It’s probably too late. 14 years passed after all. Although the film remake have recently been premièred, I still feel like telling an already well-known story. And nevertheless — here are they, my impressions on the epic, original, and too moralful anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The Good
Until episode 25, The Embassy of the New Era was in my opinion the best anime I’ve seen. I really loved it, despite the expressionistic inserts now and then. It had passion. It had style.
The scene of Ikari Shinji and Tabris is unforgettable. I didn’t breathe. During the scene, my thoughts changed between the painful expectation what is going to happen and inner shouts of what a genius Hideaki Anno is. My feelings when it finished can not be described with words.
But the last two episodes, they were different. Foreign. They didn’t match the rest of the series.
The Bad and the Ugly
I don’t think it was right at all. There was a man who liked to teach people how to live. His name was Nikolai Gogol and he was a famous novelist of the 19th century. Hideaki Anno reminds me of him with the way he finished Eva. The eternal wisdom is, to never spit morals at anybody as a whole. As a subtext, lightly seen, it’s the only form people can handle it. The show didn’t make a character say something to the watcher directly of course, but that practically goes to the same category.
Critics called the last two episodes ‘brainwashing’. I think it’s really not that far from reality.
“Love yourself, only so you’ll be able to love somebody else.”
Ikari Shinji hates himself. I think he’s right — I hate him too. There are reasons. But because he dislikes himself that much, he gets a f***ing excuse not to save somebody, not to protect somebody, and in general, to be a bastard — he is not worthy enough to save somebody, he is not worthy enough to protect somebody, etcetera. So far I think, that’s bullshit. Sorry for the amount of vulgarity in this paragraph, but that’s how this character appeals on me. I mean, if your hatred towards yourself is so hefty, wouldn’t it be only comforting to sacrifice yourself for the sake of other people? His attitude is showing that actually, he is uber-egoistic, faint-hearted coward.
But not applying this to Shinji, in general, that’s right, but also obvious. It’s normal to be a little egoistic, and wasting so much screen time to make him, who’s already egoistic, understand that, is not a smart way to use, hm, screen time.
“Do not lose the reality.”
Ikari Shinji again. But well, since he’s the protagonist… But this one is not directed to Shinji himself, but through him to us, the watchers.
I really felt the yelling, ‘You’re seeing this anime now, but you have only one life! Don’t spend your precious time on non-existent worlds!’
These are the ones I remembered.
I agree that it is the truth, the both wisdoms. The right truth. The truth people should understand. And nonetheless, the poor last two episodes didn’t deserve it. As a stand-alone work, I would hardly appreciate the Cases of Ikari Shinji and the others, but to put that amount of information in a hour, split in two, is not a thing I would recommend to do.
In absolute generality…
…, to face the animation quality and soundtrack and that stuff, I would settle for the word ‘old’. That’s pretty it.
14 years later, here are my thoughts on the epic, original, and too moralful anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.
7 Comments
I find it very interesting that you found Eva to be a moralizing show. I don’t think many of the people I know took it as such.
I also find difficulty in understanding what you mean by ‘the right truth.’ Could a truth be wrong? Does this make it ‘untrue?’
I think there can be good and bad truths. Like, what people should know and what better not.
Eva wasn’t completely ‘a moralizing show’. But the little subtexts were so strong during the time (or rather, they were really strong now and then), that it was the thing that stood out.
Okay, your reasoning though — doing ‘should’ and ‘should’ not can be reasonably construed as moralizing on your own.
In any case, I acknowledge that this is how Eva occured for you, and recommend that you see End of Evangelion if you haven’t yet.
I have. The End of Evangelion was better than the initial two last episodes, but the idea that everyone died didn’t make me like it much more. And it gave me even more reasons to hate Shinji. (The last scene!). ^__^
I’m glad that you liked Evangelion. It was the first anime which actually made me appreciate anime itself.
I do agree that Shinji is egoistic in his own right. Seeing how he doesn’t help others in need because of his inner will of “Oh shi– I can’t do anything to save her” even though he is in the strongest EVA in the series!
One thing remains though: the series really made me feel moralised about certain aspects of my life then. One of a kind, twisted and wicked. That’s how I describe Evangelion.
I guess the movie’s ending gave us a reason to interpret it, no?
If it were “Oh shi– I can’t do anything to save her” it wouldn’t be that bad. But he is stubborn — “I said I won’t ride Eva anymore, so I won’t” — even if life of a (or even “two”) beautiful girls depends on him. Shortly, he’s not a gentleman.
And, exactly because of the End of Evangelion ending, where as you remember he attempted to kill Asuka although she is 1. a girl; 2. lying unconsicious, helpless., I think he deserves a place in the “Top 5 Anime characters who deserve to be shot.”
Exactly the reason why I mentioned at that post. He is just so self-centered that he even tried to kill a girl who is just lying there! Oh well, that describes how he truly is. And you know, there are some people who are just the same. Like I mentioned, this series really taught me how moralising life can be…