Neon Genesis Evangelion 1x23: "Tears" // Reaction and Discussion
Added 2025-12-05 23:37:04 +0000 UTCIntro: 00:00
Reaction to Show: 00:46
Discussion: 16:10
Comments
"There is no way to sort through your feelings right now." Yeah... People talk about 'wham! episodes', but usually these are centered about big revelations that recontextualize everything. And even though there is one such revelation in this episode, I feel like I've always seen it as the "wham! episode" that gives you all kinds of feelings you'd have if you had really been hit by a big fist. Who even are these characters right now? What was Ritsuko crying about at the end? Was Misako really offering Shinji sex? Did Asuka really feel they were sending nobody for her? And what the heck were those Seele guys blabbering about? Seele looks sometimes so cartoonish... And then gods, and Adam, and the EVAs from Adam... what kind of gobbledygook is all that?!? To me, unless you dive deeper into the mythology of the series (check out wiki.evageeks.org), these are all confusing paths in which 'reality' -- Seele, NERV, the Angels -- seems to be collapsing like the pilots' minds when the Angels get into them. It's all about personal decisions now -- what will Rei III do now that she cries without knowing why? What will happen to Asuka, now that she feels she wasn't worthy even of being rescued? What is Gendō doing, and why have the other Seele members lost their trust in him? Is it my impression, or is every character becoming more and more isolated from everybody else?... Maybe this is a psychological thriller, not a meccha anime...
Sergio Meira
2025-12-31 04:02:17 +0000 UTCI've rewatched Evangelion almost every year, at least every other year, since it came out in 1997. It means something completely different to me now than it does to me now.
Kayin, the one and only
2025-12-18 03:32:50 +0000 UTC44:20 anyone whose gone though a crisis knows what it feels like to have a Hikari, the part where Auska starts sobbing in particular when she remembers what she's doing
Asher Adson
2025-12-13 19:08:51 +0000 UTCYes, it's a DC addition. The original has a bunch of skulls and spines lying on the ground, neatly arranged, here it got replaces by trenches full of haphazardly discarded bones.
Derantor Kiarig
2025-12-12 12:54:00 +0000 UTCIs the red scene with the Evangelion grave added content of the DC? I have seen NGE countless times in the nineties on VHS, TV, conventions and so on, but this seemed new to me.
Plugsuit
2025-12-08 19:28:56 +0000 UTCMindfucked?
Plugsuit
2025-12-08 19:26:54 +0000 UTCLooking back on this discussion after you've seen the whole thing will be crazy.
Linus Lindholm
2025-12-07 09:12:31 +0000 UTCI know, lol
lilrigbus
2025-12-06 07:17:14 +0000 UTCGreat reaction, as always. ^^ Just a quick heads up, Kiel is pronounced "Keel", not "Kyle", and Seele "Sailah" (not really, but close enough - take the "a" in "sail", and stretch it out, without saying the "i" part), not "Seelie". Those are all German words, just like Nerv and Gehirn. Different vowel sounds which don't quite exist in English. Seele = Soul, Nerv = Nerve, and Gehirn = Brain. Kiel is named after the nautical term (the keel on a ship), while Ikari can mean anchor. Poor Hikari had an impossible job indeed - no real way to help Asuka, and I suspect that what she says (I think you did your best) made everything worse, because clearly, Asuka's best wasn't even close to being good enough in Asuka's mind.
Derantor Kiarig
2025-12-06 06:30:02 +0000 UTCLikewise, Ben <3 Can't wait to continue!
VS
2025-12-06 04:34:23 +0000 UTCthe ending and EoE is gonna be wild. this series is amazing
nycReaching
2025-12-06 01:47:24 +0000 UTCThese next three weeks......ARE GOING TO BE PAINFUL WAITING!
Meow_Lin
2025-12-06 01:46:48 +0000 UTCOne very controversial thing that you may have missed is WHAT Misato offered Shinji. What she says to herself after is the key She offered him comfort sex. Because thats how SHE copes and coped with Kaji. When he refuses her, she doesnt understand it and dont know how to help him otherwise.
Maxime Goettelmann
2025-12-06 01:40:29 +0000 UTC"I feel very conflicted and very confused" Wait for The End of Evangelion for the third NGE feeling, which I wont spoil
Maxime Goettelmann
2025-12-06 01:31:21 +0000 UTCwhoa i think ben is the first person ive ever seen pick up on how the "cat" could be referring to kaji! i dont think its ever clarified what ritsuko's involvement in kaji's investigation was exactly, but at the very least we know she was aware of it and never ratted him out...
circleface
2025-12-06 00:29:48 +0000 UTCShouldn't it be Monogatari where they create an out-of-chronological-order intro?
timpkmn89
2025-12-06 00:09:59 +0000 UTCThis episode is Cinema
Mati D.
2025-12-05 23:37:39 +0000 UTC
