Author | Gu Yue a knife
In the darkness of the night, the neon lights outside the window flickered, like a pillar of cross light left behind after the apostle's explosion.
In the past two and a half hours, I have watched The New Evangelion Theater Edition: The End, and I have experienced an explosion inside.
▲ Poster of "New Evangelion Theater Edition: The End"
Before watching the movie, I knew it was the end. But when I actually heard Shinji say the words "Farewell, all the EVs" and saw him wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase like a regular wage earner, I was still surprised.
This work, which spanned 26 years, actually, really came to an end.
The tail song sounded, accompanied by the chanting of Hikaru Utada, and I sat alone for a long time, and my emotions surged.
"The End", is it a good work?
IMDb gave 8.3 points (on a 10-point scale), Yahoo Pictures gave 4.22 stars (a 5-star scale), and Douban gave 9.2 points (on a 10-point scale).
▲ "New Evangelion Theater Edition: Final" Douban score
But the score is only the palest compliment to the EVA series.
I don't recommend people who have never been exposed to EVA to watch this film in a hurry, there is a high probability that they will not understand it, and it is difficult to empathize with it.
But if you're willing to take a moment to learn about its past lives and pasts, and discover this landmark treasure in the history of animation on your own, then I just want to say:
Welcome to the pit.
"Because I don't know EVA at home, I can't read all the anime in vain."
Evangelion is a Japanese anime series co-produced by GAINAX and Dragon's Son Studio, referred to as EVA. Set in the world of 2015, when the "Second Shock" disaster occurred, the work mainly tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who controls the huge universal humanoid decisive weapon "EVA" and fights the mysterious enemy "Apostle" who attacks the 3rd new Tokyo city.
Robots eat monsters
It is still an unforgettable scene.
More than ten years ago, my father went to Shenyang on a business trip, and it was the summer vacation of elementary school, and he took me with him. In the guesthouse, I saw EVA for the first time. Liaoning Tai is putting the first machine to nibble on the bridge section of the power angel.
▲ Stills from "EVA"
"Can robots still eat monsters?" This left a deep imprint on my heart as a child.
At that time, I watched most of the animation of "Light Messenger" and "Digimon", which was a dualistic animation of good and evil, and the complex settings in EVA were far beyond my comprehension, and this scene became a shadow of my childhood.
When we meet EVA again, it's college time.
My major is Japanese, and I have a lot of exposure to Japanese literary and artistic works. In the field of animation, EVA is almost an unavoidable presence. There are clouds in the anecdotes, "for the house does not know EVA, reading all the anime is also in vain." "I don't understand why in Japan, where anime works are endless, only EVA can be praised to the altar, so I began to "make up lessons".
This supplement is really in the pit.
In the early stages of the anime, it is no different from the ordinary "fight monster" plot.
The 14-year-old boy Shinji Tsurugi was ordered by his father to pilot the EVA Chu (a human-type combat weapon) to fight a monster called the Apostle, alongside two female drivers, Ayapoli and Asuka. As they trained, they grew, and the incoming apostles grew stronger.
▲ The four protagonists of "EVA", from left: Ayabori, Asuka, Nagisa Kaoru, and Makoto Tsurugi
However, as the story unfolds, the audience will find that the plot is far from being as simple as "fighting monsters and upgrading".
The teenagers are not riding on a machine, but an artificial man wearing a mech;
The apostle is not a monster, but another being of homogeneity with humans;
The organization that created the EVA is not for the continuation of mankind, but for the death of mankind...
▲ Stills from "EVA: The End"
All in all, EVA outlines a world that is incomparably large, complex and deep. Good and evil are ambiguous, and it is difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, which is a very rare setting in anime works, but it makes viewers who are tired of watching "diode" anime feel fresh.
Leaving aside the complex religious elements and obscure stream-of-consciousness narratives in the work, at the heart of EVA's story is something called the Human Completion Project.
The simple understanding is that human beings need to once again evolve higher to make up for their shortcomings.
What is a short board?
Director Hideaki Anno refers to the spiritual barrier between human beings, unable to understand each other.
This setting already has theological overtones of the story of the Tower of Babel. Human beings speak different languages, scattered in different places, resulting in differences and misunderstandings, and the resulting enmity and hatred cannot be dissipated for generations.
▲ Stills from "EVA: Prologue"
To further understand this setting, go back to Japan in the 90s.
