/lit/ - Literature

>>14258453
is this where that picture of Hegel comes from? can anyone give me an honest appraisal of Beserk and Evagelion

>>14258518
Eva is good, but it does tend to suffer from "overrated." that being said, id still give it at least a 9/10.
youll have people waxing Ano's penor, going on and on how about this and that, without taking a step back to assess the situation in a less biased manner
>Eva was created and made in a process similar to building the car as you drive it
>how much forethought can really go into a series that was created on the fly?
case in point - the Christian imagery
>"ohmygod, youre just too dense, okayyyy. the Christian imagery and references are TOTALLY more than just surface level allusions."
really? aside from a couple things here and there, the vast majority of it was put in because "it looked cool and it like, builds the atmosphere." im totally sure Ano (and by extension, Japan) has a complex understanding of Christianity.
hmm lets see, anything about Jacob's Ladder? Cain and Abel? Or Jonah and the whale? No? oh, just more crosses inserted here and there? oh, a reference to the Dead Sea Scroll to establish plot/setting/mood?
>"but like, Eva is super deep bro, you just dont get it. it even goes into philosophy!"
oh, you mean the very brief reference to Schopenhauer and the Hedgehog's dilemma?

look, dont get me wrong. Eva is still a masterpiece, and it still does delve into the questions and issues pertaining to psychology, human relations, etc.
stuff like that "i am me, as i see me. i am also me, as Asuka sees me. i am also me, as Rei sees me. there are many me's" was interesting.
but a lot of its worth also comes from "not exactly /lit" stuff

>>14258518
Berserk starts slow but is becomes better. Same goes for Eva. Some scenes in Berserk are horrifying. Eva has a message of accepting and loving oneself while Berserk is about struggling against bitter odds. Would recommend both.

>>14258518
Berserk starts with a bit of edge but real quickly it starts to build-up its main character's personalities and beliefs with specific ideals and dreams that dive them, the Eclipse is the culmination of these ideals and in total the entire beginning arc is considered to be one of the best in all of manga/anime, afterward edge begins to grow too frequent for my taste but art is pretty good, I'd say its worth the read/watch.
Evangelion is the same in the way that it is mostly praised for being a character study, in my opinion, it's a bit disjointed and a lot of it can seem too out there in terms of the philosophy and religious undertones and how that goes back to a story about mechas blasting giant sky monsters but all in all if you aren't bothered by the silly mecha stuff in the first half of the series and like philosophy regarding how people interact with each other it'll be your pot of tea, go with the old movies though not the new ones.

>>14258453
cringe
>>14258518
its cringe and garbage
>>14258595
anime posters are not /lit/ and should be gassed

>>14258518
>>14258518
If you're into film then I think End of Evangelion is essential, even if you aren't into anime. It's a fantastic film, however keep in mind End of Evangelion is the conclusion to a 26 episode anime series and there might be aspects of the show you do not enjoy. End of Evangelion however, is the peak. It's surreal and personal.

>>14258518
Berserk is literally middle-of-the-road edgy low-fantasy trash with decent art.

>>14258453
Pucci Reset was pretty /lit/ though

So, any literature with similar surreal imagery?

>>14258453

>>14258611
this and moth posters.

OH?
YOU WANT IMAGERY?

>>14259054
how about the progenitor of imagery?
since you like imagery
here's only his imagery

>>14258453
I'm also interested in any literature that can invoke the imagery of Berkerk's Eclipse.

>>14258518
I appreciate Berserk as a story of an impending clash between a man born of fate and a man born outside of fate.
It, often implicitly, explores themes of perseverance, trauma, homo-eroticism, wrath, violence, and redemption. Would I appraise it as high literature? No, but I don't dismiss it as trash either despite how gratuitous it can be. The illustrations are top notch and the ultra-violence is very stylized and vibrant but it can become repetitive. The meat of the artwork is at the climax, which is awe-inspiring. The storytelling and dialogue isn't especially complex, but many of the characters have enough complexity to keep you invested in them.
If you're into fantasy, comics, or anime and are bored with what you've been reading I suggest reading Berserk.

>>14258453
Probably, but if you want imaginative imagery you should just watch anime/consume manga.

>>14258518
THE MOST HONEST REVIEW OF THEM YOU'LL EVER FIND:

Evangelion is an incredibly uneven and experimental anime (an anime that is experimental, not an experimental film that's also an anime, it doesn't compare to Meshes of the Afternoon or Wavelength is Brakhage films). Some episodes are genuinely good drama, on the level of the best stuff of Mamoru Oshii or Satoshi Kon, comparing to real film it's definitely comparable in small scenes to Hirokazu Koreeda.

