Contains spoilers for "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion"
____
#The Opening Theme Song
I’m going to start my Neon Genesis Evangelion analysis with the first thing you’re met with, it’s opening theme song, displaying a myriad of images packed full of information and boasting one of the greatest and most iconic songs in all of anime. Openings, at their foundation, are made as promotional material to get our attention as soon as possible and NGE has done this miraculously well. In the mid 90’s and for the past 2 decades mecha shows have displayed inspirational openings, framing the mechas like majestic, bold and badass mechas and their protagonists in a hopeful, inspirational manner. Evangelion shows us that this will be a huge departure from the norm by contrasting with the usual mecha opening, showcasing Unit 01 hunched over, unusually skinny, blood dripping from its hands, glowing menacing eyes, a mechanized mouth with teeth, moving and twitching like it’s in agony. All in all, animalistic yet strangely humanoid to the point that it’s framed as creepy.
And Shinji is shown to us as melancholic, looking into the camera dead eyed instead of the usual determined eager spiky haired teenager. Without going into too much detail as to bore all of you reading, especially the ones that don't care about anime openings, I'll say that the rest of the opening is littered with foreshadowing, such as the shots of Rei with the moon behind her during the iconic montage, hinting at her connection with Lilith, or picture of Unit 01's exposed face overlays that of Yui's, clearly foreshadowing the fact that her soul is in the Eva Unit, among many other examples.
The opening also goes to many lengths to establish the series' motifs, such as in the first shot, where the reoccurring motif of ripples is first introduced to us. The ripple, presumably from tears, could ho9ld more meanings, ranging from symbolyzing emotional weakness to being a metaphor for the AT-fields that protect the heart from such vulnerability. This plays into another reoccurring theme in Eva, hedgehog’s dilemma, showcasing us how Shinji and other characters from the series, like Gendou, push other people away when they’re at their weakest and afraid of hurting them in turn. The ripple could also signify the Second and Third Impact, since the shot right after this is displaying a red star field similar to the ones produced by the Impacts. Other images relating to the Second Impact and the Third Impact are also sprinkled throughout the opening, such as those of the Tree of Life or more shots or ripples, which all give the impression that this opening, much like the last 2 episodes of the anime, are a representation of Shinji's mind and the events during the Third Impact.
This is also reinforced by the fact that the opening goes through Shinji's development from the beginning of the series to the end. Throughout the opening we see Shinji hide himself behind this "cool" robot fabricating a new self image so he can’t see the part of himself that he hates and to feel wanted by others. This may be a commentary on the otaku culture and how we hide and try to not look at the parts of ourselves that we hate, which Hideaki Anno, Neon Genesis Evangelion’s creator and director is known to criticize and works as a self-reflection, as a majority of NGE does, since he himself has been there. But, by the end we properly see Shinji come out of Eva Unjit 01, now without wings, which alludes to the fact that Shinji accepted himself and doesn’t need to project his self-image on others in the last 2 episodes and is later on enforced when the next shots are showing Shinji’s sides, be it scared or complaining, but finishes off with a shot of him joyously smiling.
An example being the Eva’s representation of Freud’s idea of returning to the womb, indicated by Asuka and Shinji crawling into a fetus-like position inside the Evas when they’re most vulnerable and Yui Ikari’s soul being in Eva Unit 01. This plays into Hideaki Anno’s idea of rejecting escapism into fiction, because only when they can shed this false sense of security can they accept themselves and the world around them. But like I said before, the main theme behind NGE’s philosophy is the hedgehog’s dilemma, which says that the closer people get to each other the more they hurt the other person. The physical and literal representation of this being the AT-fields that everyone in Evangelion posses. Human relationships are what make us continue living, because we as a species long for others’ warmth but to make such genuine bonds we need to stop hiding behind false projections of ourselves and unveil our true selves to other people and that runs the risk of hurting ourselves and others. Evangelion shows this on numerous occasions throughout the entirety of the show by the characters having a complete lack of understanding of one another despite carrying similar burdens. They project the false self in other’s minds outwards and keep the ugliness of the real self locked deep down, which in turn makes them unable to form real genuine bonds and fuels their lack of sympathy since they can’t see from the other person’s perspective. And when this false self that they project