Another week, another episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, possibly the last one before the site move. A nice dash for finality, I think. As this week Evangelion continues to explore Shinji’s mental state, what living in this world is like, and a dash of exposition. Lets dive in!
Starting off, this was the first episode of Evangelion to not wow me. Don’t get me wrong, it looked fine, but compared to the first two it was pretty static. For instance we saw the general 90’s explosions of simple circles overlaid onto the object itself. Or the same repeating image of the Angel in the fight at the end. Flashing back and forth as the characters count down. Or Shinji’s face during it all, with heavy red filters and such. I understand the attempt, what it was going for there, but for me it felt almost… overdone? At least when combined with the screaming and other noises going on at the time. Still, its not like it was bad, there is still a good amount of direction and decent cuts going on here. It just feels like all the good cuts will be limited to the Eva is all.
Getting into the actual meat of the episode, this weeks big focus is Shinji. Almost the entire thing can be taken as an examination of his screwed up mental state. From his almost robotic training sessions, to how he is treated in school. And while there are a lot of things to read into, what I got was this: No one sees the real Shinji. Ritsuko, the Doctor, and the people at NERV just see a tool, a weapon. So that is what he becomes, pulling the trigger without emotion. At school the kids see the surface level EVA pilot, fighting the Angels. Popular or hated because of his job. Yet through all of this, no one is seeing or asking about Shinji. About the real him, and how he feels about all of this. Most likely, no one has ever cared, considering his father.
That is to say, no one has seen the real him until now. As this week two kids from Shinji’s school finally got to see him, those being Toji and Kensuke. Unlike those in the control room, they had a front row seat to Shinji’s little episode. This one moment that, to me, is Shinji finally acting out. Just letting all the frustration that has built up from his life/relationship with his father, work, with life in general, out. Of course, Evangelion makes it clear, this isn’t a healthy way to deal with these kinds of things. He has ended both of the fights pretty screwed up. Hopefully however, this can be the start of him opening up a bit. As we saw Toji and Kensuke concerned for him at the end. Even thinking to call and check up on him, possibly the start of Shinji’s first real friendships.
Speaking of Toji and Kensuke, Evangelion also continued to show us the human cost of it all this week. From the empty classrooms, bundled all together for one lesson, to Toji himself. Angry about what happened to his sister, angry as Shinji for not being better. Only really understanding how hard it all is once he sees it himself up close. Evangelion even showed us the battle itself from their perspective. Once again hammering home the scale of it all, by placing them between the EVA units fingers on the mountain. I liked this stuff a good bit and I hope we get more of it. Let them be reoccurring characters, who connect us to the day to day mundane side of this conflict. Because it sure as hell won’t be Shinji and Rei doing that.
Since she came up, as far as Rei goes, I was a bit disappointed. I assumed this would be the episode Evangelion finally, truly, introduces her. After all we have heard of and seen her a few times up to now, and I know she is a major character. Even my ignorance can’t save me from that. But so far she has had maybe 3 lines, and a couple of still shots. I suppose you could say its character building, showing she is standoffish and quiet and such. However I don’t see why they couldn’t make that more involved. This isn’t a big issue of course, Evangelion gave me plenty of other things to enjoy this week. I am just hoping we start actually meeting her soon. Because while he is the main character, Shinji is a bit of a debby downer most of the time.
Finally the last thing I want to touch on this week is the mystery of the EVA unit. Evangelion is going out of its way to try and set this up, so its only fair we take a look. We saw it last week with the eye, and it appeared again this week in the hand. These disturbingly human like body parts, almost as if the EVA unit weren’t a robot at all. More like some kind of living creature being controlled by the tube Shinji is in. Perhaps a captured Angel of some kind, or perhaps its just Shinji’s own deteriorating mental state attributing his own body onto that of the robot. After all he sure appears to feel everything the EVA unit feels. This mystery is probably the most intriguing part of Evangelion for me at the moment, both for the story implications and the philosphy.
So, all in all, how was Evangelion this week? While not as strong as the first two, it still kept my interest all the way through. We got some interesting world building this week with the meteor and the polar ice caps. Almost making me think this is meant as a message against global warming or something. Meanwhile Evangelion continues to show us the human cost of it all, and takes a dive into Shinji’s head. My central concern at this point in the series is Shinji himself. I fear that I won’t be able to put up with his whining throughout the entire series. So while demanding immediate change is unreasonable in a well made character arc, I would hope we start to see *some* kind of progress. Whether it be someone confronting him on it, or he himself seeing the issue.
I suppose we will have to see next week though. Hope to see you there to!