HOWEVER, a bunch of episodes are downright pokemon-tier for small children, there's a few episodes where the budget clearly ran out and the director is trying to make it work through making a genuinely experimental film, it doesn't because work because the themes are incredibly shallow, and the constant narration to anchor it to the existing plotline it not only appallingly poorly written, it's also the same stuff you've seen a thousand times before, like someone who can't write trying to emulate Catcher in the Rye.

Speaking of the story, which exists in most episodes it your standard fare of anime nonsense. Almost all dialogue is exposition, with no regard to the viewer, when the story get's emotional it's with a heavy clunk and incredibly unelegant, the plot itself is just insane with conspiracy theories and meaningless twists and turns and the scale get's so apocalyptically big that everything loses all meaning.

The characters are fairly shallow stock characters, the dialogue is horrendous, the pacing is all over the place.

The reason why it's remembered at all is because the second half of the series takes a surprisingly introspective view into it's characters, sadly it's too poorly written for this to work most of the time. It's incredibly earnest and filled to the brim with ideas, it's just very poorly edited and rarely knows how to utilize many of these ideas in the best manner.

>>14259834
Berserk on the other hand is far more straight forward. Fans of Game of Thrones might find some resemblance, but they might be turned off when they discover that it's made for young teenagers. Even though rape is everywhere, it's never handled with any kind of believable candor, it's more comparable to a sleazy '70s exploitation film. Ugly bandits and monsters want to rape women, occasionally they succeed.

The pacing, like most mangas, is horrendous to the point of being comical. Even the "Golden Age Arc", which is the only bit of the series with a genuine thematic endpoint rather than a continuation of plot comparable to a soap opera, is one where half of it can easily be skipped, due to it just being same-y encounters with villain-of-the-week who appeared in the last issue as a cliffhanger, and then disposed of without progressing the overall story one jit.

The relationship between the two main characters of Guts and Griffith works and is genuinely interesting, where the well meaning and simple Guts gets increasingly exploited by the far more noble but scheming Griffith, who still holds some unexplainable admiration for him, it manages a complex and mysterious male relationship with homoerotic undertones without turning it into pure homolust. Unfortunately a terrible female character is thrown in to make the series less gay so she get's raped or nearly raped at every turn and wants nothing more in life than senpai to notice her.

Aside from the relationship between Guts and Griffith, it's got absolutely nothing to offer.

>>14259876
>Aside from the relationship between Guts and Griffith, it's got absolutely nothing to offer.
The art is above average and some panels are genuinely amazing.
Also
>didn't review End of Evangelion
Get to it anon.

>>14259893
Sure of the images of the Eclipse are very interesting, in a Hieronymous Bosch type, but there isn't much cultural relevance to them, especially since the creator ultimately get's limited by "monsters eat and rape a lot" when it comes to horror.

When it comes to End of Evangelion, it's mostly the same as the later episodes (aside from the last two), while gratifying to see all these stock characters getting murdered, the plot remains an absolute nonsense (suddenly the secret world government launches an invasion of the bunker, despite no allusion to such being made previous), and ending series with over half an hour or poorly written monologues to the camera about how it's important to love yourself, this is art for the absolute plebian. This is profound only to those without a single introspective thought in their entire lives. It's without any allusion, allegory, symbolism or nuance, flat out TELLS YOU how to approach life in the type of meaningless platitudes you'd expect from a children's movie.

I would call it "baby's first film about depression", but even then you should pick out the extreme clunkiness in the storytelling here. The character say things they have absolutely no business in saying, just to state the message to the audience, it's like if Ayn Rand was a psychiatrist.

There's some good animation and trippy imagery, but it's so narratively flat and thematically shallow and obvious that it becomes an effort in embarassment, more than anything else. Sure it's more introspective about your standard anime trash about a teenage dope who fucks his kid sister, but defenders of Hemmmmmmmingway don't compare how to Dan Brown and say "well at least the Old Man and the Sea is more introspective than the Da Vinci Code".

Again, like the show, it's painfully honest, and it's noticeable Hideaki Anno has emerged from a depression and longs to tell everyone about it, looking to help them on their way, but that just increases the embarrassment of watching the film. It's just really poorly written with the only string of coherency being the bombardment of messages at the audience to "not be afraid of the real world", "keep your head above the surface", "don't shun contact with others". Thanks Anno, I'm thankful to be in the position of treating the art I consume as my own personal therapist, like everyone who watches films, right?

