Get in the Simulwatch - Neon Genesis Evangelion [End of Eva - 21/7]

Episodes 22 -23
  • And now we enter the horror scarier than any Angel... Asuka's time of the month.
  • I imagine if Asuka and Shinji ever made it down the isle, she would ensure he is referred to as 'idiot Shinji' throughout the whole thing.
  • 'person who substitutes cats for people' - ouch Misato!
  • More shameless budget saving still-shots.
  • They're now turning this plot into Kingdom Hearts, noooooooooo...
  • I get that the consciousness flow within the Eva is supposed to be chaotic and full of metaphor but Asuka's backstory coukd use a tad more clarity.
  • Okay, imagine, for one of the Asuka voices in her vision, they used Tiffany Grant, being meta would fit this series.
  • Was the Spear mentioned prior to this or are they just dropping this huge important thing on us now?
  • You don't ask Asuka to leave your house, you just hope she eventually decides to.
  • Seriously though, someone give these kids a hug.
  • ... And Misato
  • Okay I'm not keen on these faux lens filters they're using.
  • Are you sure its not the tragedy of those who, for God only knows what reason, fall in love with Gendo?
 
Framing Gendo and Yui's backstory from the point t of view of Fuyutsuki is brilliant. I think its the first time in the whole series we've had his point of view. Pretty bold storytelling decision to save it for now.
It really is fantastic, isn't it? I was watching it just earlier on today, and the added scenes in the director's cut really improve the flow of the episode. 😀

Also think it may be the first episode to have a scene before the intro credits?
It is indeed! You'll find that Episode 22' begins the same way.

I've been drafting up an account of some of the changes/additions made for the Director's Cut episodes, so I'll drop in the comparison for episode 21' in a moment.

Episodes 22 -23

Was the Spear mentioned prior to this or are they just dropping this huge important thing on us now?
Shhh. 🤫
That's not until tomorrow's simulwatch episode. 😉
But yes, it's made three prior appearances in the series:

• Episode 12: 8mins 42secs into ADV's volume 4 DVD. It's strapped to the deck of a UN aircraft carrier, underneath a tarpaulin, in transit to NERV HQ.

• Episode 14: Right at the very end, in the hands of Unit-00.

• Episode 15: Again, right at the end, embedded in "Adam's" chest.

#####

Director's Cut observations:
Episode 21'

"What about the Lance of Longinus?"

"It's been sitting here since it was shipped here last week from the Dead Sea."


The first of the new cuts is some grainy CCTV from the Katsuragi Expedition facility in Antarctica. Gendo can be heard in the first part, talking with Chairman Kiel in amongst all the other chatter, before the footage cuts to the fallout of the disastrous contact experiment with Adam which caused Second Impact.

This version of the episode also takes the flashes of newspaper headlines accompanying the reveal of Yui's demise and replaces them with a static shot of an old photograph of her alongside Gendo and Fuyutsuki.

The scene with Doctor Akagi's vision of little Rei becoming Yui has had a makeover, too, with some new visual effects, which actually makes that sequence somewhat less clear.

The main difference, though, is the selection of new and expanded scenes with Fuyutsuki.
 
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Episode 21 directors cut

The shot of Gendo in a totally bare office explaining how a new genesis for mankind will happen and as the camera pans back the shadow shows a tilted cross coming out from his shadow is so ominous.
That's another delicious detail I didn't consciously pick up on! 😀👍
It's a great shot:
IMG_20190712_140425454.jpg

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Episode 22

Man creates dolls in his own image. If God exists, it's possible that we're all just dolls to him.

This episode's all about Asuka vs Rei. We begin with Asuka's backstory, featuring mention of a "contact experiment" involving her mother Kyoko, which led to her suffering an apparent mental illness and rejecting Asuka.

