The End(s) of Evangelion

When the original ending to the popular TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion failed to satiate its public, a major motion picture was tapped to fill the gaps (Well, two motion pictures to be exact). While the TV ending was highly impressionistic and dealt solely with the show's psychological underpinnings, The End of Evangelion film depicted physical events that concluded the story's primary plotlines.

As a kid I couldn't really follow EoE. I certainly enjoyed it, but more for the atmosphere and extremity. At that age I didn't have the mind power to put two and two together. It didn't help that I was watching, on a tiny TV, a letterboxed fansub whose subtitles were almost impossible to read, even while they may not be halfway accurate to begin with.

It cost me $40 to get a crappy used copy of Manga Entertainment's mediocre DVD release of EoE, but it was worth every penny (it was also a pretty good deal considering I was outbid on an identical item which went for $50).

And now that I actually understand it.... good God, it's fucking brilliant. It's not only the best part of Neon Genesis Evangelion (which is saying something!), it also easily ranks among my favorite films of all-time. But more importantly than that, it's a truly perfect conclusion to Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I greatly enjoy the TV ending of Evangelion, and it has some especially worthwhile content, which I'll get into shortly. But The End of Evangelion is the true ending to Neon Genesis Evangelion. All the essential plot threads are miraculously wrapped up, in an incredibly satisfying way, and it even manages to do a better job with the philosophical aspect than EoTV did. It's a perfect bloody film, it really is.

Information...

It's amazing once you know what to look for. The information is there, period. While smaller mysteries are certainly left ambiguous in the peripherals, there isn't a single thing that's necessary to the story of Evangelion which isn't made clear through the canon. Now one thing that I'm very curious about, which I'll never truly be able to understand, is the extent to which fans can be reasonably expected to understand Neon Genesis Evangelion from just the canon alone, without outside help.

I had all the secrets of Evangelion explained to me when I was a tween. Often piece by piece, with copious screen caps, by some of the biggest Eva geeks in the US (they went on to found www.evageeks.org). So it's difficult for me to say how well EoE necessarily handles its reveals. It may be a mixed bag. That Rei has Lilith's soul is made pretty clear by the "I'm home"/"Welcome home" exchange she has with Lilith's body. That Kaworu has Adam's soul, however, and was inside Lilith with Rei, was hard for me to grasp even WITH people explaining it to me. The fact that Nerv has the ability to salvage the souls out of dead bodies, that was hard for me to wrap my head around.

And all the crazy shit that goes on during Instrumentality, it can be pretty hard to decipher. But, repeated viewings help. The Eva Series forming the Tree of Life used to strike me as kind of superfluous, but from what Maya says, that must be how they're creating their anti-AT Field. It's actually quite a marvel. Anno took the content from EoTV, about eliminating the borders between people, and then reforging the same borders, and all these absolutely metaphysical concepts.... and they managed to show them, on screen, as physical phenomena. It's really fucking clever.

EoTV...

As a child I was partial to the TV ending because it presents a more uplifting conclusion and a stronger resolution. I used to find The End of Evangelion oppressively dreary, obliteratingly grim. The thing about EoE is, it tears you apart, with Asuka's brutal disembowelment. And then it never picks you up again. The message of the film is positive, but after the disembowelment, a mildly upbeat message isn't enough to balance you. To do that it would need to bring in a positive image that is equal and opposite to seeing Asuka get eaten alive.

And as luck would have it, that equal and opposite scene exists. But it's in the TV ending. I speak of course of the famous alternate reality sequence where our protagonists exist in a happy little normal world free from their crippling hardships. It's adorable, and having gone through so much pain with these characters, it's really uplifting to finally see them win some peace. And perhaps even more crucial, it's followed by a scene of Shinji finally breaking free of his depression.

