Haruka's Swimsuit said:
Well, I already own the first three volumes. No Nationalists yet (well, at least not German ones), but I do a recall a crazed Scotsman... or was he Irish?
You're talking about the television series. The OVA that is being put out follows the manga much more closely and will put the television series to shame once it is done. Oh, and the man that you're referring to is Alexander Anderson.
EDIT: And I didn't mean the Nationalist Socialists when I said "all things involving... Germans." Being of German descent myself, I enjoy seeing and reading about things regarding Deustchland and its people.
Meh, I feel the same way since I'm damn near about fifty percent German.
I'm curious about something, is Gundam/Eva really typical of giant mecha series? I've only seen one or two non-Gundam series, but I'm curious; is the male protagonist with too much angst/mental problems usually a theme in giant mecha series or have Gundam and Eva done that on their own?
Dogasu's already pointed
Macross out, but I might as well comment on
Gundam and
Evangelion.
Well, consider that the
Gundam series first came out in the late seventies (or possibly a few years before that... my memory is foggy here), and then a few decades later we see other mecha anime that is a bit more distinctive than
Gundam, the most popular one being
Evangelion.
Evangelion itself takes a lot of things from previous
Gundam series (and no, not just angsty, teenage pilots, either. I'm talking about some aspects of plot) and expands itself on that while invoking some psychology in it (in a way still keeping with the whole 'angst' theme). Then, as years go by, we see anime that are similar in the flow, story, and characters that
Evangelion put out -- i.e.
RahXephon and
Fafner, to name a few.
To sum it all up, blame it on the
Gundam series for establishing the archetype, and
Evangelion for further enforcing it. Then again, I truly appreciate
Evangelion mostly for the fact that it deals so much with psychology and pays homage to Freud and Jung (although, I've never heard any interviews stating that Anno specifically said any of that...) rather than what came before it (originality is a delusion, people).
Oh, I didn't mention my choice the first time around, did I? Well, I would hope that it would be obvious that
Neon Genesis Evangelion is my favorite out of the ones listed (including
One Piece and
Trigun, ftw). I love psychology and
Evangelion deals with it amazingly (despite the fact that the Freudian style of self-realization became monotonous at times), and the characters themselves are potrayed in a way that I can't helped but be fascinated by. The ending of the series (
The End of Evangelion is the official ending due to the fact that the script for the final two episodes were the basis for the movie, so I'm going by that) was simply stunning to me. The only other series that comes to my mind that gave me such a satisfying ending was when I read
Monster, and both of them are at the top of my list for anime and manga (
Monster for manga, and
Neon Genesis Evangelion for anime).
... I tend to ramble on a lot, so if you have read my entire post, know that you can say that you have real patience.
