Nevangelion is such a good anime.
Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
31–40 of 114 posts
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#32Typography is such an art I watched End of Evangelion for the first time in 15 years Still entertaining, great animation that stands the test of time, but wow I wish I can go tell my teenage self that it actually doesnt make sense, the symbolism has no point whatsoever but Judeo-Christian dogma is “foreign and cool“ and the writers eventually admit it and everyone had a good time making it
It was a Japanese show for a Japanese audience and Christian symbolism means something very different to them than it does to us. He might not have used the symbolism in the way that a western audience would have, but the connection between Christian symbolism and the West and in particular America would not have been lost on a country which had within living memory had a couple of atomic bombs dropped on them by a foreign army bringing Christian symbolism with them.
It’s almost impossible to understand any 80s or 90s anime without the context of Hiroshima and the occupation.
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#33When you see the list of fonts used at the end it looks like nothing special. But the way they used it in context works really well.
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#34Typography is such an art I watched End of Evangelion for the first time in 15 years Still entertaining, great animation that stands the test of time, but wow I wish I can go tell my teenage self that it actually doesnt make sense, the symbolism has no point whatsoever but Judeo-Christian dogma is “foreign and cool“ and the writers eventually admit it and everyone had a good time making it
It was a Japanese show for a Japanese audience and Christian symbolism means something very different to them than it does to us. He might not have used the symbolism in the way that a western audience would have, but the connection between Christian symbolism and the West and in particular America would not have been lost on a country which had within living memory had a couple of atomic bombs dropped on them by a f…
The creator of the series definitely thinks a lot about Hiroshima and the occupation. Its extremely evident in the live action movie Shin Godzilla that he also directed (its a great movie, check it out if you can, very unlike any Godzilla movie I've seen before). Not to spoil too much but the postwar relationship between the US and Japan is a major theme and the film includes a 10 second silent cutaway where photographs of the destruction of Hiroshima/Nagasaki are shown.
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#35I love the level of detail in this analysis. Just typographic nerdiness at its finest. And I have never watched NGE or have particular interest in anime.
I found the mechanical compression the most interesting part of this. I suspect it started out as limited technical aptitude and/or an "efficiency hack", but has since morphed into an actual stylistic decision that both makes thematic sense[1] and sets NGE apart. To the point now that it might be harder to do mechanical compression than just use a condensed font variant[2].
[1] "[the mechanical compression's] ubiquitous occurrence did evoke haste and, at times, despair—an emotional motif perfectly suited to a postapocalyptic story with existentialist themes"
[2] "... loads the normal Matisse Pro EB and then uses the CSS transform property to achieve the compression effect."
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#36Interestingly, the thick vertical strokes and skinny horizontal strokes you see in the Chinese characters in some of those fonts are the result of one individual's[0] personal style being adopted as the standard for non-cursive calligraphy;
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#37Just rewatched the series now that it's out on Netflix, I really loved the aesthetic of NERV HQ digital screens. A nice mix of digital and older style fonts.
Had no idea this landed on Netflix. I've been in search of somewhere to rewatch for years now. This might be enough to get me to resubscribe for a month.
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#38What does "mechanical compression" mean, exactly? Googling "mechanical compression typography" turns up this article as the first result.
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#39What does "mechanical compression" mean, exactly? Googling "mechanical compression typography" turns up this article as the first result.
I think it simply means the strokes are pretty densely packed. Kanji is very complex structure wise, bold typefaces such as this needs to utilize space carefully otherwise some strokes will become indistinguishable
Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
#40What does "mechanical compression" mean, exactly? Googling "mechanical compression typography" turns up this article as the first result.
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