Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 22 Reaction
Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 22 Reaction
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July 27, 2019 @ 11:49 pm
These last few episodes are some of my favorites in any tv show; This is no different. The elevator conversation, the mind attack, and the use of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and Worthy is the Lamb makes this easily one of the most memorable.
July 27, 2019 @ 11:51 pm
So after his month long absence we don’t really see any kind of reunion between Shinji and Asuka, probably because there wasn’t much of one. She’s been spiralling down for a month, and Shinji has no support to offer her.
Notice the lighting during the scene where Asuka sees Rei and Shinji talking at the train station. The background has soft glowing lighting like in a lot of romantic 90s tv shows and animes. Due to Asuka’s insecurity and jealousy, the romantic style reflects how she perceives Shinji and Rei’s relationship.
She’s mad that after returning from being stuck in the Eva, Shinji has barely connected with her or acknowledged how she must have felt, but he’s now talking to Rei like normal. Asuka’s always had an uneasiness and insecurity regarding Rei’s relationship with Shinji. It bothers her that Rei and Shinji seem to have conversations and are on some kind of speaking terms when Asuka’s not around, but when Asuka is there, Rei barely ever speaks
That’s why she says "fine, so I’ve lost". i.e. lost Shinji to Rei. She’s basically checking out of her relationship with him and further isolating herself and deteriorating
July 27, 2019 @ 11:59 pm
For anyone interested, there is a long list of all the flashy words that apear on screen in this episode at the very end of this comment. Or just google them yourself. Its really interesting, you should read them.
God just the opening scene makes my stomach turn. Literaly feel sick watching it.
The whole first half of the episode is pure awkwardness. And after that it only gets worse. The dinner, Asukas meltdown in the bathroom, Misato and Ritsuko really don’t get along anymore, the goddamn elevator… Should I mention that in several versions of the dub Asuka literaly says "It’s raping me" when the Angel starts it’s attack? Yeah… nice. The choice of music during the mindrape, Shinjis awfull attempt to talk to Asuka in the end. Everything is just awfull and/or awkward.
Why is this my favorite episode again? I can’t really tell. I wish I could go back to episode 8 and 9 right now.
So, let’s get the plot out of the way first:
-Eva’s are now beeing mass produced at the other Nerv bases.
-Gendo want’s the Lance to be as far away as possible, but needs an excuse to use it.
-The thing in the super secret sub-basement is growing legs, now that the Lance is gone.
I leave it up to you to understand the plot, at this point giving hints would be spoiling.
Now to the big juicy trauma. Asuka the proto-tsundere and pretty much the only tsundere with a backstory that makes sense.
I don’t know if you understood the backstory 100% because you need very fine ears to hear it all, so let me give you a very quick summary:
After an "experiment" of some sorts Asukas mom no longer recognized her own child and ignored her, instead she treated a doll that somewhat looked like Asuka like it was her daughter.
Asukas dad started to fool around with her mothers doctor, while his wife was still alive, blatantly obvious to Asuka. That woman is now her stepmom.
Her real Mother then started to talk to the doll about suicide together, cut the dolls head of and killed herself.
This unresolved trauma lead to 2 major fears and a few very unhealthy coping mechanisms wich now define Asukas entire character:
1. The fear of beeing dependend on someone else.
Her parents, who were supposed to love and protect her, both not only left her alone, but were the cause of all her suffering.
Please note that Asuka, from her perspective, is proven right all the time. Her supposed guardian Misato does NOTHING to help her during her meltdown in the bathroom. Nobody at Nerv gives a single shit about her wellbeeing. Misato frequently shows a lot of affection to Shinji, cares deeply about him, crys when he’s back after beeing absorbed by the Eva and so on. But NEVER to Asuka. Shinji ignores her (in her eyes) obvious advances towards him and in the end, she is alone while he hangs out with Rei (see the scene at the trainstation when she stares them) "You wont do anything, you wont even hold me" That line could just as well fit to her mother or to Misato.
2. The fear of beeing ignored, beeing "nothing" in the eyes of others, or beeing replaced.
This is of course because that is exactly what happened with her mother. This explains her deep seated hate for Rei. Rei is literaly a doll in her eyes.
These two fears create two very different needs that collide heavily with each other:
She needs constant recognition, praise and people to admire her so that she can feel special, irreplaceble, like someone that nobody can overlook.
She also doesn’t want to depend on anyone.
She needs others to give her affection, wich leads her into dependence on others for recognition.
The only way have both, at least a bit, is to aim for shallow, empty recognition (her exotic looks that make her popular, her scores in tests both in school and in Nerv, her position as a pilot…) while at the same time not allowing any deeper connection to other people by beeing a giant bitch to everyone.
Every part of her life revolves around that. Even her crush on Kaji was literaly "Please do everything you want with me, so I can brag about how mature I am". There was no naive teenage crush. There was only craving for attention.
So, I could write about 3 times as much but nobody would read that. Wich is a shame because there is SO much more detail and so many fantastic shots and frames in this episode. Oh well. In the end, I would like to hear your thoughts on something if you dont mind.
The scene starting at 9:27. I would like you to talk about it at the start of the next video. A little explaination: This is 4 female voiceactresses (Hikari, Ritsuko, Misato and I think the bridgebunny Maya) doing their best Asuka-impression intercut with Asuka saying "No that’s not the real me". I have my own interpretation of this scene, but I would like to hear yours.
