I don't think NGE and EOE message entirely holds up in the modern day.

[Ringworm128]

I think there's a difference between "Don't be a reclusive shut in that has no connections with real people and no life outside of being an anime nerd" and "Don't ever watch any entertainment or be a fan of anything ever again!"

[OneShotPunch]

I think there's a difference between "Don't be a reclusive shut in that has no connections with real people and no life outside of being an anime nerd" and "Don't ever watch any entertainment or be a fan of anything ever again!"

And I think the series aimed more toward the former than the latter, even if people took it the other way.

[viperzero]

Honestly the idea of needing to love yourself before you can love others is dated. Eva came out during the height of the self esteem movement yet establishing a correlation between self esteem and wellness is tenuous at best.

I sometimes wonder if this is why they wanted to do the rebuilds.

[pen3]

It would only become more relevant to this day precisely BECAUSE of the internet going unginhed. People don't know when to say no to it and put it a stop- like a kid who's found his father's gun.

[Clowncarcrash]

Honestly the idea of needing to love yourself before you can love others is dated. Eva came out during the height of the self esteem movement yet establishing a correlation between self esteem and wellness is tenuous at best.

I sometimes wonder if this is why they wanted to do the rebuilds.

Do you have any sources on that? That hasn't been my experience. Low self-esteem contributes to feelings of depression and anxiety. I think finding ways to love yourself is a good way of attracting others.

I don't think people want to hang out with Eeyores, they want to hang out with Tiggers or Owls. Not to say the Eeyores of the world don't deserve compassion and love, but I think that starts out with self esteem.

[Kharis1212]

Well i think both are not outdated.

The fact that you can still use that till this date.Because internet is mini world of fiction that anno hated people escaping to,They get pseudo validation for there deep desires through media,Instead letting it go or struggling for it,The biggest effect of social media is upon our self image or we stop having self analization,these are the same effects that one can be caused from fiction.Sideeff. of internet =side effects of fiction(that's why it is still up to date).That's a another reason for Eoe(Fan message they were sending anything),the fact there is a space for a meta commentary solely for and for otaku's(that tv lacked),That's why otaku's and there backlash is indeed part of a reason for making of eoe(because it showed how much they were into it,though it's not the main reason). there's a quote by bulleshah i don't remember it correctly but he says that instead of reading books,spritual guides,holly books other people read yourself.Thats why budha says in a nutshell,FIRST FIND YOURSELF THEN TRY TO FIND GOD.
So what i want to say in this paragraph,Due to people spending time on internet( or fiction in 1990's Japan),they don't try to understand the selves which makes them ignorant and that ignorance lead to a bad society.
2nd reason for eoe
Both endings are pleas to people to please look at there lives please see how are you affecting you loved ones(eoe....).Orignal tv ending is saying that softly and addressing others also,but eoe is aggressive and only conc. On Shinji.Orignal tv perfectly concludes Shinji's arc,I think better than eoe not because I have sympathy but it perfectly counters what was his problem.I mostly see eoe as our mirror,Of how otaku's are destroying there lives.(Or simply anno is sharing his own experience through this media).
Third reason for eoe,
I have infinite empathy for Shinji for many reasons.i don't want to go to my past but I am not that much traumatized.But the fact he is ignoring his problems like other characters is also true.It leads to self destruction,Thanks to extra ordinary outcomes it also affected others.
Though I think most his problems comes from one point,His self worth,though @OneShotPunch, i don't think the reason for not helping women is because he is afraid to see himself it should be something else (actually I didn't found such dialogues in eoe which validate what you said.).And one thing I think you should treat them seperately, because each women have seperate role in his life,but he expects the same thing,Affection in the end.

So it's very simple.Even if you are not otaku or anything.If you have problem with connecting to people,Evangelion still has many elements which makes it ultimate motivator to make connection and not be afraid of them.I really like Evangelion for that.

[azagroth]

I think the message can very easily work for people who spend too much time online, which is a real issue these days. At least to me it feels relevant because of that. While it is not aimed specifically at that, still can resonate with someone who sees that they have this issue and would be inspired to work on it. It worked for me.

Anno himself has said in interviews a lot of people did not get the message when the show originally came out so there's that too. I guess someone can argue that in the convoluted way that the message is presented it can diminish it. What I mean by that is that people would be left too confused as to what exactly happened in the story and lore, while not focusing on what the show is trying to say.

[viperzero]

Honestly the idea of needing to love yourself before you can love others is dated. Eva came out during the height of the self esteem movement yet establishing a correlation between self esteem and wellness is tenuous at best.

I sometimes wonder if this is why they wanted to do the rebuilds.

Do you have any sources on that? That hasn't been my experience. Low self-esteem contributes to feelings of depression and anxiety. I think finding ways to love yourself is a good way of attracting others.

I don't think people want to hang out with Eeyores, they want to hang out with Tiggers or Owls. Not to say the Eeyores of the world don't deserve compassion and love, but I think that starts out with self esteem.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... self_worth

https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/art ... Esteem-and


If your interested look into the history of the self esteem movement from the 70s till around 2000. The entire idea that most of the worlds issues came from people who didn’t like themselves caught on because it had some influential evangelists that pumped it.

[zlink64]

COnsidering how obsessed people are with social media, worshiping online content creators, all the money spent online gambling and onlyfans/porn, loot boxes and gatcha games, higher suicide rates etc. I would say a story that says escapism is bad and where the main character chooses reality over escaping to to a fantasy like world or just not even existing because reality is like worth it is probably a lot more relevant now than it was back in the 90's. Basically escapism has become a much bigger problem. Oh we are all a lot more antisocial in general too according to the statistics.

[Diego the Lego]

COnsidering how obsessed people are with social media, worshiping online content creators, all the money spent online gambling and onlyfans/porn, loot boxes and gatcha games, higher suicide rates etc. I would say a story that says escapism is bad and where the main character chooses reality over escaping to to a fantasy like world or just not even existing because reality is like worth it is probably a lot more relevant now than it was back in the 90's. Basically escapism has become a much bigger problem. Oh we are all a lot more antisocial in general too according to the statistics.

I think that in a way Evangelion can be considered to be a cautionary tale of developing alienation from society and how that growing disconnect causes people to reject people out of fear of being hurt, the hedgehog's dilemma. The message to me always seemed to be that it is worth going out and interacting with people, making connections, and forming meaningful relationships in spite of the risks of feeling misunderstood, rejected, or unloved by your peers because that is the only way to achieve genuine fulfillment. The reason I believe that the message rings so true in the way that the series conveys it is because it feels authentic as Anno himself struggled with the same problem while making the show. The same problem that plagues society I would argue even more so today.

[alicespin]

maybe that is what he said, but my interpretation is that it is about any/all forms of escapism. all of the characters escape from reality in different ways