The Gainax Bounce Example Incident

This contains references to fanservice in anime, for lack of a better term, and the heavy sexualization of fictional, animated characters. Mostly Misato Katsuragi specifically. Just warning you ahead of time. I also am trying very hard not to post an Evangelion spoilers here, but it's kind of difficult. Anyways...

Most colleges and universities have a niche or so: a couple areas of expertise that especially attract students. I won’t be sharing my university’s name, but one such area at mine was Japanese. That’s right - my school was somewhat well-known in its geographic region (at least) for a robust Japanese language department. Not only that; it also had a strong Japanese Studies program alongside it, which focused on the cultural aspects of said nation.

When I attended, I did not major in Japanese in any way, shape, or form. I did, however, as a freshman, throw my name into the waiting list for the Japanese Popular Culture class, also known colloquially on campus just as “J-pop.” Part of the Japanese Studies major and a real thing, this class focused on movies, games, comics and television from Japan, including anime and manga. It was, without a doubt, one of the most popular classes at my university. Hence, the waiting list. It was important to add yourself to the waiting list as soon as possible, of course.

By the second semester of my second year, I finally managed to glean a spot in the Japanese Popular Culture class. It was packed, and it was everything we’d hoped.

We focused unduly much on the works of Yasujirō Ozu for the first few weeks. He was a personal favorite of the professor, and she intended to demonstrate how his influence spread throughout all of Japan’s popular offerings, including later anime. This was, to me, amazing, because I’d never heard of Ozu before. Watching the films once was alright, but I adored watching them a second time after the teacher had explained various stylistic motifs and symbolism. My university was known for its film programs almost as much as its Japanese, actually, and it showed. I left the classes on Ozu excited, too, ready to see what would happen once we got to anime, manga, and video games.

At mid-semester break, we were assigned to play Pokémon and write about it. We were told we could choose any version of any of the games, provided we already had access to it. Failing that, the professor said she’d provide us with access via some sort of emulator at the library? I’m not sure about that, because I had Pokémon Diamond already. The professor emphasized how important a feeling of companionship provided by video games like Pokémon was within Japanese popular culture. Something like that, anyways. My memory for some of it is poor. Despite how lovely Pokémon is, I can’t quite remember what I wrote about it - I think I got a solid B+ on my mid-semester report about it, though.

For our final project, we were split into groups two weeks before the end of the class. The professor assigned each group an animation or cinema studio from Japan. She wouldn’t allow us to choose or swap our assigned studio, either. We were told to focus on their signature style, analyze it, and present a powerpoint presentation to the class about it. We were supposed to demonstrate how our studio was unique amongst others, both stylistically and in terms of subject matter.

My group, as far as I was concerned then (and even now, arguably) really got lucky. We were assigned Gainax, producers of Neon Genesis Evangelion. As you probably know (and even according to Wikipedia, of all places), Eva is considered one of the greatest anime of all time. In the mid-2000s, Cartoon Network had aired a dubbed version on its popular Adult Swim programming block in the United States, introducing me and many others to the strange existential show.

If you haven’t watched Evangelion, I do, of course, recommend it. I won’t provide spoilers here. A depressive young man named Shinji finds himself with little choice but to pilot the titular “Evangelion” mechanism in order to save the city of “Tokyo 3” from strange behemoth monstrosities bent on humanity’s destruction. He is joined in this by two other pilots, both girls - the boisterous Asuka and the demure Rei. Shinji lives with a handler of sorts - fan service favorite Misato Katsuragi.

We knew we’d focus primarily on Evangelion in our PowerPoint. Even in these early days of YouTube, we had plenty of clips to work with, and the school’s internet connection was quite strong enough to collect them. I set to work quickly piecing together what I could about Hideako Anno, the creator himself, and inserting pictures of the Evangelions, their pilots, and other characters.

