Evangelion - The Psychological Violence Motif

Evangelion - The Rebirth is a two part film that finishes and recaps on the whole TV series. The "EVA" units are huge robotic giants that combat "Angels" who threaten to create "Third Impact" - a calamity that would act to wipe out all of mankind. The obvious religious connotations are interwoven with one of the most disturbing combinations of violence and psychological degradation within anime. When the series was originally released on American Television the huge uproar caused the sudden influx of cutting to anime that aired and took a hit on such shows as Bebop that had to be cut for the sake of avoiding the same response as EVA. Thus, we see EVA as one of the most violent films to date with a very different approach then most.

The lead character, Shinji Ikari, is a 14 year old boy thrust into a battle for the planet. Despite what you expect however, the film centrals on the downfall of humanity. The organisation "SEELE" breaks into NERV headquarters to initiate 3rd Impact manually. This final act of violence creates a hugely graphic climax to the film in two forms - the EVA battle between pilot Asuka and 9 other EVA units and the death of many of the NERV agents.

The EVA represents a human psychy and as such, the battle that occurs is horribly graphic of human degradation. It begins with Asuka going into a fury, slashing and tearing apart many of the EVA units. Alike to Transformers, the robot form does detract some of the violence, however it is in fact biological beneath the armour. The armour can represent body or reason - either way the battle involves tearing through this and shredding into the "weak" underlying shell. When Asuka is finally defeated her EVA is literally eaten while she is still inside it, destroying her mind completely. The violence is hugely graphic with blood, guts and muscles being torn to pieces and devoured. Asuka's screams of pain accompany this to show a truly horrifying form of death and destruction.

Susan J. Napier writes "Much of the film's action centers around the human heroism and tragedy of the bloody destruction of NERV by SEELE's soldiers, culminating in the death of Katsuragi Misato". It is true this is the major violence focusing on gun battles where most characters are shot down or killed. Some are even burnt with flame throwers. The level of blood is unparalleled in the rest of the anime and you see Misato die bleeding from a gunshot wound after she herself shoots two men in the head. Napier continues to write after identifying humans as the 18th angel (and thus threat to Earth) that "This revelation, embodying the potential for human menace, is further underlined by the vicious hand to hand fighting bewteen NERV and SEELE which prompts one character to lament "Aren't we all human beings?" The ghastly outside forces that beset the characters are thus essentially their own dark sides rising to overwhelm them." This idea of humans as violent threats is ever present within anime but is crystalised by Evangelion with the ideal that humans are the very presence of the thing they have been fighting throughout the film.

Quite a different approach to American film where violence is usually presented just as violence to meet a cause such as in many action films (I.e. The Matrix), Evangelion is using the violence as a metaphor for so much more then just what is being shown on the screen. As Napier writes about the first fight scene within Evangelion, "The soundtrack music is foreboding and the encounter itself is limned in a shadowy chiaroscuro, quite different from the brightly colored fight scenes of mecha." This suggests a much more downcast view to fighting and one of fear and demise as opposed to success we see in many films. This downcast view to the often glorified violence makes it more subtle even while the visuals became quite startling with large levels of"blood" and severely violent actions taking place against both "mecha" units.

Ultimately Evangelion both has startling violence and also a deeper use to this to express psychological arguements. Pages 98 - 102 of Napier's "Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle" deals with many of these and can be referenced for more direct arguements about Shinji's development of finding self through the fights, the unique use of a "womb-like" encasement for the pilots and furthermore the direct damage done to the children as part of the fighting. Much unlike a modern western film, the constant loss incurred by the protagonists within Evangelion can become quite distressing to those watching, especially when coupled with the degradation occuring to all their psychological states as shown through violence.