corap21•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Tried explaining the plot of Neon Genesis Evangelion to my dad at a diner... he thought it was about boats

So there I am at a Denny's at 2am with my dad after helping him fix his truck. He asks what anime I been watching lately. I start rambling about Evangelion, the angels, the eva units, all that stuff. He's nodding along until he goes "so the big boats fight the aliens?" I was so confused until I realized he thought an 'eva unit' was like a naval vessel or something. I tried to correct him but he was already telling me about his uncle who served on a destroyer. I just gave up and ate my pancakes. Has anyone else had a conversation about anime go completely off the rails like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

foster.jordan1mo ago

My uncle thought Gundam was about lawn care for like three months because he heard "mobile suit" and his brain went straight to those little riding mowers at Home Depot. I finally just sat him down with the first episode of Iron-Blooded Orphans (the only one I figured he'd get) and made him watch it with a beer. He still calls the Graze units "lawn boys" but at least he knows they ain't fighting crabgrass, you know? Sometimes you gotta meet people where they're at, even if that means accepting your dad's version of Eva is a naval battle documentary.

logan5611mo ago

Man that's hilarious. Your uncle's brain went straight to lawnmowers and never looked back. I love that he still calls them lawn boys even after watching the show. That's honestly a better name than Graze anyway.

king.val1mo ago

I gotta push back a little on meeting people where they're at with something like IBO. That show is brutal, kids getting slaughtered in the first episode, child soldiers, heavy themes. Your uncle went from lawnmowers to watching a kid get his arm blown off and that's supposed to be the gateway show? Seems like you skipped the part where you ease him into the whole giant robot genre. I would have started him on G Gundam or something light, get him used to the weirdness first. Throwing IBO at a guy who thought mobile suits were mowers is like teaching someone to swim by tossing them in the deep end. Your uncle's a trooper for sticking with it, but I think that approach might scare off more people than it converts.