Just finished watching Eva and EoE last night, and I'm still reeling from it all, but I really wanted to talk about Anno's use of silence throughout the series. The wordless moments, when they showed up, felt hefty and saturated with mood and purpose. Deliberate pauses are used pretty often in film and television, often to great effect, but it wasn't a technique I'd really seen employed all that often in anime that wasn't Ghibli.
There's something the feels genuine and human about having to sit with a scene or an angle for a few moments without dialogue or music dictating how you should react. Are there any other series that do this sort of thing well?
Evafags actually think this is a deep scene and not just a budget save.
Daniel Fisher
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Lucas Edwards
That sums up how I feel about Gainax.
Julian Gonzalez
Asuka and Rei's elevator scene is probably my favorite example of this and is still ripped off (or paid homage to) to this day
Adam Cook
Wait until you watch Koe no Katachi. They wont include audio for the theatrical release. You'll have to pay about 2000 yen extra for movie theatre hearing aids that you have to replace everytime Shouko loses hers.
Luis Anderson
Oddly enough, I like the ending of the tv show so much more than End of Evangelion.
Christopher Long
I watched Wind Rises the other day and there were a few great cuts like this. Shots of planes burning and crashing to silence or other juxtaposed audio. Fantastic movie.
Jeremiah Russell
Yeah, The Wind Rises is a prime example of what I love about diegetic, non-verbal scenes. The part where Jiro gets in bed with Naoko, and she moves in and puts her arm around him, was beautiful in a really subtle way.
Kayden Sanders
The budget cuts were definitely evident in that scene, though I still found it pretty powerful. If they'd had the money to animate some subtle movement (e.g. breathing), taken away the music, and put in some general ambient noise instead, I think it would've been a little more impactful, but it was still a good sequence.
Elijah Wilson
Non Non Biyori and Flying Witch do it, but in a completely different way.
Connor Edwards
That one massively long cut in the final episode of Repeat struck me as rather daring. Easily the coolest thing I've seen the director do.
Christopher Roberts
This isn't about the use of silence, but its about Eva, so I'm posting it here anyways. I just started watching this show today and I finished episode 9 (The dance synchronization thing) a few minutes ago. I might have missed this during the episode, but what was stopping them from attacking the Angel while it was regenerating and immobile for a week?
Kevin Lewis
I can't remember, but it would make sense if the Evas were also beat up. Were they?
Justin Perez
Tanaka-kun as well but that's only because it has the same director as NNB.
Angel Sanders
They don't actually say it. But seeing as they lost the fight it's likely their evas need repairs. dropping the bomb was an emergency measure to buy them time.
Adam Long
Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.
