Evangelion 3.0 interviews (needs translation!)

Discussion of the new series of Evangelion movies ( "Evangelion Shin Gekijōban", meaning "Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition"). The final instalment made its debut in Japan on March 8, 2021.

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Postby Kendrix » Sat May 18, 2013 4:02 am

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR POSTING THIS, I've been clamorinh for ppl to give us a proper, non-google-translation of this for ages!

YOU'RE OUR HERO!!!

~<3, ~<3 ~<3, ~<3 ~<3, ~<3 ~<3, ~<3 ~<3, ~<3 ~<3, ~<3~<3, ~<3 ~<3, ~<3

PS: Does this italian site also have other interviews that are still pending? The first half of Shinji's? Mari? Anyone else? I've heard even the new WILLE bridge bunnies were given interviews, so there should be some for the whole cast...

------

So, on the interview itself:

So the "mercenary" line is in fact, from the big man himself? Well, that gives it even more credibility.

I don't see any talk of her relationship with Shinji in here at all, in neither direction.
"She still uses her catchphrase" simply means that she is, while she has done some growing up to some degree, still the usual Asuka, with an example of what Asuka usually does.

Still, this does put ONE argument to rest: The one of Asuka's and Mari's mental maturity. (which is one of the reasons why I've been clamoring for this thing to be translated- No need to argue your head off when there's an official statement) As several ppl here including myself have been stating, she's most definitely an adult, worked out some of her issues in the time skip, and thus, her behavior can no longer be chalked up to "It's just her complex". - If she kicks you in the face, it's because she wants to kick you in the face.


...Miyamura always was a hopeless optimist. She said the same thing about EoE (right after "Rebirth" came out), "Asuka will be happy this time! Totally!" ...Cue Asuka dying a gruesome death within the first few minutes of the new footage, being constantly angry and pissed... and choked, too. OUCH. If that didn't crush her hopes, nothing will.

(...in a way, Asuka's & Misato's Q personas (aside from the whole Shinji thing) feel like something of a logical continuation from their EoE-persona's, Asuka being a "warrior" (minus the earlier primadonna act), and Misato's cold, undecorated setting out to save the world if no one else cares.)

Even the very happy-go-lucky Hayashibara (they made a point of casting ppl against type) has long since given up on poor Rei XD
Then again, it's kinda cute how the older Miyamura now views Asuka in a maternal light, surreal as it is to see how nice and generally pleasant she is, after hearing her lending her voice to Asuka of all people XD Then again, I've heard Hayashibara is totally hyperactive, that is probably even more mind-numbing. She could do Mana as well, with no one noticing in scenes where Mana and Rei are in the same room XD

That said, Asuka probably does have better survival chances than most of the cast... I sure hope she does, at this point, I'd throw a party if *anyone* survives "Final"...
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Postby ElMariachi » Sat May 18, 2013 5:52 am

Thank you very much! This is the interview from Ghibli website right?

Miyamura's excited and optimistic interview is a big contrast to Ogata(Shinji)'s depressive one, especially the way he made a parallel with the images of the disasters that fell on Japan exactly one year prior to the recording to emulate Shinji's sense of overwhelming guilt and despair, chilling! :bigeyes:

So the "mercenary" comment comes from the master himself, interesting. The way he compared her to a "professional mercenary" a "captain of the army" is of particular interest, because it tell us how Asuka sees herself now : in 2.0 and NGE, Asuka was various things : pilot of EVA-02, savior of mankind, schoolgirl, friend of Hikari... but now in 3.0 everything was stripped away, the only thing left is Captain Shikinami, pilot of EVA-02' and nothing more. And that's probably the same thing with the rest of WILLE : all of their previous life(or potential for youngster like Sakura) disappear to make place for servicing for WILLE and mankind, everything else is irrelevant now. That ties perfectly with Asuka's lines "All this fuss over just one person. In this world, we don't have the luxury of worrying about such things.", family, friendship, love? All secondary now, the priority is to fight neo-NERV and assuring mankind's surviving.

Man, what a shitty world. :irked:

Second thing interesting is Miyamura's feeling that Asuka now "stand on her two feets", personally I perceive that as the fact that she's now past her insecurities about being torn between a desire for a normal life with friends and trying to define herself first as an EVA pilot who doesn't need anyone else. But the interesting thing would be to know if she got past these insecurities by herself, or if it was the circumstances that decided for her : unlike NGE where the final lesson for Asuka was to learn to live outside of piloting the EVA, here in 3.0 she's now only defined by that, she a "captain of the army", her whole life revolves around fighting for mankind, and due to her talent as a pilot and the "curse of Eva" that means piloting the EVA, there is few other things she could do.

Finally, Miyamura's comment about feeling that Asuka is "lonely". That's right that we only saw Asuka interact with Misato, Mari and Shinji, we don't know how her relationship with the rest of the crew is. Is she integrated? Living apart because the crew think that she's a freak?

About Kenrix's comment that Asuka and Misato got past worked out some of their issues in the time skip, I agree with that, but I feel that they have been replaced with other ones :
- Misato had egoistic objectives, joining NERV to make the Angel pay for her father's death and not really giving a shit about mankind's safety. Now she's exclusively working toward mankind's protection instead as for personal reason, but took it to the other extreme to the point that her new motto is to prioritize the objective over human life.
- Asuka was obsessed by being the best pilot, and obstinately refused any help from others. Now her only objective is to accomplish the objective, even if that mean getting help from other people, illustrated by her fantastic teamwork with Mari and the trust she put in her when she told her to go stop EVA-13 while she goes saving the Wunder, but on the other side there is a constant aura of anger and bitterness around her, like someone who had her fate decided for her and resigned herself to it, even if she don't like it. And she seems to clearly have problems of anger management : you don't just kick someone in the face because you want to kick him in the face, especially when the one you want to kick has no bloody clue of why you want to do this.
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Postby ElMariachi » Sat May 18, 2013 6:14 am

View Original PostKendrix wrote:The already translated ones (including Misato's which isn't here, but somewhere in the questions thread) have proven very insightful and what google translate spat out was interesting, for example, Miyamura talks of Asuka's maturity level (can't tell what she was saying about it, though) and somehow compares her to a "professional mercenary", if that was correct.

