Discussion
On Nov 8th, 2022, No.270 of Japan Specialist Seminars was hosted via webinar. Among 50 participants, Michael Cronin, Associate Professor, Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at William & Mary gave a lecture titled "The Boy in the Mech: Evangelion and Rupture”.
Professor Cronin first accounted how 1995, the year that the animatino was first broadcasted was the year that had the Great Hanshin Earthquake, Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack, the financial crisis, and the collapse of Murayama Tomiichi's cabinet, It symbolically shows the cracks in the postwar order.
The presenter then tracks and interprets the trajectory of hybrid beings such as robots, megabots, and cyborgs in Japanese popular culture from the perspective of posthumanism. With the history of the Mecca genre, the degree of unity between machines and boys in each work gradually increases, and when the "Neon Genesis Evangelion'' is reached, machines and boys are highly united. As such, the fact that "Neon Genesis Evangelion'' tries to differentiate itself from the expression of existing mecca genre works can be interpreted as throwing a skeptical view of the post-Japanese order, that was figuratively approved by existing mecca genre works. At this point, the cracks in the postwar order of Japan can be confirmed even in "Neon Genesis Evangelion'’
Q&A followed after the presentation. There was an in-depth inquiry into the relationship between a series of events that took place in 1995 and the "Neon Genesis Evangelion''. The presenter briefly mentioned the production timeline of the work and clarified that the work itself cannot be viewed as a direct response to the Great Hanshin Earthquake. However, he emphasized that the enthusiastic response to "Neon Genesis Evangelion'' at the time can be interpreted as a result of interlocking with the atmosphere of the era in 1995. Furthermore, it was said that it would be possible to discuss the greater and longer-term changes that occurred in postwar society in Japan around the year 1995.
In addition, the seminar was concluded after discussions on the background of the concept of "synchro", which reveals the unity between humans and robots in "Neon Genesis Evangelion'', the reading comprehension of overseas viewers who do not share the cultural and historical context described in the presentation, and the comparison with "Shin Godzilla" and the comparison with between "Ghost in the Shell" regarding the gender problem.
