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Jan 26, 2025
tldr: MIDVANGELION MIDVANGELION MIDVANGELION
I'm well aware that Evangelion has been analyzed, argued over, and praised for decades, and nothing I bring to the table here is new, especially in terms of enjoyment. It's a genuinely enjoyable show. The characters are memorable, likable, or at least sympathetic. The music is amazing, thanks to Shiro Sagisu. The visuals are beautiful, and will likely hold up forever. The imagery of the show is deservedly, undebatably iconic, and will stick with you longer than any of the writing. The show toys with the line between the real robot and super robot genres of mecha, combining the technological trappings of
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the real robot genre with the alien enemies typical of super robot shows, and putting a dark twist on the special powers of super robots with the Evas. Similarly, the emotional content is more reminiscent of seinen, with heavy themes of depression, self-perception and worth, and trauma. Overall, Evangelion functions perfectly well, especially as the mind-blowing gateway anime that it is for most people. But for me, this show was lacking.
The show coasts on the strength of its concept for the first ~18 episodes, occasionally name-dropping interesting sounding things like “The Chamber of Guf” or “The Spear of Longinus” (neither of which it will ever explain), to keep you interested as it continues to avoid answering any questions. The show, although objectively enjoyable for these episodes, gives a clear impression of stalling for time, as the showrunners desperately try to think of an actual overarching plot. At around episode 20, they clearly think of something, as the next 4 episodes are filled with a relentless infodump of plot points, explanations, backstories, and foreshadowing - too much, too late. Episode 24 fills out the rest of the plot, cramming what should have been a show-long arc for Shinji into around 10 minutes, before the show enters its final two episodes of animation recycling and talking heads philosophizing until they reach the conclusion that Serial Experiments Lain reached in 12 episodes.
Much of this show is what I would describe as a sort of "poor man's genius;" something that's designed to come across as genius. It makes you feel smart for noticing the things that it puts in the center of the screen for 15 seconds, while it plays dramatic music. And the insubstantial ending plays into this, causing a divide between people who go on to dismiss the entire series as bullshit, and people who decide that because they didn't understand it, it's a work of genius beyond mankind's understanding. And then there's me (the awesome third type) who's conflicted, and writing a pretentious-sounding review.
The puzzle that this show creates is an illusion, because it has no answer. For a show with so many silent moments, it does a frustrating amount of telling rather than showing. The battles, and all of the mecha elements, feel cynical - always coming down to the wire, the last second, the 0.00000001% chance of success. It almost makes you feel silly for liking it, because of how little it feels like the creators are serious about it.
I haven't watched End of Eva at the time of writing this review, but from what I understand, that was created in response to criticisms of the ending of Evangelion, so I think it's fair to judge this series for what it is alone. Evangelion is captivating, but flawed, and overall left me with almost nothing. After watching it, I feel like I'm back where I started, as if I just experienced an enjoyable but meaningless dream. I really like this show though, so much so that I wish it was better, so I could like it more. I wanted this show to be great, but it’s not.
Edit after watching End of Evangelion:
Evangelion is neither bullshit or genius. It is what it is. Is it good? Not really, but I like it a lot. It’s a piece of media. Evangelion doesn’t feel like a story, it feels like a creation. I was drawn into the world of Evangelion and spat back out, now left to feel like I’ve woken up from a dream that I’m content to only half remember. Is Evangelion good? I don’t know. Evangelion failed, in my opinion. For the purpose of a story, to do what a really good story should do, it failed. But that’s okay. Evangelion doesn’t have to be good. The End of Evangelion didn't fix my issue with Evangelion by giving it a more traditional ending, but it gave me closure. It helped me realize why I like Evangelion, and why I have such a hard time dismissing it as nonsense. Evangelion doesn't need to be anything traditional or normal. Evangelion can just exist, I guess.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 16, 2024
I don't like to give spoilers in my reviews, but this movie is so garbage that I have to make an exception. Spoiler warning ahead, I guess, in case you're really determined to go into this sorry excuse for a film blind.
