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Evangelion 2.0: You can (not) Advance....MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

AsukaSohryuLangley — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:19:31 GMT

Found this on another site courtesy of random1377:
http://www.nyoronfansubs.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1030

Quote:

Evangelion 2.0

The movie opens on Mari, a new character, the pilot of Evangelion Unit 05. English chatter blares in the background, and the camera pans over Mari's plugsuit and helmet as she begins startup checks for Unit 05. She takes off down a tunnel at incredible speed, Unit 05 screams down the tunnel on its four legs, each ending with a wheel. Unit 05 encounters a snake-like angel and engages it, thrusting it's lance, but failing to defeat the angel. The angel lets loose a halo, which cuts through the ceiling above it and allows it to escape. Mari takes off after the angel up the side of a tower and engages the angel near the peak. After a fierce struggle, Mari manages to destroy the core of the angel and eject, as both Unit 05 and the angel are vaporized in an enormous explosion. Exiting her plug, floating in angel-mess, Mari observes the immense cross shaped explosions in the distance and bids farefell to unit 05.

Next scene, Shinji and Gendo are at Yui's grave, talking about her, with a fair amount of ease between them. Gendo begins to leave, as a hover-transport plane thing arrives at the graveyard. Shinji sees Rei in the window and calls out to his father. "It made me happy to be able to talk to you father." "Oh." And Gendo leaves. Shinji meets with Misato, and the two of them begin driving home, discussing Shinji's time with his father. Misato gets a phone call and answers her phone. As she does, a large hunk of a battleship is strewn across the road in front of them. The next angel, which looked like a collection of toothpicks aranged in geometric patterns, topped with an angel head like Sachiels, which bobbed about like a weather vane. It strode across the red sea, freezing it wherever it's toothpick legs landed. Misato shouts into her phone saying she'd bring Shinji right away, but she's informed that there was no need, Project 02 was underway.

From the sky, a huge carrier flies in and releases Unit 02, which soars through the air on jetpack equipment. Unit two equips itself with weapons launched from the carrier, a crossbow like weapon which Unit 02 promptly uses to blow the head off of the toothpick angel. It begins to collapse, but reforms quickly and launches a counterattack against Unit 02. Unit 02 redoubles it's attack, and takes out the core of the angel with a spectacular kick (Gunbuster fans will get a nostalgia bomb), and the angel is defeated. Later Misato brings Shinji, Rei, Touji, and Kensuke to see Unit 02 as it's brought into Nerv. Then Asuka Shikinami arrives, hopping nimbly down from her eva to the three boys asking which is the pilot of unit 01. Shinji lets out a "Umm..." then Asuka rips into him about his lack of confidence, then trips him and berates him about his poor physical condition. Shinji is not pleased.
When he returns home Shinji is overcome by a mountain of boxes in his room. Asuka strides in and says he's being replaced by her and proceeds to berate japanese architecture, when Misato appears behind her and clarifies that she won't be replacing shinji but living with him to improve their relationship. Asuka is not pleased. As Asuka takes a bath that evening, she has an encounter with Pen Pen which mirrors Shinji's in the previous film. She busts the door open, and from the viewer's perspective her breasts are obscured by beer cans. Misato picks one up, revealing a straw sticking out of a glass behind it, obscuring Asuka's nipples. Shinji goes red in the face, and Asuka spontaneously realizes she's naked and delivers a flying kick to his face (Reminiscent of Girlfriend of Steel). That night in her bed Asuka reveals a personality trait that doesn't seem very asuka-ish. She plays with a doll, giving it a voice, saying that she's "special" and because of that, Asuka will do things alone. Shinji attempts to call his father, but is unable to connect. Meanwhile Gendo and Fuyutsuki are on the moon overseeing the construction of Unit 06. They see Kaworu sitting on the finger of Unit Six, out in the vacuum of space. Fuyutsuki says "A human? It couldn't be..." and Kaworu turns to Gendo and says: "It's a pleasure to meet you, father."

The following day Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Touji and Kensuke, are invited to an aquarium, holding marine life from before 2nd impact by Kouji. After an intense series of sterilizations, the children arrive at the aquarium, and look at the fish. Asuka goes and plays a video game in a corner, Pen Pen talks to his relative penguins, and Touji and kensuke run amok. Shinji goes and meets with Rei, who is observing a cylinder filled with tiny fish. Shinji comments that "Its a shame they put them in such a small tube, a more open space would be better" to which Rei responds "They're incapable of living outside of it... like me."

