Larry

Meh, RoP should be called "Galadriel Action Hour". She's so off base from Tolkien's characterization, it's "hArD tO wAtCh" (see, I used one of SR's favorite taglines) for fans of the real thing.

Now add the "re-imagining" of the core characters in rhe new HP (you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about), you get two shows competing to see which gets ignored harder.

The article was right, however, in calling out the Critical Role shows for being well-executed fantasy. They are much more entertaining than the over-indulgent-billion-dollars-an-episode RoP series.

Writing, writing, writing... VM has excellent writing, focus and memorable characters, mainly because the source material wasn't futz'd over too much by the animation producers. RoP, however, for all its over-produced glory, has muddled writing, too many charicatures, instead of characters, and, worst of all, took Tolkien's most beautifully tragic character, Galadriel, and turned her into an expy of Xena: Warrior Princess. Read "The Silmarillion" to find out who Galadriel really is supposed to be - as the Last of the Noldor, and exiled from the Undying Lands as punishment for the sins of her brothers, she carried an immortal responsibilty heavier than just the One Ring - forever defending Middle Earth from Melkor, Sauron, and all other great evils, and doing it mostly alone.

Good writing transcends the medium, live-action, animation or otherwise. Vox Machina had good writing, thanks to Critical Role. RoP had sketchy writing, some things were well done (such as the dwarves) while other things were not so well done (the bastardization of The Silmarillion source material mainly). The consistently best source for high fantasy over the last 20 years has been Japanese anime, from classics like Lodoss War and Berserk to more modern shows like Overlord and Goblin Slayer (and Vinland Saga by Wit/Mappa).

Oh man... in short, Anno is the Vincent van Gogh of anime. In case you don't know about van Gogh, he is now widely considered the epitome artist of imperfect masterpieces, but in his day, he and his paintings were generally misunderstood and disliked. EVA was the product of Anno's severe depression, well-known disdain for the profit-driven (mainly via VHS tape sales) anime industry in the 90s (the first Golden Age of anime) and his desire to prove that anime could also be a canvas for challenging, existential storytelling. BTW, when it came out, it was just as "controversial" as it is now, and you either loved it or hated it, got it or didn't get it. TV anime is famously rooted in short-term popularity, so for a thirty year old TV show to still resonate with audiences today, it's a masterpiece by default. Art doesn't necessarily have to be "good" to be considered a masterpiece, it just has to be remembered years later.