Why Eva?

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

What's the big deal with Neon Genesis Evangelion? I started watching the Adult Swim weekly installments of the show, and aside from the fantastic introduction, I'm sorry to say I am unimpressed. What's the draw of this show? Furthermore, to make this topic a bit more generic, what's the draw of the Japanese-cultural themed Animes (Inu-Yasha and Naruto, especially) and the animosity toward western themed ones (Big O, One Piece).

 

[Nomekop Oen]

First off,let my say that Evangelion is my favorite anime series,it's at the top of my list.I have a strange love/hate relationship with Eva because as amazing as it is IMO,some of the crap that happens in the series is pretty goddamn depressing.It is a very EMOTIONAL series and that's sort of hard to convey when the english dub has sh*tty voice actors.Seriously,the Eva dub SUCKS.I am by no means a dub-hater,there's plenty of anime I believe are better in english.But seriously,PLEASE STOP watching the dub.It's nothing compared to the original japanese version.The only voice the dub manages to get right is Rei,but that's only because she's SUPPOSED to be stoic.



Also,keep in mind that Eva is another victim of hype,and hype is evil.It had one generation of fans claiming it's the 'Best Anime of All Time' (a line that even ADV themselves used I believe),so when another generation of fans roll in there's no way it could fulfill those expectations.



My advice is to drop Eva completely for the moment,wait a month or two, start fresh and watch the series from the beginning.(in Japanese) As in incentive to start again,you could try watching the Remastered version of the Eva series.It will look and sound a hell of a lot better than the version airing on TV.




BTW,Big O is number 4 on my list.I love that series.And I haven't watched much of One Piece other than a couple of the dub episodes,but I think it suffers from the stigma of being labled "another DBZ".So that could be a reason why some people won't give it a chance.

 

[Archaic]

Evangelion was a groundbreaking anime for its time....and its time was 10 years ago. It'd aged quite badly. It's still a good series (assuming you're watching the subbed Directors Cuts), but it'll never live up to the hype surrounding it.

 

[Joey]

I've never seen Eva, so no answer there.

But as for your second question, of Japanese-culture anime VS American culture, it's my personal theory that most anime fans are looking for something foreign. They don't like western culture themed things as much because they're used to it, and know all about it. Eastern culture is new and exciting, something they haven't seen before. I know that in all my non college school years, they never went into anything Asian at all, other then a few mentions of Japan being the big scary bad guys in WWII and a little about Europe colonizing India and then leaving. That's about it, everything else I learned by going to a library and reading up on it by myself. So if you guess that a lot of anime fans may have as much background on Asia as I did, then it makes a lot of sense that they would be interested in Japanese culture anime, because it's something new.

Personally I thought Big O was kind of funky in general, but that may have been me never trying to seriously watch it, and whenever I would just find it on, IT WAS THE SAME DAMN EPISODE! *thud*

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

My advice is to drop Eva completely for the moment,wait a month or two, start fresh and watch the series from the beginning.(in Japanese) As in incentive to start again,you could try watching the Remastered version of the Eva series.It will look and sound a hell of a lot better than the version airing on TV.

It's not an issue of the dub. I don't have a problem with it. It's the show itself. As an OP fan, I recognize your "the unedited is one hundred times better" view; I hold a simmilar perspective on OP. I've compared versions, though, and ADV's dub holds true; therefore, it's sufficient enough to carry my approval.

BTW,Big O is number 4 on my list.I love that series.And I haven't watched much of One Piece other than a couple of the dub episodes,but I think it suffers from the stigma of being labled "another DBZ".So that could be a reason why some people won't give it a chance.

Big O was spectacular. Pity AS doesn't want to spend the cash to write up a third season.

...

You're obviously not an OP fan, so I doubt you could understand. The majority of Anime dubbing companies remain true to their original pieces because deviation is expensive. 4Kids pooled its massive resources to basically rewrite the entire show. To put this in perspective, One Piece's dub is so bad, it makes Gatchaman look good by comparison.

Also, OP is bigger in Japan now than DB was in its prime. It isn't "the next DB", its established itself as a phenomenon in its own right. Naruto, which is vastly inferior to OP in almost every aspect, aside from the rabid American fanbase, has in the past few months become the most watched Anime on television; it has an excellent dub in comparison to OP, even though it would only be an "average" dub a couple years ago. The standards have been lowered.

Evangelion was a groundbreaking anime for its time....and its time was 10 years ago. It'd aged quite badly. It's still a good series (assuming you're watching the subbed Directors Cuts), but it'll never live up to the hype surrounding it.

