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samasmith23 · 1 year ago

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Evangelion: You Can (Not) Marathon — (Part 8)

Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Episode 8: Asuka Arrives in Japan/ASUKA STRIKES!”

Continuing my Evangelion re-watch marathon with NGE, "Episode 8: Asuka Arrives in Japan/ASUKA STRIKES!" For my thoughts on the previous episode, click the link to the post below:

With that out of the way, let's dig in! And I'm looking forward to revisiting this episode since it introduces the character of Asuka, who was my best friend's personal favorite character in all of fictional media when I first met her back in university!

Considering what the specific contents of Gendo’s shipment are revealed to be by the end of the episode, why do I have the feeling that he’s lying when discussing having “already made the arrangements with the [Human Instrumentality] Committee” to have it shipped to Tokyo-3?

Lol! Kensuke truly is the embodiment of the stereotypical military otaku given both his earlier cosplaying as a soldier back in Episode 4, and his current geeking-out over the site of the United Nation’s fleet of aircraft carriers! What a dork!

And he acts like this throughout the entire episode BTW, even during the middle of an Angel attack!

Also, while it was certainly a thoughtful gesture of Misato to take Shinji’s classmates on basically a site-seeing tour of the Pacific Ocean given how confined their lives in the post-apocalyptic Tokyo mountain terrain must be, I’m curious if she got military clearance to bring two civilian minors on board a military aircraft carrier?

And here she is! The one and only Asuka Langley Soryu! These introductory shots of Asuka do an incredibly effective job in communicating the major defining aspects of her character through primarily visual cues. The first image of her silhouetted by the blinding sunlight as she looks down at NERV’s helicopter landing in the aircraft carrier’s deck helps informs the viewer that Asuka is an individual who thinks very highly of herself, has a superiority complex and wants to stand tall above everyone else.

These facets of Asuka's character are further communicated through the second shot of her brashly stepping onto Toji’s baseball cap as he frustratingly attempts to get it back on while on his knees. Asuka’s prideful personality is further reinforced through her first lines of dialogue, as she barely gives the struggling Toji beneath her any attention, instead immediately shifting focus to Misato when the latter states how much Asuka’s has grown since she last saw her, replying that, “Not only am I taller, but my figure has filled out as well.” This serves as an early indicator that Asuka wants to perceive herself as a fully-mature adult despite being a 14-year-old teenager just like Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke are. Essentially, Asuka places herself on a pedestal high above her peers, whom she looks down upon as mere “children.”

Anno is definitely a master-class when it comes to conveying important character details through visuals!

Shifting focus away from visual direction for a moment, I want discuss some behind-the-scenes trivia in relation to Asuka's voice actresses from both her original Japanese and English incarnations:

In the original Japanese version, Asuka was voiced by Yuko Miyamura, who has had a very complicated and strained relationship with the character over the past couple of decades. Rather infamously in a 2010 interview with SMASH (one year after the release of the second Rebuild movie, which Miyamura reprised her role for) she stated that, "At one point in time, I thought to myself that I would never act as Asuka again. For a very long time, I wanted to erase Evangelion." While in the interview Miyamura stated that this was largely due to the unwanted amount of fan attention her role as Asuka brought her (to the point where she was unfortunately repeatedly stalked and harassed at several international fan conventions), she later provided additional reasons in the back-up material for Volume 12 of the official Neon Genesis Evangelion manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. According to Miyamura, she found voicing Asuka to be an emotionally painful experience that "was close to bullying, [that] acting the part of Asuka was lots of fun at first," but by the end of the series the character psychologically torn down and denied a happy ending in The End of Evangelion (which is part of why Miyamura said that Anno was "finally an adult" during the production of the final Rebuild movie in 2021 since he finally gave all of his characters, including Asuka, a happy ending). But it was through meeting Asuka's original English VA Tiffany Grant that Miyamura developed a newfound love and appreciation for the character, now viewing her like one of her own daughters (Miyamura is currently a mother of two IRL). Speaking of Tiffany Grant however... her performance is one of the major reasons why the original ADV dub of NGE still holds such a special place in my heart despite its flaws! You can tell that Grant was having an absolute blast in the role since she perfectly nails Asuka’s boastful arrogance and sense of pride through her vocal performance! And Grant herself has openly confirmed this, stating in that aforementioned manga back-up material that, "When I started recording this loud, assertive character who often swore in German, I knew I was having a great time in the role and that it was enjoyable for me as an actor." While I’ve seen a few fans point to Grant’s performance in the old dub as a major turn-off, feeling that it overly emphasizes Asuka’s more rude mannerisms to the point of making her too "mean-spirited" or "unsympathetic" (although to be fair, Asuka is already pretty divisive among fans in general...), I personally felt that Grant’s performance helped make the character all the more memorable and interesting for me. And unlike Miyamura, who's historically had a strained yet improved relationship with Asuka's character, Grant has openly embraced her "'inner Asuka,' [realizing] the many ways that [she] related to this complex, flawed character," since she first voiced the character back in 1998. So much so that she was reportedly deeply heartbroken when she learned that Netflix openly refused to invite her along with the original ADV cast to reprise their roles for the new English dub in 2019.

