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Dec 10, 2012 12:02 AM
#1
I love Evangelion Retake, its one of my fave mangas and it really made me fall for a Shinji x Asuka pairing. What do you think? Do these crazy kids need to get together or does Asuka deserve someone with less angst/father issues? |
Dec 14, 2012 10:39 PM
#2
Asuka has just as much angst/mother issues. I say yay -- Even more so after reading the oh so awesome Retake. |
Dec 15, 2012 10:54 AM
#3
Yes, I think they make the 'perfect' odd couple - a 'cat and dog' style love/hate relationship if you wanna say so... it would be boring if they were too much alike, wouldn't it? And besides, if Shinchan got together with Rei instead, it would be basically nothing but incest and/or at worst bestiality ;-) |
Jun 19, 2013 7:22 PM
#4
I say nay. Shinji doesn't deserve anyone. |
Dec 3, 2013 8:55 PM
#5
XternalBlaze said: I say nay. Shinji doesn't deserve anyone. Debatable, but I do believe he needs someone. |
Jan 12, 2014 6:56 AM
#6
nay. fucking no. not because shinji doesnt deserve her or anything. thats not a healthy relationship. they are both great but get asuka x shinji away from me. |
Apr 7, 2014 1:38 PM
#7
Apr 15, 2014 12:36 PM
#8
Jun 12, 2014 1:57 AM
#9
I say no because this. For those who don't want to read a 12,355 word analysis of Asuka, Ctrl+F for 'asushin.' There's also some parts around the pictures of Shinji choking Asuka where the writer gives good examples of why Asushin is a huge NO. As for when Shinji and Asuka are on the beach alone: 'Shinji's the first back simply because he was in control of Instrumentality, thanks to both Rei and Kaworu (and Yui) deciding to place the future of the world into the hands of a depressed, avoidant, suicidal fourteen-year-old child who was capable, deep within his heart, of choosing to life. And the very second one back is Asuka, because, again, Asuka represents ultimate human isolation. Asuka represents the strongest will to live out of anyone. Asuka is driven to suicide when the external validation she had set up fails around her. But then she sets up her own internal ones. And now, now, she is the girl who screams, "I don't want to die," the girl who declares to her enemies that she'll kill them all, the girl who reaches for the sun and is laid low by powers outside of her control. But LCL? Perfectly within her control. And thus she exits first, exhausted from the process of having to reform herself, akin to Shinji in episode twenty. Shinji notices her. Between the quantum Rei sent out at the instant of the Third Impact and the sudden appearance of Asuka, Shinji is terrified for a moment that he somehow is still in Instrumentality. Hence, he chokes her. (*Disclaimer: I need to say, right now and right here, that I am not defending this nor the earlier choking of Asuka. Shinji is violent and misogynistic, and what he did was completely wrong. Which is part of the reason that the thought of Shinji anywhere near Asuka romantically causes my hackles to rise, because they harm one another on so many levels.)' Here's more supporting the author's view on why Asushin is a bad pairing. This is all canon though. Fandoms always skew the relationships and personalities of characters to fit their idea of what SHOULD be canon, like most people will say that Asuka is a bitch and dismiss the tons of shit that happened to her in the past to make her the way she was/is. |
JaspsDec 4, 2014 11:10 AM
Dec 31, 2014 5:28 AM
#10
No.... i don't think shinji will ever be "deserved" for any girl because of he only thinks about himself and cowardly runaway from everything... even in the movie he runs away from the fact that he caused the 3rd impact ... but if it is Re-Take from Kimigabuchi Studio.. i think shinji deserve any women he wants because he is manly enough to protect the one he loves most.. i really like the Re-Take because the romance and the manly shinji which everyone caught off guard.. |
Feb 2, 2015 12:07 PM
#11
Yay~ love them |
Aug 19, 2015 8:16 AM
#13
shinji x asuka is on par with holo x Lawrence. though i would mind shinji x rei but seeing how the movie turned out i supposed only s x a is possible. |
-when you are feeling sad, all you need is some incest- |
Nov 29, 2016 10:58 AM
#14
Shinji x Asuka. All the way |
Dec 18, 2016 3:42 AM
#15
Well...I think yay.This both actually would make a cute couple. |
I will not believe that everything is controlled by fate. ll X ll |
Jan 19, 2017 4:08 AM
#16
