>>910602>>910631>>2. On normal sites, I see more people talk about Akira or GitS more than Evangelion, which are classics in their own right. why is that?Because Evangelion is a show revered by otaku, and by people within the anime industry, whereas GitS and Akira are sci-fi masterpieces revered by sci-fi fans or by fans of cinema, as well as critics of both. Two very different groups. Critics might acknowledge Evangelion as important, but you will often see sci-fi fans ambivalent about it. It's an anime that's special to fans of ANIME, who are knowledgeable about anime, its culture, its industry. Genre fans don't have any special reason to like Evangelion, it wasn't particularly influential on sci-fi as a genre, it's impact is on anime as a medium. So if you really like cyberpunk, you'll probably laud Akira as a masterpiece, GitS (1995) as a work of genius, but might only say "yeah Evangelion was good I guess" if you mention it at all.
Also, with GitS, it's a perfect example of the divide I'm talking about, and about the difference between ironic weebs and otaku. The GitS manga that the movie is based on, does not share a similar place of reverence as the 1995 film, or the later TV series even. This is because the manga is much more steeped in otaku culture, featuring outright pornographic scenes, lesbian orgies, etc. This, as you can imagine, fared poorly with prudish western audiences who just wanted a "serious" sci-fi story. So the first volume of the manga was censored, which made the author quite angry when he found out, and out of frustration cut all the nudity and sex from volume 2, but only the version he sent to the west for publication. He left everything in for the Japanese version.
This is a perfect example of people who are not fans of manga/anime appreciating something that culture produced, but not being able to understand the culture that produced it.
