Author: John Oppliger
Source: Anime Nation
Dated: August 10th, 2001
Question:
I've seen most of the Evangelion episodes, yet I do not know what they represent or mean. Could you please explain.
Answer:
Without going into extensive detail, Evangelion, and especially the final two TV
episodes (which do provide an excellent conclusion if you understand the point of the
show) are not about angels or giant robots. Evangelion is a very philosophical, very
Japanese show in the regard that it's about interpersonal relationships, the boundaries of
the self and the essential nature of mankind. Consider that virtually every character in
the series has somehow flawed or incomplete relationships, ranging from Shinji who's lost
his mother and has no connection to his father, to secondary characters like Maya who
harbors an unfulfilled attraction to Ritsuko. Especially in Japanese society, in which
social relations are highly formalized and intimate relationships are considered something
that should remain private and out of the public eye, the characters of Evangelion
represent both imperfect Japanese social interaction, and the ultimately limited social
nature of humankind.
Based on the post-structuralist linguistic theories of thinkers including Ferdinand de
Saussure and Jacques Derrida, language, and by extension, life and existance, are
structured by relationships to other things. From this theory comes the signifier and
signified. The "signifier" is an arbitrary "sound" or "word"
used to identify a "signified," a concept or thing. The signifier is totally
arbitrary, and the signified has no meaning without its signifier. Essentially, to
paraphrase and expand on Shakespeare, according to Saussure, a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet, but we wouldn't be able to comprehend the rose or the smell without
signifiers to represent the relationship we comprehend between the "rose" and
the "smell" and "ourselves." Furthermore, "signs" and
"signifiers" only exist and have meaning in contrast to other "signs"
and "signifiers." A tree is only a tree because it's not a cat. And we recognize
a tree only because our minds create the "sign" for "tree" instead of
the "sign" for "cat." This means that all existance is defined by
opposition and rejection and the violence of separation.
How this relates to Eva comes in the Human Instrumentality Project. Humans are by nature
limited because of the boundaries of our bodies and minds. It's impossible for a human to
completely know anything beyond the self because everything beyond the self is foreign and
external. By reducing everyone back to the state of essentially plasma, the boundaries
between humans would be destroyed, and humans could be "completed" and literally
be one with all things. There would be no "you" or "me," but rather a
single "myself." Furthermore, at the most fundmental level, existance must
define itself by its separation from the "other." Shinji represents a fear of
this through his hesitation to fight. He symbolically doesn't want to create separation
between himself and what isn't himself. Kaoru tries to explain to Shinji at the end of the
TV series that he or Shinji must die in an effort to make Shinji understand that being
limited and apart from everything that's not the self is natural. At the conclusion of the
Eva TV series, Shinji comes to an understanding and recognition that he's not alone, and
that violence, the violence of refusal and separation and categorization, is a natural and
necessary element of human existance. He's human, and by definition humans are individual
and can never totally unite with anything external. He finally recognizes that, and
accepts it and understands it. That's why the cast congratulates him at the end of the TV
series.
Keep in mind, though, that this is merely my own interpretation of the "meaning"
of Evangelion. If you'd like to discuss or share your own analysis or interpretation of
Eva, visit the AnimeNation
Forum.