I've seen somewhere else that what Miyamura compared Asuka to was an "embittered mercenary". Meaning someone extremely jaded, who probably lost any faith in mankind, kinda relevant which how much aggressive she was through 3.0


EDIT : I finally read Ogata's interview, and whoaaaa... that's haunting.
The way she used the images of the disaster that fell on Japan the previous year to convey Shinji's sense of loss, guilt and despair is really chilling. As the way she convey Shinji's desperate attempts to grasp to some comfort in the fact that he at least saved Rei, and that saving someone was a good thing, as a way to try to bear what he did and not go insane... only to learn that no, he didn't saved her, and how he desperately sought salvation through Kaworu and his promise to atone for what he did by accompanying him to retrieve the spears... only for it to explode back at his face again, and this time it was his fault, and Kaworu, the only support he had left, the only thing that let him see a little light of hope at the end of the tunnel, gruesomely dies to repair Shinji's own errors, and on top of it that will probably make his already extremely strenuous relationship with his old friends, who already only see him with hate, scorn of fear, even worse...
Ogata felt exhausted just mentioning it, and as she says she's an adult, she can't even begin to imagine what it must be for a 14 years old boy. 14 years old! It's hardly the beginning of his life, and 3.0 make him feel that it already came to an absolute and brutal end.

The worst being how Ogata can't even see how she(and by extension Shinji) could recover from the scene of Kaworu's death. For me it's clear that in Final Shinji will needs other people intervention and help to begin to get out of the black pit he fell into, there is no way he can get out of it alone, nor fell further down... which strangely gives me hope that things will get better in Final : Shinji can't be broken further, the "give him some hope only to get it crushed and sent him way past the despair horizon" trick was used with Kaworu's death(in EoE that was Asuka's death despite Shinji's promise to a dying Misato that he will protect her), Shinji just can't go further down, there is nowhere to go but upward!
Last edited by ElMariachi on Sat May 18, 2013 9:27 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Kensuke is a military otaku who, at one point, is shown creepily taking pictures of girls to sell. He would clearly fit right in as an animator at Studio Gainax. -- Compiling_Autumn
EoTV is a therapist, EoE is a drill instructor. -- Chuckman
Seriously, that is the most fananked theory I've ever heard, more than Mari being Marty McFly travelling through time to keep her parents (Asushin) together. -- Jäeger

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Postby Kendrix » Sat May 18, 2013 7:27 am

...if Anno can top the amount of breaking featured in EoE, he can top Q.
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Postby Stillborn » Sat May 18, 2013 7:40 am

View Original PostElMariachi wrote:I've seen somewhere else that what Miyamura compared Asuka to was an "embittered mercenary". Meaning someone extremely jaded, who probably lost any faith in mankind, kinda relevant which how much aggressive she was through 3.0


EDIT : I finally read Ogata's interview, and whoaaaa... that's haunting.
The way she used the images of the disaster that fell on Japan the previous year to convey Shinji's sense of loss, guilt and despair is really chilling. As the way she convey Shinji's desperate attempts to grasp to some hope in the fact that he at least saved Rei, and that saving someone was a good thing, a way to try to bear what he did and not go insane... only to learn that no, he didn't saved her, and how he desperately sought salvation through Kaworu and his promise to atone for what he did by accompanying him to retrieve the spears... only for it to explode back at his face again, and this time it was his fault, and Kaworu, the only support he had left, the only thing that let him see a little light of hope at the end of the tunnel, gruesomely dies to repair Shinji's own errors, and on top of it that will probably make his already extremely strenuous relationship with his old friends, who already only see him with hate, scorn of fear, even worse...
Ogata felt exhausted just mentioning it, and as she says she's an adult, she can't even begin to imagine what it must be for a 14 years old boy. 14 years old! It's hardly the beginning of his life, and 3.0 make him feel that it already came to an absolute and brutal end.

The worst being how Ogata can't even see how she(and by extension Shinji) could recover from the scene of Kaworu's death. For me it's clear that in Final Shinji will needs other people intervention and help to begin to get out of the black pit he fell into, there is no way he can get out of it alone, not fell further down... which strangely gives me hope that things will get better in Final : Shinji can't be broken further, the "give him some hope only to get it crushed and sent him way past the despair horizon" trick was used with Kaworu's death(in EoE that was Asuka's death despite Shinji's promise to a dying Misato that he will protect her), Shinji just can't go further down, there is nowhere to go but upward!


That kind of convey my feelings as well. But I can't share your hope that things MUST get better. There is ALWAYS deeper grave to dig. If not there is always possibility that he will stay on the same level as he is now, or drop to it again.

Also going upwards... That depends what qualify as upwards. Theoretically it's better if a person ends up as a vegetable rather then dead, because well... He's alive. Somewhat. But I wouldn't call that vast improvement.

The same can be said about EoE ending. It's supposed to be hopefull because humans might decide to leave their comfy lives and spontanously return to crapsack world. And that still can go towards "I knew him when" or "Throne of bayonetts" as human nature tends to go... That' s not exactly my idea of hopefull.


Urrh, I got to rant again, sorry.
Another jaded man.
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Postby Kendrix » Sat May 18, 2013 7:46 am

I don't think that Q!Asuka can be interpreted as EVA-obsessed, after all, she ultimately self-destructs unit two and accepted its destruction for retrieving the tesseract.


This is just an extension of being at total war, which requires the use of EVA.

