@awinters

I specifically rewatched the scene to check, and while it’s difficult/impossible to confirm that it’s the same layout (we only see like, a corner of Shinji’s room and a part of the kitchen) the establishing shot at least confirms that it’s the same building. By basic storytelling convention, I think we’re meant to assume that he’s living in Misato’s apartment - or else why show that establishing shot at all?

Misato’s apartment arguably IS a penthouse, it’s extra-large, on one of the top floors, and has a balcony.

As for the fridge, according to the wiki he lives in a second freezer that Misato presumably brought with her when she moved in… so the original apartment would not have had a Penguin-freezer.

Interesting!
I was thrown because the scene where they're leaving for school in the AU I thought they were heading towards what would be the lounge to leave, which I apparently imagined entirely this whole time because we don't even see them between the bed and the front door and neither of his parents even look up.

I think you're right that it's the same apartment.
The next question is whether it's Gendo's apartment in the main timeline or if Shinji created a timeline where his family lives in what he considers his home.

Narratively, almost certainly the latter. In reality it’s more likely that NERV gave her the apartment as a perk of the job. Despite being large, her apartment doesn’t appear to be in the core of Tokyo-3 where all the buildings are armored and retractable, and as mentioned she doesn’t seem to have any neighbors, so Tokyo-3 real estate doesn’t seem to be in high demand.

I'm suspicious Rei would own a bath not a shower and that her washingmachine apears to be outside, also her having a washing machine whilst Misato, Ritsuko need to visit a laundromat.
Has the washstand ever been insinuated? is a popular design been used?
It's clear that moving the door from the bathroom towards the kitchen would save a lot of room (removing the need for a second hall) it would also mean that when Rei leaves her bathroom she's closer to her living space wich she was during certain scenes.

Come to think of it.. why do all NERV personnel seem to live outside of the fortress instead of in it?

orcot wrote:I'm suspicious Rei would own a bath not a shower and that her washing machine apears to be outside, also her having a washing machine whilst Misato, Ritsuko need to visit a laundromat.

If she's been put into hiding, it makes sense that a washing machine has been bought to limit her need to go out.
If it's an abandoned building then it won't cause much of a disturbance either, which could be an issue for those in occupied buildings.

Misato has one of those jobs that requires a dry cleaned and neatly pressed uniform and there's no way she would find the motivation to do that herself several times a week. She probably uses laundry services for convenience because she can't keep on top of it (she even has Hyuga running that errand).

It’s certainly possible that the armored core isn’t zoned for residential buildings, and contains mostly office buildings and factories for NERV and its critical subcontractors - not to mention a lot of “buildings” that are actually Eva supply depots.

Archer wrote:It’s certainly possible that the armored core isn’t zoned for residential buildings, and contains mostly office buildings and factories for NERV and its critical subcontractors - not to mention a lot of “buildings” that are actually Eva supply depots.

"This is Tokyo 3; the city that you saved today" (deliberately not mentioning that it's a glorified industrial estate).

AWinters wrote:Maybe she asked for freedom to leave her place of work, to be out of reach of surveillance and away from people in general.

I find it hard to imagine Rei making a demand like that. It seems more likely that it was Gendo's idea - have her living offsite like a regular staff member so she doesn't arouse suspicion, but as isolated as possible so she doesn't arouse suspicion. Or perhaps it's part of convincing her she's human? She was brought up in a fake apartment deep within Nerv.

gelflinghand wrote:

AWinters#935490 wrote:Maybe she asked for freedom to leave her place of work, to be out of reach of surveillance and away from people in general.

I find it hard to imagine Rei making a demand like that. It seems more likely that it was Gendo's idea - have her living offsite like a regular staff member so she doesn't arouse suspicion, but as isolated as possible so she doesn't arouse suspicion. Or perhaps it's part of convincing her she's human? She was brought up in a fake apartment deep within Nerv.

have you considerd that Rei has the soul of Lilith?
Lilith herself is locked up beneath the centre, but this would cause problems with Rei as they need her cooperation, yet Rei is not a automaton and her loyalties aren't absolute so perhaps they want to keep her away from lilith. (preventing her from destorying the world on a whim)
(In short Rei doesn't live at NERV to protect the facility from Rei)
(It wouldn't stop her but Lilith would need to kill a lot of lilin to get to her body forcing her to kill her own children in wouldn't be worth it)

gelflinghand wrote:I find it hard to imagine Rei making a demand like that.

