thecrazyjem

[thecrazyjem]

✨lovers✨

[thecrazyjem]

After doing some research, and also malding along some of my theater buddies from japan (lol) I feel like I can talk briefly about this situation. There’s been a lot of screaming about “heterosexual marriage!!” within the eva fandom lately, so what’s all that about?

If you saw my previous posts, 

https://pepepetos.tumblr.com/post/653800585647243264/the-translations-might-be-a-little-vague-because

https://pepepetos.tumblr.com/post/649362961207640064/the-translations-might-be-a-little-vague-because

or were around twitter when any or both of these big fandom events happened (the theatrical release of the movie, and then the extra doujinshi offered with the revised movie version), then you know that things got messy extremely quickly. People harassing fan-artists for just existing, calling them insults, homophobic slurs. Especially the fujoshi, who were the first to call out the homophobic implications in the movie’s themes, were the ones who were chewed the hardest. June 12 devolved into absolute chaos and all because of one single contribution within the doujin illustrations. 

(They might be already buried but if you search the jpn Kawoshin/Kaworei tags you could probably still find some of the discourse tweets).

To us it might not seem that bad, but to them it might even feel suffocating. The picture is not canon to the movie? True! But it’s likely that most people who attended the runs are not involved too deeply with the franchise and will interpret them as a married couple. At first glance, this is a family. That’s the interpretation most people are running along with too, shippers of X thing or not.

And what’s wrong with Kaworu being happy, even if it’s with a woman and not a man? Well, Kaworu’s circle of male japanese fans is quite large, and just as large is the Kawoshin circle. To a lot of these men, who happen to be male-attracted males, Kaworu’s openness about his love for Shinji was just what made them come to terms with their own sexualities growing up in the ever-loving homophobic 90’s. Kaworu was largely recognized as one of the sole and most iconic male-attracted characters in the history of anime. So much that he’s even been featured in LGBT sections of jpn mags. And Evangelion has never been unpopular nor obscure media either, It was so HUGE in fact, that it even became a household series in japan. This is destroying the character for all that it’s worth, and taking away what his character meant to these men. For the female fans (or fujoshi, if you will) it was something that opened their eyes to the existence of same-sex love, and/or their own attraction to other genders too.

You should know that Japan is still a hell-bent conservative country where folks are still to this day, either largely in the dark about LGBT topics (and the existence of), or simply dismiss it as a “phase of the youth”. You know, one of the reasons the government is holding off on legalizing gay marriage is because they believe it would decrease japan’s birthrate even more, and if they negate gay’s people’s right to get married they will eventually give up on it, marry off to the opposite sex and procreate….yeah. 

And of course this is not only homophobic, but also sexist. Women in japan are pressured to get married almost as soon as they hit their 20’s, they’re pressured to become wives to men, and to pump out babies. It’s not only about fighting for survival and the preservation of the human species in the post-apocalyptic world, childbirth and marriage (with the opposite sex) are glorified and presented as being part of a ~fulfilled~ adult life. The presence of Showa era characteristics in the movie also correspond to these ideals.

So Where in The Subtext are we presumably being fisted with these old-timer values? The most obvious cues are:

Both Hikari and Misato have had children, Hikari no longer has any personality beyond being a “domestic wife”.

A random-ass preggo cat.

Baby-crazy Rei.

A pregnant rando lady and a bunch of young children.

Shinji/Mari, Asuka/Kensuke, Kaworu/Rei. There’s no hint of same-sex love anywhere (besides Kaworu’s “I was attracted to you blah blah”). Kawoshin’s relationship was blurred within the audience with the father/son interpretation thanks to Khara’s staff, and AsuMari is purely yuri fanservice so that ain’t count for anything. Maya’s admiration for Ritsuko long forgotten in the 90’s movie.

Tl;dr Shit’s fucked, Kaworu discourse will never end, I’m not looking forward to the western reaction to this movie.

[thecrazyjem]

…You have to be japeing me. I love the implications that they had to make Shinji the Kaworei lovechild to justify their “Kawoshin bad” shit.

I hope this is a drawing that shows both Rei and Kaworu taking care of baby Shinji during Instrumentalization and nothing more, but that actually makes it worse bc it justifies the “Kaworu = Gendo” comparasions in the movie and it makes me sick. And also, Rei is wearing a ring on a chain and Kaworu may have a ring of his own in his hands. The same that Shinji/Mari was meant to be canon at the end, seems to also apply to Kaworu/Rei.

