Ask John: Why is Evangelion so Popular?

Question:
I was wondering, what is the pull of Neon Genesis Evangelion? To me, it merely seems like cross between normal mecha anime and Xenogears. It’s not too terribly original (or is it?) like Cowboy Bebop or Serial Experiments Lain. What is it that people love so much?

Answer:
As with anything, personal evaluations and attraction will vary between viewers, but there are several reasons why Evangelion deserves a degree of its popularity. Some fans are put off by Eva’s somewhat pretentious cinematic style and “homage” to anime archetypes, and some fans are deterred from Evangelion by the massive “over-exposure” the show has received from fans, Gainax and AD Vision. To give credit where it’s due, though, Eva can be said to have simply managed all of its elements masterfully, and balanced it appeal to its target market perfectly.

Evangelion is simultaneously a character study and a revisionist homage to the traditional anime giant robot genre. It’s not totally accurate to call Eva a “cross between normal mecha anime and Xenogears,” though, because Evangelion was released in Japan 5 years before Xenogears was. As a robot anime Evangelion utilizes the anime cliché of a teen boy piloting a mecha built by his father to protect the world. This archetype goes as far back as the giant robot anime of the early 1970s such as Tetsujin 28. Eva expanded this theme from its appeal to only mecha fans by introducing distinctive looking robots that didn’t move or act like traditional giant robots, and by infusing the series with a captivating degree of mysticism and symbolism that engenders a greater degree of intellectual stimulation and involvement than the simple good vs. bad of the “Super Robot” genre or the heavy political and hierarchal machinations of Gundam.

Further complimenting the exciting and nerve wracking action set pieces and choreography is a cast of thoroughly diverse and totally fleshed out characters including the brash yet vulnerable Misato, the outspoken yet haunted Asuka, the enigmatic Rei, the stern and mysterious Gendo, the personable and double faceted Kaji, the aloof yet passionate Ritsuko, and the unconfident and timid Shinji who represses a great anger and resentment. From the main cast to even minor supporting characters, all of the people glimpsed in Evangelion are distinct, fully characterized individuals. This depth of characterization and attention to detail makes the cast, and the show, thoroughly affective. Furthermore, this great diversity of characterization allows any viewer to find relation to and empathy with at least one character in the series.

The originality of Evangelion isn’t its pieces, but the sum of its parts and the presentation of those parts. Lain may be more esoteric, but in some regards that actually works against Lain’s accessibility. Evangelion deals with lofty concepts, but never strays too far from literal comprehensibility. Thus unlike Lain, which establishes itself purely in the realm of theory and academic interaction, Evangelion perfectly balances its intellectual concepts with primal concerns and conflicts, engaging both the viewer’s mind and heart rather than mind alone, as in Lain, or heart alone, as in Fushigi Yuugi, for example. Cowboy Bebop may seem to have equal focus on character as Evangelion, but doesn’t provide the depth of character analysis that Eva does. Series like Berserk and Fushigi Yuugi, which do present characters of the depth, diversity and fragility of Evangelion simply don’t employ this characterization within the context of immediately identifiable genre and situation. While Eva places the viewer into the context of religion and family dispute and adolescence- all fairly identifiable circumstances for most viewers, Berserk establishes the foreign context of a barbaric, medieval European war, and Fushigi Yuugi establishes the foreign context of a stranger in a strange land.

Not everyone will or even should like Evangelion. The series should appeal to those, and only those who appreciate its strengths in characterization and action that’s simultaneously instinctively primal and intellectually engaging. At the same time, that’s not to say that the sheer fanaticism commonly associated with Evangelion is totally justified. Evangelion is a technically masterful series, but to blindly consider it the greatest anime series ever is to ignore, overlook or otherwise sacrifice the experience of far too many other equally deserving and equally, if not more so technically and passionately superior anime series.