outwards is shattered, they’re left with the ugliness of the real one which causes the numerous mental breakdowns seen in the show. All of this creates a barrier between everyone in NGE, because as Schopenhauer argues – individuality is suffering as shown by Gendo for example, which doesn’t know how to be a father, claims he never deserved to be loved which means he closed himself off from the world so he wouldn’t feel pain. This suffering is caused by our inability to communicate and perceive each other properly because we’re individuals, all viewing the universe from our own lenses so this causes a struggle to connect. In turn, unity would bring us peace because this struggle to connect would be gone. So being alive means being an individual with his own will, which as explained, causes pain. Another Freudian idea that Evangelion delves into is ambivalence, the idea of both hating and loving something at the same time, one prime example being Shinji claiming he hates his dad on more than one occasion while still piloting Unit 01 to make him proud and acknowledge him. But all of this comes back to reunifying everyone with the Freudian idea that individual beings are equipped with the pleasure principle – which basically means to avoid suffering and maximize the pleasure but how can that be achieved when having an individual will causes us and others pain, which all leads Gendo, Shinji and many more back to the Human Instrumentality Project which will merge all consciousnesses into one. This comes up in Sigmund Freud’s “death drive” too – the desire to return to the womb or a place of tranquility. As Gendo tells Shinji in the last 2 episodes “Instrumentality is not a return to nothingness. It is merely a return to the state of beginning. It is no less than a return to the primal womb that we lost so long ago. Souls and mind will become one, attaining eternal peace”. The right answer to all of this is shown by Kaworu, which is accepting the vulnerability and others. Although at first Shinji accepts the Instrumentality project, he ultimately rejects it, accepting his own flaws, wanting to be himself, and most importantly a world in which there will be suffering because he is tired of running away and hiding. Neon Genesis Evangelion’s theological, psychological and philosophical elements all work to make the show’s overall theme of lack, like Shinji and Asuka mourning their mothers and Rei’s constant state of melancholy because she lacks a mother to begin with, which the aforementioned Jacques Lacan says is the missing piece at the heart of our existence and Eva weaves a plot that deeply surrounds this lack in our existence. This all ties in to the title, Neon Genesis Evangelion, when at the end of the movie, Shinji and Asuka are the only ones left – a new Adam and Eve and a new beginning.
____
#The Characters
But all of these themes and ideas are expressed through the deeply flawed and fucked up cast of characters, which works because they’re so flawed and struggle with mental issues which gives them and the overall story a sense of humanity and relatability. Starting with the main cast, excluding Shinji, we have:
Sohryu Asuka Langley – Although she falls into the oversaturated stereotype of “tsundere”, she has a reason to be. Asuka uses these displays of hostility to shield herself from others but most importantly to shield the vulnerability inside. Her mother developed a psychological illness in which she dissociated Asuka from being her daughter and instead pushing these feelings on to a ragdoll and ultimately she commits suicide while killing the Asuka ragdoll along with herself. During this time, Asuka was desperate for her mother’s attention and approval, but this unfortunate turn of events caused her to always seek out isolation and attention or validation from others at the same time, never depending on anyone. And when later on she doesn’t manage to deliver and be dependent, this causes her to have a mental breakdown. She comes across as narcissistic but this is just a cover for her inner insecurities and vulnerability. She seeks happiness in others’ validation but will never be happy until she can validate herself. Her shitty past also les to her forcing herself to mature, which she views being sexually active. This is the driving force behind some of her interactions with Shinji and her whole relationship with Kaji. But Kaji’s rejection of her advances – meaning he rejected her adulthood - serves as a reminder to Asuka of the cruel reality that she is still nothing more than a dependent child. As the series goes on, the perfect Asuka that she projects outward is completely shattered. In episode 22, after numerous failures she attempts to fight an Angel again only for it to dive deep into her mind, reminding herself of her inner ugliness, causing her self-worth to completely deplete and the aforementioned mental breakdown. She then curls into a fetal position, only to lose her consciousness and remains like that until she learns to love herself in the last 2 episodes and the movie. Asuka serves as an antithesis to Shinji as she wants nothing to do with other people, unlike Shinji, while still being strikingly similar to him, as she also seeks validation from others.
