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056: Neon Genesis Evangelion vol. 14
Chapters 91 to 96
"To where the light returns" and "Setting off"
By Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Adapted to English by Mari Morimoto, Fred Burke + Carl Gustav Horn
Topics:
- Impressions of the ending.
- Why Evangelion matters? Hikikomori (shut-in, post-modern hermit)
- Difference Between Shut-ins (hikikomori) and geeks (otaku)
- Why can't people grow up/face the world?
- What will save the otaku/shut-ins?
- What it means to be an adult millennial?
- Mari Makinami and the Evangelion rebuild films.
Synopsis:
Through their last moments all souls of the earth endure Rei Ayanami as she is the newly-instated Lilith and Adam hybrid. It's through her omniscient ability to turn everyone into a sea of LCL, the primordial liquid that allows all beings to become one entity, that she appears to everyone as the one they love before they die. All Barriers to everyone's soul, their A.T. Fields disappear. Proffessor Fuyutski sees Shinji's mother Yui Ikari, Fuyutski knew Yui would sacrifice her soul to Shinji's Eva unit-1, yet he would keep this a secret from Gendo due to jealousy. Before he dies, Fuyutski asks for Yui's forgiveness.
Gendo Ikari manages to fulfil his wish of seeing Yui through Rei, yet he too knows that he will die and in his place his son Shinji will decide the fate of what is to come.
Shinji becomes one with Lilith and endures whilst fully conscious. He is confronted with everything he ever knew, everything he loves and fears. Shinji must bear witness to all the souls on earth and must open himself up to them. And Lilith shows Shinji a world with no pain, anxiety, angst or sadness but in doing so he is granted a world with no joy, aspirations or happiness. A world where everyone is connected and everyone is one, and yet being one is a lonely place.
Through a truce with Lilith Shinji decides to return the world to the state that it was before, believing himself to be a young man, he wishes to learn the purpose of his hands and use them to connect to people on his own terms. To see if it is truly possible to have a meaningful connection with another human, to find his own path and to fail or succeed on his own terms. He gives Rei one final touch of his hand before Lilith's corpse rains like snowfall on the Earth.
And in another unknown time and place, the snowfall persists and we see that Shinji is reincarnated in a world where the Evas are nothing but remnants of a pre-historic time. Shinji is a young man, leaving his hometown to enter university. He has never had any dreams or aspirations, and didn't worry too much if he lived or died, but for now, the world holds infinite possibilities.
Further reading and other references:
BBC the truth of mental health
Deep Dive from Japan Times "Hikikomori – Japan's missing million"
which in turn is based on the following articles.
Andrew McKirdy's full article
The Japan Times' reporting on hikikomori
James also recommends a ZME Science article by Mihai Andrei for a brief and clear understanding of Hikikomori. And although not specifically about Hikikomori, this video does reveal the consequences of an isolated and anti-social lifestyle within japan.
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