The shot of Misato’s cross necklace after Shinji nails it to a grave marker during End of Evangelion accords with the brief closeup of Misato’s chest from the Cruel Angel’s Thesis OP. In this way Misato’s body becomes the very uniform of death.
“rei or asuka?” really baffles me because they’re presented as inverse contrasts in the show, and you can’t really derive any concrete analysis or understanding of their characters by taking them in separately. you have to examine them together through a comparative lens – their backstories, how they view themselves, their respective methods of coping/internalizing neglect and validation (or lack thereof). this goes for literally every single character in evangelion, but rei and asuka are most prolific for the grossest and most nauseating reasons.
when people say they like asuka more than rei for “x” reasons or visa versa, to me that’s just another gauge of how badly they missed the point.
ᴛɪᴍᴇʟɪɴᴇ ᴏғ ᴇᴠᴀɴɢᴇʟɪᴏɴ: ᴡᴇᴇᴋ ʙʏ ᴡᴇᴇᴋ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴅᴏᴡɴ
You may or may not know that Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place between July 6th, 2015 to January 1st, 2016. Here’s an exhaustive breakdown of the exact dates of events, using the times provided by the show and per character dialogue. Some noteworthy finds:
- Kaworu met Shinji on Christmas Eve, and died on Christmas Day.
- The median amount of time between angel attacks is 11 days.
- Toji lost his left leg on Halloween.
- Kaji died a day before Misato’s 30th birthday.
- Shinji is “birthed” from Unit-01 a day after Asuka’s 14th birthday.
- The first half of End of Evangelion takes place on Toji’s 15th birthday, one day after Kaworu’s death.
- And more!
The general skeleton for the first few months was graciously compiled here. Note that in Japan, schools are in session (half-days) on Saturdays.
What’s most interesting about the latest Groundwork release are the corrections made to the initial Misato drafts, largely because Misato Katsuragi is the only character in Q whose precise emotional state is deliberately obscured.
The first draft is very “Pre-Timeskip Misato”, in that it’s fully demonstrative of the extent of Misato’s emotions. But the alterations (adding wrinkles around the eye, clenching the mouth, tightening the brow) really do well in communicating that Misato has now learned to bottle much of her discomforts and fears. A word to describe the first draft would be “anger”, but finding words to describe the finalized expression is a more variegated task — yes, there’s anger, but there’s also fear, exhaustion, tenacity, and maybe a little bit of regret.
Without having the full scope of what she’s gone through during the 14 year timeskip, this change is perhaps the most mystifying and disorienting in terms of character development, which is in part why the conclusion of Misato Katsuragi’s Rebuild arc firmly remains one of my most anticipated moments in Evangelion: 3.0+1.0.
A thorough analysis of Ryoji Kaji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, tracking the allusions, references, and visual clues provided in the show - many of which go unnoticed. Features extra analyses by circuitbird. Props where props are due.
Let’s get this melon rolling.