Does it matter what Evangelion’s Author says?

Yes, but not in the way you think it does.

“I tried to include everything of myself in Neon Genesis Evangelion — myself, a broken man who could do nothing for four years. A man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead. Then one thought. ‘You can’t run away,’ came to me, and I restarted this production. It is a production where my only thought was to burn my feelings into film.”

- Hideaki Anno (quoted in Stewart-Ahn, 2019)

In this video, Rugnetta queries whether Evangelion (Anno, 1995) represents a prime example of the Death of the Author, questioning if, once a work is released into the world, the author’s intent around a work are important when interpreting the work.

Rugnetta lays out a strong case, outlining that Derrida’s and Barthes work on Death of the Author may apply to Evangelion, in that the author may be being born at the same moment as the work, and that everything around the work may be considered part of it, from author’s interviews, to the decoding and remixing that fans did, to the multiple “official” versions and translations.

Despite this, and the statements that the author wrote the work with little planning, focusing on commercialism and audience for outcomes, there are some obvious symbolic and meta-narrative themes which emerge, as well as markers of the author’s work, and also impacts back onto him as an artist.

Religious Symbology and Branded Mythology

Religious semiotics, symbols, signs and story arcs are presented front and centre within Evangelion, with everything from the names of the “angels”, the use of the Lance of Longinus, the crucifixion imagery, however the creative team have stated that this was a deliberate and cynical branding move, not designed to authentically represent these ideals in any way.

“There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool.” (Tsurumaki, 2001)

What is strange is that this cynical use of iconography and structure may not matter, as its now become part of the Mythology of Evangelion, which Barthes argued were often unconscious meanings expressed within the text (Storey, 2009). This could be argued to have become part of the Brand as Modern Myth, and therefore becomes part of the authorial intent (Rugnetta, 2015).

Jungian/Freudian Imagery and Themes

Many analyses focus on the commercialism of female sexuality within the work, reflecting that this was a cynical attempt to appeal to the otaku audience.

“Volumes have been written about the psychosexual tone of Evangelion, which often hypocritically depicts adolescent sexuality with open candor about how shamefully, clumsily horned-up it can be. At the same time, it constantly exploits sexuality at the expense of its female characters — ruthlessly pursued by Gainax in its marketing and commercialization of the series — and in that tradition of “fan service” where the otaku audience must be satiated.” (Stewart-Ahn, 2019)

However, this reflection on adolescence can also be considered the meaningful reflection on the creator’s own adolescence, and the analogies between the psychological pressure that the characters suffer and the creator’s own emotional state during the adolescent creation phase of the artwork.

Threats of death, and the “death of the author”

‘“Any person can see it and give his/her own answer.” That’s at least partly because Anno reportedly couldn’t always decide what he wanted the answer to be.’ - Vilas-Boas (2019)

There are multiple interviews with members of the production team, and Anno himself, has been very clear that the reader and fans should be the interpreter of the work, that they should remove his interpretations and intents from it.

While this may be authorial intent, it needs to be noted that after the final episodes of the series initially aired, many fans expressed feelings of confusion and disappointment, going so far as to make death threats towards Anno. Due to the commercial success, and in response to these confused demands, Anno made two movies with endings much more bleak and angry, changing the initially hopeful final message of hope to one more violent and angry, again possibly reflecting his own depression and emotional state (Vilas-Boas, 2019) (Stewart-Ahn, 2019).

This ongoing engagement with fan works obviously negatively impacted back on the author, meaning their work was never entirely divorced from them, and there have been recent translations, comics, and other collaborative works, meaning that these works are still alive.

Queer Representation and Isolation from Women

In the series, the protagonist (Shinji) is simultaneously attracted to, and separated from women. Despite this commercially cynical appeal to the audience, there are also queer characters that explicitly express love for him — at least in the original anime’s English translation by ADV (Vilas-Boas, 2019).

This relationship was then written into the official manga magazine adaption and many fan works, but in the most recent Netflix retranslation (2019) the expressions of romantic feelings were replaced with more literal interpretation of the Japanese language (Romano, 2019). Predictably, the fans-as-authors reacted poorly to this change, as it erases a role model that they grew up with in a period in time when such representations rarely featured on screen. Therefore, rather than using Derrida or Barthes definitions of authorship and its death, we may be better off using Foucault’s:

“the author becomes important again, not in a vacuum but as a historical, political, national, social, gendered, and sexed being who writes and is read within particular contexts and against specific historico-political and socio-economic events. The same images or events play out quite differently depending on who is saying them and where and when and to whom they are being said. Ethos, the background, reputation, and identity of the author are important and affect reader responses.”

- Busse (2013)

Twenty-five years on, after the large amounts of work put into queer representation and liberation, this erasure seems tone deaf and, again, a blatantly commercial attempt to make the work palatable for the Netflix rating system.

“These choices offer a form of agency for the author often missing in real life, where certain identities (race and gender) are often considered primary while others (ability, sexuality) may be invisible even as they may be the driving identity marker for a given text.” (Busse, 2013)

Conclusion

The Death of The Author can never really exclude the author, and so includes all text around them. Creators will continue to seek to clarify their works whether for commercial gain or more altruistic purposes, and so be subject to fan’s interpretations. It will deeply affect the authors, and is therefore the continued authorial engagement is more meaningful as a performative “fan” identity than the original artwork itself.

References

Anno, H. (1995, October 4). Shin Seiki Evangelion [Animation, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller]. Gainax, Nihon Ad Systems (NAS), TV Tokyo.

Busse, K. (2013). The return of the author: Ethos and identity politics. In J. Gray & D. Johnson (Eds.), A companion to media authorship. Wiley Blackwell.

Romano, A. (2019, June 24). Netflix’s re-translation of Neon Genesis Evangelion is drawing backlash for queer erasure. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/24/18701179/netflix-neon-genesis-evangelion-kaworu-gay-backlash

Rugnetta, M. (2013, August 5). Does It Matter What Evangelion’s Creator Says? PBS Digital Studios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVm65tlhqw8&feature=emb_logo

Rugnetta, M. (2015). Have #BrandsTM Become Mythological? PBS Digital Studios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=141&v=U4v-hgF9k-o&feature=emb_logo

Stewart-Ahn, A. (2019, June 19). Neverending Evangelion. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/19/18683634/neon-genesis-evangelion-hideaki-anno-depression-shinji-anime-characters-movies

Storey, J. (2009). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction: 5th (Fifth) Edition (7243rd edition). Longman.

Tsurumaki, K. (2001). Evangelion. Otakon. http://www.evaotaku.com/html/evafaq.html

Vilas-Boas, E. (2019, June 27). Neon Genesis Evangelion Is Finally on Netflix. So Why Are Some Fans Upset? Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/neon-genesis-evangelion-netflix-controversy-explained-guide.html