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Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 321 Side B - The End of Evangelion

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2 comments posted
It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down....

"Komichi Warui" = morning sickness is something that I remember a lot of hardcore Evangelion fans hating back in the day, since it was all about the Evil English Production Company imposing their crazy theories onto...a fandom full of crazy theories.

But I cross that theory off my list because we never saw Shinji and Asuka have literal sex (though they are attracted to each other in a hideous, sad sorta way), and the idea that she's pregnant is a takeoff of the "Shinji and Asuka are Adam and Eve" theory, one of the few Evangelion theories that can be sort-of debunked, since Yui said that everyone can return to human form if they had the will to live, so that Shinji and Asuka won't be the only ones left.

That being said, I've wondered if Asuka's impetus for coming back was that she didn't want to be so "close" to the hearts and minds of the entire planet, since she's extremely misanthropic. Like I said, I don't picture her as a strong, powerful character. She just covers up her weakness with brashness, ego, and a love of fighting.

Speaking of screwing, I don't know if Rei and Shinji were meant to be having literal intercourse in that scene. Obviously the image of intercourse is invoked, with two bodies merging into each other, especially at the crotch, but I saw it as a metaphor for how Instrumentality resembles sexual intercourse or vice versa. The way Shinji takes Rei's hand in the human way, instead of the goopy-merged way, implies the same thing.

And yeah, Shinji going with Rei would be some kind of incest. At best she's his sister, at worst she's his mom. I feel like the series knows the creepiness and plays with the idea of Rei and Shinji becoming romantically involved.

Even if the ending isn't concrete, I still love the way this movie says that facing reality is the best way to live. It's so weird that many characterize Evangelion as bleak and hopeless when it's got that bit in it.

Pterobat's picture
Posted by Pterobat on 3 April, 2014 - 22:34
The End of Everything 4.44

Even if the ending isn't concrete, I still love the way this movie says that facing reality is the best way to live. It's so weird that many characterize Evangelion as bleak and hopeless when it's got that bit in it.

They never see the Big Picture do they?

I said was going to comment about this a few days ago but I had to be a slacker like usual (also doesn't help I have committed myself to revising a novel by a Danish author on the side for a possible monetary sum coming my way as well, didn't think freelancing was going to be my thing as well).

I remember very fondly how I got into this mess in the first place. It was probably 1999 or so, and having to watch nth gen copies of the TV series a friend sent me (though these were copied from the ADV subtitled tapes except the movies that were fansubbed at the time). After watching the entire series (which looking back, I kinda liked the TV ending personally despite how cheap it was) I was instructed to watch "Death" and then "EoE" (also to see "Rebirth" after all that, but by that point I simply couldn't). In the case of EoE, I'll say it does live up to the expectations the fans had wanted for all that time they had to wait for it, and it delivered. I'll agree with Jeremy's good thing about the film being open to interpretation. People always want that concrete closure to a story that isn't there but it is interesting to think of the many ways it could go out that hasn't been told at all. I do recall back in the fansub days the line was "I feel sick." and wondered if this had something to do with Asuka possibly having gone through an immaculate conception of some kind. I too probably thought of Shinji and Asuka stuck in this world as the Adam and Eve of a new super species waiting to be born. It looks back now but perhaps without a few hours, days or weeks it would all start to look like earth again somewhat, but that's simply how I had interpret my view of the ending anyway. Someone here already mentioned how those that had the will to live could return as well if that's the case, the movie simply ends of these two laying on the shore as we cut to the "owari" title card (though I recall the earlier Japanese video release didn't have the same end credit sequence seen on Manga Video's release). I suppose I would've liked to have known what else happens but as a famous children's book once said "And that's all there is, there isn't any more!"

That extended live-action sequence by the way focused on Asuka, Rei and Misato in a world that Shinji is not a part of (giving his God status at that point I suppose). Kinda reminded me of the ending to Ralph Bakshi's 1973 opus "Heavy Traffic" where we go through a mostly animated film to now have it be the real world of the main character eventually hooking up with his girlfriend in film (if only because I liked the sort of optimistic viewpoint it leaves out on somewhat even though I suppose that wasn't the point).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBs3VsNfdY

In the end, I never thought to watch the film a second time as I felt that was enough, and I never quite watched Eva the same way again simply because I knew how it played out. I hope the "rebuild" films did a better job patching this up a bit from the past, but I don't suppose that could change Shinji's outlook for the better (at least hearing of how the manga finished itself after 18 years, at least it's something, though it sounds like I favor Sadamoto's take on the story over Anno's). Looking back, the only character I ever found interesting was Misato and what she had to put up with. I could side with her the most than anyone else.

Chris@StudioToledo's picture
Posted by Chris@StudioToledo on 4 April, 2014 - 20:21