Significance in Shinji's Cassette Player?

[Santo]

Watched 2.22 and there's a recurring motiff in zooming in on Shinji's cassette player when it changes trackers... mainly to the 26th track.

I was wondering if anyone knows if this has any deeper significance to anything. Not just the changing track but the track number (26) and the minute/seconds marks or whatever the other indicators are.

This may or may not have been brought up before. If so, my bad.

[Sachi]

Huh, I would have figured there would be more discussion than just this:

http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=9312
http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=7335
http://wiki.evageeks.org/SDAT

[Volume11]

I always thought it was interesting

SPOILER: Show

Shinji's mother died at the age of 27

It's a symbolic stretch but it is interesting Shinji lingers on 25 and 26.

[Shogo-Kun]

And then it switches to Track 27. Hmm...

[Sachi]

And then it switches to Track 27. Hmm...

I think it only switches to 27 after Mari meets Shinji and fumbles with his cassette player. I think there was a theory that she slipped in a tape.

[Santo]

I think it only switches to 27 after Mari meets Shinji and fumbles with his cassette player. I think there was a theory that she slipped in a tape.

It seems like he would have noticed.

[Azathoth]

I think there was a theory that she slipped in a tape.

It seems more likely that her impact broke it: when Kaji shows up to molest Shinji later, the SDAT is stuck on track 27 and Shinji is fiddling with the headphones as if there's no sound coming from them.

[Xous]

It seems more likely that her impact broke it: when Kaji shows up to molest Shinji later, the SDAT is stuck on track 27 and Shinji is fiddling with the headphones as if there's no sound coming from them.

Shinji even says something along the lines of "Huh, that's strange..."

So something definitely happened to the player.

I do like how the player gets so much attention, though. Seeing Rei carry it out with her as she was pulled from the 10th Angel made me chuckle a bit. I could imagine the player saying "I'm here toooo!"

[Azathoth]

I do like how the player gets so much attention, though. Seeing Rei carry it out with her as she was pulled from the 10th Angel made me chuckle a bit. I could imagine the player saying "I'm here toooo!"

Although to Shinji it obviously represents comfort and isolation (running away), to the viewer the player may represent NGE. Even in NGE, the player represented NGE, Shinji constantly flipping back and forth between 25 (self-reflection) and 26 (self-construction). Given that Mari's role is "to destroy Eva", it's no surprise that she breaks the player and that it's treated as important that she does. Shinji is now no longer able to evaluate his own actions in any logical manner, hence his refusal to fight Bardiel, quitting Nerv, hiding in shelter, etc: he only notices the consequences of his actions when Mari forces him to see them. This also implies that he will not be able to maintain his sense of self, which we see carried out in the literal dissolution of his identity as he attempts to unify with Rei.

What really interests me is that, as you point out, the (still broken) SDAT is inside God Unit 01, what Rei brings with her. Is it just being used as the symbol of isolation as Shinji forcibly isolates himself from the world, or does its alternative symbolic representation of NGE apply here, too?

[Sachi]

^ Well, I'm sold. This makes me appreciate the analytical depth of NTE much more now.

[Santo]

Although to Shinji it obviously represents comfort and isolation (running away), to the viewer the player may represent NGE. Even in NGE, the player represented NGE, Shinji constantly flipping back and forth between 25 (self-reflection) and 26 (self-construction).

You know, it would be really interesting to make some screen caps of whenever the track changes from 25-26 to see if they have an correlation to what's going on pre and then post track change to see if there's any further significance.

[juaxoo]

the 27th track means that its broken/malfunctioning, since mari's landing/impact made Shinji let go of his SDAT and it swing away and hit the floor pretty hard. it would make sense that gendo gave Shinji the player also, becuz DAT and DAT portableplayers are super expensive, even now, compared to compact casettes, Shinji could not possibly afford it.

[Warren Peace]

Well it is "TEH FUTURE!", so things could have changed. Also, how much walkin' around money does Shinji have? Do pilots get a paycheck?

[zuka]

I thought that, as they kept the SDAT player for Rebuild, they were going with the whole "technology developed slower after the second impact" angle, which would have been cool.

But modern cell phones sold by Docomo featured prominently in both films, presumably for product placement reasons, so that kinda threw my angle out the window.

