[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

End of Evangelion: I swallowed hard, like I understood

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Evangelion, Gainax, Hideaki Anno]

As I’m typing this long-overdue (and lengthy) post I’m listening to the debut record from 65 Days of Static, The Fall of Math (hence the above title), which to me is an appropriate accompaniment to this film. I’ve gone over how I first encountered the show already but as with most people who have seen the feature-length alternative ending, it has been a long-standing source of wonder, discussion and head-scratching ever since. My appreciation of both the likes of End of Evangelion and music that’s also thought of as experimental and alternative is fairly similar: they are challenging and take a bit of getting into, are all too able to lose you in the layers of meaning and artistry but you can’t but admit that they’re an impressive piece of work. That and the fact that the song title in question pretty much sums up how I feel that you don’t have to ‘get’ everything about this movie to appreciate it. A seminal film in anime history is of course quite different from an instrumental rock album recorded by four guys from Sheffield…

The token symbolic-looking screenie, complete with a naked Rei/Lilith to placate the fanboys

The first half of EoE is brutal to the point of excess and the second half feels like a storyteller being deliberately obtuse (given the death threats and various other forms of psychological trauma he experienced, I can’t say I blame him either) and yet it’s still something I can re-watch. For one thing it’s head and shoulders above the TV show in terms of art quality - we had to wait for the first Rebuild movie to see what Anno and co would do with a big budget. More interestingly it’s also the first time we see him take on live-action film making and spread his wings in a feature-length presentation.

[10 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: you are (not) alone

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Evangelion, Hideaki Anno]

I was initially very sceptical of an NGE remake due to the cash cow-milking that the show has suffered from during the past thirteen years already; as much as the original series and cinematic alternate ending have been instrumental (pun intended >_<) in my interest in anime, it’s always felt like an exercise in taking a good story and squeezing as much money out of it as possible. Not that this stopped me watching the first Rebuild movie anyway, you understand.

My reasons for having any faith in this new Eva outing are largely centred round the fact that many of the key staff from the original series are on board, from the likes of Shiro Sagisu and Yoshiuki Sadamoto (soundtrack score and character design, respectively), Gainax alumni Kazuya Tsurumaki and Masayuki, not to mention the main VA telent; it’s like catching up with old friends. Even the maestro himself, Hideaki Anno, is sitting above them all, supervising with an eerily Gendo-esque air of Just As Planned on his face. When he’s revisiting his most famous creation after so long it certainly suggests that he has a damn good reason to revisit it.

[7 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Evangelion: my baptism of fire

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Evangelion, Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Over-analysis, Self-indulgent nostalgia]

On a number of occasions I’ve alluded to my somewhat unconventional (albeit not unique) introduction to anime fandom. While it hasn’t exactly changed my entire outlook on life or anything, it certainly set the course that my viewing and appreciation would take and even to this day shapes my views on many of the aspects that make up the reviews and editorials on this very blog, for better or for worse.

I’m doing this review partly because Neon Genesis Evangelion hasn’t had a full review or editorial here dedicated to it; also it’s a way of putting my current opinions on anime in general into context. Two of these are those of the Apologist and Elitist stances, which hopefully will be accompanying posts in the coming weeks. Everyone’s hobbies and interests have to start somewhere, even if that somewhere is a little embarrassing and inappropriate; this was mine, and I’ll leave it to you to decide how embarrassing and inappropriate an introduction it was.

[6 Comments]

[Specials]

Love and Pop: Hideaki Anno’s live action debut

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Hideaki Anno]

The tagline ’schoolgirls by day…call girls by night’ has to be one of the most misleading sales pitches of any film I’ve yet seen. Ignoring the sensationalist waffle on the DVD case, this is a film that is innovative in the extreme and explains why I think Hideaki Anno is one of the best film directors of recent years.

