Text｜Mr. Tambourine
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" (hereinafter referred to as "EVA") is a masterpiece in Japan's Heisei era - inheriting the speculations of previous works such as "Akira" on the reality of Japanese society and traumatic memory, and creating a new era for future generations. Introduced the Japanese genre element of "Mecha and Boy".
In fact, although this phenomenal work is an animation, because of its bold and direct pictures, it is extremely unfriendly to children, which has also become a childhood nightmare for many viewers (including the author).
On the other hand, the serious and profound core of this masterpiece is tightly wrapped by the types of elements such as mecha monsters, boys and girls, and it becomes obscure and difficult to understand, which also hinders the audience's understanding and cognition of it to a certain extent.
old world with two endings
"EVA" has two worlds, old and new for various reasons - the TV version with all 26 episodes and the old theatrical versions "Death and Rebirth" and "Air: For You" together form the end of the old world; the new world is a restart version, Including four new theatrical versions of "Preface", "Broken", "Q" and an unfinished work. The old world has two endings, namely the 25th and 26th episodes of the TV version and the old theatrical version "Sincerely For You".
The last two episodes of the TV version were criticized for being rough and crude due to insufficient funds, and then the old theatrical version was released to rewrite the ending. In my opinion, the shoddy ending of the TV version is actually part of the old world ending, that is, the TV version ending is part of "Air: For You", which is more profound and complex on the basis of the former. And "Death and New Life" is actually a re-edit of the first 24 episodes of the TV version, which disrupts the timeline, and friends who haven't seen the first 24 episodes may not be able to understand it.
This article will focus on the analysis of the old world "Death and Rebirth" and "Air: For You". The work "EVA" is very "magical", because a large number of worldview structures are derived by the audience through clues and only a few words and brains. Require.
I'm going to summarize here what I think is more reliable before the whole work timeline -
This is a creation myth. The chaotic earth grew a tree of life, which brought life, and finally gave birth to the first apostle "Adam" and the second apostle "Lilith", and their "forbidden union" gave birth to the remaining sixteen apostle. These apostles obtained the fruit of life and thus had a huge body, while the eighteenth apostle obtained the only fruit of wisdom, with wisdom but scattered into countless small bodies, which is human.
But this combination caused the "wrath of the gods" to trigger the Great Flood, the first shock that wiped out the vast majority of humanity and put the apostles into a deep sleep. Human wise men wrote the "Dead Sea Documents", which recorded the past and predicted the future. According to the unearthed Dead Sea documents, a group of old people established an organization called SEELE and formulated a "human completion plan", which is also a "script". The purpose of the SEELE script is to defeat the apostles and cause shocks, to obtain the completion of evolution and completion of human beings.
As the chief commander of SEELE's subordinate executive agency NERV, he secretly rebelled against SEELE and took Adam and Lilith for himself.
In 2000 AD, the expedition came to the South Pole and found Adam and Lilith, but they separated the two and caused an explosion, the second shock. Separating the two did not exterminate humans, but completely changed the Earth's climate, deflected its axis, completely melted the South Pole, killed half the population, and awakened the Apostles.
The awakened apostles needed time to accumulate energy, and Adam and Lilith were subdued separately. This was placed in the headquarters of the underground NERV spy organization in the third new Tokyo, a fortress city specially built to resist the arrival of the apostles. Dead Sea documents record that there will be another shock in the future, and all life will return to the tree of life.
Since the impact is unavoidable, it will kill all life, then all the apostles will compete for Adam, the source of life, in order to obtain new life forms and evolution in the impact.
In fact, his wife Wei did not really die. In the synchronous experiment of the EVA used to fight against the apostles, that is, the artificial human universal robot, he took the initiative to combine himself with the first EVA machine, the body dissipated, but the soul remained in the first number Inside the plane, she hopes to one day protect her children from the shock.
The first machine is a key prop that caused the shock, it is a replica of Lilith. The zero machine is a replica of Adam, and all subsequent models are Adam replicas. As a replica of the apostle, without the S2 mechanism, that is, the red fruit of life, the EVA cannot be driven without a soul, so Wei's approach is also a key step in completing the EVA.
