What Should have Happened to Evangelion

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!  Hopefully everyone reading this has been having a fabulous week so far!  If not, well maybe this post will help a little bit.  As I stated this past Sunday, September will be an entire month dedicated to Neon Genesis Evangelion with reviews on all of the Rebuild films as well as some Evangelion-themed Talkative Thursday posts in between.  Even though it’s not September yet, today’s post will be an intro to the event.  I’ll be taking a look at the entire franchise and discussing how I thought it should have played out.  And before you say anything, yes, I’m ripping off the YouTube channel “How it Should have Ended” to some degree.  While I will be talking about how Evangelion should have ended, I’ll primarily be talking about how I thought the series should have gone in terms of story and characters.  Also as I said on Sunday, I’m hoping that this is a segment of Hanime on Anime that I can continue in the near future.  Plus, I actually enjoyed writing this as a large part of this is me just being a fan and talking about some of the theories and ideas I had.  But anyways, enough of me rambling.  Let’s start things off by talking a little about Genesis Evangelion.

First, a look at the Franchise Now

I’m pretty sure that many of you reading this know what Evangelion is, but here’s a rundown.  Evangelion is a mid/late 90’s mecha-sci-fi anime that follows fifteen-year-old Shinji Ikari when he joins the government organization Nerv and pilots a giant mech known as an Eva to fight off giant monsters called Angels.  The series ran for one season and was followed by a spin off film called The End of Evangelion about a year later, which, as the title implies, was meant to serve as an ending to the series.  Ten years after the release of The End of Evangelion, creator Hideki Anno decided to reboot the franchise in a four-part film series called Evangelion Rebuild.  Three of the films have been released over the past ten years, with the fourth currently in production.  The series is considered a classic not only for the mecha and sci-fi genres of anime, but as an anime series in general as it’s often considered as one of the many launchpads for many of the themes and elements you find in some of today’s popular anime shows.  The series itself is often remembered as being extremely dark  with an in-depth and grueling character study as it examines the psyche of its main characters, particularly Shinji.  This, as well as lack of funding and time, was the approach the series seemed to end on, leading to what many would argue as one of the worst endings in anime as the series closes on an entire episode of Shinji examining himself.  The End of Evangelion served as something of an alternate ending to the series-which if you read my review on it back in April, it did a poor job of doing that-, though it ended on a confusing and equally disappointing note.  So the series itself is often seen, again, as something of a gloomy character study.  Evangelion Rebuild, on the other hand, was purely story based and almost removed the introspection trademarked in the series.  While the first two films seemed to retell some of the key moments from the series, it starts to become a completely different creature by the third installment, with the third even ending on a satisfying note that almost makes the fourth and final film unnecessary.  Granted, the fourth film isn’t out yet, so I may be quick to judge.

This twenty-year-old franchise has produced two installments of the same story with each telling that story in completely different ways.  But at the same time, both serve as companions for each other.  Much like on my VS. post on Akira the manga and the movie, both versions have their own pros and cons as separate entities but ultimately work well in supporting each other.  However, which one of these stories you prefer to hear depends on your own tastes; if you like dark undertones and discussing storytelling elements and characters, you’ll probably like the original series, but if you like hearing a good story, Rebuild would be more satisfying.  For me personally- and much like both magna and film versions of Akira-, I like both.  On the one hand, you have an in-depth discussion on mental stability while on the other you have some great storytelling and world building.  But still, I can’t help but feel that both concepts of character study and story could have been combined to form a pretty decent mech show.  That being said, this leads my into my discussion on what I thought should have happened to Evangelion.

What Should have Happened

To start things off, I honestly think that the series should have been split into two seasons, maybe even a third.  Each one could vary in length but should be no more than thirteen episodes.  And now to delve into the discussion, let’s talk about how each season would have played out.

Season 1

For the most part, the first season would pretty much run its course similar to the original series itself.  But because it would run for a lesser episode count, some of the filler episodes from the original series would be taken out and most of the main story arcs would have to be condensed to about two episodes a piece.  Where season one would start to differ though is episode nineteen.  For those who don’t know what happens in this episode, the fourteenth Angel appears and nearly destroys Nerv.  This is fortunately stopped by Shinji, who earlier on left Nerv after an incident in the previous episode.  The episode ends on a mother of a cliffhanger where it’s revealed that the inner makings of the Eva units are in fact the remains of Angels.  Season one would end on this cliffhanger.  It may sound like a lousy way to end the first season, but hear me out for a second.

