im magi & this is my Serious Evangelion Blog where I provide my own personal analysis of the work. I'm known elsewhere as the moderator of the Neon Genesis Evangelion community, but I'm also very passionate in general about the show and I'm here to share my own readings with you.
Please enjoy your stay, and feel free to send any ask about any of Evangelion in!!
asuka | shinji | kaworu | rei | design | figures | physical
filter by NGE | filter by NTE | filter by Cloverworks | my about page
I just wanted to thank you for posting the [link to the] DVD covers for the Perfect Collection. I recently bought a used copy of the collection off Ebay and the exteriors of the cases were just DESTROYED (I swear to god one had an immersive Shinji Stain tm) and I really wanted to replace the cases but still be able to enjoy the original covers.
I spent like 2 hours SCRUBBING the internet for scans of those covers and I was so relieved to finally find them via your post. You have saved my life.
Ahhh thank you! I’m really glad that I’ve been able to actually help in archiving my favourite show :’) I hope to do more of this work in the future!!
I wish you the best of luck with the rest of your case restoration project
if anyone has the 30fes kaworu/shinji kabuki video please hit me up 🥲 i would really really like to see it but i’ve been unable to find it as of yet & missed the on-demand window as I couldn’t afford to pay for it before orders closed. thank you…
A personally-charged decomposition of the Cloverworks Eva Trailer;
I've connected the dots. (You didn't connect shit.) I've connected them!
It's been about three weeks since it was announced we'd be seeing a new incarnation of Evangelion. If you haven't seen the Cloverworks/Yoko Taro Evangelion project trailer yet, you can check it out and see some discussion here. I've watched this trailer quite a few times because I am very excited, and I have some baseless speculation to make about it:
First, I want to preface this by saying that we don't know all that much as of right now. That's okay! By my guesses, and given that it didn't leak, I would say that it's probably very very early in development. A lot of what the trailer has to offer is basic information about some of the great names attached to the project; but, text-wise, there isn't much to break down.
The few shots we get of the world we're entering do, however, show something that I believe to be very interesting. Evangelion is a story that repeats itself. This is why the New Theatrical Edition becomes so incredibly meta; to keep it brief, Evangelion has happened so many times that every character is aware of their place in the story, and Shinji's will keeps them there. Shinji's subsequent rejection of this brutal cycle at the end of Shin Eva is what grants them the ending of NTE in the first place.
There's definitely been speculation about whether the original characters of Evangelion will be involved. From my understanding, what Khara would like for the property is to 'Gundam' it, whereby to keep the series going, many writers will have the opportunity to write their own Evangelion continuum. (Where is Kaworu's Counterattack!?) I think in general that this is a good way to keep the series alive, rather than endless merch, and I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out.
This being said, having seen quite a bit of Gundam, many Gundam characters appear in multiple adaptations, so despite some theorising that no original Evangelion characters will appear and the cast will be new, I think that would remove the fundamental draw of the proposed franchise model in that we get to see characters in New and Fun Situations.
As I said, Eva is always full of intention. The inclusion and highlighting of a cello, to me, is a particularly potent evidence of Shinji's inclusion in this new incarnation. I believe that if the trailer wanted to demonstrate that the new characters had fallen to the wayside then it would not put such stock in showing the musical elements we associate with characters in good condition. It would demonstrate them as decrepit, thrown to the wayside.
This particular shot - I wish I was joking - made me yelp aloud when I first saw it. Shinji's words when asked to justify why continuing to play the cello rang out in my head; 'Nobody ever told me to stop." I believe that this is a direct reference to this original line of Shinji's, and that the inclusion of the cello is indicative of this being a world where Shinji 'never stopped.'
This too is backed up by the floral symbolism of the plants in the scene. Ivy often represents continuity, immortality or eternal love, and here it is entwined with the head of the cello. In the language of Evangelion, we associate the cello with Shinji already as a sign of persistence. Nature in Evangelion is associated with the world healing around them in the wake of the second and third impacts; I believe that this trailer is symbolising or trying to communicate that both Shinji and the world continue.
However, I don't believe this is all there is to it. The language used here might be a deliberate synthesis of the existing runs of Evangelion. Shinji's cello is primarily associated with Neon Genesis, but the theme of nature and healing is more closely associated with New Theatrical. Alongside the push at 30fes to 'return to Neon Genesis' I believe that this symbolises that what we'll see is a synthesis of the two that considers the implications of the cycles seen in New Theatrical alongside the characters from the original; perhaps, what happens after the third impact...?
