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Assassination Classroom

Among several series we appreciated over the semester, Assassination Classroom is among some that have the most lighthearted and humorous tones overall - even Aggretsuko is under the shadow of the intensive stress of adult life and the Japanese working environment. But as we can see in this particular series, most of the background hardly makes sense, such as the yellow squid capable of shooting through the sky at Mach 20, especially the yellow squid capable of shooting through the sky at Mach 20. The character of the squid-ish creature that somehow got a teaching certificate was so peculiar that it often became the main driving force in many circumstances in the show, such as arguably the one most remarkable difference of the story background: the half-screwed moon hanging in the night sky. Our yellow antagonist(?) dug that big hole in the moon as a reminder to people about the consequences of their actions. Even if it is done in one of the most problematic ways possible, it still shows an aspect of his mindset, not as just a mysterious creature that doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but also as the human trapped within the awkwardly funny appearance of a monster.

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Perfect Blue

⭐⭐⭐⭐+1/2

I had a very hard time distinguishing what was real in this movie and what wasn't. Every time I thought a real scene was happening it would reveal it was acting or a dream. However, what I'm gathering is that Rumi had DID and had been communicating with fans (or this one particular fan) through email and a website. I'm a little unsure as to if any of his interactions with her were real or just stress dreams.

Okay so I know for a fact that Mima is an idol turned actor and that some fans are upset about this. I think that both the creepy stalker man and Rumi show this type of parasocial relationship and unhealthy parts of fan culture. The creepy man, despite not actually knowing Mima felt like he had a right to dictate what she did with her career and was entitled to her attention. Rumi is living vicariously through Mima, so is upset when she goes down a path that doesn't match what she wanted.

At first, the movie paints Rumi as the sympathetic agent who wasn't going to force Mima to do these scenes to further her career, but in reality, she was pushing back on these opportunities because she wanted Mima to stay the same pop idol.

So again, I'm unsure of how many of those scenes with creepy man are real, but it seems like Mima is using these scary thoughts to help her act better or that they are just coming out because she is acting out similar things. It is clear that she herself often dissociates when in uncomfortable scenarios. As an ex-theatre kid, I can tell you how there are times were you have to check yourself out of scenes for your own mental health, and it can be very dangerous to trigger memories like that on stage.

Overall, I think I need to watch this movie again to get a better understanding of it all but it definitely had me on edge the entire time.

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I think the difficulty to distinguish between reality and hallucination is pretty deliberately done, to add immersion to the bad mental states Mima is having at the moment.

Cyberpunk EdgeRunner

Although packed with much other fun stuff like plot twists, good action, and fantastic visual styles, one central element of the show remained on cybernetics. In essence, cybernetics itself is a field of study that aims to create systems that can operate automatically or semi-automatically. But under the background of Cyberpunk, cybernetics developed so much that almost all traditional labor, such as manufacturing or transport, has been replaced by automated systems. As a result, people without the skills to operate or maintain these systems can no longer make a living by simply providing their labor as people do in our society. Thus they are essentially deprived of the right to work. At the same time, all the richness in society is held and consumed by the elites who have the necessary skills and ability to access the technology, who still retain control over these automated systems they created and maintained. What should you do if you cannot make a living just by your own labor? One way is obvious: learn the skills and knowledge, make yourself the elite, grasp access to the technology, and own the system. In the meanwhile, another way is to enhance yourself: if you are no longer competitive in the job market by yourself, make yourself better. David tried the first way in the first episode, and it didn't work out. Thus he turned to the second, and for a short moment, he liked it. The enhancements made him a more competitive individual, but in work, it is also portrayed as a way that eats away his consciousness as a human. This depiction could be taken as how it appears and as an abstraction at the same time. After replacing his natural self with the augmentations, David loses a part that is born with him forever. However, his rights and value as a human being is already lost to the automated systems around him, and using the same automated technologies on himself means he is giving in bits by bits, acknowledging the control of these systems upon him. David is resisting the unfairness around him, but at the same time, he is giving in bit by bit to this unfairness, internalizing them as part of him that is no longer himself. He is running on the edge of being himself and being merely another automated system, he is the EdgeRunner in Cyberpunk.

