I haven't watched this because I'm waiting for a 4 hour "The Infinite Review's Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode Is A Masterpiece and Here's Why" video to tell me if it's good.
I feel you on this. I watched this show years ago alone w/o outside opinion weighing me down and it really emotionally hit me. The struggle of a young boy trying to understand what it means to feel self-love and self-worth, of the fears of rejection from those he loves and thus avoiding people to prematurely soften the blow before it even happens, really impacted me at a point of my life where I was (and still am) fighting through those same feelings. The original ending, to me, was perfect; the show was never about robots, the robots were a plot vehicle for the real story of a boy who doesn’t know how to love himself, and the ending is the climax of that battle. I know people who love the movies, who hate the ending of the original TV show, but the original show and it’s ending, it’s story of loving oneself and living without the constant fear of failure and letting down people you care about, meant so much to me at the time (and even now) that Evangelion is just such a special show to me. I can’t even begin to imagine watching it now and being so tainted by the insanely overactive online community that I would miss out on why that show was so emotional for me at the time.
"He's wanking! It's not pokémon" lmao yeah, in this post-analysis age people expect things to be as optimized as posible, but art is in the wrinkles, art is in the personal style, art is in your script.
Astounding that there's enough still footage of scenery in Eva to make a ten plus minute video about it without showing any of the characters. Except Pen Pen of course. And Owen's cat. And his second story window.
that's one of the million ways evangelion adds filler to its episodes and the funny part is when you add so much filler idiots will just think it's art when the poor director was just trying to meet a deadline with no idea on what to do with the show from the first episodes on LOL
@@TheLastPierrot it's not necessarily filler. Anno is a director who loves to show scenery and engross the audience in the atmosphere of a setting. If you have ever seen Love and Pop, it's pretty much exactly the same. There is more to artistic film than simply continuing the "plot" sometimes it's just about feel an emotion, something Anno is exceptional at conveying.
does anyone else still come back to this video every now and then? i do it ever few months or so - both to continue to pump the views up so that owen will be forced to review the rebuilds, and because it's honestly one of my favorite videos on this platform. something about the change in individual vs community experience just like, resonates really strongly for me :>
It has gotten to a point for me at which I can‘t really focus on anything anymore. When I watch a RUclips video I read the comments, or worse, write one, when I watch a movie I have another tab open to engage me when I get bored, when I read a book… Who am I kidding? I can‘t even start eating something if there isn’t something in the background. I don’t know what came first, the depression or the consumption but they sure are good friends. Now it’s just backgrounds layered over backgrounds. Recently I watched Neon Genesis: Evangelion for the first time and I wasn’t even really there. I did it just to do it and I might as well have watched commercials or a video essay. Thanks for this, Owen! In the hellscape of my media platter this channel is one of the few that makes me stop and think for a second.
There's a lot to say about experiencing something in isolation. Most of us who grew up with limited internet access (or none at all) had that one game you spent hours upon hours in, learning every little thing about it and just never getting bored. I used to spend entire evenings in Metal Gear Solid 3 running around the helicopter base, the mountain path, the science lab and so on just screwing around, and it was great. Nowadays, it seems everyone has this huge backlog of stuff to get through and in a way it seems like missing the point. When you start to feel guilty for wanting to replay stuff just because it interferes with your backlog, you know there's probably something amiss with all this.
I've always contested that Grease was far more dense and nuanced than Neon Genesis Evangelion, good on those classmates of yours for understanding true kino.
This video really resonated with me. Trying to block out spoilers and preconceived notions about games and media is something I have tried to do many times with varying degrees of success. Obviously, to a large degree it has to do with wanting to form my own opinion about something, but maybe deep down I just want to go back to that feeling as a kid of stumbling upon something new and unknown.
I think I've managed to solve it by postponing my engagement with most of the popular media by a few years until the hype and discussion dies down and I can sit down and enjoy it without feeling like I _have_ to. Also works out well for games since by that time they usually go for at least 50% off their release price and I already have the hardware to enjoy them to their fullest.
I love how unique Evangelion feels, even if you're familiar with everything that it so obviously takes from. If anything, for me at least, NGE is a testament to just how much raw execution really matters. You can have all of the strange, cool elements to your story and premise all you want; but if you can't stick that landing, why should I even care? It's why that whenever I come back to it, Evangelion hits so hard. There's legitimately nothing else quite like it.
The story about the music class reminds me how close i got to having my nan watch End of Evangelion with me for the first time. I've intentionally put off rewatching it, because it was so important to me as a 14 year old that I thought it almost belonged solely in that part of my life. Maybe i'll realize how dumb that is and reconsider someday soon.
I thought the same as EoE instantly became my favourite film when I first saw it and I was afraid of ruining that perfect first experience. I was worried that knowing what happens already would suddenly make it less interesting, but watching through all of it again recently proves that I still feel the same way.
Christ, I'm glad I'm not the only person who misses the way media used to be digested in a more casual and reflective way. Now there's a pressure to run out the door and see it right away lest it be "ruined", and then I can count on other people to give their knee-jerk reactions whether or not anyone asked for them.
I've been very happy ever since I stopped caring about what others think of me. I find new shows by browsing lists of stuff that's gonna be coming out and picking ones where the synopsis sounds intriguing. And I use this new age of technology to my advantage. Whereas I used to have to browse the library and read the backs of the tapes, check it out, and bring it home, now all I have to do is look down the list of new releases and head over to my favorite "streaming site" and just start watching. And nine times out of ten, my friends don't care about what I watched and will just chat about the popular stuff. But I'm fine with that. Hell, if anything, it makes the stuff I watched seem more personal. There are even times when I watch something because of the interesting synopsis and it turns out to suddenly be a very popular show. I don't really know what I'm getting at, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm happy just doing whatever I want and not worrying about anything or anyone else.
