Neon Genesis Evangelion is More Than Just an Anime: An Essay on The Digital & The Organic

Please enjoy this brain dump of an essay I wrote for my Digital Futures course... I was fortunate enough to write about Fenton's Digital TV Dinner and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

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For this essay, I will analyze and compare Episode 13 of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Whitney Pow’s essay A Trans Historiography of Glitches and Errors. The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion showcases a handful of themes that primarily consists of peppering of religious ideology and the connection between bodies and technologies. A huge part of this anime looks at the way that the pilots connect with the EVAs, which are subhuman machines of which species is unknown by this point in the series. We don’t know much about these creatures, just that the person that pilots it has to have a neurological connection to be able to maintain a link to it. It is supposedly a manmade creature, but there are some instances of it overriding commands and turning to its “nature”, suggesting that it isn’t entirely machine. This links well with Whitney Pow’s essay A Trans Historiography of Glitches and Errors. Similarly to Evangelion, Pow looks at the connection between human and technology; it is taken into consideration how technology can give a person a voice that they wouldn’t be able to express otherwise. The EVAs work in a similar way when we consider how gender expression is available in technology. While Evangelion doesn’t directly look towards gender as a major theme, it can be argued that the attempt to connect to the EVAs is a challenge in and of itself for the pilot, similar to how one might navigate their gender.

            While the connection between the pilots and EVAs are an important part of the show and the analysis of this essay, Episode 13 has a different focus when it comes to humans inhabiting technology. The main premise of this episode is focused on the Magi, a network that is integrated in the main base of Nerv (the company that makes and owns the EVAs, using them to protect Tokyo 3). It is essentially the brains of the entire association, a network of technology that I cannot even begin to understand but appears to power and operate anything with electricity in the Nerv base. This episode follows an angel attack on the Magi network, which bypasses the firewall and is attempting to cause the Magi to self-destruct. The angel, called Ireul, consists of microscopic cells, making it an impossible task for the EVAs to solve the way that they combat other angels in the show. Thus, the episode turns its focus to Ritsuko and her technological intelligence to stop the destructive attempt of this angel.

            The glitch in this case is Ireul, which is creating a rather life threatening barrier for the Nerv base and all of the workers in it. Ritsuko’s connection with the Magi is strong, considering the fact that her own mother was the one who developed the system. The catch is, the Magi is quite literally the brain of Ritsuko’s mother. When considering this and the story that creates Pow’s essay, the connection between these two pieces is clear. Pow looks at how trans creators use technology (primarily at the beginning of our technological advancements) to make something beautiful that serves a deeper purpose in relation to their gender expression. Digital TV Dinner is a piece by Jamie Faye Fenton that was created back in 1978. It is considered the first artwork created by digital glitches.  There are some clear discrepancies in this comparison, especially due to the fact that the glitch in Evangelion is considered something to be fixed and Digital TV Dinner embraces and looks for glitches in an attempt to create. It is important to look towards the Magi in Evangelion when considering this comparison.

            Both pieces look towards the use of technology as a form of expression, a greatness of womanhood that is otherwise not commonly found when looking at something like technology. The most (pleasantly) surprising part of both of these instances is the shift from technology being a male dominated field. In fact, a considerable amount of the Nerv operators in Evangelion are women and there seems to be a sense of equal ground in terms of power relationships when looking at gender in this series; Throughout the series, we see a lot more women in positions of power than we do men. Especially from a show from the 90s, it is amazing to see how ahead of its time it truly is. Fenton’s piece is also especially groundbreaking, considering her gender expression as well, and the uniqueness of the project itself. She takes the commonly negative imperfections of early technology and uses it to her advantage; it is a perfect allegory for being trans and finally allowing oneself to be who they are.

            Pow’s essay, specifically looking at Fenton’s project from 1978, works as a perfect framework for analyzing Evangelion’s episode 13 as well. The focus on Ritsuko’s intelligence and quick problem solving mirrors Fenton’s creative process. The technology given to a person is used to their advantage in an attempt to save something, whether that be the lives of oneself and others or to inflict hope in others. They both have similar outcomes. They both are useful to humanity, especially to those who find themselves struggling.

            One of the most significant scenes in episode 13 is when Ritsuko climbs into the compartment where the Magi resides and tinkers with the technology. She eventually gets to a significant spot in the Magi, confidently removing a metal plate to reveal what appears to be the literal brain of the Magi. Similar to the EVAs and many other forms of imagery in this anime, it is difficult to say if the appearance of this brain is supposed to suggest that Ritsuko’s mother is quite literally implanted into this system or if it serves as a metaphor for the grueling work that she put into developing this supercomputer. Regardless, this circles back to how significant it is to have that organic and digital connection. Evangelion uses the Magi to solidify the idea that technology is in fact a living thing. It isn’t necessarily there to be used, to solely be considered a tool for humans, but as something that mimics organic material (i.e. humans) and should also be shown the same respect as other organic material should be shown.

