Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Since the release of the remake of the original series came out yesterday, as of the time of writing, I like to reminiscence about the original series after a recent rewatch that I had the pleasure of enjoying. I think it is imperative to start by dispelling the zealous fanbase as well as its detractors illusions, the TV series, really, was not about the story nor the "symbolism" and the conspiracies. The entire show, was an exercise in animation mastery. I would assume that those who laid eyes on these words, have watched the series, skimmed through it or heard from some random rabid fan onthe internet. I shall focus on the things that made Evangelion great: its animation quality.

Some of the reviews I have seen put too much emphasise on the plot. Anno was first and foremost, an animator. His animation works are nothing short of genius. You can look at an episode where he visited his old school and demonstrate to the children his animation works. Looking at that, you can really see the reason why people give him an enormous budget to make a series that, to me, is completely unnecessary but nevertheless a joy to watch, due to the meticulous and beautiful art and animation.

I shall skip past the entre and straight to the main course, the animation. I have a little bit of a beef with another famous and successful animator, Mr Shinkai. To me, while he's no doubt a hardworking artist, he's very much of a hack. While that sounds harsh and irrelevant, watching Anno's works, I was reminded of Shinkai's collection of generic scenery and moving things, I always have a hard time telling them apart. Part of it is that his vision is rather generic, but to me the more serious issue is that he's incredibly lazy. He's not lazy in the sense that he don't put effort into creating his works. To me, his laziness shows in the creative process. He would not break his mould, would not try to think deeply about why things should be moving, or why movement is important for certain scenes. He would let things move, because it seems nice that things are moving. Anno is actually very similar to Shinkai when it comes to impressing viewers with still images, or a few moving parts on a still back drop.

Part of the things that I like that about Anno is how he mixed those elements into the story in a more straight forward way. While Shinkai wants to demonstrate the character's mood and psyche with scenery: empty snow field, the shaking of the train, wide coloured sky with a gamut of colour, Anno also took the drawing ordinary life to tell a story. Anno is much more on your face. In the opening of the show, we are treated to a beautifully drawn scenery of an atypical summer. The angel glided in the sea while the tanks lining up, quietly waiting for the target while the seemingly bustling street, full of buildings, trains, squeaky clean yet devoid of life. In between that, there's sign of destruction and flooding. The message of the scene is very simple: the military is fighting some monster, some kind of destruction had taken place and the city is prepared for such military action. The scenery was simple, elegant and easy to understand. Shinkai tries to be too focus on his art and the character's mood that he forgot that he's an animator. Anno demonstrate what an animator is, by showing the battle scene, full of movement and interesting angles. Shinkai's failure to make his animated movies, animate, is his biggest crime. There's only one work where he flexed his animator muscles, but since it was poorly received, he left it at that. I digressed. One of the element in Anno's genius, is he incorporated the city buildings resurfaced after the angel's attack into a character's development moment. That was a beautifully drawn and expertly handled scene that I won't soon forget.

Not just that, of course. I have the fortune to see the TV version, un-altered a long time ago. The original release put much more emphasis on the explosion, scenery, battle rather than the characters, which led to speculate that Anno's focus was on the visual rather than the story. The direction of the action is fantastic, as I have mentioned a few examples; but I was also very impressed with how he handled angles. Anno's resume has one gigantic flaw: his Shin Godzilla. If you watch that movie, you probably would remember the action scenes and scenery much more than the characters. It is to be expected, as Anno's background in animation really shows his focus. The camera angles in that movie was just bizarre and difficult to concentrate. An advantage of animation that movies might have a difficult time with is the control over small elements. Animation can make objects pops by drawing it with stronger line, dull out the rest of the scenery, add more lights around the objects. Live action movies require years of working with lighting, camera and editing to achieve that. Why am I mentioning his biggest mistake? Because his greatest strength, strange angles in his works, don't work in real life, but in animation I would put them as unprecedented among his peers. One thing that helped with that, also, is the pacing. The actions are quick and impactful. Looking at 1995's shows, Gundam Wings, the quality of the animation is pretty decent, but the direction is poor in comparison to NGE. To me, until this day, there's still very few show that can match up to NGE's animation quality.

