Anno shares original plan for Rebuild

[kuribo-04]

tweet-body

— twitter-user (@username) date

My reaction is just 0.0

Use the autotranslate feature on the post, that should work.

Also, is Evageek's twitter account gone?

[2Lacissal2]

Tweet translation from the official social media thread:

The original planning document that this is based on, titled "Memo for the Edited Theatrical Version of Evangelion," was written on November 20, 2005—20 years ago.
At that time, it was conceived as a simple compilation film: a re-edit of the TV series that only changed the ending from Episode 22 onward.
In the very early rough plot written in that memo, the final stage featured Kaworu and Shinji's Evas clashing after Kaworu kills Gendo Ikari, who has merged with Asuka, EVA Unit-02, and Adam, with the story culminating in Shinji forgiving Kaworu.

After twists and turns in ideas, it wasn't until September 2018 that we even considered setting the finale at Ube Shin-kawa Station. (Quote from our company president)

It's notable that the message from Anno uses 'Adam' instead of Adams. It could be a simple slip or error, but given this rough outline is from late 2005, it was likely in the two years between this and 1.0's release that the idea of multiple Adams was conceived (or there was a merger with only a singular one of the these Adams...). The obvious culprit for the Gendo-Asuka-Adam-Unit 02 merger is the whatever filled the Adam-Embryo/Key of Nebuchadnezzar slot in the story then.

RIP Eva Mark 0.6 having a big role in the finale...

EDIT- even if this was a very early and rough outline, until we get more detailed information on how plans for the ending developed (3.0 and Shin CRCs...), it's interesting to speculate how long this plan (or an ending vaguely in the same area) survived throughout Rebuild's development, and how many story elements in 1.0 and even 2.0 are vestiges of this.

[dzzthink]

Wow, I mean it definitely would have been a surprising finale. Good find

[Weird_ocean]

This sounds so much more fun and interesting than what we got.

[Diego the Lego]

I find it interesting how the ending we got shifted the focus more on Shinji and Gendo's relationship rather than that of Shinji and Kaworu's. It is pretty interesting to think how radically different the conclusion would have been if Anno decided to go that route.

[Konja7]

This ending is interesting, but I'm not surprised it was changed. One issue with this ending is that the final conflict seems purely personal.

We can assume the threat against humanity ended when Kaworu killed Gendo (who was surely trying to bring the Instrumentality). So, the final fight would only happen because Shinji's angry.

I find it interesting how the ending we got shifted the focus more on Shinji and Gendo's relationship rather than that of Shinji and Kaworu's. It is pretty interesting to think how radically different the conclusion would have been if Anno decided to go that route.

I assume the focus will still be mainly on Shinji and Gendo's relationship, since Shinji would be angry about Gendo's death.

To be clear, I'm not saying there wouldn't be any focus on Kaworu (surely, there was a good amount). I'm just saying that the central theme will continue to be Shinji's relationship with his father.


PS: The connection between Shinji, Kaworu and Gendo Is something alluded even on 3.0+1.0.

[2Lacissal2]

We can assume the threat against humanity ended when Kaworu killed Gendo (who was surely trying to bring the Instrumentality). So, the final fight would only happen because Shinji's angry.

I wouldn’t assume that there was no longer any threat against humanity. Going off 1.0s ending, SEELE was preparing the Mark 0.6 and Kaworu for some purpose (different and in opposition to Gendo’s plans) and Kaworu may have had his own intentions towards Shinji involving instrumentality/time loops/resetting the world.

A conflict between Shinji and Kaworu really makes me think of the ending to Devilman.

As the original plan for Rebuild was for 3 movies of roughly 90 minutes length each (the last being two 45 minute movies) it was clear the original planned ending would have been very different and shorter, given post-time skip Rebuild has a longer running time than pre-time skip.

[BernardoCairo]

Very interesting. So Asuka would always be "sacrificed"/absorbed during the climax of the story. I wonder if they had already come up with the idea of ​​Shikinami or if we would still be following Soryu (a more "human" character, with fewer divine connections).

A direct confrontation between Shinji and Kaworu sounds cool, but I prefer what we got in the end. Shinji's relationship with Gendo is the most important in the story, so it's only fair that it's the focus of the final battle.
That being said, as I've mentioned countless times, I would have loved to see a faithful remake of the original story at some point. Something like what Anno describes, a "remix".

