Malcolm MacLeod ArtM390Junior Seminar Professor De Fren 5/8/15 Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Evolution of American Otaku Otaku is a blanket term which refers to fans of Japanese animation, or anime. Mizuko Ito says in her introduction to Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World , that otaku fandom is a culture that “defies simple definition” (Ito xi). In Japan, the term has been used derogatively, describing “sociopathetic shutins out of touch with reality” (Ito xi). However Ito, and fellow anime scholars Susan J. Napier and Lawrence Eng acknowledge that anime fans in the United States seem to wear the label with great pride (Eng 94, Napier 240). American otaku enjoy taking part in a culture characterized as “a distinctive style of geek chic: a postmodern sensibility expressed by arcane knowledge of pop and cyber culture and striking technological fluency” (Ito xi). Two anime in particular have been lauded around the world, and correlate to the passion exemplified by American otaku; Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 epic Akira , and Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion canon (19952015). The chronology of anime’s growth in the U.S. as outlined by Lawrence Eng in his essay “Anime and Manga Fandom as Networked Culture,” allows for an analysis of American otakus’ persistent interaction with and appreciation for these postapocalyptic, cyberpunk/mecha anime (Eng 158176). For the purpose of this analysis, Akira should be considered a thematic, visual and narrative predecessor to the Neon Genesis Evangelion canon, (specifically the English dubs of: the 26 episode TV series, and two of the five film iterations, The End of Evangelion, and Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance ). The
majority of scholarship surrounding these particular media texts (notably Susan J. Napier’s work) connects them to Shinto, Buddhism and post WWII collectivism in Japan (Napier 193218). In contrast, this essay will focus primarily on these texts and their interactions with the western myths and ideologies of JudeoChristian religion and individualism. Napier’s analyses acknowledge the presence of these elements in both anime, but discredits them as intentional source material ( Napier 193218). In these assumptions, she is likely correct. Evangelion Assistant Director Kazuya Tsurumaki said: “ There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice" (EvaGeeks
Misconceptions). This argument aims not to affirm these western themes as authorial intent, but to acknowledge their significance in building and expanding the otaku culture to new heights in the U.S. These themes, when presented to American audiences via anime, resonate with the rapid changes in technological, religious, environmental and social dynamics faced by 21st century Americans. For most of the 20th century in the U.S., cartoons were primarily considered the fare of children, with the likes of Disney and the Looney Tunes defining the genre. An American otaku interviewed by Susan J. Napier in the appendix of her book, From Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation , had this to say about Disney films.
“Unlike Disney, which is geared toward young children, anime can be watched at any age. Most anime have plots and try to be different. Disney has become very repetitive, reusing ideas...there is a repetitive commercialized quality in most American cartoons” (Napier 249).
According to Napier, early anime imports of the 60s and 70s such as Astro Boy and Speed Racer were highly influenced by Disney films, and most Americans did not even distinguish them as Japanese (Napier 243). While American cartoons like The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, and South Park would take on adult themes in comedic ways, Otomo’s Akira opened the floodgates for otaku fandom to take hold in the U.S. The film’s exciting scifi action, impressive visual aesthetics and complex narrative, endeared members of niche demographics in American society to a burgeoning anime subculture. According to Dan Persons in his 2004 article "The Americanization of Anime," it was not until the arrival of Akira on American shores in 1989 that anime garnered critical acclaim internationally (Persons 45). Akira was a postapocalyptic, cyberpunk epic which presented political, social, psychological and religious themes in ways American audiences had never seen before. However, there are a number of visual and narrative tropes characteristic to Japanese animation, which made Akira more palatable for American audiences. These trends are outlined by Scott McCloud in his book, Understanding Comics. First and foremost, what McCloud deems the “masking effect,” is employed expertly by both Otomo and Anno throughout their works. This technique places relatable audience analogue characters within extremely detailed environments, allowing the audience to easily assimilate into the film’s narrative (McCloud 43). The masking effect, is a natural byproduct of the Japanese storytelling style, which McCloud describes as “wandering,” in stark contrast to the linear, “goal oriented” narratives of American
