Midori's hair

[BernardoCairo]

There is a lot to unpack in this short. I mean, A LOT.
So I would like to start with something simple (or is it?)
What exactly happened to Midori's hair? Why did that EVA's blood change it?
Was it a simple chemical reaction? Or was she "infected" by it somehow?
I'm trying to figure that out.

[ElMariachi]

SEELE's true plan was to fully turn all of mankind into anime characters, and that started with multicolor hair, Rei and Kaworu were only the precursors.
This is the truth behind the Precursor race's scenario.

More seriously, I haven't seen the short yet, but I wonder if that contact with the Eva blood didn't also cursed her, which would explain how she looks to be the same age between -46h and 3.0.

[Konja7]

More seriously, I haven't seen the short yet, but I wonder if that contact with the Eva blood didn't also cursed her, which would explain how she looks to be the same age between -46h and 3.0.

No. Midori is really smaller and younger in -46h. The promotional images were misleading, but it's clear she is younger in the short:

SPOILER: Show

[Jayfive]

So Impacts have either turn you into tang or bleach your hair. Who knew?

[Konja7]

So Impacts have either turn you into tang or bleach your hair. Who knew?

Well, there was always the theory Misato has blue/purple hair due to some contact with the second Impact.

This doesn't necessarily confirm the theory, but Misato and Midori are the only humans with a strange color of hair

[ElMariachi]

Partial core erosion perhaps? The tips of her hair in the booklet are blood red like core material, with an "intermediary" pink area.
That makes me wonder: back when 3.0 was released ten years ago, did Anno and Co already decided that this was the reason why her hair was pink, or did they realized at some point that having pink died hair in a post-apocalyptic setting wouldn't make much sense and they cooked up this story to explain it?

This doesn't necessarily confirm the theory, but Misato and Midori are the only humans with a strange color of hair

And it's hereditary too, as seen with Kaji Jr. Must had been hell to hide to him who is mother him when she's the only other person with purple hair in the planet!

[MsenjaKagami]

Partial core erosion perhaps? The tips of her hair in the booklet are blood red like core material, with an "intermediary" pink area.
That makes me wonder: back when 3.0 was released ten years ago, did Anno and Co already decided that this was the reason why her hair was pink, or did they realized at some point that having pink died hair in a post-apocalyptic setting wouldn't make much sense and they cooked up this story to explain it?

Tbh, I could see this being one of those things they thought of when they first came up with her character, but since she's not a main character they would've never had a reason to have that explanation be a part of the films (until now of course). Like when you hear stories of creators talking about background details for characters that never made it into the final product just because they weren't relevant enough to spend storytelling time on.

[BernardoCairo]

I was talking with Reichu about the short and she suggested that it has some connection with the World of Gods. She mentioned that "the animated texture inside it is extremely similar to the weird ink blot shit in the background where the Golgotha Object is".
So I leave that to you.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Everything about these Impacts or rituals or whatever always leave things animated. Like, the particles in the core move in the ground, despite the ground itself being static. The same happens with the headless "wanderers" in Shin Eva. And the stuff that splashes onto Midori actually came from one of those headless wanderers.

Maybe it all leads to the world of the gods.

But I'm more interested in how/why Midori wasn't assimilated into one of those wanderers to begin with.

[Konja7]

But I'm more interested in how/why Midori wasn't assimilated into one of those wanderers to begin with.

In this case, it was only the blood of the Wanderers that falls on Midori's hair. I guess this isn't enough to her being assimilated.

[Blockio]

It's what would be my assumption as well, yeah, that the corruption is not self-replicating (outside of the wanderer bodies? in general?)

[ElMariachi]

I think that what Freaky means is why Midori wasn't transformed into a FoI even though anyone around her did (we see them emerging from the ground around her) and how could she outrun the core erosion wave that was spreading through the world at light speed.

[Axx°N N.]

But I'm more interested in how/why Midori wasn't assimilated into one of those wanderers to begin with.

It's a weird thing to omit set up for, and it seems pretty stubbornly like, "her character is a survivor, the why doesn't matter," but like, the why would take so little effort. She was on a hike or something, done.

