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Finishing 3.0+1.0, I was met with the same realization. The story is a bit Lord of the Flies with giant mecha, and I think it’s unexpected because we’re used to

Finishing 3.0+1.0, I was met with the same realization. The story is a bit Lord of the Flies with giant mecha, and I think it’s unexpected because we’re used to seeing protagonists in media being young people who are far more emotionally and psychologically developed than they have any right being. The trope leads you to believe it’s going to be one kind of show, but it ends up as something very different. FLCL, which I’m sure most Eva fans have seen, follows a similar conceit about the ineptitude of kids to cope with circumstances beyond their understanding, and is another show that I hold in similarly high regard. Incidentally, it also references Eva a lot.

willis936 5y ago
FLCL was a collaboration of Gainax (who made NGE) and Production IG. Also, I feel that FLCL is a more true coming of age story than a commentary on teenage psychology. You're taken along for the ride too, so the viewer can connect on multiple levels if they're also coming of age. That's in part why I enjoyed it so much as a teen.
- tombert 5y ago
  FLCL was one of those shows I hated the first time I watched it at age 19, but I also got a vibe that there might be some subtext and metaphors that I missed. About a year later, I saw that it was on Netflix and decided to give it a second chance. I'm glad I did, because it's become one of my favorite animes at this point. I think a lot of the veiled references to erections and the analogies strangeness of a 14-year-old-boy forcing his way through puberty were lost on me the first time, and it took until I wasn't a teenager anymore to step back and view it in an almost "nostalgic" sense. NOTE: I have only seen the first six-episode run of it. I can't speak to the newer reboot series that came out in 2016.
  - coldpie 5y ago
    I'm glad to hear it. I last watched it around a similar time (15 years ago... ... ...) and was wondering if it'd hold up to a rewatch.
    - glandium 5y ago
      Never watched them, but two new seasons were produced recently.
  - KennyBlanken 5y ago
    If it makes you feel any better, I saw FLCL at twice your age and only now that you've said it did I realize what the whole forehead-robot-bulge thing was a reference to.
- downrightmike 5y ago
  I love Production IG for Ghost in the Shell SAC. Too bad the new series is so hollow and no real substance.
  - tombert 5y ago
    I liked the first season of SAC, but it did kind of annoy me how they basically decided to put Major Kusanagi in lingerie throughout most of it. She was nude in a good percentage of the 1995 movie, but it wasn't really "sexualized." In SAC it kind of felt like, instead of being a conflicted character unsure of her place in the world, a large percentage of her character was just there as fan service/eye candy, and I thought it cheapened her as a result.
    - p_l 5y ago
      SAC and 1995 movie effectively base on different chapters of the first manga volume (all of them avoiding certain bits though, like Major's "on the side" enterprise), and the character design used in both matches the source material - just different scenes (SAC arguably follows the design more closely) EDIT: to make it clearer, Major's clothing choices in Manga were definitely her own and it didn't feel like it's just random cheap sexualization, but then you have to consider that some of the off-the-books income streams Major had were censored from some releases, and she definitely knew how to play off people's looks at her (explicitly called out in GitS 2.0 manga)
      - tombert 5y ago
        I guess part of my issue is that I wasn't a huge fan of the manga either; it felt borderline-hentai at some parts and just wasn't my jam, I never finished it. The 1995 movie is easily in my top five favorite movies, and I think a large part of it was because I liked that specific version of her character. > Major's clothing choices in Manga were definitely her own and it didn't feel like it's just random cheap sexualization I mean, I guess? These are fictional characters, so these depictions are still created by people. Yes, it's the character's decision in-universe, but it's still the author's decision to put her in situations that require her to be in skimpy outfits. I don't mean to come off as super social-justicey, I guess I just never really liked the trope in anime of every female character being hyper-sexualized.
- dclowd9901 5y ago
  100% my interpretation as well, yet it’s indisputable that Naota is vastly underpositioned for the role of world savior. But the coming of age narrative is so poignant it actually rounds the corner of touching and heart sickness. I actually found Eri’s story (the girl who was the daughter of the mayor) in episode 3 of the original series to be the most compelling. You love to see a character where you absolutely know what they must be feeling but they are clearly trying to meet some social standard of behavior (see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”).
danbolt 5y ago
I remember reading an interview with Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the character designer for the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam on the idea. Him and the interview noticed a bit of a trend along the lines "the larger and more powerful the robot, the more vulnerable and neurotic the child inside is".
- teraflop 5y ago
  And it's not just mecha anime that does this, either. https://twitter.com/curewiki/status/1180163641070346240 https://twitter.com/curewiki/status/1180163641070346240
surye 5y ago
FLCL was created by much of the same team as NGE, so that makes sense!
- p_l 5y ago
  Back in ~2000 when FLCL was fresh, a common quote was that FLCL was NGE team (and Production IG's EoE team) taking a very necessary step into absurd, to decompress from having worked on NGE.
unixbane 5y ago
I disagree with literally everything in your take. No need to elaborate, just use negation operator on each of your assertions. New thread: Does anyone else know an anime show with hapa characters like asuka?
- labster 5y ago
  Haha negation is a fair opinion on controversial anime. On haafu characters: Revy in Black Lagoon is. Another Rebecca at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is Becky-sensei in Pani Poni Dash.
  - unixbane 5y ago
    Nice, didn't Revy was hapa. Will check out Pani Poni Dash.
    - labster 5y ago
      I’m not 100% sure on Revy — I just got wound up in the “two Rebeccas” thing. She has Chinese ancestry, and she was born in America, and has no problem using ethnic slurs on Chinese people. She doesn’t like to talk about her past so I guess you can just tell your own story. Probably a better example would be Li Shaoran (or Xiaolang). In Cardcaptor Sakura, he’s descended from Clow Reed; in Tsubasa, it’s even more complicated. A more interesting one is Tina Foster, who is genetically 100% Anglo-American, but culturally 100% Japanese. She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere, and the overall theme of Ai yori Aoshi is estrangement and finding one’s own family.

