So, I recently discovered that the yellow shirt worn by Asuka during Episode 9, 15, and End of Evangelion is not actually Asuka’s shirt. It’s Misato’s.
I’m not pointing out this seemingly insignificant fact for the fun of it – because it definitely seems like a trivial, if not somewhat interesting, little detail – but like most things in Evangelion, Anno’s taken steps to imbue it with hidden and revealing character subtext. Eva often uses sequences of recurring, outwardly unimportant visual cues to tie some underlying theme to a character or characters. So why a yellow shirt? Turns out, it’s actually a pretty interesting symbol for womanhood and ill-fitting sexual expression.
re: gendo ikari, and how gendo as a character is talked about within the fandom and the selective attention/dissonance that’s implicit in the framing of him solely as “The Bad Dad™”
when i think of gendo, i don’t necessarily zero in on his shitty parenting, because that’s basically a given for any parent in eva ever. i think of his using women – orienting women so that they directly (rei, naoko, ritsuko) or indirectly (misato, asuka) further his goals. obviously yui (and rei iii, since she’s ‘half’ yui) beatifically trumps his ace in eoe, but for the most part, he exercised unlimited amounts of emotional, physical, and psychological control on rei i+ii (and the whole thing is excruciatingly uncomfortable and suggestive in its visual language - something that i hardly, if ever, see people talk about); he used naoko/ritsuko for their minds and their bodies; it’s suggested that he deliberately capitalized on misato’s righteous anger by allowing her access into the paramilitary+gehrin, and what would later become nerv. remember when fumihiko tachiki said that gendo embodies the central core of evangelion, in that everyone’s moving around him while he stays still? passive, atypical control – even his relationship with shinji is unassertively neglectful. gendo doesn’t need to do anything because he’s relying on what’s dubbed ‘divine feminine energy’ (ultimately realized in lilith, his secret ace in the hole) to do his bidding for him.
i’m not very interested in gendo commentary/analysis/etc that acts like his neglectful parenting is the main cornerstone of his character, especially since that doesn’t uniquely differentiate him as a character from dr. katsuragi, naoko akagi, asuka’s father, etc. gendo being a terribad father isn’t the point – gendo is more so an expression of insidious power, masculinity, and immortality. and i think people stress on his parenting because shinji is the main character, and by being constantly privy to shinji’s adolescent frustrations and anxieties it’s harder to see how shinji and gendo are so fundamentally alike – more than anyone is willing or ready to admit. because what does shinji end up doing with his adolescent frustrations and anxieties? he takes them out on asuka, rei, and misato. the “gendo as the nondescript, one-note evil mastermind dad and shinji as the flawless cinnamon roll we must protect at all costs” is so hilariously ironic for that reason.
wille is german for “will”, “desire”, “intention.” this makes it a philosophical counterpart to nerv, as nerves carry physical impulses that control muscles and sensation, while “will” is an abstract concept of higher brain functions. (x)
“rei or asuka?” really baffles me because they’re presented as inverse contrasts in the show, and you can’t really derive any concrete analysis or understanding of their characters by taking them in separately. you have to examine them together through a comparative lens – their backstories, how they view themselves, their respective methods of coping/internalizing neglect and validation (or lack thereof). this goes for literally every single character in evangelion, but rei and asuka are most prolific for the grossest and most nauseating reasons.
when people say they like asuka more than rei for “x” reasons or visa versa, to me that’s just another gauge of how badly they missed the point.
more thoughts on this. i don’t believe in the idea “if you like asuka more you like rei less”. it’s interesting how both rei and asuka suffer disproportional amounts of bodily harm in the show but the emotional focus/concern rests solely on shinji (both in-show and fandom).
asuka and rei’s dynamism plays out in how they interpret and react to their their “maternalness” and “materialness”: rei, contemplating on never becoming a mother (which is complicated by her connection with yui and lilith) - and then asuka, who hates menstruation, hates the idea of having children (complicated by her forcible rejection from her mother; rei is removed from motherhood in the bodily sense but closer “spiritually”, while asuka is the inverse)
then there’s rei and materialness (corporeality) vs the soul, how rei can’t retain memories after each resurrection (memories being connected bodily, stored in the brain), but she possesses base latent comprehension of emotions and relationships (as these are stored in the soul) – how rei morphs through bodily trauma and repeated physical resurrection, and then transcends corporeality completely, because rei is rei without a body. this is in contrast to asuka, who marrys her entire identity to her body, tries to find validation in the body, presentations of the body. when asuka’s body and her ability to use her body crumbles, asuka crumbles. rei grows/transcends with each instance of bodily trauma while asuka regresses/ebbs with each instance of bodily trauma.
asuka and rei compliment each other so beautifully in their characters and i love them both so much.
