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Rei Ayanami

Comments

25 comments posted
Moe is a weird thing. Some

Moe is a weird thing. Some view it as borderline pedophilia, others view it as harmless "appreciation" of youthful beauty. I call it creepy in any regard.

Eva is arguably the most mainstream example of Moe that is exposed to the west. They continually sexualize the characters from the show, yet the "pilots" are all around 13-15 years old. I've heard comparisons to Ender's Game, but that's giving Eva too much credit and insulting EG in my opinion. And don't get me started on the whole ambiguously gay Kaoru thing.

If they do a Misato Fraulein I'll be there, but this line so far seems to be one I'll steer clear of unless they go into female characters from older shows. I still want a set of Knight Sabers in this line, but Yamato is doing them and I've already paid a kidney for my Atellier Sai set.

The sculpt is good and joints fairly well hidden, I like the idea, just not what they've done so far.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 21 March, 2008 - 11:16
"Not to mention the legions

"Not to mention the legions of drooling otaku who have fetishized any and all variations of this character... Rei as a mermaid."

Careful now... Recall that I do not collect figures, and that that line was a one-time thing for me because it was a different take on both Rei and Asuka-chan. If they'd made one of Misato, I'd've gotten her too.

-_-;


BTW, all EVA pilots are required to be 14yrs old.

Other than whatever reason for the original series production, have they ever explained in-continuity why this is?
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 21 March, 2008 - 14:10
I was into the series for a

I was into the series for a brief time when the tapes were still coming out. It's a pretty good show if you ignore all the hype and mind-numbing overtones. Sort of like The Matrix, you can watch it and just enjoy it as an action flick, or you can pontificate about the meaning of life via trans-sexual directors and Cristo Jesus.

Watch the show up until the halfway point, it goes downhill faster than a bobsled after that.

The show refuses to die and it's been retold 2 or 3 times now iirc, it's probably because of the emo and moe (coincidence?) following keeping it going.

The "mecha" is unique enough to be interesting but it spawned way too many imitations that continue to this day. Eva single-handedly turned anime into a contest of "How complex and moody can we make a show that has no ending and seems really intellectual, yet has sexy tween girls we can sell scantily clad figures of for ten years?".

We're finally getting out of it with stuff like Code Geass and Gurren Lagann bringing back fun ideas.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 21 March, 2008 - 14:52
I actually like the first iteration of the show...

And by "first iteration", I mean, the very first tv series, beginning to end. The first set of movies were crap, in my opinion...and the fact that they're making more makes me shake my head (though it doesn't surprise me in the least). I'm with you, duke: moe can eat me. What I took from the show, however, was a pleasant middle finger to mainstream scifi. I thought the action was fine, though that's not what drives my watching an anime series (I'm not going to commit to watching 26 episodes of Japanese cartoon...just for the action).

As for the story, it got more and more metaphysical (read: nonsensical) towards the end...and when the unwashed masses were looking for the big (read: generic!) scifi payoff at the end, all they got was Anno's middle finger! He basically revealed that all that angel crap was just that: smoke and mirrors. If anything, the action/plot was really a vehicle for telling the story of a kid with no real identity or sense of self-worth...perhaps a common enough issue among many of today's youth. That's the part I liked.

I would like to think that this theme would resonate among at least some scifi fans...but it would appear that the big payoff ending and the almighty yen were destined to win in the end (hence the repeated rehashing of the ending). But, hey, what can ya do? It's not like Gainax and Anno weren't out to make money from the start. Guy's gotta eat! ;)

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Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 21 March, 2008 - 16:09
I never heard that it

I never heard that it actually was all bull***t and not meant to be taken as seriously as the fanbase does. That gives me a smidgen more respect for those involved, but it's really time to move on and do something else besides decide how many times they can change the ending.

It should be watched once in entirety, just to be in the loop, but I can't imagine watching it again with so many old shows out there.

Josh, did you get the Revoltech Revy figure from the first few releases? It'd be nice to compare it to this.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 21 March, 2008 - 18:06
duke togo...

Your CDX profile is set not to receive e-mails. Sorry to ask you this publicly, but PLEASE lay off the profanity in your comments. Family site, remember? ;)

Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly: whether you dig the show or not, it's definitely time to move on! The original ending should never've been changed, in my opinion. Either way, yeah, it's worth watching at least once (pick your ending!).

But enough, already!