This is also the episode with the infamous elevator scene. Anno wanted to depict an uncomfortably long silence (save budget), and so (barring Asuka blinking a couple of times in succession) we look at a static frame for a whole 57 seconds, with only the background hum of the lift for confirmation that our DVD player hasn't crashed. 😛

It's Rei who breaks the silence as she offers Asuka some advice on how to effectively synchronise with an Eva. "You're an unthinking, emotionless doll, and I hate you!" Asuka yells at her, giving great credence to @ayase's earlier suggestion of a possible root cause for her dislike of her compliant fellow pilot. Something in the upper left of this shot amused me, so I took a photo:
IMG_20190708_172642594.jpg
Don't know about Unit-02 itself, but its pilot is always in "FIERY DIRECT" mode. 😄

And it's Rei who saves the day in the end, following Gendo's order to retrieve the Spear of Longinus from Terminal Dogma and throwing it like a javelin at the Angel.

I forgot to mention the Spear in any of my posts on the three episodes it previously appeared in. Too busy with other details! 😅
 
Episode 22 directors cut

Poor Asuka.

Starting the episode before Asukas main series introduction is pretty interesting as that's when we saw her at her most confident originally. But here we see she was fragile and desperate all along. Also bad mouthing Misato to Kaji is never going to win you points.

The tense dinner scene leading to Asuka having a full breakdown in the bathroom is super intense. This incredibly loud scene is also like a precursor to the lift scene, which I love btw. The extreme tension is so palpable. And the way Rei breaks the silence is so dry no wonder Asuka flips. (Maybe budget is the reason it exists but it's a great example of film makers using the resources available to tell story)

Also the Shot/reverse shot of Asuka with her Eva is really interesting. Its shot like a normal conversation but is really Asuka talking to herself and projecting onto the Eva.

So having the Angel attack presented as holy light, in old cinema that meant God was about to speak, and having the song Hallelujah play was pretty intense. The Flash images as Asuka breaks down really add to nervousness of it all. The only one I could read in real time was Mother.

As much as berates Shinji you felt she could always handle when he saved the day but having it be Rei. Not sure she can imagine anything worse.

Poor Asuka.
 
The tense dinner scene leading to Asuka having a full breakdown in the bathroom is super intense. This incredibly loud scene is also like a precursor to the lift scene, which I love btw. The extreme tension is so palpable.
Asuka's outburst is one of the Director's Cut new scenes, and really changes the overall tone of the episode! 😯

Director's Cut observations:
Episode 22'

It makes me sick. Like hell I'll bathe in water that Misato and stupid Shinji used. Like hell I'll use a washer that Misato and stupid Shinji used to wash their underwear. Like hell I'll sit on a toilet that Misato and stupid Shinji used. Like hell I'll breathe the same air as Misato and stupid Shinji. I hate Misato! I hate Shinji! And I hate the First Child even more!

I hate Dad! I hate Mom! But I hate myself the most! I hate this! I can't stand it anymore! Why do I have to... Why me!!!


And there's the outburst. What a brat. 😅

Asuka has also been noticeably redrawn in the infamous elevator scene, and even sniffs once amidst the silence as well as blinking twice! What luxury. 😉

The biggest difference of all, perhaps, is that the psychological attack she suffers inside Unit-02 is depicted in far more detail and is very reminiscent of Instrumentality in one part.

Beyond that, the scene where Rei retrieves the Spear of Longinus has some new animation as "Adam" spontaneously regrows its lower half! 😱

There's a further extra detail that's been added where the Spear is animated morphing into a drill-like form as it propels itself through the Angel's AT Field. The Spear is then shown revolving in outer space, with the light glinting off its surface.


Couldn't help but point out these, too. Near the start of the episode as it appears on ADV's original DVD release, there's some classic Eva technobabble about Unit-02: "Apotheosis process in nominal status," say the subtitles.
According to Google:
"Apotheosis: The highest point in the development of something; the elevation of someone to divine status."
The Director's Cut has a different translation, though, and instead uses the term "apoptosis".
From Google again:
"Apoptosis: The death of cells which occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism's growth or development."
Considering it's mentioned shortly after "mitosis" and "necrosis", this is certainly the term being used in the script.

