otaku central
The End of Evangelion
A Children's Crusade
C'est fini.
The finality of the Evangelion film is so final that I vacillate between loathing it and loving it.
I love that Asuka strikes again and that her character is finally established as worthy of being an EVA pilot. She fights with passion and skill in the End, which had only been glimpsed through her swaggering bravado and posturing.
She also attains some degree of self-understanding, a rare gift for one so young.
I love that death is Death. Death is taken seriously. And it means an ending. Kaji's clone didn't get shot, he did and he died. He didn't suddenly show up in Misato's shower nor was he revived from a stasis tank.
I love that Misato is bold and brave and dies in the manner in which she lived. She still manages to compel others through an intimate, physical means. She still loves passionately and fights to defend those she loves.
I love that in the beginning of the film Misato is still working on Kaji's quest. That she speaks to him as she lies in a pool of her own blood.
I love the circularity of the story. That Ritsuko is her mother's daughter and that the mother she both hates and admires betrays her through the Magi. Mother and Daughter fall for the same man and die by a gunshot wound. But they were dead for a long while -- inside -- because of an unrequited love.
In the End, we come to understand why Ritsuko told Kaji she never talked about herself. And why Naoko Akagi was always underground and growing weary of having the box lunches. They have placed their lives, their youth, their ability, their happiness at the disposal of Gendou Ikari and NERV. They have lost the will to live. The Akagis cannot complete anything they have begun, they can only be used for the process.
I hate that these characters, with whom I have created a bond, are dead. Why them? Why did they have to die? It's a real life question that has wounded and perplexed humanity since before we could reason. And, as in life, the film lends no good reason, no justifiable answer.
SEELE and its lap dog, the UN, turn on Commander Ikari's people and rob, even the innocent, of life. The slaughter is hardly merited. And the world supports SEELE, which is ultimately the great evil of the series. Not the Angels. Not Ikari. At least Ikari did what he did for love and that is somehow forgivable. Too bad for him Rei did what she did out of love too -- love of Shinji.
And why does SEELE and the UN target the Children if Ikari was the problem? The Children were chosen to fight the Angels for the sake of the world. But the world never really noticed, did it?
I love the song that accompanies Rei on the path toward human evolution.
I hate that I'm angry. I hate even more that I'm so sad I feel like crying.
But I love that I also rejoice in the perfection of this End. That Rei gives the choice of evolution or life after the Third Impact to Shinji. This choice runs parallel to the TV End, showing the possible world that Shinji can create through choosing to evolve.
I hate that Kaj's quest meant absolutely nothing in the end. Why have a spy of his caliber, if he doesn't change anything by his knowledge? What did Kaji get for his death, but death?
But I love that he died long before this cruel End. The emotional content of the film was beyond intense. But if Kaji, my favorite, had been there, the film would have devastated me and laid waste to my emotional well being.
For the moment.
I think the TV ending represents the ending that Anno wanted for Evangelion. I think the criticism of his ending and the requests for a new ending pissed him off.
His reaction was the End of Evangelion, which initially feels like finality without truth or peace.
I think that anger lasted only through the first half of the film. The second act is again within Anno's vision. The chance for evolution and a kind of salvation as Rei gives death to those around her with the friendly embrace of the one they most loved.
The End of Evangelion reminds me of Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece, Ashes of Time, because the films are intense in style and cinematic scope and yet lethargic in narrative.
The End has you spellbound by the tragedy and spiritual awakening unfolding before your eyes. And yet in some little way, you are repulsed, especially by the uncharacteristic violence. You come to admire it from an artistic perspective, while being critical of its lack of linear recounting.
Then you sit back and think about what you've just experienced and you close your eyes and quietly nod.
So, you end up hating the End, and most assuredly, loving it.
In the end, I am left feeling that Evangelion was as monumental and impotent as the Children's Crusade.
Yeah, a Children's Crusade. And in the End, these children, BORN to be productive for use, are all we know to be left in the world. And again I underscore the relief that I feel that Kaji is already dead. And for Misato, I say the same. Somehow to my mind, my favorites in the Evangelion Universe deserve a better death than what's in store for the others.
Yet, the End is fitting. In the beginning, there was man and woman and they were cast out of evolutionary perfection -- for isn't that what Eden was? Together man and woman struggled and grew and learned even more of the Knowledge, which would make them independent of a god-figure. Technology advanced to the point were people became as god, creating life in their own image.
Then came the Second Fall. Second Impact. Cold, frightened, and hungry man and woman scratched and clawed for a key to salvation. Dead Sea Scrolls. Angels. EVAs. CHILDREN. And man and woman were gods, creating angels of their own to destroy the Angels.
Then came the Third Fall. Third Impact. Because, when given a chance to initiate the evolution of all humanity, a boy chooses his desire for a girl.
"Driven out of paradise, human beings fled to the earthly world, near death. Created by those weakest of living things, created by the sapience acquired because of that weakness, a paradise of our own." -- Ikari Gendou
The End ends with a bang and a whisper.
The whisper of a brassy redhead laying down on the ground before a blood-red sea."Kimochi warui," she says.
And I can't help but nod. This is truly the End of Evangelion. And, yeah, the feeling does suck.
