Neon Genesis Evangelion...

[seawasp]

... the ridonkulously popular anime, is the subject of today's (Not) On My Shelves!

Comments

[seawasp]

G Gundam?!? That's the one generally in the running for WORST Gundam show ever? That has a giant "Gundam" for Mexico that wears a giant sombrero (and a space station in the same shape!), and another that's a gargantuan mechanical Sailor Moon?

You have peculiar tastes. My favorite Gundam is Gundam Wing. If I want the equivalent of Eva, but not sucking, I'd go with RahXephon, which basically is Eva done by people who don't suck. As I understand it, if I want Total Over The Top, I should go watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

And for pure Giant Robot goodness, there is only the one, the incomparable GIANT ROBO: The Day The Earth Stood Still.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Yep, that "G Gundam". It's magnificent, or at least magnificently cheezy, and it isn't a Kill-'em-all Tomino Gundam franchise show. I agree about "RahXephon" being Eva done right. I tried watching "Gurren Lagann" but it just didn't click for me. I don't know why. "GaoGaiGar" does capture the feel of a 1970's super robot show. I'd hate to put it side by side with "Giant Robo"; it'd be unfair to both, they're both that good albeit in different ways.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

I find both your choices unfathomable. I love RahXephon to bits, bit it has it's flaws. I'm also somewhat surprised that Tenku no Escaflowne and Martian Successor Nadesiko haven't gotten a mention yet, for slightly less traditional mecha series.

The greatest mecha anime is one of the Universal Century Gundam series/OAVs, IMO, though exactly which one varies. Could be 0083 Stardust Memory, 08th MS Team, or MS igLoo*. Or, if I'm feeling up to an exceptionally depressing take on the theme, 0080 War in the Pocket.

And then, of course, there are the numberless versions of Macross (Plus is my fave.)

(*) I'd also accept arguments for Zeta Gundam or Char's Counter-Attack also, but I haven't actually watched either of those myself.

All the assorted angsty-bishounen alternate history Gundams have long puzzled me with why they are so popular. I did really like Relena Darlian though, I'll confess.

[seawasp]

I don't think of Escaflowne as a mecha series. It's... itself and pretty much unique, as my prior review of it discussed.

Similarly, Macross Plus, while in the Macross continuity, isn't a mecha show, it's a sort of a personal drama with some combat.

GWing just worked better for me than any of the other Gundam shows. It wasn't really an "angsty bishounen" show; Duo Maxwell has few moments of angst; Heero doesn't have many, either. Quatre is almost entirely angst-free until things come apart, and then he gets better. Trowa tends to be so quiet his angst's hard to pick up. Chang WuFei does indeed loudly angst about various things. But mainly it's a show about politics and the choices made and costs of war, which is, basically what the real Gundam shows have ALWAYS been about.

My wife likes it a great deal and wrote significant amounts of fanfic in that universe (I added some stuff to hers, and some of the concepts actually ended up being incorporated into my own main universe).

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

But mainly it's a show about politics and the choices made and costs of war, which is, basically what the real Gundam shows have ALWAYS been about.

Now this I absolutely cannot argue with. I think part of my problem, one of my issues with it, (apart from finding myself unable to empathise with anyone other than Relena early on,) is the more toy-like mecha designs of GWing, especially when compared to the better Universal Century* Gundam series.

Another one is the feeling that the entire story and somehow the entire world orbits around the cast and their plot, as opposed to the UC works, which have always felt to me like stories going on as a (sometimes tiny,) part of a much bigger, much more complex and ongoing universe.

I do love the GWing OP though.

(*) MS Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Char's Counter-Attack, 0080, 0083, 8th MS Team and MS Igloo, to be precise.