Speaking of D&P and people from completely off the wall fandoms that happened to crossover, I usually reside in the pretentious anime/video game side of the internet. With that said, I want to write a quick blurb about why I find Dan’s fascination with Evangelion part fucking awesome and part intriguing, because I can’t anywhere else.
For most people in this forum, you’ll have no idea what Evangelion is or why you should care that Dan constantly brings it up as one of his favorite anime and Shinji being (probably) one of his favorite characters. That’s fine, I’ll try my best to explain my train of thought.
I want to preface this with an acknowledgement: Just because I will state that Dan relates to Shinji’s struggles, doesn’t mean I am relating him to Shinji, who is known to have AVPD and Depression.
Shinji, who happens to be the MC, is known to be a very troubled character (along with the entire cast of Eva). His main problems usually fall into three groups: his trouble with interpersonal relationships, his budding sexuality, and his family. I won’t get into great detail about every single aspect, we’ll be here all day if I do.
To keep it short and simple, Shinji:
- is said to have “Hedgehog’s Dilemma”, which is described as a need to feel a close relationship with someone, but being too scared of pain and rejection to seek it out. Shinji’s case is more of an irrational fear, hence the AVPD mention.
- is canonically bisexual. He has sexual tensions with many of the girls in the series, but ends up falling in love with a guy instead (because the guy was the only person who was nice to him. Yup.)
- has a dead mother who he constantly seeks the help of, and an absentee father, who he constantly tries to get the approval of.
Again, I’m not trying to insinuate anything about Dan and his own problems. Instead, I think Dan may see some of himself reflected in Shinji. That’s why I think other psychological shows, like Madoka Magica, never got talked about by Dan after he finished watching them, and why Eva seemed to leave such a profound impact heh on him.
Basically, I wish Dan would talk more about Eva. It’s a good show and I feel like I’d understand him a smidge more if he spoke beyond vague praises. Phil too, since he seems to not care very much about character driven stories, it’d be like seeing the other side of the moon.
This is probably going to be my only post here. I just wanted to get this out of my system.
P.S: Watch Evangelion.
P.P.S: Next liveshow, someone should ask Dan “Asuka or Rei?” If he goes on /a/ as much as he implies he does, then he should get it.
P.P.P.S.: Can someone please inform Dan it's not pronounced "Evanjellyon"? Thanks.