Norweigan Wood and Evangelion Analysis

In this blog post, I will compare and analyze the renowned and beloved Japanese novel you should all check out, Norweigan Wood, from acclaimed author Haruki Murakami, with Evangelion. If you haven't read Norweigan Wood, I strongly advise you do so before continuing to read this post, as major spoilers will be discussed. However, I am going to break down this post in a mild spoiler and spoiler section, so feel free to read the mild spoiler section first if you haven't read Norweigan Wood. The first section can be considered a non-spoiler section in its own right.

First, what needs to be discussed is that Norweigan Wood is an excellent coming-of-age story. In this story, Toru is a college student who has just suffered the grief of his high school best friend committing suicide. This is when Toru learns that death is not the opposite of life but a part of life. As Toru begins his college life, he falls in love with his deceased friend's girlfriend, Naoko, who has a mental breakdown. She drops out of college and checks herself into a rehab center. This is the start of Toru experiencing loneliness as he tries to find ways to cope with it.

Toru desperately waits for Naoko to recover and return in hopes that they can start a new life together. Meanwhile, Toru builds quirky friendships in college, including with another young woman, Midori, who may or may not be a new love interest. Toru also makes a friendship with an upperclassman, Nagasawa, who suits himself as a player and takes Toru out on nighttime escapades to pick up and sleep with college-aged girls. Toru tries to cope with his loneliness by sleeping with as many girls as he can to "relieve" himself while he patiently waits for Naoko.

Does Toru consider Naoko to be his new girlfriend, even though he goes out of his way to sleep with so many other young women? That’s the question I pose for you.

In my view, Toru has an emptiness inside him he is trying to fill. It goes beyond just loneliness. Nagasawa's girlfriend, Hatsumi, puts Toru on the spot with the same question stated above. Does Toru consider Naoko to be his new girlfriend, even though he goes out of his way to sleep with so many other young women? She accuses him of sleeping with other girls even though he is holding out for Naoko, and he even says it's not especially fun for him. Toru doesn’t have an easy answer for Hatsumi, but he summarizes it that he has a longing for human touch and warmth. This is something most of you can relate to at one point or another; especially characters from Evangelion.

SPOILERS AHEAD DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ NORWEIGAN WOOD AND DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED

Midori is another character who feels especially lonely and desperate for human connection, just like Toru. She has a boyfriend, yet she likes spending most of her quality time with Toru and even says many sexual things to him, not so subtly. These are the seeds Midori spreads to, eventually advancing on Toru much more deliberately. Towards the end of the story, Toru has to decide whether to settle down with Midori instead or continue to wait for Naoko. Since Midori actually dumps her boyfriend and makes a sincere proposal of relationship to Toru. She makes a really compelling case for herself, seeing as how she is healthy and able to work, unlike Naoko, who has fallen into much more unfortunate circumstances.

Then Naoko kills herself towards the end of the story.

Many of the characters in Norweigan Wood I also notice feel "trapped." These include Toru, Midori, Naoko, and Reiko. Each in their own unique and different ways, they all feel trapped and are all going through mental trauma of some kind. Naoko, without a doubt, is the one who is having mental trauma the worst. Since she doesn't know how to be with anyone else romantically other than Kizuki, who is now dead. All of these said characters, including Nagasawa, crave human intimacy and contact.

Reiko feels trapped by her own past of a failed marriage and a failed music career. Nagasawa feels somewhat trapped despite his academic success and success as a player, but it seems to me he has a hard time completely accepting that he can’t just settle down with one person and live a more conventional life. Toru, of course, feels trapped for Kizuki's suicide, followed by Naoko's. He can't just move on with Midori so quickly.

Toru is trapped in this vicious cycle. His vicious cycle, in many ways, reminds me of our boy Shinji struggling with his decision to pilot the Eva. Since he doesn't want to pilot the Eva during the TV series, but feels he has no choice because it's what's expected of him and the only way he can earn validation from his peers and higher-ups. Because of this, Shinji feel trapped by his circumstances as he is forced to pilot the Eva. Both Norweigan Wood and Evangelion capture the feelings of being trapped and in an endless cycle very well. The drama is certainly there, whether its a theme of suicide or an apocalyptic world, the dramatic settings put on the characters really make you feel their struggles and tensions.

Many other characters in Eva feel trapped too. To cite just a few examples: Gendo Ikari feels trapped as he doesn't see any other solution for himself other than Human Instrumentality so that he could reunite with Yui. He takes advantage of ancient scriptures and tries to play God just to meet his goals. Asuka feels trapped since she feels alone and no one can relate to her as she is a top-notch Eva pilot. All her sense of value and self-worth comes from piloting the Eva. Therefore she is frustrated when Shinji can't satisfy her sexually. Hence she feels trapped and alone. Funny enough I sense a very subtle similarity between Asuka and Midori in how big their personalities are, how much they’ve been screwed over in their upbringings, and both feeling sexually frustrated since neither Shinji or Toru is willing to satisfy them sexually. Shinji and Asuka also suffer the Hedgehog’s Dilemma. This makes them attracted to each other but also is what pulls them apart. How about that?

I would like to end by stating that Evangelion is a story that repeats itself and happens in cycles. Norweigan Wood is also a story that happens in repetitions and cycles. They are also both stories about coping with loneliness and mental trauma. And for some characters in the most severe cases, such as Naoko and Misato, mental illness. These stories take their genre to a whole new level; both of them just so happen to play with similar themes. These are two different stories in two different mediums, but I would encourage everyone to check out or revisit Norweigan Wood and appreciate its similarities with Evangelion.

Harold Maben