Well done driving further the message of “Being gay is just a confused teen phase, or gets cured in a safe, happy environment”. Bc that isn’t toxic or negative, nah, not at all… “Studio Khara hasn’t done queerbait with Kaworu, you dirty fujo!” Of course buddies…

The ones that told me that the ending is just ambiguous and that fujos should calm their tits owe me 50 bucks.

(Image found on twitter, by user ikaripml)

[thecrazyjem]

Khara declarándose abiertamente homofobico :D

Happy pride month from Khara!! <3 

#los lgbt estan en su derecho de estar enojados #kaworu #kaworei #kawoshin

[thecrazyjem]

Sad that Kawoshin has gone from “They’re 100% canon” to “Aww hehe they might not be canon but I’ll still ship them!” unironically shippers are the first in line to defend deplorable or downright harmful renderings of mlm/wlw relationships in order to keep enjoying their ships without any guilty baggage. I don’t think most of its fanbase is aware of Kawoshin’s influence (As is the case with NGE in general) on anime/manga/other japanese media, either. 

If anything this is greenlighting to other studios that they can rope in fujoshi/fudanshi/allies/etc with gay subtext, and then pull the rug once it’s good and done because the majority will not give a shit about them getting straightwashed or dismiss it as “it could’ve been worse” or “It was just bait and it’s your fault for falling for it” and keep profiting off merch/collab sales. It’s so frustrating. I’m not saying that ppl shouldn’t like/ship/whatever them anymore, I’m just asking folks to be more conscientious and critical about the media they consume and indulge in

[thecrazyjem]

I’m kinda over it already but it irritates me seeing people excuse Khara like “you guys just want Kaworu to be miserable!! let him have a life!!” as if the plot wrote itself and they didn’t bait Kawoshin hardcore by shilling out merch and promoting it for 8 entire years, right before and even after the fucking movie’s theatrical release because there’s not enough demand/interest for merch of the endgame pairings. Literally using 4.0′s own bullets, “I was born to meet you” “This time I’ll make you happy” etc. iirc Ogata said that Anno told her Asuka/Rei/Kaworu all moved on from Shinji and he only had Mari left. I don’t think anybody is malding because they didn’t get a “shipping” ending because NGE/EOE didn’t have those either, it’s just a shitty cop-out that these two characters were teased for so long, and after so long they part without even addressing how they felt about one another throughout all those loops (no, Kaworu’s one-sided ひかれた does not count) not even friendship is left and they get paired off to characters whom they had little to zero development with, just like that. Tell me how I’m not allowed to be bitter about it

[thecrazyjem]

Some fanart and doodles of the wonderful fic “All The World’s a Stage” by Love_Letter (´∀`) !!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30014391/chapters/73902192

This contains spoilers for Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0!! (Hence the cut) If you’ve seen the movie/ know what happens please give this amazing fic a read!!

[thecrazyjem]

As a kinda follow-up to my previous post  https://pepepetos.tumblr.com/post/649362961207640064/the-translations-might-be-a-little-vague-because

(Just copy-pasting from a couple of comments I wrote yesterday, but I ended up needing to make a post about this either way)

An interpretation that was popularized around some fujoshi circles is that “Mari is Shinji’s mother figure/Mari was in love with Yui so she’s just taking care of her son in her stead” or “Kawoshin can meet and get married in the new world” because they were so disillusioned by the ending and don’t want to accept shinmari/kaworei as the endgame pairings. Some of them are discreetly venting/questioning the abrupt developments on their side accounts

“他人の好きなカプを地雷だなんて言って否定するのは烏滸がましいと言うのが私なりの信条なんですけどカヲレイとｼﾝﾏﾘは厳しいものがありますなぁ…”

They didn’t get as beat down as other Shinji ships (Asuka/Shinji and Rei/Shinji because turns out Rei/Asuka’s feelings for Shinji were nothing but programmed) (metacommentary Anno hates shipping yadda yadda) in the film so they’re coping with these theories and creating fanart as they usually do.  

