Are you happy? Actually, for that matter, what is happiness anyway? What makes one happy? We have all asked these questions before, and there seems to be an endless array of self-help books and internet advice in order to help us answer those very questions. Since art imitates life, it is no surprise that we should have a movie seeking to answer those very same questions.

Hector and the Search for Happiness (based off a book of the same name by François Lelord) is about a man named (you guessed it) Hector, played by Simon Pegg. He is a successful psychiatrist, living in a swanky apartment in London, overlooking the Millennium Bridge. He has a beautiful girlfriend named Clara (Rosamund Pike), who works in marketing, and together they live a quiet, ordinary, predictable life. However, one day Hector comes to a realization: he is not particularly happy, and is therefore unable to help his patients to be any happier. So he decides to go on a round-the-world expedition to do “research” on what makes people happy. His misadventures include spending time in a Buddhist monastery in China, being kidnapped by a warlord in Africa, and reconnecting with an old flame in Los Angeles. Through it all, Hector jots down his notes and doodles as part of his research about happiness.

Hector and the Search for Happiness is an odd film. I mentioned self-help books earlier, and in many ways it seems like one of the endless stream of books designed to appeal to aimless housewives. Although, to be fair, it was based off a psychology book written in such a way as to appeal to a mainstream audience. The film’s messages are therefore very predictable: we get such gems as “Happiness is being loved for who you are” and “Happiness is doing something you love”. Geez, I’ve never heard any of that before. Much of the movie becomes very annoying and patronizing; the worst part is a scene where Hector’s brain is being scanned and we see his emotions color-coded on a computer screen, with a doctor looking on and waxing poetic about them looking like the Northern Lights.

But on the other hand, there are a few moments in the film which possess real feeling. When Hector is being held hostage in Africa and it looks like he’s going to be shot, the tone drastically switches to be almost overly dramatic and tense. But, it is a welcome respite from the condescending advice of the rest of the movie. And when Hector is in the Buddhist monastery, he meets a monk who gives him words of wisdom which actually sound, well wise, rather than something from the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble. It’s not enough to save the movie, but it is enough to keep it from being a total failure.

So, if you really like self-help books, then you’ll probably love this movie. Alternatively, if you love Simon Pegg, you may also enjoy this movie (for all that’s wrong with it, Simon Pegg still does a decent job). Or, if you want to see a harmless film which will advise you to do the same things your parents, therapist, and college academic advisor told you to, then go ahead. But overall, I do not believe that Hector and the Search for Happiness will not do much to make you happy at the theatre this weekend.

Grade: C-

Series at-a-glance:
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic
Creator: Hajime Isayama
Studio: Production I.G. and Wit Studio
Length: 25 episodes
Year: 2013
Highlights: Action, dark but not too dark

In a post-apocalyptic world vaguely based off medieval Germany, the last survivors of the human race live within three massive rings of walls in order to protect themselves from man-eating giants called titans. These beings defy the laws of nature by eating nothing but humans, which they do seemingly not for sustenance but for enjoyment. No one knows the origin of the monsters that threaten them or the walls that protect them. All they know is that as long as they stay behind the walls, they are safe.

That is, until one day when a colossal titan appears and smashes a hole in the outer wall. Titans flood in, eating thousands of people and causing the retreat from a huge portion of humanity’s remaining territory. Enter our protagonists, three survivors from that fateful day: the hot-headed Eren Yeager, his quiet, adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their best friend, the bookish Armin Arlert. They decide to join the military in order to learn how to strike back at the titans which took so much from them. However, not all is as it seems, and as the story progresses, our heroes discover shocking revelations about themselves, the titans, and the very nature of the world around them.

Every once in a while, an anime series comes around which, for whatever reason, reaches a large number of older viewers (and by older I mean in the teenage demographic) who have never been exposed to anime before. In this way, it becomes a gateway series for a new group of anime fans. Attack on Titan is one such series: it has become amazingly popular, especially with a significant group of viewers for whom this is their first adult anime series.

So why has it become so popular, you ask? First and foremost, it has a ton of action. Attack on Titan is an action series first and foremost, and the action is very well done. It is fast-paced, exciting, and bloody. It is essentially the anime equivalent to a block-buster action movie. It has bad-ass characters fighting horrible monsters that we can easily root for and cheer on. Basically, it’s fun.

