Theory and Analysis:Kaworu's lines in Episode 24

After the 2019 Netflix re-release of Eva, the re-translation of Kaworu Nagisa's lines in Episode 24 were questioned by portions of the fan base, who believe it is mischaracterizing the original intent of the authors or altering something from the original show (which received no alterations in its Japanese Eva release). This is mostly based out of the ADV Platinum DVD localisation, but it misses some facts regarding both the previously existing translations and the current one, including false claims about older translations, and well as Evangelion as it was originally written. In fact, there is abundant evidence suggesting that not only the new Khara (and not Netflix) translation is by far the most accurate one ever made, under stricter supervision by the original creators of the show.

Background for the translation

Evangelion fan comic translated by Dan from the Eva Fan Club, which came out with the original Japanese Evangelion video release in 1996. Full issue available here.

The circumstances regarding the new localization aren't publicly known, and some believe the changes are executive decisions made by Netflix themselves. It seems strange that Netflix, a company very publicly committed to LGBT representation, would somehow want to censor anything in Eva, which it hasn't even marketed heavily in the first place. However, it is publicly known that the dub is made by a company called VSI Group, and the translation work is credited to Dan Kanemitsu. Dan is not just some random translator chosen by Netflix, in fact, he is Khara's in-house translator and has worked directly with them since at least 2007, and has been involved with Gainax, Khara and Evangelion for a long time, since at least 1989. He is directly responsible for official translations of Eva done in the past, and has worked directly with Khara since at least Evangelion 1.0. He is directly credited with the subtitle track for Evangelion 3.0, for instance.

After the original 3.0 dub, which was available on initial theatrical showings, and full of inaccuracies, Funimation had to re-dub Evangelion 3.0 for its DVD/Bluray release under supposedly much closer Khara supervision, which was only released in 2016, four years after the movie's original release. It is likely Khara has also closely supervised the new translation, in order to avoid mistranslations and misinterpretations. While we can't know for certain how much involvement the show's writers, or Anno, have had with this translation, Dan has been involved with Evangelion for a long time and has been a fan since the original release more than 20 years ago(see the image). Dan has a degree in East Asian studies form the University of Minnesota. Their academic press specializes in translating anime criticism originating from Japan, for example, translations of books by Azuma Hiroki and Tamaki Saito and a academic journal called "Mechademia", specialized in anime and manga research. He also has extensive experience translating other anime and manga for 30 years.

Dan is quite possibly, the most qualified person on the planet to make this translation while conveying the desires of notoriously perfectionist Studio Khara. He probably has direct input and direction from Khara themselves. Although Dan has refused to comment on any specific change, he has defended his commitment to accuracy and the ambiguity and open-endedness present in Eva in general, something also repeatedly defended by Anno. Dan states that he commonly consults the original creator of a work when the meaning is unclear or needs to be specified.

In a tweet, Carrie Keranen, the director for the English re-dub and new voice of Misato, stated that "Japan made the casting decisions" through blind auditions. This tweet appears to have been deleted, but you can find a screenshot here, the Web Archive here, and the Twitter conversation leading to it here. Virtually all of the many old mistakes and inconsistencies present in the ADV translation which have bugged Evangelion fans for years seem to have been fixed.

Because Khara's (and any Japanese company's) control of a localization is essentially as tight or as loose as they want to, it might also be worth noticing that, unlike the English dub, non-English localisations have largely kept their old cast and even retained many of the old mistakes for the Netflix re-release, as non-English localisations of Eva (and many anime) are often translated from the English version, not the original Japanese one and tend to be entirely outsourced, as it seems many of them simply used the older ADV script with some slight corrections instead of a brand-new, Khara-supplied script. Much like it also happened with the Rebuild movies, in which only Shinji, Asuka and Misato retained the same voice actors from the first ADV release by the time of Eva 1.0 and 2.0, Khara generally only shows real interest in English localisations as far as international releases of Eva go. All of this seems to further indicate Khara has indeed kept much a much closer watch on the new localisation than they ever did with any ADV release of Evangelion. The older ADV and Manga releases of Evangelion also took some creative liberties and even contained many notorious translation errors, particularly in End of Evangelion, which are absent from this new release, which in turn exemplifies how Gainax's handling of them was likely much more lax. This seems to have been the case particularly for the 1998 English dub, which according to Gendo's voice actor was based off fan translations.

