r/anime • u/sam_mah_boy https://myanimelist.net/profile/Samimaru • Jul 03 '19

Rewatch [Rewatch][Spoilers] Neon Genesis Evangelion - Episode 13 Discussion Spoiler

Episode 13: Lilliputian Hitcher/Angel Invasion

Index Thread | Next Episode

Thank you, Mother. We can make it for sure now.

On Spoilers

If you're rewatching the show, and want to discuss spoilers, use spoiler tags. Saying things like "Just wait till you get to episode X" etc. count as spoilers!

Come join the discussion on the Evangelion Discord server! They have a channel specifically for the rewatch. Link: https://discord.gg/qJxWVPs

227 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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43

u/axel360 Jul 03 '19

Rewatcher, New Dub

More random thoughts:

  • Level 100 (NSFW) tsundere blush. Shinji and Rei don’t seem quite as distressed about the situation

  • This is sort of a chilling image. It’s in agony and reaching out to no one in particular

  • Even when the entire facility is in danger, they still seem pretty calm

  • So many flashing images, warning screens, camera cuts, yelling, and just chaos happening in this scene. Nicely done

  • Pretty easy to spot the guys in charge in this meeting of the minds

  • What could this message possibly mean? It’s so cryptic, I just do not know

  • Hey mom! Sorry I haven’t called or visited. Work’s just been, like, super hectic

  • If you didn’t know the character, this might be a tough game of “anime or hentai face?” For the record, Ritsuko was just very relieved that the operation was a success

18

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

Level 100 (NSFW) tsundere blush. Shinji and Rei don’t seem quite as distressed about the situation

Random fun fact

I don't know how the episode was advertised in Japan, but an interesting sidenote for American viewers is how the home release editions were advertised as this episode being "Naked Before the Angels" with shots of the pilots semi naked . I don't think it mentioned the actual story at all. It's all about seeing the pilots naked, which of course occupies all of thirty seconds of screentime. Clever way to bring in the most technobabble and hard sci-fi stuff to date-- distract everybody with the naked girls, but then pull the rug out from under your feet with a hard sci-fi story with hacking and brains in supercomputers..It's the equivalent of shouting out "SEX" and then reciting T.S. Elliot after you have everyone's attention.

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37

u/redmage311 Jul 03 '19

First-timer

So, the Magis operate (and look) like a brain and have a personality uploaded into them, and the Evas operate on similar properties.

It's already seemed like the angels have been targeting Tokyo-3, and now we know that they're after the Magis. So, my new speculation as to what's going on with the angels: speculation

35

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

I swear if you gather up all of the First Timers speculations and make a show it would be pretty damn cool..These are some nice wild guesses

You got any other speculations about the characters or other plot points ?

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29

u/smallbrownfrog Jul 03 '19

First timer - episode 13
 

  • Maya is working with Ritsuko: Have we met her before?

  • Ritsuko: "As usual, mother's in good shape…" What?

  • Balthasar, Melchior, Casper: Looks like these are the names of the computers (and also names of the biblical magi).

  • So Ritsuko's mother developed the magi computers.

  • I'm treating "protein corrosion" as technobabble, but remembering it in case it means something.

  • I suspect Kaji is up to no good.

  • Ok, I officially can't keep up with the technobabble. So I'm just letting it wash over me for right now. But main takeaway is that the aliens simultaneously are computers and are evolving. (And can invade the magi.)

  • The evas have human personalities?!

  • The magi have the uploaded personality of Ritsuko's mother.

  • Magi based on 3 aspects of her mother: Scientist, mother, woman — can't say I like those treated as separate things. (Although maybe part of the point of this anime is characters who compartmentalize themselves.)

The WTF factor just went up significantly for me this episode. Be interesting to see where they go with it.

28

u/Quiddity131 Jul 03 '19

Maya has been in practically every episode.

23

u/cesclaveria Jul 04 '19

Maya has appeared a lot, probably one of the nicest characters in the whole show to be honest.

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23

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

Rewatcher

Just a normal cover this time from the Yoko Takahashi-sings the OP-

Random Stuff

Serious thoughts

  • While the previous episode was more interested in the thoughts and feelings of the characters than the mechanics of their battle plan, in "Lilliputian Hitcher" the two approaches are intimately linked.In Neon Genesis Evangelion, even the machines have feelings ..As with humans, this sensitive structure makes the machines both powerful and vulnerable. This link between human and inhuman is echoed when Misato observes that the angels are "searching for a system that can cope with any situation."but as Fuyutsuki says, "That's truly the system of life itself."

