Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion are secretly about the same question, and I know why their answers are so different

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Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion are secretly about the same question, and I know why their answers are so different

Few works of Japanese animation have had as profound an impact on Western culture as Cowboy Bebop And Neon Genesis Evangelion – and secretly, The two always answered the same question. Together Game Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blueand the obligatory Ghibli releases, these two were part of a wave of contemplative, boundary-testing anime that emerged in the 1990s. As for the question of what spurred the popularity of jaded, world-weary protagonists like Spike Spiegel and Shinji Ikari, the answer is simpler than you might think.

What’s difficult to answer is the degree to which their paths diverge and the differences between their depictions. While Cowboy Bebop takes a more all-encompassing approach centered around boredom and social decay, Neon Genesis Evangelion Is strongly introspective. Both are calls to action with themes of meaning, change and the connections and associations we build with others. This divergent approach is Linked to the circumstances birth both seriesAnd I think that it actually trusts deeper into the hearts of the works than anyone would expect.

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Cowboy Bebop And Neon Genesis Evangelion Share a common foundation

The Lost Decade was the premise for both contemplative classics


Cowboy Bebop - Spike Falling

To set the stage: Japan in the ’90s was not in a great place. During the 1980s, an economic bubble developed alongside a relatively lavish life of conspicuous consumption. The bubble burst in the early 1990s, leading to massive economic and social fallout. In practical terms, what this means is that for many people, Daily life would become much harder.

Mass layoffs are known as temporary work became more of a norm. Beyond its inherent instability, temp work meant little to no benefits for those who were able to find it. Japanese companies lost their market dominance, even domestically. This period of economic instability is known as the Lost DecadeAlthough many economists argue it continued long after the ’90s.

As careers vanished into thin air and households destabilized, people across Japan Began to feel a strong sense of anemia and apathy. What’s worse, Japan has historically had a “hiring season” where university students are recruited in bulk, and Japanese careers tend to be lifelong. If you don’t find a job in the first recruiting season, you will go through a very difficult year – and since the first recruitment was so important, the effects would last for years to come.

The Japanese recession took a heavy toll. In 1999, for example, The New York Times reported a 34.7% rise in suicide rates. Amid the backdrop of catastrophe, impossibility and lives of stolen meaning, Cowboy Bebop And Neon Genesis Evangelion Both arose with stories of meaning and happiness in the face of dire circumstances. The way they approach the question of “How can I find meaning in an unbearable life?” Makes for an incredible lesson.

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A huge amount of 19th century philosophy revolved around why people shouldn’t give up and die. From thinkers like Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, a thread would develop called ExistentialismChampioned and reconsidered by 20th-century thinkers like Camus and Sartre. The core of existentialism is that “existence precedes essence”. In other words, paraphrasing Nietzsche, People (and things and words) “become what they are.”

This refracts through time: a person’s past and context play a role in determining who they become, but the person Also has an important role in determining their own future and meaning to life. For the existentialist, meaning must be Created. This is convenient, because it also means that a person can look at their context and take control over it and what they become, creating their own meaning in life.

Cowboy Bebop Has an absolutely awful setting. One of the most implicit themes is How the structure of society itself determined the roles and personalities of Spike, Faye, Jet and everyone else In it – just as Japanese viewers were adrift in a sea of ​​uncertainty in the Lost Decade. Sure enough, the moments of the past and the contextual glimmers through which the Cowboy Bebop Cast exists always come back to haunt them.

As faces from the past return to reveal that they have become someone else, Cowboy Bebop Relentlessly reminds the viewer of the impermanence of thoughts and faces. In the face of the circumstances, Spike and the crew try to Take control and determine the meaning of their own lives. Cowboy Bebop‘s famously ambiguous ending may or may not show Spike’s death: the uncertainty is the point.

Spike decided to Make your own meaning in life By chasing down a face from his past and tackling the Red Dragon Syndicate he was once a part of. He recognized his relative insignificance in the world, and created a meaning for his life that was for himself. If Spike died, it was because he chose to die With a meaning he created – Not Because of a desperate lack of meaning. I think that this is the darkest, often missed, point.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – Solitude has always been a lie

Evangelion Analyzes the civilization and the dissent

Suppose my parents lost their jobs and had to change; I studied tirelessly for high school and college just to have a small chance at a seemingly fleeting career; In the end, I feel like the roles I’m meant to occupy, the relationships I’ve always held, and the things I’ve been raised to believe are fictions. Evangelion Uses Freud and Jung to answer this uncomfortable premise.

Freud considered that the psyche is composed of three aspects: conscious, unconscious (instinctual and repressed), and preconscious (internalized rules and norms). He thought that as we go through life, the stages of our education form these psychological aspects. For Freud, Their tension plays a major role in how we see and act in the world.

In contrast, Jung was a former colleague of Freud who broke away from psychoanalysis to found analytic psychology, focusing on the interconnection of People and cultural artifacts. Jung believed that archetypes form a symbolic register in the collective unconscious that we emulate and project. Young comes Evangelions emphasis on religious symbolismEspecially Gnostics.

The theories of both become much more complex. Essentially, both argue that unconscious forces drive us, Constructing and being constructed by our relationships with others. Importantly, these influences can also be understood and, usually, overcome.

Evangelion Mirrors the experiences of many viewers at the time, especially with its pilots being high school. Rei is built in someone else’s image, to fulfill exactly the role you were given, to sacrifice yourself for someone else’s relationship. Mass-produced as a clone to fight and die, she analogizes the social order. At a time when people are expected to fulfill social obligations that ultimately lead to meaninglessness and uncertainty, Rei also serves as a relatable metaphor for an authentic life.

Ray indirectly showed that without a critical introspection, the way that people make unquestionable, can lead the world to a cataclysm. Conversely, Shinji’s self-acceptance in Evangelions legendary (and controversial) original final shows the resolution of the psychoanalytic process. Shinji approaches Grasp and embrace how he sees the world and othersAccept that he can change and lead others to happier, less lonely lives. The resolution also parallels Asuka’s bath tragedy, the implied result of unbearable psychic tension.

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Bebop And Evangelion Pursue beauty within catastrophe

In the worst of times, there is still something to love


Eva: Shinji & Kaworu in the baths, where Kaworu's famous line takes place.

Both Cowboy Bebop And Evangelion would become famous for their different depictions of meaning and happiness amidst turmoil, but their connection to the Lost Decade is often understated. However, there is one more buried revelation. Cowboy Bebop And Evangelion Both used an experimental method to show that life still has things to love.

with BebopIt was the synthesis of jazz, noir, cyberpunk and westerns. Evangelion Does the same with gnosticism, psychoanalysis and mecha anime. I firmly believe in combinations like these Only happens when someone pours everything they love into a single opportunity for creation. Both show how, in terrible times, We can channel the parts of life we ​​love To make beautiful art and beautiful life – or at least make meaning that can transcend the mess.

The two iconic shows were born from the same premise: the Japanese crisis of the Lost Decade and the psychoses it created in the country. They found radically different answers because their creators loved different things in life when life was hardest. They show that the answer to the question “How can I find meaning in an unbearable life?” Hinges most of all on the “I”. in other words, Cowboy Bebop And Neon Genesis Evangelion Taught me and countless other fans that Meaning is always right in front of usAnd there are many ways to search for it.

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