misato as she features in 3.33 feels right to me. this is the same old misato, without the forced, over the top, cheery veneer of bullshit she labored so hard under throughout her 20s and 30s. i cringe at the suggestion misato’s changed or seen a personality overhaul in Q - in way of evidence most people reference the “cruelty” with which she treats shinji in the movie. i would invite them to remember the myriad of times misato was actually, legitimately cruel to shinji in NGE/1.0/2.0:

  1. threatening to slap him across the face in 1.0,
  2. slapping him in the manga,
  3. screaming at him in episode 6,
  4. manhandling him in EOE,
  5. sexually abusing him, not once but twice, as the official eoe film book reveals

in a surprising departure, q!misato behaves comparatively tame, suggesting at least to me that she’s matured enough to realize that bullying shinji, strong-arming him, or forcing her will upon him doesn’t work. it’s ineffective at its best, abusive at its worst.

misato sternly instructed that shinji stay in his lane - you get the sense she wants to create a wide swarth of distance between them, emotionally and physically. it’s as though misato’s come to the realization she’s not good for shinji - not good for his mental health, not good at motivating him, not good at placating him or cheering him up (that’s probably why she allowed sakura to chaperone him - sakura is nice, friendly, and open, aka all the things misato tried to be in 1.0 and 2.0). misato is doing shinji a favor and not subjecting him to her exhausting, overpowering, and often-selfish neurosis. as far as “cruelty” goes, i’d much rather have that then the screaming, slapping, (sexually abusing).

shinji is treated exceptionally well for someone responsible for the deaths of untold millions of people, at least logistically speaking. sakura kindly chaperones him around, he gets to roam semi-freely, he’s not in solitary confinement - he gets to speak to misato and ritsuko, let alone demand questions of them, to which ritsuko answers fully, truthfully, and in good faith. worse things happen to real life kids who get caught stealing from their neighborhood grocery store. some of you all act as if misato/wille threw him in a 5x5 pen and told him to eat his own shit for nutrients. when UN soldiers caught kaji stealing a can of beans from a warehouse post-impact, they proceeded to A) beat the shit out of him B) pin him to the floor with their boots and C) murder his only remaining family and friends in cold blood. compared to that, shinji is living the high life. and any angst he (rightfully, understandably) experiences, is not of misato’s doing. 

some of my favorite obscure 90s evangelion cameos 

top to bottom: kareshi kanojo no jijouseikimatsu darling, gasaraki

it’s done! this is a gift i commissioned from the talented vwyn19 to my insanely smart friend @khalayak. it’s a redraw of the petit eva calendar illustration feat. misato, ritsuko, and kaji getting absolutely fucking sloshed at a picnic. in this house, we stan a trio

kōshoku ichidai otoko/the sensualist, dir. yukio abe (1991)
neon genesis evangelion, dir. hideaki anno (1995)

Here’s the new, mini teaser for Evangelion 3.0+1.0, which was just confirmed for a release year in 2020. It features Mari, having more fun than she probably ought to.

More teasers have been promised until the end of August, so hopefully this is just one out of many!

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 will be released in 2020.

Khara’s official website and Evangelion’s official website have just updated with the news. What’s more, Yahoo! Japan is concurrently reporting the same thing.

Khara also promises to run trailer(s) for the movie until the end of August. They just shared this groundwork image from the movie:

image

We have a year now!

Stills of a cat, breast, and eye from End of Evangelion. The breast presumably belongs to adult film actress Maiko Yūki, who was popular at the time and credited on the film by name.

According to the original proposal/draft for Neon Genesis Evangelion (furnished in 1993, nearly two years before Eva would be first broadcasted), twelve of the most powerful Angels were positioned to attack the Earth all at once, completely obliterating the United States of America in the process. This was planned for Episode 24. Makes you think.

Moreover, the drafts feature two characters/concepts that were eventually scrapped for NGE: a character named “Conrad Lawrence” and “the ancient ruins of Arka”. Conrad is described as a 67 year old UN member and “Human Complementary Plan” executive - probably an early prototype of Kiel Lorenz, seeing as he is named after the same Nazi doctor. As to who or what Akra is, no one knows, except that Akra is mentioned in the manuscript Legend of the Jews.

so, shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu - if like me you were impressed with the evangelion seiyuus and the compelling performance they brought to their roles, rakugo features a whopping 5 members of the evangelion cast - in fact i don’t think i’ve seen an anime feature so many evangelion seiyuus together. what’s more, the entire main cast is made up entirely of evangelion seiyuu:

kikuhiko by akira ishida (kaworu), sukeroku by koichi yamadera (kaji), miyokichi by megumi hayashibara (rei and yui and pen pen), and yotaro by seki tomokazu (toji)

outstanding cast aside, the show is incredible, embroiling itself with showa-era history, storytelling, and adult drama involving a salient gay romance between two rakugo performers. watch it!

recurring visual imagery: head shake + disbelief
neon genesis evangelion, dir. hideaki anno (1995)
end of evangelion, dir. hideaki anno (1997)

C