This right here is what I was thinking while watching the video. It's actually not that hard to tune out popular discourse or filter in only the stuff that sounds interesting to you. It's still possible to have that personal experience with media, you just have to put in the effort to avoid reading/listening to someone else's opinion on it. Great video nonetheless though.
What struck me, then and now, was the impossibility of it. Like being stuck in a perpetual state of relief, disbelief, and mourning. The feeling when I first viewed it is the same when I watch it now. It is a wormhole filled with tachyons of gratitude. Even more so with the rebuilds being finished. I am astonished that even after dozens of complete viewings, it still manifests that type of wonder in every fiber of my being. It is an aspirational reality.
I applaud you for showing eva to your class When I was a kid I brought an anime magazine to school to show my friends and later was sent home with a note to my mum about it because the cover had some fanservice-y anime girl on the cover
To be honest I found NGE on youtube in the good old times (you could watched entire anime series on yt and nobody gave a shit about it). I watched it. It broke me. It rebuild me. No other piece of media has ever achieve this in my entire life so far. Therefore i never rewatched it because there was no reason for it. I still remember everything and i am going to remember it to the end of my life.
Fantastic vid. I had a similar but less adequate experience discovering Eva. Grew up in a small town and there was a local CD store that sometimes got some anime. I didn't have the internet at home so when I bought anime I was picking blindly. One day they got a dual set with "Death and Rebirth" and "The end of Evangelion" on it. I thought it was a 2 part movie series. Looked cool so I bought it. Watched it. Didn't understand it. Loved it anyway. Watched it dozens more times before I found a way to actually see the whole show. Been one of my favourites since that first watch, and I still have that original 2-pack.
Harkens me back to the time I picked up an episode of Violence Jack from a hole in the wall movie store that got put in the "animation" section when I was about 8 years old. I couldn't talk about that with anyone for years.
In my “tweens” (ugh) we had the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK which showed Eva, Bebop, Nadesico, Blue Gender, Outlaw Star and often a movie every week on Thursday at like 1:00am. Violence Jack was one of those movies, I also could never talk with anyone about that. I still haven’t really.
I don't even know anyone anymore (besides my best friend) that experienced buying random anime VHS at Suncoast in the early 90s. Everything used to seem so inaccessible back then. Japan was like another planet and surrounded in mystery. I guess that's what makes that time so special. I spent a good several minutes trying to articulate how I feel about it all now, but I really can't. So, that's all I'll say for now.
“You’re joining a party. And chances are, you’re late.” This is me with every piece of media now, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy, and Evangelion come to mind. I’ll never forget discovering the dvd of the Super Mario Bros Super Show in Target. Discovering that my favorite franchise had a TV show that I had never even heard of was mind blowing. It’s a shame that there’s no real room for discovery, but there’s also an upside to experiencing something that everyone else had years ago. You get to form your opinion independent of the mob and see where yours lies in the general consensus after finishing it. It can be fun to learn which of your thoughts align with the majority and which thoughts cater to your personal experience. Some may despise Shinji and love Asuka, while other are vice versa, while I love both characters.
I feel like I want to comment on the specific elements that you brought up, but I am sitting here dumbfounded, I feel like I have nothing to add. This was absolutely excellent start to end, thank you
Great video, resonated especially with part about a show feeling personal. I have a very similar experience about Trailer Park Boys. Me and my dad (in the UK) watched it in 2006 on a random Sky channel at 11pm one night on a whim. Of course, it was hilarious and we watched it religously every week from then. The fact that nobody had even heard of it (again, at least in the UK) was admittedly a nice feeling when it started to gain more and more exposure in subsequent years - like we'd picked out a hidden gem. Sounds like one of those "I liked it before it was cool" comments, but very happy it eventually got the recognition it deserves.
i renember watching the Evangelion 1.11 movie on a small 17 inch CRT w/ a scratch in its glass (because i dropped it) on my bed at 11pm in the middle of summer on a TV channel that would usually only show art related things, but during the summer break it showed anime, often very good stuff like Ghibly movies, other times more artistic and obscure stuff and that year they showed summer wars and evangelion 1.11 it was a TV channel that had no Ads either, due to its nature of being an Art and education focused one so it was just... 2 hours of great anime it was a magical experience that is just burned into my mind watching stuff like princess mononoke on that tiny, slightly blurry CRT at the dead of night way past my bedtime its an experience i can never repeat now thanks to the internet and the fact that im adult now and i dont have to worry about bed times but im glad i experienced it the way i did i would not have been a fan of the more obscure and mature world of anime if it wasnt for those days in the middle of the summer in the late 2000's
This is why I watch DVD, it feels stuck in the past and there’s no social aspect to it. I sit by my B&O CRT, put the DVD in, and I watch. Simple as that. I try not to watch much about anything till after I’ve watched it, for spoilers mostly. Personally I always liked the way I discovered stuff on early RUclips as a child who couldn’t navigate the internet properly, stuff becomes iconic to you just from seeing a few cool images and for years you don’t know the context, that’s why I love the old Star Wars expanded universe, it was very mysterious. These days you would just watch a lore video instead of pondering the source material for years then finally obtaining it. I’ve never seen Evangelion but I’ve wanted to for years, the imagery is quite iconic (that word again), but I’ve not yet found a reasonably priced DVD set. I’ve avoided spoilers deliberately. All I know is it looks cool, is a classic, and is apparently more than just a mech anime, and it’s got that beautiful oldschool anime look. I’ll make up my own mind.
Beautiful. Honestly, I think this is your best video yet. I have a similar experience of finding Eva by accident, and it's something I always - and likely will always - go back to.
I'm so grateful you were able to tell a story that trumps the time I did a presentation on how Dragonheart made me feel emotions in A Level Film Studies, and had to follow a talk on The Godfather with the time the dragon died and it made me sad. I no longer hate myself.
