18906


The titles of the first 3 movies of _Rebuild of Evangelion_ are:

  1. You Are (Not) Alone
  2. You Can (Not) Advance
  3. You Can (Not) Redo

I am wondering what is the purpose and/or meaning of the inclusion of _(Not)_
in the titles.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-27T22:18:29.080
18905
2019-09-02T13:38:55.800
2015-01-28T05:31:59.147
1398
1587
question
neon-genesis-evangelion
What is the meaning/purpose of the (not) in the titles of Rebuild of Evangelion?


**Spoilers** :

It's because of the duality of the theme in each of the movies.

In the first movie, one of the main themes is Shinji feeling alone or
abandoned. Yet, he's made friends at school and in Misato, yet still feels
alone and isolated (mostly because of Eva and his responsibilities). He is
alone yet he is not alone.

In the second movie, it's about Shinji being able to move on. He's faced with
the conflict with his father, Gendo, and with the conflict with Asuka, and
later the conflict involving Rei. When it seems he has the chance to advance
or move on, by having a dinner planned with his father, reconciling and
getting to know Asuka, or preventing one of his last friends from dying in
Rei, his hopes are dashed. An activation accident ends the dinner plans, which
through his refusal, ends up with (what he thinks at the time) Asuka getting
killed, and finally after saving Rei, he's unwittingly started 3rd impact. So
he has advanced, yet he has not.

In the third movie, the theme is him fixing what he's done wrong, or a "Redo".
The majority of the movie is to set him up by showing how much wrong he has
inflicted on the world, and then giving him a chance to "Redo" it, or reset
it. The chance ends up not working, and in the end, he's made everything even
worse. So given the chance for him to "Redo", it ends up that he can not.

So ultimately, the titles are just some clever way of expressing this duality
of themes in each of the first 3 movies.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-27T23:21:02.133
18906
2015-01-27T23:21:02.133
91
18905
answer


1- The braces `(...)` in English means it's optional, you can read it and
consider it, or ignore it. So as @JonLin said, it's a duality.

2- Evangelion story heavily emphasis on viewer's open interpretation. Any/All
answer is correct.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-02T13:38:55.800
54165
2019-09-02T13:38:55.800
2978
18905
answer