[Konja7]

I wouldn’t assume that there was no longer any threat against humanity. Going off 1.0s ending, SEELE was preparing the Mark 0.6 and Kaworu for some purpose (different and in opposition to Gendo’s plans) and Kaworu may have had his own intentions towards Shinji involving instrumentality/time loops/resetting the world.

A conflict between Shinji and Kaworu really makes me think of the ending to Devilman.

As the original plan for Rebuild was for 3 movies of roughly 90 minutes length each (the last being two 45 minute movies) it was clear the original planned ending would have been very different and shorter, given post-time skip Rebuild has a longer running time than pre-time skip.

I know SEELE has their own plans, but it's pretty likely Gendo has already ruined SEELE's plans when he fused with Eva-02/Asuka/Adam. It could be something as simple as taking control of the Instrumentality that SEELE started (his plan in EoE).

The fact that the final resolution is Shinji forgiving Kaworu for killing Gendo makes me think there isn't another thread for humanity at that point.

About Kaworu's goal, I assume he is on humanity side as in Rebuild movies. The character seems to have been fairly well-defined from the beginning of Rebuild project. He wants to make Shinji happy, but this only means that he will bear on Shinji's responsibilities (in fact, Kaworu may kills Gendo so that Shinji doesn't have to).


PS: I've understood 4 films were planned from the beginning, so I assume the big divergence to NGE and EoE will happen in the last movie.

[GentlemanX]

I find it just as interesting that things would have been unchanged for episodes 1-22. No timeskip, no Mari, no WILLE, no village: basically everything that 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 consisted of would be gone in favor of something that really was just a third ending for the TV series.

I've mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I really like the 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 we got and I definitely prefer actual remakes for 1.0 and 2.0 rather than re-edits (I don't really care for Death(true)^2 even if I don't outright hate it either). 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 offer new ideas and I think 3.0+1.0 does a good job justifying those changes for the overall different message of Rebuild as a whole.

On the other hand, I do genuinely like the world of the TV series/EoE, and 1.0 and 2.0 more than the world of 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 so having a more direct point of comparison between the three endings has its appeal too. Mari is my least favorite Eva character and the lack of detail on her hurts a lot of the important scenes with her in 3.0+1.0 even if knowing more about her isn't the point. She's literally one of the last two characters we see alongside the protagonist and I wonder how much different and potentially better things would have been if Shinji's story had ended in a way without her. While I also like how Kaworu's story ended in 3.0+1.0, I wonder what things could have been like if he was more pivotal at the end of Shinji's story rather than being another loose end to reconcile as he is in the final film.

In the end, it's an interesting idea that just has so many changes from what we got that it makes it difficult to judge whether it would have been better or worse. At the very least, I still like the films we ended up getting so I'm happy about that.

[Jinroh]

I find it just as interesting that things would have been unchanged for episodes 1-22.

That's how I remember they initially pitched it, maybe even before the first movie was released. Anno said it would be some kind of streamlined adaptation of the show with a different ending. If it stayed just that, I understand why side characters wouldn't be elaborated upon and the show would focus more on Shinji; it's typical for these movies adaptations and it wouldn't be a problem because the series already exists to develop said characters.

The problem is that they changed their mind and introduced tons of new characters (and technobabble) that barely appear, the worst offender being Mari. And it also explains why the first movie is basically just a retelling of the first few episodes of the show and contrasts with the following movies.

[2Lacissal2]

If I can remember correctly from the translations of the 1.0 CRC they initially had an idea of essentially a high end compilation movie, using the same key frame animation, some new cuts and a different ending (pre-streaming days they were motivated by people not getting into Eva as people didn’t really rent out 26ep series and they needed something accessible they could watch over the weekend). Then they started to discuss concepts like ‘a fictitious compilation movie’ ie a ‘compilation’ movie of a series that didn’t exist (I think they referenced one episode of Victory Gundam that seems like a clip show ep but is actually new animation). I think they eventually settled on a scheme/description (by Tsurumaki?) of like a train journey, that starts on the same line but then diverges.

