[EVA] Religion and Gainax was RE: [EVA] Moura interviews

[Peter Svensson]

> We don't even know that their goals were
> any kind of transcendence - why I linked that Olivier email...

Any definition of transcendence that excludes the Human Complementation Project is a lousy one.

> Cross-shaped explosions. Enough said.

Not really. Much of the religious imagery in Evangelion is purely show, just there to look cool and add an exotic flavor to the plot. But the choice of the specific religious imagery used has import (not necessarily meaning.) And they are symbols, which carry emotional baggage with them. It's more than just going "Why do things explode in cross patterns?!" but "What do they want us to think about when showing the cross in that moment?"

Now, I know that we've heard that the religious elements don't mean anything, but I suspect that means that they have as much import as the technobabble does. At the end of the day, Evangelion is not about religion. It's also not about sci-fi conspiracies. It's about the human condition. The major theme of Evangelion is how people react to each other, and how we deal with pain. The Angels to some extent are "those unavoidable circumstances that arise from out of our control" which we have to deal with. 
 
> If not, then why would Evangelion have been worse if they were
> not angelic aliens?

Well, Gainax seems to think that would be the case, since they chose to make them Angelic Aliens rather than Evil Space Creatures from Mars. Gainax knows what they're doing. Yes, the Japanese fans don't put as much into it because they don't make the specific connections that people raised in a Judeo-Christian culture do. But to say that the religious imagery is completely without purpose since you could do a search and replace to remove all of it doesn't mean much. Asuka's German ancestry could likewise be removed in such a fashion. Why is it important that Asuka be German? They could have easily made her Russian. But the choice to make her German was done for a reason, and it's as such pertinent to our understanding of Evangelion. The same applies to the many religious images used in the show. They aren't crucial, but they are purposeful.

Peter Svensson