Regarded as a critique and deconstruction of the mecha genre

>Regarded as a critique and deconstruction of the mecha genre

Does this mean that I won't get it if I've never watched anime before? I thought I'd give it a shot, but I don't know anything about anime. Maybe I should start with Cowboy Bebop instead.

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amazon.com/Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-Complete-Movies/dp/B00E69VJZ6
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Of course you're not supposed to watch it, no one rikes it.

Worst anime ever, it's just a remake of every Gachimuchi anime ever except with hot girls instead of Leathermen.

If you have a basic understanding of the mech genre It's not that difficult, it's just teenage guys piloting huge robots.

Watching Bebop first won't really help you very much to understand NGE. Just jump in with whichever you like the sound of more.

Even if you jump straight into NGE you probably won't appreciate it as much the first time around, it's way better on a second viewing

What are the classics of the mech genre?

I'll probably start with Bebop because space cowboys seem more accessible.

tengen toppa gurren lagann if you want to go the "over the top battle sfx" route, code geass if you want some good story with occasional mechs. despite me not liking mechastuff as much those two belong to my favorite animes (didnt watch any other mecha animes though since they dont interest me really)

It was the first mecha anime I saw. You really dont need to watch any others before this. While its a deconstruction of the genre, it heavily focuses on human interaction and pysche, and is definitely worth a watch.I absolutely love it.

>I've never watched anime before
Why are you posting on Sup Forums

Start with this. I'll get lynched for saying it so clearly but it's really good and an unexpected emotional rollercoaster.
In fact, I'll go ahead and fucking say that End of Evangelion is my favourite movie ever, and it was also the first anime movie I ever watched. But bebop is fucking good too, although in a different way. There, go ahead, I'll just wait to get burned and lynched by some mouthbreather that actually believes the religious stuff in Evangelion is symbolism and not setting because they don't know what symbolism means. Amen.

Listen to this guy

Because I might start.

Thank you for the recommendations. I've heard of Gurren Lagann before. I'll certainly give it a shot.

Alright, I trust you. I'll probably start a free trial on Crunchyroll soon and give some of these shows a shot.

>falling for the crunchyroll jew

Don't give the jew any money. nyaa.se or gtfo.

Same time, here's your (jew).

Sign up for Netflix and watch the anime there.

Whatever else just use nyaa

I don't want to pirate anything. I'm perfectly happy to pay for the media I consume. Does Netflix have all the shows that have been mentioned in this thread?

>I'll probably start a free trial on Crunchyroll soon
>ever giving money to a middleman
Either pirate the shit or buy it directly.

Why would you pay for something you're not required to pay? Money isn't a religion.
Also the sephirotic torrents have a better translation than what you can get on pay to view sites.

How did I get into this timeline what is this spoonfeeding of a newfag.

It's more like I don't want to do anything illegal.

Your action isn't hurting or incomodating anyone. You simply have a free choice not to give your money to someone who didn't help film Evangelion.

The Jews have families too. I'm okay with giving them money for giving me products. I know they won't miss my ten dollars or whatever, but it's the principle of the thing.

you can watch/download most of them for free. For eva you can get the best mix by searching sephirotic on google and you will find the torrent to download it all, in Japanese with English subs.
If, being new to anime, that's not your thing the english dub is not too bad.

Pretty sure you can't watch eva legally

You guys just gave CR a new moron
Congrats on killing anime by spoonfeeding morons

Normally I'd respect your sentiment, but here's the problem with anime - you can't get the product through legal channels, at least not in any decent quality or shape. Any legal method of streaming anime in the west is by default of vastly inferior quality to fansubs. Video quality, audio quality, translation quality, even subtitle styling (which has a bigger effect than you'd think) are all terrible to the point it's practically unwatchable, especially once you've seen the real thing. The only way to legally pay for anime and get a quality product equal to piracy is to learn Japanese and import the discs from Japan, and that'll cost you probably ~$500 per show and at least a year or two of study.
There's also the fact that pretty much none of the money you pay to watch western releases goes back to the creators and financiers in Japan, it's all pocketed by the western middlemen who create these lower-quality products. If you want to put economic support behind the creators, you're much better off importing goods directly from Japan.

As for your initial post, my mantra has always been if a person has any interest in watching EVA, then I strongly recommend it; but if they didn't show initial interest on their own I wouldn't. Having a good knowledge of anime and the industry up to that point can definitely enhance the experience, but it is by no means necessary to enjoying the show. Anyone can watch and enjoy EVA regardless of prior experience with Anime. Just remember the first ~2/3 of the show is a typical mecha of the time, which can be offputting to someone with no experience in the genre.

Also, please don't ever refer to EVA as a critique or deconstruction of the mecha genre again, it hurts just to hear that. If EVA is a critique of anything, it is a critique of the self and it's place in society. And I can't think of a single anime series that could be properly called a deconstruction, let alone EVA.

We're in the wrong timeline. Have you checked if the miko has a dick?