Then I think in the 2.0 CRC they said Mari was initially supposed to have a relatively small role, but reaction to the preview caused them to change that, and at this point there was a general sense that a mostly straight remake would be unsatisfying, and they would try and ‘break’ Eva. (It’s hard to tie any of these developments to the change from Kaworu ending to Wille-Timeskip ending)

[AlphaZero]

弐拾

It's from episode 20 onwards not 22. Makes quite a difference:
https://jisho.org/search/%E5%BC%90%E6%8B%BE
https://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/m ... 8B%BE.html
https://takoboto.jp/?q=%E5%BC%90%E6%8B%BE
https://www.nihongomaster.com/Japanese/ ... F%E3%81%9F

[AuraTwilight]

Can I request someone post the body of the tweet(s) for those of us that can't/don't use Twitter? The quoting in OP isn't showing up meaningfully if you're not logged in.

[Diego the Lego]

Can I request someone post the body of the tweet(s) for those of us that can't/don't use Twitter? The quoting in OP isn't showing up meaningfully if you're not logged in.

[Jinroh]

Well, that's kind of what happened, the fight against Bardiel and unit 01 going Berserk is in episode 19, and until then not a lot of things changed outside of one angel and the aquarium escapade.

[Konja7]

Well, that's kind of what happened, the fight against Bardiel and unit 01 going Berserk is in episode 19, and until then not a lot of things changed outside of one angel and the aquarium escapade.

Yeah. If the big changes will happen episodes 20 onwards, that isn't so different to the situation in Rebuild movies.

I know 2.0 has a good amount of changes from the original. However, if the original plan for Rebuild was 3 movies, that would mean the second movie will always need to codense too many episodes (7-19). It was never really possible a straight remake for so many episodes in one movie.

[AlphaZero]

It isn't that the changes would've been introduced around Episode 20 in comparison to the current version of New Theatrical Edition which is similar to what happened, it's that people are going to read the second reply and run with it. They are going to think the changes in the original plan started with the equivalent to the episode that's mostly about Asuka rather than the one that's about Shinji's introspection and getting his body back at the end. More importantly, it skips Episode 21 that is a fundamental episode because it's the backstory for the entire series so yes it does matter that people know the difference to prevent further misinformation.

[BernardoCairo]

Last week I asked Reichu about how to make sense of Asuka being a major part of the final fight in the original plans, even though she would have still been Soryu and not Shikinami with all the god-connection elements. She gave me some ideas on the spot. I’m not sure whether these are her final thoughts, but they’re interesting enough to share here.

She explained that if we assume the worldbuilding hadn’t changed yet, we’re dealing with “plain ol’ Soryu,” and the story would diverge from the show around episode 20. Thinking about Anima, where Yamashita often reworks old production concepts, she noted the moment when Eva-02 absorbs Asuka to protect her. That made her wonder if something similar was originally planned for the Arael encounter. In this version, Eva-02 might absorb Asuka as a defensive reaction, letting the two of them take down Arael together, especially since the MP-Eva battle and her reconciliation with her mother would not exist in this timeline.

This change would also remove Gendo’s convenient excuse to discard the Spear during the Arael incident, which would push events in a different direction. Afterward, Asuka would remain inside Eva-02, perhaps unable or even unwilling to come out. Nerv would consider the unit unusable, Kaworu would be brought in with his own Eva, and Gendo would take Seele’s threats far more seriously from the start. Since the scenario still involves Gendo eventually fusing with Eva-02, something would also need to happen to Rei and Lilith during an alternate version of the Armisael episode, though Reichu said she hadn’t worked that part out yet.

She also mentioned some confusion among Japanese commenters on the original tweet regarding the line:

エヴァ２号機ごとアスカとアダムと同化した碇ゲンドウを殺したカヲル

People were unsure whether it meant that Kaworu killed Asuka and Eva-02, and also killed Gendo who had merged with Adam, or that Kaworu killed Gendo after he had merged with Asuka, Eva-02, and Adam all together. Even native speakers weren’t certain, but she noted that the first interpretation feels much more logical.

[DTGee]

I find it just as interesting that things would have been unchanged for episodes 1-22. No timeskip, no Mari, no WILLE, no village: basically everything that 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 consisted of would be gone in favor of something that really was just a third ending for the TV series.

Well, the initial idea was to do something that would be popular but also quick and easy to do as a way of helping to launch Studio Khara. The Rebuilds were originally going to be finished within 2 years, and then the studio would move on to "real" projects.