Over the past few years I've been digging into the Japanese cultural response(s) to things like OKC and Columbine. At first it was mostly to compare and contrast to Aum Affair stuff. Now I'm genuinely invested in running back 不謹慎 history. I could probably tie it all together using this book (you may have heard of it) that dropped the same exact day Columbine happened.

If you're looking for entry level English language Aum reccs, there are only 3 or 4 books to choose from.

Destroying the World to Save It - Lifton
Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan - Reader
The Cult at the End of the World - Kaplan (out of print)
Underground - Murakami

https://twitter.com/boneyardofnames/status/1639976630901669891

Lifton's book changed my life. Reader's book is a close second. Both are available in print or as e-books.

The Kaplan/Marshall book is OOP but you can just google the nearly 30 year old Wired article.

The bastardized US edition of Haruki Murakami's Underground.... exists.

What sort of present do you even get a guy in his late 50s who already has more money than god?? Ok the vibe I'm getting from y'all is that I need to crank the tsundere up to 11 and play it totally straight.

That or assault them with bees.

Either/or would be on brand for me so... Maybe?

It's about nazis AND "regular" cultic fuckery.

Some of Anno's interviews in and around 1997 regarding Eva and Aum make it VERY clear that he gets it.

And you can't begin to discuss Anno and cult shit without getting into what Aum (the Aum Affair and Aum itself) did to him. Ryu Murakami's book Fascism of Love and Fantasy comes up multiple times wrt works that ultimately inspired Eva.

It was definitely more of an inspiration than anything to do with Aum Shinrikyo.