Source: Evangelion Cloverworks Trailer
Remember, however, that the cello is not the only instrument there, nor is it the only instrument linked with a character. Of note are several violins, a viola, a piano, and a few drums scattered around. This may remind more tenured Eva fans of the quartet from Death(True);
Source: Evangelion Death(True)
Shinji is still associated with the cello, but it's implied Kaworu, Rei and Asuka are playing violin and viola as a part of the quartet, several of which are scattered around the above Cloverworks trailer shot. Either way, this is another way of showing that the pilots from Neon Genesis have some connection with the trailer through music by implicitly invoking this scene from their Instrumentality.
My honest reading here is that the cello has a connection with the 'real world,' but the violin and viola (representing Asuka and Rei) are grounded in the water like the LCL sea, as well as only being linked with Asuka and Rei during instrumentality. Linking this back to the NTE meta of characters being aware that they're characters and continuing to cycle on Shinji's wish, this might be a reference to where the characters stand in terms of their ability to see through the narrative itself; a narrative 'ascension.'
Shinji has the most control over the narrative, the narrative exists because of Shinji's whim. If this narrative is an extension of Shinji never 'stopping' this suggests to me the placement of the violins expresses Shinji's will to include others in the story and aid in their ascension to understanding the meta-narrative (combining it with the Ivy's symbolism of endless love and friendship.)
Then, there is the piano at the base of the mound.
Source: Evangelion New Theatrical Edition Q | Evangelion New Theatrical Edition Shin
Kaworu is the only character we see in the string quartet who is not explicitly shown to be playing the violin, ergo, I would argue the violins do not represent his inclusion in the story. Instead, Kaworu's 'instrument' as deigned by NTE is the piano; the grand piano is associated at length with Shinji and Kaworu's relationship as a whole, during both the establishment scenes in Q and the scenes reflecting on their past dynamic in Shin's Instrumentality section.
Out of all of the instruments scattered around the scene, the closest one to the cello that represents Shinji is the piano. If the placement of the instruments suggests their power within the narrative, then this is also supported by Kaworu's 'position' - in Q and Shin he is shown to know more about his own position in the meta than Asuka and Rei, even if all are somewhat aware of their looping situation. Therefore in terms of ascension here, it might suggest that Kaworu is trying to aid Shinji in some manner, or at least reach Shinji. Maybe this is the spiritual return of Commander Nagisa?
Furthermore, associating Kaworu with the piano (NTE) while associating Asuka and Rei with the violins (NGE) again suggests the synthesis of the narratives from NGE and NTE and the aggregation of the existing narratives in to something new. I would argue even the staging of the trailer implies this, the instruments themselves being a pun on 'instrumentality.'
What does this mean for the show? I think it's still deliberately vague; it's a teaser trailer with four or five shots. I also think that this vagueness is wonderful - in our modern media landscape, stories are often spoiled for us early in trailers, rather than being teased away over time as something for us to gradually unpack. But said teaser trailer does communicate to me that it's currently intended as an extension of the original, possibly drawing heavily from the intricate established narratives of cycling characters trying to break free of their own neuroses and predetermined paths, and maybe finding a bridge between the two existing continuities.
To conclude I want to say based on the language in the trailer, I genuinely believe that the original characters will in some way appear, and will be central to the plot. There might be new characters, but the ones we love still appear to be there and could be implied to have a measurable impact on the story. I cannot stress enough that while its only a teaser trailer and to glean an entire show just from that would be an impossible task, Evangelion has always been a series with a lot of hidden meaning and intent. I've hoped here to talk about what I see objectively, without resorting to wish fulfilment; I hope it was an interesting read!!!
edit: big thanks to my friend moon for pointing out to me that rei is actually playing a viola in the quartet but there is also a viola there in the trailer!!!!
💫 my thoughts on the short now it’s in aching high definition | spoilers below, be careful!
It’s absolutely fantastic, and it made me weep in a few places. Above is my favourite shot from the short film (the whole exchange of which I’ll discuss in a little while…)
The 30th. anniversary short demonstrates Khara still understands what drives Asuka, and that they know what made NGE so successful — two things that will make any serious fan beam with pride. In name and meaning this short acts as an episode 27 that I’d argue represents what we didn’t see of Asuka’s instrumentality — though I’d argue that it didn’t go down quite like this as the short is aware of its place in the meta, I think that this is a way of showing the same processes that went down in Asuka’s instrumentalities.