In addition to being chock-full of action, the series is also dark and gritty. As I touched on in the introductory article, there is a perception among Americans that all animated works are silly and childish, just by the nature of them being animated. Early anime series that many of us were exposed to as children (Pokemon, Yugioh, Dragon Ball Z) don’t do much to alter that perception. It is often a surprise to new anime viewers that some series can be so dark, and Attack on Titan is certainly dark. It isn’t at all afraid to kill off main characters, and it frequently does, often in gruesome and horrible ways. Further, the heroes don’t always win, and an important aspect of the series is on failure and sacrifice that often turns out to be futile.

But all of that being said, at its core Attack on Titan is still a pretty standard shōnen series. It has the standard character tropes, a relative disinterest in relationships and character development, and a focus on action above all else. The show still follows standard conventions of storytelling and still adheres to most anime tropes. The show is darker and grittier than most shōnen series, which makes it interesting to an older demographic. However, it never crosses the point at which it would become so dark or complicated that it loses mainstream appeal. Essentially, Attack on Titan is the perfect mix of what is familiar with what is new, of gruesome deaths with an easy-to-follow plot, and grittiness with familiarity. In short, the perfect gateway series for an older audience of anime fans.

So if you have little to no experience with anime as a medium, this is the perfect series for you. It’s fun, it’s dark, it’s full of action, and it’s a great way to expose yourself to the medium before diving into the really complicated stuff. This is the Guide to AnimeLand after all, and at the very least, this is a series that all anime fans should be familiar with, because this is one you will hear about all the time.

Skeleton Twins portends to be the big break for writer/director Craig Johnson, whose excellent first film True Adolescents is under seen and underappreciated. He links up with stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig and the film was loved at Sundance, where it received the Screenwriting Award. Its current Rotten Tomatoes score is 100%. All five of my friends that I saw the film with were beaming afterwards. Unfortunately, I was the disappointed one.

Coming to Skeleton Twins as a fan of True Adolescents, I expected the same feeling of awkward reality. Not that True Adolescents is awkward, but that it conveys the awkwardness of human beings. We are too strange and unique to be most movie characters. This came through with not only newcomers Bret Loehr and Carr Thompson, but also seasoned indie-star Mark Duplass. Conversely, Skeleton Twins felt too famous with Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Ty Burrell, and Luke Wilson. By using talented comedic actors, who are certainly on their game in this film, I had trouble shifting between the comedy and drama. It’s not that there should be less or more of either, but that the gap between the two was unbridgeable. I know that all these actors have the dramatic chops, as we’ve seen from Wiig in Bridesmaids and Wilson in Enlightened. Johnson proved his talents as a writer/director on True Adolescents, but this film just doesn’t mix those sentiments well enough. 

However, Hader and Wiig are still very good in this film. It has dramatic moments that had me in tears. To be clear, I’m disappointed because I hoped this would be a great movie. It’s not, but it’s very, very good and that’s something worth seeing when it comes to theaters and VOD in September.

Grade: B 

Just as I got into my seat at the screening, a fellow critic asked me if I knew anything about the movie. I told him, “ I haven't seen the trailers. I have a vague idea about the plot. But its a Liam Neeson movie! Enough said!“ I am not sure if he was impressed with my method of reasoning. But then again even though we love the Taken-esque action from Neeson, we wanted to be surprised; and surprised we were!

A Walk Among the Tombstones is a crime/mystery drama that takes place in 1990’s New York. Matt Scudder (played by Liam Neeson) is an unlicensed detective who works on off-the-record private requests. He’s an ex-cop who left the force due to his alcohol addiction. After years of making a few acquaintances at his sobriety meetings, he is approached by one asking for a favor. It is a request to help avenge his brother who lost his wife amidst her kidnapping. As Scudder slowly gets involved in the investigation, he discovers that the murderer is a duo that targets the families of drug traffickers. With the police having little knowledge about these murders, it is up to Scudder to find and stop the two psychotic killers.

