Argentosoma vs Evangelion - an analysis

(So I'm going to throw all of my credibility out the window here, so hold on.)

Argentosoma is better than Evangelion.

There I said it, let the flaming commence.

But really, if you haven't seen Argentosoma, you should. But I'll give you a bit of a run down before I get into the heart of this discussion. The basic story behind Argentosoma follows this kid named Takuto Kanashiro, who's a brilliant scientist. Now Kanashiro is dating this woman named Maki, who's just about as socially awkward and inept as Kanashiro is. Very early in the series Maki dies ressurecting this giant robot (and robot in the classic sense of an autonomous machine, think Iron Giant). During the accident, Kanashiro is injured and disfigured.

Now the robot makes friends with this girl, who actually looks a little like Maki, and she and robot are taken off by the military so that they can fight aliens. Meanwhile Kanashiro, now using the name Ryu Soma also joins the military in hopes of destroying the robot to avenge his girlfriend.

That all happens on the first disk, so trust me I haven't spoiled much.

The reason why Argentosoma begs comparison with Evangelion is the use of the anti-hero. And this is where Argentosoma completely owns Eva.

On the nature of Shinji

Again, I'm likely to say something that is going to hurt my credibility. Shinji is a transparent character. Meaning that his motives are pretty clear, he wants to be loved and accepted by other people. In fact, I'd go as far to say that Shinji isn't much more than a vehicle to transmit the central message of the series. He provides a touchstone for the series to go back to when everyone starts being like Shinji.

Also when he reacts to other characters, he reacts in a way that is in accordance with the stimuli. If someone is trying to tell him how great his father is, he gets angry or broody or both. I don't really want to say Shinji is a flat character, because he does have some limited amount of growth and he does have more than one emotional state. But overall, I'd argue that he's stunted.

How is that different from Ryu Soma

Now with Ryu Soma, we already start off with a duality. First he's Kanashiro, and no matter how much he tries to throw that part of himself away it still sticks. He mourns for the loss of that part of his youth (at least at first). And on the other hand, he's Ryu Soma, this avatar of revenge.

I've kind of hinted at the big difference in that first paragraph. Shinji doesn't lie to himself. He might act like he doesn't really need his father, when he does want his approval. But he doesn't believe it. However, Ryu Soma right from the get-go believes that those halycon days with Maki were destroyed by the giant robot. Even though Soma is wrong, and his own social ineptitude caused more pain to his girlfriend then anything the robot did.

Also Shinji is a wuss. I don't really blame him. In fact, I'd say it's more because of the nature of his particular brand of anti-hero than anything else. But it's an easy out as far as anti-heroes go. Because he never really tries to change anything, nothing really changes. Whereas with Soma, he's an asshole. Sometimes he's a crazy asshole, sometimes he's just a jerk. But more than anything else, he pushes the story forward.

And in fact, that's the biggest difference between the two anti-heroes. Shinji is passive. More than anything else, the story happens TO him rather than because of him. However, Soma is an active anti-hero. He causes the story to move forward, and while things might happen to him, it's his reactions that are important rather than the impetus.

And that's why Argentosoma is a better series. Because like Beserk, we have someone who might have twisted morals, but does have a goal in mind. Instead of spending the entire series waiting for the hero to actually act.

RahXephon versus Evangelion: An Analysis

So last Friday in his Answerman column, Zac Bertschy talked about how the fandom for Eva has shrunk over the years. And at the end he mentioned RahXephon (still my favorite series) and how it compares. This reminded me of all of the debate surrounding the two series, which basically boils down to one question: Is RahXephon just an Eva clone?

I'm going to offer my analysis on the two series and, hopefully, prove that RahXephon is a work that can be considered on it's own, as well as in the shadow of Eva.

Warning: This will contain spoilers. If you haven't watched these two series, I suggest you do because they are that good. In fact they're both arguably classics and deserve to at least be rented. Okay, so that's done.

Generally when anyone brings up the "clone" argument they use the similarities between the series to prove it. They draw parallels between Misato and Haruka, between Ayato and Shinji, between Megumi and Asuka and between Rei and Quon. On the surface all of these comparisions seem legitimate. And in the case of Rei and Quon they're pretty close. But the fundemental argument relies on one assumption: Yutaka Izubuchi is a hack.

Now let's assume that he isn't a hack and those comparisions are not accidental. They're far from perfect. Let's face it, if Misato and Shinji had the same kind of relationship as Haruka and Ayato, we'd be having a very different discussion here. And while yes, both Megumi and Asuka are foils for the main character, they come to drastically different conclusions. Megumi is able to move on with her life and keep struggling. Whereas Asuka collapses and even in the brief moment that she manages to recoup, she still collapses and ultimately fails. And with Rei and Quon, even with the strength of that comparison, they're still different characters. Rei is cold and distant, a souless copy of Gendou Ikari's wife. Whereas Quon is a stunted child, but more of a spiritual guide for Ayato.

So why are those comparisions there in the first place? Didn't Izubuchi know that his series wouldn't be taken as seriously as Evangelion? The answer is simple: RahXephon is a response to Eva. It takes similiar elements and comes to exactely the opposite conclusion.

