Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

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dubiousdisc
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by dubiousdisc »

Congratulations on getting out a site that you've been wanting to do for so long! :D You better feel super accomplished about that!

My god, the media gallery. How did you even put that together, holy shit.

I enjoyed going through the site! You have many pages and this is an Evangelion site, yet it's such an easy read. Good job!

A few thoughts I had going through it:

Psyche: I don't know if it is relevant or not, but I wanted to point out one thought that I had while I was reading it. At the end, you write that she never learned how to control her emotions because of lack of a parental figure, and I think that's not entirely correct - I get the sense that not only she lost her mom and she felt her father didn't care, but also nobody else did - she sounds like she didn't get any help in her earlier life at all! I realize that at this point it's me inferring from Evangelion of all things, so - what do you think about that?

Romance: I really like how you tied all of that together! I wanted to say, there's one thing that immediately comes to mind and that you did say in other pages but you might want to reiterate in this one too: since Asuka's underlying motive to essentially everything she does is to be accepted and taken into consideration, another part of what pisses her off about Shinji's reaction to her is that he doesn't seem to give her that - not in a way that she understands, at least; that coupled with the fact that she seems him as weak pisses her off doubly.

Haters: Hee hee. I think that day you weren't in the chat, but there was one day in which there had been a conversation in which I was explaining that I don't really like Asuka much because she reminds me way too much of what I was like when I was her age, so, while I understand her character and I respect and like the way she's written, as a character in herself it becomes painful to watch her fail. Of course, I probably don't fit in the "haters" because I don't hate her - to truly hate her I'd have to hate myself - but this might give some insight as to why would someone simultaneously understand her character and have trouble watching her.

Again, congratulations on making this! :D
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by Sophia »

I feel like this is heresy, but I have never ever seen any bit of Evangelion - one of those things that was always on my list, but the list keeps getting bigger. I so very much appreciated the clarity of this shrine. Of course the layout is gorgeous (and seemingly quite fitting for an in-your-face girl, with the large background), but I really appreciated the even-handed thoughtfulness in how you explained each part of the show, its psychological roots, and how Asuka's personality is shaped by these dramatic factors in the way that ANY person might be. I can't bring much to the table in terms of engaging criticism, but the impression I felt everywhere was how careful, like, full-of-care, this was / is. Even your response to those dang haters seemed measured, not dismissive in the least. (And my brief contacts with Evangelion fandom is that ... there's some heat involved.) At the end of that, you note that you hope all the love you've put into the remainder of the shrine (and the arguments therein) serves as a counter to the Asuka-hate. Now, that seems totally sensible and reasonable ... but I ain't no sensible girl, and my only wish was to hear more and more about why this character meant so much to you in particular. I am very much interested in the further commentary of the relationships. Maybe I'll finally get this off my list!

In short: beautifully done!

RAY GUN SUE
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by Lethe »

lmao Megan's comment is hilarious. <3 <3

First off, congratulations on releasing this shrine! You're right, your layout is definitely something to get excited about. I really love how the landing page is different from the rest, and it makes quite an impact. (Hehe enjoying zooming out and in to see it in its entirety.) The footer is my favourite thing about it!! (I'm always too lazy to make anything elaborate for site footers, plus I have no idea whether I can even pull it off, so it's nice that I can enjoy them on other people's sites instead. *-*)

As always, I think you're great at introducing people to the subject matter in various ways: Your intro and profile pages are solid, and like Masao, I'm glad you included the note about creating from depression from the get-go as I think that's important to know.

I have a somewhat detached relationship with NGE in the sense that I am not as passionate about experiencing any of the source material, while reading NGE essays that examine its psychological themes (and how they're conveyed through symbolism, storytelling and directing) is one of my favourite things to do. Due to that, I'm not as well-informed about some "technical" aspects of NGE. For example, I probably never understood what the "synchronization rate" (and its relevance to the story and themes) was about, so I'm glad that your shrine explained it so well!

Honestly, I think the biggest surprise for me on Esprit is how much I ended up liking the EVA-02 page, which might as well be me my favourite page on the shrine so far (just because I think it's difficult to come up with it and write about it). NGE doesn't so much put the focus on its mecha elements as it utilizes them by weaving them into the story to enhance what it actually means to focus on (the psyche). The synchronization rate and A.T. fields are examples of that. Still, if someone is not interested in mecha elements at all, one such series might be intimidating to get into. On that front, I think your EVA-02 page does an excellent job at making those mecha elements easy to grasp and interesting to read about! I just love that enjoyable mix of basic explanation (EVA), spoiler insight/background (the truth behind the thing), story parts (movie ending), and just how you embedded it into the technical parts of the series as a whole (the other EVAs, battles, rebuilds) as well as Asuka's characterization. I had clicked on that page expecting to be confronted with technical stuff, but you went so far beyond. :star:

The other big surprise was seeing that there wasn't just ONE page dedicated to the voice actors behind Asuka, but TWO - and I think these are some of my favourite voice pages on any shrine ever. I'm slightly biased because I've read that long piece of what Miyamura Yuuko said about Asuka, which, in turn, is one of the loveliest things I've ever read coming from a voice actor (just some very fascinating and raw character analysis; I'm so glad you quoted an excerpt from it)... But you added so much more too, and focused not so much on the people or the characters they've voiced, but specifically their relationship to Asuka herself. IT'S SO LOVELY.

