Transcript
Speaker: fly me to the moon ah demonetized demonetized demonetized i'm gonna edit that part out
Speaker: welcome to get in the podcast shinji this is not a rewatch as always our fantastic host Hello, ladyboys and gentlemen.
Speaker: I am Sonny, no last name given, here as always, joined by Brock, Redacted, and Jeggy. Yo, yo, what's up? It's me, it's me, it's Quaggler the IV. What's shaking?
Speaker: That sultry voice you just heard was our friend and a great ally, Charles Chapters. Thank you, thank you. i appreciate it. So, as as you can tell by the massive feedback we are getting from our episode zero, we're blowing up, guys.
Speaker: blowing up. Can you believe how many five-star reviews we have with that terrible audio that Sonny gave us last time? We got all this sponsorship money just flowing in like the Ganges River and we upgraded the equipment.
Speaker: Got new cans. We got new phones. We embezzled quite a bit. Might have to actually file chapter 11 by episode four. So ah stick around for that.
Speaker: Taylor Farms is sending us free salads for life. For some reason, we got a Subway sponsorship. Oh, yeah. and shobish image And they said, please stop talking about this.
Speaker: So for those of you who are joining us on episode one instead of episode zero, I'd recommend it. Yeah, don't listen to the first one. It was bad. And we're bad for making for making it. But this is the podcast in which we are watching one of the premier 90s mech versus angels slash kaiju monster animes, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Speaker: Also pronounced Neon Genesis Evangelion! Like that. um Once thought to be a spinoff of the Robin Williams movie, one Hour Photo. I realized I was probably wrong ah for jumping to that conclusion. It turns out that this this is actually older. I don't know how that tracks. I'll only need to see the Carfax on that.
Speaker: oh I also do want to start out by apologizing. I think the reason that we got the subway money is I got sent to a pretty intensive re-education by the Sandwich Lords last week. And I learned about a lot of stuff that Jared did that I i was not aware of.
Speaker: And I was mostly familiar with his commercial acting. And it turns out that there was quite a bit more that um I was not aware of, nor do i endorse or condone.
Speaker: Yeah, he got gastric bypass surgery, which is how he lost all that weight, and it actually wasn't Subway. And that's the one thing that Brock just cannot stand by. He's a fraud. its Yeah, it's the it's the dishonesty for me, frankly.
Speaker: And also ah probably the one other thing. Yeah. Go on. His commercial with the Muppets? Because you feel that Muppets shouldn't be commercialized like that? and just don't think that they should interact with humans. I think they should only interact with their Muppets.
Speaker: Except Miss Piggy. She gets a pass to be in anything. Geoff Nailie's girlfriend? I mean, honestly, power scaling, I think she could beat up any of the angels that we're going to see this season. She knows karate. I think that's possible. And especially, I'll tell you what, she could lay the smackdown on Shinji, given the performance he gave us in episodes one and two. oh No doubt, man.
Speaker: Speaking of episodes one and two... This ah TV show is about robots fighting monsters, government conspiracies, Tokyo 3, and learning how to love. All right. So um before we get into our thoughts and recap and everything, i'm just going to... It's probably the only time I'll do this, but I'm just going to start off with a few facts ah Neon Genesis Evangelion premiered in Japan on October 4th, 1995. Anyone want to guess what day that was of the week?
Speaker: A Wednesday. A Wednesday. ah Wednesday. That's crazy how serendipitous.
Speaker: The first two episodes on Toonami premiered on February 4th, my birthday, on February 5th, 2003, as part of the Giant Robot Week. It was heavily edited. The other ah ah the other series at at series that premiered were Martian successor Nadesico, ah Eva, Robotech, Dygarde,
Speaker: Gigantor and Lowbrow, which was a ah kind of test pilot for Megas XLR. and all Any of y'all familiar with any of those?
Speaker: No, i but I thought Big O was also out at the same time. It might have been out, but it wasn't part of the Giant Robot Week of 2003. I am with Megas. Gigantor, I believe I've seen.
Speaker: Yeah. ah later It was later re-aired, mostly unedited, on October 20th, 2005, a little over 10 years after its original release date. And that's the end of ah The Day Evangelion Appeared.
Speaker: So that's, that's interesting. I wonder, I wonder if we could, if we could get that edit. I'm very curious to see the runtime. i feel like with the way they were early on, it would have been like a seven minute episode.
Speaker: I can almost guarantee we can get that original edit. It's, it's on the internet a hundred percent. Yeah. That would be a blast from the past. Sometimes, ah They do just like resurface like old ah like Adult Swim just streams of with like with commercials and stuff. Just like, oh, Johnny Bravo is like hanging out ah with Ed, Ed and Eddie and is like, join us ah with the Cartoon Network block. And it's all like a scan line to hell and wavy and everything. Those are awesome.
Speaker: All right, so I guess let's get into it. So now we will be talking about episode one, Angel Attack. Interesting thing about the titles of these episodes, almost every single episode will have two titles. One, a original translation from the Japanese, and the other, a American one done by Gainix, mostly to attract attention.
Speaker: Also, what's which one's which for this guy? Angel Attack is the episode in both English and Japanese. Ooh. Okay. I have an important question.
Speaker: ah ah Go on. You may. Proceed, Governor. Are you watching it subbed or dubbed? I knew that was a question. let me Let me start out because i got a bone to pick with Netflix.
Speaker: All right. So i watched it subbed and was like, okay, because it was like taking notes and stuff. And that's kind of hard to do when it's dubbed. And then I watched it dubbed. I watched the first episode dubbed.
Speaker: The subtitles on Netflix are so horrible. theyre There's a lot of white in this show, like the lab coats, Shinji's shirt, just general stuff. They don't have a thick enough border on the subtitles that it makes it very hard to read for a lot of it.
Speaker: So I don't know how like Crunchyroll does it and I can read it fine. I'm thinking it's thicker borders or something. Maybe it's a ah darker white or something. But I i struggled to watch the du the subs on the first episode. So I didn't even bother for the second one.
Speaker: So you went he started episode one subtitle and then went dubbed for episode two? Pretty much because I wanted to like ah focus on the the subtitled one.
Speaker: after I did my notes and i yeah, after that, I was like, I don't know if I can do it. I did the opposite. I started with the dub on episode,
Speaker: um Episode one. And then I'm like, you know what? I've already seen it dubbed. Let me do sub this time. And I put it on sub for episode two. And honestly, the difference between the voice acting between subbed and dubbed, I'm like, I have to listen to this in subbed because the it's I don't know. It just feels like the emotion is is much more present for each character and feels appropriate for the situation.
Speaker: But I didn't know that subtitle thing. it It's pretty bad. I did watch both dubbed um because I was not willing to get... I did watch it with the subtitles, though.
Speaker: and that's The problem is I found the same experience, Jakey. The subs did not match the English dialogue, and I didn't have a side-by-side with the Japanese to see if it was just because it was translating the Japanese audio more directly...
Speaker: which it did feel like the case, particularly, you know, when they're like pushing the car over, felt like it it lined up more with what I imagine the Japanese dialogue would have been had I had that turned over. And there was also a pretty noticeable delay. Like the subtitles would appear like maybe a second after a character started talking I did notice that.
Speaker: he Yeah, it was pretty distracting for me when I was able to read it. And I was like, just why do that? I mean, know I can't understand what they're saying immediately, but it just, you know, it's like really, you know, when it's dubbed and it's like the mouth movements are way, way off. Like it's distracting in a similar fashion, which I've never really experienced before. it's like version I watched it on the Blu-ray and the Blu-ray manages to, because I've seen, I'm also watching it with another friend Netflix.
Speaker: The Blu-ray ah changes the subtitles. It is in it's much more readable. They use blue font instead of the white font.
Speaker: i was And it's, of course, much crisper because it's on physical disc. the The Netflix and recent Blu-ray release do you have a new so ah new dub to it that they changed from the original and recent Japanese...
Speaker: Blu-ray release. All new translation there. I believe the stated aim was to get closer to the one-to-one Japanese translation, even though the original dubbing is supposed to be more like it catches more of the emotion, like the intention rather than. Right.
Speaker: rather than the ah just a straight-up translation. There's especially a lot of controversy in the later episodes where stuff gets really metaphoric. So you're saying that the voice acting is better in the in the the re-release with the Blu-ray? Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know about better. it is profoundly different. The original release, Shinji's voice is much, he's a lot more mature sounding in the the Blu-ray and Netflix release, and which I think takes away from like the sort of the aim of the character.
