Further notes:
003: The glasses look rather cheap for being the possesion of someone who, according to ep 21, swims in money. As Ritsuko's later comment implies, Rei most likely got her spartan ways from him.
029: Wrench it's head off? So, it's trying to kill itself/release itself from its misery? That explain the latter wallbanging, too. So, is it because being a remote-controlled cyborg is And-I-Must-Scream-levels of horrible, or some "return to Lillith" urge manifesting itself? The latter would explain why Rei was so terrified that she wouldn't go into that thing without Gendo's glasses for moral support/gives that bubble of relief when it doesn't happen again.
035: Well, they need to show it working for us to be actually shocked when it doesn't.
081: Note that Shinji shows an acute interest in the gibberish on the screen even tough he probably can't understand it. One of the first signs that he spends more time thinking about what's actually going on around him than it initially seems like. He doesn't ask or investigate because he lacks the confidence, but he does privately wonder about what he's fighting and why.
092: One of the many scenes where Evangelion portrays frequently used real life behaviors in a surprisingly natural way and analizes them. Who has never found themselves going "Oh, it's nothing..." It's schocking hopw many dialogues seem like straight out of Real Life. Watching EVA actually made me stop many such things/try to avoid them.
100: @Fireball: It's probably meant to evoke something like that, that Gendo is occupied with his works and a wolrd of secrets Shinji isn't part of.
101: Look at Ritsuko's notably uncomfortable pose here, with her hands in her lap and her knees close together. For being the one who created them and otherwise morally "hardened", Ritsuko tends to react quite strongly to the sight of Berserking EVAs. Maybe it's supposed to streghten the feeling that "Shit just got real" if even the amoral, "plastic"-looking (all the makeup, fake hair, revealing clothes etc...) science lady seems unsettled. It also shows just how much detail was put into those Characters, how they were given very distinct body shapes and body languages. You can notice so much just by watching them move around a bit.
102: This anime and it's odd fixation with sparkling water surfaces, often as seen from below.
106: Again, this anime's uncanny ability to evoke images/scenes everybody has seen... that one kid sitting at the side during PE class while everybody else is having fun and interacting because she's neither good at interacting nor at sports, the latter perhaps because of a disease. This shot immediately called up memories of authentic ppl I know in real life, in fact, I know that situation and what it feels like myself...
110: It seems like all the activities the background noises suggest are taking place in some other world, I like how Shinji is just staring there, lost in his own thoughts...
112: Was the sexy pose aimed at our dear Shin-chan? Touji certainly wasn't the intended recipient...
115: This scene, comic-relief laden as it may be, is quite important in that it shows us that the events of the previous episode really welded the boys together, to the point that they're having silly boy's conversation like friends do. By this point, Shinji is officially part of the pack.
If that line of Touji's actually is meant to poke fun at Shinji's mannerisms, note that it's done half-jokingly in a way that shows that Touji is sure he'll get its a joke, a young-male-big-mouth thing that only furtherly underline's that he "got in"
118: Of course it is like this XD
120: Mind you, judging from their expressions, you'd think they'd like to have fun with her "calves", too XD
122: This is
remarkably similar to how real teens will talk about
actual socially withdrawn girls. Believe me, I've witnessed it. I think this is part of what made me so attached to Rei...
123: Judging by ep 23, she
is lonely, but she can't
tell she is.
125: Shinji now gets that he has no clue about the closest thing he has to a comerade in arms...
126: ...and it leaves him so distraught that he just stops in the middle of the sports grounds.
144: In Misato's defense, to my experience, instant noodles can be quite tasty.
149: love the comedic noodle slurp here.
159: (first part) Ritsuko clearly disaproves of Misato's beer consumption... little scenes like these are what establish the reason/emotion // age apropiete/inapropiate contrast in our heads so much we take it for granted and make jokes about it, so that we'll be even more shocked when it all gets turned on its head.