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[Specials]

Shiki-Jitsu: Hideaki Anno, live action director

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Hideaki Anno]

Anyone who remembers the second half of End of Evangelion and various bits of Kare Kano may have suspected that within the mind of Hideaki Anno lurked a live-action director anxious to get out. I was interested to see how his own distinctive style (complete with what I’ve come to call ‘Anno-isms’) transferred from animation to live action, which includes the feature Shiki-Jitsu, a.k.a. ‘Ritual’.

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[Anime Reviews]

Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) episodes 22-26: Final thoughts

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Kare Kano]

“…and that’s the script for episode 26.”

All: “Noooes!”

Okay, I’ll be serious about this.

As the series reaches its final phase the whole school is a hive of activity in the run-up to the culture-fest and there is more than enough worry, angst and stress to go around. Arima still has uncertainties concerning his relationship with Yukino; a dilemma not helped by the fact that she has much in common with Tomani and as a result gets on very well with him. Arima in contrast is suffering from the hectic study/festival preparations schedule and is wracked with guilt for feeling jealous over the friendship they share. Can Tomani realise before it’s too late? Meanwhile, the play that Aya is writing could well be cancelled: can the girls learn their lines, find a practice space and get it onto the stage?

All in all it’s setting up for an edge-of-the-seat finale where characters old and new clash at the end of term and the whole situation gets some closure. At least that’s what I was hoping. Unfortunately the age-old Gainax Ending throws it all into chaos and everything that has built up to this point begins to fall apart. There isn’t really an ‘ending’ to speak of at all as a matter of fact: it just feels incomplete.

[4 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) episodes 17-21: Words of faith and devotion

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Kare Kano]

The focus of the series shifts back towards the Yukino/Arima relationship once more as Yukino spends the remainder of her summer break soul-searching and analysing her own feelings. Soon it is time for an emotional reunion for them both, just in time for an hectic new semester featuring an old face coming back to haunt Tsubaki. As if this wasn’t enough for them to worry about, the upcoming culture-fest promises yet more demands on their time and energy, but with the possibility of free lecture notes for the lucky winners…

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[Anime Reviews]

Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) episodes 12-16: Looking back and looking around

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Kare Kano]

Arima has left for the National Kendo Championships so Yukino is left at home and decides to while away her time studying and hanging around with her friends. Tsubasa (the cute but bratty little classmate from the last volume) is having trouble at home however: her dad is remarrying and Tsubasa is so distraught that she storms out of the house only to move in with Yukino’s family.

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[Anime Reviews]

Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) episodes 7-11: Setbacks and special moments for Yukino and Arima

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Kare Kano]

At the end of the first volume of His and Her Circumstances we see Yukino and Arima meet, fall in love and begin their relationship. All six episodes were very concerned with their feelings, hopes and fears; this time the focus goes outward to the family and friends and we see how their romance affects those around them, and vice-versa.

The incessant dating that they have been going on is beginning to make itself felt: their grades (particularly Yukino’s, much to her own dismay) have suffered and they are pulled up in front of the teachers for some unpleasant home truths (below). They are told that unless they refuse to see each other, their parents will be called in - can their relationship survive the harshness of studying?

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[Anime Reviews]

Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) episodes 1-6: Hideaki Anno is back in the Director’s chair at last

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Kare Kano]

I’ll be adding a full series review for the main site in due course but a volume-by-volume journal will be helpful for writing it up and it’s made such an impression on me I can’t help but share! ^_^

Kare Kano (a.k.a. His and Her Circumstances) is the first series Hideaki Anno directed after the storm of publicity that surrounded the Evangelion TV series and feature films. I’ll openly admit to being a massive fan of the stuff that’s come from the creative minds of this guy and his Studio Gainax colleagues but I was curious to see how they’d go about doing a simple and straightforward show that’s devoid of giant robots, invading aliens, or even a love triangle. At first glance this adaptation of Masami Tsuda’s manga series sounds like an ordinary high school romance story. But of course, this is Anno we’re talking about here…

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