So lets get down to the real deal. Liam Neeson saves his family, kicks a lot of ass and when it gets cold, he even fights wolves. Wait, that’s Taken and The Grey... Sorry, wrong description. As much as we love Neeson doing the aforementioned stunts, A Walk Among the Tombstones is a beautiful exception to that, which surprisingly does not try to exploit the Taken-legacy of the action star. This movie has Neeson play a very different role, where we see very few glimpses of action but more of a dark and gritty detective who not only tries to solve cases that come his way but also fights a battle of morality along with his inner demons.

Scott Frank (screenwriter of The Wolverine and Minority Report), the writer and director of the movie, brings you a gruesome detective thriller that is very 90’s and pleasure to watch. What makes the movie different (also the reason some people may dislike it) is that it a very simple story made in the 90’s style (tailing people vs. tracking them online; no hi-fi tech here), that kind of takes you back to the old days. Now if you are a crime mysteries veteran then you might probably find this movie unstimulating. But looking at the recent offerings at the theatres, A Walk Among the Tombstones definitely makes for something fresh. The direction is interesting and writing a little above average. But the overall execution of the story makes it an interesting watch. There aren’t a lot of big names when it comes to the cast, and in fact a lot of international actors appear, probably as a result of multiple production houses at work. Nonetheless, there are decent performances by Dan Stevens as the first targeted drug trafficker, as well as David Harbour & Adam David Thompson playing the killers. But the focus unarguably lies on Liam Neeson.

I managed to find some time and did some research (read: 20 minutes of browsing the web) about the movie. Fun fact: this isn’t the onscreen debut of Matt Scudders. Matt Scudders is a character created by Lawrence Block and appears in 17 novels by the author. Scudders was previously seen on the silver screen in the 1986 movie 8 Million Ways to Die, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This is his second coming with the adaptation of the 10th (chronologically speaking) book by Block. With a rich collection of stories to back the character, it really makes me wonder if this just the first of a series that just got jump-started!

Like: It’s different; Matt Scudder

Not so much: There are moments where it slumps; has few detective-story cliches

Grade: B+

In the last, let’s see… 15 years or so, Hollywood has really figured out how to profit off the young adult demographic. It started with Harry Potter, and the trend has recently gotten another boost from the phenomenal success of The Hunger Games films. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that we are starting to see a slew of follow-the-leader, young adult targeted films. Some of these have been quite successful (this summer’s The Giver springs to mind), others decidedly less so (I’m looking at you, Divergent). But if statistics class has taught me one thing, it’s that most films will fall somewhere in the middle. The Maze Runner, based off the novel by James Dashner, is exactly there, right smack in the middle.

The film opens with our hero, played by Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf), waking up in an elevator bringing him to a strange place called The Glade, an area of wilderness surrounded on all sides by massive walls. It is populated by a group of teenage boys, none of whom remember anything before coming to The Glade other than their name (“It’s the one thing they let us keep.”). They explain that once a month, the elevator brings up a selection of supplies as well as a new boy. Our protagonist, who eventually remembers that his name is Thomas, befriends a young boy named Chuck (Blake Cooper), second-in-command, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), and the boys’ leader, Alby (Aml Ameen), and makes an enemy of the suspicious Gally (Will Poulter). Outside the walls of The Glade is a massive, constantly changing maze, filled with deadly creatures called grievers. The fastest and strongest boys are selected to be maze runners, tasked with attempting to map the maze in order to find a way out. Thomas, of course, soon becomes one.

This film, like I said earlier, is best described as average and unsurprising. The plot is very typical of young adult-oriented films, with a decent amount of action and an ending that can be spotted a mile away. The writing and acting are both middle of the road, although I will admit that the child actors are better than many I’ve seen. The action is well choreographed but nothing particularly special, and the special effects are up to par but no better. Camera work, editing, music, and everything else is exactly what you go into the movie expecting to see.

And you know, I can’t really complain too much about that, because when I go to see a young adult action flick, those are all things I expect to see. I saw what I came to see. I got exactly what I paid for, and if you go to see this movie, you will get exactly what you pay for: a plot that’s interesting but not mind-blowing, action that’s good but not great, and acting that’s adequate for the needs of the films. This is not to say that all young-adult films are exactly like this; some of them are significantly better than the average and some of them much worse. But statistically, the majority of them will fall close to the center, and I think that The Maze Runner is the perfect place to put our average point on the spectrum of young adult action movie scale.

