Neon Genesis Evangelion/YMMV: Difference between revisions
Added some tropes from Tropedia and edited some tropes to be more modern. Also I don't think Asuka and Shinji were an official couple.
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(Added some tropes from Tropedia and edited some tropes to be more modern. Also I don't think Asuka and Shinji were an official couple.) |
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== About the characters ==
* [[Alas, Poor Scrappy]]: Even back in the day when the latter was much more hated, people found the horrors both Asuka and Shinji went through in EoE to be awful.
* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: [[Word of God|Intentional on the creator's part]], but especially noteworthy in some cases:
** Gendo: a manipulative monster, a misunderstood genius, [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|a loving but misguided father who wants to make his son strong]], the show's biggest [[Woobie]], or a mix of the four? Also, during his death scene in ''The End of Evangelion'', was he truly sorry for all that he'd done to Shinji and put him through, or was he apologizing because he didn't want "Yui" to take out her wrath on him and show him how it feels to be on the receiving end? The look of abject terror we see in the scene strongly suggests the latter, though it's not necessarily mutually exclusive if it's because he knows and/or accepts there's no way out of this, and/or that he deserves it.
** Is Yui a soft and idealized mother/Virgin Mary figure (close to being the series' [[Canon Sue]]), the actual manipulative monster who's responsible for messing up Shinji, Gendo and the fate of the world, or just off her rocker?
** Is Shinji a neurotic, obnoxious "wimp", a normal person dealing with impossibly overwhelming odds, or actually a courageous young hero? Is he "pure" or a pervert with [[Yandere]] tendencies? Since we're at it, is Shinji similar to Gendo, his polar opposite, or a complex mix of the two?
** The entire organization of SEELE: is it a group of [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]] {{spoiler|out to end the humanity just to create a god}}, [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|a way too well-intentioned]] group who just wants to end the insecurities and suffering that humans suffer {{spoiler|because AT field seperates them from each other and makes them unable to understand each other}}? Or maybe they are just [[Blue and Orange Morality|bizzare.]]
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* [[Complete Monster]]: Keel Lorenz, head of SEELE, {{spoiler|the organization dedicated to cause [[The End of the World as We Know It|the Third Impact]] so that all life can be assimilated into one being, with humanity as the new God of Earth}}. He'll bring about his apocalypse no matter how many men, women, and children at NERV he has to have killed to do so! He is notably the only noteworthy, named character to not be presented with any deep-rooted reasons or excuse for his motivations and actions... he's just a depraved [[Knight Templar]] with a Messiah Complex.
* [[Crazy Awesome]]: In direct opposition to the above trope is the more recent trend in fanon to think of him as this. [[Ikari Shinji Raising Project|This isn't as unprecedented as one might think]].
*[[Crossover Ship]]: Shinji has been paired with [[Bleach|Orihime]]. The fact they're very divisive and get flak for being 'useless' probably has something to do with it.
**He has also been paired with Madoka and Homaru from [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]].
* [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]]: Many detractors of the series will point to this as being the main reason they dislike this series. The main characters are either unlikeable or have so many issues, you at best feel sorry for them. Even when it seems to be getting better for everyone, somethings knocks them back down. That's not even mentioning the many creepy and/or WTF moments the show has.
* [[Die for Our Ship]]:
** Some ''Evangelion'' fans utterly despise Asuka because out of all of Shinji's possible love interests, she's traditionally the one given the most romantic attention and therefore is perceived as the biggest threat, instead of whomever the fans in question believe to be Shinji's "true love". Such Asuka-haters may go to extraordinary lengths to not only remove her as a "threat" to their preferred romantic option, but sometimes even go as far as to '''punish''' her for the sin of "daring" to presume she's worthy of getting close to Shinji in any way, shape or form
** There are also other fans who give the same kind of treatment to '''Rei''', somehow believing that she's a threat to Shinji and Asuka's
** And people just LOVE to call Mana Kirishima from ''Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel'' a [[Relationship Sue]], just because she's a possible [[Love Interest]] for Shinji in the aforementioned visual novel as well as other ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' spin-offs she appeared in, gets a lot of spotlight in ''Girlfriend of Steel'', is one of the few characters who are genuinely and/or openly nice to Shinji (and arguably the only one among all of Shinji's [[Love Interests]]), and is comparatively much more stable as a person than most of the cast, let alone Shinji's other non-[[Crack Pairing]] [[Love Interests]] (which, in a [[Dysfunction Junction]] cast, makes her come across as "too perfect" for some people). This was actually likely an [[Intended Audience Reaction]] in order to set the mood for the [[Deconstructed Trope]] she ends up being.
* [[Ear Worm]]: Listening to "Cruel Angel's Thesis" is like eating Pringles: you can't do it just once.
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** Much more meta. Some fans sent Anno death threats (which can see in EOE) because they didn't care for how the tv show ended. Because you know, Eva is about the ''fans'' wants.
