Abraham, Jesus and Shinji panel at Anime USA
By The Eva Monkey on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
Believe it or not, the last time I went to an Evangelion panel at an anime convention as a regular attendee was way back in 2002, before I had even begun this website. Usually, I’m either hosting, or co-hosting, otherwise I just am not able to get to them. This has been the case at Otakon once or twice in recent history, where I was unable to attend Alex Leavitt’s “Impact of Evangelion” due to staffing obligations. It’s not a big deal, but I am always disappointed to miss an opportunity to see what other people are doing in the panel scene.
That said, I was very pleased to be able to see Charles Dunbar (of Study of Anime) deliver his most recent incarnation of his Evangelion religion panel, “Abraham, Jesus and Shinji” (previously known as “Abraham, Jesus and Shinji”) at this year’s installment of Anime USA. The panel is more about religious references, and what they originally meant, as opposed to a explanation of what they mean within the context of the show. The tail end of the panel did include some analysis along the lines of Stephen Chung’s “Analysis of Evangelion Characters According to the Sephiroth Tree of Life“, which (while subjective) was not without reason or merit.
I didn’t agree with all points raised in the panel, which is not that unheard of when dealing with Evangelion, but overall the panel was a very enjoyable survey of the religious substance of Evangelion, and I sincerely hope that Charles continues to improve and offer the panel at conventions in the future. I believe that it’s a panel that new and old fans alike will enjoy sitting in on.