I don't think she would have laid down her terms up front, but Gendo does seem to periodically ask her if she's satisfied like he's checking to make sure her living preferences are being met.
I think these requests would have been over time in response to him checking what she needed.
I just don't imagine Rei politely lying about being satisfied like a lot of people would, I believe she would be honest about her preferences when asked.

I could see, at the very least, Rei requesting to live off-site, Gendo picking the cheapest option available, and her and just not particularly noticing or caring about the poor state of her neighborhood.

Like, Gendo choosing to house her in a shitty apartment of his own accord is just going out of his way to be neglectful at great personal expense. It just doesn’t really jive with how his relationship with Rei is characterized. I think it makes more sense that he does check in with her wants and needs but only puts in the bare minimum effort and expense to fulfill them.

Rei is pretty much the only person Gendo is shown to have any form of affection for onscreen (the one offscreen ofcourse being yui, which happens to be the person Rei is cloned from).
I dont think this is neglicense.

If it has to make any sense other than setting up a background for a gloomy girl id say its all about secrecy.

I mean, how much does Seele know about Rei? I think its really little (thanks to gendo's efforts). If Rei is the key to gendo's version of instrumentality, then surely Seele would have acted upon her existence. Eva-01, Lillith herself and Shinji seem to be a lot more important to them.

Following that train of thought, then Rei's shitty living conditions is just a result of being undercover. Gendo's attempts to hide her from Seele by treating her as nothing special. Stuffing her in Depression Town might even be overdoing that a bit. (in contrast to Rebuild where Gendo doesnt seem to be bothered to be sneaky, travelling with her publically in a VTOL, going to a dinner planned by her while the whole notion of that is incredibly out of character for him etc, so her still living there makes less sense with this reasoning in rebuild).

Edit: Its been a long time since i rewatched NGE, but when Gendo does his "heroic" thing to try and save Rei after the failed experiment with 00, burning his hands and all, wasnt it mentioned the whole thing was covered up? I believe it was Misato telling Shinji about the incident. When she says it was covered up, ofcourse you are supposed to think its all about 00 going berserk-like. But she says it right after explaining gendo's "heroism" so it could be interpreted that the fact that Gendo showed affection in an incident was covered up (to hide Rei, which wasnt the point towards Shinji). Kinda like "wow, my dad actually showed affection?" - "yup, but it was covered up"

I suspect that the location just meets her preferences unlike anywhere else because she wanted somewhere secluded away from HQ. An abandoned building was probably the only option that came with public transport (otherwise she may have got a nice farm house out in the suburbs).
Rei probably doesn't see anything wrong with her apartment.

My secondary thought is that Gendo might have given Rei's preferences to Ritsuko to find somewhere. She might have put her there because she's got some jealously issues with her.
Ritsuko is the only person at NERV who we can be certain knew Rei's address as she gave it to Shinji. I can't even confirm that Gendo or anyone else knew where her apartment was before that.

AWinters wrote:My secondary thought is that Gendo might have given Rei's preferences to Ritsuko to find somewhere. She might have put her there because she's got some jealously issues with her.
Ritsuko is the only person at NERV who we can be certain knew Rei's address before she gave it to Shinji. I can't even confirm that Gendo or anyone else knew where her apartment was.

This......and I imagine Rei being out of the way in a mostly disused building minimizes the frequency of her having to answer questions that could prove embarrassing.... after all she isn't the type to obfuscate......

That's quite possible.
SEELE keep getting denied permission to speak to any of the pilots and keeping them off site would make a good excuse for that.

I recall Rei referencing that she isn't treated well. I wonder if that's in reference to Ritsuko (considering how well Gendo treats her). The apartment could be considered part of that.