in my conversations with people regarding evangelion’s anti-semitism, initially they’ll have no idea what i’m talking about only to be horrified and bewildered by how far its reach extends in this show. it’s good practice to be aware/cognizant of certain recycled narratives that nearly always indicate nazi-ism.
it’s impossible to extricate evangelion from the anti-semitism it trafficks in - we have keel lorenz, whose name is an unclever amalgamation of a categorically jewish first name and the surname of the infamous nazi doctor anno named him after, who heads a shadowy, undercover cabal whose influence precedes governments, military, and even alien beings (sound familiar?) much of NGE borrows from the protocols of the elders of zion: seele exploits and is guided by the dead sea scrolls, an ancient jewish text, while simultaneously carrying out apocalyptic charges against unsuspecting innocents. the imagery linked to them by association - the hebrew tree of life, or the judeo-masonic eyes, are borrowed from kabbalahistic myth and tradition.
the stereotypic hooked noses. i wonder where they found this trope.
there is the strange, curious trend on part of anti-semites to insist many nazis were secretly jewish themselves, or otherwise approximate-to-jewry in some form or fashion (think of the obsession with tracing hitler to remote jewish ancestry). one only has to search “keel the wandering jew” to get a glimpse. there is of course, no shortage in characters who are 1) nazi jews or 2) jews influenced by nazis in anti-semitic media. anno clearly drew MUCH inspiration from this canon of thought, and made no effort to hide its influence on him.
evangelion is not a deconstruction of the mecha genre
evangelion is not a deconstruction of the mecha genre
evangelion is not a deconstruction of the mecha genre
everybody now
eva doesn’t deconstruct anything - deconstruction is a very specific approach to literary analysis with the intent of exposing semiotic contradictions within a genre - it doesn’t mean what western dudebros think it means (i.e: “dark and edgy storytelling”). space runaway ideon (1980) and gundam (1979) are both mecha shows that trade heavily on psychoanalysis, and anno Geek’d The Fuck Out on these shows (along with mazinger z, getter robo, ultraman, + many others) and wanted to pay his ultimate respects through evangelion. evangelion was paying homage to the mecha genre: anno didn’t reveal any ~hidden irreconcilable contradictions within it, he loved it and wanted to include his own OCs in the mix. (the ending of ideon and evangelion? exactly. the. same.) anno himself is a self-proclaimed otaku, and holds otaku sentiment to high regard. eva isn’t even genre-critical, it’s genre-exploratory
Original Series Evangelion: Because they're off-putting and bizarre monstrosities in armored plating cloned from a creature from a species we do not entirely understand. If anything they're more respected than liked.
Rebuild of Evangelion: IT JUMPS! IT CAN FLY! SUPER STRENGTH!! CLICK CLACK DOWN THE TRACK IT'S AN EVANGELION!!!!!
Evangelion is like a puzzle, you know. Any person can see it and give his/her own answer. In other words, we’re offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his/her own world. We will never offer the answers, even in the theatrical version. As for many Evangelion viewers, they may expect us to provide the ‘all-about Eva’ manuals, but there is no such thing. Don’t expect to get answers by someone. Don’t expect to be catered to all the time. We all have to find our own answers.
How do you feel about relating to the NGE characters? Some people say that they relate to Shinji, for example. I don't see any problem about others saying that, but I... He lost his mom, his dad abandoned him, he has to save the world etc. I kind of feel like saying that I relate to him or his loneliness would diminish his suffering, because his circumstances are much worse than whatever I experienced? I know that's not the point, I know we're supposed to sympathize and connect, but...
… That’s the thing with fantasy/sci-fi, if the characters - almost everyone in NGE - have suffered due to many occasions they had no control of, I can’t just brush them off as metaphors for the human condition. It may make me worse, actually, like, those characters suffer more than I ever would and I’m still so fucked-up. Of course, they’re fictional characters, but you always find RL people with more complicated lives who seem to have dealt with it better than you with your privileged life.
I think this really needs to be said on that matter: You don’t need to be a carbon copy of a character to relate to a character.
That being said, there’s a lot about Shinji which makes him relatable as well as any of the Evangelion characters. I’ve already gone over his awful relationship with his father (awful is an understatement), whose interactions honestly are a good example of emotional abuse. He’s hardly selfless, his go-to way to solve his problems is by running away from them. He’s a character who desires validation and it’ll do for anyone (sincerity isn’t even considered). He’s still making sense of the world, slowly trudging onward, and being that he’s roughly midway though adolescence, of course he (and other characters) is going to have a trove of misguided ideas.
Some people find Asuka relatable. Considering she puts on the idea of independence to mask her massive insecurities (and traumatizing childhood), I think she’s pretty relatable. This is especially because she received no closure about her mother before EoE comes around. When she recovers from her lowest point, her will to love reignites, and when she receives closure, she’s able to grow more as an individual.
Some people even relate to Rei, and considering her identity is forced upon her and not really given any exploration of it, I think she’s pretty damn relatable as the others. I mean, you don’t have to achieve actualized deityhood to find Rei relatable. You don’t need to have the ability to travel through time and space (Quantum Rei) to find her arc about stifled identity exploration something that hits close to home.
It’s these struggles, personalities, and choices which make people in real life bond with these sorts of characters. It’s a big reason why people have an emotional bond with those types of people.
Most people have gone through these things and relating to a character isn’t trivializing their struggles.
I mean, this are just small examples, but part of what makes Eva so good is that any character is relatable because of how real they are. I also don’t really ascribe to the idea that Eva is of the human condition, considering the AT Field encompasses both humans and angels, both literally as well as metaphorically.
