Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

Instrumentality continues to unravel Shinji’s narrative, weaving his consciousness with the minds and hearts of others. A discovery is made, and love is found.

The second half of Human Instrumentality, and the “Third Case” presented by the series finale: “The Story of the Boy Named Shinji Ikari.” The Unit-01 pilot confesses to living for himself, yet he bases so much of his identity on what he believes to be the opinions of others. Shinji assumes others think he is worthless (because he runs away from piloting), and thus projects his self-worth onto EVA. If he stays and pilots, his worth is confirmed. If he runs away, however, he’d be better off not existing at all. No one ever directly states they hate Shinji, yet he thinks others are thinking this anyway. Consequently, EVA starts to define him precisely because he lets it. Same goes for Asuka, though. Value must come before happiness for the two of them. Thus, they never become happy because they fail to recognize their own value.

This special Episode 26—“FINALE: take care of yourself.”—is comprised of live film stills, paper animation, and illustration among other artistic methods. It is perhaps one of the most experimental episodes in anime, and certainly one of the most unconventional. As the series’ themes are dissected and displayed, visual shape and form are broken down into their most essential components. The only “normal” animation cuts are found in the “other possible world” presented by instrumentality to Shinji. It’s a cartoonish, foolishly ideal world, the kind one would totally expect in any anime series that wasn’t Eva. “If it’s possible to have other versions of me, then there must be a world where I’m not an EVA pilot!” Once Shinji realizes this—that life is all about interpretation and that assumptions should not be taken as truth—the opportunity to love himself finally presents itself.

Still, “this ending must be happening only in the world where it was told,” according to the production notes. Once Shinji becomes aware of his own existence and feelings, the fog beneath his feet dissipates to reveal a giant coral reef. We must assume that everyone wishing Shinji congratulations—including Shinji himself—have become part of the “sea” residing on top. (This was an observation I never fully realized until this latest rewatch!) With this epiphany, we instantly realize that although we’ve reached the end of the series, the story still needs a proper conclusion. In other words, Shinji still needs to leave the collective behind to become an individual once again—to leave the lake of souls behind and return to the shores of nascency. Even though the “theme” has been completely developed, the “story” will only feel complete once Shinji has rejected instrumentality . . . We need one last scene before we can kiss Eva goodbye . . .

This officially marks the end of the EVERYDAY EVA’s original mission—to visit one episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion every day of March 2022 as per the Mecha March celebration. We did it, we really did it, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of this project. “Congratulations” for making it this far. 🙂

However, with five days to go in the month, I’m thrilled to announce that I will be EXTENDING EVERYDAY EVA to cover Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, as well as the entire Rebuild of Evangelion film tetralogy!! I’ll group D&E with EoE together for the 27th, but each Rebuild film—1.11, 2.22, 3.33, and 3.0+1.0—will have their own post. In other words, we’ve still got A LOT more Eva to go, and I hope you’ll be joining me on the final stretch of this journey as we see how Anno ends Eva twice more. Thanks for reading, and ‘til then!

– Takuto

Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

The Angels are finally gone, but Shinji is far from achieving happiness. While he grapples with the truth of his weakness, human instrumentality begins.

With Shinji’s killing of Kaworu, all of the Angels have finally been eliminated. Yet, Shinji is utterly distraught at his decision. “He was an Angel, an enemy!” He shouts in defense, but nothing can quell the regret tearing at his heart. Shinji finds himself wandering alone through the inner world of his mind, a foggy swamp with nothing grounded in reality. He pilots the EVA because everyone tells him to, but even this is a lie. Asuka is the one who tells him this. His real reason for piloting is because he depends on being sought out by others for piloting. “You’re waiting for false happiness.” Anxiety, fixation, fear, rejection—he has a lot to sort out, and, unfortunately, not much time life to do it.

Before we know it, we are trapped in Unit-02’s entry plug submerged deep underwater. Separation anxiety. Attachment behavior. These are Asuka’s deepest afflictions, the problems that she fails to deal with. For Rei, she has realized that her identity has been formed by her interactions with others. Connections are what construct us. But, even Rei is afraid of vanishing, disappearing from everyone’s hearts once she dies. Misato is the first to return to the void of nothingness, to experience the torturing joy of instrumentality. Then Asuka, and then Shinj. Oh boy, here we go.