How ridiculous. By no means could Asuka and Shinji actually be happily together, and I’ll try to explain why. First of all, Evangelion is not a love story, and even less in the case of Asuka and Shinji. Their interaction is one of the most complex and fascinating of the whole series, but there is no romance involved between them, just a sequence of incomprehension, fear and natural attraction between two teenagers who live under the same roof at Misato’s apartment. and have to work together (with Rei too). They are not Ash and Misty of Pokémon; Evangelion is far more complex than that. In the case of Shinji, there is no way we could say he is “in love” with Asuka. He is sexually frustrated (not only with Asuka, but also with Rei and Misato), but by no means is he in love with anyone. As for Asuka, he cares for her as a friend, just like with Rei, but Shinji's hormonal frustration eventually leads him to see her as a mere sexual object (Asuka is extremely beautiful, after all), as we can tell through the whole series. In the end, he doesn't care about her feelings or emotions, but just uses her for his own comfort (he masturbates to her sedated body; someone capable of saying that is “love” really needs their head examined), and during Instrumentality he mostly stares at her breasts, which shows he doesn’t think of Asuka as a whole, but just as a “pretty body”. Shinji is not a bad person in nature, but he is selfish and wants to be loved without giving anything in exchange. He would just accept anyone kind to him (as Kaworu was to him, or as Mana Kirishima was, in some spin-offs), no matter who. Asuka said it clearly during Hell Kitchen scene: “Anyone will do. You don’t care who it is! So now you come running to me. […] Pathetic”. In the case of Asuka, she wants to prove herself as a worthy woman seeking validation on others, and thus, keeps teasing Shinji, since he’s the boy she’s been ordered to live with. However, she feels more and more disappointed as Shinji shows actually no sign of manliness. Asuka wants a man like Kaji (who is unattainable for her), someone who would “hold her”, adore her and be just hers, so she tries to change Shinji into someone like that. It doesn’t work, and it leads to a strong disappointment. Shinji doesn’t only ignore all her tries to make him improve (or "man up", we could say), but he remains pretty much the same, ending up being the same feeble boy he was at the very beginning. ("Why are you here? You don't help me! You don't even hold me!" in 22' shows us Asuka's utter disappointment with his lack of manliness. He just can't help her and give her what she truly wants: a sincere affection). Evangelion is not a Bildungsroman in which the main character miraculously becomes an invincible hero, but even at the end of EoE, Shinji is still far from being brave. He would need a lot of time to learn not to constantly run away as he always did. Asuka, the same as Misato, Rei, Kaworu, and Gendou, inspired him to become better, but Shinji must learn to improve by himself and not depend so much on others. The end is kind of hopeful, but it won't be easy for him. Moreover, we could say Asuka develops some kind of "interest" (far from being love and romance) in Shinji just as a rival EVA pilot, but not because she finds him to be appealing at all. Leaving aside Shinji’s skills as a pilot, he might be one of the most uninteresting and least charismatic boys Asuka could have ever met; we could say he’s just a random Japanese boy, without any kind of charm, pretty much like Touji or Kensuke. By no means would Asuka's pride allow her to fall in love with him or recognize him as a potential romantic target. Jealousy or rivalry as fellow pilots are different from love. Also, unlike what some people tend to believe, Asuka is not the typical 'tsundere' character who uses harsh expressions with hidden meanings. She's not a moe tsundere who means 'I love you' by saying 'I hate you'. Her hatred is real. She doesn't know what affection means, and even less, love. Asuka is a tragic character seeking recognition and appreciation, not a kawaii tsundere girl. In any case, they are just 13 and 14 years old. They don’t feel love for each other (for anyone else either, I would say) as simple-minded people want to believe naïvely. They don’t even know what love means. You can say their relationship is full of disappointment, frustration and misunderstandings, but never love. That’s utterly obvious, at least for someone who has actually watched the anime or read the manga, and knows all the fanfiction out there are just meaningless dellusions and nothing else. Evangelion is a sad story about self-acceptance, but it's far from being a romantic series. And now, let's move on to some thoughts on the End of Evangelion. "In EoE, after Instrumentality, they got to understand, accept and love each other, and thus, they