Thanks for this video Owen. It perfectly puts to words the nebulous thoughts I've been having about how we consume media today. Looking forward to the next one!
Gunbuster is great though! And not quite as depressing. I hadn’t thought about the personal experience like that. You’re completely correct. I don’t recall where I heard it from but I remember someone saying that media today is about reacting, reacting to the reacting, reacting to the reacting before we’ve even seen the content even. We co some content before it even exists and I think it’s bad for us in the long run. The best times I have is when I find content I’ve barely heard about and I can simply disappear into it, it gives such a genuine and immersive experience.
i too have saved money for weeks, bought, intensely listned for months an album titled chocolate starfish and the hotdog flavored water when i was a teenager. what a degenerate i was
I never leave comments on RUclips but your video motivated me to. Defo one of my favorites of yours so far, the shots of Evangelion on the CRT set a great atmosphere and the script was spot on. Funnily enough, Evangelion was the first anime I had watched outside of Pokemon and Dragon Ball and sent 12 year old me on a wild journey. Also Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water was the first album I've ever bought, and yeah, I still listen to it sometimes.
What a wonderful video. Thank you for making and sharing this. You really hit the nail on the head about so many of us no longer having such a personal connection with media as much anymore. I've started seeking out more obscure or even low-rated anime that seems to be under-watched. It feels like discovering something hardly anyone talks about, and it almost feels like a step back in time.
This is part of the reason that I've started buying manga in stores and watching weird older shows without checking the reviews. It's nice to feel like the piece you're enjoying is only with you, at least for the moments that you are watching it. I've found some really good manga in stores; I know other people are reading it, I'm probably the third person to buy it today, but nobody ever told me to read it and (as far as I know, I'm not willing to look) nobody made a popular video discussing it. I don't live in Japan, if I can buy a physical manga volume in a store then it isn't rare or hidden. But it does feel like it's mine. I've come to be the same way with regular books as well, nothing is as enjoyable as finding something truly unexpected.
Your creativity is refreshing. Fell in love with this channel when I caught one of your videos making a self-reflective mocking statement about irony. Now I want to watch this with my young brother and try to see it through his eyes.
You put it so nicely, I find myself agreeing with you on everything you said. Having everything so easily accessible is definitely convenient, but a lot of the magic of discovering something great by yourself and then sharing it with others is gone that way. I think I'll rewatch Evangelion again, it's been more than 10 years since last time.
There really is something to say about experiencing art entirely on your own terms, and determining whether or not it resonates with you, personally, completely separately from any kind of popular opinion. I think the kind of relationship you have with a piece of art that really matters to you individually is special in the kind of way that developing expectations of how you SHOULD feel based on others' opinions only hurts.
did a rewatch recently, showing my gf for the first time. for some reason it struck me more than usual how absolutely gorgeous everything is. I don't know how I wasn't blown away by the art the first several times I'd seen it, but what you said about almost every shot feeling iconic really rings true for me.
The art is easily my favourite part of the show, I loved all the cinematography, even if a lot of the still shots that don't change for 5 seconds get old and were mostly put in for budgetary reasons.
Holy shit the ending got me. I was recommended this video By Sean and I'm glad I watched it. You just pieced together a lot of my feelings about just media as a whole. I make it a point to not watch or view discussion on things I love, because I want to view them for me and hold onto that. Hell I wouldn't have watched this if not for Sean or John because I love EVA too much to hear a youtube video talk about it. It really makes me think, what if I saw something like Cyberpunk Edgerunners one day, in a vacuum on a whim because I thought it looked cool, how much more would I have loved it then I already do. Anyway, really enjoyed this, loved how you framed it and the shots, good stuff. Will check out more videos later.
I know that Brian Blessed's audio commentary on the 4k Blu-ray of Flash Gordon will be the best thing I've ever heard but I still can't be arsed listening to it 🤔
i miss that feeling of “this adventure is about me and i’m the hero for once”. thanks for articulating that, owen. making me wish i could go back to being young and innocent again.
Having a solo experience of something does feel rare. I kind of accidentally watched Bo Burnhams Inside the second it came out, so I had a few days to marinate in my own feelings about it before it became 90% of the internet. It was nice. It felt special. The fact that your channel doesnt have 10x the subscribers is a crime. I have loved every single video of yours since I subscribed and that is an accomplishment because they are so varied.
I got through it with a friend -- their first time with it. I remember seeing it as a kid back in maybe 1999 in school in VHS that I'd traded with others and it just... idk, for a long time there was life before eva and life after eva. I know that sounds dumb but it changed my entire life. And now, with that very dear friend who I care deeply about, watching it in some cabin in the mountains on a laptop connected to a TV two days after tripsitting him on LSD for the first time and hearing him just be unimpressed kinda broke my heart. "Its good, but its overrated" -- I don't disagree, but I expected more some how. I don't know what I expected from others, when I show them Eva but I found it here and I feel like some part of me can rest now like some wandering spirit finally going to sleep. Thank-you.
Great video. I'm not a big Eva fan, but I have this exact relationship to series' like Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost in the Shell, so I totally understand the feeling. Excellently done, and the CRT footage is 100% aesthetic.
I love this. I started to "inhabit" on the internet at a relative old age (in my early 20s), and I came with my own set of ideas, beliefs and opinions, formed by years of solitary consuming. It was a shock to find that I'm an outsider, even here in the infinite sea of the interweb. Sometimes I feel the temptation to just let go, and accept the trends that are considered standard. This video had given me some confidence in the fact that I should get my own opinion of the things I love.
Feel like a very kindred spirit listening to you. I turned 30 last week. I started watching NGE in Ireland when I was 8 because it was on sci fi channel with Martian Successor Nadesico, Gasaraki and Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. I used to tape episodes of blue gender and fist of the North Star when they would show them at 5am in the morning and Thursday nights random anime films like riding bean, perfect blue, wings of Honneamaise, Patlabor etc.
