Gigantism in Evangelion

[xdiesp]

Taking one step back, we actually know why things get gigantic in anime: Go Nagai himself said he invented Mazinger while dreaming of escaping a traffic jam he was stuck in... by smashing everyone on his path of course.

However, the attention to detail of Evangelion (or Anno's asshattery, your choice) must have certainly taken time to cover this matter as well. For what solid reason, are our progenitors about 40 meters taller than us? Severe evolutionary rickets can only do so much.

Which is closely linked to the wildly varied shapes of angels, but I would prefer to sidestep that one. It's not even about which scale of EVA drama works best: me myself prefer the "less mecha" stories such as Ramiel\Iruel\Arael\Tabris but that's subjective.

So being just nerdisms, here's my pick: like in a camera obscura, we see the projections of something which is A) actually far from us and B) of completely different size. Hint at Plato's cavern for his theory of truth, which is just a distant shadow of a simulacra of truth (so, distorted; possibly, with a boney mask).

[kylethestrange]

Despite just looking kick ass, back in the day (ancient times), especially ancient greece, and palestine they thought people were bigger in the past, especially heros. So that may have influenced it, but the former is my guess.

[Sachi]

For what solid reason, are our progenitors about 40 meters taller than us? Severe evolutionary rickets can only do so much.

I'm not sure if this is the topic question, but I'm answering this one anyways.

Lilith, the progenitor of mankind, is fucking huge. We can all agree on that. However, I don't believe her size has anything to do with our own size, nor should it, because she's not only our progenitor, but the progenitor of all life on Earth (with the exception of Adam and the Angels). All she pretty much did was release her "primordial soup" and life evolved naturally from that, from microorganisms to whatever, whatever, whatever, to dinosaurs, to whatever, to us. Life in Evangelion takes the side of Darwinism, but adds Lilith as the magic spark that started life, which is perfectly fine for the context.

[Baz]

I can understand the idea that the "platonic ideal of a human" is a frickin huge 4-dimensional being, and that we are just imperfect projections of this ideal onto the 3-dimensional world that we live in. But I don't think that this explanation holds in the NGE universe. Even though it could explain why Adam/Lilith are so huge (i.e. closer to the ideal) it really doesn't explain the other angels. And you really can't sidestep the angels, since they are explicitly stated to be humans of some sort, even sharing a PWM version of our DNA.

[Sachi]

And you really can't sidestep the angels, since they are explicitly stated to be humans of some sort, even sharing a PWM version of our DNA.

Please keep in mind that like the term 'god', 'human' is a loosely used and vague term within the NGE universe that can mean several things.

[Azathoth]

The concept of the divine being is inextricably linked with large size. Genesis even mentions that when angels/divinities/whatever interbreed with humans, the result is the Nephilim: giants. To an extent this is a part of the "physical size = magnitude of heroism" thing that the world had for men at the time of Genesis' writing and still does, amusingly enough, but there are very few gods who are thought of as being smaller than people.

(This is part of what made the semi-permanent incarnation of God as human such a holy shit moment when Christianity started with it: they were operating under a few thousand years of first Jewish and then Greco-Roman assumptions that gods were enormous and humans were small and pitiful)

Seele intended to use Eva as a man-made god - an idol, in its most literal sense - and so their creation reflects what they considered a god to be like: big and scary. As to why the being(s) that they took Eva's genetic material from were also big - the bigger it is, the hardest it is to kill (provided it's free from conventional structural considerations of LCL-derived beings) would be my guess. The FAR wanted the Seeds to get shit done, they wanted them to survive long enough to hit their targets. So make them big and obtrusive.

Alternative explanation, since the Seeds, like Angels, could presumably shape their own bodies with their ATFs: the Seeds were under the impression that they were gods/extraordinarily magnificent beings who ought to be big and awesome-looking.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Anything of immense size evokes a sense of awe and wonder because it forces us to realize our own smallness in comparison. And, let's face it, when GNR comes to life, it's about the most awe-inspiring, wondrous thing ever. That said, I think Japan's obsession with giant beings capable of massive destruction as a result of technology (be they Evas or Godzilla) is likely related to their own encounter with the massively destructive power of technology. Just a guess.

[AyrYntake]

I'd have thought that having an S2 Engine--and thus near-infinite amounts of energy to waste--would quite naturally result in augmented growth for ANY biological being. It's not entirely unscientific that when you generate such a great amount of power, you evolve to a size that's fit to spend it.
Interestingly, insects seem to vary the most in terms of bodily size in the animal kingdom. The largest beetles can be the size of a mouse, while on the small side you have things like 0.0139mm long parasitic fairyflies (yes, they really are called that). A step up from there you have the arthropod phylum, which includes giant crabs and stuff. I somehow doubt that the world's bugs would have been at all surprised when they looked up and saw Shamshel hovering above them.

[AuraTwilight]

Bear in mind Adam and Lilith are artificial creations similar to the Eva. So...the FAR are obsessed with mechas. The Japanese share this due to their proximity to Lilith.

[Killer Bee]

The concept of the divine being is inextricably linked with large size. Genesis even mentions that when angels/divinities/whatever interbreed with humans, the result is the Nephilim: giants. To an extent this is a part of the "physical size = magnitude of heroism" thing that the world had for men at the time of Genesis' writing and still does, amusingly enough, but there are very few gods who are thought of as being smaller than people.

This.

And let's not forget the giant Adam from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Giant primordial humanoids are kind of a running theme with Anno. (I tried to get a screeshot but couldn't remember which episode it was in)

[xdiesp]

Well then suppose that the xenomorphs at LV-426 were seeded by Adam, should they do instrumentality would they be attacked by a giant human at some point?

I remember that before dwelling too much in theories and backstory, I had assumed Kaworu to be a "perfect" human race: single entity, immortal, powerful, our size.

[AuraTwilight]

Well then suppose that the xenomorphs at LV-426 were seeded by Adam, should they do instrumentality would they be attacked by a giant human at some point?

Depends, is there a "Lilith" on LV-426? Because if not, an Instrumentality is impossible.

I remember that before dwelling too much in theories and backstory, I had assumed Kaworu to be a "perfect" human race: single entity, immortal, powerful, our size.

And yet, he's really just Rei with a penis.

[NemZ]

Lilith and Adam are probably both just as big as they feel like being at the time. No real reasoning need apply.

[flapjack]

This isn't a macrophilia/gnr discussion?

Giants are in the mecha genre because mechs are large. there's a lot of pathological appeal in an underdog image. And i don't think that appeal is in eva because David and Goliath is in the bible. Really. It's because of mech size.