So if you’re in the mood for an action-packed story about a bunch of teenagers trying to escape from a gigantic maze, than go on and see The Maze Runner. It is exactly what you think it will be, and there’s something to be said for that.

Grade: C+

Kevin Smith has one of the most distinct voices in modern cinema. For the past twenty years, he’s made movies that are low-key in style, yet outrageous in their subject matter and dialogue. With Tusk, Smith showcases a new, flashy side to his career - he departed his earlier lo-fi style a few years ago with Cop Out and has been on an upward trajectory ever since. It may seem weird to see Smith direct a horror flick, but there are only surface level differences between Tusk and his repertoire of ’90s slacker flicks. Underneath the gore and suspense lies a foundation of bizarre conversations, irreverent dialogue, and a surprising amount of perception into the human condition.

The movie focuses on Wallace Bryton (Justin Long), a comedian with a successful podcast about ridiculous things that happen in the world. While on a trip to Canada to interview somebody for the show, he runs into Howard Howe (Michael Parks), a wheelchair-bound sailor who promises incredible stories of his life to Wallace. All fairly routine so far; however, the movie ramps up quickly as Howard drugs Wallace and traps him at the house to turn him into a walrus. No, seriously. He’s literally trying to turn him into a walrus. That’s all I’m willing to write for fear of spoiling the rest of the movie, but suffice to say that the movie takes some incredible twists and turns that are hard to see coming. I rarely do this, but for once, I actually recommend that you watch the trailer for a solid idea about Tusk’s feel. The trailer also does a fantastic job of avoiding spoilers.

Body horror movies like this need a villain that can anchor the movie to a psychologically horrifying place for the audience. Howard Howe is not a slasher movie villain, he is a deeply disturbed wheel chair bound sailor. For him, his only real “weapon” is his words, and words are Kevin Smith’s bread and butter. Michael Parks does an incredible job bringing this demented old sailor to life. There’s just enough menace in his delivery and enough restraint in his performance that even the simple scenes between Wallace and Howe in the first act of the movie are tense. By the movie’s end, Parks’s performance becomes a master class in restraint and nuance. Justin Long could have been the “everyman” that leads most horror movies, but as Kevin Smith so often does, he pours so much of himself into Wallace that it’s impossible for him to be relatable. He’s funny, douchey, and has an arc that defies all logic. Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment also star as Wallace’s girlfriend and best friend, respectively, and do a good job of infusing this movie with a little bit of heart that most movies of this genre don’t have.

Even for Kevin Smith, who has done some absurd things in his movies, Tusk sometimes pushes the envelope in terms of discomfort. Most of the movie, like the rest of his filmography, focuses on conversations and character development. However, laughs have been traded for tension. The entire movie is unnerving in a way is more akin to a psychological thriller than a horror flick. Unlike most horror movies, the film is a far cry from a constant assault on the senses like early 2000s torture porn flicks - Tusk plays its cards close to the vest. When things become gruesome or shocking, it’s really only because there’s relatively few violent moments in the movie. It all happens inside your head. Smith’s comedy writing chops shine when scenes ramp up to big reveals and chilling moments, almost as if he’s replacing punch lines with scares. It’s surprisingly effective. However, one place where Smith’s comedy past may not be so appreciated is in the structure of the movie. In Chasing Amy, a ten-minute long digression from the plot for a conversation with Jay and Silent Bob is a welcome distraction from the plot. Tusk’s similarly silly ten minute long digression towards the end of the movie is an interruption that doesn’t add much to the plot or inform any of the characters. In purposefully vague terms, it grinds the movie to a halt and results in a rushed, yet bizarrely satisfying, ending.

