two keyholes...that came from nowhere.] Shigeru: System shutdown! Makoto: Three...two...one... [They turn the keys. Nothing happens.] Makoto: WE CAN'T SHUT IT DOOOOOOOOWN! Maya Ibuki: The Angel is entering the computers! It's made contact with Melchior! [awkward pause] The Angel is taking over Melchior! Gendō: WHAT?! Maya: Melchior is being reprogrammed-by-the-Angel! MAGI voice: Melchior auto self-destruct has been initiated. Overruled. Overruled. Overruled. Overruled. Shigeru: NO! IT'S TAKEN OVER MELCHIOR! AND IT'S HACKING INTO BALTHASAR!

• The song played during End Of Evangelion as humanity's souls are turned to LCL just screams Soundtrack Dissonance- it's WAY too jovial for the situation here.
• End Of Evangelion: Makoto Hyuga's voice actor being replaced by a freaking black man who sounds nothing like the original actor becomes the single-most jarring moment to a viewer who watched the anime from start to finish.
• In episode 22 Asuka flirts with Kaji and when he rejects her she screams "I'm an adult! So look at me!" while pulling her blouse apart and shoving her breasts in his face.

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