Mari & Fan-Service

[Felipe]

So, I've been re-watching Rebuild 1 and 2 before I watch the third one, and unless she has a really big purpose to fulfill next, Mari seems like pure, shameless fan-service. Am I going to be proven wrong, you who already watched it? No spoilers, please.

"This makes my chest feel too tight"? Come on.

[Dream]

I think this might be better suited to the rebuild section.

Also, i don't know if this is because of a lack of context (i haven't seen rebuild) but i don't see anything wrong with that quote. If you're uncomfortable with your uniform, it's nothing strange to say so.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

So, I've been re-watching Rebuild 1 and 2 before I watch the third one, and unless she has a really big purpose to fulfill next, Mari seems like pure, shameless fan-service. Am I going to be proven wrong, you who already watched it? No spoilers, please.

"This makes my chest feel too tight"? Come on.

Obviously, you've never gone shopping with your sisters. There is nothing fan-serviceable about a woman's discomfort. (Unless you're into that sort of thing, in which case you had better be sure she's into it as well. Apparently Mari is not.)

I've said it before, but context is key. Fan-service isn't something one can usually simply extract from the rest of the story without losing something important to the characters themselves. Especially with Anno. Without the nude bath scene in Gunbuster, the characters wouldn't have been nearly as well established as they would have been with that scene. And yes, the nudity itself helped establish some of the character traits and goals, or at least made their traits and goals more noticeable.

That being said, at least in 2.22, I can find very little context with Mari. It seems to be building up to something with other important lines, such as in the first part of 2.22 when she speaks of having goals. Thematically she seems like she might be an important character. And when it comes to tone, 3.33 might have been unbearable to watch without her goofiness lightning the mood every now and again.

I would say that she has nothing to do with the over arching plot, but seeing as how that's all about Human Instrumentality and we have no idea how that works just yet, then it's like saying Rei is all fan-service and no story outside of the first 6 episodes of NGE. You have no idea who's important and who isn't until the very end. (Greatest irony of all is that Asuka, who dominated most of NGE's running time and seemed to be a very important character, had absolutely nothing to do with bringing about Instrumentality.)

[Felipe]

I understand nudity and such conveys meaning just like any other symbol in story-telling. Take Shinji falling over Rei, for example: that scene is there to show us Rei isn't a normal human being and doesn't think like most people do. It's absolutely not fan service. But then there's this (0:10):

SPOILER: Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6g-JSUkwfk

There's even a close-up, for crying out loud. Come on, guys. Be straight here. Similarly, there's that whole "hey Misato, don't you think this new plug-suit is a bit revealling?". It's ridiculous.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

There's even a close-up, for crying out loud. Come on, guys. Be straight here. Similarly, there's that whole "hey Misato, don't you think this new plug-suit is a bit revealling?". It's ridiculous.

True. But the same happened in Episodes 7-10 of NGE as well. The only difference between all of NGE and the first half of NME is that half-finished NME hasn't deconstructed the fan-service yet, where has the completed NGE has.

[Dream]

Plus, it's really not that big of a deal. At least, i didn't find it as such when i watched the video.

[Felipe]

True. But the same happened in Episodes 7-10 of NGE as well. The only difference between all of NGE and the first half of NME is that half-finished NME hasn't deconstructed the fan-service yet, where has the completed NGE has.

Well, you're just saying that. Who knows if it will happen? These new movies seem quite less self-aware than the TV series, after all.

[TheFriskyIan]

Mari is completely useless, no point other than to sell more figures and t-shirts.

You could literally remove her completely from Rebuilds story, change around some of the characters and no one would be none the fucking wiser. There is literally no reason for her to be here other than to provide fan service that Asuka, Rei, or Misato could have provided.

[Mr. Tines]

There's even a close-up, for crying out loud.

And there was I thinking that'd be the Asuka's shimapan sequence. But the original had plenty of scenes where the women were framed from shoulder down to give avoiding having to animate their lip flaps -- which just happened to give more emphasis to their breasts, coincidental, like.

I would prescribe a course of real fanservice anime by way of desensitization.

[Elect G-Max]

Mari is much more of a third wheel in 3.0 than she was in 2.0.

I have no idea why she's even here.

to sell more figures and t-shirts.

Oh. Right.

[kboyrulez12345]

Hmm, for Mari's signification...I'm not entirely sure. Apparently the directors didn't even know what to do with Mari when they first thought her up, though I hated that fanservice scene in Q...(hope that doesn't count as spoilers.) I think that their is something bigger when it comes to Mari though, after seeing Q. Have to wait until Final to see what happens...