But there's an even better one! As Unit-00 descends toward Terminal Dogma, there's some radio chatter that says:
"Unit-00 has passed through the sixth Malvoisie."
A Google search turned up...
"Malvoisie: Any of several grape varieties used to make full-flavoured white wines."

Whaaaat...? 😅

The Director's Cut version reveals that it was apparently supposed to be "the sixth trench of Malebolge".
From Google again:
"Malebolge is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian, Malebolge means 'evil ditches'."

That original take was unintentionally comical. 😅
I mean, don't get me wrong, though: there's no way in any version of hell that I could've translated it correctly.
 
Man creates dolls in his own image. If God exists, it's possible that we're all just dolls to him.
It's Rei who breaks the silence as she offers Asuka some advice on how to effectively synchronise with an Eva. "You're an unthinking, emotionless doll, and I hate you!" Asuka yells at her, giving great credence to @ayase's earlier suggestion of a possible root cause for her dislike of her compliant fellow pilot.
Whoa, I certainly didn't recall that being quite so explicitly spelled out. Looks like I wasn't as clever as I appeared :p

But there's an even better one! As Unit-00 descends toward Terminal Dogma, there's some radio chatter that says:
"Unit-00 has passed through the sixth Malvoisie."
A Google search turned up...
"Malvoisie: Any of several grape varieties used to make full-flavoured white wines."
Unit 00 clearly just needed some liquid courage. Though I don't imagine even six bottles of white would have much of an effect, that's probably equivalent to a human drinking about a thimbleful.

Well I made it to... Episode 3. Much has already been said about the content of the early episodes but I just want to take a moment to say how bloody good Eva looks in HD and how much I miss the way cel anime handled some lighting effects (using actual lights, iirc). That's something digital animation just can't manage to replicate.
 
There's a further extra detail that's been added where the Spear is animated morphing into a drill-like form as it propels itself through the Angel's AT Field.
This made me think of Gurren Lagann!

"Unit-00 has passed through the sixth Malvoisie."
A Google search turned up...
"Malvoisie: Any of several grape varieties used to make full-flavoured white wines."
Big LOL 🤣
 
This made me think of Gurren Lagann!
Yes! Me too! 😃
"Yours is the drill that will pierce the AT Field", perhaps? 😛

Unit 00 clearly just needed some liquid courage.
Aw, man. How that made me chuckle. 😆👍

I miss the way cel anime handled some lighting effects (using actual lights, iirc). That's something digital animation just can't manage to replicate.
The mid-episode eyecatch is always eye-catching, with its flash of lighting before the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" text and title. Refracted real light is used in Episode 22 during the Angel's psychological attack on Asuka as well.

This talk of in-camera lighting effects reminds me of Osamu Dezaki again, @Professor Irony.
 
Its just some of the effects are so intense that it leaves some shots a total blur and I'm wondering if my stream is messing up!
 
Catching uuuuup~

Episode 19

Yeah, this one is brutal. I'd never considered it before, but is it implied that Toji had both his left leg and arm amputated? His leg is obviously missing, but it strikes me that you don't see his left arm either :( There's so much imagery relating to lost limbs in this episode too. Gee whiz.

I'd also forgotten about Kaji's explanation that the Angels are drawn to Adam. That does rather fill in the reason why they almost all try to attack NERV. Also quite sad that Kaji mentions how he'd like to die alongside his little garden - he didn't even get his wish for that.

I slightly wonder how aware Rei is of her origins during the show.

It doesn't seem like she knows she's a clone earlier on, but by the time of her kamikaze charge, she's talking about how it doesn't matter if she dies. Is her lack of self-worth purely psychological, or perhaps after Shinji's comment about how she was 'like a mother', she began to suspect? IIRC, she has a line later on along the lines of 'I think I'm the third one', which seems to confirm that she's aware of it by then.

