Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone (2007)

It’s been a strange ride with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Initially, I had planned to watch it immediately after RahXephon but I didn’t have the funds then to purchase it. Even then I figured I probably wouldn’t like it. Lo and behold, five years later, I really loved NGE for the emotional impact it had on me which culminated in one of the most brilliantly animated spectacles, The End of Evangelion. Before I knew it, I was defending NGE on Tumblr, constantly questioning myself, WHO AM I?, and incapable of thinking about NGE without associating it with a milieu of Of Montreal songs.

My experience with NGE had a succinct end, at least until another viewing. I had thought it was the end. But deep down, I knew I was wrong. I had seen those pictures circulating about on the internet about a “Rebuild” of Evangelion. Curiosity claimed me. I mean, I could put full trust in Hideaki Anno. Certainly, Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone would be executed with the same level of emotional depth that the original series and film had been. Right?

The End of Evangelion (1997)

“The world wants to renew itself. There’s a smell of death in the air. Nothing can be born without first dying.” – Hermann Hesse, from Demian

So this is it, then. This is the end.

I have felt anticipation as equally as dread when concerning The End of Evangelion. This film is perhaps the most polarizing aspect of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise and reading thoughts of other viewers on it, one finds far too many harsh words for its creator Hideaki Anno. I was certain End was going to spoil the emotional cathartic effect NGE had on me with its essential message of eudaimonia. And so, as I sat in front of my screen with the disc in hand, I felt reticence. What would happen if I hated this movie?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to consider that option. I loved The End of Evangelion.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth

Don’t touch me. I have an AT field. If you touch me, you can never go back.

I was not expecting the “Death” portion of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth to be a complete recap of the previous episodes. Granted, there are a few newly animated scenes – the scene in which Rei smiles at Shinji is better for that fact, as previously, her smile appeared creepy and forced. Due to the nature of “Death” and the tease that is “Rebirth,” this will be more of a collection of thoughts than anything written out with any sense of organization, but then when do I ever consider organization? This is a long way of saying that there isn’t much that’s new here.

More Thoughts on Neon Genesis Evangelion

My decision to read everything I could on Neon Genesis Evangelion was perhaps not the wisest one. Now my brain feels as if it has been fried. The fact that I haven’t watched End of Evangelion yet complicates matters, as I’m not reading anything specifically about it. One important thing that did come out of this was that some of my first impressions on this show were made in haste. In particular, I should have paid more attention to episodes 21-23. I spent little to no time on Asuka’s meeting with Arael which is a shame.

But I can make up for it afterwards! These are all thoughts that I have had after watching NGE, as there is actually too much, I am discovering, in these episodes for me to cover them fully in one post.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 25-26

“Don’t you understand at all? I evade the consequences? I have no other desire than to pay and pay and pay for them, to lay my head beneath the axe and pay the penalty of annihilation.”
Hermann Hesse, from Steppenwolf

With Kaworu’s death, the death of the 17th Angel Tabris, comes the beginning of the end for Shinji, as he has done that which he believed was inconceivable: killed a being that he perceived to be human. And it is with this knowledge that he and everyone he knows is placed on trial for existence within his own mind. But here is when things start to become far too adamant in the realm of Hermann Hesse. I am reminded of Harry’s encounter with Hermine, who begs him to kill her at the end of Steppenwolf much in the same way that Kaworu asks Shinji to kill him. For Harry though, as Mozart implies, there is always a third option.

It seems as though there never was another option for Shinji. Everything was planned ahead of time. The Human Instrumentality Project was ongoing before he became a pilot, and was intended to be orchestrated through him (by Gendo at least. SEELE, who knows). In fact, it’s only when Kaworu is in his life that the option of freedom seems viable – Tabris being defined as the Angel of “free will.” However, Kaworu’s words reveal that the Angel deep within NERV is not Adam, the first Angel, but Lilith, from whom human beings were born as “Lilim.”

Kaworu was not the final Angel then. Humanity itself is next.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 24

. . . hissing fauna, are you the destroyer?

Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 21-23

Ah, very funny Neon Genesis Evangelion. Have the Angel abominations warp Asuka’s mind by blasting Ludwig van Beethoven’s fourth movement of Ode to Joy. Universal brotherhood for all! While we destroy your home and break your minds. (EDIT: Whoops, it’s Hallelujah, haha! Shows what I know.)

Either it’s ironic in use or the Angels really do want to communicate with the pilots. The twelfth Angel seemed curious as it questioned Shinji in the form of Shinji’s consciousness. Rei is also contacted by an Angel (doubling her, too), who questions her feelings and emotions. And, if we’re to count the EVA as well, both Shinji and Rei have communicated with their units.

It could only end disastrously when Asuka made contact.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 18-20

“Man’s greatest fear is the expansion of consciousness.”
-Henry Miller, from The Time of the Assassins: a study of Rimbaud

H.P. Lovecraft once said that the greatest and strongest fear mankind possesses is that of the unknown. But what do we define as the unknown? Is it nature? Is it the inner workings of our mental habitat? Henry Miller suggests that this “unknown” is a truth that only artists can tap into, and that they are doomed to live outside of society because of this knowledge. Arthur Rimbaud seemed to suggest that in order to tap into that “unknown”, one had to suffer. Greatly. Rimbaud’s line of thought is strangely in line with Buddhist philosophy – that you have to suffer to attain enlightenment (I use “Buddhist” in the general sense, there are many different types that vary on the theme at hand).

It’s becoming clear in Neon Genesis Evangelion that Shinji has to suffer in order to synchronize further with EVA unit 01. But the question is whether Gendo has always known this and specifically places his son in situations where he will suffer so that he may attain this spiritual awakening. Perhaps he really is looking out for his only child. Or he only wants to see an “awakened” EVA unit.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 15-17

“Something was taking place there, something like a very slow, smooth but continuous flowing or melting; indeed, something melted or poured across from my image to that of Leo’s. I perceived that my image was in the process of adding to and flowing into Leo’s, nourishing and strengthening it. It seemed that, in time, all the substance from one image would flow into the other and only one would remain: Leo. He must grow, I must disappear.”
-Hermann Hesse, from The Journey to the East

In RahXephon, by fighting the Dolems, Ayato is plunged into his dreams and fantasies. While this sounds like the idealistic counterpart to Neon Genesis Evangelion‘s Sea of Dirac, Ayato’s dreams are where his frustrations lie, whether they be of a creative or sexual nature. For Shinji, being plunged into his self means reliving all of his past failures and focusing on one traumatic memory. These are both variations on Hell, as the mind itself can be a place. A prison. But this is true in that our outlook, our mental well-being, is what directs us to move forward or backward.

Shinji, beginning to believe in himself, decides to move forward and communicate with his father. He is rewarded with the reminder that he is incapable of being a competent human being and that his father will always leave him. What is quite eerie though is this Angel that has swallowed him, this shadow, is observing Shinji. Could it be . . . curiosity?

If I seem like I’m preparing for a Jungian shadow, forgive me. It’s been on my mind now that I’m more than half-way through the series.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 12-14

There are two themes which seem to be of the utmost importance in Neon Genesis Evangelion: the connections that populate our lives, whether created or severed, and implanting a human mind into technology. God creates man in his image. Man creates technology in his image. This is probably due to the fact that we are incapable of not thinking like a human being and our technology then becomes an extension of that. But God is also a creation of man in that, whether you believe in this being or not, the personality that has been attributed to it is based upon the human qualities that we seek out in every living thing.

Our crux as a species though is that we expect everything to follow in an orderly manner. Though we are capable of understanding nature and technology, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we can control it – hubris, your name might be Gendo. Chaos and indifference are what rules in the universe, a chaos so amorphous that it is unfathomable to us. So we try to make technology and nature feel comfortable. We give them names. We believe they have personalities. And, possibly, we implant the minds of deceased loved ones into technology in the hope that their remains might exist physically somewhere, a ghost in the machine.

And we make the mistake of believing that we understand the mind in all of its complexity.