I dislike shows that don't offer "closure" or explainations of the key elements, devices, or stories featured; from what I've read, Evangelion takes a huge step toward the surreal without explaining things clearly. As Loki told me on UPN, I'd have to buy all the accessories to the show as well as read The Bible to catch all the relegious references. Funny, though, how "living robots" were revolutionary ten years ago, but are considered cliché now.

 

[Nomekop Oen]

Well Evangelion was released by ADV,a company that specializes in releasing anime series,OAVs,movies,etc. and occasionally some live-action material.So the Eva dub is not scoring extra points for a good translation,because it's supposed to be translated properly.It's not like ADV tried to modify the series so it can air on Saturday mornings.(i.e. 4Kids/One Piece)


But believe me,the japanese version of Evangelion is SO MUCH better.I know many people say the same thing about other anime,but the series is not nearly as enthralling in english.I really hope you decide to drop the series for now and decide to see the sub at a later time.



BTW,what episode of Eva are you currently on? Oh,and even though I've only seen some One Piece,I am very familiar with all the BS surrounding the 4Kids release.

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

But believe me,the japanese version of Evangelion is SO MUCH better.I know many people say the same thing about other anime,but the series is not nearly as enthralling in english.I really hope you decide to drop the series for now and decide to see the sub at a later time.

As of now, I'm fairly neutral toward the sub v. dub debates, but since the Evangelion boxed set is getting more expensive due to the shortages, I can't really afford to miss the slightly edited AS dub. I might catch the subbed version later; it's not like initial exposure to the OP dub spoiled the OP series for me.

BTW,what episode of Eva are you currently on? Oh,and even though I've only seen some One Piece,I am very familiar with all the BS surrounding the 4Kids release.

The Evangelion episode was, uhhr, the episode with the eyeball-like Angel that dropped its body mass onto buildings to explode them.

In regard to OP...well, the situation is far worse than people seem to believe. There are people like Mozz who don't give a dang because they can read Japanese and have access to raws or translations (the latter applies to me), but the vast majority of people who hate the dub do so because of two reasons:

1) They feel alienated/isolated because they enjoy something the vast majority of their peers view as garbage.
2) Eiichiro Oda doesn't get the lion's share of profit he deserves.

I feel strongly toward the latter; OP is the longest running Shounen series that is utterly flawless. Some arcs are better than others, sure...but nothing stinks, even the "filler" arcs of the manga. I don't see how Kubo and Kishimoto can get away with screwing up their series for a couple arcs and keep the payrolls running in, but Oda is forced to suffer because the light-heartedness of his manga is viewed as a weakness in American markets and not a strength. Shounen Jump outright praises OP for being a fantastic manga (see January Animerica), but its sales are absolutely pitiful in comparison to Naruto and Bleach, which occupy multiple slots on the "top ten" list of Viz sales. OP isn't even in the top twenty five.

 

[Nomekop Oen]

As of now, I'm fairly neutral toward the sub v. dub debates, but since the Evangelion boxed set is getting more expensive due to the shortages, I can't really afford to miss the slightly edited AS dub. I might catch the subbed version later; it's not like initial exposure to the OP dub spoiled the OP series for me.



The Evangelion episode was, uhhr, the episode with the eyeball-like Angel that dropped its body mass onto buildings to explode them.

Is that the one where Eva 01 runs like hell and catches that huge angel by expanding his A.T. field? (what-a-nerd.... <<; ) If so,that episode kicks ass.But let's just say you ain't seen nothing yet,the series picks up a lot in the 2nd half.I think a re-cap episode is coming up soon BTW.


*sigh* I guess I can understand your decision to stick with the dub.I'm currently watching the FMA dub on adult swim and I don't have any plans to start watching the sub either.(but I do believe the performances on the english dub are excellent) Oh,and I'm pretty sure Best Buy is selling the Eva Platnum thin-pak boxset for $57.95.($60 bucks overall) Or maybe you can try renting the Platunum DVDs if they're available somewhere.

In regard to OP...well, the situation is far worse than people seem to believe. There are people like Mozz who don't give a dang because they can read Japanese and have access to raws or translations (the latter applies to me), but the vast majority of people who hate the dub do so because of two reasons:

1) They feel alienated/isolated because they enjoy something the vast majority of their peers view as garbage.
2) Eiichiro Oda doesn't get the lion's share of profit he deserves.

I feel strongly toward the latter; OP is the longest running Shounen series that is utterly flawless. Some arcs are better than others, sure...but nothing stinks, even the "filler" arcs of the manga. I don't see how Kubo and Kishimoto can get away with screwing up their series for a couple arcs and keep the payrolls running in, but Oda is forced to suffer because the light-heartedness of his manga is viewed as a weakness in American markets and not a strength. Shounen Jump outright praises OP for being a fantastic manga (see January Animerica), but its sales are absolutely pitiful in comparison to Naruto and Bleach, which occupy multiple slots on the "top ten" list of Viz sales. OP isn't even in the top twenty five.

