 Tonight, we are going to talk about Shinseiki Evangelion, a.k.a. Neon Genesis Evangelion. One of the most popular anime, one of the iconic anime in America, this thing's like 12 or 13 years old. One of the most important anime ever in terms of anime histories and modern anime. Now, before we continue, no spoilers, don't worry. We're reviewing this like we review anything else. We're not going to spoil anything, we're not going to talk about what happens, we're just going to talk about what the show is, why we like it, what we didn't like about it, all those normal things. And maybe a lot of information about the show, because it's kind of hard to set the record straight on some things. Yes, granted, I'm going- Not lot related things, but like what episodes do you watch, kind of things. Yes, particularly in the end, and then we have to- Yes, very confusing end. We have to mention something about the movies and the other movies and the re-releases of the movies. And the manga and the potential live action and the video games. The potential live action that's been potential for like a decade. Yep, yep. And two, part of the reason we're reviewing this now is that way back, way back, after we did our final thoughts episode on Big O2, a lot of people were clamoring for us to do more final thoughts episodes. And our thinking was we really don't want to spoil the show that a lot of people haven't seen, because then they either can't listen to our episode or they have to just let the show be ruined. So as a result, we're reviewing Ava, partly so that in a month or so, when everyone who wants to see it has had a chance, we can do our final thoughts. And also, because I haven't seen the show in like, I don't know, four years, and I have to watch it again to do final thoughts. Yes, yes, but actually it's good, because we know a lot of people who haven't seen Ava. And also, by not having seen it just now, it's not going to be easy to go off on specific plot tangents that we really don't need to be talking about. Yeah, you can't really worry about me spoiling anything, because I haven't seen this show since college. In college, I think freshman year, I watched it all the way through on VHS, and then we marathoned it again later. And that's all, I've only ever seen the whole thing twice on VHS, and that's it. Well, you can spoil Ava, but in the same way that you can spoil any show that has something so unbelievable happen at the end. Yeah, but it'd be difficult for me to spoil it, you know, if I wasn't trying to, is what I'm saying. Yeah. It's not like I could slip up and be like, oops, I forgot that that was a secret. Yep. But anyway, I probably just forgot it. Period. Ava, whether or not you like it or you hate it, you think it's brilliant, you think it's crap, I just want to keep in mind while we talk about it that, one, this came out a long time ago, and it set a lot of precedent. Yeah, a long time ago, as in less than 20 years ago. Oh, you mean ancient times? Like the 90s. I mean, back then there were dragons as far as we knew in most of the world. But back, I mean, a lot of the things that people say, oh, Ava's so cliche. It really set a lot of precedents and even if you don't like Ava, you at least have to admit that Ava is a very important anime in terms of how anime has evolved. Now, Ava was directed by an interesting fellow named Hideaki Anno. We're not going to talk about the story behind him. If you want to know more about that, check out Anime World Order. They'll go into great detail about that sort of thing. Suffice to say, the man is either brilliant or insane. Or both. Probably both. Yeah, it's one of those evil mad genius kind of guys. Yeah, and despite his nuttiness, I think that he is one of the main reasons that Ava is what it is, regardless of how you take that. Well, like any other evil genius, they invent some crazy evil robot or something and the robot is really cool, but the actual evil genius is someone you never want to talk to. So, very briefly, because I think a lot of people have seen Ava, but just in case you haven't, the story is actually fairly simple. In terms of what is going on, on the face value, what is the plot? The seed of the plot. Okay, here's the story. You ready? You have this earth and you have this city. And on earth, there are some people living in this city. I think you can start a little bit less broad than that. Okay, okay. I think you're going to explain this really badly, so I'm going to stand by to re-explain it. These people have some robots and the reason they have robots is because they're under attack by these angels, but they're not angels with wingolings and, you know, cupid bows and arrows. They're just giant, horrible monsters that come from the sky sort of randomly. And in each episode, or in most of the episodes, an angel comes down, so they get in their robots and they have to fight it off or else it's going to destroy their city and it's not going to be good. Okay, so basically, normal earth fast forward a little bit, you know, technology's advancing, about modern times is when it's really set. And the Dead Sea Scrolls have prophesized that God will send the angels down to destroy mankind and all sorts of other things. And a semi-shadow organization of governments has gotten together, basically believing this to be somewhat true, trying to deal with it, prepare for it, and prevent it. One thing leads to another, and at some point, there is a catastrophe