Firstly, let’s discuss the textual standing of the two Asukas (Asukii?), which I feel is the core of understanding how this view of instrumentality works. Asuka Soryu (in the seifuku) is paired with Asuka Shikinami (plugsuit.) I don’t wish to talk about the meta-analysis of theatrical in super high resolution right now, but I’ll keep it short and say that Soryu is the ‘original’ Asuka while Shikinami is a meta-evolved version that at some level understands her place in the story as a character, and in this short she represents a sort of ‘performance’ by the character. This is also shown by her bow, indicating her plugsuit as a costume that she is wearing.
Through this short, Shikinami takes on the role of the spiritual guide in the way Rei and Kaworu do for Shinji in Shinji’s instrumentality. Shikinami shows Soryu different scenarios that she wishes for after showing her the rules of the world she has found herself in during the instrumentality; she must close her eyes, wake up, and something else will happen. Shikinami continues to act as the spiritual guide by helping Soryu enter the worlds she wishes to see.
Here’s where things get fun; this short is all about the motif “Asuka is Asuka, and that’s okay.” Through the short we see Shikinami misinterpret — through no fault of her own — Soryu’s wishes. She gives Soryu scenarios that mirror other people’s wishes and desires; such as being in the Reiquarium “I thought you wouldn’t want to be alone,” or being a giant woman (as a reference to Anima,) “I thought you would want to be strong.” These are things that Soryu wishes for in a vacuum, but the short wants to tell us that only Soryu can act on deciding her own happiness.
Where Soryu is given access to her idealised worlds, she finds something wrong with them, and this is because they are not hers. In acting to a predefined narrative she has already decided on, Asuka takes away who she is by idealising herself. This is why the ‘romantic scenario’ that Shikinami gives her doesn’t work out; she is still herself, she is brash and unromantic, so she accidentally punts stupid Shinji off a cliff. Story narratives don’t work for Soryu because the story narratives that Soryu initially believes will make everything better are not about her — they are about someone who she thinks being would make life easier.
Wish fulfilment also doesn’t work for her. Kyoko telling her she’s good and trying to ‘fix’ her past doesn’t work either — it doesn’t feel ‘right’ to Soryu. It’s not her past that’s the problem. This part of the short is telling us that Asuka has reached a point where she is okay with who she is now. I’d like to argue that it’s her future that matters to her.
The closer the cycles get to Asuka’s true wishes, the more heartfelt they become. Soryu enjoys the idea of being with Mari, but she still wants her own world. When she is given her own world, and truly given something she thinks she wants, her instrumentality revelation is granted to her; all Asuka really wanted was the knowledge she could live in a better world, and that she could be given that control. And then, she would be okay. She could go on living if she knew that her life could be something other than the misery she’s known.
This short is telling us what it is Asuka truly wants — and that’s not a character pairing, or a romance, or to have been someone none of this ever happened to. She wants to know that the world can be a better place tomorrow than it was today. After being given her ‘wish’ of living a life with Shinji, she very powerfully rejects it. She realises here that she wants to make her own world of her own volition, whether that involves these dreams as they stand right now or not. She merely needed a spark of hope (through fanservice, yes) to do it.
This scene with the train station and the alternate dimensional express genuinely made me WEEP. It felt so true to the original show in terms of shot composition (and the cel style animation. Oh my god. The cel style animation!!!!) Ahhh!!! It was like falling in love with NGE all over again…
Quite literally, Asuka is Asuka (Asuka cannot fit the mould of someone else’s desire, and her experiences from before her time in Eva inform who she is, something she can’t let go of) and that’s alright (Asuka needs to take her destiny in to her own hands, and make the world a better place herself, and through this she can know her own happiness.)
This retelling of Asuka’s instrumentality is of course non-literal. The short makes it clear — Asuka has already woken up and been choked on a beach and felt toooootally sick. However, the parallels it has to deep-instrumentality* are clear in that she experiences a mirage of different scenarios that allow her to confront her wishes, and then even receives a congratulations scene with everyone at the end in singing KST. Yet I’ll point out that even here, Soryu takes control and retains the fact that she is who she is; she’d never sing in public!
