"Back in the 90s, I was in a very famous TV show called Horsin’ Around. Please hold your applause. And I remember one time, a fan asked me, 'Hey, um, you know that episode where the horse has to give Ethan a pep talk after Ethan finds out his crush only asked him to the dance because her friends were having a dorkiest date contest? In all the shots of the horse, you can see a paper coffee cup on the kitchen counter, but in the shots of Ethan, the coffee cup’s missing. Was that because the show was making a statement about the fluctuant subjectivity of memory and how even two people can experience the same moment in entirely different ways?' And I didn’t have the heart to be, like, 'No, man, some crew guy just left their coffee cup in the shot.' So instead, I was, like… 'Yeah.' " -BoJack Horseman
I have a personal experience to share. My father once wrote a song about a man living in a pile of garbage. It didn't have any deeper meaning or anything, it was just a silly song literally about a man living in a pile of garbage. Then a fan of his (my dad's quite famous in my town) told him that he liked the song's metaphor of society and its non existing (yet) deeper meaning. Since then, my father has been always saying that that song is a metaphor about society: he embraced the deeper meaning someone else gave to his silly work of art. So, if someone who isn't the author of a work of art gives it a deeper meaning, tha deeper meaning is true.
I think it might be possible that Hideaki wasn't just saying that people are foolish for looking for meaning in his work of fiction, but rather he meant that people are foolish for looking for meaning in *any* work of fiction. He was just using NGE as the closest direct example he had to work with. I think that was his own way of cutting the line between him and all these fans asking for an explanation. He was telling them that it didn't matter what he, as an author, thought. What mattered was what they as viewers got from the work. He was challenging them to "find meaning in a meaningless world", much like how he felt when he was first making NGE and struggled with crippling depression.
jack squatt i was about to say, that his comments saying it was meaningless might have been about the meaningless christian symbolism and the use of robots and stuff, but I think you are totally spot on. Cuz theres no way his show could be meaningless when it relates to so many people and sends a very real message about the hardships of the social aspect to humanity.
+jack squatt You said it man, and ten months before me. I just posted a rant on here that I probably wouldn't have if I'd read your thoughts first. Then again I was frustrated with the what-it's-about "correctors." In my opinion that snotty attitude of "You don't get it. It's about hgvlsdgflvehgdflcjhqeklvjhqo;dvhqe;dhc;kqjdch;jks! DUH!" isn't just harmless dorkery, it's stifling to people's vision of what its about for themselves which is far more interesting and valuable than some wank's obsessive need to correct others about something for which there's no specific definition.
Actually, he did have logical explanations for everything, he just never bothered (or even wanted) to explain it all. The fans eventually pieced together the backstory using every source available (anime, manga, interviews, video games). If I remember right, the video games provided the most information. Then the fans created websites explaining just about every unsolved mystery.
I think this video misinterprets what he was saying, to me it seemed like he was a making a comment about crazy otaku fans who obsess about everything Evangelion and analyze it, yet fail to understand that part of the show is mocking their lifestyle and choices, and when he said that religious symbolism in the show is meaningless and that he just put it in because he thought it is cool, he is agnostic who says that the closest religion to his spirituality is Japanese (which probably means Shinto), so no surprise there, on the other hand I don't think he discredits the work he did with characters, that was obviously much more important and hard than putting random Christian and Jewish symbols in the show, and the fact that he says that all the characters are crazy doesn't mean absolutely anything.
The show and the first movie were his way of warning others of the dangers of escapism. To bad it gave rise to one of the biggest forms of escapism in otaku culture, the waifu.
i don’t think the shallow religious symbolism is a weakness of the series, though a lot of people claim it is. i believe writing is a form that can be used to simply convey your beliefs and identity to the world. people like evangelion because it’s so personal to anno, and they find comfort in relating to his *mind*. if he adds religious symbols just for the aesthetic, then it’s just another way of offering readers/watchers a look into his mind- a mind that thinks such imagery is cool
I think the fans are right when they justify a lot of Eva's content with Hideaki's upbringing and life. Like any great artist, his creations are based on his feelings and experiences, and that's what is beloved by the thousands of Eva fans. To him it might be meaningless since it might just come naturally to him to express himself in that medium, that's not the case for others.
Idk, I saw it when I was in puberty and it helped me getting through my worst part of teen angst and that's what the series meant to me too. Suddenly you get responsibilities, you're thrown in this world of stigma, dogma, religion and enemies where adults try to tell you how to cope with it, regardless of what you think/feel/want. They expect you to just "go with the flow" and when you refuse they'll just replace you. You're basically worthless in this society of machinery and every time someone comes along you can actually feel connected to, reaches out trying to save you they'll be crushed or erased from your life (Toji and Kaworu). There's alot in these series I see meaning for but alas, Anno isn't one of them. He's just ridiculing because he knows everyone will listen to what he says and use it as a guide through the series, just like Dali was ALWAYS being weird in public because that's what he embraced. Bottom line is, your own interpretation is the most important as it shows to yourself who you are, what you feel and what you need. Peace&love, children.
I believe having a creator telling you what their movies were really about it's almost like cheating. Our imaginations are better than that, so why give the answers? For me Rei, Asuka and Misato are one woman that was broken down into three, to show the complexity of Shinji to be accepted and accept while Kaworu is the ideal relationship in the safest way until well, everybody who watched NGE knows how that ended and I will say no more :). Like this clip!
I was obsessed with this channel when I was a calm 11 years old. I remember watching this vid wayyyy before I knew about NGE and it actually introduced me to the concept of ‘death of the author’! Anyway, I’m 18 now and I’ve just finished NGE and EoE and this video is so interesting!!
As a writer, I can say that art is up for intrepretation, if it means something to you other than it's intent, it doesn't mean your wrong, but rather you presive this art different. Infact, I find it beautiful, when this happens.
NGE's filled with symbolism, and every time I rewatch it, I get a different vibe- a different message from the last sitting. It's a great show and it makes me think that Anno must've been REAALLY lucky for having everything click. People really do hate on shinji, but the depression state he's always in and more so in the latter episodes I think doesn't make his character 'relatable', but makes you think that a normal human would be like him if put in the situation he was in. I read somewhere that Anno wrote most of the story for NGE whilst in depression, and the whole idea about each character being a different 'version' of his past was interesting. I'm just wondering how much NGE 4.44 will change everyones perspective of the show as a whole
meaningless? heck, Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably one of the deepest & most complex anime I've ever seen, that even nowadays sadly there's still no anime that can compare to such masterpiece!
Evangelion is not meaningless, but Anno likes to a) troll us and b) make us go for our own interpretations. Also I think it could be argued that Serial Experiments Lain is deeper
I don't think Lain is deeper per se, it's more parallel in that it's about another facet of identity. NGE is who am I in relation to you while Lain is who am I in relation to me.
Well the series itself is all about running away from reality and Shinji pressing the reset button to redo everything. I believe Anno is down playing everything intentionally because he doesn't want people to understand the series to 100%. Hell it's a theme in the series, you can't fully understand or know someone. Shinji keeps restarting his universe until he's happy with the final outcome, but nobody can be 100% anything so it's an endless cycle of understanding and truths. That's the secret sauce behind Evangelion and Anno knows this. Speaking that out loud would defeat the whole purpose.
When has Shinji ever reset anything? His wish during instrumentality was for everyone to join together as a singular entity so that he won't feel the pain that comes with other people, but then he knows the error of his ways and gives people the chance to come back if they please. The world of Eva never reset. Unless you consider the manga's ending, but it was Yui who reset everything not Shinji.
@@vergil_6707 true...I think by redo or reset he means the connection between the Rebuilds and EoE allegedly being sequel...which are just made up Fan fiction...The Rebuilds are not a sequel to EoE...but many idiots think it is..Anno himself said its just a reboot of the series to introduce non EVA Fans to the franchise
You guys should check out Demolition D's (aka DouchebagChocolat)s video series where he compares the remakes to the original. He does a very good job in analyzing the series as a whole puts out some really good theories on why the NGE series is so deep, the original ones, that is. That being said; Keep in mind that Anno was extremely depressed, in a very bad life situation while writing for NGE. And i think, as we all know, art is a way for an artist to express his feeling, his life at that moment. The change in tone is very clear in the NGE remakes, especially considering Anno actually made the series after the great success which was NGE. Which in turn means, less stress, more money and so forth.
Romano Coombs no, anno wants the money thats why he made the remakes he has Even said that the remakes is everything he would made of the original series if he had the budged no deeper meaning, no laughing in the otakus face, nothing you guys are just desperated of finding meaning where it isnt
trenton9 I would take it one step further than that. In traditional fine arts, the primary audience/customers are rich people. Since rich people don't want to be ripped off, they consult with art critics before making a purchase. Thus through most of human history art critics got to determine what is and isn't art. In popular art, for obvious reasons, the audience (both as individuals and as a group) get to decide what is and isn't art. Thus with popular art, the interpretation of each individual viewer should be considered more important than the intention of the artist. And before you ask, yes there is a third category of art in which the artist gets to decide what is and isn't art, but since it is not intended to appeal to you nor me nor art critics, it really doesn't matter for the purposes of this conversation.
Agreed. I would say that the spiritual value of deciphering meaning from art (either as consumer or critic) comes down to a few questions. "Whose puzzle am I trying to decipher? The author's or my own?" In other words, if the author says "the work meant nothing, I just threw it together," would the intellectual effort that went into assigning it meaning have been worthwhile?" Sometimes the answer is "yes." Sometimes it's a definitive "no."
trenton9 Eh, where fine arts are concerned, I'm happy with the critics having the authority to decide what is and isn't art. As long as that third category of art exists, then artists have a shelter to run to when the first tow kinds of art become too hard to deal with.
Yeah. That's the funny thing with fine arts (and it applies to other arts as well). When the orange dot in the middle of a completely white canvas somehow "represents the existential crisis of life" or something like that, I can't help laugh. When creating meaningful art is this easy, it provides a lot of incentive for more people to "slap stuff together." I do agree that it's not such a bad thing. While the critics are distracted by the orange dot, the artist can take their art directly to the consumer, although that route can have it challenges too.
As an aspiring author, I view writing as a way to give people things to think about. I want to ask hard questions, and explore them from several possible angles and potential solutions. I would consider it a great success if I gave a reader an existential crisis, and then helped them crawl out of it and become a better person for it. But if someone just finds it entertaining, that's fine with me too. And I'm sure there will be plenty they can find out about my psychology, and if that's what they want, then that's fine too. Fiction is great this way; there is so much you can get out of it. So much more than any one person could have consciously thought of.
When it comes to the "Death of the Author" school of thought (which I subscribe to myself), the author's input is still important--as an interpretation still. It seems that when it comes down to it, any "authority" that an author has comes down to popular vote. One also must consider situations where the source material may not be consistent with itself (plot holes, etc.) or even desirable, requiring reconciliation on the part of the audience to compensate and make sense of it. In essence, the audience participates in creating an expanded universe of its own, and there have been times where fandoms have enforced throwing out stuff they don't like (see Fandom Discontinuity on TV Tropes). The difference is how many people adopt the same interpretation that the author has.
A depressed guy goes through great deals of stress to produce an excellent piece of japanese anime that combines excellent action with dark and shocking psychological themes. That's all I'm extracting from NGE. Nothing more, nothing less. I personally enjoy theory-crafting and "asspulling", just like wih Dark souls lore. I like ambiguous things, apparently "meaningless" symbolism. I like it when they put things for the cool factor, because there's always that added element of the unknown that keeps simple-minded men like me satisfied Don't think there's anything wrong with being "simple-minded" either. Guess ignorance really is bliss, I wouldn't want to turn into an all-knowing knowledge-hungry youtube commenter over-analyzing the meaning of an anime
I thought your original comment was talking about how much of a mindfuck a normal day at school would be for the average person. Even if it was, it's still a case of 'Bitch Please, I dealt with Evangelion'.