This is the sole thing that EoTV accomplishes better than EoE: the mood control, the pure unadulterated aesthetics. EoE has the content and the information down pat, but you have to stare pretty hard to get the uplifting message out of it. EoTV runs you through the ringer but then it gives you this big release at the end, to free you from the darkness.

All that being said... The End of Evangelion still tends to leave me slightly melancholy, but as an adult I find the TV ending to be scarier. As a kid, wallowing in the darkness of the mind was par for the course. As an adult, I've learned how to mold my own reality, much like Evangelion instructs us to. And having to be faced with that kind of neurosis again, that kind of throbbing, pecking instability: it's even scarier than being eaten alive by monster Evas. The constant doubt, the constant berating; EoTV is depression itself.

Ultimately, EoE and EoTV are meant to be viewed together. The amount of coordination between them is no minor coincidence. The secrets become much more clear when they're working in tandem. Together they tell a much richer story. I have more than half a mind to combine them myself, so that I can see the truest and best Evangelion ending possible. It should be a pretty easy project in this day and age. The only possible issue would be the screen ratio, presumably EoE would be widescreen and EoTV would be fullscreen. But I can work around that.

Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22 "You Can (Not) Advance" Review

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the Evangelion TV series and Rebuild film series.

Rebuild 2.22 is much more of a mixed bag than 1.11 was. 1.11 was pretty standard practice, solid all the way through. 2.22 has its good, its bad, its great, and its awful.

While 1.11 was very faithful to the original, 2.22 makes many, many deviations: some good, some bad. But ultimately, the interesting thing is that all these deviations lead to the exact same destination, in most cases. Everything is made much more overt, much more obvious, which you could consider to be a good thing or a bad thing. Subtle nuances in the TV show become broad strokes in the film.


The Good

You could very easily accuse 2.22 of being hamfisted or contrived in its approach to character development. But I wouldn't say that. I think for the more limited format of film, the more gaudy proclamations of character are appropriate and more or less necessary. They've condensed 12 episodes of Evangelion into less than 2 hours, exactly doubling the pace of the first film. So concessions must be made. Furthermore, as a big ole' sentimental shmuck, I find some of these highly overt bits of character development incredibly endearing. And even if Rebuild 2.22 only offers tiny glimpses of truly great content, any new quality time spent with these beloved characters is deeply appreciated.

To explain the changes more directly, I'll start with Asuka. Asuka starts out as even more of a huge dick than she does in the TV series. Like, she was a little irate in the TV series. In Rebuild she's downright berserk. But her soft side shines through in equal measure. They actually removed my favorite bit of Asuka's character -- how she repeatedly insists on attempting to befriend Rei despite Rei's refusal. Considering Rei is a potential rival not only to Asuka's crucial identity as an Eva pilot, but also as a highly notable rival for Shinji's attention, Asuka's insistence on being kind to Rei really shows her warm nature, deep down.

But that's a very subtle thing, so instead, in the film, Asuka volunteers to activate Eva 03 so that Shinji and Rei can have their meal with Gendo -- which is basically tantamount to stepping aside and letting Rei have Shinji (not only is she letting them spend quality time together, but she's enabling Rei to unestrange Shinji and Gendo, ingratiating Shinji to her for the rest of his life!). See what I mean? Same warm heart in Asuka, it's just being expressed differently between the TV and the film versions.

The Great

There's another scene I quite enjoyed. I was heartbroken that they took Rei's joke out of 1.11. But she did something in 2.22 that was just as telling -- she totally played Gendo for a chump. Remember that scene in the TV series where Gendo tells Rei it's time for lunch? We actually see them go to lunch this time. And Rei plays it up all smooth, see. She pretends like she doesn't know what's going on, and asks Gendo if eating is enjoyable, and if it's enjoyable to eat with people.