cartoons (McCloud 7481). Thirdly, McCloud describes “subjective vision,” a technique that puts the viewer in the “driver’s seat” so to speak, which became commonplace in American cartoons in the 80s and 90s. The comic panel McCloud uses to to illustrate subjective vision is nearly identical to a motorcycle chase scene from Akira (McCloud 114). With these elements, Akira showed the American people how animation could be used to tell compelling stories, especially when they dealt with symbols of the apocalypse and the surreal. Susan Napier, in her analysis of apocalyptic anime, cited John W. Nelson who said, “The Apocalypse is as American as a hot dog” (Napier 194). Napier acknowledges that these Japanese visions of the apocalypse may resonate with a western familiarity with the Bible’s “Book of Revelations,” and its chaotic, grotesque visions of the struggle between good and evil in the wake of Christ’s second coming (Napier 194). Akira’s protagonist turned antagonist Tetsuo Shima, becomes imbued with maddening psychic power after coming into contact with an “esper” in the year 2019. The esper was among many children experimented on by the Japanese government in the film. The most powerful of these psychically gifted children was Akira, who in an experiment gone wrong, destroyed OldTokyo in 1988, leaving only a “mammoth black crater” (Napier 193). Tetsuo, Kaneda and their group of misfit friends wreak havoc in the streets of NeoTokyo, cutting class, taking drugs and getting into fights with other gangs. Tetsuo however, feels isolated in the group. A small, weak misfit, Tetsuo fails a number of times to protect his friends from rival biker gangs, and the military. His awakening psychic power amplifies these insecurities tenfold and they manifest themselves in grotesque, disorienting hallucinations. In the end, Tetsuo’s power gets the best of him, and his body begins to merge with the technology of the city around him. He becomes a
monstrous mass of flesh and wires, enveloping all that surrounds him before finally, in a release of energy an explosion occurs, transporting Tetsuo to another universe all his own, where in the film’s final moment he says, “I am Tetsuo,” as his human body regenerates in deep space. According to Persons, anime in America initially manifested itself in the form of a subculture on the fringes of American media, and evolved into a respected medium with fans and distributors alike pining for the next piece of Japanese animation to make its way west (Persons 49). American media distributors in the early '90s aimed campaigns for Japanese anime toward other niche cultures associated with rebellious youth, such as skateboarders, snowboarders, surfers and the computer literate (Persons 49). However, according to Eng, the first generation of American otaku exposed to Akira took part in illicit, underground VHS trading, dubbing and subbing Japanese works themselves before media distributors could pick them up (Eng 160). It is here that Christian messianic visions of the apocalypse and individualism in American otaku culture intertwine. According to research conducted by Napier and Eng, the American otaku of the 90s could be characterized as primarily middle class men (76%), with a median age of twentytwo (Napier 245, Eng 99). These early adopters were, and still are attracted to Akira and its successor Evangelion because they provide a “different” perspective on the statusquo of western traditions, as Napier notes with heavy hand throughout her chapter entitled “Appendix: The Fifth Look: Western Audiences and Japanese Animation” (Napier 239255). Napier’s research shows that over 50% of the otaku she interviewed felt negatively about the religious right (Napier 248). She argues that neither Akira nor Evangelion coincide with the punitive nature of the Christian apocalypse (Napier 195). However, the punitive struggle of which she speaks does not, in the
case of Tetsuo’s apocalypse, take place on a worldwide scale, but is rather internal. Tetsuo is punished and exiled from his world for giving into earthly insecurities and sins (envy, greed, pride, lust, wrath, sloth and gluttony are all evident in his behavior) but achieves redemption and self realization in the process, creating his own universe or afterlife, acting out the second coming of Christ or in the world of the film, the psychic deity Akira. Young men excited by this new and exciting medium, embraced anime because it ran against the grain of traditional constructs not only in animation, but in society as well. Tetsuo represents an individualist messiah. He has no family support to speak of, and the world in which he lives has been brought to the brink of ruin by decadence and technological indulgence. The years leading into and through the present of the 21st century, represent a time of flux in American tradition. Fewer young people affiliate with organized religion, or spirituality at all, the nuclear families of the baby boomers are dwindling in number, and in the present moment, a majority of social interactions take place online (Napier 255). These drastic social and technological shifts displayed in Akira are essential to unpacking the interactions between the otaku community and Neon Genesis Evangelion which, through its many iterations, has traced an increasing emphasis on individualism in a technologically obsessed America. Neon Genesis Evangelion tells the story of Shinji Ikari, a fourteen year old boy. Fifteen years after an apocalyptic event known as “Second Impact,” a group of monstrous entities known as “Angels,” the children of “Adam,” threaten the few pockets of humanity that remain on Earth. Shinji is called upon by his absentee father Gendo, to return to the city of Tokyo3 in 2015, to pilot an organic mecha known as “Evangelion Unit 01.” Throughout the first half of the series, Shinji reluctantly takes part in battle with the Angels alongside female pilots, Asuka Langley