Speaker: Because he does feel a lot more lost in the original ah and the original dub. think that's fair. um Probably a thing to keep an eye on as we go through this, right, is to just track the different ones.
Speaker: I think overall, for me, the Netflix dub was serviceable. Like, I don't remember... um you know, how it was before, but I will say I really, i didn't buy really most of, of Gendo in the dub.
Speaker: One thing was kind of a pretty flat delivery, right? Just like, that's why I summoned you. The last thing I will say about uh,
Speaker: dub is the it's also different in how they treat the Japanese naming style because I definitely remember them going more Gendo, Ikari and ah transport not transporting just flipping around last name first name and which was different from the original series guess I didn't really pick up on that I did notice the the pronunciation of nerve. I'm sure it was always this way, and I didn't really catch on if it was in the sub, but it's like they pronounce like a little extra oomph on the E, like nerve.
Speaker: Yeah, I noticed that too. Yeah, nerve. Like nerve. Nerve, yeah. na near Nerve. Nerve. You know what I picked up in episode one that I didn't really...
Speaker: realize like because I was you know I'm i'm watching it with a little bit more intention this time is that in that those opening scenes when that angel attacks and everybody's like fighting against it it's the UN that's yeah I wrote that in my notes as well because i I always thought the whole thing was nerve but it was and like I guess that's kind of a part of the plot that I never really paid attention to is like the UN doesn't like nerve.
Speaker: No, they are ready to cut funding and and say, Oh, your, your stuff wasn't even needed. Weirdo. Like they've been competing against each other for sure. Is that a but modern parallel? Ikari Gendo was like, he was just cool and calm and collected the whole time. He's like, these guys. Oh yeah. Hands folded. Like we said, hands i entire first two scenes featuring him.
Speaker: Let's try and i was go for it Brock. I was to say, I was delighted when, well, we'll come back to that. I was just delighted at the way that angel moved. Like, I wish I could swim like that. Just oh yeah arms at my side, just going straight.
Speaker: And then, oh, what do I want to jump? No, I want to keep my arms firmly at my side and then just lift up. And I did have a moment where how cool would it have been if Shinji did get squished in that opening scene and then he just rolled the credits?
Speaker: Yeah. yeah 26 episodes of black. yeah I was like the Sopranos. I was looking at the opening scene and I never really realized, I guess, ah again, right? Like kind of like looking at this show with a new intention is just how chaotic that opening scene is because Shinji just shows up and he's been summoned by his father for a super important reason.
Speaker: And he's like, yo, where's everybody at? Like I'm, and then, and then his handler it's like, damn, I lost him. Yeah. You lost the number one asset in the entire world right now in the middle of an angel attack. And she shows up as like this angel's literally about to just smash. Let's try and form order from this chaos. I've made some big notes, but I think if we can go in sequential order and gather our thoughts each part. So first things, Cruel Angel's thesis, that opening.
Speaker: I have to issue an apology. um i Once again, I blame Netflix. When I first booted it up, I did skip the the opening scene. Get out. Oh my gosh. I'm so embarrassed. I did immediately exit out, um cry in the tub for a half hour, came back, started it again, and went through it.
Speaker: Banger. seven days a year 365 hours a week i yeah the the song hits it still hits that intro is one of the best in the business i was trying to find a parody i think i've shown you before sunny but there was a really good parody and i've completely forgot who did it but they like refilmed the entire thing and it was just so freaking silly but I couldn't find it ahead of today's episode. I'll keep looking for it.
Speaker: I did find a number of pretty serviceable Cruel Angels thesis edits. So if you guys are bored on YouTube later, I highly suggest you go down that incredibly weird rabbit hole for at least a minute.
Speaker: Maybe the King of the Hill one. Probably the most solid. King of the Hill one is pretty good. i think Mega64 may have done a live action version of the opening. They did, yeah.
Speaker: We are joined by a guest. Biscuit has just walked in through an open window. Yeah, my cat jumped through the window. She wants to join in, wants to share his opinions on Eva.
Speaker: The Cory in the House um cut of Cruel Angel's thesis is hilarious. I usually come back to that every year. What I found... I found it. It was the phil Philadelphia Flyers.
Speaker: No, wait, sorry. it was the Lehigh Valley Vantams, who is an AHL affiliate of the Flyers. And I am going to put it in chat because it is...
Speaker: Stone Cold, one of the funniest things I've ever seen. i was, in watching the ah opening, I'm struck that it feels like a romance anime for the first 15 20 seconds.
Speaker: Like the music is jaunty. The close the images of Shinji Ikari are, this doesn't promise you action. This is just like, hey, look at this boy. Look at these girls.
Speaker: Like, hey boy, you're gonna you're gonna go far in life. Just a real upbeat. And then there's rapid fire succession where it spoils the entire show.
Speaker: It is like a clockwork orange just flashing random images at you, eight absolute terror field, robots, blood on hands.
Speaker: And it's going so fast, it feels like it's trying to do subliminal imaging and then go back to the, and you'll make everyone proud. yeah the The second episode does that a lot as well, just like the flashing of scenes for like one second. and So it seems like it'll be a ah theme throughout the series.
Speaker: i do I did have a note about their really interesting use of of lighting, especially like they show off in the overworld that they really can out scene and looks great.
Speaker: like they can tone out a scene and it looks great But then at in all of those hospital scenes and things, they go with this really monochromatic thing. and it it works so well because it just influences the artificiality of the light in the geofront, right?
Speaker: And that is like, that's one of the things I wanted to note on is one of the, like the color grading of this series in these first two episodes is phenomenal. And every single night scene that comes up where Shinji is laying in his bed,
Speaker: like the color scheme of it is so believable. I look at that and it's like, it's just very obvious that it's like, it's nighttime moonlight's coming in here, dimly lit room. Like it it kind of almost seems nostalgic of like, I feel like it's been a long time since it's like one of those nights that you only really get as a kid.
Speaker: I feel like I haven't had a night like that as an adult in a long time where, You know, you're laying in bed and the streetlights are shining through your window or the moon's coming through your window and the room is kind of this bluish gray color, you know?
Speaker: They use silhouette ah a great no degree. Sorry, Brock, I cut you off. No, no, no, you're you're you're good. I 100% agree. I think they're really good with that.
Speaker: Yeah. Like there will be lots of scenes where it's just the outline of people talking or the constant use of the diagonal elevators um that are completely still silhouetted that slow everything down, but and also in a way that starts giving it weight.
Speaker: I found that really interesting watching this episode. So, After Creel Angel's thesis, we get into the start of the episode. It starts with a very militaristic vibe, which is seems completely discordant from the entrance that we got in. i don't know how ah who else noticed it, but the episode has no music until the military attack starts and the episode title drops.
Speaker: And we're hit with... like UN n tanks, oh ah intro to Shinji, Circada starting, Misato shows up, and then, bam, angel attack.
Speaker: I didn't catch that. And Misato, like you guys said, though she comes in, Shinji's handler, comes in like a bat out of hell. Truly.
Speaker: Well, you know she just got that car restored. Right. Yeah, and she yeah had a new outfit. which It was her best outfit. She was really dressed up today. It was good to see. yeah she was there Also, why?
Speaker: is it because she' was going to be seeing Gendo? like what's What's the deal? We can speculate. you know We've talked a lot, and I think we'll continue to talk a lot, especially with respect to Masato of the horny, depressed axis. Speaking of that. I'd say almost her entire run.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, just from the jump, the letter she sends to Sinji so knows what she looks like. Let's talk about the letter, dude.
Speaker: Yeah, this is how I look. Titties out front, little smooch mark in the bottom corner. That's me. And I did rank all of the main characters on their horny depressed axis.
Speaker: Oh, good. So I feel like at the end, we can probably circle back and and guess with you on that one. Mm-hmm. So, also, the outfit.
Speaker: Was I alone in getting, like, a naughty nun vibe from it?
Speaker: Her cross looked more like flut. I don't... I don't think I paid attention to the outfit that she was wearing. Because you're a good married man. i suppose so. what What I really got more out of it is like the juxtaposition between those two characters and how well it fits their archetype, right? Like Shinji, he's quiet. He's lost. He's alone in this big city. You know what I mean? He's not quite sure what's going on.
Speaker: Very much like his character. And very much like the audience. what's what's What's her name? Masato? Masato, yeah. Yeah, Masato, she's... Miss Masato. She's all over the place. She's unreliable. She's late. It's just complete... Every time you get to one of her scenes and she's in it, ah driving through the city looking for him, it's chaotic. as And as soon as they meet each other, it's just this...
