Top Shelf Theology

Ferreal ferreal the END of Evangelion, finally! All of the existentialism, philosophy, theology, Christianity, and plot, all wrapped up into a coherent end! Well, if you have a Virgil like me to point the way. I hope I made any sense, I was obv drunk for the whole thing. But damn, it was at least a decade since I'd seen this series, and the whole time watching the TV show (episodes 1-26) I was waiting, and waiting and waiting, for all of these revelations to come about, dancing around giving away the plot and the meaning to Neon Genesis and accidentally Theology of the Body, because I couldn't remember how/when/where/why I learned what I knew of the story and symbolism of this anime. But sweet Lord, it's good!! So worth it. Albert Camus *and* Pope John Paul II would be proud of this! In the end: Hell is other people. And yet, the trinity is 3 persons rather than one, because 1 is the loneliest number, and God is love, and love wants to be shared. Thus, the Holy Trinity Creates the universe. A-MAZIN'! Also the 4-part remake SUCKED. Totally lacking the emotional punch and intellectual meaning. OK, there's one good sequence with Rei learning to farm and then being remote detonated, that was some heavy shit. But the rest of it was all action, no depth, wtf Hideaki Anno?

Neon Genesis with commentary from a weeaboo who knows his Catechism of the Catholic Church shit. This is the conclusiatory "movie" broken into 2 episodes that ends the Evangelion series. Unfortunately I drunk a lot of Jaeger on a school night and didn't get to the second half, but tbh it's heavy enough as it is.

In the most meaningful episodes of the whole series, Anno Hideki takes a deep dive into the philosophy of existentialism through the perspective of each of the main characters of the series. A surprising amount of the concepts overlap with Catholicism's Theology of the Body as conceived by Pope John Paul II and summarized by Christopher West. What does it mean to be embodied? To have relationships? What is the value of a soul? What is an existential conundrum, why don't we just commit suicide? Can you really be anyone you want to be? People say these episodes are a lame cop out ending to what was otherwise a totally sweet series, but I disagree. These are the meat and potatoes, the real reason the whole series was created in the first place. This is Anno's existential philosophy in a nutshell, a hard hitting message of hope for a new generation to believe in themselves.

The final non-existential-soliloquy episode. Asuka is still useless, reeling over her recent losses and complete destruction of her purpose in life, compounded by memories of her mother's suicide (oops spoiler). Meanwhile Shinji makes friends with a super gay dude named Kaoru, who is the newest Eva pilot, who magically has ridiculous sync powers with the Evas. Say, what IS a sync ratio, and why do you need one to pilot an Eva anyway? God is love, God is not (exactly) sex, though His relationship with us *is* intimate, and Shinji has some brushes with these facts, as the series' nuts and bolts plot wraps up, in preparation for a long-ass, rich lecture in existentialism. If you were looking to find out what an AT field really is, here you go! If you wanted to know who Seele was, what they want, why and how Gendou knows everything, why the world might end, wtf is in central dogma, why Rei and Yui Ikari...yeah you won't get those answers, take a hike. Just enjoy the silence. The two straight minutes of silence, staring into Kaoru's gay, gay eyes.

This angel is a HALO, wtf. It makes direct physical contact with Rei, and through that bond, explores a human soul. Which Rei will have none of, self-destructs, and miraculously survives... or does she? Shit finally get realer than real, several secrets revealed, NERV's purpose teased at again, and Misato deals with the loss of Kaji, possibly the loss of her own purpose, as more answers just lead to more questions.

A Coming Of Age story from the '90s, but not quite like the ones you usually hear.

Now that Touji's bit the dust, we're going to plow right past him, forget about Shinji's personal issues, and start getting into Asuka's. Or more importantly, some of NERV's past, its founding, and the origins of Fuyutsuki, Gendou, Ritsuko's mom, Misato's dad, Kaji's beginnings with the company, Seele's involvement.... a whole bunch of "why the hell does any of this exist?" questions get answered in these two episodes. More importantly, some of the symbolism becomes more obvious as this angel uses direct psychological attacks on Asuka's tough exterior, and flimsy interior. She'll be shown to be the glass tiger she really is. With only 6 more episodes (plus a movie) left in the series, things are finally ramping up!

Shit gets real weird as Shinji is assigned to kill the next angel, an Eva that has gone rogue! But if it's an Eva, doesn't that mean it has a high school aged pilot? More than likely from the same effing classroom as Shinji!? Yes and yes, also if you don't kill the unnamed classmate who is totally your friend Toji, then you will be court martialed or something. After Shinji rages against the growing price of toilet paper that shredded his shoulder sockets, more corporate drama within NERV ensues. In the aftermath, Shinji is given a ....whatever. Shit gets cray cray. Also angels want to know, what is a human mind?

In episode 17, the plot slow-rolls into nothing happening, so good luck with that. Hell. I literally don't remember taking any time to talk about anything deep, other than Rei being a fucking robot as usual. Something to the tune of Gendo saying "Let's eat" being really creepy. Because having a body means you have to fuel it constantly, that part is pretty Theology of the Body in a certain way. But unfortunately, for all the cool parts, they come later. One thing I've decided I hate about this series (sorry for the full blog post) is that the poignant points, are few and far between, until the last couple episodes. But, each great ass deep point, is contingent on you having experienced the past episodes and the characters in their past moments, for any of it to have any effect in the first place. Shit nuts.

