Finnish SubTV channel has shown during the first half of this year the Japanese anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), which has gained an international cult reputation. Even though I'm not actually a big manga/anime connoisseur (when working at a local comics store, I checked out some of this stuff, nevertheless, so I have a general idea about these genres), I have followed the series with some interest. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a mixed bag and more often than not a confounding one.
Basically it's a post-apocalyptic story of a 14-year old schoolboy Shinji Ikari (what is this general Japanese fascination with adolescent characters all about?), who reluctantly becomes a pilot for one of the EVAs, a fleet of gigantic robots which protect the world against the attacks of mysterious Angels, extraterrestrial creatures named after Biblical angel characters, who wreak havoc and destroy whole cities like those monsters in old Japanese Godzilla films.
This is all basically a variation of The Transformers, but made for grown-up audiences, with chockful of mystical and metaphysical references to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Torah, Kabbala, and so on. One of the main themes of the series is Shinji's difficult relationship with his cold scientist father who heads NERV, the UN-funded organisation fighting against the Angels (Shinji's mother committed suicide when he was only a toddler).
As said, one gets mixed feelings watching Neon Genesis Evangelion, with its overflowing combination of science fiction, soap opera, a young boy's development story, Biblical mysticism, occasional psychedelic sequences and even cheapo comedy elements. Could one reason be that all the nuances of Japanese culture won't exactly translate themselves to a Western watcher? On the one hand it feels like a bunch of nonsense, on the other hand there's a lot surprising depth with characters and plot hardly found in similar Western action/sci-fi stories.
Guide to Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion in Finnish
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Monday, June 27, 2005
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The Exotica Of Extreme Japan
Japan intrigues me in all its extremity and its certain cultural manifestations, which can seem totally strange and weird for a Western observer.
I emphasize I don't want to fall into any Euro-centric, xenophobic or even racistic prejudices here. "White man's burden" type of colonialistic thinking is always typified by its morbid fascination with anything reeking of "exoticism", "alien", "other" -- which can sometimes make "healthy" (or "scientific") interest in foreign cultures seem problematic or at least ambivalent.
Think of, for example, the Western interest in Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, etc.) which started with the 19th century Theosophists, continued with C.G. Jung and found its modern expression in the 1950s with American Beat Generation writers; or any phenomenon of "tribal" culture found from the so called Third World countries or the outskirts of "our" civilization: the "new primitivism" and its fascination with Native American cultures both in North and South America, the 1950s "Tiki" fad of Hawaiian/Polynesian origin, fashionable Maori tattoos of New Zealand, the all-encompassing New Age mysticism combining Hopi Indian beliefs to Sufism and Tibetan Buddhism; even the whole genre of "World Music", just to mention some examples.
Of course, as mentioned, it can get very difficult to discern the faddish interest in anything "exotic" from the genuine interest and sympathy for foreign cultures, and it's not really my task to find out which is which actually. Perhaps one can find here certain traces of Rousseau's 18th century "Back to Nature" thinking, but personally I'm more interested now in the hybrids of so called primitive or traditional cultures with our technological, modern way of life. Therefore Japan.
It's fascinating how in Japanese culture one can find Western influences that have mutated into something totally different and new, when it finds its expression in Japanese milieu and its characteristic and traditional way of thinking, code of conduct and mentality, which can appear as peculiar to us Westerners. I understand that Japanese tradition emphasizes heavily group pressure and conformity which can seem totally opposite to Western ideas of individualism and "personal freedom".
Could it be that certain expressions of contemporary Japanese culture are then some sort of "safety valves" to let off this steam: that mental pressure which is created by a strongly conforming culture? Thus, for example the often extremely violent/sexual content of manga comics or Japanese film could be expression of this psychopathology which can't be outvented in any other way in society which emphasizes a strict code of conduct, honour and conformity. And therefore these explicit and even antisocial, often unaccepted forms of expression act, in fact, as a preserving factor in society?
I emphasize I don't want to fall into any Euro-centric, xenophobic or even racistic prejudices here. "White man's burden" type of colonialistic thinking is always typified by its morbid fascination with anything reeking of "exoticism", "alien", "other" -- which can sometimes make "healthy" (or "scientific") interest in foreign cultures seem problematic or at least ambivalent.
Think of, for example, the Western interest in Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, etc.) which started with the 19th century Theosophists, continued with C.G. Jung and found its modern expression in the 1950s with American Beat Generation writers; or any phenomenon of "tribal" culture found from the so called Third World countries or the outskirts of "our" civilization: the "new primitivism" and its fascination with Native American cultures both in North and South America, the 1950s "Tiki" fad of Hawaiian/Polynesian origin, fashionable Maori tattoos of New Zealand, the all-encompassing New Age mysticism combining Hopi Indian beliefs to Sufism and Tibetan Buddhism; even the whole genre of "World Music", just to mention some examples.
Of course, as mentioned, it can get very difficult to discern the faddish interest in anything "exotic" from the genuine interest and sympathy for foreign cultures, and it's not really my task to find out which is which actually. Perhaps one can find here certain traces of Rousseau's 18th century "Back to Nature" thinking, but personally I'm more interested now in the hybrids of so called primitive or traditional cultures with our technological, modern way of life. Therefore Japan.
It's fascinating how in Japanese culture one can find Western influences that have mutated into something totally different and new, when it finds its expression in Japanese milieu and its characteristic and traditional way of thinking, code of conduct and mentality, which can appear as peculiar to us Westerners. I understand that Japanese tradition emphasizes heavily group pressure and conformity which can seem totally opposite to Western ideas of individualism and "personal freedom".
Could it be that certain expressions of contemporary Japanese culture are then some sort of "safety valves" to let off this steam: that mental pressure which is created by a strongly conforming culture? Thus, for example the often extremely violent/sexual content of manga comics or Japanese film could be expression of this psychopathology which can't be outvented in any other way in society which emphasizes a strict code of conduct, honour and conformity. And therefore these explicit and even antisocial, often unaccepted forms of expression act, in fact, as a preserving factor in society?
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