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.

Transformers Case Study

The popular 1980s children's TV show had massive commercial success in England and the US with the tie-in Bandai action figures. What may be surprising, however, is this was not a western cartoon but an anime that brought across many of the fundamental aspects of anime violence.

In the opening of the film that opened the tv series we see 2 "Autobots" attacked by "Decepticons" and shot at multiple times by energy weapons. Despite the primarily cartoon effect brought about by giant robots and laser weapons, there is clearly a sense of violence that exceeds the level most people would feel appropriate for a child. This becomes more obvious as the film progresses with massive fights where robots are ripped apart before leading to the introduction of humans. Humans are seen as frail and are often lifted, thrown and beaten around the screen on multiple occassions by "Decepticons". This violence is unprovoked and could easily seen by many as a bad influence.

On the reverse side of this, we see the principles of anime coming in whereby there is always a hero or group of heroes ready to protect the good. "Autobots" are primarily peaceful, illustrated by the appearance of ambulances and fire trucks as opposed to fighter jets. We side with the Autobots as they protect humans and the majority of the film is taken from their perspective. When the leader, Optimus Prime, is nearly killed, we hope for his survival and clearly the audience is hoping for his success. The laying down of one's life with no distinct sense of success is a motif of anime used to show that the good guy will not always win and sometimes will have to die.

Ultimately, during this first film, Optimus Prime does win, but by the time of the second film, we see a much bigger change to the view of violence. Optimus Prime is killed within the first few scenes along with many other Autobots whom have been watched multiple times in the past. Still aimed at children, this was a strong message and overtly more adult then other shows such as Spongebob Squarepants in the present day. The second film depicts mutiple scenes of huge violence with robots appearing more human as oil replaces blood as they have limbs torn form their bodies and froth leaks from their mouths as they die. This was however not viewed as inappropriate due to the robotic nature of the main characters. It can easily be argued, however, that due to the robots being presented as human with definite feelings and characteristics of a human, that such things are inappropriate for a child. Due to the animation factor, however, it is allowed to be seen by many children and it presents a much different form of entertainment then the average kids show which deals with much lighter tones.

Robot violence often is ignored in Western culture with shows like Transformers and Gundam Wing but other films such as Evangelion whereby the "EVA" is represented as animal, you find the violence is too great and imposings are put into place. Within the Japanese culture, both forms are viewed as violence and are taken as violence and not just as a cartoon form due to the difference in belief that animation in Japan is another film whereas in the US it is primarily aimed at children. This difference has often lead to censorship issues on anime but furthermore, in the case of transformers, it allowed large levels of violence to be viewed by children.

Robot violence is very different to conventional violence in the sense that there is no violence against humans. The lack of death and blood creates a very different feel in that you do not feel sympathy for those being acted upon. Despite this, the violence is shown in an almost identical manner to that of the human violence with robotic components replacing human life. The violence is exagerated and high action with multiple fight scenes where the robots will damage each other. In opposition to human, this means the robots should be fine to be damaged but anime presents robots as having some form of link to humans. Either the robots are humanoid (Transformers), have human pilots hurt by the damage (Gundam/Evangelion) or pilots die when the robots are damaged beyond repair (Escaflowne). The differing psychological links change how the violence will affect the viewer whether they fear for the human or the robot themself.

Violence with robots comes in two forms. Either they use futuristic laser swords or laser weapons and thus the violence becomes slightly surreal and unlinked to human life. Often it is glamorised by high action music (I.e. You've Got the touch in Transformers: The Movie) and characters making brave or daring exagerative moves. Thus, the violence becomes glorified and the characters committing it actually become heroes as opposed to villains. The audience can become numb to the constant use of violence and as such, violence becomes just another part of a film.