I agree about Asuka's line ("This world has no time..." In a way, Asuka is the crystalized embodyment of "this world", its hatred and harshness, and how Shinji is helpless before it. ) and the observation that "normal life" has all but disapeared - look at the sheer contrast with the first two mivies, where we got all these "everyday life" scenes - Shinji and Asuka in school, Shinji and Asuka in bed, Shinji and Asuka cooking, Shinji and Asuka just being normal kids/buddies.

A common complaint with Q is the lack of such scenes, "Where are the little character moments?" We don't see them because they don'tv exist; Misato & Asuka do nothing else than fight nemesis series, everyday life has dissapeared...
It even gets lampshading:
"Rei, what do you do all the time? Is there no school?"

No, Shinji, there's no school, and there hasn't been any in a long time...

They're also all eating formless goo. Or tea.

---

BTW:
This talk of Miyamura and her son gave me weird visions of Q!Asuka having a little kid around that age.
She IS old enough... MUST do this in a fanfic sometime...

"What, did you let Mari look after the baby? Mari's practically a child herself!"

*cue baby winding up near Shinji's cell, and there goes the father, a random WILLE member, "Stay away from him, kid, he's a bad, bad man!"
"But he looks like a normal boy. Is he like moomy and auntie Mari?`"
"He's NOTHING like us who have spent all this time fighting for our world!"

*:shinji_boohoo: *

---

ElMariachi wrote:you don't just kick someone in the face because you want to kick him in the face, especially when the one you want to kick has no bloody clue of why you want to do this.


Yes, but Asuka isn't just kicking someone in the face. She's doing in in a context where it's legitimate (Misato &Ritsuko don't say a thing), so much that she gives them the last-name-and-rank treatment for not doing it as well.

longer specific rant  SPOILER: Show
Compare: They wanted to put a wax statue of Hitler in a wax museum in berlin. As a historic exibit, whatevs. Some people sneak in and steal the head of the figure/melt it off.
Crowd cheers.

It would be a very different thing if it was the figure of, say, paris hilton in prison garb. She isn't universally liked either, but people percieve her as human, not as a nameless horror who wrecked their whole continent with a senseless war.
Or remember when they just shot Gadaffi, who needs a trial, these people lost so much to his attempts to "discipline" their country.

The "basic human being respect" has been lost. And I mean, here, you can't walk past any old building without reading a plaquet about how it's just a copy of the actual building that went down in WWII, but in the post-TI-world, you don't even need to be able to read to see what Shinji's done, it affects them in their everyday life, and when they ask why, they're told "Shinji Ikari".
At some point, "Shinji Ikari" becomes an entitity with archetypes and personal reflections attached to it, a symbol of something, and stops being a human who deserves basic human rights like being told WHAT he is being punished for, regedrless of wether he actually deserves punishment or not.
Normally, even, say, an incredibly low sex offender would get a trial, hear what he's accused off, and it wouldn't be legal to just kick him him or drag him up by his hair.
Why?
Not because that pig would deserve it, but because there are things that we do not to human beings, period. as a general princible. but to WILLE, "Shinji Ikari" isn't human.
He's not a timid, immature but actually rather nice kid with interests in music and astronomy, who has a favorite color and loves to hang out with his friends after school.
He's an institution.

Shinji certainly isn't a genocidal maniac, but these people percieve him as one.
To Asuka, the VERY FACT that he doesn't know is the crime - She's been living this hell for most of her life now, and there comes this kid and... just isn't touched by those years.
He's a symbol of what was taken from her, not her mildly annoying flat mate she knew for what, two weeks?. So, he doesn't get the "basic human being" respect that keeps you from pulling at people like they're objects.


They don't immediately kill or punish him because they know he didn't order people to be killed or anything like that, they're not delusional - but they also just plain don't have the restraints you'll have with someone you see as human - well, Misato ultimately couldn't shoot him, but she's a more complicated/conflicted case since he was the closest she ever had to a son and the feeling of a mother don't just go away over time.

Q!Asuka's little display is, simply put, not in a context where she would be expected to restain her anger.


And she immediately says, "...pent up grief and anger. I've been holding it in so long."
Asuka, holding her Anger in?
This is no longer the girl we met in 2.0, this is a woman. And she's pissed.
I wanted to try harvesting the rice

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Postby ElMariachi » Sat May 18, 2013 7:52 am

View Original PostKendrix wrote:...if Anno can top the amount of breaking featured in EoE, he can top Q.

Q is EoE on the breaking level, the difference being that Shinji began Q on a better state of mind that around the end of the series, and that it packaged all the breaking from the afterwards of Zeruel to Asuka's death in EoE.

On an objective level yes, what Shinji did is far worse than in EoE, at least in EoE he wanted the world to end and gave mankind a chance to come back, while in Q it was accidental and for all we know currently, the people who died during those past 14 years ain't come back.
But on a personal level for Shinji, he's in the same broken state than near the end of EoE :he felt he failed everyone, that he's not worth anything, that it would be better that he dies in a corner...
He's not in state he was when he killed Kaworu in episode 24, he's in the state when he found EVA-02's mangled remains, he can't go further down than that, even if Asuka get burned alive in front of him during their trip in the desert or Misato get blasted by the MP-EVAs, even if Sakura dies gruesomely before his own eyes, that won't change anything for Shinji, he's already past that point of despair now.
The only way to break him more would be to let him regain some hope in the destination the trailer for 4.0 talked about and then crush it by destroying the place/person/object/whatever that managed to make him climb back up, and seeing as its the last movie and that Anno said that the Rebuild ending will be different, and transforming Shinji into an omnicidial maniac without any chance of redemption would destroy any message Rebuild want to convey.
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Postby Stillborn » Sat May 18, 2013 8:03 am

View Original PostElMariachi wrote:seeing as its the last movie and that Anno said that the Rebuild ending will be different, and transforming Shinji into an omnicidial maniac without any chance of redemption would destroy any message Rebuild want to convey.


