"Justin" <nospam@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:slrnc0apm5.8rc.nospam@debian.dns2go.com...
> Amanda Wells wrote on [14 Jan 2004 07:28:17 -0800]:
> >>
> >> http://www.gainax.co.jp/goods/cat_3.html
> >>
> >> One wonders how much interaction the merchandisers have with the
> >> creators of the series.
> >
> > Argh. It may be sexy to some, but it's also out of character to me.
>
> Yeah. Completely goes against the character.

But to a degree, that probably *IS* the point.  Which is hard to wrap our
minds around, seeing as how in *our* side of the world, for instance, a
certain Company Founded by A Guy With Initials W. D. is on eternal orange
alert to prevent any representation of its precious trademarked characters
and copyrighted works from being used in any sense other than the finest and
most wholesome, and then ONLY upon payment of the proper royalties and fees.

Consider Sanrio's Hello-Kitty "muscle massager". Or the
officially-sanctioned EVA adult products under discussion.  Apparently they
view "trademark integrity" differently Far out East.

On top of that, in EVAs case remember Gainax has this self-established image
as an Otaku-born outfit -- it's in perfect character for *GAINAX* to do this
to its own creations, essentially saying: "hey, we KNOW you hentai are going
to go ahead and do this to the characters *anyway*, so now WE go ahead and
do it, in the process milking some more money out of the property."
Because, of course, in the final analysis the reason Rei, Asuka and all the
other representations of those fictional characters exist
*In*Our*Real*World* is to make money for Gainax.  NGE was not a Public
Service Announcement.