One of the best advantages that the Rebuild films offered was that it knew where to end each film.  That’s to say each film ended on something of a good or satisfying note.  Evangelion 2.22 actually ends where episode nineteen ends, and it was definitely a wise move.  Looking at episode nineteen from a storytelling perspective, it ends on the arc involving Shinji’s return to Nerv and begins another arc that tells us about Nerv’s secrets and true objectives with the Evas.  With two different tones at play, the last six episodes of the series become visibly different, not just in the obvious decline of quality, but just in where the story goes until the end.  In other words, episode nineteen leads into arc that would make six more episodes to help round the series out to twenty-six episodes seem more like filler.  It’s a good spot to stop and let another season of more episodes pick up where it left off and expand on the plot even more.  Well, okay, episode twenty-four is an exception to the idea of the rest of the series being unnecessary, but I’ll get to that later.  Not only that-and going back to the statement of obvious quality decline-, but the episodes after nineteen save for twenty-four are very awkward in terms of story and pacing.  They bring up major relevant plot points, but the writing and animation are just awful and lead to some uncomfortable moments; did anyone else feel awkward listening to Misato and Kaji have sex while the audience stares at a night stand for at the end of episode twenty?  Bottom line, the series needs to know when to take a break, and episode nineteen is the perfect opportunity for that break.

Another aspect to the original series that would definitely be changed is Shinji’s introspective moments.  Yeah, I know, there’s been many an Evangelion veteran that’s griped about these moments as they slowly become the entire episodes by series end, but I find that they’re necessary to some degree.  As I previously stated, one thing I liked about the original series was that it provided some great discussion and character study, and Shinji’s introspective consists of much of this discussion.  I wouldn’t want to see these moments taken away entirely.  But if nothing else, it would be nice if they were shortened and didn’t repeat themselves so much.  The original series was consistent in these moments for the most part by having Shinji’s introspections take place on the train he rode after being abandoned by his father.  The only exceptions where the last six episodes of the series, and episode sixteen where Shinji is trapped by an Angel throughout much of the episode.  In this case, it’s not a terrible thing that it bended the rules a little.  The Rebuild films left no inconsistencies and had all of these moments on the train.  Season one would need to maintain this consistency as well as shorten the amount of time the audience watches these scenes unless you maintained the plot of episode sixteen in another episode.

So taking hints from the Rebuild series, Season 1 would be shortened and actually end at the mark where episode nineteen ended.  So much like Rebuild, story would take a stronger focus.  The series would maintain the introspection it’s known for, but just in smaller doses.  So really, a lot of season one would maintain much of what it had in the original series.  Season two, on the other hand, would be much different.

Season 2

Season two will mainly consist of the story arc involving the last six episodes of the original series as well as the bulk of the plot from The End of Evangelion.  The overlying plot will focus on further character development of the main cast, a proper introduction and arc to one of the franchise’s biggest key players, and Nerv’s true objectives and clashes with Seele.  And I know what you’re thinking, how exactly do you expand six episodes into twice that many.  Well, let me tell you.

With season one, I said that most of the main story arcs would be condensed into two episodes each and to completely remove filler episodes like the panned “Magma Diver” and the Weaving a Story” episodes.  For season two, all you’d do is expand the plots of each episodes to last two or even three episodes.  To explain how you’d pull this off, let’s expand episode twenty from the original series.  This episode relates the events that happened following the fight with the fifteenth Angel, primarily Nerv’s attempt to retrieve Shinji from Eva Unit 1’s core and, of course, more Shinji introspection.  With the two different storylines going on here, you could split them into two episodes.  Part one could cover what was going in Nerv and with the other secondary characters during Shinji’s disappearance, and part two could focus entirely on Shinji and what was going through his mind while trapped.  So one episode would focus on plot, while the other would focus on discussion.

Now, I know what I said earlier in season one that the introspective moments need to be taken in light doses so that the audience isn’t bored.  However, I also mentioned that episode sixteen was an exception in that it was necessary to the plot even though half of it consisted of introspection.  To some degree, the part two episode could run this way, having key moments from the previous episode be retold.  But no matter how either episodes are told, both need to end on Shinji finally being free from Eva Unit 1 and allow for the next arc to continue.  Which leads me to two of the franchise’s biggest characters and the role the play in the following arc: Asuka and Kaworu.