Two other small things that took my attention this time around though. I hadn't noticed that, during one of the hospital scenes, Rei's plugsuit has had its arms removed. I thought this 'bikini' look was something cooked up later on for special edition figures (pretty sure the Shuunya Yamashita one ran along such lines), but it was actually canon all along. In fact, was it like that in the first episode? I'd need to go back and check.

Lastly, we got an instrumental rendition of 'I Can't Be Yours' after Shinji gets back into the Eva. Not hugely significant, but I remember the vocal version is the track that plays during the intermission in Death and Rebirth, so I was a little surprised that it predated that.

Episode 20

Wow. This one is pretty much just the endgame in microcosm, huh? Something that does not cease to amuse me about Evangelion is how blatantly it drops hints about where the show is going ahead of time, if only you knew how the pieces fitted together.

It wasn't long before we started this thread that I first heard of the theory about Ritsuko's cat charms being emblematic of her love life, but again, once you know it's there, it's a lovely little bit of background detail.

Taking that into account, I think this is the first time it's been really implied that she is Gendo's lover, both in Seele ranting about putting a bell around his neck, but also in the dialogue during the scenes towards the end with Kaji and Misato. We even get a hint about Maya's crush on her, in that she's carrying a cushion clearly showing the same cat design we've seen associated with Ritsuko earlier. It's interesting how the payoff to that would have been lost entirely, had End of Evangelion never been realised.

Of course, if you really want to go deep with the cats, there's also the business of Kaji giving her a cat charm too. There's a visual novel in all this somewhere...

I need to go back and look up what the heck the S2 drive is as well. I remember it being mentioned around the time NERV USA disappeared, but I can't recall if they explained what it was or not.

  • Casey Mongillo's scream of despair is so great.

Took me a while, but I've really come around to Casey Mongillo as Shinji. It's a great performance.


It's just a tiny bit of a shame that all the gut-wrenching drama is compromised a little by a glaring continuity error: Shinji was wearing his civvies when he disappeared into the entry plug last episode, not his plug suit! Whoops. 😅

Gainax had a go at covering over their blunder by dropping in a reference to the rogue plug suit floating around inside Shinji's entry plug. (In the dialogue during the scene where Ritsuko, Misato and Maya are talking in silhouette.) The second volume of Essential Evangelion Chronicle, a guidebook to the series, plays along nicely with this clever bit of deception, and reads:
"The Entry Plug was empty save for a Plug Suit. Since Shinji hadn't been wearing his Plug Suit when he boarded EVA-01 to fight the Fourteenth Angel, this was taken as a manifestation of his soul."
Crafty. 😉

The new translation leans into this as well - certainly the dub talks about a 'manifestation'.

And those... off-screen sounds at the end of the episode...

I'd forgotten how... explicit that was. 😳
I guess this was one of the things that landed the show in a bit of hot water with TV broadcasters at the time.

Pretty sure I read it on wikipedia, so take it with a pinch of salt, but apparently that scene was a point of contention right enough, as the show aired at a time when 'children could be watching'. Interestingly, I think the new script is a bit less... lewd than the ADV version was.
 
'I think I'm the third one'

I believe that there's a similar line in the manga, upon where Shinji shouts at Rei to "never do that again", and Rei is completely oblivious to what he's talking about. He says something like "you saved me, don't you remember?" and Rei doesn't recall doing it, and implies that "it must be because I am the third one". So she must be conscious at that point of the fact that she's a clone, it's just that it must be because she has no memories of her previous incarnation. 🤔

DISCLAIMER: I've not actually read the manga as yet, but it is on my shelf and it is a part I've landed on when I've flicked through previously. I'm...just too tired right now to even grab it and flick through it to clarify the exact details (I've been doing more hours in work in the absence of my collegue and I'm wrecked! 😅 )
 
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Episodes 21 & 22
Backstory and a look inside an elevator the soul of Asuka.