Gendo, believing Rei's just being ignorant since he raised her in a leaky basement, gives her the typical affirmative answers. So Rei says, "Well, gee, if it's enjoyable to have meals with people.... you should have a meal with Shinji!" PWNED! Okay, so it's not exactly a joke. But it does show that Rei is capable of more than stoicism, she understands more of what's going on than she allows herself to show. Not only that, but Rei & Shinji's relationship in general has been increased, and that's a very promising development.


The Bad

Now onto the bad... Rebuild 2.22 adapts the two greatest moments in the Evangelion TV series, episodes 18 and 19. These are iconic, mind-blowing moments, decisively some of the best episodes in TV history. But 2.22 adapts them.... pretty poorly. They're just not all that effective. The cutesy pop song they used while Evangelion 01 ripped apart the errant unit -- I completely understand the concept. But all it did was muddle the brutality of the scene, for the contrast to have been effective they'd have to ramp up the brutality as well. And Shinji not being able to actually see what's happening? That greatly diminishes the effect.

There was also a subplot of Asuka and Rei competing to cook for Shinji. This struck me as incredibly cheesy and old-fashioned. I mean, ehhh, let's be honest, that's literally a Sailor Moon plot. Sailor Moon's a spectacular show but it's not an appropriate parallel for Eva. I think they could have come up with something better -- especially when Anno said Rebuild was supposed to be more relevant to the current generation.


The Awful

Rebuild 2.22 adds a new Eva pilot to the mix. And she's.... pretty atrocious. I'm trying my best not to hate her, so bare with me. She may actually be an important character in the future. She may actually have a great backstory, she may provide a key piece in Rebuild's endgame. She may ultimately prove to be some kind of trope inversion or her role in the higher concept may be to denounce this type of fluff rather than endorse it.

But we Lilim are doomed to live in the present, and as it stands: Mari Makinami is the worst fucking character in Evangelion history. I'd rather they have included Jet Alone... or even that darn recap episode, formerly Evangelion's lowest point. Thus far there exists no evidence to suggest Mari has any worth or purpose what-so-ever beyond the utmost laziest of fanservice. We can only hope that Anno is fully aware of this, her awfulness is intentional, and he has a higher purpose in mind.

Deja Vu

Yet again, at the end of this film, Kaworu appears to confirm that Rebuild is in fact a continuation of the original series in some sense, and that these events have (mostly) occured before. Some people take this too far and imagine that Rebuild is a direct sequel to EoE: as in, the Asuka & Shinji we see at the end of EoE are somehow the same Asuka and Shinji we see in Rebuild. That's nearly impossible and would require quite a strange reveal.

It's not that Rebuild necessarily happens in the same 'universe' as EoE. It's that this exists in the same multiverse or possibly the same multi-history timeline, where certain characters (Rei and Kaworu), are aware of other universes or previous iterations. This is clearly what we're supposed to think, at least for Kaworu, at this point in the story. What Anno ultimately has planned we'll have to wait and see.

But I think this aspect may pan out as we expect. The fact that Rei appears outside of the logic of space and time both in the original TV series (episode 1), in Rebuild, and in EoE, seems to suggest that not only is Rebuild a continuation of the original series, but that the original itself was not the first time these events have occured either. It seems like a kind of reincarnation loop where the world is reborn a little better each time. Some hardcore fans aren't fond of this idea and write it off as "Oh, well Lilith can do anything, that's the only reason Rei appears" but that's an excruciatingly thin explanation when we have a much more substantive one that is not only available but is now being heavily implied in Rebuild.

Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11 "You Are (Not) Alone" Review

Warning: This review may contain spoilers for the film Evangelion 1.11 and some spoilers for the Evangelion TV series.

Apparently dead set on repeating himself, Hideaki Anno was already planning The Rebuild of Evangelion in 2002. But the Rebuild project verges on ludicrously unnecessary. Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most perfect television programs of all-time, and you cannot improve on perfection. Everything that needed redone, was accomplished by The End of Evangelion. Imagine if HBO announced they were going to remake The Sopranos, or if Pink Floyd decided in the 80s "Well, Darkside of the Moon isn't relevant to modern audiences. We're going to turn it into a dance album."