I remember stumbling upon NGE on the Sci-Fi Channel in the early 00's I must’ve been like 7, 8 or 9…one of them... funnily enough I caught it when Shinji was making his way to Rei's apartment to deliver her new ID card. I was luckily enough to have an older brother that had various anime (or manga as it used to be called back in the day) on VHS back then and watched a few of them, but I’m certain at that time I was maybe regularly watching Pokémon or Dragon Ball Z when it used to be on cartoon network. I knew this anime was different due to the lack of dialogue in that moment between Shinji and Rei, and the focus on the small details that linger in the scene such as Rei’s possessions telling a story about her living conditions and her character. Shinji nervously assessing the situation and Rei becoming a bit hostile when Gendo’s glasses are worn. And the awkward exchange when they tussle and end up being on the floor, which somewhat felt appropriate for Shinji to get nervous and apologetic about but rather bizarre with how Rei responded or lack of in that moment. I appreciated the ambience the show was comfortable displaying, the cicadas’ appropriately making the noises in the background, the gloomy aesthetic of the show and just its overall presentation which felt calculated and concise. I subconsciously knew this was somewhat a mature anime at the time, and not your typical shonen type of anime that I was very use to seeing before from my brother’s VHS tapes …and for that it sparked my interests and I started watching episodes from that point on…it felt like a gem at the time, fell in love with how complex it goes from typical mechs saving to world to getting into a territory that only few animes at the time would get deep into such as the psychological aspect. Definitely a show that made me have more questions than answers and it left its impact on me since. I’m happy for everyone to be able to experience it but as the video said, there was something about just discovering it on your own that was just different…no recommendations, no word of mouth, just predestined to stumble upon you on a tv screen…thankful for that for sure.
I watched evangelion for the first time in my freshman year of college, ten years ago at this point, and even then I felt late to the party. I remember regularly going to the cafeteria and getting styrofoam boxes full of pizza, pouring in enough hot sauce till it submerged the slices at the bottom, and alternating between playing dark souls and watching evangelion in the dark, downing soggy pizza and water bottles with powder from the inside of vyvanse capsules mixed with kool aid. I’d often sleep all day the following day, missing my classes. I was deeply depressed, but weirdly enough these things helped me cope and got me through it. My life is much better now; I’m a much happier person and don’t struggle so much with depression anymore, but evangelion for me is a time capsule for my early adulthood, the same way FLCL is a time capsule for my adolescence. Despite it having already been out for over ten years, it felt like something that was made for me, at that time, in that place, and I’ll always remember it as such.
This video helped me realize I think this is partly why I've taken to watching old obscure shows that no one regularly talks about. The Children's Masterpiece Theater anime series spanning from the 70s to the 2000s isn't gonna be trending on twitter anytime soon, but I can watch it leisurely without feeling pressure. When I watch old VHS tape recordings of the PBS Carmen Sandiego Show, I'm relying on uploads made by huge fans who've carried that love from childhood, not from a corporate entity cashing on the nostalgia market for the current day adults
The funny thing is, for as much as I agree with this video about how much the experience of viewing anything has changed, I still think that when it comes to assessing how you feel about a given work you are, ultimately, alone. It's just you, your experiences, and the work. Your music class story reminded me of bringing Evil Man by Fatima Mansions to my music class at college. Needless to say nobody else got it, and I was left feeling even more alone than usual. So it goes.
I remember my good friend showing me some EPs of the show years ago - never did see it to the end tho. All while working down Excel Saga like a greedy guts (I'd be scared to see how that holds up today). I'll need to give this a bash on Netflix. Enjoyed the vid, a nice nod to having "your thing" - Martial Arts movies always seemed more special on the midnight Channel 4 slot.
I am never, ever going to be able to watch or Evangelion again without thinking, "the Squirtle Squad were nowhere to be seen," fuck sake
Technically this could be true of any movie.
the Squirtle Squad was there when shinji asuka wanking locked door hospital coma
lmao the squirtle squad were like the biker gang of squirtles originally right? So rad lol
They were there, they just couldn't show that part on TV.
"I am never, ever going to be able to watch or Evangelion" i agree with this part
I haven't watched this because I'm waiting for a 4 hour "The Infinite Review's Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode Is A Masterpiece and Here's Why" video to tell me if it's good.
It has a release date for 2064
The Infinite Review IS the Evangelion of internet reviews.
I feel you on this. I watched this show years ago alone w/o outside opinion weighing me down and it really emotionally hit me. The struggle of a young boy trying to understand what it means to feel self-love and self-worth, of the fears of rejection from those he loves and thus avoiding people to prematurely soften the blow before it even happens, really impacted me at a point of my life where I was (and still am) fighting through those same feelings. The original ending, to me, was perfect; the show was never about robots, the robots were a plot vehicle for the real story of a boy who doesn’t know how to love himself, and the ending is the climax of that battle. I know people who love the movies, who hate the ending of the original TV show, but the original show and it’s ending, it’s story of loving oneself and living without the constant fear of failure and letting down people you care about, meant so much to me at the time (and even now) that Evangelion is just such a special show to me. I can’t even begin to imagine watching it now and being so tainted by the insanely overactive online community that I would miss out on why that show was so emotional for me at the time.
Yea same, always preferred the tv ending
"He's wanking! It's not pokémon" lmao
yeah, in this post-analysis age people expect things to be as optimized as posible, but art is in the wrinkles, art is in the personal style, art is in your script.
More videos need to make me feel guilty for using them as background noise.