Perfect Blue

One particularly impressive part of this film is its complicated, step-by-step depiction of the female protagonist's worsening mental state. During the progression of the plot, Mima decides to leave the idol group and change her career as an actress, but it seems like not everyone around her supports this choice of hers, and some among them start to harass, threaten, or even assault her because of this decision she made. While participating in this new career as an actress, she also experienced acting a character very different from the one she was used to during her old idol career. Both the inside and outside pressure enacted on her simultaneously caused the rapid deterioration of her mental state, eventually causing her to become mentally ill. The exhibition of her inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality and the detachment of her feelings from herself and her surroundings could indicate Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder. Traumatic events such as explicit acting and being stalked might cause post-trauma stress disorder, and the constant experience of fear and disorder might be symptoms of her anxiety disorder. Honestly, it appears imaginable to us that simply a career transition would impact one's life so much that it became psychologically impossible for them to finish the transition process. One significant party responsible for Mima's occupational injury is, of course, the entertainment industry, nameable the producers and directors she is working with. In order to exploit the young actress' values to every last drop, they deliberately pushed her into roles that would make her suffer the most chaotic, turbulent, rushed, and hasty precipitate into the most drastically different role their futile brain mass could possibly think of. By causing Mima's mental trauma, they reap the value of her both as a former idol and as an actress. Despite my personal feelings about the methodology, this idea of a business model that exploits others' mental states into rushing cash is really intriguing.

Sensouron

For a bullseye, this peculiar piece of work we see today is quite the perfect target for criticizing the rightest mindsets we sometimes may see, even till today. It somehow reminded me of those people who tried to rebuild the 2nd Reich in Germany recently: they are so rightest that they become hilarious. Yes, MacArthur was the emperor of post-war Japan, and we all know that. Not quite sure why they brought that up there. It's not like Japan did not have emperors to begin with, right? What's the difference between blindly following a local goose or a foreign goose? Just do the same thing; simply abandon all your logical thinking and do what they tell you, and you'll be fine. From our point of view now, though, these awkwardly childish talks are like an immature kid refusing to give up their struggle of arguing how they are not wrong. But invading another sovereign state is wrong, to begin with. So does starting a war without declaring it. Since the moment their government so very cleverly did things their own way regardless of international law, they have given up all their rights during the possible post-war negotiations. By overlooking the convention and trying to make their own rules, they should be ready for any retaliation given by those who still abide by the current set of conventions simply because others spent a lot of money and effort on these conventions and do not want them to vanish even without a puff. Even from just the purest interest-pursuing point of view, they should not really complain about their current stance. They've seen it coming, after all.

Your Name

This film reminded me of an old saying: love is like a siege, where people outside want in, and those inside want out. Maybe that is the case because people knew too little about the other alternative; thus, people naturally assumed the other way around would be better because, well, why not? We know nothing about them anyways, just make things up ourselves. This is due to the boundary, the limitations to what we can see. People all have these imaginations about what they could do in a different situation, as someone else, or just as somewhere else. But aside from all those, this film looks like it has unlimited expressional power and labor hour to work on a fairly vague, generalistic story. The film incorporates majorly depictions of the daily aspects of two different groups of people, which resembles all the astrology stuff that helps people develop their hopes and dreams about themselves and others that simply suits everybody because all the descriptions either sound good to begin with, or at least is not insulting. If that is it, it is but one more lame story. But if just that is not catchy enough, let's add something special. Something special, like a comet striking the earth. Of course, it does not have to make sense. If there's no comet, just add one. Of course, smartphones don't delete data out of their own free will, just make it do so. As long as other elements in the film make others like it, most people would naturally overlook these 'little flaws.' Maybe it is because they are tolerant, or maybe because they have some confirmation errors. It doesn't matter. Exploiting these weaknesses of their viewers is also an essential skill to master as commercial film directors, even if they are in the form of animation films.

Hetalia

To be honest, I failed to grasp a gist or mainline in the 19 episodes. It seems to be just a clump of little stories that are extremely weekly connected, with no chronological order or even just logical arrangement whatsoever. However, some of them seem to be clearly inspired by actual historical events, just that more of them look to be purely stereotypical jokes. At least France is not the guy carrying white flags everywhere this time, and for that, French people are probably very grateful. Most of the stories are quite interesting. The one about the Italian army retreating faster than they advanced reminded me of an actual historical event: the Battle of Leros. During the Battle of Leros, the Italians tried to surrender because the batter was not in their favor, but their surrender was rejected by the British troops, so they had to continue fighting until the British would let them surrender. Also, when Italy tried to invade Greece, all they got was just a small triumph, and even that was pushed back by the Greek army soon after. Eventually, they had to rely on Germany to win against Greece. Although Greece was forced to surrender eventually, they quite successfully stopped a large portion of the Italian army, thus forcing Germany to help them out, allowing other countries facing German invasion some more time to prepare. Apart from Greece, Italy also did not carry out a lot of successful military operations in North Africa or the Balkans. Them starting the wars usually meant Germany had to deal with their consequences eventually, consuming a great deal of German military resources and weakening thus its power on their other fronts. Thus problematic contribution to their alliance is also quite interestingly depicted in the series, of Italy being the pasta guy, or tomato fairy, through and through.