>>14259876
>>14259834
on point

Dream sequence in Death in Venice

>>14259992
Is there any anime that you would unironically appraise as a proper work of art?

>>14258453
Evangelion is just a GR ripoff, so probably.

>>14259992
>suddenly the secret world government launches an invasion of the bunker, despite no allusion to such being made previous

wow way to miss the point.

>>14263283
She pooped in the tub, your waifu needs diapers so she doesn't shit herself

>>14263309
yes please

>>14262775
Anime, like comic books and video games, suffers from a cultural adolescence where neither the creators nor audience are familiar nor interested in the pillarstones of artistic storytelling or expression. You can generally count on the classic filmmakers, writers or theatre directors and actors to have a passing familiarity of classical literature, films and philosophy. That's just not the case with the previously mentioned mediums, people are inspired and interested in making spectacle, and the more introspective types tend to go to other mediums.

But yes, there's worthwhile, interesting anime. Hayao Miyazaki can't relly put a narrative together, but he's got a simultaneously genuine and imaginative portrayal of childhood not seen in other children's films. The self loathing of characters like Porco Rosso, the visuals of Howl's Moving Castle, they don't work as a complete whole, but they're ultimately coherent and impressive.

Satoshi Kon is just a flat out great filmmaker. He might not be the absolutely most hardcore philosophy guy but there's a ton of great filmmakers who aren't. Millenium Actress is tight, engaging and quite wonderful.

Mamoru Oshii is uneven, but even he has been teetering on the edge of greatness. It seems Sky Crawlers really took the wind out of his sails though. Beautiful, albeit flawed, film.

Isao Takahata is more typical, but Grave of the Fireflies for instance is absolutely comparable to Steinbeck or Dickens, a lil' bit simplistic but engaging and heartfelt.

Other than that, Memories and Metropolis also are more like films than they are anime, in regards to tone, characters, dialogue, plot and themes. It's one of those things you sort of notice right away from the first five minutes. Evangelion is a weird blend.

>>14263283

How do you think she comes?

>>14264115
Not mentioning Masaaki Yuasa...

>The book of Revelation from the Bible
>Tibetan book of the death
>Zeno's consciousness (the ending)
>Dante's Divine comedy

Mainly religious/spiritual/apocalyptic books or books with a crazy psychotic main character.

>>14259876
I thought the Lost Children arc was pretty fucking amazing. It was an aside that didn't technically progress the story but a perfect follow-up and return to the original plot after the golden age. It synthesized the tragedy, pathos and brutality of the world, characters, and story beautifully. Miura's peak imo.

>>14265059
>Tibetan book of the death
Anything I need to read or understand before reading this?

>>14259876
The fact that so many anons still name Berserk as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" manga ever only tells you how far manga still is from becoming a serious art.

>>14265929
It and the other top manga are miles better than any western comic.


...Yeah I know that isn't high praise.

>>14265929
Jazz critics have long recognized...

>>14258453
Yeah like the second and third fucking works of Western literature: The Odyssey and Hesiod's Theogeny. The gall of you newfags.

>>14259992
gonna have to disagree with you on a few points
>"suddenly the secret world government launches an invasion of the bunker, despite no allusion to such being made previous"
it was alluded to, many times before. see, each time Seele (or whatever the group of old grumpy men is called) got all pissy at Gendo
>"poorly written monologues to the camera"
i would give Ano the benefit of the doubt in this case. i understand where youre coming from, the annoying "convenient character comes forth with boring exposition purely for the sake of explaining shit" trope is overdone and boring.
but ep 25 and 26 clearly shows Ano trying to utilize this "exposition" in an artistic and experimental manner (an attempt to visualize the back-and-forth conversations we have in our head). EoE is like that, but toned back because 25/26 was too out there.

someone who is willing to disparage the plot as "nonsense" when it was a mistake on your own part (there were allusions, not even cryptic allusions), in conjunction with someone unable or unwilling to devote even just a little bit more effort/thought into connecting the dots between EoE and 25/26, makes me wary of your review as a whole, despite agreeing with you on several points.
i would personally take this reply with a heavy dose of salt.