Noticeably, the Evangelion 3.0 dub was not handled by Dan, including the redub. It introduces numerous mistakes both in translation, directing and performance which completely alter the film. This was extended even to advertising, with Misato acting far more hostile to Shinji during the Central Dogma fight. Whereas in the original Japanese and the subtitle track by Dan she is concerned that Shinji might die when Fourth Impact is starting (and uses the affectionate -kun suffix), in the dub Allison Keith angrily grows at Shinji as if she is mad at him. This suggests that the Funimation dub director specifically imposed their (unfounded) interpretation of the movie into the dub performances. Many other important plot details are also omitted or changed, such as Kaworu being "defated" by the 13th Angel instead of "cast down" to the 13th Angel, or Asuka simply saying that Shinji has already caused an Impact instead of asking if he is trying to start another one, which omits the fact that Asuka (and Kaworu) is aware that pulling the Spears would inevitably start another Impact, but Shinji isn't. All of this contributes to the viewer incorrectly assuming Wille are far more hostile to Shinji and that he is a lot more at fault for things than he really is. None of these mistakes are present in the subtitle track by Khara and Dan. This is merely an example of how much an anime with so many intricate detail such as Evangelion can get completely affected by inaccurate translations of seemingly minor detail.

As such, it is not at all accurate to say this is Netflix's localisation. Rather, this is Khara's localisation, and whatever changes the new localisation have were directly approved or perhaps even mandated by Eva's own creators, in order to reflect their original intent and how the anime was originally written. Unlike with 3.0, this applies to both the English dub and sub, which reflect this desire on Khara's part to avoid mistakes again.

Older localisations

Comparison of ADV Platinum (DVD), Netflix/Khara and ADV VHS subtitles

The debate regarding Kaworu's line isn't new. It is in fact, reflected in our wiki:

Kaworu uses the ambiguous "suki" form which includes intimacy or friendship or anything more, and can simply mean "like" or "fond of", and that he is deserving of "koui" (好意), which means simply "good will" or "favor", not "koi", "love". When he mentions this to Misato later, Shinji also used the ambiguous "suki" form.

Some images circling around the Internet compare "the original translation" to the Netflix one. However, this is untrue. In fact, the choice of "like" is in fact more common than "love". The original ADV subtitle track, released with the original ADV VHS release in 1998, used "like", though the dub, which took some creative liberty, used "love". The ADV dub did use "love", but as mentioned above those were far more innacurate, with less Gainax oversight and according to Gendo's voice actor were based off fan translations. As such, it's likely they were simply reproducing whatever options and mistakes the fansubbers made. However, the ADV DVD re-releases used "love" for both the sub and dub. The new Netflix/Khara release uses "like" for both the sub and dub. Likewise, several fansubbers have used both "like" and "love".
Additionally, the "koui" has been misheard by some early fansubbers as "koi", but the Japanese subtitles as well as the scripts for the show make it clear this is not the case. "koi" refers to romantic love as a concept, but "koui" is quite neutral, referring to good will, favour, sympathy, regard, appreciation etc. Some screenshots from a pre-2000 fansub with this mistake are also being circulated. The ADV VHS, ADV DVD and Netflix/Khara subs render this as "sympathy", "regard" and "grace", respectively.

The nature of Kaworu's lines

Much like the rest of Evangelion, the discussion of Kaworu's lines is extensive and polarizing both in Western and Japanese fandoms, not because of the words he used, but what he means by them.

While this article will not concern itself with trying to interpret Kaworu's intentions, the episode or the character, this ambiguity is completely necessary and present in the original Japanese script as Kaworu is not entirely human and shows clear lack of understanding of levels of intimacy, personal space and societal norms, key aspects in Japanese society. In fact, this is probably one of the reasons why Shinji is so shocked by him - he does not act or talk like a normal person, because he isn't one. Interpretations of Kaworu himself also vary wildly, including some that range from him as manipulative, or simply unaware. Simply put, one is not supposed to wonder what he says, but what he means.

The usage of "suki" in Japanese is complicated - in the way it's present in the original text, it can be used to signify friendship, affection, appreciation, intimacy, fondness, platonic love, romantic love, godly love, and everything in between. Like the rest of Eva, it is necessary to try and get the context for this in order to understand what the text is trying to get across. Regardless of what one thinks Kaworu means, the fact is that the original Japanese text is deliberately written as ambiguous and open-ended, and invites all of these interpretations. If the original Japanese text chose to use, more specific words like "Ai" or "Aishiteru", which explicitly mean romantic love, that would have a specific meaning, taking away the ambiguity present here. Even "daisuki", which essentially means "strong/big love/like" would have been possible. Similarly, "like" in English can be interpreted in many ways, but "love", despite also being interpretable in many ways, carries a stronger weight in English.