Hmm. That's stupid. Is this a decent release?

amazon.com/Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-Complete-Movies/dp/B00E69VJZ6

If not, I might just start with the shows I can watch legally, Bebop and Gurren Lagann.

Well it's okay if you're adamant on paying for it. But End of Evangelion is also $76 for the DVD used.

Bebop and Gurren Lagann are probably better places to start watching anime regardless

eva was pretty good until the last two episodes which need to stop existing and the movie was really really good until the LSD trip second half, which was still vastly superior to the original ending

the movie straight up retcons episodes 25 and 26 our of the canon, and good riddance

You're just trolling now, aren't you? That's clearly some sort of chinese bootleg or similar.

And no, going with Bebop or Gurren Lagann isn't going to change the basic fact that you can't get the full quality product in the west. It simply is not available, anywhere, period. It's not stupid, it's the reality of economics; anime is niche enough that, combined with dominant old-school Japanese business practices and the different markets between east and west, means it simply isn't economically feasible to sell the full quality product in the west.
If you're absolutely adamant about paying, you're going to want to buy the Platinum Collection. Not sure if it's still in print, but should be easily findable either way. You'll get laughed at here for doing so though, the remastered blu-rays (released in Japan only) are infinitely better quality. Even then, the Platinum Collection doesn't include End of Evangelion, which is absolutely integral to the series, and it hasn't been sold in the west for at least 15+ years. So unless you want to try your luck on ebay or the likes you literally have no option but to pirate it.

Words cannot express how much I loathe you for being so utterly wrong in both fact and opinion.

So when I eventually get to watching it, do I just skip episodes 25 and 26?

welcome to Sup Forums

no but you will probably hate it unless you really like watching shinji hallucinate to death for an hour straight

Just watch Gunbusters first. It's short, it's good, and virtually every mecha anime afterwards did the same thing to varying degrees so there's no need to watch them to "get" what NGE is talking about. NGE is more about struggling with interpersonal relationships than it is "deconstructing giant robot anime." Honestly, you don't even NEED to watch anything before it, it's an enjoyable show just on its own.

Well that's a shame. Too bad it's not easier to find.

Dear lord no, it infuriates me every time someone says that. 25 and 26 are pretty much the essence of everything EVA is about.

Just watch the series in its entirety (directors cut of course, though pretty much every version out there is directors cut nowadays), then watch End of Evangelion. It's that simple.

Alright, I will.

Be sure to come back with a classic 'what the fuck did I just watch' thread afterwards, we haven't had nearly enough of those lately.

don't post a whole thread about it though derail a waifu thread

>critique and deconstruction of the mecha genre
So it's a ripoff of Gundam?

This is the issue with a lot of anime. Although you would like to watch everything legally, it'll get to the point where you'll exhaust all legal content you want to watch and will have to start torrenting or using streaming sites but don't mention that here.

>but don't mention that here

Too late, I'm already getting my pitchfork. Prepare yourself.

What's wrong with streaming my anime in 144p? I have a shitty internet connection and downloading a show in HD would hours, if not days.

Jesus if you're serious I'm sorry user.

I get maybe 1.5 Mbps on the off chance my connection feels like working.

Spoken like a true millennial, no patience to wait for the finer things in life. I remember when I wanted to watch a show, I'd set it to download about a week in advance.

I feel you, I had a similar speed until 3 years ago. You should be able to easily download a 12 ep show in 480p or maybe even 720p overnight though.

It's OK. If anything I'd say watch it sooner rather than later, contemporaries since have executed many of its individual aspects far more competently. It's kind of like one of those "classics" that if you watch late in the game (after having consumed a LOT of contemporary media) will seem cliche and dated even if it was the initial codifier of many of those modern cliches you've seen a hundred times.

Another thing to note is a frame of reference so to speak. Many swear by evangelion because they saw it when they were the target audience and their experience was tinted by that as well as nostalgia. As long as you don't go into it overhyped, you won't be that disappointed.

Also it isn't that "deep", they ran out of budget towards the end and tried a 2001 esque ending; which I guess if I had seen for the first time when it was live airing and was 12 or something I would have been more impressed with it, but the joke is if you *get it* it really isn't that deep or impressive, it just gets to feel labored. I'm not going to pretend this is worth spoilering; insecurity! trauma! imagery! Assuming you're not underaged to be posting here, and assuming you haven't been in a total media (written, filmed, animated, etc...) blackout for your entire life, nothing here is anything you haven't seen before or should have any major difficulty watching. Its worth watching in that it is a "classic" just don't go in with your expectations too high. I saw it in my mid 20s after having seen hundreds of other shows, and I instinctively hated it; mainly based on the hype I had for it and my subsequent disappointment upon actual viewing. I gave it a second shot and thought about it a little and figured I probably would have been much more impressed by the melodrama throughout and shallow surrealism at the end say ten years earlier, which actually makes perfect sense because at that age I found almost any pseudo-philosophical or surrealist content in films to be hot shit.

>What are the classics of the mech genre?
The other user brought up stuff that came after Eva, so let me tell you that Eva is built on the ideas of things like Gundam, Ideon, and the director's own Gunbuster. You don't have to watch them before Eva but you should watch them eventually if you want to get more into anime culture. They give more perspective into the ideas that went into Eva and why people call it a """deconstruction."""