One (semi) popular fan artist straight up said they would stop drawing NGE-continuity Kawoshin because they felt so weird about it now. I even came across a (japanese) post that was all like “Kawoshin can’t be a delusion because they have X merch, right?” that got around a considerable amount of attention. It’s not a stretch to say that westerners are not the only ones that get led to believe something by promotional material/merch. Especially when 3.0 was advertised like this, uh… 

(Plot device- the movie. )

By Anno’s own admission the theatrical posters were KEY to understanding the rebuilds.

(side note, If you’re not aware of the Tanabata imagery/themes that were used in Q, here’s a post that explains it briefly https://www.reddit.com/r/kawoshin/comments/cvlx6g/the_movie_poster_for_30_compares_kaworu_and/ )

It’s not “culturally insensitive/ignorant” to be upset at japanese media’s *harmful* handling of LGBT(coded) relationships/characters/etc. What IS insesitive (and lowkey racist) is the claim that all japanese anime fans only ever care about is ships/fanservice so they don’t really get upset if their favorites happen to get no-homo’d or forgotten in canon.

*Just to clarify, Kawoshin didn’t get no-homo’d. There was just a lot of pussyfooting around it and then it didn’t matter in the end because they moved onto other people (The insinuation of a newly “phased-out” Het-woru…I mean. Unless Khara happens to deny this we’re pretty much done for) Half of the movie revolves around how much Shinji was affected by Kaworu’s death, but by the time they meet in Instrumentality their relationship gets treated as a footnote and is “resolved” in like two minutes before they part ways and Shinji replaces him with Mari as a love interest. Just a wee bit longer than what Rei/Asuka get. Better yet, Kaworu only gets a 

I am you. I’m just like you. That’s why I was *attracted to you. I wanted to make you happy.   

Using the ~ambiguous~ ‘gana form (ひかれた) . It’s not as explicit as it sounds,

Shinji doesn’t even reciprocate this statement and compares him to G*ndo instead. lmao. 

[thecrazyjem]

pensaba dibujar mucho kawoshin pero me siento bastante incomoda con el borradoqueer de la ultima película.Esto lo hice antes de enterarme que usaron la mercancía como queerbaiting

#queerbaiting #kawoshin #ESTA FUE LA MEJOR PAREJA CON EL MEJOR DESARROLLO DENTRO DE TODA LA FRANQUISIA DE EVANGELION PARA QUE AL FINAL USRAN NUESTRAS ESPERANZAS AL #LA MERCANCIA DE EVANGELION ESTA COMO ''SI NOS CAEN BIEN LOS GAYS SI PUEDO VENDER CON ESO'' #PERDON PERO ESTOY INDIGNADA CON LO HICIERON #neon genesis evangelion #rebuild of evangelion #evangelion 3.0+1.0

[thecrazyjem]

Tienes toda razón en esto ,literalmente redujeron toda su relación a simplemente mercancía

As a kinda follow-up to my previous post  https://pepepetos.tumblr.com/post/649362961207640064/the-translations-might-be-a-little-vague-because

(Just copy-pasting from a couple of comments I wrote yesterday, but I ended up needing to make a post about this either way)

An interpretation that was popularized around some fujoshi circles is that “Mari is Shinji’s mother figure/Mari was in love with Yui so she’s just taking care of her son in her stead” or “Kawoshin can meet and get married in the new world” because they were so disillusioned by the ending and don’t want to accept shinmari/kaworei as the endgame pairings. Some of them are discreetly venting/questioning the abrupt developments on their side accounts

“他人の好きなカプを地雷だなんて言って否定するのは烏滸がましいと言うのが私なりの信条なんですけどカヲレイとｼﾝﾏﾘは厳しいものがありますなぁ…”

They didn’t get as beat down as other Shinji ships (Asuka/Shinji and Rei/Shinji because turns out Rei/Asuka’s feelings for Shinji were nothing but programmed) (metacommentary Anno hates shipping yadda yadda) in the film so they’re coping with these theories and creating fanart as they usually do.  

One (semi) popular fan artist straight up said they would stop drawing NGE-continuity Kawoshin because they felt so weird about it now. I even came across a (japanese) post that was all like “Kawoshin can’t be a delusion because they have X merch, right?” that got around a considerable amount of attention. It’s not a stretch to say that westerners are not the only ones that get led to believe something by promotional material/merch. Especially when 3.0 was advertised like this, uh… 

(Plot device- the movie. )

By Anno’s own admission the theatrical posters were KEY to understanding the rebuilds.

