Evangelion #26: Don't Look Back In Anger
Elizabeth HL Horn
graffiti, and a collection of the words of cult or sect leaders. "The
Instrumentality of Man Project" was nothing but a brainwashing. I have
a good suggestion for those who read this script. Replace the
name "Shinji" with "GAINAX", and replace "Eva" or "piloting Eva" with
"the making of Evangelion", and the resultant script will completely
make sense. Now that it is obvious that the making of Evangelion
itself has been the excuse to make Evangelion, after all."
--Kentaro Onizuka, March 29, 1996
"I don't know what the result will be...because the story has not yet
ended in my mind. I don't know what will become of Shinji or Misato,
or where they will go. This is because I don't know what the staff
will be thinking as we go on. I feel that this is also
irresponsible...But it is also natural, given that we are striving for
a synchronization of ourselves and the world of the story. At the
present, this is the only theory I can use to create, despite the risk
of being 'derivative'. That is the only place where our 'original'
exists, after all..."
--Hideaki Anno, July 10, 1995
How curious that EVANGELION should indeed do what it promised, and
mutate into something completely unexpected. The introduction to
episode 26 tells us that although the transformation of the human race
is under way, we will concentrate on how it worked for just one human,
Ikari Shinji; no Angels, no Evas, no ancient Hebrew prophecies, just
Shinji and the people around him, who are now people *inside* him as
well. EVA's animation unravels in this episode, like a curtain ripping
out its own weave. And just before you get to see why, it snaps back
into full animation: in a sequence with curious motives that portrays
EVANGELION had it been written like, well, a standard high-school
anime, with Asuka kicking Shinji out of bed, oblivious parents Gendou
and Yui with their morning coffee and paper, late Rei with toast in
mouth slamming into Shinji, all the boys (including Shinji) drooling
over their teacher, Misato.
Then we go back to see the last shreds of the curtain fall away; we
see Anno's stage directions, his script, Tokyo-3 as a Toho model
Shinji stands above; yes, this is not only the post-NADIA Gainax, but
the post-OTAKU NO VIDEO Gainax as well. What Anno is saying here about
how his own happiness and Gainax's sense of themselves relates to
Shinji's final, personal conclusion is something that, I think, is
going to be debated for a while to come. And it remains to be seen how
the Japanese public, who have been fairly supportive of this unusual
show, will react to the last twist, the ultimate self-consciousness of
EVA's ending (I am reminded again of the parallel with THE PRISONER).
Will they go all the way with EVA to another Grand Prix? I understand
they've at least got a shot at it. Episode #26's Japanese title is
'The Beast That Shouted 'I' At The Heart Of The World." Like Gainax
themselves, that title has many meanings. Their audacity is really
something with EVA, the way it was with HONNEAMISE--I can understand
how people can be pissed off at both. But if it wasn't, if they
weren't that type, Anno and Yamaga would have done the sensible thing
and stayed at Artland, on the industry's hottest show, MACROSS, and
worked their way up the ladder. Instead they went back to Osaka to
make 8mm films about fat guys on mopeds fighting evil.
The ending of EVANGELION is kind of funny, but I think, perhaps, I
understand the sound of their laughter now. It comes not from your
feet down to the dirt, but from a place you climbed to, where you can
see the land stretched wide below. Some men are humbled here, but
Gainax is wiser than this; the vast spaces of the world are great only
when there are eyes to see them as such. If the otaku is a fragile
fool on the summit, so he was on the ground, staring up out mountains
he thought he could never climb. It's those who stay beneath who have
missed the point. So don't look back in anger that we were fooled
about this show; it's a laugh somewhere above mocking.
I was told I wouldn't believe the ending of the show, and they were
right; it pulled a pratfall on me. But it's no use saying the set-up
for the joke was all for nothing--Gainax always knew the anime and SF
they obsess on such detail with was fiction, a phony, a construct. The
ending makes spluttering about the Angels and the Evas sound a little
bit like objecting that Gainax's beloved THUNDERBIRDS are puppets
pulled by wires. They knew that already. I just didn't expect them to
come out and say it so explicitly. Oh, and they fooled us on the
opening credits, too; the final shot in the show isn't the last image
in the opening credits. It's the second-to-last.
Congratulations!
