Thoughts about Mari

[MitsumuraKun51196]

Oh yeah I listened to the audio rip

[Redtophat]

I hope she and Shinji are merely childhood friends, because her being from the past is really BLEGH. I'd prefer her just being one of if not the first children besides Rei getting picked up for the evangelion project and her knowledge coming from either Kaji or someone who was in the development process of the eva project. Childhood/Family friends theory is the best, most sensible one, ShinjixMari confirmed.

[Kendrix]

Probably not actual childhood friends since he didn't show the slightest recognition. But I wouldn't be surprised (going by the theory that these are, indeed her parents) if their mothers took them to play together at least once.

If Shinji was like, three, and Mari was four or five, it would make sense for her to remember more than him.

The whole she's-from-the-past things sounds overly plot-device-y.

[Redtophat]

Probably not actual childhood friends since he didn't show the slightest recognition. But I wouldn't be surprised (going by the theory that these are, indeed her parents) if their mothers took them to play together at least once.

If Shinji was like, three, and Mari was four or five, it would make sense for her to remember more than him.

The whole she's-from-the-past things sounds overly plot-device-y.

Yeah, it would also be easier on the narrative too since if the man isn't Mari's father there will be another character that needs to be introduced/explained upon in Final, otherwise Anno can just say "Mari's Dad was a scientist too" and just be done with it. I hope they give Mari some actual character flaws because at this point and time she's nothing but a possible infodump bomb waiting to be set off with cutesy mannerisms and eccentricities.

[Kendrix]

some actual character flaws

She had her "I work alone mentality" which seems to have been sorta cured over the timeskip (which is sad because there was interesting conflict potential with Misato, something that probably really happened but not where we, or Shinji, could see it), but she's still the type to eat alone in her personal space.

And her lack of inhibitions and problems with social conventions probably made existing in a "normal" setting hard, just think how anyone other than Shinji would have reacted to her "introduction" - 2.0 strongly portrays her as some sort of loner, with explicit lampshading from Misato.

It's just that Third Impact probably eliminated "normal settings". The situation got so crazy that she hardly gets any more shit than Asuka's "Stop singing, it's annoying."
The way she's always late and such makes one greatly underestimate her actual skills (which are still enough for an instant headshot on EVA 09)

In any case,

Mari could be from a family of conspirators, too... except her folks actually told her shit. Universe rules dictate her mother must've died early, (and Mari doesn't look like she got much proper raising.) but she may have left documents and the like. Or her father told her.


At least at some point they had an individual past involving a catholic highschool, she's still wearing an outfit that was supposed to be from one, and even if details changed it may still be one of these things that writers write down about their characters for themselves, but then only part of it makes into the finished thing when the right opportunity comes up.

Such an opportunity may be her having a talk with Shinji early in final, a speech meant to motivate him or something, so "This is the truth about the plots and this is how I found out".

Or maybe Shinji will go "I can do nothing against those big organisations, untill now, I just kept walking right into their traps, anything I do to try preventing Final Impact will probably end up causing it" Mari: "Actually, you CAN be a subversive element here, this is my story of being and becoming one."

If she never got to interact with her in some way, what would be the point of having her in a story that's so focussed on him.

[Redtophat]

True, it would be too big of an oversight for the writers. At the very least she was an entertaining character with each scene she got, and with Final she will most likely get more screen time, which I hope as it's her time to join up with the main cast (Shinji, Rei, Asuka). (I haven't seen nor read all the spoilers for Q so I don't know too many things about her besides headshot, saving Shinji, and photo) but it's nice as you said that they at the very least kept her lone wolf tendencies in Q and had them show in simple things such as eating alone in her quarters.

[Reichu]

(which are still enough for an instant headshot on EVA 09)

From the reports I've heard, Mari does not, in fact, take out the head with her first shot.

[Kendrix]

Hm. I remember an account where she takes out most of it, makes a second shot for good measure, and then deduced that the chunky salsa rule does not apply.

But the actual footage would help, I haven't seen it.

[Redtophat]

In the latest trailer they put up it shows her unit-08 taking multiple shots as Unit-09 is flying overhead but still making a headshot on an eva with a giant rocket booster attached to its back, mad props.

