NGE + EoE experience
Finished Eva rewatch and wanted to re-collect my thoughts. (spoilers ahead, obviously)
(bless Evageeks btw)
I like its characters a bit more now, context helps to notice the subtleties behind their actions.
-how Gendo is trying to not interact with Shinji, as he basically represents the despair of his relationship with Yui that he wants to forget but even his own child is forcing himself to hate him by blaming Gendo of killing Yui even when he himself was a witness of the opposite (although too little to be able to remember traumatic experiences) and thus it is impossible for him to bond with his own son or even try to put up a facade (and maybe even manipulate into submission) to calm Shinji, as it is not in his own deep nature, so he can only be strict from afar (he at least got an excuse ro make use of Shinji in his working place to not be too afar from him). He had a way to cope with that fact, by him somehow creating a child, Gendo’s and Yui’s ‘little angel’ (judging from their marriage card), after the death of his wife, for her to represent the idealized relationship with Yui and, at the same time, being a hope (as opposed to Shinji’s despair) of coming in terms with Yui’s death by serving as her replacement (by seeing how Yui is not accepting Rei, we can deduce that creation of Rei was not arranged with Yui and she is against it, especially when it's a way to escape from Shinji and not nurture him, so then Yui herself starts nurturing her son, when they achieved the perfect sync - not sure why did she accept Rei before though, maybe because Shinji was not being neglected by others at that time?), but he ends up merely forcing himself to care about her and not being able to truly connect as much as he did with Yui, someone who was an observant and thus a good judgement of character helped her to notice as a potential as a human being in Gendo (not in terms of morality, but in relationship and respect of the ones he values - he is not doing immortal things because he is forced to do them, but because he has reasons to do them, he won’t feel guilty about it. There is no ‘greater good’, he is just selfish), meanwhile when everyone else was judging negatively and were only looking at him on surface level - ironically, observation skills of Rei (inherited from the DNA of Yui) crushed the dreams of Gendo, as opposed to Yui. As he is unable to form a meaningful relationship with Rei, just like with everyone else, from emotional standpoint, so only thing he has left is to escape from reality by getting united with Yui through instrumentality, so he won’t care about the negative consequences of his actions (the reason morality exists) because it is part of the reality, not his dream. I would guess that Shinji, being a boy, was reminding him of himself that he hated and Rei, being a girl and a product of Yui's DNA alone(?), was only reminding him of Yui (so he would want to be reunited with Yui the more he was with Ayanami, hence the distance between them, even if he did care a bit about her).
-There is also Ritsuko on her death's door, while hearing the last words from Gendo, knowing logically that Gendo is lying, but deep inside, on an illogical level, believing in it and finally achieving what she wanted - to surpass her own mother at her own game, as her mother was merely an old hag at her own death's door. That was the best thing that could have happened to her existence (for some reason), as since the childhood she was neglected by her mother just because of the science and her interest to Gendo, so then Ritsuko had a not so bright idea - to force herself to not resemble her mother, from a logical/shallow perspective (like changing the hair color), but the human nature is illogical and she could not really run away from her own nature that she inherited from her mother, so irrationally she decided to surpass the mother in both of the departments, in science (although she was merely great at doing something that was already established, so she could not surpass in terms of innovation) and in romance, as that made her interested in Gendo, so as to be loved and valued by him (something that her mother could not accomplish). Not to mention how the validation from the person who is held in the highest regard by her mother is a very suitable replacement for her lack of affection. Not to mention her ‘revenge’ on Yui’s and Gendo’s children, Shinji and Ayanami, at the same time, in the scene of killing Rei’s copies, that made her feel good and how both this and her work force her to not value human lives much (if at all). Toxic much?
