Neon Genesis Evangelion Is So Good, You Guys

Plus: Chernobyl, the song of the summer and what's making us happy [NPR] by Glen Weldon Welcome! Given the July 4 holiday, it was a weird, short week for many of us in the States, who were busy waving flags and seeing how many times we could work the phrase “star-spangled” into casual conversations. So if this week’s newsletter comes out a bit weirder and shorter than usual to reflect that fact: Bonus! Congruence! Verisimilitude! It was the week Baz Luhrmann’s search for the star of his upcoming Elvis biopic got reportedly narrowed down to [a handful of Hollywood’s best and brightest]( (and youngest and whitest). It was a week the actress [Halle Berry must have checked her mentions]( with surprise and called her agent. It was a week that saw the release of [a trailer for the next installment]( of the multimillion-dollar Jumanji franchise, a specific sequence of five words about which I remain both vaguely mystified and rigorously agnostic, as I do not understand the Youth Of Today, with their goldfish-swallowing and their raccoon coats and their flagpole-sitting and their phonebooth-stuffing. And it was the week we got our first look at Rian Johnson’s upcoming flick, featuring a star-spangled** cast to goggle at, a sumptuous setting to gape at and a tone that — [from the (NSFW) trailer at least]( — seems like Clue and The Family Stone got a cheap motel room together and proceeded to rut with forceful verve and elan. Let’s get to it. **nailed it! --------------------------------------------------------------- Opening Argument Neon Genesis Evangelion. HEAR ME OUT. Neon Genesis Evangelion is an acclaimed and hugely popular 24-year-old Japanese anime that came to Netflix two weeks ago. If you hadn’t heard of it before, its title only sounds like word salad! I remain in control of my faculties! (An aside to those among you whose Twitter avatars are anime characters: I know. I get it. I can hear your eyes rolling from here. A property you love — or at least about which you have deep and considered and very important feelings — has suddenly been made widely available to the masses, so now you are forced to endure their blithe, casual and insufficiently researched opinions about it. I understand what you’re feeling. I [wrote a whole damn book about what you’re feeling](. So I feel justified in telling you: Stop. Stop reading this here, right now. I, a complete NGE noob, am about to pontificate about it to an audience made up [largely] of NGE noobs. In doing so, I will miss nuances you cherish, I will fail to consider it in the proper context, I will not appreciate to precisely the same extent, and for precisely the same reasons that you do; I will, in short, Do It Wrong. Why in the world would you put yourself through reading that? Stop here. You’ll feel better.) Okay. They’re gone. We can talk in private. [Neon Genesis Evangelion screengrab] Netflix/YouTube screencap Neon Genesis Evangelion is so good, you guys. On the surface, it’s about … precisely the kind of thing you’d expect it to be about. Giant mecha-suits. Monsters. They fight. The whole kaiju-jitsu schmear, really. I went into it thinking, “OK I’ve been hearing about this series for decades now, but I missed it when it was aired here in the States, and I’ve never felt the need to track it down on DVD, but hey, suddenly here it all is, a click away. Let’s go! Mechas fighting kaiju! Godzilla plus Voltron plus [Pacific Rim]( let’s goooooo!” And it is that, to be sure. But only, weirdly … kind of incidentally? It’s like: Let’s make a gorgeously animated series about a teenage kid named Shinji who gets forcibly recruited into piloting a giant bio-mecha-suit-thingy in order to defend the world against these mysterious giant monsters known as Angels …. and then … let’s make it super emo. As the series progresses (and I’m only a handful of episodes in), it becomes clear that Shinji is more than just your bog-standard Joseph Campbell Western-canon hero who refuses the call because that’s simply what the story dictates — no, this poor schmoe is broken. He’s a survivor of trauma, struggling to make human connections with those around him. Less and less time is given over to mecha-on-monster violence, while more and more time is given over to various characters attempting to divine, using unfailingly precise psychological insight, the roots of Shinji’s passivity/codependency/depression. His hilariously/sociopathically indifferent father — who, it turns out, is the head of the giant-mecha-suit operation, because of course he is — seems to be one big reason. But there’s more to it than that, and to the reasons why the monsters are attacking; I find myself more interested in the former than the latter. Now, I’ve heard that many fans feel the series didn’t nail the dismount, and went kind of feathery and abstract in its finale. Which is OK by me; I love me some feathery and abstract. Feathery and abstract is my wheelhouse. I am all about feathery and abstract. I got “feathery” tattooed on one fist and “abstract” on the other! Anyway. Give it a shot, even if mech-on-monster brawling isn’t really your thing. Because it kind of feels like it’s not really the show’s thing, either? Also: If you ever skip over the theme song, even once, we cannot be even casual friends. --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend People have been hectoring you to watch Chernobyl on HBO. You tell them you’ll get around to it, you’re just never in the right mood. Here’s the thing: They’re right, and you’re wrong. You’ll never be in the mood for grisly depictions of radiation sickness and infuriating bureaucratic incompetence, face it. (If you ever do find yourself in that mood, it probably means there are larger issues in your life you should address immediately.) So just [sit down already and watch it](. And if you make it to the end, there’s a treat waiting for you — the excellent Jared Harris giving testimony using Soviet-era Powerpoint technology. (Read: a bunch of tiles.) I’ve mentioned the podcast This Sounds Serious on the show before -- its [a parody of true-crime/investigative podcasts](. The Onion [did one of those]( too, and while theirs was hilarious, its take was much broader and more scathing. This Sounds Serious isn’t interested in satire, really — it’s more precise and generous than that. It’s just very funny, and each season — they’re now wrapping up Season 2 -- tells a story I find myself getting deeply wrapped up in, despite the surface goofiness on display. Bonus: It’s co-written by one of the guys from [Stop Podcasting Yourself]( and I’m pretty sure the cast features some of my favorite SPY guests. We heard this week that [Neil Gaiman’s beloved comics series]( The Sandman is finally getting adapted into another medium — but we’ve heard that song before, to no end. The difference this time seems significant: It’s to be a television series, not a movie. Which makes sense; I’ve seen treatments of some of those previous film attempts, which have leaned into the horror elements the series kicked off with. But over the course of 75 issues the comic grew stranger and more grand as it riffed on mythology, storytelling and, in its odd way, family. A Netflix series means there’ll be time (and money) to tell the full story, not just one facet of it. Recommending reading — or re-reading — [The Sandman]( to you, dear reader of the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter, feels like recommending water to a fish, but I’ma do it anyway. It’s fascinating to remember how dark and grisly it began, in light of where the story goes. --------------------------------------------------------------- What We Did This Week [Be More Chill scene] Maria Baranova/Courtesy of Be More Chill We talked about the Broadway musical Be More Chill a couple times on the show, and this week Stephen got the cast, and the creator, to come to the Tiny Desk and do a few songs. [Give it a watch]( and then book your tickets tout-suite; it closes in August. As is fast becoming a tradition, [we invited the fine folks of NPR Music]( to come and make their case(s) about which song should be declared Song of the Summer. It’s a fun listen, featuring good conversation and nine, count ’em, nine contenders. (Note: Marissa’s choice is the correct one.) [On our Friday episode]( we brought in Mallory Yu and Chris Klimek to talk over Spider-Man: Far From Home … and what’s next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is suffering an iron deficiency. (Chris [reviewed it for NPR.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - Stephen: This [old, weirdly emphatic commercial.]( - Mallory: [Neon Genesis Evangelion](. (See? I told you guys! So good!) - Chris: A patriotic record-store find … [that he wrote about in some two-bit rag](. - Glen: A new chance [to interact with beloved British character actresses](. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to our Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. | [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002 [NPR]