> they ran out of budget towards the end and tried a 2001 esque ending
The 'ran out of budget' story isn't true, they've confirmed in interviews that the ending we got was planned from the very beginning.

And nice hot opinions you've got there. Few people outside the angsty teenage years will claim EVA is 'deep', but it doesn't have to be 'deep' to say some very meaningful things and have a profound effect on people's lives. EVA is very much a love-it-or-hate-it kind of show, but its status as a classic is undeniable, and not just because of its impact on the medium. I fully expect EVA to be the sort of work that maintains it's importance and impact for decades to come, maybe even longer.
If anything the fact people still hotly debate these issues over twenty years later, with no sign of stopping anytime soon, is very telling.

>The 'ran out of budget' story isn't true
Correct. They actually ran out of ink.

I'm not so much talking about the claim of depth, but overall endorsement. At a similar age, I though Eraserhead, Holy Mountain, 2001 and Clockwork Orange were deep and loved them, I still like those movies today, however I certainly wouldn't consider them particularly complex OR go about recommending them to general audiences for being great movies that everyone should see and will enjoy. Sure I still might pop one on and get extremely drunk and watch it again and love every second, but there's a clear line between personal enjoyment and formal enjoyment. And ON that classic note; personally loving Casablanca or Shakespeare or Beethoven and understanding that they are "classics" are not intrinsically tied.

Hell, I think Eva IS a classic, I don't find it particularly entertaining is all. And largely in part due to the hype surrounding it leading to when I first watched it; when I was admittedly significantly older than the target audience and had already found out what niches I was interested in. If I had seen it younger and earlier in my anime watching experience I have no doubt it would have resonated with me more; I don't know if it would have been my favorite, but based on my other preferences at that time (age and overall media consumption and preferences) I KNOW I would have liked it. Hell, around the time it aired, I was by no means a mainstream anime fan, about the only thing I had seen was Princess Mononoke and I thought that was amazing, which is a movie I still like to this day, but definitely not something I would go out and say "Hey! You like SAO and SNK and anime right? You should check this out, it's totally radical you'll dig this".

EVA is a classic. But stop fucking overhyping it, you're only hurting it in the longrun by setting unmeetable expectations for new audiences.

Alright, I can definitely get behind everything you say here. I'll just paraphrase from my first post in this thread - I will always maintain EVA is a great show and strongly recommend it to anyone who is already thinking of watching it, but I will never recommend it to anyone who isn't already interested in it of their own volition. I suppose that does assume the person has some idea of what the show is like, which may not be true if all they know has been overhyped by zealous fans. A good warning sign to all fans not to go too overboard with the EVA love.

As a rule of thumb, don't listen to anything Sup Forums says about anime older than 2 decades. There is a strong contrarian/hipster sub-culture to be the biggest sperg lord.

Watch Eva. It is very good. You do not need to understand the Mecha genre in the slightest to understand it. Yes, it is deep. Deeper than any shit that has come out in years, that can be both good and bad.

a warning lagann is very spastic and bebop has a slow start

Bebop is one of the few English dubbed anime that a large majority prefer it over the subbed so, I don't think this guy will care anyway.

>2 decades
more like 2 years

A good deconstruction is strong enough to work on its own without the viewer having a crash course on the things it's deconstructing.

No you dumb motherfucker a deconstruction is a relative work. A deconstruction is like a parody or satire, sure, someone could arguably enjoy the final product without any prior knowledge of the source material or situation surrounding the topic but that's merit to the work's quality as a piece of entertainment in general as opposed to quality as a parody/deconstruction/satire.

I actually don't see how Eva is considered a deconstruction... It's definitely got a whole 2deep4u thing going on but it's not a critique of anything other than maybe itself.

Worth watching. I'd probably start with FLCL though, which is much shorter and more fun that Eva. If you're into the general vibe of that though then you'll probably also enjoy the more serious and drawn out aspects of Eva.

>large majority
You're absolutely wrong.

says who

Who says (other than you) that the large majority prefers the dub?

I meant westerners

>But stop fucking overhyping it, you're only hurting it in the longrun by setting unmeetable expectations for new audiences.

Seconding this, the first time I watched it I enjoyed it but was disappointed because it was hyped up to be the greatest shit in human history and it obviously doesn't live up to that expectation. On my second viewing I was able to look at it more objectively and therefore enjoyed it a lot more

No, it means nerds who watch too much anime only want to compare it to other anime instead of being vulnerable and talking seriously about the psychological dimensions

Oh god. I know I'm late, but please don't listen to this retard.
Here's some classics of the mecha genre:
>Mazinger Z
>Getter Robo
>Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
>Ideon
>Grendizer
>Macross
>Votoms
Code Geass barely qualifies as mecha and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a Getter Robo rip-off disguised as a love letter to the genre.

If you mean something you better say it.

Came into this thread to laugh at some idiots, but now I'm just sad.