Neon Genesis Evangelion - Anime TV Series Analysis - Lonely and Disenfranchised Together
A Feud Between Father and Son
(Major Spoilers Ahead!)
After the Second Impact the only use of your family is as pawns to trigger the Third Impact.
In brief: Gendoh and Yui meet near the end of the twentieth century, marry, birth Shinji, let him hang around NERV when he’s four where he watches his mother disappear in an EVA test procedure, then Shinji is sent away in tears as Gendoh goes on to raise/harvest Rei I and have an affair with the inventor of MAGI, NERV’s super-computer, who later kills Rei I and then herself.
The Ikari family is dysfunctional to say the least. The loss of his mother, Yui, and subsequent exile imposed by his father threw Shinji into his near autistic state that has become his shrinking sphere of reality. This family is an exaggeration of the all too common scenario of a parent being so consumed by their occupation (e.g., job description: responsible for denying the Dead Sea Scrolls prophecy controlled by SEELE and shaping the future evolution of man all by yourself, sacrificing anything and anyone for your covert cause) that their family is a distraction that must either be absorbed by the work or sent away until needed.
To Gendoh Ikari, Shinji Ikari is a pilot, not a son. Shinji is a bullet within the gun that is EVA-01 that can be unloaded and replaced by the Dummy Plug System with disastrous results when he becomes disobedient for the wrong reasons–not destroying an angel because a human pilot is trapped inside, his friend Tohji. How is Shinji so well suited as a pilot? It makes you wonder if Yui’s death/disappearance/absorption into EVA was an accident or part of a greater plan involving Shinji. Yui must be sacrificed to advance the EVA project, and provide an emotional blueprint for the Rei clones. Shinji has natural piloting skills because when he enters EVA-01 he is really returning to his mother’s womb and breathing her original LCL. The shattered pieces of the Ikari family rejoin in a monstrous creation of the father.
Shinji handicaps his relationship with his father when he compares it to Gendoh’s bond with Rei. What Shinji doesn’t realize is that Rei is a scientific experiment modeled after Gendoh’s late wife. Gendoh mentions in a conversation with Shinji at Yui’s gravesite that he does not need photographs of his dead wife, flash of Rei in VTOL, Yui lives on through Rei. Gendoh’s connection to Rei will always win out over the connection to Shinji because he invested so much more into her creation when compared to Shinji, the consequence of a sexual encounter.
Shinji lives his life in fear, fear of a love of his father.
The feud between father and son is only reconciled in death with an apology as Gendoh’s last words.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Related Posts:
Playstation Killed the Anime Star - Metal Gear Solid Action Figures are More Appealing than the Next Gundam ReincarnationBookmark:
Subscribe to my feed
