Adolescences, Sex, and Power in The End of Evangelion

The End of Evangelion is the epic grand finale of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most influential pieces of media to date. When the television series was coming to an end, fans were excited for the series finale. Unfortunately, fans were soon disappointed with what the last episode delivered. Fans of the series felt betrayed because the show built-up to so much, and its conclusion felt like a rushed mess of nonsense. To make up for this, the creators produced a movie that would touch on topics the series finale left out, and deliver a truly beautiful conclusion. 

Neon Genesis Evangelion was first released on October 4th, 1995, and finished airing on March 27, 1996. The End of Evangelion would eventually release in theaters on July 19th, 1997, and satisfy fans with a true conclusion to the series (Fandom 2022). The Evangelion Series was the foundation of psychological media in Japan, and it also had a powerful impact on Western media. Devilman is a famous Japanese manga that was released in 1972 (The Horizon 2021). Devilman was one of the very few pieces of media at the time that was released with extremely graphic content like nudity, swearing and violence. The Horizon (2021) continues to state that all the graphic content sparked concern in parents, and mothers would go out and protest against the series. Devilman inspired the Evangelion Series by allowing it to be more open with its topics on sexuality and violence. 

The Evangelion Series created a lot of common anime tropes we see to this day. There is a small tribute to the series in the film One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams. There is a kid who picks out an Evangelion toy. The kid states it is one of the good guys, but in The End of Evangelion, it clearly is not a “good guy.” There are thousands of tributes to the series in other shows like Regular Show and Gravity Falls, but the Evangelion Series had its main impact in Japan. The series also integrated religious icons and figures, and this inspired a lot of creators to incorporate religious symbolism into their works (Otaquest 2020). The Evangelion series is something that fascinated a lot of people because of its eerie nature. It is a psychological series, but it has a light-hearted mask over it. The television series plays off as a generic sci-fi series with giant robots, known as the evangelions, stopping angel-like monsters, but then it slowly descends into deep topics such as sex, mental health troubles, and abuse of power. 

The End of Evangelion is built upon sexual symbolism. All the themes and messages are told through many different sexual actions; self-pleasure, sexual assault, and the belief of “making love.” We see sexual assault and self-pleasure right at the start of the film. It is a very controversial scene that fans still discuss to this day. We see our protagonist, Shinji, bathing in the sun sulking. At this point in the series, we see that Shinji is completely alone and hopeless. He left Misato, his current guardian, because she did not know how to properly comfort Shinji. Misato has only known sex her whole life. 

She escapes her emotions through sex, and when Shinji was at his lowest mentally, Misato went to comfort him with sex. Shinji was disgusted and stormed off. Shinji also found out the truth about his friend, Rei. He found out she was a fake human, and just a “man-made doll.” He is scared of Rei because he thinks she will not understand his emotions because he is a human-being. In a desperate attempt for attention, he goes to his hospitalized friend Asuka.

Asuka is hospitalized and in a coma because of her last mission against an angel. Shinji is so alone at this point that he starts to beg her unconscious body for attention. He shoves her limp body as he begs her to wake up, but one last aggressive shove and her shirt opens up revealing her breast. Right in front of Shinji is an unconscious nude girl; what does he do? He masturbates to her. It is disgusting, but this scene alone clarifies how much pain Shinji is in. He is alone, he has no one to rely on. He has no one to tell him what to do for once. He got to make this decision, and since he is making his own choice he does not even think about the consequences or anything, he nearly just acts out of instinct (Anime Analysis 2018). 

This decision then builds up his character throughout the rest of the movie. He’s a burden, a worthless human, so he hides under the stairs somewhere in NERV, the facility that operates the evangelions. Shinji has always struggled with finding affection and making decisions for himself. He always did what he was told in hopes that he would receive affection back. He would pilot the evangelions for his father, the owner of NERV, in hopes his father would love him after disowning him. When Shinji is in that hospital room all alone, he finally makes a decision for himself. It is vile and completely wrong, but he does not care. He finally was able to do something for him, not for the attention of others.

Following up on the Misato example earlier, later in the film she sexually assaults Shinji. After what Shinji did to Asuka, he hides. The world is in an apocalyptic state, and Shinj is the only one who can possibly save it. He is the only available person who can pilot one of the evangelions, and potentially “free the world.” Misato finds Shinji and in a desperate attempt to reassure him and motivate him, she kisses him. Misato is a twenty-eight year old adult, and Shinji is a fourteen year-old boy. This kiss is wrong in every way, but it was not put in the film for no reason. Sexual actions are Misato's way of comfort. 