** Fans of ''Evangelion'' on certain sites (most notably the ''Eva'' forum ''EvaGeeks'') are incredibly hard-headed in their quest to prove ''Evangelion'' is some sort of deep philosophical masterpiece. As a result of the collective God complex those particular groups developed, they decided to go ahead and attack fans of other mecha anime purely because they don't share the same overinflated opinion of ''Evangelion''. It contributed to the [[Fandom Rivalry]] quite a bit.
* [[Fandom-Specific Plot]]: What if the show was a normal MECHA anime or was simply less terrifying and depressing?
** The group finding a way to destroy all the angels without ending the world.
* [[Fetish Fuel]]: Some people find the concept of a {{spoiler|giant, naked, china-white, red-eyed teenager}} somewhat arousing {{spoiler|despite the [[Fan Disservice]] of the fact said giant teenager has a giant forehead vagina with an eye in it, and the fact the thing falls to pieces and [[High-Pressure Blood|sprays blood everywhere]]}}...
* [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff]]: Historically, Asuka has been a far more popular character than Rei among Western audiences, whereas the complete opposite is true in Japan—even [[Word of God]] has commented on this. Rei is still quite popular in the US and Asuka popular in Japan as well.
* [[Ho Yay]]: Shinji with Kaworu, which is also [[Foe Yay]]. Episode 24 basically drives it home as hard as it possibly can in under twenty-five minutes of time, what with the two explicitly stating their love for one another on separate occasions, the whole holding hands-in-the-shower scene, and Shinji almost constantly blushing and being incredibly open to Kaworu in almost all of their scenes together, Kaworu blushing and telling Shinji "I really was born to meet you"... yeah. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in the manga. In ''Campus Apocalypse'', it's his entire motivation. To some extent, Shinji with Kaji, although this seems to be only on Kaji's side, and it's not clear if Kaji is genuinely interested or just falling on his standard bag of tricks for how to interact with people.
** Female example: Maya's crush on Ritsuko.
* [[Incest Yay Shipping]]: Some Shinji/Rei fans embrace the implications.
* [[Jerkass Woobie]]: Asuka is the most famous example, but Gendo Ikari and Ritsuko Akagi also qualify.
* [[Launcher of a Thousand Ships]]: Shinji in Evangelion fanfiction. Let's see, he gets paired up with Asuka and Rei like always. But he also gets paired with Hikari, Mana, Maya, Mayumi, Misato and Ritsuko on the side and there are fans for these pairings with recent ones for Shinji being paired up with Mari. I don't wanna mention Kaworu's involvement... And then there's Shinji being paired up with his mom...
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*** That's also the only reason SEELE didn't get exactly what they wanted, and they arguably still did. They certainly came closer than Gendo to their ultimate goal.
** Yui Ikari also qualifies, thanks to certain scenes during ''The End of Evangelion''.
* [[Mary Sue]]: This is one of the less flattering thoughts about Mari, but it's subverted. While her name is Mari and has numerous powers and abilities that none of the cast has ever hinted at, her middle name is extremely elaborate, she's an original character to a preexisting series, she
* [[Memetic Badass]]: People say Gendo's omniscient in his manipulations. [[Gambit Roulette|He might as well be]]. Because of Gendo, [[Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive|steepled fingers]] have become a way to make you feel like a [[Magnificent Bastard]]. See also the "Gendo pose" on the Internet. One word: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PALxktAMw3I GENDOWNED]. Ironic in a way, as his final words make it quite clear that he's actually an adult Shinji, terrible understanding of people and all.
* [[Memetic Molester]] ''and'' [[Memetic Sex God]]: [[Kavorka Man|Gendo]], also known as the ''Über-[[Evangelion: ReDeath|Pimp]]''.
* [[Never Live It Down]]: The way Shinji gets described sometimes, makes it sound like he all does in the series is nothing but angsting and whining ineffectively about his daddy issues, only occasionally pausing [[Dude, She's Like, in a Coma|when he masturbates to the sight of comatose girls]] (though that last event did undeniably and understandably leave a strong impression with viewers, to put it diplomatically). But Shinji, as a matter of fact, rarely ever angsts out loud, instead being mostly just brooding and quiet. If anything, ''Asuka'' is possibly the most vocally angsty and emotionally unstable character.
** For Kaji detractors, the moment he pinned Misato to an elevator wall and forcibly kissed her. Also his weird interactions with Shinji came off more gross than funny for some fans.
* [[No Yay]]: Save for Kaworu, Mana, and Mari. All of Shinji's major relationships have at least one factor that stops them from being fully liked.
