Postby StarShaper7 » Sat Sep 27, 2014 5:40 pm
Tenshi no Tamago (Angel's Egg)
Esoteric is the best word to describe this anime. If you're the kind of person who reads (too) deeply into Evangelion's religious "symbolism," you'll probably have a good time watching and analyzing this. Mamoru Oshii directed this film, of course. The story is told more through symbolic imagery than dialogue, which isn't absent, but used only when necessary. My knowledge of Christianity and its texts are limited, but I'm sure someone here has read them in-depth (if not out of interest, then circumstance). And, if so, they can probably come up with a better explanation for this. But here are my rambling thoughts on the film.
The giant eye object we see descend into the water is God/Heaven, covered in angels. It is a singular entity, yet appears to be many. The girl carries the egg, which at once represents her innocence (and therefore ignorance) and potential to be that which comes after the loss of innocence. She protects it, but the egg is ultimately broken. The man who carries the cross breaks the egg, forcing her to realize the truth and her own potential, as she returns to God/Heaven as one of the angels, and God rises above the ocean and into the sky.
In the regard that the man helps the girl realize her spiritual potential, he is like a prophet, like her very own messiah.
The fishermen and the illusory fish are a metaphor for seeking material possessions, heretical idolatry and other hollow pursuits of the ephemeral, as the only thing that is real, the only thing that is true, is God.
The man recites the story of Noah and the Deluge. The lost dove in this story is found dead and fossilized by the girl. She claims that the egg is a reincarnation of the dove, but this is a falsehood, as the man tells her that what she senses from within the egg is just her own breathing, just the sound of the wind blowing. The man "seduces" her to steal and break the egg, forcing her to realize the truth. In her despair, she runs after the man and falls to her death. The bubbles that come from her mouth form into numerous eggs, as her potential has been realized (?).
The trees that hold the giant eggs within which the birds grow is the lost dove (who represents lost humanity, which has strayed from God) trying to return to the source and to the one and only truth.
Adam and Eve are said to have eaten the fruit of knowledge, losing their innocence/ignorance. But in this film, knowledge is ignorance, a false truth, as it causes one to stray from God.
To return to this state of spiritual zenith (accepting God as the one and only truth), the girl is forced by a Christ-figure to leave behind the comfort of believing in the false. By destroying the egg he makes her follow him (regardless of her intention), which leads to her ascension and return to God. This leads me to believe that the man was sent by God to bring her (humanity) back to Him.
At the end of the film, the camera pans out to reveal the land to be a metaphorical Ark above the darkness of the ocean.
There's probably more to this film (I haven't even mentioned the water), but that's all I can really come up with. The film is open to interpretation, as there doesn't seem to be an explanation from Oshii or the other creators (those are usually the best kinds of films) with regards to their intent. I know their intent shouldn't really matter, but with something like this where the symbolic imagery conveys the meaning of the film, it's nice to have an easy answer to an esoteric question.
As to my own feelings on the film, it was a wonderful experience. I loved the haunting score and the style of the film. It doesn't quite play to my personal taste enough for me to give it a 10/10, so ultimately it's a 9/10 for me.
Squigsquasher wrote:Shoujo manga is possibly the hardest to competently turn into anime form, and doing an anime in classic shoujo style is not easy.
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