Astounding that there's enough still footage of scenery in Eva to make a ten plus minute video about it without showing any of the characters. Except Pen Pen of course. And Owen's cat. And his second story window.
that's one of the million ways evangelion adds filler to its episodes and the funny part is when you add so much filler idiots will just think it's art when the poor director was just trying to meet a deadline with no idea on what to do with the show from the first episodes on LOL
@@TheLastPierrot it's not necessarily filler. Anno is a director who loves to show scenery and engross the audience in the atmosphere of a setting. If you have ever seen Love and Pop, it's pretty much exactly the same. There is more to artistic film than simply continuing the "plot" sometimes it's just about feel an emotion, something Anno is exceptional at conveying.
does anyone else still come back to this video every now and then? i do it ever few months or so - both to continue to pump the views up so that owen will be forced to review the rebuilds, and because it's honestly one of my favorite videos on this platform. something about the change in individual vs community experience just like, resonates really strongly for me :>
It has gotten to a point for me at which I can‘t really focus on anything anymore. When I watch a RUclips video I read the comments, or worse, write one, when I watch a movie I have another tab open to engage me when I get bored, when I read a book… Who am I kidding? I can‘t even start eating something if there isn’t something in the background.
I don’t know what came first, the depression or the consumption but they sure are good friends. Now it’s just backgrounds layered over backgrounds. Recently I watched Neon Genesis: Evangelion for the first time and I wasn’t even really there. I did it just to do it and I might as well have watched commercials or a video essay.
Thanks for this, Owen! In the hellscape of my media platter this channel is one of the few that makes me stop and think for a second.
Ashamed that I started reading this in the last minute of the video
good sleep and being away from my computer, just reading a book at the park, helped me a lot with this sort of thing.
There's a lot to say about experiencing something in isolation. Most of us who grew up with limited internet access (or none at all) had that one game you spent hours upon hours in, learning every little thing about it and just never getting bored. I used to spend entire evenings in Metal Gear Solid 3 running around the helicopter base, the mountain path, the science lab and so on just screwing around, and it was great. Nowadays, it seems everyone has this huge backlog of stuff to get through and in a way it seems like missing the point. When you start to feel guilty for wanting to replay stuff just because it interferes with your backlog, you know there's probably something amiss with all this.
I've always contested that Grease was far more dense and nuanced than Neon Genesis Evangelion, good on those classmates of yours for understanding true kino.
This video really resonated with me. Trying to block out spoilers and preconceived notions about games and media is something I have tried to do many times with varying degrees of success.
Obviously, to a large degree it has to do with wanting to form my own opinion about something, but maybe deep down I just want to go back to that feeling as a kid of stumbling upon something new and unknown.
I think I've managed to solve it by postponing my engagement with most of the popular media by a few years until the hype and discussion dies down and I can sit down and enjoy it without feeling like I _have_ to. Also works out well for games since by that time they usually go for at least 50% off their release price and I already have the hardware to enjoy them to their fullest.
Shoutout to my middle school teacher who started a "Japanimation" club and introduced me to Ranma 1/2 and Dai Guard in 2003
I was forever known as "MacGuyver" by a couple of boys who spotted a Guyver VHS in my bag one day
love the cat foreshadowing at 5:42
Riku no Inu
I love how unique Evangelion feels, even if you're familiar with everything that it so obviously takes from. If anything, for me at least, NGE is a testament to just how much raw execution really matters. You can have all of the strange, cool elements to your story and premise all you want; but if you can't stick that landing, why should I even care? It's why that whenever I come back to it, Evangelion hits so hard. There's legitimately nothing else quite like it.
I'm glad the camera operator for this episode was humble enough to stay out of the shot until 10 minutes in.
The story about the music class reminds me how close i got to having my nan watch End of Evangelion with me for the first time.
I've intentionally put off rewatching it, because it was so important to me as a 14 year old that I thought it almost belonged solely in that part of my life. Maybe i'll realize how dumb that is and reconsider someday soon.
I thought the same as EoE instantly became my favourite film when I first saw it and I was afraid of ruining that perfect first experience. I was worried that knowing what happens already would suddenly make it less interesting, but watching through all of it again recently proves that I still feel the same way.
Christ, I'm glad I'm not the only person who misses the way media used to be digested in a more casual and reflective way. Now there's a pressure to run out the door and see it right away lest it be "ruined", and then I can count on other people to give their knee-jerk reactions whether or not anyone asked for them.
I've been very happy ever since I stopped caring about what others think of me. I find new shows by browsing lists of stuff that's gonna be coming out and picking ones where the synopsis sounds intriguing. And I use this new age of technology to my advantage. Whereas I used to have to browse the library and read the backs of the tapes, check it out, and bring it home, now all I have to do is look down the list of new releases and head over to my favorite "streaming site" and just start watching.
And nine times out of ten, my friends don't care about what I watched and will just chat about the popular stuff. But I'm fine with that. Hell, if anything, it makes the stuff I watched seem more personal. There are even times when I watch something because of the interesting synopsis and it turns out to suddenly be a very popular show. I don't really know what I'm getting at, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm happy just doing whatever I want and not worrying about anything or anyone else.
This right here is what I was thinking while watching the video. It's actually not that hard to tune out popular discourse or filter in only the stuff that sounds interesting to you. It's still possible to have that personal experience with media, you just have to put in the effort to avoid reading/listening to someone else's opinion on it. Great video nonetheless though.
What struck me, then and now, was the impossibility of it. Like being stuck in a perpetual state of relief, disbelief, and mourning. The feeling when I first viewed it is the same when I watch it now. It is a wormhole filled with tachyons of gratitude. Even more so with the rebuilds being finished. I am astonished that even after dozens of complete viewings, it still manifests that type of wonder in every fiber of my being. It is an aspirational reality.
Who knew when you bought that CD you'd be paying for it twice: once at the store and once, psychologically, years later
I applaud you for showing eva to your class
When I was a kid I brought an anime magazine to school to show my friends and later was sent home with a note to my mum about it because the cover had some fanservice-y anime girl on the cover
Really enjoyed this one, outside of the repeated Limp Bizkit slander
I'm sorry this triggers you but Limp Bizkit sucks
Incredible script, pacing, delivery, and use of Eva's background shots. This is a real mood for a generation.