.."Does it matter.." According to Anno we aren't supposed to like Rei at all we are supposed to find to to creepy and even hate her. Anno still won't tell us what "L.C.L." means. NGE is a "Mecha Anime" what? a EVA is a cloned alien encased in armor piloted by a kid acting as it's nervous system.
look up the meaning for mecha. Mecha are giant machines controlled by humans. The Eva are A FORM OF MACHINE and ARE They not piloted by Humans. YESSSSSS. EVA are clone angel cyborgs, that still a MACHINE. THE biological body of animals and humans could be considered a MACHINE, they many different parts (organs) that all work together like a robot. SO, why is NGE not a Mecha Anime. Go watch The Vision of Escaflowne and rahxephon the biological mecha same as NGE
***** Have you seen Space Runaway Ideon. The series is kind of a predecessor to NGE. The Ideon has god like powers and has a mine of it own but has the form of a giant robot. It still a mecha. The Cybertronians are living, thinking giant robots, but some would them call the mecha. Lot of this info you give me , I know of. Evas may be clones of Adam and the Eva 1 may have the soul of Shinji's Mom, but answer me this. DO the Evas need the children to piloted them. If Yes, they are Mecha. Mecha can also be biosuits and Mega armor(iron man suit). Gainax makes mecha anime. NGE may be an analysis of the Mecha genre but it is still a mecha anime.
***** I never said that the Evas were just mecha, because the clearly not. Mazinger Z ,which is made by Go Nagai, may not be as meaningful as NGE but it did symbolize power and a what person could do with it. Go Nagai was also a big influenced on Anno. You can see lot of Go's Devilman, my favorite manga series of all time, in NGE. When you say NGE is not a mecha anime, you discredit the mecha genre. The mecha genre is a lot more than war drama, rocket punches, and big ass drills.
The anime as a whole rests six questions: - Who am I? - What is the meaning of life? - Should I or should not I relate to other people? - Should I take who I really am, or create a new identity? - Life is worth being lived or not / - It pays to face the anguish of making choices that determine my life? Anno never said he wanted to hold a mere entertainment and if he wanted another mecha anime without philosophy. he never would engage in those scenes of introspection that make existential questions.
I could shit into my hand, toss it on a canvas, and call it art with absolutely zero inspiration whatsoever and if you show it to 100 different people you will get 100 different answers to the question of why.
@@birdsamora9925 Just because. That 'just because' turns into the minds of people a work of art or shit creativity even though the artist just threw shit onto the canvas to be shit, nothing else.
I'm really surprised that Michael would list Big O among the first three shows that come to his mind if the mecha genre is brought up. Kudos for that, I guess.
I think that Anno must be a bit ignorant of his own actions and decisions, because at first glance (and when you read the stuff he says) it looks like just wings it and thinks that none of his work has any meaning, but I think it really does. There's one documentary online where he goes back to his hometown and teaches a class on Anime and Animation in general, and god, he's awkwardness incarnate. But nonetheless, the message the gives the kids on the last day is that they shouldn't expect all the answers to be given to them, and that nothing is completely black and white, and that it is important that they communicate with others through maybe writing or animating, as he does. So, I guess he really did give Evangelion meaning, and maybe he just didn't notice it. The series is infinitely complex, it amazes me as an adult just as much as it amazed children when it came out. There are videos and theories on about all aspects of the series, and it even seems Anno read some hardcore philosophy to aid in the writing of the series (google Hegel and End of Evangelion). He couldn't have just 'winged it', it's impossible. And if he did, then he's an even bigger genius than I thought.
He consciously gives Evangelion meaning. he just couldn't tell anyone without getting lost in interpretation, so he rather let's those eager to understand him empathize with him through his work.
One thing I definitely is important is to use the original text, so not the translation. This relates to the biggest issue in the Eva series: the "How disgusting" line at the end of the movie. The original Japanese says something along the line of 'I don't feel well', which is _massively_ different from "How disgusting." Furthermore, would you accept the Italian translation, which literally translates to "This sucks." I doubt it. So I would definitely recommend adhering to the original voice, not a translation, because you can't change the original author. Hell, I'm at least interested in Anno's voice, not some Italian- or English-speaker's voice.
Anno implied that when it comes to a work, the authors word doesn't matter. What does matter is what the viewer got from the experience and their interpretation of said work, and I have to agree with that. Authors word isn't law, that's just a misconception.
DarkChaos the point is death of the author is not a hard fact, and has been rebuked before. also, the dude in the video is confusing it with "New Criticism", as are most of the people in the comments.
Fire Man People have disagreed with it, but as far as I know, it hasn't been shown to be a poor argument by any means. This "new criticism" is a term I'm unaware of. Perhaps you would like to explain it, yes?
+DarkChaos New Criticism is where "the author doesn't have a say in his work" comes from. The original treatise on the death of the author never went that far, because going that far is dumb, it never actually stayed the author's views don't matter.
Evangelion is my favorite piece of fiction, and I can't put into words why. I am just constantly drawn back to watching it over and over again. Eh, to each their own. It's my favorite, but I'm not going to build it up as the best thing ever. I'll just continue loving it for as long as I live.
I don't think what the author says has to matter. A text is not just one thing, it's as many things as there are people to take in the text. Every person will interpret a piece of media differently depending on who is doing the interpreting, because no one has the same experiences. To Hideaki Anno, there is no meaning to NGE; however, as long as there are people watching it, NGE is always going to hold some meaning to someone, and it'll always have different interpretations, and there are always going to be people that find symbolism whether they were meant to be there or not.
Anno not randomly put issues such as loneliness inauthenticity and aversion himself without any sense. He likes to address detemrinados themes and colocu in Evangelion purposely. Text Hideki Anno analyzing Hayao Miyazaki:
There are too many painful things for people to go on living in reality. Thus, _humans_run_and_hide_in_dreams_. _They_watch_films_as_entertainment_ Animation, as a means to enjoy everything in a pure, fake world, is a realization of dreams and has become entrenched in film. In short, it is a thing where _even_coincidences_are_arranged_ and _everything_ judged cinematically unnecessary _can_be_excized_. The negative feelings of the real world are no exception. If the director so desires, even malice toward others could be introduced straight into film. I guess that's one of the attractive things about anime. _Changing_the_tribulation_of_reality_into_dreams_ and conveying that to the people...is that what our work is? For the sake of people who forget reality until the bill comes due, who _want_to_devote_themselves_to_happy_fallacies_. I guess that's our job in the entertainment and service sector. One of the distinctive features of Studio Ghibli's works is that, _even_if_ _there_are_obsessive_actions_,_there_are_things_which_appear_to_have_not_ _forfeited_their_goal_. Forfeiting ones goal leads to despair, and is a sickness that can prove fatal. I wonder if Miya-san and his people are familiar with that feeling of despair. Perhaps they don't want to show that anguish to other people. I think they specifically don't want to display the negative things called self-loathing and complexes to others. That's why Studio Ghibli's works can't show anything but superficial happiness and a reproduction of reality with all the dirty things omitted. A fiction that imitates reality, and nothing more than a single dream. I suppose that is the governance of entertainment. And I think that that is one of the reasons that Studio Ghibli's works are _safely_watchable_,_brand_name_creations_. I have no intention of denying that. All of Studio Ghibli's works are top level creations. But, _I_can't_help_but_feel_that_something_is_missing_. This is because, although the technique is there, _I_can_no_longer_feel_ "blood", _the_"blood"_ that is surely flowing within everyone. I wonder when that happened? Studio Ghibli's works have, for me, become things that doesn't possess the image of "Anime", but rather of the so-called Japanese cinema, in other words, the Japanese movies that have now lost all their energy. That may be the reason that I _feel_that_something_is_missing_. By the way, Mr. Miyazaki Hayao and Mr. Itano Ichirou are those I consider my teachers. I brag and say that _I'm_probbaly_the_only_one_in_the_world_ with that combination. _I_was_greatly_influenced_, not just in the technical points of the animation craft, but _in_the_mental_portion_of_filmmaking_. My posture on filmmaking is nothing more than an attempt to hang on to the things I learned from the two of them. _I_have_nothing_but_words_of_gratitude_for_both_of_them_. When I helped out as an animator for "Nausicaa", there's something that Miya-san often told me. It seems to have come from a Chinese sage, but "There are three conditions for _accomplishing_something_. Those are: '_Being_young_', '_Being_poor', and '_Being_unknown_'." And, "_No_matter_what_,_make_friends_." So I was taught. This was more than 12 years ago. Yes, I've known Miya-san approximately 12 years. In that time, I think Miya-san has achieved various things. However, _he_also_lost_many_things_. I think supporting a studio, that is, _fighting_to_protect_the_organization_ _against_ruin_, _is_painful_as_it_piles_up. A staff that strongly depends on you is also a double-edged sword. The height of the brand-name image and weight of the pressure from the world which prevents you from announcing even a short film without hiding your head under the excuse of it being an "experiment". _However_,_I_feel_that_he_is_still_trying_to_obtain_something_new_. Is that trying to throw away the past? But could that be the _fate_of_those_who_go_on_making_films_? In any case, _he_is_a_person_of_deep_craft_regarding_his_desires_. Finally, _I'm_looking_forward_to_"Mononoke_Hime",_the_latest_in_the_series_of_ _seven_works_stretching_from_his_masterpiece_"Nausicaa"_(the_movie)_. No, I'm serious. Postscript. Yesterday, when I was in a state of mental collapse after my latest work had ended, I was moved deep within my heart by an encouraging phone call I received. The words of concern proceeding from the receiver became joy on my end as, with a exaltant face, my whole body was buoyed. In secret, I rejoiced in receiving some recognition for myself. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. . keyframe.cjas.org/~mneideng/trans/misc/annoghib.txt
This version of post-structuralism/interpretation of Derrida only works if you accept there is, in fact, some transcendental idea the “text” (in this case being literally everything) is conveying. Good argument for the transcendent!
Post modernism is lame. Without authorial intent, I can believe that Evangelion is about super marshmallow bear cats, and you have absolutely no basis to tell me otherwise. It's a recipe for chaos.
Maybe Anno's intent is Evangelion being actually about Marshmallow bearcats. I think he chose to remain a bit secretive about it knowing it may challenge his credibility in this day and age where people cannot fully appreciate Marshmallow bearcats for what they truly are.
When an artist sells, shares or gives their art away they are giving a part of themselves to the world. That world can interpret the piece of art however they wish, but that also means that the meaning behind it will get distorted with time. Some artists really struggle with success, because their creations are a part of them. When people misinterpret something you've created it can be frustrating but by sharing your work you have to accept it. It can just seem pretentious or irritating because you never made your work to be that.
The argument of low budget is ridiculous. If NGE really wanted to be like any other mecha, they could have just ended one last episode and put all their effort into it, with amazing effects. They didn't. Also, EoE ties in perfectly with the earlier episodes, so there must have been a degree of planning.
I think in some cases no, simply because the author may or may not accidentally put in elements of his or her self that he or she may not be aware of. In short they may end up putting elements from their subconsciousness, this kind of idea is most commonly seen in drawings and paintings. As someone who paints I see this a lot after finishing an image, which can also help you learn a bit about yourself. Some ideas about an individual just can' be summarized into words in a simple manner.
Anno has(from what I've found) admitted to using his life as... inspiration(?) for some of the characters, and what is expressed in the last episode is, more or less, how one recovers from a depression, but just about anything beyond this, especially if it's religious, really doesn't have much meaning.
I really enjoyed watching NGE, and it was the first non kiddy anime I ever saw. That said, as much as I enjoyed it, it annoyed me too. I couldn't stand Shinji. It made no sense to me, and the multiple endings made even less sense. Nice to know there was nothing to make sense of, at least according to the author.
I've always waited for a moment in English class when we read a book with all sorts of deeper meaning & other stuff, only to find out that the author wrote it one day because he was bored (or high). This hasn't happened yet, but this video gives me hope.
This is inaccurate, and the quotes were taken out of context. Of course he plotted out the overall plot, we know he did. Just look at how carefully everything is set up and foreshadowed. It would be more accurate to say that the story organically evolved over time. As for a search for meaning, a lot of the producers have said a lot of different things. It's a mixed bag. Some of the imagery, such as the crosses that appear after an angels death, mean nothing. Other symbols, such as the doll imagery, are incredibly important to the characters, and has symbolic meaning. As for death of the author, it's nothing new. It's an old concept and, dare I say it, outdated. A work of art is birthed from a place, time, and-yes-a person. To try and disconnect those things is to do a disservice to the work in question. How could you separate Dante's Inferno from it's author? You can't. Eva is a meta-narrative connected to the authors mindset. To disconnect the authors intentions is to lose some of the meaning of the work. Death of the Author can never produce the kind of literary criticism that traditional methods provide.