lunacyn24

Xenoblade Chronicles

I don’t quite understand what is going on in this Xenoblade Chronicles playlist… maybe I just need more context, but it’s like I understand, loosely, of what’s going on but the true details and makeup of this world, I don’t understand. But, what I can gather is the importance of the environment in this world because the environment holds an effect on their powers. Moreover, harmony with the environment is important to everyone, especially when it comes to human relations with the Titans. When I noticed this, I immediately thought of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind due to the importance and correlation between being cognizant and taking care of the world they call home. The Titans in Xenoblades are these giant beings who the people rely on to stay afloat in their dwindling realm, which ties into the reading about anthropocene, the age of human influence on the earth. There’s irony though, in the fact that homosapiens are regarded as exceptions to the natural laws that nature itself abides by. Yet, in the Xenoblade realm that exception, or excuse, to go against nature’s ways, ends up biting the populace’s butt as they navigate their diminishing world and must learn to survive in the consequence of taking advantage of the earth. As the reading states, every species has to adapt to its environment. I could even go as far as referring to the Charles Darwin experiment that discovered “survival of the fittest”, but I won’t because we’re aware of that. Adapting and change are words that this realm is familiar with, especially when looking back at the rebirth of the swords and crystals who are portrayed as very human-like. These swords of power and light are in a cycle of immortality and being able to die, but have no recollection of who or what they did before. I find this trope interesting because it’s almost sad but intriguing to go one for multiple lifetimes but not recall any unless circumstances force them to.

jpt1311

I totally agree that quite a lot of details are not present if you just look at the CGs, some explanations is required to comprehend the story and I did find an alternative that works better in terms of explaining everything.

Xenoblade 2

The whole story of Xenoblade 2 is flooded with the total despair of a zero-sum game. There is no fundamental advancement of technology that aims at improving people's livelihood, but various appliances - results of taking scraps and bits from currently available techniques and recombining them just to obliterate each other more efficiently. People do not work on attaining a better life but are manipulated to serve just a privileged few so that these ruling groups can preserve their power. All people can do to keep their hope in dreams and ideals like gods, churches, or, alternatively, the holy grail or any other tail that may help them get by. Eventually, there is nothing a single ordinary person can do. All the tales and all the epics do not belong to the people; it is the possession of a few chosen ones. With all the awkward background aside, the whole story is a great combination of all sorts of cliché in a well-crafted manner. This is a compliment. The expressional power of these almost low-poly pitiful graphics, or to say, Nintendo-style graphics are insanely strong. It is almost the perfect embodiment of Japanese-style animation: if just graphics is not enough, just add better lines, actions, or sounds. Yet still, you see the cliché, although not presented with the downsides of cliches, they still are: The continuous growth of the protagonist and their friends, the improvements of their bonds, etc. There is that weird and over-the-top great evil who wants to obliterate humanity, while the player's job is to stop them. You can almost expect the story, just like the Xenoblade predicts others' movements just by all the hints in the story because the player has very likely seen them all in other games. All these can be found in a great deal of JRPGs, just that Xenoblade is standing at the apex of them all.

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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

This movie had aspects that makes you question “how did things become this way?” while at the same time displaying the idea of environmentalism.

The Sea of Decay is described to be this dangerous place that can even kill you from breathing in the air without a mask for five minutes while at the same time having insects that can attack and kill you. However, we see this not truly the case when it comes to Nausicaa and how she interacts with this ecosystem. She seems to respect the ecosystem, as she does not attack any of the insects even if they are violent, she seems to take samples of spores just for research, and she seems to communicate to the wildlife in a friendly manner. For example, even if an Ohm was violent, Nausicaa tried to calm it down through whatever manner possible, or even with her hidden garden she used to fully understand the plants in the Sea of Decay and how they are not actually dangerous.

