What are everyone's thoughts, feelings, opinions about both the old and new Evangelion series?
4.0 SPOILERS
I thought the rebuild ending was more depressing than EoE, partly because when given the power to create LITERALLY ANYTHING, Shinji goes ahead and creates a copy of THIS WORLD (evidenced by the use of a live action shot in the end), where he will live as a capitalist salaryman with his literal waifu.
At least in EoE everyone could choose to come out of instrumentality by themselves to create a new world, thus leaving everything ambiguous.
Pure ideology, Mark Fisher is vindicated yet again.
They also couldn't go 5 MINUTES without showing some 14 year old girl ass....
I strongly disagree with this interpretation of the original Evangelion series having such a didactic message towards the audience. Such a message would require us to view the characters of Evangelion through the traditional "hero/villain, good/evil" moralistic lens, which I think takes away much of the nuance and humanity within the show. In applying such a message, we graft the archetype of the Shounen Protagonist onto Shinji and seeing how he fails to live up to this ideal instead of seeing the utter horror of the situation he is in within "realistic" terms. Furthermore, if we were to interpret a message from Evangelion, it would probably be more of self-compassion/self-love exactly due to this rejection of the Shounen archetype. There is simply not enough solid evidence within the show to claim that it has such a moral.
Like a salaryman job and a girlfriend pulled directly from the wet dreams of a 12 year old anime fan? I fail to see how the ending of Rebuild 4.0 validates such a thesis. Moreover, I disagree that the Rebuilds have the liscence to take a "god's eye" view of life, humanity, and this world completely divorced from the basic fact that we all live under neoliberal capitalist hegemony and make unclouded judgements on the very nature of human life. All the elements that make Shinji "happy" within the rebuild ending are only valid as such under the current order (mainly the salaryman job), not some grand universal secret that makes life worth living. This is just capitalist realism.
Nah they shafted Asuka hard by reducing her to a psycho clone instead of giving her a proper backstory like in the originals, now she's literally just fanservice and a vehicle to drive Shinji to fulfill his destiny or whatever. Furthermore, they shafted Shinji by framing his reluctance to pilot the Evangelions as a grand moralistic failing in the 1st and 2nd rebuilds instead of highlighting the abject horror of being a child soldier fighting biblically accurate angels like in the original.
And this is the problem with the rebuilds, Gendo being some dude who was lonely and depressed makes less sense than his portrayal as a conniving psychopath in the originals. Just because someone is asocial doesn't automatically make them this evil bastard who neglects their child and acts as a running dog for the deep state.
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Well yes. Because I think the original Evangelion series is far too complicated to draw any sort of morality from, its art, something truly open to interpretation.
Yes again, there is no substantive consistency between the rebuilds and the original series imo. They just improved the form and hollowed out all substance.
That doesn't make a difference because they just replaced the "metaphor" with the real thing and cheaply posited that as the "happy ending". That is literally stating that the current world we have, although not perfect, is the best option, not only for individual self actualization, but in terms of seeking "happiness". I also fail to see how the angels, nerv, and the evas have any real-world equivalent other than climate change and the deep state.
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This is what I mean when I stated "the current world we have, although not perfect, is the best option, not only for individual self actualization, but in terms of seeking “happiness”. "
Again, this is looking at the world using a god's eye view stating that "Life" as a grand construct or universal state of being is this or that. We simply cannot view "Life" as something separate from material conditions or the current socioeconomic order through the narrow perspective we have as human beings.
Again, this is literally saying that all we have in front of us is all that exists and is the only possible option for individual happiness. "It isn't great but it could be worse."
Exactly! And yet Shinji goes and becomes a salaryman wagie living together with his impossible waifu. The rebuilds in essence state that happiness is a moral imperative, and the only way forwards unto happiness is through accepting the role of a married wagecuck. Shinji is not shown returning to the village struggling to bring about any form of collective power with his comrades.