Probably not the right thing to do to write a review of Evangelion (NGE + EoE) in 2021, given the time since its release and all the (very well documented) follow-ups, alternate versions and general discussion around it. I have however just done a quite full-bodied rewatch a few years after my first and just want to record some thoughts.
For clarity, I watched some version of Neon Genesis Evangelion (probably the platinum edition) and End of Evangelion (zx.end.of.evangelion.renewal.v3) about 5 years ago (2016) and felt very unsatisfied with it overall. A lot of unclear elements, lots of questions unanswered and a shitload of very vague actions and messages at the end. This actually made me write out my thoughts on a story (voluntarily) for the very first time [copied out below, for reference] and it's clear from that that I was frustrated. I tried to find an explanation for what (I thought) I had missed in the series/movie but all the videos and blog posts explaining the plot started with "In the beginning, the first ancestral race created moons and spears", which just pissed me off more because it was stuff that the series/movie either barely covered or didn't even mention - I wasn't missing anything, the answers were simply not presented.
So I then tried to find an explanation of how to understand Evangelion, rather than just an explanation of the plot, so I could at least have all the available pieces of the puzzle. I struggled to find that, which really put me off trying to understand it and I left it alone for ages. This all pretty much affirmed my requirements and preferences for what I like in a show (evidenced by the 'about' section of this blog).
Anyway, with the final rebuild movie being released this year, I decided it was time to finally just sort this out. So I posted on the evangelion subreddit, asking what exactly I needed watch/read/listen to etc. to finally understand this thing myself. The replies basically confirmed what I already suspected: this story does not all tie together in a neat little, easy-to-understand bow, so I should stop expecting it to. The main practical takeaways however were that evageeks will explain the 'how' and that this explanation would complicate things further, because it's debatable still what material should be considered canon. The most prominent bit of material, however, is the Classified Information. So I recapped NGE by watching Death (True)2, read all the Classified Information translations, then rewatched End of Evangelion. Here are my final thoughts on the lot:
Thoughts
So my overall thought is that this thing is not a masterpiece, in my very humble opinion. Everything up until Third Impact is actually quite well constructed. I say quite well, because it isn't perfect: even supplementing with knowledge from the Classified Information (CI), some mechanics of the story don't completely add up. For example, why would contact between Adam and Lilith result in Third Impact? Why did Seele and NERV need to wait until the last angel to implement the Human Instrumentality project? These might be as simple to solve as "it's in the Dead Sea Scrolls" but that's the annoying thing - they're easily resolved, yet the series doesn't easily resolve them. Anyway, like I said, stuff makes sense up until this point; the Human Instrumentality Project, Gendo's secret plan, why it has to be kids and what happened to everyone's mums. This mostly comes from reading the CI, which was very satisfying to read, but this stuff should be explained well enough on screen to not need the CI (which is my first very solid, very strong, unchanged criticism). It does makes basic sense, though. After Third Impact, however, it's just a mess of symbolic, metaphoric crap.
Having metaphors and meaning is cool but it has to coincide with a solid plot. The whole Third impact bases little parts in what you know but the rest is just completely random. What even happens? Does Shinji end up making decisions about humanity's entire existence? Like, his inner lack of faith (or just confusion) basically dooms humanity for all eternity. Is that divinity? Why is Shinji there at the end? Why is Asuka (who just died a normal death, pre-LCL-soup) there? Why he strangles her is a human story and I'm more than happy for that to be left a bit open but they literally wrote that that happens and animated it and recorded her response, so clearly there was a reason for it - so give us some explanation at least! Same goes for why Rei suddenly develops a personality and starts making her own decisions. And why make Gendo have an unspoken line? It's like they actually just wanted frustration and dissatisfaction. Also, what was the point of showing a theatre full of people? Made no sense. I thought all the internal stuff going on in Shinji's mind was interesting but didn't really do much for me. That would have been fine but then they have this weird, bizarre conversations like the one with Rei and Kaworu and it just leads to nothing but more vagueness and confusion.
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| Had to add this, because it's just so painfully ironic. Yes mate, we all hate things being left vague! Assuming this is an accurate translation on Netflix, yeah I feel you, Shinji. |
One thing that I really notice now, that I would've maybe not even thought of 5 years ago is all the unnecessary sexualisation. Firstly, it's obviously mainly on female characters but more importantly, it's on a bunch of kids. As I'll do my best to never get tired of saying: sexulising something is a cheap, lazy storytelling mechanic that adds little to no substance to a situation or relationship. They need to stop doing it so damn much.
