Historical Background Further Resources for Jung
To travel along a bit of a tangent, Japan has often been constructed along the
lines of a 'mothering ideology' if you will. The specifics of which are far
too complex to get into here, but you can start by reading about the economic
boom of Japan and its relationship to the treatment of women's social roles,
as well as the development of feminism.
Incidentally, many a film around this time of economic growth took note of the
role of the mother. Eros + Massacre (Yoshishige Yoshida; 1969) is the
foremost which comes to mind because of the striking similarity between the
formal properties of this film and that of Evangelion's. E+M is very
strongly reminiscent of the strange Eva head trips we've all grown to love or
hate, and I'd be willing to guess that Hideaki was influenced by this film.
You may find this title difficult to get a hold of though, I'm not sure what
its international release is like.
There are more theories in NGE that connect with Jung, but indirectly, so I
haven't written about it here. Evolution and religion are largely important
to Jung's work, as they are in NGE. For more information on Carl Jung and his
theories, please visit The Carl Jung Page.
Edward Edinger and Marie Louise von Franz have both written many works analying
Jung's. Their books are highly recommended. For more about the connection of
myth and Jung to us everyday people (why are we so captivated by NGE, Greek
myth, Star Wars etc?), try looking into books by Joseph Campbell.
Final thought about the series:
One last thing since we were getting into film form in Rev 1:4. Editing is very
very revealing in Eva. Watch carefully which image another image cuts to and
you will understand the characters' motivations and actions much more profoundly
as Eva is not a series to hit you over the head with explanations. For example,
editing reveals that Misato was not simply falling again for Kaji. She was also
clearly using him to gain information about Seele, and she is the one who killed
him. Think of the last scene with Kaji. He mentions in a warm voice that the
person he is meant to meet is late, indicating he recognizes thekiller. This
cuts directly to Misato returning to her apartment. This is why she already
suspects the phone message is from Kaji, and why is she so profoundly upset
by it. There are many instances of this type of editing.