Neon Genesis Evangelion
People have been treating the arrival of Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix like the coming of the Third Impact, a reference I now understand because I spent all weekend watching the series and its follow-up movie.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a legendary series in anime and animation history, but one that has been notoriously hard to find and watch legally, hence why it showing up on Netflix is such a big deal. And it has allowed people like me who have never seen it to watch it for the very first time and like everyone else when it debuted almost 25 years ago, I have…thoughts.
My background in anime is light. I’ve seen the classic movies like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, I’ve watched a few modern anime series like One Punch Man and Attack on Titan. I grew up watching bits and pieces of Dragonball Z. One of my favorite shows of all time is Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I’m told that’s not “real” anime. So I’m no superfan, but not a complete noob to the genre either.
Overall I like Neon Genesis Evangelion quite a bit, despite the obvious failings of the series as it stumbles through a bizarre conclusion that pretty much had to be re-done Mass Effect 3 style after angry fans complained about the original ending.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The show revolves around a group of kids who are tasked with piloting giant robots to fight an onslaught of alien monsters that keep attacking Japan. The pilots are Shinji, the lead of the series who is plagued by crippling depression and anxiety after losing his mother and being emotionally abused by his father, Asuka, a German(?) girl who pilots Evas to show off and prove to herself and others she’s the best, and finally Rei, who is uh, kind of a shell of a person who does practically nothing the entire series until she becomes the most important character in the universe by the final few episodes.
Joining them as main cast members are Misato, Ritsuko and Ryoji, all connected to NERV, the secret organization that runs the Evas as humanity’s only line of defense against the alien invaders, the Angels. Misato is a borderline alcoholic who acts as house mom to Shinji and Asuka. Ritsuko is a brilliant scientist and Ryoji is Misato’s ex-boyfriend and chronic flirt.
True spoilers for the series will follow from here on out.
My first impression of Evangelion was that it felt like a show that I would have written as a twelve year-old boy, as it does come across as quite…horny. Shinji, shy introvert, is tasked with piloting a super cool giant robot while living with his hot teacher constantly walking around in towels and her underwear. His two co-pilots are also cute girls, one of whom he ends up living with too, and the other he shares a scene with where he goes to drop something off at her house, finds her getting out of the shower, trips and falls and lands on her naked body. Whoops!
Neon Genesis Evangelion
It’s all a bit goofy, but actually pretty creepy once you figure out that Shinji, Asuka and Rei, the latter two who are constantly sexualized, are eighth graders. You can say “ah well, that’s anime!” but that doesn’t make it feel especially great here in 2019 when a show full of frequently undressed junior high students probably wouldn’t survive two seconds on air.
But as the show continues through its 26 episode season, the more interesting it becomes. At first it feels like a monster of the week type deal where a new Angel shows up with a new power and the team has to find some new way to beat it. But eventually, the secrets start pouring out of the series, leaking from every seam. The Evas are not robots, but living organisms being contained by armor, not protected by it. This results in a spiral of revelations about everything from NERV to the nature of the Angels to original organisms Lilith and Adam which all adds up to a bunch of stuff I had to read on Wikipedia, because trying to process it all in the moment after one viewing is almost impossible.
The second half of the season gets strange not just because the plot gets weirder and the reveals are mind-blowing, but because it dives deep into the core themes of depression, abandonment, anxiety and loneliness that pervade the series and make it far less action-oriented than I was expecting. While this might be noble, the problem is that this desire to make Shinji eternally depressed and mopey outside of periodic explosions of rages, usually at his father, does not make him terribly compelling as a character. Rather, I much preferred Asuka who at least had a real personality throughout the series, and almost felt like the true lead of the show to me. Rei is just…not really even a person, literally, so I can’t really say she ever becomes a character, even if she does “evolve” by the end. Past Asuka, the only other character with much agency is Misato, but her relationship with Shinji weirded me out for the duration.
What, no, why
I can’t really comment on the changes that were made to the Netflix version of the show. I know that they’ve rewritten a few lines and removed the classic end credits song. There’s some sort of dust up about Kaworu, an Angel that appears in the form of a person and confesses his love to Shinji after he arrives, but in the translation, that has been changed to him saying he merely “likes” Shinji. Though I thought the attraction and affection between them was still pretty clear, so it’s not like that sexual subtext was lost. But I do ultimately think that entire thread was about Shinji finally feeling seen and loved in a more general sense, not like, he’s actually head over heels for this angel-boy-alien. But I digress.
The finale of the series has to be one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen. Reportedly the creator ran out of money, so he spends the final two episodes posting half-drawn clips and flashes of old footage attempting to craft some kind of final message about depression and love and humanity for 40 minutes straight. It…does not work, and if that had been the end of the series, I would have been mad too, like so many people were all those years ago.
The movie is a better ending, but still has its issues as it can’t resist being almost as batty as the original ending it’s attempting to replace. I cannot even begin to try to describe what happens because I can barely even comprehend it, but suffice to say this “robots versus aliens” storyline turns into something massive and cosmic and beautiful and terrible in its final moments.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
I understand why this is an iconic series. The animation is beautiful, the themes are relatable, and it’s definitely one of the better animated series I’ve ever seen, even if it has clear problems. I would indeed recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in sci-fi, but prepare for things to get…weird. Like weirder than you could ever possibly imagine.
I don’t know how to end this article so I’ll just
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Ah, I love being able to understand all the memes now.
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