>>14266057
>it was alluded to, many times before. see, each time Seele (or whatever the group of old grumpy men is called) got all pissy at Gendo

> we have trust issues with the man in charge
in one scene, in the next:
> let's lead a strike team of commando's and then the fucking army to eradicate everyone at the base with no due process, including the children and their giant robots who've been the only effective way of combatting the giant evil things, and there's only one giant evil thing left

This is not logical story progression, especially since the military had no been in focus since the first episode, it's been intentionally vague about it until then.

It's clearly Anno wanting a climactic end for the organization and all the side characters, and writing from there.

I have a friend who wholeheartedly believes he expereinced in its absolute revealed what Lao Zi would name the Dao. He constantly talks about how he feels only death can return him to that state of "bliss".
I am not arrogant enough to claim something like that but definetly I would say I have had experiences I could only explain as transcendent. These occur for different reasons but most frequently from literature. These works actually gave me the emotional state of what such imagery as from EoE or Berserk aesthetically represents:
Ovid - Metamorphoses
Kant - Kritik der Urteilskraft
Fichte - Bestimmung des Menschen
Melville - Moby Dick (Chapter 93 The Castaway)
Anime hasn't even come close to the aesthetic emotions produced from these works, though I would not say EoE is inferioir to practically any other cinema.

There is only one anime worth watching and it's NHK.

>>14266443
>"This is not logical story progression, especially since the military had no been in focus since the first episode"
my memory may be faulty, but i remember there being at least several instances where Seele admonishes Gendo, the most prominent one being when Gendo gets rid of the lance
additionally, its clear Kaji was playing some type of double-spy role. the organization other than Nerv isnt made clear, but it seems pretty logical to assume Seele since no other organization plays a significant role in the series, and because Kaji speaks to them during certain scenes
theres also the whole Ritsuko interrogation by Seele as well, demonstrating more mistrust Seele has for Gendo

the military has always played a role in the series, primarily to serve as canon fodder and/or demonstrating the ineffectiveness of traditional warfare (N2 mines, tanks, etc)
additional its implied throughout the entire series, often times not even in an obscure manner, that Seele wishes to achieve the Human Instrumentality Project, in opposition to Gendo's vision (which they openly state they are against)
they also clearly have their fingers in various important organizations, as shown by through the whole "build these mechas" project delegated to different countries (and the whole mass produced eva, with hints being shown early on through the Rei dummy plug)
i dont know why you would expect an organization that wishes to turn everyone into orange tang to suddenly have respect for due process. im going to go out on a limb and say they didnt ask anyone for permission or agreement in regards to the Human Instrumentality
it might not be spoon fed to you, but there clearly is a logical progression. although its kinda odd since on one hand you dispare Ano for "cliche character exposition" and then also disparages Ano for "no logical progression."

you clearly have some bias given your inability and unwillingness to admit you havent given the series a proper viewing, as demonstrated by the fact that you missed something as obvious as Seele and their "illuminati" like intent/ways

i dont see anything wrong with wanting a climatic ending, especially when the studio received massive backlash over Ano's original intended ending. appeasing the masses was clearly an intentional factor from the start in regards to EoE

>>14266443
>>14266548
gonna tack is on because i forgot
>"including the children and their giant robots who've been the only effective way of combatting the giant evil things, and there's only one giant evil thing left"
further proof your understanding of the series and film is seriously flawed
Seele dispatched the military AFTER all the angels had been destroyed
there is no "only one giant evil thing" left in EoE. there were no more angels.
there was only different people/organizations attempting to initiate Human Instrumentality (aka Giant Naked Rei, aka what you are probably referring to as "the only giant evil thing left" which, ironically, is what Seele wants)

>>14259834
>"downright pokemon-tier"
i agree, but i also think it works that into its favor. the first 7? episodes are built in a way to lure the viewer into thinking its just another teenage robot fighting anime. it even has them in high school.
but then the later episodes utilize this lulled sense to create a stronger contrast when it becomes more psychological, bloody, and arguably, genocidal.
despite having them being in high school, theyre rarely ever there. leading some to speculate that the only reason they still attend classes is because the emotional state of the pilot is critical to sync levels/piloting the mecha, and having them have some normalcy (by attending school) is their poor attempt to maintain their mental state. its also explained that everyone in their class was a potential pilot candidate - a school serves as an easy/non-suspicious way to aggregate pilot candidates.

