Hideaki Anno is a bit of an underappreciated director. Now, normally that statement would be guffawed at, not taken seriously, and genuinely looked down upon as the ramblings of someone so absurdly new to anime they haven't heard the man's name. But, when I say underappreciated, I mean look at the people who talk about his works. 9 times out of 10, you'll only hear about Evangelion and maybe Shin Gojira. People aren't talking about how great his work on Gunbuster and Nadia are all too often, let alone KareKano, or hell, Re: Cutie Honey. Nobody wants to mention his old Return of Ultraman fanfilm, barely anybody I know credits him with having worked on Daicon.
In the eyes of the greater anime community, he may as well be "Mr. Evangelion". So, what better work of his to review first, than Shin Seiki Evangelion. A work that would lift from Anno's own experiences, both positive and negative, to craft a homage of legendary proportions, going from the "I put it in because it's cool" roots of Gainax, to Anno's own existential dread and depression shown through how he handles the character study portions, to his love of Tokusatsu and his references to them in the big kaiju fights. This anime IS Hideaki Anno, so I guess it really is fitting that this is the work he is most associated with. It is far from my favourite of his, but if I had to choose an anime of his to be highly well regarded, it'd definitely be this one.
Evangelion is more than just Anno though, while at the same time, being everything that is Anno. While watching the series itself everything has a tie to something integral to Anno, once you leave that series and venture out into greater areas beyond it, such as external manga, novels, games, and even fan content and discussions, it becomes less "Anno's" thing, and more "Everyone's" thing. That thought may not sit well with people, but it is true about not just Evangelion, but also many projects similar to it. It's just that Evangelion is possibly the most successful example.
Everyone knows about Asuka vs Rei, the heated debates about which one was better, which one deserved Shinji more, which one you could more realistically make from a kidnapped girl, these are discussions that would transcend beyond what Evangelion was ever about. There's a misconception that Anno hates otaku, and that Asuka and Rei is an extension of that, when in reality, the man himself is probably a bigger otaku than just about every person using this site. I doubt many of you spent days with one other guy working on a 5 minute anime that referenced all the pop culture you were in love with, and then went on to make both a sequel and a pseudo-mockumentary about it. Anno, whether he likes it or not, is the textbook definition of a hardcore otaku. While he may say "I hate otaku", it's an idea in jest (usually), similar to Tomino's declarations of "I hate anime". Perhaps that's where Anno picked it up.
Back to the central point, Evangelion is an anime that has far transcended what it was originally about, and now, after about 4 paragraphs of not talking about it, I will discuss that original point. The Hideaki Anno scented stain that birthed one of the biggest anime of all time.
Shin Seiki Evangelion is an anime about loving oneself. It is an anime about loving others. It is an anime about hating oneself. It is an anime about hating others. It is about both nihilism and optimism. It contains contrasting ideas and shows characters grow, collapse, rebuild, collapse once more, and from there they recover, sink deeper into their self-loathing and expectations, or give themselves to someone else in the hope that they don't fail as badly. Coming off of Nadia, this is almost jarring. Despite the two being almost completely unrelated in content, thematically and visually, they share many similarities in their characters.
Shinji Ikari is an obvious play on Nadia, his design is even shown in official media to just be a slightly altered Nadia, and he plays a similar role to her. Brief spoilers for Episode 22 of Nadia: Secret of Blue Water (though this is a fairly obvious plot twist).
Spoiler, click to view
Nadia is the daughter of the mysterious Captain Nemo, similar to how Shinji Ikari is the son of the mysterious Gendo Ikari. The father abandoning the child is quite a common thematic through-line in a lot of Anno's works, but it is as its darkest here, with Gendo being so completely unable to relate to Shinji, as well as afraid to relate to him, that he is almost eager to cast him aside when he stops being useful. This is heavily contrasted though when he shows glee at Shinji's ability to pilot Eva, and his willingness to do so. However, this is not because of a fatherly bond he shares with Shinji, it's for far more nefarious reasons. This is heavily contrasted with Captain Nemo, who didn't want Nadia to be anywhere near the Nautilus, let alone where she ends up at the end of the series.
To continue with the comparison to Nadia, while Shinji retains the character design, it seems her character has been split into two. Namely, Asuka Langley Soryu and Rei Ayanami. They both retain aspects of her character, Asuka having the unlikable and annoying aspect, the one that even Jean would struggle to stick by, and Rei behaving her docile, deadpan aspects, mostly seen in the opening of the show. In effect, Nadia has been split into three characters, though while Shinji embodies the look, he has none of her traits, and this is very intentional. Shinji isn't a complete person. His fear to connect also means fear to branch out, fear to have fun, fear to be someone. Through Rei and Asuka, he slowly grows, crumbles, grows again, and crumbles again. Rei and Asuka (and Misato, as well as his classmates, to an underappreciated extent) help him leave his shell and give him motive to branch out. Additionally, as Shinji interacts with Rei, her docile character becomes ever so more open, though not so much. The iconic "Just smile" scene in particular is an example of this, a sign of her growing, while her regression is her quite literally being replaced. This may be a stretch, but it could be similar to how Nadia became a caricature following Anno's departure and replacement.
Asuka displays an aggressive side, one that feels contempt for many things, whether it be when Shinji performs better than her, the idea of her being replaced, and even when she sees Shinji and Rei sharing a positive relationship at multiple points throughout the series. This is due to her unhealthy desire for attention, one you can argue Nadia shared. This isn't me drawing on stuff that isn't there, Nadia is intended to be a loathsome, and even attention seeking, brat. In the Nadia specials released a few years after the show had ended, there's even a character mockumentary on her that highlights these factors, and through Jean, Nemo, and the crew of the Nautilus, she grows past that. It's a lot looser than the earlier comparisons, but that is because Asuka herself likely derives a lot more from Anno's very real depression issues, ones that had been present during Nadia and Evangelion. Though, we do see a few more shades of this in the Shin Evangelion movies, which I will one day write about.
I could make further comparisons, such as how Ritsuko almost mirrors Electra's role on the Nautilus, right down to replicating one of her most iconic scenes in End of Evangelion, and come Shin Evangelion 3, she is filling Electra's role on what is essentially the Neo Nautilus. But, I will save these ideas for Shin Evangelion 3.
Thank you for reading through this rambling that had more to do with Anno and Nadia than it did Evangelion. Hell, I'd say Tomino almost had as much to do in this review as Evangelion. I do highly recommend going through Tomino's works, and Anno's other works, namely Daicon III and IV, Gunbuster, Nadia (not the movie), Otaku no Video, KareKano, and Re: Cutie Honey. He's a very underrated director when you explore beyond Evangelion. Also, do watch Death/Rebirth, it's more than just a recap, it has a lot of cool reanimated scenes and Death's Quartet is one of my favourite pieces of Evangelion animation.