on the earth, known as the second impact. No, I forgot about that. The first impact being when God created mankind, Adam and Eve, all that, as far as you know. The second impact is basically God giving forth the harbinger of the end of the world, saying, now it begins, you best be prepared. Now humanity, having the prophecies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, had been preparing and under the auspices of the United Nations and other international organizations, had created an organization that, with scientists and these prophecies, had been preparing from that day forward for the day when the angels came. And the anime picks up pretty much when that day comes, and they're no longer crazy. An angel has come. The military tries to deal with it. The military cannot. They finally relent, agree that these people were not crazy, and they hand over control of basically the combined economic output of the world to this organization to basically try to fight off God and prevent the apocalypse. Yeah, but you don't find that out until... Well, you kind of do. That's what the plot is, and you know what's going on. It's actually a lot more complicated than that. There's actually like 10 different organizations, and there's all sorts of politics, and it turns out that the Jews were behind it. Not really, but kind of. The thing in the show is that they hardly ever say anything right out, you know? Things are always alluded to and implied and symbolized, and sometimes you think something's alluded to, but it's not. They lied, and it's... That's why a lot of people are like, whoa, it's a total mind-fucking show, because you can't tell what's going on. But at the same time, you can, especially when you've watched it, and you kind of know the seed of the plot, you really know what's going on, and then you watch it again, and you pick up a lot more. There seem to be a lot of shows like that. I think part of the reason that is is, I remember there's a couple scenes in the show where they'll show you something visually, without any words, for like two seconds. And if you see that in whatever place and time that it appears, that tells you a whole bunch of stuff that you didn't know otherwise. And if you miss that, you miss out on a whole bunch of information that shines a lot of light. Well, like that one scene, this isn't a spoiler or anything. On the aircraft carrier? Yeah, or when... With the suitcase? Yep. And they show you it's in the suitcase for like two seconds. And if you see it, you go, but if you don't see those two seconds, if you blink, you just missed out on like a whole thing, and now you're not going to understand stuff that happens later. I mean, basically the way the show seems to work in terms of that sort of thing is that all the information is there. Nothing actually comes out of nowhere. It's not like there's day or sex machina, or just suddenly, oh, well, it turns out that blah, blah, blah. It's all there. But they show it to you kind of in the sense that the characters involved wouldn't have noticed. These are things that wouldn't have been easy to spot in the heat of the moment, but they're just there kind of setting you up so that these things don't come out of nowhere. And also, it's not like you see it and you think, oh, I know what's going on. It's more you see it and you think, why would he have that? What? What's going on? I don't like this one bit. Or like that scene when Ray's got the spirit of long a noose and then stabs that thing that was crucified somewhere. Yeah. And you don't find out what that was about for a long time, but once you do, because that's the thing, later on in the show, something big will happen, and you'll think back. You'll be like, wait a minute, but I saw her stab that thing with the spirit of long, oh, that's what that was. Whoa. Dun, dun, dun. And there's a lot of that. Now we've given you the backdrop of the show. The way the show actually progresses, the story within this plot, is that there's a young boy named Shinji Ikari, and he is a loser. He's, I mean, he's not a loser. No one likes him. You don't even like him. I don't like him. I like him a lot more in the manga. I'll be honest. I really don't like him. But the thing is, you're not supposed to like him because the thing about Ava is that all the characters are very human, and they all have very real psychological issues that they really can't deal with. It's kind of hard to not have psychological issues when giant monsters are coming out of the sky. True, but even then, the fact is that all these people have fairly simple psychological issues, but they're very difficult to deal with, and they're all very isolated from each other. And I think part of what makes Ava great is that there's all these characters, and if at any point anyone had talked to anyone else about their problems or opened up at all, almost every problem that happened in the show could have been averted. But no, someone walks in on someone to see some crying and just kind of freaks out, doesn't know what to do, runs away and cries on their own, and then no one vents anything, and everyone keeps everything bottled up, and no one really trusts anyone. And it's really a fairly, I don't want to say accurate, but a fairly poignant and kind of biting commentary on what's wrong with humanity on a very fundamental level. If you think that people have that kind of problem, then yeah. A lot of people do, but... I mean, there