A teenager who is tasked to save the World with a Giant robot? Yeah that was really original. Don't tell the creators of Gundam that though. They beat this series to that punch by 16 years. Angst and all. Don't get me wrong this show is nothing short of amazing, but it couldn't more similar to Gundam if it tried. The only difference between the main characters is the color of their hair. Aside from that they look practically identical, and act exactly the same.
real quick thing fam, lets not relate Eva to Gundam, because gundam focuses on people to people conflict, showing the tragedy of war and the interactions between good people on both sides. Evangelion is a man vs self / man vs nature kind of story, the angels were a force of nature, but the true conflicts in the show were within the minds of the children. Eva didn't try to be like Gundam, it didn't try to be anything really, it was just existing. I'm someone who really enjoys both as for the various things I do with them, Gundam has paved the way for animation now, because before Gundam, everyone was just good vs evil, and the good guys win, end of story. But that should not discredit any other animation that comes after it, Eva sure wasn't a masterpiece, but it was interesting in its own right.
Nothing matters, and everything is important. You interpret a part of yourself from the works and any outside info on the works. Evangelian as well as any piece of art you see means what you want it to mean given the specific context you have on it and yourself. But like all things it has no inherit meaning or value.
Evangelion was and is a brilliantly daring piece of work. Nothing in the Mecha genre is half as great. The input of the author isn't important when interpreting a work, but it can open your eyes to aspects of the work which you may have overlooked. But at any rate, the words of an author are not equivalent to the word of God; it's more like an interesting side commentary.
This is rather interesting. I've been wondering for a while now, when we quote a character in a novel or TV series are we citing the character or the author? For instance, In the Harry Potter novels, Dumbledore says some rather profound things, things that have impacted my life, but who deserves the credit for the wisdom? The author because they wrote the line? The character because they inspired the line in the the author themselves? Or myself because of my interpretation....and because i'm awesome?
I would highly recommend people read Roland Barthes's 'Death of the Author' essay. It is highly liberating to not feel the need to look for authorial intent for an answer but to see it as an alternate interpretation or to perhaps inform your own view of it. I thought it was telling, though, that in this video there's a point when it's suggested that 500 years ago it would have seemed important what the author thought. Not so! The hinging of understanding something by looking to the author for a 'bottom-line' is actually a more modern phenomena; the author's 'vision' was felt to be much less important centuries ago. This is why creators like Shakespeare were able to borrow so liberally from texts without people calling bullshit. He uses a bunch of Plutarch's historical texts, for instance, in writing Antony and Cleopatra; it serves no grand unified authorial goal, only as substance for the setting and characterisation. A substantive narrative is too tightly-packed to be comfortably explained with a bottom-line, or single explanation; it is its own explanation.
This. I've never read the essay itself in full, but I'm well-aware of its contents, and never really understood people who don't find their own meaning in things. I think that its often interesting to learn about what the author intended, if anything, because it can help with understanding context, but I don't at all think you should let what they say invalidate your experience or appreciation of a work. I feel kind of sad for people who desperately want answers about meaning from the authors of their media - it makes me wonder if they have trouble finding their own meaning in the things the experience, and feel forced to look to other people to tell them what to think or feel.
In a universe of many animes, few have a meaning. Most entertainment is and only. Not Evangelion is an anime that has a psychological portrait of Japanese society. Evas, Angels and Kabbalah are a backdrop for this portrait of Japan that is grounded in the philosophy. No one seeks meaning in Mirai Nikki, Dragon Ball, Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2. These are for fun anime Evangelion exception to the rule because it has a depth and intense psychological portrait. Plutarch wanted to only perform a biography of Cleopatra and Mark Antony and not to use their chronic philosophical reflections.
I find it strange how so many people are opposed to the idea that their interpretation of a work of art doesn't have to coincide with the author's intent. It just boggles my mind why anyone would deny themselves the freedom of interpretation and instead make themselves slaves to the author's shadow. The final line of the essay sums it up perfectly: "the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author."
Shrapnel if a message speaks to you in a different way from the way author, it doesn't mean what u got from it is a false experience. To learn a lesson from a lecture that didnt intend you to learn that specific lesson doesn't mean you didnt learn anything. It's not about putting yourself above the author. Its individualism. It's not narcissistic, it's not discrediting the author. Art doesn't have one specific meaning.
I'm very much of two minds on this. First off, NGE to me is meaningless drivel packed to the gills with symbolically significant images taken without regard for any of their actual meaning, or how it relates to the narrative of the anime. The show is about as narratively meaningful as a Jackson Pollock painting, the bumps on a wall... or a Rorschach test. But in a way, that illustrates exactly the point you're trying to make. If there is meaning, it is because we bring meaning to it. And you know what? That's alright. If something has meaning to you, then more power to you. Just don't be surprised when not everyone gets it. No one can tell you that something can't or shouldn't have meaning to -you-. By the same token, you can't entirely proclaim something a work of genius to someone who derives no meaning from it. You can try to explain why it has meaning to you, and that may spark meaning in it for them, but for some people, a bunch of Judeo-christian symbols stuffed into an anime is never going to carry any weight whatsoever.
its subversive and personal , like taking a dump , but it is a rainbow dump of catharsis, sure the symbology is more like sym-BOLICKS! but its still the best ! sure it poops on its fans with a) anti otaku , and b) lack of substance of religious symbolics, but in the end you paid money ! they have your money! but I love it I see it as the best show in existence!! most shows suck in my opinion!
And you know what, you're entitled to that opinion of the anime. I certainly don't argue that it has its merits, and I think that catharsis is one of them. For myself, it just doesn't work, and there are anime that give me a greater sense of catharsis while being more satisfying for my personal tastes. Madoka is another example of a show that is cathartic, but in the end... too unpleasant for me to care to watch with any kind of frequency. I don't have a problem with an extreme roller coaster of emotions, but if a roller coaster leaves its passengers black and blue, it's not going to get a lot of repeat passengers.
Your Local Smartass At least they're watchable and enjoyable at the very best. They're solid action movies with good animation and music. The prequels... not so much.
Ouch that hurt Well! Rian Johnson literally Gainaxed Star Wars. Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi has created two factions from those who are ultimately unsatisfied with the new lore and point of the Jedi-Sith rivalry; and the ones who were greatly entertained with a new philosophical direction of Star Wars.
I think understanding authorial intent is important in interpreting a work, however I also think it's important to understand that "authorial intent" is an interpretation to begin with. Like, you can disagree with what the creator himself says to form your own interpretation, but only because you think his intent was unconscious, not because the work is something that exists without an author.
Evangelion is Anno's life. I'm sure there are some things that ordinary people don't understand. It's not just about robots or the Bible. but about the life of a child who is suddenly burdened with burdens and sufferings. Eva is a medicine for those who cannot accept the truth in this world. can't grow up to be an adult like me. When you're in a bad time And at the lowest point, you'll understand. What will Anno say. He was depressed and almost killed himself. But in the end, he was able to finish Evangelion. I was very impressed
I always find it funny when someone says something like that "You're reading too much into it" and stuff like that. There are many reasons why people do. One is that it can be fun to philosophize over media you like. It's fun to draw parallels and analyze. Another is that sometimes, authors DO put hidden things in their work so that we can analyze and discover, even though they may say otherwise.
the clap ending is one of the best because it leave to the audience to find a meaning in it, and if you think enough you will find more in it than in the ending shown in the movie, since the "clapping ending" is how shinji instrumentaly happened.
Awesome Actually the ending just show that shinki has learned nothing and the congratulation scene serve to show that shinji still need the attention and adoration of others in order to feel good about himself.
by taking every ending in NGE you get that shinji have not evolved at all since the beggining, no character has, and that's the moral. at least to me, that no one is perfect and that we will aways need other to valued our existence, the ending of EOE shows that shinji is afraid of being alone, reason why he stops the instrumentality and not killing asuka in the end even with all the bad fellings he has angainst her in the finally, and cuminates exactly with the end of the NGE with the clapping scene and the fact that he brough everyone to he's mind in order to be praised by them. About the death of the author thing I never really though about it because to me things aways had a "right" way to be seen, once removed all extra knowledge and taking what is presented by itself, and of course I agree that it is subjective and that is the reason NGE aflame discussions 'till this day. Also as a final note I do not agree that the EVAs had the spirit of shinji or asuka mother or whatever is in reis one, to me the EVAs are live biological organism who have a mind of they on but do not have it for complete, as seen in some episodes that show that our mind is compost of a variety of mind and not just one, and the sync rate is how much of the pilot mind is open to the EVAs mind makng they 4 minds in 2 bodys instead os 1 mind in one body and 3 in another.
What really got me when I watched it as a teenager was the idea that there are many "I"s. There is the "I" that I know, and there are "other me"s on other people hearts, and we are afraid of those "other me"s, and we will until we choose to accept them as incomplete parts of ourselves. This series is the real series inside the heart of it's creators, but the Evangelion we carry in our hearts is still as valuable and real. And this is true because the series itself tells us exactly that.
I saw NGE, I am happy that I watched through the series and movies. I enjoyed large parts of it. Would I reccomend it to my friends or family? HELL NO!
I hated Evangelion mostly because of the show's insufferable fans. Then I read Hideaki Anno's commentary about the show and started to like it, I even looked forward to the remakes. Audiences always try to hijack a show with their headcanon and fanfic. It's some sad substitute for religion and Hideaki Anno refused to become a cult leader. I respect that.
I think most things in life, be it life itself and the things that happen in it, or works, like music or in this case this anime, are open to interpretation. Just because he might have a certain interpretation of what the show is supposed to say, or what we should or shouldn't take away from the show, doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have my own personal perspective. Personally I interpret evangelion in a few ways that to me are very meaningful, but to someone else might be totally meaningless and useless. That's fine, but it has meaning to me and that's what matters.
Here's an idea: This channel is all about rambling meaninglessly about made-up issues regarding popular things, resulting in its videos showing up in the suggested videos of anyone who searches for or watches videos regarding that popular thing. The end result? To generate money (ad revenue) without doing something as bold as expressing any actual opinion regarding that thing. I mean, sure, congratulations on finding a way to basically print RUclips money with next to no effort expended on your own part. But there's something exceedingly fishy about this sort of thing.
Well in a sense I can see where you going however the channels name suggests it will revolve around ideas not opinions. And ideas can revolve around anything it being popular or not. But im not gonna judge because everybody is entitled to their own opinion. With that being said have a good day.
But he doesnt own any of the NGE Content he showed in his Video, so unless they gave him permission, he should not be able to make a Cent off this Video.
I guess it just depends on who's watching it. I would prefer to have the concept that the creator had intended to be portrayed known. I find it/found it (when watching NGE) really annoying to have ambiguity in characters actions. I guess it makes for an interesting subgenre, but I prefer to have opinions about how plot lines are going to end up and then have them actually resolved in the end... something NGE didn't do. I felt like I wasted my time watching it.
That myth has been disproven long ago.Had Evangelion flopped completely Gainax would have crashed and burned with it. The reason they were surprised with it becoming a massive hit was how unconventional it was. Like Anno said in the quote used in the video: all the characters are “sick”.
All anime is deeply textural because it is a holograph. The anime ensemble as a pantheon is so similar that the differences become the story or comment it could be making. Remember that the trio of Japan, Germany and Italy is represented in Herlock, Eva, 009 ... Although Italy is not clearly represented the third character is almost always a construct of man or magic or whatever mystery is churning the plot. This is more than a set of tropes. This is a clear voice from the nation that has been made by the YES vote of popularity.
The above goes without saying that the human mind is the most prolific story tell ever. From clouds to numbers to weather conditions, we interpret to story, meaning and synchronicity.
Psssh... if you want an actual story go watch Madoka. I watch Eva for the symbolism and the metaphor of growing up and the "Stop being a fucking otaku and go outside and make friends and possibly even make a girlfriend. - Hideaki Anno"
It matters what the creator says. The show is not good, even the creator acknowledges it. Everything deep about it is created by the fans who invent meaning where there is none. The fans are simply dumb. Evangelion is no more deep than Dragon Ball or Pokemon.
John Red There's so many weeaboos that want to hate the show for the Ralph Bakshi-esque take on the manga. I find it refreshing from the usual Japanese shows. I hope the director does Jun Abe's Portus next. Want to see a creepy adaptation of that one.