But what was actually really interesting was the fact that there seems to be a clear message when it comes to how people view nature. On one hand there is Nausicaa who respects the environment and the Sea of Decay which leads to her reaping the benefits of this character of Nature. Then on the other hand there is the Tolmekians and Pejites who want to destroy parts of the Sea of Decay due to the idea that they cannot coexist, which leads to the Sea of Decay attacking them. For example, the first Tolmekians we see is on the ship that was being attacked by insects or even with the Pejites whos country was destroyed by insects even though they are only aggressive when provoked. So Miyazaki seems to have this message that there needs to be some respect with nature and that people need to live harmoniously with it as it can both harm and help humanity.

jpt1311

One important point mentioned in the manga origin of this film is that both the fungi, human and gigantic insects are created by the old humans living before them. These old humans use the creatures and biomes they create to restore the heavily-polluted world to the states they desire, questionably not the best option to do.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Among all other works of Miyazaki, this film probably has the most elaborate and magnificent background: humans have reached the apex of their technologies once and eventually touched down at its bitter end, but even the great calamity has already happened once, those who survived continued to start wars with each other, care nothing about creating another catastrophe whatsoever. Technology, war, calamity, and a more relentless version of mother nature, all these themes interlink and react with one another, forming this great work of the great animation master.

The theme of technology is quite well shown at the film's beginning: our protagonist pilots an airplane of a size barely larger than a person, which is quite unthinkable with our technology today. Along with it is the first glimpse of the theme of war: the rifle carried by the protagonist. As we all see, those bug-like creature is absurdly gigantic. What a single rifle can do is probably pretty limited, not to say firing it gives off the user's position to all other hostile creatures nearby. Thus we can probably infer that the use of the rifle is against other people when they would recognize the stick as a tool capable of violence and therefore reconsider their behavior.

If we consider those rifles and swords to be the smallest instruments of violence, the largest war tool depicted in the film is clearly to be the Giant Warrior, which once burned down the world within seven days. Yet eventually, this ultimate instrument of violence barely solved any problem. Interestingly enough, those fleshy, meaty clump was the work of Anno, the orange juice lover. In his new Evangelion films, the Evas' violence eventually wasn't able to solve any problem, too. It is hard to say if Anno received any influence from Miyazaki while drawing all those big meatballs for the old man, but I figure it to be a neat little connection.

There are a whole lot more to this story than the film, and a lot of the answers probably can be find in the manga of it.

Neon Genesis Evangelion _ part 3

One aspect I particularly enjoyed about this series is the fragmented, disjoint storytelling in places that seemingly won't be noticed by anyone whatsoever. A good example of such storytelling is the dead sea scrolls that appeared in the series, which look absolutely different from the actual dead sea scrolls in a few places or maybe also completely. The one fundamental difference is obviously these Evangelion-looking figures seen all over the place in the whole picture, with the Longinus' spears in their hands. In history, the spear used to stab Jesus is neither forked nor does it resemble fruit picks, so it is probably safe to say that those fruit picks come from the animation series, not to say they are also being grasped by the somewhat abstractly scribbled big robot identical to the series. Also, there are angels depicted within it. The angles, even though they look all oddly awkward and do not have wings whatsoever, are depicted as these oddly awkward figures that have two little wings behind them. Even that polygon angel got a small pair of wings attached to it. Although I guess it might be some form of symbolism, they do look quite funny. One other aspect that is intriguing is the scroll can be patched up together using the two spears at the sides of the picture and later appears elsewhere to show a different picture, where the humans and angels face each other and fight for their places in front of the tree of life, holding the fruits of life/knowledge in their hands respectively. Another fact worth noticing is that the words on the scroll are simply invented scribblings that do not make any sense whatsoever, so it would probably be wise to use the whole figure as a gist that would explain some background information about the series instead of anything too serious.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episodes 8, 16, 24, 26)

So I watched through all the remaining episodes, and it did not much help for understanding the last two episodes, which were just an absolute psychedelic trip in the abstract. Every character in this anime is plagued with severe mental issues. Shinji has his daddy issues and severe abandonment anxiety and his struggle in finding self-worth. Asuka also has similar issues with her parents and her struggle to find value in her life. Let's focus on episodes 8 and 16 first.

So in episode 8, we are introduced to Asuka. She is almost the exact opposite of Shinji. Asuka embodies much of the ideas of hegemonic masculinity. She is confident, aggressive, risk-taking, competitive, and is always seeking glory via fighting in order to prove her own self-worth. Whereas Shinji as we've seen is passive, timid, and afraid of all the combat. However, Asuka, despite displaying on the traits of hegemonic masculinity on the surface, is actually very insecure about her own self-worth. It is due to her past traumas that she puts up an act of hegemonic masculinity to pretend to be brave and strong in order to seek validation from society. Shinji also faces abandonment by society if he ever fails to live up to the hegemonic masculinity that is expected of him.

