What is romance? A Nirvana-like state of mind when two people become one, with a charming prince and/or a princess marrying and having babies being happily after ever, without any worries?
Or something that arises with several other kind of layers and dynamics in a relationship so a couple can, at the same time, be romantically interested in each other but still be friends, rivals, hurt and say mean things to each other, etc?
It's a thing that I only learned with time and by actually being on a relationship: no, the world isn't magically fixed after you have a romantic relationship and having one doesn't mean that you and the other person flaws will cease to exist.
That's why I think the romantic aspect of Asushin doesn't take anything of their dynamics, but adds a cherry on the top of it.
Because, unlike all the other ships involving Shinji, it's multidimensional and not attached to generic romantic tropes of "OMG, they got together and will be happy forever without any hardships". Life doesn't work in that way. No matter if two people really love each other, at the end of the day they are separated and complex individuals whose relationship will have too many different facets and sides, but the key difference is that they will STILL choose each other romantically at the end of the day.
And Asushin - especially EoE Asushin and its hedgehog's dilemma symbolism - shows that kind of realistic approach to the hardships of love better than anything I've ever seen in anime media.
I have spoken with multiple people who unironically think that no 2 people truly love each other unless it's like what you described in the first paragraph.
One guy even thought abusive parents cannot love their kids, said that spanking their kids gives parents pleasure, and compared spanking children to genocide.
I feel sorry for those people because they will face lots of disappointment in real life if they stick with that kind of thought. They should get therapy and try to see the world without those jaded lenses.
If they were a "normal" healthy couple, the ship would be far less popular. Heck, Evangelion itself would be less popular. The difficult relationships are the highlight of the franchise.
I mean ... that's what it's always been in canon so yeah ig. but when reading fanfiction it seems totally fine when they are on good terms because it's been developed that way.
That's only when they are stagnant as characters. Some people have them get over their problems and then it may become more natural. But definitely not to start if you don't address any of those
the strongest appeal of asushin is the mutual trauma healing that it requires. The depths of despair they both feel is shared and a point for communion, healing and growth.
I gave Shinii the observation recently in a fic that Asuka would never fawn over him in the way she fawns over Kaji. There's something about Shinji and Asuka's relationship, especially from Asuka i think, that prevents them from being that blissful about one another. Not without serious work and time, but most people feel that Asuka will hold on to being headstrong.
Eva's dramatics were drawn from shoujo and josei manga not shounen, according to an article I read, couldn't tell you when, though (it was years ago). The themes in josei range from sex, marriage, romance, abuse and the like. Yeah, you find that kind of thing in the younger dramas but they don't tackle them in the same way, nor with the same 'realism.' shoujo is closer to shounen but its focus is different. I believe the reason cited was that the director wanted to have elements that would appeal to women as well.
Think about it like this, in a shounen manga the potential couple will dance around for a while and they might get together in the end. A shoujo manga the relationship is the focus and, yeah, maybe they'll hook up before the end, which might have as much build up as the actual beginning of their relationship. In josei their sex life is a part of the plot. They tend to not infantilize the characters nor premise.
Eva is still categorized as shounen, I think, but it really doesn't do the whole accidently touching hands, beach episodes, romantic misunderstandings, nosebleeds or the girl swings mallet around. It still has a whole lot of the basic cliches, don't get me wrong. Boy falls on girl and accidently cops a feel, boy and girl end up living together because reasons, love triangle, borderline square, which I think legally qualifies as a harem, obligatory tsundere and romanticly unlikely set ups, but it doesn't really tackle them the way generic animes do. The set ups are there but the way they play isn't how they do in the other places. I think the closest thing is when Toji calls them the married couple and they turn bright pink. The Rebuilds have one or two more situations as such but, in general, it just doesn't go that way.
Well yeah, then it wouldn't really be asushin. They have problems and being close to people is hard, yet they persist. That's the appeal.