NGE is superflat. It's meaningless is the meaning. BUT the whole religious simbolism and psychological adds layers of interpretation which are not wrong. I suspect Anno knew such interpretations (at least the "psy" ones) were possible and went with it. Connecting this with the video describes Derrida's and Barthes' ideas... we got something going on
What I meant is that NGE is a "superflat" anime (yes, the japanese art movement). It's deconstruction is it's deepest meaning. The fact it has multiple readings (at least two of them enabled by the show itself - the religious and the psicological ones) but ultimately doesn't hold to neither of them shows taht
You should do a video about this theme: Are memes becoming a means of communication? We've all seen photo comments, even Facebook introduced them nowadays. And on a lot of those comments, people are basically having a wordless communication (except for captions on pics), just using memes, both gifs and other formats. I also communicate in this way, and I find it quite fun and exciting. If you see this, can you please do a vid on this?
IRONY: Evangelion was actually meant as an anti-mecha to kill the mecha genre because he hated it and it's formulaic nature. He sought to bury it which is was why Evangelion is de-constructive.
I think that even if an author doesn't intend for his work to have 'meaning' at the time he wrote it, that any work, in itself, can indeed provide deep insight into the deep thoughts of the author himself, and therefore carry a lot of meaning regardless (For example, I always figured the whole Human Instrumentality thing with humankind merging with its 'mother', Lilith, hinted that maybe Anno was under such stress at the time that he subconsciously wished to return to his mother's womb).
I think for determining what is and isn't canon, the author's input is meaningful, and usually but not always the final word on the matter. I also think the author's view of the meaning of their work is important, but not at all final, since we all find our own meaning in our interpretations that are just as valid for ourselves even though they may not be valid for others.
Everyone hates Shinji, but in all fairness, he has a dead mother and a father who abandoned him. He lived a meaningless life for several years, then has the pressure of trying to save the world. Additionally, every time the Evangelion is injured in a fight, Shinji feels its pain more and more vividly depending on his synchronization ratio. All those times he was shot at, or limbs ripped off, or punched across the screen, he felt it. So really, all you people who think he's a wuss, and think it would be awesome to pilot an Eva, you have to consider how traumatic it is. I appreciate Eva because it does what pretty much no other anime does. It creates fragile breakable characters that are actually affected by the terrors they face.
As an actor and theatre maker, i have always believed in the death of the author. The first thing i do when i get a script is look for how it relates to me. After that i meet with directors and other actors and see what they have found in the script. We then work together to unite these different versions of the same script into something we can show an audience. We may have meaning we want to get across to the audience but as soon as the performance is over we move on to the next show. We may read reviews but once it's over we are moving on and forget about it. Once we have done our part performing the script we have to leave it up to the audience to find the meaning with it . What the audience find is beyond our control and as such is not relevant to us. It depends on the experience of those who see the production as to what they can take from the performances, experience defines a lot of what we see within performance and texts, it is all about how it relates to us. As we are all so different with so many different experiences we cannot rely on our own interpretation being the same as someone else all we can do is present what we see and hope our ideas come across.
This was the anime that brought the third impact to the golden era of anime. Since then, there is some influence of evangelion in pretty much every anime now…. I can’t watch any modern anime without thinking, ‘Evangelion did it first!’.
It can be a good thing to take the creator's ideas into consideration when making your own thoughts on a certain piece of work. BUT this should not be the ultimate thing that forms your decision. The beautiful thing about art is that it is open to any interpretation that you feel towards it. Often, whatever is most relevant in your own life is what laid on top of the media, because that is the nature of the beast. Because art is ALWAYS made with a piece of the creator, whether the creator is aware or not, it feeds on emotions continually surviving the more people that lay their own stories on top of what is presented.
Anno obviously dedicated Eva to psychoanalysis. Mans a Freud nerd. I think his Eva is “meaningless” statement is about the true message of the show. In quite a positive way
As someone who writes, the readers may interpret something we didn't intend to put. Ideology is usually the reason for this. We may be poking at something like the economy, disorders, and relationships but we don't always know because it's our ideology. It's fun to look deep into a story but it's not always fun to talk about it with others because it's not always easy to prove your interpretation. What's wonderful about writing and art is, it doesn't have to be perfect but is still powerful.
I think that the author's viewpoint is important in some aspects, such as revealing interesting things about characters that people might not have known before. Having certain things confirmed "by word of God" is always interesting. An author can often tell you things about characters or plot that they didn't state outright in the show (relationships in Tiger & Bunny for example). This means that they are another source of information about the thing you have interest in, which is a valuable resource for any fan to have. When it comes to the actual meaning of a show, however, they can give no more input on it than anyone else can. That is because while they are the creator, the thing they made is more than just a work. Each person will experience it individually, so really the creator's thoughts are just another person's experience of the creation. While they can explain the original intent of their work, and perhaps even work to shape perceptions of it, it's up to each person to figure out what it means to them. That is what makes a story great.
the perfect comment 1. make a statement 2. defend statement with facts and sources 3. state the arguments against your argument 4. disprove disproving argument 5. end statement with well thought out ambiguous end statement
What is missing aa Shinji and Asuka is to overcome the void, nothingness that permeates human existence. Asuka still in the series tried to approach Shinji to overcome his failure, but failed, but shinji afraid of pain, preferred to econder and used music and other media (such happy memories) not to think on your empty and how much he needed someone. Only at the end he sought Asuka, later he sought. What is the anguish of being in the world? It is the anguish that comes from the awareness of anything. It is the anguish that results from the uncomfortable situation of being in front of anything. Now, thrown violently absurd world to die, we are taken by the nauseating feeling of nothing. Prisoners in a random and contingent existence devoid of purpose and meaning, not escape the suffocating experience of emptiness. So ingrained by visceral presence of nowhere, we are overwhelmed by the anguish of being in the world. At the sight of his nothing, the man intends to fill up your empty with fun. Since the sensible pleasures are fleeting, it will always remain unsatisfied. The happiness he finds in the end of your desires is just an illusion that puts you in front of his misery condition. To enjoy the temporary home conquered by the satisfaction of his passions, he ends up encountering with your empty. Confronted by his existential nothingness, man diverts account of himself. Launches himself out of himself rather than face their tragic situation of abandonment in the world. This means that man seeks home without being able to enjoy the rest. It draws home for not rest. Now, why he can not stand in idle status? When the man gets the desired rest, it is inert. In the face of his inactivity, he is referred to his "empty trace". In other words, immobility from the rest triggers your "brand of nowhere" that causes distress and annoyance. Thus, to escape the nauseating feeling of boredom and despair, man seeks home to again search the home. Since carry the "mark of nothing", what we do to fill our inner emptiness? According to Pascal, we seek to fill our existential void with fun. The term fun has a military nature: means divert the enemy offensive through strategic maneuvers; dodge the onslaught of opponents through war tactics. To prevent the warlike attacks otherwise army, the commander drew a ploy to shift the attention of opponents. That is, planning a military operation to change the direction of rival legion. As well as on the battlefield, Pascal argues that we adopt actions to divert our attention to our existential misery. To escape the confrontation with our inner anything, we shift our vision for the fleeting pleasures. We seek to fill our inner void with fleeting distractions. Occupying the impermanent life with entertainment, turn away our view of our tragic condition of finitude. Aiming to shake the feeling of absurdity that triggers boredom and despair, turn to the ephemeral leisure masking our free and contingent existence. Thus, the fun would be a means of diverting our view to our "empty trace". We found the fun an illusory way out of our "brand from nothing." Through fun, we are not taken by the feeling of distress caused by the absence of meaning and purpose in the world or were afflicted with our inability to know our origin and our destiny. It is no coincidence that both enjoyed "the noise and bustle." Pascal believes that man has inscribed in his being "the mark of nothing." It carries the "empty trace" that lays bare its failure and its impotence to morally indifferent universe. Before the eternal silence of the unspeakably violent world, he realizes the gratuity and the randomness of existence. Overwhelmed by the vastness of nature that reveals its insignificance, he is unable to understand the principle and its end. But without finding a universal and absolute metaphysical foundation to justify their contingent existence, he has just invaded by boredom and despair. Love is also the central character of the Danish Soren Kierkegaard and not only the anguish work, in his book "The Works of Love", he tells us that love believes all things, but never deceives because, like the distrust and skepticism , love knows that knowledge is not able to support anything other than nihilism, cynicism and despair. Love is a moral affection, not an act of reason. The reason does not justify life. Love is a choice of investment in life, an attitude, even if the reason proves the lack of ultimate meaning of everything. After the third impact, suka and shinji will hit. It is a metaphor insufficient human and its impotence to morally indifferent universe, one needing the other. In the end, Asuka and shinji noting that are in an indifferent universe to them without fun (ways to cheat and not think his empty) and that one has the other in life. They need each other to overcome the emptiness of his existence.
In my opinion, I dont think Anno can ever give the answers the fans want, so what he says doesn't matter too much. I recall reading somewhere that Anno has said that while directing the original Evangelion series, he was frequently in and out of varying levels of depression and at points was not really knowing what he was doing. Therefore, looking back he probably cant recall his mindset at certain times during production and has no idea what he was up to at those points. He claims to have put aspects of his life and thoughts about life in NGE, but how he was interpreting these at the time (in and out of depression) I bet even he doesn't know. He could also be just deliberately not saying much to keep fans talking about his series and generating continual publicity about it.... Who knows...
"Back in the 90s, I was in a very famous TV show called Horsin’ Around.
Please hold your applause.
And I remember one time, a fan asked me, 'Hey, um, you know that episode where the horse has to give Ethan a pep talk after Ethan finds out his crush only asked him to the dance because her friends were having a dorkiest date contest? In all the shots of the horse, you can see a paper coffee cup on the kitchen counter, but in the shots of Ethan, the coffee cup’s missing. Was that because the show was making a statement about the fluctuant subjectivity of memory and how even two people can experience the same moment in entirely different ways?'
And I didn’t have the heart to be, like, 'No, man, some crew guy just left their coffee cup in the shot.' So instead, I was, like… 'Yeah.' "
-BoJack Horseman
I have a personal experience to share.
My father once wrote a song about a man living in a pile of garbage. It didn't have any deeper meaning or anything, it was just a silly song literally about a man living in a pile of garbage. Then a fan of his (my dad's quite famous in my town) told him that he liked the song's metaphor of society and its non existing (yet) deeper meaning.
Since then, my father has been always saying that that song is a metaphor about society: he embraced the deeper meaning someone else gave to his silly work of art.
So, if someone who isn't the author of a work of art gives it a deeper meaning, tha deeper meaning is true.
Cool story bro
+IceBreaker165 I'm a girl
+IceBreaker165 Sorry, I mean thank you!
it is a cool story, though.
I think he meant it sarcastically but you need not worry. I appreciated your comment.
I think it might be possible that Hideaki wasn't just saying that people are foolish for looking for meaning in his work of fiction, but rather he meant that people are foolish for looking for meaning in *any* work of fiction. He was just using NGE as the closest direct example he had to work with.
I think that was his own way of cutting the line between him and all these fans asking for an explanation. He was telling them that it didn't matter what he, as an author, thought. What mattered was what they as viewers got from the work. He was challenging them to "find meaning in a meaningless world", much like how he felt when he was first making NGE and struggled with crippling depression.
jack squatt on point !
jack squatt i was about to say, that his comments saying it was meaningless might have been about the meaningless christian symbolism and the use of robots and stuff, but I think you are totally spot on.
Cuz theres no way his show could be meaningless when it relates to so many people and sends a very real message about the hardships of the social aspect to humanity.
+jack squatt You said it man, and ten months before me. I just posted a rant on here that I probably wouldn't have if I'd read your thoughts first.
Then again I was frustrated with the what-it's-about "correctors."
In my opinion that snotty attitude of "You don't get it. It's about hgvlsdgflvehgdflcjhqeklvjhqo;dvhqe;dhc;kqjdch;jks! DUH!" isn't just harmless dorkery, it's stifling to people's vision of what its about for themselves which is far more interesting and valuable than some wank's obsessive need to correct others about something for which there's no specific definition.
+jack squatt Couldn't have said it better myself, honestly. People should think for themselves
Actually, he did have logical explanations for everything, he just never bothered (or even wanted) to explain it all. The fans eventually pieced together the backstory using every source available (anime, manga, interviews, video games). If I remember right, the video games provided the most information. Then the fans created websites explaining just about every unsolved mystery.