** Asuka/Shinji for Shinji masturbating on her and Asuka being too mean and aggressive towards him.
** Shinji/Rei. For some, the fact Rei is a clone of Yui is just too much for them to ship them.
** Shinji/Misato for obvious reasons (i.e their ages).
* [[Nightmare Retardant]]: Rei was meant to come off as an unsettling person to invoke case of [[Uncanny Valley]]. Fans instead found her to be adorable, especially with her sympathetic characterization. Likewise, Kaworu was supposed to come as disturbingly cheerful. Instead seeing him acting happy at such a dark point in the series, coupled with his friendship with Shinji, turned him into fan favorite for completely different reason.
* [[Ron the Death Eater]]: There are a surprising large amount of fanfics out there that have Kaji cheating on Misato as the reason they originally broke up, despite extended scenes in the anime directly contradicting this. And that's saying nothing on what some fans do to Kaworu in Shinji shippings.
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* [[Awesome Music]]: [[Neon Genesis Evangelion/Awesome Music|Enough to have its own page]].
* [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]]: The Jet Alone episode... never comes up again. Aside from giving a [[Moment of Awesome]] to Misato, foreshadowing the Mass-production EVA units, and filling some space, it doesn't ever show up again.
* [[Broken Base]]: One of the few irrefutable statements that can be made about ''Evangelion'' is that it is the most divisive anime ever. Virtually ''everything'' about this series has been, is, and will be the topic of heated debate. Is [insert character here] [[Alternate Character Interpretation|a sympathetic character]]? Do the [[Creepy Cool Crosses|religious allusions]] [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|really mean]] [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|anything]]? Did the series change direction over its run, or was it all planned out from the beginning? Which ending is better? Are they the same, or do they conflict? Is the ADV English dub as good as, better than, or vastly inferior to the Japanese? What about the Netflix dub? Is the series itself one of the greatest in the history of anime—or even cinema—or merely one of the [[Hype Backlash|most overrated]]? Can the live-action movies be done right? Which girl would you [[Perverse Sexual Lust|bang]]? If you wonder it for even a second, there is absolutely no question that it has been the subject of fierce debate inside or outside the fandom. The fact that, one way or the other, people generally tend to form ''very'' strong opinions about this series helps cement it firmly within this trope.
* [[The Chris Carter Effect]]: The original series hit this trope hard by {{spoiler|''completely dropping the plot for the last two episodes''}}, but with the addition of ''The End of Evangelion'' its placement under this trope became ambiguous. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Some]] felt that [[The Movie]] provided an adequate payoff for all, or at least most of the plot threads built up over the course of the series; others felt that it was just another cop-out.
* [[Common Knowledge]]: No, while Hideki Anno did get tons of death threats, he didn't create EoE just to piss those people off, it was always going to happen.
* [[Cult Classic]]: The series itself, outside of Japan, especially as the fandom has aged over time. While obscure outside of the anime fandom, it's very well-known and held up as an anime milestone (good or bad) ''within'' it. In Japan, it's about as mainstream as ''[[Star Trek]]'' or ''[[The Matrix]]''.
* [[Ear Worm]]: ''Twenty-two versions'' of "Fly Me To The Moon" will catch up to you. There's also "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" (the theme song), the infamous "Komm, süsser Tod" (which becomes really creepy when you consider the lyrics), and "Good or Don't Be", the instrumental version of the main theme that plays in the background of the "congratulations" scene.
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* [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory]]: Works ''particularly'' well. Shinji as a pathetic messiah/Jesus figure; the Jesus imagery/connotations that can be applied to Rei and Kaworu; Gendo as Judas or Satan, or alternately as the God of the Old Testament; angels/apostles; crosses... It's hard to tell whether the ''Evangelion'' verse is meant as a kind of Hell or as a purgatory, though...
* [[Fandom Gank]]: The series' finale left vast swaths of the fandom puzzled ''and'' angry at the complete non-sequitur ending.
* [[Fandom Rivalry]]: Given how it's one of the most (in)famous series in the anime world, it's bound to run into competition.
** Since the 90's, several fans has started a rivalry between ''Evangelion'' and fellow [[Humongous Mecha]] series ''[[Gundam]]''. Some people have come to believe that ''Evangelion'' is deep and philosophical while all of ''Gundam'' is childish and stupid, conveniently ignoring that ''Gundam'' also has a dark [[War Is Hell]] theme and has very serious entries like ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team]]''. While mostly discredited, this stereotype prevails to this day, much to annoyance of ''Gundam'' fans. Conversely, the opposing belief is that ''Gundam'' is [[Closer to Earth]] and more relatable while ''Evangelion'' relies too much on grotesque shock value and pretentious [[Faux Symbolism]]. This latter view holds much more of a sway over today's anime fandom.
** ''Evangelion'' and ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' fans have formed rivalries over which entry is the better [[Genre Deconstruction]] (respectively of [[Humongous Mecha]] and [[Magical Girl]]). The same rivalry occurs between ''Evangelion'' fellow mecha deconstruction '[[Bokurano]]''. Although Hideaki Anno himself is a ''huge'' fan of ''Madoka'', praising it for the same kind of ruthless [[Deconstruction]] of a popular genre that he was trying to do.
