"Neon Genesis Evangelion"
Television animation work. Broadcast by 5 networks associated with TV Tokyo Corp. Wednesday 6:30 p.m. October 6,1995 - March 27, 1996. Altogether 26 episodes. Draft, Scenario, Direction, by ANNO Hideaki Produced by GAINAX Ltd.
Basically this is the absurd story of a meaningless battle that takes place while riding on a puzzling machine against an equally puzzling enemy. The scene is the near future of 2015 in the 3rd City of Tokyo which is located at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The beings called "Angel" who were each crowned as Old Testament angels, relentlessly go on the offensive against the 3rd City of Tokyo. The purpose of the offensive and the true identity of the angels are totally unknown; sometimes the angels are giant creatures, sometimes they are big floating pyramids, and sometimes they are computer viruses, and at other times they are circular rings that emit light. "Evangelions" (nicknamed Eva) giant-shaped living weapons, often drive like maniacs, and because they transcend human technology like the Angels, are the only ones known who can oppose the Angels offensive. There are 3 bodies of Eva, and 14 year old children (Shinji, Rei, Asuka) were chosen as exclusive pilots for each Eva. The story develops centered around 4 people; in addition to the 3 kids there is a 29 year old woman named Misato who appears. Each of them has a trauma and not being adept at communicating with others humans, rather than humanity, etc. they consider internal existential questions such as "Why do we do battle with the Angels?, why do we ride Eva?" more imporant. Therefore the production mainly focuses on character psychology.
Full article available here.
I have to say this, if not for this anime hallmark, we won't have modern anime as we know today. Hideaki Anno's vision is disturbing yet compelling.
Friday, August 25
Anime misconceptions don’t stop its popularity
By Aaron Burkhart - The Northern Light
August 23, 2006
Japanese culture has a large impact on the entertainment industry. Anime sales in the U.S. are over $5 billion annually, according to a 2005 BusinessWeek article, and video game sales are estimated around $7 billion in 2005. Anime and video games are closer to mainstream than ever. As the first generation to grow up with video games and anime, today’s young adults and their children are likely to be much more accepting of these entertainment forms than older ones.
Hollywood is starting to catch on too; movies based on video games (“Silent Hill,” “Doom”) are increasingly common, while big names like James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson all have different anime- or manga-related projects in the works (manga are essentially Japanese graphic novels, which many anime are based on).
While most people are familiar with at least the concept of video games, many don’t know exactly what anime is.
Full article is here
Another discussion on anime impact on arguably most sophisticated consumer market in the world, USA. Misconceptions or not, I suspected that it maybe part of author's bias. Maybe.
August 23, 2006
Japanese culture has a large impact on the entertainment industry. Anime sales in the U.S. are over $5 billion annually, according to a 2005 BusinessWeek article, and video game sales are estimated around $7 billion in 2005. Anime and video games are closer to mainstream than ever. As the first generation to grow up with video games and anime, today’s young adults and their children are likely to be much more accepting of these entertainment forms than older ones.
Hollywood is starting to catch on too; movies based on video games (“Silent Hill,” “Doom”) are increasingly common, while big names like James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson all have different anime- or manga-related projects in the works (manga are essentially Japanese graphic novels, which many anime are based on).
While most people are familiar with at least the concept of video games, many don’t know exactly what anime is.
Full article is here
Another discussion on anime impact on arguably most sophisticated consumer market in the world, USA. Misconceptions or not, I suspected that it maybe part of author's bias. Maybe.
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