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 22 March, 2008 - 13:53
I don't know the status of

I don't know the status of the EVA fandom (and I'm not talking about my own, thank you), but I suspect that the series was breakthrough in some fashion-or-other that has made it so endearing...? I mean, I am rather surprised that it's lasted over now-eleven years. I mean, it's okay to bring back an occasional OVA to freshen things up a little (*cough*Gundam*cough*), but this series has had figures and models, and games, and re-releases near non-stop! I don't get to watch anime nearly as much as I would like to, so I wouldn't be able to compare it that easily except from others' examples and opinions.
That's also why I can't explain the moe (a new word for me, thanks!) fascination with this series.

(And the fact that I never finished the series also counts for something... ^_^; )
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 22 March, 2008 - 14:07
woops

My apologies, like I said over on TBDX, (I'm a Votoms pilot there instead of an elite assassin) I never know when to let it fly and I think I got the two sites crossed. Impossible right?

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

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 24 March, 2008 - 12:54
14

I apologize if I misunderstand what you're asking, but, I might as well throw this in.

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

Gareth Infinity's picture
Posted by Gareth Infinity on 3 May, 2008 - 10:55
I have to agree all the Eva

I have to agree all the Eva merch out their is a little wtf and thats not going into the gothic loli stuff I've seen

as for this figure its a cool idea but not my cup of tea but I will say if they made a Yoko figure from Garran Lagann I would be sold no question but she would have to have the giant sniper rifle

Transformer and other robot art by me on my DA site blitz-wing.deviantart.com

Blitz's picture
Posted by Blitz on 22 March, 2008 - 13:18
--[gross content warning]-- Re: I have to agree all the Eva

You wanna talk "WTF" and moe? A few months ago, say Jan., I saw a headline here on CDX pointing out some Japanese con or something. Anyways, I saw- and this is burned into my head whether I like it or not- a 6" non-poseable figure of Asuka... sitting on a cutaway toilet takin' both a #1 and a #2 at the same time!!!

I repeat: W-T-F!?
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 22 March, 2008 - 14:20
oh hell now I remember...

oh hell now I remember... how do they get the license's for that kinda stuff

Transformer and other robot art by me on my DA site blitz-wing.deviantart.com

Blitz's picture
Posted by Blitz on 23 March, 2008 - 17:37
The question really is: who

The question really is: who in thee hell would issue & approve that license???

Lest we forget about that short 'official' EVA hentai movie that came about a half-dozen years ago as well...? (Was that video a Gainax-licensed thing as well, or someone else did that w/o permission? BTW, were any of the voices in that the originals?)
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 23 March, 2008 - 20:10
Garage kits typically arent

Garage kits typically arent licensed, and are kind of tolerated as a way to promote the fandom in Japan....

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CollectionDX Admin

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 24 March, 2008 - 08:43
At this point the whole GK

At this point the whole GK industry is (pun intended) in the toilet anyway. The large influx of pre-painted statues at affordable prices, and injection molding technology improvements has made the garage kit strictly for the hardest of hard core.

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.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 24 March, 2008 - 13:26
why would owning this figure

why would owning this figure even remotely approach moe? this has to be one of the most harmless figures i've seen of rei. she's in her plugsuit. she's a central character. oi whatever, sometimes i get the feeling that in order to distance themselves from even remotely appearing like a fetishist some people go overboard.

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 =)

trojandrew's picture
Posted by trojandrew on 1 April, 2008 - 00:32
Who The Heck Cares About Williams?!

No offense or anything but who the heck cares about Robin Williams? He has nothing to do with the series other than watching it and adoring it. He has NOTHING to do with it's success. He's NOT an endorser, he's NOT an investor, he's NOT a voice actor for the show (thank god). He's just a fan, pure and simple...Christ. Stop giving celebrities credit for anime, please! This is Mr. Anno's thunder, NOT Robin's, NOT Scorsese, NOT Cameron's, NOT Lucas', and sure as heck, NOT freaking Spielboogar(heck NO!) It's Anno's thunder. It's he who made Evangelion successful. He doesn't need these big shot americans to promote his work, it's his genius that made it possible, so please quit giving US celebrities credit for the Anime phenomenon because it's not true. They're just in the way.

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

Rodimus78's picture
Posted by Rodimus78 on 17 April, 2008 - 03:06
Ouch... a bit harrrsh, eh?

Ouch... a bit harrrsh, eh?

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

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 17 April, 2008 - 03:44
Well Sir, At Least I Didn't Use Vulgarity...