Speaker: constant chaos that she's bringing and yet at the same time he doesn't let it influence him it's where he gets uh like frazzled he's still kind of just this quiet even though there's a giant angel attack going on more concerned of like oh my god i'm gonna go see my dad rather than like oh my god um we're about to die any minute right now i'm gonna have to push back with you charles on calling her unreliable i would characterize her as a work hard play hard character and And my evidence for this in this episode is just going to be, you know, to get a little ahead of it, her heroic actions in saving Shinji during the deployment of the N2 mine.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah She pushed him down. She sheltered him. She sheltered him. and she knew exactly what was going on. She called it immediately. She's hyper capable and also...
Speaker: hyper ah horny yeah that might be a trauma response absolute smoke show and an absolute crazy person so which tend to go side to side And we get the UN n attacking the angel. And then within less than 10 minutes, we are when the N2 mine goes off, we are given our first nuke imagery, which, you know, being an anime, carries a lot of weight in Japan.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the fact that they were deploying a nuke on Japanese soil. i mean, like i think we agree. The N2 was a nuke, right? Yeah, I would imagine so. It definitely seemed very nuke-like.
Speaker: ah I'm hoping the 2.0 version means you're not going to be getting immediate and profound cancer for being that close. But I do think that that starts a countdown clock on everybody, at least in in the above ground, Shinji and Masato included, of dying a pretty terrible death within the next six months.
Speaker: If they live that long. Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker: pod Does this play different in our post 9-11 world? Just the image of a city ah wrapped with fear that has become so ah sheltered that when a disaster happens they immediately like have altered their culture to the point where okay there's there was no one else in this city like you can it is just shinji and masato they have cars were parked the middle street reorganized their world around these events mm-hmm
Speaker: there's there's definitely think i mean in you know to get ahead of it in this in the second episode they're out shopping in in what i believe is the outside and yeah they get um the other thing i'd say is like one of the things that was really cool and it's just all world building you know they mentioned that there was another angel attack 15 years ago yeah but yeah in the in the opening attack that angel is swimming through the sunken ruins of like the outer part of the city.
Speaker: That's what I wanted to bring up. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yes. is ah Again, like, right. Rewatching this through a different lens, being more intentional with it. I never really noticed that everywhere around them, everywhere around Tokyo three is flooded.
Speaker: Yeah. Do you notice anything about the color of the water? not that water exactly it's a little murky maybe yeah so the attack happens oh yeah go for it I was gonna I had my notes here for the entire like first half up until them getting to base I have Misato doing Misato shit And then like four lines later, Masato already back on her bullshit.
Speaker: like Just the after the driving back into the after, you know, recovering from the mine and everything and the driving back in and then just being an absolute toddler behind the wheel. Yeah.
Speaker: but Before that happened, I i wrote down Masato jacking a bunch of stolen car batteries and strapping them together based. That was pretty sick. She's like, no, I'm a public servant. I kind of get to do this.
Speaker: Yeah, and ah I looked this up on trivia. It was only one of like two trivia things that I'll bring up because the rest were kind of didn't really interest me that much. But there's like two seconds when Shinji's handing over the documentation that his dad sent him. And ah it was torn up and taped back together.
Speaker: yeah So here's something I noticed that too. And, and what I feel like, and I might be wrong about this. I don't know. i felt like that really showed Shinji as the child that he is.
Speaker: He has this super top secret redacted piece of government paper, and he just shoved it in his backpack. There's more black ink than anything else. And it just says, come, nick you know, what's funny. it It's signed his name. It's not signed. Dad is just come here.
Speaker: Gendo Ikari. Just get here. ah And you know what? Actually, now that you mentioned that it was ripped up, I wonder if he received that letter and he ripped it up himself.
Speaker: Yeah, that's like, it's very pissed but yeah, also the childness, let that lessness of him just shoving it in his backpack and like, you know, not putting it in a folder that it most ah undoubtedly came in, ah like ah one of those envelopes with the little, I forget what they're called with the little like a manila folder or something. Yeah, a manila folder. um yeah it definitely came in that and he just pans it out and yeah so the back of it is like taped up with like black tape it's it's and you don't see it when she's looking at it so electrical tape that he just had around yeah exactly this can't even get the good tape got tape
Speaker: So after the attack, we are introduced to the ah underground city complex that is the headquarters of Nerve. And we do get that scene where we find out that this attack was conducted by the un n because they don't want Gendo to be using his project, which we later find out ah that are the Evas, and that Nerve is a special...
Speaker: organization directly run by Gendo, a spinoff of the UN. n And we're assuming that the un n doesn't care for Nerve because they haven't done really anything in 15 years.
Speaker: he But what they did 15 ago... they needed to be done and they were just they're just like prepping now it's like uh getting ah complacent being like do we even need this it's just a waste of money what is he even doing with all this money we can't see it he's so secretive what is what's all this like goop our electric bill is crazy this guy is and loon yeah that's my my take on it And there's a, i'm you know, Gendo is not a joyous character in any way, if he shows any emotion, but there's like an unrestrained, there's like a silent jubilation to the fact that the UN n failed. They unleashed all their weapons and it didn't work.
Speaker: And Gendo and his second in command, i who I don't think gets a name in this episode, he are just like, okay, it's go time. I do believe he gets name dropped, but you're right. It's a throwaway.
Speaker: he gives He gives such Tarkin. You know what i mean?
Speaker: Well, it's because he is like the archetype of a megalomaniac. 100%. And he realizes if the UN... Yeah, Gendo. He's like, if the UN n just failed, then I have all of the power.
Speaker: I'm the last line. ah he's ah He's what... the blackwater writer. He's the, he's the, yeah he's the military, he's the military subcontractor. Who's excited that things are going badly.
Speaker: Holy shit. Is that the connection? I mean, it's, it's, it's a pretty common trope, I think. Right. Yeah. It's a, Hey, my weird little project. Um,
Speaker: you know gosh they Again, they i mean they didn't they didn't hold back on this angel. They literally went through every piece of ordinance they had. ah They brought in vertebrates from Fallout, which I thought was pretty sweet of them.
Speaker: Yeah, the power armor going through. They dropped a nuke. um and And then we get what is probably the most I'm still standing moment of of the series for me is...
Speaker: The nuke clears. that There's just a spike of energy in the middle of their little a graphical analyzer. And then all of a sudden he's back and he looks, listen, he's not unharmed. The angel is very harmed, but he's not out of commission and he's, he's back and he's pissed. And he's regenerating.
Speaker: I forgot to look. Did he always have two faces or two mouths? That's what I thought. So after the nuke, he grew like immediately before they even say, oh, he's he's regenerating.
Speaker: Dude comes back twice as twice as smart. Probably twice strong. I didn't catch that. He was a cute little guy before the nuke. He was just swimming around.
Speaker: Just a happy little fella with a little like a little... Well, I like, hey, you don't look at me. I've got a little plague doctor face, but it goes straight down. So speaking of the fact that, right, Shinji shows up and this angel attack happens almost instantaneously. Please, please. He has a name. It's Sachiel.
Speaker: Oh, and then. and and then Masato picks him up and brings him to Nerve headquarters, right? Shinji has been in Tokyo three for no more than 20 minutes. And he's already being told that he's a child soldier.
Speaker: Oh yeah. That's gotta be a speed run.
Speaker: Yeah. He's like, Oh, Hey dad, you wanted me to come and say, Oh, I have to do what? but ah Before we get to ah where that part, um, just,
Speaker: The elevator ride, once again, diagonal elevator. It's super oranged out, which is ah like look so cool with them. You know, the silhouettes again, like all the things coming back. They talk about the EVO 1 and how there's 9-0 1% chance of it working. yeah So they call it, what do they call they call something else. But 0-9, 0-9 because it's nine zeros.
Speaker: ah All that is just, it's great. you know you know It's telling, not showing, but it's it's doing both at the same time because you need a little exposition where it's not just like, hey man, what is happening here? i don't i don't know what's going on. The entire episode up until this point has it been... yeah just throwing you in there where where malaise books are the following hey do you know what's going on no fuck you you don't get to know what's going on just ride with it and if you don't like it i don't know cry more yeah i do like when they when they drop you in it has a a french term oh you're looking that up i did think that that map that uh
Speaker: that she had was confusing as hell. Like, I i don't know. I didn't make, I paused that for like a minute and I couldn't make any sense of how to get from the entrance to wherever they were supposed to go. That's a bad map.
Speaker: And it had like a nerve, uh, like, uh, logo in the top left. So they made that map. Like that's the one that are distributing to every, all their stuff. I, I love the Nerve logo. I have somewhere a messenger bag from an anime convention in like 2004 that has that Nerve logo on it and it hits and it it gives such weird Canadian energy. i like the idea of imagining that they started in like some little like bunker in Toronto.