[Blockio]

I feel like the how she got there doesn't exactly matter. There's all sorts of plausible ways in which someone might be spared, and we do get enough hints to be able to piece together all the info that it relevant - she left in a hurry, didn't even have time to put on socks, so she needs to bandage her feet, the rest of her family was got and she's been on the run for some days.
Especially since the framing of the short is done through a flashback from a hyperbolic "I'm gonna die" doing chinups to the time she actually almost died from being unable to pull herself up, I think that including more backstory would be largely to the detriment of -46h.

[MsenjaKagami]

Yeah, ultimately the short isn't about telling Midori's biography, it's about capturing the moment that made her into the person we see in the present. It doesn't need to show the specifics of how she got there, like Blockio said we know enough to draw imagine what might've happened, and from a 'show don't tell' perspective it's more effective that we're not told directly. Remember that it's told from her perspective, back when she was both just a civilian and just a kid, so not only would everything going on (Third Impact/corification, the emergence of the FoIs) be incredibly confusing to her, she'd also probably not want to think too much about how she saw her family die.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Oh yeah. It's a grade A bonus short film. I'm actually surprised at how good it looks.

[Axx°N N.]

She'd also probably not want to think too much about how she saw her family die.

I'd argue that, PTSD working how it does, that would be unlikely to ever be in her control. It's a pretty neat, cut and dry uncontrollable flashback about a traumatic event. I can't help but wonder if it would have been more effective to show more tangible effects of the apocalyptic setting, like death, as just a girl running from the ambiguous specifics of her situation makes everything a bit nebulous. Barefoot Gen is an amazingly effective film because it isn't shy about the reality of its premise.

[The Killer of Heroes]

she'd also probably not want to think too much about how she saw her family die.

I think Midori's pink hair has been recontextualized by this short as a "scar" of sorts for her. She probably is type that is reminded of the event that killed her family and nearly killed her every time she does something as mundane as looking into a mirror now.

Presumably hair dye no longer exists.

[MsenjaKagami]

I more so meant that within the flashback itself, since they made the decision to make it one continuous and chronological scene, kid!Midori would've been more preoccupied with running/not dying and wouldn't have had time to have a nested flashback to her family's death at the time (and thus why it wasn't animated/shown to us the audience). It could also be because they wanted to leave how they died to the viewer's imagination, as letting them imagine how it happened lets them imagine something more horrifying than anything they could've depicted, similar to how suspense is generated not by the reveal but by the anticipation (and as an added note that I just thought of, it's also similar to how we don't actually see what happened during Second Impact aside from Misato's survival). Which unfortunately yes does mean we don't get answers to other questions, like why Midori survived in the first place, but sometimes storytelling is less about giving information and more about conveying a vibe.

I'll agree though that in and of itself, showing their deaths (and Midori's reaction to it) wouldn't have been a "wrong" storytelling decision, and would've absolutely added to her character and indeed could've been more effective in conveying the horror of living through Third Impact. It's just that that's not the decision they made for the story.

[Blockio]

I'd argue that, PTSD working how it does, that would be unlikely to ever be in her control. It's a pretty neat, cut and dry uncontrollable flashback about a traumatic event.

If we're going to invoke irl psychology to question writing decisions, repressed memories are a thing that is commonly associated with PTSD, and -46 shows a specific trigger for a specific memory; that is all in line with a fairly common manifestation of irl ptsd.
With all due respect, this comes off more as you trying to find things to justify fundamental gripes with NTE as a whole more so than a genuine complaint about the work; I am beginning to suspect that it might be better for your mental health if you take something of a step away from NTE and just let the talks happen instead of constantly reminding yourself (and everyone else) how much you dislike it.

But to bring this back to the original topic; what is amusing about this is that even before Shin, I remember someone in Reichu's circles, forgetting who it was exactly, tossing around the idea that Midori's unusual characteristics (I think it was about the eye color mostly?) being a result of N3I, so I suppose that offhand thought was right on the mark