Congratulations!
I think this video misinterprets what he was saying, to me it seemed like he was a making a comment about crazy otaku fans who obsess about everything Evangelion and analyze it, yet fail to understand that part of the show is mocking their lifestyle and choices, and when he said that religious symbolism in the show is meaningless and that he just put it in because he thought it is cool, he is agnostic who says that the closest religion to his spirituality is Japanese (which probably means Shinto), so no surprise there, on the other hand I don't think he discredits the work he did with characters, that was obviously much more important and hard than putting random Christian and Jewish symbols in the show, and the fact that he says that all the characters are crazy doesn't mean absolutely anything.
The show and the first movie were his way of warning others of the dangers of escapism. To bad it gave rise to one of the biggest forms of escapism in otaku culture, the waifu.
@@Cowboycomando54 don't know about waifu, but he did inadvertently invent Moe (ironically with Rei)
i don’t think the shallow religious symbolism is a weakness of the series, though a lot of people claim it is. i believe writing is a form that can be used to simply convey your beliefs and identity to the world. people like evangelion because it’s so personal to anno, and they find comfort in relating to his *mind*. if he adds religious symbols just for the aesthetic, then it’s just another way of offering readers/watchers a look into his mind- a mind that thinks such imagery is cool
@@투루-l3e Interesting observation.
Nope, he used Gnosticism to tell a story about people who have trouble connecting with others.
I think the fans are right when they justify a lot of Eva's content with Hideaki's upbringing and life. Like any great artist, his creations are based on his feelings and experiences, and that's what is beloved by the thousands of Eva fans. To him it might be meaningless since it might just come naturally to him to express himself in that medium, that's not the case for others.
Idk, I saw it when I was in puberty and it helped me getting through my worst part of teen angst and that's what the series meant to me too. Suddenly you get responsibilities, you're thrown in this world of stigma, dogma, religion and enemies where adults try to tell you how to cope with it, regardless of what you think/feel/want. They expect you to just "go with the flow" and when you refuse they'll just replace you. You're basically worthless in this society of machinery and every time someone comes along you can actually feel connected to, reaches out trying to save you they'll be crushed or erased from your life (Toji and Kaworu).
There's alot in these series I see meaning for but alas, Anno isn't one of them. He's just ridiculing because he knows everyone will listen to what he says and use it as a guide through the series, just like Dali was ALWAYS being weird in public because that's what he embraced. Bottom line is, your own interpretation is the most important as it shows to yourself who you are, what you feel and what you need. Peace&love, children.
Unless he died several times in between takes, his Rei impression sucks
Rei would have a long thoughtful pause then whisper 'subscribe.' 1/10 only paused
God damn it shinji get in the mech.
He does... almost every episode.
I believe having a creator telling you what their movies were really about it's almost like cheating. Our imaginations are better than that, so why give the answers? For me Rei, Asuka and Misato are one woman that was broken down into three, to show the complexity of Shinji to be accepted and accept while Kaworu is the ideal relationship in the safest way until well, everybody who watched NGE knows how that ended and I will say no more :). Like this clip!
I was obsessed with this channel when I was a calm 11 years old. I remember watching this vid wayyyy before I knew about NGE and it actually introduced me to the concept of ‘death of the author’! Anyway, I’m 18 now and I’ve just finished NGE and EoE and this video is so interesting!!
As a writer, I can say that art is up for intrepretation, if it means something to you other than it's intent, it doesn't mean your wrong, but rather you presive this art different. Infact, I find it beautiful, when this happens.
NGE's filled with symbolism, and every time I rewatch it, I get a different vibe- a different message from the last sitting. It's a great show and it makes me think that Anno must've been REAALLY lucky for having everything click. People really do hate on shinji, but the depression state he's always in and more so in the latter episodes I think doesn't make his character 'relatable', but makes you think that a normal human would be like him if put in the situation he was in. I read somewhere that Anno wrote most of the story for NGE whilst in depression, and the whole idea about each character being a different 'version' of his past was interesting. I'm just wondering how much NGE 4.44 will change everyones perspective of the show as a whole
meaningless? heck, Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably one of the deepest & most complex anime I've ever seen, that even nowadays sadly there's still no anime that can compare to such masterpiece!
Cowboy Bebop is better.
that's subjective.
I love CB but it's definitely not better. Maybe more fun?
Evangelion is not meaningless, but Anno likes to a) troll us and b) make us go for our own interpretations. Also I think it could be argued that Serial Experiments Lain is deeper
I don't think Lain is deeper per se, it's more parallel in that it's about another facet of identity. NGE is who am I in relation to you while Lain is who am I in relation to me.
Well the series itself is all about running away from reality and Shinji pressing the reset button to redo everything. I believe Anno is down playing everything intentionally because he doesn't want people to understand the series to 100%. Hell it's a theme in the series, you can't fully understand or know someone.
Shinji keeps restarting his universe until he's happy with the final outcome, but nobody can be 100% anything so it's an endless cycle of understanding and truths. That's the secret sauce behind Evangelion and Anno knows this. Speaking that out loud would defeat the whole purpose.
actually Christian symbolism was used because it was exotic, no depth there.
Fire Man That, I agree. It doesn't have much at all to do with the story but it sure does spice things up.
When has Shinji ever reset anything? His wish during instrumentality was for everyone to join together as a singular entity so that he won't feel the pain that comes with other people, but then he knows the error of his ways and gives people the chance to come back if they please. The world of Eva never reset. Unless you consider the manga's ending, but it was Yui who reset everything not Shinji.
@@vergil_6707 true...I think by redo or reset he means the connection between the Rebuilds and EoE allegedly being sequel...which are just made up Fan fiction...The Rebuilds are not a sequel to EoE...but many idiots think it is..Anno himself said its just a reboot of the series to introduce non EVA Fans to the franchise
I wish i could Report this comment for stupidity
You guys should check out Demolition D's (aka DouchebagChocolat)s video series where he compares the remakes to the original. He does a very good job in analyzing the series as a whole puts out some really good theories on why the NGE series is so deep, the original ones, that is.
That being said; Keep in mind that Anno was extremely depressed, in a very bad life situation while writing for NGE. And i think, as we all know, art is a way for an artist to express his feeling, his life at that moment.
The change in tone is very clear in the NGE remakes, especially considering Anno actually made the series after the great success which was NGE. Which in turn means, less stress, more money and so forth.
Torguish Agreed, Demo sums it up best.
Funny enough, Anno got depressed again during 3.0. Which is why we haven't seen the next installment.
Romano Coombs no, anno wants the money thats why he made the remakes
he has Even said that the remakes is everything he would made of the original series if he had the budged
no deeper meaning, no laughing in the otakus face, nothing
you guys are just desperated of finding meaning where it isnt
In popular art, the audience determines what's what. Good creators of popular art craft it so that everyone can interpret their own meaning from it.
I tend to agree. If the intent is to purposely leave things open to interpretations, it is perfectly fair that the audience does just that.
trenton9 I would take it one step further than that.
In traditional fine arts, the primary audience/customers are rich people. Since rich people don't want to be ripped off, they consult with art critics before making a purchase. Thus through most of human history art critics got to determine what is and isn't art.
In popular art, for obvious reasons, the audience (both as individuals and as a group) get to decide what is and isn't art. Thus with popular art, the interpretation of each individual viewer should be considered more important than the intention of the artist.
And before you ask, yes there is a third category of art in which the artist gets to decide what is and isn't art, but since it is not intended to appeal to you nor me nor art critics, it really doesn't matter for the purposes of this conversation.
Agreed.
I would say that the spiritual value of deciphering meaning from art (either as consumer or critic) comes down to a few questions. "Whose puzzle am I trying to decipher? The author's or my own?"
In other words, if the author says "the work meant nothing, I just threw it together," would the intellectual effort that went into assigning it meaning have been worthwhile?"
Sometimes the answer is "yes." Sometimes it's a definitive "no."
trenton9 Eh, where fine arts are concerned, I'm happy with the critics having the authority to decide what is and isn't art.
As long as that third category of art exists, then artists have a shelter to run to when the first tow kinds of art become too hard to deal with.
Yeah. That's the funny thing with fine arts (and it applies to other arts as well). When the orange dot in the middle of a completely white canvas somehow "represents the existential crisis of life" or something like that, I can't help laugh.
When creating meaningful art is this easy, it provides a lot of incentive for more people to "slap stuff together." I do agree that it's not such a bad thing. While the critics are distracted by the orange dot, the artist can take their art directly to the consumer, although that route can have it challenges too.
As an aspiring author, I view writing as a way to give people things to think about. I want to ask hard questions, and explore them from several possible angles and potential solutions. I would consider it a great success if I gave a reader an existential crisis, and then helped them crawl out of it and become a better person for it. But if someone just finds it entertaining, that's fine with me too. And I'm sure there will be plenty they can find out about my psychology, and if that's what they want, then that's fine too. Fiction is great this way; there is so much you can get out of it. So much more than any one person could have consciously thought of.
When it comes to the "Death of the Author" school of thought (which I subscribe to myself), the author's input is still important--as an interpretation still. It seems that when it comes down to it, any "authority" that an author has comes down to popular vote. One also must consider situations where the source material may not be consistent with itself (plot holes, etc.) or even desirable, requiring reconciliation on the part of the audience to compensate and make sense of it. In essence, the audience participates in creating an expanded universe of its own, and there have been times where fandoms have enforced throwing out stuff they don't like (see Fandom Discontinuity on TV Tropes).
The difference is how many people adopt the same interpretation that the author has.
A depressed guy goes through great deals of stress to produce an excellent piece of japanese anime that combines excellent action with dark and shocking psychological themes.
That's all I'm extracting from NGE. Nothing more, nothing less. I personally enjoy theory-crafting and "asspulling", just like wih Dark souls lore. I like ambiguous things, apparently "meaningless" symbolism. I like it when they put things for the cool factor, because there's always that added element of the unknown that keeps simple-minded men like me satisfied
Don't think there's anything wrong with being "simple-minded" either. Guess ignorance really is bliss, I wouldn't want to turn into an all-knowing knowledge-hungry youtube commenter over-analyzing the meaning of an anime
Agree.
+Gabe Deftoner AMEN.
This
Amen to that brother
Whenever people talk about how much mindfuck school days is, I remember Evangelion and think _Bitch, please_.
Naaaah School Days isn't a mindfuck (unless you gave Makoto too much alone time with your mind), School Days was just straight-up frustrating.
TDBTyler Exactly. I have no idea why any of my friends think that it's mindfuck.
I thought your original comment was talking about how much of a mindfuck a normal day at school would be for the average person.
Even if it was, it's still a case of 'Bitch Please, I dealt with Evangelion'.
So, this is less of a look on Evangelion, and more a crash course on New Criticism. I'm happy either way... :D
.."Does it matter.." According to Anno we aren't supposed to like Rei at all we are supposed to find to to creepy and even hate her. Anno still won't tell us what "L.C.L." means. NGE is a "Mecha Anime" what? a EVA is a cloned alien encased in armor piloted by a kid acting as it's nervous system.
look up the meaning for mecha. Mecha are giant machines controlled by humans. The Eva are A FORM OF MACHINE and ARE They not piloted by Humans. YESSSSSS. EVA are clone angel cyborgs, that still a MACHINE. THE biological body of animals and humans could be considered a MACHINE, they many different parts (organs) that all work together like a robot. SO, why is NGE not a Mecha Anime. Go watch The Vision of Escaflowne and rahxephon the biological mecha same as NGE
***** Have you seen Space Runaway Ideon. The series is kind of a predecessor to NGE. The Ideon has god like powers and has a mine of it own but has the form of a giant robot. It still a mecha. The Cybertronians are living, thinking giant robots, but some would them call the mecha. Lot of this info you give me , I know of. Evas may be clones of Adam and the Eva 1 may have the soul of Shinji's Mom, but answer me this. DO the Evas need the children to piloted them. If Yes, they are Mecha. Mecha can also be biosuits and Mega armor(iron man suit). Gainax makes mecha anime. NGE may be an analysis of the Mecha genre but it is still a mecha anime.
***** I never said that the Evas were just mecha, because the clearly not. Mazinger Z ,which is made by Go Nagai, may not be as meaningful as NGE but it did symbolize power and a what person could do with it. Go Nagai was also a big influenced on Anno. You can see lot of Go's Devilman, my favorite manga series of all time, in NGE. When you say NGE is not a mecha anime, you discredit the mecha genre. The mecha genre is a lot more than war drama, rocket punches, and big ass drills.
