Neon Genesis Evangelion 1x22: "At Least, Be Human" // Reaction and Discussion
Added 2025-11-28 22:55:50 +0000 UTC
Comments
I hope you guys will also check out some other shows done by studio Gainax. FLCL, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. All great shows that are all great for different reasons. They still have some of the same WTF factor though.
Neil Gossell
2025-12-25 21:01:31 +0000 UTCThis is why Asuka has so much contempt for Shinji and Rei for most of the series, by them being pilots along side her, she is inherently being compared with them: and they just so happen to be the very embodiment of what she hates: dolls that do what they are told.
Asher Adson
2025-12-06 19:26:50 +0000 UTCAsuka defined her self-worth by her ability to pilot an Eva, but as we saw in this episode, her measured worthiness is starting to fall apart. On a random note, Steins;Gate is being revitalized with a remake. The Steins;Gate Re:Boot visual novel is expected to be released in 2026 with additional story content, and there's the impression that this will be the first of new Steins;Gate content (a sequel has already been confirmed).
James
2025-12-01 03:34:18 +0000 UTCJust want to say I greatly appreciate the truth and candid feelings the both of you put into your reactions. It really is unique. Never stop, until you get tired of Youtube and all of us of course :), but even then, carry it in on in your real lives!
D
2025-11-30 03:07:12 +0000 UTCYou should watch the trailer, even after finishing the main feature. You'll see something truly out of this world.
iHatePiano
2025-11-30 02:00:29 +0000 UTCThank you for the thoughts you always put into your reactions.
Dawud Knight
2025-11-29 08:09:42 +0000 UTCYou see, in most anime, part of Asuka's healing process would be to come close to someone -- say, Shinji -- and let him soothe her and help her heal. He certainly looks like the kind of guy who would like to do that. But this is Hedgehog Dilemma the anime, in which Asuka shouts "no!" to the doll that wanted to touch her and the doll turns into nothing. And that is one of the realistic aspects of NGE. If you're in a situation like this, your first step has to be to love yourself (not just the veneer that you put on yourself, like being a great EVA pilot, but yourself -- your self!) so you can get close to others and not think, as she clearly does, that every closeness, every intimacy, is a betrayal of the image she wants to project ('I'd never bathe in water that Shinji or Misato used... I'd never sit on a toilet seat they used... I hate them!' or 'that b** Rei saved me! Do you realize how much worse that makes it? I'd rather have died! I hate her! I hate everybody! I hate everything!'). Yes, one think Asuka would never allow herself to be is... really thankful to someone else. And this has to change. Other people can talk to her and point this out, but they can't do it for her, they can't even force her to do it, because she can always shout "no!" in her mind and make the good influence disappear...
Sergio Meira
2025-11-29 07:47:06 +0000 UTCAnd again, Anna and Ben, in case you're reading this ... The point is not being qualified or unqualified to comment. Was I qualified, were any of the fans writing here, qualified to have an opinion on NGE? In a sense, no. In another sense, we're all human beings with emotional reactions to it. And that's what I, at least, enjoy in your reactions. How you tackle and make sense of stuff, but how you feel about it, too. What you think about the characters. Hell, if I wanted to see comments by a specialist (sometimes I do), I'd be watching the channel of a specialist with diplomas on anime-ology behind her/his back... I prefer to watch reactions by people, people who are in many senses also messy, like the NGE characters that I've come to appreciate and love.
Sergio Meira
2025-11-29 07:32:38 +0000 UTCTsundere: Well not really-really, but kinda yes. PTSD: To a significant degree, definitely yes.
Milosz Skowronski
2025-11-29 01:50:35 +0000 UTCThis episode is the point where 99% of people are no longer watching because they are trying to understand everything, and are just continuing watching because they are trying to understand anything at all.
