[EVA] Moura interviews with Gainax people & others

[Carl Horn]

I didn't say that the characters in Evangelion were seen praying,  
going to confession, or discussing apologetics or the Talmud. These  
are what could be called conventional practices of religion, but you  
don't see them in Eva--and to me, that's not surprising, as I accept  
Gainax's statements that they are not believers.

Evangelion references, for dramatic purposes, a different religious  
tradition found in both Jewish and Christian history--that of the  
esoteric, the gnostic, the occultist, who has no use for conventional  
religious faith or philosophy, but instead believes the value of  
religion lies in secret truth and power that can be accessed via  
knowledge and ritual. The use of religion by certain of Evangelion's  
characters--again, not reflecting actual belief by the creators--is a  
form (there are many forms) of Kabbalism, where God is not up there,  
an eternally separated being, and man is down here a separate  
creation, but where "God" and "man" are different points on the same  
continuum of existence, and "man" can learn the secrets that will  
make him more like "God."

I've seen Taliesin Jaffe's name brought up as if he was the one who  
read Kabbalistic motifs into Eva. Well, no; not unless you mean read  
them on the TV screen, where the Systema Sephiroticum appears in the  
opening credits (two different representations of it), not to mention  
on Gendo's ceiling and floor. Hint to Gainax to avoid fans ever  
thinking your series may be using Kabbalistic ideas (once again, I'm  
not saying the actual Gainax believes them, only that their fictional  
NERV and SEELE appear to): Do not open every episode with them. Do  
not put them in the office of the guy who runs NERV. Do not hammer  
the mistake home by making the same diagram from the opening credits  
literally appear in The End of Evangelion, first as a series of pits  
from which Rei emerges, and finally, as a giant picture in the  
fucking sky, complete with the Latin and Hebrew names of the Sephira,  
upon which people gaze up in wonder. Try to avoid doing any of those  
strictly accidental things which silly fans may somehow think are  
supposed to have meaning within the plot.

I am definitely not trying to say that I believe Evangelion only  
contains Kabbalistic ideas, or that its "one correct interpretation"  
is a Kabbalistic one--only that this was something that Gainax  
decided to put in, and decided to keep in; it wasn't made up by the  
fans. To not look into it is to leave out one aspect of the series-- 
one aspect. However, I wouldn't say that you can't enjoy, appreciate,  
or analyze the series otherwise. After all, it's not something I  
bring up all the time myself.

What I was trying to suggest is that the fictional world of  
Evangelion has a recurring tendency to assign and accept religious  
names and iconography for beings, forces, and mechanisms. It goes far  
beyond mention of God: The Magi, 666, the Spear of Longinus, Seele,  
Noah's Ark, Evangelion, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Adam, Lilith, NERV's  
logo, the name "Seele," the names of the Angels. The cultural  
tendency, if you will, is for the people with power, authority, and  
knowledge in Evangelion to use religious symbolism in their  
activities. Sure, it isn't religion the way you hear it at church on  
Sunday, in much the same way your pastor never looks down on you from  
a great height, and orders you to pilot a giant robot. NERV and  
SEELE's religion--one more time, a fictional device--is nevertheless  
comparable to that of actual Renaissance occultist-scientists such as  
Athanasius Kircher, who drew the aforementioned actual diagram used  
by Gainax.

Presumably there was a choice of ways in which NERV's deepest secret  
could be kept restrained; in a giant steel box, for example, or  
encased in that famed special bakelite. If, for some reason, it  
absolutely had to be secured hanging up with each arm out, perhaps it  
could have been, I dunno, supported by straps or bands? The method  
these non-religious people chose, however, was a bit weird in its non- 
religiousness: crucifixion, complete with stakes through its hands  
and a spear in its side. You mention the non-denominational centopath  
for Yui and her graveyard; what about the billions of crosses we see  
rising from the Earth in EoE, and which settle again into the Earth  
as crosses? Is that not supposed to say something about the nature of  
the human essence in the world of Evangelion, or is it just pure  
coincidence it looks like a cross? The crucified poses of the fallen  
mass production Evas? The cross of light they form between  
themselves? The cross sealing the entry plug? The shadow of the cross  
behind Gendo?

Again, none of this, not one bit of it, means that Gainax had a  
religious message to the show, in the sense of "we're talking about  
our religious beliefs through this allegory," or even that "we  
actually believe, like the occult Kabbalists, that man and God are  
part of the same continuum." When I say religious elements, I mean as  
a plot device used by certain of the characters.

But if one takes what Gainax says about there being no religious  
elements in Evangelion too literally--and then bothers to watch what  
they actually put into Eva--it becomes like that old Groucho Marx  
joke: "Who are you going to believe--me, or your own eyes?" All I'm  
saying is that nobody would have ever bothered them about religion in  
Eva in the first place if, you know, they had simply managed to avoid  
accidentally putting in all that stuff in the plot about crosses,  
crucifying, spears, Angels, sephira, fig leaves, apples, serpents,  
the number of the beast, heaven's door, God.

(It's just like, if you want to say the you don't approve of the  
sexual exploitation of your characters, do not end each episode with  
a promise of even more fan service next time, and especially, do not  
accidentally follow up EoE with an official Gainax Eva strip mahjong  
game for Windows 98.)

--C.