Classic science fiction references in Evangelion

[Sarathiel]

I recently read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (famously the source material for the film Bladerunner.) In the novel, because earth has basically been destroyed by war, it's become part of the culture to keep animals as pets, but not just dogs and cats - any kind of animal. So many are on the verge of extinction. It's so ingrained in their culture, that they're both seen as a status symbol and you have to worry about people thinking of you poorly if you don't have an animal of some kind. But they're also very expensive. This is where the "Electric Sheep" part comes in - the protagonist has a mechanical sheep that he bought to replace his real sheep when it died to keep up appearances and his motivation for hunting down Androids comes from the bounty he will get and how he might use that to purchase a new even more exotic animal.

Then I rewatched Evangelion right after, and it made me wonder if Pen Pen was possibly partially inspired by this book. It's similar circumstances (world is mostly destroyed, very non standard animal to have as a pet) I was wondering if it was a subtle reference. I know that Evangelion draws inspiration from other notable science fiction from the 20th century, like Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. I was wondering if anybody has thought of this connection or if there is a collection of references in Evangelion specifically from science fiction works.

[The Killer of Heroes]

While it's not impossible, I think there's also just a general trend of anime having animal or creature mascots that Eva is probably playing on- think the dogs in Zambot 3 and Victory Gundam, Gubaba in Macross 7, Mokona in Magic Knight Rayearth etc.

[cyharding]

It should be noted that in the manga version, Misato rescued PenPen from a lab she was working at when they were done with him. I don't know if this helps you any.

[Axx°N N.]

I love the connection even if it's not the case--but it would be a more obvious connection if we saw any other exotic animals. Instead it's just Pen Pen.

The more coherent reason for Pen Pen to me is that it emphasizes the pole alteration and the endless summer by being such an out of circumstance visual. Although the actual origins are seemingly non-thematic: "Super straightforward naming, but I thought the repetition sounded cute. His name has officially become the 2nd power of Pen (Pen²). I was reluctant at first, but we thought we needed a mascot character, so we had an animal appear in the show. As it happened, the show is set in Hakone, which one associates with hot springs, which in turn are associated with monkeys. But that is no fun, so we decided to make it a penguin, the animal most unsuited to a hot spring. I'm positive that "hot spring penguin" was Sadamoto's idea."

If it was Sadamoto's idea, the above mentioned expanded origins information in the manga seems pretty relevant.

Lab origins are also mentioned in the proposal pitch:

"Misato’s pet.
Created artificially by genetic manipulation. Intelligence of an infant.
Usually resides in a large refrigerator. Loves to bathe in hot springs for some reason."

[FelipeFritschF]

Anno sometimes has deep knowledge with the things he references, mostly previous anime and films, passing knowledge with others, like psychology and philosophy, which he was only read the surface of

SPOILER: Show

I didn’t have any interest in studying human psychology in the past. I only took a course about it at university, but I suppose I always had something in my mind to analyze human psyche. I thought I wasn’t interested in humans very much, but then, when I started talking about myself, I needed words to explain. So, I started reading books on psychology. From Episode #16, EVANGELION’s story went into the direction to ask just what the human mind is all about inside. I wrote about myself. My friend lent me a book on human psychological illness and this gave me a shock, as if I finally found what I needed to say.3

https://web.archive.org/web/20071214081 ... 04160.html

...or which was mostly inserted by other people. Notably, the Hedgehog's Dillema was introduced by writer Akio Satsukawa.

SPOILER: Show

Interviewer: Come to think of it, I talked to Mr. Hiroyuki Yamaga (one of the founding members of Gainax) before, and he said that Eva's psychological play was largely due to Mr. Satsukawa, you.

Satsukawa: Psychology. It was me who first brought up the term "hedgehog dilemma" in episode 3. And I think the addition of episode 4 gave Mr. Anno an opportunity to explore the inner world of the characters. And maybe it's because my interpretation of the characters didn't follow the established convention of anime.

Interviewer: There are a lot of internal monologues in the second half of the show, was that your job, too?

Satsukawa: No, what we've seen in the second half is Mr. Anno's inner world. Normally, you don't do internal monologues in live-action movies, right? Even if you try, it doesn't work well. Famous "Eva" lines are almost without exception, belong to Mr. Anno.

https://wiki.evageeks.org/Statements_by ... .281998.29

As for his sci-fi references:

SPOILER: Show

Anno: I'm not into Western civilization, you know. Somehow I don't trust Western civilization very much.

Omori: Is that as something to be denied?

Anno: It doesn't relate to me, so I can use it. If I were a Christian, I'd be too scared to use Christian stuffs.

Omori: Indeed. You don't have any attachments, so you can use the name of an angel. Like let's use this name because its sense of language sounds nice.

Anno: To equate apostles and angels is so much to complain about from a westerner's point of view. There is an American worker in our company, and he scolded me for many things, saying it was wrong. That's normal. But I didn't care about that and just did it.

Omori: On the other hand, I thought of it as a story to climb the human evolutionary ladder, from Clarke's "The End of Childhood" to Sakyo Komatsu, and more recently, Gregg Bear's "Blood Music".

Anno: I don't know. I don't think what I was trying to do was that big of a deal.

Omori: It does look like it's a big deal (laughs).

Anno: Oh yeah?

Omori: Because you say "Instrumentality of Mankind" (laughs) .

Anno: Only the wording is exaggerated. It's just cool when it's written in kanji:

Omori: In the case of science fiction fans, I suppose it's possible that they overreact to names chosen just because they sound cool. Especially when the title of the last episode, "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World," appeared in the preview at the end of episode 25, there were many SF fans who were excited and said, "Oh, I'm glad I read SF" (laughs). Because they were able to tell the young anime fans who didn't know anything about it, "I didn't expect them to bring Harlan Ellison in the last episode. Don't you know it? Everyone knows about it. He's the coolest writer of the American New Wave science fiction." All science fiction fans are grateful to Anno (laughs). Did you choose the term "Instrumentality of Mankind" because of the sound of the words?

Anno: Yes, that's right. I haven't read that much Smith(*3), and I haven't read much SF lately. "Ender's Game" was the last one I read. I'm sorry that someone like me has come here.

Read this whole interview in fact, he talks more about sci-if in general

https://wiki.evageeks.org/Statements_by ... .2F1996.29