Religious Symbolism in Rebuild of Evangelion
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Media Department BTEC HND in Creative Media Production April, 2013 Religious symbolism in Rebuild of Evangelion Aaron Meehan 1 This dissertation explores how religious symbols can be interpreted differently depending on the cultural context. I will look at the religious symbolism in the Japanese anime series, Rebuild of Evangelion using a semiotic analysis. I have also looked at how the symbols created in this show compare to the commonly accepted meaning of the symbols. In the dissertation I will be discussing the work of two semiotic theorists, Roland Barthes and Ferdinand de Saussure. I will be discussing Barthes’ theory on how signs are polysemic (multiple meanings) and Saussure’s theory on how we see certain symbols in television, and how they are created. Since I am looking at the religious symbols in Rebuild of Evangelion, I will look at Christianity in Japan. This is due to the fact that religious symbolism in the show is primarily Christian. I will also briefly look at the reason why the creators of Rebuild of Evangelion decided to put religious symbolism in their series. I would like to thank and acknowledge the general assistance from librarians and the advice from my lecturer, Laura Roche, on how to layout the dissertation. 2 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 Literature review ........................................................................................................................ 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 13 Results/Findings ....................................................................................................................... 15 Case 1: Angels ..................................................................................................................... 15 Commonly accepted meaning .......................................................................................... 16 Case 2: The cross ................................................................................................................. 17 Commonly accepted meaning section ............................................................................. 19 Case 3: Lilith ........................................................................................................................ 20 Commonly accepted meaning section ............................................................................. 21 Discussion of results ............................................................................................................ 22 Conclusion and recommendations ........................................................................................... 23 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 24 3 Introduction The purpose of my study is to investigate the religious symbolism in the Japanese anime movie series, Rebuild of Evangelion. The study will be done via a semiotic analysis of the various religious signs and symbols that appear in the movie series and how they compare to the commonly accepted meaning. For the semiotic analysis I will be look at the work by the theorist Roland Barthes. Barthes’ theory on semiotic analysis focuses on looking at the signifier and signified which looks at how words can create an image, for example the word angel in Evangelion is used to describe powerful destructive monsters. Also under Barthes theory I will be looking at denotation and connotation, this theory looks at what a symbol or image invokes in different people. The reason why this study could be regarded as being important to the existing body of knowledge is because Japanese anime have presented religion to a mass audience. Anime series such as the original Evangelion and “A Certain Magical Index” both depict religion in evil and slightly evil lights. This idea of making religion and its symbols such as the cross, deity’s etc. evil in a large array of shows could make some people believe that religion is evil. While there are a lot of studies in regards to religious symbolism in various forms of media forms such as music. During my research for this proposal I didn’t find any recent studies on religious symbolism and anime. The Rebuild of Evangelion movie series is a remake of the 1995 anime TV series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Rebuild of Evangelion is about a boy known as Shinji Ikari which fate has dealt him the title of “Third Child”. This title means he must work for an organisation called NERV who are fighting powerful alien monsters known as Angels. To fight the Angels Shinji must join forces with the other chosen children at NERV and fight them with synthetic humanoid organisms called Eva’s. Piloting these robotic creatures requires great mental strength and will, but unfortunately these are qualities Shinji lacks due to the fact he spent his life along after his mother was killed which would be later revealed to be the Eva he pilot and his father abandoned him as a child to run NERV. 4 Some of the relevant sources that I intend to consult in the course of my research are: Primary Research: The movie series itself, which I can view easily as I own the movies that have been released. Secondary Research: Web based research for information on Barthes theories. One example of this is from Aberystwyth University who have an article titled “Semiotics for Beginners”. I will also be looking at some of the religious symbols that appeared in Rebuild of Evangelion. One of these will be the symbol of Lilith, with some information coming from Judaism.about.com. Finally I will be taking a brief look at religion in Japan and how religion in Japan has influenced the meaning of some of the symbols. Some of these influences can be located on the website wondersandmarvels.com. The methodology for my thesis will see me research religious symbolism and its common meaning. This will mean I will be looking at the connotation and denotation of the Religious visual and verbal symbols in the two released Rebuild of Evangelion movies. 5 Literature review According to the Oxford Dictionary, Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. In everyday life we see signs and symbols all around us. Our interpretation of signs has being created by the society we have grown up in. For example we know the sign which depicts a man walking with a red line through it means, No entry for pedestrians. This is known as the signifier and signified, signifier are the words which we associate with the signified concept. In this assignment I am performing a semiotic analysis of the religious symbolism in the Japanese anime movie series, Rebuild of Evangelion. The purpose of the literature review is to establish how western religious symbols, in this case the Christian symbols are treated differently in Japanese anime, the main example I am using for this review is the movie series, Rebuild of Evangelion. The review will begin looking at work by semiotic theorists Barthes and Saussure, focusing on their interpretation of signs and how they can have multiple meanings. The latter half of the review will look at how western religion has affected Japan and their anime, particularly, Rebuild of Evangelion. The purpose of this review is to present readers with an understanding of how symbols, in this case religious symbols, can be altered to give a vastly different meaning to what its creator intended. In the review I will only be focusing on the two released Rebuild of Evangelion movies and none of the expanded Evangelion media. The Evangelion series explores a lot more than just religious symbolism. Evangelion also contains a lot of emotional drama, with many of the shows characters suffering from some form of mental trauma. It must be noted that when Hideaki Anno wrote the original show he was suffering from depression and in the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series he keeps these original themes in the series. 6 My research will be focused on mainly media theory book including: Reading Media theory (2009) and Media Semiotics: An Introduction (second edition), these books look at various media theories and also deal with media semiotics. Research will also include interviews and web sources. The study will examine how signs are polysemic and how the creation of these multiple meanings can alter your perception of what the sign actually means. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, and how they help create meaning. Studying semiotics is an important because our whole world is made up of signs and symbols, we may not realize but actions like waving your hand means bye or knowing what a tree looks like are all signs/symbols. My main argument is that depending on the context a sign appears in, the meaning of that sign can be altered. For example, in Rebuild of Evangelion angels, which in Christianity are guardians of humanity and are symbols of good and justice. In Rebuild of Evangelion, angels are shown to be destructive and evil creatures who wish to wipe out humanity. Roland Barthes who was born in 1915 was a French literary theorist and semiotician. Barthes’ theories were similar to Saussure’s model of signs which is the signifier and signified. Barthes focused on the connotation and denotation. In Semiotics for Beginners, Daniel Chandler, a British visual semiotician at Aberystwyth University,