THE PETIT EVA GALLERY IS THE CUTEST THING. I like how you split up the rest of the gallery by "amount of people" too, it's something that strikes me as very old school. (I know for a fact that somewhere in the depths of my HDs, my ooooooooold folders from around 2003 are sorted precisely like that LOL. "solo", "duo", groups".)

I've found a few typos that I thought I'd let you know about!
Show/HideSPOILERSPOILER_SHOW
INDEX: Langely -> Langley
INTRO: angel -> Angel
PROFILE: Chlidren -> Children; "primarily to can learn Japanese kanji" -> primarily to learn Japanese kanji/primarily so she can learn Japanese kanji


I'm looking forward to the rest of your shrine, especially Asuka's relationship with the other characters, since the way characters engage in relationships and how their issues manifest in those interactions is such a crucial part of NGE. :music:
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by Anise »

I'm going to look it all through at some point soon but my first thought it DAYUM that layout! I also like that you have sections for her voice actors.
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by Emma »

Firstly - congrats on finishing this site! You should be proud of yourself, and it must be so satisfying to have it online after wanting to make it for so long.

Secondly - the layout is stunning! *_* I love the splash page (I wasn't expecting it to change, so it was a nice surprise!), and the colours are gorgeous.

OH WOW @ THAT GALLERY. :inlove:

I really enjoyed reading through this. I especially liked the pages for the voice actors - it was really interesting to hear their thoughts on Asuka and the effect Asuka has had on them. I would have assumed for many VAs that most characters they voice don't make much of an impression on them, so I love that both Asuka's Japanese and English VA made such fascinating comments about her.

I look forward to seeing more updates, Laura!
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by Laura »

Robin wrote:Also, loving the dotted look of the font on the navigation! (My 1366 x 768 resolution cuts off half of the word "Site" on the main layout, but I can still click it, and once I'm in the content sections it's not an issue at all.)
If you can send me a screenshot on Discord, I'd appreciate it! :) I'd like to fix this so that it works for you and other people using this resolution! Also, I'm really glad that you love the colours and the design choices I made... thank you so much! The navigation on the individual pages took me a little while to figure out. When I was putting the content together I just threw up links so I could easily go through it for formatting to make sure it was working. xD But I wanted to do something completely different from what I had been doing so far. This was the result and I was pretty happy with how it turned out... it's good to challenge myself with trying to get something different done and I'm glad you like it too! <3
Tara wrote:Okay, first off, this layout and how you laid out content is incredible!! The design is so nice and really pretty! It makes navigating easy and is nice of the eyes.

Second off: YESSSSS!! I'm so glad to see more Asuka love on the internet. You did an amazing job on this! Asuka is one of my favourite fictional characters, and I can see you put a lot of time and care into this. I really enjoyed how you delved into into her psychological and emotional trauma, as well as how you explored her feelings on romance and sex so deeply. Asuka is such a complex character and you did great exploring that.
Aw, thank you Tara!! I can't believe that there isn't more Asuka love out there! That was partially the driving force for me to get the shrine up and running... I felt so bad for Asuka not having any shrine representation at all outside of Sofia's Odi et Amo (Asuka/Shinji shrine). I've always loved Sofia's Asuka works and always wanted to make something as good as hers. :D Asuka really is a deep, complex character and I could spend so much time going into her psyche. There's so much more I want to write about her and hopefully I can add to the site soon. <3 I have a lot planned!
dubiousdisc wrote:Congratulations on getting out a site that you've been wanting to do for so long! :D You better feel super accomplished about that!

My god, the media gallery. How did you even put that together, holy shit.

I enjoyed going through the site! You have many pages and this is an Evangelion site, yet it's such an easy read. Good job!

A few thoughts I had going through it:

Psyche: I don't know if it is relevant or not, but I wanted to point out one thought that I had while I was reading it. At the end, you write that she never learned how to control her emotions because of lack of a parental figure, and I think that's not entirely correct - I get the sense that not only she lost her mom and she felt her father didn't care, but also nobody else did - she sounds like she didn't get any help in her earlier life at all! I realize that at this point it's me inferring from Evangelion of all things, so - what do you think about that?