-The importance of rewatching to grasp the retrospective from the volcano episode - Misato irrationally demands more and more of NERV’s expedition team, at Asuka and Unit-02′s immense peril. We also have inverted atmospherics: extreme cold (Antartica) vs extreme hot (volcano at Mount Asama), and the threat of Impact looming precariously. In the beginning of Episode 21, Gendo and Kiel snidely chastise Dr. Katsuragi and his team for irrationally pursuing research in their subconscious desire to “dominate” nature and soothe their wounded egos.
-Yui’s departure from the planet may as well connect to the chronological start of the events - when some being (Adam) was found and it was labeled as something godly… it may have been manufactured to the point of everybody believing in it. Yui on her own does serve as some sort of a moral compass within the series, but she seems a bit too idealized to me and it is not like she was a paragon of virtue, but her existing flaws were not really addressed in a negative light.
-Irony of Asuka character arc, while she was sitting in her mecha for the last time, was her parallel to her own mother , as she got insane just like her mother did - the way her mother was treating the doll as if it was her own daughter, now her own daughter was treating her own ‘doll’ (eva) as if it was her own mother, so now that they were so matching to each other, their sync ratio skyrocketed (it is quite iffy how she was upholding that sync ration beforehand and how did they manage to retrieve the ‘soul’ from a dead body, but they did it and they could have only realized her irrational conscience, it would be even more questionable to regain her mother’s conscience to the point of rationality just by transferring her soul). At the end of the day, Asuka achieved exactly what she was faking before, she now is proud of herself, instead of hating it. By "at the end of the day" I mean at the end of her life, the time she wanted to not be able to live and to not have been born the least, of course.
At the final stages of the series, characters even get hardened, accepting their predicaments of not being able to support others in times of sadness without each one admitting so, thus my point of not everything about the characters being explicitly said and how everything needs to be connected by ourselves (or at least, could be) stands, there is no need for me to explain every other thing in-depth and will move on to other aspects (I will analyze other things there anyways).
but for a series focused and praised for its cast, they are still too similar to each other, with similar character dynamics and needs (carnal desires -> lack of love -> seek of validation -> depression, that failure brought -> running away from reality), while the backstories are quite edgy (Asuka’s mother hanging herself, Yui willingly ‘killing’ herself in front of her own child, Ritsuko’s mom choking little Ayanami and killing herself for reasons and so on and so forth) and narrow-minded for no apparent reason (characters too reliant on Gendo and his son, as if they were harem protagonists and somehow not be able to find different kinds of thing, because Anno for some reason thinks that human beings choose one thing and then they can't get away from it for the rest of their lives - it's just interesting to me, how can you be stuck on a thing for so long when you have not made a connection to that thing to begin with, thus lacking the attachment)... not to mention how literally all of them are unlikable - one could say that it's because of ‘muh writing’ but they will be the ones justifying Evangelion as realistic depiction of psyche and of course it is only realistic that likable people exist. Sure, character does not have to be incarnations of likability, but that does not mean that the whole cast should be unlikable, one of the reasons being that it is an addition in terms of flair and layers, at the very least.
Characters from the antagonistic factions are also quite pathetic, completely useless on their own and just selfish on the most superficial level imaginable (hyperbole btw) and do not really care about anything. They just randomly come up with excuses to delay the destruction of NERV but it's never really explained as to why these excuses were even needed for. They have not even done anything about the instrumentality, just served as plot devices to get rid of Asuka/Kaji and to have an address for characters to make anti-bureaucratic remarks, the superficial level socio-political commentary that anyone can shoehorn in his/her story. You could say that it connects to the themes of connection that breeds the apathy and violence, as they are the ones the most distant from our characters, from the people in general and are not attempting to connect to grounded characters, but that is exactly the reason their lives should have been fleshed-out (otherwise it just seems contradictory and hypocritical), to compensate for the fact that even plot is not trying to make them to connect.
3rd Impact was cool, even if I have no idea how Asuka gets revived (or how did they woke her up from her coma) and at this point I think the sole reason for Eva's lore's existence is to sound cool.