At that time, Japan's economic bubble had just burst, the original wealth had shrunk sharply, many companies and individuals were saddled with large debts, and from a highly prosperous society to a sharp decline in economic activity.
The leak in the house coincided with overnight rain, and the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 hit Japan hard. The largest urban-direct earthquake since the Great Kanto Earthquake caused a loss of about 10 trillion yen, more than 1% of Japan's total GDP that year.
The decay of the material level further affects the psychological level of people.
▲ The core setting of "EVA", the AT (Absolute Domain) force field, is a wall that people erect around themselves out of fear and fear that others will see themselves
I have a "post-85" Japanese friend, and he said to me, "I remember that when I was a child, I didn't hear good news in the news, it was all negative." ”
When people can't solve problems on their own, they will turn to external forces. In such a social atmosphere, religious and mysterious remarks such as doomsday theory and salvationism are rampant in Japan. The infamous subway sarin gas incident was caused by the cult group Aum Shinrikyo at that time.
Natural disasters, recessions, man-made disasters... Society loses consensus, and disbelief floats among people. Despair in life far outweighed hope, which was a daily routine in Japanese society at that time.
The Kalaba Tree of Life in EVA, recorded in the Old Testament
Knowing these, and looking at the religious elements in EVA, the human completion plan, the end of the world, etc., you will find that EVA just moved the story of 1995 to the "fictional wasteland" twenty years later.
Cloaked in a romantic mech and with a realistic critical overtones at its core, this is an unprecedented form of animation.
Because of this, the history-making EVA has gradually been put on the altar.
The author is dead
The structuralist scholar Roland Barthes has a view that "the author is dead" that has long been famous in literary circles.
"When the work is finished, the author is dead, and the work of cultural creation is the right of the reader."
Hideaki Anno's understanding of this sentence should be very deep.
▲ "EVA" director Hideaki Anno
EVA, which has become a social phenomenon, has been sought after by the audience. Its obscure elements have become part of the audience's interest in independent research. There are also a lot of interpretations of EVA on the market, and the style of EVA's "ambiguous retreat" has left readers with plenty of space for secondary creation.
As a result, some viewers even "know" EVA better than Hideaki Anno himself.
There is a classic saying in the EVA circle that can be proved - Hideaki Anno is an animator, he knows a hammer EVA.
▲ Hideaki Anno resembles the shot of Shinji in the documentary "The 1214Th Day of Hideaki Anno"
It seems funny and ironic, but in fact some viewers really think so.
And this matter culminates when Hideaki Anno receives death threats from the audience.
The 1995 version of EVA was subject to funding and duration, and there were many regrets in the second half of the work. In particular, the last two episodes are almost the product of a large number of montage techniques, with no battle scenes, only self-dissected text recitations similar to stream-of-consciousness novels.
Using limited funds and construction periods, the intricate plot elements were combined together, which also conformed to the tone of EVA, and Anno actually spent a lot of effort.
However, this kind of animation performance has also made many viewers criticize it as "spiritual pollution".
Some of the audiences who loved and were in pain hated Anno for destroying his "treasure", and some people sent threatening letters to Anno one after another, threatening to kill him.
It should be noted that in Japan at that time, this was not the common joke of "sending blades to the editor" today.
In the early 1990s, the sensational "Miyazaki Incident" had just occurred in Japan, and Miyazaki, who killed and ate 4 girls, was an otaku who loved anime, and the vigilance of otaku in society was unprecedentedly high.
The regret of the original work and the dissatisfaction of the fans became the knot in the heart of Hideaki Anno, who suffered from depression and became gradually desocialized, and more than once wanted to take his life.
▲ Hideaki Anno, who is struggling with the script and composition alone
Fame and fortune because of EVA, and mental breakdown because of EVA, This incident in Anno is also known as the "Curse of EVA".
Later, an old friend of Hayao Miyazaki's studio pulled him along and invited him to continue creating. Sure enough, the creator's illness still depends on the "creation" itself to be treated, and Hideaki Anno gradually improves.
Shooting close-ups, live-action films, and animation films, Hideaki Anno continued to work, but he never surpassed EVA.
In the words of his documentary "The True Colors of an Expert", "shooting everything is like shooting EVA".
▲ Stills from the documentary "The True Colors of the Conno One Hideaki Anno"
Hideaki Anno said that almost all of EVA's stories and characters come from his life, which is the series of works he devotes the most energy to.
