Bought the $120 'Evangelion' art book and it made me see the show in a new way

I was always confused by the ending, but the book has these early sketches and notes from the director that explain the ideas. It's basically a big book of concept art and production notes. Anyone else find a guide or book that cleared up a confusing anime for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

shah.olivia19d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I wish there was a fancy art book for my brain. I tried to understand "Serial Experiments Lain" back in the day with just a notepad and a headache. My notes were just question marks and sad faces. Ended up reading some old fan site breakdown that was basically, "Yeah, it's about the internet, but also identity, but also... ghosts?" It helped a little, but mostly made me feel dumb for missing the ghosts.

linda_clark18d ago

Honestly, those old fan sites were a mess. The "ghosts" thing is a bad translation hangover. The original Japanese is more like "spirits" or "souls" in the data. It's not about haunted houses. It's about people leaving copies of themselves online, like digital echoes. That show was way ahead of its time.