-Take the contrived existence of souls that conveniently allow memory transfer and what not
-how do people transform themselves into monoliths, why is there a scroll of future prediction and who and how the hell was it made
-why are angels coming to attack and why not and in such short in-between time and individually
-Illuminati organization that is manipulating nations behind the scenes for ages? Really? Isn't that too much of a caricature?
-Earth altering events have happened in the past, but it barely affects society and how the system works? Like, school is all the same
-Who the hell promoted Misato when in the exact previous scene she was stuck in an elevator?
-How did Eva and Shinji survive the self-destruction of the first angel, when they were already heavily damaged even without the drastic measure that is self-destruction? How did they even manage to freeze the Berserker, how does it act without being in sync with Shinji (whenever Ikari is outside the mecha), how did Shinji continue to exists without a body in frozen mecha and how can you take out someone when he doesn't even have a body?
-Why is no one taking notice of Shinji almost choking Asuka to death?
-How did Gendo overpower Ritsuko's hacking capabilities?
-Why is there a mechanically democratic system even mentioned, was that a joke?
-Why did not Gendo kick-start the instrumentality right away after the death of Kaworu? Like, he waited at least a day for Ayanami to go back to her apartment, wake up and come back, despite Gendo knowing that he would be attacked by SEELE and usually Ayanami is with Gendo, so why not now? Why was he even trying to get rid of Spear when it was virtually useless after the instrumentality had started and it magnetically arrived back on earth?
-Why did they not produce more mechas similar to 00 and try ‘Rei plugs’ in them, instead of 01? They conveniently produced two clones of Rei (one ‘original’, that which was probably placed as a soul of 00, I guess, and then the second Rei, to be able to pilot it), but then they conveniently could not have made more clones at the same time. But they did make plugs. And hostility of Rei (as in, 00) barely makes sense, considering she is nothing like the Rei II, who was in fact more social, so it would make sense if the recent one would have been vengeful/rebellious or whatever.
-Why is there a ghost Rei before and after instrumentality?
Well, you get the point, it is endless.
For comparison’s sake - if I were to focus on the faction I described above and took it seriously, their existence is absurd, the rabbit hole is taking me down to the hostile messages from Anno towards the America and Jews (them practicing Jewish ideas, while being presented as incompetent and fanatical, to the point of negating their own humanity) thus my immersion breaks and I stop caring about the whole ordeal, but if I were to stop thinking about the explanation of the unfocused faceless stuff, then the whole experience actually turns into fun supernatural illuminati experience that make my feelings confused and immerses me further. Well, I can't really dictate to myself, let alone everyone else, how to experience the things, unfortunately, so I missed the fun and described what caused it. Wish I did not have such a short attention span, though.
well, the plot is quite repetitive and I have grown to despise the whole faceless alien invasion structure, that which is limiting the story to stagnant character interactions. One could say that 'that is the point' (which was openly said in the story itself) but that does not make the story interesting to me - characters are mostly just breaking down and hardly ever commit anything (aside of the final episodes), when they could have done all sorts of things even without the connection, which is not required for the status quo to be changed, but everything always comes back to the same situation. It is also proclaimed in the series that humans are very much alike, so that too 'is a point' but when the story is also trying to highlight how upbringing and nurture affects how a person reacts to things - it comes off as contradiction, so the things should be more distinct. I guess it does not help that I am viewing the story not from the POV of a child from the 90s' Japan, as the social norms of Japan from back then are probably fitting to the story-line and the realistic depiction of that specific environment from the specific time should most definitely make the story compelling and should also allow the viewers to self-insert into the characters and then get scolded for running away from reality, nurturing them, as it would have been the exact thing they needed to experience and hear to stand on their own and fixed their own lives - but to me, it does not have much effect, as the with the march of time people get more and more cynical in shorter amount of time already and the room for exploration of present themes has been expanded, especially when whatever may be considered in Japan as a "worthy sin to warrant a harakiri" (sarcastic btw), it may be considered as pretty normal and tame in my country, ultimately rendering the characters as wimps. It is quite hard to decide according to what am I supposed to judge the quality of the art, but something is telling me that it is just a story and something that is supposed to be merely experienced, should not be judged with harsh rules and taken so seriously, so I want to be forgiving. Even then, It does not change the fact that I am reading fiction and do not find overly-grounded events to be interesting, especially when the grounded scenarios could also be quite visceral.