The children meet Kouji and have a picnic lunch prepared by shinji. Everyone compliments his cooking, Kouji says "It's a good thing for a guy to be able to cook." Kensuke agrees, but Touji gets upset saying it's not a mans job, Asuka berates him for his old fashioned patriarchal views and they get into an argument. Shinji notices Rei isn't eating her bentou and asks about her. She says she isn't that hungry, and Touji promptly pilfers the bentou from her. Shinji says that she should at least have some miso soup, and pours some for her from a thermos. She says "Thank you" and sips. Her eyes go wide and she says "Delicious".

Shinji and Kouji chat outside about the odor of the blue watered aquarium as opposed to the red sea beyond the wall. Kouji says it's because in the aquarium there's rotting life, where as there's nothing in the sea. Shinji comments that it's a shame Misato didn't come, and Kouji says the reason she refused was because the place reminds her of second impact. At that point there is a flashback to Misato experiencing 2nd impact at the south pole as a child. As the chaos erupts, four white figures with halos emerge. As Misato's father stuffs her into an escape pod, you see him being blown away, and his cross shaped pendant (the one Misato wears) falls in with her as the door closes. Then Kouji explains her relationship with her father, and relates it to Shiji's own relationship with his father.

Finally the first angel which appeared in the television show arrives in the movie, Sahaquiel. It appears as a gyrating black sphere in space. Attempts at N2 mining it prove futile, and it begins descending towards tokyo, as a living bomb. Misato devises a plan to deploy units 0, 1, and 2 to the corners of Tokyo 3 and plans to have them race to wherever the angel lands, so that they can catch and defeat the angel before it explodes. Asuka is fuming, as she wants to perform the mission alone, but Misato explains that it would be impossible to cover all of Tokyo with one unit. Then the operation begins.

Sahaquiel begins descending, and as it breaks through the stratosphere, it discards it's gyrating black shell and folds out into the enormous eye shaped angel familiar to viewers of the television show, however, it is unbelievably massive, miles and miles wide from tip to tip. The three Evas race to catch the angel. Shinji arrives at it's destination first and deploys his AT field catching the angel, however from within the eye, the main body of the angel emerges, shaped similarly to Sachiel. It reaches out it's arms and pierces unit 01 through the hands. Shinji screams in pain, yet continues to hold steady. Asuka rushes to his side and stabs at the angel's core. As she closes in the core begins to move, rotating around the angel in a circle at amazing speed, unable to be hit. The reserve power of the evas begins to run short, and Shinji screams for Asuka to kill it, but she can't hit the core. Then Rei runs up and forcefully stops the core with her Eva's hands, causing severe damage to her eva's arms, then as the last seconds of the Eva's power tick away, Asuka destroys the core of the angel, and the angel collapses into a massive tsunami of red angel goo, cascading through Tokyo. Coinciding with this Gendo returns from the moon and contacts Misato and praises her on her handling of the angel, then he requests to be put through to Shinji. He is patched through and he praises Shinji, saying he did a good job.

Asuka begins a character change at this point, realizing she can't do everything alone. That night she enters Shinji's room and lays down with him on his mattress. Shinji wakes up and responds with alarm and begins calling her "Shikinami" but Asuka tells him she'll make a special exception and "Allow you to call me Asuka. I'll be calling you stupid shinji from now on too." She asks him why he pilots Eva and he respond that he doesn't really know "Stupid typical japanese answer." "But, I think I do it so that my father will recognise me and praise me. Today was the first time he ever did, I was so happy." "You really are an idiot"