Well sir, at least I didn't use vulgarity. I like CollectionDX a whole lot. Josh created this website and I owe him that respect after what I've partially done to his business in the past in which I've felt guilty but that's another story. I don't like to hurt kids and their parents with my poop-mouth. I prefer to do my pooping on DAP-DX, but I'm not allowed to profane on DAP-DX on their blog which sucks! No thanks to those meddling kids.

Mr. Sanjeev (if you're reading this), couldn't you just make the DAP blog restricted to adults only so I can swear my rump off? Not fair dude. Jermey and Andrew has all the fun swearing. I am so jealous, crap.

Dude, I'm sorry that you feel that way but what else could I say...it's the truth. Look, I wouldn't have expressed my concern so intensely if I didn't care. I strongly believe that the American Animation Industry is in low spirits. Companies like Disney and Dreamworks had abandoned the craft of traditional animation (cel and clay) in favor of CGI feature flicks. IMO, Disney is a lesser evil since that they're making 'The Princess and The Frog' as an upcoming classical animation while Dreamworks is a greater evil. It's bad enough that most of the US animation studios producing traditional cartoons have reduced their crew to writing/storyboarding/color-coding+transferring them to Asia to be animated, but dismissing traditional animation all together? This is just immbeccable.
The US Animation Industry is on the brink of a decline, Originality is becoming a dying art, 70s-80s horror/SF films are being plaigerized into remakes, and those buttholes in Hollywood are yapping their mouths about being Otakus and crap just to get attention. That's no reason for making live-action anime...at all! They've already dumbed-down their film culture, they've polarized the word 'indie flicks', they're stripping off cultural contexts from Anime films ala Princess Mononoke (Neil Gaiman..What the heck dude?). Seriously, do we really need anymore embarassments from the likes of ADV Films and their putrid cohorots from Hollywood?

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

Rodimus78's picture
Posted by Rodimus78 on 23 April, 2008 - 05:53
This is exactly the kind of

This is exactly the kind of rabid EVA fandom we talked about. No show is worthy of that level of fanaticism, especially EVA.

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.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 23 April, 2008 - 10:50
Dude, I agree with you....

Dude, I agree with you about EVA fandom running amuck here and there. I admire EVA as an 'arthouse' medium, but not as a whore for sexual consumerism. I don't like 'moe', and I don't like 'rape harem' fan service either. That's one of the main reasons I'm against ADV Films' plans for making their live-action project. Like I said before, it will violate the integrity of everything Mr. Anno has embraced through his art. Like Babylon 5, EVA has a beginning, middle, and end. it should be left alone...PERIOD. I didn't understand these terms until I've listened to DAP-DX episode 13 twelve times. I wonder why nobody here has made comments then, so why now? I'm sure that most of them were busy w/ other stuff, and most of them like me decided to talk about it later and do research on it, but the rest who are into it and listened to it, but remained silent? It makes you wonder...doesn't it?

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

Rodimus78's picture
Posted by Rodimus78 on 24 April, 2008 - 02:05
Hmm...

Hmm...

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

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 24 April, 2008 - 03:41
You gotta realize that Eva

You gotta realize that Eva split the whole scene in two. It broke conventions of what a mecha show was supposed to be, the flood of me too shows that ensued took the entire genre into obscure territory. Later it was pointed out that the whole religious/soul searching aspect was bullcrap, as stated by the director himself. That means the whole fanbase is about a nonexistent premise.

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.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 1 April, 2008 - 11:32
not to beat a dead horse, but...

I thought that Anno said that the whole religious aspect was doo-doo. When you say, "religious/soul searching", I see those as absolutely separate things altogether. Ultimately, all the angels/second impact/Judeo-Christian...words--even the mecha, themselves--were all purely smokescreens for the real story, which was the "soul searching" part.

As a mecha/sci-fi/action show, Eva is meaningless to me. I'd rather watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not that I really ever want to watch it again, I still totally respect the show as a super-sophisticated deconstruction of a young Japanese youth struggling with his own identity.

But yeah...screw moe...gimme more Mazinkaiser and Gaiking LoDM! :P

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 2 April, 2008 - 10:50
c'mon duke, "As for this

c'mon duke, "As for this figure not being moe, the character is moe, so the figure is by default." i'm sorry a character isn't moe until someone *makes it* moe. it's the fetishist that moe-fies it. go look up the definition. i suppose the tanks of floating naked Rei's opens it up, but Evangelion nowhere opens direct interpretations of it's characters with them bent over showing off their panties or whatever weirdness is out there.... dangit i guess there's misato!! lol. ANYWAY.

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.

trojandrew's picture
Posted by trojandrew on 16 April, 2008 - 12:48