Milosz Skowronski
2025-11-29 01:47:07 +0000 UTCIt's not that you, or anyone else, is unqualified. It's that NGE is something different than it packages itself as. A Meccha anime, with battles against a myserious enemy? Sure, but that's the surface; it's actually about all the problems of the characters, and how they are slowly peeled off by the various Angels they have to battle and defeat. NGE is a series about broken people. The 3 pilots, Gendō, Misato, Ritsuko... Tōji, perhaps even Kensuke, who is the closest thing to a normal person in the secondary cast... they're all broken. Only Kaji appears to be normal (yet even Kaji couldn't keep a relationship going for long... I wonder what his mental relationship with women is). Maybe that's why the 3 pilots can do their jobs. Perhaps you have to be really broken to pilot an EVA... At about Episode 14, it looked as though the main cast were slowly evolving into a family, and their traumas were being slowly resolved. But after that the angels kept pounding them, and from then on every pounding would be an attempt to penetrate their mind... leading to some sad realizations about their own mental health. And what do they do? Like real people, they end up just making matters worse. They don't really want to hurt each other -- nor even Asuka, with her bucketfuls of hate... -- but their brokenness and lack of guidance (why doesn't NERV have any psychologists / psychiatrists on staff?) leads them to do that. Rei wanted to save Asuka, not hurt her, but hurt her she did. Asuka actually liked Shinji -- he showed up in her 'mental breakdown' scene -- but he didn't look like Kaji or the kind of man a 'winner' like her should be interested in, so even though he just wanted to be nice, he hurt her. And she hurt him back a thousand times. Some people say that NGE 'gets' people, in their entirety, warts and all -- in their brokenness, in their unexplanied angers and fears, in their warmth and coldness, and documents how difficult it is to bridge the gap between people and establish real relationships. Remember the Hedgehog Dilemma from ep. 4? NGE understands why people need love yet often seem incapable of getting it. Why they want to be good yet end up doing evil. Why they want to comfort but end up hurting others. It's a... suprisingly deep, surprisingly human, anime.
Sergio Meira
2025-11-29 01:43:49 +0000 UTCYou can tell with this episode they are running into budget issues. Yet they do their best with what they have, unlike someone else this season lol. I also hope after the movies you can read the summary of the lore from the Girlfriend of Steel game on the DS. I don't mean on stream, but i'd recommend before a re-watch. it's the best 'official' explanation of the world we have.
Quill6653
2025-11-29 01:24:56 +0000 UTCAfter Shinji, it is now Asuka's time to be 'examined' by the Angels. And what we find out... Suicidal mother who went crazy and didn't recognize her anymore, leading to a personality that values independence and revels in the adoration of others. Not a very good model. As she grows up, this becomes the need to show she's always the best -- from piloting EVA Unit 2 to being 'a grown woman' and wishing Kaji would reciprocate her feelings; but no, Kaji is not into little girls... By the end, we have Asuka sitting, venting her anger at having been saved by Rei. It always hits me to hear her saying, 'I hate you! I hate everyone!' when in fact she means 'I hate myself'... And later, 'I hate you, Shinji! I hate everybody! I hate everything!'... Damn, I had been angry at Asuka for most of NGE, but after this episode made me realize how much she hated herself, I couldn't help tearing up. If only she would allow others to come closer!... And when that doll came closer -- 'Are you lonely?'... but Asuka said "NO!"... and the doll -- the hope -- dissolved... That's when I couldn't stop the tears anymore.
Sergio Meira
2025-11-29 00:41:27 +0000 UTC"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON" Ah yes. This is why we play the game ! XD Evangelion makes that to you
Maxime Goettelmann
2025-11-29 00:14:10 +0000 UTCOh man, next episode. As the truth comes out and ep 24 after ooooh boy. Strap into your seats folks!
Meow_Lin
2025-11-29 00:13:08 +0000 UTCit is even worse because at the start of the episode you can hear her father cheating whith a nurse of the hospital where is wife his and asuka knew about it
larh tiste
2025-11-29 00:06:14 +0000 UTCOh yes, this episode, when you realize that Asuka isn't a typical anime tsundere but a girl who wants to be an adult no matter the cost, because her childhood only reflects pain and suffering.
Pedro Hernández
2025-11-28 23:20:36 +0000 UTC
