Anime Brigade: We all have 8th grade syndrome~

[Lord Celebi]

Spoiler:

The ending confuses me greatly. As far as I can tell, Shinji and Asuka are the only humans left, although it does seem to be implied that other people can come back. Why did Shinji try to strangle Asuka though? My brain hurts.

Spoiler:

There's a couple competing theories. The primary school of thought amongst Evangelion academia (based on some vaguely canonical Carddas trading card that was printed in Japan) was that Shinji was trying to see if she was still real. Within Instrumentality, Asuka would be unable to put up any resistance to the assault. However, in the real world, Asuka would be able to defend herself. I really don't like this one myself and the piece of merchandise that backs it up, besides being extratextual in the first place, doesn't have a clear direct line back to Anno.

"Shinji renounced the world where all hearts had melted into one and accepted each other unconditionally. His desire... to live with 'others' — other hearts that would sometimes reject him, even deny him. That is why the first thing he did after coming to his senses was to place his hands around Asuka's neck. To feel the existence of an 'other'. To confirm rejection and denial."

Other theories that have been proposed:

• Asuka chose to return the world in order to die properly and was hoping Shinji would finish the job based on her experiences within Instrumentality.
• Since abuse is the only "love" that Asuka knows, Shinji lashing out at her is the "advance" that she had been looking for from him the entire time, and returned this gesture by stroking his cheek (the intimacy that Shinji has always wanted).
• My personal theory: during the first choking scene, Shinji finally decides he is tired of Asuka's emotional and sexual abuse, so he finally stands up for himself and chokes her out. When he washes up on the beach, having just experienced the trauma of Instrumentality and sees Asuka, the omnipresent "bully" in his life, Shinji, who now finally has a sense of self-worth, is willing to defend himself, and unwilling to live in a world populated solely by Asuka, finishes the job he started within Instrumentality.
• Regardless of your canonical interpretation of the scene, metaphorically, it hammers home the main theme of the show: even though humans often hurt each other, sometimes they choose not to. This is what makes human interaction worthwhile.

EoE is one of my favorite films ever. I've watched it about 8 times since I first discovered it and am pretty well-read on various interpretations of the film. Feel free to pick my brain--I've thought pretty extensively about pretty much every aspect of the film.

[Dragon Master Mike]

To be honest, every one of those interpretations confuse me in some way. I can't even seem to explain how, it's just that the entire movie just messed with my head.

Spoiler:

To be honest, I'm confused on what the whole instramentality thing actually was. I have an idea, but I don't know enough to be able to explain it. In the end though, Shinji stopped choking Asuka didn't he? I still don't understand why he would want to kill her in the first place though.

[Lord Celebi]

To be honest, every one of those interpretations confuse me in some way. I can't even seem to explain how, it's just that the entire movie just messed with my head.

Spoiler:

To be honest, I'm confused on what the whole instramentality thing actually was. I have an idea, but I don't know enough to be able to explain it. In the end though, Shinji stopped choking Asuka didn't he? I still don't understand why he would want to kill her in the first place though.

Spoiler:

Using the Mass Production Evas, SEELE created an Anti-AT Field which shattered every single AT field on the planet. Without AT Fields separating people (symbolically the fear of rejection and closeness that keeps people apart--the "space between us"), everyone merges into one single consciousness inside of the Tree of Life. Everybody can hear everyone else's thoughts.

Asuka is a bully, plain and simple. She's clearly being eaten alive by her own insecurities, so she tries to reaffirm herself by knocking Shinji down both emotionally and sexually. It's clear that Shinji, as a teenage boy, badly desires carnal knowledge of her. Asuka, being completely immature about it, uses her sexuality to tease and degrade Shinji. It's no surprise that after finally being exposed to her raw mind that Shinji finally has enough and decides to stand up for himself.

It should be noted that I really hate Asuka.

[Dragon Master Mike]

That makes sense. When you say you hate her, you mean you hate her because she was a jerk, or do you mean you hate her as in you think she was a bad character?