Ayanami Rei - Despite every character in NGE being highly developed, as the whole point of it is for you to accept yourself, move on and change, I’d argue that Rei has the most character development in the whole series. Much like Asuka, she is at first glance a stereotypical kuudere and embodies the cold doll archetype but with a reason. She’s part of a series of clones made out of Yui’s soul and Lilith, which makes her utterly replaceable and she’s painfully aware of this. The first Ayanami Rei was killed by Ritsuko’s mother and the one we’re most familiar with, the second one sacrificed herself in episode 23 to then be replaced by a third Rei Ayanami. From all of this, it’s understandable why she’s so detached from the world and people around her. Her whole existence being in Gendo’s hands and replaceable – in turn meaningless. Unlike Shinji or Asuka which seek validation in others to shield themselves from their inner ugliness, Rei uses that to prove her existence and individuality. Despite Gendo only showing affection towards Rei because of his residual attachment to his wife, Yui and her importance to the Human Instrumentality Project, that was the closest thing Rei had to a genuine human bond. Although at the start Rei sees Shinji as anyone else, shown by how she slapped Shinji because he disrespected Gendo, as Shinji starts to show real affection towards Rei, he slowly replaces Gendo in her mind. This is later demonstrated by how she disobeys orders to sacrifice herself to save Shinji and then her third self completely rejecting Gendo in favor of Shinji in the movie. This development is also simply accentuated by her treasuring the first sign of concern for her, Gendo’s glasses from the time he saved her out of the dysfunctioning Eva unit but then later on tries to shatter them when the third Rei first sees the glasses in her apartment. Rei’s character is one of existentialism, but ironically she is the most self-aware out of everyone in the main cast which makes her the strongest and the reason she tries to help others come to their self-realization despite how painful it may be.
Misato Katsuragi – Like most of the other characters in Evangelion, Misato had parental problems, being neglected by her father in favor of his work much like Shinji. And much like Asuka, she used her sexuality and relationship with Kaji to give herself a false sense of happiness and try to hide her inner ugliness but unlike Asuka, which used it as a medium into adulthood to feel validated, Misato uses it as a way to feel wanted and needed even if it’s just physically. This is why she both loves and is afraid of Kaji, as he reminds her of her father. This fear led to her being unable to make any meaningful bonds with anyone as she constantly only hurts herself and others the closer she gets to them. This is also shown in her relationship with Asuka and especially Shinji as she tries to be a motherly figure but ultimately fail when all she’s left with is regret for using such kids and them running away from home. She even tries to amend her relationship with Shinji the only way she knows how – sexually, but as Shinji rejects her advances, it painfully reminds her of her inner flaws and ugliness.
Ritsuko Akagi – Similarly to Misato, Ritsuko seeks sexual relationships, in particular with Gendo, to feel needed. She spent her whole life trying to run away from her mother’s shadow, the woman she despises, shown by the stark contrast between her bleached hair and her natural hair color that is the same as her mother’s. This hate comes from presumably her jealousy towards her mother, because she had a crush on Gendo while her mother, after the tragic passing of Yui Ikari, makes advances on him and she catches them in the act. But ultimately Ritsuko follows in her mother’s footsteps, having sexual acts with Gendo much like her mother and destroys the Ayanami Rei clone series after seeing how Gendo chose Rei over her, much like how Ritsuko’s mother kills the first Rei because of the similarities between her and Yui. In the end, even her own mother betrays her and chooses Gendo when the Magi system refuses her in favor of Shinji’s dad in the movie.
Gendo Ikari – Gendo is one of the most misinterpreted characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion, mostly because of how complex he is. He’s a tragic character that failed to see the errors in his ways because he was blinded by the desire to be reunited with his dead wife. While not necessarily being evil, he is in the end a shitty person, but he doesn’t commit these heinous acts just because. It all comes from a place of love. If destroying the world would lead to achieving his goal, then he would do it. But like I mentioned earlier, Gendo’s strikingly similar to Shinji in the sense that he pushed other characters and Shinji away because he was afraid of hurting him, not because he didn’t love him. Because forming a connection might cause more pain, but to his demise he only deepened the scars in Shinji. At the end, he’s a selfish and misguided man that did what he did from a place of love. Like the other characters analyzed here, he isn’t black or white, he’s human.
Kaworu Nagisa – Despite only shortly appearing, Kaworu is probably my favorite Eva character. He is in a sense the closest human to perfection in the series despite him not being entirely human. He shows the viewers and Shinji the right answer to the dilemmas they have been facing. Accepting vulnerability and flaws. He gives up his individual desires in favor of Shinji, is completely open for his love towards Shinji and represents a way out of the cycle of constant suffering that is life. He is the beacon of hope that Shinji is first introduced to and the first person that tells Shinji “I love you”. This later on goes to only hurt Shinji when he is forced to kill Kaworu because he’s the 17th Angel. Kaworu’s role to the series is perfectly summarized in his dialogue with Shinji, quote “You are extremely afraid of any kind of initial contact aren't you? Are you that afraid of other people? I know that by keeping others at a distance you avoid a betrayal of your trust, for while you may not be hurt that way, you mustn't forget that you must endure the loneliness. Man cannot erase this sadness, because all men are fundamentally alone. … Okay. You know pain is something man must endure in his heart, and since the heart feels pain so easily some believe life is pain. You are delicate like glass, especially your heart.”
Now I won’t go on to analyze Shinji Ikari, our protagonist, because frankly this whole Evangelion analysis has also partially been a Shinji analysis so I see no reason for me to go back to the same ideas I already presented and repeat myself.
____
#The Ending
Neon Genesis Evangelion boasts one of the greatest endings in all of anime in my opinion, and here’s why. The ending is what ultimately brings every character arc together and establishes its core message. Despite the TV series’ ending lacking any sense of narrative and plot, it served as kind of mental therapy for the characters. Taking on an introspective view and pushing the character’s problems to the forefront. The events happen during the Third Impact and the completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, but in the characters’ minds which in turn makes the The End of Evangelion movie not a revised or alternative ending, but a complimentary one, building on what the TV series’ ending established. While the TV ending beautifully finished Shinji’s character arc, it still left a lot to be desired with the other loose threads but that’s where the movie comes in. Rei finally makes a decision for herself, rejecting Gendo and letting Shinji instead decide what’s going to happen as she merges with Lilith which leaves Gendo to finally see the errors in his ways as he sees Yui before him. Misato despite in the end still going back to the only thing she thinks others want, sex, as she tries to amend her relationship with Shinji once again using it before her untimely death, she finally accomplishes her role as a motherly figure to Shinji, as she protects him and gives him critical advice. Asuka is content to die and has lost all sense of self-worth but then comes to the realization that her mother has been watching over her all along in Unit 02 and she finally learns to love and accept herself. She realizes she never needed validation from people other than herself from the beginning. But she still loses her fight against the nine Eva Units, still desperate for individuality, she now faces the risk of becoming one with everyone else, the worst fate for her. But this all ties back into Shinji, how everything is in his hands and how he needs to learn to love himself. We then see shots presumably in Shinji’s mind of an exchange between him and Asuka, where Asuka already came to love herself and is trying to call out Shinji, but he can only see sexualized images of her as his understanding of what Asuka is saying is null. Then we get a shot of Shinji and Asuka in the kitchen, reminiscent of the kissing scene, in which Shinji tries to be dependent on Asuka, but she once again calls him out on his bullshit as he only tries to rely on others, without any regard to who he relies on. This is a slap to the face to Asuka as she is an individual. This causes Shinji to break down and strangle Asuka, a symbol of isolation in Evangelion, and starting the Instrumentality project. But this only makes Shinji realize that he needs those connections, despite them causing pain, because that’s what being human is about. He accepts a life of constant suffering because of the real emotions he felt. Thus, ending the Human Instrumentality Project and proving that with the required will to, you can return to being an individual. Now moving on to one of the greatest scenes in the anime, Shinji wakes up next to Asuka, also materialized as she is the personification of the desire for individuality, and tries to strangle her again, picking up from where he left off before the Instrumentality. But as to break this illusion, Asuka gently touches Shinji, reminding him that she feels the pain he’s inflicting on her while indicating she understands Shinji’s. He realizes it’s all over and comes to a stage of self-acceptance similar to Asuka’s. He breaks down into tears from both guilt and relief as Asuka looks at him and says “How disgusting”, relating to her feelings of disgust as she finally escapes the hell of Instrumentality only to find her feelings of complete individuality rejected by the person she is disgusted by, Shinji, as well as her feelings towards the whole state of the world around them.
But ultimately, although it’s left to interpretation much like a large portion of the show, this is a happy ending about self acceptance and hope.
____
#Why I Love Neon Genesis Evangelion
This last part will focus on my personal feelings and why I have personally fallen in love with the series. First of all, it wasn’t until I wrote this that I realized that when I first watched Evangelion, I was in a similar mental position as a large amount of the characters. I was having problems accepting my flaws, trying to project a fake image of myself towards other people. So the themes of Evangelion resonate with me on a personal level, because I have been there, as I'm sure most of you have been in some point of your life, and I have accepted myself. Another reason why I love Evangelion is similar to why I like Beksiński and his paintings. They give off this dreadful and hellish atmosphere packed with religious imagery that is all strangely meaningless. In fact, I find a lot of similarities between Eva and Beksiński’s paintings. It’s just a vibe that I really like, as a huge seinen, horror and psychological fan.
All of this doesn’t really tie into the show’s quality and why I love it for that, but it does showcase the other more simple and personal reasons and details that all together helped me love this cinematic masterpiece.