Alright here goes my first attempt at a long stupid blog about something that's for jerks like me. Forgive my grammar and forgive me if my opinions conflicts with yours and if I sound ignorant.

 So recently I watched two anime series that are held in high regard, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop. I guess I'll start out the first section with Cowboy Bebop.   

Well damn I didn't know what to make of this show when going into it. I always keep hearing about it, no story specifics, so I finally managed to find some time and watch me some Cowboy Bebop. The first episode definitely got me intrigued. They start out with a flashback of a shoot out that I was expecting to see more of throughout the series and become more fleshed out. Then shortly after, it plops you into the current time where the dude, Spike, is with another man, Jet, who are cowboys, which just means bounty hunters, and they are out simply catching fools to get money. The first thing that hit me about this series is well damn, this show has style, which I downright love it for. The other thing I appreciated was that it didn't fall that much into other annoying anime stereotypes, well there is Faye who wears that outfit and well I'll let it slide since of course there will always be the one hot chick dressed like that. Anyways I was a little down on the series, I was expecting there to be an over arching storyline involving Spike's past but well most of the show was the just the continuing adventures of the crew on the Bebop, which is the spaceship. Of course there were a couple episodes throughout the show that addressed Spike's past, but I wanted more.  

Around this point something changed, this show started to grow on me, I started to get attached to the characters, except Edward because she annoys me a lot, I can see some other anime fans liking her but I don't go for that so I was annoyed. So ya I just liked seeing these people react to the situations they were in and I reached the point where I had to keep watching till the end. It was fun now to see what would happen to the Bebop crew which then I came to the final two episodes of this anime and well holy crap, all the focus is now on Spike's past and him having to face his issues head on. The ending of this which, I absolutely loved is probably what made me turn around completely from saying meh to shit ya!!! I realize now that the show didn't have to focus all the time on what Spike did, it was about the journey that this crew had and the fights they had when chasing bounties (Pierrot le Fou is my favorite episode) and so on. So ya there, I love me some Cowboy Bebop, onto my next thing.    

Ahh Neon Genesis. Well unfortunately my view of this show was the opposite to that of Cowboy Bebop. I remember quite a long time ago, I was quite young at the time, when this aired on adult swim and I caught a couple episodes and was mesmerized by it. Well I was psyched for finally remembering what the eff I watched back then and decided to go through this series that is Neon Genesis. Well the first episode I was quite entertained. The only thing that sorta bothered me at first was the voice acting, which I will say right now the english dubbing of this is down right bad in my opinion which is one of the things that made me turn sour on this series. Anywho, hey there is this massive monster referred to as the "angel" and the dude is wreaking hella havoc on future Tokyo, which the city can go underground for protection against these things. So ya there is this teenage boy who is chosen to pilot one of these combat robots called Evangelions and must dive head first into combat against this angel since nothing else can scratch the damn thing. As expected the kid is overwhelmed and blacks out, which somehow he ended up killing the thing since the Evangelion unlocked some hidden power and kicked ass. So ya I was pumped, it was pretty cool what happened but things started to go downhill fast for me on this show. I started to see the road ahead consisting mainly of, angel spotted, city evacuated to underground lair, send out robot, robot struggles but only barely manages to kill angel. Which unfortunately turned to just that, but I will admit the show is not all that, there is other stuff like character development and relationships that form with this kid so I guess I'll dive into that somewhat.

 One of my major problems with this show is just how many stereotypical anime crap there is in this. Since there is a teen male in this, there obviously has to be some chicks in this that form relationships with him. There is the woman who has the boy, oh right his name is Shinji, forgive me if I don't say names much since a lot was a blur, living with him but she isn't too annoying. There are other girls that are Shinji's age, uhh Ray and Asuka. Well there is one encounter between Ray and Shinji that was just plain dumb in my opinion, he goes to her apartment to drop off a card which leads into a scene with him stumbling and falling onto a naked Ray who recently showered and his hand, of course like other animes out there, manages to land on her boob. There is the other girl, Asuka, who is introduced later, who is a german girl and pilots another robot. She becomes my most hated character in this show, nearly every time you see her with Shinji, she has to say something like, DON'T LOOK AT ME WHEN I CHANGE CLOTHES, or PERVERT, etc. Shinji minds his own business but this girl always has to yell at him for no reason since she obviously wants his attention and his penis.  