Narrative centers around 3 "miracle children" (never mentioned before), who have been trapped in a cyber-newtype lab for a large portion of their lives, presumably during the Gryps conflict. Only one of them, apparently, was an actual newtype, and the other two only have powers due to some vestiges of proximity to her. Years in the future, the two escaped non-newtype kids are Federation
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soldiers. A year has passed since the events of Unicorn, but tech has once again progressed at an absurdly unrealistic speed, and the Unicorn is no longer called by its name, instead referred to as "singularity one." But woah, in addition to the two "Unicorn brothers" the Unicorn and Banshee, there was a secret third one, the Phenex!!! It was covered up by the government, but now it's being piloted by the soul of the third miracle child, and needs to be hunted down. The two other miracle children are deployed to find it.
The Axis Shock, Newtype resonance, whatever you want to call it - it's the final culmination of 150 episodes and a movie, a series that had gone on for almost a decade by that point. It's the combined wills of all of humanity, born of their squabbles and flaws, but representative of the hope that humans can be better than what they are and have been. In Narrative, it's a handy-dandy shonen deus ex machina power-up that happens whenever someone tries hard enough, or a weapon that psycho-frame machines can shoot from their hands at will.
Narrative is an adaptation of the 11th Gundam Unicorn novel (11?? God, why), but it's very clearly just rehashing Unicorn's own nonsense, just as Unicorn brought back soulless cameo after cameo to hold viewer attention. Narrative takes all the flaws of Unicorn and cranks them up to the highest possible degree. Full Frontal had great potential, which Unicorn fully squandered, but Narrative's villain is entirely without a personality, and every scene he's in is a slog. He even pilots the II Neo Zeong, which is, as the name suggests, nothing but another Neo Zeong. I've been struggling to write this review in the week since I watched the movie, because even directly after finishing it, every plot point left my mind. Even skimming through the movie again, nothing stands out.
This is the absolute bottom of the barrel for mecha. This is the type of mediocre, fake deep, shiny object super robot mecha that you can find anywhere. I've never a true super robot show, but I have no bias against the genre - I have a bunch of super robot manga and shows I'm excited to watch in the future. Super robot is fine, but for UC it's not. Gundam is a series with some of the most realistic characters I've ever seen in writing, but in Narrative, the characters are cartoon characters. Narrative is filled with things like that, which would be ignored as part of a standalone or a series where they were the norm, but this is UC Gundam, and for this movie to exist is a disgrace to the timeline. This is soulless, meaningless, worthless garbage.
In reality I think it's probably a 4/10, but I'm taking another point off of it because I hate it. The issues with this movie are so numerous that they overloaded my mind and made me unable to remember them all, leaving me only with a lingering memory of pure hatred towards this movie. I tried to look for the best in Unicorn, and it was legitimately really enjoyable at some points. I went into this movie with an open mind, but it was a miserable watch, and just watching this lowered my tolerance towards Unicorn as well. Thankfully, I'm going chronologically, so I've got Hathaway and Victory Gundam next. Save me Tomino... save me...
But all is not lost!
The relatively new manga Gundam Pulitzer, which - in addition to its poignant premise of a college-age Kikka Kobayashi researching the life story of Amuro - also seems to be taking on the herculean task of making Narrative make sense, through a slow-moving B-plot of Luio & Co's Stephanie Luio supporting Kikka's quest in an ulterior bid to get their hands on Psycho-frame research. It takes place in 0095, but Michele Luio's adoption has been mentioned in passing, and Bosch Weller (apparently from f91) has also made an appearance in the most recent chapters. It's flawed but promising, and has shown a proficient understanding of UC's characters and themes. I went into it knowing only the premise, and it would have been strong on that alone, but for it to attempt the inhumane duty of cleaning up Narrative's mess is more than admirable. The plot is still in its early stages, but if it delivers it could well become required reading pre-Unicorn. Sometimes it's little manga like this that do the heavy lifting, so I'd recommend anyone at this point of the series to give it a read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 6, 2024
For any other series but Gundam, an ending this inconclusive would have frustrated me. The plot focuses on a rivalry that we've seen nothing of for the last 60 episodes, to the detriment (especially in screentime) of nearly every other character the show has introduced over its previous installments. The animation, voice acting, etc were all phenomenal as usual, but the movie felt rushed, almost unfinished, and my immediate feeling after it ended was disappointment, because this ending wasn't what I imagined at all. Somehow though, I didn't hate it, and I couldn't figure out why.
As with all things, it just took time. Change
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comes slow, after all. The more I analyzed the film, the more I loved it, but I also understood more and more why people are confused or dissatisfied with it, because so much of the merit of the film is in its incredible amount of buried subtext, which is is so understated it's almost frustrating. Why would you write something this genius and shoot yourself in the foot by making it so subtle??