Does not help that these most of the episodes have problems with consistency - like, how they mention in the beginning that producing mechas cost a lot and yet never once did that have any pay-off. In terms of characters as well, Misato suddenly remembers that he is taking revenge for his dad and she is ready to sacrifice kids, Gendo suddenly praising Shinji and so on. Fans may want you to believe that Eva has primary focus on psyches of the characters, but that is a blatant lie for at least half of the episodes - characters are barely doing anything in the first half that would warrant so much time to be wasted and they are quite often fighting against the aliens, as they take a lot of screen time and we are supposed to get used to the characters in a light-hearted tone amidst the planetary threat. Problem is the fact, that none of these mecha fights are engaging and they do not even build the tension, considering how all of them are being defeated with not much consequences and with some childish ‘tactics’ (the very first alien attack being the most dangerous (and still overpowered by berserker Eva, rather than by Shinji, so it barely counts, as the plot won’t allow Shinji to lose) for some reason and next aliens being drastically easier to deal with) and hell, even characters are starting to not take the alien attacks seriously, throwing some comic relief here and there. Some vague intrigues are going behind-the-scenes, but they are not something that were not built-up in the second half anyways, hence rendering the first episode very close to being fillers. Not to mention how all of these mecha battles are lacking in flair and not really standing out from the mecha battles from other series’ from that time. Which brings as to another point - Evangelion is not that innovative as some people (who probably have not even watched any other old mecha series anyway) are trying to make it and takes A LOT of ideas from already existing works (such as Ideon, Nausicaa and so on). That is not a bad thing on its own, just saying that Eva does not have much pros in terms of creativity. Excuse about the lack of tension can be made - they were gradually "becoming" humane, or rather, showing by their presence the steps of how aliens started and finished turning into human race, but that is never explained and brings more and more questions (for instance, why are they attacking in such a programmed manner, why were they even changing and did not look the same, when they are from the same species and so on). Excuse about the filler-type first half can be made, you just have to see it as a set-up, that should not be judged as a self-contained part of the story, as it's interesting to go back to them and maybe theorize a bit from a retrospective point of view, even if they were not really interesting to watch on the first ride. Nonetheless, I was not engaged in the impending apocalypse, as it always felt like an exaggeration, considering the lack of tension I have mentioned above and how the all of the remaining inhabitants of the world not only were not fleshed-out, but they were not even shown as background characters, that part of the earth remained just as a supply source for mecha, so there really was not a reason to care about them, like it was in Eureka Seven, for example.
At least direction is top-notch - actions may be done sub-text, details hidden on the frame, unexplained but you will be able to connect the dots, color scheme is not messy and the flow is generally smooth and consistent at it, while the potential of animation is realized well in terms of fitting and distinct facial expressions, on top of having the voice actors that actually understand the characters and meanings behind their body language. All sorts of tricks are also being used, for example having a transition from one scene to another scene, in which character will finish the sentence that was started in the first one or just stand still, for us to have a hint of who was being referred to in the previous scene and so on. Although it's quite glaring just how much it relies on repetition of frames and perspectives, to the point of not being subtle anymore in terms of parallels and contrasts that have connected thread made by them, so they lose their novelty and is being rendered as overused, not to mention just how many still frames are there (one frame for 1 minute, with minimal movement, if at all - and they just have some voices on top), sometimes half of the episode may even be full of them. One could say that SOME of them (impossible for all of them) are trying to generate the tension of the situation, but the generation of tension can be achieved through subtle movements as well, so that comes off as a cop-out.