What should not go without saying is how phenomenally beautiful the art and animation of Evangelion are. Asuka's fights in EoE are weighty, substantial and just straight up aweseome. If you watched them in isolation with no other information, I reckon you'd have a great time. Same goes for almost everything in the series; it really does not feel like a single shortcut was taken in animation and the artwork and design of characters, machinery, backgrounds, effects etc. were just phenomenal. Not sure how much importance the symbolism and stuff in the art design had (and maybe I'll look into it one day) but it looked cool and I'll give it marks for that.
The series (obviously) also gets full marks for the way it subverts the tropes of the genre and explores the psyche of its characters. How has Shinji's life affected who he is today? How does that show up in the way he acts? Just seeing someone react in a different way to what you're expecting is always really interesting but to make the character somehow a complete extreme yet totally relatable is amazing. His self worth and cowardice overshadows what he thinks is right and that's annoying, even infuriating, to watch on screen but it's still understandable. That's one of the best things about Evangelion.
The overall conclusion has to be that for all its positives, in itself, Evangelion is not worth watching. If you just want entertatinment, there's no way it's worth your time watching 26 (or 24) episodes of a series and a 90-minute movie to not fully understand their story. There is no viewing order I can recommend that would give someone new to all this a full enough understanding to enjoy this work and keep them entertained the entire time. If you factor in the time spent snooping around the internet to get that full undserstanding, Evangelion just becomes less and less rewarding the further you go. For me personally, I'm glad I've seen it and tried to make sense of it for two reasons: 1. understanding a staple and classic of the medium and what made it so impactful, and 2. further refining my understanding of story and my own personal preference. That second point is very specific and personal to me, so the only reason I would recommend even dipping a toe into Evangelion is the first point - it's a very important work and anyone involved with creating stories for film and TV absolutely should watch it.
As I went through this rewatch, I considered re-writing a sort of skeleton of a story for Evangelion, so that it answers all of the original unanswered questions using the CI throughout the series. Thought that would be useful for me as a writing exercise, in case I ever want to write, as well as just helping me straighten out my undertanding of the whole thing. But I realised that that too is just more effort than it's worth. Evangelion isn't about a clear, straight story - it's literally about how much it changed from its original conception, it's about Hideaki Anno's depression, it's about the nature of humanity and how we relate to one another. Rewriting the story would be pointless because then all you would have is a timeline. Nothing entertaining at all. (Plus that already exists in various forms.) So I'm not going to try to force any more lessons out of this than it needs; the show is more stardust than substance and that's okay and it's an unquestionable masterpiece from a visual perspective but not a plot/storytelling perspective. So accept that and move on.
And watch the rebuilds.
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As I read the CI, I tried to lay out the important information in a clear way, just for my own benefit. The end result isn't really that clear but for future reference, here it is: CI Notes
This also has one or two comments from myself.
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Here, I've just copied and pasted my notes from the first time I completed NGE and EoE (dated 06/07/2016):
What I Think Happened in End of Evangelion
And its implications
So, second impact was instigated by humans – presumably by SEELE – following first impact, where they first discovered Adam and Lilith. They were somehow able to predict how many angels were coming, knowing that the human race was also one of the angels. They created the Evas from mothers of newborn children and only their children could pilot them and at age 14 for some reason. Rei is also born from Shinji’s mum somehow, but she’s also like the 150th attempt at making the perfect clone of whatever she is. The human instrumentality project was intended to merge all souls into one in order to find the next form of existence for human beings, because they are all too flawed and imperfect. As the host Eva for the third impact, Unit 01 and Shinji were left with deciding the fate of human beings based on Shinji’s will to live and keep the human race going, but he is a little bitch. He just about pulls through in the end, but realises humans will never be perfect and takes them to a new reality, in which everyone is one glob. He then learns that if he has the will to live, he can. He then chooses to live on (possibly to save the rest of humanity). He is left in this lonely pane of existence with his thoughts and he hates Asuka or that he never understood her but he definitely hates himself.
Shinji’s dad also wanted to somehow have Rei do some shit to him that would make him move on to the afterlife differently to everyone else, and I presume this was against the wishes of SEELE and alike, which is why Ritsuko wanted to stop him as well. Also, something to do with Ritsuko’s mum selling her out. Gendo seems to have slept with everybody’s mothers and could quite possibly be everyone’s dad himself. I presume he was tasked with this great responsibility by SEELE. Also, NERV is like his own company that works with SEELE, but they all hate him and want to cut him off or kill him at the first opportunity. T