160: By now, Shinji has officially become Misato's beer delivery boy. Note how his motion and a good part of the funny mood stop at the mention of Rei's name. It must be weird, to hear someone mention what you've been brooding about all day.
162: He immediately agrees politely. Shinji is a nice, friendly guy at heart, atfer all. (And just that is very soon going to get him yet another fangirl.)
166: Not yet, anyway XD But of course, as in any anime, that sort of teasing always aquires a grain of truth if doesn'rt already have one.
169: Ritsuko, as usual, is used as a contrast to Misato's "Childish" antics.
173: Also, another of those powerful, iconic lines and a rather original way to discribe some socially withdrawn person's barely-existance as she doesn't understand how the world around her, those invisible rules og human interactions, and even how her own heart works, with all those things that some would caracterize as what makes life worth living passing her by.
This might mislead one to think that Ritsuko is sympathetic to Rei, but that's her rational mind speaking, telling her that she shouldn't be jealous of a teenaged girl, but she's averting her eyes/lying through her teeth, as we later learn that she is not free of blame for what has been done to Rei and ultimately has an irrational hate towards the poor girl.
Title2: Don't forget the recent addition of the parachute scene. Poor Shinji, he'll never live it down, will he?
174: Ah, Anno's use of urban imaginery/aestetics. I've always loved it. Probably, you get to like what you're used to seeing when you're a kid - I spent the first four or five years of my life in such a building, and I could never find any beauty in any sort of natural landscape.
I've heard that Anno grew up in an industrial town, explaining why
he uses that sort aestetics a lot.
Probably, the same is true for Rei who grew up in a lab. An aspect that is often forgotten by fans/fanfic writers is that a) the place is abandoned, so no chance of anyone mugging Rei. b) It's eternal summer, so bye bye "Broken Heater" plot-bunny. c) Episiode 23 pretty much implies that she lives there
by choice because she, much like many other people, prefers a living space that is similar to her "home". Ppl tend to find it odd when someone else likes things made of concrete - I can spend hours gushing about fournaces or industrial buildings most ppl would just call "ugly", so, this sort of thing exists, even in "normal" people.
That sort of buildings didn't always say "designated poorhouse": A few years ago, those were "cool and modern" because of the cheap, "technological" way they could be built. The communist world, in particular, used to be fond of those, to the point that high-ranking diplomats would be given the "privilege" of living in those.
As for why those buildings are these and why they're being demolished, I allways assumed that they were built after Second Impact when lots of people lost their homes and cheap living space was needed. So, reconstruction became a wave of concrete, untill peoples' financial situations began to improve and they could afford "prettier" houses, leaving these appartments deserted with Rei as their only resident.
They're probably being demolished simply because they're not needed anymore, Tokyo 3 is half empty anyway and most ppl who remain probably do so because they're paid high enough to afford better housing than that...
I always found this particular location/setting to be a brilliant work of art, after all, the house one lives in is an integral part of someone's personal world and says quite a lot about its owner/ can be an efficient tool of characterization.
Of course, a stark grey, artificial location with "technological" background noises is the perfect environment for an unhappy artificial girl.
Also, the way the many identical houses fade into the distance evokes the one shot from episode 14 and the idea of "clones" in general, a percieved "lack of uniqueness".
Furtherly, the fact that she lives in an "abandoned" part of the city, a sort of mini "ghost town" reinforces her assotiation with being a "faded afterimmage of the past"
The demolition noises make for an eerie, recognizable background noise, lampshade the constant presence of death and decay in Rei's personal world and again showcase that she just accepts things that any other human being would complain about, either because she'd be used to machine noises from Nerv HQ, or because she simply wouldn't find her own comfort or discomfort relevant.
175: It's all in a state of decay because it hasn't been mantained properly. Sort of like Rei. Or that constantly decaying body of hers.
But that also makes it like something out of a surreal dream, a place where the usual rules don't apply because there's no one there to enforce them... technically, you could just walk in all of the empty buildings and sit on the dusty furniture...