To be honest I found NGE on youtube in the good old times (you could watched entire anime series on yt and nobody gave a shit about it). I watched it. It broke me. It rebuild me. No other piece of media has ever achieve this in my entire life so far. Therefore i never rewatched it because there was no reason for it. I still remember everything and i am going to remember it to the end of my life.
Fantastic vid. I had a similar but less adequate experience discovering Eva.
Grew up in a small town and there was a local CD store that sometimes got some anime. I didn't have the internet at home so when I bought anime I was picking blindly. One day they got a dual set with "Death and Rebirth" and "The end of Evangelion" on it. I thought it was a 2 part movie series. Looked cool so I bought it. Watched it. Didn't understand it. Loved it anyway. Watched it dozens more times before I found a way to actually see the whole show. Been one of my favourites since that first watch, and I still have that original 2-pack.
I appreciate your commitment to the non-drip lifestyle.
Harkens me back to the time I picked up an episode of Violence Jack from a hole in the wall movie store that got put in the "animation" section when I was about 8 years old. I couldn't talk about that with anyone for years.
In my “tweens” (ugh) we had the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK which showed Eva, Bebop, Nadesico, Blue Gender, Outlaw Star and often a movie every week on Thursday at like 1:00am. Violence Jack was one of those movies, I also could never talk with anyone about that. I still haven’t really.
5:39 the cat walking on the fence in the reflection was kino
I don't even know anyone anymore (besides my best friend) that experienced buying random anime VHS at Suncoast in the early 90s. Everything used to seem so inaccessible back then. Japan was like another planet and surrounded in mystery. I guess that's what makes that time so special. I spent a good several minutes trying to articulate how I feel about it all now, but I really can't. So, that's all I'll say for now.
“You’re joining a party. And chances are, you’re late.”
This is me with every piece of media now, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy, and Evangelion come to mind. I’ll never forget discovering the dvd of the Super Mario Bros Super Show in Target. Discovering that my favorite franchise had a TV show that I had never even heard of was mind blowing.
It’s a shame that there’s no real room for discovery, but there’s also an upside to experiencing something that everyone else had years ago. You get to form your opinion independent of the mob and see where yours lies in the general consensus after finishing it. It can be fun to learn which of your thoughts align with the majority and which thoughts cater to your personal experience. Some may despise Shinji and love Asuka, while other are vice versa, while I love both characters.
This actually feels fresh, ironically or not, you're giving a NEW new perspective to watch the show on.
Ah, a new video from my favorite Scottish RUclipsr!
Half of this video isnt even about Eva, but its still great.
After the IKEA episode, this is probably my favourite of the Review so far. An analogue home video classic, immediately.
I feel like I want to comment on the specific elements that you brought up, but I am sitting here dumbfounded, I feel like I have nothing to add. This was absolutely excellent start to end, thank you
Great video, resonated especially with part about a show feeling personal. I have a very similar experience about Trailer Park Boys. Me and my dad (in the UK) watched it in 2006 on a random Sky channel at 11pm one night on a whim. Of course, it was hilarious and we watched it religously every week from then. The fact that nobody had even heard of it (again, at least in the UK) was admittedly a nice feeling when it started to gain more and more exposure in subsequent years - like we'd picked out a hidden gem.
Sounds like one of those "I liked it before it was cool" comments, but very happy it eventually got the recognition it deserves.
i renember watching the Evangelion 1.11 movie on a small 17 inch CRT w/ a scratch in its glass (because i dropped it) on my bed at 11pm in the middle of summer on a TV channel that would usually only show art related things, but during the summer break it showed anime, often very good stuff like Ghibly movies, other times more artistic and obscure stuff and that year they showed summer wars and evangelion 1.11
it was a TV channel that had no Ads either, due to its nature of being an Art and education focused one so it was just... 2 hours of great anime
it was a magical experience that is just burned into my mind
watching stuff like princess mononoke on that tiny, slightly blurry CRT at the dead of night way past my bedtime
its an experience i can never repeat now thanks to the internet and the fact that im adult now and i dont have to worry about bed times
but im glad i experienced it the way i did
i would not have been a fan of the more obscure and mature world of anime if it wasnt for those days in the middle of the summer in the late 2000's
This is why I watch DVD, it feels stuck in the past and there’s no social aspect to it. I sit by my B&O CRT, put the DVD in, and I watch. Simple as that. I try not to watch much about anything till after I’ve watched it, for spoilers mostly. Personally I always liked the way I discovered stuff on early RUclips as a child who couldn’t navigate the internet properly, stuff becomes iconic to you just from seeing a few cool images and for years you don’t know the context, that’s why I love the old Star Wars expanded universe, it was very mysterious. These days you would just watch a lore video instead of pondering the source material for years then finally obtaining it.
I’ve never seen Evangelion but I’ve wanted to for years, the imagery is quite iconic (that word again), but I’ve not yet found a reasonably priced DVD set. I’ve avoided spoilers deliberately. All I know is it looks cool, is a classic, and is apparently more than just a mech anime, and it’s got that beautiful oldschool anime look. I’ll make up my own mind.
Beautiful. Honestly, I think this is your best video yet. I have a similar experience of finding Eva by accident, and it's something I always - and likely will always - go back to.
I'm so grateful you were able to tell a story that trumps the time I did a presentation on how Dragonheart made me feel emotions in A Level Film Studies, and had to follow a talk on The Godfather with the time the dragon died and it made me sad. I no longer hate myself.
I’ve come back to this review like 6 times over the year - this is such a good essay on media consumption
Thanks for this video Owen. It perfectly puts to words the nebulous thoughts I've been having about how we consume media today. Looking forward to the next one!
Gunbuster is great though! And not quite as depressing.
