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INTEREST: Japanese Fans, Official Translator Weigh in on Netflix Evangelion English Subtitle Debate

I do agree with whiskeyii though that "leftist" was a bad word choice here. That conjures up a very different image in the mind of a western viewer than it does a Japanese one, and I really do think "terrorist" or "terrorist group" would've gotten the point across just as well with minimal confusion.
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Honestly, and I don't mean to come off like I'm picking a fight here, but acting as though this comes down to butthurt shippers is pretty willfully ignorant. I personally don't give a shit either way about Shinji/Asuka or Shinji/Kaworu, but I was pretty irritated by these changes regardless

You just got done saying Kaworu/Shinji was "one of the most iconic queer confessions in anime". It's pretty clear you care about this ship or at least are saying it's canon, when it is just fan headcanon and shipping and not official at all.

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I also just want to say that I think that the Twitter harassment really sucks big time. These days it feels practically impossible to discuss certain issues without a) making harassers feel justified in their shitty behaviours, or b) becoming a target of harassment yourself. Often both.

Frog-kun wrote:

[...] I also just want to say that I think that the Twitter harassment really sucks big time. These days it feels practically impossible to discuss certain issues without a) making harassers feel justified in their shitty behaviours, or b) becoming a target of harassment yourself. Often both.

This is why I will not touch social media with a nine-foot pole. The risk just isn't worth it.....

Are you really trying to tell me that "I want to be with you forever" and "You're the only one for me" aren't loaded with romantic subtext? And that's putting aside the fact that Shinji is literally not actually saying those words in the audio track. You could only make the jump from "Asuka, help me. It's no good if anyone but Asuka helps me!" (super clunky but literal) to "Please, you're the only one for me!" if you were intentionally looking to add romantic overtones.

No, I don't particularly care about Shinji/Kaworu as a ship. But regardless of my feelings on it (which are Strong Neutral with a side of Neutral), Kaworu's queerness is incredibly important to a lot of people, both back then and now, just as Utena's queerness and Neptune and Uranus's queerness were and continue to be. Like, it's possible to recognize that Other People Have Opinions About Things without sharing those opinions yourself.

And Anno has NEVER said. You are just reading into BS rumours. Anno has, in fact, explicitely denied "carnal feelings" on Shinji's part, and never commented on anything else, since, with very few exceptions (such as this).

Nagisa Kaworu The fifth Eva pilot whom Seele sent in. To Shinji, he was both the very first friend he could confide in as well as a same-sex romantic interest. On the account of his true nature as an “Angel”, he attempts to merge with the First Angel, Adam, ensconced in Nerv’s underground, to trigger Third Impact. Driven at the far end of his anguish, Shinji kills that beloved friend of his with Eva Unit-01.

Interviewer: Usually, Anno-san, you and one other person are credited with the screenplay, but what sort of a relationship do you two have?

Anno: I had him do the plot after we spoke together, and I fixed up what took the form of the script once more to get it ready for animation.

Well, at that point in time, we were writing the script to send out, and so you could also say that the stories, drama, characters, and so forth that we’d thought of during previous meetings were starting to lose consistency at the time that that script finished.

We have to fix those so that they line up, so. I’m unifying it, so it’s becoming uniform, though. I help with the drama parts and so forth.

Interviewer: Who worked on episode 24?

Anno: A person named Satsukawa (Akio)-san did that. Satsukawa-san is better at—this is bad to say, but—he’s right on the mark when it comes to homoeroticism. *laugh*

{...}

Interviewer: Did you stop Satsukawa-san when it looked like he was going to go berserk, Director Anno?

Anno: No, nothing like that. Satsukawa-san’s atmosphere remains in the script.

Who can foresee the future and guess that they can meet again at this moment?
The moment Human Instrumentality Project began, Kaworu’s form appeared in front of him again.
But, is this still the same “him”——
"You have been there all along?"
The question melted in the air. He whispers to Kaworu, facing the lover that he is about to lose.

as might be expected, this was what you’d call above my tolerance level. *laughs*

Anno: That’s right. It’s not that Shinji-kun was particularly inclined toward carnal desires there, you see.*laughs*

It’s normal to have two people be naked together in the bath, after all.