But if you give me a thousand ways to watch Evangelion, I'll watch Evangelion a thousand ways, and be happy for it. I'll resist the urge to compare Rebuild in a 1:1 ratio with the original series. For starters, a film series just isn't equipped to tell a long-range story as well as a tv series, so it's inherently unfair. And we already have the original Evangelion. Nothing that Rebuild could ever do, has any potential to deprive or diminish anything about the original series, which will always be the one true version of Evangelion. I'm content to judge Rebuild on its own merits.

From Angel Attack to Rei II

The first Rebuild film is an exceedingly faithful adaption of Evangelion's first six episodes. In many cases, the dialogue and scenarios are completely identical to the TV version. Hell, if they had made the film little longer, they could have fit everything in. An Eva episode is about 20 minutes, the first six episodes would take about two hours to watch. Evangelion 1.11 is one hour and forty minutes long. So approximately one episode is lost in the conversion.

The animation is crisp and clean. The voice acting is spectacular (unless you're watching the dub), and it's great to hear it in enhanced audio quality. Shiro Sagisu is back behind the helm an incredible soundtrack, with much of the classic BGM retained. Also back, of course, are Anno behind  the curtain and Sadamoto as the artistic designer, as well as most if not all of the original voice talent.

The pace is brisk. Certain segues from one scene to another are really botched. With the necessity to carry the story along quickly, it can seem really awkward the way they try to squeeze everything in. But that's coming from someone who's well acquainted with the natural pace of the TV series. Perhaps to new viewers, the film segues feel less forced.

The only real misstep in Evangelion 1.11 is that character moments are taken out, little things like Kensuke and Shinji bonding when he runs away from Nerv. Taking that out not only weakens Shinji's arc, it also makes his return to Nerv seem awfully abrupt. And I feel it's those little moments of bonding which make Evangelion so powerful -- you care about these characters in the dire circumstances because you also see them in the casual circumstances. Isn't that why the alternate reality sequence in episode 26 is so powerful?

But these are exactly the kind of omissions you find in any adaption where you have a limited amount of time to use. It's a little extra jarring in Evangelion 1.11 because everything else about it is so darn faithful. But at the same time, because everything else is so faithful, it's not hard to let the little things go.

Exposition and Excellent Positioning

The one thing I found really refreshing about the film, even if it did come off as a tiny bit forced, was the blatant exposition. Things that were ambiguous or slow to dawn in the original series, are explained outright in Evangelion 1.11. Even some major secrets, like the nature of Lilith. This shows me that the Rebuild project is dedicated to telling their own story, and giving new viewers everything they need in order to genuinely appreciate what's going on.

If there's even one single thing that the original series didn't do 100% well, it has to be that certain bits of information were very obscured and never overtly revealed, even at the end. That's absolutely fine for smaller issues like whose soul is in Evangelion 00. But that's not okay for larger issues like whose soul is in Ayanami Rei. I plan, in another post, to explore the extent to which certain information is revealed in the original series. Suffice to say, if Rebuild continues on its current path, there will be no need for such a discussion once Rebuild is over. (That's a pretty huge IF though!)

Final Act

While the earlier parts of the movie left me a bit skeptical, the film's final 1/3rd was sincerely spectacular. The fifth angel, Ramiel, is fucking awesome! The way it moves was really well designed -- despite being completely bizarre to the laws of physics, its movements felt natural and it had personality. I don't mind how weird it's getting, as the angels are supposed to seem diametrically opposed to humanity to begin with. This is also the first time when it actually seems like it's been 15+ years since the original Evangelion was animated; the animation finally impressed me during the fights with Ramiel.