If you read my “Should We Hate Shinji Ikari” post back in January, I made it pretty obvious that I don’t like Asuka…at all.  On top of her being despicably abusive and hot-tempered, she’s the most unrelatable character in the franchise.  But to give the franchise some credit, she is very much a necessary character.  I elaborated on this in my “Should We Hate Shinji Ikari” post about how Asuka and Shinji are very similar characters, but you can read more about that in the post.  Besides that,  Asuka acts as a focal point for one of the show’s underlying themes: sexuality.  That is, Asuka’s presence serves as a foil for teenage Shinji, at times often grappling with whether or not he’s attracted to her.  This is also elaborated on in The End of Evangelion, but I won’t go there.  So even though Asuka is beyond unlikeable in the franchise, she’s needed as a discussion on sexuality.  But while that much may be true, I think Asuka is a very much wasted opportunity in the franchise.  Point being, Asuka is the poorest example of a tsundere I can think of.

Now I know what you’re thinking here.  Otakus far and wide know that Asuka is one of the most recognized tsunderes ever, and in fact is often toted as being one of the first.  But even so, she’s doesn’t do a good job at it.  For those of you that don’t know what a tsundere is, let me enlighten you with a brief definition: a tsundere is a character troupe in anime that is often a female character (thought there are a few male characters out there) who, on the surface, is very tough, aggressive, and often times easy to anger or offend, but is in fact very sensitive or insecure.  Another common troupe within this troupe is that often times someone in the series (usually the main character) somehow manages to break through that hard shell and cause an emotional breakthrough, leading to the tsundere herself to change in personality by being softer and gentler.  One of the best examples of a good tsundere that I can think of is Taiga Aisaka from Toradora!  When we’re first introduced to her, she’s aggressive to the point where she goes on violent outbursts, but by series end, she’s softened up a whole lot thanks to her growing relationship with Ryuji.  And now with that definition out of the way, based on that, Asuka is still a terrible example of a good tsundere, even though she’s recognized as being one of the best.  And here’s why.

Asuka more than perfectly portrays the aggressive angry side of the troupe.  But when she has her emotional breakthrough, rather than relax and not be so anger-prone, she just goes nuts.  Given that Asuka and Shinji have very similar pasts, it would have been a great opportunity for her to break down and actually try to reach out for help.  But instead we get her in the next to last episode in a destroyed building wallowing in a bathtub trying to starve herself to death…ladies and gentlemen, that’s not softening up, that’s denying you’ve got a problem.  Now I get that this moment is meant to show that her personality and ways of thinking have driven her to madness, but that doesn’t change the fact that her emotional break as a tsundere was awful; rather than having an emotional breakdown, we got a mental breakdown, and it’s extremely uncomfortable to watch.  And there in lies the wasted opportunity for Asuka’s development as a character in that she doesn’t change at all.

After Shinji’s reappearance in the first season two story arc, the following arc needs to focus on Asuka.  For the most part, nothing about her would change in season one.  However, she would start to feel more insecure about her abilities after her fight with the fourteenth Angel-which is actually what happens in the original series.  Season two would pick up on this continuing decline, and eventually lead to her emotional breakthrough as a tsundere.  This can either be done in an emotional breakdown (like wallowing on the floor in tears kind of breakdown) or a mental breakdown similar to the series (but less uncomfortable).  However this happens, this breakthrough will put Asuka out of commission of piloting Eva Unit 2 for a good chunk of the series till about the last few episodes- we’ll get to that later.  To give a more concrete example, and following the original series a little more, after her break, she could be admitted to a hospital.  Asuka doesn’t have to be taken out of the season entirely, though.  In fact, she could probably make a few appearances here and there, but she cannot be piloting an Eva by any means.  Going back to Asuka being a sexual ploy for Shinji, one way she could make brief appearance is through Shinji visiting her at the hospital and make a half-hearted love confession or make some kind of loving remark to her.  It should be something that continues the sexuality theme going and it can be as vague or as clear as it wants to be.  Just as long as it’s not as disgusting as what The End of Evangelion did.  By the end of this arc, one thing needs to happen either at the beginning of the next arc or by the end of Asuka’s arc: there needs to be an introduction to Kaworu.