are people in the show who don't have problems. It's just that many of the main characters... You mean the cool people? Yeah, yeah, the cool people. Oh, actually, there's some cool people who have problems, but they're better at keeping their problems hidden away, or they don't let their problems get in the way of getting shit done. Like my man, my favorite character in the show. That guy is probably one of my favorite characters in anime ever. He's all right. Kaji is just the man. He's got some nice watermelons. He does. I was once mistaken as a Kaji cosplayer, and they even took a picture of me. I'm in fans' view somewhere, because I just happened to have not shaved at some Otacon. So I was all scruffy, and I had my hair tied back in a ponytail, and I was dressed in a collared shirt and a tie and pants. And I was hot, because it was summer, so I had my tie kind of loose in the top button-on-button. And some guy walks up and he's like, Hey, nice Kaji cosplay. And he takes a picture, and I'm like, what? But yeah. But the story is Shinji Kari, this kid, is the son of one of the men who is running this organization. And for reasons, I don't really want to get into the nitty gritty of it, but basically, he gets embroiled in all this, along with a lot of other children, because it just so happens that the children, the people who are able to pilot these devices, these avas, these robots, have to have been born pretty much at a certain time. Like there's this window where kids were born, and these people are the only people who have the capacity to pilot the robots. Yep, they can't just like put soldiers in them, and they can't put babies in them. And believe me- And they can't put nothing in them. They gotta put these kids in there. I mean, another nice thing about the show is that at least as far as you can see, it's not like they don't try. You think, well, why don't they just have a military guy do it? Oh, that's why that didn't work. Most of the characters are like military slash sciences people who are trying to figure out as much as they possibly can. Of course, everything always goes wrong, and goes more and more wrong every episode. My favorite thing is that the one thing that always bothered me about the show a little bit was that they have the kind of like the emergency cut the ties between the pilot and the robot in case something bad happens and eject the pilot. And I guess it worked in training or whatever, but in the course of the show, it never works once. And every time they try to do it, it just doesn't work and there's some sort of catastrophe. Yeah, it's like every single time there's a robot fight with a robot and an angel, right? They'll be sitting in the bridge. I guess it's not really a bridge because it's not a ship, but it's like the war room where all the displays and controls are for everything. It's the best war room ever. It's a pretty good war room. I mean, I've been to NASA. NASA looks really small actually, but... They've got all these freaking lights and things, and every time there's a fight, right? Always the worst possible thing happens. It's like warning, warning, warning. Oh my God, extreme system failure. System failure over there. Oh, everything's exploding. It's overheating. God knows what's going on. We're running out of power. Well, God does know what's going on. This is kind of behind it all. But everything goes as wrong as it can every single time, and whatever they try to do to fix it never works. And it's like, why did they even bother with these computers? They just don't do anything. However, while you might think that, I do want to point out that part of the reason that seems so strange through much of the show is that you don't know what's really going on too much, and you kind of take a lot of things at face value. And you find out later in the show that you can't really trust what characters in the show have been telling you because either they're misinformed or they're lying or something. And you start to find out that all the things that happen throughout the show happen for a reason. It's one of those shows where, kind of like Big O and Big O 2, where everything that happens happens for a reason. There aren't really many loose plot threads. And it all does come together in the end. And I think a fairly elegant way. In fact, I'm going to come back straight out. I don't think we said it. Despite what a lot of you might say, I really like and I really respect Evangelion. And I think it has a lot to say. And I think a lot of the people who are naysayers are just jaded by modern anime. Or I don't want to sound pretentious, but I don't think a lot of people got it. Or they at most, and I will respect this opinion and we'll get to this, I think a lot of people feel a little bit insulted at how Ava presented the message. Because the story is this kid gets embroiled in all this and politics one thing leads to another. What the show really is, is the first four or five episodes are, check it out, we got a robot show. God sent angels to kill the world. Giant robots, robot fights, action show. Check it out. Yeah, not only that, but a lot of these episodes, they like for half the episode, they won't even have any God or robots or anything going on. It's Misato with her pet penguin. It's like people getting drunk, hanging out with pet penguins and having all kinds of fun playing DDR. And who knows what else. Met Misato with, she has two fridges in her house. One