Sexuality is iffy. Mature people do fuck off-screen, but it is not being explored just how are they able to maintain such perfectly sexualized bodies amidst so much pressure and depression? Like, take Ritsuko - she is a genius level expert in at least ten different fields (that alone is stretching the suspension of disbelief beyond the mecha crafting) and she also just so happens to be one of the hottest characters in the medium. There are also more examples, such as having naked children blushing several times and so on - you could say that they were establishing Shinji's desire of Asuka and others, but establishment does not require the repetition, it happens once. So yeah, the director was not really allowed to go in-depth with this specific theme and ironically (and arguably) even rendered it as a fanservice, further reinforcing the similar designs and the shallow sexualization of characters. So it is just another 50/50 aspect EVA.
That brings me to the infamous hospital scene from EoE. I think this scene is pretty good only in terms of determining just how the viewers judge the art and get filtered accordingly - usually, the ones that are praising this scene and call it realistic are the ones that are only capable of dissecting and describing the emotional states of certain characters in certain situations and call it a day. These kinds of people do not tend to pay attention to the grand scheme of things, the placement of the situations and behavioral changes in the character and how naturally they go from one state to another. They even dare to call it a realistic depiction of specific states, while arrogantly self-inserting in characters that they were not supposed to, as they were not aimed towards them. But truthfully, it is merely a confusing scene, because it simply lacks information that would explain the changes in the behaviour of the main character and since when did him and Asuka have such kind of a relationship for him to ask her about the sexual help, especially when she is lying in a coma, ESPECIALLY when he was the one who put her in that coma (as revealed in the instrumentality), when in the recents scenes from the series he was talking to Asuka only with a dull face and disinterest, when going so far to announce to her Kaji’s death casually. In fact, he was feeling even more betrayed than before, thanks to Kaworu, felt guilty and refused the sexuality even from Misato. Shinji has never been characterized like that, he has never gone to ask someone for a helping hand while running away before. So where is the connection between his actions from before and what he did in the hospital? Only vague argument could be made from the scene when Asuka asked him to kiss, ‘out of boredom’, but the connection between these scenes were never made and what Shinji realized from that has never been explained or hinted at, because obviously Asuka disliked it. Shinji being lonely is not an excuse, as he has always been lonely and Kaworu’s incident is also iffy, considering he did not have a reaction that would imply that he was thrown into demented state, or was turned into animal or whatever. It is Shinji Ikari, he has never been defined by pro-activity and initiation of things, but the opposite.
I think it is also explaining itself way too often (whole episode 25 being the description of the character traits that were already shown and thus we were aware of it, so it did not really require 20 minute of focus. One could say that it was still unique, because the characters were facing themselves, but that can be achieved with shorter montage and without the sounds or without anything, considering we already know that instrumentality combines them and allows them to realize everything about everyone and hell, some of the cases barely even had pay-off. Although I do not really mind some bits of tell-don't-show, but as a replacement of a built-up plot, it is quite anti-climatic.
On top of having some uncalled for quotes about human nature and criticizing (or showing self-awareness? Irrelevant anyways) it at any given opportunity in an unnatural manner, as if we cannot see it by ourselves. Then comes the Third Impact, in which Anno goes beyond that and straight up puts the scenes from the real world. That’s not even over-the-top or anything, that’s just bullshit and shows just how much that guy wants to preach his ideas and understanding to us, basically nailing it as our own reality - “you may have not noticed, but I have been writing a super mega realistic story, hell, not even a story, you all are like this”. It is the most absolutely worst way of conveying a message - I myself will decide whether the story is realistic or not, just like every other viewer. Well what can I expect from a director who named his series 'a gospel'... Talk about the finale of the first series, I do think it's cheap when you give 26 episodes to the 'descent' of MC's psyche, melt him down and then you just change his mind with a few unfounded lines and wrap it up in five minutes, then stop at it. As in, I have no idea from where these lines came to Shinji when these stuff were not highlighted in the series and in the instrumentality itself and Shinji was told such things already before, but he remained in his state anyways. Point being, that merely telling him these stuff, without him experiencing them, won’t warrant anything to him. I will talk about this soon.
