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Misato Katsuragi’s Reporting Plan (PS3) was a live subscription-based news app featuring Misato Katsuragi, who would read the player the news in real time. 

I think it would be best to refer to it as judeo-christian symbolism. It pulls from both arenas. I do find the way it's usually called christian imagery to be frustrating since there is unmistakably jewish influences! But there's also plenty cross explosions, things like the spear of longinus, and suchforth that I think it warrants a syncretic label.

As for the anti-semitism, I personally don't find it especially offensive because it's clearly just a result of ignorance by japanese people who have little exposure to these religions in general. Evangelion was created prior to the widespread use of the internet, so I'm curious as to what sources exactly Anno & co pulled from to learn about these faiths. I don't believe we have a definitive answer on that front. However it's clear even just looking at Japan's population statistics that the likelihood they spoke to actual practicing jews to be basically nil.

They just don't really have exposure to it. Not in a humanizing way, in any case. Stereotypes would be more widely accessible in their position. And from interviews it's evident that religious imagery was used for style and effect rather than from any desire to actually create meaningful symbolism.

I do think it's important to acknowledge the judaic influence, as op indicated, and that a lot of it is specifically pulling from kabbalah. I wouldn't be surprised if Anno read some pop culture overview on mysticism and thought it was cool. He probably didn't expect to reach an international audience, anyway, so I doubt any of the staff was concerned about representing that poorly.

This of course does not absolve them of responsibility in contributing to anti-semitism where they do it. And certainly the fan base has its own issues that intersect in an unfortunate way with the ignorance of the creators. You only have to look at the preponderance of the wandering jew theory to see that.

Meme culture is a menace, but right now I want to talk about eva’s meme culture specifically. The English-speaking fandom has been perpetuating misogynistic, reactionary shit for ages through memes. Memes about the hospital scene rehabilitate Shinji and victimize Asuka all over again, for just one example. It started on angelfire and tripod in the late 90s, made its way to Evageeks, then to Reddit, and now to Twitter, Tumblr, and everywhere else.

Since Thrice Upon A Time came out literally less than a fucking month ago, there’s been a lot of memeage calling Gendo a wifeguy or what have you. The thing is, though, how is Gendo’s relationship with Yui any different in the rebuilds? Maybe it’s more pathetic. But I could see nge Gendo doing all of this as well. His devotion to Yui is certainly presented in a much sillier way, just like everything else in the rebuilds.

The problem with this? Gendo Ikari isn’t a funny wifeguy. He’s just not. At best he’s pathetic and tragic for his neverending devotion to his long dead wife. At worst he’s an abuser; a rapist, a pedophile, a groomer. Both of these things are true at once, and in fact, the “wifeguy” shit feeds into his role as an abuser. Every woman and girl that Gendo abuses and mistreats – Naoko, Ritsuko, and Rei, – they’re all a replacement for Yui.

The wifeguy Gendo memes were funny for about five seconds, and then they very quickly became a way to rehabilitate the most despicable character in the entire canon. Gendo is now funny, iconic, desperate and love-starved in a relatable way. Today someone posted one of those bait “eva opinions that will make people mad“ prompts on Twitter, and one person responded calling the very blatant and undeniably canon rape of Ritsuko and Rei by Gendo “fanon.“

this scene in eva* genuinely makes me so depressed, but it’s such an important insight into why ritsuko acts how she does. in the eva fandom i feel like people overlook ritsuko as just gendo’s “lover” or “mistress”(yes i’ve seen her called that when she isn’t that at all) rather than a victim of his grooming. and while they are technically in a romantic/sexual relationship, she’s absolutely miserable in every aspect of it. i will elaborate.

she complains about how men and women don’t interact logically. she talks about him badly behind his back. she is jealous and doesn’t trust him in any way. they are never once shown together in a loving context. it is literally outright stated that gendo has sexually assaulted her at least once. 

(and as a side note i feel like she’s heavily implied to have BPD, whether intentional or not, and that gives some reasoning as to why she stays with him despite all of this- she goes through periods of idealization and devaluation aka “splitting”. she is convinced that he loves her and idealizes his actions (grooming comes into play here too) but the next minute she will be insulting either herself or him for being in this relationship. you can see this even in the picture ritsuko looks at. from a distance it looks like she is happy to be there, but upon looking closer, you can see she’s not as happy as she seems. i’ll write a full analysis on that later but hopefully you get the idea.)

on the surface it just looks like “haha petty relationship troubles” when in reality it goes so much deeper than that?? i feel like people just don’t pay attention to how long she has been under gendos thumb. that’s a middle school uniform she’s wearing. she has known gendo since she was an actual child. she is literally a pawn for him, and a replacement for yui just like her mother was. he doesn’t care about her. he never did. and ritsuko is far too deep into his manipulation to actually SEE that, until the very end of the series.

in the manga, before ritsuko is shot, he tells ritsuko that he “did love (her)” which in itself is almost like another bullet wound. there was NEVER any love here. she was always just his tool. and by the time ritsuko realized that, it was too late, she was too dependent, too unstable, too involved in gendo’s plans, too far gone for anything to be done. her character and relationship are genuinely so tragic and depressing and the fact that some people ignore this part of her (or even reduce it to “haha she’s f*cking shinji’s dad”) honestly makes me really sick. i’m sure all of this has been said by someone before, but i wanted to share my own thoughts on how this small scene actually shows a lot about her character. 

how to disappear completely, radiohead