*deep instrumentality: a name I’m giving to the portion of instrumentality where the souls lose their definition and everything becomes more non-literal. Everyone has finished airing their trauma at this point, and now it’s time for connections and life lessons.
Remember - Asuka is Asuka, and that’s alright. Our lesson for ourselves here is that you are you, and that’s alright too. Despite your past, you can make the world better for yourself, according to your own desire.
another post about the eoe dvd I grabbed the other day, here's the slip inside the cover !! again really well preserved as was the rest of the disc.
I will also say - I'm somewhat shocked by the rating of 15 that the film was awarded! The BBFC rated most of the show as PG back in the 2000s for DVD distribution, which was re-certified as a 12 with the VSI dub back in 2019. The End of Evangelion's rating of 15, however, was never recertified, despite the strong gore and violence present in the film. The BBFC tends to go pretty hard on that stuff, but back in the 2000s, didn't view animated films to be as graphic. for example, katsuhiro otomo's Akira, which is much more graphic than the end of evangelion, is also only rated a 15.
I'm not arguing in favour of any of those ratings, I just think it's funny that the film was rated as so much more graphic than the rest of the show, despite the show's disturbing content. Imagine being 12 years old, with strict parents, back in 2002... unable to watch the movie that would finish it off for three more years!!
💫 the end of evangelion region 2 UK insert pamphlet
got this today ^^ it's a region 2 uk dvd release by the company Manga, which I think still exists but was the biggest (if not only) distributor of Japanese animation in the UK for most of the 2000s. this disc appears to be from the early 2000s, as the copyright is marked 2002, and the film uses the adv dub (as well as the Japanese dub,) but the inserts were incredibly well preserved. I'll also be uploading the region 2 cover I got with this later, which I scanned in :-)
💫 neon genesis evangelion perfect dvd collection disc scans
2002 adv dub discs from the nge region 1 & region 2 releases. silver discs scanned by internet archive, black disc scanned by me.
in general these are just absolutely gorgeous discs and they knew what they were doing in letting the holographic media shine through the translucent sections of the disc covers... I don't know whether perfect edition was released anywhere but region 1 but I've never seen a region-2 perfect edition. well enjoy!
A lot of people don’t know that Makoto Hyuga was supposed to be canonly gay, too. Evangelion quietly slipped an allude to his sexuality in the original Episode 24 drafts (the same drafts that saw Kaworu and Shinji kiss). Ultimately, the idea was trashed and replaced with his crush for Misato, likely for the same reasons they trashed the original Kawoshin kiss.
Here’s the scene in question (you can read the entire draft here):
HYUGA: Seems like we’ve got ourselves involved in a pretty unbelievable organization.
[HYUGA hands MISATO more documents.]
HYUGA: Here’s my research on the Fifth Child. There’s nothing particularly suspicious in his history. He’s been in contact with the committee, but there’s no sign of involvement. As far as family goes, it seems there’s been some turbulence there. You could say he’s just a garden-variety pretty boy who’s had an unfortunate life.
What did Anno mean thematically by having Asuka’s dream family with Shinji be copied from one of Rebuild’s bonus art of Rei and Kaworu taking care of a child Shinji?
these are scanned case covers & booklets from the 2002 ADV-dub release of nge! the designs for these covers were used for both region 1 and 2 dvds in the English-speaking countries that ADV films released their nge dubs on dvd in; however, the region 2 discs are a different colour to the region 1 discs. I'll be doing a separate post showcasing the discs, too.
Though the designs on the covers are the same, the contents of the disc differ slightly. ADV put many more previews and trailers on the region 1 discs than they did other regions; my region 2 discs, for example, don't have any piracy warnings and go straight to the play menu, but the region 1 ones have plenty of preamble ^^
I personally only own two of these discs so they're not my own scans; I've linked the source above at the Internet Archive, but I wished to share them here since I haven't actually seen high quality scans of these floating around on Tumblr yet.
this is just a selection of some I found particularly pleasing when it comes to evangelion design ethos -- which I feel these discs captured perfectly, if not helped to define (having come out in 2002.) the bold, repetitive wordmarks, the stark and solitary composites focusing on the characters, as well as the show-accurate technobabble help bring these together as incredible representations of the art beyond the covers. for audiences that cared little about anime at the time, this would have been eye-catching for sure.
also, check out that encyclopaedia! I might make it in to its own post at some point.
this goes here too; I just never elaborated... I think this very much was a deliberate reference given shinji's music taste and the placement of shinji/rei in this scene...