I really have no idea why it is labeled as 'hopeful' ending in such a distinct manner (usually while getting praised, emphasis is on the ending being hopeful, rather than anything else). Eva has always been hopeful, even SEELE said that there will always be hope in humans as soon as they exist. Point of the finale was that - hope will always remain as hope and humans will still keep repeating the same mistakes, even if they were to make up their minds about connecting to others. Shinji’s very first instinct was to sin (original sin, if you will) again. The way how people interact with each other won’t ever be changed. As someone else has already said “It's like discovering gravity. So what? What makes the difference whether we know gravity exists or not? Well, we know that there is a way to escape gravity. But that's just it. Shinji refuses to escape his human form for HIP. See? There is little difference when he learns about it. Things will continue to be the way they are.” Before Asuka’s arrival, Shinji did have time to think about himself and even after coming out of his ‘dream world’ instrumentality, he was locked up all alone in the cruel reality, quite literally alone, so Shinji’s identity in his own mind was the only existing identity of his in the world for a while (meaning that the concept of having yourself shaped just by how others view you did not physically exists, because there were none to shape Shinji and he was still keeping to live), but then Asuka arrived after some time and broke the loneliness of his and now the theme of being shaped by the views of others came to the reality. But Shinji was accepted despite being sinful, hence the ambivalence of love and hate. Everything is getting back to status quo, that which won’t ever be changed. Even if the ending was actually hopeful, that would be a contradiction to its presentation (which may or may not be backed up by how Rei/Kaworu describes itself, as if they were the presentation and proof of the change being possible) and it is beyond unreasonable to leave the story hanging at the start of the change - if you have a pretense about it being hopeful, then kindly just present how it is being achieved, I really do not care about highlighting the flaws and ‘what should be fixed’, everybody is aware of that anyway or will be aware without watching Evangelion, anyone can whine, but few can provide solution/resolution to these flaws. Evangelion is not a part of that few. If you do not want to do it, then just say that it's impossible and that humans are hopeless dreamers.
Despite the descriptions, I do appreciate the fact that some traits remained for viewers to pay attention to, by themselves. Like the cultural shift that was hinted in the series - Asuka was born in Japan, but she was raised in a different country (countries?), so her expectations in terms of human interactions and connections are different from that of Shinji’s who was raised in Japan. The difference between Asuka and how girls traditionally raised in Japan was conveyed through her relationship with Hikari, to make us understand just what kind of expectations did Shinji have, if someone were to fall in love with him, but Asuka was the opposite and she too expected and needed different kind of approach from Shinji, showcased from the scene of their first kiss. This very trait is what makes Asuka's alienation from others even worse - once she loses her only novelty, there won't be anyone left who will be able to relate to her and get attached. Her only hope was Shinji, but he could not understand the hints. Poor hints, but hints nonetheless.
Of course, Asuka telling something similar to Shinji in the instrumentality hints towards this exact dynamic and gives weight behind these words that were meant to bring epiphany to Shinji. My problem is the fact that instead of depicting just how Asuka was being raised in the other country in front of him, Shinji merely get to see the alternate universe instead - I doubt that such a scene would ‘cure’ someone out of their depression, if anything it would solidify it even more, because it is what could have been if the world was not about to get destroyed, so the option was not really up to Shinji here, so he was destined to suffering. They could have also showcased to Shinji the feelings of other characters towards Shinji instead, whatever they were hiding from him, being conscious of that or not and how he missed opportunities to connect with them in previous episodes, with their alternate ways - like how Asuka actually liked him and was giving him an opportunity and he was just oblivious and fucked it up. Instead he could have seen how everything would succeed in an alternate universe of Shinji having different expectations or whatever.