Speaker: Like, hey, what if what if we just I don't know, kind of brought about the end times. Well, inside baseball is they filmed all of Tokyo through in Vancouver for the cheap filming locations. And the tax breaks. They got the tax break. Yeah, they got it. It was shut down. um A lot of leaks off the set when they were doing that. It was kind of funny because they had Ben Affleck, who was ah playing Gendo at the time as a stand in before they could animate him.
Speaker: And that's why you get the seared pronunciations like Niv or Evangelion because Canadians. where also does introduce ah We're also introduced at this point to another major character in Ritsuko.
Speaker: um yeah Surfing open lab coat bikini realness. Well, I mean, there's a reason why she was in a bikini, right? she's She was swimming in the tanks rap repairing yeah or doing something with the the Evas.
Speaker: you know And also, how horny is that scene when she's getting out of the the water? Yeah. Oh, yeah. They didn't have to go that hard. ah feel like I must have seen an edited one. It wasn't too it wasn't terribly horny.
Speaker: I mean, it's it's like probably eight seconds long, but it's eight seconds of pure pin-up horniness. That is fair. Do remember that Charles has two small children at home. Eight seconds of horniness is a lot. If I'm lucky, that's double what I'll get usually. Yeah, which is mostly just four seconds of pity. Eye contact. So...
Speaker: any like just holding his hand like, oh, I remember this. um I remember this. we're We're introduced to all all the players are in their places now.
Speaker: Any interaction between Gendo and Shinji is a very brief B, like there's no warmth there. And see the there's always a status difference. He is always looking down on his son, either by a physical height or by the way that the camera is aimed at. Like Gendo is just always looking down on at his son. And as soon as like, there's just like, um there's immediate longing in Shinji that comes in just like, hey dad,
Speaker: or oh, you you called for me? Like, what do you want from me? And then, like all right. we're introduced to a giant purple monster looking thing. and Shinji has never seen this before. And he is told, oh yeah, you're the pilot of this thing. The way that they introduced this enormous monstrosity to him was so unnecessarily extra. They brought him into a pitch black room, stood him in front of its giant face
Speaker: and He had to walk through pitch black room ah surrounded by water, mind you, to get in front of this thing. They close the door and he's like, well, i can't see anything now. And I couldn't see anything before. And then boom, jump scare.
Speaker: a Like, what the hell? And then at that moment, his father thinks this is the time to make my entrance. That is true. Hello, boy. Again, so they had Ben Affleck shoot this.
Speaker: And I did find an interview. about the making of this scene. And Andy Serkis did say that the prosthetics that he had to wear to be Shinji did give him a terrible skin condition. Well, so they filmed they filmed in Vancouver in, i think, 92. It was just sitting facttic sitting on the lot for a while.
Speaker: There's a lot of posts, a lot of posts to turn it into an anime. Shinji, his dad, Ritsuko, Musato, all in this room discussing, hey, you're going to pilot this thing. And then call goes, and while they're discussing it, because Shinji's response is, what are you talking about? can't do this. What?
Speaker: I don't even know what this thing you want me to get in this thing and go fight that other thing. What makes you think it's like you're the only one who can. it's like what are you talking about? And they immediately start pushing the shame button. There's no sense of like patriotism or heroic duty. It is get into it. Why do you refuse to get into it?
Speaker: Like if you don't get into it, someone's going to get into it. Like you're the only one who can do it. What are you doing? They wheel the whole ass dead girl out of the hospital to be like, yeah well, I think this race could do it.
Speaker: She can't even... She's got like... She's like... Her arm is barely attached to her body. She's missing an eye. And they're like, she's getting in if you don't. But hold on. I want to say something and I am probably speaking out of my ass.
Speaker: So based entirely only on my understanding of samurai culture through literature and like the Five Rings and Musashi and Japanese Gothic is...
Speaker: is Gendo Akari seems very much like a stereotype of the samurai culture, right? Is that you're, you're my son. There is no paternal feeling here.
Speaker: What it is, is, is that, It's a power dynamic. And I am the one who is, I'm smarter. I'm stronger. You're just going to do what I say.
Speaker: There is no familial love here. You're going to be the one that's like my, my predecessor, or you're going to be the one that's kind of going to be my legacy. um Cause when he says, He's like, why did you call me here?
Speaker: And he said, for the exact reason you're thinking. Like he knows. He's already calling it out. Like, you know why you're here. You know why I called you here. And then he's like, why did you leave? ah Like, why do you why why did you leave? Why now? And he said, because I didn't need you before and now I do.
Speaker: This is entirely transactional. You know, I didn't need you before. I didn't need to be a father. But now I need you. So I called you here. And guess what? You showed up. Yeah, and if you're not going to do it, then leave.
Speaker: Exactly. so else And that right there. If you're not going to do it, then leave. This broken girl is going to get in there instead because she has more honor. And it's your fault. And it's your fault, yeah. Well, you're making me do this.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, which is what I said to all of my exes ah when I threatened to kill myself, um which I stand by.
Speaker: Well, the... I don't think you're wrong in how it's presented. i do, like I think that this is one of those tropes that will be deconstructed and subverted later on because we will find out that Gendo is a man of big family feelings and I'll say no more,
Speaker: but There's a lot going on there. Just not to his son. All right. So the meanwhile, the upstairs where the outside world is, our our friend, what did you say his name was?
Speaker: Shabuzi? ah Satchel. Yeah. Satchel. Satchel? Satchel? Satchel? Satchel because it has a Latin angelic name.
Speaker: saha oh Oh, first of all, one thing that I really like, they they did refer to Zero-One as ah artificial human evangelion. So that was pretty cool. But all this is going on, they they is becomes very apparent that the angel knows where the geosphere is, the geofront, which is this large underground complex that is probably the heart and soul of Tokyo 3.
Speaker: The world. The nerve base is under it. I mean, at this point, probably, i don't... I don't think we see too much of the outside world. Well, that's what they said. It's the heart it's like the last bastion of humanity.
Speaker: The last hope for humanity. Right, that's what it was, huh? And that attack gets through, causes ceiling to collapse, and the unpiloted, unplugged in, ah powered off, inert, otherwise, Unit 01 swings an arm up under the bridge, breaks out of the restraints, and shelters Shinji.
Speaker: So this thing that we thought wasn't going to activate had a E to the minus 9-1 chance you know of ah of activating with him inside.
Speaker: Activates with no one inside to protect Shinji. And which point it's also unplugged. yeah And at this point, he's getting guilted by the fucking robot. Like, hey, I just saved your life. Are you going to get in my back now?
Speaker: I want to note that this is ah the first instant of a giant cross explosion. I did have to stop for very long prayer break on each one of these cross explosions. I wrote i wrote down everyone. So you got a lot of praying done in, brother.
Speaker: i i got a lot done. Yeah, I have been on my knees a lot today. No doubt. So they have a lot of launch bays. I was struck by how many. First of all, they put them in the plug box.
Speaker: They get this kid. They had a plug suit already in his size, ready to go. They put him in what is effectively a test tube, shove him into the back of Unit 01, fill it with what I believe personally to be piss, but I am told in the fiction of the anime is... Do they even name drop it as LCL in this one? okay i'm Not yet, I don't think.
Speaker: it is It is a piss yellow liquid that you can breathe in, um which is... Very, very fun. ah a bit of a weird parallel here. You guys ready to unpack this one?
Speaker: a little amniotic. A little womb-like, the plug. the Yeah. Probably no symbolism there to unpack. um So he gets shoved in the giant purple robot, which is what I'm told an artificial human is, which has a very cool horn on its face.
Speaker: um goes up the elevator and probably kind of is confronted with the question that they should have asked well ahead of this. Shinji, you know walk, right? yeah yeah you know this thing that you just found out about no more than five minutes ago?
Speaker: You know how to work it, right? Yeah, you just picture yourself walking and walk, bud. You walked a million times. Which, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but leads to him...
Speaker: Getting his ass whooped. He did get. He did walk one step and like playing co-op. He fell down immediately. um yeah Right on his face.
Speaker: well we So we're leading into episode two now. idiot it Well, that. that ah Oh, my God. You're so right. They yeah they say you're going up.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, is that where it ends is is when he's getting launched up there? No, no, no. he um it ends It ends after he gets bodied against the wall and they say, please don't die, Shinji. Yeah, so he goes up there, falls, gets his the ass whooped.
