Everything About NEON GENESIS EVANGELION

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Evangelion Tropes and Idioms [ A ]

GUYS : Read it of you have time .. ^^ It's interesting ..

NOTE : Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means "stereotyped and trite". In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.

[ the following bold words are clickable dude .. per click is free , no need to worry .. ^^ ]

Accidental Pervert (Shinji's first actual conversation with Rei starts with this.)
Action Mom (Yui Ikari...sort of. Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu...for about five minutes.)
Adaptation Distillation (The manga to a degree, and Rebuild of Evangelion...possibly.
- So far, it's also hard to tell whether it's Lighter And Softer or Darker And Edgier. The first Rebuild movie does seem even more violent (both physically and psychologically) than the original, but Misato seems more overtly nice to Shinji and we don't know yet how far the school antics and Tsundere slapstick will go.
- It definitely is easier to understand, so long as you've seen the original series first. Whether this is good or bad is a question for the sages.
- While Your Mileage May Vary, many fans consider some changes in the manga adaptation an improvement upon the original anime. More attention is devoted to character relationships, several filler plots (including some of the less consequential Angels) are cut altogether, and a very controversial scene you know the one is changed to be more acceptable and arguably more appropriate.
Adaptation Expansion (The manga details more of the odd relationship between Shinji and Rei, as well as giving Kaji a tragic backstory and making Kaworu much more prominent. Asuka's screentime, however, suffers a bit of a cutdown, although her introduction establishes her as more of a Bad Ass: she takes out Gaghiel by herself, and later KO's a group of thugs in an arcade singlehandedly.
A God Am I (Gendou's goal; he even monologues about it in the manga.)
AI Is A Crapshoot (Mostly averted; the MAGI computers never turn evil, but the most human of them betrays Ritsuko at the worst possible moment. Subverted with the Evas when you find out they aren't actually robots.)
- Totally averted with the robot Jet Alone. It was remote-controlled and was sabotaged to walk towards the city and almost melt down.
The Alcoholic (Misato)
Alien Geometries (Leliel. The Rebuild version of Ramiel also pulls out some crazy impossible geometry while transforming.)
All Just A Dream (One interpretation of the original ending is that the whole thing was just an elaborate fantasy world that Shinji created for himself because he couldn't deal with the real world. The final episodes depict the point when he finally realizes that his "real" life wasn't so bad, at which point he abandons the fantasy and rejoined reality — the world he finds himself in the end where he has a normal life.) This would of course have the hilarious effect of making the Angelic Days manga a subversion of the trope as Shinji would awake from his fantasy only to find out that Evangelions and Angels are very real and he does in fact have to pilot a giant robot to save the world.
- Another possible interpretation is that it all happened in Shinji's mind, who was schizophrenic all along, and the ending shows the inside of his mind to make a point that he's now too far gone to have any form of contact with the real world. "Mustn't run away", indeed.
Alas Poor Villain ( Gendou in The End might fit, depending on your interpretation of the character.)
- As might Ritsuko, who is less villainous than Gendou, but whose death is also more a heart-rending — and more heart-splattering.
Alternate Character Interpretation (Intentional on the creator's part, but especially noteworthy in some cases: is Gendou a manipulative monster, a misunderstood genius, a loving but misguided father who wants to make his son strong, the show's biggest Woobie, or a mix of the four? Is Yui a soft and idealized mother / Virgin Mary figure (close to being the series' Canon Sue), the actual manipulative monster who's responsible for messing up Shinji, Gendou and the fate of the world, or just off her rocker? Is Shinji a neurotic, obnoxious "wimp", a normal person dealing with impossibly overwhelming odds, or actually a courageous young hero? Is he "pure" or a pervert with Yandere tendencies? Since we're at it, is Shinji similar to Gendou, his polar opposite, or a complex mix of the two?)
- The Super Robot Wars games also dabble in this (as they usually do with the series) giving Shinji a backbone and changing story details. For example Touji does not suffer the fate that he does in the TV series and can occasionally join the team as a playable character. Likewise Asuka, in her famous scene from the movie, does not die when she is attacked by the group of Angels but can actually wipe them out instead.
Alternate Continuity (Especially noticeable in the video games and mangas Girlfriend of Steel 2 and Ikari Shinji Raising Project as well as in the new manga Neon Genesis Evangelion Gakuen Datenroku (Evangelion Academy) and the Hobby Japan-exclusive "sequel" Evangelion ANIMA.)
Alternate Universe (In the omake at the end of End of Evangelion, and during the Third Impact sequence in episode 26; the latter has of late become an official Elseworld with its own manga.)
All There In The Manual (There are a few guidebooks that attempt to elucidate the series. Given that it's intentionally left up to the reader, they are less than helpful.)
Ancient Conspiracy (SEELE.)
Anime Anatomy (Played straight, averted, and subverted, depending on which part or version of the story you're talking about.)
Anime First (Subverted. The manga ran for almost a year before the series begun, but it was made specifically for promoting the anime.)
Anvilicious (Do you know that people are full of ugly fears and impulses? Also, do you know that modern technologies are a mixed blessing?)
Anyone Can Die
Apocalypse Of The Week
Applied Phlebotinum (...where do we start!?)
Ascended Extra (Mana, from the Girlfriend of Steel spinoff. She's one of the very few non-canon characters to reappear in another spin-off (Ikari Shinji Instrumentality Project), and has a prominent, if B-tier, role in the Fan Fic Shinji And Warhammer 40 K.)
Author Appeal (You might notice that in most anime directed by Anno, people are in love / go out / have sex with someone either much youngeror much older than them. The Misato/Kaji relationship — only a year apart — is almost an anomaly here. Misato's relationship as Shinji's boss and "guardian" has lots of subtext, and Kaji gets sexually harassed by Asuka. You have to wonder...)
- Not only that, but Gendou had relationships both with Ritsuko Akagi and, earlier, with her mother, Dr. Naoko Akagi. Gendou is eighteen years older than Ritsuko. Although Gendou evidently referred to Naoko as "that old hag," there's not much to tell us how much older than he she was, if indeed she was older.
- The Judaeo-Christian overtones, giant Adams, etc. probably also count as Author Appeal, when you compare Eva to Nadia The Secret Of Blue Water and other Gainax/Khara series. So do the angsty characters, ethical debates about biotechnologies, gratuitous DNA imagery, etc.
- Not to mention all the hands. They're pretty much Eva's signature style.
- And the stylized psychedelic eyes.
Awesome But Impractical (Applies to pretty much every bit of technology NERV owns. In universe: the Jet Alone. Powered by a nuclear reactor, but without the Eva's AT field.)

Labels: Tropes and Idioms : A

Posted @ [10:13 AM]