 OK, I'm going to try to end this soon since this is starting to turn into a rant. The story continues with Shinji and the two other girls constantly fighting angels in nearly every episode. This leads into the final episodes that well.........I don't know. I'm not going to bash this series for what happens towards the end of its run since well.......I just don't really get what the fuck is going on. After the last angel fight the last episodes turn into some twilight zone shit inside Shinji's head and well it's been a couple weeks since I watched it so that shit is a blur. I'm not going to attempt to explain something that I have trouble remembering and understanding. I am aware that there were was a movie made that takes place right after the last angel fight and changes the ending, but well.....I'm so burned out on this show that I don't think I really care anymore what happens. Some may say hey why the hell didn't you just stop watching if it made you this annoyed?! Well I just wanted to see where all this shit was leading to and I kept telling myself this until, BOOM show is over and I was left telling myself what the fuck did I just watch?  

 Well if you managed to make it this far then I clap for you. Excuse my grammar since I rush stuff. Also the reason why I have these two animes grouped together is because I watched them around the same time and I heard equally high praise on both series.  Plus I don't downright hate Neon Genesis, it just annoys the hell out of me and makes me question it's popularity besides the whole robots are mad awesome in Japan.

So ya I know there are a lot of Neon Genesis lovers out there which I must ask, am I missing something? Was I too dumb to not understand the show? Was there something I missed like some underlying plot line within this whole thing? I will only comment on the anime, I know this was based on a manga but I didn't read it. Also I obviously watched the U.S version which may be worse than the japanese version, I don't know. Please let me know if I'm not getting anything about this anime. I didn't mean to sound trollish about Neon Genesis in case if I did. This is just my opinion. Oh one more thing. Anime is still for jerks, you jerks.

I mostly agree with your assessments, but I haven't seen NGE all the way to the end so my opinion on that may not be worth mentioning. Cowboy Bebop is pretty special, and I'm glad you were able to stick it out to the end, which is by far the high point of the series. Next you should watch FLCL if you haven't seen it already. Good news: It's only six episodes long. Should be a much easier endeavor than these two.
 
EDIT: I forgot to say, you gotta give it up for Ed. I think she will grow on you more in the future.

" I mostly agree with your assessments, but I haven't seen NGE all the way to the end so my opinion on that may not be worth mentioning. Cowboy Bebop is pretty special, and I'm glad you were able to stick it out to the end, which is by far the high point of the series. Next you should watch FLCL if you haven't seen it already. Good news: It's only six episodes long. Should be a much easier endeavor than these two. "

I loved Ed... her character was just so awesome in my opinion. But I can can see how others may not like her. 
 
I want to watch Evangelion, but I have no idea where to start. I know there are movies of the series. And I think reboots, also its a series with episodes... I think... 
I skipped that part of your blog because I wanted to avoid spoilers (Not actually sure if there were spoilers, I'm just being cautious) 
 
Could you help me out?

" @Rockdalf: I remember seeing some episodes of Samurai Champloo when it aired on adult swim. I was younger at the time and I didn't really follow. I'll definitely go back and check it out sometime. I'll also try to get around to checking out FLCL. "

I actually just started/finished watching NGE a couple weeks ago. I agree with you on the annoying "goofy sexual shenanigans" shit that was in it, but I actually found the white haired chick to be way more annoying than the red haired one. It's like, we get it already, you're an emotionless husk of a person, get over it. At least the German actually engaged with the rest of the story. I haven't seen the follow-up movie, and I'm kind of with you in wanting to just leave the ending as is (and also remembering the whole thing as a weird blur). That way I can have more fun with thinking about what actually happened.  
 

Oh ok, so its only 26 episodes in the series, and the movie re-tells the last couple of episodes with an alternate ending. 
Good deal, now I can finally watch this highly acclaimed series. Thanks!

You might want to check out the Cowboy Bebop movie. It doesn't address any of characters specific storylines, and continuity-wise it takes place right before they all part ways. It's essentially a two hour Cowboy Bebop episode, which is a good thing. As for NGE, it's a subversive series so all the clichés are a deliberate deconstruction of the whole mecha-anime genre. If you watch it as a fucked up, deadpan black comedy it kind of works. From what I've read on the subject, the ending was the way it was because the main guy behind the series had some sort of mental breakdown or something towards the end and it clearly shows. I personally liked it, but I understand why all the head-up-it's-own-assness can be off-putting. As for the NGE movie don't bother because it gets even more twilight zoney and leaves more questions than it answers. 

neon looks incredible generic, straight up lazy anime style. bebop i amazing though 
 
@High_Nunez said:

" You might want to check out the Cowboy Bebop movie. It doesn't address any of characters specific storylines, and continuity-wise it takes place right before they all part ways. It's essentially a two hour Cowboy Bebop episode, which is a good thing. As for NGE, it's a subversive series so all the clichés are a deliberate deconstruction of the whole mecha-anime genre. If you watch it as a fucked up, deadpan black comedy it kind of works. From what I've read on the subject, the ending was the way it was because the main guy behind the series had some sort of mental breakdown or something towards the end and it clearly shows. I personally liked it, but I understand why all the head-up-it's-own-assness can be off-putting. As for the NGE movie don't bother because it gets even more twilight zoney and leaves more questions than it answers.  "

First off Cowboy Bebop is probably my favorite anime ever. second, I just started watching NGE like 2 days ago and yeah the english voice acting is pretty damn bad but the thing with Gainax animes is that I tend to forgive the melodramatic scenes and odd pacing for the insanely stylized way in which they animate things, making everything seem fluid(Bebop does this too)and putting nice detail into the slower frames. If you want to see Gainax's best animation watch FLCL(although it might be a little TOO crazy).
 
I also just finished watching Berserk and that was definitely one of the best animes Ive ever seen,but be warned if you watch it,the show ends on the most INTENSE cliffhanger ever(they didn't have enough funding to make the last episode so they just ended it).Totally worth watching for the insane violence and medieval setting,great voice acting too.

I love Cowboy Bebop but I think I'll pass on Neon Genesis. From what I seen, it doesn't look all that compelling.

How to watch NGE: 
 
Step 1: Watch the bluray remastered episodes 1-24. Skip 25 and 26
Step 2: Watch the movie "End of Evangelion" 
Step 3: Watch the two new Evangelion revival movies: Eva 1.0 (You are (not) alone), and Eva 2.0 (You shall (not) Advance) 
Step 4: Wait for Eva 3.0 to come out and hope to god there will be an ending that can halt this 15 year cycle of pure madness in some sort of satisfying way (Don't hold your breath) 
 
Seriously though, watch the two new movies. They move quickly enough that the character flaws of each of the mains don't make you want to drill a hole in your skull.

Yeah, Evangelion is garbage. No idea where all it's praise comes from.

My favorite Cowboy Bebop episode was Jupiter Jazz (both parts). Especially for the music, which was the best in the whole show. This song in particular, really adds to the sad tone of said episode.
 
Speaking of which, how could you forget to mention Bebop's soundtrack? :O  It's the best part of the show in my opinion.

You can never go wrong with Cowboy Bebop.               :)

I thought Neon Genesis was pretty good, although maybe a bit stretched out. Not the kind of thing you'd watch over and over.
Two other series you owe it to youself to watch if you haven't seen them already are FLCL and Paranoia Agent.

Pretty old shows. Seems like there are better, newer shows worth talking about these days. Or at least there should be.

Gurren Lagann is good. Check out the HD subbed version, then go get the two movies. Same goes for Eden of the East. 

"You won't understand FLCL's plot on your first time through."

The popularity of Evangelion has always puzzled me, all the way back to first seeing it at a University anime club show in 98. Everyone there loved it, and apparently all these years later the majority of anime fans still do. For that time the animation was top notch, as were most Gainax productions, but everything else is just helter skelter. It's a very confusing show, chalked full of religious symbolism, mentally unstable characters that are difficult to understand, let alone like, or relate to. It's a very adult series packaged as something that would appeal to a younger audience. Definitely something you would expect to be praised by a niche audience, but the mainstream popularity surrounding the show is very puzzling indeed.

I stopped watching anime for half the reasons you described...then again I think the first time I saw FLCL I gave up. I've seen enough anime to see its predictable Its one of the least used cliche but still a cliche...be as insane as possible. 

" I stopped watching anime for half the reasons you described...then again I think the first time I saw FLCL I gave up. I've seen enough anime to see its predictable Its one of the least used cliche but still a cliche...be as insane as possible.  "

" The popularity of Evangelion has always puzzled me, all the way back to first seeing it at a University anime club show in 98. Everyone there loved it, and apparently all these years later the majority of anime fans still do. For that time the animation was top notch, as were most Gainax productions, but everything else is just helter skelter. It's a very confusing show, chalked full of religious symbolism, mentally unstable characters that are difficult to understand, let alone like, or relate to. It's a very adult series packaged as something that would appeal to a younger audience. Definitely something you would expect to be praised by a niche audience, but the mainstream popularity surrounding the show is very puzzling indeed. "

There's also like a million shows that copied and refined what NGE did and did it arguably better. Like RahXeophon. In contrast, most shows that try and do what Bebop did fall waaaaaay short. Coyote Ragtime Show and its jive talking priest, exhibit A.