But it would be different from EoE where he regreted his decision and reverted it :tongue:
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Postby ElMariachi » Sat May 18, 2013 9:34 am

After reading Mitsuishi(Misato)'s interview, I admit that I'm really curious to hear her firsts interpretations of Q!Misato
She already sounded cold as a block of ice at the beginning of the movie, but according to the interview, during her first tries she managed to make Q!Misato cold to the point that "it's scary"! :bigeyes:
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Seriously, that is the most fananked theory I've ever heard, more than Mari being Marty McFly travelling through time to keep her parents (Asushin) together. -- Jäeger

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Postby Kendrix » Sat May 18, 2013 10:18 am

View Original PostElMariachi wrote:After reading Mitsuishi(Misato)'s interview, I admit that I'm really curious to hear her firsts interpretations of Q!Misato
She already sounded cold as a block of ice at the beginning of the movie, but according to the interview, during her first tries she managed to make Q!Misato cold to the point that "it's scary"! :bigeyes:


I find her sufficiently icy. No need to go overboard - any more ice, and no one would buy it that she couldn't kill him in the end; She's not being mean in a disney-villain kind of way, it's more a professional coldness with ill-conceiled hints of passive-agressiveness.
She IS leaving the talking to Asuka and Ritsuko.

Then again, we got the sunglasses reveal; Removing the sunglasses, aside from being an evil throwback to their fist meeting, but it's also an "reveal" of the eyes, windows of the soul;
Before that, the eyes were hidden and it was a mystery what was in them; She might as well have had a pained expression there or restraining care - but then, the sunglasses go, and she looks at him with hatred.
So, hate IS there.

With everyone else, they either never knew Shinji, or knew him a short while that looks puny compared to 14 years of suffering. So lots of one feeling, with the other having evaporated.
Misato is a different case; It#s more like she has huge quantities of both feelings, but they're cancelling each other out, resulting in something that *on the surface* looks like everyone else's cold reaction, but contains way more inner turmoil.

The only one who was really as cold as she looked was Ritsuko; This is why she could bear to talk to Shinji in a calm, stern manner. Everyone else is seething with... lots of things that you wouldn't want to openly display before your colleagues. They're trembling with anger, and on the other side, also very afraid. Midori and Aoba, for in particular, are clearly terrified.


...which, in the end, is something of a statement - The question with Misato always was, does she see Shinji as her son, or as a tool?
After all, a mother's love never stops, even if she hasn't seen the kid in years. A normal mother could never really hate her child, even if they did the most fucked up things - they would be sad and dissapointed, and there is the notion of punishing someone to set them straight (and Misato never went past that point in the classic series)
Shinji himself probably got the idea that it was the latter - he stops being useful, she turns on him and calls him by a number.
But he doesn't know she couldn't blow him up.
So, in a way, under these fucked-up situations where he very much... carries hate that she feels, after all, it's implied that Kaji died, and some of the things she says... she KNOWS they would hurt him deeply, (Misato IS vengeful, even if her kindness always overshadowed her ahab tendencies/ we'd like her targets to go down as well) we still get something of a proof that she did, indeed, love him as if he was her flesh-and-blood son, in a context where the relationship is very much lost. (Similar to us getting a proof of Shinji's devotion to ReiII after she's dead or most likely irretrievable)

This is a DEEP kind of sadness there.
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Postby AlphaGamma » Sat May 18, 2013 10:45 pm

View Original PostKendrix wrote:PS: Does this italian site also have other interviews that are still pending? The first half of Shinji's? Mari? Anyone else? I've heard even the new WILLE bridge bunnies were given interviews, so there should be some for the whole cast...

Yep, they've translated Mari's interview too.

INTERVIEW (Maaya Sakamoto/Mari)

Q: First of all, how was your first time as Mari in 2.0? Considering that your character was completely new.
A: To tell you the truth, I didn't know much about Evangelion and I became part of it without knowing exactly what came before (2.0). I've begun (acting) without being aware of the importance of the events (changes) in the story, unlike most of the older Evangelion fans. Instead of being surprised about the presence of a new character (Mari...), i was quite excited at the prospect of not knowing what was going to happen. Mari's appearance was kept a secret for a long time, and when it was made public it caused a stir everywhere i went. The staff, my family and even old friends of mine, they all kept asking me the same question: "Is there really going to be a new character?". Only then i slowly began to realise the importance of my role and the popularity of Evangelion. Maybe it was exactly because i wasn't too involved in the series that i managed to do this. If i had been an Eva fan to begin with, the pressure would have probably been too strong.

Q: We remember that back in 2.0 the staff was worried about how to characterize Mari, but when you started to act the atmosphere changed completely...
A: They called me (for Mari's role) without an audition and without telling me anything about the character. There wasn't even a clear idea of how Mari had to be. That day there were many people listening to the registration and i felt the pressure because of that, but it was also very fun. I acted freely and i was told that i was doing great, but i wasn't too sure about it.

Q: You were great. It was right then that you gave life to the character.
A: Before entering the lobby (to act) i met Hayashibara (Rei) and Ogata (Shinji). They greeted my by saying:"Welcome to Evangelion! You'll have to repeat your part 20 or 30 times, but don't worry too much, this is how it's been for all of us". I was a shocked!When it was time to play my part, quite a long one too, I was very worried. That's why when they gave me the okay after the first take, I couldn't believe it. Instead of being happy about it, I couldn't relax and I was a bit insecure... The best thing about that scene was that it didn't involve other characters; I could concentrate only on myself. That was Mari's first battle, I could feel her tension and excitement and I managed to "synchronize" with her. I think that being nervous actually helped me.

Q: Apparently in Evangelion "synchronization" and "vitality" are very important.
A: Anno told me that he left the objectification of Mari's concept to Tsurumaki (essentially, Tsurumaki was the one in contact with Maaya, the most), and he helped me understand how to better voice my parts. Back then I didn't know what was going to happen after 2.0 but I knew that my character would have been perceived in multiple different ways by fans. That's what I though.