Kaworu is often remembered as being a character who really didn’t have that many opportunities in the series to shine, mostly because he’s only in one episode.  Rebuild fixed this by having him introduced very early on, making a cameo at the end of the first film.  He made two appearances in the following film, but ultimately made his debut in the third.  But in this fictional retelling, Kaworu would actually be introduced very early in the series.  Well, okay, taking a similar approach to Evangelion 1.11, Kaworu would make a cameo in an ending credit scene, giving a hint to his actual introduction in the next season.  Here, we’d get to see Kaworu before his arc starts.  You could even add cameos in the beginning of season two by having him make a few more appearances in the first arc.  Bottom line, Kaworu needs to make an appearance before his initial arc in some form or fashion even if it’s only for a second.  To put it comically, the audience will have a massive migraine by the beginning of season two, and the only cure for it is to give the audience light appearances of Kaworu.

SNL jabs aside, Kaworu will get a proper introduction in this story arc.  Said introduction though, what I picture in my mind is Nerv realizing that they need another Eva pilot after Asuka’s leave of absence.  This could come after a fight with the fifteenth angel or immediately after Asuka’s break.  From there, the arc will primarily focus on Shinji and Kaworu bonding with bits of it continuing to grow as the season progresses.  It’s a key moment from the series and the films, and it’s something that should definitely be present. During this time, two things need to happen.  First, the arc should drop some obvious hints that Kaworu is more than he seems.  In the series, he’s the seventeenth Angel, but in Rebuild, his origins are still unknown even after he dies, though much of his dialogue seems to show that Kaworu is more than he appears to be.  Yes, it needs to be revealed later that he is in fact the last Angel, but it doesn’t need to be revealed right away.  We’ll talk more about the reveal later on.  The second thing that needs to happen is the continuation of the sexuality theme, except this time it’ll focus on Shinji and Kaworu.  Yeah, I know, this definitely sounds out of left field, but hear me out again for just a second.

One of the theories that I’ve held about Shinji after watching everything in the Evangelion franchise is that Shinji might be bisexual.  And the number one reason for that conclusion is Kaworu.  In the short time Kaworu was in the series, both he and Shinji bond pretty quickly.  However, many would argu this theory given that there wasn’t enough time for such a relationship to develop. Even with the fact that Kaworu does declare that he loves Shinji, that outburst comes off as inflammatory and really had no romantic feelings behind it.  But in Evangelion 3.33, if you were to give me the same argument, I’d have a hard time believing it; much of Evangelion 3.33 focuses on Shinji and Kaworu bonding with each other, and by the end of the second act and at the beginning of the third, you could very well make the argument that they’re a couple.  Shinji’s reaction to Kaworu’s death pretty much confirms to me that the two may have very well become more than friends.  Now again, this is only a theory, but it’s one that can be brought to light in season two. 

Following Evangelion 3.33, there should definitely be some serious growth in this relationship that may or may not result in a relationship.  Plus, adding this little detail would also be important for the show itself.  Remember what I said earlier about sexuality being an underlying theme in the original series?  Well, here in season two, it can become an almost ever present theme.  Much like season one and the sexual tension Shinji implies to have with Asuka- and arguably even Rei-, the same can happen with Shinji and Kaworu. In fact, the entire theme could revolve around Shinji trying to determine his own sexuality.  It would continue the sexuality theme as well as add to some of the drama.  And who knows?  It could come full circle in either some romantic gesture, Shinji coming to grips with who he really loves, or even as far as Shinji having sex with either Asuka or Kaworu, or even with Rei!  Some of you may think the latter option goes too far, but given that the series and The End of Evangelion have a sex scene and a moment where Shinji masturbates, I’d argue otherwise.  And while we’re on the topic of adult content, I really wouldn’t mind seeing the show become a little more adult, or at least have some more explicit language.  The Evangelion franchise is known for being brutally dark anyway, so I don’t think it would hurt or hinder it at all.  In fact, The End of Evangelion and Evangelion 2.22 drop some ‘f’ bombs.  Regardless, with Kaworu in the picture, the show not only needs to expand some of its more subtle themes and continue developing it’s characters, it also needs to take the show down a more serious path.  Speaking of which, let’s talk about some of those points I said to hold on to.