176: More images of decay and "oddness", there isn't even glass in that windows, and that pale light shines through the building...
177: A plate which Shinji probably checked twice or thrice to make sure he was in the right place... does "rough letters" impliy some equivalent of block letters or some printed-out thing, something that would make a name plate that's supposed to be an indentity tag somewhat un-personal?
178: The unorthodox camera angle here (from above) just helps to accentuate that "detached" feeling.
179: It's cheap, it doesn't work, and Rei doesn't seem to mind. All those little things telling you of her astonishing lack of discomfort with what others would discribe as unbearable living arangents. "She only has the bare minimim of what she needs to have", as Anno puts it. "Conditioned to accept horror" being big keywords here.
People like Asuka, Ritsuko or her haters might be creeped out by the apparent way she doesn't seem to want more, while Shinji and her fans find her inability to understand or express these very existent desires (see ep 23) woobietastic.
181: Again an odd angle, the room is shown from the inside, giving the audience the feeling to be standing inside its darkness... Another sighn of Rei's lack of concern for her own person: The front door isn't locked. You lock stuff away because there is something valuable inside, but Rei doesn't consider herself or her possesions all too valuable. ('cept for Gendo's broken glasses, but who'd steal those?)Technically, she doesn't have much of a reason to, since she has nothing worth stealing and the place is deserted/no one comes anyway, except herself and maybe Nerv-Security, who are supposed to get in, but it just contradicts that Cave-man instinct to have a safe shelter, doesn't it?
And then, there's the full mailbox, she doesn't seem to bother throwing it away, again going against the instinct that you generally don't like having garbage lying around you, but in a way, leaving it there is just as good as getting a trashcan and stuffing it into it/ if it's trash, why devote time to disposing of it? It also shows how she's barely involved in "worldly" things.
I suppose most of it is advertizing, paperwork or perhaps school stuff, I'm sure there's one or the other invitation lying around there, things Rei would consider trivial to her purpose... She goes to Nerv HQ every few days, so there wouldn't be a need for them to write her letters about anything vital...
185: Like the art here, the interplay of light and shades of gray. It shows us that the inside of this place is *dark*. They didn't really have the technology to bring it across at the time, but when I saw the first rebuild movie with all its shading technology and shiny graphix, I was astonished to realize just how dark this place is, and how the remaining light serves as meaningful-looking accentuation. She really doesn't let any daylight in there... I guess her lab didn't have any daylight, either.
She would probably feel uncomrtable living in a well-lit place, or at least take some time to get used to it, tough she certainly wouldn't voice any complaints... Also, look how the kitchen is drawn in the same generic color as the background, which sort of makes it fade into it... it doesn#t really look used/lived in.
186: The inconmplete lamp only confirms that she doesn't have much of a desire for light, nor for aesthetics (no covering, no interest in cleaning away the soot... it looks rather like that black tarp in her lab room next to what probably used to be her bed...) Also, who has that sort of light tubes in their homes? That sort of lighthing is more reminescent of cellars, hospitals or un-personal, public places... and yes, labs.
As for the source of the soot, it kinda looks like what accomulates over a heating after many years, with the lack of light making it look worse than it is... When we repainted a few rooms in our house, I noticed that the wall is allways dirtier above the heating. Not sure if there's even a heating beneath it, tough. Might've been any sort of domestic accident.
187: The chair is cheap plastic (again, the "bare minimum"), Rei seems to think that a cardboard box makes for acceptable furniture (it might have been lying around and used for various purposes since she moved in there...) and the metal bars of the bed look cold/hospital-like, again stressing the un-personal look of it all...
Note, however, the reading lamp there. As we see later, Rei likes to relay lying on her bed, and she also likes reading, so that lamp, metal and undecorative as it may be, could be considered something of a personal touch, and is a sort of thing a "normal" introverted girl would have on her bed.