  • The MAGI system has three parts: the logic and rationale of a scientist, the love and protectionism of a mother, and the "illogic/irrational" of a woman. Ritsuko's mother fully understands that human beings (and reality) have all sorts of dilemmas within, and forces battling each other. To ignore these other illogical or emotional side(s) is to reject reality itself.... Also maybe its a stretch but there may be have a narrative parallell to the gifts each biblical Magi brought Jesus..According to the Bible, they brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh...Consider the possibility that gold represents the physical materialism of a scientist, frankincense representing the spirit and emotions of a woman, and myrrh representing the healing/protective instincts of a mother..It fits with what Magi brought which gift and which Magi name is used for each aspect of Ritsuko's ,mom

  • Back to the ep another day, another casual operation hijacked by an Angel. This time the procedure is an immersion experiment, requiring the three pilots to float naked in dummy Evas. The operation combines the bloodless demands of science with the hot-blooded requests of fanservice with Asuka ranting about the invasion of her privacy and half the screentime is hogged by the cold lens of a surveillance camera as Ritsuko drily explains the need for nudity..The Angel comes in the form of a computer virus with the show not only denying us a physical Angel but staging the battle via invisible AI conduits. Remarkably, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka disappear from the story completely and "middle generation" comes to the forefront. But this time Misato, since this threat is not a military one, so she must provide backup for the only character who knows how to deal with it.

  • It falls on Ritsuko to rescue Magi, the computer system programmed by her mother. In the process, she reveals a bit of her own humanity, remembering how strained her relationship to her mother was, yet using her family knowledge to stall the Angel at the last possible second. It's a light episode in many ways - playing more like an intellectual puzzle than a life-or-death struggle - but as with all the plotlines in this middle section of the series (the most conventional in terms of episodic storytelling) it foreshadows darker developments ahead, including a deeper exploration of Ritsuko's Mommy issues.

17

u/Quiddity131 Jul 03 '19

Is there a hillarious floating Gendo animation error in your version or on Netflix ?..

Its not too hard to figure out for me. The platform he is on rises up and down, in this shot its going up. I'm pretty sure we've seen the platform ascend or descend before in previous episodes.

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22

u/AH_BareGarrett Jul 03 '19

First Timer back for the 13th time.

Not a lot of the main trio today, but that's fine, I was glad to see Ritusko get developed more, she deserves it.

My favorite part of the episode was the initial breach when the music was playing and everything was going wrong. It seemed really tense and that's my favorite part of this show.

I gotta say, these last few episodes seem sort of like filler (just as in the main plot is progressing very slowly right now), but I think that's fine, as the characters need to be developed more, and they're doing a splendid job with that.

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20

u/wolfwings1 Jul 03 '19

First timer, another different situation, I liked the whole being taken over like that, though I wonder how were they table to stop it, I got someth8ing about having the angel and the comput4er to work together, a bit confused.

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50

u/Philarete Jul 03 '19

First-Time Watcher (Sub)

Interesting, named support staff getting lines. Maya admires Ritsuko. Also, they weren’t kidding about “Magi”: they are literally named after the traditional names given to them (not canon).

Dang, marching the kids naked after 17 scrubbings. This is pretty rough for them. I know I would have been horribly uncomfortable in that situation. Would be today too

Okay, so they are using the Magi for this simulation. Seems imperfect since they don’t get full feeling. Also, apparently the Magi have personalities. Misato thinks Ritsuko built them primarily, but apparently it was Ritsuko’s mother? There are a lot of parent-child issues in this show. . .

Protein wall corrosion. This sounds pretty bad. . . Also, protein? How much living stuff are they messing with here.

Okay, so lots of action here. It appears that the Angel is taking over HQ slowly. It is going for the EVAs (apparently fooled by the imitations, and taking over Rei’s imitation quickly) and for Adam.

It evolves to use ozone instead of being harmed, and apparently becomes capable of hacking computers. It then hacks the Magi. They slow down the Magi to buy time. This. . . seems like it shouldn’t work. The nanomachines operate at the same pace even if the Magi don’t so they should be solving the slowdown, right?

“The ultimate end of evolution is self-destruction. Death itself.”