This relates to a larger point about Tusk that I am still coming to terms with. I’m sure that if you asked Kevin Smith, he wouldn’t call Tusk a horror movie. It’s still undeniably funny. The idea came from Smith’s own comedy podcast. The fact that Justin Long’s character’s name is Wallace is enough to elicit a groan from even the corniest of dads. The film makes fun of Canadians almost as much as South Park. None of this is inherently a problem - horror movies can certainly be funny. But Smith is notorious for having comedies with a lot of heart and something to say. When abduction, mutilation, blood and gore are involved, it’s hard to reconcile that Tusk is, at its heart, still a Kevin Smith film. It tries to make a point and reach its audience with some of the most affecting and impactful imagery I’ve seen in a long time. As a result, the movie’s conclusion left a bad taste in my mouth. But as a whole, is Tusk in bad taste? I’ll let you decide.

“It is the most profoundly human animated film I’ve ever seen.”
-Ernest Rister

Film at-a-glance:
Genre: Drama
Creator: Isao Takahata
Studio: Ghibli
Length: 89 minutes
Year: 1988
Note: Keep a box of tissues handy.

“September 21, 1945. That was the night I died.”

This the first line of Isao Takahata’s film Grave of the Fireflies, based on a semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. These words are spoken by a young boy named Seita as he watches his body succumb to starvation alone in a train station. Soon reunited with his baby sister, Setsuko, the two of them look back on the final months of their lives, starting with the destruction of their home city of Kobe by American firebombing raids. Their mother is killed from burns sustained by the bombs and, with their father away at sea with the Imperial Navy, they go to live with an aunt. The aunt turns out to be cruel, and Seita and Setsuko soon tire of her poor treatment. They decide to strike out and live on their own, moving into an empty bomb shelter. But, as you would have guessed due to the beginning, things don’t go so well.

So basically, it’s a really happy movie.

Grave of the Fireflies is sometimes described as a war movie, but it is not about war itself. Rather, the film very graphically addresses the consequences of war upon individuals and society. This is not the sort of animated film you want to show kids. It pulls no punches and makes no attempt to disguise what it is: a tale about two young children who needlessly die due to an uncaring society suffering through war. Yet, the film possesses moments of joy and beauty; despite (or perhaps because of) the utter hell that Seita and Setsuko suffer through, they are still painted in the same beautiful and innocent manner that kids are portrayed in all of Ghibli’s films. Despite everything they live through, they never cease being what they are at heart: children full of grace. These moments only serve to make the horror on display in the rest of the film that more awful.

The film possesses Studio Ghibli’s trademark gorgeous animation, which illuminates both beautiful things (Seita and Setsuko catching fireflies) and horrible things (unrecognizable, blackened bodies in the ruins of the burned city of Kobe). Studio Ghibli’s animators have crafted many scenes of wonder and magic for film goers over the decades, but this is the only time they have crafted such scenes of destruction and death. This creates an often unsettling juxtaposition between the beauty and innocence of the children and the utter horror that they have to live through.

Even though the film showcases the ruins of war (both the physical and the societal), not all the tragic events can be traced directly to the bombs and the fires. Isao Takahata actually intended the film not to be a criticism of war but rather to be a sort of scolding of Japanese youth at the time, who he perceived as leading failed lives. He intended Seita to represent the young leading wasted lives because of their rejection of their society and their elders, who lived through the events the film so graphically illustrates. What he wanted people to take away from the film was the fact that had Seita and Setsuko stayed with their aunt, however cruel she may have been, they would not have died. Whether or not you agree with Takahata’s assessment of the state of Japanese youth, it is undeniable that it is in large part because of Seita’s stubborn pride that both he and his sister perish.

Bizarrely, Grave of the Fireflies was originally released as a double feature with Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, one of the happiest and most whimsical films ever created. I imagine the mood whiplash between those two works could easily kill the unprepared. Still, both are extremely poignant and touching in their own unique ways. Grave of the Fireflies just happens to achieve that meaning by showing the trials and ordeals and eventual death of two young children. It is touching and beautiful and extremely sad, and it is a masterpiece of Japanese cinema. Just don’t expect a happy ending.

Last year director Adam Wingard suddenly became a horror director of note with You’re Next, a film about the slow slaughter of the Davidson family trapped in a vacation home. Their killers adorn deliciously eerie animal masks, which highlight Wingard’s visual prowess for the detestable. Many, such as myself, falsely presumed that this effort was his debut, when actually he’d released four feature length films that involved top talent like Joe Swanberg (Happy Christmas), Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), and E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills). The emergence of Wingard’s new film The Guest was of particular interest, as this low-budget filmmaker finally had more money to play with.