" There's also like a million shows that copied and refined what NGE did and did it arguably better. Like RahXeophon. In contrast, most shows that try and do what Bebop did fall waaaaaay short. Coyote Ragtime Show and its jive talking priest, exhibit A. "

Most anime Snobs cry over dubbing so you are one step closer to being a true anime fan. lols 
 
 
Eva on the other hand, that is something you watch HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! and educated
The spiritual and philosophical undertones to that is why people love it. However, if you have no background in any spirituality or philosophy, then it will just be another weird anime that follows stereotypes for you. I know its sort of snobbish to say that, but so many great works like Shakespeare can only be enjoyed if you at least have some background info on the undertones of what these actions mean instead of just the events that happened. Going into it stone cold isn't going to help anybody and EVA is a long journey so most rather not go back unless they love it that much. 

I never thought someone else could hate this show as much as I do. The entire last part has scarred me for life. It's the reason why I shudder every time I hear the name Shinji.

I will never, ever understand how anyone could get any sense of remote enjoyment watching it, let alone like the damn thing.

If someone needed a volunteer for a machine that had a 50% chance of erasing specific memories and 50% chance of cooking your brain, I would volunteer in a heartbeat if it meant that I could get that final episode out of my head.

@Enigma777: The last episode is the least of my issues. The last couple episodes made no sense at all to me to the point where I didn't know what to say. The whole show overall and the terrible characters are what killed me.

To be honest, I don't know what any of it was about. Something about robots eating aliens and a capsule in the artic ocean with a naked chick inside and a guy with daddy issues.

My problem with the last episode(s) is where Shinji just goes into this self-narration thing for like 16 minutes straight and that voice is just burned in my mind and I WANT IT OUT!!!

I actually liked NGE and I'm not sure why. It made less sense the farther along it went, there were plot threads hanging loose all over the place, it was hard to root for any of the characters and EoE, which was supposed to serve as a reasonable conclusion, was almost abusive to the viewer. But there's something really raw about it, maybe in the craziness of the action scenes or how messed up the characters are or maybe I just like weird cartoons. I mean, I loved Paranoia Agent. 
 
Basically, you aren't "missing" anything. I guess it just didn't click with you.

So ya I know there are a lot of Neon Genesis lovers out there which I must ask, am I missing something? Was I too dumb to not understand the show? Was there something I missed like some underlying plot line within this whole thing?

Yes. No. Yes.

Unlike a lot of Anime, NGE doesn't do a lot of 'expositional dumping', which is to say it doesn't go out there and state outright what is going on (and summarize the plot every fourth episode or so). If you watch it again, I guarantee you'll start catching stuff you just sorta didn't realize was there, the first time. The 'deep plot' is very much there, it's just very subtle. That's not to say 'You should like this', but there's definitely a lot more going on there than meets the eye. I think I had to watch it six times before I really had a firm grasp on what's going on behind the scenes.

I started to see the road ahead consisting mainly of, angel spotted, city evacuated to underground lair, send out robot, robot struggles but only barely manages to kill angel.

Just... wrong. Evangelion is hailed as a land-mark in Anime because it's not this. You watch it, expecting what you said but, slowly, it starts to change on you from being a good old romp with giant robots and into a very introspective examination of what it is to be human. It's certainly not for everyone and I'm guessing it might just be a little too esoteric for you, my girlfriend doesn't like it for the same reason, but you have fundamentally misunderstood what's being conveyed.

Since this topic is a year and a half old, I don't have anything else to add.

@liquideden: Yeah I can see the shift to where the anime started moving towards introspection and being some of the first to do that kind of shift is one of the reasons why it's considered so influential and "important" but that doesn't mean it executed on it perfectly. It's annoyingly obtuse to the point that it almost feels like it's on purpose because even the writers don't know where the hell they're going and yes I know some of the reasons behind why the ending to the anime is frustratingly ambiguous. The sound of having to watch it multiple times to "get it" sounds like a nightmare to me.

That anime hasn't aged well at all, the movies that recently came out are a big improvement but I rather watch something else better. I probably would like this more if I watched it all at a young age and then let nostalgia get in the way.

EVA is incredible. The weirdness in the final half of the series can be attributed to it's creator, Anno, have a nervous breakdown during production.

I have nothing else to add.