I’m not sure why people are obsessed with Evangelion, what happened to make it some sort of “meme anime”? I never found it to be remotely popular while growing up, or even in the early 2010s when I did a lot of anime watching
Madoka is the Evangelion of magical girl anime. It’s the one that people approach like “ actually, this one subverts the tropes of GENRE,” but the genre has been doing the “damn, it’s kinda abusive to expect a kid to be a hero” since the 70s (if not earlier).
It’s really annoying when people are like “why are these kids saving the world in children’s media?” The whole point is to give the kids a power fantasy they can project into while showing good moral actions. The shows that deconstruct it like eva or madoka are useful because society does place a lot of pressure on kids to solve their parent’s problems(or the world’s problems more generally) and these shows can be used as an example of that, but it makes sense kids wanna see other kids like them with the power to protect themselves and others.
Same goes for people who think it’s stupid when Goku makes friends with most of his former antagonists, like Piccolo or Vegeta. It’s YA fiction, they’re trying to teach these kids that you can find things in common and make friends with people that you used to dislike!
People will never forgive steven universe, a children’s show about tolerance, forgiveness, and talking through your problems, for ending without the child killing his family.
it definitely can, that’s why the deconstructions are worth something, but that’s a problem tied into the society as whole, not a problem of having kids media about kids having adventures.
I was thinking about hoe Japan considers childhood ending way before we do and then the soul crushing exploitation meaning freetime is seen as uniquely adolescent experience
even in the early 2010s when I did a lot of anime watching
I think it was because it was accessible in the early-mid 00s, had great animation, and was edgy enough for the time. It’s a great series, but it’s definitely derivative of a lot of Tomino stuff.
Big expensive sequel movies being completed after a long hiatus, plus the original TV show being available on one of the most popular streaming services.
Edit: Bolded for emphasis since being accessible is a big thing. For teenage me watching it on mailed DVD rentals, and for the teenagers today stumbling upon it on a major streaming service that isn’t specifically catering to Japanese animation. Like you have to be a big weirdo to hunt down the original UC Gundam shows - you can just use your normie streaming service to watch Evangelion.
I think what made it the “meme anime” was that Evangelion was the first anime to really go all-out on merchandising. You could get evangelion curry. With sonic that’s kinda funny, but when the anime is some weird spiritual allegorical thing, you get kind of a whiplash. Going from watching Shinji “god I’m so fucked up” to seeing them all smiling on a pack of oreos is jarring and kinda funny. It made people on the early net post the merch and share pictures of it, which led to making memes about the merch, which led to memes about the show itself.
Would not call Kill la Kill ‘leftist’. Heard that before and tried watching with a girlfriend and had to shut it off because it’s WAY too horny for seemingly underaged girls.
Read a bit about it afterwards and something said the writer liked how Fashion and Fashism sounded similar and so the show is maybe against fascism but the horny talking sentient 400 year old clothes that occupy a teen girl and give her powers is creepy and we noped out.
Can’t imagine there’s any sort of actual leftism in the show, and if there is it shouldn’t be bundled with sex pest demon clothing.
I almost stopped watching for the same reason but let it play for another episode because it came on the recommendation of a good friend. there’s a particular conversation in 3rd episode that changed my mind because it recontextualized what was happening from the sexualization of girls to the same girls dealing with being sexualized while grappling with their own sexuality. you can decide for yourself whether the way the show handles it works for you but, personally, the show went a long way towards getting me to stop caring about how others saw me as a then baby trans. there’s also a noticeable change in how the camera (and the bystanders) treats the characters after that conversation – it stops leering at them and starts to behave more the way you’d expect from like a Shonen battle anime. desexualized nudity is rather the point of the show, what with demon clothing trying to eat everyone – no one gets to keep their clothes past a certain point. it doesn’t have to work for everyone, it just did for me.
as for the leftism, it’s not just because they’re fighting fascists – the show is critical of capitalism, shows it’s decay into fascism, and spends a lot of time on the internecine squabbles between different kinds of leftists, before the eventual revolution.
It’s a great show. Modern anime sucks. Prove me wrong!
FMA good
Mob Psycho 100 good
Other stuff probably also good, I haven’t seen it
Hellsing cool. Pure vibes.
Castlevania was also good.
Anybody got some good non-shonen to recommend? When I say good I mean good and not “yeah it’s good for an anime”.
mostly drawing a blank but i really enjoyed bloom into you, gay romance rocks
Define “modern anime”
Promised Neverland and Made in Abyss
I’m not sure why people are obsessed with Evangelion, what happened to make it some sort of “meme anime”? I never found it to be remotely popular while growing up, or even in the early 2010s when I did a lot of anime watching
honestly, I’ve found revolutionary girl utena did everything evangelion was trying to do better. but it was aimed at girls so no one talks about it.
It has a better movie than Evangelion, too.