(side note, If you’re not aware of the Tanabata imagery/themes that were used in Q, here’s a post that explains it briefly https://www.reddit.com/r/kawoshin/comments/cvlx6g/the_movie_poster_for_30_compares_kaworu_and/ )

It’s not “culturally insensitive/ignorant” to be upset at japanese media’s *harmful* handling of LGBT(coded) relationships/characters/etc. What IS insesitive (and lowkey racist) is the claim that all japanese anime fans only ever care about is ships/fanservice so they don’t really get upset if their favorites happen to get no-homo’d or forgotten in canon.

*Just to clarify, Kawoshin didn’t get no-homo’d. There was just a lot of pussyfooting around it and then it didn’t matter in the end because they moved onto other people (The insinuation of a newly “phased-out” Het-woru…I mean. Unless Khara happens to deny this we’re pretty much done for) Half of the movie revolves around how much Shinji was affected by Kaworu’s death, but by the time they meet in Instrumentality their relationship gets treated as a footnote and is “resolved” in like two minutes before they part ways and Shinji replaces him with Mari as a love interest. Just a wee bit longer than what Rei/Asuka get. Better yet, Kaworu only gets a 

I am you. I’m just like you. That’s why I was *attracted to you. I wanted to make you happy.   

Using the ~ambiguous~ ‘gana form (ひかれた) . It’s not as explicit as it sounds,

Shinji doesn’t even reciprocate this statement and compares him to G*ndo instead. lmao. 

#queerbaiting #lgbtpride #kawoshin #neon genesis evangelion

[thecrazyjem]

(The translations might be a little vague because I ended up using DeepL, but I’ve confirmed with other speakers that the sentiments are accurate)

It’s too early to bring this up now but I need to ‘cause westerners love to spread the notion that japanese anime fans (especially minorities and allies/including fujoshi/fundashi) are a monolith and don’t ever get upset at how their characters are portrayed/sidelined in media and milked and used as bait for money; here are a few opinions I came across, by actual native japanese people, complaining about Shin Eva’s treatment of their LGBT-coded characters. I also watched the film in theaters. 

Do have in mind that on social media, negative opinions (by japanese people) are scarce, one of the reasons being that a chunk of the jpn eva fandom is a cult that doesn’t allow for criticism of the movies (even if they’re objectively bad) and fans fear being harassed off if they speak up about the problematic aspects of it. Nobody will ever come forward, publically, **as a minority** and talk about how this movie hurts them. So don’t assume that even those who positively reviewed it didn’t have their own gripes with it (especially if they’re popular fan artists + women). They might be trying to stay polite or fear being bullied to hell for expressing their negative impressions of it.

#queerbaiting #kawoshin #evangelion 3.0+1.0

[thecrazyjem]

:,) apesar de todo existe el amor 

#kawoshin #kaworu nagisa #shinji ikari #nge #end of evangelion #evangelion 3.0+1.0 #rebuild of evangelion

[thecrazyjem]

mmmmm No me sorprende mucho la diferenca del tamaño no creo q sea imperialista creo que se debe al eje o algo asi

Trading places; Mexico and Greenland swap place in the Mercator Projection.

[thecrazyjem]

patetico

#rebuild of evangelion #nge #shinji ikari #asuka #digitalart

[thecrazyjem]

PERFECTO >:3

I have discovered a new use for the tumblr font colours and that is clown faces

:•)

:•(

:•0

[thecrazyjem]

EXACTO

Shin Eva 3.0+1.0 Rant... (Mostly in Regards to the ending scene and Leaks) (There will be spoilers, so this is your warning)

I’m being terribly honest, if they weren’t straight pairings no one would be assuming they’re dating.

People really see a man and a woman standing next to each other/talking/interacting and think “They must be dating 🤯🤯 why else man and woman talk” ...

Like y’all are so indoctrinated to heteronormativity it’s painful 😐

Nobody is “hooking up” in the end. l can see why Shin Eva looks terrible at first glance but it’s all about context... ...that none of the people complaining have.

None of it is queerbaiting... Shinji and Kaworu’s relationship in the past is still canonically founded, and nothing about this undos that. Personally I feel like it just reaffirms the fact they are very dedicated to each other...

