The Mecha that therefore we are (not): an eco-phenomenological reading of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Abstract

In the late 1960s, the Japanese animation inaugurated a prolific science fiction strand which addressed the topic of mediated experience. In a context of transnational reception and consumption of anime, the “robotic” subgenre (particularly the one that will be called “mecha” in the 1980s, i.e., narratives of giant robots piloted by a human within) occupies a strategic place. By highlighting the peculiar synergy between themes, forms of storytelling and “out-of-joint” consumption, the Japanese robotic animation series thematized and popularized content and perspectives on mediated experience that I define as “eco-phenomenological”: “phenomenological” because (i) it reevaluates the quality of the subjective experience in its historical and biocultural context; “ecological” because (ii) it look at the environment as an intelligent system; and (iii) it proposed a multidisciplinary approach between the human sciences and the life sciences. The article proposes an analysis of the forms of narration and reception of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996), in its ability to have intercepted, synthesized and internationally popularized in an innovative and almost unparalleled way, the complexity of the eco-phenomenological perspective. Views and epistemological approaches at the center of the contemporary scientific and cultural debate will be reconstructed, discussed and analyzed through the concepts of body, mind, environment and presence which are promoted in the Evangelion series.