On the subject of Tiffany Grant's frequent ad-libbing of German words & phrases into Asuka's dialogue, this is one of the more notable creative liberties that the ADV dub took that I honestly feel works to the show’s advantage! Despite the Asuka’s half-Japanese & half-German heritage being another defining aspect of her character, she only spoke a limited amount of German in the original Japanese version due to Miyamura’s knowledge of the language being incredibly limited. Conversely, Grant was already fluent in German as a second language, and therefore decided to swap out several of the original Japanese text with their German equivalents when ADV dubbed the show into English. And I personally feel this additional emphasis on Asuka’s German heritage serves to further flesh her out!

For instance, when Asuka understandably slaps Toji clean across the face after he flashes her in retaliation for slapping him (along with Shinji & Kensuke) when a strong wind briefly exposed her panties to them (the slap was the “viewing fee,” lol!), Grant angrily shouting the German equivalents to “you insolent dork!” or “what the hell do you think your doing?!”, leave a much more memorable impression on the viewer in contrast to the Netflix re-dub, where Asuka’s new VA Stephanie Mckeon instead delivers a more shrill, “How dare you!”

No disrespect to McKeon, as the Netflix re-dub was apparently one of her first voice-acting roles, but the script and direction for the new dub sadly leaves much to be desired…

Also, Toji totally deserved that second slap (and to be cursed at in German) for basically committing an act of sexual harassment. Still, his one-liner of “Here’s your change!”, as a comeback to Asuka’s “viewing fee” line makes me chuckle from a pure word-play perspective. It reminds me of Spidey’s joke during the bank fight with Doc Ock in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 2!

Also also… dang! Asuka slaps are so powerful that she actually cracked the lens on Kensuke’s video camera with just a single strike! Lol!

Asuka’s first meeting with Shinji is absolutely perfect! I love how she’s so unimpressed, summarizing him as, “Not much to look at.” It honestly gives me a similar vibe to when Kakashi first met Squad 7 in Naruto after he had an eraser fall on his head as part of one of titular character's childish pranks!

I love how Misato initally keeps herself incredibly calm and collected when dealing with the UN Navy Officer’s impatience and intolerance with NERV’s overreaching authority while dealing with the transfer orders for Asuka’s Evangelion Unit-02. Heck, Shinji even compares Misato’s composure and demeanor in this scene to that of Ritsuko, which is quite a contrast to how he’s characterized her as both immature and slobbish in the previous episodes.

It’s also incredibly interesting to see the international politics of this universe at play, as the naval officers are understandably frustrated by the ridiculous amount of military privileges that NERV has been granted. So much so that their authority supersedes that of the UN during times of emergencies (i.e. Angel attacks), even outside of Japan’s national borders and jurisdiction. We saw similar themes at play during the previous episode with the Jet Alone incident, so it's cool to see these ideas further fleshed out in order to make EVA's world feel more alive and authentic!