Yeah I Agree
LCL is literally man juice. lol
The anime as a whole rests six questions:
- Who am I?
- What is the meaning of life?
- Should I or should not I relate to other people?
- Should I take who I really am, or create a new identity?
- Life is worth being lived or not /
- It pays to face the anguish of making choices that determine my life?
Anno never said he wanted to hold a mere entertainment and if he wanted another mecha anime without philosophy. he never would engage in those scenes of introspection that make existential questions.
Thank you. You just solve my Literature Theory homework in five minutes.
Classical sociological theory for me :D thanks Mike. don't worry I sited your work
I miss this channel so much and Mike's takes.
It never matters what the artist says about their work, for once a piece of art is created, it takes on a life of its own.
I could shit into my hand, toss it on a canvas, and call it art with absolutely zero inspiration whatsoever and if you show it to 100 different people you will get 100 different answers to the question of why.
Ian Brown
What size canvas?
Why would you throw shit in a canvas
@@birdsamora9925 Just because. That 'just because' turns into the minds of people a work of art or shit creativity even though the artist just threw shit onto the canvas to be shit, nothing else.
I'm really surprised that Michael would list Big O among the first three shows that come to his mind if the mecha genre is brought up. Kudos for that, I guess.
I think that Anno must be a bit ignorant of his own actions and decisions, because at first glance (and when you read the stuff he says) it looks like just wings it and thinks that none of his work has any meaning, but I think it really does. There's one documentary online where he goes back to his hometown and teaches a class on Anime and Animation in general, and god, he's awkwardness incarnate. But nonetheless, the message the gives the kids on the last day is that they shouldn't expect all the answers to be given to them, and that nothing is completely black and white, and that it is important that they communicate with others through maybe writing or animating, as he does. So, I guess he really did give Evangelion meaning, and maybe he just didn't notice it. The series is infinitely complex, it amazes me as an adult just as much as it amazed children when it came out. There are videos and theories on about all aspects of the series, and it even seems Anno read some hardcore philosophy to aid in the writing of the series (google Hegel and End of Evangelion). He couldn't have just 'winged it', it's impossible. And if he did, then he's an even bigger genius than I thought.
He consciously gives Evangelion meaning. he just couldn't tell anyone without getting lost in interpretation, so he rather let's those eager to understand him empathize with him through his work.
One thing I definitely is important is to use the original text, so not the translation.
This relates to the biggest issue in the Eva series: the "How disgusting" line at the end of the movie. The original Japanese says something along the line of 'I don't feel well', which is _massively_ different from "How disgusting." Furthermore, would you accept the Italian translation, which literally translates to "This sucks." I doubt it.
So I would definitely recommend adhering to the original voice, not a translation, because you can't change the original author. Hell, I'm at least interested in Anno's voice, not some Italian- or English-speaker's voice.
kimochi warui
He voice the main character in Ghibli's The Wind Also Rises, just in case you're curious about his VA ability. :D
Anno implied that when it comes to a work, the authors word doesn't matter. What does matter is what the viewer got from the experience and their interpretation of said work, and I have to agree with that. Authors word isn't law, that's just a misconception.
the death of the author is an argument and a viewpoint, it is not a fact.
Fire Man I'm sorry, what's your point supposed to be? Do you not agree with the logic used in "death of the author"?
DarkChaos
the point is death of the author is not a hard fact, and has been rebuked before.
also, the dude in the video is confusing it with "New Criticism", as are most of the people in the comments.
Fire Man People have disagreed with it, but as far as I know, it hasn't been shown to be a poor argument by any means.
This "new criticism" is a term I'm unaware of. Perhaps you would like to explain it, yes?
+DarkChaos
New Criticism is where "the author doesn't have a say in his work" comes from.
The original treatise on the death of the author never went that far, because going that far is dumb, it never actually stayed the author's views don't matter.
Evangelion is my favorite piece of fiction, and I can't put into words why. I am just constantly drawn back to watching it over and over again. Eh, to each their own. It's my favorite, but I'm not going to build it up as the best thing ever. I'll just continue loving it for as long as I live.
I don't think what the author says has to matter. A text is not just one thing, it's as many things as there are people to take in the text. Every person will interpret a piece of media differently depending on who is doing the interpreting, because no one has the same experiences. To Hideaki Anno, there is no meaning to NGE; however, as long as there are people watching it, NGE is always going to hold some meaning to someone, and it'll always have different interpretations, and there are always going to be people that find symbolism whether they were meant to be there or not.
Good for you, you got the message of the video.
Anno not randomly put issues such as loneliness inauthenticity and aversion himself without any sense.
He likes to address detemrinados themes and colocu in Evangelion purposely.
Text Hideki Anno analyzing Hayao Miyazaki:
There are too many painful things for people to go on living in reality.
Thus, _humans_run_and_hide_in_dreams_.
_They_watch_films_as_entertainment_
Animation, as a means to enjoy everything in a pure, fake world, is a
realization of dreams and has become entrenched in film.
In short, it is a thing where _even_coincidences_are_arranged_ and _everything_
judged cinematically unnecessary _can_be_excized_.
The negative feelings of the real world are no exception.
If the director so desires, even malice toward others could be introduced
straight into film.
I guess that's one of the attractive things about anime.
_Changing_the_tribulation_of_reality_into_dreams_ and conveying that to the
people...is that what our work is?
For the sake of people who forget reality until the bill comes due, who
_want_to_devote_themselves_to_happy_fallacies_.
I guess that's our job in the entertainment and service sector.
One of the distinctive features of Studio Ghibli's works is that, _even_if_
_there_are_obsessive_actions_,_there_are_things_which_appear_to_have_not_
_forfeited_their_goal_.
Forfeiting ones goal leads to despair, and is a sickness that can prove fatal.
I wonder if Miya-san and his people are familiar with that feeling of despair.
Perhaps they don't want to show that anguish to other people.
I think they specifically don't want to display the negative things called
self-loathing and complexes to others.
That's why Studio Ghibli's works can't show anything but superficial happiness
and a reproduction of reality with all the dirty things omitted. A fiction
that imitates reality, and nothing more than a single dream.
I suppose that is the governance of entertainment.
And I think that that is one of the reasons that Studio Ghibli's works are
_safely_watchable_,_brand_name_creations_.
I have no intention of denying that.
All of Studio Ghibli's works are top level creations.
But, _I_can't_help_but_feel_that_something_is_missing_.
This is because, although the technique is there, _I_can_no_longer_feel_
"blood", _the_"blood"_ that is surely flowing within everyone.
I wonder when that happened?
Studio Ghibli's works have, for me, become things that doesn't possess the
image of "Anime", but rather of the so-called Japanese cinema, in other
words, the Japanese movies that have now lost all their energy.
That may be the reason that I _feel_that_something_is_missing_.
By the way,
Mr. Miyazaki Hayao and Mr. Itano Ichirou are those I consider my teachers.
I brag and say that _I'm_probbaly_the_only_one_in_the_world_ with that
combination.
_I_was_greatly_influenced_, not just in the technical points of the animation
craft, but _in_the_mental_portion_of_filmmaking_.
My posture on filmmaking is nothing more than an attempt to hang on to the
things I learned from the two of them.
_I_have_nothing_but_words_of_gratitude_for_both_of_them_.
When I helped out as an animator for "Nausicaa", there's something that
Miya-san often told me.
It seems to have come from a Chinese sage, but "There are three conditions for
_accomplishing_something_.
Those are: '_Being_young_', '_Being_poor', and '_Being_unknown_'."
And, "_No_matter_what_,_make_friends_."
So I was taught. This was more than 12 years ago.
Yes, I've known Miya-san approximately 12 years.
In that time, I think Miya-san has achieved various things.
However, _he_also_lost_many_things_.
I think supporting a studio, that is, _fighting_to_protect_the_organization_
_against_ruin_, _is_painful_as_it_piles_up. A staff that strongly depends
on you is also a double-edged sword.
The height of the brand-name image and weight of the pressure from the world
which prevents you from announcing even a short film without hiding your head
under the excuse of it being an "experiment".
_However_,_I_feel_that_he_is_still_trying_to_obtain_something_new_.
Is that trying to throw away the past?
But could that be the _fate_of_those_who_go_on_making_films_?
In any case, _he_is_a_person_of_deep_craft_regarding_his_desires_.
Finally, _I'm_looking_forward_to_"Mononoke_Hime",_the_latest_in_the_series_of_
_seven_works_stretching_from_his_masterpiece_"Nausicaa"_(the_movie)_.
No, I'm serious.
Postscript. Yesterday, when I was in a state of mental collapse after my
latest work had ended, I was moved deep within my heart by an encouraging
phone call I received. The words of concern proceeding from the receiver
became joy on my end as, with a exaltant face, my whole body was buoyed. In
secret, I rejoiced in receiving some recognition for myself. Thank you from
the bottom of my heart.
.
keyframe.cjas.org/~mneideng/trans/misc/annoghib.txt
Like evangelion, life has no meaning. Deal with it
After watching this I feel a little less confused about the ending scene of "2001: a space odissey"... and evangelion too
This version of post-structuralism/interpretation of Derrida only works if you accept there is, in fact, some transcendental idea the “text” (in this case being literally everything) is conveying. Good argument for the transcendent!
Post modernism is lame. Without authorial intent, I can believe that Evangelion is about super marshmallow bear cats, and you have absolutely no basis to tell me otherwise. It's a recipe for chaos.
Thank you
Maybe Anno's intent is Evangelion being actually about Marshmallow bearcats. I think he chose to remain a bit secretive about it knowing it may challenge his credibility in this day and age where people cannot fully appreciate Marshmallow bearcats for what they truly are.
This video taught me how to think.
When an artist sells, shares or gives their art away they are giving a part of themselves to the world. That world can interpret the piece of art however they wish, but that also means that the meaning behind it will get distorted with time. Some artists really struggle with success, because their creations are a part of them. When people misinterpret something you've created it can be frustrating but by sharing your work you have to accept it. It can just seem pretentious or irritating because you never made your work to be that.
The argument of low budget is ridiculous. If NGE really wanted to be like any other mecha, they could have just ended one last episode and put all their effort into it, with amazing effects. They didn't. Also, EoE ties in perfectly with the earlier episodes, so there must have been a degree of planning.
that rei impression was so moe. you are such a moe man
I think in some cases no, simply because the author may or may not accidentally put in elements of his or her self that he or she may not be aware of. In short they may end up putting elements from their subconsciousness, this kind of idea is most commonly seen in drawings and paintings. As someone who paints I see this a lot after finishing an image, which can also help you learn a bit about yourself. Some ideas about an individual just can' be summarized into words in a simple manner.
You should do Madoka Magica.
Would that be over soul-crushing fans and characters, or on taking genres in different directions? Or would it be over the durability of fan bases?
Does smurfs have anything to do with communism
Sometimes.
Anno has(from what I've found) admitted to using his life as... inspiration(?) for some of the characters, and what is expressed in the last episode is, more or less, how one recovers from a depression, but just about anything beyond this, especially if it's religious, really doesn't have much meaning.
You skip over the longest runnin mecha show gundam how its been on about 30 years
Yeah, when Gundam is not an "Gung-ho kill the bad guys good show". Hell, not even "MacrOss" is an anime like that.
I really enjoyed watching NGE, and it was the first non kiddy anime I ever saw. That said, as much as I enjoyed it, it annoyed me too. I couldn't stand Shinji. It made no sense to me, and the multiple endings made even less sense.
Nice to know there was nothing to make sense of, at least according to the author.
No it had a coherent story line (somewhat). The director was just commenting on the fact that there was no deeper meaning behind it.
Well it was a messed up show.
I could relate to Shinji however, since I find me and him somewhat familiar...
I've always waited for a moment in English class when we read a book with all sorts of deeper meaning & other stuff, only to find out that the author wrote it one day because he was bored (or high). This hasn't happened yet, but this video gives me hope.
This is inaccurate, and the quotes were taken out of context. Of course he plotted out the overall plot, we know he did. Just look at how carefully everything is set up and foreshadowed. It would be more accurate to say that the story organically evolved over time. As for a search for meaning, a lot of the producers have said a lot of different things. It's a mixed bag. Some of the imagery, such as the crosses that appear after an angels death, mean nothing. Other symbols, such as the doll imagery, are incredibly important to the characters, and has symbolic meaning.