Char's Counterattack is not a perfect movie, but the more I reflect on it, the more I realize what an insane masterwork of writing it is, and how perfectly it fits into the overall series. In CCA, Tomino has managed to distill all the themes of Gundam into two characters, and it feels like he's always meant to do it. If Zeta was a well-oiled machine, this is futuristic technology, because this is storytelling at a staggeringly efficient level. And the thing that gets me is it's still not perfect. There's still some wasted lines, some unwanted plot threads, some untapped potential. It gives me hope for writing as a whole, because if something this amazing is also so obviously flawed, then what other greatness will be written in the future? Obviously art isn't a competition, but its endless cycle of people doing their best to express themselves and hoping others will understand, and taking inspiration from the work of those that came before them... well, it's fitting that this movie made me think of it, because it's nearly the exact theme of the movie. It's a love letter to art, and to humanity.
Tomino himself has always been one of the most interesting aspects of Gundam to me, in the way that the series is clearly inseparable from him and his beliefs. His writing style is bizarre, but in a way that I can't get enough of, and I can't imagine anyone else being able to make a series like this with the unique charm he did. With a series I was so hyped about, I had begun to create my own vision of what the ending should look like, and when it didn't match with the reality, it felt like something had gone wrong. But Tomino was never going to cater to me, and I'm glad he didn’t. Every major plot and thematic thread, whether obviously or not, was brought to a close in this movie, and it is, in my opinion, the perfect send-off to this glorious series, in the most Gundam way possible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 19, 2024
If a series combining comedy with the traditional gundam themes of the horrors of war sounds weird, that's because it is - but that's okay! The main issue I believe people have with this show is the tonal whiplash between it and Zeta, which is especially present in the beginning. The unseriousness of Zeta gradually grew into an amazing war drama, and the similarly silly ZZ feels jarring in comparison, even if it follows a similar trajectory. The character writing and worldbuilding present in Zeta and 0079 are still here as well, you just have to look harder than usual for them. The difficulty in
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parsing them in Zeta came from how understated and subtle they were, but the difficulty here is because the show keeps sticking out its tongue and making funny faces at you to distract you from them. While these conflicting sides of the show are divisive, anyone who tells you to skip ZZ in the timeline is crazy.
The greatest failure of ZZ is the failure to commit to either comedy or seriousness, in the attempt to appeal to everyone. For those who disliked the melodrama of Zeta, the comedy is refreshing, but for people looking for drama, there isn't enough of it. This lack of commitment to its two sides splits the fandom into groups believing Gundam should be one or the other, and leaving only a small camp who fully accept the oddball hybrid nature of the show for what it is. ZZ is not bad, it's just different, and I've realized I prefer the approach of Zeta.
With that said, ZZ is a part of Zeta. It wouldn't be amiss to compare Judau to someone like Luffy, whose optimism and resilience serve to distract the viewer from the horrors of the universe around them; after Zeta, ZZ is a necessary bit of levity and hope in the maelstrom. The jokes land pretty frequently, animation and fight choreography have noticeably improved, and the goofy cast is endearing. More importantly though, it completes the story of Zeta, and on a larger scale, ZZ is an essential part of the thematic development of UC gundam as a whole. When gundam is good, really good, it sets my brain on fire, and I can't stop thinking about it for days. If Zeta was the make-or-break of my involvement with gundam, ZZ had to solidify my love for the series, and it did it beautifully.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 24, 2023
When I started this show, I wasn't expecting it to become one of my favorite shows I've watched. My introduction to the Gundam Franchise was The Origin manga, which was so beautifully drawn and put together that I kind of expected all of the 80s Gundam shows to fall flat in comparison to the newer, more retrospective manga. While I think Zeta Gundam is more flawed than the original Mobile Suit Gundam, especially the manga, it most definitely did not fall flat. In fact, it blew me away.
This show has a lot of problems. The animation, while it doesn't inhibit the enjoyment of the
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story, is obviously dated, and doesn't really have the same retro-y visual appeal that 90s stuff like Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, or Gunnm do. Dialogue is sometimes awkward, and very often unclear or dense, and episodes often start in the middle of events, after some unspoken timeskip, without much explanation of what's going on until halfway through. There's some pretty strange discussion of gender, there's some weird depictions of relationships, and a LOT of women getting fridged. A lot of this show feels like they were making it up episode to episode with no real plan.