Speaker: they that this This thing breaks his arm and then... hammers this energy beam straight through his head causing like this massive cranial explosion in the eva to burst blood or whatever it is out both sides of its head as it slumps back against the wall end scene so you're no So you're right. No, no. Jakey's right. he He gets sent up and they say, please don't die. That is the end of the episode.
Speaker: The episode two starts with him. died Hey, hey, buddy, you know how to fight, right? And then he falls down. he gets picked up by the head, which is disrespectful.
Speaker: Gets that head smushed. So the nastiest head I've seen in a long time. i I do like the jump cut here after he gets just absolutely brutalized to him snapping awake in bed. And I wrote how you be feeling after a crazy night out.
Speaker: Episode one ends with, like, he gets in the robot, which we're all happy about, but it doesn't feel like a victory. The thing that got him into the robot was guilt and shame and just, like, the slight connection that he had with Rey, who also appeared for a split second earlier in the episode, like, walking around Tokyo 3 that's never commented on.
Speaker: but But she also wasn't injured either. Right. So yeah, that's that, that, that I was kind of thinking about that, right? Did he have an actual vision of her? and and I think this is probably just a ah thing we have to come back to later on when we can talk more about just all of Ray's weirdness, emergent weirdness, let's say, but the question becomes, was that a vision? Was that a flesh and blood?
Speaker: manifestation like what was that that he saw because again that's got to be pretty crazy right he never even circles back to go like hey girl who's brutally in a hospital bed i saw you like 45 minutes to ago upstairs and you were good Yeah, so it um the Netflix and the Blu-ray both have removed what was a piece of licensed music from the original series, which the episodes normally ended with a cover of Frank Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon in Japanese.
Speaker: These have been removed for the Netflix and the Blu-ray. because, you know, music rights. And if you watched all the way through, if you watched on Netflix, you probably skipped this, but the, much like most anime did in 90s and early 2000s, it ends with a clip of the next episode with Masato narrating it and ending with, and don't worry guys, there's going to lot more fan service.
Speaker: Awesome. Oh, thank It's so hard. It's so hard to watch like the end credits on Netflix. Like you got to do it so fast. And if you hit the wrong button, then you got to start the whole episode over and then scrub through it. And it's like, Oh, skip you want to skip the credits again? It's like, no Netflix. Let me watch the credits. I want to see who worked on the show.
Speaker: I want to know who the best boy is. Guessing it was somebody's cousin. i see all the language. It was Chaining Tatum, I believe. Speaking of best boys is that opening episode two,
Speaker: is that ah opening of episode two Shinji, as he's getting his ass whooped, you could actively see the trauma happening to him psychologically. His whole brain was breaking through that entire brutal attack. Like when the thing's trying to rip his arm off, he can't believe that his arm like...
Speaker: isn't actually broken and when he breaks his arm he his whole like they have this psychedelic cut to his brain where like half of his face is missing and the other half is there and it's all these psychedelic colors and this whole time he's getting his ass whooped like mentally he's just being absolutely obliterated that is fair like they're like hey get in the giant robot pilot the giant robot and i feel like your first instinct is i'm not gonna feel the robot's pain right
Speaker: They're like, oh didn it even tell what a weird question to ask, buddy. Anyway, get in It's going to tightly integrate to your brain now. They didn't even tell him like, oh, you might feel something.
Speaker: They didn't even warn him in advance. Nothing. You are the only one who can pilot this. don't and Don't ask why. Get in it. To be fair, though, actually, they are actively in the middle of an angel attack, and at any minute, it could be the end of civilization.
Speaker: I guess when you put the stakes like that... so We, as the audience, have been... you know we've probably if we're watching this, we probably know a little bit about mecha anime or mecha titles. or just like We know how the hero's journey worked.
Speaker: So we're expecting like, oh, he's going to, like, this is the only, he's the only one who can operate this. There must be something special about him. But the episode opens with horror, terror, brutality. He is no wonderkind. his he is no hero. He just goes in, has no idea what he's doing, gets his ass stomped. And we are just left there going like...
Speaker: Oh no. What is happening? I thought it was going to happen. yeah I thought you you know, you, you you think he's going to go up there and just somehow beat this angel's ass and instead just gets devastated.
Speaker: There is a there is a scene in a movie that I hate that I've watched that, And and ah as far as subverting a trope, I really like that one, right? You're you're so so used for the to the shounen anime wonderkind who is actually just naturally really good at fighting.
Speaker: And it's actually, even though like he is kind of a chosen one in that he's the only one that can pilot it, but I do like that it's not that he can pilot it well. It's just that, yeah, you can get in it and it'll turn on.
Speaker: um But in um Elephant, which is... One of the films I've seen about school shootings, um i actually it might be the only one, there's a really um prolonged shot in the midway of the movie where they follow this one character um who's just kind of like the, because he's like a jockey badass.
Speaker: And he has like this sort of tough guy swagger. And he realizes that something's going down and it's up to him to stop it. And he like, everyone is sheltering in the classroom and he's got this real, like I can take care of business attitude. And he walks, you know, through the halls. He just kind of like does a casually walks through, looks rounds the corner to where one of the shooters is and they just look at him and shoot him and then the scene is over but it's such a long shot that it really kind of sets you up to go like oh i guess this guy can do something about it and then you're like oh right uh he didn't have a gun the other guy the gun is the difference maker in this case it's the pile driver elbow arm
Speaker: Everyone is a badass until you meet a gigantic angel slash kaiju. it's i think that's fair. it's sugar It's Gregory Helms versus The Undertaker.
Speaker: Just walking out and going like, oh, I got this. I'm the hero character. This is going to happen. And The Undertaker is, okay, you're dead. I killed you. You're dead now.
Speaker: Yeah. Imagine that's how you find out. too ah him waking up, which is that, you know, what Charles said about childhood bedrooms, about the the use of nut of ah night lighting.
Speaker: How would you describe that ceiling up there that he's looking at? I've never seen it before. It feels unfamiliar. and i Wait, say that again. Unfamiliar ceilings? Hold on.
Speaker: Whoa, is that the name? Put that down. That's the name. That's it. That's the episode title. One of the episode titles. The English episode title is called The Beast.
Speaker: Oh, that's way worse. Okay, that that does draw me in. Is the Beast Shinji's father?
Speaker: Or was the real Beast the friends we made along the way? Oh. i do I do want to make sure mentioned the fact that since you you know, we, so we, we moved on to him waking up in the hospital.
Speaker: Like, I feel like, the scene where the two girls are driving in the car and it's like a nice day. They're enjoying some AC. They're kind of just having an everyday type thing.
Speaker: And they'd say, Oh, Shinji's woken up. And then, uh, Masato was like, Oh, i hope his brain is okay. And it comes to him. Absolutely. Just disassociating as he's staring at his arm, thinking to himself, like,
Speaker: thought they broke this motherfucker like he like he just cannot understand how there's no damage to his arm and his his like they just did such a great job capturing he's a million miles away right now even though he's just sitting in the hospital looking at his arm the fact that the episode oh go for it I was going to say, also, like, think about the amount of of damage he took and he came out of it physically fine. Yeah. What is i going on with Rey?
Speaker: oh my God, right? Why is she so hurt? And the last attack was 15 years ago. i was assuming, because I was wondering, like, how she got hurt. like if the Because, I picked up on that. I was assuming that they were trying to...
Speaker: have her do stuff, like get the Ava going. And it just like protecting her beating her up. Because I know they have the the zero, which is what she usually does. i don't know what happened that caused that one to get all messed up and out of commission.
Speaker: But ah during that shopping scene, that's later in this episode, right? When they're out. Yeah. well yes Okay, when we get to that, I'll bring up my other kind of points. there's There's a thing I forgot to call out from the 01 activation in the first episode that I thought was really funny. It was when they have the indicator lights coming up that say like, you know, reattaching the arm and, you know, deploying the unit or whatever. So this is right before the launch sequence in the last episode.
Speaker: ah There's ah ah like an indicator light that lights up that looks exactly like a like a model ah plastic sheet for like a Gundam, Gundam, like plastic model, like a gun blast.
Speaker: That's cute. And so it just looks like the thing where you pop out all the parts before assembling the model. Such a funny indicator light to be like, yeah, but all the parts are here. The arms way over here, the other arms way over here, the sword is held together by twisties.
Speaker: What an interesting way to edit a episode where you start with the attack and then you cut to the consequences of the attack.
Speaker: We know Shinji survived. We know everyone survived. So he must have won, but we don't know the details about how. And then we go to Gendo meeting with a... the Crystal Gems. Conspiratorial...