I did several slides planning to discuss the show’s usage of flashing, rapid movement, and, of course, copious (attempted) analysis of the religious symbols therein. Little secret: Kai and I stayed up late and ultimately had to conclude that many of the spiritual references in Evangelion, especially those culled from the West (ie, references to the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc) were flavorful and little else. That’s not necessarily bad, but it made our job a little confusing when setting up our presentation initially. We shoved a lot of that aside in favor of focusing on the show’s ending and the philosophical implications, of which there are admittedly plenty…

I left it to the third group member (Ryan) to actually assemble the Powerpoint, because I was busy the night before. Powerpoint presentations for classes pretty much must be done at the last minute, after all. There’s an adrenaline factor or something. In case you’ve never been to university, you might not know this. And by “busy the night before,” I mean I spent that evening by the pond behind campus with my girlfriend, stoned and pestering the geese. That, too, is sometimes a requisite thing.

The next day in class, I took my seat and watched the first few groups present. The juniors and seniors in the class had a lot of practice at this and had created rather elaborate presentations, some with music, active animations in the slides, and more. I remember shuddering a bit, wondering if ours would measure up. I trusted Ryan and Kai, though, and figured my own knowledge of deep Evangelion lore would be enough to secure us at least an A- either way. The professor would surely love me going on a tangent about why Rei said she “doesn’t bleed,” right? I was prepared…

When our time came, we all three crowded behind the podium while Ryan cued up the Powerpoint with a glorious image of Eva Unit 01 as the title page. The next slide showed a photo of Hideako Anno himself. Ryan began rapid chatter about the history behind Evangelion’s development as a show, and how it was such an emblematic example of Gainax’s power as an animation studio. There were a few slides then talking about FLCL, too, which had my head spinning since I didn’t care for that show. I kept things going, and got to say my bit about Rei and Asuka, and how I, as a woman, felt about the portrayal of feminine adolescence in the show.

At that point, Ryan loudly said, “And don’t forget Misato!” I shrugged, confused. I wasn’t just talking about womanhood - I was talking about adolescence, not the older Misato Katsuragi, their handler or whatever. And it was so strange and breathless the way Ryan said Misato’s name. I should’ve realized something was up, but I didn’t, and just waited for him to continue the presentation.

Next, Ryan began to speak. He began by noting that most animation studios, both in Japan and elsewhere, were known for a specific stylistic or narrative feature. Figuring this out and describing it had, of course, been an explicit part of our assignment. Kai and I had it nailed down - Gainax was known for tossing Western symbolism in like spices for flavor, right? Surely that was what Ryan was going to talk about? Yeah, no…

“Gainax,” he said, biting his lip, “is known for an animated feature called the Gainax Bounce, which I will now provide an example of.” He clicked to the final slide, which featured an animated clip taken from the show, a closeup. Of Misato Katsuragi’s breasts. Bouncing boobily.

Above it, in large Impact font, were the words GAINAX BOUNCE EXAMPLE. People laughed, people cringed, people tried their hardest not to laugh and failed. The professor just clutched her forehead. “Ryan,” I said with a hint of panic boiling over. “You didn’t have to include that.” He shrugged, but couldn’t force back a mischievous grin.

Everyone agreed with me, though. The professor actually admonished him, just slightly, which was very odd to see in a university class. “You really didn’t need to add that,” she said, as the rest of the class suppressed a wave of giggles “It’s inappropriate and unnecessary.”

“We’re all adults here,” Ryan retorted. “And anyways, Gainax is known for the Gainax Bounce.” She stared at him, flummoxed for a moment before calling up the next group. I returned to my seat in abject horror, wondering what this would mean for our grade, or if anything else would happen because of it. I kept trying to calculate how I could still pass the class even if we had bombed the presentation.

It would, I knew, be incredibly embarrassing to fail Japanese Popular Culture, of all things. That was the class I’d fail? Having to retake it for a better score? So embarrassing to contemplate…

The final group presented on Studio Ghibli, and one of them carried an unusually large Totoro plushie into the room right as the presentation was starting. Something about the timing of this, combined with serene music they’d decided to play with their presentation, diffused the situation a bit. I’m not sure if that was a factor, but we actually got an entire B- on the presentation. The appearance of Misato’s Gainaxing cleavage was never spoken of again. Indeed, two weeks later, Kai cracked a joke about it, and the professor, steely-faced, shut him down immediately.

Still, I passed the class. I didn’t fail and have to retake the school’s most sought-after elective. That’s pretty good, considering…