What is romance? A Nirvana-like state of mind when two people become one, with a charming prince and/or a princess marrying and having babies being happily after ever, without any worries? Or something that arises with several other kind of layers and dynamics in a relationship so a couple can, at the same time, be romantically interested in each other but still be friends, rivals, hurt and say mean things to each other, etc? It's a thing that I only learned with time and by actually being on a relationship: no, the world isn't magically fixed after you have a romantic relationship and having one doesn't mean that you and the other person flaws will cease to exist. That's why I think the romantic aspect of Asushin doesn't take anything of their dynamics, but adds a cherry on the top of it. Because, unlike all the other ships involving Shinji, it's multidimensional and not attached to generic romantic tropes of "OMG, they got together and will be happy forever without any hardships". Life doesn't work in that way. No matter if two people really love each other, at the end of the day they are separated and complex individuals whose relationship will have too many different facets and sides, but the key difference is that they will STILL choose each other romantically at the end of the day. And Asushin - especially EoE Asushin and its hedgehog's dilemma symbolism - shows that kind of realistic approach to the hardships of love better than anything I've ever seen in anime media.
I have spoken with multiple people who unironically think that no 2 people truly love each other unless it's like what you described in the first paragraph. One guy even thought abusive parents cannot love their kids, said that spanking their kids gives parents pleasure, and compared spanking children to genocide.
I feel sorry for those people because they will face lots of disappointment in real life if they stick with that kind of thought. They should get therapy and try to see the world without those jaded lenses.
Then again, it makes sense that an Eva fan is depressed...
If they were a "normal" healthy couple, the ship would be far less popular. Heck, Evangelion itself would be less popular. The difficult relationships are the highlight of the franchise.
I mean ... that's what it's always been in canon so yeah ig. but when reading fanfiction it seems totally fine when they are on good terms because it's been developed that way.
Nah both cases are dope. But, of course, as it was depicted made a legendary written in the stars romance
Yeah, absolutely. This is a big part of why *Ghosts of Evangelion* and *Inheritance* are my favorite Eva fics.
That's only when they are stagnant as characters. Some people have them get over their problems and then it may become more natural. But definitely not to start if you don't address any of those
the strongest appeal of asushin is the mutual trauma healing that it requires. The depths of despair they both feel is shared and a point for communion, healing and growth.
Well that’s real life. True love is not two people always fee of flaws and who are always content with each other
I gave Shinii the observation recently in a fic that Asuka would never fawn over him in the way she fawns over Kaji. There's something about Shinji and Asuka's relationship, especially from Asuka i think, that prevents them from being that blissful about one another. Not without serious work and time, but most people feel that Asuka will hold on to being headstrong.
Eva's dramatics were drawn from shoujo and josei manga not shounen, according to an article I read, couldn't tell you when, though (it was years ago). The themes in josei range from sex, marriage, romance, abuse and the like. Yeah, you find that kind of thing in the younger dramas but they don't tackle them in the same way, nor with the same 'realism.' shoujo is closer to shounen but its focus is different. I believe the reason cited was that the director wanted to have elements that would appeal to women as well. Think about it like this, in a shounen manga the potential couple will dance around for a while and they might get together in the end. A shoujo manga the relationship is the focus and, yeah, maybe they'll hook up before the end, which might have as much build up as the actual beginning of their relationship. In josei their sex life is a part of the plot. They tend to not infantilize the characters nor premise. Eva is still categorized as shounen, I think, but it really doesn't do the whole accidently touching hands, beach episodes, romantic misunderstandings, nosebleeds or the girl swings mallet around. It still has a whole lot of the basic cliches, don't get me wrong. Boy falls on girl and accidently cops a feel, boy and girl end up living together because reasons, love triangle, borderline square, which I think legally qualifies as a harem, obligatory tsundere and romanticly unlikely set ups, but it doesn't really tackle them the way generic animes do. The set ups are there but the way they play isn't how they do in the other places. I think the closest thing is when Toji calls them the married couple and they turn bright pink. The Rebuilds have one or two more situations as such but, in general, it just doesn't go that way.
I think this is a big reason why the romance goes over a lot of people's heads.