The reason why I'm banging on about the animation, really, is that everybody has been missing the point somewhat when it comes to NGE. Far too many of course got caught up in the show and invested emotionally into it. Those who don't, can't seem to comprehend the show greatness, because they are also getting caught up in arguing about the story. NGE's characters and story, is pretty top notch still.
I never look at Japanese animation, or animation in general, with respect, until NGE. Most of the 90s Japanese animations that we are familiar with: Cowboy Bebop, Utena, Lain, Blue Gender came out after NGE. I looked at NGE and them and I can't say they look like they came from the same decade, Cowboy Bebop not withstanding. Though, to me, the important part is Japanese animation became much more diverse after 1995. The classics movies aside, the TV shows showed their fangs, and to me NGE paved the way for more serious shows than Galactic Heroes or Gundam. All of that, though, I felt as if it came as an accident.
There are various symbolism in the show, the low hanging fruits like angels not withstanding, I do think Anno had a little bit of an idea around genesis, but he did put them in for cool factor rather than some kind of deep, subtle message about religion. To me, the triumph of the show came from something much more personal, which to be elevated it above things like Rahxephon. From the get go, Anno slapped us with Shinji's cowardice and the adults cruelty. They expressed regret and concerns occasionally, but when the chips fall, they showed themselves to be capable of dropping their mask and do whatever they deemed necessary. The development of the characters are just a treat to watch. The fun thing about NGE's cast is they are both well thought-out and at the same time, stereotypical. The 3 main characters are both archetype, but also a form of deconstruction of those archetype. Anno portrayed a shy, quiet mysterious girl as a homunculi while the aggressiveness of the red head is just a form of coping for her immense insecurity in herself. The main character who's the typical main character: reserved, vaguely naive is just that way because he was hurt as a child, yet sheltered and thus, wary of others. That is of course skipping the adults. All of them have some kind of personal reason to be, essentially, soldiers. It's not just sense of duty, all of them are powered by selfishness. This makes them feel extremely human. When I watched Rahxephon, I could not relate to any of the casts, which made it forgettable despite having a similar structure to NGE, which evolves from protecting humanity against those who came to reclaim their home, to people just struggling against themselves.
The symbolism is also a fun element of the show. These are frankly, decorations to the story. There are various elements surrounding the central conspiracy, including the symbolism and terms uttered randomly in exposition that no one really understand. That's really the intention. If we want to overlook the subtext of the events and focus on the action, we can. If we just want to look at the character's personal struggle, we can. If we want to dive deeper into SEELE, Spears, etc... We definitely can. Anno probably have a simple plot laid out in his head, but he obscured them just enough to make the viewers curious. That's such a great way to add spices into a mecha. I was reminded of how The Matrix was handled. The "brothers" were so far deep in their own ass, they forgot to entertain the audience and relished in their universe at the end of the series. Anno's central focus in the story was led by his own real life struggle. That coloured EoE so well. Though because this does not include EoE, I can't really comment too much on the story as a whole.

Despite the amazing visual, the appropriate story, one of the most memorable element to NGE that I can't forget is the sound and the damn music. Sagisu definitely cemented NGE's place in history by colouring the show with extremely beautiful music. Hedgehog's dilemma, Rei, Barefoot in the park etc.. I like all of the tracks. A great thing about the track is that they don't sound like background music. They all sound like a piece by themselves. That's a marking of a great score. Not only the music impressed my as a teen, I was shocked by the great sound from the movement of the Eva and the angel's power. Those sounds added to the terror the emanate from the mysterious angels. Despite that, I have to say, the rest of the sound effect have not aged that well. Some of the sounds still sound very 90s.

