Eva and Northern Exposure - Practically the Same Show.
Posted by erin at November 11, 2002 04:43 PMPreamble
When I was little my mom taught English classes. I got to attend a handful of classes as a small child, presumably when no babysitter could be found. The only course content I remember are two lessons - one about letter-writing, wherein my mom used the hypothetically example of one finding a dead mouse in one's cereal box, and writing a letter to the cereal company, and the other was a lesson on comparative essays. My mom asked the class to come up with ways that apples and oranges are the same. There are many similarities - both are round, both are fruit, both (usually) have seeds, both grow on trees, and so forth. It turns out apples and oranges are really quite similar, but nevertheless, the saying persists, "Like comparing apples to oranges."
It is perhaps for this nostalgic reason that I enjoy comparing unlike things.
The Basics
At first glance, Northern Exposure, an American TV show which ran from 1990-1995, and Neon Genesis Evangelion (Shin Seiki Evangelion), an animation television show which aired in Japan in 1995, appear to be vastly different.
The plot, setting, and characters of the two shows seem ridiculously unalike.
The plot of Northern Exposure (here on referred to as NE) centers around the life of 27-year-old Dr. Joel Fleischman, who is being forced by contract to work for four years as general practitioner in the town of Cicely, Alaska. The show follows the lives of the quirky townspeople. The plot of Neon Genesis Evangelion, (here on referred to as Eva) centers around the life of 14-year-old Shinji, who is forced to pilot a giant robot in order to save the world from giant monsters which attack periodically.
NE is set in Cicely, Alaska, and many scenes take place at the local tavern, and in Joel's office. It all takes place in the present. Eva is set in "Tokyo 3" roughly 20 years in the future. (The original Tokyo is now underwater, as a supposed asteroid impact melted the polar ice caps in 2004.) Many of the scenes take place at Shinji's school, in his apartment, and at NERV headquarters, where the giant robots are constructed.
You might think, then that these two series are totally unlike, but that's where you're wrong!
The Facts
Before I get too far into this, note that most of my fact-checking was done at these two websites:
http://www.nx-misc.net/characters/
http://www.interlog.com/~mileston/neon_genesis/eva.html
The Similarities
In Characters: Both Shinji and Fleischman are doing jobs they don't want to do. Fleischman spends the first episode of NE trying to back out of his assigned location. Shinji spends the first few episode of Eva trying not to simply run away to avoid piloting his giant robot. Both Shinji and Fleischman eventually warm up to their jobs.
In NE, Maggie O'Connell is constantly at odds with Fleischman. They get in fights and are uncivil, and yet, they are attracted to each other and sometimes give into those feelings. Also, Maggie is kind of a bitch. Asuka of Eva is the dictionary definition of "bitch" - and her relationship with Shinji is much like Maggie and Fleischman's relationship. Sure, she yells at him a lot, but when she gets bored she demands that Shinji kiss her.
When it comes to unshaven, attractive men, NE has Chris Stevens, local smarty-pants and talk-show radio guy, and Eva has that guy who Misato can't admit she likes...
I'm out of time for today, folks! I'll finish this up tomorrow.
Despite different continents and time periods, Cicely, Alaska and Tokyo-3 have some things in common.
The most obvious similarity is that the two cities are examples of humans living in extreme environments. I use "extreme" here to refer to environmental conditions that are violent or adverse to typical human lifestyles.
In Cicely, Alaska, this violence is inherent in the weather. Extremely cold temperatures, tons of snow, isolation from other cities, and dangerous animals like bears and moose make living difficult for residents of the small town. Due to the isolation and long winter months, which restrict travel, trade, and commerce, the economy of Cicely rests (most likely) on lumber.
In short, Cicely is surviving on the edge of what could be considered human survival. So is Tokyo-3.
In Eva, the Earth has been attacked in the past by giant monsters they call "Angels." The first such attack, called the "First Impact," melted Antarctica and killed most of the Earth's population. I hardly need to mention that it flooded the original Tokyo. The "Second Impact" occurred about 20 years later, and again, huge battles were fought, populations decimated... Tokyo-3 was built in preparation for the dreaded Third Impact. However, rather than another tremendous explosion (or "Impact"), when the new "angels" began appearing only 12 years later and started appearing every 12 days (or less) thereafter, and apparently they do not cause the giant catastrophes on the scale of the 1st and 2nd impact.
The angels are huge, and appear (seemingly) out of nowhere. Despite being called "angels," they are wingless, and only vaguely humanoid in shape (some are not humanoid at all - one was more whale-like, another a floating diamond shooting lasers). Conventional weapons are useless because they are surrounded by an "AT Field," which is apparently some kind of energy shield.
Only the Eva units (mobile suits, or giant robots to you laymen) are capable of breaking through the AT Field and destroying the angels. NERV, the agency in charge of stopping angel attacks, only had time to put together 3 Eva units before the angels started attacking again - and to be honest, they barely got to test them and had no time to train the 14-year old pilots.
It is no coincidence that the angels started attacking as soon as the first Eva unit was completed, and it is no coincidence that the angel attacks almost always focus on Tokyo-3, the city where the NERV headquarters are located. The angels have an agenda, and although they never try to communicate, it is clear that they are trying to get rid of NERV and the Eva units.
So this makes Tokyo-3 a terribly dangerous place to live. If you don't get killed by an angel stepping on you, or shooting a laser at you, you could be killed when an Eva unit, in the process of fighting the angel, falls onto your apartment building.
Anticipating destruction, Tokyo-3 is built for battle. Its skyscrapers, in case of emergency, can be lowered into the ground. The citizens are put through drills all the time, and know exactly where the shelters are located.
NERV headquarters, besides being miles underground, is also protected by 12 heavy-duty steel shields. NERV is self-sustaining, with it's own life-support systems and no less than 3 back-up power generators. Deep within NERV is a terradome, so, in case of a big emergency like the dreaded Third Impact, NERV can become a self-contained colony, growing its own food.
I cannot possibly imagine what the economy of Tokyo-3 could based on, other than providing services for NERV headquarters. I suppose, like any other large city, Tokyo-3 serves a center of business and commerce - or it did until the angels started attacking. At that point many people left the city. Despite all of it's high-tech-safety gadgets, Tokyo-3 is the most unsafe place to live in Japan, and possibly the world, all because of NERV.
Without NERV, however, no one is safe. It's a bit of a problem... NERV's budget is huge, and tremendous amounts of energy and resources are poured into it - while people in other parts of the world, and even other part of Japan starve. Tokyo-3 teeters on the edge of finical (and physical ruin) all the time, thanks to NERV. This is not unlike Cicely in that, if the lumber industry pulled out, the town would cease to exist.
Toko-3 is comparable to Cicely, Alaska in that the two cities are self-sustaining (for the most part), and allow humans to live under extreme conditions.
Not to mention how Cicely is attacked on a near-daily basis by Morty the Moose.
Comments Individual Archive Index
November 12, 2002 02:20 AM, Agnieszka said:
"save the world from giant monsters which attack periodically"
This phrase amused me greatly.
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