Is Evangelion turning into the next DBZ?

[Vance]

Originally posted by kakomu
I l;ike eva as entertainment, but as a deep and philosophical artistic entity, I think it's total hog-wash. Frankly I'm sick of people putting so much stock into it. Why? Well, first I think that if any show (regardless of whatever medium it's produced in) is going to have a relevent meaning, it's got to be realistic. Even when you go beyond the mechs, the angels and the scandal, the characters are far from realistic. basically they take a character flaw, exploit and magnify it a few hundred times. I seriously doubt someone is tragically meek like Shinji (ie, can never be beyond meek no matter his/her accomplishments or the praise they receive). I doubt anyone will have a mental breakdown and explosion a la Asuka, just from not being as talented as someone else.

Second, Eva's "deeper" moments are expounded using techno-babble and psycho-babble. The best example is the episode where Eva-01 and Shinji are swallowed up by the mini-black hole in Tokyo-3. None of the jargon they use is real or relevent, but it's supposedly very deep. And of course the next episode after Eva-01 absorbes Shinji.

Anyways, to make my point, people have this tendandcy to surmise messages out of a show by putting elements of the said show that really don't mean anything (a la Symbolism). Symbolism can be a good and bad thing. The symbolism in Animal farm about the Soviet Leaders is far different than the Symbolism in Lord of the Flies about civilization.

Yes, and noone will ever be so internally reflexive as Hamlet, so enamoured as Romeo and Juliet, so vengeful as Don John. Never will their be a mind as tortured as Raskolnikov's, as intelligent as Dagny Taggart's. There will never be a person as hardworking and selfless as Boxer, from Animal Farm, which you site. The idea that art has to be realistic to have relevant meaning makes less than no sense. Great art takes small pieces of humanity and magnifies them to the point that they can be examined. Tragedy magnifies them to the point that they can be faulted. Your first paragraph discounts almost every single author I can think of in the classical canon of literature. That's not even going into movies. Noone will ever be so cruel as Alex from Clockwork Orange. A distorted view of reality is the very basis of practically all art. And it is how art teaches us.

As for the episode "Sickness Unto Death, and...", that really had very little to do with the overlying theme of Evangelion, that everyone is fundamentally alone, isolated, and in pain because of the barriers we place around ourselves. Perhaps metaphorically, but looking at this episode for philosophical depth is futile. In fact, people are usually fooled into thinking this episode has depth because of all the tecno/psycho-babble. They think that because it is complicated, and not entirely clear, that Anno must be trying to say something important, even though there is nothing there to be had.

Evangelion did a lot of communicating through symbolism, but the main points it practically threw in your face, especially in the last two episodes -- the relativity of existance, of fear, of feelings and connections. How your mind is the only thing that perceives what is around it, and you have the power to control those perceptions, to be a slave to them or to respond to them with courage. It presented it all in almost flat out exposition. It was as clear as it could have been, and the message was a good one for everyone I know including myself to hear.