They are the Adam and Eve of the new age.
Anime like "EVA" can be called an unprecedented practice and miracle in the animation industry. Before "EVA", I didn't know that anime, a type of film and television that was labeled as watched by teenagers, could reach such a high level. It's a masterpiece, as most people who have seen it have rated it.
I think the biggest success of EVA is that it completely abandons the evolutionary point of view and directly adopts the religious (Judaism) worldview. Even if technology develops to the point where it is today, God still exists. Technology is not the capital of human pride. During the prosperous period of scientific and technological development, all human beings will perish once again, leaving two new human beings who have awakened to create new human beings. world.
Despair and hope, death and new life.
Ayanami Rei, Ikari Shinji, and Asuka.
Number zero, number one, number two.
It seems that their respective fates are revealed in the setting from the very beginning of the story.
Ayanami's body was copied from Yui Ikari's DNA, and at the same time it was injected with Lilith's soul, so to a certain extent, she has a transcendent existence, and her soul is the soul of a god. She has no strong emotions, no joys and sorrows, no mortal material desires and lusts, and even said that she can't dream, has no subconscious, and even has no self. With the advancement of the story, gradually began to have a faint emotional line with Ikari Shinji. God gradually became self-conscious and learned to reject the demands of those who created him. She knows that even if she dies, there will be a substitute, and from this point of view, she seems to represent some kind of immortality. Therefore, she is an existence that precedes human beings, an incomplete human being, or it can be said that she is a god after human beings have abandoned their ego. In this regard, there are similarities with Buddhism.
The significance of No. 0 machine is that it (she) existed before the beginning of the new century, and it is the place where the new century ends and is created. Li is an existence between gods and human beings. Human beings are imperfect due to the fetters of various emotions, and Li can only have fetters because she has no emotions. But she will also slowly learn the feelings of the world and sacrifice herself for others.
Ikari Shinji is a different kind of anime protagonist, or a unique one. The protagonist who saves the world in any literary and artistic work often has his own halo and is often a righteous and upright look. But Shinji Ikari is so cowardly and cautious, always in a state of tension and self-denial, and even always afraid of others and of causing harm to others. Compared with the heroes who saved the world in the past, it is really humble. with the weak. But he is so real. It's like a little person living in everyone's subconscious.
Ikari Shinji represents the inherent insignificance, inferiority, and cowardice of human beings. Human power is inherently very small, and there is really no advantage compared with other creatures except for wisdom. But precisely because of technology, human power seems to have no boundaries at all. But technology will not only bring strength but also pain. Ikari Shinji does not fall into the power and violence shown by EVA, but avoids EVA, which reflects the fear of human beings for the development and expansion of science and technology. Will technology one day turn back on humanity? Maybe by the time we realize the answer, it's too late.
In the ending of the theatrical version, Shinji is masturbating in front of Asuka's hospital bed, which actually indicates that Shinji and Asuka will become Adam and Eve in the new century, and breed new human beings. At the end of the Human Completion Project, the last scene before Shinji's self-awareness awakens is with his mother. His mother's love gave him self-awareness. The same goes for Asuka. Mother's love, the most simple and noble emotion, gives people self-confidence and hope for survival. The birth of each person comes from the union of parents, and it also means that people are the product of breaking the barriers of the heart. And the No. 1 machine carries Ikari Yu's soul, so it can be said that Shinji is always under the protection of his mother.
At the end, Shinji strangled Asuka's neck abnormally, perhaps because of Shinji's sinful psychology due to doing bad things, or to vent his fears, or to test whether Asuka is really alive, or because of his self-awakening to the past. Cowardly resistance.
However, Shinji finally broke away from the group and survived without worrying about causing harm to others. As his mother said, even a person can live, although it is very lonely, as long as it is good to live.
And eternal existence is the proof of life.
Asuka's past experience is very similar to that of Shinji, but she has developed two completely different personalities. Their mothers all died before their eyes, and their mothers' souls were deposited in the EVA they were driving. Unlike the previous giant robots, EVA has both body and soul at the same time. The body of the first machine comes from Lilis, and the soul comes from Ikari Yui, the body of the second machine comes from Adam, and the soul comes from Asuka's mother. Therefore, at the last moment, Asuka felt the protection from her mother at the moment when she was at the lowest level, like falling to the bottom of the valley, so she woke up with confidence and courage.
Asuka, like Shinji, is an insecure person, because the loneliness since childhood made her must surpass others in everything and prove herself by this. Hence her arrogant, arrogant character. Like a porcupine with open thorns at any time, by threatening others to hide his inner vulnerability and avoid harm. As everyone knows, this result is both harmful to others and themselves.
In Asuka's last battle, "Aria on the G String" sounded. In the gloomy, religious redemptive cello sound, Asuka's gorgeous posture, bloody shots, and cruel pictures are full of the doomsday atmosphere. Asuka's brave and never-give-up vitality is like summer sunshine.
God's in his heaven, all rights with the world..
what God does not do, man does.
Since the world entered modern times, especially when technology developed rapidly, religion has always been criticized and regarded as backward. Even in the eyes of Marxists, religion has blinded people's hearts and is a tool for the ruling class to maintain its rule. Evil sin. But when we go back to the history of religion, we will find that religion has played a huge role in human society. Today, human beings seem to be superstitious about technology, and it seems that technology itself has become a new religion. However, technology itself cannot comfort people's hearts, nor can it change people's own flaws, nor eliminate the barriers between people, nor can they replace people's need for love. A true atheist must also be a pessimist. Because if matter is primary, then what else in this world is worth pursuing besides matter? And if a person always takes the pursuit of material things as the goal of life, his life will inevitably fall into the endless abyss of desire. At that time, where is the so-called happiness?
As it stands now, Chinese animation has never had a really thoughtful and good work. The use of animation as a teaching tool is really sad for the Chinese. Under the immature market rules of China, popular works are often unreal dreams. Where can there be ideas? Or, some people are afraid of thinking and dare not think. Then try to dream hard, sleeping is always better than facing the reality of the bloody forest.
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