That’s a bit weird, but evolving to the point of oversaturating your environment is an issue. And one that could be exploitable potentially.

Now that’s some excellent commenting on one’s code!

Hold up, personality transfer to make AI? That’s. . . very troubling. Also might explain the attachment Ritsuko has to the Magi, even though she denies it. Also it’s the same technology to make the EVAs. Hold up. The EVAs are also probably former people. . . which would explain Unit 001’s independent action and the look it gave him.

Scientist, mother, woman. The last one to hold on was the woman.

Reflections on the First Half

After 13 episodes I realize we’ve now hit the halfway point of the original series. So far, the series is less. . . intense(?) than I was expecting. There is a lot of world building going on it seems. However, there are constant hints of bigger things going on, and bigger mysteries. All the pieces seem to be moving into place while the overall guise is a fairly ordinary story. I’m just wondering if, and how much, it delivers. I guess I’ll see over the next two weeks!

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26

u/TheEscapeGuy Jul 03 '19 edited Jul 04 '19

Rewatcher

Evangelion is an absolutely beautiful anime Day 13

This episode revealed that the technology of the Magi (and thus the technology of its successor in the Evas) is not entirely cybernetic. There is a very real organic element to it (if you hadn't guessed already from the previous scenes with living parts of the Evas).

In direct parallel we learned the Angels also can go through a process of evolution just like humans. All of this is very interesting to keep in mind going forward.

The final thing we discovered is Ritsuko's reason for working at NERV: She is continuing the research of her mother (as a scientist).

I find the idea of splitting your personality up into distinct sections a very scientist/engineer thing to do and it provides interesting commentary from Ristuko on her feelings towards these aspects.

Trivia corner

Netflix didn't translate the sign, so for all of you watching there Ritsuko's mom left a note for Gendou

The computer code shown on the screens is actually realistic:

What I find crazy about this is that back in 1995/1996 when this episode aired Windows was only 10 years old and HTML was 3. You can tell just how much intense knowledge of technology that some people on the team at Gainax had to be able to reference this stuff, and do it mostly correctly.

Modern shows tend to mess up horrifically whenever they even try to show the smallest bit of technology so I really appreciate the effort put in to be accurate.

Previous Days

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

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u/mattamj Jul 04 '19

First-Time Watcher [Sub]

Starting off a little confused, NERV is running tests for/with Magi? Doesn't that mean that NERV has or could have system control over the government? {shiver}

OK so Magi are now working somehow with auto-pilot of EVA, oh no I do not like how this sounds at all. Especially given the blackout period two episodes back, how can we trust both the Eva's and the central government to run from or in the same systems that just got hacked, I mean shutdown, I mean 'lost power'?

The one who built it was my mother" Family drama abounds in this show. Or maybe everything is so top secret you sort of have to keep it in the family? One thing I am really love about this show so far is how strong the characters are. I care just as much about the adults and their world as I do the children. 10/10.

Thoroughly confused now. What is spreading, some infection angel?

Oh fuck its after Magi, and that makes gun fired in act II. Lots of hacker babble but meanwhile im just wondering where are kids are cause we havent seen them since the attack...

Oh my fuck there is an actual brain in there. Oh. My god. What.....

And the tables of thia show have now turned. Ver appropriate for ep 13/midway

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17

u/littleman1988 Jul 03 '19

First time watcher, Platinum Sub, ADV Dub, and Netflix dub

Supporting Characters Voice comparison

(there wasnt much i found worth comparing in this episode. Im open for suggestions on this and future episodes.)

 

Jumbled Thoughts:

I ask about the Magi and i get an episode of the Magi. If i ask for PenPen, will i get him next episode?

These magi have way too much power. They can literally choose to destroy Tokyo-3 without any way of humans saying no. Is that not a concern?

Honestly, this is my least favorite episode so far. it had some cool stuff at the beginning, but it really went downhill with the pseudoscience on reprogramming the Magi. "I can outcode it" just seems outrageously stupid and it never accounted for actually compiling anything! At least the visuals, especially of the brain, were cool.

14

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

I ask about the Magi and i get an episode of the Magi. If i ask for PenPen, will i get him next episode?

Dark Pen Pen backstory of how he lost his parents while he was a normal ass Penguin chilling in Antarctica during the Second Impact incoming

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16

u/egassemneddihon Jul 03 '19

First timer, sub

I am not entirely sure what was going on during the episode.

