Evangelion 0.0: (No) Exit

Eva and the Existentialism of Sartre

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a 90’s mecha-anime created by Hideaki Anno with religious symbolism, giant monsters, and Evas; artificial humanoid weapons that are (in typical anime fashion) piloted by angsty teenagers.

That said, part of what sets Eva apart from its predecessors and similar anime’s of the time is its commitment to of the human condition. Yes there are beautifully rendered action sequences, gore, explosions and esoteric imagery but it is also primarily a coming-of-age story for the young protagonists.

Eva is particularly keen to upend the unrealistic depiction of young heroes in much of anime at that point: Teenagers that never falter, never break down, never get depressed or have crisis. Traumatic events in Eva effect the characters in real often visceral and psychological ways. Anno wanted them to be extremely flawed, often unwilling to enact their ‘given’ roles, and lacking purpose/direction. Like real people might act in high-stress even traumatic situations.

Anno’s work often takes this realistic approach as in his latest live action film Shin Godzilla where we are treated to a deliberately slow and methodical picture of how humans would react to a catastrophe of that magnitude.(With clear allegories to nuclear events in Japan’s past.)

The original series’ run in the mid 90’s left a wake of fan theories and essays and over-analysis. Since then we’ve seen a number of re-leases and reboots in the form of the new Evangelion: Rebuild Series of OVA’s. But for the moment I’m going to focus primarily on the original series (NGE) and the films Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion. I won’t be talking reworks, as I feel it more accurately conveys Anno’s intentions, before it became overly-commoditized.

The fan theories and analysis of NGE are many. Often they reference Karl Jung and Sigmund Freud at the forefront and it’s easy to see why when many of the episode/chapter titles are directly lifted from psychological and philosophical terms coined by these two. That said I think that to stop there is to stop short of the actual message.

Hideaki Anno’s “borrowing” of these concepts and terms, may not necessarily indicate his support of them as many who have written on the subject conclude. Rather Anno’s choice to present them chronologically as chapter titles suggests an altogether different message. As the characters progress through the story so too are we as viewers and as participants urged to break down theses concepts and move past them. To fight the systemic philosophies that divide us, and are the cause for the character’s suffering and pain.

One of these themes introduced early on is that of the hedgehog’s dilemma:

I can’t think of a better way to sum up the relationship between Shinji, Rey, and Asuka; the three pilots of the Eva’s in Neon Genesis than with a line from one of the more well-known works of Jean Paul Sartre, the founder of modern existentialism.

In his play No Exit (Huis Clos, in French) which Sartre wrote in 1943, three strangers are locked in a room in what appears to be the afterlife. It’s most popularized line near the end of the play is: 

“Hell is other people.” 

It was well known even by Sartre himself that this one line was infamously mis-quoted and is still to this day often misunderstood and taken out of context from its original intent.

The full-line reads:

Garcin: All those eyes intent on me. Devouring me. What? Only two of you? I thought there were more; many more. So this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the “burning marl.” Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red-hot pokers. HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE!”

Although it seems at first depressing when taken out of context.

However the rest of the play offers a counter-point to the very statement. In the same way that people say one thing but mean another entirely, Garcin in this scene is saying this to hurt the others but in fact does not really wish to be rid of them.

The fact is, that despite being presented with the option to leave none of the characters actually do:

(THE DOOR FLIES OPEN: a long silence.)

INEZ: Well, Garcin? You're free to go.

GARCIN: Now I wonder why that door opened.

INEZ: What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go.

GARCIN: I shall not go.

INEZ: And you, Estelle? So what? Which shall it be? Which of the three of us will leave? The barrier's down, why are we waiting? But what a situation! It's a scream! We're inseparables !

Even though people bring us suffering, we would (as humans) by our nature take their company over being utterly alone. Hell may be other people but so too is heaven. In the context of the play it’s implied they are in some form of limbo or liminal space in the afterlife, this space is representative of our human existence. Shinji’s inner conflict and decisions follow a path leading to nihilism, where nothing is of value, nothing matters. He muses that maybe the world should end. The purpose of the mysterious shadow organization Seele is to return the world/universe to its original state, a state which to untrained human perception is intrinsically meaningless. A singularity, where all souls and living thins are unified without misconception: The Human Instrumentality Project.

At the brink of this nihilistic despair however, Shinji has a change of heart; one that stops him from giving in to the instrumentality. His choice instead echoes sarte’s Existentialism: that even though the world around us may be intrinsically meaningless, our participation as living beings give the universe its meaning, and make life worth living. Our ability to create meaning out of nothing gives our lives value. Our personal experiences; our love and anger and pain are all a miracle of life. 

Shinji makes the choice similar to the characters in NO EXIT.

The 3 protagonists, one man, and two women, (mirroring Shinji, Asuka, and Rei) are the source of each others emotional torment, rejecting one another’s advances, or tearing up projection of the self and their ego’s—bringing each other’s regrets, shame, and inner conflicts to the surface. 

“You betrayed my feelings, you betrayed me!”

“You misunderstood from the beginning.”

They are each other’s foils and yet… they are each given the choice to leave, into an unknown and uncertain future. (Free will?) Whether it is hell or heaven or something else entirely is left ambiguous. 

Each of the characters when presented by the choice at the threshold of potential oblivion (like Shinji at the precipice of instrumentality) ultimately decide to remain with the other two in the room. Despite the pain and torment they clearly cause one another.

The title NO EXIT  although a translation from the original french title, is poignant because there is indeed a literal exit, and a hypothetical decision that can be made to leave, however NO EXIT refers to the human condition and posits that given this choice Exiting is impossible. We may yearn for isolation, but ultimately we want to be with others and be accepted or at the very least recognized as individual persons. 

Shinji:“Without others I cannot be myself. I would be nothing.”

Our personal identities are defined against those of others and are composed of the wealth of experiences and observations that make up the self. This in turn comprises the tapestry or story of our identity.

It is often stated that this series is depressing, particularly the ending, and the same can be said of No Exit and the line that is so family misquoted or misinterpreted.

Anno himself was going through a dark period of depression during the creation fo the series but the ending mirrored his own recovery and the recovery from that mental state.

If you look beyond the surface you’ll see that the message is actually a positive one of hope. It’s a rejection of self-destruction in favor of living with all of its pain and failings; all of life’s beauty and joys.

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