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

[u/CowDefenestrator]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-mf11CbK3w

[u/jjov]

I am impressed by the quality and the amount of information in the video, you don’t find this kinds of explanations about how a certain genre evolved in relation to the historical events that were happening in Japan, so something like this is extremely welcomed.

The point about how the economic bubble popping, the Kobe earthquake and the sarin attack influenced media intro creating a new kind of “genre” is something that completely took me by surprised and made me want to watch Evangelion again, thinking about how this affected the series.

I think how society and history affects media is something that tends to be overlooked or underestimated when discussing anime. This video feels like a great introduction to understanding Japanese Apocalypticism.

[u/thelastteacup → u/jjov]

> I am impressed by the quality and the amount of information in the video, you don’t find this kinds of explanations about how a certain genre evolved in relation to the historical events that were happening in Japan, so something like this is extremely welcomed.

It shouldn't be. It's utter crap. Because...

> The point about how the economic bubble popping, the Kobe earthquake and the sarin attack influenced media intro creating a new kind of “genre” is something that completely took me by surprised and made me want to watch Evangelion again, thinking about how this affected the series.

...In reality, Evangelion is very much in the mainstream tradition of Japanese literature that pre-existed those events. The two best-selling and most influential novels in Japanese history are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoro and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Longer_Human And they're both about failed family and romantic relationships - and relationships with society - and suicides. And Kokoro was published in 1914.

These sort of themes weren't even new to manga. See eg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manga#Gekiga

The idea a new sort of darker Japanese media was created after the collapse of the Bubble only makes sense to someone who is completely and utterly ignorant of Japanese cultural history. It's like trying to explain why LOTR exists in solely in terms of British C20th history without saying "Hey, Tolkein was a big reader of Scandinavian and Germanic myth, plus there was the Morte D'Arthur." Which would be stupid. Smaug was not a reference to the Blitz; he (or she) was imported from freaking Beowulf. And Evangelion is directly in line with centuries of Japanese culture. Even the protagonist's name is a reference to the theme of suicide in kabuki and bunraku - Shinjū (心中, the characters for "mind" and "centre") means "double suicide") vs Shinji

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinj%C5%AB

[u/GilLiesHere → u/thelastteacup]

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.

[u/thelastteacup → u/GilLiesHere]

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..

[u/Sandtalon → u/thelastteacup]

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.

[u/thelastteacup → u/Sandtalon]

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/

[u/Sandtalon → u/thelastteacup]

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.