Many people complain about the final two episodes of the series. They say that they can’t understand the story, or that the presentation is too experimental, allegorical, or absurd. While the later is certainly true, the former can be argued as such: Episode 25: “Do you love me?” and FINALE: “Take care of yourself.” do not focus on “story.” Rather, they instead fully exploit theme itself as the primary visualization. This idea comes directly from the production notes, which also perfectly summarize how both the final two episodes and the film, The End of Evangelion, are reflections of one another, all presenting the same themes in different ways. A radical way of watching Eva, then, might be to watch both Episode 25s before watching both Episode 26s. Maybe this is an experiment worth trying sometime.

But these are, without a doubt, the most introspective episodes of Evangelion. With Gendo’s Human Instrumentality Project underway, we start to see the devolution (or transcendence, depending on your view at this point) of mankind. Outside, a much larger battle is being waged. Internally, however, our focus is on defining “the end of the world that Shinji himself brought about. Where it takes him and what he decides, the final episode holds all the answers. See you there soon.

– Takuto

Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

SEELE heralds the arrival of the final messenger. Shinji meets Kaworu, the fifth child. The destiny they share causes Shinji to rethink everything.

Asuka’s descent opens this pivotal, groundbreaking episode of the series. Misato pieces together SEELE’s plans for the apocalypse. Ritsuko confronts Gendo about her dead cat, her killing of Rei’s clones, and her rejection of his touch. Shinji, with no one else to turn to, encounters Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Child, on the flooded sands of a Tokyo-3 lakebed. It’s an episode of fated meetings, tragic partings, conspiracy, and pain. Truly one of the highest points in the series—and the immediate drop afterwards plunges us to Eva’s lowest. From this episode on, paying special attention to the classical scores selected as part of the soundtrack will yield immense insight about the themes at play.

Kaworu meets up with Shinji again after his tests. He’s seen listening to his SDAT player, which instantly reminds me of a similar shared encounter in 3.33. From Kaworu’s intimate stares to Shinji’s anxious smiles, the ties that bind them are obvious. The bath scene gets straight to the point: Shinji’s underlying fears and his inability to connect with others. Kaworu’s directness is charismatic. I love this scene. Misato’s parting with Pen Pen immediately drives home the bittersweet sorrow of this episode. Her suspicions of Kaworu (no doubt her “woman’s intuition”) end up being just as dooming as Ritsuko’s forecast.

Suspense continues to amass as Kaworu, Unit-02, and Shinji in Unit-01 plummet to the lowest depths of Central Dogma. This is the closest any Angel has come to “Adam,” and just as Misato and Hyuga prepare for the worst, a new identity is detected. “Adam” is actually Lilith, implying that humanity (SEELE) does not seek the power of destruction, but rather the rejoining of all mankind into one body—reunion, harmony, order. We don’t realize this in its fullest clarity just yet, but Kaworu’s allusions and well wishes to mankind leave Shinji with a horrifying predicament. “That was the first time someone told me they liked me,” Shinji tearfully mumbles to Misato. “Kaworu should’ve been the one who survived.” Misato’s remark that Kaworu sought death instead of life is too cruel for Shinji.

Kaworu’s lyrical musings on the human mind open Shinji’s heart and wound him gravely. “Humans can’t permanently be free of loneliness. Because man is ultimately alone.” The drama and themes, as outlined in the production notes, are fully explored in the final episodes to come. Herein, the story homes in exclusively on the solitary mind of Shinji Ikari before unfolding to show the world around him in the film. Shinji’s decisions will yield prophetic and catastrophic consequences, many of which fans find difficult to interpret. We’ll try to unpack what we can, together. Thanks for reading, and ‘til then!

– Takuto

Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

The penultimate 16th Angel fuses with Unit-00, and, in Ritsuko’s tearful outburst, the truth of Rei Ayanami is finally disseminated to Misato and Shinji.

