Neon Genesis Evangelion/Trivia: Difference between revisions
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* [[Acting for Two]]: Notably, [[Megumi Hayashibara]] voices Rei, Yui and Unit-01 (...and Pen-Pen). The trope is employed very deliberately in the case of the first three, seeing how they all share a connection.
* [[Anime First]]: An odd example. The [[Manga]] ran for almost a year before the series began, but it was made specifically for promoting the anime.
* [[Cash Cow Franchise]]: Let's face it, the volume and variety of merchandise that's been created for ''Evangelion'' is up there with [[Kiss]].
* [[Creator Breakdown]]: So much of it, it actually originated from [[Creator Breakdown]]. Some parts of the manga suggest Sadamoto isn't too happy or wholesome either, though not as "broken" as Anno.
* [[Defictionalization]]: Operation Yashima, the plan to reroute all of Japan's electricity into a single sniper rifle to take down an Angel, was the name given to a [[Twitter]] campaign to support Tokyo Electric's plan [http://www.animenewsnetwork.cc//news/2011-03-12/evangelion-inspires-real-operation-yashima-after-quake to conserve electricity after the 2011 disasters].
* [[Development Hell]]: It's largely forgotten by now, but ''The End of Evangelion'' was in this for a brief period, which is why so many Japanese viewers who went to see ''Death and Rebirth'' were pissed off at the [[Cut Short|sudden cut-off]] of an ending. There's also the live-action movie (a co-production between [[Studio Gainax|GAINAX]], ADV and [[WETA]]), which has allegedly been "in pre-production" since 2003. ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' also counts; ''2.0'' was delayed a full year after its original release date, and ''3.0'''s is around three years after ''2.0'''s. Keep in mind that the tetralogy was supposed to be ''finished'' by now.
* [[DVD Commentary]]: [[The Movie]]s feature commentaries by [[Amanda Winn-Lee]], her husband and Taliesin Jaffe, which are generally [[Love It or Hate It|beloved/despised]] (some have even nicknamed it "Commentary of Evil") for being mostly riffing, with a lot of conjecture about the possible meanings behind the films' abstract symbolism, and details on the process of dubbing the films and remastering the audio. The Platinum Edition of the TV series featured commentaries on several episodes as well, albeit less memorable ones.
* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: Yuko Miyamura allowed herself to be strangled by Megumi Ogata in the recording room during Shinji's vision of strangling Asuka in ''The End of Evangelion
* [[Executive Meddling]]:
** One of many theories regarding how the final episodes came to be as [[Gainax Ending|notoriously bizarre]] as they are is that the original scripts for the last two episodes were rejected by the network due to their [[Family-Unfriendly Violence|graphic content]]; thus the current ending was made due to last-minute budget cuts and/or as a way of giving the network the finger, and the rejected scripts eventually became ''The End of Evangelion''.
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** "Tang" for LCL.
** [[Mind Rape]] (The [[Trope Namer]]).
** GNR, or Giant Naked Rei, for the so-large-as-to-be-very-easily-visible-from-space {{spoiler|glowing white naked Rei that Lilith transforms into
** "[[The Woobie|Puppy-kun]]" for Shinji, at least for
** EMK, or Evil Manga Kaworu, for the Kaworu who {{spoiler|kills a kitten}} in the
** "Yui-sama" for {{spoiler|Unit 01}}.
** "Uberpimp" for Gendo. {{spoiler|Super Gendo, Super Adam Gendo}} and others for {{spoiler|his insane AT Field-generating incarnation}} in the manga.
** "Harpies" for Evangelion units 05-13 because they look like grotesque cyber-vultures.
* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: [[Kotono Mitsuishi|Misato is Sailor Moon.]] Now you can never unhear it. And [[Megumi Ogata|Shinji is Sailor Uranus.]] And [[Yu Yu Hakusho|Kurama]]. Motomu Kiyokawa, Fuyutsuki's dubber, also dubbed [[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water|Gargoyle]]. As for Megumi Hayashibara... well, she's [[Megumi Hayashibara]]. Alternately, most of the show's English cast were relative unknowns at the time, but have provoked this response for every subsequent dub they've been in.
