That's certainly a very interesting defence of Rebuild of Evangelion and specifically of 3.33. I must say, he makes a fairly compelling argument which I will have to consider if I ever re-watch that film again. It would certainly alter my view of the film, if I believed it.
However, as you hinted, such an interpretation of Rebuild of Evangelion 3.33 is charitable in the extreme because it glosses over the fact that it's a terribly constructed movie. Say what you will about the theme or message (and one could certainly argue that Anno has basically already made all of these points with Evangelion/End of Evangelion before), none of that really matters when you're putting out such a shoddy movie. This wasn't true of the Evangelion TV Series or End of Evangelion which were extremely well directed and put together (budget problems aside). The End of Evangelion may be weird and experimental but it's a beautiful piece of film making. I can't say that for anything in Rebuild.
Yeh that's pretty much my sentiment. But it was simply nice to discover this perspective I hadn't considered yet.
His SAO episode reviews really soured my opinion of him. While his ANN reviews were often very mild and generous, he would simultaneously tear the show apart on his blog and twitter.
That's why I pretty much ignore his ANN stuff and only read his blog.
It just kinda sucks. While I was thinking that it's nice he got a job offer, especially one where he can continue doing what he loves, the formatting on that website is awful and I'm not sure whether he's supposed to or not, but appeasing the reader-base like that is a nono for me. I'd like to read his uncensored opinion, that's why I was reading his blog after all.
I was really enjoying his episode writeup on the first season of SAO because it's just fun seeing someone suffer through it but also analyze what goes right/wrong. He wasn't even purposely negative on it, if anything he was rather tame and eager to point out the little good there was..., really very little though.
So then he goes to ANN and SAO S2 starts and I'm watching the episodes thinking to myself "holy shit, this is actually so fucking bad once more" and then read his suddenly vastly differentiating view on the episodes, where I feel he left out important aspects on top of downplaying severe issues and generally having less good arguments. It was just strange how, suddenly, his viewpoint seemed to branch of from mine that drastically.
I don't know whether he was told to do so (kinda can't believe that) or just decided to do it himself, but it's clear he became very lenient to not enrage the ANN user-base too much. I mean enraging everyone as a new guy and looking overly snobby was probably something he was wary of. It's even somewhat understandable as those users were furious over even the remaining issues he took with the show (which were still a bunch at times).
But yeh, when he doesn't write what's on his mind there's no point to it. And as you say, it became downright strange how he'd then start to do partial episode writeups on his blog and twitter again, where he ended up being harsher on the show as well. Even going as far as downright admitting that he tones it down for ANN... It's clear he'd rather continue his blog as a job...if he'd get more money for it. Maybe with more Patreon users or so one day.
Oh well, while that was rather disappointing I'll still appreciate the articles that I think are well thought out and written.
edit:
Lol, was actually thinking that I haven't read much of that blog lately and visited its homepage, just to find an article that talks about the ANN audience in some sarcastic snark in the first couple paragraphs already haha. Well, I should probably read through it all though.
http://wrongeverytime.com/2015/05/11/youre-watching-it-wrong/
@ Mature
Kinda random, but I wanted to ask whether you finished Hyouka yet. I really enjoyed the impressions you posted but, unless I'm mistaken, those stopped about halfway through? Maybe I just missed it but wanted to ask for clarification.