Counterpoint: this show is fucking awesome. Even with all of its flaws, I love Zeta Gundam, and I believe that's its biggest strength. For all the moments of weird writing choices, there's an equal amount of moments where this show feels like a well oiled machine (pun intended) of a mecha anime, functioning perfectly as intended. For all the silly moments, the world feels real, and the characters do too - broken, irrational people struggling against the bleak galaxy they inhabit. This show leans heavily on the original Gundam, but it also expands on it in ways that go beyond gimmicks, showing real thematic depth that lends itself as much to realism as it does philosophical contemplation. In the moments where the pieces all fit together, this show feels like it creates something larger than itself, and you can't help but be drawn in. The best thing this show can do is sell you on itself, and for me, that's exactly what it did. This is my space odyssey, this is my saga, this is Mobile Suit Gundam, and I think I'm here to stay.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 5, 2023
TLDR: Stupid, fanservicey, and imo betrays the themes and characters of the entire series.
This movie feels like a betrayal of the series. It's like fanservice and fanfiction all at once. This series has 13 episodes, a special, and a movie about VIolet coming to terms with the major's death and starting to move past it, as she accepts her trauma and grows as a person, and then in this final movie they reveal Gilbert has been alive on an island for the past like 6 years and has just chosen not to see Violet because he feels guilty about using her as a weapon. It's
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unbelievably stupid. This series should have ended with Violet realizing she can move forward as her own person, not Gilbert's tool or a doll for others, and she stops searching for him. Even Gilbert in this movie is saying "she doesn't need me" and he's completely correct. This movie should have been about Violet realizing that exact thing for herself. Instead, they asspull Gilbert back to life so Violet can be dependent on him again. Watching Violet return to Gilbert at the end feels wrong, and sad. It strips away all of her character development, and it's pitiful to watch. Gilbert's character has been assassinated too, as he's completely unlikable in this movie. He's selfish and pathetic, a shell of his established character, but is still forgiven and understood by everyone in the movie. Violet jumps off a boat and swims like half a mile just to see him, despite him treating her like garbage for an hour and rejecting all of her love for him. The animation and music in this movie are spectacular, but it feels like a waste to watch KyoAni go all out for a plot that's, for lack of a better word, bullshit. The Yuris plotline and the plot about dolls becoming obsolete were good, but it's unforgivably weighed down by Gilbert. The scenes in the future felt useless too, or at least on the nose. Most of this movie felt like an over-the-top and unnecessary attempt to tie up all loose ends and give closure. There were good scenes, and great scenes, but they felt like glimpses at what could have been. It could have maybe interesting if Violet chose to go to Yuris over staying to see Gilbert, showing she's overcoming her temptation to see him and moving forward, and realizing her job and impact therein is more important to her, but that didn't happen. Instead, she goes back to an unlikable Gilbert no matter what, and leaves all of her friends and found family to go live out the rest of her life on an island with him. I genuinely can't believe it. Somehow, this beautiful series is concluded in a bloated movie of pointless fanservice, which had me counting minutes waiting for it to be over. It feels disrespectful that this was even released.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 20, 2023
If you're going into this having read I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (another work by the same author and artist), you will be disappointed. If you're going into this without having read I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, stop and go read that instead. The first half of this manga pissed me off. Every message it reaches is used to beat you over the head, drilling it into you in an unbearably obvious and condescending way. The plot doesn't feel like it's going anywhere until a little over halfway through. Even near the end when I realized what it was trying to do, I
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just facepalmed. The ending is fine I guess, but good god this manga is almost unbearably corny. It has its high points, and a good message overall, but it's sickly sweet and told like a fairy tale for 5 year olds. I expected a lot more from this author in all honesty.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 12, 2023
This manga is a hit. I started it on a total whim when I heard about it, but it blew my expectations out of the water. The art is really fun and weird, I'm a fan of the sort of weird graffiti-esque style. The plot wasn't anything super special at first, but it quickly gets more interesting. The power system is genuinely cool. Without spoiling too much, it revolves around how much a person values an item. The main character's power is really really fun, and I'm curious about where the mysteries around it go. There have been some more mature themes in later parts
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of the story, and it's exploring them well. There are a couple silly moments or flaws with the manga, but overall this is so good, and I'm excited to see where it goes. When it comes out in english, this is gonna be big.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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