Hey hey~ Do you wanna work together on an Evangelion-search for identity, love, and integrity essay with me? I've watched through EVA for god knows how many times...so I'm pretty confident about providing all the theories and implications and whatever...but I suck at writing
...so maybe if we work together we'll get a really uberly good Evangelion essay~
"In the “End of Evangelion” it is the character of Shinji Ikari that changes in order to come to terms with adolescence and his emerging feelings towards Asuka. It is similar to “Sky High” in that this is the effect of aging over time and growing older. Although he overcomes his insecurities like Benedick does in “Much Ado About Nothing” the catalyst for his change is a negative experience even though the outcome is positive.
Shinji is caught amidst the chaos of a war and must come to terms with death and at the same time life.
Camera angels are used to portray the changes in Shinji’s characters. In the beginning of the film Shinji is shown with high-angle shots with him looking down at the ground. At this stage Shinji is going through depression because he is unable to express his emotions towards Asuka and others around him. The high-angle shot portrays how he feels inferior and insignificant Shinji says “Nobody cares whether I exist or not... Nothing will change”. Once Shinji has changed, mainly because he believes that Asuka is dead, he is shown with low-level angel shots, which makes him look more powerful and controlling and shows his face and his expressions. He decides to live for “The hope that people might be able to understand one another” to hear “the words 'I love you'”. Similarly this occurs within “Much Ado about nothing” to the character Claudo who changes because he is deceived about the death of Hero the person he loved but mistreated.
The idea of change and changing self is conveyed by the visual symbolism of the sea.
The opening sequence of shots shows the glare of the sun on a calm sea making it look out of focus, the next shot shows Shinji who also looks out of focus and blurred, portraying how he was confused and indecisive. Later in the film, after his change, he is shown floating in the middle of a sea, which is also a sea within his own mind as he makes his decision to live and accept his emotions for others and the possibility of being hurt by others in order to attempt to find happiness.
A visual montage is used to show Shinji’s negative reaction to change. It is because he can not understand his emerging emotions, as he becomes older, that he becomes depressed and afraid of being rejected. The montage is made by a sequence of motion video and still pictures. It consists of inter-cut sequences showing the female characters in the film and Shinji from instances in the past. Between these sequences are still pictures portraying death, a dead dog lying on the ground and a fish head in a bucket. An aural montage is used which is a sequence of female voices such as “I hate you.” “Do you really think I could ever like you?” “You have nothing to do with my life anymore”. These voices of rejection represent how before he changed that he feared rejection and therefore hid his emotions as he grew older.
These both represents how Shinji believes at one stage, that relationships with others can lead to pain and suffering. This shows how people can be affected by their changing self in a negative way.
The Film “End Of Evangelion” effectively portrays the changes that occur within the character Shinji. Whilst some of the changes in themselves and the effect of the changes were negative in the end the final outcome is positive."
Thats from my 2003 essay >< for year 12. Yeah I'm lazy lol.
