原文刊载于 New York Times,  Aug. 7, 2021, Section C,  Page 6。

原文标题为《'Evangelion' Director Explains How He Finally Found His Ending》

​​https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/movies/evangelion-hideaki-anno.html

Hideaki Anno is concluding the story of Shinji Ikari and company in a film due on Amazon this month but says, "There might come a time when I meet them again."

本月在亚马逊上线的电影中庵野秀明将结束有关碇真嗣及其身边人物的故事,但他也表示,“也许有一天,还会再度相遇。”


Finally.

Hideaki Anno’s "Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time," which begins streaming on Amazon Prime on Aug. 13, is the film that anime fans have awaited for 25 years. The fourth and final the atricalfeature in the "rebuild" of his landmark 1995-96 television series, "Neon Genesis Evangelion," brings the epic adventure to a definitive conclusion.

终于,动漫迷们期待了 25 年的电影——庵野秀明的 《Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time》 将于 8 月 13 日起上线亚马逊 Prime。这部他在 1995-96 年的标志性作品《新世纪福音战士》的重制版第四部、也是最后一部剧场版作品,为这宏大的故事书写了一个终局。

A compelling, complex work that mixes mechabattles with apocalyptic Christian symbols, Jewish mysticism and teenage angst,"Evangelion" (pronounced eh-van-GEH-lee-on, with a hard G) ranks among the mostwidely discussed TV series in anime history. Its influence is extensive andincludes Japanese animated fantasies and Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 sci-fi adventure "Pacific Rim." And fans continue to debate its significance, subtext anddetails.

Evangelion 这部复杂而又引人入胜的作品,将机甲战斗与末日下的基督教符号、犹太神秘主义和青春期的焦虑结合在了一起,是动画史上讨论最广泛的番剧之一。它广泛地影响了从日本动画业界到科幻电影《环太平洋》【由吉尔莫·德尔·托罗 (Guillermo del Toro) 执导,2013 年上映】的创作。时至今日,粉丝们仍在热情讨论着它的细节、潜台词以及其寓意与内涵。

"My influence on other creators isn’t something I think about when I’m working on a film," Anno told me in an interview. "I decide what to make based on what I’m best suited for and what interests me most at the time. The 'Evangelion' project repeatedly came up, soI made the new theatrical movies. I don’t think that kind of opportunity will occur again."

庵野在一次访谈中和我说:“对其他创作者的影响并不是我拍电影时要考虑的东西,我只是基于自己当时的兴趣和自己适合的内容来创作。Eva 的项目一再反复,我也创作了新的电影。我不认为还会有这样的机会了。”

In the series, which takes place in thenot-too-distant future, humanity is locked in a mortal struggle with bizarre, staggeringly powerful creatures known as Angels. The only effective weapons against them are the Evangelions or Evas, gigantic cyborgs guided by psychic teenagers. The hero is Shinji Ikari, an alienated 14-year-old who is drafted by his brutal father to pilot the Eva 01.

在 Evangelion 的故事中,人类在近未来与被称为使徒的奇异而惊人强大的造物展开了殊死斗争。唯一对使徒有效的武器是由异于他人的少年所驾驶的巨型人造使徒 Evangelions ,也就是 EVA(译注:这里原文用的 cyborgs,为了贴近设定改成了人造使徒)。而这主人公则是年仅 14 岁就被严厉的父亲要求驾驶初号机的碇真嗣。

Despite its popularity, "Evangelion" never had a satisfactory ending. The original series failed to resolve the intricateplot, with its theological and ontological overtones. Shortly before "Evangelion" aired, Anno wrote that he had created it after four years ofsevere depression when he was "a wreck, unable to do anything" and that "the story has not yet ended in my mind." "I don’t know what will become of Shinjior (the other characters), or where they will go." he wrote.

尽管 Evangelion 广受欢迎,却并未有令人满意的结局。最初的 TV 系列故事结尾未能解决错综复杂的情节,以及其中神学和本体论/存在论暗示的含义。在 Evangelion 播出前不久,庵野写道,这是他在经历了四年的严重抑郁之后创作的,当时的他“一事无成,无能为力”,而且“在我的脑海中故事还远未结束。我不知道真嗣或(其他角色)会成为什么样子,也不知道他们会去往何方。”

Anno was clearly not satisfied, as he continued to look for a conclusion, recutting the last episodes and reworking them in the feature "Death & Rebirth" (1997) and again in the second 1997 feature "The End of Evangelion."

庵野显然并不满意(TV 结局),他继续探索结束的形式,并在 1997 年的《死与新生》和《The End of Evangelion》两部剧场版中重新制作编排了 TV 最后几集。

In 2002, Anno announced plans for afour-feature "rebuild", a reimagining of the story, unconstrained by thefinancial and technological limits he had originally faced. "Evangelion: 1.0You Are (Not) Alone" (2007) was a flamboyant retelling of the first six television episodes. "Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance" (2009) and "Evangelion: 3.0You Can (Not) Redo" (2012) took the characters and story in completely new directions. Nine years later, "You Can (Not) Redo" brings the saga to asurprisingly upbeat cluoncsion.

2002 年,庵野宣布了一项涵盖四部剧场版的“重制”计划(译注:2002 是错的,2002 尚未提出企划),这是不受曾经面临的经济和技术所制约的全新故事,《福音战士新剧场版:1.0 You Are (Not) Alone》(2007) 是对 TV 前六集的华丽再现,《福音战士新剧场版:2.0 You Can (Not) Advance》(2009) 和《福音战士新剧场版:3.0 You Can (Not) Redo》(2012) 则将角色和故事完完全全转变为了全新的方向。九年后,“You Can (Not) Redo” 给这部长篇呈现了令人惊讶的积极结局。(译注:此处应该为作者笔误,应该为终的副标题 Thrice Upon a Time)

Speaking from Tokyo via Zoom and a translator, Anno said, "For the rebuild series, I intended the first 'Evangelion' movie to be similar to the TV series, the second would gradually change the story, and third and fourth would be totally different. From the first, I didn’t intend to do the same thing as the TV series."