will be together forever" (That's a common argument said by some analysts, which really irritates me, to be honest) Well, first of all, I may concede there could be more understanding than before, but acceptance and love are completely out of the question. Seeing the beach scene as a romantic proof of inconditional love is a really weird headcanon. I'm sure Instrumentality gave humankind the tools to understand others better, and also in the case of Shinji and Asuka. But one thing is understanding and another very different thing is acceptance, and there's an abyss in the middle of those. Nevertheless, the fact everyone momentarily became one during Instrumentality and their thoughts and secrets were revealed, doesn't mean that, in the case of these two, they liked what they saw. In fact, despite the AsuShin theory of Asuka and Shinji "needing" or "liking" each other after H.I.P., all we get to see during Instrumentality is how much they despise each other. Where's the understanding (or the acceptance) in Hell Kitchen and Hell Train scenes? All we get from their encounters during EoE are bitter scenes of incomprehension, strangulation and sentences like: "But, if I have to be with you, I'd rather die!", or the one which was going to be the last sentence: “I’d hate to be killed by a bastard like you!” Is it just me, or is there a total lack of acceptance and love in there? It's true that Asuka and Shinji's interactions during EoE are really interesting, for they represent two opposite ways of dealing with Hedgehog's Dilemma, but the film is not about them as a couple, but as mere humans. EoE is not an A/S film in the sense of a romantic story with a happy ending. It's a film about loneliness, frustration, self-esteem and, in the end, the will to live and to face harsh reality as it is. Another common misconception is to believe Asuka and Shinji are exactly the same, so that "they will love each other once they get to love themselves". However, it's not that simple. It's true that they have similar problems, but at the end they hate each other not only because they're similar, but because of all the clashes between them during the series and Instrumentality. And, honestly, I think it would take more than an ambiguous caress near the end to eliminate all the grudge and bitterness between them. Consequently, we could say the final scene is far from being a depiction of the two of them "reconciling and learning to love each other", as simple-minded describe it. In fact, the ambiguity of Asuka in the last scene (the caress, the cold stare and her famous line: "Kimochi warui") is the perfect representation of the ambiguity of real life: there may be happiness, but also rejection, and hardship. The unclear attitude of Asuka in One More Final is the uncertainty of reality, but not a demonstration of love. By no means is it a romantic ending, but it is the coming back to life, and thus, to suffering. A.T. Fields go up again, and thus, the well-known Wall of Jericho of Asuka too. Full understanding between humans will be impossible, but at least Shinji learnt something: it is fine that way; as long as he loves himself, "anywhere can be paradise". Whether it is a "happy" or a "bitter" ending, that's up to the audience. But romantic? Absolutely not. That's why I think after EoE they could try to understand each other's pain to the point of becoming (good) friends, but I cannot possibly imagine any sensible future timeline in which they could be romantically involved and happily living together. (No need to say that after EoE world is a devastated post-apocalyptic place, so I believe they, and the rest of people coming back, should focus on not starving to death and not on having happy marriages). They are still broken children, and no matter how you see it, the best method for the both of them to heal their hearts is to meet emotionally stable people. And according to Yui's words, anyone with the will of coming back will return to life; so they won't be alone forever. I like to think they'll eventually find happiness, but not together, that's for sure. Someone who is as utterly damaged as they are can't possibly heal another one's heart so easily; believing that is quite naïve, in my opinion. They must first try not to crumble, and then, try to recover step by step, but not necessarily sticking together. The fact many fanfics depict them as desperately staying one next to the other or temporarily separating but then coming back shows a certain naïvety, for those authors consider Asuka and Shinji as some kind of "star-crossed lovers". And they have not such a relationship. That might be good for A/S fandom