* [[Lying Creator]]: The amplitude of self-contradictory and at times seemingly absurd statements about the series from [[Hideaki Anno]] has led many to accuse him of this.
* [[No Export for You]]: On the Western market, the series saw its last release on DVD under [[ADV Films]] in 2008, after which the series went out of print due to ADV's financial problems, and while the show saw occasional re-releases in Japan, the opportunities for Western viewers to get their hands on a legitimate copy of the series was steady dwindling, and the outlook became worse when ADV later lost the right to license the series entirely. Subsequently, the complete series was released in a HD version on a Blu-ray boxset in 2016 on the Japanese marked, but despite large interest in the West, the boxset never saw a release there. It was first with [[Netflix]] announcing in November 2018 that they had gained the streaming rights to the HD version of the series on the Western market that the situation was somewhat rectified, and the event also renewed the Western fanbase's hopes that the Blu-ray boxset might also see a release in their part of the world some day.
* [[The Other Marty]]/[[The Other Darrin]]: While the Japanese cast has remained remarkably consistent over the years, the English dub is notorious for being recast with every subsequent iteration of the series (four so far, for those keeping track). Most characters have had between two and four different voice actors, with poor Toji having at least ''six''. The only characters who have retained the same voice between every version so far are Shinji, Misato and Asuka.▼
* [[Old Shame]]: Shinji's French voice actor Donald Reignoux had a terrible time on the set, and for a long time, he refused to work at the Chinkel recording studio again.
▲* [[The Other Marty]]/[[The Other Darrin]]: While the Japanese cast has remained remarkably consistent over the years, the English dub is notorious for being recast with every subsequent iteration of the series (four so far, for those keeping track). Most characters have had between two and four different voice actors, with poor Toji having at least ''six''. The only characters who have retained the same voice between every version so far are Shinji, Misato and Asuka. And that's before Netflix have announced that they gained the rights of the series and are re-dubbing the whole thing.
** It's even worse in the Spanish dub. Only Shinji retains a single voice actor through the franchise, while the rest of characters have at least two or three, and often ''very'' different sounding among them. Asuka and Kaworu, who have a different VA in almost every medium of the franchise, are the worst examples.
** The French dub does not fare much better. Only Shinji and Misato retain their voice actors through the majority of the franchise, with ''The End of Evangelion'' shuffling up most of the cast and ''1.0'' recasting everyone. Fortunately, a decent chunk of the original cast (including the aforementiond two) return for the later films.
* [[Playing Against Type]]: Rei's voice actresses all invoke this. Her Japanese VA, [[Megumi Hayashibara]], is famous for her roles as [[The Slayers|Lina Inverse]] and [[Ranma ½|the female Ranma]]. Her original English VA, [[Amanda Winn-Lee]], is well-known for her roles as [[Burn Up|Rio Kinezono]] and [[Read or Die|Miss Deep]]. Finally, her English VA for the Rebuild series, [[Brina Palencia]], made her mark in anime as [[Genesis of Aquarion|Silvia de Alicia]] and [[Romeo X Juliet|Juliet Capulet]].
* [[Rule 34 Creator Reactions]]:
** The opening to EOE has been seen as Anno's response to a portion of his fanbase fetishizing over the characters...[[Irony|which is weird]], [[Misaimed Marketing|given the amount of ecchi merchandise that came from the series]].
** There's also the manga. We have several [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] moments, Kaworu killing a kitten, Shinji saying emphatically "Guys don't like guys!", Shinji and Kaworu's relationship downgraded to an unrequited [[Stupid Sexy Flanders]], Kaworu calling Rei a fool and saying "I figured you'd be a heftier girl.", Shinji and Kaworu in the ladies' room with Asuka... Yeah.
* [[Running the Asylum]]: ''[[Ikari Shinji Raising Project]]'', like most of the show's spinoff products, is quite obviously done by a [[Promoted Fanboy]], is entirely powered by [[Mythology Gag]] and [[Fan Service]], and is incredibly [[Doujinshi]]-esque. The same could be said about the ''Angelic Days'' manga. Not that we complain; [[Cash Cow Franchise|it's Eva characters, so we'll buy it]].
