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ANNCast - Sargento Soma

Thanks for the info on the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 Blu-ray. It's a shame to hear the original version looks so bad on it. Guess I'll just keep my old VHS.

captainbanana wrote:

Having watched a hundred shows with a character just like Shinji (a weak willed, whiny child) it isn't even that aspect that rubs me in the wrong way when it comes to Evangelion. The part that I find unwatchable is when they start talking about pseudo-religious topics, and how it relates to the plot at hand. It's as if they opened a few holy books, picked out some cool sounding words, and then mashed it all together into something that doesn't really do any of those books justice.

That's exactly what they did. Barely any of the religious refrences mean anything. They did it because they found religion cool which lead to a bunch of crappy shows about wangsty people where the entire series is pretentious as hell.

Charred Knight wrote:

captainbanana wrote: Having watched a hundred shows with a character just like Shinji (a weak willed, whiny child) it isn't even that aspect that rubs me in the wrong way when it comes to Evangelion. The part that I find unwatchable is when they start talking about pseudo-religious topics, and how it relates to the plot at hand. It's as if they opened a few holy books, picked out some cool sounding words, and then mashed it all together into something that doesn't really do any of those books justice. That's exactly what they did. Barely any of the religious refrences mean anything. They did it because they found religion cool which lead to a bunch of crappy shows about wangsty people where the entire series is pretentious as hell.

Hate to break it to you but I think that sort of sums up the Japanese attitude towards religion. They just don't take it that seriously. From a Japanese perspective, it's possible to be a Shintoist, a Buddhist, and a Christian or any other religious combination, all at the same time.

That's absolutely true. It doesn't make it any less irritating though. I'm not offended or anything like that, but it takes me out of the experience when I constantly hear biblical references that mean absolutely nothing in the context of the show. They could and should have done better with that aspect of the story instead of using it as little more than a backdrop.

captainbanana wrote:

That's absolutely true. It doesn't make it any less irritating though. I'm not offended or anything like that, but it takes me out of the experience when I constantly hear biblical references that mean absolutely nothing in the context of the show. They could and should have done better with that aspect of the story instead of using it as little more than a backdrop.

Actually, within the context of the show, some of it does mean something. It just doesn't mean anything religious.

Don't think of Evangelion as pretentious because it throws in religious imagery. The imagery is mostly just dressing, they weren't trying to get you to think of it as anything more than that, except in a few cases where the symbolism is pretty obvious.

It's the fault of the Western audience, not Gainax, for trying to interpret things as having religious meaning. In Japan, nobody was under that assumption. Evangelion is complex because of what it has to say about people, not God.

I'm just going to ignore all the "let's talk about Evangelion...AGAIN" talk in favor of talking about something that matters (mind you, as recently as yesterday I am STILL getting angry emails / PMs / etc from people who declare me so dumb for saying that I don't care about or respect Evangelion):

Renaisance Otaku wrote:

Thanks for the info on the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 Blu-ray. It's a shame to hear the original version looks so bad on it. Guess I'll just keep my old VHS.

I, like you, have been holding onto my old VHS for a while. I'm certainly no videophile like Justin, but I compared the original version as included on the 2.0 Blu-Ray to my old DVD (viewed upscaled), and the Blu-Ray version does look a little better. You can still tell that all the HD restoration type work went into the 2.0 version, but I consider the original version included on the Blu-Ray is the version to have for now. The Manga DVD didn't include the original end credits or music like the old VHS release; the Blu-Ray does. Personally, it's worth $15 to me if it means I can have the original, uncut movie in a format that won't degrade. Still, if there was a HD remastered original version, I'd be all over that.

As for the "dub vs sub" thing, there's a saying: "bad dialogue is better read than heard."
ears.

...little more than a backdrop... My point is that there is no religious meaning to any of the religious symbolism or names used. In a show named Evangelion, they could have left out all of that symbolism and the show would have been exactly the same.