From this point in the movie a great number of character development scenes begin. Kouji plays gay chicken with Shinji, then has a chat with him about life at his garden. Mari arrives in Japan one day while Shinji listens to his music on the roof, parachuting in from above, and smothering Shinji with her breasts. She takes off in a hurry, but not before telling Shinji "You smell good, like lcl." Misato and Kouji have a date. But the most important story to the plot of the movie is where Shinji makes a lunch for Rei, concerned that she never eats at school. She accepts it saying "Thank you". Later in bed she ponders why she said it: "Thank you. Words of appreciation. Why did I say that? I've never even said it to... him." Later Asuka is cooking at Misato's house commenting that her cooking has a long way to go before it compares to Shinji's. Misato sees her and teases her for trying to impress Shinji. Asuka gets flustered and obscures her cooking from Misato insisting that she's cooking it to share with Hikari. Misato tosses a knowing grin and heads for her date with Kouji. Asuka gazes at the band-aid on her finger she presumably received cooking. Later Shiji recalls Rei's words at the aquarium: "They're incapable of living outside of it... like me." and pondered the meaning of those words. The camera fades, then reopens on Rei floating in a tube in front of Gendo, who says "Rei, lets have dinner." And then you see the two of them dining on opposite ends of a long table. Rei makes a request of Gendo, asking if for a change they can eat with Shinji and the rest. Gendo begins to refuse, but looks at Rei and remembers Yui, who says "Gendo, take care of Shinji" and he agrees. After this Unit 02 is put into stasis (I'm sorry I didn't catch the reason why) And Asuka fumes, feeling her worth is being demeaned and she's being tossed away. She goes to an elevator, and is upset to see Rei inside. They ride the elevator in silence for a while, then Rei lectures her on what it means to pilot an Eva. Asuka snaps and starts tearing into Rei verbally and steps forward to slap her, but Rei catches Asuka's hand, which the camera then shows a close up of. Compared to Asuka's one bandage, Reis is covered in many, seven or eight at least. The elevator comes to a stop and Asuka begins to storm out, but stops and leans against the elevator door. "Let me ask you this one thing, what do you think of the idiot?"
"The idiot?"
"Isn't it obvious when I say the idiot I mean stupid Shinji?"
"Ikari?"
"Of course"
"I don't really know..."
"You damn Japanese, just say clearly weather you-"
"But when Ikari talks to me I get all excited and happy. I think that by allowing him and his father to get along better, he'll be happy as well, that's why I want us all to eat together" (Previously Rei had written invitations to everyone invited including Asuka). At this point Asuka takes off down the hall.
"Stupid girl, that's obviously love isn't it?!"

Unit 03 is flown in from America, and Asuka is chosen to be the pilot during it's startup sequence.

Yeah that's when my heart sunk too.

On her way to Unit 03 on the elevator Asuka seems to be in high spirits, talking with Misato who is overseeing the startup. She's wearing a new plug suit for this Eva, which like she says herself "Shows too much, doesn't it?!" She enters the plug and prepares to start the Eva when from the bottom of the plug, a deep red circle surges out and engulfs her. Unit 03 becomes an angel and destroys the testground with a giant blue explosion. Unit 03 begins its march towards Nerv, and Shinji is dispatched to stop it. However he knows Asuka is inside, and hesitates when it arrives in front of him. Unit 03 begins to attack Unit 01 and strangles Shinji, he holds her off by holding her arms away, but Unit 03 grows two more fleshy arms, with Asuka's skin color and resumes strangling Shinji. Shinji refuses to fight back, not wanting to injure Asuka. Gando berates him "You'll be killed at this rate" "I'd rather die than kill Asuka!" Gendo decides Shinji is useless as a pilot and gives the order to activate the dummy plug system. Inside Shinji's plug, black arms unfold from behind his seat and lock his arms into place, and the dummy plug activates. Unit 01's eyes glow red and it throws Unit 03 off of it. It leaps onto Unit 03 and strangles it, breaking it's neck. Unit 01 proceeds to dismember Unit 03, throwing its arms and legs away, then rips into unit 03's abdomen, tossing it's intestines about like ribbons. It bashes what remains of the unit into goo. Shinji struggles against the dummy plug to no avail, until he hears a metallic noise near Unit 01's face. Startled he says "... whats that noise?" The camera returns to berserk Unit 01, which now has Asuka's plug in it's mouth. The plug is still covered with the blue membrane of the angel. Unit 01 bites down on the plug, and you hear Asuka scream, LCL and blood streaming from Unit 01's mouth. Asuka is dead. During this scene a cheerful child like song is playing, and as Asuka dies the line "Matta Aou" is repeated, meaning "We'll meet again."

