As one of the most beloved and influential anime of all time, Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion has many iconic scenes of a Mecha anime, but it is more than just a story about machines. The most memorable feature of the film is its focus on the human mind and philosophy, which is explored through well-developed characters and an incredibly complex world. This introspective lens sets it apart from other anime in the genre and has kept Neon Genesis Evangelion culturally relevant to this day.
Neon Genesis Evangelion focuses on a young boy, Shinji Ikari (Megumi Ogata), who is called by his father to save the world from alien invaders known as Angels. Ikari and a group of other teenagers including Asuka Langley Soryu (Yuuko Miyamura) and led by Misato Katsuragi (Kotono Mitsuishi) must control Eva units (giant robots with mysterious origins) to defeat the angels and save humanity. While this plot is by no means a revolutionary theme for its time, Neon Genesis Evangelion shines in the way it explores instability, loneliness, insecurity, and the relationships between its characters – people who have to pay the price for adult ambitions.
From the beginning of the series, Anno delved into human psychology and their motivations. Viewers can deeply relate to the characters in the anime along with their thoughts and struggles. Ikari struggles with anxiety and depression, which represents nihilism, as at first Ikari's faith in life is meaningless.
In Neon Genesis Evangelion, nihilism is often portrayed as a radically pessimistic and unethical lifestyle as coined by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Ikari sees life as meaningless and believes that closeness only leads to suffering. A poignant interior monologue that displays nihilistic rhetoric comes from another Eva pilot, Rei Ayanami (Megumi Hayashibara).
She asked: “What is a human being? Is it something God created? Or is it something that humans create with each other? What I own is life, something in my heart, and a cockpit… Who is this? This is me. Who I am? Who I am? Who I am? Who I am?". Her repetitive statements and general confusion about life reflected her struggle to find meaning in the world. This existential fear she faces is an almost inevitable sadness.
Throughout the series, Ikari is the embodiment of escapism, of running away from his problems and trying his best to find any form of distraction from his duties as a protection mechanism. Episode four titled Rain, After Running Away clearly shows Hedgehog's dilemma. The Hedgehog's Dilemma is a concept by Arthur Schopenhauer in which he conveys the dichotomy of intimacy. When Ikari left home due to the stress of being an Eva pilot, he and Katsuragi had a pensive conversation and he decided to stay so they could look at each other with sympathy and understanding.
Intimacy will bring love and comfort but it also has its downside – pain and suffering. Ikari wants to achieve that closeness with people but doesn't want to because it leads to discomfort and affliction, which represents the idea that intimacy is a challenge and to achieve that closeness with no one There, you have to endure some kind of pain. Philosopher Schopenhauer posits the analogy of hedgehogs desiring warmth and closeness on a cold day with each other but whose quills pierce each other as they approach, thus conjecturing that life is still worth being close to even through pain.
Anno frequently shows the negative effects of escapism with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anno uses Ikari to show that hiding will not solve your problems and that you must solve your own problems.
This concept goes hand in hand with existentialism, a term coined by French philosopher Gabriel Marcel, which states that you are the one who decides how your life plays out and that you have free will to Determine your way of life. It argues that life should be lived authentically as a major tenet of existentialism. The fact that Ikari has active choices about what he can do leads to anxiety and he has to navigate life and all its troubles on his own because there is no one to lead the way. Throughout the series, Ikari does what he says he does and almost denies his own freedom of choice, which pushes him into finding his own meaning and place in the world.
Additionally, he follows Jean-Paul Sartre's concept of "bad faith" in existentialism, in which people comply with whatever they are told when pressured. While it's easy to do what you're told and guided by others throughout your life, you should still live the way you want and do what's best for yourself while finding fulfillment.
Neon Genesis Evangelion also deeply explores Freudian psychology and philosophy. A good example is Thanatos, who explained that the goal of life is death. Another character is Ayanami, Ayanami deals with this leading to death and self-destruction despite knowing that she is a replaceable clone and eventually loses her sense of self. Soryu like Ikari only pilots her robot, Eva Unit 02, to be praised and shown off in front of others to cover up her self-hatred.
She wants to be intimate but can't because that would only lead to pain with her mother, with her father, and with Ikari. But in the final part, End of Evangelion, she chooses to hug Ikari with her hand on his cheek. They themselves choose life for themselves and no longer for others (the unity of everyone where loneliness no longer exists). In the end, the characters decide to experience life however they want and are in control of their choices.
The series' ethos still resonates today as one of the most popular and highly rated anime of all time. For more than two decades, the “missionary” symbol has been present throughout Japan, making a lasting impression on the country's popular culture. Neon Genesis Evangelion can intellectually stimulate audiences of all ages and makes anime an effective medium for discussing meaningful and philosophical topics. The anime does a great job of presenting human emotions and philosophical ideas throughout the series.
What makes Neon Genesis Evangelion appealing to anyone is its integration of challenging emotions and deeper thoughts into the animation. As a result, it forever changed the genre of criticism of life and its struggles to show that life is truly worth living, despite the suffering.
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