[S4E5] Neon Genesis Evangelion, eps. 21–26 (with special guest Brad Nelson)

Episode Notes

We are joined by our first-ever guest on Ghost Divers, Brad Nelson, to discuss episodes 21 through 26 of Neon Genesis Evangelion! They are the person who first got Niamh into anime, so it’s very poignant and meaningful that they are definitely the first-ever guest on the podcast and didn’t at all get usurped by some brat who just decided to join to talk about Final Fantasy VIII on a complete whim.

We also get the most into the manga so far around our discussion of Kaworu, so buckle up for a deeper dive into manga chapters 52–74

We start our discussion with a look at the way the series often employs lore dumps to create more questions than answers, how incredibly gay Ritsuko is for Misato, the discrepancies in how various characters perceive and understand each other and how the narrative itself becomes unreliably tied to specific perspectives, suffering in Evangelion and the tensions between Buddhism and daoism and how Niamh’s worldview has changed since fae first watched the show, Asuka as an unwilling school idol, the elevator scene and how it draws out the tensions between Asuka and Rei and their inability to connect over their shared struggles, how Misato continues to offer physical touch as comfort because it’s what she herself needs when she is hurting, Gendo’s grooming of Rei and her attempts to break from his abuse, the romantic and sexual connection between Shinji and Kaworu, the differences between Kaworu’s depiction in the show vs. the manga, our varying reads on the differing depictions of Kaworu’s death and what it means for Shinji, the stylistic presentation of the final two episode of Evangelion, the misogyny of Anno and his potential gendered trauma, and of course Connor and Niamh continuing to duke it out over End of Evangelion.

Speaking of, just is next time for our discussion of End of Evangelion and the conclusion of the manga!

As a note, the audio bleed on Connor’s headphones was really bad this episode and Niamh had to do a lot to try to eliminate it, so sorry for the dip in audio quality on this one. At least you don’t have to endure it for nearly 5 hours…

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Works Cited in this Discussion

“Misora Hibari and the Girl Star in Postwar Japanese Cinema” by Deborah Shamoon, published in Signs vol. 35 no. 1

Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Death of a child
Sex & sexuality
Sexual abuse & rape
Depression, suicide, & self-harm
Mental invasion
Pedophilia & grooming
Assisted suicide
Slut shaming

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co