I hadn’t thought about the personal experience like that. You’re completely correct. I don’t recall where I heard it from but I remember someone saying that media today is about reacting, reacting to the reacting, reacting to the reacting before we’ve even seen the content even. We co some content before it even exists and I think it’s bad for us in the long run. The best times I have is when I find content I’ve barely heard about and I can simply disappear into it, it gives such a genuine and immersive experience.
i too have saved money for weeks, bought, intensely listned for months an album titled chocolate starfish and the hotdog flavored water when i was a teenager. what a degenerate i was
I never leave comments on RUclips but your video motivated me to. Defo one of my favorites of yours so far, the shots of Evangelion on the CRT set a great atmosphere and the script was spot on. Funnily enough, Evangelion was the first anime I had watched outside of Pokemon and Dragon Ball and sent 12 year old me on a wild journey. Also Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water was the first album I've ever bought, and yeah, I still listen to it sometimes.
bro
Really inspires one to make a video, huh?
( ͡°╭͜ʖ╮͡° )
oh hey
What a wonderful video. Thank you for making and sharing this.
You really hit the nail on the head about so many of us no longer having such a personal connection with media as much anymore.
I've started seeking out more obscure or even low-rated anime that seems to be under-watched. It feels like discovering something hardly anyone talks about, and it almost feels like a step back in time.
I think this might be your best video, at least for me. Thank you for making it.
this is such a bloody good video
This is part of the reason that I've started buying manga in stores and watching weird older shows without checking the reviews. It's nice to feel like the piece you're enjoying is only with you, at least for the moments that you are watching it. I've found some really good manga in stores; I know other people are reading it, I'm probably the third person to buy it today, but nobody ever told me to read it and (as far as I know, I'm not willing to look) nobody made a popular video discussing it. I don't live in Japan, if I can buy a physical manga volume in a store then it isn't rare or hidden. But it does feel like it's mine. I've come to be the same way with regular books as well, nothing is as enjoyable as finding something truly unexpected.
that was fantastic
This shed? set? is fantastic.
And a talking TV. Sounds like an SCP.
Magnum Opus reached with this one.
Your creativity is refreshing. Fell in love with this channel when I caught one of your videos making a self-reflective mocking statement about irony. Now I want to watch this with my young brother and try to see it through his eyes.
You put it so nicely, I find myself agreeing with you on everything you said. Having everything so easily accessible is definitely convenient, but a lot of the magic of discovering something great by yourself and then sharing it with others is gone that way. I think I'll rewatch Evangelion again, it's been more than 10 years since last time.
god damn it, we're still below 50k :(
I haven't watched this yet, but I'm just very thankful you made this already.
Jesus, what a great channel.
There really is something to say about experiencing art entirely on your own terms, and determining whether or not it resonates with you, personally, completely separately from any kind of popular opinion. I think the kind of relationship you have with a piece of art that really matters to you individually is special in the kind of way that developing expectations of how you SHOULD feel based on others' opinions only hurts.
did a rewatch recently, showing my gf for the first time. for some reason it struck me more than usual how absolutely gorgeous everything is. I don't know how I wasn't blown away by the art the first several times I'd seen it, but what you said about almost every shot feeling iconic really rings true for me.
The art is easily my favourite part of the show, I loved all the cinematography, even if a lot of the still shots that don't change for 5 seconds get old and were mostly put in for budgetary reasons.
you´re a great writer owen. i love when you take your writing to different places.
Holy shit the ending got me. I was recommended this video By Sean and I'm glad I watched it. You just pieced together a lot of my feelings about just media as a whole. I make it a point to not watch or view discussion on things I love, because I want to view them for me and hold onto that. Hell I wouldn't have watched this if not for Sean or John because I love EVA too much to hear a youtube video talk about it.
It really makes me think, what if I saw something like Cyberpunk Edgerunners one day, in a vacuum on a whim because I thought it looked cool, how much more would I have loved it then I already do. Anyway, really enjoyed this, loved how you framed it and the shots, good stuff. Will check out more videos later.
Always a treat to wake up to a brand new review
Can I just say I really appreciated that Evangelion was on a CRT screen the entire time? Very period accurate.
I know that Brian Blessed's audio commentary on the 4k Blu-ray of Flash Gordon will be the best thing I've ever heard but I still can't be arsed listening to it 🤔
donald glover from derrickcomedy becoming a household name
One of my favorite reviews on the channel
This is my favorite gunbuster review
Haven't finished the video yet. Had to pause it to go watch Page Master again - a movie I had convinced myself I'd dreamt as a kid.
Reviews that cleave to the spirit of the subject like this are absolute diamonds.
I had a similar thing happen to me with a video game. I bought Unreal back in 1999 completely by accident. It was a revelation.
Eva, serial experiments lain, cowboy Bebop and FLCL were among the first dozen anime I watched around 2 decades ago. Am I lost cause?
Your story at the start gave me war flashbacks to me trying to present anime to my classmates too lmao
i miss that feeling of “this adventure is about me and i’m the hero for once”. thanks for articulating that, owen. making me wish i could go back to being young and innocent again.
Having a solo experience of something does feel rare. I kind of accidentally watched Bo Burnhams Inside the second it came out, so I had a few days to marinate in my own feelings about it before it became 90% of the internet. It was nice. It felt special.
The fact that your channel doesnt have 10x the subscribers is a crime. I have loved every single video of yours since I subscribed and that is an accomplishment because they are so varied.
I got through it with a friend -- their first time with it. I remember seeing it as a kid back in maybe 1999 in school in VHS that I'd traded with others and it just... idk, for a long time there was life before eva and life after eva. I know that sounds dumb but it changed my entire life. And now, with that very dear friend who I care deeply about, watching it in some cabin in the mountains on a laptop connected to a TV two days after tripsitting him on LSD for the first time and hearing him just be unimpressed kinda broke my heart. "Its good, but its overrated" -- I don't disagree, but I expected more some how.
