Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

lots of spoilers. “And do you know, Alexey Fyodorovitch, how people do go out of their mind?” Ivan asked in a voice suddenly quiet, without a trace of irritation, with a note of the simplest curiosity. “No, I don't. I suppose there are all kinds of insanity.” “And can one observe that one's going mad oneself?”“I imagine one can't see oneself clearly in such circumstances,” Alyosha answered with surprise.

--- Brothers Karamazov

There is a moment when Shinji goes to the hospital to see Asuka after her “mental rape”; she has IV lines everywhere, she may even have been intubated at one point. She looks like death. Shinji is having flashbacks of memory powered by some intense emotion, maybe guilt or shame or pity, and it’s creating a conflict in his skinny body. When he comes back to himself, he finds he has masturbated in Asuka’s hospital room, practically at her death bed. He is revolted at himself. Okay, this is the moment when it’s evident that the writer/creator is having a schizophrenic break from reality. I reiterate: the brilliant man is not well. This is not some bad trip, this is not a burst of creative genius. You are witnessing the convulsive mental emesis of a sick man.

It follows then that the story should prove a fragmented thing: it begins auspiciously and masterfully, with a strong narrative and complicated character development which is second to none; it ends in what looks like some primordial liquid with Shinji fused in the nether-regions to Rei. (Or was it Asuka? Does it matter?)

Shinji is brought by the reckless Misato to Nerv, where he will serve as one of the pilots for an Eva; there are three Eva Units, giant modified fighting beings which prove frightening in ways that go well beyond appearances. When he joins Nerv, Shinji is 14; his father, Commander Ikari, is cold and calculating, capable of terrible rationalizations instrumental to humanity’s effort to withstand the Angels. Angels are bizarre organisms determined to find Adam and end sentient life on earth. Misato is the closest thing to a mother that poor Shinji knows; she can’t cook, she drinks too much beer, and drives like a homicidal maniac. But she does have a heart, though it’s to her detriment. Shinji’s “mates” are Rei and the aforementioned Asuka (I won’t even attempt to discuss Kaworu). Rei is a mish-mash of spare parts, explaining her schizoid personality. Asuka is arrogant and frequently overbearing, but she is still a child, and ultimately vulnerable. In fact, all the children and teenagers are damaged, and so, it would seem, is their creator. You can hide Tokyo 3 within the bowels of the earth; you can stop all motion in order to broadcast Schiller’s words in the chorus (“Freude!”) from Beethoven’s Symphony No 9; you can even change the ending “without a trace of irritation, with a note of the simplest curiosity”; it still isn’t enough to allow a mere mortal to see one’s own madness with God-like clarity.

I'll give a 10 for the beginning, but this doesn’t count as a review. I don’t give grades to the mentally ill; I bring them flowers and a hope-you-get-well card. If I were as pure as Alyosha, I would probably pray for their souls, too.