Psychoanalysis and existentialism in Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most recognized anime not only in Japan but all over the world, and has been so successful that several movies, video games, manga and all kinds of products that have to do with the series have been created over the years. The work created by Hideaki Anno marked a before and after in the history of Japanese animation in the mid-nineties, having as an approach to the story the fight between robots and monsters (angels) accompanied by comedy, but with a background of existential and emotional crises among its protagonists, and on the other hand, the conflictive relationship between humanity and the supreme being.
It is said that Anno was based on his own life for the creation of the script, which was going through a severe personal crisis and that served him to reflect it in the main protagonist, Shinji Ikari.
And in case you haven't seen the series yet, I'll give you a review.
Review
It all starts when a young teenager (Shinji Ikari) arrives in a city and just at that moment there is a fight between a monster and the military of the Japanese army. He is suddenly rescued by a vehicle boarded by a girl (Misato Katsuragi), who will be his tutor to be in his care following the orders of a secret national agency called Nerv, which was created to combat these strange creatures using giant robots that must be piloted by teenagers, among which Shinji is one of them.
Opinion
This series has to be seen from beginning to end, and this is because its first 15 chapters are underestimated because they focus on the presentation of the characters, action and humor, so from the following chapters suffers a radical turn in the tone that had until then, becoming the plot darker and more serious, and the characters suffer emotional and existential crises; In addition, many mysteries surrounding the robots, the angels and the government agencies that try to carry out a project that seeks to dissolve the individual conscience to transform it into a collective one (known as the project of human instrumentalization) are unveiled.
Since the last episodes of the series focused on the main character, this forced the dissatisfied fans to create a movie that appeared in 1998, which was much more explicit and stronger with the action that was developed, they managed to finalize the whole plot but some time later, Anno decided to carry out a new work to retell the story but with another approach. Personally I do not recommend it because it is a very light version of the original.
Even so, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a series that is worth watching several times, and for that we must leave aside the prejudices that "animation is only for children". Evangelion is a story that requires a lot of analysis for its high load of symbolism, religious references, and basic principles of current psychology.
I hope you can see it more if it is in company so you can discuss it for all that it represents, and in case you have seen it I would like to know your opinion about it, I will be happy to read it.
Without further ado, I'll see you in the next installment. See you then.
Image source:
https://img.vixdata.io/pd/jpg-large/es/sites/default/files/n/neon_genesis_evangelion.0.jpg
