Analyzing Evangelion's Perfect First Act

Comments · 604

• MI

  @michaelmoceri1118 · 3 years ago

  Something that only just now occurred to me: Gendo's glasses are often shown as having red lenses, so he literally sees the world through the lens of pain.

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• JJ

  @JJtoob · 3 years ago

  This is the sort of deep dive I've been craving about the show.

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• MI

  @Mifune41 · 2 years ago

  I'm very bummed thinking about Gendo sending Shinji a letter that says, "You are special and the entire world needs you to protect them." And then having it all redacted without Shinji ever seeing it.

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• KA

  @Kazooples · 3 years ago

  Anno not having much to do with episode 4 just shows that you always need other people, whether it’s family, friends, or a team in a work environment, it’s almost like Anno’s own hedgehogs dilemma, from start to finish.

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• CA

  @callmev3531 · 3 years ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSe21Sh9Fuk&amp;t=656">10:56</a>, Rei&apos;s non-expression to Shinji can be interpreted as her simply being indifferent towards him and anyone who isn&apos;t Gendo. Instead of being rewarded for his attempts to protect her, the story subverts expectations by having Shinji lose the battle, his Eva being revealed to be to some degree not only autonomous, but alive, creating an even more horrific situation for Shinji, and instead of having multiple people be there to praise and thank him (cue the cast saying &quot;Congratulations&quot;) he is abandoned at a hospital and receives a emotionless look of acknowledgement from the very person he risked his life for. It also casts an even bigger amount of mystique onto Rei, as she is portrayed as this figure Shinji seemed almost destined to meet and has already is shown to be something more than what she seems (her apparent astral projection to Shinji before he even meets her physically within the grander context of the series can be attributed to Rei&apos;s fusion with Lilith allowing her to project her form across time, as was demonstrated when Rei&apos;s projection was present at Ritsuko and Misato&apos;s deaths before she had even merged with Lilith, at least from the perspective of End of Evangelion and viewing all versions of Evangelion’s story as meta-textually all part of a cohesive whole).<br><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSe21Sh9Fuk&amp;t=762">12:42</a>, One more obvious interpretations for the &quot;Beast&quot; is Unit 1 in it&apos;s Berserk State, which reveals to Shinji that he is not alone inside this &quot;giant robot&quot;, after discovering more of its true nature as a cybernetic creature (which he has yet to discover also contains the soul of his mother, who willing donated it) , and just like his new uncomfortable proximity to his father, Misato and Rei, he is not even safe from his anxieties inside his Eva, the thing that is specifically designed to protect him.

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• AL

  @alexandresobreiramartins9461 · 3 years ago

  SDAT recorder: Notice Shinji only listens to tracks 25 and 26, pointing out to the pivotal series ending episodes. I will never for the life of me understand how people can be so shallow as to dismiss the BY FAR best episodes in the series as &quot;badly animated&quot;. They&apos;re not only wondrously visually speaking (just showing how budgetary constraints can drive creativity), but the amount of depth packed into them is mind boggling!

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• PR

  @princesslilpaws · 2 years ago

  &quot;Every story has to start, even if it doesn&apos;t end&quot; HEY BANGER LINE

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• TH

  @thebiggorp1623 · 1 year ago

  A little bit of my analysis, Togi left the red umbrella behind in the hallway to talk to shinji on the phone. The umbrella is a shield, a shield of pain which Togi used to protect hims from the downpour. Rain outside is the now visible trauma associated with Togi’s sister. The umbrella was left In the hallway at the entrance. All in all Togi is now aware of shinji’s suffering and his own seen in the rain so he leaves his shield of pain at the entrance to a place of change where he will go to the green phone ready to do what’s necessary to connect with shinji, only for his call to be missed due to random circumstances. This parallels his exit from the story, how he readily accepts the burden of Eva piloting to close his gap with shinji only to be separated because of an unexpected angel invasion.<br>Togi’s story is that of how random relatively neutral events break a relationship, when communication is absent and only one party is trying to bridge the gap.

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• NO

  @Noah-je2xj · 3 years ago

  what&apos;s so frustrating and sad and tragic about this part to me is that Shinji knows that he shouldn&apos;t run away, but he doesn&apos;t know what he shouldn&apos;t be running from. he believes that he shouldn&apos;t be running away from things like his Father and piloting the eva, when what he really needs to stop running from is decisions and address the passivity that dominates his life. he wants to reconnect with his father, but he doesn&apos;t know how to be assertive, so he just does whatever his father wants so that maybe Gendo will acknowledge him, which leads to Gendo Psychologically Manipulating and Abusing him pretty awfully throughout the series and remaining virtually unchallenged in his methods. I know people mention Gendo&apos;s speech in EOE for why he wasn&apos;t that bad, but I always saw that as another instance of him deluding everyone, including him, into believing he was a far better and smarter person than he actually was. If you couldn&apos;t tell, I really hate Gendo

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• SI

  @SirEriol · 2 years ago (edited)

  I&apos;m only seven minutes in, but a small detail you didn&apos;t mention:<br><br>Gendo&apos;s &quot;letter&quot; has two different handwritting. The first one, with thick strokes, only says &quot;come&quot;. It seems he wrote that immediatly after redacting his son&apos;s file. The other part of the letter says &quot;please&quot;. The penmanship is very different, and it appears to have been written with another marker. So that little sense of politeness was most likely added by Fuyutsuki.

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• SO

  @sonerika4238 · 2 years ago

  That train stop long shot was the first shot in the show that made me realize this was going to be wayyyy more than just a mech anime from the 90s

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• LO

  @lorenzoweed2473 · 3 years ago

  I’m so glad this isn’t just another “generic psychoanalysis of Evangelion” video. Completely disregarding how amazing it is to get an analysis of the design choices, (I.e, red and green’s significance) Your editing, scriptwriting, and witty dialogue kept me intrigued the entire span of the video. I’m very exciting to see what videos you make in the future. Keep up the good work!

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