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High Score: The Evangelion Series

High Score: The Evangelion Series

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Most of you regular readers, and anyone who happens to be in my company for more than five minutes, will most likely be aware of the fact that I am a full-throttle, card carrying Evangelion obsessive. In my near-decade-long devotion to Eva, I’ve spent countless amounts of money on special edition DVD’s and blu-rays, countless hours on EvaGeeks.org fleshing out my knowledge of the universe and spent every brownie point I’ve ever earned with any of my friends cramming it down their unaware, and usually unwilling, throats. It’s not to everyone’s tastes – although I’ll never understand why – but for me, it is the alpha and the omega. Whether you want to talk about the storytelling, the character design, the directing, the intentional ambiguity that torments and fascinates fans in equal measure (which I’ve previously written a little about) there isn’t a single aspect of Evangelion that I wouldn’t relish the opportunity to gush about. 

Today we’re going to look at an aspect of the franchise that has been a hugely important factor in its success, both commercially and artistically; the work of long-running series composer, Sagisu Shiro. 

The Beast

Evangelion is not just an entertainment franchise. It is a living, breathing organism that, since it’s launch in 1995, continues to develop even to this today. What is now one of the biggest names in entertainment began as the 25 episode TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion; an experimental, psychological take on the popular ‘giant robot’ genre. The score is pretty great at reflecting that duality and The Beast is a perfect example of it. It explodes to life with all the orchestral bombast you’d expect from an action sequence involving monolithic robots and while its motifs are anthemic and rhythmically solid, the dramatic dissonances between the brass and string sections are relentless. Even when the electric guitar chimes in with a motif of its own, it doesn’t quite commit to any one tonal center. Because it can’t. It’s lost in the comic-book smoke of the brawling brass and strings. The Beast is one of many subtle nods in the early stages of NGE designed to tip you off; This isn’t your mothers giant robot story. 

Hedgehog’s Dilemma

One of many psychological themes presented in NGE is the famous Hedgehog’s Dilemma; the closer one hedgehog gets to another hedgehog the more they’ll be hurt by each other. Hedgehog’s Dilemma isn’t going to hurt anyone though (see what I did there?). Jazzy and delicate, this little number is often overlooked in Eva soundtrack discussions. Making beautiful use of chromaticism and a loose, playful piano leading proceedings, Hedgehog’s Dilemma is one of the more subtle additions to NGE’s score and provides some much needed respite from the chaos that surrounds it. 

Thanatos

I don’t know what it is, but to my ear there will always be something immediately mournful about the sound of a cello. It’s an instrument that just seems designed to tug at the heart strings. In Thanatos, Sagisu Shiro does just that; an elegant melody weeps gently in the cellos, guided along by steady, melancholic chords before handing the spotlight over to a solitary violin for a few bars. At about the two minute mark the piece changes tack completely and finds some solace with optimistic wind motifs and some jaunty percussion. It’s that opening melody that sticks with you though and even as the piece ends on a high note, it’s hard to shake that sadness.

Escape to the Beginning

In all its forms, Evangelion skirts a pretty precarious line between incredibly epic and intimately creepy. The line between these two faces becomes blurrier the further you go into its twisted world but at no point is it less distinguishable than in The End of Evangelion, the first proper feature length film of the franchise. The bizarre internal conflict sequences, usually taking place entirely within the psyche of a character, take center stage in EoE and as a result we get tracks like Escape to the Beginning. On the surface it’s peaceful and aesthetically beautiful, there are no clanging dissonances here, just simple choral harmony. The strings steadily building beneath that choral bed paint a slightly different picture though. Where the voices are serene, the strings are sinister. The whole thing feels much more insidious the more attention you pay to it. Once you see it in context, you’ll understand why. 

The Wrath of God in All its Fury

As the incredibly successful series expanded into other mediums, increasingly flexible budgets allowed for bigger and more ambitious scores. As such the Rebuild series, 4 films telling an alternate version of the original story (OR ARE THEY????), have the biggest and most ambitious scores of the entire franchise. Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo might not have pleased everyone, but its score is undeniably the best work Sagisu Shiro has ever done. The Wrath of God in all its Fury is an astonishing piece, easily on par with any of the biggest orchestral film scores in the world. Dissonant vocals give way to thundering percussion and ominous bursts of brass before the frantic strings race in to herald the imminent arrival of the chorus and it only gets bigger and better from there. 

God’s Gift

Although the scores to Evangelion were always pretty eclectic, the Rebuild series is where we really get to see Sagisu Shiro flex his electronic muscle. God’s Gift is in itself a great example of that epic/creepy balancing act that Evangelion is constantly performing. The electronics here, including the electric guitar, are mostly ambient; adding strange, unexpected texture to what is ostensibly an orchestral piece with all its percussion sucked out. God’s Gift is essentially an orchestral piece with a massive identity crisis. 

***

Evangelion spans a 25 episode TV anime, 2 feature length films with an alternate ending, and more recently, the Rebuild series; 4 films (3 of which are currently out) telling an alternate version of the whole thing. With so much ground covered across almost a decade, you can probably imagine just how much music has actually been composed for this story. I didn’t even talk about how NGE and EoE make use of pop songs or Bach pieces, which they both do incredibly effectively. When I start writing about Evangelion, I find it pretty hard to stop so I’ll, reluctantly, leave you with this:

 The pieces you heard here today were narrowed down from an initial list of 24 and I already regret certain omissions. There is a metric ton of Evangelion music out there for you to enjoy and I can’t recommend getting lost in it highly enough. Have a nice trip. 

 

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