NGE isnt supposed to be comedy..well, mostly not. But yes, its a mind fuck of an anime. >>> The alternative ending "End of Evangelion" is pretty much icing on the cake ;)

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If someone hasnt yet watched, please do watch 'Hajime no Ippo' (not related to me, ive been iippo before ippo ;)

Ive never been really into sports anime, but that will make you start boxing yourself. Somewhat slow first few eps though.

I confirm that the anime in question really does make people start boxing.

Hey can anyone explain the appeal of the Gundam series, because from what I have seen its more than just action and robots fighting yes?

Correction: other Gundam series because the only one I have ever seen in its entirety was G Gundam back on Toonami.

Whats the Appeal of Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, or the Original Gundam series?

Gundam Wing = bunch of immortal overpowered dudes trying to look cool while piloting overpowered indestructible cool looking robots. Cynicism aside, I can't really say this one is "more than just action and robots fighting".

As for the original Gundam (and Gundam Seed is more similar to those than Gundam Wing), they're noteworthy for being one of the first (if not the first) to mix the giant robot genre with war drama and politics, all while trying to balance its scifi aspects so it would seem more believable than other shows of its time (aka, robots can actually get damaged in battle, or have to deal with limited ammo/energy). Now, whether they're actually successful in doing those things, I may be a little too biased to comment. I absolutely hated every anime Tomino has ever directed (aka, most of the classic Gundams).

Gundam 08th MS Team is the best Gundam series ever made, specifically because it's more gritty and doesn't have as much of the cliches of the other MSG series' I really recommend it

Well, from what I understand mecha anime were never intended to be about "robots fighting robots", even back in the 80's at their height, the idea was mostly about representing cultural and political struggles in a more "personal" way, because Gundam suits are incredibly powerful military machines, more powerful than a tank or anything, BUT they are also piloted by a single man, so even though Gundam (and mecha anime in general) got into a stale episodic/boring format, the idea of mecha anime (at least how I see it) is about making great conflicts into personal conflicts, because in a normal war you have thousands of soldiers so it becomes depersonalized because a single person doesn't have much power in a war of thousands, but in a war with Gundam mobile suits you literally have wars being fought by a few men, even though Gundam suits are obviously expensive and take thousands of people to build, they are piloted by single people.

You'll find this theme present through all mecha anime to the present, how putting the power of a mecha into a single pilot makes one man more powerful, and his or her struggles and beliefs become more important, the "personal" becomes the "epic".

Evangelion, which kinda "deconstructed" the mecha genre, took this to an extreme, Shinji's personal struggles, his flaws, weaknesses, were taken completely out of all proportion because the Earth was under attack by angels and he was the only person in the world who could pilot the mecha (Eva unit) to fight them (excluding Rei who was injured at the beginning). So Shinji being a weak and depressed teenager with deep personal problems, and the government/NERV having to try and convince him to pilot Eva, it made the personal issues of the main character as important as the fate of the human race.

RahXephon, which was also a lot like Evangelion, also did this.

Yeah, I've been watching it over at Crunchyroll where it's been translated as Attack on Titan (which seems to be the official English translation even if it doesn't make any sense). where they're simulcasting it for free (lower quality and a week delay if you aren't a subscriber).

It's rather good. Not quite all-time great, but in my opinion it's the best show of the current season. Though I found most of the rest this season more or less unwatchable to deeply mediocre.

It's a bit too classically shounen with lots of shouted pronouncements and a quest to become the best and defeat the evil invaders sparked by a personal tragedy, but it's fun and the animation is rather good. Some people have criticized it for violence and lingering over the titans eating people, but I disagree. It does a fantastic job of actually making them frightening when I probably wouldn't have thought much about it if it was treated otherwise. It's just such a common trope that "monsters eating people" is glossed over so heavily that you never really stop to think about how utterly horrifying that would be. This show doesn't pull any punches there.

Four episodes in and the plot is just starting to kick in, but it has rather good art and animation and it's decidedly a cut above the usual lazy shounen drivel.

one question,what's your opinion on the overuse of fanservice on today's anime?

drinking game:watch Kanokon and take a shot every time you see fanservice.

I'm used to it as a drawback of the medium. The same way I skip descriptions when reading Jules Verne, I skip fanservice when reading manga. There are series that are decent so long as you ignore it. One of the reasons I rather read manga than watch anime is, in fact, that while I can easily gloss over fanservice in manga, I become rapidly annoyed if I'm forced to watch more than 4 seconds of bouncing boobs. Not short enough to completely ignore, not long enough to do a 10 second jump and keep the story going.

That said, there are series made exclusively for fanservice. If you watch Kanokon on purpose, you have no reason for complaining about fanservice: that's precisely the series appeal.
IMO, It does a rather good job of making you feel that the characters are fighting for their lives. It makes you think that even the main characters could die, which is an achievement when compared to all the shows where people split in half easily survive and the dead keep resurrecting.

But my compassion makes me strong! And my fist! But I'm already dead anyway. ;) [That's a joke relating to FotNS, for everyone who doesn't know]

Difficult. Most are bad. But some kinda ... fit? Like in Godannar. It didn't feel annoying.

yeah,but I really didn't know that Kanokon was like Highschool DxD,which throw the story out the window in favor of fanservice and I picked it at random after I watched Sould Eater(this also has plenty fanservice if you ask me)and needed something to relax while I try to find something else.

Well, I can relate to randomly trying stuff, discovery is part of the fun for me. And hey, these "lots of fanservice and thin plot" series have their uses, I find them quite nice for those hangover mornings when I just woke up and my head is still in no condition to game.

Now that you mention Highschool DxD,a I read the manga and it gave me an average impression. Later, a friend went on and on about the series' extreme fanservice, to which I kept replying "Come on, it wasn't that bad". So he passed me a copy, and I skimmed through it. Yes, it was a lot worse than I remembered. And I remember Kanokon being pretty horrible to begin with, so I fear what the animation would be like. I'd rather never know.

At least you were lucky enough to not watch Kissxsis

Was it really an alternative ending though? I somehow got the impression that we were simply seeing things from outside a certain someone's head.

Hideaki Anno, the director/writter suffered a sever mental breakdown right after the release of last episodes...and i think it kinda shows..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideaki_Anno

"After the ending of Evangelion, Anno received numerous letters and emails from fans, both congratulating him on the series and criticizing the last two episodes. Among these were death threats and letters of disappointment from fans who thought Anno had ruined the series for them. Soon, a project was launched to create a movie with a new ending for the series in 1997, eventually culminating in the controversial The End of Evangelion. (End of Evangelion displayed about a dozen letters from fans, including a few death threats.)"