Plus, eva was never something people got on the first watch. Soooo many fans are going back to see it multiple times, and their interpretation changes. I can guarantee you, a majority of the fans I’ve read interpretations from don’t think Mari/Shinji or Kaworu/Rei dating. In fact most people, it didn’t even cross their mind that that was a possibility. So that shows how quickly people without context are jumping to conclusions. (a good amount of fans who have taken it into consideration said it was a particularly fulfilling film for those who like Kawoshin even....)

In any case, eva isn’t about ships, and the point of the story isn’t for Shinji to find romance. It would be redundant for him to have an implied new love interest after basically the whole film saying he needed to mature from his unhealthy dependency on Kaworu (mind you, Kaworu is the only character to be officially described as Shinji’s love interest). This isn’t to say Shinji no longer has feelings for Kaworu... You’re telling me he regains his memories of falling in love with Kaworu hundreds of times and that suddenly just goes away ? ... 😐 Much of this is just Shinji learning to be manage and be happy on his own, while being able to accept love and support from people (which is what Mari is, support). Shinji and Kaworu’s unhealthy codependency, while not the main issue, also contributed to the reason they couldn’t be together. (if anything this tells me that they loved each other so much they felt incomplete without each other...)

In the end he still wishes for a complementary world (which means he and Kaworu exist as each other’s complement. It’s the same thing he wished for in EoE, and implied every world up until now, all in order to meet Kaworu/Rei again)... So I mean make of that what you will. Shinji still very much wants Kaworu to be a part of his new world, but he wants it in a non destructive way. Kaworu is human, has a whole life of his own tht isn’t defined by being an angel, and no longer carries the trauma of his past. If anything, they could have a perfectly healthy relationship now. As with Shinji and all the other pilots, if you’d like. (Well maybe not Asuka but)

About the “It’s a magic to make us friends !” thing... While Shinji and Kaworu’s relationship had romantic intentions in the overall general scheme, they were only ever friends for the time being. They were never allowed to move past that point and become closer. So Shinji saying something like that ISN’T a reduction of their relationship... (Personally I think of it as a hopeful statement like, I’m making sure we can pick up where we left off, right like this... they can go further after that...)

It’s confirmed that the Shinji and Kaworu we see in rebuild is the same Shinji and Kaworu from NGE who said they loved each other. Their feelings are already well established, they don’t need to harp on about how much they love each other. (Not to mention in instrumentality, thoughts are shared... so yeah) Which I don’t get why people feel the need to complain about.

This could just be me, but I think it’s very telling how the only person in the end we get a good look at is Kaworu. Rei’s face is completely obscured, and Asuka is far off to the side. I think it’s okay to assume Shinji is only looking at one person...

And I think people are struggling to separate the symbolic vs canonical meaning. The symbolism of eva doesn’t always coincide with the lore. While some things may be a reference to something, it doesn’t exactly hold true for the character themselves. I mentioned awhile back about the theory of Mari being a representation of the director’s wife, which was never very well founded to begin with, was pretty much shot down at the stage greeting by the director himself. Eva is the director’s depiction of his struggle, however I don’t think it’s our business to assume something like that. In any case, not just Shinji, but Asuka, Misato, and Gendou are also representative of the director, so that logic would imply Mari is dating all of them as well. Which is why it’s shit logic anyways.

The franchise has no intention of stopping the shippy Kawoshin content, and barely waited at all to commence the Lover’s Sanctuary marriage blessing event, then followed by the bridal tuxes badge... I mean you could argue canonicality there because it’s just merch but there’s still guidelines to the kind of content they’re allowed to release. I don’t think they plan on saying Shinji and Kaworu are no longer an item either.

Sorry that was so long, congratulations for reading this far. I have lots and lots to say about Shin Eva... perhaps I’ll write more eventually but I just had to get this off my chest because it’s annoying that people would rather mass spread their doomposting than actually try to look into it. I’d like to get to a point where we can theorize about cool lore and appreciate the interesting parts rather than obsess over ships... 😐

[thecrazyjem]

About the last ShinEva movie and KawoShin

My friend wrote this and I’m posting it here as a message to you:

I see people crying and bitching already and just want to tell you this if you  read the leak spoil/ers already about Kaworu’s motivation and what’s going on in this movie. This is to explain  how KawoShin is still canon and if you thought otherwise you are wrong

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