for food and one for beer. It is definitely still plenty of that classic anime comedy going on. And there's actually, at least in the first half of the show, a more fan service than you would expect, mostly about Misato, who is probably iconic as one of the most idolized and I guess sexy anime characters, at least in a first American fan. Except it seems like everyone likes the younger characters because they're all perverted. All right, let me just clarify that. It would be hot if it hit them on the head. In Scott and Mine's old man generation, Misato was hot, because Misato was an adult. But I died. And hot. Yes. In fact, my first wall scroll ever was a slightly, it's a little bit itchy. I don't really hang it up anymore because it was given to me by the anime club as a gift. But I have this wall scroll. I thought you won it at a raffle. No, remember? I won the raffle and then they gave that to me and they gave me all of Ava to rent because it happened to be my birthday. I thought we asked for it. Well, we asked for all of Ava and they said, well, it's your birthday. Oh my God. And it was, they even made me show my driver's license. They didn't believe it was my birthday. Whatever. Yeah. The thing's falling apart and filthy. But the problem with it, well, not the problem, but the first five episodes and all this stuff, it's like a typical anime. So the show was designed and I think it was very purposeful to trick the average anime fan or just the robot fighting fan, whatever, to watch this show. What Ghost in the Shell does a lot of the same thing where they try to trick you into watching the show with their violences and their boobies, but really then they bait and switch and they show you something else that they wanted you to see. Yeah. But with Ava, it's so calculated. It's just enough robot show to get people going. And actually all the people I know who like Ava a lot are actually kind of turned off by the first few episodes and you got to kind of get them to watch until the point when the show switches. Not only that, but it's also so little robot show that people who are like super anti-robot will still be able to watch it because they're like, oh, it's not really a robot show. They don't really talk about the robot so much and they're barely even there. And the fighting is just sort of like actual punching and kicking and not so much like mechanical robot fighting. Well, plus, I mean, not to spoil, but there's a point at which you find out just what these robots really are. And I will admit that when I first saw Ava and you find out more about what's going on, I had a chill. It was a very well executed scene. Basically, the show does the bait and switch and the show is not about the robot fighting at all. In fact, at the end of the show, and this is probably one of the biggest controversies ever in anime, is that the show kind of stops right at the climax of everything that's going on and Anno kind of pulls the camera back and doesn't really show you what happened. He doesn't show you the resolution to the plot. He basically says, all right, kids, I tricked you into watching my robot show. I slowly turned it into my commentary on the human condition. Now I'm going to, because I've already got you watching this far, tell you what I think. And I'm going to do it in a very surreal, very heavy handed, very straight up way. And people didn't like that so much. Now people wanted to see their giant robot climax. Yes. So of course, what Anno did is stopped taking his anti-depressants. Yes. Well, basically it's a 26 episode TV series. In the final two episodes, 25 and 26 are Anno's message to you and there's not so much robot in going on. Now I really want to avoid talking about the message. That's for our other show on Ava. Yes. If I was to say, and I'm very open about this, I cried at the final scene of Ava in the original TV show. And I still think it is one of the best endings to an anime ever made. It's fantastic as far as I'm concerned. Well, basically people, unlike Rim, really didn't go for that. They wanted to see their robots. So he said, he said no, fuck you. And then he said no, fuck you. And then he said no, fuck you. But then one day someone said, what about money? Money exists. And he says, fuck, I need that. How can I eat if I don't have that yen over there? Yeah, because Ava did so poorly before the movie. I know, right? I got any money. So what he did, he said, fine, I need some yens. I'm going to go and I'm going to make the end that you fuckers wanted to see. Yeah. So he went and he made episode 25 and 26 again. He made replacement episodes and he passed them off as the event and the Evangelion, the Evangelion movie. And the remake of episode 25 is called Air. And the remake of episode 26 is called A Pure Heart for You. And that's why we refer to it as Air and a Pure Heart for You. Because it's the two episode titles with the word and in the middle. Now, funny little story. Way back before there were Internet fan subs. There's a fan subber called VKill. I really like that. But VKLL. Yes. Not VKILL. Yeah, I guess there might be a VK. I failed at searching for him on the Internet many times because I did not realize he lacked the eye. And I got all the Sailor Moon and a bunch of other stuff from these people and they were really good. But I didn't know about Ava. And he had this thing called End of Evangelion. It looked like a standalone movie. So I got it and I watched it. And I