It would be remiss of me not to also discuss the result of the mid season melt down. While the sources varied wildly, when I was watching it as a child, I did not notice the changes taking place in episode 16. To me, the entire thing went wild in episode 14. I thought I put on the wrong tape at the time. I have a feeling that all of what Anno set up had already been planned before, and laid out very well. The experience between 12 and 22 is, to me, one nice flow from one thing that went wrong to the next. I can feel the series changing its tone, but it wasn't out of place. It feels like the first one-third of the series is Anno carefully placing the matches and from there, he just need to lit the first one. That's why Evangelion felt great, that's why so many people were invested in it. Nothing in it felt under-developed. The entire package just fits together. The shift from rather straight forward Mecha to a more intimate personal drama and what people calls "psychological" is perhaps remaining the best in the Japanese animation industry. If anything should be compared to it, it should puberty. Emotional maturity of the show itself progressed, rather than the characters, whom we might even consider to be regressing during the course of the show.

I think any Japanese animation fans should sit through NGE once in their life. For me, I think, every sitting of Eva is similar to how a devout man feels when he goes to pray. I just know I will have a good time, and I will be excited, no matter how many times I have been here. The show shaped me as a fan of the animation and as a person. If we need to look at impact of the show, it turned the industry from serving the toy makers into forcing the toy makers to make their product. I don't need to list the unintended consequences of NGE. Its success sparked a generation of both more serious creators given a chance, as well as studios cashing in on visual marketability. The Moe, harem genre were given its place in the market by NGE. Otaku culture also has its new symbol, following by more creative shows rather than just Gundam, Kamen Rider. It's an accident success, and the world is changed by that accident. While I don't think the remakes were nearly as good as the original series, I concede that Anno deserved to show case the world his vision, as technology finally caught up to it.

Additional discussion: In light of my recent completion of the series marathon, I have decided to add an additional section where I discuss what I like about Evangelion's character, what I think they were meant to represent, in contrast to the rebuild series where most of them were changed into something else, many of which I deemed inferior to their former self.

Shinji: I don't think Shinji needs much of an introduction. The memes about him getting in the robot is widespread in the animation community. I absolutely adore Shinji. He's the kind of protagonist I want coming back. The Skyrim's dragon quote always resonates well when it comes to fictional character. It is up to the author to decide whether or not a character should be introduced matured and have everything they need, or whether or not they should be extremely flawed and through the course of the story, grow into someone stronger. I think Anno referenced the entertainment industry tendency to go for the low hanging fruits. They want instant gratification, big sales number. Phenomenon that occurred since NGE introduction includes the rise of harem, the rise of revenge story, the rise of overpowered people coming back to school, the rise of Isekai etc... All of them basically gives the protagonist a heads up before they face any challenges, which makes them overcoming in rather quickly and, unfortunately, gratifyingly. That instant high soon subsides, making the viewer searching for another source immediately after. I can't think of anything more insidious than that for a series. As the series goes on, the author will have to add in more arbitrary and rising the stake for the protagonist. They all soon follow the same formula of story that gives them the most sales. In the face of all that, is one man. The wimpy, tragic Ikari Shinji. Shinji's lack of confidence is not there to be relatable, it's essential to the story. Many events would not have transcribed it not for Shinji's constant hesitation, cowering in fear, sulking at every turn. He thinks everyone hates him, as shown in the dialogues at 25 26 and EoE. This insecurity that sprouts from his father rejection of him, grows as the show progresses. He found himself on the receiving end of many injustices, but some of which were brought about by he, himself. It just so happens that Shinji is unable to deal with that fact in his face, and seeks escapism instead. This escapism thing is a theme for Shinji, and probably the entire point of the character or even the show. Anno makes frequent reference to escapism plaguing the Otaku fandom, including himself. The industry shifted from making products for children, into making products for grown adults with decent income, buying up toys and merchandises to indulge in their escapism rather than facing reality head on. I love this aspect of the show. It is more relevant than ever. Shinji's cassette player was also used to shut himself out of the world, a sort of defence mechanism, all too familiar with the so-called introverts. It was his father's, so Gendo is implied to just be another Shinji at his age. That being said, as pathetic as Shinji was. Throughout the shows, he, very often tries to overcome it in his own ways. Of course, all of them ended up backfired in some ways, which drove him into the depth of apathy at the end of the show. He was constantly showed the hands by those who cares for him. Misato, Kaji, Kaworu, even Rei and Asuka had seen themselves in him, and extended their hands directly or indirectly. The beauty of NGE was that none of those instances are obvious nor ended up well for the participants, for Shinji himself wasn't able to muster enough courage to break out of his shell. Even so, despite his own lingering self-hatred, fear of being abandoned remains, his friends and mentors words reached him and convince him not to go to the deep end. He appreciates his relationship with others, despite the pain he and they inflicts on him and others. This is shown mostly in EoE, so it's not very relevant to NGE, but to be frank, his character's act in NGE wasn't sufficient. We never see the consequence and weigh of his realisation, EoE provided that context. Many people drops the series because of Shinji's hesitation, but I think that's really missing the point. I am disappointed so many people do not have enough patience for a 14 years old boy being forced into strange circumstance.