Even better, Rei's character is handled really well. The bastards took out her fucking joke! You know, the one I made such a big deal about in my Rei Dissertation. But other than that, they handled her character sublimely. In this incarnation, Anno has emphasized Rei's inner emotion in some small, new ways. And she looks even more pissed after the bedroom incident than she did in the original. Her solemn strength and dedication to defend Shinji is more or less the same as it is in the show, but never the less it comes across very well in the film. Cutting the joke may be a table flip moment, but I'll give them mad props anyway for choosing Rei's two episodes as the ones they want to adapt faithfully. Spoiler alert: Asuka doesn't get equal treatment in Evangelion 2.22. They split her time up with a really, really shitty, ill-advised fanservice character.

They also handled Shinji's character really well. It was a bit rocky at first, but by the end of the film I was really starting to feel for him and I think they may have written the monologue of his internal whining better, because it seems to make more sense to me now. 'Course that may have more to do with the ADV script than with the original Evangelion script... sometimes I wonder if those DVDs are even translated at all, or if they just put the dub script up in the subtitles. #conspiracytheories

Evangelion 1.11 no doubt holds subtle clues as to what grand scheme Anno has in mind for this film series. The brief scene at the end with Kaworu seems to imply that this is, as has been speculated both for Rebuild and for the original Evangelion series, a new iteration of a reality or history that has already occurred, and perhaps people such as Kaworu and Rei exist outside of this continuity. But we won't know for sure what these small deviations will mean until we reach further into the story. So we've no choice but to carry on. As a stand alone film, Evangelion 1.11 "You Are (Not) Alone" is a beautiful homage to the greatness of Evangelion, and it is well done on all accounts.

Reassesing Ayanami Rei: A Treatise

Warning: This blog post contains spoilers for the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series and films. It is also extremely long.

This weekend I find myself watching through Neon Genesis Evangelion, after craving a rewatch for a long while. It's only been 6 or 7 months since my last runthrough, which is very uncommon. I generally see several years pass in between viewings of such story-driven dramas as this. So with the nuances of Evangelion's story still so fresh, I find myself focusing less on the primary storyline and more on the individual characters.

A rather cynical person made a comment on a message board oh, some 14 years ago (a woman by the moniker of Reichu, I believe she's achieved a certain notoriety in the US evageek community),  and it has always stuck with me because it seemed unfortunately very plausible. She claimed that Rei is popular because guys think they can essentially force themselves on her and she won't object, or that you can ask to have sex with her and she'll say "yes," as she so often does to whatever command given to her by Nerv's administrators.

I'd prefer to write-off this comment as insidiously unfair to the human male, but given that Rei has been widely and directly credited (maddeningly) with the rise of "moe" (cute for the sake of cute), it seems clear that there must be a large quantity of people somewhere who have failed to comprehend even the most basic tenets of Rei's character as displayed in the canon; and, indeed, failed to understand her very role in the series itself. So, as a Rei fan myself, I thought I'd take this opportunity to deconstruct who Ayanami Rei truly is.

(1) Rei as Soldier
"If they asked me to die, I would say yes."

Ayanami Rei is a fearless soldier. This is how she is first introduced to us, as the battered and bandaged fighter pilot who will unflinchingly jump into battle at a moment's notice. As she develops, we see her reassert her faith in Gendo and the work of Nerv, and reiterate her dedication to the cause. When directly questioned, she unequivocally asserts that she would die if they asked her to.

As a child it was possible for me to see Rei's eager willingness to comply with orders as a sign of passivity. But after learning a lot more about storytelling, and being schooled in the nuances of moral variety by George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, it couldn't be any more plain what Ayanami Rei's moral position is. Nerv fights to save the world. Rei would gladly die for Nerv because Rei would gladly die for the world entire. Her personal interactions with Ikari Gendo have convinced her of his competence and trust-worthiness. And why shouldn't they have? Rei's seen him put himself in danger for her sake. So she believes that if he ordered her to die, obviously it would be for a necessary and worthy purpose. Her willingness to die isn't so much an issue of passivity, but an issue of conviction. She is, in fact, asserting her role as one of Earth's protectors, and her faith in Ikari Gendo.