--Carl "There can be only one place, Tanaka" Horn
Geoffrey Scott
I have just seen the first episode of Evangelion, and I was pretty
impressed. I didn't think it was the best thing since sliced bread, but
I enjoyed it. This ending to Episode #26, in that it was all a joke,
sounds pitiful. HOWEVER, I suspect (due to date of the post, April 2), that
this POST is a joke, and, if so, nice job. :)
Geo
Donny CHAN
g...@magnolia.pe.net (Geoffrey Scott) wrote:
]Uh....
]
]I have just seen the first episode of Evangelion, and I was pretty
]impressed. I didn't think it was the best thing since sliced bread, but
]I enjoyed it. This ending to Episode #26, in that it was all a joke,
Sounds like you weren't discouraged by the slowness in the first episodes
of Eva. Good. Watch more episodes. The plot is stranger than you may
think.
Don "Asuka = Quess" Chan
"I'm just waiting for my breakfast!" - Yuuki Akira, VF2
Donny CHAN
Elizabeth HL Horn
Donny CHAN <crs...@inforamp.net> wrote:
>In article <4k5f10$k...@magnolia.pe.net>,
> g...@magnolia.pe.net (Geoffrey Scott) wrote:
>]Uh....
>]
>]I have just seen the first episode of Evangelion, and I was pretty
>]impressed. I didn't think it was the best thing since sliced bread, but
>]I enjoyed it. This ending to Episode #26, in that it was all a joke,
>
Not a "joke," since I believe that Anno, based on his statements
before the series came out, ended the series true to his premises. "It
was all a stage play" would be a better term.
That doesn't mean that I didn't find the ending shocking, nor that the
circumstances behind it ar open to debate. Even Anno feels that way
now, I believe.
--Carl "What the world needs now is teen angst" Horn
Kentaro ONIZUKA
>That doesn't mean that I didn't find the ending shocking, nor that the
>circumstances behind it ar open to debate. Even Anno feels that way
>now, I believe.
From what he said in Radio Talk Show with Hayashibara Megumi, he is
planning to release LD/VTs which is different from what was aired.
So, GAINAX is going to remake ...
Kentaro ONIZUKA
William Geiger
>Not a "joke," since I believe that Anno, based on his statements
>before the series came out, ended the series true to his premises. "It
>was all a stage play" would be a better term.
In other words....
PSYCHE!!!!!!
Seperated at birth?
Hikaru-Chan:"Happy! Happy! Lucky! Lucky!"
Stimpy-kun:"Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!"
Elizabeth HL Horn
I would love to see a picture of Hayashibara with the new, skinhead
Anno.
--Carl "The bingo, the Lotto, you know I'll never win those" Horn
NoDUI
I had the very distinct pleasure of watching all of Neon Genesis
Evangelion from start to finish,
all 26+ episodes, in Japanese, with the original, and very funny
commericals, without
understanding a bloody word of it.
And I can say something very important, from my semi-enlightened
viewpoint(I say semi-
enlightened because I know, vaguely, the plot, but no details).
GAINAX was trying to tell their own version of THE PRISONER.
No fooling, folks. Both are stories of how mutable reality is, and just
how capricious the
"forces above" can be. Of course, this is a very loose analogy(and
possibly more
innacurate than accurate), but it's the nearest thing that I can come up
to that's of even remote
comparison.
Neon Genesis Evangelion started out as basically the stereotypical "Giant
Robot" tale. It
then evolved into a morality fable of the interactions of angels and men.
Eventually, and
excuse my language, it became a mind-fuck. Not just for Shinji(sp), but
for us. Our minds
were so entrenched in the classical ending of a "Giant Robot" series that
when the final
episodes rolled around, we were literally slapped in the face. Don't
blush, we were all
fooled.
Or maybe not. Maybe that ending, of the entire story being a stage play
is merely an
analogy. Maybe Tokyo-3 is the stage for the Angels of GAINAX to play
their little tale.
And GAINAX is the stage for other angels to play their stories upon. Or
perhaps it was
all a test of the nature of humanity to reconginze that, eventually, we
are merely players
upon the stage of Destiny. We sing, we dance, we read our lines, and we
live upon our
own stage while others watch and exist on their own stage. Just some of
us have larger
roles to play.
(Tho this might bring up an very interesting point-all of "God"'s
inspriations on Earth might
be some heckler yelling on stage about our poor acting! No relgious
insult intended....)
And thus Evangelion ends. I honestly hope that if they redo the end
episodes, it's to
increase the power of the "slap in the face" ending. It would be a shame
if it was done
any other way.
Jon Souza
Jon....@Creature.Com
No...@AOL.Com
.SIG deleted because I'm trying to argue with the director