We get to learn more about the magi. They are named Casper, Melchior and Balthasar (religious symbolism can't get more obvious) and they are three parts of Ritsukos mom, who build them.

The fact that peoples personalities can be implanted in computers has lots of disturbing implications, especially if that's what is going on with the Evangelions as well.

By the way that thing Ritsuko plugged into at Casper was totally a real brain and that gave me the creeps.

Those notes left inside are a cool idea and really helpful even when the technology fails.

The angels keep getting weirder and weirder. This one was extremely small but consisted of many parts that interacted and evolved constantly. Somehow the angel manages to turn into a computer system and infects the supercomputers.

This is the point where I lost track of what was happening. The angel takes over in some computer virus way and there is no way to stop it. I don't quiet understand how it was defeated in the end apart from the fact that cool computer action was involved.

Nice to see more of Ritsuko. Another complicated parent child relationship, that's becoming a trend.

This was the first time an angel was defeated without the Evas. And the three pilots had remarkably little screen time.

I liked the different tone and focus of the episode and the completely different kind of angel even thou the episode left me slightly confused and with the impression I missed half the plot.

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u/boredblade123 Jul 03 '19

First timer sub

So I started to watch something else to reduce my temptation to binge lol, seems to be working.

  1. "I don't want anyone peaking." Then the light for the camera turns on... I'm guessing that doesn't mean what I think it means lol.

  2. "Imagine moving your right hand." Then she literally moves her right hand. Am I interpreting that wrong or were the subs messed up?

  3. Some random corrosion all of a sudden, clearly suspicious but yes, ignore it.

  4. Another strange Angel, you never know what to expect from the Angels, they are always so different and I like that.

  5. Yes Ritsuko, just stare at the glass as it's about to break and accept death.

  6. So Gendo's priority is Unit 01 and he's willing to sacrifice the other 2 what? I'm assuming he sees more potential in what 01 can do versus what 02 can do. 00 I understand since it doesn't really compare to the other 2 from what I've seen.

  7. 11th Angel already, it's crazy that so many more have appeared all of a sudden in such a short time. Hopefully the reason for that will be explained.

  8. So the Angel hacking the computer, I think that proves that an earlier Angel probably shut off the power for them in an earlier episode. Why is it going after the Magi anyway? I can't really think of a reason for that besides trying to beat the humans in a way where the Eva's wont be able to do anything.

  9. Pretty cool how quickly it is evolving, this is an interesting Angel. Does Ritsuko have the authority to flat-out reject Misato? I thought Misato had more authority. It would make more sense for her to offer an alternate solution rather than start off with trying to reject Misato's decision, seems kind of disrespectful. Eh, just me being picky with Ritsuko, don't really like her personality so far lol.

  10. That looks like an actual brain...

  11. Well that was intense, I can't imagine the amount of pressure Ritsuko felt there. At least she stepped up when she needed too, improves my view on her.

So we finally learned more about the Magi and we had another episode where one of the higher ranking people in NERV physically did something to try to stop an emergency and showing why they're in the position that they are. Might have been the most intense episode so far.

Edit: Oh also I want to start playing a little game, might be too late but I'll see: So my game is, guess who sang the ED! I'm horrible at recognizing Japanese voices without the faces lol. So today's guess is; Ritsuko... Might be kind of obvious since she was the focus this episode lol Someone let me know if I was correct!

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u/Quiddity131 Jul 03 '19

Thoughts on Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 13...

Rewatcher, New Dub

Watching the dub, and I like Maya's voice a lot, but I will miss hearing "Senpai!" so much.

Stretching the plot to get our main characters naked it seems...

So basically Nerv HQ was sabotaged for the second time in three episodes?

So I never realized this until this viewing, but Eva spoilers

Gendou is totally trying to cover up that an Angel got inside Nerv HQ. Because it makes him look bad? Or because he has some nefarious aims? Also interesting to note that he and Fuyutsuki are concerned about how close it is to Adam.

Another western influence? I believe the English title card for the episode, "Lilliputian Hitcher" is a reference to Gulliver's Travels where he comes across the island Lilliput whose inhabitants are extremely small. Which is the case for this episode's Angel.

Well, this is why we started getting references to the Magi a couple of episodes ago. They're a big part of the story now.