Kaji’s dying message opens the dismal Episode 23: “Rei III.” Misato’s sealed herself off in her room, and with Asuka’s retreat to Hikari’s house, Shinji and Pen Pen are left to fend for themselves. The only thing that can bind the once happy family now is an Angel attack. Fortunately or unfortunately, the 16th Angel arrives, but its immediate contact with Rei and Unit-00 catches everyone off guard. Fusion with others reemerges as one of the motifs deeply connected to the greater themes in Eva. This episode, as the previous was for Asuka, must be about her. It’s finally time to crack into the mystery of Rei Ayanami.

Try as she might, Rei is unable to completely contain the 16th Angel within Unit-00’s body. Thus, Unit-01 is launched to protect her. Asuka’s realization that NERV didn’t send out Unit-01 (AKA Shinji, the savior) when she was in trouble is immediately a poignant one. As Unit-00 ascends into its final angelic form, a burst of light from the halo shining above its head reveals Unit-00 quickly shift into the form of Rei herself. A “vessel of hope” for Gendo—that’s what Rei represents. What her sudden return “to life” does, then, is force us to challenge Rei’s existence. Does she serve a greater purpose in Gendo’s plan?

Speaking of replacements, Ritsuko finds out that she was sent to SEELE as just a proxy for Gendo himself. This is also upsetting news. Ritsuko has been the lynchpin for the entire Evangelion project, and her removal from power allows her to detach herself from the bindings of the organization. In the process, she exposes all of NERV’s darkest secrets to Misato and Shinji and destroys all of Rei’s soulless clones. Ritsuko cries, having realized she could not compete with “property,” and that she had fallen for the same trick of Gendo’s affection that her mother before her did. “This is the tragedy of those associated with the EVAs,” Misato remarks. “And I am no different.”

The women in Shinji’s life have all but crumbled in their individual hubris, self-loathing, and jealousy. Thankfully, love still has one final chance to bloom for Shinji with the arrival of a saint in Episode 24: “The Beginning and the End, or ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.’” Thanks for reading, and ‘til then!

– Takuto

Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

The first pilot to fall in the final act is none other than the girl who once stood at the very top of her game.

For the longest time, Asuka has been my favorite character in anime. Episode 22: “Don’t be” spells out much of her past, and the discovery that she’s from just as messed up a family as Shinji’s and Misato’s and Ritsuko’s and everyone else comes as little surprise. Her interaction with her stepmother over the phone—that is, her German speaking—kicks off the beginning of a bigger rift growing between her and the rest of the world. In a phenomenal breakdown, Asuka curses the bath, the washer, the toilet, and the space she shares with Misato and Shinji. She hates them both, but she hates the Rei even more. She hates her mom. She hates her dad. But the person she hates most of all is herself. Across the hall, Misato is unable to do anything to remedy Asuka’s situation, and so she continues to decline. Asuka’s pride is in shambles, and her toppling from such a high position is utterly heartbreaking.

Rei is a doll, Asuka declares, but Unit-02 is supposed to be just that. “I hate you! I hate all of you!” She screams before the elevator door seals Rei inside. Asuka’s last chance is coming, and she feels it too. For the entire world to fail her—for her EVA-02 to crumble under the 15th Angel’s power—is to reverse all the fortifications she walked into the series with to fall in one go. Anno’s use of rapidly flashing black, white, and red Japanese and German text showcases the stunning realm of Asuka’s psychology. Fear, anxiety, and severe distress form kaleidoscopic visions of suicidal ideation, rejection, and isolation in her heart. What she needs most of all, despite her own claims, is touch and affection. Shinji’s refusal to give her anything is revealed to have only furthered her suffering.

With the 15th Angel having “defiled” Asuka’s mind—and to the classical melody of Handel’s “Messiah,” no less—EVA-02 and its pilot are rendered completely useless. Gendo calls upon a weapon of the apocalypse, the Spear of Longinus, to salvage a victory, much to Misato and Fuyutsuki’s passionate disapproval. EVA-00 takes aim and vaults the spear, and as the 15th Angel destructively funnels inward, Longinus is left adrift in lunar orbit. What appalls the fallen Asuka most of all, though, is that it was Rei who had to save her. The curtain closes on her screams and shouts.

Asuka’s “mind rape” (as it has been called) and subsequent fall from grace strongly parallels the death of the 15th Angel itself. She’ll have another chance to redeem herself in the film, but like Misato, all we can do for now is helplessly watch. More cries are shed for the pilots in Episode 23: “Tears.” Thanks for watching, and ‘til then!