Eyecatch

When the eyecatch ends, Unit 01 is standing atop Nerv HQ, threatening to destroy it. He begins stomping the building in, when Gendo orders his LCL pressure be increased to the limit, knocking Shinji unconscious. He has another dream on a sunset train with Rei. They discuss the cassette player Shinji often listens to. Shinji reveals the fact that it used to belong to his father, but he threw it away, like he himself was thrown away. But now he has no intention of keeping it. Rei accuses him of not trying to understand Gendo, but Shinji grows angry, insisting "I'm not the one at fault he is!"

Shinji wakes up in the hospital surrounded by guards. Later he's thrown in the brig, then called before his father. He explains Shinji's guilty of many crimes punishable by death, and asks if he has anything to say for himself. Shinji responds that he no longer wishes to pilot Eva and leaves. As Shinji leaves Misato's place Misato tries to get Shinji to understand Gendo isn't a bad person saying that "Rei organized that dinner so that the two of you could get along and begin to smile with one another." Shinji leaves the apartment saying "I don't intend to smile ever again"

Shinji boards a train and begins to leave, however Zeruel arrives. Shinji's train gets redirected to a shelter. Meanwhile Mari arrives in Nerv HQ and activates Unit 02. Zeruel breaks through the Geo Front and Mari is there waiting for it in unit 02. She engages it, and does well, but can't break through Zeruel's super powerful AT field. In response, she stands in her plug faces Zeruel, and activates "System: The Beast" which purged all of Unit 02's limiters, caused Mavi's eyes to glow red, and made it enter berserk mode. She charged Zeruel and did really well, breaking through the AT field, and nearly reaching the angel, however Zeruel used it's super sharp limbs and lopped off Unit 02's arm, defeating Mari. Then Rei arrives carrying an N2 mine, and rushes Zeruel, ramming the mine against the AT field. Misato and the rest tell her it's suicide, but she responds "If Ikari's not here anymore, I don't care!" Mari returns, with berserk Eva 02 chewing threw the AT field creating an opening for Rei. As she plows the mine into the angel she yells out, "Run away, pilot of Unit 02" and is engulfed in the explosion. As the smoke clears, a badly burnt Unit 00 stands amidst a nuked landscape, then from behind it the menacing shadow of Zeruel emerges. An enormous mouth emerges from it's body and bites down on Unit 00, leaving only it's feet behind. It spits out the casing that used to surround Unit 00's head.

And then Zeruel begins to transform

From below the skull like face of the angel, an all too familiar powder white naked female figure began to emerge. Standing, the figure demolishes the pyramid of Nerv HQ with one blast, then begins to descend towards central dogma.

Shinji is sitting alone in a shelter when the head of Unit 02 strikes through the wall across from him. Mari says "Oh. what are you still doing here? You've got to get away. Here I'll help you" (Abbreviated, I can't remember shinji's lines) and carries him to the surface in Unit 02's hand. Seeing the barren blasted landscape and Unit 00's head casing, he finds his determination and dashes for Unit 01's cage. Up until this point in that cage Gendo had been attempting to start Unit 01 with the dummy plug to no avail. Until Shinji bursts in with "Father! Let me pilot Eva!" "Why are you here?" Shinji looks at him with fire in his eyes "Let me Pilot Eva! I'm Shinji Ikari, pilot of Evangelion Unit 01!" Taken aback, Gendo agrees. Rei-Zeruel breaks through into the main control room of Nerv, inching closer to Misato & friends, when Unit 01 bursts through the wall and begins attacking the angel. They burst back into the cage where Gendo was, and Zeruel cuts off Eva's arm at the elbow, which slams into the wall and covers the unmoving Gendo with blood. Shinji persists and fights the angel to the launch pad, and calls for Misato to launch them to the surface.