After some totally human posturing and adolescent power gaming, a new crazy ass angel shows up that, despite being a "divine"(?) being, is yet further f*cked up looking and acting. As the NERV crew tries to figure out what the thing even is, it manages to capture Shinji (or I guess he over-confidently leaps straight into it), and begins to invade and analyze his psyche. Suddenly all the symbolism we've seen in the character interactions, becomes... real. Like, really real. Like shit gets REAL. Finally!

Gendo is up to something weird, Kaji is half in on it, Ritsuko seems more informed than he is. Conspiracy theories abound as Asuka continues being an attention whore and Shinji earns his first kiss. A lot of character development, no angels and no action unfortunately. Oh unless you want to count the big reveal at the end. There is, once again, some casual gesturing toward major Theology of the Body themes, vis a vis Misato's confessions to Kaji after getting plastered at the bar.

Have a drink and watch Neon Genesis with me, through a Catholic lens. This episode isn't too eventful, but it touches on a few psychological and theological concepts, opening the door to some real meaning coming up. AND it opens the door to the real plot reveals as pertaining to, why does NERV exist? What are the angels? Why do they always attack Tokyo(-3)? What is Gendo Ikari really up to? Does Rei have a personality, or is she just ChatGPT in a fleshy shell? But again, none of these questions are answered, so much as brought to the surface. Also there's some shenanigans with an AI dummy plug system for the Evas.

Honestly not a lot happens here on the deep end, but... The idea was, I'm watching the 1990s original version, English dub, of Neon Genesis: Evangelion, and trying to tease apart what is throwing darts at a Catholic glossary, and what is real shit with a message. In these episodes, the answer is: Not much for substance, kind of filler. There is character development though, and the occasional useful in-universe question of wtf is going on here anyway? Why are we fighting "angels," I thought those were good guys? Why do you pilot an Eva? Is it because you love humanity, or because you want recognition and status? I swear to God existentialism and the theology of the body will collide in this series, I PROMISE.

Yes, I meant eleven then ten. I must've slipped and hit the wrong button, but screw it, we'll watch 11 first, then 10. Honestly at this point in the series, we're sort of on the filler episodes. Nothing gets spoiled, and not a lot happens in the way of internal plot development, nor external thematic, theological or meaningful development either. I think the most development takes place in Asuka's personality and um.... her... personality. If you don't hate her by the end of Ep. 11, you haven't been paying attention. Otherwise, a few big question relating to plot and reality are only questioned then thrown to the wind, just touched on and forgotten. But they'll come back, I promise. If you're trying to skim this series, go ahead and skip these two, ferreal. What you're missing here is that Asuka actually does have a little bit of strategy chops, and otherwise is an attention whore, big surprise. Second, the crew starts wondering why are the bad guys called "angels," aren't they supposed to be the good guys then? And where do they come from? They seem to just randomly appear or teleport to earth or something. Noticeably absent from questions: WHY IS IT ALWAYS TOKYO(-3)?? Last, spoiler: Misato totes has a scar in an interesting place, and Asuka quasi relates because she has a complicated past too. Also not a surprise, and these will both be detailed in later episodes, of course.

The plot thickens as more teenage angst comes to the forefront of our beloved over-hyped anime. I swear the deep philosophical shit will come!

Let's have a drink and explore Neon Genesis through a Catholic perspective, and see where the Theology of the Body might come into play, but not necessarily here, yet the groundwork shh shh shh is being secretly laid. These are the episodes where nuclear power is challenged and also Asuka is introduced. That bitch. Note the use of personal spaces and lack thereof.

Yo Theology fans, let's have a watch party for episodes 5 and 6 of the original Neon Genesis from the '90s, and just stick some pins in the plot for future reference. Some sweet sniper action happens here, and getting to know Rei Ayanami, with a little bit of exploration into what it means to have a personal bubble, or not. Hope you like whiskey and Coke, and Jaegermeister (but not all 3 at the same time, just the first two, then later, the other), because I swear, I SWEAR, real personal existential sense of self shit WILL be explored. Some of it is touched on here, even. Like apartments, boobs, and the 5th angel's firing range. They're related, I promise, stayed tuned. Dat AT Field, tho.

Make yourself a drink and settle in for episodes 3 and 4 of the original Eva. I'll wax philosophical and point out the attention to detail and the psychological underpinnings to the plot, and eventually as the Christian lore sets in, try to reconcile it with Catholic catechism and specifically the Theology of the Body treatises of John Paul II. Don't worry, it won't be that high brow, there will be plenty of swearing.

Let's have a drink and watch Neon Genesis: Evangelion with color commentary, trying to tie it in with Theology of the Body. ToB was a theme of several talks that Saint Pope John Paul II gave in the '80s, on the concept of the soul and the body being one, and thus what you do with your body truly affects what happens to your soul, and vice versa. Where symbolism becomes realism; where Zelda III style what you do in the material world really changes the spiritual world and vice versa. NG:E, while being a great masturbatory part of pretentious anime fans' history, is also accidentally ferreal deep in a way none of those incels truly understood. Here are my commentaries on episode 2. A lot of it honestly is just foreshadowing to the deep shit in Season 2, a lot of setup. But, there is some kickass trance-like berserker shit that anyone could appreciate.

Theology on Tap reviews the epic classic 90s anime Neon Genesis: Evangelion, through the lens of the Catholic concepts of Theology of the Body. With lots of interruption from YouTube for no good reason those stingy fux. Crossing my fingers Rumble doesn't suck the same way.