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Topics

How we first encountered/interacted with Evangelion

Production basics for each part

Our favorite incarnation/version of the story

Depictions of womanhood within the story

Misato, Asuka, Rei, and others

Depictions of parenthood (unsuccessful and successful) within the story

Thoughts on Gendo’s storyline as depicted more thoroughly in the films

Thoughts on the different ways the story concludes

Favorite call-backs from the films to the original TV series/End of Evangelion

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Notes:

This is a spoiler-heavy zone! We’ll be discussing plot and thematic details from the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series, the End of Evangelion film, and the four Rebuild of Evangelion films.

We will not be discussing any details from the manga adaptation(s) (neither of us has read them)

We welcome participation in the discussion!

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Production Details

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Neon Genesis Evangelion

Directed by Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki
Originally ran from October 1995 – March 1996
26 Episodes
Unlike a lot of modern anime which is broadcast in late-night time slots, Evangelion was broadcast at 6:30pm Japan time
Currently licensed by Gkids, with an upcoming Blu-ray Release

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The End of Evangelion

Directed by Hideaki Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki
Released July of 1997
87 Minute(!) run time
The first 28 minutes of the film were released as Evangelion: Rebirth (alongside Evangelion: Death).
This film (along with Evangelion: Death) are licensed by Gkids with a planned Blu-ray release

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Rebuild of Evangelion

Written by Hideaki Anno, Directed by Anno, Kazuya Tusurumaki, Masayuki, Mahiro Maeda, Katsuichi Nakayama
4 films released between September 2007 and March 2021
Retells and reinterprets the original story while providing an entirely new ending.
A child born when the first film premiered would be about middle-school aged at the time the final film premiered

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Our First Eva Experience

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Our Favorite Version(s) of the Story

Favorite tellings and why

Jessi – I like them all for different reasons, but I enjoy the Rebuild movies because of the ending. I feel like if you interpret events as being cyclical (there are things that seem to imply that), the ending of 3.0+1.0 seems to indicate the best ending where people get to keep their individuality and Shinji has achieved some sort of peace.

J.C. – The TV series into End of Eva will I think always be my favorite thing to watch, as it was something I took on unprepared, and over the years of rewatching built a huge appreciation for. I feel somewhat vindicated by the 3.0 + 1.0 end, which I view as essentially telling the same story I had always sort of inserted myself into End of Eva to make it more optimistic, and it’s strange to me that many many details were changed, but I feel like the abstract “story” itself and the journey of the characters is incredibly consistent. Many have said that Anno reacted to each ending’s reception when he made the next, and while I won’t deny the truth of that, I also believe he always maintained a clear idea of what he was trying to present, and all three endings tell that same story, albeit in very different ways. I obviously can’t go back and watch the Rebuild movies without having seen the TV and End of Eva, but my strong sense is that they work much better as companion pieces than as a stand alone (the character work is much more thorough in the TV series). I’m curious to hear if anyone experienced the Rebuild movies first.

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Women in Evangelion

I find the women of Eva very interesting because they’re so varied – age and personality, and I find that to be fairly rare for media in general. They’re all complicated characters who are burdened by various responsibilities.

I like the relationship between Misato & Ritsuko – two adult women of a comparable age in difficult positions.

Mari in the rebuild films – not just a fanservice character like she first seems when introduced. Vaguely literally that “goofy auntie” but just has an undefeatable personality (never seems to get worn down, depressed, etc. like she’s sort of above all that).

J.C.: I agree on Mari. It’s almost like Anno finally gave in and just gave us a character that, for whatever reason, and maybe much less realistically than the other women in the franchise, can roll with every punch, and isn’t fatally lacking something.

I absolutely love the three-part dynamic the show regularly revisits, including quite explicitly in the Ritsuko/Magi episode, or being a scientist/professional with a job, being a mother/caretaker in some form, and being your own woman/lover. Each of the women goes through these struggles, as does Shinji, who not only is seeking the same things within himself, but is also looking to these women to be his mother, his lover, her partner, and his friend. I feel a strong connection with Anno on this, too, a man who chose to express aspects of his own personality largely through this female cast of characters. I relate.

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…But the Best Girl is Obviously Ramiel

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Parenthood In Evangelion

This is a big topic of the show and the films – the relationships between children and their parents and how those are expressed and what effects they have.

There are some parallels that are interesting –

Gendo becomes an absentee father, basically involving himself in his single-minded quest. He doesn’t really seem to have interest in Shinji other than as a tool. On the other hand, Misato essentially abandons the son she has with Kaji also, yet he seems fairly well-adjusted and has relationships with others. Is this simply a difference in personality between both the parents and the children, or what other factors are involved?