Two Fun facts for everyone still around:
1. If you turn your screen upside down you can see the outline of Asukas tormented face in the linegraphs that the Nervpeople are looking at.
2. In the flashing frames at the very end of the mindrape we get a conversation between the Angle and Asuka in written form. It gives us a more or less complete breakdown of all the concepts that make up Asukas mind, as the Angel is trying to understand a human soul. You should read it, there is a lot to think about. I would say it’s "fun" but in this episode nothing is really fun.
For example, in one of the frames that flash during the mindrape the words "pity" and "sympathy" are written over each other, so they are almost unreadable. These are the only words that are written that way. The rest of the words are:
Denial
Father
Mother
Privation (Never having formed close bonds to others)
Insecurity
Separation
Evasive
Contact
Obsessive-Compulsive
Attachement Behavior
Dependence
Emptyness
Psycological Breakdown
Sympathy/Pity
I am not a doll
Mental Contamination
Dont violate me
Stop it
Die with me
No
It hurts
I hate you so much
Presumption
Dormant
Masculine Protest (The fight against a real or percived injustice/unfairness based on female gender, see the period stuff)
Dont be
cleary present
Reactive Formation
Shadow
Opposition
Reparations
Dont be
Momentary Assignment
Dont be
Rationalisation
Oblivion
Deception
Reason for Existing
Confidence
Childhood
Sense of loss
Reparations
Coexistence
Hostility
Opression
Death
Death
July 28, 2019 @ 12:20 am
By the way, my recommendation for the finale is to watch episode 24, then the movie (End of Evangelion), and then go watch episode 25 and 26 of the tv show. Some people recommend the other way round, and some people say to not even watch 25 and 26, but I say that the last few minutes of episode 26 make it all worthwhile and that it’s a much better note to end the series on
July 28, 2019 @ 12:21 am
The series has a moment for each character where he/she just breaks down and shits hit the fan, but Asukas was by far the greatest fall from grace
..All that facade (As a woman, as a pilot, as an Adult) she had built to protect herself mentally and survive that you would have never have guessed how much of it was real or why it is that way is just explained, exposed and then destroyed in one episode
Fear of abandonment,neglect and replacement is at the center of her character.First,she was second to her mother’s job, then ignored when she got crazy. Her father was too busy getting into his wife’s doctor’s pants. She was abandoned and replaced afterwards. Mom replaced her with the doll, dad with a new wife. Her replacement and abandonment is so complete that her mom "kills" the doll instead of her, thinking she’s killing her daughter, during her (would be murder-)suicide.
.Those fears define her behavior now: because she’s terrified of being unneeded, knowing all too well what happens next, she tries to make herself essential and the best as a pilot. It works for a while, but after as the plot progresses ends up being arguably the least important.She gets replaced as a "woman" too ..Rei seems to "steal" Shinji and Misato Kaji
Because she’s terrified of neglect she has a constant craving for attention: hence how loud she is, how much she seems to be confident, how sexually aggressive she is. That’s where her “look at me” throughout the episode come from..Her tarauma and fears are like Shinji’s deep down but instead of crying and being helpless she put up an immense unhealthy Ego, bacame cold and agressive ..She cant riskk becoming close or opening up to someone , she must always be the one others depend on and never the one that depends on someone..Shinji is in a postion to become someone who she can connect and care and that makes her crazy..that she cares foe him and wants him to help her..She has no idea,how to handle him
I love the “What are you doing there!?” sequence because it makes you reevaluate Asuka’s relationship with Shinji. In episode 9, she talks to him contemptuously, putting up the "wall" and saying "it’s time for children to go to bed". Here, we see her on the other side of the door, in the dark and alone. "You won’t do anything! You won’t help me!" She wanted him to enter — we saw her crying for "mama" in 9 but didn’t understand why at the time. "You won’t even hold me!" — suddenly episode 15’s "Asuka being a bitch and kissing Shinji because she’s bored" scene isn’t so funny anymore. We see her pretending to wash her mouth out at the sink and looking defeated..
Asuka wanted to connect and to be loved but to do so she had to let go of her Ego, which is the only thing she had..She wanted Shinji to help her but she couldnt communicate how other than being agressive..After all the Trauma of being replaced and not loved she couldnt bare opening up and trusting someone
July 28, 2019 @ 12:23 am
I give the japanese VA’s props for trying, but they totally butchered Asukas german… Still cool to incorporate that scene. Solid episodes that reveals a lot of lore to prepare for the mindfuckery that is about to go down and try to poke your nose on some secrets that may have been already figured out at this point from viewers. If not, should at the very least get apparent in EPs 24,25 and 26… or End of Eva… which is probably going to hit you and will make you ask yourself, what the hell you just smoked. Also, the famous "Elevator scene"… anno had a thing for stills, for one part because he was short on budget and for another because it made for some very effective scenes to usually convey specific messages or points.
July 28, 2019 @ 12:31 am
I find Asuka is the most complex character in the anime. She and Misato are my favorite characters. It was great to have an episode that explained a little of your personality. I think this anime has the most complex characters I’ve ever seen. Great video Liam =)
July 28, 2019 @ 12:40 am
Do what you want, though my own recommendation would be to watch the tv-series to the end, then finish with the movie. I’d give my reasons, but it’s difficult to explain without getting into spoilers.