Shoryu and Rei Ayanami. It is in the second half of the 26 episode series, that Shinji must come to terms with a number of harsh realities. One, that he and the Evangelion Unit 01 are connected somehow (his dead mother’s soul is trapped within the hulking machine, alongside this world’s primary female deity “Lilith”). Despite his distaste for battle, he is innately called back to the EVA, which is not only a maternal source of comfort, but his only means to protect his surrogate family. Second, that he is merely a pawn in a battle between his father’s organization NERV and a secret entity known as SEELE, each committed to enacting a plan known as the “Human Instrumentality Project,” that will incite an apocalyptic event at the will of the victorious faction. However, as Shinji kills the final Angel, a boy of his own age named Kaworu, he incites “Third Impact,” an apocalyptic event of his own making, in which all humans are transformed into a primordial soup, their consciousness’ merged into one. The final episodes of the original series delve deep into Shinji’s consciousness as he struggles through his relationships, the nature of the world and his own identity. Ultimately, Shinji decides that life is worth living, and as Third Impact comes to an end, he is surrounded and congratulated by those he loves brought back from the brink, and even those who urged him to fight against his will all along. Those final episodes have been a divisive topic amongst anime fans since they aired in 1996, being both lauded and criticized for their ambiguity and withholding of narrative closure. However, the resulting online dialogue amongst American otaku reveals once more the importance of Christian iconography and technology as an agent of individuality and expansion within the otaku community. As Eng notes, otaku took to the web in the mid90s, creating web sites dedicated to their favorite programs (Eng 164). Anno’s ambiguous ending left much room for interpretation, and the otaku community grasped the opportunity with open arms. Eng writes
of an “otaku ethic,” based on “information value,” which is reminiscent of the modes of operation exhibited by the scientific community (Eng 166). With these individually run sites, otaku could not only collaborate and bounce ideas off of one another, but they could also compete for intellectual supremacy and “authority” (Eng 168). This dynamic is reflexive of Shinji’s initiation of Third Impact as another bastardized version of Christ in anime. Napier reads this scene through the positive, Buddhist lens of enlightenment and a return to nothingness (Napier Machine 426). However, it can also be read that Shinji has battled all along for the approval of others, and that his decision to live, and to allow those around him to keep existing, is solely based on securing their approval to justify his own existence. The agent of Shinji’s apocalypse is a mecha infused with a human soul and God herself. Much like the otaku of this time, Shinji had unprecedented access to humanity, and the ability to both judge them as a deity and earn their approval through the vessel of technology. As otaku fandom moved into the 21st century, anime was becoming far more mainstream and the volume of content in the U.S. increased dramatically from the mere trickle of fan subs and traded VHS’ of the past decade (Eng 165). Thus, the viewership and interaction with anime increased drastically as Web 2.0 facilitated the mass sharing of videos, fan fiction/art, theories, summaries and the like. From this advent of technological wealth, encyclopedic tomes emerged online in the form of Wikis like evageeks.com, the most prolific Englishlanguage Evangelion forum, or the Anime News Network’s all encompassing Encyclopedia section, which lists cast members, reviews, and fan reception polls (Eng 170). Viewing such polls and forums reveals not only that Evangelion canon and Akira are some of the most acclaimed anime of all time (3,319 votes for Evangelion as a “masterpiece”, 1,627 votes for Akira as “excellent”), but that fans are
