It's taken me a little over a decade,
but I think I finally figured out a big mystery that's eluded me for
so long. Why did so many people like Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis
Evangelion? It's not like she had a real personality. In fact, she
practically had none. She was essentially a walking and talking
mannequin. And when she finally started to develop an actual
personality... It wasn't the original Rei, but a clone. (Or whatever
the hell they're supposed to actually be.) I've often thought it was
due to the show's legendary status in the anime community, and surely
that's a big factor, but it can't just be that because there's other
anime just as popular and I've never seen the sheer amount of hentai
that Rei has for other well known characters. (We'll ignore the Rei's
age factor, both implied and technical for the time being, because
that's still a touch creepy... But probably no creepier than what was
going on in the show itself.)
I've heard some interesting theories
over the years, including one that I subscribed to for so long that
because she was a "tortured soul" fanboys felt for her and
"wanted to make her happy". And really, it would go along
the line of the whole line of thinking with fanboys wishing to be a
“white knight” to a girl in need... But that doesn't explain how
it's endured all these years, even almost a generation after that
show aired. There's been plenty of 'tortured soul' characters in
anime over the last decade or so, even in really good newer anime...
But it never got to the level that Rei did.
And of course, just asking a Evangelion
fan why they liked her isn't going to get a really thought out answer
90% of the time. After all, they're fans of the show, so they're
going to like her. Hell, y'all know my Transformers fan status, and I
like Wheelie for some reason, and I sure can't explain that. I
can kind of understand the new movie's popularity, since I understand
from some people that they've actually improved a lot of the flaws
the original show had. (I'm just going off word of mouth here.) And,
of course, there's the near-transparent plug-suits the girl
characters wear now. Hey, pervs will be pervs. Stay classy, Japan.
(Yes, I am a kettle... Why?) The show has it's detractors and some of
it well deserved, but I can't help but to wonder if some of that is
just hype backlash, where the fans swooned and built up this mythic
icon of a show so much... That it could never live up to the hype.
Happened with me and Firefly. And of course there's the other factor
that we cannot overlook that perhaps the detractors just hate the
show because they hate the fans. The infamous “It's popular, so I
must hate it too.” (Sort of like Twilight. Do we hate Twilight, or
do we hate Twilight fans? Chicken and the Egg, y'know?)
So it remained a big mystery to me...
Just being that enigma that eluded me as the years crept away from
me. Then it hit me out of nowhere: It was to Millennial anime fans
what the Transformers or He-Man was to my generation. (Seriously, no
one should fucking like Orko, but they do. I cannot explain it.) It's
a show about giant robots fighting monsters. It started off kinda
fun, though turned boring and pretentious... But it's well animated
(when it's actually animated!) and it was one of the big anime boom
shows out there. You WANT to like the show, but much like Orko and
Wheelie... The main characters of Shinji and Asuka are two of the
most annoying fucks that have ever graced a television screen.
Shinji's a whiny pussy that does nothing but cry, and Asuka is just
horrible person. She's completely unlikable. So out of the three main
characters, if you're really wanting to like this show, you're
probably going to admire the blue haired quiet waif. It's been said
that the company you keep is a reflection upon yourself. If you're
kind of a jerk, but you hang out with wonderful nice people... You
get viewed as a terrible “worse than Hitler” type. If you're a
boring individual, but you hang out with assholes... You get viewed
as a wonderful person. I think it's the same with Rei Ayanami.
What does this have to do with
anything? Nothing. It's just a mystery that I finally figured out and
thought I'd share.
3 comments:
Shinji isn't a whiny pussy and Asuka has reasons for being so proud and arrogant. Are you somehow retarded?
Ableist jokes. Cute. But yeah, Shinji IS a whiny pussy. I'll give it to you that in the newer rebooted movies he's certainly not, and even Asuka's egotism is justified in the newer movies too... But in the original overly hyped 90s series, they were rather... Detestable.
Naw. Rei is pretty, zero drama, loyal and useful. All benefits no downsides.
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