Neon Genesis Evangelion - Anime TV Series Analysis - Lonely and Disenfranchised Together
In My World…
(Major Spoilers Ahead!)
If everything could just be normal.
Shinji fantasizes about a normal family, Gendoh and Yui eating and preparing breakfast, respectively, in a “Leave It to Beaver” type environment; normal sexuality, a fourteen year old embarrassed by morning wood; rushing off to school to bump into a human Rei. He effectively exchanges the audiences fantasy (his reality) of the reluctant hero forced to save the world every week, for the audience’s suburban dream featuring friends, crushes, and family that is there to care (our reality). Is the exchange fair? Many fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion hated this odd and Gainax selfish ending. It’s like the tale of the “Prince and the Pauper” where each participant desires the other’s life-style with disappointing results. We don’t want the fantasy to end. Episodes 25 and 26 killed the fantasy with saccharin normality. The fantasy must be played to an end so it can loop into endless sequels, like the Gundam franchise that’s helped Bandai (Action, Satisfaction) become the most successful toy manufacturer on earth.
Entertainment’s mecha is fueled by the otaku that suspend their disbelief every week. Otaku never let a series die a respectful and artful death, hence the longevity of the tired Star Trek and X-Files empires. We get frantic when an entertainment property we love comes to a definite end. “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone just died?” is the perfect tag for the End of Evangelion movie. The otaku can’t believe the finality of such a statement so they flock to theatres to see if it’s true. The End presents the fact that we have to venture out and find a new obsession to feed our need for useless trivia and toys. This would explain my problem with finishing novels and conversely the attraction to the nonlinear world of the internet.
Shinji can forever escape into tracks 25 and 26 (at least until his batteries run out), a world where an opportunity to save the world doesn’t present itself at the end of every episode.
In real life, nobody likes the cliffhanger because it means you’re dead in the next scene and there no editing or rewind button that can save you.
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