>"a few episodes where the budget clearly ran out... it doesn't because work..."
this is legit, to a certain degree, but also arguably wrong
the recap episode is an example of a bad episode, reusing old footage and boring exposition
the uncomfortable elevator scene, the prolonged killing of Kaworu, on the other hand, are two scenes commonly celebrated as great despite budgetary limits

>"the plot itself is just insane"
ive already explained how this reviewer was wrong in my other posts. its clear this anon doesnt even have a basic understanding of the plot. i dont know how anyone can take his review seriously when he cant even keep up with the basic story.

>"shallow stock characters"
stock character how? as in flat?
we're shown Shinji's struggle to man up (see, get in the robot), become over-confidenct in his foolish attempt to be "shonen" (see, getting swallowed by one angel), and then sink back into useless protagonist (see, Misato dragging Shinji to the robot)
or did you mean unrealistic?
we see in Asuka a character who bases her entire self-worth and value on a single characteristics: her ability to pilot 02 and be effective. we're then seen the emotional and physical pits she falls into when this falls apart.
how is this not unlike the manufactory worker swept into unemployment in the rust belt, and then falling into the unhealthy addiction to alcohol and/or the opioid crisis?
or did you mean "cliche trope characters"?
no one disparages The Godfather for being a gangster movie because it has all the gangster movie tropes. the reason being that The Godfather was the first one to pretty much do these tropes.
the tsundere trope really started with Eva. the influence Eva had on the anime industry as a whole cannot be understated.

OP clearly has an incomplete understanding of the series, and thus i find it hard to take his review seriously at all. there are little to no specific examples to illustrate his points, and the constant need to utilize "emotion-stirring" words only makes him come off as some edgy person being contrarian for contrarian's sake.

>>14259834
>>14266737
>i agree, but i also think it works that into its favor. the first 7? episodes...
Not that guy but I wouldn't even agree with this. It clearly had nuances indicating it was something else from the start. It wasn't so much a bait and switch but a gradual descent. Honestly the show puts a lot of thought into its visual direction and the psychology and tones it reveals. The legit complaints would be the pandering dialogues/monologues and somewhat disjointed progression, but in retrospective viewing it comes together adequately if viewed in a more abstract personal artist journey sense it was likely intended rather than a traditional story.

>>14267022
yeah, you are correct to describe it as a gradual descent and not a bait and switch. like you pointed out, there were hints from even the very first episode.
but like the other anon said, there are still some "thats so anime" moments and atmosphere guiding the early episode imo. the clearest example would be the one where Asuka and Shinji have to dance together. personally, i didnt like that episode because of how "anime" it felt to me. other examples would include Asuka's first appearance (panty shot, followed by Three Stooge's slapping).

>"The legit complaints would be the pandering dialogues/monologues"
i for one enjoyed the pandering monologues as depicted in scenes such as Shinji talking to himself on a train, or the monologues in the "childhood park from the past."

as much as i like the Eva franchise, i also have some quips with it as well. i pointed this out in a post way up, and its kinda low hanging fruit, but i think the over indulgence in Christian imagery without any more complexity seems like nothing more than superficial allusions.
and i do agree that there are times where the dialogues and monologues are just boring exposition. its like Ano said: "we're in luck, we have a dumb and useless boy as our protagonist, obviously he needs to have stuff spoon fed to him by adult characters such as Misato or Ritsuko."
on the other hand, if viewed through a coming-of-age story lens, it does seem appropriate that certain "wisdoms" would be passed on through pandering dialogue. case in point, the conversation between Shinji and Kaji. their conversation, whether in substance or format, is nothing new. its just an adult watering his watermelons while giving guidance to a young boy set to the backdrop of the city's destruction, but i still liked it.

>>14267142
>"thats so anime" moments
But I wouldn't personally call those pokemon tier episodes, or any episode truly anime-ish. Every early ep. is part of the artistry, silly stuff intermingled with the burgeoning darker aspects.
>i for one enjoyed the pandering monologues
I did too, but it can be a little too overt, and I do think a lot of viewers see the monologues as much deeper and more genius than they are, usually by people in the same age/place as the characters, when they're rather juvenile. I still think they're admirable as constructions for character, but it's the trip visuals that really deliver it, emotionally at least. And you're right, the age of the characters, and the coming of age aspect can justify a lot of it.
>Christian imagery
I never really felt a problem with that. The tone of the show is apocalyptic and somewhat occultic. Kabbalic and infinity imagery are used as well. I think the symbolism isn't concrete but not totally useless either.

>>14258518
>that picture of Hegel
which one?

>>14264991
Clearly, he doesn't know enough.

