I was at the gym today getting my swell on and I thought about Neon Genesis Evangelion for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that I was getting gains but it made me think about the way that Evangelion handles bodies both of its young protagonists and their mechas.

For those that don’t know, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a show about Shinji Ikari and his two… I am legit unable to think what term would best fit for their relationships, friends doesn’t work, allies kind of works, coworkers fits a bit more. As they pilot giant mechs called Evangelions to do battle against the angels. Here’s a screenshot that sums up the show but isn’t actually from the show.

That purple thing in the foreground is called an Evangelion hence the title and that big white thing is an angel. That is one of the more straight forward angel designs because they can vary from geometric shapes, kind of bird looking dudes and literally just a young boy. They’re looking to bring about something called Third Impact that I will get into at a different time. Here it is from the front:

Let’s set our stage. The Evangelions stand about 200 meters tall. They are insanely powerful and powered by what’s called an umbilical cable that literally is just a giant power cord that even plugs into the back of the Evangelion. You can see one in the above picture that’s not featured in the show. They’re equipped with various weapons like spears, knives and guns. They also have heavy armor but their main protection is the AT(Absolute Terror) Field. It’s a field that the pilot projects from inside the Eva. We’ll get into that in a moment.

Now where is the pilot in all of this? They’re inside what’s called an entry plug, which is then inserted into the back of Eva’s neck. Like so:

The entry plug has the piloting chair and controls and is then filled with an orange breathable liquid called LCL. Like so:

Now that we have all of this out of the way, it’s time to get into spoiler territory for my discussion. If you don’t want to be spoiled, leave now.

Okay, so the thing is with Evangelions is that they aren’t just giant machines. That metallic thing around them isn’t their whole body, it’s just what’s protecting the body. You can somewhat see what they look like with it in this picture:

They are giant humans in armor and can occasionally just go nuts and attack things? Why would they do that? How could they do that? Well, it’s because inside of those giant humans is a soul. For Shinji who is the one in the LCL, his Evangelion is powered by his mother’s soul. She died in an accident and was absorbed by the giant robot that he pilots.

This is where we start getting the way that Evangelion fucks with the concept of mecha in general but more specifically the male power fantasy. In one of these animes, normally getting your mecha becomes this grand thing and showcases the young boy into becoming a man. He becomes that much more capable and beloved for it. Just look at the way that Amaro in the original Mobile Suit Gundam is respected. Many of them have some trouble with piloting but eventually start feeling jubilant towards it.

Shinji doesn’t get that and part of it is the difference between Evangelions and other mechas. Other mechas are shells that protect their pilot from all danger. Not so the Evangelion, who requires the pilot to sync with it to pilot. Hence, why Shinji pilots the Evangelion with his mother’s soul in it. But the thing is that because of this synchronization Shinji feels everything that happens to it. This becomes horrific in the movie End of Evangelion, where another pilot, Asuka gets stabbed in the eye by a spear. We cut to the inside of the plug and blood is pouring out of her eye socket. The enemies then eat her Evangelion and she feels every part of it.

From this example, we can see that the power fantasy doesn’t quite match up to the expectation. Shinji just can’t go nuts in his Evangelion without getting badly hurt. Furthermore comes what I mentioned before, the umbilical cable. It’s not just a limiter by making sure that if it gets cut he only has about five minutes before the Evangelion deactivates. From the name, it ties Shinji and the other pilots in a parental fashion to the base. Speaking of umbilical and pregnancy, it’s no coincidence that the LCL fluid looks like amniotic fluid in a womb.

So, you have this child in the womb being sent out into the world to fight against an unknown enemy. It reminds me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut’s first part of Slaughterhouse Five where he talks about writing his book to his friend and his wife. That she complained that he’s going to make war sound good when they were really just children, babies being sent out to fight. This has different meaning for me now that I’m an adult and could comfortably have a child Shinji’s age. It breaks my heart in a way that it didn’t when I was a kid.

This show has stuck with me since I was a kid. Part of the reason, I think is because unlike other shows I watched where there was just violence for violence’s sake, Evangelion used violence as a means to emphasize the amazing dialogue and characters. Half the time, the fights just became brutalization and animalistic screams. When I was a teenager, I related to Shinji. Now that I’m an adult, my heart bleeds for him. I’ll get more into him later this week.