117th Street. Evangelion - A True Anime Classic

One of the measure of a true anime classic is how people still talk about it 10 years after its original release. I must say Evangelion has a HUGE impact on me when I first heard about it during my high school days. It was actually introduced to me by my pal w'Note, who was, if I remembered clearly, obsessed with Evangelion.

Evangelion, or Neon Genesis Evangelion as purists like to call it is probably the most original anime ever produced. In fact, Evangelion achieved so much in the anime world, all the other anime produced after it helpless atttempted to mimick its startling orignality, complexity and aestheticness. Of course, most were unscuccessful. What they did however, was to highlight how influencial Evangelion is. Arguably, what gives Evangelion this powerful edge over the subsequently produced anime is its treatment of the Christian history. In the anime, not only is God real, he is an adversary - capable of sending his angels to earth to get what HE wants. Humans, having progressed techonologically is able to face God in a stand-off and at times put him in his place. In the end, God, being God, triumphs and drags humanity into the dust.

Anything thing (movies, books anime) that offers an alternative view to Christianity is automatically labeled controversial. And Evangelion is controversial. Evangelion reproduces the Old Testament God in a startling new light and perspective. I feel that Evangelion is in fact attempting to validate the existence of God. In other words, human kind prefers an ACTIVE God - one who does something whose action is a signifed for his existence. But Evangelion doesn't stop there, as most people point out, including the strip above, it is really about the exploration of teen angst.

It is amazing that teens today face the exact same problem teens faced almost 12 years ago. The desire to want to feel belonged, to want to communicate with their parents better and of course, questioning their own sexuality. I think that is what makes Evangelion endure. Times have changed, but the problems that affected people then, affects us now. We have not solved the problems that were facing us almost a decade ago, even though we like to think that we have progessed. Considering this, perhaps we have progressed scientifically, but, morally, emotionally and spiritually, we remain stagnant, unable to proceed from where we have tripped.

This, perhaps, is characteristic of the human condition. We are more often than not in doubt. In doubt of everything, especially the point of our existence. Evangelion raises the same question, but offers a solution as well. Although we can never perfectly understand the point of our existence, we can understand it better if humanity has a common adversary, Existence, becomes meaningful once set against an opposing force that threatens to destroy that existence. God and Angels are therefore sigified Other that helps humanity define what it is. We can only understand ourselves through establishing differentiating ourselves from others who are different from us.

Till the day comes when humanity needs to come to terms with a radical Other, questions like who we are, what we are or why are we alive will remain pertinent. Evangelion will remain relevant, till of course, God refuses to stay in his heaven and messes up with the world.