Episode 16 is when we see a lot of Shinji's mental struggles when he gets trapped in the shadow dimension of the Angel. In the beginning of the fight, Shinji actually embodies a lot of the traits of hegemonic masculinity. He is confident and fights more aggressively, mostly as a way to impress his father and the rest of society, because he fears abandonment by them. However, all his acting is not who he truly is, and him trying to pretend to be something that he isn't leads him into trouble against the Angel. While trapped in the Angel, Shinji has a mental breakdown and is consumed by despair as he thinks that he is about to die. His acting of hegemonic masculinity was all for nothing and at the end he is just tired of it all.

Episode 24 tackles the themes of betrayal and loneliness in a deeper context. Kaworu is introduced, and he befriends Shinji. Through their relationship, Shinji begins to think that he has finally found someone that shares a genuine bond with him and accepts him for who he is. However, Kaworu turns out to be an Angel and Shinji is forced to kill him with his own hands. Through their whole confrontation, Shinji feels very hurt that someone who he thought was a friend had betrayed him. This episode also goes slightly into the psychology of Rei. It revealed a bit of her backstory and how lonely she always was. She has a desire for human connection and to find who she really is as a person.

And then there is episode 26. This one, along with episode 25, was a complete mess of abstract images and thoughts. It is a deep analysis of Shinji's character and mental struggles. At that point, he is mainly struggling with finding validation and personal worth. He has always yearned for praise by his father and acceptance by rest of society. But because of the way he is, the way that he does not conform to the expectations of hegemonic masculinity, he never received any of that validation, never felt any love from them. Instead he internalized society's rejection of him, and began to genuinely hate himself. Because of that strong self-hatred, Shinji also has a deep fear of human connection and the possibility of hurtful rejection that comes with it. And because of that, he has a tendency to close himself off from the rest of the world and wallow alone in his misery and self-hatred. Episode 26 shows his chaotic internal struggle toward finding some self-validation. He does eventually come to realize that the first step toward happiness and better life is to learn to love himself. And the moment that he came to the conclusion that he can love himself and that he does have a place in the world, is when his world brightens and he is surrounded by his friends and family congratulating him.

Overall, this was a great anime, albeit kind of confusing at times.

jpt1311

The ending of the TV episodes are bad at presenting the ideas, that's something everybody would probably agree on. At least Anno tried to explain things a bit more in the many OVAs came after it, instead of just adding piece and bits of stories like a lot other animation OVAs did.

thirteen-orphans

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1, 2, 4, 5)

Regardless of how one feels about NGE, you can't deny that A Cruel Angel's Thesis is an absolute banger of a song and opening. It's insanely well-known and for a very good and clear reason; it's just that good.

I have to admit that this is the first time I'm seeing NGE, and I do think it's interesting so far. It's easy to compare it to Gundam, especially with how the main characters are both teenage boys who are forced into the role of piloting this giant robot to fight either other giant robots or monsters, but they differ in that while Amuro adjusts to his role as a child soldier, Shinji (at least in these four episodes) has consistently expressed his unwillingness to get in the robot I mean, pilot the Eva. There is a dichotomy between Shinji and his father, where Shinji is meek and soft-spoken, his father is commanding and strict. Shinji also grew up without the love and affection from his parents, leading him to constantly seek attention and validation from his father, who only does so when he wants Shinji to do pilot the Eva, which is something Shinji himself doesn't want. If being involved with the Evas and the NERV program represents masculinity, then Shinji and his father are on completely different sides of the spectrum, with his father being the embodiment of masculinity and Shinji failing to meet such masculine expectations expected of him. Coupled with the fact that he doesn't see himself as having much self worth, bro's got issues and complexes for days.

I'm curious about Rei's character. Even though she's around the same age as Shinji, she doesn't behave like a regular teenage girl at all. She's cold and closed off, and very little phases her. She seems to only act on her emotions when Shinji's father is involved, and even as Shinji accidentally walks in on her naked and gropes her, she carries on without even stopping. I also wonder why Shinji's father is so harsh on his own son yet so caring towards Rei; it must be hard to see your father give care and attention towards someone who isn't family, yet completely ignore someone who is actually family.

jpt1311

Shinji's relationship with his father is direly f-ed up, so does Rei's relationship with Commander 'Glowing Glasses' Ikari. The man's passion is quite twisted, fixated onto having his Evangelions beating up the unnamable awkward angles, and you are just about to see why.