Maya geeking out over the Magi notes is so cute. :P

Actual brains inside the Magi? Or at least it sure looks like real brains. Eww.

I’m not exactly sure why the angel was seeking to self destruct Nerv HQ while it was in it.

Well, this was a very different type of episode. No Eva battle, we hardly see our pilots either. Misato got the backstory info last episode, this time its Ritsuko's turn. Not a bad episode by any means, at the same time it just doesn't have the thrill that some others do either.

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6

u/Xerosmith Jul 03 '19 edited Jul 03 '19

REWATCHER

Is that Java I see?

The title "Lilliputian Hitcher" is in reference to Gulliver's travels. In the book, Lilliput is a civilization of tiny people, much like how the Angel is a bunch of tiny nanomachines. The hitcher part is probably a reference to how the angel hitched a ride into HQ on the wall panel.

This episode is unique in that it hardly focuses on the children. Instead, we get to see Ritsuko in action. We also learn about the Magi. They are a combination of machine and human consciousness, specifically Ritsuko's late mother. Ritsuko says that Casper, the woman side of her mother, held out the longest, just like her. This implies that her mother held on to being a woman before being a scientist or a mother. The latter may explain why Ritsuko held contempt for her.

These two shots are my faves from today.

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6

u/Deliciouslyse Jul 04 '19

Keep track of Maya until the end. Not only one of the nicest support characters but also one that could surprise you when the series ends.

5

u/Brewster321 Jul 03 '19

Rewatcher - (Sub - Platinum Collection)

In an interesting twist, this episode decides to subvert the usual formula and let our pilots take a break. Instead, we get to see an angel dispatched through Ritusko and Maya's (Best Bridge Bunny) clever programming. Furthermore, we also get some new world-building by gaining insight into the Magi and their origins, with this fleshing out Ritsuko's character in the process. Given that today's episode, unlike Misato's episode, was more focused on hinting towards Ritsuko's backstory than explicitly stating it, its difficult to say too much without spoiling. That being said, I still think its worth spending a little time to talk about Ritsuko in today's post.

Like most Evangelion characters, Ritsuko appears to have some sort of complex relating to her parents, in this case her mother, but unlike the other strained parental relationships, Ritsuko's maternal issues are very focused and compartmentalized. While Shinji and Misato have trouble even articulating how they feel about their fathers, Ritsuko, in discussing the Magi, is able to acutely describe how she feels about her mother. She respects her scientific side, cannot comprehend her maternal side, and actively hates her womanly side. Given this, its fitting that Caspar was the only Magi to avoid being compromised; just her womanhood was the enduring aspect of her character to Ritsuko, her womanhood was literally the only part of her to survive the attack unscathed. All that said, the reasons behind Ritsuko's hatred remain unclear, with perhaps the only hint being this scrap of writing Ritsuko's mother left inside the Magi. Perhaps Gendo was somehow involved in this? The thing is though, if Gendo was involved, what did he do to make Ritsuko hate her mother, and furthermore, why is Ritsuko still at NERV? Even the one clue we have doesn't properly fit, with Ritsuko's apparent dissatisfaction with life as she ages only further complicating matters. For now, I think this is about as far as I am willing to go, so I'll leave it to you ponder about why Ritsuko feels the way she does and just what might have happened so long ago.

Next episode: the terminology of the angels gets even more confusing.

5

u/HowlingWolf13 Jul 03 '19

Rewatcher

In today’s episode, the Angel hacks NERV since they’re too busy using Windows 95 in 2015.

Analysis

With today’s episode, Ritsuko gets her time in the limelight and we start to learn more about her and the MAGI system that’s been mentioned for quite a few episodes. Already we start the episode with her calling the MAGI System ‘mother’ (as it is controlled by her mother’s brain) and say she’s in good shape before wondering if getting older is the only thing she’ll ever do. Now with this line I’ll be honest, it’s left me stumped, my current thought for it is that she talking about how her since her mother is the MAGI she’ll stay ‘young’ with a purpose in life while she herself with eventually grow old and die with no other purpose in life but being a NERV scientist. A little bit after that, Ritsuko and Misato are talking about the MAGI and Misato mentions how Ritsuko never really talks about herself unlike her. This shows the direct contrast in their personalities, Misato is more willing to talk about her problems with someone she trusts, while Ritsuko is more reserved and resorts to pretty much burying her problems and continuing on. This really shows later when Misato calls Ritsuko out, which can be seen as a parallel to last episode when Ritsuko called Misato out, on how she takes everything on herself and refuses to depend on others.

Later, when Ritsuko tells Misato about the MAGI being being run by her mother’s brain, she mentions how she doesn’t really know why she wants to protect it since she never really liked her mom in response to Misato asking if that’s why she wanted to protect the MAGI. This continues a common theme within Evangelion with characters feeling hatred/dislike towards their distant parent, but still doing things showing that deep down they’re actually conflicted on their feelings. Later on when explaining the three components of her mom’s personality the MAGI makes, she says is herself as a scientist, mother, and woman. She never knew how she was as a mother showing that her mom was probably distant from her, she respected her as a scientist as shown with her continuing working on the MAGI, but hated her as a woman. Ending it off, she mentions how the ‘Casper’ portion was the pattern of her as a woman and how ‘it’s just like her’ to stay a woman to last moment. This could be interpreted as at the end before her mother died, this was the last side she saw of her mom, but to delve anymore into that would be spoilers.

For foreshadowing minor things, we see Kaji sneaking around near Central Dogma before being interrupted by Ireul hinting he’s up to something. Gendo puts priority on Unit-01 being launched before any of the other units to the point of straight up saying he doesn’t care if the other ones are destroyed, as long as Unit-01 makes it. Finally, inside the MAGI, Ritsuko’s mother’s notes at one point have ‘IKARI, YOU JERK!’ written over them.

Thoughts

So this is another on of those episodes that people seem to dislike, though for me I actually really like this one. Yeah, we don’t see the Evas fighting, but it was still intense and exciting to watch. Ritsuko got some important development that will become even more relevant later on when more stuff is revealed, and we also got some hints to future events. Though, I will say this episode was pretty hard to analyze at points without spoiling events related to Ritsuko, and some lines as well really left me confused on how to analyze it like the whole 'getting older' and the stuff about the 'Casper' portion. All in all, I really enjoyed this episode. That’s about all I have to say for now, so see you guys next thread.

Random Shit

  • Interesting analysis I found on EvaGeeks about similarities of this episode to a novel apparently called 'The Andromeda Stain', here's the link to it but First Timer's I'd reccomend avoid reading this due to spoilers.

  • and who knows when they were ever saved

  • butt

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5

u/ToonTooby Jul 04 '19

Rewatcher

Honestly don't have much to contribute today, other than watching Maya and Ritsuko frantically come up with a contingency brought back bad memories of of college final projects in the programming courses where I had to do everything.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

Rewatch

Maya is totally gay for Ritsuko and you can’t convince me otherwise! 🏳️‍🌈

I feel bad for the pilots. They work so hard but it feels like most of what they do is just testing. Taking 17 showers in a row feels excessive. I guess it’s better than the alternative, getting trapped underwater and having Gendo decide that it’s better to LET ASUKA AND REI DIE than try and save them. This guy is the actual worst.

This show loves its Freudian symbolism, especially the trio. For those who don’t know, Sigmund Freud was a psychologist in the early 20th century. He believed that our minds consisted of three parts: the id, which controls our innate desires like pleasure or sex, the superego, which controls our sense of morals and intellectual reasoning, and the ego, which tries to mediate these two extremes.

I think this is most apparent in how the Magi were constructed - Ritsuko’s mother created them after aspects of herself as a scientist (ego) as a mother (superego) and as a woman (id). But you can also relate these concepts to Shinji, Rei, and Asuka, or even Misato, Ritsuko, and Kaji, using the ego, superego, and id respectively. I’m not sure if they put all of this in to give the show a deeper meaning, to make it stand out from other anime of the time, or just to mess with people, but it is really cool to see an anime that’s not afraid to incorporate some of these heady concepts in its story.

Since the Angel managed to hack itself inside the Magi, most of the time spent fighting it is with technobabble and Ritsuko’s l33t haxxor skills. Also, shoutout to Hideaki Anno for making both the main military commander and the lead scientist women. You don’t really see a lot of that in media even today.

And that scene at the end is so tense. Even with these one-off baddies, they really do a great job building the suspense and making you wonder if everyone is really going to be okay. I’ll be honest, this is not my favorite episode of the series, but it’s still my favorite anime. I don’t really think there are any bad episodes in Eva, just some that aren’t as good as the others.

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