^ It is weird, especially since, without that interpretation, that scene in the manga literally serves no other purpose to the narrative other than to cameo Mari and have her aching for Yui. (Which leads nowhere or explains nothing in the manga.)

zlink64 wrote:So I just read the bonus chapter. Is it safe to assume that by the time Mari is introduced in rebuild she is a old woman stuck in a teenaged body the way Asuka is after the time skip? I'm thinking this since her appearance in the manga is proof that she is was a teenager during that time period.

Please remember that you’re talking about a place in a timeline where Mari never pilots an Eva Unit in her life in the events leading to Impact, unlike the Mari in NTE who piloted at least 3 different Eva Units in the events leading to the Impacts. In this sense, this can also be a case where we have two different Maris.

This wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. According to Sadamoto’s manga, we also know that Asuka Soryu is a sperm-donar baby who never met her father, whereas in NGE she knew her father (assumed by natural birth) and had a rough relationship with him during his remarriage after her mother’s death. (Not to mention that in NTE her last name isn’t even “Soryu.”)

Now could this aspect of Mari bleed into NTE in the form of some reveal in Eva Shin? Maybe. As pwhodges stated, Mari calling Ikari “Gendo-kun” is awfully weird for a teenage girl. But I can’t recall that girl ever referring to anyone with a “san” honorific anyway, so it could be that this is just another inherent quirk of Mari’s. The other thing to consider that, if Sadamoto’s manga flashback is in anyway an indicator of NTE Mari’s backstory, then it’s not likely that the women with glasses in the photograph Fuyutsuki shows to Shinji is related in any form to Mari, as a few around here have been speculating.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote: Mari and Maya be bangin'.

I demand proof. Remember, we can't assume that everything that was true about these characters in the TV series is also true in the movies. We see even less of Maya in Rebuild than we do in the series, so we can't assume her sexual orientation is the same.

El Squibbonator wrote:I demand proof. Remember, we can't assume that everything that was true about these characters in the TV series is also true in the movies. We see even less of Maya in Rebuild than we do in the series, so we can't assume her sexual orientation is the same.

Maya can be directly quoted in Eva Q saying “That’s why I can’t stand younger men...” We can also see that her personality has changed since Ha, which might suggest her playing a more dominant role in a relationship she might be having. Granted, this is no smoking gun evidence to sexual orientation, but there is a least a bit more to go off here than there would be assuming that Mari and Asuka have had sexual relations. Asuka never once responds well to Mari, nor is it ever suggested that Asuka is bisexual. Also, any theories that suggest that Mari and Asuka have a sexual relationship together rely heavily on a fanfic writer forcing tsundere into a particular relationship that is never shown.

Also, given the writing nature of Anno, it seem as though he would have been able to relate a bit more to Mari than he currently admit to in interviews if Mari and Asuka were having sexual relations. It’s difficult to write about character to are strongly attracted towards one another if the writer doesn’t know both character really well. And especially since Anno’s been cutting out his soul and placing them into these films (as he himself states), trying to write a character you relate very little with having a relationship with a main character you can very much relate with seems a task that is nowhere in his sights. Maya, on the other hand, is just an exposition-spouting bridge bunny. She could hook up with anyone in the narrative without it confusing the writer and director.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:Asuka never once responds well to Mari, nor is it ever suggested that Asuka is bisexual.

The evidence is a lot more subtle for Asuka, but it's there. Just hear me out. As of Q, Asuka clearly can barely tolerate Shinji, seeing him as nothing more than a bratty, annoying child. On the other hand, she forms a close (albeit not smooth) relationship with Mari. Like I mentioned before, they seem to share some of the same visual motifs, and the fact that the cat-eared hat Asuka wears has a British insignia is probably of some significance.
http://image.dhgate.com/albu_317451204_00-1.0x0/neon-genesis-evangelion-cosplay-asuka-langley.jpg

^ The “cat ears hat” is just a result of the headsets on the pilot’s heads. By that logic Shinji is also gay for Mari.

The UK Aircraft Insignia is a nice catch, though. I didn’t know that’s where that came from until today. That does seem like something could be happening between Asuka and Mari. But honestly I’ve seen my sister and her roommate (both heterosexual ladies) walk around in each other’s clothes so often that I’m just as likely (though not more likely) to think that Asuka and Mari are merely just plain ol' roommates or something, somewhere in the cramped AAA Wunder. (The AAA Wunder doesn’t have a lot of living space, after all.) I mean, Mari’s pet names (“Puppy-kun,” “Princess,” “Gendo-kun,”) are just way too open and all over the place for anything she says to or calls Asuka to be more significant than the things she says to or calls other people.
(Come to think of it, Asuka’s also pretty liberal with pet names, though they tend to be more diminutive than Mari’s, such as “Teacher’s Pet,” “Four-Eyes Networker,” “Daddy’s Boy”/“Stupid Shinji”/“Bratty Shinji,” ect. Both characters are so liberal with the names they give everyone that it’s hard to tell who they’re being serious with unless substantial screen-time is given to the relationship, which is the real piece to the puzzle that’s missing here.)

If Asuka and Mari do be bangin’ somewhere, then Asuka probably has a “Roommate Complex,” especially given her past with Shinji.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote: Shinji is also gay for Mari.

But that's impossible.

El Squibbonator wrote:But that's impossible.

Lol! I know.

Actually, I've seen the kitty-eared helmets on Mari and Asuka, but NEVER on Shinji. I even did a Google search to check.

El Squibbonator wrote:Actually, I've seen the kitty-eared helmets on Mari and Asuka, but NEVER on Shinji. I even did a Google search to check.