* [[Schedule Slip]]: The manga, and ''how''. The first chapter was released months before the anime started (December 1994), but the
* [[Short-Lived, Big Impact]]: ''Evangelion'' was one of the most influential anime shows of the Giant Mecha Genre, but only lasted one season and 26 episodes.
* [[Shrug of God]]: After fans were upset with the ambiguity of the series, [[Hideaki Anno]] basically declared that it was up to viewers to determine their own meaning and reprimanded them for expecting all the answers on a silver platter. Over the years he has offered, at best, several vague and contradictory statements as to the meaning(s) and intentions of the series.
* [[Talking to Herself: In the ''Girlfriend of Steel'' game series, [[Megumi Hayashibara]] voices both Mana Kirishima and Rei.
* [[Technology Marches On]]: Back in the series' heyday in the mid-to-late
* [[Troubled Production]]:
** The show began after Anno suffered from a clinical depression, and relied on several sponsors for its support. Several of these sponsors pulled out as the show became increasingly dark. Given that this was before ''Evangelion'' became a [[Cash Cow Franchise]], it's a wonder that Anno and Gainax got the show finished.
* Not to mention a severe case of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: a whole chunk of a mostly finished script for the second half of the series ended up being trashed and rewritten from scratch, because of a central plot point in it had a strong resemblance to the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995.
** This trope also extended to the American side of the Pacific with ADV Films. Commentary for the English dub will often make reference to it being made on budget that consisted of a metaphorical shoestring and paperclip, involved renting out space to do recordings with substandard equipment, and had a good portion of the cast played by members of the production team besides the voice actors, among other things. They weren't exactly in danger of going out of business, but it's still pretty amazing that the dub was as good as it was all things considered.
* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]:
** The JSSDF soldiers that raid NERV in ''The End of Evangelion'' all carry H&K G11 rifles, which would have been considered futuristic... in 1997. The G11 program fell apart in 1990 and the rights repurposed by 2004 with only a few functioning rifles ever being built and is considered and abject and expensive failure instead of the future of military arms.
** Plus, the series is set in a fictional vision of 2015. Notice the lack of smartphones.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: The [http://wiki.evageeks.org/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_Proposal proposal] provides various examples.
** Many of course think we never got to see how the anime would have ended originally. In fairness, ''The End of Evangelion'' [http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/mdwigs/livesequence.html had two different endings before the final one was settled upon]. In addition, the live-action sequence was supposed to be much longer, with an older Asuka, Rei and Misato played by their voice actors (the sequence was included in the Japan-only ''Renewal'' release as an extra).
** More generally, [http://wiki.evageeks.org/Resources:Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_Proposal_%28Translation%29 the original proposal for Evangelion] has been translated. Fans are particularly curious about the "Ruins of Arqa
** The live-action movie (
* [[Word of God]]: Anno has issued a few surprising or controversial statements about ''Evangelion'', for example his quip that it [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|shouldn't]] [[Wild Mass Guessing|be]] analyzed because it was just "a scream" on his part.
* [[Writing by the Seat of Your Pants]]: Downplayed. The series does by and large follow the plot as it was outlined in the original first draft proposal, with the first half or so being more or less beat-for-beat to the outline. But a case of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] with the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway leading to much of the script having to be scrapped and Anno being in heavily treatment for his clinical depression, meant that the show starts seriously deviating from said proposal around Episode 16 and forwards.
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* Many of the characters were named after various WWII-era naval vessels, most often aircraft carriers. ''Katsuragi'', ''Akagi'', and ''Soryu'' were all aircraft carriers; the ''Akagi'' led the attack on Pearl Harbor. ''Ayanami'' and ''Fuyutsuki'' were destroyers; ''Fuyutsuki'' rescued survivors from the great ''Yamato'' when she was sunk near Okinawa in 1945. ''Kirishima'' and ''Hyuga'' were battleships that were part of the fleet which attacked Pearl Harbor. ''Ibuki'', ''Maya'' and ''Aoba'' are names of heavy cruisers; the ''Ibuki'' existed only on paper, it was never built. The ''Hyuga'' is another warship. ''Langley'' is also the name of two American aircraft carriers, and the ''Graf Zeppelin'' is the name of an uncompleted Nazi-German aircraft carrier.
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