>>14267299
>"But I wouldn't personally call those pokemon tier episodes"
i cant add anything more other than we have a disagreement of opinion. i can see where youre coming from, and i respect your opinion, but i personally didnt like it.
>"I never really felt a problem with that. The tone of the show is apocalyptic and somewhat occultic"
i kinda touched upon it in my first post, and i think here we agree on the content, but we give it a different label.
the imagery is great for, like you said, giving the franchise a certain tone, atmosphere, and imbuing it with an apocalyptic, somewhat occultish setting. but i dont think those merits alone are enough to call it anything more than allusions.
aside from a couple instances, the vast majority of Christian imagery is what i would call "superficial allusions." although my insistence on labeling it allusions is partially stemmed from my disagreement with Eva fanaticals who like to claim that everything Ano put in there had some sort of deeper meaning, including the cross explosions.

>>14267381
>"superficial allusions."
I guess I'll agree with you for the most part. It's often gimmicky, but not entirely purposeless. But in all I think it's a show that achieves highest aesthetically rather than psychologically or structurally. It's indisputably a stand-out in the medium and not conventionally approachable. As a result i think it's often both very overrated (like by those fanaticals) and underrated (like by that one anon).

>>14267443
Not him, but I think it's divisive because it does not wow by mastery of its craft, but by resonance. Thus, you either resonate it, find it a supremely human tale, or find it a chinese cartoon with panty, silly robots, and monsters.

So yes, it's an "Oh man, he's literally me!" sort of experience.

>>14267498
*resonate with it

>>14267498
*panty shots

>>14267498
That's sort of what I meant. It's ultimately the shows force, not it's craft that's made it last so long. I think the 'panty, silly robots, and monsters' interpretation is outright stupid though, and usually a result of lazy brainlet viewing.

>>14267498
are you fucking kidding? Even Diacon is a mastery of animation and that was something anno just shitted out. If you're going to do a deconstruction of "that's so anime" bullshit you better make damn sure you can demonstrate that you actually do indeed know what you are talking about.

>>14267527
Well yeah, but I just wanted to demonstrate that if you really wanted to dislike the show, you could definitely find aspects that are not exactly high brow for a supposedly high brow (for anime) show.

If I wanted to express why I like it, at the risk of sounding kinda pseudointellectual, I would say that it captures the human condition (or at least, its social aspects) very well. It's easy to see why it has the ability to make people look past its shortcoming through sheer humanity.

>>14267556
I was intentionally pretending to be retarded, anon!

>>14267570
*shortcomings

Damn, I just can't type at all today.

>>14267556
to be fair, the OP you responded to didnt say "thats so anime"
i did
but as the OP said, a lot of the franchise's legacy stems from how what many people go to again and again when citing their like for Eva is that it resonated with them.
and the fact that it resonated with so many people, even decades later, is further testament to what OP said in another post:
>"at the risk of sounding kinda pseudointellectual, I would say that it captures the human condition (or at least, its social aspects) very well. It's easy to see why it has the ability to make people look past its shortcoming through sheer humanity."

>>14267591
not my fault you can't follow a reply chain

>>14267591
That's what I'm getting at...in the end, it wasn't about the monsters, the robots, the crosses, 14-year old girls in skintight suits, panty shots, SEELE, Adam, Eve, the psychedelic imagery, or Freud, but about seeing these people try to become intimate with one another, failing spectacularly, being beaten down, yet still growing as people in the end, as exemplified by the final scene of EoE. It's cringey, juvenile, and absolutely silly, but very sincere and touching if you let it touch you.

A distant Father sends his Son to fight a final battle with angels and bring about the end of the world and a new Evangelion, but somehow the Christian aspects are only superficial.

>>14267669
well yeah the Christian symbolism is part of the show's plot and being a postmodern masterpiece Eva is we all know what that means

>>14267669
Wasn't the Third Impact surprisingly fitting with Gnostic theology as well? Too much to be just simply coincidence, that is. I remember reading some anon's post about that a while back...

>>14267697
Yes, Sophia gathering all of the Sparks back into herself is Gnostic eschatology, but some other facets of it seem more Kabbalistic (being quite similar in positing that this world is light-in-shells)

>>14267669
i wasnt saying that there werent actual Christian themes and symbolism.
i was pointing out that the vast majority of Christian imagery is there primarily to craft an atmosphere and setting, without any deeper meaning - aka superficial allusions.

>tfw /lit/ has a more in-depth discussion about fucking anime than books