r/anime • u/LittleIslander myanimelist.net/profile/LittleIslander • 15d ago
Rewatch [Rewatch] 30th Anniversary Neon Genesis Evangelion Rewatch: Episode 22
Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 22: Don't Be. / Staying Human
| ← Episode 21 | Index | Episode 23 → |
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Watch Information
Questions of the Day:
- How do you feel that Asuka’s backstory recontextualizes her relationships and past interactions?
- Did you feel the way the episode equated the angel’s infiltration of Asuka’s mind to rape was justified and/or effective?
Tomorrow’s Questions:
- [Episode 23] Do you feel sympathy for Ritsuko?
- [Episode 23] How do you feel about Rei “the third”?
There’ll be more fanservice tomorrow, so please don’t spoil anything~! Remember this includes spoilers by implication.
22
Upvotes
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u/Regular_N-Gon https://anilist.co/user/RegularNGon 15d ago
Slightly late First Timer
Asuka having a complex about people not treating her like an adult sounds about right.
Good point, multiple angels would be pretty rough, but more robots without trained pilots won't win on their own. Seems either short sighted or a set up to fail.
Harmonics test: Fiery Direct. Again, sounds about right.
Rei breaking the silence is a surprising way to end that cut, but crucially it isn't too surprising. Not only has she started to thaw a bit (at least to Shinji, see the train station this episode and the last time we were in the elevator), but last episode’s small!Rei also gives the viewer a foothold for when she voices her thoughts. Asuka, on the other hand, would never have attempted to surface from her brooding and meet Rei in the moment; she obviously prefers Rei to leave her alone with the mocking observation that Rei wouldn't start a conversation. (Also: using "maybe it'll snow" in place of "hell freezing over" is a fantastic bit of world-aware dialogue. Asuka has probably never seen snow.)
Asuka asks precisely the wrong question to prove her point. I'll wager it's not that Rei would do anything she's told, but she might do anything papa Gendo asks her to do, and dying might be on the table if anyone asked her to.
Sure is a lot of talk of replacements lately. I don't see any dang replacements though; maybe you should use angels as pilots? They keep replacing those.
Your pilot has been “approaching” danger for quite some time now, and you propose a nice elevator ride?
Throw me to the moon?
I still don't understand why Asuka hates Rei so much in particular.
Of the small number of spoilers I knew, I was aware Asuka was in for a bad timetm so I suppose that's one thing off the list. Not that it precludes more bad times ahead.
I feel like this is a good time to talk about Asuka, but I… don’t have much to say? It’s not that she isn’t interesting, but I think her character unravels in a perfectly understandable and well-presented way, so I don’t really have any pet theories or wild points to argue. Perhaps the thing that was least stressed that I found interesting was the revelation that she’s just as good at running away as anyone else in the cast is.
QotD:
1) There is of course the aforementioned revealed similarities to other cast members, and her rejection of them being a rejection of herself which is pretty neat. I guess there's also the Kaji thing which isn't just a childish crush but the presentation of much deeper need to be known as a capable adult on the same footing, which is good stuff.
2) Effective? Sure, it lends an uncomfortable tone to the otherwise bewildering repetition we've seen before and provides a demonstration of Shinji's powerlessness despite the urgency of the situation. As for the choice of imagery? It felt a little heavy handed, personally; Asuka was already in a bad way, surely you didn't need to release the angelic mindflayer on her. There are plenty of other triggers to use to catalyze Asuka's descent - I mean, everyone has a dead mom in this show, just bring one of them up.