Some have argued that the change lessens the weight of the relationship or that it is hard to believe that Shinji would be so affected by someone just saying "like", but Shinji makes it abundantly clear that he feels he has no one that even cares about him, and Kaworu briefly makes him think otherwise, however he deposits all of this into Kaworu, and feels betrayed and used by him later. This belief that nobody cares about him is solidified and repeated later in Instrumentality both in EoE and EoTV, as Shinji even refuses to believe Misato, Asuka and Rei are genuinely nice to him, thinking it is a lie, as Shinji is even more unwilling to navigate the uncertainties and ambiguity of interacting with other humans with their own needs and desires and insecurities. Regardless of how he interprets it or how Kaworu intends it, Shinji is not looking for romantic or platonic or godly or any sort of love, but instead for an emotional crutch, for any sort of connection whatsoever, partially because Shinji himself has isolated himself from others. This is extended to him asking the same from Asuka in EoE, as well, but she demands affection from him as well and refuses to just be an escape. Shinji is, for better or worse, that pathetic (as Asuka puts it) at both these points.

Even the stranger choice, "worthy of my grace", might make more sense in retrospect. While this is a completely valid translation, it is certainly strange to just be dropped in an interpersonal conversation like Kaworu does. This might be why Shinji felt the need to ask Kaworu what he meant by that in the first place. After all, Shinji still shows a lack of reaction besides surprise to these lines and is still unsure of how to react, as the way Kaworu acts is also shocking to him. He only says something on his part later, when he says that Kaworu has betrayed him just like his father, and even when he mentions this to Misato later, he still uses suki.

Admittedly, "grace" does add some extra weight to interpretations of Kaworu as expressing a sort of godly affection for Shinji, and perhaps not just him but humanity as a whole, as Shinji seems to be some sort of avatar of humanity to him. This is backed by additional context, as Kaworu says this just after talking about human nature and fragility and human hearts. It is the most puzzling change, and might say something if it was deliberately chosen by Khara themselves. Some have claimed that Kaworu's "I think I was born to meet you" line also uses explicitly romantic language, but much like "suki", he uses a word that applies to friends, co-workers or family members just fine. Because Japanese is a high-context culture, it is simply not possible to extract exact intentions based on the language used alone.

Cultural differences and commentaries by staff

This is not the only case where cultural nuance can get lost in translation - some people point to Kaworu telling this to Shinji in NERV's public bath (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a shower) as being further proof of romantic intentions, but as a matter of fact public baths are extremely common and casual social occurrences in Japan. Kaworu doing so in a public bath carries no specific weight at all, in fact, due to his lack of understanding of such societal norms, it probably makes no difference to him whatsoever. Public baths in Japan can be shared by friends, co-workers, classmates, but also lovers. They are about as romantic, or as casual as parks can be. Anno, in fact, has specifically explained how casual public baths are, specially in the countryside, which he is from. As a matter of fact, in Episode 10, Shinji and Asuka are frustrated that they can't go on a trip that includes going to public baths, and at the end of the episode Shinji shares a public bath with Pen Pen, while Asuka shares one with Misato.

Finally, while some Westerners might think that Anno and Gainax would need to "hide" homoerotic undertones under ambiguity for fear of censorship or criticism, that is an extremely shaky idea, considering that not only have Anno and Gainax repeatedly defended their artistic decisions from heavy, scathing criticism and consciously chosen to take risky paths (the ending of the series being the most clearly example) even though they knew it might not bode well with fans, but also because of the fact that Japan, even in 1995, already had a considerable amount of what might very well be seen as LGBT media, with numerous examples of anime and manga (Sailor Moon and Utena are good contemporary examples). Although Japanese society is not particularly progressive even today, it tends to have zero to no problem with homoerotic and homosexual relationships in media. In fact, it tends to be seen as a "phase" most of all or played for laughs instead of the morally reprehensible thing it could be for some Western audiences, particularly in 1995. Instead, Anno chose to inject significant levels of violence, nudity and adult themes into his work (which was originally aired in a children's time slot), which did gather some criticism but he has always defended the need for it. As such, Anno would not really have to fear repercussions if he chose to portray a unambiguous and decidedly homoerotic relationship, nor would any notions of representation be relevant to Japanese audiences. Rather, the ambiguity in the episode allows the narrative to explore several themes related to Kaworu's character, his condition as an Angel in relation to humanity, as well as of course the moment Shinji is going under in the larger context of the story and themes, and this ambiguity and open-endedness is present throughout all of Evangelion with many other relationships Shinji has, like those with Asuka, Misato or Rei, and mainly the ultimate results they have narratively, in order to get the viewer to think about what the show is trying to say and what points it is trying to convey.

