Neon Genesis Evangelion is a original Japanese animation series released in 1995 set in a futureistic post apocolyptic Earth, the majority of the series takes place in Tokyo-3 a fortress city created to defend earth against angels, beings sent to earth to reclaim the body of Lilith the second angel that is seccured below Tokyo-3 if allowed to occur it would wipe out all of the human life on earth.
Although this is the back story to the series its based mainly around 3 children Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Soryu who must pilot giant cyborg type beings called Evangelions used to fight and kill the attacking angels and were created from the DNA of the first angel Adam. Each child however suffer from a range of Psychological issues that the series explores and develops, as they are pushed headfirst into traumatic experiences which they must deal with each of them must find a reason to keep on going as the fate of all humanity rests on there will to keep on fighting.
Below I have upload several clips from the series and films showing different parts of the film and the way in which psychological conventions are used to portray the mental anguish each child faces.
Shinji Ikari
Shinji Ikari
Shinji is the main child out of the 3 and revolves more around his Psychological issues than the other two children, left by his father at a young age he is called for to pilot EVA Unit-1 by his father out of the blue and is suddenly has the responsibility of protecting humanity thrust upon him, during his first time piloting he is paralyzed by fear and nearly killed before his EVA goes berserk and kills the angel itself. After his first experience he refuses to pilot it again but when his protests are ignored and he is forced again to fight off and angel he realizes that no one cares for him or his feelings, deciding that he is nothing more than a tool to pilot EVA he runs away but his conscience brings him back and after managing to defeat the next angel he is praised by a lot of people for saving them and manages to befriend two other boys at his school. This helps develops his personality as before he was never praised for anything and he decided to continue to pilot EVA if people value him for it, this unfortunaley later leads to further downfall when he realizes that without EVA he has no identity and this soon causes further deterioration in is mental state causing him to become rather unstable and question why he is even alive.
In this clip Shinji is forced to kill Asuka by his father who uses a device called a Dummy Plug to take over control of his EVA, the music used has a shocking contrast to the footage as Shinji's EVA tears apart Asuka's new EVA and at the end crushes the plug she is in with its mouth with the sun sets behind and a rainbow shines over. Creating an ironically picturesque scene that's quite disturbing and shows the way in which the film quickly destroys any real chance of happiness for Shinji.
Here is a small clip of Shinji breaking down after killing Asuka, we see an image of himself as a child questioning him about what he is doing and we are shown him despairing over all that's happened noting that in the end it all the happiness and good times came to nothing.
Asuka Soryu
Is the introduced a little later on in the series after Rei and Shinji she is overbearing, egoistic and even physically violent at times, she directs a lot of her problems and issues at Shinji constantly abusing him verbally this is however a cover to hide her feelings towards him. We discover that when she was still very young her mother took part in the contact experiment with Asuka's EVA this caused her to become insane and she started believing that a small doll was her real daughter and refuses to acknowledge Asuka as her daughter she eventually commits suicide asking Asuka to kill herself with her, however Asuka later discovers her mothers body after she hang herself when she goes to tell her that she had been picked to pilot her EVA.
Most of her development through the series and films is focused around her insecurity and the ways she tries to push everyone away from her. She has an intense hate of dolls and for this reason if often very violent towards Rei who's actions could be described as very doll like following any order she is given and lacking any distinctive personality.
This is the scene where Asuka is taken over by one of the Angels we see many of her past repressed memories.
Here is a small clip of Shinji breaking down after killing Asuka, we see an image of himself as a child questioning him about what he is doing and we are shown him despairing over all that's happened noting that in the end it all the happiness and good times came to nothing.
Asuka Soryu
Is the introduced a little later on in the series after Rei and Shinji she is overbearing, egoistic and even physically violent at times, she directs a lot of her problems and issues at Shinji constantly abusing him verbally this is however a cover to hide her feelings towards him. We discover that when she was still very young her mother took part in the contact experiment with Asuka's EVA this caused her to become insane and she started believing that a small doll was her real daughter and refuses to acknowledge Asuka as her daughter she eventually commits suicide asking Asuka to kill herself with her, however Asuka later discovers her mothers body after she hang herself when she goes to tell her that she had been picked to pilot her EVA.
Most of her development through the series and films is focused around her insecurity and the ways she tries to push everyone away from her. She has an intense hate of dolls and for this reason if often very violent towards Rei who's actions could be described as very doll like following any order she is given and lacking any distinctive personality.
This is the scene where Asuka is taken over by one of the Angels we see many of her past repressed memories.
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