Wish You Were Here is an album about loss, but it's also about losing someone who is alive. at this point in Thrice, rei is still alive, even if Kuronami passes at the end of this scene; she continues to be alive after Kuronami's passing. both of these shots represent a sort of quantum loss, as a signifier that Rei is quantum; Kuronami (Shinji's idea of Rei) dies, but Rei in other forms lives on. This parallels Syd Barrett, the original frontman of Pink Floyd, leaving the band prior to Wish You Were Here's release; the ensuing album is about losing the spark they had with him prior to that moment.
considering the scene the shot hails from, the parallel grows deeper. the figure in the album cover that Kuronami represents is on fire, yet tragically cool and collected, in the same way that Kuronami knows she is on the brink of death, but affords this calm collection to Shinji.
one famous anecdote from Wish You Were Here's creation was how Roger Waters played Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a twenty-five minute long psychedelic epic ostensibly about their love for Barrett, to Barrett in their studio in Abbey Road. Barrett barely responded to this love letter; but he still exists as he did in the song. This parallels the same way that Rei is known as apathetic, barely responsive, and at the same time, stuck in the anti-universe, passionately, hopefully waiting for Shinji to find her.
which all goes to say: shine on, you crazy pilot...
Shin Seiki Evangelion - Ayanami Rei - 1/6 - School Uniform (Tsukuda Hobby)
identified... baby is from 1996!!!! aohhhhhh my little lady. I'd assumed she was from between '97-2005 (at the latest) - my guess was late 90s because I could tell she wasn't vinyl from holding her, she's very yellowed and fragile, she's definitely pre NTE & doesn't have that sort of 2000s 'clean and cartoony' figure look (Eva figs from the 2000s, especially the late 2000s when they were still doing NGE figs alongside NTE ones, are always very chunky, airbrushed, neat, in a really super endearing way.) but wow I couldn't believe she was from 1996! she's 29 years old THIS MONTH! she was made before the end of evangelion even came out!! I am so so so happy to have her lmao
it does at least kind of upset me how many people who redesign elements of eva in whichever capacity fail to at least try and touch base with why the design worked in the first place. you're never really going to grow as an artist if you don't try and identify why the design is successful so you can rehash the successful elements. otherwise youre just lowkey doing some other shit. i don't get it.
lets say you 'redesign' Asuka and you choose to make the line of her hair clean-cut and neat. you have already failed. her hair is messy to show she is brash but also to show she is imperfect. in taking this element away you have already fundamentally failed to understand what works about Asuka's hair, and you now communicate something else.
What are your thoughts on the retroactive plugsuit changes in Rebuild 3.33? (Mari & Asuka's suits being recolored to match 3.0+1.0)
im the worst at thrice because ive only ever seen it the once (i cant bring myself to watch it again, i watched it at a very very bad time) but ill also preface this by saying despite the fact i am generally particularly critical of rebuild i do appreciate its efforts to try and flesh out le plugsuit design and tech; however they fail miserably. I think we get three or four different asuka plugsuits and that’s cool but also they do very little to provide any technological basis for those designs. take magmadiver. magmadiver uses our limited monster of the week form factor to imply through the Inconvenient Plugsuit that there’s a lot of plugsuit tech out there. it’s totally bluffing but it does it. rebuild exploits the spectacle and ambition of its high budget form factor and goes “we are also going to imply we have lots of plugsuits in this continuum, but we’re going to do it by making asuka almost naked for no reason and not explaining why and making everyone really uncomfortable.” that being said ive spent a non zero amount of time redesigning them and that shit is hard as fuck so I do get wanting to show them off.
what im getting at is; since rebuilds form factor is also time limited, more so than the original, they tend to have to rely on visual cues to flesh out the concept of plugsuits rather than trying to explain them. this explains why we have the white and coloured plugsuits for Mari and asuka that we see in the last two films, and why they seem to change at a whim.
