Ibuki’s hand in EoE

[logged_in]

Hi everyone- long time lurker, first time poster.

So this thought came to me in the shower and it’s been bugging me ever since even though it’s a really niche and stupid thing to be preoccupied with. I came to the forums to see if it’s ever been brought up and I surprisingly couldn’t find anything (or I wasn’t thorough enough in my search- in that case, apologies). I just want to know if anyone has a good interpretation or any interesting thoughts if you have them.

I’m on my phone right now so I can’t provide screenshots. Video of third impact for reference, if it isn’t already seared into your memory: https://youtu.be/GY6LvdsM-3k

So what’s been bothering me is that when everyone is turning back into LCL, it happens all at once to every part of their body, almost like a lightswitch gets flipped from human form to LCL. Everyone just disassociates wholly.

Except Ibuki. After she embraces Rei-as-Ritsuko one last time, she also explodes into LCL buttttt her separated hand flies across the screen (in front of the “I need you” on the computer) immediately after it happens. That doesn’t happen to any other character, even the background ones. They completely lose their human form but Ibuki gets to at least remain slightly human, even if it’s just as a hand.

I initially thought I was overanalyzing it cause it’s just a half second in an 80 minute movie, but there’s so much work put in even just animating that in 12 or so frames that it has to be there for some reason. That plus the amount of intentionality throughout NGE makes me wonder to ask the question. Is it just another example of Anno’s fixation on hands? Is it some sort of cinematic trick to draw our eyes somewhere? If so, why Ibuki?

I don’t think there’s a whole lot to this, but I would love to hear someone’s thoughts on it.

[Archer]

“Intentionality” doesn’t just have to be within the logic of the in-universe events, it can also be within the logic of the out-of-universe impact, be it narrative, thematic, imagery, etc. Evangelion is hardly a series known for making hard rules and sticking to them.

Out of universe, her hand reaching out to “I need you” can certainly be interpreted to mean something - I haven’t really thought about it enough to spell out anything concrete but even on a surface level there’s clearly something there to be gleaned. If this were the case, it would have a narrative/thematic purpose, while not really having any great significance in-universe.

I see it kinda the same as why Aoba was chased down by a whole crowd of naked Rei’s, unlike everyone else who was shown. That’s certainly an intentional choice too, but it’s really hard to say whether or not that’s supposed to actually mean anything in-universe, or if it’s just an out of universe device that emphasizes the creepy wrongness of the situation without any direct intended implications in-universe.