Romance: I really like how you tied all of that together! I wanted to say, there's one thing that immediately comes to mind and that you did say in other pages but you might want to reiterate in this one too: since Asuka's underlying motive to essentially everything she does is to be accepted and taken into consideration, another part of what pisses her off about Shinji's reaction to her is that he doesn't seem to give her that - not in a way that she understands, at least; that coupled with the fact that she seems him as weak pisses her off doubly.

Haters: Hee hee. I think that day you weren't in the chat, but there was one day in which there had been a conversation in which I was explaining that I don't really like Asuka much because she reminds me way too much of what I was like when I was her age, so, while I understand her character and I respect and like the way she's written, as a character in herself it becomes painful to watch her fail. Of course, I probably don't fit in the "haters" because I don't hate her - to truly hate her I'd have to hate myself - but this might give some insight as to why would someone simultaneously understand her character and have trouble watching her.

Again, congratulations on making this! :D
Thanks so much dubs!! ^-^ <3

These are really good points!! Interestingly enough, I do plan on going into detail about some of the things you brought up, especially about her romance. I haven't gone into her relationships yet (esp with Kaji or Shinji) because I don't have the drafts finished but those are themes that I wanted to take into consideration with Shinji. Regarding her psyche... I'm not sure if no one else cared about her. Definitely not in family life but I know that when she was sent off to NERV, Misato was her caregiver and then Kaji took over for Misato when she returned to Japan. We don't know anything about how her life was at NERV but knowing Misato and how they bond before Misato and Kaji reunite, they seem close enough. I definitely believe no one else at NERV would really care much though. Asuka was neglected by her mother originally as well, so she was kind of shafted to begin with. It's interesting to think about and I might actually look into it for a section of it's own. :D Thanks for the food for thought!

I also find your "hater" insight interesting! Would you mind if I added that to the hater section with credit and a link to your collective? :D I've been considering adding user feedback stuff like this and I think your comment would fit in really perfect to that section! It's ok if you don't want to but I'd love to add it! (Anyone else is free to contact me with their opinions too, I might open a thread to get people's love+hate thoughts as well.)
Sophia wrote:I feel like this is heresy, but I have never ever seen any bit of Evangelion - one of those things that was always on my list, but the list keeps getting bigger. I so very much appreciated the clarity of this shrine. Of course the layout is gorgeous (and seemingly quite fitting for an in-your-face girl, with the large background), but I really appreciated the even-handed thoughtfulness in how you explained each part of the show, its psychological roots, and how Asuka's personality is shaped by these dramatic factors in the way that ANY person might be. I can't bring much to the table in terms of engaging criticism, but the impression I felt everywhere was how careful, like, full-of-care, this was / is. Even your response to those dang haters seemed measured, not dismissive in the least. (And my brief contacts with Evangelion fandom is that ... there's some heat involved.) At the end of that, you note that you hope all the love you've put into the remainder of the shrine (and the arguments therein) serves as a counter to the Asuka-hate. Now, that seems totally sensible and reasonable ... but I ain't no sensible girl, and my only wish was to hear more and more about why this character meant so much to you in particular. I am very much interested in the further commentary of the relationships. Maybe I'll finally get this off my list!

In short: beautifully done!
Don't worry, Sophia!! I do have a section planned for why I love Asuka so much! It's actually a hard section to write because I find it hard to narrow down the reasons why. XD Go figure! She's just been in my life as an identifiable character for so long that it takes a while for me to figure out how to answer the question, you know? But it's on my list, so you'll get the answer at some point. <3 I'm glad you liked reading through everything even though you haven't seen the series; I really recommend watching it. It's a classic anime staple that I think everyone should take the opportunity to check out and it's so much more than "kids in giant robots fighting aliens." The deeper you get in the series, the further into psychology you go... it's very thought provoking, esp if you're into psychology. :D Thank you for your complements!! <3
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Re: Esprit - Sohryu Asuka Langley (Evangelion)

Post by Laura »

Lethe wrote:Honestly, I think the biggest surprise for me on Esprit is how much I ended up liking the EVA-02 page, which might as well be me my favourite page on the shrine so far (just because I think it's difficult to come up with it and write about it). NGE doesn't so much put the focus on its mecha elements as it utilizes them by weaving them into the story to enhance what it actually means to focus on (the psyche). The synchronization rate and A.T. fields are examples of that. Still, if someone is not interested in mecha elements at all, one such series might be intimidating to get into. On that front, I think your EVA-02 page does an excellent job at making those mecha elements easy to grasp and interesting to read about! I just love that enjoyable mix of basic explanation (EVA), spoiler insight/background (the truth behind the thing), story parts (movie ending), and just how you embedded it into the technical parts of the series as a whole (the other EVAs, battles, rebuilds) as well as Asuka's characterization. I had clicked on that page expecting to be confronted with technical stuff, but you went so far beyond. :star:

The other big surprise was seeing that there wasn't just ONE page dedicated to the voice actors behind Asuka, but TWO - and I think these are some of my favourite voice pages on any shrine ever. I'm slightly biased because I've read that long piece of what Miyamura Yuuko said about Asuka, which, in turn, is one of the loveliest things I've ever read coming from a voice actor (just some very fascinating and raw character analysis; I'm so glad you quoted an excerpt from it)... But you added so much more too, and focused not so much on the people or the characters they've voiced, but specifically their relationship to Asuka herself. IT'S SO LOVELY.