Yes, if you know Hideaki Anno himself, the characters and settings in the anime can find a shadow of his life.
▲ Stills from the documentary "Hideaki Anno's 1214Th"
Commander Tsurugi's ambition to make up for humanity is like Hideaki Anno's cynical lame father; Commander Tsurugi's isolation is the same as his own; Commander Tsurugi's cowardice and Asuka's desire to be recognized are the mental journey of Hideaki Anno's youth; and Ayapoli's tolerance and patience are his depictions of the ideal woman.
The lack of an ending, the unfinished EVA is not only a regret for the audience, but also a hurdle that Hideaki Anno has worked hard for more than ten years and has not been able to overcome.
Finally in 2006, he decided to remake EVA.
After a roundabout, Hideaki Anno returned to the origin of EVA again.
Reconcile with yourself
The first theatrical version of the remake was called Prologue.
If you compare it closely, you will find that it is almost a replica of the 1-6 episodes of the TV version. Although not a single frame repeats the original painting, the plot and storyboard are not much different from the original.
The situation has changed in the second part.
The second part is called "Broken", and listening to the name has a feeling of "not breaking and not standing, breaking big and standing". The second part of the plot changes a lot, such as the addition of a new driver named Makoto, and Asuka replacing Toji Suzuhara as a sacrificial character...
The adaptation of the second part is more positive than negative in the hearts of the audience. Although there is one more "love enemy" and the popular female characters are almost sacrificed, I have to admit that the shocking power of destroying CP is much higher than that of destroying classmates.
"How to reshoot, in fact, I didn't understand it very well." Kazuya Tsuruma, director of the new theatrical version of EVA, said.
When you watch the documentary "The 1214th Day of Hideaki Anno", you will find that the discretion of EVA is only in Hideaki Anno himself. Even if the script has been decided, a lot of shots have been shot around the script, and if he is not satisfied, everything has to be torn down and restarted.
As for the standard of satisfaction or not, not only is it difficult for others to understand, but he himself does not seem to know much. In reality, he is often in a state of non-committal and taciturn, and he rarely expresses his opinion when the rest of the team expresses it, and it is even difficult to tell whether he is listening.
Perhaps it is his seemingly hanging attitude, and the market calls him a "leper".
But as I understand it, it is precisely because the weight of this work is so heavy that he is cautious that he is not willing to be sure until the end.
▲When the staff is enlivening the atmosphere, Hideaki Anno is silent on the sidelines
Sure enough, as the deadline approached, he tore down the team's previous arrangements. One person went into the studio and spent nearly a month rewriting the script and reinventing the storyboard.
Miyazaki once commented on Hideaki Anno as "a person who creates while bleeding."
His wife, Yoko Anno, also said that Hideaki Anno almost gave up her life for the sake of her work.
Hideaki Anno's method of temporarily tearing down and completely remaking it is both oppressing others and forcing himself. If it is not someone who really loves EVA, it is estimated that it will be difficult to cooperate with him.
▲ Employees admit that the negated things are full of corpses, and the last correct things are piled up with corpses
But for him personally, the work is a reconciliation spanning two decades.
This work, which has devoted half of his life, is connected to his fame and profit, life and death. His willingness to make a decision, rather than procrastinating as an "never-ending money-making warrior," is in itself worthy of respect.
Back to the finale, "The End."
Frankly, when I watched this film, I still didn't fully understand the metaphor in the film. In other words, the freehand expression of the work will cause multiple interpretations, but this does not prevent me from enjoying the last days of EVA.
Like an old friend's farewell speech, I just looked at him, listened to his voice, and knew he was doing well, and I was satisfied.
As a work that carries the youth of generations, I think "The End" also completes its role, and it makes the people in the anime, Such as Commander Tsurugi, Misato, Asuka, Shinji Tsurugi and others eventually grow up and reconcile with themselves.
At present, the more it is touted as a "god's work", the more the author is stingy to give Happy Ending. It is also a miracle that Anno can finally give such a happy ending, transcend the pain and injury he has suffered because of this work, and get out of the state of screwing.
Youth is stirred, and youth must become a myth.
Youth has dissipated, and teenagers have become middle-aged.
The story in EVA is no different from the inferiority, avoidance, growth and reconciliation that everyone experiences when they are young.
Edit | Ji Jie
Typography | Weng Jie