– Takuto

Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

We travel back to the past to see how the world came to hang in the precarious balance that it does. Unsurprisingly, NERV’s history holds the answers.

Episode 21: “He was aware that he was still a child” opens without our angelic opening—that’s how you know things are starting to get serious. The “real-time” footage of the 2000 incident in the Antarctic sets a serious tone, but also once again adds unique directorial flare to this treasure box of cinematic animation tricks. SEELE’s ominous floating prisms are also introduced in the interrogation of Gendo’s right hand, Fuyutsuki. It’s about time we got spotlight on the one man who can rightfully criticize and critique NERV’s reclusive commander. Arguably the most needed episode at this point in the series, if you ask me.

These rare shots of the world between 1999 and 2015 have been a treat for Eva fans for decades. They satisfy that which we’ve been dying to see, incidents about the past that construct our precarious present, the conspiracies and the science alike. Fuyutsuki’s life is intricately woven with Yui’s, Gendo’s, Misato’s, and NERV’s own histories. At the heart of it all lie the secrets of the geofront, the Magi, and Naoko Akagi—the woman who coded the foundation of NERV HQ. As eternal summer shines on Japan, information becomes power and a curse for those tied to the shadowy side of the organization.

Naoko Akagi, to me, holds within her the darkest aspect of NERV’s history. The organization, formally known as Gehirn, literally wipes this old name away following her shocking and mysterious suicide, as if to sweep the evil under the rug. Absolutely chilling the way the scene pans out to show the white tape marking the body and the trail of blood dripping from the Magi. Watching this episode again, I am inspired to propose a new way to watch Eva for those who intend to only stick to the Rebuild films. I’ll probably write more about this in a future post, though you can definitely count on this episode making the cut.

The future looks bleak as Kaji sacrifices himself for Misato. From here on out, only one hue paints the path ahead: red, the color of blood. Action returns to this fourth and final part of the series in Episode 22: “Don’t be.” Thanks for reading, and ‘til then!

– Takuto

Welcome back to EVERYDAY EVA, the blog series where I aim to cover one episode of Evangelion every single day for Mecha March 2022!

As Dr. Akagi tries to reconstruct Shinji’s body from outside the entry plug, Shinji plunges into the world of his mind.

Gendo’s act of placing an S2 Engine into the core of Unit-01 goes against SEELE’s scripts, surprising not only everyone at NERV but the Human Instrumentality Council too. Misato lashes out at Ritsuko to “fix the machine” that she built, but the science of the EVA is more complex than that. Along with being a clone of “something they found in the Antarctic,” EVA also resembles a human and has a soul. Shinji’s 400% sync rate causes his assimilation with the L.C.L. in the cockpit, and while he plunges deeper into the primordial liquid swirling in the entry plug, everyone else’s relationships with one another start deteriorating.

Like the previous “Weaving a Story” episode, most of Episode 20 utilizes recycled footage to convey a narrative. We are reminded of how far Shinji has come in his story, and also how his relationships with Misato, Asuka, and Rei comprise the main image of “woman” in his mind. This episode’s commitment to exploring the human mind in visual form involves the usage of new animation tactics—rapidly flashing images, overlaid sequences, and intentionally washed out details. Dramatic soundtrack cuts add to the drama of the episode. Days pass on the outside, yet Shinji maneuvers through a constant dream.

Misato’s screams to have Shinji back are painful, especially as Ritsuko is the target of her anger. After he is “reborn” from the L.C.L., Ritsuko notices how Misato is content with running off to her “secret lover.” After all, desiring intercourse is “especially” okay when the child has returned home safely. Eva is hypocritical and cruel like this. (Note how she doesn’t blame Misato for acting on lust here, though . . . Is she hiding her own secret affair?) Misato’s love scene with Kaji is definitely bold, enough to make a person flush red, and the reliance on dialogue alone to carry this spicy scene is a genius tactic.

With this critical episode behind us, the birth of NERV is disclosed in Episode 21: “He was aware that he was still a child.” Some of our biggest questions finally receive answers. Thanks for reading, and ‘til next time!

– Takuto