Unit 0, which is the first experiment, is driven by Ling Bo Li, a clone who has been infused with part of Wei's soul. Unit 1 and Unit 2 both have souls. The reason why the pilots are teenagers is that they are bodies. The descendants of the inner soul master, so that they can synchronize, drive the body, and fight against the apostles.
In 2015, the apostles came, and the above is the background of the story when the first episode of EVA happened.
three women
The whole story unfolds with the experience and mental journey of the young man Ikari Shinji, and also deeply depicts the three women who are close in his life - Asuka, Katsuragi Misato and Ling Bori. The relationship between these three and Shinji is quite ambiguous, but it is not only ambiguous.
These three female characters correspond to the three major psychological structures of Shinji's personality: id, ego and superego. Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" also showcases the "three mes" of tabloid journalist Marcello through various women.
Asuka, who is excellent and strong on the outside, sensitive and fragile on the inside, such a girl is actually the personification of Shinji's self. The difference between her and Shinji is that Shinji is weak on the outside and on the inside, and such a teenager has to drive the invincible No. 1 machine, just as Asuka has to use an exaggerated and mean attitude to get along with others.
Shinji believes that he is useless and has to rely on EVA to confirm his existence, just like Asuka wants to be in the limelight everywhere to prove his worth.
Asuka and Shinji are the same kind of people. Their morbid fragility, wandering between reality and nothingness, may be the common psychological characteristics of young Japanese in the Heisei era. "Showa Man, Heisei Abandoned House", experienced the bloody foreign aggression war during the Showa period, and ended the war with the terrifying atomic bomb.
After the humiliating history of being occupied by the U.S. military, the rapid economic development as a "normal country", and the utopian vision of the student movement, which finally turned into the disillusionment of the ideal of terrorist acts, young people in their adult years retreated one after another. Go to your own small world, build a high wall between yourself and the outside world, no longer pour blood for ideology, no longer fight for the country, society, and ideals.
This so-called "high wall" is directly abstracted as "AT force field" in "EVA", also known as "the wall of the heart".
Katsuragi Misato is the head of operations of the NERV headquarters. She is an outgoing, firm, strong executive, and independent single woman. She has obtained the custody of Shinji and is called a paternalistic role. Misato is the projection of Shinji's self. Miri witnessed the second impact firsthand in Antarctica as a child and survived as the only survivor of the expedition.
In "EVA", the impact is the symbol of the atomic bomb, and they are equally terrifying in terms of destructive power, and they all emit a dazzling white light when they occur, so Miri is the survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. After four years of psychological stress disorder, she successfully overcomes traumatic memories and becomes a strong woman.
Misato is like a "Showa boy" after the war. Although she has a terrible past, she is diligent in her work and has a direction in life. She is a mature and normal person in society, so Misato is her self after overcoming her weak self. .
Ling Bo Li is a taciturn clone. Because she has part of Lilith's soul, she has become a key prop to trigger shocks, but in the process of interacting with people, she gradually becomes self-aware and is unwilling to be an obedience. A tool for Commander Yu Ikari.
For Shinji, she always guides Shinji who has repeatedly escaped and returned to his identity at critical moments. Shinji drives the reluctant EVA again and again because of her, and in the final shock, Lilith appears in her image and guides him. Shinji completed the impact and completed the completion of the soul. Ling Bori is Shinji's superego.
It is not difficult to understand that the ego acts as the intermediary between the id and the superego, and as the management driver Misato Katsuragi. (Shinji, Asuka, and Ling Bo Li are all pilots) There is an interesting plot, because Shinji expressed his dissatisfaction with his father, Commander Ikari, and was slapped by Ling Bo Li. Ling Bo Li has the appearance and part of the soul of Shinji's mother. This plot is more like the mother's anger because her children don't understand her husband, and Shinji obviously likes Ling Bo Li, so Shinji has a clear tendency to love his mother and his father.
For a person, overcoming the "Oedipus complex" is a sign of maturity.