Q: What was your personal approach to Mari's character?
A: Anno provided me with a "keyword" to better understand Mari: "Showa no Oyaji"(Father of the Showa period/ the "typical" Japanese parent from the '70s and '80s). After understanding what he meant I managed to improve my performance (as Mari). Mari is completely different from everyone else; that was immediately clear to me. I was born during the Showa period and the usual saying was: "Keep calm and don't overdo it". Mari is quite an unusual character: she often says "Nya", she's very energetic and very self-confident, she lacks common sense in the way she talks and she's cute in a manga-kind of way (don't know what she means here tbh...). I used my normal voice and I managed to get used to her quickly. While keeping "Showa no Oyaji" in mind I managed to make even the "Nya" feel natural. Using my normal voice for Mari definitely helped me feel more confindent.

Q: How would you compare your role in Q to that in 2.0?
A: In 2.0 the song and the "nya" were quite impactful. In Q it's more or less the same: i'm still singing and saying "Nya" all the time (?). There are many new characters, new events and so on, but there are no big surprises for what concern Mari.

Q: On the same topic, we all feel like Mari fit very well with the cast.
A: I have the same feeling. At the beginning i didn't know how Mari was going to be received. But, even though Mari is a new character, I have the feeling that she's always been a part of the cast; it makes me happy. In Q there are many new characters and i feel like I'm their "senpai".

Q: It's been 14 years since 2.0. Now Mari is capable of fighting. in perfect synchronization (mhh..), with Asuka. How do you explain that?
A: To be honest, I didn't understand much of the story itself. I mostly appear in action scenes, all I was thinking about were my "opponents". I don't know much about the story and its structure. I don't interact much with the new characters, but I know they have a key role in the battles. As usual I didn't worry too much and I did everything my way.

Q: You sing another song from the Showa period, right?
A: Even when Mari isn't on screen, you can hear her singing. It's what she does most of the time (singing). I did my best to convey how much fun she has while doing so(...).

Q: How did staff members explain your role/character to you?
A: Anno told me: "Mari does exactly what she says...". Fans don't have to worry about her being a "liar". There's a prefect harmony between what she says and what she wants to do. She has a certain depth (...) but there's no point suspecting that she may have a hidden agenda, or that she may be "faking it" (...): she's a simple person. The first time I read the script, I thought that she was a "shifty" character, cute and strong at the same time, but I couldn't understand her completely. But with the time I realised that she's isn't the kind of person who would deceive other people. She's a very simple character to understand compared to the others; that's what Anno told me at least. All I had to do was read the script and be as natural as i could. This time around (3.0) i had an easier time with Mari. I'm never influenced by what happens around me and I do things my own way. Mari is a character that knows herself and behaves accordingly. I made sure to convey this feeling of confidence and that piloting an Eva is something fun.

Q: You are saying that Mari is exactly the way she looks, but she shows to have a certain kind of "freedom" that is only hers (probably referring to her actions in 2.0).
A: I simply think she's calm and objective. This is why she often talks to Shinji or find herself in the same places (referred to the fact that she doesn't seem to have anything against the guy, I guess...). She's very experienced, that's probably where the feeling of "freedom" comes from. But I don't really know anything else (guess she doesn't know about Mari's past either).

Q: What do you think will happen next?
A: Considering that Mari is a new character, I'd like her to be "used" as much as possible! It can be possible, in 3.0, to understand where Mari comes from (the word used here can mean both "birthplace" or "family descent"), but considering that it hasn't been officially revealed yet (not even to Maaya), I'd like to know more about it. I think many questions will be answered in Final. Just like the fans I don't know anything for sure about the next movie, that's why I want to have as much fun as possible for now.

Q: What do you think of Q?
A: In 2.0 I had the feeling that Mari had always been a part of Evangelion. In Q, with all the new characters, I don't know what to think other than: "Better waiting until it's over...".

Q: (This question isn't very clear tbh, i'll translate it literally but i don't even know what it's referring to...) There's a key part that everyone was waiting for. Not only the Showa period songs, but also the others (songs?).
A: (Same problem as the question...) I didn't know animes (or songs?) that came out before i was born, like "Hawk of the grand prix", but i was told:"Switch from song to dialogue". Nothing serious is going on, or so I was told; i never felt like I was underestimated, I kept going on, trying to be as active as possible. Mari is very straightforward, different from the others, that's why I like her.

Q: Do you want to say something to the fans?
A: I thank everyone who welcomed Mari. It's been an all-new experience for me; it taught me a lot. I think Mari has become an important part of me. I'm really happy and grateful to everyone for their support. It's thanks to them (fans and staff members, i guess) that Mari could fit so well in Evangelion. I hope you'll be with me until the end, to understand why Mari's character was created.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Very long interview and a bit confusing tbh... Anyway here's the link to the italian translation http://www.dummy-system.com/intervista-a-maaya-sakamoto-su-evangelion-3-0/

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Postby Dima » Sun May 19, 2013 2:21 am

Thanks for posting the interviews.I am an Italian(half)and i didn't knew that such EVA-site existed :bigeyes:

I will check the original interviews but i dont think i will find anything important since most of the parts have already been translated.I wish somebody could ask the voice actors when they will start working for FINAL in order to have a more clear picrure about the release date.
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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Sun May 19, 2013 5:21 am

So, Mari has no secret agenda. I guess that means she's only been doing what Kaji told her to do all along.

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Postby Giji Shinka » Sun May 19, 2013 5:29 am

View Original PostFreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:So, Mari has no secret agenda.

Phew. I hoped for this fact to be true, and i got it.
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Postby TMBounty_Hunter » Sun May 19, 2013 9:16 am

View Original PostFreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:So, Mari has no secret agenda. I guess that means she's only been doing what Kaji told her to do all along.