willis936 5y ago

FLCL was a collaboration of Gainax (who made NGE) and Production IG. Also, I feel that FLCL is a more true coming of age story than a commentary on teenage psychology. You're taken along for the ride too, so the viewer can connect on multiple levels if they're also coming of age. That's in part why I enjoyed it so much as a teen.

tombert 5y ago
FLCL was one of those shows I hated the first time I watched it at age 19, but I also got a vibe that there might be some subtext and metaphors that I missed. About a year later, I saw that it was on Netflix and decided to give it a second chance. I'm glad I did, because it's become one of my favorite animes at this point. I think a lot of the veiled references to erections and the analogies strangeness of a 14-year-old-boy forcing his way through puberty were lost on me the first time, and it took until I wasn't a teenager anymore to step back and view it in an almost "nostalgic" sense. NOTE: I have only seen the first six-episode run of it. I can't speak to the newer reboot series that came out in 2016.
- coldpie 5y ago
  I'm glad to hear it. I last watched it around a similar time (15 years ago... ... ...) and was wondering if it'd hold up to a rewatch.
  - glandium 5y ago
    Never watched them, but two new seasons were produced recently.
- KennyBlanken 5y ago
  If it makes you feel any better, I saw FLCL at twice your age and only now that you've said it did I realize what the whole forehead-robot-bulge thing was a reference to.
downrightmike 5y ago
I love Production IG for Ghost in the Shell SAC. Too bad the new series is so hollow and no real substance.
- tombert 5y ago
  I liked the first season of SAC, but it did kind of annoy me how they basically decided to put Major Kusanagi in lingerie throughout most of it. She was nude in a good percentage of the 1995 movie, but it wasn't really "sexualized." In SAC it kind of felt like, instead of being a conflicted character unsure of her place in the world, a large percentage of her character was just there as fan service/eye candy, and I thought it cheapened her as a result.
  - p_l 5y ago
    SAC and 1995 movie effectively base on different chapters of the first manga volume (all of them avoiding certain bits though, like Major's "on the side" enterprise), and the character design used in both matches the source material - just different scenes (SAC arguably follows the design more closely) EDIT: to make it clearer, Major's clothing choices in Manga were definitely her own and it didn't feel like it's just random cheap sexualization, but then you have to consider that some of the off-the-books income streams Major had were censored from some releases, and she definitely knew how to play off people's looks at her (explicitly called out in GitS 2.0 manga)
    - tombert 5y ago
      I guess part of my issue is that I wasn't a huge fan of the manga either; it felt borderline-hentai at some parts and just wasn't my jam, I never finished it. The 1995 movie is easily in my top five favorite movies, and I think a large part of it was because I liked that specific version of her character. > Major's clothing choices in Manga were definitely her own and it didn't feel like it's just random cheap sexualization I mean, I guess? These are fictional characters, so these depictions are still created by people. Yes, it's the character's decision in-universe, but it's still the author's decision to put her in situations that require her to be in skimpy outfits. I don't mean to come off as super social-justicey, I guess I just never really liked the trope in anime of every female character being hyper-sexualized.
dclowd9901 5y ago
100% my interpretation as well, yet it’s indisputable that Naota is vastly underpositioned for the role of world savior. But the coming of age narrative is so poignant it actually rounds the corner of touching and heart sickness. I actually found Eri’s story (the girl who was the daughter of the mayor) in episode 3 of the original series to be the most compelling. You love to see a character where you absolutely know what they must be feeling but they are clearly trying to meet some social standard of behavior (see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”).

danbolt 5y ago

I remember reading an interview with Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the character designer for the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam on the idea. Him and the interview noticed a bit of a trend along the lines "the larger and more powerful the robot, the more vulnerable and neurotic the child inside is".

teraflop 5y ago
And it's not just mecha anime that does this, either. https://twitter.com/curewiki/status/1180163641070346240 https://twitter.com/curewiki/status/1180163641070346240

surye 5y ago

FLCL was created by much of the same team as NGE, so that makes sense!

p_l 5y ago
Back in ~2000 when FLCL was fresh, a common quote was that FLCL was NGE team (and Production IG's EoE team) taking a very necessary step into absurd, to decompress from having worked on NGE.

unixbane 5y ago

I disagree with literally everything in your take. No need to elaborate, just use negation operator on each of your assertions. New thread: Does anyone else know an anime show with hapa characters like asuka?

labster 5y ago
Haha negation is a fair opinion on controversial anime. On haafu characters: Revy in Black Lagoon is. Another Rebecca at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is Becky-sensei in Pani Poni Dash.
- unixbane 5y ago
  Nice, didn't Revy was hapa. Will check out Pani Poni Dash.
  - labster 5y ago
    I’m not 100% sure on Revy — I just got wound up in the “two Rebeccas” thing. She has Chinese ancestry, and she was born in America, and has no problem using ethnic slurs on Chinese people. She doesn’t like to talk about her past so I guess you can just tell your own story. Probably a better example would be Li Shaoran (or Xiaolang). In Cardcaptor Sakura, he’s descended from Clow Reed; in Tsubasa, it’s even more complicated. A more interesting one is Tina Foster, who is genetically 100% Anglo-American, but culturally 100% Japanese. She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere, and the overall theme of Ai yori Aoshi is estrangement and finding one’s own family.