Sadly though, Misato’s cool-headed professionalism is cut-short by both the UN officer’s increasingly insulting remarks, along with the sudden appearance of her ex-boyfriend Kaji.

Yup, in addition to Asuka, this episode also introduces the character of Ryoji Kaji.

Oh boy, Kaji... Kaji, Kaji, Kaji...

The way I’ve witnessed other people’s perceptions about Kaji's character evolve over the past couple of years has been incredibly fascinating, since a lot of modern EVA fans have admitted to really disliking this character, possibly even more so than FREAKING Gendo "Worst Father Ever!" Ikari! Now I’ll admit that learning about this initially shocked me at first since I personally remembered liking Kaji’s character perfectly alright when I first watched the anime and read the manga. His relaxed & cool demeanor made him significantly stand out in contrast to the rest of the troubled main cast. Additionally Kaji also served multiple important roles in EVA's narrative, ranging from his reemergence into Misato's life serving to graudally push her Elektra Complex back up to the surface, to serving as somewhat of a mentor/surrogate-father figure to Shinji by offering him some seemingly helpful wisdom, to him understandably brushing off Asuka’s childish crush and inappropriate advances towards him as a counter to her unhealthy obsession with wanting to grow-up too fast. Plus, there was that whole intriguing double/triple agent game Kaji was playing between Gendo, SEELE, and the UN. Heck, back when the Internet annoyingly thought it was in-vogue to constantly dismiss Shinji’s character as nothing more than a “whiny b*tch,” I noticed that a lot of these detractors seemed to conversely prefer both Misato and Kaji’s characters (describing Kaji as the least psychologically-damaged of the entire cast). However, I’ve recently discovered that a lot of more modern EVA fans tend to be rather creeped out by Kaji’s womanizing behavior, with some even going as far as to describe him as being borderline to outright predatory, citing two scenes in particular from future episodes which I'll definitely discuss when we eventually get around to them. The critical reevaluations of with womanizing characters from older media are not uncommon, especially in the Post-#MeToo era. We've already seen it with other beloved fictional characters like Han Solo in Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and James Bond throughout his entire filmography, and Kaji is not immune to these criticisms either. Personally speaking, while I do still think that Gendo is a far worse scumbag due to being both a neglectful father to Shinji as well as him openly manipulating female characters like Rei & Ritsuko to fullfill his own selfish-desires (even up to the point of heavily implied sexual abuse), I can definitely understand and even agree with a lot of criticisms directed at Kaji. I will at least argue that Kaji's behavior doesn't come across as creepy in hindsight as Han's or especially Bond's (seriously, there's a scene in Goldfinger that is downright disgusting in just how blatantly misogynistic & homophobic it is...), and that he does have his more noble and redeeming qualities when it comes to his relationships with Misato, Shinji and Asuka.

I love how from the moment Kaji first appears on screen, we start getting hints about his and Misato's past romantic history together! This is evident through not only Misato’s embarrassed reaction upon seeing Kaji in the command deck, but also by them awkwardly playing footsie underneath the barrack tables (implying that they’re physically in synch with each other).

And if that weren’t enough, Kaji drops this bombshell of a question when he learns that Shinji is currently Misato’s roommate, asking him if Misato is "still wild in bed" shortly after asking Misato if she's currently seeing anyone else (which does lead to one of my personal favorite Misato moments ever)!

I've honestly lost count of how many times I've used that quote of Misato's as a reaction gif on Twitter, I love it that much!

As someone who was already pretty invested in Misato's character so far when first viewing the series, this revelation made me want to learn more about Misato's past and what exactly happened between her and Kaji which led to them eventually breaking up. And the answer was certainly one which I was not expecting at the time!

Still though... while the fact that Kaji feels comfortable asking this question to Shinji, who is still 14-years-old, is really inappropriate on his part, it does at least underscore Misato's struggles to form meaningful non-sexual relationships with other people due to both her love/hate relationship with her deceased father, and her stunted childhood development & trauma as a survivor of the Second Impact.