After kissing him, she implies that it was an adult kiss, and that they “can do the rest later.” Misato is her true self when she acts out in a sexual manner. In her mind, she thinks she is doing the right thing because it is all she has ever known, but clearly it is wrong, especially considering the age gap  (Otakukart 2021). After Misato lost her father, she met a guy named Kaji. Meeting with Kaji was the start of it all because it was with him that she first had sex. She did love Kaji, and they would end up dating, but her love was always shown through lust. To cope with the loss of her father she and Kaji would have sex repeatedly. It is stated in the television show that they nearly had sex for a whole week.  

This feeling of relying on sex as a coping mechanism is something that is very common to this day. Sex is usually used to cope with life, stress, body issues and relationship issues. It can also be an easy fix for emotional and physical comfort (Chalk 2020). The kiss worked on Shinji because he eventually does go on and pilot the evangelion. The world is not necessarily ending though, it is being reborn. All the souls of the people on earth and even those who already died are connecting into one entity. Everyone's soul will fill each other, and everyone will be at peace. 

In the film, this binding of souls is called “The Human Instrumentality Project,” and we eventually see all the souls gather into one. The film expresses this connection through sex. When Shinji becomes a victim of the project, we see him naked in the void with Rei on top of him also naked. They are not literally having sex, but through the sexual pose the viewer can understand how close and intimate the souls really are. Rei is kind of morphing into Shinji as she also has her hands on his chest. When the souls are this close they are sharing their deepest thoughts. 

All these sex scenes are not there for shock value, especially the infamous hospital scene. They are all fantastic character studies and explore such real issues in such real, yet disgusting ways. The film is successful in my eyes when it comes to exploring these topics because it gives great conclusions to characters we have already met, and we started to get details about them in the television series. The End of Evangelion allows us to see how lonely Shinji is, Misato’s coping mechanism, and the true intimacy of The Human Instrumentality Project in full-swing. 

The End of Evangelion sparked tons of controversy over the sexual scenes. Ever since it was released in theaters, there has been discourse on whether some of the sexual scenes needed to be in the film in the first place (Otaquest 2020). Even recently, I see it all the time online. Newer fans would find out about the series and try to “cancel” it because of how graphic it is. I will defend this series with my life because these scenes in the film are not in it because the creator supports pedophilia or sexual assault. The creator is more so bringing these issues to light. He shows us disgusting, yet very possible scenarios that could possibly happen. Do I agree with the character actions? No not at all, but to understand problematic issues, we need to see the actual effect of them to realize how troubling they truly are. 

This series is my favorite piece of media ever. As soon as I read that we got to pick out our own film, I knew I wanted to discuss The End of Evangelion instantly. This film touches upon so many other topics, but its true foundation is sexual symbolism. It really catches my eye because we have these graphic scenes, but the film does not really show it up front. For example, with the hospital scene, we watch Asuka’s breast show up, then we get an outside shot of the hospital door, and then a shot of Shinji’s hand covered in semen. The way The End of Evangelion executed it was short and to the point, while still delivering the same message and impact. 

The End of Evangelion also catches my attention through its beautiful art. Some of the shots in this film are outstanding, and I personally have not seen something that looks more beautiful than this film. This series tackles extremely dark and disturbing topics, but it does it all with such beautiful and unsettling visuals. I first watched this film around four years ago, and nothing has topped it. This film really helped open my eyes to how crucial good character writing is, and how messages can be conveyed just through visuals. This is the film that opened my eyes to the cinematic way of storytelling, and I have yet to see anything be better than this masterpiece. I will always argue that watching the entirety of Neon Genesis Evangelion is worth it just to watch this film.

Sources

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Johnny. “Analysis of Evangelion Hospital Scene. Why?” Anime Analysis, 16 Dec. 2018, animeanalysis.com/121-2/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.

Karsh-Lombardo | @EmersonKarsh, Emerson. “Sex Talk with CHALK: Casual Sex or Coping Mechanism?” The University Daily Kansan, 6 Nov. 2020, www.kansan.com/chalkmagazine/sex-talk-with-chalk-casual-sex-or-coping-mechanism/article_e4b07d8e-2056-11eb-b945-8bbcb39b9277.html#:~:text=Using%20sex%20as%20an%20unhealthy. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.

Mayuri, Krishna. “Why Did Misato Kiss Shinji? An Analysis of Their Relationship - OtakuKart.” Otakukart.com, 26 Oct. 2021, otakukart.com/why-did-misato-kiss-shinji-an-analysis-of-their-relationship/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.

Tauber, Jeremy. “Neon Genesis Evangelion: What Is It and Why Should I Care?” OTAQUEST, 8 Sept. 2020, www.otaquest.com/neon-genesis-evangelion-anime-25/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.