Little goof here: Those blood stains (and those in the next shot) ought to be brown by now, tough. I think Rebuild fixed that, tough. Then again, I get the need to make sure the audience gets it's blood and the charm of red on white. The bedsheets aren't
that messy, but not particularly tidy either... The blood probably stems from when she still wore those bandages around her head, probably those head injuries reopened a few times in her sleep and she didn't bother changing the pillow's cover...
Then again, she has one without stains by the next time we see her room, and ep 14 suggests that the scent of blood is one of the things that
do bother her, so maybe the stains
are fresh and the poor girl has recently been coughing blood or something like that... it would make sense for her to have some lung problems after having boiling LCL in her respiratory ducts.
Heck, even the former theory would suggest that those injuries have been healing rather slowly/badly. Then again, she might just not give "disposing of things she dislikes" an all-too high priority.
The little pillow itself
does have a colored pattern on it (Even if they're faded, wan colors) and would probably look almost cute without the blood on it, so, just like the lamp, it can be classified as a "personal" item of sorts, an indication that little Rei
has a personality, but didn't get the proper input/environment to develop it.
That uniform there is less of a mystery as it has probably just been put there when she picked what to wear after shovering, but our (un)fortunate protagonist doen't know that yet.
Someone (I think it was Sadamoto?) commented on how they gave Rei black socks because they were considered unfashionable at he time, since it would have felt "silly" to dress the characters in what was "in" at the time/ because it's okay for someone like Rei to wear such things, indicating that she, like real life socially withdrawn girls, is unaware of fashion and the like (tough her Real world counterparts usually posses more private clothing than just socks), but that nuance was soon lost on the audience because black socks apparently became a hit after EVA aired...
188: Those bandages are presumably the ones she wore and discarded over the past few weeks... again, it looks like those wounds were a pain in the rectrum/healed badly/slowy. Note the uniused bandages up there and, of course, the famous pills, another indication that our poor Rei isn't exactly at prime health... I'd guess some are for various temporary problems and others are to keep her from falling appart EoE style before its time for Gendo to "activate" her. After all, she is a half-human hybrid and a homunculus, the pills probably compensate for incompatibilities between SoL and human biology and the imperfectios of the cloning process. I wouldn't be surprised if Rei spent half her screentime in constant pain or discomfort, her Japanese voice actress makes her sound like she could faint at any given moment.
She probably lets that filled beaker stand there so the place looks more like a lab.
Those cans and the bag indicate that she
does eat regular food/ buy it herself, tough presumably nothing too sophisticated, maybe that's some vitamin-shake like stuff that has all the nutrients but tastes like paper.
190: And now, the full view to let it all sink in... the silver lining is, it seems that she does wash her clothing (and, as we'll soon see, herself) since some of it is hung out to dry here.
197: "...appears a little surprised, too." Somehow, that made me laugh out loud.
205: Notice the dirt on Shinji's socks. That's one of the things I love about EVA, tey do give quite some thought to detail.
207: Because clearly, the entire experience just wasn't humilating
enough yet.
215: Look where his knee ended up.
220: The way the shadown on her breats are drawn/ animated here always strikes me as both surprisingly realistic and arousing.
@ other posts: If anything, this very episode should prove that
was never anything close to emotionless, but a kuudere to begin with. After all, we see her display
surprise,
more surprise irritation,
anger/loyalty,
fear and clinging to something for comfort,
delight and
relief.
226: I'm in awe at the level of detail and realism in such everday movements, how you see those lines on her back move.
240: Here, we are provided with the insighful information that theay actually do ride a train together from time to time, and as ep 22' shows us, they came to talk to each other while doing so after their relationship had progressed a bit more. Bits and pieces from that could've made it in those visions of his. There is just something about the way he keeps observing her from the distance...
(Which isn't stalking since he isn't following her or anything, they just happen to have the same way)
(So, and now, let's move on to ep 1, after all, I was the one who kept bugging you gys for it)