The Tokusatsu studio

[SEELE-01]

One of the scenes I found more intriguing was Rei's part of the intrumentality, where she and Shinji discuss the possibility of a life without Evas.
The scene depicts a Tokusatsu studio filled with dioramas of the Wunder, an entry Plug with a green chroma, cameras and Evangelion costumes (including NGE's Eva 01, 00 and 00 kai).

Not only do they discuss it in-universe, but also metaficticiously.
To me, the discussion is not only about Rei, but for all the Evangelion fans to remember that Evangelion is just pretend, and that there's a life beyond the series. Seems fiting, given Anno's at times-frustration with the otaku fandom.

What are your thoughts/interpretation of this particular scene?

[Blockio]

I'm inclined to agree that this is the signifier to the audience, a reminder that Eva is ultimately fiction; but the characters being there also has the in-universe implication of them being aware of their own fictionality, them standing above the work they originated from, looking down on the stories told. Which ultimately ties into the final scene, them entering the real world, outgrowing the fiction.
There's a lot of ways that you can read this, but to me what it means is that just because something might not be real, it doesn't mean that there is nothing real to be gained from it.

[evaunit13]

Self-referentiality that is a staple of post-modernism, i.e. awareness of itself as fiction, acknowledging its own medium, and reminding the audience of this. It's a logical extension of similar scenes from the original series: the acting room with stage lights and curtains and breaking mirrors, the playground scene in EoE where the other actors leave and Shinji stays behind and doesn't grow up, and the minimal shots of unfinished animation and storyboards.

The documentary helps shed some light on the environment, and it's very visible that Anno is, and likely always has been, a live-action director who just happens to work with animation instead. This is corroborated by the way he frames the shots, the controllers and motion capture system used to compose scenes that will be rotoscoped, and his very public statement of wanting to focus on live-action for the upcoming future.

I think Eva has endured so long is because of its sincere approach to adapting these often cynical post-modern themes. Unlike an ironic ad that ironically mocks itself for being an ironic ad, deprecating itself to neutralize the audience's capacity to deprecate it, Eva celebrates its existence as a mishmash of disparate mediums.

[Archer]

@evaunit13, that hits on a lot of feelings I’ve had with media lately. I’ve gotten so sick of how terminally cynical and irony-poisoned Western media has gotten nowadays, as if you’re not allowed to genuinely just enjoy something silly for what it is and must constantly acknowledge how silly and ridiculous it is as like you’re embarrassed about what you like. Nothing irks me more than writers referencing in the work about how silly and stupid everything is - it screams of insecurity, that they’re embarrassed to be even doing this job and have to use a facade of irreverent irony to shield themselves. Same goes for cynical deconstructions that have no purpose other than to be as edgy and violent as possible with no deeper meaning beyond that, as if the simple act of tearing something down is a message unto itself when it really amounts to little more than an adolescent rejection of childhood wonder, as if to say, “I’m a grown-up now, I don’t like that dumb kiddy shit anymore”. It’s an important stage in our development as people, but it needs to be proceeded by the realization and acceptance that you have no reason to be embarrassed about embracing the things you enjoy.

This idea of “sincerity” is why I was drawn to Eva in the first place, and increasingly it’s become the most important indicator of quality for me, way more so than the technical proficiency or “objective” standards of writing or character development.

[evaunit13]

snip

I'd highly recommend looking into the work of David Foster Wallace (mentioned in the head of the New Sincerity article), whom I discovered in the past year. I first heard of him from this video, which I've since grown to disagree with in some parts, but it's still a good primer into the ideas that permeate his work. While you might not want to start with the absolute tome that is Infinite Jest, his many YouTube-available interviews and shorter essays, specifically "E Pluribus Unum" which talks about television, are very accessible and are some of the most important ideas I've consumed in a while. His commencement speech on empathy in the real world is ranked among the best of the genre, and is very relevant to Anno's own message.

Marshall McLuhan also changed the way that I think about technology, and it's on our part to be mindfully critical of our media consumption.

[AdamMalkovitch]

Something really really cool I noticed watching the [suprisingly frustrating] Final Challenge documentary- the set seen in the various cuts during the 13 V 01 fight, as well as when Shinji is discussing with the long-haired Rei II how he's going to create a new world through Neon Genesis, is the same motion capture set seen in Toho Studios in the documentary. Compare the wooden risers used to simulate the interior of the Aida home in Village 3 and you can clearly see they're the same, even down to those weird jerry-rigged PS4 controller cameras.

[Kendrix]

It's a beefed up version of the long-established instrumentality = stage motif.

The budget of instrumentality seems to get bigger with every iteration - EoTv has a simple auditorium , in EoE, the sandbox scene is on a big theatre stage, and now it's a wholeass movie studio XDD

Despite this, I don't think the meaning has really changed from when Shinji in EoTV saw himself and his roommates "acting out" their complexes on a stage.

It's Shinji observing and analysing his life (and the human condition in general) from an outside position as an 'audience'.
Seeing its absurdity, it's "backstage", it's patterns from a kind of distance that allows greater awareness, but also sitting in judgement over it.

In the first two endings he leaves with greater understanding and answers the simple yes/no question of continue or quit;
In EoTV he seems to decide this only for himself; in EoE he and Rei are the ones running the show.

In TuaT, he seems almost to be in the position of the director, deciding to do something constructive with the power as he's done the processing of his own problems at the village. This, and I presume that the Golgatha object is genuinely more powerful than even the union of Adam and Lillith.