THE PETIT EVA GALLERY IS THE CUTEST THING. I like how you split up the rest of the gallery by "amount of people" too, it's something that strikes me as very old school. (I know for a fact that somewhere in the depths of my HDs, my ooooooooold folders from around 2003 are sorted precisely like that LOL. "solo", "duo", groups".)

I'm looking forward to the rest of your shrine, especially Asuka's relationship with the other characters, since the way characters engage in relationships and how their issues manifest in those interactions is such a crucial part of NGE. :music:
Thanks Lethe!! :D I'm glad you like the design! I put a lot of effort into it because I wanted it to stand out and I wanted to really have all those little details on it. Really put together something special. :D I'm a little surprised that your favourite page turned out to be the EVA-02 one! I was always intending to have that be a very important part of the shrine, ever since its inception years ago but I wanted to make sure I approached it from the right angle. Evangelion has a LOT of terminology that's going to confuse people. To be frank, the show does a shitty job of explaining what an A.T. field is and what a synchronization rate is and what it actually means in relation to the pilot-Eva partnership. So I thought, what's the easiest way to handle this? The result is what I have there... a sort of introductory, basic information that explains that stuff before delving into the deeper aspects. EVA-02 really is much more than just a robot that Asuka pilots, it's so far attached to her identity that without it, she feels she is nothing... so it was important to put emphasis on that. It's why EVA-02 is so prominent in the layout as well. I felt it was wrong to not have it there, at least in the content layout anyway. :D

And yeah... I was surprised to have so much to say about her voice actors that I ended up with two pages as well! I usually have little to say about voice actors in general. Maybe a paragraph about their role as the character and a pretty lame paragraph about my opinion of their performance. There's usually not much to say otherwise but with Asuka, it seems her voice actors really, really love their connection to the character. I suppose I could put more effort into looking up interviews on my other shrines but I think the difference is that Asuka has been around for so long and is so well-known that these women have grown to have a deep relationship to the character beyond it being just another job. IT has definitely inspired me to try to up my game on my voice actor sections for my other shrines if at all possible. :D I know it'll be easier for One Piece since the Japanese voice actors are really close to Odacchi, lol.

and yea, the gallery is a bit retro... XD I didn't know how else to split it up. It was too conflicting to try to do "anime, manga, rebuild" so I went with the classic solo, group, etc. lol! If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :D Eventually I will add other galleries for other manga though. I might reorganize the others to anime/manga/rebuild. We'll see. >_>
Anise wrote:I'm going to look it all through at some point soon but my first thought it DAYUM that layout! I also like that you have sections for her voice actors.
Thanks Anise!! XD I'm glad you like the layout enough you had to stop to comment on it! Means a lot!
Emma wrote:Firstly - congrats on finishing this site! You should be proud of yourself, and it must be so satisfying to have it online after wanting to make it for so long.

Secondly - the layout is stunning! *_* I love the splash page (I wasn't expecting it to change, so it was a nice surprise!), and the colours are gorgeous.

OH WOW @ THAT GALLERY. :inlove:

I really enjoyed reading through this. I especially liked the pages for the voice actors - it was really interesting to hear their thoughts on Asuka and the effect Asuka has had on them. I would have assumed for many VAs that most characters they voice don't make much of an impression on them, so I love that both Asuka's Japanese and English VA made such fascinating comments about her.

I look forward to seeing more updates, Laura!
Thanks Emma!! :D I felt like going the extra mile and doing a landing page + content page layout combo. For me, my best design so far has been my Uranus/Neptune site and I think part of the reason for that is that I invested the time to do a landing page and two separate content pages (single + double column layouts). So in order to live up to that, I felt that doing the whole landing page + content page combo would help me feel like I've done something as good as that and I feel like I've managed to do it, especially with all the very kind feedback everyone has given me so far. :)

I also really love that Asuka's voice actors have such deep connections to her character. I know Japanese voice actors often have a lot to say about the characters they play where English ones typically don't (or maybe it's just there aren't a lot of English interviews) but Tiffany Grant really loves Asuka... it's so refreshing to see that kind of passion. :) It was fun to write about too!
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