Oh, I meant that the hat was cat-shaped because that's the shape of the triangular attachments all the pilots wear on their head. So objects like that wouldn't be unique to Mari or Asuka, but rather to anyone who put on a plug suit. In fact, I remember viewers mentioning even before the creation of NTE that the Eva pilots all looked rather feline. In that sense, Mari's cattiness could just be a response to audience reaction.

Even so, the only one we see in the movie itself belongs to Asuka (who also has a similarly-designed helmet and a Beast Mode for Eva 02 that looks like a saber-toothed cat). And as I said, Asuka's hat has a British pin on it, implying some connection to Mari.
Also, if you look at the interface headsets that the Children wear, Asuka's are somewhat more pointed than Shinji's; they actually seem designed to look like kitty ears. There's definitely an Asuka=Cat theme going on here.

But regardless, I don't want this to descend into a flame war, so here's a rabbit with a pancake on its head:

El Squibbonator wrote:A10 neural clips

That would be "interface headsets".

The cat-eared hats / helmets don't really make sense for anyone but Asuka, since she's the only pilot who wears a headset with that shape and so high on her skull.

Exactly what I was saying. Maybe Anno's just making a bunch of pussy jokes?

El Squibbonator wrote:On the other hand, she forms a close (albeit not smooth) relationship with Asuka.

I think you meant to say Mari here, but if they were really that close as you were suggesting don't you think she would work in a more affectionate nickname? I mean she doesn't even call her by her first name once in the film.

Reichu wrote:The cat-eared hats / helmets don't really make sense for anyone but Asuka, since she's the only pilot who wears a headset with that shape and so high on her skull.

I really doubt the Research and Development Staff or the Production Staff that engineers these plug suit accessories would spend the time and money to engineer something simply because Asuka couldn’t be bothered to but her hair down. If they built a helmet (or if Wille/Nerv just provides hats for their pilots), then it would have to be a universal fit for all of their pilots, or it wouldn’t be built at all. Especially of it’s something that goes on the pilots' heads.

Either that, or Asuka is more in charge of Wille/Nerv than it was suggested in NTE.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:I really doubt the Research and Development Staff or the Production Staff that engineers these plug suit accessories would spend the time and money to engineer something simply because Asuka couldn’t be bothered to but her hair down.

You must be new to Eva - hard SF in-universe considerations like 'where do they get the money' has nothing to do with it. We want a cute young Asuka but also a timeskip? Eva-Curse. Asuka looks cuter as a neko? Cat-hat. We didn't include enough fanservice in 2.0? Slut-suit.

^ That argument would only work if we were discussing viewers’ tastes. We’re not. I was discussing things suiting Asuka’s sates, not the viewers’ tastes. Remember that the “slut suit” didn’t suit Asuka’s personal tastes either. Neither did the D-Type Equipment in Ep 10 of NGE. Asuka’s had to comply with a lot of things R&D came up with that didn’t suit her, helmets and hats would simply be another thing to add to that list of things Asuka would have to comply with regardless of what it was.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:^ That argument would only work if we were discussing viewers’ tastes. We’re not. I was discussing things suiting Asuka’s sates, not the viewers’ tastes. Remember that the “slut suit” didn’t suit Asuka’s personal tastes either. Neither did the D-Type Equipment in Ep 10 of NGE. Asuka’s had to comply with a lot of things R&D came up with that didn’t suit her, helmets and hats would simply be another thing to add to that list of things Asuka would have to comply with regardless of what it was.

It has everything to do with viewers' tastes; Asuka is a character in an anime, whose purpose is, at end, to entertain. Do fans like catgirls and have liked them for decades? Heck yeah. Do fans like Catska? From the fanart, they sure do. Then the Khara staff may design more cat themed costumes, rather than continue musing about bunny-ears like in 2.0 CRC or other animal themes or other otaku fetishes. She will be made to do, undergo, or wear whatever the creators want her to, balancing the plot, her character, the setting, and other limits; they wanted a slutsuit but Asuka is a bit tsundere, so that's how we got her being uncomfortable but wearing it. Providing fanservice, even while commenting critically on it, is also classic Eva.

Talking what NERV's R&D department can afford or complaining that other characters have nerve-clips and should have cat-hats too is completely missing the point. It's not even in the same universe of reasons. If something looks cool, or if it makes thematic sense, or if the fans like it, then it will be done and some technogibberish can be backfilled and retconned later on. (Eva scripts, like most soft SF, could justly adopt the famous Star Trek scriptwriting technique: as you write the plot, everytime you invoke some technology or science, don't bother to think of any real one, just write down 'tech'; then later, once the writing is all done, you can have someone go back and rewrite all the lines like 'We need to tech the tech to fix the tech!' into 'We need to repair the dilithium crystals to fix the warpdrive!')

Remember: service, service, service!

El Squibbonator wrote:Exactly what I was saying. Maybe Anno's just making a bunch of pussy jokes?

He definitely is making some deliberate connections between cats and Asuka. In the old preview to 3.0 he had specified for Asuka's smile to be cat-like. Then there is the fact that Yuko Miyamura in her 3.0 interview at a certain point actually imitates a cat's noise.
As for the british insignia, it probably is simply explained by the fact that Asuka has been fighting alongside Mari for years. I don't see it as indicative of anything romantic between them.

Honestly, the fact that this thread was started in 2010 and the guy somehow managed to guess that Mari was "gay for Yui", solely based on 2.0, is pretty remarkable. Just based on that i'm inclined to believe that the side story in the manga is likely valid for the Rebuild too. Otherwise it would just be an absurd coincidence.

AlphaGamma wrote:Honestly, the fact that this thread was started in 2010 and the guy somehow managed to guess that Mari was "gay for Yui", solely based on 2.0, is pretty remarkable. Just based on that i'm inclined to believe that the side story in the manga is likely valid for the Rebuild too. Otherwise it would just be an absurd coincidence.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.