A Post in 2023
Howdy Y’all, I’m back again to inflict my thoughts on an unsuspecting public forum over a decade past relevancy. It was always my plan to return to this thread after the final Evangelion film dropped and would you believe that took 8 whole years? I clearly remember watching the third film and seeing the promo at the end stating “Evangelion 4 coming December 2015!” At the time, being the sweet summer child that I was, I thought to myself “wow, I can’t believe I have to wait another two whole years!” only to grow increasing skeptical that the movie would ever be released in my lifetime.
Finally, late summer of 2021 I got to witness the final chapter of the series that I’ve followed practically my whole life. Hype around this movie had become a powder keg. The third movie left the series in such a precarious position that even evaluating if the film was good or not would depend entirely on the outcome of the fourth movie. And I was not disappointed.
I won’t bother summarizing the plot, but rather the emotional beats of the movie. Act one follows Shinji as he was left at the end of Rebuild 3, a hollow shell of his former self. Turns out destroying most of the world, time-skipping to see the future devastation your decisions have wrought, witnessing the death of your best friend, then fucking things up even worse by trying to undo your mistakes will leave a person with a bit of a gloomy outlook on life. Shinji spends most of the first half of the film in a depressive, non-verbal state. This is contrasted by Rei, or at least a version of Rei, learning about life outside the NERV facility for the first time. While Shinji seems to be languishing in his own sorrow, Rei discovers a whole new way of life and begins finding her place in it.
Around the midpoint of the movie, Shinji has overcome his depression and volunteers to move the plot forward. From what I have seen online, this event seems to be the most divisive element of the story. Shinji goes from being a traumatized, walking corpse to a confident hero. Many of the posts I’ve seen from Reddit and Something Awful claim his transformation was too dramatic and is totally unrealistic. Shinji goes on in the film to settle the main conflict with his father, not through giant mecha battle but through conversation. Having understood the feelings of everyone involved, Shinji rewrites the laws of the universe not to tear down the barriers between individuals that are the source of so much anxiety like his father wished, but to create a world without Evangelion. This ending brilliantly ties together Shinji’s arc by removing from the universe the one thing that made Shinji special and stating that he doesn’t need to rely on his unique talent for validation as he has found meaning in living on his own. It also nods to the audience that Evangelion is over and it’s time to stop living in the past. I especially liked how the final scene transitions from anime to footage of the real word as if to say, “go the fuck outside and stop watching cartoons you’re 30 years old for Christ sake.”
In my opinion, this is a perfect film and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. To those who say it treats depression too lightly and portrays an unreal expectation of recovery, I offer the following evidence from the film:
• Shinji and Rei spend months in the village surrounded by kind and compassionate people that give them space when they need it and give them tough love when necessary.
• Shinji begins working with Kenji to help the people of the village. Doing something for others helped put his own suffering into perspective.
• Despite what happens to Rei, seeing her flourish in her new life might have inspired a change in Shinji himself.
• The appearance of Kawaru toward the end implies some kind of time loop where an infinite number of Shinji’s may have failed to overcome their depression and this is the one universe where he succeeds in conquering it.
So no, I do not believe Shinji overcoming his depression was an unrealistic depiction of mental illness. The messages I took away from the movie are that even if life causes great suffering, the bonds formed with others give value to an otherwise meaningless existence. Even if success is not guaranteed, there is still value in attempting to forge these bonds and obstacles like depression should be fought like hell to overcome. This is what I believe to be the core of Evangelion as a series and what the creators were trying to convey with each iteration of the series.
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