Once Kaworu is introduced, the rest of the season needs to focus on the growing tension between Nerv, or rather Gendo Ikari, and Seele.  The series implies this tension as it becomes apparent that the two groups have very different motives for initiating the Human Instrumentality project.  Seele wants to start it because the higher ups feel humanity has gone to hell, while Gendo has failed to see a grief counselor and wants to be with his dead wife/Shinji’s mom.  That aside, other plot points such as Rei’s true origins, Kaji’s death while trying to search for information about Nerv, and Ritsuko’s betrayal all need to be going on as the season progresses.  Finally, and much like episode twenty-four, Kaworu will reveal himself as the final Angel, try to awaken Lilith, and be killed by Shinji.  And with those out of the way, we get to the finale.

For the last three episodes of season two, which would consist of the finale, the focus needs to be on Seele and Nerv coming to blows and end on Third Impact.  For the Seele and Nerv conflict, I actually would like to see it play out similar to what happened in The End of Evangelion.  Sure, I tore the film a new one when I reviewed it back in April.  But the one part I truly enjoyed was about the first hour of the film, which is the conflict between Seele and Nerv.  The first of the three episodes would focus on Nerv trying to fight off Seele, while part of the second episode would primarily focus on Asuka’s fight with Seele’s mass-produced Evas.  Speaking of Asuka, it’s about this time that Asuka would come to grips with herself, regain her mental stability, and finally get back in Eva unit 2 to fight.  However, similar The End of Evangelion, the fight with her and the Evas would result in her death.  This portion of the second episode could take up the first half, while the last half would focus on the beginning stages of Third Impact.  As for the third episode and final episode of season two, it’ll only be about Shinji and Third Impact.

As far as the plot for the finale goes, I would like for it to run the same way the season one finale for Tokyo Ghoul played out.  In that episode, much of the episode is Kaneki being tortured by Yamori all the while having an inner dialogue with Rize, ending the last few minutes of the season with Kaneki accepting his fate as a ghoul and then fighting and devouring Yamori.  For the season two finale, I’d like to see the same thing.  Much of the episode will have Third Impact and the Human Instrumentality Project going on in the foreground, while Shinji shares an inner dialogue with various characters throughout the show as he examines himself.  This would bring back some last minute introspection where Shinji ultimately confronts his, but still keeping the audience entertained and invested into what’s going on.  The characters that Shinji talks with could really be anyone throughout the entire series, but Rei definitely needs to be the last person he speaks to since-if maintaining the plot of The End of Evangelion- Rei was responsible for starting Third Impact.  By the end of Shinji’s conversation with Rei, Shinji will finally be at peace himself and change his mind about moving forward with Human Instrumentality, ending it and Third Impact simultaneously.  The episode’s final moments could end on a debatable ending, but the audience should be able to come to their own conclusion of whether the series could end right there or pick up with the aftermath of Third Impact.

Season 3, Maybe?

When I was thinking about today’s topic over the past few days and what I would write for it, a third season never really came to mind.  But the more I thought about it, I eventually did come up with something of a third season.  I didn’t have anything concrete, but here were some key points:

·         There would be a fifteen-year time jump from the events of season two, like the time jump in Evangelion 3.33

·         Shinji would have amnesia due to the trauma faced during Third Impact and be working for Nerv as a high-ranking officer or even as Gendo’s second in command

·         Asuka would be dead, Rei would be just another clone working for Nerv, and those who formally worked for Nerv will have turned on the organization, again, like in Evangelion 3.33 (minus Asuka being dead)

·         Shinji will have actually aged.  This was based on a stupid and pointless plot hole in Evangelion 3.33, but I’ll talk about that later in the month.

·         Introspection would continue, but Shinji would share this with all of the characters as he slowly regains his memories.

·         This would be the final season

I was never able to come up with an ending, but that’s mostly because I’m waiting to see what will happen with the fourth movie when it comes out. 

And so, that’s what I thought should have happened to the Evangelion franchise.  I know that this post was super long, but let’s face it, when you talk about Evangelion, it’s going be a long winded topic.  Still, I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it!  Be sure to stay tuned this Sunday for my first review of This is (Not) an Evangelion Event as I review the first of the Rebuild films, Evangelion 1.11 Your Are (Not) Alone.

-Hanime on Anime