Shinji continued to fight the angel on the surface, and was doing well until suddenly the Eva's power reserves die out. Rei-Zeruel delivers a cutting blow to 01's chest, seemingly winning. However inside a dark view of Shinji's plug, you see his eyes begin to glow red, as he whispers. "Give Ayanami back..." Suddenly Eva reactivates, eyes glowing red, and the green bands around it'd body turning red as well. Eva engages Rei-Zeruel again, overpowering the angel, until it raised it's AT field, to which Unit 01 regenerated it's arm with glowing light, breaking the angels AT field with glowing geometric effects that would make Ramiel shit it's not existent pants. Unit 01 overwhelms the angel, and Shinji presses the Eva's hand against Rei-Zeruel's core. Inside the plug, Shinji whispers "Where are you Ayanami, where are you?!" as his plug sinks deeper and deeper into Eva. Eventually Ayanami responds to him. "It's alright Ikari, please just end it." "I can't! I won't lose you Ayanami!" "There are replacements for me!" "You're wrong! You're the only you Ayanami!" Then Shinji plunges through the core towards Rei who is sitting huddled, naked in darkness. He reaches out his arm and yells "Take my hand Ayanami!" His skin is stripped from his arm and face, and she hesitates. Shinji thrusts out his arm to her and yells "???" Which means "Come!" But coming from Shinji Ikari, that is a really fucking badass way to say it. Rei grabs his hand, and Shinji pulls her back into Eva with him and they embrace. Rei-Zeruel changes shape to completely resemble Rei, turns into LCL, and flows into Unit 01's core. Unit 01 develops a halo, and turns florescent white, with red lines resembling the major veins of the body showing through it's brilliance. The halo begins to expand, and develops into the same red hole like the one over the south pole. Misato Ritsuko and friends declare this the beginning of third impact.

Roll credits.
A lovely remix of beautiful world.

After the credits Eva's red halo continues to expand, until suddenly from the sky a spear flies down and pierces Eva through the core. It reverts to it's normal state. Eva Unit 06 descends from the sky, and from inside Kaworu declares "This time I'll force you to have a happiness that's only for you Shinji"

Eva 3.0 Preview
Various characters are shown in normal circumstances, no action scenes are shown. Plenty of Mari and Kaworu. And Finally... Asuka wearing an eyepatch.

From what I've read...It seems to be the start of the true deviance in the Rebuild 'project'....Looks interesting, second post will contain pictures

Forum: Movies

Free Browser Based Games

J_Hubes — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:06:55 GMT

Anyone play any?

I play 2 right now:

Londinivm
I've been playing for years. It's a medieval based game (fighters, thieves, merchants, etc...) Great game, but the community has gotten rather stale as of late.
Out of almost 19 thousand players, I'm currently ranked 49 in the game.

Chosenspace
This is where I spend most of my time lately. It's a space based strategy game where you can do pretty much what you want. Trading, mining, building, fighting, etc... The game is designed around factions. While you can try to play solo, I don't recommend it...Being in a faction gives you too many bonuses. The community is active and lively, and really makes the game to be honest.
I'm currently a Position 2 ranked player (1 step from the top spot) in the largest faction in the game. I'm also commanding a mining team covering an entire expanse.

If you're interested in either of these games, give me a yell. I'd be especially happy to see some of you in Chosenspace, where I'm in a good position to help you get started.

Forum: Video Games

Evangelion: Anima

Gungelion — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:03:37 GMT

http://sgallen.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/evangelion-anima/

http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-115339/Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-Anima.html

Forum: Series

Asuka's birthday!!!

AsukaSohryuLangley — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:31:24 GMT

Not sure how old she is, but today (December 4th) is her birthday! Let's celebrate!

Forum: Series

do you ever wish you could be a superhero?

Gungelion — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:57:25 GMT

do you ever wish you could be a superhero and save the world?

Forum: General Chat

ReTake....the movie?!

AsukaSohryuLangley — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:51:13 GMT

http://www.freewebs.com/projectretake/home.htm

It looks promising...ish. Lot to live up to, though.

Forum: General Chat

Mechacon IV!

AsukaSohryuLangley — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:38:51 GMT

Well, I went to another Mechacon Saturday, had a blast....pics here
If you've any questions, ask away

Forum: General Chat

I leave...this place dies....I come back...

AsukaSohryuLangley — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:09:19 GMT

And it dies again...Am I the only one posting here?

Forum: General Chat

Evangelion 1.0: You Are [Not] Alone - Movie Videos

Gungelion — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:51:15 GMT

http://www.crunchyroll.com/showseriesmedia?id=13080

Forum: Movies

Integrated chat?

