As Earth is attacked by strange celestial alien beings known as Angels, it’s up to the mysterious scientific organization NERV headed by Gendo Ikari to defend humanity through the use of Evangelion, giant piloted humanoid “robots”. When Gendo calls upon his abandoned son Shinji to become one of these pilots, Shinji, alongside fellow pilots Asuka Langley Soryu and Rei Ayanami, faces a lot more at stake than defending humanity from giant monsters as the secrets behind NERV and Gendo’s ambitions are revealed.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a franchise that is seen as an absolute masterpiece of a classic and has a longstanding, dedicated fandom for a reason. Absolutely packed with metaphysical and psychoanalytic symbolism, allegories, and frankly just all-around bada-s action and imagery, this is a series that only gets more interesting over time and with every watch; With so much to offer, the rabbit hole of theories and thought-provoking relatability is practically endless. While fans over the years have been confused or even upset over the abstract original ending and esoteric analogies throughout the series, sometimes it can take even multiple rewatches to catch the obscure foreshadowing, references, and connections.
Spoiler Warning for Neon Genesis Evangelion!
1) Shinji can Try Running, But in the End, He Can’t Hide from Himself
Like many items on this list, Shinji running away from NERV and his responsibilities as a pilot is one of many connections foreshadowing the end events. In Episode 4, after all the horrors and harsh realities that Shinji has bore witness to so far that come with the territory of becoming a pilot, he tries running away from his problems, which isn’t the first nor the last time he does so. While the scenes of Shinji traversing the bustling city and rural countryside are a vibe in themselves, it’s also relatable on a deeper level. For no matter where he goes, there’s one thing Shinji will learn in the end that he can’t escape: himself.
2) The Window to the Soul
In Episode 2, when Eva Unit 01’s “helmet” falls off, the underlying entity is revealed to be not just a mecha, but a living creature with a very sentient gaze. Although the perspective is a bit strange since Shinji is supposed to be seated within the Eva, he’s able to get a full look at the Eva’s true face, peering directly into its large green eyeball. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and since Unit 01 contains both the soul of Shinji’s mother as well as being positioned within the Eva himself, Shinji is forced to look within the Eva and within himself, perhaps the existential recoil being a lesser parallel of how Asuka is later forced to submit to (to put it bluntly but in the most correct term) complete mindr-pe in Episode 22.
3) Rei’s Reason for Not Just Piloting the Eva, But Existing
A couple running themes in the series include the constant question of why the characters choose to pilot the Eva and the inherent fear of loneliness. When Shinji asks Rei in Episode 6 as to why she pilots, she explains that she’s “bonded to (the Eva)” in a way that bonds her “to all people” and that she “has nothing else”. This single scene says so much about the introspection Rei has yet to explore and her parallels to Shinji and Asuka. Throughout the series, Rei is portrayed by both herself and Gendo as expendable, just an end to a means within the entire Instrumentality Project. In Episode 22, Asuka asserts that Rei would even kill herself if ordered to do so, to which Rei herself agrees.
Eventually, Rei begins showing deeper introspection of herself, questioning “Why am I here?” in Episode 24, mirroring Shinji’s same question of himself from Episode 2. In the end, Rei questions who she is as her own person, detached from her artificial biological origin and wrestling with the similar conundrum as Shinji and Asuka in the perception of identity through the lens of others. Due to her acknowledgement of her origin being a constantly revived fracture of the person she came from (Gendo’s late wife Yui Ikari), Rei admits that, although she once wished for Gendo to eventually abandon her once her use has run out, she eventually fears such a prospect.
4) Shinji’s Early Introspection Foreshadows End Events
As much as the ending to the original series has been deemed “controversial” and Anno himself claimed “Whatever the story or the development of the characters, I made them without a plan,” it could be contended that his various converging and connecting ideologies during his thought processes throughout the series were still based on core dogmas the creator held, foreshadowing events to come. While some fans weren’t happy with how Anno implemented the last two episodes of the series, Episode 16 could be considered foreshadowing of the introspective breakdown to come.
As Shinji and his Eva are absorbed into the Angel’s “Sea of Dirac” as described by Ritsuko (which is an interesting prospect in itself that many may have glossed over in their first watch), Shinji contemplates himself in a way that mirrors some of the abstract techniques used in the last episodes. In Episode 20, a second wave of deep introspection by Shinji is again explored. When Eva Unit 01 goes berserk and absorbs Shinji into itself, he undergoes a precursory ego loss that is also visually and conceptually reminiscent of the further abstracted ego death to come.
5) Kaworu’s Realization of Adam and Lilith Says a Lot for the Rebelling Angels
Episode 8 introduces the embryo of Adam, the reason behind why an Angel had attacked the ship Kaji was transporting it on. In Episode 15, Kaji reveals to Misato a colossal crucified being he refers to as Adam the first Angel, but is later corrected to be Lilith by Kaworu in Episode 24 who had also thought it to be Adam at first. Adam, the First Angel, represents the potential for life and thus is the progenitor of Angels who possess S² engines/organs as an unlimited energy supply. Lilith, the Second Angel, is the progenitor of mankind, providing a different evolutionary path to humanity who possess reason. Several times throughout the series, Eva are said to be created from Adam, stated to be man’s attempt “to make a man that was like God himself”.
