A question about Eva 01's regenerating arm from ep.02

[Captain Crooks]

When I first watched NGE, I taped all the episodes from the original airing on Australian TV. I had a tape with episodes 1 and 2 that I took to a friend's place and accidentally left there, and had to continue taping from eps.3 onwards on a new tape.

This was a mild annoyance but eventually the VHS tape release came out and I bought the first tape to 'complete' my series. Upon watching those first two episodes for the first time in a while I noticed something odd.

The first time I viewed the taped version of episode 2, I am 100% sure that when the damaged left arm of Eva 01 regenerates, it is not missing any armour, but just sort of dangling grotesquely before reforming it's shape as the unseen broken bones reform within.

On the VHS tape version, and every version since, the arm is show with a big rent in the armour showing Eva's actual skin, despite this hole not being visible at all when it is hanging loosely on top of the building when unit 01 is thrown back by the 3rd angel's attack on her skull. Then we see the armour itself regenerate with an orange light, an element never seen again to my recollection in the series.

Am I just suffering from old age here or did I really see that arm regenerate as I first described, and if so, why would they have changed it? This has been driving me mental for 20 years!!

[Reichu]

You're thinking of the way Sadamoto depicted the regeneration in his manga version of the same events. It's exactly as you describe.

[Captain Crooks]

That would make sense Reichu, except... I haven't read the manga!