The central idea in both series is the question of self? How is self defined? How can people connect with each other in meaningful dialogue? Can the self understand other selves?

Evangelion says that self is defined by two ways. By what the self thinks about itself and what others think about it. This is shown pretty strongly in those scenes where Shinji is sitting in the room with the light across the side. In those vaguely dreamy scenes, when Shinji is speaking with himself or other selves, he's told that there is the person that he thinks he is and the person that Asuka or Rei or Misato think he is. And they can never know each other because of it.

That is the fundamental premise of Evangelion. No matter how well we communicate we'll never really know each other. One of the best scenes with this, is when Shinji is going to leave NERV in the beginning of the series. When he decides to stay he's standing opposite of Misato (his foil) on the train platform, while Misato is standing on the other side of the tracks below him. They're seperated by the fence and the train tracks, like staring into a mirror.

(On an additional note: Arguably Misato's counterpoint in RahXephon is not Haruka, but Dr. Kisaragi, but either argument can be made)

So what does RahXephon say about the self? It says that the self, is the self. No matter what other people say about you or think about you or want from you, the self remains the self. To borrow, Souichi's words, "You are you." Also that just by the nature of being human, we are all connected to each other. There are a couple points where this comes up, but the most memorable is when Quon and Ayato are standing on the bridge in the last episode of the series and they are watching the television and Ayato is hearing what people have to say about him. Even with their opinions, they still accept him for who he is, not what their perceptions of him are.

There is a counterpart scene in RahXephon to the one I mentioned in Evangelion (actually there are two of them, but I'll just go with the first one.) In episode three, when Ayato and Haruka are standing at the edge of Tokyo Jupiter. They aren't seperated staring at each other, but both standing next to each other staring at the thing that connects them.

So there it is. I could go on about where I think the connections between the two series are, and who is a counterpart for who. But I think the comparisions are a bit muddy for that. In the end though, I think they both pose interesting questions and radically different answers. And so saying RahXephon is a copy of Evangelion does a disservice to both series.

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Agree or disagree? Leave a comment below or e-mail iniksbane@gmail.com

Why not EVA?

Take one dead equine, take one stick, apply pressure to the carcass through repeated blows and you have the discussion that has surrounded Neon Genesis Evangelion since it first came out.

But here I am anyway, taking my swing at it.

It's easy to find things to hate about Eva. Let's face it, I can give the basic run down in four basic options: A) Whiny boy pilot B) Obscure (bordering on strange) references to Kabbalah that make almost no sense. C) Giant Robots (because really the world needs another giant robot show like I need a hole in the head). D) And ending that is just plain strange.

Although that hole in the head might be nice. It would definitely give me something to show off at parties.

But wait a second here, I'm going to say something that is going to send up a scream across the desert that is the Internet. I like Shinji. Or rather, I like anti-heroes in general and I don't find Shinji to be horribly annoying. In fact in comparison to a Thomas Covenant or a FitzChivalry Farseer, he's pretty warm and cuddly.

On top of that, I like the bizarre references to Kabbalah - the whole tree of life thing does actually make sense, even if it was probably just slapped in there by a lunatic director. And the mecha designs for Eva are really interesting. In fact, I'd say they're one of the highlights of the series.

No where the real problem with Eva lies is at about episode 20 (and yes does include the ending, but not the ending itself), when Anno evidently forgot all of the conventions of telling an effective anti-hero story. He decided to make EVERYBODY anti-heroes. And if they couldn't bend to his whim, he killed them off (alas poor Kaji, I knew him well).

It starts with Asuka, I mean she's too likable and chipper, so now she has to have some sort of screwed up childhood. And three...two...one... it comes to the surface and she's off to mope around in a bathtub for most of the rest of the series. Score one for Anno. Score zero for the viewers.

Oh wait there might be some pay off with Kaji, and we might get to figure out what's going on. So we get traded a long monologue about the history of NERV, for the ONE likable character dying. Score two for Anno. Score one for the viewers.

And then, oh wait, I forgot about Misato. I mean we can't have her running around being funny and irresponsible, so lets give her some daddy issues too, and kill off her lover. Yep, now she's just as mopey and sullen as the rest of them. Score three for Anno. Score one for the viewers.

In the end, the only character I can root for is the character with NO PERSONALITY. That's right, we're left with Rei. But of course, she's too likable so we have to kill her off and bring her back as even more distant. You get the point now, Anno has decided to beat his viewers over the head with his ideas, and forget why he's making the series at all.

To tell a story, to entertain his viewers. Instead the last six episodes are one extended screw you to the viewers, so that he can maintain his "artistic vision" for the series.

Well Mr. Anno, right back at ya. Because no matter how much people may debate this piece of work they never get past the very basic principles. The interesting discussion about identity and how it's defined, is lost. The pertinent observations about people's need to belong are scrapped. The fact is that there is a lot of interesting things that go on in the series, but we'll never get to them, because we're always going to be too busy with the basic problem.

Whether we like the series or not.