[Lord Celebi]

That makes sense. When you say you hate her, you mean you hate her because she was a jerk, or do you mean you hate her as in you think she was a bad character?

Oh, no, she's an excellently written character. I hate her because she's fairly despicable and treats Shinji pretty miserably. Asuka is very much not best girl.

[Homura]

Oh, no, she's an excellently written character. I hate her because she's fairly despicable and treats Shinji pretty miserably. Asuka is very much not best girl.

She was supposed to be a tsundere taken to a logical extreme, including how a backstory can change someone. However, it generally backfired as she became the icon of tsundere instead. Life is weird.

The point of evangelion was to have everybody being unlikeable. Shinji is generally the opposite of the "cool hero mc" that these types of anime normally have, Asuka and Rei are extensions of the tsundere and kuudere archetypes, etc.

[Lord Celebi]

She was supposed to be a tsundere taken to a logical extreme, including how a backstory can change someone. However, it generally backfired as she became the icon of tsundere instead. Life is weird.

The point of evangelion was to have everybody being unlikeable. Shinji is generally the opposite of the "cool hero mc" that these types of anime normally have, Asuka and Rei are extensions of the tsundere and kuudere archetypes, etc.

I'd disagree that they're intentionally unlikable. They all just have flaws and psychoses that prevent them from being normal. I generally like Shinji, Rei, and even Gendo because I understand their characters and why they do what they do. With Asuka, I just think that most of her tsundere stuff crosses the line for Shinji. Honestly, throughout the course of just the series, I think that Asuka did more to mess Shinji up than Gendo did.

[Homura]

Naw I think they are. This is Anno after all, and he explicitly stated, "I tried to include everything of myself in Neon Genesis Evangelion—myself, a broken man who could do nothing for four years." source of translation. In essence, he put much of himself into the story, mainly the parts of himself that he loathed. It's not saying that they can't be characters you can related to, because it's clearly how Anno sees it. However, through his words, it's clear his intentions were to make them unlikeable characters.

It's generally clear that he does not like the fanbase either.

Anime fans and the anime industry are also indefinite. In a manner of speaking all of Japan is indefinite. I hated this, and I wanted to construct a barrier between myself and society. Expressing it in terms of the show, it was an “AT Field,” a pattern [of behavior] where I would tear apart or reject anything that crossed the boundary line between myself and others. Perhaps [that was the] “barrier of the heart.”

[Lord Celebi]

Naw I think they are. This is Anno after all, and he explicitly stated, "I tried to include everything of myself in Neon Genesis Evangelion—myself, a broken man who could do nothing for four years." source of translation. In essence, he put much of himself into the story, mainly the parts of himself that he loathed. It's not saying that they can't be characters you can related to, because it's clearly how Anno sees it. However, through his words, it's clear his intentions were to make them unlikeable characters.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean the character has to be unlikeable. If Shinji = Anno, then Anno just thought he himself to be unlikeable when he was a perfectly okay chap. Anno may think that these characteristics are normal because of depression, but it doesn't make it that way.

[Homura]

Yeah, but that doesn't mean the character has to be unlikeable. If Shinji = Anno, then Anno just thought he himself to be unlikeable when he was a perfectly okay chap. Anno may think that these characteristics are normal because of depression, but it doesn't make it that way.

Right, it might not come out the way it was intended, but it's pretty clear Anno set out to make a character unlikeable. I never stated that you as a viewer can't like the characters, just that they were intended to be unlikeable mainly due to what Anno set out to do.

Anno also set out to intentionally make Asuka essentially a disgusting character, of how a Tsundere might look like, and she instead became THE icon for Tsundere who's well loved by many otakus. What happened was completely the opposite of what was intended, even if it did work for you, as you do hate Asuka (she came out as intended for you). Same with Rei, Anno set out to describe another aspect of Shinji with Rei, but instead the fandom accepted her as her own character, even creating a new archetype of moe in the Kuudere.