Captain Shikinami

[Rei IV]

Split from here -- http://forum.evageeks.org/post/618213/Does-Anno-hate-Asuka/#618213

I think another factor that puts question to Anno's favoritism of Asuka would be this thread right here started by none other than our resident Asukafag (the mightiest Asukafag of them all!) that highlights Asuka's college education and why she doesn't she seem exhibit any above average intelligence. I don't see Asuka as being dumb or anything but I can see how it could raise an eyebrow. Not to mention, it's mentioned only once and never to be heard of again. Shikinami in Rebuild, unfortunately, also raises an eyebrow as because while she is a Captain of the European Air Force, we don't see her skills be put to much use either (as a Captain) nor do we see her coordinating a plan or any shit like that for an Angel attack. Granted, she defeats one by herself and delivers the finishing blow to another but that's really it, and like Soryu, endures a (somewhat) similar mindfuck (this time with Bardiel). I don't know, one could argue there's a lot of wasted potential right there and like college education with Soryu, Shikinami's rank is also never mentioned again.

[Reichu]

Shikinami's rank is also never mentioned again.

Well, if you haven't seen the third movie, you can't say that for a FACT...

Eva 3.0  SPOILER: Show

Asuka mentions her captain rank in passing before she heads off to ignite Wunder's engine.

[Hyper Shinchan]

Also you can see from the 6 minutes preview that Asuka is acting like Mari's superior officer, even though you could say that ordering people around is just Asuka being Asuka.

[Rei IV]

Well, if you haven't seen the third movie, you can't say that for a FACT...

Eva 3.0  SPOILER: Show

Asuka mentions her captain rank in passing before she heads off to ignite Wunder's engine.

SPOILER: Show

So this specific line: "Well, prioritize the objective, human life is expendable", is a captain's motto, after all" was actually referring to her rank? Shit, here I thought it was referencing Misato, who is also a Captain, as well. Damn, I did not see that. It's been a while since I've seen the film in its entirety.

[Reichu]

Rei IV:

SPOILER: Show

Yeah, the word for "captain" there is the same as what Asuka is. Not sure how to get that across in the translation, aside from maybe having her say "this captain's motto".

[Hyper Shinchan]

SPOILER: Show

So this specific line: "Well, prioritize the objective, human life is expendable", is a captain's motto, after all" was actually referring to her rank? Shit, here I thought was referencing Misato, who is also a Captain, as well. Damn, I did not see that. It's been a while since I've seen the film in its entirety.

Evangelion Q  SPOILER: Show

This is mess caused by the translation, Misato is taisa (大佐)while Asuka is tai (大尉), depending on the ranking convention taisa can be translated as captain (navy) or colonel (ground/air force) while tai becomes lieutenant (navy) or captain (ground/air force). Also Misato is referred as kanchou in other scenes which means "captain" in the sense of ship's master, regardless from the actual military rank.

EDIT:
@Reichu:

Evangelion Q  SPOILER: Show

Captain is correct in so far they're on board of a ship of some kind but maybe we should use colonel in order to avoid confusion between their ranks.

[ElMariachi]

Evangelion Q  SPOILER: Show

This is mess caused by the translation, Misato is taisa (大佐)while Asuka is tai (大尉), depending on the ranking convention taisa can be translated as captain (navy) or colonel (ground/air force) while tai becomes lieutenant (navy) or captain (ground/air force). Also Misato is referred as kanchou in other scenes which means "captain" in the sense of ship's master, regardless from the actual military rank.

EDIT:
@Reichu:

Evangelion Q  SPOILER: Show

Captain is correct in so far they're on board of a ship of some kind but maybe we should use colonel in order to avoid confusion between their ranks.

So does that means

Evangelion 3.0  SPOILER: Show

that Misato's rank is still Colonel, and when she's referred as "kanchou" it's a specific position as the ship master, regardless of if she's Colonel, Captain, or even Admiral, that's right?

Evangelion 3.0  SPOILER: Show

As for the motto, maybe Asuka's phrase has a double meaning, like "Captain(Kanchou) Misato's motto is 'prioritize the objective, human life is expendable' and I, as an air force Captain, embraced this motto too" It's clearly Misato's doctrine before all, we saw her applying it when Asuka was recuperating EVA-01 from orbit, Misato explicitly said : "Don't let go of the target object, even if it means sacrificing the unit." Unit being Unit-02'(and Asuka)

[Mr. Tines]

Do we need to split this into a Q forum thread for the moment?

[Hyper Shinchan]

Do we need to split this into a Q forum thread for the moment?

I would appreciate it, a generic title about the military ranks should suffice. We could move the discussion to the translation thread otherwise.
EDIT:
Thanks for the split.

So does that means that Misato's rank is still Colonel, and when she's referred as "kanchou" it's a specific position as the ship master, regardless of if she's Colonel, Captain, or even Admiral, that's right?

