I had missed it before, but Hideaki Anno’s 2006 statement of purpose for Rebuild of Evangelion really was something huh. I mean,
> Animation in Japan is exhausted and stagnated. The fans are losing interest. After careful consideration, I conclude that the problem with current anime is that it’s not Evangelion. I wish to be of some small use, so to that end, our current best available method is to make Evangelion again, repeatedly, forever. It’s what the middle/high school kids need.
In retrospect, maybe the end result did not quite “far surpass the original work”.
to be fair, and i’ve only watched rebuild 1.0 because mostly of time reasons, and i realize what anno sounds like here, but to be fair, in my heart, i think he’s right.
evangelion is what i needed, is what the kids need, is endless repetition for a hope and humanity that cannot die, is what we need to finish despite running out of budget and life, is what we need to strangle the people we love over, is what we need to practice doing again and again, is what will resurrect the dead, and is what will hurt us until we finally heal the world, and with it, us.
First as tragedy, then as licensed coffee shop AUs and pachinko machines, then as homework.
i’m not sure what the galaxy-brain-est take here is,
but i just wanna add that the fact that tikkun olam proceeds by eating all that it touches,
such that the kingdom is not just here, but it has licensed pachinko machines,
is definitely the philip-k-dickian-est way to really make the point
that the kingdom is and will always be on earth, and as such, it will always fully reflect earth.
or as jacob said, “i will not let you go unless you bless me”.