the references to western media - "twin peaks" and "the x-files" - indicate the popularity of these injapanese society and maybe a source of inspiration for Evangelion; Anno elsewhere cites Gerry Anderson's work (particularly UFO, but anyone who's seen Stingray can see the parralels to Tokyo-3!)

a mistake pointed out to me: this should be "hiroki" azuma, not "hiromi"!

otsuka's words here are often quoted in the japanese contemporary sources, but rarely available in full even in those, so being able to actually see what the fuss was all about is incredibly valuable

this discourse was immense and seemingly without precedent; anno's reaction to this in interviews (and ultimately in End of Evangelion) was entirely dismissve, seeming to brand people who disagreed with him as shut-ins who needed to "rejoin" society

(database consumption positing that people "consume" specific elements of a work versus narrative consumption positing that people consume the larger narrative - roughly the difference between "i am into star wars for x-wings" and "i am into star wars for political/religious commentary)

this would lead to a series of counter-articles from hiromi azuma (who positioned his theory of database consumption in direct opposition to otsuka's theory of narrative consumption) and counter-counter articles from otsuka, dominating the post-ep25/26 discourse

anno himself discusses otsuka's criticism in "schizo eva", dismissing it as he'd "never attended a self-help seminar" (rather missing the point, in my opinion); the irony here in the context of "pleasure principle" is one of the people interviewing him seems to have been a member of Aum Shinrikyo!

(End of Article)
this sparked a somewhat fierce debate in the literature; "evangelion pleasure principle" dedicates a significant chapter first to criticising Otsuka personally, then a second one to "debunking" the Eva and Aum connection

Evangelion funnels all of its conclusions into the curriculum of a self-help seminar.
Is this meant to be irony?

If it were merely a piece of misfired irony, there might still be something redeemable.

But no — it seems they were serious.
At the very end, Evangelion failed.

That is the conclusion.

In the last several episodes, the other characters repeatedly ask Shinji, endlessly, “Who are you?”

Then the series concludes with a Q&A-style monologue, completely severed from any reality, in which he attains self-realization in that closed mental space alone.

Those who recognize this will know immediately:
This final scene is exactly the same as the closing ritual of a self-improvement seminar.

This is no coincidence.

Surrounded by every character in the series, Shinji — the protagonist who has just “discovered himself” — is applauded, and the people around him say to him, one after another:
“Congratulations…”

The unresolved mysteries, presumably, are meant to be “answered there.”

But the real problem is that strange ending.

Let us even concede that point as “unavoidable.”
If we think of it as a business strategy similar to Twin Peaks or The X-Files, then that’s fine. The laser disc release will apparently include ten minutes of re-animation, and there will even be a Kadokawa-produced anime film.

Translation:
“It Was Supposed to Surpass Aum…” — Eiji Ōtsuka**

As expected, I cannot help but write something about the final episode of the TV anime Evangelion.
Let us, for the moment, set aside the fact that most of the mysteries and settings teased out bit by bit were never explained.

to be clear i, personally, meant "insufferable" in the sense of "we have this militarised starfleet that keeps trying to coup our society and they can't even be bothered to defend our people?!"

i would be so insufferable about the maquis, or the militarisation of starfleet...
"does anyone else remember the time starfleet's leadership got taken over by literal brain slugs? or the coup one of their admirals tried to pull off?"

oh yeah she *was* - and was pretty yearny