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in evangelion, loads of the characters are named after japanese ww2 generals/battleships etc.
auska langely soru - a german with the headquarters of the cia in her name. also the organization seele which has a german name and motto.
evangelion deals with the kamikazee pilot thing. the berserker mode is obviously a sublimation of that. the fact that the soul of the pilots dead mothers live inside the eva. shinji is battling his fear of going into the eva, which mirrors the japanese anxiety about remobilising its empire. it knows it can't maintain its dignity living as hostage to america, and it also knows the last time it tried to assert itself it lost and sided with the nazis.
it's basically liberal democratic post modern japan grappling with its past defeat and present humiliation under the control of the amerinazi empire.
it's also one of the most important texts about christianity to emerge in recent history. the whole plot is basically a world wherein christianity is real! that's literally what the plot is. if christians in the west understood that they'd be calling for it to be banned.
i mean the thing is literally a japanese man reading the bible and writing a story set within a world where it is real. and surprise surprise, it's a fucking horror!
also whats so fascinating about it is that when the original series was broadcast, one of the directors who worked on it was a member of the aum shinrikyo cult, and they actually changed the plot of the series when IRL the aum cult started murdering people in japan and made a failed attempt to murder the japanese parliament. the plot of eva alligns with the actual real life activities of the cult in a really creepy way. talk about archetypes of the collective unconscious manifesting in culture!
in the movie end of evangelion the japanese government send troops in to slaughter the NERV organization. whereas IRL aum tried to kill the entire japanese government. it's fascinating!
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