The use of dolls as a motif in this episode is rather interesting.
In the script for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Mamoru Oshii described the psychology for the fear of dolls thusly:
[It’s] the uncertainty that perhaps something that appears to be alive actually isn’t, and the uncertainty that on the other hand something that doesn’t appear to be alive actually is. If you want to know what makes dolls so unnerving, it’s because they are modeled after humans. In other words they are man created in their own image. [It] creates the fear that the human phenomenon is fundamentally devoid of meaning and purpose…that humanity can be reduced to simple mechanical parts.
In the context of the story, the doll motif reflects the fear of being replaced. To be cast aside in favor of something new. Broken mechanical parts swapped out for newer ones that last longer and work harder.
Asuka values her skills as a pilot because they give her a sense of self worth via others’ dependence on her. She takes pride in her competitive spirit and her high synch ratios. She loves the fact that others depend on her to defend them against the Angels. However, she is dependent on others for her sense of self despite her personality. After all, human beings are social creatures and we depend on each other for both social, physical, and mental needs. You can’t live a healthy life “on your own”. Without the ability to pilot the EVA, she’s cast aside like a broken doll, broken parts in a machine by the power structure of NERV and SEELE who soon finds a new “toy” to replace her with in their game, now that she no longer has any value to them.
As a side note, the language that Gendo uses when discussing the pilots is rather interesting. In the subtitles, pilots are rarely if ever referred to by their names, the exception being Rei. Even Rei outright states that if she dies she can simply be replaced. When Shinji shows up, he’s referred to as “the spare”. The pilots are simply interchangeable parts in the command structure, kicked out when no longer useful and replaced.
This scene is pretty amazing. We know that a huge part of Misato’s inner turmoil is that she cannot face against her father’s killers head on – instead, she must exact her revenge on the Angels vicariously through Shinji, Asuka, and Rei. But in this one moment, framed in such a way that disturbs our sense of magnitude, Misato is forced into lethal proximity with what she hates the most and stares it down anyway. She doesn’t run like the others. Notice that grip on her cross – subconsciously protecting her father’s memory, his only essence, over her own life.
In the tradition of ars moriendi, to die a good death is to die as you’ve lived: face death with resolution and maintain your deeply held convictions till the end.
Shinji comes swooping in to fend off The End at the very last second, but it’s a good reminder that for Misato, killing Angels isn’t about saving lives or protecting the world - it’s personal. Not so noble – Evangelion being the kind of show that it is – but it is compelling.
It’s worth noting that both SEELE and Gendo have mechanisms for eliminating the fundamental Death Anxiety in ways that Ernest Becker suggests are doomed to fail.
The terror of the mind/body dualism – which, in Evangelion, is symbolically represented by the Fruit of Knowledge and Fruit of Life – cannot be resolved through carnal reverence nor traditional religious means. Both are alternate versions of personal delusion in which existential meaning is sought through faulty channels: the body, which by definition cannot lend itself to spiritual transcendence, and monolithic faith systems, which are themselves imposed hero systems that cater deceitfully to the fear of oblivion they intend to absolve.
SEELE = a symbol for the classical religious pathway, in its singular control and perversion of spiritual goals. This is echoed by the imagery that represents SEELE, from the angel-like appearance of the Mass Production Evas to the biblical/numerical significance of the seven organization members.
Gendo Ikari’s agenda = a symbol for the bodily pathway, since his desire to reunite with Yui is precisely that: desire. His goals are rooted in the corporeal dimensions of human love and attachment, and he is clearly not satisfied with her occupation of a purely spiritual space, or at least not one that is separate from him inside Unit 01. His obsession with this physicality is so all-consuming that he creates a clone of her – Rei – to serve as the body vehicle for his ultimate plans.
The focus is then on Shinji, the despairing boy, the individual, to discover his own purpose and existential value for himself. And his only hope for doing this is by directly confronting the terror of oblivion, the terror of death and of fundamental aloneness, in all its forms. Only then can he truly transcend. There is a reason why he is the hero of the story.
You may or may not know that Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place between July 6th, 2015 to January 1st, 2016. Here’s an exhaustive breakdown of the exact dates of events, using the times provided by the show and per character dialogue. Some noteworthy finds:
Kaworu met Shinji on Christmas Eve, and died on Christmas Day.
The median amount of time between angel attacks is 11 days.
Toji lost his left leg on Halloween.
Kaji died a day before Misato’s 30th birthday.
Shinji is “birthed” from Unit-01 a day after Asuka’s 14th birthday.
The first half of End of Evangelion takes place on Toji’s 15th birthday, one day after Kaworu’s death.
And more!
The general skeleton for the first few months was graciously compiled here. Note that in Japan, schools are in session (half-days) on Saturdays.