As for death of the author, it's nothing new. It's an old concept and, dare I say it, outdated. A work of art is birthed from a place, time, and-yes-a person. To try and disconnect those things is to do a disservice to the work in question. How could you separate Dante's Inferno from it's author? You can't. Eva is a meta-narrative connected to the authors mindset. To disconnect the authors intentions is to lose some of the meaning of the work. Death of the Author can never produce the kind of literary criticism that traditional methods provide.
A teenager who is tasked to save the World with a Giant robot? Yeah that was really original. Don't tell the creators of Gundam that though. They beat this series to that punch by 16 years. Angst and all. Don't get me wrong this show is nothing short of amazing, but it couldn't more similar to Gundam if it tried. The only difference between the main characters is the color of their hair. Aside from that they look practically identical, and act exactly the same.
***** Yeah it was cool. However, it was very derivative.
"it couldn't more similar to Gundam if it tried"
It did try. The whole series is a parody/deconstruction of the mecha genre.
400KrispyKremes "Yeah it was cool" I think that says a lot about your understanding of the series.
real quick thing fam, lets not relate Eva to Gundam, because gundam focuses on people to people conflict, showing the tragedy of war and the interactions between good people on both sides.
Evangelion is a man vs self / man vs nature kind of story, the angels were a force of nature, but the true conflicts in the show were within the minds of the children.
Eva didn't try to be like Gundam, it didn't try to be anything really, it was just existing.
I'm someone who really enjoys both as for the various things I do with them, Gundam has paved the way for animation now, because before Gundam, everyone was just good vs evil, and the good guys win, end of story. But that should not discredit any other animation that comes after it, Eva sure wasn't a masterpiece, but it was interesting in its own right.
Nothing matters, and everything is important. You interpret a part of yourself from the works and any outside info on the works. Evangelian as well as any piece of art you see means what you want it to mean given the specific context you have on it and yourself. But like all things it has no inherit meaning or value.
Technically not even a Mecha ... cause they aren't robots lol
Evangelion was and is a brilliantly daring piece of work. Nothing in the Mecha genre is half as great.
The input of the author isn't important when interpreting a work, but it can open your eyes to aspects of the work which you may have overlooked. But at any rate, the words of an author are not equivalent to the word of God; it's more like an interesting side commentary.
This is rather interesting. I've been wondering for a while now, when we quote a character in a novel or TV series are we citing the character or the author? For instance, In the Harry Potter novels, Dumbledore says some rather profound things, things that have impacted my life, but who deserves the credit for the wisdom? The author because they wrote the line? The character because they inspired the line in the the author themselves? Or myself because of my interpretation....and because i'm awesome?
I would highly recommend people read Roland Barthes's 'Death of the Author' essay. It is highly liberating to not feel the need to look for authorial intent for an answer but to see it as an alternate interpretation or to perhaps inform your own view of it. I thought it was telling, though, that in this video there's a point when it's suggested that 500 years ago it would have seemed important what the author thought. Not so! The hinging of understanding something by looking to the author for a 'bottom-line' is actually a more modern phenomena; the author's 'vision' was felt to be much less important centuries ago. This is why creators like Shakespeare were able to borrow so liberally from texts without people calling bullshit. He uses a bunch of Plutarch's historical texts, for instance, in writing Antony and Cleopatra; it serves no grand unified authorial goal, only as substance for the setting and characterisation. A substantive narrative is too tightly-packed to be comfortably explained with a bottom-line, or single explanation; it is its own explanation.
This. I've never read the essay itself in full, but I'm well-aware of its contents, and never really understood people who don't find their own meaning in things. I think that its often interesting to learn about what the author intended, if anything, because it can help with understanding context, but I don't at all think you should let what they say invalidate your experience or appreciation of a work. I feel kind of sad for people who desperately want answers about meaning from the authors of their media - it makes me wonder if they have trouble finding their own meaning in the things the experience, and feel forced to look to other people to tell them what to think or feel.
In a universe of many animes, few have a meaning. Most entertainment is and only. Not Evangelion is an anime that has a psychological portrait of Japanese society. Evas, Angels and Kabbalah are a backdrop for this portrait of Japan that is grounded in the philosophy.
No one seeks meaning in Mirai Nikki, Dragon Ball, Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2. These are for fun anime Evangelion exception to the rule because it has a depth and intense psychological portrait.
Plutarch wanted to only perform a biography of Cleopatra and Mark Antony and not to use their chronic philosophical reflections.
I find it strange how so many people are opposed to the idea that their interpretation of a work of art doesn't have to coincide with the author's intent. It just boggles my mind why anyone would deny themselves the freedom of interpretation and instead make themselves slaves to the author's shadow.
The final line of the essay sums it up perfectly: "the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author."
Shrapnel if a message speaks to you in a different way from the way author, it doesn't mean what u got from it is a false experience. To learn a lesson from a lecture that didnt intend you to learn that specific lesson doesn't mean you didnt learn anything. It's not about putting yourself above the author. Its individualism. It's not narcissistic, it's not discrediting the author. Art doesn't have one specific meaning.
I'm very much of two minds on this. First off, NGE to me is meaningless drivel packed to the gills with symbolically significant images taken without regard for any of their actual meaning, or how it relates to the narrative of the anime. The show is about as narratively meaningful as a Jackson Pollock painting, the bumps on a wall... or a Rorschach test. But in a way, that illustrates exactly the point you're trying to make. If there is meaning, it is because we bring meaning to it. And you know what? That's alright. If something has meaning to you, then more power to you. Just don't be surprised when not everyone gets it. No one can tell you that something can't or shouldn't have meaning to -you-. By the same token, you can't entirely proclaim something a work of genius to someone who derives no meaning from it. You can try to explain why it has meaning to you, and that may spark meaning in it for them, but for some people, a bunch of Judeo-christian symbols stuffed into an anime is never going to carry any weight whatsoever.
no.
No?
its subversive and personal , like taking a dump , but it is a rainbow dump of catharsis, sure the symbology is more like sym-BOLICKS! but its still the best ! sure it poops on its fans with a) anti otaku , and b) lack of substance of religious symbolics, but in the end you paid money ! they have your money! but I love it I see it as the best show in existence!! most shows suck in my opinion!
And you know what, you're entitled to that opinion of the anime. I certainly don't argue that it has its merits, and I think that catharsis is one of them. For myself, it just doesn't work, and there are anime that give me a greater sense of catharsis while being more satisfying for my personal tastes. Madoka is another example of a show that is cathartic, but in the end... too unpleasant for me to care to watch with any kind of frequency. I don't have a problem with an extreme roller coaster of emotions, but if a roller coaster leaves its passengers black and blue, it's not going to get a lot of repeat passengers.
As a brief survey of the comments shows, people do not like ambiguity.
I feel like Anno is the George Lucas of anime. He just doesn't quite get what he made.
+Mike Cunningham He gets it more than most people
Except Anno didn't make anything as bad as the Star Wars prequels.
Your Local Smartass At least they're watchable and enjoyable at the very best. They're solid action movies with good animation and music. The prequels... not so much.
Ouch that hurt Well! Rian Johnson literally Gainaxed Star Wars. Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi has created two factions from those who are ultimately unsatisfied with the new lore and point of the Jedi-Sith rivalry; and the ones who were greatly entertained with a new philosophical direction of Star Wars.
Your Local Smartass Nope! I said “gainaxed”, not gainaxing (also refer as the Gainax physics)
I think understanding authorial intent is important in interpreting a work, however I also think it's important to understand that "authorial intent" is an interpretation to begin with. Like, you can disagree with what the creator himself says to form your own interpretation, but only because you think his intent was unconscious, not because the work is something that exists without an author.
Evangelion is Anno's life. I'm sure there are some things that ordinary people don't understand.
It's not just about robots or the Bible. but about the life of a child who is suddenly burdened with burdens and sufferings.
Eva is a medicine for those who cannot accept the truth in this world. can't grow up to be an adult like me.
When you're in a bad time And at the lowest point, you'll understand. What will Anno say.
He was depressed and almost killed himself. But in the end, he was able to finish Evangelion. I was very impressed
But it technically isn't a mech anime....spoilers....
y u do dis. It really adds on to the show though.
I agree with anno, y'all are digging WAYYYYYYYYY too deep into that bullshit
Whatever gets you through the day.
t. The one guy that does not get it.
I always find it funny when someone says something like that "You're reading too much into it" and stuff like that.
There are many reasons why people do. One is that it can be fun to philosophize over media you like. It's fun to draw parallels and analyze.
Another is that sometimes, authors DO put hidden things in their work so that we can analyze and discover, even though they may say otherwise.
I thought it was just a story about coming of age and self acceptance. Learning that it's hard to love others if you don't love yourself.
Anime and Derrida, I can dig.
He keeps showing clips form the clap ending. It's the worst ending ever!
Maybe to avoid any extra spoilers, or because he likes it?
the clap ending is one of the best because it leave to the audience to find a meaning in it, and if you think enough you will find more in it than in the ending shown in the movie, since the "clapping ending" is how shinji instrumentaly happened.
I loved the ending. Shinji became a better person and no longer hated himself, and the congratulations scene felt really empowering to me
Awesome Actually the ending just show that shinki has learned nothing and the congratulation scene serve to show that shinji still need the attention and adoration of others in order to feel good about himself.
by taking every ending in NGE you get that shinji have not evolved at all since the beggining, no character has, and that's the moral. at least to me, that no one is perfect and that we will aways need other to valued our existence, the ending of EOE shows that shinji is afraid of being alone, reason why he stops the instrumentality and not killing asuka in the end even with all the bad fellings he has angainst her in the finally, and cuminates exactly with the end of the NGE with the clapping scene and the fact that he brough everyone to he's mind in order to be praised by them. About the death of the author thing I never really though about it because to me things aways had a "right" way to be seen, once removed all extra knowledge and taking what is presented by itself, and of course I agree that it is subjective and that is the reason NGE aflame discussions 'till this day. Also as a final note I do not agree that the EVAs had the spirit of shinji or asuka mother or whatever is in reis one, to me the EVAs are live biological organism who have a mind of they on but do not have it for complete, as seen in some episodes that show that our mind is compost of a variety of mind and not just one, and the sync rate is how much of the pilot mind is open to the EVAs mind makng they 4 minds in 2 bodys instead os 1 mind in one body and 3 in another.
What really got me when I watched it as a teenager was the idea that there are many "I"s. There is the "I" that I know, and there are "other me"s on other people hearts, and we are afraid of those "other me"s, and we will until we choose to accept them as incomplete parts of ourselves. This series is the real series inside the heart of it's creators, but the Evangelion we carry in our hearts is still as valuable and real. And this is true because the series itself tells us exactly that.
you guys are looking too deep into it. especially this video.
I saw NGE, I am happy that I watched through the series and movies. I enjoyed large parts of it. Would I reccomend it to my friends or family? HELL NO!
I hated Evangelion mostly because of the show's insufferable fans. Then I read Hideaki Anno's commentary about the show and started to like it, I even looked forward to the remakes. Audiences always try to hijack a show with their headcanon and fanfic. It's some sad substitute for religion and Hideaki Anno refused to become a cult leader. I respect that.
Ya this pretty much explains why Evangelion 3.33 is a piece of shit
CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS
I think most things in life, be it life itself and the things that happen in it, or works, like music or in this case this anime, are open to interpretation. Just because he might have a certain interpretation of what the show is supposed to say, or what we should or shouldn't take away from the show, doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have my own personal perspective. Personally I interpret evangelion in a few ways that to me are very meaningful, but to someone else might be totally meaningless and useless. That's fine, but it has meaning to me and that's what matters.
Here's an idea: This channel is all about rambling meaninglessly about made-up issues regarding popular things, resulting in its videos showing up in the suggested videos of anyone who searches for or watches videos regarding that popular thing. The end result? To generate money (ad revenue) without doing something as bold as expressing any actual opinion regarding that thing.
I mean, sure, congratulations on finding a way to basically print RUclips money with next to no effort expended on your own part. But there's something exceedingly fishy about this sort of thing.
Well in a sense I can see where you going however the channels name suggests it will revolve around ideas not opinions. And ideas can revolve around anything it being popular or not. But im not gonna judge because everybody is entitled to their own opinion. With that being said have a good day.