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Mari is completely useless, no point other than to sell more figures and t-shirts.

You could literally remove her completely from Rebuilds story, change around some of the characters and no one would be none the fucking wiser. There is literally no reason for her to be here other than to provide fan service that Asuka, Rei, or Misato could have provided.

Looking at the character more objectively, I'm nit sure if I can agree. There are a few lines in Q that do make her sound a bit more sinister than she did in 2.22, particularly when it comes to her trying to understand Instrumentality.

SPOILER: Show

That does suggest a plot, one that Asuka and Misato don't actually seem to have a part in.

But, if we were to take any of the aspects about the character from Q and analyse them, then this whole thing would be tossed in the spoiler section, which is something that this thread is actively trying to avoid. So instead of being completely wrong for the sake of the thread, I'll say that one should really watch 3.33 and take note of Mari's dialogue rather than her chest. I know that's difficult to do, seeing as how everyone is actively separating Mari's fanservice from her dialogue, therefore suggesting that everyone here secretly has the hots for her, but I think it would be worth it when it comes to understanding the character.

[Felipe]

Secretly?

[Elect G-Max]

She had dialog in 3.0?

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Secretly?

Point taken.

She had dialog in 3.0?

I know. Weird, right?

[Guy Nacks]

Mari is completely useless, no point other than to sell more figures and t-shirts.

You could literally remove her completely from Rebuilds story, change around some of the characters and no one would be none the fucking wiser. There is literally no reason for her to be here other than to provide fan service that Asuka, Rei, or Misato could have provided.

Oh, man agreed.

She's been a complete waste of a potentially good character thus far.

[Warren Peace]

Mari is completely useless, no point other than to sell more figures and t-shirts.

You could literally remove her completely from Rebuilds story, change around some of the characters and no one would be none the fucking wiser. There is literally no reason for her to be here other than to provide fan service that Asuka, Rei, or Misato could have provided.

You could say the same thing about Chewbacca. Why do you hate Chewie, Ian?

Mari is awesome and provides grade A craziness. I find her an exhilarating addition to 2.0's finale. Her actions solidify the sense of chaos and emergency the film is going for -- an Angel attack, two pilots M.I.A. and on top of everything else, some strange chick is hijacking an Evangelion (yeah yeah, not really hijacking, but you know what I mean)!? In most films, she would sweep in and save the day. That she doesn't drives home that Nerv is in way over their collective heads.

Besides, who else will sneak up and grab Asuka's boobs in fan art? Rei? Misato? It's not in their character!

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Even if what I posted earlier doesn't come to light, Mari is basically a supporting character. Having more characters than just the basic main protagonists simply helps the story's horizon feel a bit broader. That what large casts do.

Actually, come to think of it, she has the same usefulness as Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. In both movies the characters' soul reasons for existence is to gather some information and speculate on a few things, help save people, and have partially exposed boobs at some point in the movie. The only difference being is that you don't think Faye if useless to the film because she was also in the TV series, whereas you think Mari is useless because she's wasn't in the TV series.

Granted, there's continuity between Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and its TV show, whereas the general theory about NME is that it's a completely different continuity from its TV show. But we're simply talking about a character's usefulness in a feature-length. The same rules of screenwriting still apply.

[Guy Nacks]

You could say the same thing about Chewbacca. Why do you hate Chewie, Ian?

Because Mari as a character has so far been the film equivalent of a lapdance where the girl squeezes the hell out of your balls right before you climax.

Anno said that she had a purpose and that her purpose was to "destroy Eva". After 2 films how has she done this? She's played almost no part in altering the scenario or "changing the game". She just pretty much does what all the other pilots do: destroy angels.

The problem is we've been led to expect that she's got her fingers in a lot of pies (aside from Asuka's) and there's been no payoff, and now everyone's worrying that when 4.0 ends, she really wont have had much of an impact on things as she was made out to do.

Chewie was not expected to do any of those things.

[Warren Peace]

Well, let's just judge Final when Final comes around then. No use "worrying".

In both movies the characters' soul reasons for existence is to gather some information and speculate on a few things, help save people, and have partially exposed boobs at some point in the movie.

Not at all. She's there to make Zeruel seem like more of a threat. All the ammo in the world can't kill the Angel, Rei's giant effin' missle explosion can't kill the Angel, even Mari's weird superpower can't kill the Angel. "Rules of screenwriting" state that such a character would come and kick Zeruel's ass. That's our expectation. Instead, she gets her ass kicked, which makes Zeruel seem unstoppable.