I will also say, in my copy of 3.33 that I watch fairly regularly and know to be 3.33 (anno makes his edits very succinctly, and 3.33 as well as my copy definitely predate thrice), they have coloured plugsuits. i don’t recall the white ones being there. so what im gonna assume you mean is that the retconning occurs IN Thrice, which i do seem to remember. I do not know if this a regional difference between discs, so if it is im very interested to know what region your copy is, where you obtained it, and where its from. the edits between versions of rebuild films tend to be absolutely minuscule even if there are a lot of them, think tweaks and patches and very rarely wide panning changes such as the entire plugsuit.
thusly given that the last two rebuild movies have a lot of different ideas when it comes to plugsuittery and limited time to show it, i don’t mind that they flit between their ostensibly old, ripped and taped suits to the white ones that match one another. i wanna say midway through thrice this becomes apparent. I don’t think they do a particularly slick job at it, (and i have feelings about how the white designs are total johnny ives pilotslop being fed into the media holes of evafans everywhere,) but i am willing to believe that it’s not so much a retcon so much as a poorly communicated depiction of the girls having multiple plugsuits but choosing to chill most of the times in the ones they feel represent them best (which makes sense to me, asuka liking red is one of her only communicated character traits in rebuild and i totally buy her taping up her red one until Misato gets on her ass about it); either that or a VERY poorly communicated ACTUAL TIMELINE SWITCH that occurs bc of the shit Misato pulls.
but design aside… narratively? i sorta hate it. i try and give credit to rebuild where i can and the patched suits were a kinda genius way to subtly show the determination and desperation and dwindling resources of those aboard the Wunder and its entourages. it subtly painted a picture of asuka and mari taping up their plugsuits for years - previously, these things came in bags, and now they’re rationing them, repairing them when they tear. that was real tangible visual storytelling, and the kind I wanted to see, but don’t get to, and they did away with it. then again, sellin’ figures.
When I say retroactive changes I meant the change from the ones on the left to the ones on the right. Not the white plugsuits at the end. Maybe it was 3.333 not 3.33, but in one of the rereleases they changed
ok even I didn’t know about this. this is a 3.333 specific thing, and I’ve never seen 3.333, because it doesn’t have a home release. as far as I know, 3.333 was only ever released in Japanese cinema and not for home. I don’t know whether the upcoming 4K uhd home release collection of NGE/Rebuild for the 30th anniversary contains 3.33 and 3.333, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the first home release of .333 outside of purely japanese language discs it definitely exists on.
after having scoured through the changelogs it does seem that .333 has the sole change of “visual changes to keep it in line with thrice,” as you said. Since I havent seen it I couldn’t comment on whether this affects the visual scope of “Evangelion new theatrical release 3, you can (not) have yaoi” but I wouldn’t assume that the changes are too distracting. I have to at the very least hand it to anno that he’s presumably this devoted to consistency (and yet won’t update the Next Episode post credit shots at the end of each rebuild, all of which still disappoint me greatly because ohhhhh my god the one at the end of 2.22 looks sick as fuuuuuuck)
that being said: I hate these new plugsuits! Actually! They are severely lacking in cunt! Do you want to know how much I hate them? I actually, until today, thought that these renders were mobile game tie in renders. Good fucking god!!!! It’s a moderately known fact that the suits from 3.33 are actually my favourite plugsuit designs ever so I’m so angry about this im going to write out why I hate the new ones in 4K detail:
from an artistic perspective, they lack a lot of visual interest brought in by the white panelling on the arms. The white panelling along the shoulders serves to immediately differentiate the pilot from their hair as well as the entry plug; this was a fantastic design decision and makes the suits in 3.33 feel super futuristic and defined without diverging too far from established suit technology. As plausible scifi it works! As good design, it works! The differentiation in colour feels modern and updated in a way that lends itself to the cleaner, modernised aesthetic of NTE itself. That’s part of the reason I love these suits; they actually dare to play around with texture, body lines, colour, and greeble in a way that feels very thought out for once. The muted purple colours along the legs are also particularly great because they provide a visual synergy between the pilots while acting as complementary to both of their signature colours. It’s great! It’s interesting! It’s subtle! It’s SERVING CUNT!!!
The new design, as does much of rebuild, sees a successful design and then tries to update it, all the while failing to see what made the original so successful and then failing to elevate it. The “updated” designs feel basic and muddy to me, the definition of form is lost; you could argue the patterning and shapework is cleaner and more futuristic but something to me is lost with that definition.
That and I hate the flanderisation of mari’s face to being straight :3 for keystone and hero art. Actually I hate how NTE tends to distort faces into cariacaturised versions in general… “cariacaturisation” is a great way to describe how much of NTE comes across to me though, tbh. BUT MY FIGURE SALES!!!!