Neon Genesis Evangelion _ part Orange Juice

/// Major Spoiler Ahead /// Let's turn everybody into orange juice and be done with any problems related to the differences in our personalities once and for all! Arguably the best solution to any communication problems people are currently having: fuse into one single entity, share the same form and the same thoughts, and there won't be any more misunderstanding whatsoever since we have all become orange juice. But even though that solution addresses a problem, why does that sound not tempting at all? Do we not want to understand others better? Do not all the hassle around figuring out how others are thinking nasty and tiring? Or does individuality matters so much that we would keep it even if it causes us trouble? In my opinion, the answer is probably yes, with some strings attached. A big contributor to these glamorous achievements we have these days is how different we are from each other, to take on different roles in this bigger system we call society and accomplish grand tasks by working together. But we are not the only ones working together. For example, bees also work together, and most of them very likely think the same way. They all look similar with yellow and black stripes on their bellies and are capable of similar things, like building a hive or harvesting nectar. But think about what bees can do: they are not very creative. All they do is get food, make hives, reproduce, find new homes, and iterate. We, however, are capable of social reforms, kicking out the old form of society that became an obstacle in improving our livelihood and replacing them with new ones that are at least sometimes better. That would never be possible if everyone in our society thought the same way. In other words, becoming orange juice means entering an eternal status quo, which sounds like no fun at all.

Swamp Con _ Saturday

Saturday, afternoon, blazing sunshine of Florida, while the building itself is not half blown or anything, the air inside feels different. When a significant portion of people walking around the place is doing cosplay, the space gains one other layer of significance than the ordinary Reitz Union, for it is now housing the Swamp Con. Compared to the other similar events that I have been to before, due to the structure of Reitz Union, the Swamp Con has a pretty different layout. For instance, many of these conventions and gatherings take place within sites like stadiums or simply exhibition halls, where there are convenient, large patches of flat space available, and the stalls would arrange simply one next to another, resembling the teeth on a comb, and people would be able to see what is going on at the entrance, to some extent. While in Reitz, people set up their stalls within separate halls, creating these tiny gatherings. These halls might contain stalls that have different themes or distinct purposes or even focus on a particular series like the ninja turtles, although I am personally not a big fan of it. Even still, maybe it is due to the relatively scarce space available in Reitz, the event is separated into two days where different events take place. since I do not have many preferences when it comes to events like this, I randomly picked Saturday, mainly for the experience. Although there are differences visually from the Comiket events described in Genshiken, there is still a resemblance in ambiance and atmosphere. Even judging from just the cosplay clothing almost half of the people wears around the stalls, you could tell that the majority of the people you see here probably share a similar passion and aesthetics, also that they feel like they are in a space where they can express such passion with ease since they know people around them are not going to slap taggings and make assumptions like ordinary people who know little about their subculture. Eventually, my friends all got something they wanted, even if they were looking forward to events that would take place the next day. For me, the vibe of the event has been quite a satisfying experience. It is good to be reminded that there are still gatherings like this here and there where people get to express their passions without worrying too much about judgments from outsiders.

Neon Genesis Evangelion _ part 1

Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably one of the most influential series ever in Japan's modern history. It is said to have all sorts of related goods ranging from figures to walking canes, and also rumors about entry plug coffins being available shortly. At the beginning of the series, we see the almost autistic figure of Shinji in front of the public telephone all alone, and later he is depicted as sitting on the train by himself and listening to his headphones, who denies all access to him from the outer world. Apart from his autistic, Shinji is also this cowardly kid who has absolutely zero faith in himself and thus has no initiatives of his own whatsoever. For example, he does not think he is capable of piloting the gigantic robot, even if it looks cool and shiny. All that drives him from doing it is that an injured girl would have to do it instead if he does not. It is even hard to say if this decision is out of empathy or simply caused by his dire desire to be needed, to be desired by others. While later in the first episode, he also encountered the fact that a middle school kid who has had no experience or training is not able to pilot a gigantic robot, even if it looks cool and shiny. What a surprise. The kid is kicked back to his useless self after an attempt to make a difference, which is probably the first appearance of the theme of fate that is repeatedly demonstrated in other episodes and films in this series. Shinji, lacking the wits or guts of his own, is not capable of changing the course of events in front of him. All he does is feed his own desire for others' desires and expectations about him, and that particularly is what makes this character so intriguing.

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