fiction, but that's just pure delusion. All in all, I tried to sum up the basic elements which make AsuShin such a non-viable couple. But just in case there’s still stubborn people not willing to understand it, please allow me to paste here two in-depth analysis concerning this matter: -Interesting analysis about their personality and interaction in canon and fanfics, by Bagheera on EvaGeeks (the 8th comment). "The biggest mistake people make when writing about these two is to treat them like normal teenagers. This doesn't work for two reasons: first, they're very young. Asuka's 13, Shinji 14, and that's a world of difference from the 16, 17, 18-year-olds we're used to as young adults in most Western stories. A couple of years is a really big deal at that age. Second, both teens are heavily damaged, even before Eva gets its hooks into them. That damage is rarely addressed in adequate fashion in fanfic. So, a quick rundown of exactly why this is so with each: Asuka: Here is your mantra when writing Asuka: she is not a bitch. That is to say, she is not mean for the sake of being mean, she is not petty, she is not vengeful, she is not capricious. Instead she is a hystrionic girl with deep-seated abandonment issues, and these two factors drive every aspect of her personality. Some examples: • Asuka is very lonely. Between her abandonment by her mother and her isolated upbringing she’s never been able to connect with anyone, and that’s left her feeling isolated and alone. She hates that more than anything because she equates it with being abandoned and thrown away like trash. • She is fixated on being an adult because her mother "abandoned" her as a child. She was raised with adults, in what Tines likes to call a “hothouse environment”, and that’s the only world that matters to her. In her experience children are ignored at best and thrown away at worst, so she is determined not to be a child. It is her only hope for survival. • As a result of her abandonment Asuka has a crippling lack of self-worth. She hates herself because she wasn’t good enough to keep her mother around, and as a result she’s desperate to prove herself in Eva. If she’s the best at piloting Eva that means she’s important, and if she’s important she has to be accepted and kept around. • Asuka exhibits many instances of black and white thinking, particularly when it comes to gender roles. Despite her precociousness she believes men should ride in and save the day on their white horses, and women should swoon at their feet. But not just any men – worthy men. Her father obviously doesn’t qualify, but Kaji does. Shinji might if he would act like he did when he saved her from the volcano, but he never does so . . . yeah. So, how do these traits interact? The tension between these aspects of her personality is what makes Asuka an interesting character. Her most basic drives demand that she pursue success to whatever extent necessary, since that’s critical for her survival. But, at the same time, she wants to be “saved” by a worthy, manly man. She struggles as hard as she does because most of the men around her aren’t worthy – she can’t depend on them, and she saw what happens to weak women when her father abandoned her mother. So, her most basic drives (her id, if we’re using Freud, silly as the notion may be) demand she survive at any cost, and this drives her to excel. If she can prove herself the adult world will have to accept her. But at the same time she doesn’t want to work like that; her emotional side (her ego, to continue with the Freud analogy) wants to be saved by a manly man who will make a place for her in adult society by default. She hasn’t yet learned to balance the two, and thus acts in a very confusing manner. Shinji: Here is your mantra with Shinji: He is not a spineless wimp. Instead he is an avoidant boy with a crippling lack of self-worth, coupled with a truly remarkable streak of obstinance. He has decided he is a worthless individual whose sense of self is so poorly developed that he can’t even be bothered to commit suicide. In his eyes he is worthless, and as such he firmly believes that he is unable to help others. He has very good reason to believe this is the case, and it has influenced him in various ways: • His father abandoned him as a child, with no explanation given. The implication is obvious: he’s a bad child and his father doesn’t want him. Gendo does absolutely nothing to disabuse him of this notion when he arrives in Tokyo-3. • His mother seemed fond of him, but then she went away. No one ever explained why, and his father sent him away soon after, so in his eyes it’s obviously his fault. The two events are