Episode Notes

What's done is done, it feels so bad. What once was happy now is sad. We’ll never record again, our podcast’s ending. I wish that I could turn back time, ‘cause now the guilt is all mine for ever suggesting we’d do Evangelion.

Okay, so Connor and Niamh like to joke about how we get into a big fight about End of Evangelion because we are never going to fully agree on this film. Specifically, we both have the same basic read on what the film is trying to do, but will always be divided on our final read of the film. But like, we actually are still friends and we’re both really looking forward to you all watching Magic Knight Rayearth with us and listening to those episodes.

In our discussion, we focus in particular on the beginning and the end of End of Evangelion and the manga and how these two endings to the series figure separation and otherness in different ways and reach different conclusions about the possibility for human connection and touch on topics like the potential figuring of a bioessentialist view in the show and movie of the fundamental divide between men and women as the core of the human condition in the show and movie versus the manga, how the manga employs the image of hands to differently figure the relationship between humans in a way that touches less on heteronormative understandings of human relationships, the Buddhist and daoist interpretations of Eva, the ending of the movie and its parallels with Adam and Eve and the related myth of Líf and Lífþrasir emerging from the world tree after ragnarök to repopulate the earth, how necessary the intense extremes of the movie are for the message, a diversion into discussions around content warnings, our frustrations with the depiction of Misato in End of Eva, differences between the movie and the manga around Gendo and Shinji’s ability to meet the expectations of the heroic shōnen protagonist, some of the weird differences between the printed tankōban volumes of the manga in the US and the scanlations on genesis-evangelion.com, how not everyone in a story should necessarily be redeemed (and perhaps some characters should not be redeemed), and our final readings on Rei and her breaking from Gendo’s abuse.

Also, don't forget that we will be recording the Question Bucket soon. The deadline to write into our Question Bucket for this series is Friday, July 16, 2021. You can write into ghostdiverspod@gmail and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Garfield Read Aloud: @GarfReadAloud

Lastly, if you want to listen to Niamh talk about movies for generally less time then fae spent talking about this one, check out faer newish podcast Ornate Stairwells at exportaud.io/ornatestairwells.

Works Cited in this Discussion

Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Alcohol
Masturbating over an unconscious body
Violence
Pedophilia
Loss of ego / melding of consciousness
Sexism & misogyny
Semen, blood, other bodily fluids
Dismemberment & disembowelment
Cannibalism
Strangulation
Decapitation
Nudity & sexuality
Bioessentialism
Abuse (both romantic and familial)
Homophobia
Slut-shaming
Depression & suicide
Cancer

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