Also, this scene in the barracks gives us some early foreshadowing to not only Asuka's obsessive teen-crush on Kaji given her horrified reaction to his earlier bombshell drop, but also to the mentor-role he'll later provide for Shinji when he rebukes Shinji's downplaying of his EVA piloting experiences as "simply luck," informing him that luck is a talent that will get him far in life. AndShinji can't help but find this to be a somewhat reassuring thought given how incredibly low his self-confidence is...

I love the contrasting impressions that Kaji leaves upon Shinji and Misato respectively. Shinji can't help but find Kaji “pretty interesting” due to his cool-headedness and wisdom, whereas Misato’s angrily replies, “He hasn’t changed at all that chauvinistic pig!”

Lol! Misato's words there are unintentionally reflective of how a lot of modern viewers feel about Kaji’s character nowadays. Also, she'd fit right in with Black Widow & Valkyrie on the classic cover of Avengers (1963) #83!

I love the re-occuring visual motif throughout this episode of Asuka constantly standing on higher ground in contrast to Shinji, as it perfectly plants the seeds for the complicated rivalry and relationship between these two characters. While the opening silhouetted shot of Asuka was incredibly effective in regards to conveying Asuka's inflated ego in relation to everyone else, she sets her sights on proving her alleged "superiority" to Shinji specifically as soon as she learns from Kaji about Shinji's unnaturally high-synchronization ratio with his EVA Unit.

Yup! Asuka definitely took Obi-Wan Kenobi's famous words from Revenge of the Sith to heart!

Also, although she tries to hide it, you can tell that Asuka can't help but perceive this news as a significant challenge to her pride, which leads to her commadering Shinji in the escalator so that she can show off her own EVA Unit to him. I love how she attempts to desperately excuse away his high-synchronization status as the result of a "design flaw" due to EVA Unit's 00 & 01 being test-types while her EVA Unit-02 is a combat-oriented "final production model!" It's mostly implied through body-language and mannerisms, but you can definitely tell that Asuka is overcompensating or trying to mask some hidden insecurities whenever she's attempting to show-off or boast about her skills as an EVA pilot!

I love the contrast in Asuka's reactions when she discovers that the 6th Angel, Gaghiel, is attacking the Pacific Fleet. When she first sees the Angel sink several battleships she gives a sneaky smile and head-turn while in close proximity to Shinji, excitedly proclaiming "Now's my chance," in German. However, when she's alone changing into her plugsuit inside the stairwell, she's a lot more quiet and reserved, whispering to herself, "Let's go... Asuka," inferring that Asuka pilots her EVA not only to prove her talents to others, but to herself as well! Excellent bit of character development and foreshadowing on Anno's part there!

And Asuka immediately deciding to commandeer EVA Unit-02 without asking Misato permission first is another nice touch in emphasizing how far Asuka is willing to go in order to prove herself (although Misato does inevitably approve in a hilariously childish confrontation with the obnoxious admiral)!

Speaking of the plugsuits though, I feel this is a good opportunity to mention how while many other fans have commented on how form-fitting these flight-suits for the EVA pilots are (especially for Rei & Asuka), one thing I only recently just noticed in relation to this fact was how Shinji's plugsuit has these weird rectangular-protrusions which somewhat resemble breast-plates. And considering that this episode also famously has Shinji being forced to wear Asuka's spare Unit-02 plugsuit when she forces him to hop into the Entry-Plug to watch her fight Gaghiel up close, I can't help but wonder if these factors have help contributed to the popular fan-readings of Shinji actually being a closeted trans-femme egg?

