“rei ayanami was supposed to be creepy as a middle finger to fanboys!!”
this is an old western-bro fandom myth fabricated during the early days of 4chan/evageeks. anno, hayashibara, and co. have never said anything remotely suggesting the sort (rather, anno’s described rei as the ‘most inexpressible’ part of him; hayashibara remarking similar) - this also evades everything rei is to justify never considering her beyond the surface level (if rei was supposed to be ‘creepy’, what else is there?)
rei is existential - rei is isolation, rei’s entire narrative gestures heavily at what it means to be a body (”the body as an identity involves resources”) - what it means to be defined by your trauma, physically and psychologically. people don’t relate to rei because she’s “creepy” (she’s not), people relate to rei because she’s othered, ostracized, abused, socially inept. rei was forced into a life of constant-dissociation by an abusive man, a life in which she is a stranger to herself, and pretentious nerds still have the gall to call her ‘creepy’ as if they’re saying something subversive
there’s nothing enlightened about calling an abused 14 year old girl “creepy”, nothing about rei is “creepy”, it’s sad and harrowing and existentially-laden
I remember an interview between him and another director though, where they are talking about how she should become something scary to teach otakus a lesson (enjoying her for being submissive). I don’t think her having a scary element (look at End of Eva) and her personality are mutually exclusive. It’s not that she’s a monster, but incredibly idiosyncratic.
Rei Ayanami was a critique to postwar Japan, the whole escapism and the constant seek to be pampered. Must be from the same interview.
Non Japanese fandoms are the worst when it comes to discussing the concept of otaku and Eva because they make everything gravitate towards “anime fans” “fanboys” and similar and have zero understanding of context. Same happens with Miyazaki, particularly that one interview speaking of gun and militarly otaku that people turned into “anime was a mistake”. It has gotten old.