But the attempts at creating Eva with S² engines result in Eva that act without reason like the Angels themselves, which is where the need for pilots comes in, albeit lacking S² engines. But when Unit 01 goes berserk and absorbs an S² from an Angel, it gains both unlimited power as well as already possessing the soul of a Lilin. Eva are shown as an unholy union of Angel body and Lilin soul created by man that requires a spiritually chaste Lilin pilot. With Kaworu acknowledging the Lilin-master and Adam-servant dynamic, he also states that he and the Eva are the same, coming to the conclusion that he as an Angel himself is actually meant to serve the Lilin just as the Eva are and resolving to spare Shinji and the rest of humanity.
6) Kaworu and His Screen Time May Have Been Short-Lived, But He Made Quite the Impact
“You’re rather ignorant of your own position.” That single line from Kaworu in Episode 24 pretty much sums up Shinji’s entire existence and the series as a whole. Throughout the series, Shinji is entirely oblivious to the influence he actually holds on reality. As Kaworu later realizes the connection between the Lilin and the Angels, he also realizes that “only one lifeform can be chosen to avoid destruction and seize the future,” and that Shinji is “not the existence that should die”. Kaworu asks, “Aren’t you Lilin even aware that your AT Field is merely that wall that encloses every mind that exists?” During Shinji’s conclusive ego death, he learns that the only thing stopping him from experiencing true human connection is himself.
7) The Relationship Between Misato and Kaji is All the More Bittersweet
Knowing Kaji’s fate, the interactions between him and Misato, especially in Episode 15, become all the more bittersweet as their time together slowly dwindles. Though their long-term on-again, off-again relationship with each other had been riddled with heartbreak and flirtatious mischief, the two ultimately had a certain chemistry that could endure a Third-Impact. In Episode 20, although asking “How’s Instrumentality going?” is an odd topic for pillow talk, Kaji, with his impending fate unbeknownst to Misato, admits their affectionate moment to be “the first time in eight years, and maybe the last as well”; A moment all the more bittersweet having rewatched their dwindling time together, understanding their true commitment to each other, knowing their fates apart from one another, and apprehensively awaiting Kaji’s inevitable last voicemail to Misato.
8) Asuka is a Reflection of Shinji
While some fans think of Asuka as nothing but a bully, the truth is, she’s basically just female Shinji. As Shinji’s understanding of the world of Eva expands, so does his own introspection. And that’s where Asuka comes in. In Episode 9, it becomes immediately important for the two to be as in sync with one another as they each are with their Eva — a brilliant metaphor for their relationship throughout the rest of the series, their small chat at/after the convenience store speaking volumes in itself. From their first introduction to each other in Episode 8, despite Asuka’s harsh exterior, the two actually get along very well from early on. When they later begin becoming out of sync with each other, so too do they begin becoming out of sync with their Eva.
Alongside a metaphor on opening oneself up to vulnerability disguised as the squabbles of an old married couple, as previously mentioned, the characters questioning each other and themselves as to why they pilot is a pervasive theme, and it’s no less prevalent for Asuka. When Shinji asks in Episode 12 why Asuka became a pilot, though Asuka brags that it’s to “show the world how great she is”, Shinji interprets her explanation as “a way to prove that she exists”. In Episode 16, Rei also questions Asuka as to why she pilots, whether it’s for the praise of others. As either is basically a reflection of Shinji’s own reasons, Asuka later hypocritically rebukes Shinji for doing the latter in the end.
9) Like Mother, Like Daughter
As much as Asuka had a difficult childhood both while her mother was alive when she treated Asuka as a doll rather than a daughter and after her mother’s suicide when Asuka resolved to be as independent as possible, Asuka eventually grew to mirror her mother’s behaviors. This is portrayed in multiple different interactions including when she asserts that the Eva is “just a big toy”, accuses Rei of acting like a doll, and is even paralleled by Ritsuko’s despondency at losing to “soulless dolls” for Gendo’s affection and stating “like mother, like daughter”, but is especially notable when Asuka unknowingly turns the tables on her own mother in Episode 22 by telling Unit 02 “You’re my doll.”
Asuka’s conflicting desires to simultaneously be independent yet rely on praise as her sole purpose in life eventually eats away at her psyche to the point of rendering her sync ratio as nonexistent as her life’s purpose and fall into unbearable despair. In Episode 24, this even leads to her presumable attempted suicide as indicated by the state she’s found in by NERV, again mirroring a behavior as exemplified by her mother’s own suicide.
10) Shinji’s Rant
In case you missed it due to it being a sort of Easter egg only found on the Platinum Collection 07 DVD, there’s audio commentary in the end credits of Episode 26 by Shinji’s English VA Spike Spencer who goes into a hilarious rant about the ending. If you were confused about the ending just as many fans were, no worries, so was Spike Spencer/Shinji himself. He, like many others, has many questions, like “Was this all in my mind? What’s an Eva? Is that sort of a Freudian thing? Um… Am I real? Does the bus run through here? I’d like to go home now… Where’s home?” And, after rewatching and understanding the series a bit more, frankly, this rant only becomes funnier, especially after noticing more of Shinji’s sassy moments throughout the series.
What are your thoughts after rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion? Let us know in the comments if you saw any moments in a new light!