Furthermore, if you take the time to pay attention to how Rei actually interacts with people, the idea of an assertive Rei is absurd, and staunchly lands against how she is depicted in the series. Rei may not display her emotions on her sleeve the way some people do, but Rei is decisively emotional and acts whenever she's confronted. Rei has become physically violent with people for disagreeing with her. She slapped Shinji for badmouthing his father. Passive? She's downright aggressive.

We've seen her stand up for herself against Asuka's attempted control (episode 11, The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still), and we've even seen her disobey direct orders on the battlefield, on more than one occasion, in order to follow her heart. So the idea that she's a mindless soldier is wholly unfounded. She is merely a strong supporter of the cause she's involved with, in contrast to her fellow pilots. Think she'll submit to your will? First you better make sure you're the only person who possesses the technology to save the world. And even then, you're still playing roulette on whether she'll choose to follow orders.

(2) Rei as Teenager
nude shenanigans and the infamous bedroom incident

If there's anything that may have whet the appetites of horny young boys and may (hopefully not, but...) have inspired the unthinkably disturbing concept of a Rei who might passively accept abuse, it has to be Shinji's misadventure in her bedroom. In a near sitcomian tempest of screwball circumstances, Shinji accidentally lands himself on top of Rei's naked body, and -- as a garnish, they're both covered in an assortment of her underwear. Contrary to traditional expectations, she doesn't scream or yell, or chew him out for being a complete dunce and invading her intimate space.

This could lead the unobservant to define her as a person with no physical boundaries. But there are a multitude of important angles to understand about this situation. First, you have to acknowledge that being raised in the basement of Nerv has not imbued Ayanami Rei with the social conventions typical of society, particularly concerning what to do or say to other people. But that she may not act on it, does not mean she is devoid of vanity. She is timid, and rare to act, but we know that she is also full of emotion.

Rei has been raised to be logical, and observant. She has been raised as a soldier. In this situation, that her vanity has been compromised may not necessarily be her primary takeaway. It's possible she sees how what Shinji did was clearly an accident and a chance of circumstance, and she doesn't fault him for it on those grounds. While she clearly acts when people make willful decisions she disapproves of (e.g. the slapping incidents), a logical mind might see it as unfair to attack someone over something they did purely by accident.

That being said, to say she was aloof and unaffected by the incident may be overstepping the evidence a bit. She does ask Shinji to get off of her, and promptly storms out of the room. She also makes the conscious move of turning away from Shinji when she's putting on her clothes, which strongly implies at least some level of traditional vanity, and is exactly what you expect from someone who is trying to hide their privates. Sure, to an outside observer, Rei may appear aloof. But we know that she's quite emotional within, so we can see the clues in this scene for what they truly are.

If you yet doubt me, notice how Rei jibes Shinji in the hospital before the mission to defeat Ramiel, making fun of his nudity and his lack of appreciation for traditional vanity. Shinji inadvertently reveals much of his naked body and Rei jokes that he shouldn't show up to the mission naked. This is an astounding bit of incontrovertible proof that Rei fully appreciates the nature of traditional vanity and physical boundaries. It's also a rare (but not unheard of) joke from her, demonstrating beyond a doubt that beneath her stoic surface lies the myriad emotions to be expected of a human. And if you try to tell me it's not a joke... um, like she actually thought he'd show up naked? She's seen him wearing plugsuits before, she knows that he knows the drill. She's socially unaware, but far from unobservant.

