The depiction and (de)construction of mental disability in Neon Genesis Evangelion

In a sterile hospital environment, Shinji stands before his bedridden friend Asuka. Pleading with her to call him an idiot, he pulls on her shoulder asking for help, prompting the IV bag to swing dangerously. Seemingly by accident, he tears open her shirt, shortly before masturbating to her comatose body. As if to offer reflection, the camera assumes a distant top-down perspective – this acts to highlight Shinji’s shame over his behavior. Every one of these actions calls into question Shinji’s sanity, per a mainstream understanding of mental disability (Price 340; Lewis 103). As a main character of the 1995 anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, alongside Asuka, Shinji represents a visible example of mental disability (Price 340), which itself calls into question negative attitudes towards madness (Wolframe). Asuka is herself judged as mad, in part because of her relationship to Shinji, presenting a second key depiction of mental disability. These depictions occur within Japanese media, complicating the intersection between gender and ability (Bell 413). Therefore, the social model of disability (Shakespeare 197) is much more appropriate than a medical or impairment-based model. Through these two characters, director Hideaki Anno portrays mental disability as a social construction that must be overcome.

 
Evangelion establishes helplessness, best established by body language, as a clear feature of mental disability. In one striking scene, depression is vividly portrayed through the heavy use of blue filtering layered over Asuka – clad in red, she holds herself in a fetal position, highlighting her vulnerability. Her actions capture the lethargy and despair invoke the commonly understood symbols of depression. Also featured is Asuka’s half-closed eyes, linking this depression with a difficulty to clearly grasp the world. Through this depiction, director Hideaki Anno frames her situation in terms of the helplessness that fits into common perceptions of mental disability. Though this portrayal may suggest helplessness, it is complicated by what Asuka accomplishes moments later. Once Asuka awakens from her slumber, she leaves the lake and emerges as one of the heroes who fights the antagonists – this shift in behavior calls into question a purely medical model of disability that sees mental disability as helplessness. In this society, Asuka plays the role of hero while fighting mental disability, which invokes the social construction of disability (Shakespeare 197).

This creation of disability is compounded by Asuka’s status as a double outsider who exists at an intersection of nationality, gender, and ability. As a fluent German speaker, she is linguistically positioned as an outsider; when combined with her mental disability, Asuka attains a multiplicatively deepened status of double outsider.  The toll upon her psyche is explored as she prepares to bathe. “It makes me sick,” she remarks about the slowly churning bath water before declaring her hatred of everyone. By transitioning repeatedly between Asuka’s face and the water, Evangelion symbolizes her self-doubt as the true cause of her adverse feelings. Asuka then enters the bath, which highlights a theme of overcoming mental disability through willpower Her existential despair is also positioned in terms of her gender. Alone in the bathroom, she emphasizes her hatred of menstruation, which is a hallmark of female-coded puberty. These two bathroom scenes, by capturing her isolation even in her most private moments, call into question Asuka’s ability to be a hero in this society. Though Anno likely is critiquing the roles of heroes in society, he inadvertently suggests that a hero is one who conquers their mental disability to defeat one’s foes. A later scene of Asuka combating an antagonist in the rain, scored by terse piano, highlights this interrogation of the role of hero. However, this questioning becomes objectifying when the enemy begins its mental contamination of Asuka, leading her to conclude that her mind has been defiled. This process is portrayed as belonging solely to the enemy, who maintains power over her mind; however, Asuka feels that her self-worth, which is tied to being a hero, is decimated from this public display of helplessness. Only when the foe is defeated does Asuka regain control of her body, highlighting how mental disability can be socially created.

This mental state maintains a tight grip over Asuka, even after the battle has concluded. In a dreamlike montage, Asuka rewinds her memories cyclically, starting from her confident smile and ending with the depths of her despair. After the final image appears, it becomes shaded over, and breaks like glass – at this point, Asuka repeatedly proclaims that this is not her. This demonstrates how she is “broken” over time and becomes mentally disabled. In this manner, the audience and Asuka are led to distrust her emotions, feeding this cycle of memories.  In a related dream sequence, filtered by a bright orange that emphasizes distress, Shinji accuses Asuka of being unforgiving while he pleads for her help, forcing Asuka to make an impossible choice. This positions her as an object with only the illusion of choice.

Director Anno uses the interplay between Shinji and Asuka to comment on the role of mental disability within society. A striking scene close to the finale captures a blood red sea, symbolizing madness. Through a low-angle shot from below her ear, Asuka is shown as helplessly stuck to the ground, despite being a hero earlier, while highlighting Shinji standing up. With shaking hands, Shinji tries to strangle Asuka, reflecting his inability to control his violent behavior. Then she touches his face, as if pleading to stop the strangling, which seems to strongly implicate her body within the helplessness of mental disability. Respectively, these difficulties are portrayed in context of expected roles for mad men and women, symbolizing the crossroads of ability and gender. At the same time, Asuka’s status as a double outsider augments her isolation, as best highlighted by the dream sequences. However, the film closes with Asuka saying “how disgusting,” which serves to complicate the portrayal of madness in the series and call into question the social construction of disability. With this last line, the series suggests that Shinji and Asuka were more negatively influenced by society than by their own self-determination. In spite of these barriers, both characters play the role of hero in order to overcome their conditions and better themselves. In this regard, despite the flagrant objectification presented throughout the series, director Anno beseeches us to provide far greater compassion to those who face mental disability.

Ultimately, Evangelion offers a nuanced portrait of mental disability through Shinji and Asuka that is quite visible to the audience. The series does, however, objectify disability by narrowly conceiving of mental disability within context of standard gender roles as they exist within Japanese society. To make such depictions truly empowering, the ability of characters to choose their paths free of coercion must be made central to the story. Through dreamlike imagery, Anno inadvertently suggests that these characters are helpless, furthering the stereotypes the show seeks to disdain. Instead, to respect the variety of human experience within mental disability, characters like Shinji and Asuka should gain a proper understanding of each other’s conditions, rather than the fragile and violent relationship portrayed in the end of the series. By highlighting what the characters can do living with mental disability, rather than framing it as a defect, future series can avoid the mistakes made by Evangelion, while drawing upon depictions that brought mental illness to a mainstream audience.

Works Cited
Neon Genesis Evangelion. Directed by Hideaki Anno, Studio Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, 1995. Show.

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Wolframe, PhebeAnn M. "The Madwoman in the Academy, or Revealing the Invisible Straitjacket: Theorizing and Teaching Saneism and Sane Privilege." Disability Studies Quarterly 33.1 (2013).