didn't know what it was. And it was really weird and it disturbed me. So I showed it to all my friends. And they were like, wow, what's with all the religious? This is just really creepy. And then we all found out that there was a show and that basically ruined the whole show for us. And to this day, none of them will forgive me for that. Yeah. I also have to say it's watching that first really put the rest of the show in this totally different perspective. Yeah. The air in a pure heart for you is kind of fucked up. So it's all in some ways it's even more fucked up than the crazy ending he made in the first place. I think. But in other ways it's less fucked up because it shows you quite literally what's going on. I mean, there it is. I mean here. Except for the part where he shows the empty real life movie theater. Yeah. That gets weird. Yeah. And then that swing that just keeps swinging back and forth for like 20 minutes. It's actually like a minute, but it feels like forever. But I mean the difference between the original ending and the movies in terms of plot is that, you know, the show stops at episode 24. And then 25 and 26 basically are like what's going on in the final care, like in one of the main characters heads at the end of the show. And it even shows you flashes of stills from what happened in the real world. And the message is basically, you know what? Yes. Look, here's what happened. It shows shots of certain people dead or things happening. And the message is basically, by now you should realize that you shouldn't care what happened. What actually physically happens doesn't matter. If you care about seeing what actually happened in the real world and what the end of this plot was, then you miss the point of my anime. Granted, I can't fault many people for missing the point of the anime because it's a little bit obtuse. A little bit obtuse? A little bit. A little bit. It's quite obtuse. But and it's really, I like it. The movies show physically while this character is in his head, you know, kind of exploring, well, what am I and what does it mean to be a human? And why is there this pain of separation from other humans? But is it better to be all that stuff? The movie is here's what happened when the giant robots fought the other giant robot and all the physical stuff and whether or not the Armageddon happens and what happens as a result of that. But the real answer as to what the movies were was Anno basically standing there with his two middle fingers in the air saying, all right assholes, you wanted to see what happened? I didn't want to show you, but you asked for it. So here it is. Fuck you. And not only fuck you, but aha, I got your yens. Yes. It's like, you like those characters? Well, wait till you see what I do to them all. Yeah, there's other, there's, the movie, when we say the movie, we mean the replacement episodes airing up your heart for you. There are other things like Evangelion, Death and Her Birth and revival of Evangelion and all this other movies, different, that remakes with added scenes and stuff like that. And I really can't tell them apart. And honestly, you don't really need to watch any of those. All you need to watch is the 26 episode TV series and then the two replacement episodes for 25 and 26. Don't watch anything else. It's probably just a waste of your time. Now my recommendation, but this is entirely just my recommendation and you don't have to follow it at all. But if you have never seen Evangelion before, I would recommend that you watch the first 24 episodes and then stop, watch the movies now, see what happens in the, like in the end of the show and watch that ending and then watch the last two episodes from the TV series. Because they kind of both say similar things, but they kind of take two different tags on it. And I think that the real ending, well, not the real ending, the first ending, the ending of the TV show, will leave a much better taste in your mouth. And it'll also make more sense. Yes. It's kind of tears of joy at understanding what the show was all about versus just sitting there with your mouth open, going, what the fuck was that? Yep. Now, in terms of the show itself, it's animated pretty well, especially considering when it came out. And there are some extremely beautiful scenes in this. The soundtrack is fantastic. The voice acting is really good. There's a lot of big names in this. Yeah. Actually, I've heard that the dub is actually not so bad, but I still wouldn't watch it. It's about as good as all the dubs back then were, which means kind of better than the dubs now. Yeah. I guess it was done by the 80V in the 90s. So whatever 80V was like in the 90s, that's what this was like. Yep. And I got to say, the symbolism and the scenes and the way a lot of the... There's so much symbolism in the show. It's kind of like Gutenna, where it just hits you over the head constantly. But I guess unlike Gutenna, it doesn't get crazy to the point of there's a flashing hand with the finger pointing at the symbolic thing on the screen to make sure you don't miss it. Yeah. But it's sort of weird because it's not like, you know, they tell a completely normal story, but there is a hidden meaning that is hidden, but doesn't interfere. Because the symbolism does sort of interfere. And they do a lot of scenes, which are just symbolic and not literal. And you know they are. And sometimes you can decipher them, and sometimes you can't. There's a lot of