[EVA] Concurrency tangent (WAS: Alternate Rei on DVD cover)

[V V]

"The overreaction to that segment of fandom which obsesses over the
religious imagery by denying any and all importance of it is not a calm
and collected stance."

The problem is that its not a lunatic fringe:  that impression got spread around fandom so much that it reached the point where new fans "believe" it.  Where Otaku USA's article on Rebuild of Eva devoted a large chunk to saying "There's all sorts of religious references to the Kabbalah in it and you have to Decode the Mysteries of Eva"

It's a pervasive attitude, no better than the 1960's deplorable cultus of Tolken fans who literally thought it was about marijuana and Vietnam.

So I don't know about you, but I think we need a ReVolution:  shift to realizing "this was a social commentary like Akira, it's not for fanfiction about the religious references"

"Gainax put the religious imagery in the
show, to the point where the very title of the series we enjoy harkens
to the bible. It's the New Century's Gospel, the Gospel of the New Beginning.
"

...except the show is actually "Shin Seiki Evangelion", "New era/century"...and "we called it 'Evangelion' to sound complicated"

At the very least, I hope it is clear how my views are...ideologically differentiated, from past views on Eva.  That they're in stark contrast.  

--V 

"I'm pleased to meet you and I hope you guessed my name,
but what's puzzling you, is the nature of my game"

--- On Tue, 2/9/10, Peter Svensson <sun1jack at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Peter Svensson <sun1jack at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [EVA] Concurrency tangent (WAS: Alternate Rei on DVD cover)
To: evangelion at eva.onegeek.org
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 5:36 AM


I have seen fans look at Evangelion and take all the religious imagery at face value. That wasn't Gainax's intent. Evangelion is not a show ABOUT religion. It is a show that uses religious imagery for its own purposes. Gainax may not have been aware when they made the TV show that it would be released elsewhere, that people raised in a Judeo-Christian environment would become its audience, but they were aware when they made End of Evangelion, which had even more religious iconography than the show had to date. They knew when they made the director's cut episodes. They knew when they made Rebuild (which I still haven't gotten around to watching yet.) 

Gainax put it in the show. Now, while treating the religious imagery as crucial aspects towards understanding the series is inaccurate, neither is treating it as irrelevant. We had this argument already. You can not combat the fans who take the show at face value and go on about how God sent His Angels to test humanity before sending the next great flood of LCL to cleanse the Earth of Sin, by explaining that every single religious reference is fan-service that has less reason to be in the show than the Gainax Bounce. 

The overreaction to that segment of fandom which obsesses over the religious imagery by denying any and all importance of it is not a calm and collected stance.

Gainax put the religious imagery in the show, to the point where the very title of the series we enjoy harkens to the bible. It's the New Century's Gospel, the Gospel of the New Beginning. You can and should put the religious imagery in its proper place, placing the emotional arc of the characters as the primary importance. This is a show that throws in religious images as a spice. The main dish is the emotional drama, the side dish is the giant robots, with a conspiracy salad and traditional genre romance comedy for an appetizer. The spice isn't the main aspect of the dish, it could be removed without changing the whole thing, but without the proper seasoning, the meal just wouldn't be the same. 

Don't ignore the spice. 

Peter Svensson
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