Speaker: an Illuminati. Yeah. Just cloaked in shadow, hologramming ending to the weirdest zoom call you've ever been a part of where they're like, all right, well, sounds like you get you, your son's new toy worked.
Speaker: Yeah. He, they got real Nepo baby on him. i was like, Oh, you decided to give it to your son. Huh? Yeah. What? My son's not good enough. He went to yell. He's lawyer. Joke's on you. i don't even like my son. and they My son's a Navy SEAL. Say that to his face. You will so you will address me by my husband's rank.
Speaker: yeah And they... ah Say, hey, yeah no we're going to let you do this as long as it's working. But really, all of your energy and focus should be ah going towards human instrumentality. project Human instrumentality. Say more. What is that?
Speaker: Yeah, wrote a question after that. I hope I learn more. more I'm sure it's just a throwaway thing that will never come up again. i do think... that that was very fun too they're also like we're gonna continue the rest the meeting without you and then they all like essentially go into the other channel uh except the one guy is at the other end of the table is like hey good luck don't don't screw up but also bye and then he leaves we we cut back to shinji and this is one of my favorite bits
Speaker: Uh, yeah, yeah you just wheel Ray past him again. like like he's standing there in the hallway, minding his goddamn business. And they, for some reason, just, I think Ray is like, someone is asking them to wheel Ray past him constantly.
Speaker: And he's not injured at all, by the way. I'm sure she takes note of and really enjoys. i have two words written down under human instrumentality, just shame and Ray.
Speaker: That sounds right. Yeah. What are we doing here, people? And so I thought you were going to say this is my favorite moment of the episode, but i wrote awkward elevator. Awkward. Oh, oh God.
Speaker: i have for that one. It's OK. I'll get the next one. Oh,
Speaker: Before that, though, is we have the call that that Charles was talking about where they're in the Masato and Kitsugi are out driving. And I just have Shinji's finally awake.
Speaker: They caught him trying to cross the border. Yeah.
Speaker: My favorite scene in episode two is like shortly after that awkward elevator when Shinji walks into his new house and he's thinking to himself, bitch, you live like this?
Speaker: What? I want to rewind that scene a little bit to where they're talking about, all right, well, we're gonna it's Masato, Shinji, and Gendo, and all right, we're going to find you an apartment to stay.
Speaker: And Masato is absolutely not. You can come and live with me. And then Ritsuko is, like, saying... what are you why are you doing this she's like don't worry I'm not gonna take advantage of him or anything he's too young she's like I would never suggest that why are you saying that yeah what an oddly specific thing to say I wasn't thinking that why did you bring that up I'll also point out, Sonny, that was not that was not Gendo that was discussing the housing situation. They fully just did not meet with Gendo.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. um It was his like undersecretary guy. Tarkin. And yes, this is Grand Moff Tarkin, who's ah but back when he before he free blew up. um yeah I have reset the days without Masato bullshit counter. ah In checkout line, people gossiping about whatever the fuck you did mid-blackout.
Speaker: Then I have yeah people in Tokyo 3 be like, I know a place, and then take you to the one overlook. who So when they were doing the shopping and those two girls were discussing like, oh, um my husband wants me to...
Speaker: like Yeah, like, so what has been happening in the last 15 years if it wasn't the angels that require like a huge UN presence? Like, I thought that's how Ray got all messed up, like was doing some other threat. Like, what could even, you know, what is the circumstances of this world where a 15-year lull in the most horrific world thing you've ever seen the thing that the entire city has been preparing for has like caused people to be so scared and everything so i was just like kind of interested in finding out more about that oh yeah and also like where are they gonna go says they have shelters but like they're all in tokyo 3 i assume like maybe they're yeah like so like where where are they moving a different a different place in tokyo 3 or is there other cities out there so the thing that about that that i'm i'm struggling with is
Speaker: The geofront, which is where all the big buildings drop into and and rise up out of, the the so cool sort of the human arc underneath the city, my suspicion is that you know not a lot of people get to live. like I think Masato lives outside.
Speaker: like It's a very, very have, have not. the The people who are kind of living on the doorstep, They are in the complete danger zone. But yeah, i I would imagine they're there because they have nowhere else to really go. Like an attack on Titan situation.
Speaker: i guess. Yeah.
Speaker: So rather than living by himself, which Shinji wants and says he's actually. And is used to. And is used to. Masato, of course, says, no, that's unacceptable. You're going to live with me.
Speaker: They did bring up like, oh, why aren't him and Gendo living together? and it was like, oh, um what's their last names? like The Ikaris do not cohabitate. Yeah, don't really live together. It'd be too awkward for the both of them.
Speaker: Hey, Shinji, let's go visit your mom. out and Out in the valley? i assume Shinji's mom lives in Palmer. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. this is This is the grave where your mom is. She's not really here because we couldn't find anything about her. And you should stop thinking about it. All right, I'm going to go now. Bye. So they get to Masato's apartment, which would probably that be the the top upvoted post of all time on either the subreddit male living space or neckbeard nests.
Speaker: um It is an actual nightmare. of Of that dreamlike quality where the liquor bottles are almost correct. Beer cans everywhere.
Speaker: Bottles everywhere. snacks and condiments only. ah Snacks, condiments, beer. The three fridges. Oh, what about ice? Gotta have ice. Ice, snacks, beer. Yeah.
Speaker: Living the life. I... I think we just have to like throw it up for a queen who cannot function unless she gets home and slams a can down.
Speaker: Just like peak female performance right there. Says something to the effect of this is what makes it all worthwhile while she slugs what appears to be like a 32 ounce can of beer. Yeah, like a phosphorus can of beer.
Speaker: The proportions on this beer are insane. And then she proceeds to drink a whole pyramid's worth.
Speaker: I don't know if she drank all that. there's sad abuse Just with the cans that were left around. But she definitely just chugs that bitch right down.
Speaker: While this child, this 14-year-old child is going like, that humans aren't supposed to live like this. You know, just trying to... i have get down a TV dinner it's probably molten hot and the on the sides and frozen in the core and she's like what that's not good enough for you you little bitch like ah just playing I'm just playing I really could have just lived by myself like i I was totally cool with it the angles they use when she confronts him are probably the horniest moment oh yeah it's intentional is it's fan service for sure
Speaker: leaning over the table. She got the booty shorts on. Do you think she buys pre-cut jorts or buys jeans and cuts the legs off? Oh, she cuts. Yeah.
Speaker: She cuts and then she sews, but not well. She gets the shortest legal regulation jean shorts and then cuts them further. She just goes, no, more. Then we're introduced to one of my favorite characters,
Speaker: Penpen, the penguin. Like, the they described him as a tropical penguin or something? like Yeah, tropical penguin. Yeah.
Speaker: And at this point, s Sinji is completely butt-ass naked because he was about to have a nice warming bath because, ah you know, taking a bath is like oh the washing machine for the mind.
Speaker: The washing machine for the mind. Yeah, don't Great visual gag here. I liked it. Perfect. It was incredible. Great visual gag here in which Shinji is being censored by a beer can, which Masato then picks up. And then there's a tinier beer can there that is also perfectly censoring his just barely pubescent genitalia.
Speaker: So s sinji Shinji having like a full ass like conversation with his just dick and balls out and not realizing it is a little out of character, I think.
Speaker: He was so jump scared by- a penguin. He's like, yeah, why is there a penguin here, though? Honestly, if I walked into the bathroom butt-ass naked and a penguin hopped out after just taking a shower, I might forget that I'm naked, too. Well, and I want to say that, like, the the penguin was on set that was played by d Bradley Baker. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So he was actually, i think there on his knees for the scene. And so him and Andy circus go way back. So I think it was just kind of them having like a cheeky inside joke moment.
Speaker: And didn't Masato actually for this scene specifically, wasn't Masato a stand in Danny DeVito? Danny was on set that day and they director owed him a favor. And so he, yeah, you let him do the Masato stand in. He already had the shorts.
Speaker: You can see it in some of the shots. Yeah. He did body double for her. It made the painting interesting. thought it was interesting. actually, on some of the early cuts, see a bit of Danny skin. What a lot of people don't know is that they had the casting crew of Who Framed Roger Abbott come on and do an entire seminar on how to interact with images you can't see.
Speaker: That was, like I think, a pretty cool... like but I think that probably the best special feature on the Blu-ray, right, is that whole seminar. I do think it was a little unnecessary for them to dip, and we can bleep this out, for them to dip a Rey clone into the into the dip and dissolve her right there in front of everybody. I thought that was pretty fucked up, actually. I thought it was also unnecessary for Bob Hoskins to come on get drunk, and just ah scream about Super Mario Brothers. That was honestly probably my favorite part. i yeah I kind of like a messy i like a messy commentary.