Or maybe Kaji has been doing what Mari told him to do all along. :shifty:
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Postby ElMariachi » Sun May 19, 2013 10:27 am

Very interesting interview, thank you AlphaGamma!

It seems that her VA has been chosen specifically because she has a similar character than Mari : carefree, detached of what's happening, honest, joyful and just wanting to have fun! In fact I'm wondering if its not Maaya herself who gave to Mari most of her characterization with her performance! ^_^
I think I understand now what makes Mari so different than other characters : unlike everyone else, she don't seem to have her own agenda or secret past that crippled her emotionally, in fact this ax crazy hotblooded pilot singing while in battle and drinking tea while 4I is starting below her feet seems to be the more stable people of the whole cast! :lol:

Also, Anno confirmed that her loyalty lies where she works, so she's definitively a loyal member of WILLE and don't hide anything from them, so that would mean that all the knowledge she showed of what exactly was happening during 4I is shared by the rest of WILLE, that give us an idea of the level of knowledge of the organization : very high.

Still she seems to have hidden depths, that was already foreshadowed by her conversation with Shinji in the rooftop of the school. What made me perplexed is Maaya's comment about Mari being "very experienced, that's probably where the feeling of "freedom" comes from", that means that she knows many things since a long time(even before the beginning of 2.0), and thus know what's happening and is advancing toward her future with assurance, unlike Shinji who doesn't know why he's piloting or even staying in Tokyo-3, or Asuka who pilot only to get praise(at least in 2.0) and that "it can be possible, in 3.0, to understand where Mari comes from", meaning that her nationality aside, there is another interesting thing in Mari's past that's interesting and could explain her behavior.

You know, saying her assurance, "freedom" and honesty, now I'm sure that she was a "warrior therapist" for Asuka during the time skip : when she woke up Mari was the only person who could understand her as a pilot, since Shinji and Rei had disappeared and Kaworu is... well Kaworu(obsessed by Shinji and working for SEELE), and she helped her a lot in getting past her insecurities and accept the changes in her body(the glowing eye and the curse of Eva), and maybe she will play the same role toward Shinji in Final, she seemed to already begin to try it when she took him out of the shelter at the end of 2.0.
I'm sure that had Mari not been here, Asuka would had have a breakdown similar than in NGE and would be in a far worse mental state that "embittered and angry" in 3.0(if she survived that long). Maybe that's what the pilot needed in NGE to reach stability : a stable and happy fellow pilot, a role that Toji could have filled, had the EVA-03 incident not happened...
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Postby TMBounty_Hunter » Sun May 19, 2013 10:43 am

View Original PostElMariachi wrote:Maybe that's what the pilot needed in NGE to reach stability : a stable and happy fellow pilot, a role that Toji could have filled, had the EVA-03 incident not happened...

That's what I've been thinking for a long while but in my opinion Toji doesn't quality for that because he would pilot for the sake of his little sister.
He has his own baggage.
All the candidates in NGE do which is what makes it so sad and the outcome almost inevitable.
But that's also what Mari "breaks" in NME.
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Postby ElMariachi » Sun May 19, 2013 11:17 am

View Original PostTMBounty_Hunter wrote:That's what I've been thinking for a long while but in my opinion Toji doesn't quality for that because he would pilot for the sake of his little sister.
He has his own baggage.
All the candidates in NGE do which is what makes it so sad and the outcome almost inevitable.
But that's also what Mari "breaks" in NME.

Yeah, Toji would still have ulterior motives to pilot, but still he doesn't have a tenth of the trio's tragic past and psychological issues, he would have helped the other's stability, maybe not to the extend of Mari, but he would have helped.

And good catch with that interpretation of how Mari is here to "break" Evangelion : not breaking in the sense to destroy the franchise, but in breaking the trend of pilots with tragic pasts and crippling emotional issues without anyone stable that could really understand them(i.e. another pilot), and her presence is what brought the changes in Asuka during the time skip. I hope that she gets to be Shinji's "warrior therapist", poor really needs someone to talk to who don't have a passive with him and won't judge him... yeah except Kaworu, who is kinda dead, I can only see Mari. Kaji maybe if he's alive.
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Postby Kendrix » Sun May 19, 2013 12:25 pm

Thank you, very enlightening!

Can you please also post the first half of Ogata's interview? (Shinji being the protagonist, it should be there) everything from "From the mid, part on, you mostly have scenes with Kaworu" to the beginning?

Here, a liittle more has been added compared to the link on the first page, but there are still "[missing chunks]" in the middle, which look interesting, in google-translate, but refuse to make sense XD

Still, the bits that were added here were not uninteresting; Apparently, WILLE ARE supposed to be percieved as death-glaring, or at least, Ogata did XD

Interesting how she got to see the finalized death glares, but only got the post-impact landscape described by Anno; He may have been filling to utilize the nothing-is-scarier effect to squeeze an appropiately horrified performance out of the poor woman, or it might be due to outside factors affecting the sheduling of drawing and recording...

Must go and re-listen. I just find the difference between the horror of unchangeable absoluteness, and the horror of the unknown very interesting.

____________________________________

MARI INTERVIEW:

It's kinda cool to see how Anno "handles" the different voice actors to archieve the effect he wanted/ the directions/degree of information they got. I'm surprised to learn that Saakamoto wasn't told jack shit either, I'd expected that she'd be in the same group as Ishida and Hayashibara who were in on the plan, because Mari sure seems to have the 'verse figured out...
Mari effectively knows more than the chick voicing her - when Anno usually made sure that, say, Ogata is as clueless as Shinji.
But maybe that discrepancy is part of the intended effect, somehow. To archieve that "detached dissonance" of Mari's, so Saakamoto could "go all out" without holding back knowledge, because Mari isn#t supposed to hold back... dunno.