庵野在东京通过 Zoom 与翻译谈到:“对于重制的(新剧场版)系列,我打算第一部剧场版与 TV 故事近似,从第二部将逐渐改变,第三部和第四部则是完全不同的故事。从一开始,我就没有想做和 TV 系列一样的故事。”

These four films showcase Anno’s skill atusing new computer-graphic technology to create more powerful iterations of his original visions. In the TV series, when troops attacked the Angel Ramiel, it destroyed the humans and their weapons in a series of unremarkable explosions;in "You Are (Not) Alone", the audience can almost feel the heat when the Angelreduces the tanks and missiles to glowing slag.

这四部电影展现了庵野运用前沿的 CG 技术进行创作的技巧,创造出了更甚于原篇的表现力。在 TV 系列中,当部队攻击雷天使时,它只是在一连串并不起眼的爆炸中摧毁了人类武器;而在《福音战士新剧场版:序》中,观众几乎可以感受到雷天使将坦克和导弹变成发光的熔渣时的热量。

In the rebuild, Anno also delves deeperinto the fragile psyche of his flawed, traumatized hero and the eccentricpersonalities around him. When Anno described his approach to the characters,he spoke with an intensity that crossed linguistic boundaries.

在重制系列中,庵野还深入挖掘了男主有缺陷而饱受伤害的脆弱心灵,以及他身上的古怪气质。当庵野描述他所创作的角色的时候,他言语中的激情溢于言表。

"In animation, nothing is real. But I wanted to bring more of a sense of reality into this made-up world — I wanted to make the characters more human," he explained. "There’s a gap between what people say in real life and what they truly mean. In animation, unless the charactersare intentionally lying, they always say what they mean. I wanted to reverse that: When the characters in 'Evangelion' speak, they don’t necessarily say what they mean. I wanted to add this human behavior to animation."

“在动画中一切都是虚构的,没有真实感。但我想更多地将现实感带入这个虚构的世界——我想让人物更富有人性,”他解释说,“现实生活中,人们所说的话与他们真正表达的东西之间总有着隔阂。而在动画中,除非角色撒谎,否则角色总是所言即所想。而我想改变这种情形。当《Evangelion》中的人物说话时,他们并不一定表达的是他们的真实想法。这是我想在动画中加入的更趋近于现实中的人的行为逻辑。”

"People feel Shinji is an unusual hero," he continued. "I think that’s due to the sense of reality I brought, drawing on my experience and knowledge. But Shinji and the other characters are not just a reflection of me; they include elements of the personalities of all the artists on the creative team."

“大家觉得真嗣并不是寻常意义上的英雄,”庵野补充道,“我想这正是因为这种借用了自身经历与所知描绘处的‘现实感’。但同时,真嗣和其他角色也不仅仅是我个人的写照,他们也有着创作团队中其他创作人员的个性映射其中。”

The original "Evangelion" was a huge hit that helped reverse a slump in the Japanese animation industry: When the final episode was broadcast in March 1996, more than 10 percent of all televisions in Japan were tuned to it. "Evangelion" remains popular, with hundreds of millionsof dollars in sales of videos and related merchandise. The newer features continued that success: "Thrice Upon a Time" opened in Japan on March 3 and played for more than 135 days in theaters there, earning more than 10.22 billion yen (about $93 million) — despite the pandemic.

最初的《新世纪福音战士》强烈地冲击了日本动画产业,帮助扭转了当时行业的低迷。当 1996 年 3 月播出最后一集时,日本本土的收视率达到了 10% 。 Evangelion 的影视与周边的销售额高达数亿美元,并且始终保持着高人气。最新的电影也续写着成功,《新·福音战士剧场版:终》自 3 月 8 日在日本本土上映,在映时长超过 135 天,即使有新冠疫情的冲击,仍然揽获了超过 102.2 亿日元的票房。

Reflecting on that continued popularity,Anno said, "As a creator, I want to make things that are entertaining but have depth. I didn’t want our show to be some escape-from-reality type ofentertainment, I wanted people who watched it to feel encouragement to live their own lives."

庵野在谈到这种持续性的高人气时说:“作为一个创作者,我想做的是兼具娱乐性的同时有深度的创作。我不希望我们的作品是用来逃避现实的娱乐内容,我希望观看我作品的人都能够感受到鼓舞,更好地继续自己的生活。”

Anno is shifting to live action for hisnext project. In April, the Toei Company announced he would direct "Shin Kamen Rider", part of the 50th anniversary celebration of that popular superhero franchise. It’s planned for release in March 2023.

庵野已经开始将企划方向转向真人电影。4 月,东映宣布他将执导假面骑士系列 50 周年纪念企划《新·假面骑士》。该片计划于 2023 年 3 月上映。

When asked how it felt to bid farewell to "Evangelion" after more than 25 years, Anno concluded, "I don’t feel a need to see Shinji and the other characters any time soon. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see them ever again: There might come a time when I meet them again."

当被问及在 25 年后与 Evangelion 系列告别的感受时,庵野如是说:“我觉得短期内没必要再见到真嗣以及其他角色了。但这并不意味着我不想再见到他们。也许,会有一天,我们还会再度相遇吧。”


本文由站主 Aki 全文翻译,衷心感谢友人在翻译过程中提供的协力、帮助与修改意见。