Neon Genesis Evangelion 1x18: "Life and Death Decisions" // Reaction and Discussion
Added 2025-10-31 23:58:05 +0000 UTC
Comments
Toji was supposed to die. The TV censors forced them to add the line about him having vitals, not wanting to show the death of a child on TV.
Quill6653
2025-11-03 04:16:27 +0000 UTCNote the title of the second part, "Ambivalence" -- that's a term from Freudian psychoanalysis (which Hideaki Anno was quite interested in at the time he was writing Evangelion). This term refers to a situation in which someone has two very different, even totally opposed, feelings (say, love and hate) for the same thing (let's say, Shinji for his father). Freud also invented the term "splitting" as a coping mechanism for this situation, in which a person "splits" these two feelings, so as to be aware of only one of them, and thus reduce stress. We're at the analytical part of NGE. The narrative will mercilessly cut deep into the psyches of all our characters, their neuroses and psychoses, and their deeper motivations and problems. That's the part of Evangelion that 'gets' people. We usually feel that a part of all this relates directly to us, the viewers; I could see some of my own most intimate fears and anxieties being laid bare. To many people, it's quite an experience, a difficult one to recover from. I hope you will enjoy it, though. It develops a feeling of empathy, of how many hells people around us may be living in, without us even realizing it.
Sergio Meira
2025-11-02 08:37:11 +0000 UTCThe eternal discussion about whether Gendō was just doing the tactically necessary thing to defeat this angel (and also suffered inside from condemning the EVA Unit 3 pilot to near death), or if he just made a decision that could have been different just because that's the kind of person he is.
Sergio Meira
2025-11-02 08:09:37 +0000 UTCAnd again Shinji screams... this time as the final sound in the entire episode. Shinji's screams are like Madoka's tears in Madoka Magica. A catalyst. What a sad life his father has found for him...
Sergio Meira
2025-11-02 08:06:37 +0000 UTC100% watch the Rebuild movies
Jesús López Coronado
2025-11-02 00:10:31 +0000 UTCThe word she uses in Japanese is actually ナイーブ (naive) but in Japanese it means something like sensitive or straightforward. Asuka then uses 鈍感 (insensitive / dense) which is the exact opposite of what Hikari was thinking. Perceptive would just be a wrong translation. The translator in this case just didn't know how the loanword naive is used in Japanese and just left it as is.
RDA
2025-11-01 18:08:07 +0000 UTCYeah, you two definitely need to watch the Rebuild movies
Cosmic Ghidorah
2025-11-01 14:10:11 +0000 UTC"But Ikari seems naive" is an odd translation of Hikari's line. I've seen it a lot but I don't know how accurate it is. Contextually, Asuka and Hikari have conflicting views on Shinji in that scene, but being naive isn't really that different to being clueless/dense in this context (it's an odd response to "Those three stooges are about the only ones who don't see it," in any case). I've seen other translations like "But Ikari seems perceptive," which gels a lot better as a response to Asuka's previous line, as well as Asuka's subsequent retort of "no, he's the densest of them all." Shrug. Pretty minor detail so whatever. Anyway, this episode is raw to say the least.
snow
2025-11-01 04:07:19 +0000 UTCAutoArchaeology lets go!!
Jason Parker
2025-11-01 03:44:59 +0000 UTCFun fact is that Evangelion was funny until now It's over
Maxime Goettelmann
2025-11-01 01:48:18 +0000 UTCManga version of this part was more impactful to me
Jay Brazinni
2025-11-01 01:35:13 +0000 UTCFather of the year gendo ikari
Lucas Ahr
2025-11-01 01:05:20 +0000 UTCEvangelion is a multi-version story. In the manga, Toji dies (And was much more developped)
Maxime Goettelmann
2025-11-01 00:41:37 +0000 UTCthey were so excited in the intro lmao
Liam Polzl
2025-11-01 00:40:27 +0000 UTCIn Gendo We Trust 😁
Pedro Hernández
2025-11-01 00:39:00 +0000 UTCwelcome to evangelion :D
Daniel Borrego
2025-11-01 00:13:29 +0000 UTC