[Kendrix]

I always saw the player as a 'mood barometer' for Shinji - of course there's the "protection from the world"/isolation aspect - Shinji's tendency to retreat from others.
But it has other such functions: In EoE, we see that it's battery is depleted, much like Shinji's sanity. In episode 24, it tell us he's thinking about Kaworu. In episode 9, it helps to underline Shinji's nervousness.
I always saw the "skipping back and forth" as an indicator if Shinji's indecisiveness (Most obviously seen in episode 4 - "I have to go back" Track 26 plays. Track 25 plays, he no longer plans to return. ) He's always lingering on the threshold, often going one step forwards, but reverting to the way he was before - Misato tells him not to stay still and linger, but to "go one step after the other". Compare this to Mari's song about going foreward even if there are srtbacks: "Three steps forewards, and only two backwards" Track 27 means that he's going to take the next step - that step being either leap of the hand of EVA 02, or triggering God Mode instead of going "Mommy help me!" after the energy run out.


it also serves as Avatar for Shinji and his personality in another way: In Rebuild, it even has the same backstory as him (discarded by Gendo)
When he leaves NERV, he throws it away, giving up on himself/ beginning to outright hate the world, much like Gendo did when he threw the player away after Yui's death.
Shinji thinks himself to be trash, and throws the player = himself into the trashcan - but Rei disagrees - She doesn't think Shinji is trash, oh no, in fact, she wants to have a part of him to remember him by (she is familiar with expressing her feeling through keepsakes) and picks the player out of the trash.
She later fights in his name with his player next to her seat, as if to save him in a way.
When Shinji later pulls out the player along with Rei (She was clutching that thing until the very end - compare with her stubborn refusal to let go of Gendo's glasses in 1.X), he has sort of symbolically redeemed himself/validated her high opinion of him.

---

As for the player, it was cool and modern at the time NGE came out, and they assumed that everyone would have such cool stuff in the future - since casettes are actualy out of date by now, making it a keepsake for teh Rebuild was a wise step

[Fireand'chutes77]

I thought that, as they kept the SDAT player for Rebuild, they were going with the whole "technology developed slower after the second impact" angle, which would have been cool.

But modern cell phones sold by Docomo featured prominently in both films, presumably for product placement reasons, so that kinda threw my angle out the window.

I thought it was obvious. Gendo is a hipster. Shinji is his mini-me hipster-in-training. Together, as father and son, they work to purge the world of all that is not tastefully ironic.

===

In seriousness, I was going to say something very similar to Kendrix's argument about the SDAT being Shinji's avatar... But obviously he got there first. :)

[Sailor Star Dust]

becuz DAT and DAT portableplayers are super expensive, even now, compared to compact casettes, Shinji could not possibly afford it.

At the convenience store in the Eva2 game, SDAT is 30.000¥, for whatever it's worth.

What really interests me is that, as you point out, the (still broken) SDAT is inside God Unit 01, what Rei brings with her. Is it just being used as the symbol of isolation as Shinji forcibly isolates himself from the world, or does its alternative symbolic representation of NGE apply here, too?

Because Rei is the one who's holding onto the player and Shinji has since abandoned it (Rei has basically swapped out Gendo's glasses for Shinji's SDAT), I'd say it symbolizes that she's running away just as much as Shinji. She's in the position of being caught between both of them, which wasn't really explored that much with the loyalty switch in NGE/EoE.

(I'm pretty sure somebody else discussed the significance of the SDAT in 2.22 and how it applied to Rei though I'm blanking out on who. Perhaps it was even you, Azathoth. ...Maybe SaltyJoe? Dunno...)

[Azathoth]

(I'm pretty sure somebody else discussed the significance of the SDAT in 2.22 and how it applied to Rei though I'm blanking out on who. Perhaps it was even you, Azathoth. )

That actually does sound familiar although I can't find the post... Q needs to come out before I forget everything I've ever said about this series.

I guess my question then is, does the SDAT's status as symbolic of NGE carry over into its use in the God Unit 01 scene? What's being said about NGE by the fact that it's present with Rei inside God Unit 01's core, if anything?

[Xard]

I gathered it just showed Rei cared enough about Shinji to take it with her to the underworld, so to speak...

[Azathoth]

Well yeah that's Rei's motive. I'm wondering about Anno's motive.