            This case is apparent with the EVAs as well, especially when looking at when they snap out of their programmed behavior. We see this when EVA 01 bypasses its restraints in order to protect Shinji (the EVA 01 pilot) or goes feral when challenging an angel in an earlier episode and tears it to shreds instead of following the training that Shinji completed with it. In Evangelion, the technology isn’t something to be controlled and restrained the same way that a lot of technology is used in reality. This show looks at how it develops and learns on its own; humans may have programmed and created them, but this programming made this technology to mimic our own brains, causing an imperfect birth of whatever the EVAs have turned into.

            Fenton uses these glitches to her advantage; she allows these imperfections to breathe and ultimately shine in the same way that Ritsuko uses the Magi to defeat Ireul and how the EVAs use the connection they have with their pilots in order to create a stronger and more efficient power through this bond. Is it possible that an abstract idea can be formed when considering this? Perhaps there are more signs than not that are pointing towards the treaty that should be formed between the organic and digital. Both projects use biology in a very abstract way; Fenton connects the idea of imperfections and its link with transness and technology in a way to form something thought provoking, Evangelion looking at how the digital and organic can exist in harmony or at least can in the near future. Both projects seem to flow easily with their respected metaphors, both also allowing for consideration of deeper meaning beyond the surface level of gender and otherwise significant connections.

These other connections, specifically in Evangelion, looks towards the way that we interact with others, but not just between human and machine, but also between humans themselves. Interestingly, Ritsuko refers to the Magi as “Mother”, which is unconfirmed if this is the official name for the system or if it obviously references its connection to its creator. Evangelion uses the idea of creation as a central theme, which is clear when looking at Ritsuko’s mother’s connection to the Magi and the creators’ connection with the EVAs (which is something that is brought up later on in the series), but there is also emphasis on familial relationships. This is present between Shinji and his father, who is the leader of Nerv and their complicated relationship. Their relationship is not just complicated when looking at the way that they interact socially (between themselves) but also when considering the EVAs. The series starts with the surprising reveal that Shinji, who has never even seen an EVA before, connects with EVA 01 instantly and pilots it with eventual ease. It is theorized by several characters that this is the case due to the fact that his father had a hand in developing them. This is significant in Ritsuko’s case as well, her intelligence being seemingly inherited from her mother who also worked for Nerv and had a clear passion for working with technology and for the Magi project itself. Just like Shinji and his father (and Fenton and trans individuals in the past), Ritsuko unconsciously finds the confidence within herself to successfully interact with the Magi and eventually continue and maintain her mother’s work.

In general, Evangelion is a unique series, one that looks at these themes of digital and organic in ways that haven’t exactly been analyzed in media during that time and in all honesty isn’t entirely considered in this way in modern media as well. Its in depth character development paired with the peppering of considerable themes makes the series complex and significantly enjoyable to analyze. It’s no surprise that the series became as popular as it did. Episode 13 in particular is a significant stepping stone in the story’s plot and development, even though the events that occur within it seem unimportant and even boring. During my first watch of Evangelion, I thought this the case. In fact, most of the series seems to drag on and is difficult to watch, especially in the beginning. But analyzing it (specifically episode 13) has changed my mind. Fenton’s creation may not have been as culturally praised and popularized as Evangelion, but the significance on a handful of communities is just as important. This is the way of science fiction, though; something that seems as unbelievable as technology and the digital world can create connections that society in even the 60s and 70s couldn’t imagine to be possible. It is true that not all of this is a reality for us, but the consideration and crafting of media like Digital TV Dinner and Evangelion will form more ideas and advancements in how we view and use technology in the future.

            That being said, the analysis of Evangelion through the framework created in Pow’s essay specifically relating to Fenton’s Digital TV Dinner paves the way for allowing ourselves to be more open minded with things that may seem simple on the surface. These two projects are seemingly in completely different realms but both point towards a similar idea of organic existing in harmony with the digital world. This is a lifelong concept that is still in progress to be develop, thus making it significant to see these ideas beginning to form as early as the 70s and 90s. It’s interesting to see this connection in something academic with an animated show that was popularized initially in Japan. They couldn’t be any more opposite and yet the ideas are uncannily similar and equally important in analyzing. Who said entertainment like anime and video games don’t impact complex ideas and our societal development?