Dan Kanemitsu has specifically defended the ambiguity here:

While I am not in a position to refer specifically to the decision involved in the scene you described, in all my translation of any title, I have tried my best to be faithful to the original source material. Bar none.

The power of storytelling sometime depends on the ability of audiences to establish emotional relationships with the characters, as well as, recognize intimacy between people based on inferences.

It is one thing for characters to confess their love. It is quite another for the audience to infer affection and leave them guessing. How committed are the characters? What possible misunderstandings might be talking place? Leaving room for interpretation make things exciting.

Dan's tweets on the matter

About a month after the Netflix release, Megumi Ogata, the original Japanese VA for Shinji, also got wind of this and expressed her opinion, interpreting it as "like" and thinking the new translation is closer to the original anime:

From the original cast I thought it was "Like" within the drama/play, but conversely in the 90's era Sailormoon, those girls* were Only you "Love". Nuance is difficult. #Eva #Sailormoon (*Haruka/Michiru)

Translation is difficult. But now, the original anime is since closer in translation, personally I'm glad for each individual flow (Those girls in Sailormoon were related, "female cousins" in those days of the North American broadcasting). #Eva #Sailormoon

Music is...difficult*...I absolutely want everyone to have the opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the original (Japanese language) version, to please enjoy it❤️#Eva #Sailormoon (*Netflix International Fly me to the Moon absence)

Ogata's tweets, translated by an EvaGeeks forum member. She also contrasts this to the notorious decision of an early American adaptation of Sailor Moon, another anime she has worked on, that changed a lesbian relationship into "cousins", but agrees to the new Eva localization as being according to her interpretation and how the show was written.

Supplemental material

Excerpt wrongly attributed to Anno; Evangelion Chronicle Character Guide

In order to defend one or another specific interpretations, some fans are also circulating supplemental evidence regarding this episode. A lot of this is incorrect information, however. An image of a character guide stating Kaworu is a "same-sex romantic interest" is real, but it is not an official Gainax statement. Rather, this is a character guide from two books with collected interviews, including some by Anno, called Schizo and Parano. However, this character guide was not written by Anno or anyone else from Gainax, but rather independently by the interviewer/editor themselves, Kentaro Takekuma, and is present on a section of the book separate from Anno's interviews. This is also contradicted by other supplemental material, such as the Evangelion Chronicle Encyclopedia's own character guide, which lists both Kaworu and Rei as simply "Favourable feelings" in regards to Shinji, however Asuka is listed as "Complex feelings" and "Love/Hate". Usually Kaworu is either just listed as another friend, or not even mentioned at at all. Sometimes these guides even contradict themselves and other parts of the same material. In fact, Anno has explicitly denied "carnal feelings" on Shinji's part in an interview, one of the very few instances in which he directly explained something about Eva's plot. Some interviews also seem to suggest staff was generally unaware of Kaworu leaving such a strong impression on the audience, or him even becoming popular at all.
This is not the only instance where people have mistakenly claimed obscure pieces of Japanese text as coming straight from Anno - it has happened even with visual novel video game guides featuring routes for Kaworu with Shinji, but also Shinji with Asuka, Rei, or even Misato and Hikari. Guides such as these are written by people with usually no links to Gainax or Khara whatsoever, and often simply serve specific purposes, like such video games. Most supplemental material simply does not mention Kaworu, or put him on the same level as other characters. How much Gainax or Khara supervise them is unknown, and there is no reason to assume they are even aware of every single line written on them. This is not even exclusive to Eva, as incorrect or inconsistent information is present in supplemental material for many anime, series and films. In fact, Anno and others have repeatedly stated many times that they will not provide all the answers and want the audience to figure things out by themselves, so it would seem strange that Anno would say that and then provide a character guide directly explaining what all characters mean to one another. The problem with this approach is discussed in our Theory and Analysis:What Is Canon? page.