Q: You were great. It was right then that you gave life to the character.
A: Before entering the lobby (to act) i met Hayashibara (Rei) and Ogata (Shinji). They greeted my by saying:"Welcome to Evangelion! You'll have to repeat your part 20 or 30 times, but don't worry too much, this is how it's been for all of us". I was a shocked!When it was time to play my part, quite a long one too, I was very worried. That's why when they gave me the okay after the first take, I couldn't believe it. Instead of being happy about it, I couldn't relax and I was a bit insecure... The best thing about that scene was that it didn't involve other characters; I could concentrate only on myself. That was Mari's first battle, I could feel her tension and excitement and I managed to "synchronize" with her. I think that being nervous actually helped me.


LOL, Anno XD
Now I have this weird vision of Mari arriving at a yet un-destroyed nerv and being warned of ep 13 style naked testing and the other peculiarities of the job by resignated-looking Shinji & Rei XD
...but then, they actually took her first takes/ *didn't* make her, another example of his "managing" the VAs in a different fashion.


Q: We remember that back in 2.0 the staff was worried about how to characterize Mari, but when you started to act the atmosphere changed completely...
A: They called me (for Mari's role) without an audition and without telling me anything about the character. There wasn't even a clear idea of how Mari had to be. That day there were many people listening to the registration and i felt the pressure because of that, but it was also very fun. I acted freely and i was told that i was doing great, but i wasn't too sure about it.


I can very well picture how "acting freely" would produce the most Mari-ish results XD

Q: What was your personal approach to Mari's character?
A: Anno provided me with a "keyword" to better understand Mari: "Showa no Oyaji"(Father of the Showa period/ the "typical" Japanese parent from the '70s and '80s). After understanding what he meant I managed to improve my performance (as Mari). Mari is completely different from everyone else; that was immediately clear to me. I was born during the Showa period and the usual saying was: "Keep calm and don't overdo it". Mari is quite an unusual character: she often says "Nya", she's very energetic and very self-confident, she lacks common sense in the way she talks and she's cute in a manga-kind of way (don't know what she means here tbh...). I used my normal voice and I managed to get used to her quickly. While keeping "Showa no Oyaji" in mind I managed to make even the "Nya" feel natural. Using my normal voice for Mari definitely helped me feel more confindent.


Might be a clue to Mari's upbringing XD And streghtens my theory that she likes the music from that time because her Japanese parent did and was influential to her, perhaps in contrast to the stricter British parent who put her in the catholic school mentioned by Sadamoto (She still wore the uniform designed with "catholic school" in mind), perhaps also explaining why she prefers speaking Japanese.

Mari's parent can't have literally been from that period, because she would have to be like, thirty/fourty otherwise, but perhaps Mrs. Makinami/Barette-woman was something of a stubborn holdout even after the economic collapse of the 90ies - In the photo, she seems similar to her daughter in demeanor, and I can picture Mari in such a position XD
Mother and daughter, both total (wo)manchildren XD I can like, totally picture it.
(I suddenly feel very sorry for Mr. Illustrious XD)

Contrast/Compare with Anno's apparent conviction that Japan went downhill since then. But now, Mari and the good old ways are here to fix it? Would be horribly anvil-headed, if Mari wasn't... well, Mari. Not anywhere near imperialist material XD


Q: On the same topic, we all feel like Mari fit very well with the cast.
A: I have the same feeling. At the beginning i didn't know how Mari was going to be received. But, even though Mari is a new character, I have the feeling that she's always been a part of the cast; it makes me happy. In Q there are many new characters and i feel like I'm their "senpai".


Yes. I thought EVA was more or less perfect in the construction of the cast, unless 2.0 made me notice that it was totally missing Mari, with all she does and all she stands for XD

Q: It's been 14 years since 2.0. Now Mari is capable of fighting. in perfect synchronization (mhh..), with Asuka. How do you explain that?
A: To be honest, I didn't understand much of the story itself. I mostly appear in action scenes, all I was thinking about were my "opponents". I don't know much about the story and its structure. I don't interact much with the new characters, but I know they have a key role in the battles. As usual I didn't worry too much and I did everything my way.


...probably what Mari would have done XD On the one hand, Mari is a lot crazier than a lot of characters Saakamoto has played before, so I first assumed that the casting-against-type-tradition was continued, but reading this, I realized that it's like, the complete opposite... she seems so much, much more similar to Mari than, say, Miyamura is to Asuka, or Hayashibara is to Rei, not to speak of Mitsuishi and Q!Misato....
Saakamoto is very much similar to Mari XD Maybe Anno did get a VA who was similar instead of casting against type because Mari, unlike most of the main characters, does not really have this internal conflict to her.

Q: You sing another song from the Showa period, right?
A: Even when Mari isn't on screen, you can hear her singing. It's what she does most of the time (singing). I did my best to convey how much fun she has while doing so(...).


I think that, while being a nice callback to the beginning of 2.0, it also greatly adds to the surreality of the whole beginning, "WTF, where is unit one, how do these two know each other, how the fuck are they in space..." and on top of that, Mari is like, "Lalala..." XD
I't like she's adding a title song. XD

Q: How did staff members explain your role/character to you?
A: Anno told me: "Mari does exactly what she says...". Fans don't have to worry about her being a "liar". There's a prefect harmony between what she says and what she wants to do. She has a certain depth (...) but there's no point suspecting that she may have a hidden agenda, or that she may be "faking it" (...): she's a simple person. The first time I read the script, I thought that she was a "shifty" character, cute and strong at the same time, but I couldn't understand her completely. But with the time I realised that she's isn't the kind of person who would deceive other people. She's a very simple character to understand compared to the others; that's what Anno told me at least. All I had to do was read the script and be as natural as i could. This time around (3.0) i had an easier time with Mari. I'm never influenced by what happens around me and I do things my own way. Mari is a character that knows herself and behaves accordingly. I made sure to convey this feeling of confidence and that piloting an Eva is something fun.