To conclude - One, the idea highlighted in the episode 26, someone’s mind and reality being shaped by others was loosely connected to the themes and messages in the series. It was merely hinted by Asuka’s nationality and not explored. It was the opposite of anything, roles, relationships and desires of oneself were the ones that were shaping identities in others’ eyes and characters were making their own dreams on their own to limit themselves and find comfort in them. Second, the show is almost exclusively centered on self-depreciation, rather on making Shinji to do/find something of value in himself first, otherwise one can’t simply come out of his depression if he hates himself. Finally, aside from encouraging characters to try to connect to each other even if you are aware that everyone is selfish (which saves the anime from being trash - considering Shinji admits that he still hates himself but that’s okay), Eva’s ideas are horseshit, it understands how to dig down deep, but not how to go back up. It's funny how the show presents solipsism as a trap, yet it also uses it as the way up, since it basically says that if you don't find value in yourself, it's because you think you have no value - basically saying, that it’s okay to not find value yourself, as soon as others’ will accept and find value in you and validate say, that which was presented and doomed in the series beforehand, so the cycle has not been broken. Shinji crying on the breast of Asuka frankly connects the end of the cycle to the start of the one, when at the start of the movie Ikari started masturbating on Asuka’s breast, in hopes of getting help. Too bad there is no instrumentality in the real life, for everyone to convince us to not seek approval from someone who does not want to be connected with us, but at least in the final scene of EoE, both Shinji and Asuka will try to connect to each other, so as the effort to not be one-sided this once, to give an illusion of it going well. ln form of caress and "disgusting" from Asuka, he got a confirmation - he was not living in a dream right now (him seeing Ayanami would have made him afraid of that) as Asuka was still looking down on him and whatever he saw/experienced in the instrumentality was not a fake dream in entirety, as whatever information he got from there, was true and close to reality, because Asuka really did care about him, despite not being able to properly communicate that before (and you know it is genuine and not a facade, when someone says that to you, while completely ignoring the fact that you are genuinely trying to kill her).
Talk about the cycle and how the ending gets connected back to the beginning - Just like how the first angel is being hopelessly attacked by militray, Asuka fights the military; 01's hand moving on its own; Ritsuko's first scene is her emerging from the pool, in the final scene she is falling in the pool; Asuka's debut scene being in the ocean, just like her last one; Rei's appearance in a ghostly for is her debut, just like her last one and so on.
All in all, Evangelion is about people craving for humanizing love, but settling on a mere objectifying love. Rei refused that and became 'a goddess', far from human, ironically. Eva is saying that we should first prioritize to inform others how to understand us, to understand people and then act according to it. Or else fiction will become reality, whenever we will fabricate the stories about others or about ourselves and separate us with a perpetually widening gap from others and leave us in an isolation. But it stays generally applicable in this message and does not really offer any examples as to how to try to understand someone else, while also talking about how impossible it is to understand others when we are not even able to understand ourselves, as it is not a matter of logic, hence starts the never-ending cycle of being perpetually trapped in hope and despair.
And to sum up my points regarding this series - I quite enjoyed the series, because of the merits I have listed above, but it does also have major issues for people that do put importance on such things and that which makes Evangelion the controversial piece of art, justified for people to both like it and despise it (even if you are a guy who prioritizes the writing and somehow believe that NGE has no flaws regarding the writing - you must admit to yourself that most of the universe does not care about the writing and the characters were not meant to be liked, so hating on the characters and thus the series is a very natural reaction and your personal understanding of the ‘writing’ and its importance does not have anything to do with that fact), as it is highly reliant on viewers’ ungodly high level of suspended disbelief regarding the supernatural elements that conflict with the pretense of realism and on viewers’ interpretation as well, that which is being made hard because of how vague the whole setting is.
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