"Splitting of the Breast" mentions several fictional, science-like terms in Shinji's stream of consciousness. Among these are "genome theory" and "crystallized genes"; according to this theory, which the series writers invented, clay and crystal are the principles of primitive vital activities. The episode also mentions the real term "
biohazard". while the term "biohazard" to
The Andromeda Strain by
Michael Crichton and
Blood Music by
Greg Bear, whose plots involve scenarios of pathogen beings threatening the existence of the human race. The parallel dimension of
imaginary numbers contained within Leliel, called the
Dirac sea, is a reference to a concept physicist
Paul Dirac formulated; according to Dirac, rather than being truly empty, the
void is a sea of particles of
negative energy. The by Yahata Shoten linked the "imaginary number space" with
Stephen Hawking's
imaginary time. According to an official encyclopedia named
Evangelion Chronicle, a space of imaginary numbers is where "protons and antiprotons appear, collide and disappear into the void". According to Ritsuko, the Dirac sea could be connected to
another universe. One scene depicts a blackboard on which Ritsuko has written that there are strings inside Leliel; the writing is a reference to
string theory, Ritsuko on the same board also mentions "
redshift," a phenomenon in
cosmology whereby due to the
Doppler effect the light of galaxies shifts to the red due to the
expansion of the universe. Writer Dennis Redmond interpreted Ritsuko's plan to detonate all existing N² bombs to defeat Leliel and recover Eva-01 as the series' last explicit reference to the
Cold War; and Leliel's ability to absorb Tokyo-3 skyscrapers as analogous to the deflation of Japan's overpriced real-estate market after the
post-1990 collapse of the
bubble economy. He described the sudden release of the Eva-01 as "the shocking birth of a whole new geopolitical subject"; according to him, Eva-01's rebirth signals the arrival of a genuinely East-Asian subjectivity that is "red in export-platform tooth and silicon claw, its eyes glowing with the demonic industrial energies of the Pacific Rim". Furthermore, in the scene where Shinji travels by bus, an advertisement for a store called Bashar is audible, whose name is a reference from a cosmic entity of the same name discussed in books by alleged spiritual medium and writer Darryl Anka. The episode's Japanese title is a reference to
The Sickness Unto Death, the most important work of philosopher
Søren Kierkegaard, who is considered the father of
existentialism. According to Kierkegaard, "sickness unto death" can have three forms: desperately being unaware of having a self, desperately not wanting to be yourself, and desperately wanting to be yourself. Reviewer Giulio Gentile compared Shinji to the first form, Rei to the second, and Asuka to the third. Anime Everyeye's Cristiano Caliciotti described Shinji as a boy who does not want to be himself and Asuka as a girl who desperately wants to be herself. In an interview, director Anno Hideaki said he had never read the book but had cited it out of pedantry to seem intelligent; he had only read the first few pages and quickly lost interest in it so he made assumptions about the rest based on the little he had read. In another interview before the series aired, Anno expressed his doubts about the future of animation of the time. According to him, Japanese animation was in a phase of desperation and people were trying to hide it by talking about hope; according to Anno: "Hope is essentially just a product of despair, so to talk about hope is to be desperate. And despair has another name, 'the sickness unto death'".
Psychology According to
Thrillist's Emma Stefansky, from the sixteenth episode,
Neon Genesis Evangelion starts to become less of a robots-versus-monsters series and more of "an enigmatic character study". "Splitting of the Breast" is part of a series of character-focused episodes According to Kazuya Tsurumaki, the first part of the episode proceeds like a "normal story", while the second half proceeds as an "introspective story"; therefore, the boundary between the first and the second half of the installment could be considered "the dividing line between the front and back of
Evangelion". a theme that is present throughout the series and becomes dominant in its second half. In the opening scene, Asuka accuses Shinji of being
self-deprecating to avoid being criticized or scolded. Self-affliction is one of the episode's themes; it is a mental mechanism with which the subject blames themself for the negative things that happen to them. According to an official card game about the series, Shinji wants to be praised and treated kindly by others; because he is afraid of being hated, he withdraws into his shell and apologizes because "it is less painful to accuse yourself than to let others accuse you". In the following scenes, Shinji receives compliments from Misato, and feels a wave of joy and pride after the praise. Asuka, who is characterized by a proud psychology and is accustomed to being admired, is furious at Shinji's reaction, which for her represents a defeat. She has complex feelings for Shinji and punches the locker in frustration. During the battle against Leliel, Asuka provokes Shinji, who is unusually courageous and decides to face the enemy alone, saying fighting is "a man's job". Shinji is defeated and absorbed into Leliel; he responds to Asuka's provocation by saying using the masculine and haughty directional suffix
te yaru. In
Japanese language,
te yaru indicates one will do something for someone of lower status; using it requires a great deal of self-confidence and it is usually used only by men who have confidence in their superior social positions. and doesn't answer to Asuka's provocations. In the last scene, however, Asuka secretly visits Shinji in the hospital; seeing Asuka's behavior, Shinji smiles. According to academic Cristopher Smith, until his clash with Leliel, Shinji managed to become a man and fit into the "hegemonic hetero-masculinity" like a typical robot-anime protagonist. In one scene, for example, Shinji contemplates his hand, clasping his fingers and saying the masculine-language phrase
