Why The Evangelion Story Is A Classic. (Spoilers)
The name “Neon Genesis Evangelion” translates to “Gospel For A New Century” and is very deserving of this title. Being only 26 episodes and a movie, Evangelion has one of the most intricate, iconic, impactful, and groundbreaking stories ever put to animation, or any other medium. It is decades later, and people still debate over this show, still discuss this show, and still love this show, flaws and all. What is so great about Evangelion is that it applies to everybody, it is entirely universal. This is because, above all else, above the great characters and the gorgeous art style and the reoccurring symbolism, the persistent theme of living, just to live is the whole point of Evangelion. The lore, characters, and world are just a beautiful vessel to take us there. (well maybe not the lore, but I’ll touch on that later.) Constantly the question is asked, why? Why does Shinji Pilot the Eva? Why does Misato lead at Nerv? Why should humanity exist if there is no goal? Why continue to live despite pain? We all know how it goes, Shinji gets launched into third impact and ends all life on earth because he rejects all that rejects him. He was constantly abused, insulted, belittled, unloved, and neglected. Aside from Kaworu, he has known nothing but hurt and pain, so why save humanity? He comes to realize that it is first yourself you must live for, and next, the strive to connect to those you love. This is what makes life worth living. “Anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live.” So he decides to return the world as it was.
Here, I have analyzed the finale to the original Evangelion story, but not even scratching the surface to all of the characters personal struggles. Shinji’s lack of confidence and adult figures, Asuka’s concealed childhood trauma, Reis battle with identity and emotion, Misato’s depression and sexual escapism, and Ritsuko’s struggle to connect with Maya or Gendo. It honestly feels sometimes that the writers were taking on far more than they could chew, this is a highly ambitious project that paid off, but certainly not without flaw.
The flaws of Eva are many, and honestly quite glaring. The show definitely had pacing issues in the beginning, with quite a few filler episodes such as Jet Alone and Magma Diver that offer some character and plot value, but feel like “Angel Of The Week” episodes. On re-watches however, I have personally found this not much of a problem, as there’s still subtle character details left in that make more sense when you have the story in full context, among other things to analyze. The biggest problem with Eva is the overly complicated lore. I offer no excuse to the writers on how bombastic and absurd the lore is sometimes. Imagine explaining the finale to a non Eva-fan: “Mass produced Evas crucify Unit 1 with the Spear of Longinus, Rei consumes Adam from Gendo’s body, flies into Lilith, initiates third impact by projecting an image of Kaworu to Shinji, turning Shinji into the Tree Of Life, and beginning human instrumentality, turning all humans into primordial soup.” You sound like a madman. There were time and budget constraints, but that is still no excuse for this horrific storytelling. In order for audiences to be invested, they need to understand some of what is happening, and this can be done without compromising the mystery of the lore or dumbing things down. (Also Side Note: Artistic expression and symbolism are not excuses for graphic sexualization of minors and child nudity.)
With all of this said, Eva is clearly a very extreme and unconventional project. On one hand it is a masterpiece using grounded characters and a combination of religion and science to tell a story about the human condition. On the other hand, it is a poorly written mess of a story that contains filler episodes and extreme sexualization of 14 year old’s. Despite all of these flaws, there is no denying it’s massive impact on anime and the world. It’s reflective of the late 90′s it was spawned from, a time of uncertainty and mistrust, but it’s messaging still applies to today, and will always be relevant. And to me personally, it is a beautiful, dark, twisted story that will never cease to amaze me in concept, ambition, and theme. There may never be a story like Evangelion ever again.
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