A week before catching up on Evangelion, I also happened to finish reading Haruki Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood. Why I suddenly started reading literature on a whim is a story for another time. But more than that, I am surprised I actually managed to watch Eva from beginning to end. In Norwegian Wood, Watanabe tries to understand Naoko, dedicating effort and emotion to her, yet still fails to change anything. In Eva, Shinji desperately longs to be accepted by others, but when given the chance to eliminate the A.T. Field (the wall of the heart) and put an end to everything causing him pain, he refuses. Asuka also reminds me of someone from my past. What that friend did back then was as irredeemable as what I did, and I prefer not to bring it up again. But that didn’t stop me from finally understanding the reasons behind it when Eva triggered those memories five or six years later.