yosh ("all right"). and
Yūichirō Oguro noted hands are an important motif in
Evangelion, often indicating an inflection point; Oguro wrote: "Hands are the tools humans use to communicate with others and the outside world, whether they are loving each other or hurting each other". Smith noted Shinji is trapped inside an "empty, womblike" void and curls up in a
fetal position in a uterine bath of oxygenating liquid inside the Eva. After that, he is passively dependent on women—Misato, Ritsuko, and Yui—to save him. According to Oguro, the fact the male protagonist displays masculinity before the battle and is then sucked into the mother's womb symbolizes the series' skepticism about the value of masculinity. Newspaper
Mainichi Shimbun noted a close contact between an Evangelion and an Angel "would have resulted in combat" in a normal anime. According to
Newtype magazine, the series follows the path inaugurated by
Gundam character Amuro Ray, due to which, male protagonists of mecha anime have gradually become less heroic. Inside Leliel, Shinji sees his estranged father Gendo, who praises him; Shinji sees Gendo's praise as a source of spiritual strength, suggesting he fears his father but still wants his approval. In a world without the concept of time, Shinji has a vision in which he sees another,
younger self. He discusses himself with his other self sitting in a train cabin at sunset. The other Shinji coldly analyzes like a doctor the weak points of Shinji; he tells the real Shinji other versions of himself exist in other people minds, and "they are all Ikari Shinji". According to researcher Satohi Tsukamoto: "Shinji contemplates that he has two selves within himself: a core self and a self that acknowledges the core self".
Mechademia magazine described the monologue as a dialogue that is "reminiscent of a psychoanalytic therapy session". According to
Evangelion Chronicle magazine, the scene's train alludes to life. Yahata Shoten's
Evangelion Glossary also noted how Shinji is seen with a red pearl resembling an Angel's core in the same scene. According to the official filmbooks of the series, the two versions of Shinji represent the psychoanalytic concepts of
ego and
super ego, which
Sigmund Freud presented in his work
The Ego and the Id. The Anime Café likened Shinji's dialogue with himself, in which he says there are many "Shinji Ikari" present in the minds of other people, to
Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity, which discusses the role of the "local observer" in high-speed physics. According to Japanese writer Minami Ooka, the idea images of oneself exist in the consciousnesses of other people comes from
Ryū Murakami's novel ; in a scene of the novel, Fruit, girlfriend of the protagonist Zero, tells him there are several Zeros. Academic Yuya Sato likened the style of monologue between the two Shinji to girls'
manga, also known as
shōjo. The words of the monologue are spoken without presupposing the recipient of the message, without any intention of having someone listen to it, just as in
shōjo. Within the narrative universe of shōjo manga, no communication occurs between characters, but the reader can still read monologues. Furthermore, Japanese architect Kaichiro Morikawa compared the structure of the episode to director
Bill Viola's work "Nantes Triptych", which consists of a triptych of three video sequences, of which the middle one shows a body sinking into a bluish liquid and the last one depicting the birth of a baby. "Splitting of the Breast" also presents various motherhood and womb symbolisms. While absorbed inside Leliel, Shinji notices the cabin of Eva-01 smells of blood. Oguro wrote the episode's images and sounds connect the image of the Eva-01 cockpit to a womb, and that female genitalia are visible in the geometric patterns of Leliel's spherical body. According to Bartoli, Shinji is always in a state of dissociation and "splitting" because he wants to accept only pleasant things while fleeing from unpleasant ones. The title can also be understood as a reference to the "torn chest" and the conflict that takes place in Shinji's heart.
Critique of otaku For Yūichirō Oguro, Shinji is not a boy who particularly likes anime or videogames but his desire to turn away from unpleasant things and only do fun things is "
otaku-like"; according to him, Leliel's words to Shinji, who run away from problems—"You can not collect pleasant things like a rosary"—are "sure to be painful for fans of
Evangelion to hear". Oguro also stated: "these questions about people who indulge in their own pleasures led director Anno to criticize
otaku after the first airing of the show". In 1996, Anno said he was disappointed with the reception of the original series, which had become a place of refuge in which to escape from "unpleasant things". According to Kazuya Tsurumaki, the phrase reflects Anno's direct style; because most people do not really pay attention to the dialogue in an anime, Anno began to incorporate more blunt expressions; Tsurumaki said: "expressions which were more introspective or emotionally expressive became more frequent". He also said he worked on the series with the idea Shinji's feelings are a reflection of those of Anno, who is also an
otaku. Tsurumaki described
Evangelion as a "story about communication" that is aimed at
otaku, and that the show "is a message aimed at anime fans including [Anno] himself, and of course, me too. In other words, it's useless for non-anime fans to watch it. If a person who can already live and communicate normally watches it, they won't learn anything". ==Reception==