In the alternate appearance of the apostles, there are two apostles who want to echo each other, which is an important node in Shinji's growth - the thirteenth apostle Ariel and the seventeenth apostle Free Angel, namely the boy named Nagisa Kaoru. Ariel Angel is parasitic on the third unit, and the third unit is Shinji's classmate Reihara Toji.
Toji was trapped in Unit 3, and Shinji knew this, so he refused to fight the out-of-control Unit 3. As a result, Commander Ikari personally ordered the "puppet system" of Unit 1 to be turned on, dismembering Unit 3 and combining it with one another. Let Shinji watch the insertion pin with Toji inside crushed, which can be understood as the father forcing Shinji to kill Toji.
In some primitive tribes, minors need to go through some kind of violent ritual to become adults accepted by tribe members. Toji is the human sacrifice that was placed on the altar in Shinji's growth ceremony. Toji beat up Shinji, a transfer student, in his previous campus life, and when he repented, he hoped that Shinji would beat himself up too, but the weak Shinji refused.
Shinji refuses to use violence and completely loses his aggression and aggression. There is no way to grow into a mature person, because no matter how much you whitewash the reality, you can't cover up the cruel background of the world. You can refuse violence, but you must not lose it and change it. capacity for violence. Shinji's father gave his weak son a bloody growth lesson, but the soul of Shinji's mother in the first machine kept silent and acquiesced to the ceremony (the first machine always showed a conscious side at the juncture of crisis) .
It was because of this lesson that Shinji was able to kill the apostle Nagisa Kaoru, who appeared in human form and as a friend. Although he suffered a lot in his heart, he finally made the most sensible decision.
The three women and the two people who were killed by Shinji personally contributed to Shinji's growth in different ways, but he didn't really grow up until the final third shock, completing the "completion" of his soul.
death and new life
As I mentioned earlier, the story of "EVA" is based on the creation myth, not to mention the various religious symbols that are directly used. The entire plot and setting revolving around the impact are about the atomic bomb. religious imagination. In the finale, the long-established "Human Completion Project" ushered in the final step, which triggered the third shock, and this shock was carefully choreographed and the steps were clear, like a sacred religious ceremony.
Japan is the only country that has experienced the atomic bomb, and it has experienced it twice. Perhaps it was director Hideaki Anno who saw in the atomic bomb a creed that can be religious, a power that can be worshipped.
This is not the first of its kind. In "Akira" directed by Otomo Keyang, it depicts a group of fanatics who believe in the god "Akira", and the little boy "Akira" is a nuclear weapon and atomic energy. symbol.
The atomic bomb exploded, and along with the dazzling white light, there were flames caused by high temperature. The primal symbol of pure fire symbolizes both destruction and destruction, as well as evolution and rebirth.
Then the atomic explosion also has such duality. In the white light and the flame, the atomic explosion itself becomes complicated.
"EVA" deconstructs this complex atomic explosion and turns it into a complicated religious ceremony. The whole story is a path. Ultimately leads to shock, leads to death and new life.
There are two institutions that need to be analyzed separately. SEELE is a secret organization with Speaker Kelu at the core, and has single-handedly planned the "Human Complementation Project". From the name alone, SEELE means "soul" in German, and the entire organization also intends to trigger a shock and return to the state of the soul, so as to achieve the evolution of life and pure freedom. They firmly believe in the "Dead Sea Instrument" and use it as a blueprint. Make a plan, be convinced that mankind is doomed and believe that only by obeying the will of God can you "believe in salvation".
NERV under the leadership of Ikari Yuandu, whose name means "nerve" in English, is marked by a fig leaf surrounded by a sentence: "God's in his heaven, All right with the world." Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit After that, the first thing I did was to cover my shame with the fig leaves on the tree, so the fig leaves became a symbol of original sin, and the original sin that was originally despised was actually used as a symbol; this sentence comes from the British poet Robert Browning, which means " Those who don’t do it, think it.” This is a blatant challenge to the authority of God. Combining these two points, it can be seen that NERV is an organization whose purpose is the supremacy of reason and the omnipotence of science, attempting to play God as a human being.
Commander Ikari also hopes to satisfy his own selfish desires through his cleverness and see his deceased wife again, thus secretly resisting SEELE. As the executive body of SEELE, NERV is born out of SEELE, just as science is born out of religion; the confrontation between SEELE and NERV is exactly the confrontation between science and faith.