correlated so to his child’s mind they’re linked in cause as well. • Like Asuka Shinji is very lonely, and for many of the same reasons. He was abandoned by both of his parents, raised in isolation, and given little in the way of role models to show him the love and affection a child needs to grow up properly. • Shinji’s obstinance is not just a personality quirk. Instead it is a defense mechanism, and a very useful one. It means that he can identify what little is positive about his circumstances and milk it for all it’s worth, which in turn will give him the wherewithal he needs to get through another day. So, when he receives praise for something (such as playing the cello) he continues to do it; it’s a good thing, so he should keep doing it since that will make him an acceptable person. It also keeps him from running away from pain, which allows him to receive praise and acceptance from adults. In like fashion this is also the root of his apologetic reflex. So, how do these traits interact in Shinji? Well, continuing with the analogy for Asuka his root instinct (his “id”) is to run away, to isolate, to avoid. He is afraid of pain and so he has walled himself away from the world. However, this only invites criticism, which leads to more pain, so he had developed a stubborn streak (his “ego”) to manage his fear and drive him forward in hopes of finding praise from others. As in Asuka’s case he still hasn’t figured out how to balance these traits effectively. Which brings us to writing about these characters. With the above in mind, here are some basic rules of thumb: • There will be no romance. Seriously, these are emotionally stunted children. Even if they were healthy they would only be beginning to explore their sexuality at this age, and they are not healthy. Even though Asuka fantasizes about the idea it is, for her, a means to an end – she doesn’t want a relationship for its own sake, she wants it because, for her, it’s a ticket to securing her status as an adult and gaining acceptance thereby. But she doesn’t even really want to date other boys, and she certainly doesn’t want to kiss them (witness her near-disgust at the prospect with Shinji; she was willing to endure it because it might lead to her being held, but that’s as far as her interest went). Anything beyond that is a farce. • They have serious intimacy issues. They have been denied affection all their lives, they have had little physical contact with others, and they don’t know how to handle it when it does happen. Shinji’s reaction to Asuka’s kiss is a good example: he just stands there, arms locked at his sides, unable to comprehend what to do. He doesn’t want to be touched. • They have different ways of managing the same basic problem. Both kids have been abandoned by adults who have no place for them in their world, and they are very lonely as a result. Asuka is driven to survive but very much wants to be rescued, while Shinji wants to run away and hide but is determined to press forward in a desperate bid for acceptance. In the end they are two sides of the same coin, which is no surprise given that they’re both facets of Anno’s own personality. • They don’t understand one another. Despite their similarities their different coping strategies leave the kids feeling very confused by one another. Their thinking processes and self-awareness aren’t developed enough to catch on to their similarities or the reasoning behind the other’s actions, and so the spines come out. So that’s a bunch of lists, but what does it all mean? Simply put, the kids interact in a number of different ways: As Co-workers: Asuka is driven to succeed, and she doesn’t understand why Shinji isn’t. Moreover, his natural talent is a threat to her, since it suggests she’ll be thrown away as soon as she is no longer useful (which does in fact prove to be the case). Shinji, for his part, considers her something like a sempai despite their ages, since she obviously has more training and more familiarity with Eva than he does. But his talent is such a threat to her that they can’t productively nurture this aspect of their working relationship. As Friends: Because of the threat Shinji represents to her, and the fact that he refuses to be the big hero she wants him to be (in which case the threat would be moot), it would be very difficult for Asuka to accept Shinji as any sort of friend. She hides behind the claim that he’s boring, but that’s not quite it – it’s more that he’s useless to her, and on top of that a threat. But Shinji doesn’t understand the whys and wherefores of any of this, so even though he wants to be her friend he doesn’t know how to do it. As Lovers: Hahahahahahaha no. " -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Long and brilliant article about Asuka, by ritsumaya on tumblr: 'EVA Analysis: Asuka Langley Sohryuu' Finally, as a very personal opinion, I would like to state AsuShin shippers are not truly fans of Asuka. Moreover, to me it looks like they actually despise her. I mean, Shinji objectified her, locking the hospital room and masturbating to her comatose body. Also, (from Asuka's point of view) he didn’t help her during the last battle, letting her die miserably. And last but not least, he strangled her twice, during Instrumentality and then again in real world. He tried to kill her, and even if it was Instrumentality, I believe no one would even try to hurt/kill someone they love, even if it’s in a dream or illusion. Not to mention how much they hurt each other constantly. To be honest, to me it looks like someone who supports that kind of relationship really has something against Asuka, to the point of wanting to see her suffering. And of course, calling that "love" is completely out of the question. Some may say human relationships are based on hurting each other, and I fully agree with that. However, there's a clear difference between unwittingly hurting someone and continuously hurting someone. Asuka and Shinji might have similar problems (Misato as well, I would dare to say), but their way to solve them are extremely different, and thus, they are not as compatible as it could be thought. They constantly cause serious damage to each other, which makes it better for the both of them to be separated. Shinji is not a bad boy, but his immaturity and naivety led him to make terrible decisions. In his relationship with Asuka, all that matters at the end are his hormones and primary instincs, and thus, he ends up holding no respect for Asuka as a person, but just seeing her as a mere piece of meat. From my point of view, neither do AxS shippers hold any respect for Asuka at all, for they haven’t understood anything about her, but just want to think of her as the submissive and flat tsundere wife of such a feeble and broken boy like Shinji (I personally can't see the appeal of that relationship). If anyone thinks Asuka would ever accept such a thing, or would be happy with it, I'm afraid that's a ridiculous nonsense, typical of waffy and silly fanfics. On a side note, maybe the fact that the two most important voice actresses of Asuka (Miyamura Yuko in Japanese and Tiffany Grant in English) have repeatedly expressed how much they abhor AxS, stating that they would even prefer to see Shinji ending up with Kaworu or Mari but never ever with Asuka, should be proof enough to understand that such relationship is far from being the "canonical lovey-dovey sweet couple" many naïve fans wrongly believe it is. Neither Asuka's seiyuus nor Yoshiyuki Sadamoto like it. I personally consider defending such a toxic and violent relationship is actually the same as insulting Asuka. I don't mean to offend anyone, but I can just think of one and only sentence to describe both AsuShin and its followers with: “How digusting”. And please, remember this is a club for Asuka fans, not haters. Stop humilliating Asuka so much pairing her with someone like Shinji. She just doesn't deserve that kind of misery. |
CesukeZFeb 8, 2017 6:27 AM
Jan 23, 2017 11:08 PM
#17
CesukeZ said: Stop humilliating Asuka so much pairing her with someone like Shinji. She just doesn't deserve that kind of misery. This made me laugh. And I agree with you. I'm a hard nay on AsuShin, based on the fact that they totally lack compatibility and both are in far too bad a place emotionally in NGE to have any relationship whatsoever. Their entire dynamic is based around how different they are from one another. Asuka's appearance on the beach in EoE is mainly the result of every other female character being out of bounds by that point romantically. Misato is dead (arguably for real, not just "tanged") and Rei is essentially Shinji's mom. Then in the Rebuilds it's pretty clear that Shinji prefers Rei or is homosexual. Even ignoring all of that, I could never condone pairing any woman, much less one of Asuka's caliber, with a guy willing to masturbate to her catatonic body. That's one notch below date rape. |
Aug 21, 2018 7:18 AM
#18
May 16, 2019 3:28 PM
#19
Whole point behind Eva was for Shinji to let go off his mother and find a real girl (Asuka) |
Nov 16, 2019 1:25 PM
#20
Yes. Because of Evangelion: Genocide. |
Jun 22, 2020 7:36 PM
#21
I'm personally a Nay on it. I like having asuka to myself~ But anyway, I don't think they're a good pair. |
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