Misato doesn’t parent her own child but acts as a surrogate parental figure for Shinji and Asuka

J.C.: I really love this development of Misato, even as much as it seems very unusual to allow a woman to abandon her mother role and still be a character we cheer for. The fact is, Misato takes on too damn much. She does all through the TV series, being the active commander of military operations, tries to dive deeper into WTF Nerv and Seele are really up to, tries to maintain her relationships with Ritsuko and Kaji, and be parents for Shinji and Asuka, who need a TON of help. She can’t do it all, and that is 100% understandable. In the third Rebuild, after N3I, she has given up on parenting Ryoji (but made sure he has a caring community to grow up in), and tries not to be Shinji’s parent anymore, with mixed success. She is at this point leading the resistance to fight Angels, Nerv, the results of N3I, and has a hand in the growing communities. She seems to be acknowledging, at least to some degree, that she can only be spread so far, and that’s a healthy decision.

In 3.0+1.0, Rei seems to take an interest in motherhood while babysitting Toji and Hikari’s baby

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Gendo’s Story

Is Gendo redeemable?

In 3.0+1.0 we get some comparatively lengthy insight into Gendo’s past, beginning with childhood. His isolation and disinterest in relationships with others is kind of a familiar refrain, both generally and within the realm of the series. The only person he really opens up to is Yui, and after her death he retreats back into his single-minded loneliness.

This creates some sympathy for the character, but does it redeem him? Is it supposed to?

Gendo and Shinji are similar in that Gendo could be a possible endpoint for Shinji

“Could it be that I am afraid of Shinji?” – afraid of the connection to Yui, of what Shinji represents, of how Shinji is a mirror and also something that Gendo is capable of supremely fucking-up.

J.C.: Not sure I’m ready to redeem Gendo. Certainly, he is sympathetic, and always was, but it’s just a bit too much when you decide your loneliness is so great that you want to merge yourself with all other humanity, and end the species as we know it, and you’re willing to use any means to achieve that result. Again, there is a perspective where Human Instrumentality is a beautiful idea, and I think we have to credit Gendo with being a true believer in that being a good ending. That said, screw him.

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Different Endings

Let’s talk about the big three “endings” of the franchise.

Concurrent or separate?

There are certain clues that this story is cyclical until Shinji finally breaks out of it at the end of the final film by getting rid of the evas.

J.C.: I always found the most satisfying and kind of funny explanation of TV end versus End of Eva being that the TV is what’s inside Shinji’s head (and is pretty reasonable, mostly people talking on the train), while End of Eva is what’s physically happening (with giant Rei/Kaworu/Adam/Lilith covering the Earth and hugging the moon).

It can certainly be read that the Rebuild Movies take place in the world Shinji remakes after End of Eva. The red oceans devoid of life are the biggest “clue” of this read. At the same time, my overall feeling of reading these as essentially the same story also makes it kind of unimportant whether they are serial, or parallel, or what.

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Favorite Scenes/Call-backs

The films riff directly on certain familiar scenes from the TV series and End of Eva. What are some favorites?

Jessi – The elevator scene (which is much shorter this time around, but still awkward!). Also, when Ritsuko shoots Gendo in the face. J.C.: It’s never wrong to see Ritsuko shoot Gendo in the face!

J.C. – Not exactly a call-back, but the development in the second Rebuild films, when the efforts particularly of Rei to connect with others starts to work much better than it did in the TV series, and the characters get agonizingly close to getting to much healthier places, which who knows what that would do to the whole story? This does lend into the idea that this is a second (or whatever number) take following End of Eva, and Shinji has rebuilt the world in such a way that the characters have learned, a little bit, how to better connect, and we’re drawing closer to a better resolution, which we do good in the Rebuilds.

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Final Thoughts

What are some final closing thoughts?

I was worried about whether the ending of the Rebuild films would do the story justice, and it more than did. I’m glad it ended optimistically – we get so enamored with doom and gloom, possibly because the real world doesn’t necessarily inspire optimism a lot of the time. But it’s a good reminder that people still have a choice to approach one-another (and themselves!!!!) with kindness, to work together, and that there is value in just living and working together without fighting any huge apocalyptic battles.

J.C.: I’ve always felt that the dual TV and End of Eva reading was optimistic, which is sometimes hard to defend given scenes like Shinji immediately strangling Asuka after bringing her back. Nevertheless, he always decided despite his misery, despite his strong belief in his own brokenness and difficulty connecting, that he wanted to try again, rather than come to his father’s conclusion and allow instrumentality, is an optimism that works well my own view that the world is very broken, and acknowledging how awful people can be is the way to be better, which we are also very capable of. We all have love to give, we’re all capable of great destruction, and we all would do a lot better with some damned self-confidence.

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