I guess all of that can be blamed on 4Kids' handling of the license.They're just taking a crap on One Piece from what I've seen.On a popularity level,One Piece *should* be another "DBZ" and it should also be Naruto's main competition at the moment.And the bigger Naruto gets here in the U.S.,the more One Piece sinks into obscurity.I don't get it,4Kids knows they aren't making nearly as much money as they're supposed to with this license.Yet it doesn't seem like anything is going to change anytime soon.

1) They feel alienated/isolated because they enjoy something the vast majority of their peers view as garbage.

Sounds like a Pokemon fan too. <<;

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

I guess all of that can be blamed on 4Kids' handling of the license.They're just taking a crap on One Piece from what I've seen.On a popularity level,One Piece *should* be another "DBZ" and it should also be Naruto's main competition at the moment.And the bigger Naruto gets here in the U.S.,the more One Piece sinks into obscurity.I don't get it,4Kids knows they aren't making nearly as much money as they're supposed to with this license.Yet it doesn't seem like anything is going to change anytime soon.

You're right, of course. 4Kids influence in the entertainment world is so huge, what they did to the Anime has run-off impact on other shows. Naruto and OP manga were chosen to be serialized in the "teen" Shounen Jump, even though Shounen Jump manga is really intended for Viz's "Older Teen" audiences. As a result, there's serious language rephrasal...but such gets progressively worse in OP than Naruto because of the dub's influence. I even hear tell that Viz is starting to make minor art edits outside of the sound effects insertions. UGH, things can only go even more downhill.

Sounds like a Pokemon fan too. <<;

Pokemon's still one of those 'secret passion' shows. People say they don't like it, and are afraid to tell other that they do, but in reality they still watch the show or at least don't actively "hate" it.

 

[bell02+]

Eva is pretty good in my opinion. 7 years ago when I first saw it I would have told you it was the best thing ever. Now not so much, It is still a great show, but a lot of the jokes and animation effects have lost their steam or feel dated because of the 10 year gap. However I would say it's worth watching the whole way through.

At the time it did a lot of things that anime didn't do, and it did them well.

However I must say on a different note that the OP dub sucks horribly. The only voice that I like is Tony Tony Chopper, and maybe Nami. 4Kids needs to hire more actors and actresses instead of recycling the six or so they got. I'll keep my other negitive comments to myself, but I hope they loose the OP liscense.

Big O is also a great show in my opinion. I loved the film Noir take, and the whole thing is just stylish, cool, and intresting.

Naruto also has a good dub in my opinion also. The only disagreeable voices are Gaara and Lee.

I will say that my favorite show on Adult Swim right now is Fullmetal however. The last season is just so crazy. The ending also is the craziest, also!

I'm just hoping that CN decides to replace it with Blood+ when it's over and Inuyasha with Bleach.

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

However I must say on a different note that the OP dub sucks horribly. The only voice that I like is Tony Tony Chopper, and maybe Nami. 4Kids needs to hire more actors and actresses instead of recycling the six or so they got. I'll keep my other negitive comments to myself, but I hope they loose the OP liscense.

Pity OP couldn't have waited until the Viz merger with ShoPro. Now everything out of Shounen Jump goes automatically to Viz, as Shueisha is the parent company for Viz Media.

Naruto also has a good dub in my opinion also. The only disagreeable voices are Gaara and Lee.

Give Lee a chance; the actor's good, but just doesn't have a feel for the character yet. If anything, Lee sounds too generic, but another character that actor did (Davis from Digimon) was quit the opposite.

As for Gaara...he's perfect. He's the closest sounding actor to the original Japanese VA in the entire dub, with the possible exception of Flannagan.

I'm just hoping that CN decides to replace it with Blood+ when it's over and Inuyasha with Bleach.

People have complained about why Bleach hasn't been licensed, but I see that it already has; since Shueisha owns Viz, there is a 100% likely chance Bleach will be dubbed by them, as Naruto is beginning to surpass DBZ in popularity. Furthermore, Shueisha isn't too happy with how OP, the most highly rated Anime in most of the world, could tank so badly in America. Heck, OP is huge even in Russia, and the Russians sure do enjoy Bleach.

You are implying, though, that "Viz" gets Bleach and not "ShoPro". This remains to be disputed; Bleach isn't serialized in the American Shounen Jump because it has a higher audience rating, much like Inu-Yasha. I could see "Viz" getting it; that'll be interesting.