Asuka: I talk about Asuka before Rei, because if I have to list NGE protagonist, I would have listed Shinji, Asuka and Misato in order of importance. Asuka changes the show, no doubt. Her appearance plunges the show into inevitable collision with tragedy. Like Shinji, Asuka is lonely, weak, and longing for intimacy and closeness. She's such a complex character that it just doesn't make sense to even includes Rei as her counterpart. Asuka is a different beast, so to say, to the tsundere stereotype. While many might have called her that, I think might be the one who codified all of the traits of modern tsundere. Unfortunately, like other things in Eva, this funny concept is the result of traumatic past, which makes her fragile inside. To combat that, she steeled herself, and focus on a her goal, to be the best in piloting. The contrast between her fiery display in battle and in conversation to her weak and meek self inside is just a joy to watch. Her character is so brokenly interesting, and immensely relatable. She's charge head on, but finds herself colliding with things at every turn. It slowly shatters her ego, until 22 completely broke her into pieces. Asuka's growth through the course of the series in the end do not come from her improving her self image, but ultimately coming from the reason why she got closer to Kaji and Shinji. She wanted a pillar to lean on, somewhere safe and protected, where she can feel at ease, to be the little clingy girl that she is. Unfortunately, it only came as she begged for her life. She realises that piloting the Eva makes her feel confident because it is where the presence of her mother is. She found her pillar at the very end in EoE. If we ignore that part, her collapse as an ace, confident pilot into a mess is just delightful. Most animated shows aren't comfortable showing this sort of storyline happening to a beloved character anymore. I remember the last one that makes me jolt a little was FMA dog or Yoko Taro's games. Before that, there were plenty, such as Berserk. She clearly deserves better, but her fall from grace was a matter of time. She can't always expect herself to be the best, and defeat her enemies all the time, especially when she desires gratification from others so much, she doesn't want to work together, nor appreciate her teammate in front of them. That display of toughness to hide the soft underbelly will eventually crush her. It's a good reminder for viewers that putting up a front is merely delaying your own fall. I think her complex relationship with Shinji, Kaji, Misato and Rei shines the most among the cast. It's not complex in the sense that it's hard to understand, it just has many layers. On the surface, she's attract to Shinji. However, that affection is more akin to lust, as Kaji seemingly got closer to Misato, Asuka felt she was losing a pillar in her life. Because of Kaji, Asuka was never able to fully be friendly with Misato, despite respecting her as a women and a commanding officer. She never open up to Misato, nor was Misato supporting Asuka personally when Asuka fell into her slump after a series of mental damage. Then, there's Rei, whom Asuka comes the closest to hate. She despises Rei because of Rei apparent lack of care for gratification, for praise, the complete opposite of her. She thinks Rei is a doll, because she don't act according to Asuka's ideal, which is the complete opposite of a doll. It is also layered on Asuka's mother obsession with doll and rejection of her. In a way, she sees the world as her mother, and Rei as the doll that her mother caress. That world even includes Shinji, whom she got mad at for keeping a close distance with the hated Rei in episode 22. She's a very tragic character. She tries to be positive, to find something positive to head to. Unfortunately, it just drives her towards the sun. She's the complete opposite of Shinji, despite their shared struggle. Shinji's inaction and Asuka's overreaction boiled into a climax at EoE, ending her act in the most brutal segment of the show. I think Asuka left the strongest impression amongst the cast, and she remains popular with the fans. For good reasons I'd say.

Misato: