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very-grownup · 3 years

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THE YEAR IS 2020 AND I WATCHED NEON GENESIS EVANGELION FOR THE FIRST TIME, PART 11

Episode 23.

Misato is going to be haunted by fuckin' Kaji forever and so am I. Fuckin' Kaji.

This appears to be the episode where I have to assume budget and deadlines were becoming intractable foes for Anno because there doesn't seem to be any easy way to paper over gaps and I spent the entire time feeling faintly like the experience was dissolving.

My grappling for understanding behind the cut.

Here's what I do know: Misato is so absorbed in listening to fuckin' Kaji's message in her office that Shinji and Penpen are left to their own devices, which are just being concerned about Misato.

Ritsuko talks to her grandmother about a dead cat.

Ritsuko's desktop background is an old photo of her, her mother, and Gendo Ikari, where her mother left room for Jesus between her and her daughter instead of her and Gendo (you'd need at least five Jesuses for protection from the hollow-eyed ghoul of insecurity and misery). I hate it.

Overcome with her sense of failure, Asuka's just broken into the class rep's home and has imposed the world's longest and worst sleepover on this poor normie girl. Asuka's just playing videogames, crying, and sleeping which ... yeah, fair. At night Asuka shares a bed with Hikari and curls on her side, far away and miserable, her face hidden, whispering about her failures and her hatred and her hatred of self. Hikari stares at the ceiling and can say nothing of substance because she is also a child.

The Obelisk Committee is back, interrogating Gendo to absolutely no end because you have to ask questions AND get answers to them for an interrogation to work and also when he gets notice that there's an Angel sighted he just nopes right out of there. Your interrogation is not going to be successful if the guy you are trying to pin to the wall can just go 'sorry I have to take this call' and flush the phone down the toilet while you watch.

This week's Angel is a giant hula hoop made out of light and x's which I feel probably puts it right in the middle of the cuteness scale. It's not horrifying to look at but it also doesn't have a cute little face. I miss the ones in the early episodes that had cute little faces.

The obelisks are determined to crush Gendo and suspect he isn't loyal to them which ... again, the obelisks make some good points.

The plan is for Rei to sniper the Angel with Asuka providing backup. Asuka feels terrible, miserable, and pointless about the whole thing because seriously it seems like no one has talked to her since last week when she was psychologically tortured by the Angel? I'm surprised Asuka's even there, in the robot, but I suppose habit is powerful.

Once the EVAs are deployed, the Angel turns into a long sticky laser snake which Rei tries to shoot with her giant robot sniper rifle. This is not effective and the Angel begins to burrow under the EVA's armour to the fleshy bits underneath and shit gets veiny.

In the NERV command centre someone talks about the Angel trying to make first psychological contact and you can't keep saying that, this is the fourth time AT LEAST we've seen an Angel try to do weird brain reading with one of the kids so this is at least fourth contact. We are all operating on the assumption the Angels are ... some kind of unified force or being or ... something, right? Like, they're all on the same ... side? Part of the same force? If they're all independent and unrelated monsters of the week, NERV makes even less sense.

So, so, so Rei's EVA gets veiny and Rei gets veiny and Asuka is given orders to provide backup and then when her EVA is on the surface she and it just ... stand. Asuka tries to make it move but nothing happens. Finally, NERV lowers the EVA elevator again.

Gendo remembers he has a son and Shinji is deployed in Asuka's place to rescue Rei from the veins and not only does Asuka have to deal with her failure to pilot the robot in this moment, but she's filled with sad jealousy that Shinji wasn't sent to help her last week. Oh, honey.

So the light tentacle snake is making the veins and probing Rei and her memories and the EVA and like with the other kids, Rei confronts herself. One Rei is waist deep in the orange tang of the sub sub sub basement ocean while the other Rei floats above the surface. Rei is lonely? Or, one Rei is lonely, while the other Rei tries to express that Rei is lonely because unlike Rei, who is surrounded by others, Rei is by herself. One Rei knows more than the other, one Rei emotes more than the other. I am confused. None of the Reis seem as distressed as Shinji or Asuka did when they were getting psychoanalyzed by an Angel, at least. There's a weird shot that's just on one of the Rei's mouths, smiling and getting distended and wavey and also a Rei has a vision of smiling, glasses-free Gendo. Rei in the EVA comes back to herself when she realizes she's crying but the Angel is still doing its vein attack and all that pulsating Akira flesh starts happening and the light snake shoots out to Shinji, which is bad. There's more pulsating Akira flesh, just overflowing masses of veins bursting up and above the EVA, trying to shape something, the torso of Rei's EVA bulges out into, like, an armoured pocketed dome ball, which seems bad.

Then the light snake attacking Shinji turns into a giant naked Rei with a strange nightmare face who tries to make out with the EVA even though thankfully we at least have been spared horrible human lips to go with the horrible human teeth and fingers we know are in it.

Rei is like, do I want to become one with Shinji so I'm not lonely anymore? Is that what laser snake is trying to tell me and I just don't even know where to begin with all of this, where are you even getting this stuff Rei?

Rei realizes that letting the Angel snake made of light that looks like a giant her make out with Shinji's EVA is not the answer to her existential crisis and exerts her will over it or ... something? I don't know, she makes it like a rubber band that's suddenly reached its end. SNAP goes the light tether between giant naked Rei and Rei's EVA and it whips away from Shinji and the nightmare Rei's light face looks upset by these developments before it's like SCHWOOM back into the EVA ... ... and all the pulsating flesh becomes unpulsating and the dome stomach bits get popped like each segment of the dome is a bubble wrap bubble and then Rei blows herself and the EVA and I guess also the Angel up and I guess it's more effective than guns.

The obelisks want to interrogate someone, Gendo and Number 2 are already dealing with the fact that Rei is dead and just have some really weird conversation in front of machinery about how Rei is all of Number 2's sins and all of Gendo's hopes or ... or something? The obelisks go through a powerpoint of all the Angels defeated so far and I GUESS the kids have been fighting Angels that are all listed in the Dead Sea Scrolls and according to the Dead Sea Scrolls there's only one Angel left which, sure, we're on episode 23 of 26.

Shinji's lying on his bed not listening to music (music is playing but he doesn't have the headphones in) and Misato comes in to try and talk to him about how Rei killed herself to save Shinji. Shinji talks about sadness that's so intense even when tears can't come ... There's no time in this episode to dwell on this honest, awkward little pebble of grief, though. Misato tries to take Shinji's hand to comfort him but that isn't what he needs, he just wants to be alone and rejects Misato's overture.

Misato wonders about whether Shinji has a fear of women (what?) or intimacy (huh?) but when even Penpen refuses to be company for her, she realizes maybe she was projecting her own issues onto Shinji which hey, good catch, Misato! You and Shinji are similar but not the same.

ANYWAY NO TIME FOR THAT BECAUSE REI IS DEFINITELY MIRACULOUSLY ALIVE AND NOT DEAD even though Ritsuko and a bunch of dudes in HAZMAT suits were going over the spot where the EVA blew up and Ritsuko found something that had her going WELL THIS IS SOME X-FILES SHIT.

Shinji goes to see Rei at the hospital where she is bandaged all to hell and staring vaguely at nothing in the hall and he tries to thank her for her exploding sacrifice on his behalf. Rei basically says you're welcome but I have no idea what you're talking about. Shinji doesn't make much headway in expressing his gratitude further because Rei just straight up says I probably don't know what you're talking about because I'm the third Rei. Just straight up 'oh if I seem weird it's probably because I'm clones'.

It's not that Rei is clones that is surprising, it's just the total nonchalance with which Rei drops 'I guess I'm clones' on Shinji.

SO ANYWAY THE OBELISKS ARE INTERROGATING A NAKED RITSUKO BECAUSE GENDO WON'T LET THEM INTERROGATE REI AND HE'S JUST LIKE HEY THIS SCIENTIST WILL SPEAK ON HER BEHALF AND ALSO SHE'S NAKED but who knows who had the bright idea of naked interrogation. Maybe it was Ritsuko. Say a brief, silent prayer of thanks that there's no naked Gendo interrogation because if there is one thing I have learned so far in Evangelion, it's that the more of Gendo I can see, the more distressed I am.

I DON'T EVEN ENTIRELY KNOW WHAT THE OBELISKS ARE ASKING RITSUKO ABOUT.

Rei goes to her apartment and removes all her bandages and she's fine because she's clones so sure, all the bandages were for show. This Rei sees Gendo's old glasses and picks them up and starts to try and crush them in her hands but also she's crying? Reis is conflicted?

Misato's found a datachip that fuckin' Kaji hid in a pill and she's listening to another recording which is maybe all the stuff he learned while spying on NERV I don't know I don't know I don't know anything at this point.

Ritsuko calls Shinji and tells him he's temporarily not being monitored so he ... look, narrative cohesion and scene transitions are a thing of the past, we don't even have glue between disconnected bits anymore. RITSUKO TALKS TO SHINJI ON THE PHONE.

Then Ritsuko is ... somewhere ... work ... I DON'T KNOW MISATO IS BEHIND HER WITH A GUN AND THEN RITSUKO'S LIKE OKAY I'LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING BUT SHINJI IS HERE SO WE HAVE TO EXPLAIN TO HIM TOO and it's like just flip on the lights in this one spot and bam there's Shinji NO TIME. ELEVATOR. DOWN DOWN DOWN. DOWN DOWN DOWN. THIS SUBBASEMENT LOOKS LIKE REI'S APARTMENT. BECAUSE IT IS REI'S APARTMENT. WATER MEMORIES. LOOK THIS ISN'T WHAT MISATO IS HERE FOR, MISATO IS HERE FOR THE GIANT SEPHIROTH AND KABALLAH AND CROSS HOLLOWS FULL OF GIANT BONES. EVA skulls and bones and Ritsuko's just like yeah those are all the prototypes from ten years ago that didn't become murder robots piloted by teens we just keep them in these religious pattern caves to form the basis for some real gothy jigsaw puzzles. Oh PS Shinji if you find it familiar it's because you've been here before even if you don't remember it this is where the experiments that kill disappeared your mother went down. NO TIME FOR ANYONE TO REACT TO THIS.

LOOK I'M SURE IF YOU'RE FOLLOWING THIS AND YOU KNOW THE SERIES YOU ARE LIKE RITSUKO AND ARE LIKE GET ON WITH IT JUST GET US TO THE CHAMBER WHICH RITSUKO SAYS IS WHERE THE DUMMY PLUGS ARE MADE AND THEN SHE TURNS ON THE LIGHTS AND WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE AQUARIUM. THE ONLY EXHIBIT IN THE NIGHTMARE AQUARIUM ARE REI CLONES SMILING AND GIGGLING AT YOU FROM THEIR ORANGE TANG HABITAT. Ritsuko says the captive Reis have no souls, they're just vacant flesh in the shape of a human, there's only one Rei /personality/ which is the first Rei and I guess when she dies they take another one out of the tank and she becomes the Rei with the soul I DON'T KNOW. Ritsuko hates the Reis not because they are the result of some human science meddling in things they cannot understand or control but because somehow the existence of the Reis mean ... Gendo doesn't need her?

BECAUSE RITSUKO, LIKE HER MOTHER BEFORE HER, ALSO WANTS TO BONE DOWN ON THE MAN WHO IS HATE'S SKELETON, WITH MARROW OF PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE, AND A BLACKHOLE SUCKING HIS FLESH ILLUSION EVER INWARDS TO DARKNESS.

NOW IT IS TIME FOR RITSUKO TO TURN OFF THE TANG AQUARIUM LIFE SUPPORT AND ALL THE GIGGLING REIS BEGIN TO BREAK APART, GIGGLING AS THEIR LIMBS SEPARATE AND THEIR ENTRAILS SPILL OUT AND ALL IS DARKNESS BUT THEY'RE STILL GIGGLING AND HOW ARE ANY OF US SUPPOSED TO RESPOND TO THIS?! Oh, and the obelisks' plan for the destruction of Tokyo-3 is proceeding on schedule WHAT WAIT WHAT I THOUGHT WE WERE TRYING TO PROTECT TOKYO-3 no wonder Misato drinks. No wonder /you/ drink. This concludes my report on Episode 23 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Edit: the obelisks talk about having lost the spear of Longinus. It's on the moon, obelisks. You're welcome.

#neon genesis evangelion report #fuckin' kaji

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lovelornings · 3 years

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V; You Thirst For Blood from the Roses in Hand ( Fate / Mage AU ) // Misato

Old mage families can harbor as much fear as respect from those around them. Magecraft is a world of wonders as much as politics, and no one knows this better than the Sanada family.

As ruthless competitors, there’s rarely any low they won’t stoop to in their quest for power. With Arranged marriages to only the best of mages for generations, the magical circuits have only grown more numerous, varied and powerful as time grew by. Their magic is simple, but powerful: a collection of mages with mastery over the raw elements of fire, earth, water and air in hopes to birth children who could wield multiple elements at once in unpredictable fashion.

Misato was predicted to be the cumulation of all those efforts - a child born to a father who wielded air and fire and air mother who mastered water and earth to create a perfect elementary mage.

But the result was something else entirely. Perhaps because of the overwhelming demand the combined circuits put on her body, or simply the result of a ‘defect’ genetics, she was born a mage with less than average abilities.

Misato, in fact, did a very poor job of harnessing any of the elements without making her seriously ill. Even a candle’s flame was too much to produce from her hands. The majority of her circuits were defective, broken and unable to communicate with one another.

But despite her flaws, she was a strong-willed child. If she could not find the power to harness the elements within her in herself, she’d find it through something else.

Misato’s greatest talent was in the form of arcane storytelling, a talent largely considered useless in the world of mages. To most, it was a simple way of drawing out certain minor effects during theatre plays- making flowers bloom more fully or start an atmospheric downpour.

She learned another way of harnessing this power, however. With enough experimentation and time, she learned how to infuse her limited mana into something that would harness and multiply it better than she could: her roses. With that, she used the mystic storytelling she’d learned from her nanny to infuse the elements into the mana growing in her roses: the rage of Boundica, the sorrow of Juliet, and the poisonous tounge of Iago would all take on the properties that were read to them. Each petal could harness a spell unique to their tales.

She carries them in labeled pouches, each painstakingly raised and only good for a day or two after they’d been picked.

#im sorry the family magic is not more interesting than that #im not too creative with magecraft but i figured Misato was the only that had to be interesting #flower power bitch lkasdjfl #V; You Thirst For Blood from the Roses in Hand ( Fate / Mage AU )

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unrestedjade · 4 years

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Jade (re)watches Yu Yu Hakusho S1 E3

AKA I lose my shit over Kazuma Kuwabara for 22 minutes.

Figure 3.1: A good boy.

I love this episode so much. It doesn’t really advance the main plot, but does a lot to establish Kuwabara’s character while developing Yusuke’s further, so I certainly wouldn’t call it filler.

* Botan and Yusuke’s banter is so cute. The anime skips over most of Yusuke’s ghost stuff but I do like that it shows these two getting closer, even if it’s just implied like this. BROTP.

* Kuwabara and his homies get to be cool here, too! I’m sure a lot of their fights are over dumb teenager shit, but they’re more than willing to stick up for someone in trouble. Man, Sarayashiki’s kind of a rough town???

* Mr. Akashi is a creep and can go fuck himself for real. One of the ways this show caught my attention back when I first saw it as a kid was in the petty nastiness of the teachers. I think most of us ran into at least one that seemed hell-bent on breaking kids down for whatever fucked-up reason. (Mrs. Perkins from 7th grade algebra, I’m lookin’ at you, you miserable old jackass...)

* Kuwabara’s posse doesn’t get many lines, but I love them all. Okubo in particular, how could anyone look at this poor kid and think to themselves “yes, I’m going to make the life of this at-risk young person in my care even harder, on purpose.” Fuckin’ Akashi.

Figure 3.2: A boy who has enough shit on his plate already.

* It occurs to me, for the first time since 2001, that Kuwabara might be my fave in part because he just...gets beat up constantly. Like, he really gets his ass kicked a lot. I’m neither proud nor ashamed to admit this-- y’all know me by now. :V

* Akashi, you gonna like...call the police, or an ambulance, or do literally anything to help? Of course not, because you SET UP YOUR OWN STUDENT TO GET JUMPED AND BEATEN, WTF. “You’re pretty tricky,” he says, as this grown-ass man watches his 14-year-old nemesis getting curb-stomped. This is very stable and normal behavior.

* Literally what the fuck is this loser’s damage. This horrible little man fascinates me. I wanna take a big pair of nail clippers to his teeth but like, what drives him???

Figure 3.3: Akashi and his fucking tacky-ass chinos, left.

* “I got a 12!” |D Yusuke, you lovable dolt. He says it with such conviction.

* “Tell us who did this” Did I mention I love the posse? These good good boys. Top shelf. Outstanding.

* The dream study session. <3 By their powers combined they form one functioning brain.

Figure 3.4: Their combined score on the previous test was still only 19/100. #godspeed

* I also just noticed that both of Kuwabara’s threats toward Yusuke so far are cat-related. If he doesn’t have, like, a secret Hello Kitty eraser in his desk or something, I’ll eat my hat. The boy has cats on the brain 24/7.

* The random dudes who talk like 1920s gangsters??? Why??? Also, one of them is also psychic? I wonder how common that is in this universe.

* Possession hyjinks, part 2! Fuck em up, Misato from school! So satisfying. How the fuck does Kuwabara not notice the absolute mayhem going on back there?

* I love the posse.

* And I fucking loathe Akashi.

* Minor, but the sound effect draws attention to it: when Yusuke goes to grab Kuwabara’s wrist, his hand actually connects instead of phasing through like he’s done every other time he’s tried to touch a living person, including the last time he tried to slug Kuwabara. Are they more attuned to each other after the last week, or is it something to do with Yusuke reaching out while motivated by something less selfish than anger or self-preservation? Or something else? QUESTIONS.

* FUCK YEAH, MR. TAKENAKA! THE ONLY GOOD TEACHER.

Figure 3.5: FUCK YEAH.

* Someone help Okubo’s family please??? Not that any of his classmates’ families can likely spare much, but c’mon. Was there a Usenet or BBS analogue to GoFundMe??? Let’s have a fundraiser raffle or a luncheon or something, damn.

#yu yu hakusho #these are rapidly getting dumber #i care not #takenaka for prime minister #my fave gets beat up numerous times and i can ask no better #togashi thank you for the food

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very-grownup · 3 years

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THE YEAR IS 2020 AND I WATCHED NEON GENESIS EVANGELION FOR THE FIRST TIME, PART 8

Episode 20.

EVERYTHING IS FUCKED UP. That giant robot? No arms, no head! What about this giant robot? Shattered pieces! This mountain? Missing chunks! This military base? Fucking got a huge bite taken out of it and now it's a bat cavern! THAT giant robot? A HORRIBLE GROANING SHAMBLING FLESH ABOMINATION UNDER METAL ARMOUR THAT HAS HUMAN TEETH AND HUMAN HANDS AND HUMAN FINGERNAILS AND ROPEY NECK TENDONS AND EATS THE ALIEN INVADERS WHICH I DIDN'T EVEN THINK WERE MEAT FLESH.

The rest of Episode 20 behind the cut.

NERV's relocating in the wake of ... that whole thing, although they won't have the magic decision making super computers that are the Three Magi because no one makes backups of software in Tokyo-3. Asuka is fine. Rei is in the hospital which is fine for her.

Those old dudes who may be holograms and meet in the darkened void on Simon platforms talk about some shit and get all metaphor about Commander Ikari and look I don't know what they're about or what their deal is but they seem angry at Shinji's shitty dad, too.

OH BUT WHAT ABOUT SHINJI ONLY I APPARENTLY ASK oh Shinji he's /still in the horrible berserk fleshbot/ that is wrapped in bandages like the most upsetting mummy with a single horrible eye visible and has just turned itself off. GREAT. You know in Silent Hill 4 there's an area where there's just a /giant injured head/ of the escort quest neighbour and it's really creepy? The EVA gives me strong those vibes but worse because we just saw it /eating a thing/ and people are just talking with it in the background. And the eye. The staring, horrible eye.

The EVA won't turn on and the plug can't be removed so they can't get Shinji out and also uh Shinji is sort of not there anymore? But he is? Shit's gotten all quantum within the confines of this horrible creature.

Misato has a lot of questions like "where is Shinji" and "what the fuck" and "why" and "fix it" for Ritsuko who is leaning full on into being a cryptic and unhelpful science cypher. On being asked what exactly the EVAs are? Oh, they're human shaped things made by humans. FOR FUCK'S SAKE RITSUKO THAT IS ALSO HOW I COULD DESCRIBE BARBIES AND GI JOE AND FUCKING HELLO KITTY. WHY ARE YOU COMMITTED TO BEING UNHELPFUL. Misato slaps her and it's pretty deserved. Like we just all saw a giant we thought it was a robot /eat an indestructible gun proof bomb proof space thing/ and grow itself a giant fleshy arm don't fucking give me some distorted Today's Special magic mannequin bullshit.

Shinji's horrible father? Wherever he is, he seems to be down with it, being talked at by that one old dude who is maybe one of the Simon holograms I don't fucking know man.

Days pass and it's determined from the scans of the inactive EVA that because of the 400% sync rate between Shinji and the EVA, he's been absorbed into it and the inside of the plug is just orange tang which is primordial goop containing Shinji's consciousness, quantumly. It's like that time the flat angel that was a weird space pancake black hole ate the EVA and Shinji's life support gave out and he had weird near death experiences but /for weeks/ and moreso and quantumly.

These parts of the show, in Shinji's subconscious/quantum primordial goo, are really well done and a really excellent use of recycling animation, still shots, all that sort of stuff, for narrative purposes. Using the effect to indicate the fading in and out of conscious thought. Dissolved Shinji putting together his identity and past and reasserting his ego with flashing shots of things from previous episodes, all going by super fast. Sound clips of characters saying his name over wavering, distorted kanji. Megumi Ogata saying "enemy" over and over again over shots of the angels and then shots of Commander Ikari which ... fair and an accurate conclusion to draw as dissolved Shinji remembers Asuka explaining that the angels are their enemies because they've hurt them/humanity. I'm probably stating the obvious, saying this in 20-fucking-20, but Megumi Ogata does such an amazing job voicing Shinji, especially in parts like this.

I've also said it before but the repetition of these things, especially negative thoughts or upsetting thoughts, strongly and effectively evoke the spiraling, cyclical nature of your thoughts turning against you, inescapably, when you have a brain problem like depression.

There's also a stretch where in the primordial quantum ooze void naked ladies appear and sort of come on to Shinji but also it's a lot of 'become one with me' talk which feels pretty different when a dude is dissolved ego in orange tang in a plug in a meat robot. Misato's there, Asuka's there negging him, Rei's there and they're all naked and stretching their arms out to him but also they all sort of merge together into I guess a primordial woman ooze and it's probably some normal teenage boy stuff but there's also big mom vibes. It's all very messy and there aren't really revelations so much as feelings about what might be revelations in the future and also /Shinji is dissolved in the primordial orange for over 30 days someone please care about this child/.

Misato cares about him, at least as much as anyone does (the bar, the bar is so low), and when they finally get the plug out of the EVA and it opens to spill out orange and an empty plugsuit, she cries and curses science and cradles the empty suit.

... Oh also there's like vines or roots or tentacles or /some shit/ growing over the EVA's ... power ... display ... thing ... Fuck it, man, I don't know the anatomy/layout of meat robots.

Then the EVA just, like, pukes naked unconscious Shinji out.

It clearly has nothing to do with anything NERV was doing and is just the EVA deciding to let Shinji go or Shinji deciding to come out of the goop because Misato's crying maybe? Maybe someone should have tried caring about Shinji earlier than day 33!

Nighttime, Misato is driving Ritsuko home and turns down her offer of drinks because of another engagement which is ... fuckin' Kaji. Getting drunk, smoking, fucking Kaji, just going for bad decision bingo. The fucking is all audio over a still of beer and cigarettes. I curse Kaji, I curse Misato's poor decision making, but she very bluntly lays it out that she's there to get information from Kaji about Commander Ikari and NERV's real plans and also Trevor the angel organism in the sub-sub-sub basement. This concludes my report on Episode 20 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

#neon genesis evangelion report #fuckin' kaji

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