I enjoyed doing my last reviews of anime, so I thought I would do another. These won’t be as flattering as the last though.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Status: Finished (Retellings being produced)
The Plot: “At the age of 14 Shinji Ikari is summoned by his father to the city of Neo Tokyo-3 after several years of separation. There he unwillingly accepts the task of becoming the pilot of a giant robot by the name EVA01 and protect the world from the enigmatic invaders known as "angels." Even though he repeatedly questions why he has accepted this mission from his estranged and cold father, his doing so helps him to gradually accept himself. However, why exactly are the angels attacking and what are his father’s true intentions are yet to be unraveled.”
Your initial impression of Evangelion may to classify it under “Action”. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong. It has it’s fair share of mechs fighting giant monsters. But, Evangelion is as much an anime about mechs as Moby-Dick is a book about a whale. It had mechs in it, but it is not a series about them. That becomes very clear by the end of the anime.
Just looking at it as a mech alone, it's not terribly good. 17 battles in the entire series, most without any real action. Most of the sci-fi mysteries and questions were left unanswered in favor of a finale that revolved exclusively around the psychological state of the main characters. As a result, the plot is left unfinished in regard to the sci-fi aspects of Evangelion. Most of these plot holes are filled in by supplemental material: video games, pack-ins with DVDs, ect.
That’s not to say that it’s a bad story (psych student’s probably go wild over it). Personally, it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Toaru Majutsu no Index
Status: Halted(waiting for more source material)
The Plot: “Toaru Majutsu no Index is set in Academy City, a technologically advanced Academic city located at western Tokyo which studies scientifically advanced superhuman students with powers, but is also set in a world where magic is also real. Tōma Kamijō is a student in Academy City whose right hand, the Imagine Breaker, has the ability to negate all magic and psychic powers, but also his own luck. One day he finds a young girl hanging on his balcony railing named Index. She is a nun from Necessarius, the secret magic branch of the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum—103,000 forbidden magical books the Church has removed from circulation.”
The plot seems to jump around a lot. 2 or 3 episodes will concentrate on one thing, and then in the next episode, something completely different. Although some of the plots are really intriguing at times, it robs the series of a centralized plot that seemed to be building in the first few episodes. Also, some of the design in the series is rather unoriginal: spiky haired protagonist, magicians, school uniforms, ect. This may have been the suber’s fault, the anime’s fault, the source material’s fault, or my own fault for not holding a degree in physics, but at times the language was a bit cumbersome. It felt like some conversations were just going right over my head.
So, in the end, it’s a series with a lot of potential that could be really good if they just got a solid plot going. I’m interested enough to watch the second season when I get the time, but not enough to watch its spin-off Toaru Kagaku no Railgu.
Ergo Proxy
Status: Finished
The Plot: “In a future where the world has been ravaged by a nuclear apocalyse, there exists salvation in a domed city named Romdo, where humans and their android servants, the AutoReiv, live in. Under the implementation of complete management control, it is a paradise where feelings are literally discarded, and the governing council dictates the way of life the citizens should live. But this utopian landscape is soon broken by a series of mystifying murders.”
This one is a depressing anime. The setting and plot take a huge deviation from what the plot I posted says, but you’ll find that out if you watch it for a few episodes. The art is rather bland and “brown”, but that serves the mood of the series.
Unfortunately, none of the characters are particularly dynamic. They all seem to be on a rather heavy dose of Ritalin. And the plot is rather odd. It has a good plot at points, and the writers created an intriguing backstory, but it feels like the writers decided to bury it for some reason. The backstory gets “explain” in one very odd episode and then never really brought up again. The ending was also kind of strange and left me utterly confused.
In the end, it left me disappointed and wanting to know more.