Speaker: um Pinpin's insane. ah Shinji goes to bed, at which point he cites this as a different... ceiling yet again and so i am left to believe that this kid has a perfect eidetic memory for ceilings yeah i put that down too it's just like the worst version of psych but yeah another ceiling i don't know ah i did right before ah that um it's revealed that only children can pilot evas
Speaker: Yeah, that I didn't, I don't quite understand why it's only children, but like he's from a group of the children. He is the third child. Yeah, the third child. That was in the first episode. I wrote that down, but forgot to bring it up.
Speaker: so we And I don't think they touched on it after that either, though. Can we infer that Ray is a another of the third childs as well? Yeah, for sure. That's why that's why she's a pilot, right? Because she's and she's like the other child.
Speaker: Potentially the first child. It implies the existence of some sort of other child. Two other children. At least two others. And we are given a little bit more depth to Masato as she is taking her relatively tame but also still little titillating bath where thinks to herself, am I too thick? The implication being that... act At least some of what she is doing is an act for for Shinji to make him more comfortable, which doesn't seem to be working at all.
Speaker: ah Noted read room reader Masato. And then i think at this point we're given the revelation of what actually happened in...
Speaker: is the closing scene for the episode. What happened in the Eva, uh, Satchel fight? Yeah, this was mega. This kicked ass so hard. Um, they, I think that was really interesting that they let Doug Jones improvise a lot of his business. Zero one.
Speaker: Honestly, this scene made all the gross, disgusting horniness worth it. Oh, this is peak, right? Like this is, This is, it was incredibly well animated. it it especially for the time.
Speaker: Yeah. It was so fun to watch. It was a thrill ride. All I had for this one was go see the AT field. Uh, yeah. and This fight goes so fucking hard.
Speaker: So if you are listening to this podcast and have not watched the episode, stop right now. Go and watch the episode. ah Make yourself a sandwich. I would say kiss your child goodbye and send them off to war.
Speaker: um And then, you know, just walk around the neighborhood for a little bit. Kick a can Come back. Think about what you've done. and then play this episode again.
Speaker: because... because We're taken back to the beginning of episode where Shinji is getting bodied by Sachiel. And then when act all hope is gone, Shinji is out cold. Yeah, I wrote, um let's see, impaled through the skull, giant spurt of blood, um through and through a building. Yeah, impaled through ah skull, building, spurt of blood, big style. Broken arm.
Speaker: Yeah, arm's already been broke. his psyche got shattered so hard it changed the animation. Yeah, exactly. Fellas, have you ever been so emotionally devastated that your color palette inverted?
Speaker: Yeah. ah And then Shinji's out. He's out of the fight. All hope is gone. And then the Eva goes, I believe the clinical term is berserk, and proceeds to ah start acting not as a mecha, but as, g like the episode is, a beast, a monster.
Speaker: A monster bred to fight other monsters. It's... Goes insane. Absolutely, as you said, goatses its way through the terror field, the AT field, which again, we're given no explanation, but it's some sort of defensive barrier that the angels can utilize.
Speaker: Tears through it like it's nothing. While all of Neve is watching in not joy for their ah weapon working, but shock, dismay, and again- But also one of them's got some joy. Yeah, because one of them says, oh we won.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, and yeah. Right away. And then the Eva tears into this angel in a way that's, as Brock said, absolutely disrespectful. Just like it is not it's not a du fight. It is is a hunt. It breaks off one of its ribs and stabs it to death with it.
Speaker: So before that but ah before that, so after the a he got through the avi field, the Ava blasted him back. Huge bomberman cross going through the streets. That was awesome. what and bless Bless up.
Speaker: Yeah, so that's his third big cross. um There were two in the first episode. Then Ava 1 comes back with big boot and spear combo into stab with own rib.
Speaker: Oh, you missed the one of the more disrespect, or then maybe this is later. i've I've got the fight all mumbled up. But Zero-One grabs the angel by both wrists in, like, the Hello Kitten.
Speaker: It's like the fucking Hello Kitten, and then just twists, so it breaks both arms. They just go limp. My favorite move was the front spin heel kick.
Speaker: That he just uses to open the fight and knock him back. Absolute. Absolute cinema. delight Delightful. Yeah. And you're left the episode ends with, we won.
Speaker: But you're wondering. Oh, but wait. We're missing something. Because how does the fight work? The episode ends with vagina opening up and an eyeball popping out of it. Okay. No, you know no, no. You've skipped self-destruct. Yeah.
Speaker: So ah right Angel wraps Eva's head and torso, self-destruct into huge cross explosion. That's number four. And smile on Gendo's face. Okay, I have... We got a smile out of him, boys.
Speaker: We got a smile out of him. And before that, we got the no-looker from Zero One walking away from the absolute devastation. Okay, yeah. um And then I have Gendo smiling like the fucking commander of Perv. Wow.
Speaker: Wow. You're a poet, man. i listen, if I'm going to take notes, I'm going to write silly little jokes for me to to rediscover later and have a little laugh. Oh yeah. I love, but now I need, now I need a perv logo.
Speaker: Uh, all right. So for me, I'm going to, I'm going to, uh, for the last two episodes, uh,
Speaker: One glasses push-up by Gendo. Oh, wait. So we need to describe the fucked-up final scene. Oh, okay. ah Charles, were you were describing that a little bit ago? Oh, yeah. So Shinji is in the inside looking out at the Ava, and the Ava's looking on the outside in, and this on the side of its face, because its face shield, which we found out, actually, it's not a mecha.
Speaker: The face shield came off, and there's an organic... being underneath his face shield because on the side of the face a vagina splits open and an eyeball pops out of it and looks directly at Shinji yeah I wrote that a reflection or was he outside of the unit entirely so oh maybe it was a reflection in the building yeah I was confused by the the perspective of as well like was he like I thought maybe he was having like an outer body experience and just, that's what I thought. It was kind of like a that's what I thought this symbolicism was. The symbolism was, was like an out of body experience.
Speaker: I'm going back to the tapes. Give me a moment. Yeah. So I would just wrote a fucked up final scene. Shinji looking at busted unit one face and eye forms. What the fuck? What the fuck? The eye forming is crazy. Yeah. It's, it's wild.
Speaker: Um, Yeah. ah Was there another, like, kind of... No, I don't think that was, that like, a palette swap kind of thing that was happening, but I was probably thinking when his arm got busted, because I didn't write it down. All right, so what were you saying, Sunshine? Well, I'll do the i'll do my numbers at the end, but final thoughts on these two episodes. Oh, and I got ah one more trivia thing I can ah bust out. It's about the the theme song.
Speaker: I've just found this one interesting. Oh, The writing process... So this is from episode one. The writing... Cat, don't step on stuff. The writing process for this episode took a long time, as much as six months, according to Anno, and this opening secret was not not yet finished.
Speaker: this is a prop This is probably why the song reader for a Cruel Angel's cease Thesis says she only watched two unfinished episodes, as she was probably called in during their production before Gainax. make the opening sequence based on the then unwritten song in proposal it was originally called people's reunion shinji would fight an angel called raziel not to be confused with romiel none of that makes uh any sense right now i think those are actual biblical angel names oh okay uh this was moved to the second episode with sashiel
Speaker: So the theme song was written by someone who had seen two unwritten are unfinished episodes. And there was absolutely a cut you could make of this, that it is a nice slice of life romance anime.
Speaker: I'll try to, for going forward, I'll try to find some more facts because there's like 20 facts on this. It's the Evangelion wiki. So i'm I'm not using AI, F that noise.
Speaker: but and um I'll find some that are kind of interesting that don't come up from Sunhi's other research or you guys' research and just kind of throw them in at the end or when it's relevant I Guys, is Shinji a is Shinji a harem leader?
Speaker: Is there a read of this where it is a harem anime? Probably Guaranteed um I thought this was a banger couple of episodes. You were introduced to a like, amazing action that hooks you if you're just here for the, wow, cool robots.
Speaker: uh, meme. And you're given, you're given some hints that things aren't exactly what they seem. There's also, you know, that, earth that mid nineties anime, sexual weird stuff that's going on. Yeah. But,
Speaker: Man, the animation is just so, i don't know if clean is the way to describe it, but it's just like so well done, especially for 90s one when some of those can look pretty dog shit.
Speaker: And the colors that they use, like the color palette and the color grading is just perfect in every scene.
