Not to mention the pace killing scenes where nothing happens for minutes at a time. They paid for those incredible fight scenes with interminable shots of the interior of elevators or close ups of Shinji's walkman.
Different strokes for different folks, but I found their willingness to let a scene breathe (even to the point of absurdity) a wonderful counterpoint to the fight scenes.
The show is not about mecha fighting monsters... it's about the spaces in between people, and how we fail and succeed to connect. The elevator scene, Misato and Kaji, Shinji's tape player, Shinji and Kaworu... those are some of my favorite scenes because they show the connection or disconnection between the characters.
Yes, it does save them money to not have to animate. Art always has to deal with the limitations of the medium, in this case budget.
Well, I have some good news for you! You may also be interested in literally every anime that came out after Eva with a city setting.
May I recommend Serial Experiments Lain for more power lines and cicadas goodness? As every Anime sound director knows, those obnoxious bugs are the only available auditory shorthand for "it's summer".
I realise you jest slightly, due to the very overdone cicadas... but I had to jump in to add; Serial Experiments Lain is seriously a 10/10 anime. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone.
One scene that sticks out to me after all these years is a brief 2 minute scene from 'End of Evangelion' where Rei is talking to Shinji about the nature of dreams.
In the background you can hear Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring being played on a piano and it transitions from animation to filmed live action footage which I think was shot around Tokyo it shows things like train lines, buildings and an empty swing set in a playground and yes there is a power line shot. Then it cuts to an audience watching a film inside a cinema as handwritten letters flash up on the screen, which were death threats the studio had received from obsessive fans.
I was blown away by the aesthetics of this scene watching it as a 15 year old and it's stuck with me.
Just rewatched that scene (happens at around 1:16:00). The first time I watched that scene in particular I had to pause it because I was flabbergasted that they were so clearly breaking the fourth wall.
After the... unfortunate opening scene of the movie I hadn't rewatched it but every time I see even a small clip of anything from Eva (the movie or the show) I'm just enamored. Hideaki Anno is one of the greatest artists of our time just from NGE and Shin Godzilla. It felt like every frame of the original anime was perfect.
