All I know is that 14-year-olds are the best because they were born right after the Second Impact.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if the EVA series (note that I said "series", not "saga" [ie movies, "Rebuild..."] or "franchise") wouldn't make for an interesting DAPDX at this point since it seems to be a rather hot topic in here of-late? I actually might listen in to that for a change too. I'm only worried about the risk of all the bashing I might hear within if I did... ^_^;
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CollectionDX Staff

You're very perceptive on my upcoming intention. Yes, I am currently writing a critical analysis on how the New Hollywood has contributed to cultural illiteracy, alien-nating the art of American Animation, and sabotaging the Independent film movement through sleazy corporate tactics. As far as the world is concerned, we definitely are big, bad Americans defending our ideals throughout the world against cultural influences.

Hollywood as the dream of every Japanese storyteller? LOL! LOL! LOL! Oh really? LOL, does that include every autuer from France, UK, Russia, Africa? LOL, you tell that little joke of yours to Yoshiyuki Tomino if you can speak Japanese. While you're at it, tell that to Jean Luc-Godard at some French New Wave Film Festival in NYC, LOL! They might this quite amusing, LOL!

-Rodimus

Dude, Blog it if you fee like typing an essay on how the big bad Americans try to use other intellectual properties for big movies. Like it or not, Hollywood is still the dream of every storyteller in Japan, no matter how "dumb" Spielberg or Lucas is.

On a positive note, I was extremely happy that Matt Groening consolidated his philosophy by not coercing into that trend. Which is why that 'The Simpsons Movie' have kept me from suffocating through all that CGI + Anime rip-off nonsense. We need more stuff like this. Wouldn't you agree?

Look, I can go on and on about this, but all I'm saying is this: Hollywood and this country are culturally critical. They are too stubborn, too vain,too arrogant, and too politically correct to embrace the cultural context and art of Anime and anything foreign that's avant-garde and alien to them. That's one of the reasons Aaardman Animation have distanced themselves from Dreamworks. You've seen the way they've mishandled distribution for Princess Mononoke (for Christ's sake, they've hired big name celebrities who couldn't do good voice acting and speak with Asian accents to save thier lives! and that butthole Mr. Weinstein threatend to cut off the Japanese subtitles!), You've seen the way Paramount Pictures have mutilated Peter Chung's vision when they made Aeon Flux a genric live-action bomb. This was produced by the great Gale-Anne Hurd who brought us Terminator and other SF classics? What the heck happen to your creative instincts Ms Hurd? All those SF Fantasy books you've been reading and you can't make a show of your own anymore? Some feminist you've turned out to be.

Same thing goes for you Wachowski Bros. and all you other hot shots. You said that Ghost In The Shell was big influence for your Matrix franchise. If that was the case, then why didn't you use 'V for Vendetta' and 'Speed Racer' as inspiration for making more original work instead of ripping them off? Did you see the producers of Cowboy Bebop blatantly ripping-off 'Batman: TAS' in one of their later episodes? NO!. J. Michael Stracyznski continues to write his own originals inspired from famous works, why the heck can't you? These Harmony Golddigging wannabees needs to stop tampering with other people's stuff, get their poop together, and revive the dignity of the US Animation Industry and our film culture before it dies out.

Please don't get me wrong...I love Japanese Anime, but it's not everything. I love other things too like American shows, Canadian shows, British shows, French shows, Italian, Chinese shows, etc.I don't want to loose Bugs Bunny,I don't want to loose Mighty Mouse, The Simpsons, etc., and I don't want to loose our cultural, artistic identity, and I sure as heck don't want Japanese Animation to loose it's cultural, artistic identity either. And that goes for the rest of other countries enriched with their own artistic animation that America has failed to respect IMO. If Hollywood just let go of their ego mentality, and quit alienating their traditional golden roots in American Animation, we wouldn't be this pissed off. That's all I'm saying. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to watch some Chuck Jones cartoons and some Russian Animation.

PS: I took a lot of thought about what I want to say. If I made any contradictions to this commentary, please let me know. I don't mind be wrong, just as long as I'm man enough to correct my mistakes.