allegory in Evangelion. And a lot of the symbolism, I think, like it doesn't say, it doesn't hit you over the head so much. It's more that it kind of enhances the scene or adds a little something to your perception. Like there's a scene, I think this is the best example, where Gendau, kind of the leader of all this business, is sitting at his desk. And it pans out to him at his desk. And the way he's sitting at it with the shadow behind him, his desk and him cast a shadow on the floor that is pretty much straight up a star of David. And simultaneously, there is this shadow from the crossbeams of the window. And as the camera moves, the crossbeams form across over his shoulder. And coupled with what he is saying and kind of his force or what he is doing or what he does in the plot and why he is important, it actually adds a lot, especially if you know anything about Judeo-Christian mythology. In fact, I would recommend that you read up a little bit on Judeo-Christian mythology and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The show will make a lot more sense if you do. Yeah, they'll show you a lot of things and you might say, oh, it's a tree of life. Oh, it's a star of David. But what that means, I mean, you'll be like, God, it's the Jew symbol. But if you don't know any more than that, then a lot of things will be completely lost on you that they're trying to say. Yeah, but I mean, if you read about, especially the Kabbalah, which while it's obviously not true, it's really interesting stuff and it's kind of neat. And you'll get Ava a lot more if you've read about that at all. Yeah, I guess that's another reason why a lot of people are sort of say they don't like Ava so much because even if they're the kind of people who like symbolic, meaningful, existential kind of stuff, this sort of requires this base knowledge and a lot of attention. You gotta pay attention to everything and every second and every single thing on the screen in order to get all the pieces. And it's hard work. It's not easy to watch and get it. It's very difficult. But unlike some shows, like Utenna, no matter how hard you try, you're not gonna figure out what's going on until the very end. With Ava, you can get a very good idea. If you just pay attention and if you watch the show with the mission of I wanna know what's actually going on, you'll have a pretty good sense of what's going on near the, like as it goes on. And you'll start to figure things out. Because even though everyone talks about how crazy it is, most of the show is pretty straightforward. Like, there's an angel coming. Hey, we're in school. Hey, there's a robot. Hey, should I go in the robot? I don't know, you go in the robot instead this time. Oh, I'm not doing so well in this robot fight. Oh, she's hot. It's most of it is straightforward during the, you know, first half of the TV series. For like 16 episodes, everything will make sense. Complete sense. Like, oh, he's doing that now. All right. Now, I'd like to talk more about the show, but honestly, I really don't wanna spoil anything. And I don't wanna, any more so than we already have, kind of poison the well of how you're going to take Ava. Because much like all the shows like this, there are a lot of ways to take it, and a lot of ways to interpret it. And I really don't want anyone to watch the show having some sort of preconceived notion as to what the show is trying to say. Because I'd like you to at least come to your own conclusion before you hear what we have to say about it. Yeah, I think what it comes down to is, whether you like the show or if you hate the show and you think it's the worst show ever, it's such a significant show, at least in its influence on current animes and animes since the later half of the 90s to today, that if you're any sort of anime fan whatsoever, even if you're only like Shojo and you hate robots and you hate all this kind of stuff, you should watch it anyway. It's sort of like a must watch. Like, if you watch movies, you have to see Citizen Kane. Even if you don't like it, you have to see it. It's like a law somewhere. And luckily, Ava is really easy to come by. There's a platinum thin pack. And you want that. You can get it for like $20 to $40. There's the whole show in it. Back in the day, you had to buy a pile of VHSs or a pile of DVDs. And ADV keeps re-releasing Ava in different formats. Forget all of those. Buy the platinum complete thin pack. Because one, the platinum complete has, it's totally remastered. And with this show, it really matters. It's like night and day. Yep. And two, and this is one thing that bothers me about Ava. In the platinum thin pack, there are the director's cuts or the original cuts of like five or six episodes from the show. And I watched all of those. And I discovered something really, it seems like all the things they cut out of the show were the things that explained exactly what was going on in excruciating detail. I watched this one episode and there's this organization called Gehrin that you kind of get the sense that they're important but they don't really explain exactly what that is. And when they do, it's really roundabout. In the director's cut version of that episode, they're pretty much, Gehrin was founded by this government to do this and this and this by these people on this date. And it's like, oh, great. I really could have used that when I watched the real show. Yeah. So if you get the platinum thin pack, it's