But he doesnt own any of the NGE Content he showed in his Video, so unless they gave him permission, he should not be able to make a Cent off this Video.
These videos are not made for expressing opinions, but to get others to actually think on their own about the topic. I believe that's better.
"Death of the author" is cancer.
I guess it just depends on who's watching it. I would prefer to have the concept that the creator had intended to be portrayed known. I find it/found it (when watching NGE) really annoying to have ambiguity in characters actions. I guess it makes for an interesting subgenre, but I prefer to have opinions about how plot lines are going to end up and then have them actually resolved in the end... something NGE didn't do. I felt like I wasted my time watching it.
Of cause they were surprised that Evangelion was a hit, they expected it to fail so they can claim it as a tax right-off.
That myth has been disproven long ago.Had Evangelion flopped completely Gainax would have crashed and burned with it. The reason they were surprised with it becoming a massive hit was how unconventional it was. Like Anno said in the quote used in the video: all the characters are “sick”.
my mind is fucked.
just fucked.
Again.D:
All anime is deeply textural because it is a holograph. The anime ensemble as a pantheon is so similar that the differences become the story or comment it could be making. Remember that the trio of Japan, Germany and Italy is represented in Herlock, Eva, 009 ... Although Italy is not clearly represented the third character is almost always a construct of man or magic or whatever mystery is churning the plot. This is more than a set of tropes. This is a clear voice from the nation that has been made by the YES vote of popularity.
The above goes without saying that the human mind is the most prolific story tell ever. From clouds to numbers to weather conditions, we interpret to story, meaning and synchronicity.
Psssh... if you want an actual story go watch Madoka.
I watch Eva for the symbolism and the metaphor of growing up and the "Stop being a fucking otaku and go outside and make friends and possibly even make a girlfriend. - Hideaki Anno"
LOL just saw you on demo's comment section
Dude you too!
OMG friends? :D
SAY YES DAMN IT >:D
Yes, friends 4 life.
It matters what the creator says. The show is not good, even the creator acknowledges it. Everything deep about it is created by the fans who invent meaning where there is none.
The fans are simply dumb. Evangelion is no more deep than Dragon Ball or Pokemon.
Aku no hana fan too?
Ariel Baron Yes, it's pretty good.
John Red
There's so many weeaboos that want to hate the show for the Ralph Bakshi-esque take on the manga. I find it refreshing from the usual Japanese shows. I hope the director does Jun Abe's Portus next. Want to see a creepy adaptation of that one.
NGE is superflat. It's meaningless is the meaning. BUT the whole religious simbolism and psychological adds layers of interpretation which are not wrong. I suspect Anno knew such interpretations (at least the "psy" ones) were possible and went with it.
Connecting this with the video describes Derrida's and Barthes' ideas... we got something going on
What I meant is that NGE is a "superflat" anime (yes, the japanese art movement).
It's deconstruction is it's deepest meaning. The fact it has multiple readings (at least two of them enabled by the show itself - the religious and the psicological ones) but ultimately doesn't hold to neither of them shows taht
You should do a video about this theme: Are memes becoming a means of communication?
We've all seen photo comments, even Facebook introduced them nowadays. And on a lot of those comments, people are basically having a wordless communication (except for captions on pics), just using memes, both gifs and other formats. I also communicate in this way, and I find it quite fun and exciting. If you see this, can you please do a vid on this?
It was a show about alien things being punched in the jaw and it has a shit ending.
There we go?
IRONY: Evangelion was actually meant as an anti-mecha to kill the mecha genre because he hated it and it's formulaic nature. He sought to bury it which is was why Evangelion is de-constructive.
I think that even if an author doesn't intend for his work to have 'meaning' at the time he wrote it, that any work, in itself, can indeed provide deep insight into the deep thoughts of the author himself, and therefore carry a lot of meaning regardless (For example, I always figured the whole Human Instrumentality thing with humankind merging with its 'mother', Lilith, hinted that maybe Anno was under such stress at the time that he subconsciously wished to return to his mother's womb).
K, seriously, where the hell can I find the last episode of Evangelion drawn in Sharpie?
So that was exactly what the internet has needed for about 19 years.
I think for determining what is and isn't canon, the author's input is meaningful, and usually but not always the final word on the matter. I also think the author's view of the meaning of their work is important, but not at all final, since we all find our own meaning in our interpretations that are just as valid for ourselves even though they may not be valid for others.
Everyone hates Shinji, but in all fairness, he has a dead mother and a father who abandoned him. He lived a meaningless life for several years, then has the pressure of trying to save the world. Additionally, every time the Evangelion is injured in a fight, Shinji feels its pain more and more vividly depending on his synchronization ratio. All those times he was shot at, or limbs ripped off, or punched across the screen, he felt it. So really, all you people who think he's a wuss, and think it would be awesome to pilot an Eva, you have to consider how traumatic it is. I appreciate Eva because it does what pretty much no other anime does. It creates fragile breakable characters that are actually affected by the terrors they face.
As an actor and theatre maker, i have always believed in the death of the author. The first thing i do when i get a script is look for how it relates to me. After that i meet with directors and other actors and see what they have found in the script. We then work together to unite these different versions of the same script into something we can show an audience. We may have meaning we want to get across to the audience but as soon as the performance is over we move on to the next show. We may read reviews but once it's over we are moving on and forget about it. Once we have done our part performing the script we have to leave it up to the audience to find the meaning with it . What the audience find is beyond our control and as such is not relevant to us. It depends on the experience of those who see the production as to what they can take from the performances, experience defines a lot of what we see within performance and texts, it is all about how it relates to us. As we are all so different with so many different experiences we cannot rely on our own interpretation being the same as someone else all we can do is present what we see and hope our ideas come across.
This was the anime that brought the third impact to the golden era of anime. Since then, there is some influence of evangelion in pretty much every anime now…. I can’t watch any modern anime without thinking, ‘Evangelion did it first!’.
It can be a good thing to take the creator's ideas into consideration when making your own thoughts on a certain piece of work. BUT this should not be the ultimate thing that forms your decision. The beautiful thing about art is that it is open to any interpretation that you feel towards it. Often, whatever is most relevant in your own life is what laid on top of the media, because that is the nature of the beast. Because art is ALWAYS made with a piece of the creator, whether the creator is aware or not, it feeds on emotions continually surviving the more people that lay their own stories on top of what is presented.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is much deeper than Deathnote.
Anno obviously dedicated Eva to psychoanalysis. Mans a Freud nerd. I think his Eva is “meaningless” statement is about the true message of the show. In quite a positive way
As someone who writes, the readers may interpret something we didn't intend to put. Ideology is usually the reason for this. We may be poking at something like the economy, disorders, and relationships but we don't always know because it's our ideology. It's fun to look deep into a story but it's not always fun to talk about it with others because it's not always easy to prove your interpretation. What's wonderful about writing and art is, it doesn't have to be perfect but is still powerful.
I would say that the authors opinion is crucial.However it is not the only influence on canon.
I think that the author's viewpoint is important in some aspects, such as revealing interesting things about characters that people might not have known before. Having certain things confirmed "by word of God" is always interesting. An author can often tell you things about characters or plot that they didn't state outright in the show (relationships in Tiger & Bunny for example). This means that they are another source of information about the thing you have interest in, which is a valuable resource for any fan to have.
When it comes to the actual meaning of a show, however, they can give no more input on it than anyone else can. That is because while they are the creator, the thing they made is more than just a work. Each person will experience it individually, so really the creator's thoughts are just another person's experience of the creation. While they can explain the original intent of their work, and perhaps even work to shape perceptions of it, it's up to each person to figure out what it means to them. That is what makes a story great.
the perfect comment
1. make a statement
2. defend statement with facts and sources
3. state the arguments against your argument
4. disprove disproving argument
5. end statement with well thought out ambiguous end statement
If the author didn't have any deep meaning to convey he would not have tried to ocnvey it 3 times over a quarter of a century.
What is missing aa Shinji and Asuka is to overcome the void, nothingness that permeates human existence. Asuka still in the series tried to approach Shinji to overcome his failure, but failed, but shinji afraid of pain, preferred to econder and used music and other media (such happy memories) not to think on your empty and how much he needed someone. Only at the end he sought Asuka, later he sought.
What is the anguish of being in the world? It is the anguish that comes from the awareness of anything. It is the anguish that results from the uncomfortable situation of being in front of anything. Now, thrown violently absurd world to die, we are taken by the nauseating feeling of nothing. Prisoners in a random and contingent existence devoid of purpose and meaning, not escape the suffocating experience of emptiness. So ingrained by visceral presence of nowhere, we are overwhelmed by the anguish of being in the world.
At the sight of his nothing, the man intends to fill up your empty with fun. Since the sensible pleasures are fleeting, it will always remain unsatisfied. The happiness he finds in the end of your desires is just an illusion that puts you in front of his misery condition. To enjoy the temporary home conquered by the satisfaction of his passions, he ends up encountering with your empty. Confronted by his existential nothingness, man diverts account of himself. Launches himself out of himself rather than face their tragic situation of abandonment in the world.
This means that man seeks home without being able to enjoy the rest. It draws home for not rest. Now, why he can not stand in idle status? When the man gets the desired rest, it is inert. In the face of his inactivity, he is referred to his "empty trace". In other words, immobility from the rest triggers your "brand of nowhere" that causes distress and annoyance. Thus, to escape the nauseating feeling of boredom and despair, man seeks home to again search the home.
Since carry the "mark of nothing", what we do to fill our inner emptiness? According to Pascal, we seek to fill our existential void with fun. The term fun has a military nature: means divert the enemy offensive through strategic maneuvers; dodge the onslaught of opponents through war tactics. To prevent the warlike attacks otherwise army, the commander drew a ploy to shift the attention of opponents. That is, planning a military operation to change the direction of rival legion.
As well as on the battlefield, Pascal argues that we adopt actions to divert our attention to our existential misery. To escape the confrontation with our inner anything, we shift our vision for the fleeting pleasures. We seek to fill our inner void with fleeting distractions. Occupying the impermanent life with entertainment, turn away our view of our tragic condition of finitude. Aiming to shake the feeling of absurdity that triggers boredom and despair, turn to the ephemeral leisure masking our free and contingent existence.
Thus, the fun would be a means of diverting our view to our "empty trace". We found the fun an illusory way out of our "brand from nothing." Through fun, we are not taken by the feeling of distress caused by the absence of meaning and purpose in the world or were afflicted with our inability to know our origin and our destiny. It is no coincidence that both enjoyed "the noise and bustle."
Pascal believes that man has inscribed in his being "the mark of nothing." It carries the "empty trace" that lays bare its failure and its impotence to morally indifferent universe. Before the eternal silence of the unspeakably violent world, he realizes the gratuity and the randomness of existence. Overwhelmed by the vastness of nature that reveals its insignificance, he is unable to understand the principle and its end. But without finding a universal and absolute metaphysical foundation to justify their contingent existence, he has just invaded by boredom and despair.
Love is also the central character of the Danish Soren Kierkegaard and not only the anguish work, in his book "The Works of Love", he tells us that love believes all things, but never deceives because, like the distrust and skepticism , love knows that knowledge is not able to support anything other than nihilism, cynicism and despair.
Love is a moral affection, not an act of reason. The reason does not justify life. Love is a choice of investment in life, an attitude, even if the reason proves the lack of ultimate meaning of everything.
After the third impact, suka and shinji will hit.
It is a metaphor insufficient human and its impotence to morally indifferent universe, one needing the other.
In the end, Asuka and shinji noting that are in an indifferent universe to them without fun (ways to cheat and not think his empty) and that one has the other in life. They need each other to overcome the emptiness of his existence.
Jean Paul tl;dr
In my opinion, I dont think Anno can ever give the answers the fans want, so what he says doesn't matter too much. I recall reading somewhere that Anno has said that while directing the original Evangelion series, he was frequently in and out of varying levels of depression and at points was not really knowing what he was doing. Therefore, looking back he probably cant recall his mindset at certain times during production and has no idea what he was up to at those points. He claims to have put aspects of his life and thoughts about life in NGE, but how he was interpreting these at the time (in and out of depression) I bet even he doesn't know.
He could also be just deliberately not saying much to keep fans talking about his series and generating continual publicity about it.... Who knows...