I don't know what I expected from others, when I show them Eva but I found it here and I feel like some part of me can rest now like some wandering spirit finally going to sleep.
Thank-you.
"Gunbustaaaa~"
Release the original cut! I for one would happily watch much longer videos, maybe you'd even fit in some discussion of Evangelion in it.
Your videos are what youtube needs right now
Great video. I'm not a big Eva fan, but I have this exact relationship to series' like Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost in the Shell, so I totally understand the feeling. Excellently done, and the CRT footage is 100% aesthetic.
I love this. I started to "inhabit" on the internet at a relative old age (in my early 20s), and I came with my own set of ideas, beliefs and opinions, formed by years of solitary consuming. It was a shock to find that I'm an outsider, even here in the infinite sea of the interweb. Sometimes I feel the temptation to just let go, and accept the trends that are considered standard. This video had given me some confidence in the fact that I should get my own opinion of the things I love.
Haven't seen this channel before but really enjoyed this vid, good shit my dude.
I had an experience w/ Clannad (S1 and S2)
Where that anime came the time I needed the most.
Feel like a very kindred spirit listening to you. I turned 30 last week. I started watching NGE in Ireland when I was 8 because it was on sci fi channel with Martian Successor Nadesico, Gasaraki and Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. I used to tape episodes of blue gender and fist of the North Star when they would show them at 5am in the morning and Thursday nights random anime films like riding bean, perfect blue, wings of Honneamaise, Patlabor etc.
It continues to surprise me just how much of a personal connection I feel with NGE even though the franchise is so heavily commodified. Great video!
I remember stumbling upon NGE on the Sci-Fi Channel in the early 00's I must’ve been like 7, 8 or 9…one of them... funnily enough I caught it when Shinji was making his way to Rei's apartment to deliver her new ID card.
I was luckily enough to have an older brother that had various anime (or manga as it used to be called back in the day) on VHS back then and watched a few of them, but I’m certain at that time I was maybe regularly watching Pokémon or Dragon Ball Z when it used to be on cartoon network.
I knew this anime was different due to the lack of dialogue in that moment between Shinji and Rei, and the focus on the small details that linger in the scene such as Rei’s possessions telling a story about her living conditions and her character. Shinji nervously assessing the situation and Rei becoming a bit hostile when Gendo’s glasses are worn. And the awkward exchange when they tussle and end up being on the floor, which somewhat felt appropriate for Shinji to get nervous and apologetic about but rather bizarre with how Rei responded or lack of in that moment.
I appreciated the ambience the show was comfortable displaying, the cicadas’ appropriately making the noises in the background, the gloomy aesthetic of the show and just its overall presentation which felt calculated and concise. I subconsciously knew this was somewhat a mature anime at the time, and not your typical shonen type of anime that I was very use to seeing before from my brother’s VHS tapes …and for that it sparked my interests and I started watching episodes from that point on…it felt like a gem at the time, fell in love with how complex it goes from typical mechs saving to world to getting into a territory that only few animes at the time would get deep into such as the psychological aspect. Definitely a show that made me have more questions than answers and it left its impact on me since.
I’m happy for everyone to be able to experience it but as the video said, there was something about just discovering it on your own that was just different…no recommendations, no word of mouth, just predestined to stumble upon you on a tv screen…thankful for that for sure.
The intro to this video puts me in tears everytime
I bet this years xmas special is going to be full of Infinite Review bodypillows.
I watched evangelion for the first time in my freshman year of college, ten years ago at this point, and even then I felt late to the party. I remember regularly going to the cafeteria and getting styrofoam boxes full of pizza, pouring in enough hot sauce till it submerged the slices at the bottom, and alternating between playing dark souls and watching evangelion in the dark, downing soggy pizza and water bottles with powder from the inside of vyvanse capsules mixed with kool aid. I’d often sleep all day the following day, missing my classes. I was deeply depressed, but weirdly enough these things helped me cope and got me through it. My life is much better now; I’m a much happier person and don’t struggle so much with depression anymore, but evangelion for me is a time capsule for my early adulthood, the same way FLCL is a time capsule for my adolescence. Despite it having already been out for over ten years, it felt like something that was made for me, at that time, in that place, and I’ll always remember it as such.
This video helped me realize I think this is partly why I've taken to watching old obscure shows that no one regularly talks about. The Children's Masterpiece Theater anime series spanning from the 70s to the 2000s isn't gonna be trending on twitter anytime soon, but I can watch it leisurely without feeling pressure. When I watch old VHS tape recordings of the PBS Carmen Sandiego Show, I'm relying on uploads made by huge fans who've carried that love from childhood, not from a corporate entity cashing on the nostalgia market for the current day adults
The funny thing is, for as much as I agree with this video about how much the experience of viewing anything has changed, I still think that when it comes to assessing how you feel about a given work you are, ultimately, alone. It's just you, your experiences, and the work.
Your music class story reminded me of bringing Evil Man by Fatima Mansions to my music class at college. Needless to say nobody else got it, and I was left feeling even more alone than usual. So it goes.
That looks really good on that tv
one of my favorite videos from you
Even if I don't have the same relationship with it now, I always credited Evangelion for helping me get through a very difficult childhood.
I remember my good friend showing me some EPs of the show years ago - never did see it to the end tho. All while working down Excel Saga like a greedy guts (I'd be scared to see how that holds up today).
I'll need to give this a bash on Netflix.
Enjoyed the vid, a nice nod to having "your thing" - Martial Arts movies always seemed more special on the midnight Channel 4 slot.
Dying at the tv3 joke
“And Adam, and Lilith, and Lilin, and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch…”
Hell yeah, Gunbuster. Second only to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam's conclusion.
Goku midnight eye rocks tbh nice one