the layers

qmisato:

Misato and Shinji are extremely afraid of being hurt. They both are unsuitable–lacking the positive attitude for what people call heroes. But in any case, Misato and Shinji are the heroes of this stories. - Hideaki Anno

his scene is loaded. there’s a whole constellation of themes that are finally being realized here, as shinji and misato – the two protagonists of NGE – share one of their more subtly powerful exchanges before everything goes to proverbial shit. this is the last ‘real’ moment of the show; come episode 25 and the audience is catapulted right into the throes of instrumentality.

a lot of people don’t know why misato says what she says, and what it actually means - for her, for shinji, and for kaworu (and others!). here’s my attempt at teasing some of that out.

discussions of self-alienating love, suicidal idealization, becker, feuerbach, and various other revelations below.

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Anno doing what he does best: iterative foreshadowing. Misato, Ritsuko, and Kaji are the only characters that die by the gun, and these two scenes hint at all three deaths with laserpoint exactness. Look at the position of Misato’s gun: she aims at the back of Kaji’s head and the crown of Ritsuko’s spine. Ritsuko later dies from a gunshot wound through the spine, and well – Kaji’s corpse isn’t shown, but you can make the required leaps of imagination. 

Misato confronts both Kaji and Ritsuko in the deepest belly of NERV, which is where she will eventually die. Both Kaji and Ritsuko cross-reference each other as they double-cross. Consider the history between the trio and you have what is best summed up by Kureishi: “Soon we will be strangers. No, we can never be that. Hurting someone is an act of reluctant intimacy. We will be dangerous acquaintances with a history.”

“rei ayanami was supposed to be creepy as a middle finger to fanboys!!”

this is an old western fandom myth fabricated during the early days of 4chan/evageeks. anno, hayashibara, and co. have never said anything remotely suggesting the sort (rather, anno’s described rei as the ‘most inexpressible’ part of him; hayashibara remarking similar) - this also evades everything rei is to justify never considering her beyond the surface level (if rei was supposed to be ‘creepy’, what else is there?)

rei is existential - rei is isolation, rei’s entire narrative gestures heavily at what it means to be a body (”the body as an identity involves resources”) - what it means to be defined by your trauma, physically and psychologically. people don’t relate to rei because she’s “creepy” (she’s not), people relate to rei because she’s othered, ostracized, abused, socially inept. rei was forced into a life of constant-dissociation by an abusive man, a life in which she is a stranger to herself, and pretentious nerds still have the gall to call her ‘creepy’ as if they’re saying something subversive

there’s nothing enlightened about calling an abused 14 year old girl “creepy”, nothing about rei is “creepy”, it’s sad and harrowing and existentially-laden

recurring visual imagery: distance + gendo’s office
neon genesis evangelion, dir. hideaki anno (1995)

recurring visual imagery: tracksuit + aggression
evangelion: 1.11 you are (not) alone, dir. hideaki anno (2007)
evangelion: 3.33 you can (not) redo, dir. hideaki anno (2012)

IN THE SUMMER OF 1997, I REMEMBER MY YOUTH, Kameda Yoshimichi

This beautiful Misato Katsuragi illustration was drawn by one of Eva 3.0′s Key Animators for the 2014 Khara calendar release. Of particular note is the hidden figures in the background, whose identity invites interpretation - we have what appears to be a college-aged Kaji, a creepy visage, a Rei-like apparition, a Gendo looking figure, and the face of an unknown young girl.

Even more interesting is the word for youth (性春), which contains the character for sex/one’s nature - rendering the title an incredibly complex triple entendre. 

you know the recurring gag about misato besting the odds of .000001% isn’t a joke - the reason she ‘just so happens’ to ‘fluke’ her way to victory is because seele has the dead sea scrolls, a prophetic text that fortells of every angel defeat ahead of time, and the magi was created under their clout so that nerv may be kept simultaneously unsuspecting, reasonably motivated, and constantly ready for death

the joke isn’t that misato just so happens to best the odds, the joke is that the odds of defeating an angel are always 100%, every time, and in believing that they’re .0001% misato plays right into seele’s hands, every time

misato as the mother, shinji’s introspective
end of evangelion, dir. hideaki anno (1997)

sir-argues-a-lot:

Honestly, I’m surprised it took me this long to pick up on what Rei’s feelings towards Asuka really are.

She doesn’t express herself, but apart from some biting remarks, Rei seemed to be legitimately indifferent towards her, while Asuka was pretty clear in her dislike of Rei, and made it explicitly known to us.

But honestly? Rei hated Asuka much sooner and much harder than vic versa. In this scene from episode 14, also known as the clipshow we don’t talk about, Rei makes it very clear that she absolutely despises the color red. She associates it with blood and mankind in her monologue, but given its prominence in the show, there are at least two noteworthy elements heavily associated with the color red.

The first, of course, is Asuka, who is drenched with red in everything she does. This association is easily interpreted as Rei secretly despising Asuka from the start, even if she never acted on it. In this case, it’s interesting to note that while Asuka was rather rude in putting Rei down, Asuka did initially make several genuine attempts to befriend Rei: the most obvious effort in episode 12, when Asuka went out of her way to ensure that Rei could join them in their celebratory dinner. Meanwhile, Rei simply didn’t give a shit about the redhead. She’s ice cold.

The other notable instance of the color red in association with Rei is seen within Rei herself, specifically her eye color. Eyes are the window to the soul, and the use of the color red here is largely symbolic. (A similar instance of such symbolism with regard to eyes is seen with Gendo, whose shades metaphorically close him off from the world.)

Rei’s soul, as we later learn, is not truly hers, but in fact comes from Lilith, a monster which isn’t human at all. Rei detests this, and tries to assert that she is her own self, even if she cannot shake of the feeling of this “wrong" presence within her, serving as one of her primary personal conflicts throughout. Essentially, Rei hates this presence inside her; Rei hates her “soul". Rei hates herself.

It’s quite an interesting visual metaphor, and the subtle allusion to Rei’s actual feelings helps to add to her character.