And then… you turn off the TV and get back to it…
When I first saw the poster for the NGE TV series, I thought it looked weird. I was even more avoidant of it when my anime-loving coworker told me it was a mecha-anime where robots fight each other in epic battles. If my Transformers experience was any indication, I probably wasn’t going to like this.
While waiting for the new series “The Summer Hikaru Died” to fully air (I’m saving it since I like to binge watch instead of wait a week per episode), I decided to give it a try since I didn’t have any other ideas of what to watch. I fell in LOVE. It was so beautifully animated and immediately immersed you into an enigmatic future. As each episode progressed, I slowly realized there was so much more going on beneath the surface (pun intended?)
I never would have expected all this weight. Everything from the real meaning of AT fields, looping timelines as a representation of the franchise and our inability to move on, anime as a form of escapism, the pain of avoidance, the regret of indecisiveness, the fear and pain of connection, the hedgehog’s dilemma, coping with loneliness, and the desire to be loved… holy shit
Thank you Anno. You made a franchise that speaks to me in so many ways. I don’t think I could even begin to verbalize all the emotions this final installment left me with.
This is by far the most meaningful piece of media I’ve ever consumed. I’m going to need some time with this one