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NEON GENESIS EVANGELION may appear at first glance to be a straightforward
animated science fiction series about young pilots controlling giant
robots, once one peers below the surface one finds a far more complex
structure of metaphysical and religious underpinnings that serve
as currents to drive the story forward. |
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Indeed,
by the time EVANGELION reaches its climax in the highly
controversial original series ending, the fundamental basics
of our existing reality have been thrown out the window
as director Hideaki Anno and his staff seek to find a way
to reconcile the traditional concepts of God and Creation
with a new millennium in which, depending upon one 's analysis
of the facts as presented, Man either attempts to find an
alternative path to God… or to become God himself.
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NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is literally awash with both verbal
and visual religious references and analogies, it would be
difficult to dispute that there must be some significance
to all the religious and mystical subtext. For example,
the names of the three super-computers that actually control
all aspects of human life within Tokyo-3 are biblical in origin: Melchior,
Balthazar and Casper, collectively known as the three Magi,
while the code name for NERV 's hidden base in the underground
Geo Front is Central Dogma. The mysterious NERV logo
that is constantly emblazoned across the screen though out
the series contains the phrase "Gods In His Heaven.
All's Right With The World,"a quote from Browning, while a
Systema Sephiroticum, drawn by the German priest Athanasius
Kircher in 1653, appears on the ceiling of NERV head Gendo
Ikari 's enormous office. |
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references are made to the Kabbalah, and both a mystical Tree
of Life and a Jacob 's Ladder are displayed during the opening
credits sequence. The Seven Eyes of God appear, quite
literally, during a sequence in which an object referred to
as the Spear of Longinus (the "Spear of Destiny", which pierced
the side of Jesus during the crucifixion) is shown piercing
the side of the Angel Lillith, which has been bound to a crucifix-like
support. The Second Impact, which annihilates half of
the Earth 's population fifteen years prior to the actual
start of the series, accomplishes the majority of its damage
via a flood second only to Noah 's, and even the cataclysmic
explosions that occur when Eva Unit One first goes into combat
against an Angel are undeniably cross-like. And then
there are the Angel 's themselves… |
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Although
originally represented as alien beings of unknown origin,
and though never completely explained to date, it becomes
increasingly obvious that the Angels are not simply ruthless
invaders, but are, in fact, working according to some kind
of plan that is meant to somehow steer the human race. Despite
their apparently limitless power, the Angels never attack
in sufficient numbers to overwhelm NERV, and the defeat
of each Angel, in turn, always requires some new advancement
in the evolution of the relationship between the Evas and
their young pilots. This becomes a very viable possibility
when one considers that, although the creators of EVANGELION
have specified that the name Angels be used for these
creatures in the English language version, the original
Japanese term is more properly translated as Emissary or
Apostle.
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the greatest evidence that the Angels are, in fact, working
to some divine plan, is the revelation that the so-called
Second Impact, initially explained by both military and scientific
authorities alike as the result of an asteroid strike on Antarctica,
was actually the result of man 's first contact with an Angel,
and that it was the Second Impact itself that produced the
only human beings capable of controlling an Evangelion. Are
we to assume the fact that the children of the Marduk Report,
all born nine months after the cataclysm, are merely some
form of cosmic accident? Or, rather, as many have surmised,
are we actually being shown the mechanism through which the
human race will be evolved to the next level of being? |
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The
continued evolution of the human species, incidentally,
is also being attempted by the human inhabitants of the
Eva Universe. Referred to as the Human Instrumentality
Project, a name that, again, the creators have specified
for use in the English language version although a more
literal translation might render the original Japanese name
as the Human Completion or Enhancement Project, this scientific
crusade has the most religious of foundations. With
the stated goal of changing Mankind from an "incomplete
herd"to a "complete one", the HIP is apparently focused
around the extraction of DNA from the embryotic remains
of Adam, a being found in Antarctica just prior to Second
Impact. Was Adam in fact an Angel, or is he, as NERV
head Gendo Ikari states in episode eight, the first human? And
given that Gendo is apparently in full control of both the
Evangelion Project and the Human Instrumentality Project,
exactly how far do their respective goals overlap? Has
Gendo gone so far as to sacrifice his own son Shinji, the
Third Child and the pilot of Eva Unit One, on the altar
of a new technology in order to create a new race of Man?
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One
of the principle foundations for an examination of this
extension of the story line can be found in EVANGELION
's depiction of living beings as containers for a separate
intelligence that can be transferred from vessel to vessel. This
is shown not only in the character of Rei, who is demonstrated
to be a clone with conflicting sets of memories in latter
episodes, but also in the giant Evangelions themselves
which, although robot-like in appearance, are actually
flesh and blood creations that house a human "pilot"within
a womb-like interior filled with a fluid substance that
allows the interior being to control the external shell. The
idea that the Evas themselves are merely bodies to be
worn and discarded is evidenced by the labyrinth-like
Eva graveyard glimpsed later in the series.
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there is also ample evidence of the fact that an Eva can exist as
an independent entity, as is demonstrated by the terrifying rogue
Eva sequence in episode 18. The innate contradictions set up
by these two conflicting points of view serve only to amplify
the image of the Eva 's creator as a genuine Frankenstein, literally
stealing the bodies of the not yet dead as a means re-creating the
human race. And yet, at the same time, is EVANGELION not also
saying that perhaps it is our attachment to our human shells that
holds us back from the next step towards our ultimate future? For
if indeed the Angels are truly the emissaries of God, and if their
mission is to truly help us somehow advance, either physically or
meta-physically, then might they not have to destroy that which
we cling to most, our physical beings, if that is what prevents
us from becoming closer to God? |
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should be noted that, to date, EVA 's creators have remained fairly
quiet on the subject of the mystical and religious implications
of this extraordinary series. However, for those who doubt
that there is a message buried beneath the surface veneer, there
is one last thing that we should mention. Although NEON GENSIS
EVANGELION is the title the original Japanese creators have specified
for the English Language version, the original Japanese title is
SHINSEIKI EVANGELION, created from the Japanese words "shin"(new)
and "seiki"(century) and the Greek word for Gospel, "evangel', from
which the word evangelist is also derived. Thus, a literal
translation would read "The Gospel of the New Century "… and with
a new millennium waiting just around the corner, perhaps we will
find that the speculations and fantasies of the creators of NEON
GENESIS EVANGELION are not as strange or as far-fetched as we would
like to believe. |
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