Anno: Around the time when you’re a middle school student, you often go with friends to public bath-houses and stuff, right? On the way home from school and so forth. Also, going there right after you go play at the beach, just as you are. There are more public baths in the boonies, you see. So it almost feels like a watering hole for men. Well, people don’t go washing each other’s backs or any skinship things like that. In any case, it’s a sort of place that you can all go to together, play there, and head home. It had a little bit more sanitary of an image, though.*laughs*

Anno: Well, when it comes to male baths, it’s a world that you can’t peek into, after all. It might have the atmosphere of a forbidden territory. But, no matter how you look at it, it’s a public bath.*laughs*

Satsukawa-san’s original script had more of that sort of meaning and was JUNE-like.

H: Why hand-holding though?
M: Because thats what the script said.
H: (flips to the relevant page of the script) it says “touched his hand”. Isn’t it touched, but you drew “hold” (laughs).
M: Because thats what the artist drew and I wasn’t really too concerned and ok-ed it. (laughs) there was basically no time

I: But it caused female audiences in front of their televisions to shriek with joy.
M: We never thought it will turn out like that.
T: Was it not planned?
M: We really only realised it afterwards and never thought of much at that time, after all we were going berserk

The conclusion is that it probably was Akio Satsukawa. Nagisa can also be read as Messenger, perhaps he came up with the name when he was writing the script. We all think it fits Akio’s taste. What struck me most was how Akio expanded the world, he made Kaworu a JUNE character……Or I should say a male/male tanbi(“aesthetic”) romances character that went berserk. The first script had more sparks: Kaworu and Shinji swim naked in the river under the setting sun——I hear that they really considered make this kind of scene at the moment.
——Is this what they called the dreamy first script?
Yes, Yes. In the end, Anno changed it to the bath scene. Anno took Akio’s idea into a very unique perspective, which end with this Kaworu who give you a decadent feeling, in my option. There is one thing that doesn’t need to cover up: they wrote EVA’s script as long as possible. In other words, the script they gave Anno had two Eps length, then Anno modified it into a story. So I think he probably cut off a lot of Kaworu’s story.

M: That interview in which he pushes all responsibility to Satsukawa is interesting. But when we came up with the original idea, did it start out as such? H: eh? M: Not that level of homo, did Satsukawa up it? H: His descriptions are def top-notch. [Indicating, he is a good writer] M: In JUNE it shows that the scripts originally had skinny dipping, musical duets and stuff (laughs) A: Skinny dipping?! M: Yeah, completely naked. I didn’t want to draw that, like to a “If thats how it is I’ll quit” extent. A: Isn’t that basically porn? M: So when I stated we must change it, it became Anno’s expert bathing. A: His favourite public baths. H: Why hand-holding though? M: Because thats what the script said. H: (flips to the relevant page of the script) it says “touched his hand”. Isn’t it touched, but you drew “hold” (laughs). M: Because thats what the artist drew and I wasn’t really too concerned and ok-ed it. (laughs) there was basically no time. - NGE Storyboards Collection, Vol.3-4

I: But it caused female audiences in front of their televisions to shriek with joy. M: We never thought it will turn out like that. T: Was it not planned? M: We really only realised it afterwards and never thought of much at that time, after all we were going berserk. - Shizo/Parano interview "judging Hideaki Anno in his absence"

Q19
What did Kaworu want Shinji to call him?
a)lover
b)friend
c)family
d)’my wife’ (note they used “ore no yome” which is a how japanese equivalent of “mai waifu”)

"Evangelion is like a puzzle, you know. Any person can see it and give his/her own answer. In other words, we're offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his/her own world. We will never offer the answers, even in the theatrical version. As for many Evangelion viewers, they may expect us to provide the 'all-about Eva' manuals, but there is no such thing. Don't expect to get answers by someone. Don't expect to be catered to all the time. We all have to find our own answers."

Anno: [Eva is a work] where the remaining process [of completing the work] is in the hands of the audience. I place strong emphasis in that relationship. After you get to a certain point, I want them to make their own judgment. There are portions where things are left ambiguous, so it all depends on how you view [and judge it for yourself.] I think the character of the person [e.g. a personality] reveals itself in that process. [Eva is a work] where if ten people watch it, not all of the ten will [compliment] it. In that sense, it’s very Japanese.