Evangelion mechaphors

I watched the first Evangelion movie over the weekend. It tells of humans using giant robots (aka mechas; they’re called Evangelions, or Evas for short) to battle mysterious giant alien entities called Angels. Teenage children are needed to pilot the mechas. This symbiosis reminded me of being old, and corporations.

(The Evangelion narrative as vast and complicated, and I’ve only watched the one movie. My comments below rely on EvaWiki, “An Encyclopedia of Evangelion Related Topics.”)

I’m old, but my self-image is still young. In dreams, I’m often still in my twenties. Just like the teenage pilot, my childish spirit is carried in an old, grown-up body. 

Mechas have souls. Eva-01 has the soul of Yui Ikari, for example, and so her son Shinji Ikari was chosen as its pilot. Mechas (especially Eva-01) can go beserk, acting on their own account. My own body also isn’t fully under my control.

The pilot/mecha relationship also reminds me of CEOs and corporations. Corporations can have a life of their own that is only nominally under the control of the CEO. Corporations can also be vastly bigger than a single human being, just as an Eva towers over mere humans. In his book, Thomas Hobbes called states and governments “Leviathans,” invoking the mythological sea monster. 

According to a Fandom entry, behind the entry plug (a cylindrical tube inserted into an Evangelion that contains the pilot) is a large disc-based storage device, called the Logical Definition Drive, that “constantly streamed data into the Evangelion—data that told the giant what it was, what form it took, and other aspects of its existence” (quoting Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA, Volume 2, Chapter 60). This sounds to me like the data systems and business protocols of a large corporation.

https://imgur.com/x2InXUw

The relationship between mechas and their pilots also evokes the relation between the Jungian unconscious and consciousness. The pilot nominally control the Eva, but in the context of forces like the soul and the Logical Definition Drive that are invisible to them. The Eva can go beserk and act on its own account. The pilot, in turn, is directed by the controlling organization NERV. In Freudian terms, the NERV/pilot/Eva triple resembles the superego, ego, and id.

P.S. I have seen it claimed that the Evangelions having souls is unusual and perhaps unique in the anime tradition. A search result from Perplecity.ai seems to bear this out.