The film follows David (Dan Stevens), a recently discharged American soldier whose come to this quiet town to fulfill the last wish of his late comrade and friend. David devilishly pries his way into his friend’s family home and becomes involved with the personal lives of each family member. Over time, the family’s daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) becomes suspicious of David and a game of cat and mouse ensues. Strange and extremely overt measures are taken throughout the mundane beginnings of the film to make sure the audience is aware that this story is headed towards horror, despite its apparent domesticity. One instance is typical horror music that shrieks when the title of the film appears on-screen. There are plenty of other overt reminders that this is a horror film and that David is someone to be watched closely.

 While viewing The Guest, I was surprised by how similarly it succeeded and faltered to You’re Next. Like in You’re Next, particular character moments are glaringly artificial and silly. One particular one pertains to the actions of the family’s son Luke (Brenden Meyer) and his motivation in telling David something (which will remain unsaid as this occurs near the end of the film). Luke’s actions are absolutely preposterous, which Wingard is clearly aware of, but why? The moment with the shrieking title felt as random as it did in Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods.  Goddard’s film was clearly commenting on the genre, while WIngard’s doesn’t seem to know why it does what it does. I couldn’t understand if The Guest was supposed to be commentary or celebration, as it aimlessly wanders around the two with no apparent design. That said, this movie is super freaking fun.

Observing the cat and mouse game between David and Anna is thoroughly enjoyable, if only because many moments are scored by highly enjoyable and weirdly danceable indie music (perhaps electronic and synth-pop?). Dan Stevens is solid as David, bringing eccentricities to the character that are amusingly strange. The trajectory of the story is delightfully depraved; it had me smiling on the edge of my seat almost literally dancing in anticipation of abrupt violence (seriously: smiling and almost dancing, in anticipation of abrupt violence). This notably unique aspect of The Guest underlines its general spectacular creativity that comes in doses. Wingard keeps the film visually intriguing throughout, without being amateurishly over-the-top. He’s visually successful in the way this year’s Jim Mickle film Cold in July is, being highly enjoyable and elevating the film’s value despite the limitations of genre.

Overall The Guest actually winds up being quite similar to this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy, being a fairly typical entry in its genre with spectacularly worthwhile flair. This film isn’t quite as generic or stylish as Guardians, and unfortunately it has more than a couple notably bland moments. It’s bigger and more intense than You’re Next, but not particularly more mature in its filmmaking. That makes The Guest something of a disappointment, but it is still wonderfully entertaining for those who can have fun in the dark crevices of their brain.

Grade: B+/B

"Yes, it is a creative, spiritual, and artistic masterpiece unrivaled in the anime world, an evolving, personal, and complex expression of insecurity and anxiety, but let's be honest here. It never made a lick of sense, not ever. Still, it's okay to love it."

-Adam Arseneau, DVDVerdict.com

Series at-a-glance:
Genre: Mecha, Post-Apocalyptic, Postmodernism
Creator: Hideaki Anno
Studio: Gainax
Length: 26 episodes
Year: 1995-1996
Highlights: A masterpiece of anime

In the year 2000, the apocalypse occurs. An event known as Second Impact annihilates Antarctica, shifting the Earth’s rotational axis and causing environmental catastrophe. This causes massive geo-political instability, and between war and the hostile climate about half of the world’s population is killed. However, that is not the end of it. In the year 2015, alien beings known as Angels begin attacking Earth, which threaten to destroy what remains of humanity.

Enter our protagonist, a teenage boy named Shinji Ikari. He is summoned to the fortress city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo, head of the branch of the United Nations tasked with destroying the Angels (NERV). In order to do so, he needs Shinji to pilot an enormous mecha called an Evangelion. Despite his initial objections, Shinji consents to being a pilot. He, along with fellow pilots Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu, becomes responsible for protecting the world.

Sounds simple, right? Well, it’s actually not. You see, Neon Genesis Evangelion does start out as a relatively standard action-packed Humongous Mecha anime series. However, over time, the series slowly but steadily turns into something very different. By the end, the series has transformed into a complex character study rife with sophisticated psycho-analysis of each character. It delves deeply into existential and transhumanist philosophy, and becomes enmeshed with Christian-Judeo, Kabballah, Shinto, and other religious symbolism. There’s biting social commentary and brutal genre deconstruction.