J_Hubes — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:34:08 GMT

It seems my forum host has a new integrated chat feature available. Give me a day or two to mess with it, and I'll set it up. It's something new to play with at the very least, lol

Forum: Announcements

Time

J_Hubes — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:18:22 GMT

It hit me yesterday just how much time had passed since I was a noobie on the Eva.com forums. I've been roaming through the old threads on the forum and have to laugh at some of the stuff I've come across I'd say about 3/4 of the external links are dead, and amusingly enough many of the things we were looking forward to years ago are still pending or dead all together. For the sake of nostalgia, how did you first come across this place, and what kind of amusing things have happened while a part of the Eva community?

Forum: General Chat

BIG NEWS!

Gungelion — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:57:07 GMT

go here
http://www.evamade.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?143048

my name there is OPA by the way

Forum: Series

setting the record straight on EVA

Gungelion — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:25:11 GMT

many people do not fully understand Evangelion; however I have found somebody who understands more than most.

I did not write any of this I am giving credit to the one who did, I will send you the link on where I found this

here is what she says.

..............................................................................................................................

In defense of a vision: Anno's Evangelion

By: Sarah Davis

Note: I've seen the movie, people... The link to my opinions on it is right there at the bottom of the page, and has been there for no less than FOUR MONTHS. Probably longer. Before e-mailing me to complain about what I said concerning the film, check HERE for a review of it. Most of the e-mail I get is redudant whining about how I mistreated, misunderstood, and misrepresented the movies.

Shinseiki Evangelion is one of the most popular anime currently available in English. It has succeeded as a Japanese television series both in Japan and around the world. Evangelion is one of those few anime that can appeal to nearly anyone. It has everything it needs to succeed

Or so it seems.

The unfortunate aspect of Shinseiki Evangelion (Eva) is that most fans love the series with unbound glee and affection until the last two episodes. Throughout the series prior to that point it has all the plot, character development, subplots, emotional impact, great animation, good music, cool mecha, and more to make it an astounding sight to behold. Then the final two episodes occur. After everything has presumably been resolved the series takes a sudden turn. The Eva Units disappear. The combat is over. The series becomes almost awkward, it is so cerebral. The characters analyze themselves throughout, peering into the depths of their own souls. It leads to nothing but a series of "congratulations" from the cast, in the direction of Shinji Ikari, the protagonist. It seems strange that a series which began with such a bang would end in such a somber, personal note. Suddenly it shifts dramatically. All the sentai elements have been erased, replaced with self-analysis of by the characters.

Many fans despise this original ending and prefer the movies that were made proceeding an outpouring of no less than rage from the fans who could not grasp or understand the end. What was the point in Shinji being told he could make his future his own? Where was the Third Impact? What became of everyone? Was this any way to end a series that was so promising? The answer to that final question: Yes.

Ive not seen the movies, nor do I feel particularly compelled to do so. Ill certainly buy or rent copies eventually, but for now I am content to study Annos masterpiece, Eva, without being burdened by the fan service movies. The fact is that everything about Eva is ultimately very atypical. Where any other series would have designed Shinji to be a lecher, a girl-magnet, a smart-ass, a genius, or otherwise unnatural, Eva created in Shinji the archetype of humanity and I respect that. Does that make sense? Shinji was everyone. He felt despair, solitude, unhappiness, depression, and so many other things that so few anime series bother to touch, let alone attempt to conquer. Shinji is "every man," so to speak. Anyone can relate to his problems. His father abandoned him, his mother died, he was shy and could not make friends easily, he was picked-on, he was an outcast, The list goes on. Shinji embodies everything that makes a human frail. He wants nothing more than to be accepted. Eva ends by portraying Shinji as someone who realizes this that he only wants to be liked but also as someone who wants to grow out of that stage.

The end of the original twenty-six episode television series had Shinji, Misato, Rei, and Asuka coming to grips with all the troubles they faced. Shinji wanted to be accepted, Misato did not want to be left alone, Rei wanted to know she was needed, and Asuka wanted to see that she was loved. They were all left alone at one point, or were expendable. All of them needed reassurance. The final episodes of Eva were centered around them voicing their fears. This much is evident from the dialogue and imagery. In the end when they see that they have self-worth outside of what others see in them and of them they are congratulated. Yui, Gendo, Ritsuko, Kaji, Maya, and a slew of other cast members tell Shinji he has done a good job.