-Rodimus

But, on the other hand, you do bring up a good point; one which I hadn't really considered before.

Speaking of the intelligent boyz at ADV trying to get live-EVA up, my Dad knows someone who used to work for them shortly after they made that dub, and he had some very choice words about their level of intelligence. To put it mildly and vaguely, he almost put them on par with Harmony Gold.
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CollectionDX Staff

Excuse me for being overly-sensitive, but why the HECK do people always put American celebrities in the limelight of Japanese animation? Christ! I'm sick of this crap. Hollywood is threatening the Anime Industry, and no one seems to be concerned about this threat. I never wanted a live-action Speed Racer flick, or any kind of live-action anime made in the USA. It'll kill the art. A live-action EVA remake? Is Matt Greenfield insane! That's just overkill. This sort of thing will make Katushiro Otomo and other Japanese artists look like mush...Christ, I can't believe Warner Bros. is going to sabotage Akira! They got their own animation industry ala Looney Tunes! They got their DC Comics, they got their own 'Matrix' franchise! They ought to be focusing on their own franchise, homegrown in the USA, NOT tampering with other people's work from overseas!!! I don't want something like News Corp. or Dreamworks or Viacom seizing control on Production I.G. If that happens, I might...just might have to resort to voodoo on their big, fat corporate rumps.

-R78

is Evangelion pretentious? again, not in and of itself imho. it's definitely weird. you're right, Anno didn't have a message he was pushing, he put up some weirdness that reflected upon the depression he's had in life, and left it on the audience to interpret. that's why the audience running with all these interpretations that Anno didn't necessarily intend doesn't make them wrong or 'pretentious' since Anno meant to leave it to us to respond to it as we will. yes people DO get pretentious when they force their perspective on other viewers, and i agree Evangelion has a crapload of fans doing that.

people who base their response to the series as you have are much like people who have bagged particular online games because of the other players and not the game itself. that's fine, the rest of the audience IS part of the experience, especially for nerds like us, where hopping on sites like Collection DX *is* part of our experience, so i won't totally fault you for it. if you grew up on more classic robot cartoons, great, i don't fault you at all for basing your criticism of Evangelion based on those preferences. it's why most of us prefer music from the era in which we grew up or discovered music.

er i guess all that to say, your premises are off when you call this figure moe.

Many of us old codgers that grew up with the funk of the 70's shows, and later the 80's awesomeness of kanzen henkei, just found the whole Eva thing pretentious and flew in the face of what mecha shows were supposed to be.

I'm not speaking for everyone here, and I can't say I hate Eva, I just don't think it deserves the status it has gained in the 10+ years it's been around. It's right up there with Gundam and Mazinger in presence, and that just rubs me the wrong way.

As for this figure not being moe, the character is moe, so the figure is by default. It may not be one of those post rape statues that were mentioned, but moe isn't just panty shots and porn.

actually i think it would be cool if they did most of the characters from the series. i need a Gendo with his hands folded under his chin and brooding on my desk at work, plotting how to make my millions and / or throw a monkey wrench in human instrumentality! haha. :)

and sanjeev nailed it right on the head as far as the feel of the series goes. someone said don't watch the 2nd half.... i dunno the 2nd half is where the soul of the whole series starts coming to light. as far as 'alternate' endings, i dunno man i don't have a problem at all with 'death and rebirth' and 'end of evangelion'. the end of the actual series is such a hodgepodge of psychedelia that it would almost be impossible to follow it up with a finale that broke stride from the original, and End Of ends so weird and in step with the "you figure it out yourself" type ending that it worked for me just fine :).

hey Robin Williams loves the series, that's a decent endorsement =)

I dabbled in the GK stuff back in the glory days of Kaiyodo, B-Club, and Tsukuda, but my painting skills left many a rare kit in bad shape so I just collected kits instead of building them.

It's always had an underground vibe to it, there were many licensed kits from the bigger companies, but the more "exotic" stuff is completely old school garage kit with sub 100 unit production runs.

I forget this one is more "casual friendly" than the bizarre ramblings of grumpiness and discussions of c***s on robots that is TBDX.

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CollectionDX Admin