As a final potential puzzle piece, Rei may have declined to react harshly to Shinji's mishap because she wants Shinji to like her, she wants to have a pleasant work relationship with Shinji. So she plays off the incident as nothing, so they can have an amicable first meeting. You best keep in mind, Shinji and Rei haven't really even formally met at this point. All that Rei knows, is that Shinji is Gendo's son. She doesn't yet know of his disdain for his father. And as Gendo is her only friend, she's going to obviously make an effort to be on good terms with Shinji, out of love for Gendo. It's also possible that Rei simply liked Shinji on a romantic level, and didn't much mind the contact given that Shinji committed an honest mistake with no nefarious intentions. After all, this is the only person she's ever met with whom she can share the trial of Eva pilotry, her then-defining life aspect. Perhaps Rei only wanted to be generous in giving Shinji a fresh start, and it was a show of solitude & strength rather than timidness or submission.

(3) Rei as Human & God
What is Ayanami's role in the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion?

The strangest thing about the myth of a submissive Rei, is that to believe it is to ignore not just the nuances of her depiction -- which could understandably be missed -- but to also ignore the arc of Evangelion's story itself, and her role in it.

The premise of the Ayanami Rei character is that she's stoic on the outside and yet feels typical human emotions on the inside. This fact is demonstrated for us the very first time Rei's character is delved into, in the fifth episode when Shinji glimpses her talking animatedly and smiling happily as she chats with Gendo. That her outward actions rarely reveal the nature her true emotions is the entire point.

As we delve deeper into her character, we find that her stoic demeanor is essentially a defense mechanism, against a world in which she has been ill-equipped to function socially. She uses the Evangelion as a way to connect with humanity, but as the story progresses she develops bonds with people outside of piloting the Eva.

In the article I linked to way above, the moe trend that Rei purportedly inspired, is described as the move towards vulnerable characters the viewer would want to protect. What an astronomically peculiar trend to arise from Rei, when her role in the series is the exact inverse of that situation.

In the end of the story,  Gendo, who had treated Rei fairly up to that point, moves to use her not for the good of humanity, but finally for his own personal aspiration. At that moment, she senses the turmoil of Shinji, and instead goes to him, to protect him. The idea that Rei would be in need of protecting, when she is in fact God and holds ultimate power, is preposterous.

When Rei is presented with the option of giving ultimate power to Gendo, who had been her only friend but had only been using her, or to Shinji, who needed her protection and had never asked her for anything, she chooses Shinji. How this would fit into moe, I cannot imagine, as this is a narrative of female supremacy. And how this series could inspire anyone to see Rei as a submissive sex object, I struggle to fathom, as the arc of the story itself is the narrative of Rei rejecting abuse and asserting her autonomy. Her empowerment is in fact the central plotline of the series, when you consider that it is the sole mitigating factor in how the story ends.

You couldn't have a more literal metaphor for the assertion of autonomy, nor a more obvious metaphor for the refusal to allow sexual abuse. When Gendo comes to Rei in The End of Evangelion, she is naked and her body is falling apart. Gendo is there to literally rob her of her body, absorb her into Lilith. Rei chooses to reject Gendo's attempt to take her body, and then she asserts her sense of self, and reconstitutes Lilith to take Rei's human shape. The moral of the story? Rei's body is her own, and she will entertain no trespass. This is the "submissive" girl that launched the moe craze?

(Conclusion)

You see, as a child I may have admired her most for her beauty and her bravery. But I've always seen a whole lot of myself in Ayanami. I may have been more flamboyantly social than Rei tends to be, but our dichotomy was of the same impetus. For most of my life, I hid my depression behind the guise of sociability, while Rei hid her maladjustment under the guise of stoicism. We may have had different inflictions, but we share the act of hiding. When I see Rei hiding what bubbles beneath her surface, I tend to see myself. So you could say I take the concept of a passive Rei more personal than most.

All in all, people can and will continue to enjoy Rei in any way they choose. Nobody can stop them. But that doesn't make their version of Rei accurate to the source. Rei is awesome because she's assertive and smart, fearless and powerful, and because of how she lets her emotions become her source of strength. Her and Misato are the only true heroes in Neon Genesis Evangelion.