So, whats the point? The point was that Eva was never about the Eva Units. It was about the need for acceptance. It was about Shinji piloting an Eva for praise, Asuka piloting an Eva to be special, Rei piloting an Eva to be needed, and Misato guiding them because she had a hole in her own soul which needed to be filled with their presence. Once the need for the Evas was gone all of this crumbled and their worlds fell apart. Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Misato were not special anymore. Then they were left to analyze themselves and try to find a new sense of self-worth.

That is the point of Eva. That no matter what your academic or social achievements may be, and no matter what position you hold for a job, you are unique. You do not need to rely on the praise of others to be such. Shinji regurgitated the praise he received from others so that he could relive the experiences. How many people do that? How many children post their successful tests on refrigerator doors and keep them there for months because it was their best grade? How many Olympic contenders keep gleaming trophies shining brightly in their cases for all their lives to remember that instant of glory when they crossed the finish line, got the goal, or made the leap? How many? Have you done such a thing? Of course you have. Everyone has. You keep old tests because they were done well. You cherish essays for which you were praised. You keep the trophies and monuments to your successes tightly locked and safe in a cabinet where they can be recalled but not damaged. And what happens if one of those trophies falls to the ground and is shattered? What if the test gets soaked by water and becomes illegible? What then? What evidence do you have that you ever did anything great?

That is Eva.

Why does so much discontentment come from this? Perhaps because Annos portrayal of the human psyche strikes a chord. We hate to recognize ourselves in Shinji because he is a "wimp," or a "wuss." Hes a "sissy." Hes "pathetic." He "whines too much." Does he really? Or do we just claim he is a pitiful little child because seeing ourselves reflected in someone like him is painful? Shinji is not perfect, which is what makes him intriguing. He does not have many outstanding qualities. He pilots an Eva well. And this means..? What? No one on Earth will ever pilot an Eva. Mayhaps Shinji piloting the Eva was a figment of his imagination, a way to make himself stand out. In reality none of those things occurred. To aid him he created characters who were branches of himself. Misato is the one who wants to keep others near. Asuka is the one who wants to push them away. Rei is the one who wants to know she can be near. Shinji is all of them as a single person, the not-quite-happy medium of the group. They all represent a single person who has one flaw: The raw, human need to be loved.

When the last Apostle/Angel, Kaworu, was killed, what made Shinji exceptional vanished. He then had to look into himself for what he was missing. He lacked something and he feared this. It made him uncomfortable. Was he strange? Did others view him that way? Would they like him? Questions such as these poured into his mind.

How many people have, at some point, wanted to fade away and die because they felt no one liked them? Suicides are not uncommon due to factors such as this. Anno explored this in the deepest sense. He related to the audience his deepest feelings. His regrets, his desires, and so much more. His mind is in Eva. When we watch Shinji, we watch Anno. It was such a personal view that its frightening. What would anger me, if I were Anno, is to see people take my memoir and bastardize it because the grand finale did not involve impressive sights. Anno offered us no less than himself and so many fans turned around and cried foul. The animation was not perfect, the music was not ideal, the last two episodes were boring, How many of these complaints have we all heard many times? For all Annos work, he was repaid with a lot of whining and ten dozen movies that are most certainly not his true vision. They ended in a way that would catch eyes and leave fans in awe. My, my, isnt that huge Rei cool looking? Isnt it sweet to see Asuka has regained her mental capacity and Shinji is alone with her, the next Adam and Eve, How cute.

Or, rather...

How absolutely, sickeningly, pathetically TYPICAL. How many anime end too much like that? There is no originality in that ending. To me this is just a poor attempt to make up for Anno trying to give us something more than just another Monsters vs. Big Robots anime. Eva TV is reality. Eva movies are fantasy.

But I digress. I can only ask you this: How would you rather see the series end? As Anno intended, with analysis of who we all are and what we want and need? Or with lots of neat explosions and ultra-obvious answers to the enigmas? Do you want to think or have it spelled out for you in bold writing? If you hate to think, Eva wasnt for you in the first place.

Ill leave this on that note. Flame away, my friends.

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Forum: Series

Misato's mother

Gungelion — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:02:30 GMT

we all know adout her father, but what her mother?

Forum: Series

Evangelion Rebuild

J_Hubes — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:12:36 GMT

Finally saw the first rebuild movie.....f*ing awesome! I won't spoil anything because there are differences, but this is a must-see! I was able to get my hands on a fan-subbed cam rip...now I'm aching for the DVD rip

Forum: Movies