A Czech Angel's Thesis

May 27, 2021 12:55 PM

Documentary director Ondřej Hudeček has created a documentary about the Czech ice hockey victory in the first Olympics of the professional era of the Games - with an opening that promptly broke anime Twitter.
posted by NoxAeternum (19 comments total)

Haha! I did not expect this.
posted by bigendian at 1:09 PM on May 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

[Metafilter:] I do not understand.
posted by mrnutty at 1:18 PM on May 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

Well, that was unexpected and excellent. They could have leaned into the meme a bit more heavily with the title design, but they got the font and timing pretty close. For something where they were paying professionals and it’s a small part of a larger whole, not a labor of love/lulz the way some of those parodies are, this is spot-freaking-on and I love that they took the time to do it.
posted by Alterscape at 1:43 PM on May 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Is this something you'd have to [ ... ] to understand? I clicked around on Twitter and got lost, then I googled Evangelion and couldn't find a video that looks like the opening of that documentary. Halp. {on edit: ok, it's the song. carry on.}
posted by goatdog at 1:43 PM on May 27, 2021

If you're blinking and wondering WTF? Not only did he just use a catchy-ass Japanese song, he mimicked the style of Eva's opening to a surprising degree.

Now, to get into Evangelion is a whole other post. I think we've had a few.

(edited to note that it's not just a catchy-ass Japanese song, it's the theme to Evangelion. Lost in the edit.)
posted by Kyol at 1:44 PM on May 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

This was pretty cool. He also timed some of the beats perfectly with the date changes.

Also completely crazy how the Czech players triggered the third impact.
posted by GuyZero at 2:30 PM on May 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

ABSOLUTE TERROR FIELD
posted by Foosnark at 2:34 PM on May 27, 2021 [7 favorites]

The anime the opening song (Cruel angel's thesis) is from a very famous anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The anime has nothing to do with hockey, but the hockey film does a good job of integrating the anime song into the opening sequence.
posted by Jacen at 2:37 PM on May 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

What a day to be wearing this stupid meme shirt
posted by theodolite at 2:55 PM on May 27, 2021 [10 favorites]

Now also a brief article on Polygon with the director's comments.
posted by bigendian at 3:03 PM on May 27, 2021

I was lucky enough to attend a screening of this film with the director and team member Petr Svoboda when it premiered several years ago. The most amazing part of the documentary to me is the high-def footage of several of the games from that Olympic tournament.

This was an era where HD video simply didn't exist, and SD video of 80s and 90s hockey has been poorly preserved. I asked the director how he got the footage, and he said that when the IOC opened its vaults to him he discovered that two games had been filmed using IMAX cameras, but then the film was locked away. He was able to crop and use that footage in his documentary. It had never before been shown to the public, and it was incredible to watch hockey stars of that time period in ultra high quality video.
posted by jordantwodelta at 4:24 PM on May 27, 2021 [13 favorites]

How I wish there were a title card with SECOND PERIOD on it.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 6:02 PM on May 27, 2021 [5 favorites]

While I think the post and the video is a lot of fun something I didn't realise was still a thing for me was that I think I may still have some unresolved feelings about Neon Genesis. Weird.
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:11 PM on May 27, 2021

GET IN THE FUCKING GOALIE PADS, SHINJI!
posted by KingEdRa at 7:30 PM on May 27, 2021 [18 favorites]

Just the title of this post sent me into such a nostalgia spiral... I think Cruel Angel's Thesis is probably one of the best-known anime openings of all time yeah.
posted by subdee at 7:55 PM on May 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

I was actually in Nagano on Feb. 18 when Finland knocked the Swedes out of the tournament and the Czechs knocked out the US.

I had been watching the Canada-Kazakhstan game at the Canadian pavilion, but I went to a bar afterwards that was full of Canadians and Swedes in states of inebriation ranging from extreme to ridiculous.

Things were pretty peaceful, and both groups were getting along, until Chris Chelios and Brett Hull (both of whom were playing for the US) turned up following their defeat to the Czechs. They walked in, went into a back room, and not more than ten minutes later, a huge. bar-clearing brawl broke out. My friends and I got out quickly, but as we were heading up the street, we witnessed a phalanx of Japanese public order police advancing towards the bar.

That's pretty much my only connection to this story, other than my chagrin at the Czechs knocking the Canadians out in the next round. Later that evening, I fell asleep at an izakaya with food in my mouth, and then we went to try and get some sleep by the train station lockers, but were kept awake by a group of loud Australians, who don't really even compete in winter sports.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:05 PM on May 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

congratulations!
posted by dismas at 8:29 PM on May 27, 2021 [6 favorites]

I think I may still have some unresolved feelings about Neon Genesis

TBH, anyone who doesn't have unresolved feelings about Evangelion probably hasn't seen it.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:12 PM on May 27, 2021 [16 favorites]

...with an opening that promptly broke went unnoticed for three years by anime Twitter.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:49 PM on May 28, 2021