Newtypes, Angels, and Human Instrumentality: The Mecha Genre and its Apocalyptic Bodies

River Seager

doi:10.21900/j.jams.v4.1186

Authors

River Seager University of Dundee

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jams.v4.1186

Keywords:

Neon Genesis Evangelion, gundam, postmodernism, Database Animals, Hiroki Azuma, Mobile Suit Gundam, fandom, history, Anime History, grand narratives

Abstract

This paper argues that the mecha genre is fixated on psychedelic and abstract imagery of supernatural human bodies, the destruction or transcendence of which often have bring about new political and social epochs. In making this argument, I build on the writing of Hiroki Azuma, and his understanding of classical mecha texts functioning as ‘substitutes’ for political grand narratives. Two major mecha texts are analyzed: Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). I suggest that Gundam’s occultic ‘Newtypes’ bridge the series’ grand narrative space opera storyline with themes of New-Age mysticism, itself reminiscent of Azuma’s writings on the role of spiritualism in postmodernity. In my section on Evangelion, I argue that its imagery of bodily re-organization mirrors its fixation on reimagining its world and characters. I term the mecha genre’s supernatural archetype ‘The Apocalyptic Body’, and argue it is key to understanding the genre’s mixing of occult and technological themes.

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Filmography

Ultraman, dev. Tsuburaya Eiji (Tsuburaya Productions, 1966)

: A Space Odyssey, dir. Stanley Kubrick (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1968)

Space Battleship Yamato, dir. Matsumoto Leiji (Academy Productions, 1974)

Mobile Suit Gundam, dir. Tomino Yoshiyuki (Sunrise, 1979)

Space Runaway Ideon, dir. Tomino Yoshiyuki (Sunrise, 1980)

Space Firebird 2772, dir. Tezuka Osamu, Sugiyama Taku (Tezuka Productions, 1980)

Neon Genesis Evangelion, dir. Anno Hideaki (Gainax, 1995)

End of Evangelion, dir. Anno Hideaki (Gainax, 1997)