[Philos]

Yui's photo in latest CAMRIP

SPOILER: Show

It doesn't look like Mari at all. More like Asuka's or Mari's mother.

[Kendrix]

So, there it is.

Then men aren't really recognizable, and none of them seem to be Gendo.

The one in the left corner seems to have a slighty darker skin tone so it could be him, but nah, he looks to old to be Gendo at the time Shinji was this young. Yui has a pretty creepy smile here, don't you think?
Poor Shinji looks totally shy here, even before the incident.
and he's such a ridiculously cute Baby!

As for the woman, I do see some strong facial resemblance there, but she is definitely an adult already. It's pretty much decided, that's Mari's mother. She looks far too old to be Mari herself.
It's hard to tell, but her glasses seem to be the inverse of Mari's current ones, having only the upper rim, when Mari has everything but the upper rim.
She seems to share her daughter's enthusiasm for hair decs, note that barette.
Not sure about the man behind her. Mr. Illustrious is still our best guess.

Also lol, Yui has a bit longer hair here, like in the manga. The question now is, who had that idea first? And if it was Sadamoto's idea, which is pretty likely since he's the character designer, did Sadamoto come up with it for Rebuild, but decide that he really likes it and wants to use it in the manga, or was it the other way around?

[Shakabutt]

The red hair leads me to believe she might have some connection to Asuka ?

In NGE Asuka's mother was a scientist like Yui but working for the Germany branch....maybe some connection to that.

Who knows.

[Kendrix]

It doesn't look red to me at all, it's just weirdly stilized. Compare to Mari's hair in the parachute landing scene, where we see her exposed to sunlight for once.

[libs]

I sort of freaked out a little when this picture showed up in the screen 'cause I thought it was Mari herself too. But she is clearly Mari's mom.
What has been bothering me since is why the hell do I think of Asuka when I look at this lady? Is it the hair?
I don't know what they have planned with this Makinami-Shikinami thing, but this picture gave me a weird feeling.

[Kendrix]

Probably just the vaguely similar hairstyle, which is still different enough - Asuka has it tied back to both her hairclips, Mrs. Makinami has one huge barret holding a single ponytail.

[CJD]

The red hair leads me to believe she might have some connection to Asuka ?

In NGE Asuka's mother was a scientist like Yui but working for the Germany branch....maybe some connection to that.

Who knows.

Yea but they've made a pretty conscious effort to keep Shikinami's hair brown, not red.

I definitely think, if she's related to someone, it's Mari's mother.

[Kendrix]

More like they gave her a more realistic rendering of natural red hair instead of streetworker orange.
That, and they can do proper lighting now.

Her hair is still much lighter than that woman's. It's Mari's shade of brown.
You could say that Mari's looks similarly 'reddish' the one time we see her in actual sunlight.

[SaltyJoe]

Fanwank time: the woman is related to both Asuka and Mari, in the way Big Boss is related to both Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. She was the genetic donor for both the Shikinami and the Makinami series.

Asuka and Mari are genetically engineered Eva pilots, built with an artificial defect that prevents them from maturing beyond puberty because of reasons. That's the curse of Eva, and it has nothing to do with LCL.[/fanwank]

That, or she's Yui's secretary or something.

[Darkwing]

Fanwank time: the woman is related to both Asuka and Mari, in the way Big Boss is related to both Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. She was the genetic donor for both the Shikinami and the Makinami series.

Asuka and Mari are genetically engineered Eva pilots, built with an artificial defect that prevents them from maturing beyond puberty because of reasons. That's the curse of Eva, and it has nothing to do with LCL.[/fanwank]

That, or she's Yui's secretary or something.

I was just going to go with her bieng both Asuka and Mari's mother, and they were twins seprated at birth.

So is Rei Solidus?

[darthikari]

I'm definitely inclined toward the Asuka-Mari connection. I even entertained the idea that just like Rei is a partial clone of Yui, Shinji's mom, that Mari could be a clone of Kyoko, Asuka's mom. Asuka would, much like Shinji, have no reason to suspect that someone close to her own age is also her parent, so even if there was a resemblance, she would easily dismiss it. It would also explain her ease of interchangeability as pilot of Unit 2.