Abstract
On March 20 1996, the ambiguous 25th episode of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series was released. A week later it came to its conclusion under sharp criticism: its spectators accused its director of aborting the climax of the “last” battle. Like a barefoot Moses standing before the divine presence embodied in a burning and murmuring bush, Shinji undresses before himself. He establishes a dialogue in which his voice will respond, so he is questioned by himself. Lines breaking the screen with the symbolism that Terrence Malick gives to God in his The Tree of Life: the Trascendent and the Word made Image. A plethora of mythical references (the Genesis devised by the Father, the Apocalypse, Adam and Lilith, the Messiah, etc.) cause a sense of dread to the Rilkean “vermauerten Augen” (walled-up eyes) of the contemporary spectator, who does not understand that leap into the void. A reverse step from Science Fiction to trascendent etiology, from noise to the abyss of silence. Thus Hideaki Anno offers us his own way of salvation. Neon Genesis Evangelion was the culmination of an internal process of transformation and severe depression at the end of which the creator established a connection with the resilient sacred.
Presenters
José María Toro PiquerasPhD Student, Departamento de Filologías Integradas, Universidad de Sevilla & Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, Córdoba, Spain
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Religion in the Public Sphere: From the Ancient Years to the Post-Modern Era
KEYWORDS
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Trascendence, Religious studies, Post-modern Era
