Unpopular anime opinions you hold.

[Chovexani]

As inspired by one of my favorite threads on Fametracker.com. What are some of the unpopular opinions you have WRT anime?

I'm a Gainax fan (Otaku no Video is hilarious), yet I hate Evangelion. It's almost a religion to me (pun intended). Seriously, it's probably the most classic example of hilarious misappropriation of Western religious symbolism in anime I've ever seen. There's not a single likeable character in the whole show, they're either hopelessly bland (Rei Ayanami), or actively obnoxious (Shinji). I hate them all, and it's not even a fun love-to-hate kind of thing, it's a "god these people are stupid and I just want them to die" kind of thing. Not to mention the fact that none of it makes any sense whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I'm not adverse to a show that makes me think, and I enjoy quite a few mindfuck animes (Lain and Utena for starters). But when my brain starts hurting in a bad way and I'm begging the show to just fucking end and put itself out of its and my misery, it's just not entertaining. FFS, Hideaki Anno literally went batshit crazy in the making of this show. If that doesn't tell you what you need to know about it, I don't know what else does. Don't get me started on the End of Evangelion. The entire enterprise is the gold standard of overrated, pretentious, nonsensical POS anime. Hate it or not, though, every fan needs to watch it at least once because at the very least it is an important show, it is popular and lots of people reference it so some knowledge is needed even if you end up hating it like I did (and even then having seen it is a good thing, because I can at least speak with authority about WHY I think it sucks so badly).

[Khephra]

1. I've yet to finish Eva

I'm actually more impressed with the so-called Eva rip-off, RahXephon. I think the design work, animation and storyline is miles above Eva.

[moggie]

2. Not quite

Anno was emotionally damaged before the show, hence Shinji's nature.

Eva was the first anime series I watched, which colours my opinion somewhat. Despite its annoyances and shortcomings, it blew me away: I remember thinking "wow, when was the last time I saw TV this thought-provoking?". It probably helps if you're emotionally damaged yourself, so you can feel more empathy with the characters (yes, even Shinji, whiny loser though he is). I deliberately haven't watched it again, since I suspect I'd be far less impressed second time around.

I mostly steer clear of online writing about Eva. It's either overblown philosophising about the Judaeo-Christian elements (ignoring the fact that Anno and co took that angle because it would be mostly unfamiliar to a Japanese audience, rather than for any deep reason), or disturbing masturbatory fantasies about Rei (anyone who has that kind of reaction to such a passive cipher is deeply creepy).

[Chovexani]

3. Rei Ayanami fanboys seriously scare me.

Despite the opinionated bitching on my LJ, I really try to not be judgemental about other nerds. Hell, I cosplay and write yaoi lemons, and I know there's entire websites devoted to mocking people like me (and it's deserved!), so I really don't have a leg to stand on. I take the stance that so long as no one gets hurt by it, it's all good, as long as it's not forced on me if I don't agree with it.

But Rei fanboys scare me. I'm serious. I've run into these guys at cons and they give off a vibe of sheer creepitude that I've never gotten from fans of any other character on any other show. The older fans are even worse...the guys in the ill-fitting Eva t-shirts who run hentai fan art sites and such. I think some of them just have lolicom and they hide behind various excuses.

For some reason that character attracts some really creepy stalkerish type of admiration. She's one of the reasons I really don't like that show. It's like her sole purpose was to act as a projection board for creepy fanboy fantasies.