I feel like I’ve been in a coma….
By The Eva Monkey on Monday, July 19th, 2004
Two weeks skipped. I feel like Sadamoto…
I’ve probably been spending the time I would ordinarily spend working on the site by reading stuff in the forums. And as great as they’ve been doing, I think I’m going to spend a bit less time posting, and more time working on the site.
I’ve been neglecting the site too much lately, even though its summer, and I should theoretically have the time to work on the site. Instead I’ve been working on the Gangsta City website, and I just bought the .com portion of the GameSekai community.
And on to the other stuff….
Review of Cocoro Books’ “Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide”
Being the very first item I got supplied for review by a company, I was quite excited and eager about the opportunity to review and promote this book. I say “was” because I am no longer eager to sing any praise for the authors of this book. I thank publications director Clive France greatly for his time and assistance in reviewing this book. But unfortunately, I simply cannot say a single good thing about this book.
A month or so back I recieved proofs of the book. I was instantly aware of numerous errors. Many of them were simple publishing errors… grammar, spelling, etc. However there were other errors so incredibly ludicrous and agregious that I questioned the competancy of the writers. The faults and failures of this book can probably be summed up by the following three reasons.
1. The writing of this book was most likely rushed.
2. The writers aren’t that exceptionally skilled at writing.
3. The writers don’t know a flip about Eva, and are simply writing because they are paid to do so.
I’ll give you a small taste of a few of the errors that irritated me. And I use the term “irritated” here liberally. Actually… I think I’ll put it into context for you. I was so “irritated” with this book while reading it initially that I simply couldn’t go any further. I was too thouroghly agravated and frustrated that I tossed it in a corner for a week and refused to read it.
Ok, so here are some errors within the book. The authors suggest that LCL can melt objects. They list Kensuke as the Fourth Child and pilot of Eva 03. They refer to the AT Field at times as an “AC Field”. They at serveral points confuse Unit numbers. Ramiel is refered to as an octagon, rather than an Octahedron. The Authors confuse Central and Terminal Dogma at several points. The authors refer to the First Impact as the extinction of the dinosaurs. Etc, etc, etc.
And these are just a few of the errors from 30 or so pages of a 180 page book. And those are only the obvious ones, there are numerous errors related to understanding and comprehension. And then there are the errors of just plain bad judgement, such as stating that the key reason for Evangelion’s success was the female characters appealing to “stay at home otaku”. In fact, the psychological concepts, religious influence, references to older anime, and inner demons of director Anno were completely ignored.
Speaking of ignored… the authors obviously never read Anno’s confession letter which spelled out Shinji’s character. In fact, their analysis of Shinji runs completely counter to Anno’s (and other production members’) explanation of Shinji’s character.
I simply cannot endorse this book. It simply serves to purport bogus and debunked theories. If you’re a newer fan, you’ll simply become more confused with the Eva series. If you’re an older fan, you’ll simply be iritated. In either case, your money would probably be better spent on something else. Take it from me. I could barely get through this book because of the sheer pain it inspired.
Do not buy this book. You have been warned.
Review of Love & Pop
Thanks go out to Kino Video for providing me with a copy for review.
Many people know that Anno’s flirtations with live action began with The End of Evangelion, but many are out of the loop when it comes to what his films are really about. His first major film, Love & Pop, is probably one of the more striking. It was shot entirely on Sony Handycams. At the beginning, the shots are extremely bold. From inside microwaves, underneath, overhead, and at times, in somewhat innapropriate and dizzying angles. This first 15-20 minutes are extremely bold, and at times amateur-ish. They are at times just terrible, as they don’t look right. For example, at one point, the main character Hiromi puts on her sweater, and she has a camera arounder her waist, pointing up to her face, and she obviously struggles getting the camera over her head and the camera. After the first quarter of the film, the cuts become a bit more passive, and refined, alleviating potential motion sickness.
The story itself is not that interesting, four school girls engage in “Subsidized dating”, spending dinners and karaoke with lonely buisnessmen who’ve nothing better to spend their money on than the company of cute young schoolgirls. The main character Hiromi sees a ring in a department store and becomes determined to purchase it, resulting in her engaging in a subtle form of prostitution to aquire the 128,000 yen necessary to buy said ring. The box says, “Schoolgirls by day… Call girls by night…”. This is quite far from the truth. If you’re expecting nude Japanese schoolgirls, you ought to look somewhere else. While there is some stark sexual perversion in this film, there’s not much nudity or sex to speak of.
This film wasn’t entertaining in the traditional sense, as it was more interesting to watch in terms of cinematics and direction. You really have to be into cinematic techniques to like this film. It was highly experimental, and it shows. The film shows Anno’s flair, as he finds ways to disturb the viewer on more than one occasion.
Gainax fans will notice some similarities between Love & Pop and other Gainax animations. A masturbation scene akin to End of Evangelion, what sounds like some Pillows BG music, and most noticably, quite a few parallels to His and Her Circumstances, produced directly after the film’s release.
Would I recommend this film? To the viewer only concerned with entertainment, I would suggest keeping your money, and simply renting or borrowing. To the Anno fan enamoured by his cinematic flair, and intrigued with cinematic techiniques, I would suggest adding it to your collection. This film certainly isn’t for everyone. And I would advise some scrutiny before forking over the 20-30 bucks, as you may be a bit dissapointed. But one thing is for sure, it is definitely a must see for any Anno fan.
If you’re interested in learning more about Love & Pop, as well as director Anno, I would suggest taking a look at Eva Otaku’s page about his life after Evangelion.
Neon Genesis Tankgelion
This crazy little flash cartoon was pointed out to me by someone on the GameSekai forums. Its a spoof/crossover of Gundam Characters in the Eva intoduction. Funny, crazy, and awesome. Take a look, won’t you?