That's the same perception that I had of Mari, that, while we weren't told much about her, most of it in outside sources, we pretty much know her very well just by that little screentime and how she acts.
And she has that quality similar to Rei, (and very much opposite to Shinji) that what she expresses is most definitely just what she thinks right now; All we need to know about her personality and her outlook on the world, and while she is by far not a normal kid, she seems at ease/totally comfortable with her "weird" self.

I wouldn't take this to mean, "She has no plan", or "she spilled everything", more like... she isn't... plotting like Gendo or SEELE. She's most likely out to save the world and not gonna betray WILLE, or any sort of antagonist.
The claims of "simplicity" might add to the theory that she is a perfectly human girl and probably NOT secretly fourty or a FAR or anything...
She's just... what we see on screen, basically. This is all Sakamoto was apparently considered to need to know to voice her. She's some girl who found out all this information, and thus set out to save the planet.

This "depht" is probably the Dorie/Naruto kind of depht/ "simple wisdom"; I mean, her speech in the finale is... essentially the same thing Kaworu says to Shinji just before, but with less airy philosophic language XD

Q: You are saying that Mari is exactly the way she looks, but she shows to have a certain kind of "freedom" that is only hers (probably referring to her actions in 2.0).
A: I simply think she's calm and objective. This is why she often talks to Shinji or find herself in the same places (referred to the fact that she doesn't seem to have anything against the guy, I guess...). She's very experienced, that's probably where the feeling of "freedom" comes from. But I don't really know anything else (guess she doesn't know about Mari's past either).


Freedom is the word, I think, but... after reading this, I get the impression that Mari herself wouldn't describe it as such XD I also really love that she adressed the dynamics of Mari's relationship with Shinji, and where that instanteous "link" comes from. I mean, you wouldn't expect him to just listen to a stranger when he's in full thickhead mode like post-Bardiel. Kaji already knew him for a while and Shinji really respected him. Must be her aura of "knowing WTF is going on", which, I think, also says something important about Shinji. It didn't seem like she really got through to him at the end of Q, Let's see how it develops in Final.

Mari being described as "calm and objective" here is interesting - that's pretty much the opposite of her common perception/use in joke memes....
There's more to her than being an adrenaline junkie, even if she obviously IS one; IA guess the key to Mari is that one doesn't preclude the other XD
Remember how proto!Mari from th CR was this serious, very much objective person with huge integrity (volunteering to pilot EVA 02 while still heavily injured, piloting because of "severe reality"), but having an ideosyncratic side with lots of pets etc. It seems like while the ideosyncracy came to the front, the integrity and serious/calm judgement of situations are still there underneath all the pink; After all, she did spare Shinji/adress him as someone who needed saving and guidance, like, "I'm comming to get you! Get to know the world a little! Hey, Asuka's not dead yet, maybe you can help making sure it stays that way."... etc.


Q: What do you think will happen next?
A: Considering that Mari is a new character, I'd like her to be "used" as much as possible! It can be possible, in 3.0, to understand where Mari comes from (the word used here can mean both "birthplace" or "family descent"), but considering that it hasn't been officially revealed yet (not even to Maaya), I'd like to know more about it. I think many questions will be answered in Final. Just like the fans I don't know anything for sure about the next movie, that's why I want to have as much fun as possible for now.


I wouldn't mind lots of Mari, either XD
She probably means that the photo is a sufficient implication -I mean, Mari being the daughter of barrette woman/ one of Yui's co-conspirators would very much explain everything about her without many assumptions.
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Postby gwern » Sun May 19, 2013 12:35 pm

View Original PostAlphaGamma wrote:Yep, they've translated Mari's interview too.


But who did this translation into English?

A: They called me (for Mari's role) without an audition and without telling me anything about the character. There wasn't even a clear idea of how Mari had to be. That day there were many people listening to the registration and i felt the pressure because of that, but it was also very fun....
i met Hayashibara (Rei) and Ogata (Shinji). They greeted my by saying:"Welcome to Evangelion! You'll have to repeat your part 20 or 30 times, but don't worry too much, this is how it's been for all of us". I was a shocked!When it was time to play my part, quite a long one too, I was very worried. That's why when they gave me the okay after the first take, I couldn't believe it.
...
A: Anno told me that he left the objectification of Mari's concept to Tsurumaki (essentially, Tsurumaki was the one in contact with Maaya, the most), and he helped me understand how to better voice my parts. Back then I didn't know what was going to happen after 2.0
...
There are many new characters, new events and so on, but there are no big surprises for what concern Mari.
...
A: To be honest, I didn't understand much of the story itself. I mostly appear in action scenes, all I was thinking about were my "opponents". I don't know much about the story and its structure. I don't interact much with the new characters, but I know they have a key role in the battles. As usual I didn't worry too much and I did everything my way....

Anno told me: "Mari does exactly what she says...". Fans don't have to worry about her being a "liar". There's a prefect harmony between what she says and what she wants to do. She has a certain depth (...) but there's no point suspecting that she may have a hidden agenda, or that she may be "faking it" (...): she's a simple person[/b]. The first time I read the script, I thought that she was a "shifty" character, cute and strong at the same time, but I couldn't understand her completely. But with the time I realised that she's isn't the kind of person who would deceive other people. She's a very simple character to understand compared to the others; that's what Anno told me at least.


If Maaya is really as clueless as she sounds*, I think a couple skyscrapers lost windows to the supersonic boom from the giant whoosh going by overhead. She doesn't have to act, her first take is acceptable, her normal voice is fine - because Mari was a placeholder character with no depths and no hidden meaning which no one has any expectations for and Anno doesn't care about her so he fobs off control to an underling. We can hope that 4.0 will decide to retcon her and make her do something, but how can we be optimistic at this point?

* I doubt she is. She's an experienced industry veteran, and knows not to bite the hand that feeds her.


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