And it’s depressing. It’s really fucking depressing. Hideaki Anno wrote the series when he was going through a particularly bad spell of depression, which he has struggled with all his life. Evangelion became his way of excising his feelings. As a result, the entire story is an allegory for depression, among other interpretations. Notably, there is no one point at which the series becomes extremely depressing; each episode is just slightly bleaker than the last, until eventually you wonder how the series got to such a point. The way I prefer to watch anime is to watch a number of episodes back-to-back; this proved impossible to do with Evangelion, however, as it just becomes too depressing to watch all at once.

As an example of this dark tone, the show brutally deconstructs one of the virtually omnipresent tropes of mecha anime: the child or teenager who becomes the pilot. In most shows, this happens despite the fact the “pilot” in question lacks any sort of formal training; rather, there is some reason why they, and only they, can pilot the mecha and save the world. Evangelion looks at this trope from a very different point of view: that these pilots are actually child soldiers. What do you think would happen in the real world if you put a teenager into the cockpit of a giant robot and told them they are responsible for saving the entire world? They would probably crack under the pressure of knowing that they were solely responsible for the fate of the human race. Evangelion shows this by having Shinji, Rei, and Asuka struggle with a multitude of psychological issues which often impair their ability (and sanity). Far from being archetypal heroes, they are flawed and struggling people. Hideaki Anno himself once commented that "It's strange that Evangelion has become such a hit — all the characters are so sick!"

And of course, if you try to make any sense of the show’s plot or the meaning behind it, good luck. The show is chock-full of religious symbolism from a wide array of sources. Christian crosses are side-by-side with the Black and White Moons of Shinto thought and the Tree of Life from Kabballah Jewish mysticism. Complicating even further any interpretation is the fact that Anno reworks the ideas to fit the Evangelion mythos by changing some of their meanings, and by intentionally conflating religious ideas with scientific concepts. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Lance of Longinus are both present in the series, but taking those names at face value will only lead to confusion (although disregarding the symbolism entirely is likely even more confusing).

So what does it all mean, you ask? What does this show use complex psycho-analysis, contradictory mystical symbolism and general depression to say? You have to draw your own conclusions on that. Evangelion is not the kind of show where someone can sit down and easily explain to you what it meant. It is too complex, ambiguous, and personal for that; rather, the viewer must come to their own conclusions about what the show is trying to say. For example, the way I interpret it is that Hideaki Anno is commentating on the philosophical paradox of human identity resulting from our individuality at the same time that humans desire connections with each other. But, this is one of many interpretations; I’ve heard of people understanding it as an allegory for Anno’s depression, a retelling of Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil (or the Pink Floyd album The Wall) in anime form, that the show is a feminist work from a male perspective, numerous interpretations based on various aspects of Christian theology, or a grand vision of the future through the lens of Transhumanist philosophy.

These numerous ideas about the show partly result from the fact that it rarely makes any attempts to be completely clear, and many details remain unrevealed to the viewer or are only hinted at, prompting people to draw their own conclusions. And it can often be just plain confusing. In fact, the fan outcry about just how confusing the final two episodes of the show were led Studio Gainax to create a film called The End of Evangelion to clear things up. However, the film is often considered to be even more confusing than the initial ending that some fans were so upset about. Even worse, eventually fans realized that the film, instead of being an alternative ending as Anno initially claimed it was, could very well in fact be the same ending as the one presented in the show, but from a different point of view. Mind-screwy indeed.

And yet, despite all this, Neon Genesis Evangelion was a monumental success. In Japan, it has reached the same level of pop-culture saturation that Star Wars or Batman has in America or Doctor Who possesses in Britain. It has spawned numerous spin-offs, a huge amount of merchandise, and a significant amount of academic debate and research regarding its meaning and cultural and philosophical significance. It is widely considered the greatest anime series ever created. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those interested in its unique cocktail of action, psychology, religion, and philosophy, and depression, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a work that will inspire debate, questioning, and glorious confusion for years to come.

Grade: A+++