Opening scene is not there instead we see Gendo in front of Unit 01 for a page before we see Fuyutsuki walking down a corridor wondering why Gendo doesn't go see Shinji in hospital. Then we see a suspiciously Ryoji shaped shadow appear behind him.
Then we see Rei visit Shinji in hospital who thanks her, but he doesn't know why.
Then the backstory is the same apart from we get some scenes after the reveal of Unit 00 in the present with Ritsuko wondering where Rei and Misato are. Misato is thinking about the past in her cell and Rei is with Shinji basically spelling out the progression of their relationship through the times they touched hands and then asks if they can hold hands again. (this is were I think the manga is better than the show. Rei is pretty much still a doll at the moment in the show, but the manga added a load of scenes between her and Shinji that humanises her)
The scene where NERV is formed and says not all joined with the shot of Naoko dead is placed before we find out how and why she died (this isn't shown till chapter 69).
Fuyutsuki is freed the same and then we see Ryoji's last moment as he sees a vision of his dead friends from the flashback we got earlier.
Misato hears the message, but Shinji's not there. Then Asuka shows up and asks why she is crying, but Misato doesn't say. Next morning Shinji shows up, Misato is out (meeting the guy in the scene from 22), Asuka asks him if he knows anything, he says not as he's been in hospital, but he suspects and doesn't want to tell Asuka.
Finally there's a scene at the start of chapter 56 where Ritsuko talks with her Grandmother on the phone and thinks about her mother whilst looking at a photo of her younger self with Gendo and her mother with close ups of her younger self and then Gendo with her mother, but her mother is only half in the frame.
Ritsuko then gives Rei an injection and says she saw her with Shinji and says she seems more human. She also says that she's got both father and son wrapped around her finger. Rei replies that she did only like the commander, but isn't it the same for you. Ritsuko then nearly strangles Rei with the a tourniquet, but stops and gives a feeble excuse before warning Rei that she's the one that keeps her body alive. We then see the same close-up to the photo, but this time we see her mother is fully in frame as Ritsuko thinks to herself "it's exactly what she did." (chapter 69 shows she witnessed the murder of the 'first' Rei)

The opening scene is again missing, but we've already seen similar events when she discovered Toji was the fourth child.
After Misato's meeting she discovers a microchip that Ryoji slipped into her jacket when he kissed her in their final meeting.
The phone call from Asuka's adoptive mother is the same except Shinji knows it's not her really mother before she tells him as we see a flashback of Asuka sleep-talking about her mother dying before Shinji thinks about his own mother dying, but seeing her whilst inside the EVA.
No Asuka meltdown scene.
Asuku thinks about when she was picked to be a pilot and goes to see her mother "I'm special just like you wanted!" "please look at me". Mother is unmoved with a doll in her arms. Then in a flashback montage Asuku thinks about how she hasn't really done anything with the Angels as she either had help or failed. "Am I so special?" (in an earlier chapter soon after she turns up she says she special because her mother chose the best of best at a sperm bank. Can't remember if that is in the show).
Asuku falling sync is the same.
Misato asks Shinji why he hasn't been to school. It been months! She tells him to go.
On his way there he meets a boy, Nagisa Kaworu, who is lost! I won't say too much about what happens with the first meeting till we see it in the show except he seems like a bit of a jerk. For now I'll just say how he affects the events of this episode.
We see Hikari and Aida at school like in the show, but they spot Shinji and Nagisa outside. Shinji runs off when he realises, but Nagisa stares back and Aida thinks to himself "creepy... something inhuman" 🤔
Nagisa wants to see his EVA, so Shinji takes him to NERV.
Asuku is getting worse.
Ritsuko and Misato discuss a new pilot and meanwhile Shinji's lost Nagisa.
Asuku in the ladies room is the same, except then instead of the elevator scene Nagisa wonders in and delivers Rei's lines (the jerk). Asuka and Nagisa argue, then Shinji steps in and stops Asuka from hitting Nagisa by holding her wrists, she doesn't like that either. Misato shows up and asks what's going on and then Asuka passes out.
Misato tells Nagisa to leave till he's officially called. She's thinks on his records, a boy with no past and a birthdate of the day of the second impact 🤔
No Asuka talking to her EVA.
The battle is pretty much the same except having heard the alarm Shinji and Nagisa is in the command centre. Nagisa agrees a lot with Gendo and is generally being a jerk still.
In Asuka vision the scene of the hanging is more explicit by seeing her walk in to her mothers room and then a frame where we see her mothers feet hanging down as Asuka looks up!
 