cheap. It's the whole show in a one tiny little box. And it's really cheap. And that's what you should buy. Don't bother buying any other DVD box sets. This probably, you know, you'll go to the store. There'll be some crazy expensive one for like $300 that comes with probably robots and things in there. You don't want that. You could buy the real... Ah, I guess if you could find the old DVDs on eBay, that might be cheap. Yeah, they're not... But make sure you don't get a bootleg. If it's an ADV, it's not a bootleg. If it's not from ADV, it is a bootleg. And don't get VHS tapes for the love of God. Yeah. Yeah, VHS tapes kind of useless. Plus, the main problem with getting this on VHS is you want the subtitles. And it's probably harder to find the subtitled VHSs. I mean, we had them all at RIT, but that's probably the only place. Yeah. But I mean, we really like the show. It's in our top 10, possibly our top five easily. I think the show has a lot to say. And I think everyone out there who's at all a fan of animation should at least give it a chance. In the future, probably in a month or two, we want to give everyone time, we're going to review the show for people who have already seen the show, meaning spoilers and commentary. Which means you have to watch it. So I imagine we'll probably watch it in like August at some point. Yeah. Because... Well, part of it, we have... Starting this weekend, it's cons, cons, cons. We actually have several friends who have never seen Ava. And one thing that... One of my favorite things to do, and I haven't been able to do this much since RIT, is I love to watch one of those amazing shows with people who have never seen it. Because it's more fun to watch their reactions to certain scenes than to watch the show again. Yeah. It's because I've seen the show. Well, I haven't seen this in a while, so I'm actually going to be paying more attention. I've seen Ava about four times. I've only seen it twice, but... Yeah. It... It is something I've seen a hundred times. Like, attack the gas station. God. I can... I can't attack the gas station. I... It's awesome. But if I just watch it, it doesn't do it for me because I've seen it, like, 20 times. But if there's even one person who hasn't seen it before, I want to show it to them so badly. And I'll sit there through the whole movie with them just to see if, you know, they attack only one or not. See, now, at least for us, that seems to be the mark of a good show. Like, some shows are just so important to us or transcendent or whatever that... I mean, you know, the way we talk about Netflix and fan subs and whatever, most things we watch, we watch them once. We throw them away. We never want to see them again. We already got what we're getting out of it. But there's a few shows and a few things in movies that we end up just periodically watching. Like, every now and then, you know what? It's been about that time. We've got to watch Escaflone again. Gotta watch The Matrix. Yep. Gotta watch Snatch. And Ava's one of those things. We perennially watch Ava again and again. And I imagine that I'm going to watch Ava every few years off and on for much of my life. Yeah, I'm an old man. I'll be sitting there. I've read everything and seen every anime and whatever. And I'll be like, oh, seen everything. Watch that Ava again. All right, sure. Yeah. Plus, I mean, Ava really, it stands up to the test of time. If Ava came out today, I think it would do well. Oh, it would do crazy well. Well, especially considering a lot of what's out there now. Yeah, yeah. The thing is, it's definitely from, you know, that older school to fan Ava. They don't make anime in this genre anymore, really. Well, they've tried. And a lot of people say that Razifon does what Ava tried to do better. I watched Razifon. It is definitely in the same genre, but it's also definitely different, even though at times they're directly poking fun at Ava. Well, I guess we could actually do a whole episode on Razifon slash Ava. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we could do a whole episode on just all the shows that pay homage to or otherwise make fun of Ava. Yeah. But yeah, if you like Ava, you should probably watch Razifon. Yeah. And also, if you like both of those shows, watch Big O sold these so that you can watch Big O too. And you might think, what are you crazy? Because Big O is about a giant robot who punches other giant robots in the face. That's why Big O is awesome. Big O is one of my favorite anime. But seriously, Big O, much like Ava, takes a turn and goes in the direction you wouldn't expect. Ava with Batman. Yes. All right. I think we're done. Are we done? This has been Geek Nights with Riman Scott. Special thanks to DJ Pretzel for the opening music. Be sure to visit our website at www.frontroadcrew.com where you'll find show notes, links, our awesome forum, a link to our Frappermap, and links to all the RSS feeds. We say feeds plural because Geek Nights airs four nights a week covering four different brands of geekery. Mondays are science and technology. Tuesdays, we have video games, board games, and RPGs. Wednesdays are anime, manga, comic nights. And Thursdays are the catch-alls for various rants and tomfoolers. You can send us feedback by email to geekknights at frontroadcrew.com or you can send audio feedback via Odio. Just click the link that says send me an Odio on the right side of our website. 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