actively engaged in the symbolism of Christian elements within these series (ANN Encyclopedia). A search for Christianity on the evageeks forum yields over 1,200 results, for separate threads engaged in discussion of religious meaning in Evangelion alone. The site also offers comprehensive guides to when and how often religious iconography appears throughout the series, citing fiftyfive separate entities from the JudeoChristian tradition within Evangelion , while also noting that the Cross appears as a symbol over 35 times throughout the canon (EvaGeeks, Forum, Cross, Rel. References). During this new wave of internet fandom, women became a much more significant faction in the otaku community (Eng 165). In the context of The End of Evangelion (1997), women are placed in a position of power in reference to Christianity. The film also provides a third person look at the events surrounding episodes 25 and 26 of the series, giving viewers even more content to analyze. The primary deity of that world is Lilith (referencing the name of Adam’s wife in the Jewish tradition), a female God from whom Adam, the Angels and all of humanity originated, turning the creation story of Eve’s emergence from the rib of Adam on end (EvaGeeks Lilith). Also, the three “Magi” of the supercomputer regulating NERV HQ, is composed of three parts of a female brain: a woman, a scientist and a mother, reversing the genders of the Three Kings which anointed Christ in scripture. In the opening scene, Shinji pleads an injured Asuka to come out of her coma, a result of their last battle with the Angels. As he tries to shake her awake, her hospital gown comes open, revealing her adolescent breasts. In a scene that shocked many, Shinji masturbates off screen, breathing heavily with the door locked. The scene ends and his hand is covered in semen. Standing over Asuka’s limp body, he exclaims, “I’m so fucked up.” In this iteration of Shinji’s apocalypse, Anno changes the end
result of Third Impact drastically. Only Shinji and Asuka emerge from the primordial soup this time around, and Shinji is met not with praise, but with these harsh words from Asuka, “How disgusting.” Once more, the concept of a selfless messiah is reversed, in that Shinji is punished for his abuse of and reliance on Asuka as a mere object of affection and sexual desire. Napier views this version of the apocalypse as a “bleak rendering of social and psychological disintegration,” that may reflect the rising gluttony of consumer culture in the otaku community (Napier 193).
The most recent depiction of Third Impact in the Evangelion canon provides a stark
commentary on contemporary society. At the end of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009), Shinji incites Third Impact not through the destruction of Kaworu, but by merging with Rei Ayanami, a clone of his mother and Lilith combined. The reunion of mother, son and God is looked upon with reverence by Ritsuko Akagi, a scientist at NERV. She says, “The nascients of a divine life form, and the toll of its creation, is the demise of all life that came before it. This is the end of the world.” The credits roll, but those who stick around will see that in the end, Third Impact and the apocalypse is halted by Kaworu with the “Lance of Longinus,” (a reference to the spear used to pierce the side of Christ on the Cross). Thus, what could have been the first positive apocalypse in Evangelion canon, is cut short. Shinji and his comrades are forced to live on in a world of war and decay. Following Kaworu’s intervention, a lighthearted rundown of the events to come plays out on screen, ending with the statement, “More fan service to come!” Finalizing the argument that JudeoChristian iconography and individualism are intimately tied to the American otaku’s experience of Akira and Evangelion , look now to the problems facing the millennial generation as individuals, and as a whole. Each of these alternate
endings contributes to the thematic aesthetic of Evangelion, fostered by Akira and expanded upon by a legion of otaku . However, the secret ending of Evangelion 2.0 indicates a disillusionment with today’s otaku and the technology dependent youth of today. They remain invested in the art form of anime, but as the ironic closing remarks of Evangelion 2.0 imply, mass media and technology are only a small component of the bigger picture. Early on in Evangelion 2.0 , Shinji and company are taken on a field trip of sorts, to see what the ocean looked like before humans destroyed it by inciting Second Impact in the year 2000. This heavy handed environmentalist reference points to the duality of this generation and today’s otaku. Napier’s study shows that a majority of otaku are in some way involved with technology in the workplace (248). In their leisure time, they clamor for daily details on this release, or that extended edition online. Millennial otaku are driven to make their mark and display their mastery of technology amidst the overwhelming clutter and competition of the digital workplace. Napier acknowledges that otaku culture is one of “resistance to an unsatisfying outer world,” but also exciting due to the “fluctuation, [and] uncertainty” of these “postmodern” media texts. However, if the persistent pessimism of the apocalyptic visions from Akira to Evangelion can parlay a lesson unto the modern American otaku, it is that art imitates life. As a community of individuals, so brazenly proud of their identity as otaku, they must also recognize that the “liminal space of dreams” presented so artfully by Otomo and Anno, is telling them not to give up their passion for anime, or forums, or cosplay, but to take advantage of their agency as humans to look beyond mass media and recognize the universal issues facing our nation and our world.
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