I'd never considered it before, but is it implied that Toji had both his left leg and arm amputated? His leg is obviously missing, but it strikes me that you don't see his left arm either :(
According to reference #2 on the Episode 19 synopsis on Evageeks (Evageeks again 😅):
"Toji's left leg has been amputated, although whether or not he lost his left arm as well is not clear from the shot, although his left arm is visible when he is hauled out of the entry plug [at the end of Episode 18]. Production sketches for End of Evangelion include a scene [link] where Toji and Kensuke are playing wheelchair basketball, confirming that Toji has both his arms."

I think this is the first time it's been really implied that she is Gendo's lover, both in Seele ranting about putting a bell around his neck, but also in the dialogue during the scenes towards the end with Kaji and Misato. We even get a hint about Maya's crush on her, in that she's carrying a cushion clearly showing the same cat design we've seen associated with Ritsuko earlier.
Interestingly, the "bell" that SEELE put around Gendo's neck is actually reckoned to be Kaji. 🤔

The part about Maya, I have never noticed. I'll need to look at that now. 😯

Rei is pretty much still a doll at the moment in the show
Anno seems quite determined that he's not interested in Rei as a character. He says she only represents "the darkness in people". He also claims that his disinterest in her is why she has comparatively little role to play for sometimes a few episodes at a time. "I just forgot about her," I'm sure he once said.

Personally, I'm a big Rei fan. (Can you tell? 😛)


Manga spoiler:
(in an earlier chapter soon after she turns up she says she special because her mother chose the best of best at a sperm bank. Can't remember if that is in the show).
It's not. That's Sadamoto's own personal creation and doesn't apply to the anime. 🙂
 
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Episode 23

[Physically shaking] "Rescue the pilot as soon as possible."

"That's if she's still alive."


Poor Rei! 😟

No, wait. Poor... Reis??! 😱


The sexual angle of Eva is very prominent in this episode. The 16th Angel's contact with Unit-00 and Rei is very obviously a depiction of rape (and, in the Director's Cut version, of pregnancy). The Angel itself is phallic (or tentacular?!) in form and produces this warning on the command centre's screens:
IMG_20190708_190132284.jpg

That one's very overt, but it turns out I missed a far more subtle one. It only spans a couple of frames, so I would've remained oblivious had I not been looking at something else on the Evageeks article on this episode, but there's a... strategically placed chair at Shinji's desk in this one cut:
IMG_20190708_210543949.jpg
It's where Misato comes into Shinji's room and sits down on his bed.

The conversation amongst the members of SEELE regarding Gendo's treachery is very interesting here, too. Who is this "pawn" who "knows the facts" that they will "use against Ikari"?

It's also a point worth noting that this is the second episode in a row with no animated next-episode preview.
 