However, in this vision of "playing God", the importance of God is unintentionally re-emphasized. In fact, man can neither become God nor play God, and blasphemy against God can only lead to God's revenge.
EVA is officially a symbol of human arrogance. It is a replica of the apostles and is driven by people to fight against the apostles. Their shoulders and backs are not equipped with armor but restraints that limit the ability of EVA, which is like the deceleration material in nuclear weapons.
In the human offensive and defensive battle of the NERV headquarters, for the members of NERV, who have always fought against the apostles, they finally faced the last apostle-human beings. Faced with the "big killer" such as EVA, SEELE is by no means. The idle generation dispatched nine mass-produced EVAs at a time to "execute" the first and second machines respectively. Asuka finally overcame her inner regret in the second unit, and started killing all the mass-produced models at one time, but was finally sealed by the flying gun of Longinus, and the entire second unit was resurrected. Mass-produced food.
The first machine, which rose to rescue the second machine, was also sealed by the gun of Longinus. The mass-produced EVA also bit the open wings of the first machine, and its hands were also branded with "stigmata". Longinus is the name of the centurion who stabbed the crucified Christ with a gun. Christ's hands and hands were also nailed to the cross. These are all signs of suffering.
In "EVA", the No. 1 machine is not regarded as Christ, but the symbol of human arrogance EVA suffers from the pain and wrath of God. In the end, No. 1 machine drifted in the universe as the object of God's punishment, and disappeared after the impact. human beings once existed.
The so-called "completion plan for human beings" is precisely to eliminate the "wall of the heart" between everyone, to eliminate estrangement and alienation, to achieve absolute understanding and trust between everyone, and to achieve absolute freedom and happiness for human beings. . Then only through such a destructive force as the shock can people return to the state of the soul, back to the pre-human era.
All forms of life turned into orange liquid LCL because they lost the "AR position", and their souls returned to the egg of Lilith. The sea of LCL is the pristine ocean on the original earth, and the waves washed the new century Adam and Eve: Ikari Shinji and Asuka on the shore.
In the shock, Lilith, the soul of Shinji's mother, Yui, and the soul of Ling Bo Rei, who produced self-awareness, mixed into one, guiding Shinji to fill his heart and complete his personal coming-of-age ceremony.
In the past, Shinji always avoided his own responsibilities. Because of his own blood rather than driving the No. 1 aircraft, the responsibility was put on others, and it was regarded as something that others demanded of him. In the shock, he finally realized that as long as he exists as a human being, he will inevitably shoulder various responsibilities, and inevitably a "heart wall" will inevitably arise. It is impossible to reach absolute understanding between people, and it is impossible to find Absolute freedom and happiness, barring a return to pre-human times.
"Don't evade responsibility" sounds very old-fashioned, but behind it is a profound understanding-human beings have great limitations, although they are full of wisdom compared to other species, they are still fragile and insignificant. What human beings can do Only by fulfilling many innate missions given by God and accepting their own limitations, the incurable anxiety of modern people can only be overcome through their own efforts.
In "Sincerely For You", the most shocking scene is that in this 2D animation, the picture taken by the camera was directly used. The camera directly faces the empty theater, instantly pulling the audience in front of the screen to the same position as Shinji, followed by various modern Japanese street scenes, three people dressed as Asuka, Katsuragi Miri, and Ling Bo Li respectively. The back stood on the crowded street, and finally returned to the theater full of audiences.
These are all meant to refer to the audience itself, the audience is suddenly watched without warning, the world of "EVA" is based on reality, everyone is Shinji, and it is difficult to balance the id and superego with the self, and it is difficult to survive in the modern city. Are the hardships of life only present in modern times, or has it always been like this?
In the final analysis, Anno Hideaki is full of hope. After experiencing the "Last Judgment", although "Adam and Eve" were expelled from the "Garden of Eden", the existence of "Adam and Eve" in the world is the harbinger of the "new century", and human beings are originally pursued by human beings It's just that people forgot about it for a long time.
Author | Mr. Tambourine
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