Madoka is the Evangelion of magical girl anime. It’s the one that people approach like “
actually, this one subverts the tropes of GENRE,” but the genre has been doing the “damn, it’s kinda abusive to expect a kid to be a hero” since the 70s (if not earlier).
It’s really annoying when people are like “why are these kids saving the world in children’s media?” The whole point is to give the kids a power fantasy they can project into while showing good moral actions. The shows that deconstruct it like eva or madoka are useful because society does place a lot of pressure on kids to solve their parent’s problems(or the world’s problems more generally) and these shows can be used as an example of that, but it makes sense kids wanna see other kids like them with the power to protect themselves and others.
Same goes for people who think it’s stupid when Goku makes friends with most of his former antagonists, like Piccolo or Vegeta. It’s YA fiction, they’re trying to teach these kids that you can find things in common and make friends with people that you used to dislike!
People will never forgive steven universe, a children’s show about tolerance, forgiveness, and talking through your problems, for ending without the child killing his family.
Besides, everyone they murdered got wished back to life eventually. No harm, no foul.
deleted by creator
The kids thing does intersect with several sets of problematic ideas Japan has though.
it definitely can, that’s why the deconstructions are worth something, but that’s a problem tied into the society as whole, not a problem of having kids media about kids having adventures.
I was thinking about hoe Japan considers childhood ending way before we do and then the soul crushing exploitation meaning freetime is seen as uniquely adolescent experience
I think it was because it was accessible in the early-mid 00s, had great animation, and was edgy enough for the time. It’s a great series, but it’s definitely derivative of a lot of Tomino stuff.
I’ve never seen it so i don’t know
What I’m talking about is why did it suddenly become an internet cult classic in the last 5 years?
Big expensive sequel movies being completed after a long hiatus, plus the original TV show being available on one of the most popular streaming services.
Edit: Bolded for emphasis since being accessible is a big thing. For teenage me watching it on mailed DVD rentals, and for the teenagers today stumbling upon it on a major streaming service that isn’t specifically catering to Japanese animation. Like you have to be a big weirdo to hunt down the original UC Gundam shows - you can just use your normie streaming service to watch Evangelion.
Interesting. Do you know when netflix (I’m assuming this is the service you meant) started hosting evangelion?
There’s a new English dub that they did - so it looks like 2019ish
ok that makes perfect sense and lines up with when I noticed this trend, thanks
I think what made it the “meme anime” was that Evangelion was the first anime to really go all-out on merchandising. You could get evangelion curry. With sonic that’s kinda funny, but when the anime is some weird spiritual allegorical thing, you get kind of a whiplash. Going from watching Shinji “god I’m so fucked up” to seeing them all smiling on a pack of oreos is jarring and kinda funny. It made people on the early net post the merch and share pictures of it, which led to making memes about the merch, which led to memes about the show itself.
But that’s just a theory
Relevant video
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
A show called made in abyss about exploring a maiden’s abyss is not as god a pun as it seemed years ago
On top of all the ones mentioned, shoutout to Vinland Saga, that slaps
Bocchi!
studio trigger has some bangers. kill la kill and promare stand out as amazing leftist anime that directly call for revolution.
one piece is also leftist and clearly calling for revolution but it’s long and will take a couple more years to wrap up.
Would not call Kill la Kill ‘leftist’. Heard that before and tried watching with a girlfriend and had to shut it off because it’s WAY too horny for seemingly underaged girls.
Read a bit about it afterwards and something said the writer liked how Fashion and Fashism sounded similar and so the show is maybe against fascism but the horny talking sentient 400 year old clothes that occupy a teen girl and give her powers is creepy and we noped out.
Can’t imagine there’s any sort of actual leftism in the show, and if there is it shouldn’t be bundled with sex pest demon clothing.
I almost stopped watching for the same reason but let it play for another episode because it came on the recommendation of a good friend. there’s a particular conversation in 3rd episode that changed my mind because it recontextualized what was happening from the sexualization of girls to the same girls dealing with being sexualized while grappling with their own sexuality. you can decide for yourself whether the way the show handles it works for you but, personally, the show went a long way towards getting me to stop caring about how others saw me as a then baby trans. there’s also a noticeable change in how the camera (and the bystanders) treats the characters after that conversation – it stops leering at them and starts to behave more the way you’d expect from like a Shonen battle anime. desexualized nudity is rather the point of the show, what with demon clothing trying to eat everyone – no one gets to keep their clothes past a certain point. it doesn’t have to work for everyone, it just did for me.
as for the leftism, it’s not just because they’re fighting fascists – the show is critical of capitalism, shows it’s decay into fascism, and spends a lot of time on the internecine squabbles between different kinds of leftists, before the eventual revolution.
I guess there’s nothing more modern than anime that is going to get adapted in god knows how many years into the future.
Golden Kamuy is excellent. Made for a mostly adult audience iirc, but not in a horny way.
Don’t listen to this guy, if you’re into bara it is for you.