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** No, Gendo and Kouzou never actually have a drinking party in the series. And no, Shinji isn't some kind of sex master, thank you very much. Also, [[Yaoi Fangirl|for heaven's sake]], Shinji and Kaworu never really get into a relationship in [[Canon]]. This also extends to Toui's sisters' name, Misato's father's name, Hikari's sisters' personalities, Shinji's wardrobe, and many other things. The "SEELE dudes" have been given the fanon names Teddy, Vlad, Nigel and Pierre.
** Also worth noting: No matter how you might remember it, Gendo does ''not'' officially have a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RsepQh342g theme song].
** In some fanfics, the angels can turn into more attractive humanoid versions of themselves.
* [[Fanon Discontinuity]]: Both the endings to the original series. The show one for being too confusing and the movie for being too WTF/brutal. Some have ditched both endings for these reasons, applying the manga's ending or [[Fanfic Fuel|simply making their own ending]].
** Unless you ship them, fans would rather forget Misato kissing Shinji and promising him sex in EoE.
** Speaking of EoE, [[Base Breaker|Shinji]] fans who are sick and tired of seeing [[Draco in Leather Pants|someone they see]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|as a victim getting treated]] like [[The Scrappy|trash in and out universe]] and remove any scenes where he does act creepy. Less extreme fans of him would just rather forget a certain hospital scene.
* [[Fan Wank]]: So, so much of it.
* [[Faux Symbolism]]: [[Broken Base|Debate]] [[Internet Backdraft|rages]] to this day (and on this very wiki) regarding the degree to which the religious symbolism is meaningful, but at least according to one statement from assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki (whose other work you [[FLCL|may be familiar with]]), most of it was thrown in simply to make the series appear "mystical".
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** Most of the series's more intense moments are so ''extremely'' serious that they will either come off as utterly spellbinding or hilariously over-the-top, depending on the viewer. Even many fans who adore the show agree that its dramatic extremes and rampant weirdness make it ripe for lampooning.
** It's not too difficult to stomach the declining animation and artwork in the final two episodes if you tell yourself it fits the psychological themes. However, sometimes the sketches are so simple that Rei looks like she's incredibly exasperated... this face, basically: ¬_¬
* [[Narm Charm]]: Even some of the weaker moments in the ADV English dub have their fans, such as the now-[[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] "EVERY SINGLE MISSILE HIT THE TARGET!!!!"
* [[Never Live It Down]]: ''Evangelion'' has the reputation of "that one robot show that nobody understands." In reality, it's pretty easy to understand on the surface, with the confusion really only coming in towards the very end. It's when you analyze everything going on below the surface and all the symbolism, themes, and ideas that it gets harder to understand, not helped by the fact that [[All There in the Manual|supplementary material]] from the creators and literal "manuals" [[No Export for You|were only released in Japan]].
* [[Nightmare Retardant]]: Rei was ''meant'' to fit in the [[Uncanny Valley]] as a deconstruction of the [[Moe]] archetype. Apparently, someone in the animation department didn't get the memo, since half the time she's utterly ''adorable''.
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* [[True Art Is Angsty]]: Many people who love the original ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' cite this as one of the series' strengths, and use it as a point against the first two ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' movies due to their lighter and saner tone. Not to mention haters who feel [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]].
* [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]]: It's also been accused of having this mindset, particularly from haters with the opposite mindset.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: The [[Hate Dumb]]'s reaction to most of the cast says bad things about the stigmas of mental disorders.
** Divisive among the fanbase, but any scene Shinji/Rei [[Ship Tease|ship tease]] knowing Rei is a clone of Shinji's mom.
* [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?]]: According to [[Word of God]], the target demographic for the series is children and adolescents. Many people—not least among them Japanese parents—have found this claim a bit hard to swallow. Some people suggest that the show is similar to a seinen series in terms of graphic content, although ''Evangelion'' is far from unique in this regard... other teen-oriented shonen franchises such as ''[[Death Note]]'' and ''[[Attack on Titan]]'' have similarly mature and dark content, and teenage anime fans are quite often familiar with the level of violence and depth shown in series such as ''Evangelion''.
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?]]: The director actually researched some academic psychology, and when a man climbing out of a depression reads a psychology textbook you know he's paying attention. Consequently, its usage is fairly accurate in the show, although it suffers from [[All Psychology Is Freudian]]. For example, one of the episodes, "Oral Stage", is named after one of Freud's psychosexual development phases. Many of the music titles derive from mainstream psychology (e.g. "Borderline Case", "Separation Anxiety", "Mother Is the First Other", "A Fragile Ego Border").
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