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Oh, no: he's there.
OK, I rewatched it. A man and a nurse are talking at the start, and she calls him Mr. Langley. Sounds fairly similar to the voice of the line you mentioned. Then they start flirting, which leads into me actually reading the manga for the bit where she's being "attacked" (I was running out of time before going to work). So basically, dispite what I said, none of that part from the anime is in the manga apart from the "die with me" bit: the manga shows her mother trying to strangle her, but doesn't show the line, then comes the hanging part which I talked about. But before that part comes some explanation:
Her mother couldn't have a child with her husband who then had an affair which led to divorce. The new woman had a child and Asuka's mother went to a sperm bank. She was so jealous of the new woman she would say to Asuka that she had to beat the other child. Then I guess she took part in what ever experiment the Contact was and then went mad. After she killed herself the new woman becomes Asuka's new mother.
A lot of this is from a talk between a doctor and a nurse including the part about the mother seeing the doll as her actual child from the start of the episode, but I don't think it's Mr. Langley from the anime who I just mentioned.

I also noticed, in the anime, in the part where we see Asuka announce herself over and over that each one is a different VA (just for the part with the "I'm Asuka Langley Souryu"). I definitely heard Rei's and Misato's, not sure about the other(s) Ritsuko and/or Hikari maybe. The same happens, I think, in the Japanese dub (I mean it would be weird for the English dub to change that much from the original), but I can't tell which ones they are as I haven't watched enough of the Japanese dub.
 
Episode 21

I saw the last few episodes of Evangelion again not that long ago (couple of months?), but it's amazing how quickly I seem to have forgotten the small details. Certainly I'd blanked the fact that Fuyutsuki explicitly mentions how the Dead Sea Scrolls have predicted the end of the world in 2015. It's now increasingly apparent that NERV and their rivals are not trying to save the world, as much as they want to see it concluded on their own terms.

For all his short amount of screentime, I do feel like Fuyutsuki comes across as a complete and understandable character in a way that someone like Kaji isn't. Taking the manga as its own canon, I've found Kaji's motives just a bit wilfully obscure on this viewing. Maybe we're just back at the double bind again - caught between two masters, he simply chooses his own destruction, rather than try to escape.

Although brief, the glimpse of young Ritsuko seems to imply quite a lot too. Presumably dying her hair was an attempt to separate her own identity from that of her mother, yet she ended up kind of becoming her anyway. My knowledge of Freud is hardly extensive, but I can't imagine the notion of children repeating all their parents' mistakes doesn't figure somewhere.

I think this is also the first time we've seen the famous SEELE 'sound only' 2001 monolith avatars.

Anno seems quite determined that he's not interested in Rei as a character. He says she only represents "the darkness in people". He also claims that his disinterest in her is why she has comparatively little role to play for sometimes a few episodes at a time. "I just forgot about her," I'm sure he once said.

I wonder if Anno's apparent disinterest in developing Rei's personality might be part of the key to her popularity. Compared to the other main characters, she seems far more like a blank slate for people to project their own interpretations on to.

Episode 22

YAAASSSS!

lisacoffee.jpg

Not sure I can add much that hasn't already been said on this one, otherwise. It did catch my attention though that Ritsuko talks about finding a replacement for Asuka. Perhaps if the story had continued a little longer, Kensuke might finally have gotten a crack at it? Speaking of Kensuke, I feel this might have been the last onscreen appearance for him and the class rep? Well, before y'know... that.

there's a... strategically placed chair at Shinji's desk in this one cut:

Matron!
 
Forgot to add for Episode 19 that I like the little detail of Asuka having all her weaponry thrust into the ground around her for quick access, as the Angel approaches.

9431

Presumably it's meant to echo the grave markers we've seen earlier, but I can't not look at that without remembering how they recreated that for one of her attacks in Super Robot Wars MX. The little squashed down Eva is pretty cute.


Much to my annoyance, I'll have to go away again for a couple of days and likely won't be here for the grand finale, but I'll do my best to catch up as soon as I can once I get back.

Current schedule is:

Today (14th) Episode 24
Tomorrow (15th) Episode 25
Tuesday (16th) Episode 26

I had intended to leave a day or two for a break before covering End of Eva anyway, so maybe try and schedule that for the weekend?
 
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