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Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

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Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#101

Post by jhanschoo »

watt wrote: post #47
aasasd wrote: post #44

Regarding mechanical compression: it's probably not 100% so, but afaik in kanji/hanzi and likely many other SEA scripts, proportions of a character don't matter much―they're just strokes in a grid that you can squish without harm to legibility. That's why labels on cheap Chinese goods often had deformed quasi-monospace Latin type: the author just had no idea anything is wrong. It's likely less true of sorta-calligrap…

Here's a great article why so many Chinese goods are printed with those ugly latin characters: https://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/183/

In its proper use as setting a few words of foreign languages in a mostly Chinese text, the fonts succeed in their job.

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#102

Post by jhanschoo »

jhedwards wrote: post #36

Interestingly, 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; [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Zhenqing

The famous calligraphers' styles were used in early woodblock printing, but the Song/Ming style you see nowadays are more rightly said to be influenced by the constraints of printing.

A way to think about this is that Western serif typefaces come from unical script, but their present standard forms are more rightly said to be influenced by the limitations of metal type.

file:///home/jhanschoo/Downloads/PJACNS-1(2015)-3-Lin.pdf

https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/shotai-printed.html

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#103

Post by emsy »

lprd wrote: post #73
sleepybrett wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are a fan of title card sequences check out cowboy bebop.

Hah, I just started that show last week and I an loving it so far! Any other recommendations?

Monster

Madoka

Steins;Gate

Psycho-Pass

Kiseijuu

Berserk

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#104

Post by wst_ »

There is one more anime that comes to mind if we're talking about typography - Bakemonogatari. Throughout the series still images are shown containing vital information about the thoughts of characters, events' second meaning, puns, etc. Sometimes split second only, sometimes in a fast slides. Really novel and interesting take on animation.

Example: https://youtu.be/-jm-xrO2c_0 (first 30 seconds shows one of the still images and there's much more)

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#107

Post by krapp »

empath75 wrote: post #32
rolltiide wrote: post #4

Typography 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…

>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.

Japan was aware of Christianity and Christian symbolism long before the Americans dropped the atomic bombs, with missionary attempts going as far back as the 15th century, or thereabouts[0], so America really didn't "bring Christian symbolism with them" as a foreign army at that time.

Arguably, it was fear of the growing influence of Christians and their possible allegiance to the Pope threatening the Shogunate's power base (ironically, a similar fear that Americans would have of electing JFK, that he would be a puppet of the Vatican) which led to the Sakoku period and Japan committing genocide against its Christian population[1], forcing the religion underground.

I'm not disputing the analysis you're presenting - there is obviously a lot of symbolism in anime relating to the atomic bombings and occupation, but I wouldn't go so far as to imply that Japan sees Christian symbolism generally as being emblematic of that. Oftentimes it's just a visual metaphor for "the West" in general, or an attempt at "foreign" mystique[2] particularly when supernatural or magical elements are presented, where A lot of anime characters will recite spells or special moves in English because it sounds cool.

[0]https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakoku#Rationale

[2]https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimeCatholicism

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#108

Post by scandinavegan »

lprd wrote: post #73
sleepybrett wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are a fan of title card sequences check out cowboy bebop.

Hah, I just started that show last week and I an loving it so far! Any other recommendations?

Another anime series that asks big questions is Serial Experiments Lain.

It's about a young girl who gets into computers and learns about a parallel world of networked communication called the Wired. The Wired is like VR/AR/internet/chat rooms all in one.

It's only 13 episodes, so it's not a huge time investment, but really interesting. It covers computer hackers, Vannevar Bush's Memex, and more. It's also a bit like a David Lynch story, as it has its own dream logic that doesn't always correspond to what you expect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#109

Post by hmschreck »

scandinavegan wrote: post #108
lprd wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, I just started that show last week and I an loving it so far! Any other recommendations?

Another anime series that asks big questions is Serial Experiments Lain. It's about a young girl who gets into computers and learns about a parallel world of networked communication called the Wired. The Wired is like VR/AR/internet/chat rooms all in one. It's only 13 episodes, so it's not a huge time investment, but really interesting. It covers computer hackers, Vannevar Bush's Memex, and more. It's also a bit like…

I'll second this one. Most of the people in my office who watch anime have all said that SEL played a part in their path in life. It's fun to watch, it has some great artwork, and it's still surprisingly relevant. Just don't expect it to make sense for a long time.

Re: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion

#110

Post by swebs »

sadahtay wrote: post #96
swebs wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gurren Lagann Trigun Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (better remake of the 2003 series) One Punch Man Demon Slayer Akira Redline FLCL

Any recent ones?

Demon Slayer just finished last month. Oh, and I missed Attack on Titan and Steins;Gate. Aside from that, I can't think of any other great ones off the top of my head.
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