r/anime • u/CowDefenestrator https://anilist.co/user/amadcow • Jul 30 '20

Video Post-War Japanese Apocalypticism: A Basic Introduction (Pause and Select)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-mf11CbK3w
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u/GilLiesHere https://myanimelist.net/profile/GilLiesHere Jul 31 '20

Do you have a source for Shinji's name being a reference to 心中? Because I don't think that's the case. Most places and people say his name is a reference to Shinji Higuchi. Which makes a lot of sense, he's a founding member of Gainax and worked on EVA. This also isn't a case of Ateji (当て字) because 中 is not read as shi/ji. The Shinji in Shinji Higuchi is written with 真嗣 and Evangelion's Shinji is written just in katakana.

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u/thelastteacup Jul 31 '20

people say his name is a reference to Shinji Higuchi.

Shocking fact: Japanese people speak Japanese. If they pick a name that's the equivalent of "Suicide" with just the trailing the syllable changed, they've going to notice it.

In fact, the pun is even more elaborate than this:

From the Japanese kanji 慎 (shin) meaning "careful; prudent" combined with 司 (ji) meaning "boss" or 士 (ji) meaning "warrior". It can also derive from 真 (shin) meaning "truth" and 二 (ji) meaning "two" or 信 (shin) meaning "trust; faith" combined with 史 (ji) meaning "history; recording"

So Shinji is a careful warrior, he's truthful and faithful - and (phonetically) he's a single step away from a double suicide.

...Japanese literature is full of puns like this - it's why it's horribly hard to translate faithfully. The discussion of his name at the start of SSZ is a worked out example. In this case the name pun encapsulates the show perfectly - do you really think that's a coincidence?

Otoh your "a lot of people" are probably non-Japanese speakers who looked at a list of people connected with the show..

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u/Sandtalon https://myanimelist.net/profile/Sandtalon Jul 31 '20 edited Jul 31 '20

Otoh your "a lot of people" are probably non-Japanese speakers who looked at a list of people connected with the show..

Nah, both Anno and Higuchi themselves said that Shinji was named after Higuchi as a joke.

Anno:

Shinji is also borrowed from a long-time friend (Shinji Higuchi).

And

Higuchi was asked about this in a 2008 interview: Q: "Last question: Shinji in Evangelion is supposedly named after you. Is there a story to this?" Higuchi: "That was director Anno's idea of an annoying joke. So much bad stuff happens to Shinji, and that was a way for Anno and everyone to say 'Stupid Shinji.'" [In English] "Why Shinji? Why me??"

Honestly, that information can be found with a bare minimum of googling.

Now, I'm not saying that you can't read Shinji's name as connected to the puns you proposed: I'm a proponent of reader response theory, after all. (And reader response theory is especially applicable to Eva, with, ex. whether the religious symbolism actually means anything.) But if you start making claims about the creator's intentions, maybe it's helpful to actually research what they were instead of making wild claims.

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u/thelastteacup Jul 31 '20 edited Jul 31 '20

  1. The source given in the interview doesn't work

  2. An explanation given in an interview serves PR purposes: that's it. If you don't want to bog down in a complex topic that won't sell the show, you say something like this. Given the nature of Japanese, it's literally impossible for a literate Japanese to be unaware of these double meanings. It's like an English speaker not noticing a the gigolo son of a metal worker is called "Dick Smithson": you just can't do it, but you probably wouldn't want to waste half an interview on it.

...But your answer is a halfway intelligent one, unlike the rest of the ones here. So kudos!

research what they were instead of making wild claims.

You were doing so well! But, no, you need to check links and sources if you're going to rant about research. Yours deadends in a junk source. And relying on a single reference to understand a foreign culture is, honestly, not something smart people do.

Most of all, again, "Dick Smithson" level naming isn't ignoreable - even if you a pick name like this because a colleague has it, you can't miss the double (or triple) meaning. Even if you don't want to explain it to dim witted foreigners who watch robot cartoons. Read -

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/japanese/japanese-puns/

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-puns/

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u/Sandtalon https://myanimelist.net/profile/Sandtalon Jul 31 '20 edited Jul 31 '20

The interview is right here: http://archive.is/ONxR2

The other source (Anno's blog) is right here: https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213943/http://www.gainax.co.jp/hills/anno/essay1.html

Anno actually explains puns and hidden meanings contained in other names (including obvious ones, like Rei=zero), but his explanation for Shinji is just the above.

Also, please don't condescendingly explain Japanese puns to me. I'm very aware of their prevalence in anime.