Evangelion Fans: I Need Your Help!!!

[ThatLankyBastard]

If your reading this then you are a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion and have come to my aid! Let me explain...

I have to do a Sociology thesis. It can be on anything at all, so I chose "Neon Genesis Evangelion", specifically focusing on the movie "End of Evangelion" (Mostly as an excuse to hemorrhage cash on the DVDs of the show/movies...)

I've done my dissection of the show and E.o.E., but I'm asking for yours... What did you think of it? What did your intense dissection of it reveal to you? What things stood out as important? What ways can it be interpreted? What makes this a "work of art"?

And if you've seen End of Evangelion, please tell me your interpretation of the final scenes... The parts that I like the call the "Mind-Fuckers"...

Spoiler: Example

Lets take the scene where Shinji is a child on the playground playing in the sandbox by himself. I have a feeling that scene is monumentally important, and yet I can't find any significant meaning in it!

Also: If you can think of a good Thesis statement that'd be good too... Mine is very weak...

All help is greatly appreciated! No matter how insignificant it may seem (other than saying "I don't fuckin know!") and I will use you as a reference (if you want) if your contribution makes it into my paper.

 

[Piecewise]

Shinji playing alone is Indicative of the loneliness and alienation he feels as a result of being abandoned by his father. Through out the entire series he is depicted as wanting friends but always being fearful of them hurting him, like his father did. Pretty much the entire series involves his struggle to try and fit in and find some connection to a world that is either trying to use him as a weapon or is outright ignoring him.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

It's been a while since I watched that film/series. But if you want something to grab onto, try looking at Shinjis relationship with his dad. That man really fucked him up... and most of the symptoms of his character can be traced back to his cold delusional father.

I can't give specifics, but you might want to watch the series again... at least the episodes that lay their relationship on thick

 

[xerounlimited]

A theory some have adopted (and myself to an extent) is that the children are all based on Freudian psychology, with Asuka being the id (this is obvious with her association with lust), Rei being the super ego (Her relationship with Shinji's father, and her coldness to the Asuka, who is as aforementioned representing the id) and Shinji as the ego (He is influenced and the mediator between Asuka and Rei).
Certain parts don't hold up perfectly but there are some obvious connections. This wiki also has a much more in depth look on the topic: http://wiki.evageeks.org/References_to_Psychology_in_Neon_Genesis_Evangelion

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It's been a while, but from what I could gather, EoE is what is actually happening in the real world during episodes 25 and 26 of the series. Those episodes take place in Shinji's mind.

And as for the sandbox scene, I think there's a lot of imagery in terms of the female body as well as symbolism throughout the film, especially to do with sex (for instance, when Lilith is getting 'penetrated' by the Lance of Longinus).

 

[Tsukuyomi]

After watching the series probably five times and the movie probably twice, the biggest conclusion I've come to with the series is that, while it's good, it's a little...high on itself. So much is put into symbolism and psychology that any sense of a real message, to me, is just buried under the sheer mountain of references and depth.

One thing to bear in mind, I think, ESPECIALLY when watching E.o.E., is that as I understand it the creator did NOT want to do it. The ending we got with the series, that one that is so supposedly awful because people don't understand it, is what the guy apparently meant to end it with originally. E.o.E. is in a sense a spit to the face. One of those "You want this?! FINE! Here it is!" things.

As far as an idea of what to go into: I agree that Shinji is a prime topic. Perhaps not so much him himself, but more...our reaction to him. The series is meant to be grounded in psychology and psychological reality. So my question is this: Putting someone in Shinji's shoes...would they really BE that weak and spineless? How normal of a person is he really? Do we perceive him as silly and inept simply because we are the omniscient viewer? I somehow doubt it simply because to me, the last episode of the series was everyone collectively explaining to shinji that EVERYONE has problems, and that life is what you make of it. But isn't this the same kind of struggle we go through in the real world as each generation goes through adolescent years and falls victim to Special Snowflake Syndrome?

I agree with the id, ego, super-ego breakdown to an extent, but that raises another question in general: How deep does this rabbit hole go? At what point are we reading TOO much into this series? It's impressively deep and crazy and whatnot, but does it ALL have an underlying theme and/or message? Sometimes when I look back on the series I wonder. I mean look at the recent Manga re-imagining, Nightmare Campus. It was coherent, it still had good depth, it wasn't quite as trippy as the original but it still could hit pretty damn deep with it's talk of parallel worlds and whatnot. Perhaps it simply wasn't as ambitious as the original, but still: couldn't the original have been presented in a way that was still just as deep but had enough coherency that we weren't lost halfway through or trying to sift through what has meaning and what just is?