Speaker: You can tell they put a lot of thought into just like everything. Some might say too much thought.
Speaker: Who would say that? What do you do? The director. Did he say put too much thought into it? He said you put too much thought into it.
Speaker: Brock, what are your final thoughts?
Speaker: Uh, was worried maybe that after years of seeing things that were influenced by it, um, that it wouldn't hold up for me at least.
Speaker: Uh, but I feel like it does, you know, obviously there's, I would say that probably my biggest show issue with the show can be its pacing but I do believe that that's an intentional choice and one that you know I'm older now and and I can be a lot more okay with I think that that strengthens the juxtaposition between when things are absolutely popping off you know for a 30 second you know sometimes they're timed fight versus
Speaker: you know, here's going to be a, you know, 45 second shot in an elevator and there'll be no dialogue. It's not that the scene won't convey anything. You will, you will feel the disdain this man has for his son and it will be palpable.
Speaker: I just, I just think that ah it's, it's held up. It's, I'm looking forward to s seeing more and I'm really looking forward if we can get, you know, Doug in or, or someone, you know, to get their, their takes. Yeah.
Speaker: Not Doug Jones. He rejected, in no uncertain terms, me ever alluding or remarking again on his involvement. Because he only, I mean, allegedly, only came into film that one fight scene.
Speaker: Well, Doug Jones, you have a history with Doug Jones as you keep sending him naked photos of yourself for him to contortion into. And he says, stop, I have a family. Why are you doing this?
Speaker: I will push back on that a little bit and I will say that while I am nude, I am usually covered by an incredibly small can. a Hidden behind a slightly larger can. Hidden behind a slightly larger can, yes.
Speaker: Looking at it through the depression lens, you can see where Anno is putting himself into the character of Shinji because like it is hard.
Speaker: It is hard to a it's hard to be someone who is depressed, feeling like, I can't do this. Like, I don't know what you want me to do. i don't know what the right answer is. And also you see the frustration of people around him because it is hard to care about someone who is struggling with a mental illness. Like there is a line where it is like, wow, I really care about you and I want you to do good. Also, I need you to do something because Shinji is a character who will be come to be defined by his...
Speaker: refusal to choose, by his inactivity, by his just absolute disconnect from things. And it's like watching a character who, you know, the audience wants him to do something. The characters in the show want him to do something. And he is just torn apart for reasons and good reasons, by the way, but he is torn apart by like, I don't think I can do it.
Speaker: like this fear, this like self-loathing or this just like i this uncertainty. So to the point where it was like, you know, they don't know whether to hug him or give him a like kick in the ass.
Speaker: All right. All right. which so What's your most horny moment of the episode, Sonny? Or the two episodes? Yeah. ah Well, if we're just doing horny moments, it's going to be Masato at the table. But for our characters and yeah taking taking the scale, so we're doing acidic base scale.
Speaker: One, absolute depression. Fourteen, absolute horniness. Seven, neutral. I put Shinji on the four.
Speaker: so More depressed than horny. What do we think? Yeah, I think he got a little horny for Ray. Because you look he was like, oh, hey, who's this girl? oh man, she's really beat up.
Speaker: ah And then i think he he wasn't really feeling Masato. She was the league a little too. Much. Yeah. Form might even be a little high.
Speaker: like I feel like he was very much more distracted from his depression than he was horny. I feel like i feel like he definitely gave off asexual in these first two episodes.
Speaker: Okay, so you think he would be more depressed? More depressed. I think i think he was so... wrapped up in seeing his dad and what was expected of him to even contemplate being horny for anybody so so i would push i'm gonna keep saying meeting stuff and i'm so sorry guys that's my current bit mental illness is meeting speak so bear with me and i yeah your hypersexuality
Speaker: That is a real documented problem. on the I would say, Charles, the thing to consider is maybe it's not that he doesn't have sexual desire and that he's not asexual in that way.
Speaker: it could just be anhedonia um from the depression. It could be that he's you know aware of it on an intellectual level and knows that maybe he should be attracted to it, but just is too depressed to to act on that in any meaningful way.
Speaker: You are correct. i don't know if correct is fair. That is a ah perspective. No, listen, you're better than me. You proved it. Just take the fucking compliment, okay? yeah I, uh, cause I used the word anhedonia.
Speaker: Yes. I would, I would go as as three. as three So even more towards depression, but I don't think, like, I do think that there's, like, some level of at least interest or attraction in the things that are going on around him, even if it's not to the degree that we could even consider, like, a full, like ah even a semi-chub at this point. Gendo.
Speaker: Gendo. I would put at a nine. He doesn't give off depressed, but also he doesn't give a lot of sexuality off. But if we're looking at one being absolutely depressed and 14 being absolutely horny, I'll say a nine closer to the horny scale.
Speaker: I don't think it's just like a special horniness. It's like a horniness for power. Yes, I agree, Jackie. was going say, I feel like he's probably more at a 10.
Speaker: Or even 12 the horniness scale strictly that he gets from being in power. And the one reason why he's not a 14 is that scene when he's sitting around the table and it's very obvious he's actually not the decision maker.
Speaker: He doesn't have the power he wants.
Speaker: and I'm going to push back on that. think that's smile. Okay. I'm gonna push back on that. i can see a 10, but anything higher, because we will see horny Gendo at some point, and this is not horny Gendo. This is a man who is still firmly in control of himself.
Speaker: Okay, I can give it 10. I can give it a 10. Even a 9. It's not 7 because that's pretty neutral. But like 9, 10, it's there. you know He's horny for power. His engines are getting revved.
Speaker: But he's also getting edged and having it ruined by sitting at that table and everybody telling him that he just you know needs to to do what he's told. Yeah.
Speaker: think the strength of that final smile was probably the horniest he's been in these two episodes. Ritsuko, not a whole lot going on in these two episodes, but we do get introduced to her. i would say an eight. She's not depressed.
Speaker: ah No. You a little bit of playfulness coming from her.
Speaker: ah Agreed. Eight. Okay. Ray, i said a two, so depressed really conscious dude i'm giving her a one well okay let's can we can we score ingenue in the street possibly a hallucination ray because think she's probably an um in a hospital bed covered in bandages and probably just kind of being wheeled around because gendo is trying to bully his son um
Speaker: Uh, probably probably ah a two. Yeah, probably a one or two. Masato, I gave her a 12. Masato's a 12. Now, I do not... We also don't know how much of this is an act and how much of this is the real Masato, but she came in, out of hell, out of hell,
Speaker: ah wearing her best dress and, you know, implied that no one should worry about her trying to take sexual advantage of a 14-year-old. After sending that picture to this 14-year-old, that is super horny.
Speaker: Yeah, 12 seems right. God, i wish I wish she would just chill out for a minute. You know what, Brock? I'm very glad that that's actually where you took it because I thought you were going to go left, but you the road, so thank you.
Speaker: Yeah, i it is. i for This is, I think, probably one of the things that held up the worst for me was I kind of just hand waved it all before as like we were making fun of her character. But like, it's not even really to the point of subtext. It's just like the entire time, like you said, like Ritsuko is like, hey, man, that was a pretty weird thing you just said.
Speaker: And so i was like, what do you mean? No. I'm just messing around. You know me. i Just, you know, locker room talk. Right. But I think, you know, as locker room talk, we we guys all agree, where were these babysitters when we were 14, right?
Speaker: Please subscribe to my Red Pill podcast. Jesus Christ. All right. we got episodes three and four coming up. Yep, I guess that's homework for next week. I will try to get it done sooner. All right, and at this point, we have been introduced to what we think are all the players. We got an idea of the story, and we also have no idea where things are goingnna go going to go. What is an AT field?
Speaker: What is human instrumentality? Will we ever find out what happened to Ray? Where are those other two children? What is the deal with Pen Pen? Where are the Crystal Gems? What is the Human Instrumentality Project? What's Pen Pen's deal? Is he going be a pilot? Will we catch, I think in episode three, there is one where, in depending on which edit you get, there's a there's a boom mic left in one of the shots.
Speaker: ah Will Shinji get in the robot again? The answers to all these questions and more the next time on Dragon Ball Z. Thank you for listening to Get in the Podcast, Shinji. This is not a rewatch.
Speaker: All right, so joining us for an exclusive interview, we've got Evangelion Unit 01. How are you doing? You know, I'm pretty banged up, man. I got Kavalin through the skull. My blood came out. My arm got ripped off.
Speaker: You know, I really took an L out there in the first round.
Speaker: Feeling really good out there. Props to set you out. I just wanted a bit more, man. Just wanted a bit more. I put it out there.