Yep.

As for the motto, maybe Asuka's phrase has a double meaning, like "Captain(Kanchou) Misato's motto is 'prioritize the objective, human life is expendable' and I, as an air force Captain, embraced this motto too"

Asuka called her taisa in that scene, personally I think that she's teasing or maybe even provoking Misato, by using her rank she reminded her that there's no space for personal feelings in their war against Nerv/Seele, but as we know Misato failed to follow her own motto few minutes later.

[Reichu]

Captain is correct in so far they're on board of a ship of some kind but maybe we should use colonel in order to avoid confusion between their ranks.

I think "Captain" is the officially endorsed translation in both Asuka and Misato's cases, though. And since Asuka's title only shows up once in 3.0, I suggested altering the translation of her line to make it more explicit she's talking about herself: "this captain", i.e. "me". Alternatively, we could expand to "airforce captain" or something.

[Hyper Shinchan]

I think "Captain" is the officially endorsed translation in both Asuka and Misato's cases, though.

Did they already release an officially endorsed translation for Misato's rank? I can't remember reading anything about it.

[Reichu]

Did they already release an officially endorsed translation for Misato's rank? I can't remember reading anything about it.

You can see it during Operation US, on the entry plug screen when Misato is buzzing Asuka. "Cpt. Katsuragi".

[ElMariachi]

Asuka called her taisa in that scene, personally I think that she's teasing or maybe even provoking Misato, by using her rank she reminded her that there's no space for personal feelings in their war against Nerv/Seele, but as we know Misato failed to follow her own motto few minutes later.

That would imply that Misato already broke her motto in the past, and that Asuka is stealthily teasing her about it. But personally I don't think that's the case, Misato already showed us that she tends to follow her motto when she ordered Asuka to retrieve the Tesseract at any cost, even if it means sacrificing herself.

But really, it's difficult to say, as we don't know how Misato is "normally", i.e. when not having to deal with a very sensible subject like Shinji's return.

[Reichu]

Ahh, my bad. This whole tangent was the product of a misunderstanding. Checking the Japanese again, Asuka does say "taiSA no motto", meaning she is talking about Misato there and not herself.

[Hyper Shinchan]

That would imply that Misato already broke her motto in the past, and that Asuka is stealthily teasing her about it. But personally I don't think that's the case, Misato already showed us that she tends to follow her motto when she ordered Asuka to retrieve the Tesseract at any cost, even if it means sacrificing herself.

Maybe she was insinuating that she follows that motto with others but not with Shinji, Asuka used to have a complex about Shinji being a favourite, pampered boy; this is especially possible if she knows something about what they're going to do with him. Anyway I guess that this isn't strictly related to this topic.

You can see it during Operation US, on the entry plug screen when Misato is buzzing Asuka. "Cpt. Katsuragi".

I didn't notice it, thanks. I guess that it's no use in this case, still I'm curious about what Funimation will do.

Ahh, my bad. This whole tangent was the product of a misunderstanding. Checking the Japanese again, Asuka does say "taiSA no motto", meaning she is talking about Misato there and not herself.

I kinda noticed that but I wasn't sure whether I was missing something or not.

[Guy Nacks]

You'd think after at least 10 years of holding the rank of Captain, Asuka would've been promoted.

[ElMariachi]

Maybe she was insinuating that she follows that motto with others but not with Shinji, Asuka used to have a complex about Shinji being a favourite, pampered boy; this is especially possible if she knows something about what they're going to do with him. Anyway I guess that this isn't strictly related to this topic.

That's hard to picture, since the scene where Misato hesitated to activate the DSS Choker hadn't happened yet.
Unless her treatment of Shinji WAS kind compared of what he was supposed to get... isolation and a bomb collar, the kind treatment... I don't even want to imagine what the "normal" treatment would have been, much less the "harsh" one...

[Veefy]

I'd say that whoever is the ultimate leader/authority in WILLE (Misato? presumably, unless there is someone else behind the scenes which I kinda doubt) probably chose ranks etc largely based around NERV structure in which case most people retained a similar rank to what they had before even if within WILLE they have more responsibility at that rank than what they had at NERV. So even though Misato seems to be running the entire organization she's still is a Colonel. Though operationally she gets called captain and Ritsuko vice-captain because they are in direct command of aaa wunder.

Though obviously a lot of the crew were never at NERV in the first place.

[libs]

Someone probably posted this before, but you can count the RAF-like pin on her hat as another reference:

SPOILER: Show

[palerider1911]

Kinda went into the whole Captain/Colonel bit in another thread. Will try to bring it back over here. You can read that here, and the following two posts for the subsequent discussion.

To summarize: Misato's rank is Colonel, but her role is Wunder's Captain. There's no conflict between these two states. Even in the Navy, someone with a rank other than Captain [O-6] could be a Captain of a ship.