Neon Genesis Evangelion – 7 [A Human Work] – Throwback Thursday

Hello all to another week of Neon Genesis Evangelion! This week is much more light hearted than the last few, diving more into Misato and Shinji’s relationship. Meanwhile it seems something is a foot as a weapons test goes wrong. So without further ado, lets jump in! And stick around to the end, because I have some important questions about how you would like Throwback Thursday to run moving forward. Onwards!

Starting off, this week saw a bit more of Anno’s weirdness. As cuts come in some strange places, there is a lot of repeated footage and in general it just feels… different. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, as I can see what he was going for. The repeated morning segments do a fine job of setting the time frame of the episode and the pacing of it all. It also gives us a glimpse into Shinji/Misato’s life together, and what their general day to day is like. For those I suppose the question really becomes, are you invested in their life? If yes, then I think it informs a lot about where they are 7 episodes in. If not, then it’s a lot of repeated and wasted time. So suffice to say, I don’t have much a problem with it, but I can see the issue.

Getting into some detail on that, it was nice getting to see more of Shinji’s progress. For all the memes and jokes I have heard about Shinji “Get in the fucking robot” Ikari, I think Neon Genesis Evangelion is doing a good job with him. He has grown slowly and nicely throughout the 7 episodes we have had so far. Starting off as a closed off kid who doesn’t want to be there and has no agency. To now, where he has friends he is comfortable with. Where Shinji can joke and laugh and smile with them, sniping back at Misato in their apartment. I am actually looking forward to what Evangelion does with him moving forward. As it’s shown a willingness to let its lead develop, and there are still plenty more ways for him to grow as a character.

The only problem I personally have will all of this is that it doesn’t really fit the episodes greater narrative. What I mean by that is that Evangelion makes it difficult to tell which part I should be focusing on. Shinji and Misato’s relationship, or the more meta crisis of budgets and espionage. Because throughout the episode there is this underlying current about how no one likes NERV, no one wants to fund them etc. We see them placed at their own table alone, with no food and cheap drinks. We see them singled out and picked on at the party, and how much everyone wants to one up them. Yet interspersed throughout all of this is Shinji and Misato and it doesn’t really match up for me. Not this and not the greater finale of the episode either.

Here I am of course talking about the big ending of “She shows you a side no one else sees”. And while technically that is true, the problem is Misato showing this side since episode 1. There was never a point in Evangelion where I thought “Man, Misato has herself put together”. Where I thought she wasn’t a bit of a wild card. This is because from the moment she first meets Shinji she is showing how she acts. From the moment she brings him into her apartment, he sees the beer and how she lives. So this idea that she trusts Shinji and is showing him a side no one else sees just rings hollow to me. Especially when the more serious side isn’t even really a front. As a character, she is legitimately serious about NERV. So I found Evangelion to fall a bit short here.

Going back to the more meta plot about budgets and stuff that Evangelion tried to weave Misato/Shinji’s story into. Here Evangelion almost seems to be trying to make us distrust Gendo and Ritsuko. Basically having them sabotage a government program to ensure their own program gets more funding. Organizing a whole elaborate scheme to just wreck the competition, their only issue being not anticipating Misato. I’ll be honest, it’s sort of convoluted in my eyes, because they already have a really strong argument for themselves. Supposedly these are the first Angels they have seen in years/decades. 3 in as many months it seems, and their EVA units were the only things to get the job done. That’s proof in the pudding that no one can contest, and it feels like they could have hammered that home instead of corporate espionage.

However because of all of this we did learn a bit more about Evangelion’s world. As it appears that Japan is not alone, but rather the whole NERV program is part of the EU. With a whole new unit and pilot arriving from Germany soon to help support them. We also learn that Angels are seen in more places than just Japan, this is just where our focus is. It was a nice, slow bit of worldbuilding that I think did fit in with the more meta story. It was a good way to show us just how important NERV is and how much Gendo is willing to do to keep it going. Even diving in to some issues with Government bureaucracy and such. As I said though I just don’t think Evangelion really meshes it all together well this week.

So, when all is said and done, how was Neon Genesis Evangelion this week? For the most, fine. Some teething problems with how the 2 parallel stories are relevant to each other, but it worked fine enough. I am definitely still interested in where the series is going, it just had a bit of a hump. Moving on though, it is here I have a question for you all: Are these Throwback Thursday posts to slow? I ask because I realized it will be Summer before we finish this at this rate. And that seems a long time. So I have a bit of a poll I would like you all to fill out, that I will announce the results of next week. All it does is decide if you want me to binge it all and write the final review, speed up these weekly posts pace, or keep course.

Thanks for reading, for filling out the poll, and I will see you next week!