Returning to Gaghiel however, I love how in addition to this Angel having a really awesome hybrid design of a white whale, a shark, and a sting-ray, Gaghiel also represents a suspicious change in the Angel's pattern of behavior. Whereas all of the previous Angels directly targeted Tokyo-3 and more specifically the GeoFront and NERV HQ underneath the city, Gaghiel instead appears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is destroying several battleships in what appears to be a random yet systematically targeted manner, which Misato speculates means that it's actively searching for something. Is it EVA Unit-02 onboard the fleet, or something else entirely? And questions are further raised by Kaji's suspicious behavior, since he not only calls Gendo about this sudden attack, but Gendo sounds like he expected such an occurrence and even shipped "a spare EVA pilot" to support Asuka as backup support (once again reminding me of why I hate Gendo's guts so much as he treats his own son like cannon-fodder)! Also, Kaji fleeing the aircraft-carrier mid attack by hitchhiking a random fighter jet to Misato’s annoyance is an excellent way of allowing the viewer to begin questioning Kaji’s true allegiance…

Additionally, according to Wikipedia "the name Gaghiel (Hebrew: גגיאל), also called Gagiel, Daghiel or Dagiel, in Judeo-Christian folklore is the angel of the fish. Its Hebrew name can be translated as 'roaring beast of God', and has been interpreted by writer Will Raus as a possible allusion to its appearance, which is similar to that of a beast fighting in the water." So this Angel's whale-shark appearance is definitely fitting in that regard!

Also, Misato’s sarcastically condescending, “Hello, NERV delivery! Would you like to order data on this enemy and countermeasures to use against it,” come-back retort towards the rude Navy admiral when Gaghiel begins sinking battleships is absolutely priceless! Allison Kieth is an absolute treasure, and it’s a darn crime that neither she or Tiffany Grant were offered a chance to return for the Netflix re-dub…

Lol! The scene of Asuka scolding Shinji for his "thought-noise" interfering with Unit-02's signal, him hilariously trying and failing to think in German, and Asuka calling him a "dummkopf" before switching the EVA's language patterns to Japanese is yet another iconic gag in this series that NEVER... EVER... gets old!

Holy crap, did I almost forget just how epic and badass Asuka's entry into battle is! There's a reason why these two images of EVA Unit-02 both posing in the tarp on the battleship deck and pulling out its progressive knife have become so iconic!

I love the progressive insanity of the fight with Gaghiel! We start with the most dangerous game of hopscotch ever conceived as Asuka jumps from deck-to-deck over the Pacific Ocean to plug in her umbilical cable within the short span of one minute whilst avoiding the Angel ramming into ship after ship! And then the battle transitions to a literal fishing sport as the Angel drags Unit-02 down into the water while it's still attatched to a ridiculously long umbilical cable!

The attention to detail as Gaghiel drags Unit-02 underwater and repeatedly bounces off the sea-floor admits the sunken ruins of an abandoned city is amazing! I love how you can still see all the various submerged buildings and streets here (I wonder which city this was prior to Second Impact?)!

I like how as soon as Asuka realizes that Unit-02 is completely immobile underwater as Gaghiel is swimming directly towards them, she immediately defers to Shinji for help due to him being “the famed Third Child” (even letting out a suppressed shriek of terror when the Angel opens its jaws wide open to try and devour them)! For all of Asuka’s boasting she’s way in over her head, which continues to be a reoccurring character flaw that she struggles with over the course of the series!

And the madness of this fight is not over yet as Misato conceives of another ingenious yet ludicrous plan to defeat the Angel as she has the navy deliberately sink their remaining two evacuated battleships and time their downward trajectory just right so that that they'll land face-first into Gaghiel's maw after Unit-02 forces it open, firing a barrage of missiles via-remote directly into the Angel's core and forcing it to self-destruct! Just like the fight with Ramiel back in Episodes 5 & 6, this plan is absolutely bonkers and is a thrill to watch unfold!

So… this moment where EVA Unit-02's eye's briefly glow as Asuka (along with Shinji) desperately struggle to gather the stregnth to open the Angel's jaws before the battleships arrive at their position! While Misato later comments to Ritsuko that this was an unusual high-burst of synchronization between the EVA's and their pilots, I can't help but wonder how much of said-ratio boost was due to Shinji or Asuka? I ask because a major defining element of Asuka's character development as the series progresses is that despite her prideful and boastful nature she never actually wins a single Angel battle solely on her own, only doing so with the assistance and teamwork of others (which consequently causes her to gradually descend into a depressive downward spiral).

Also, was this an example of EVA Unit-02 almost entering bersker mode? If so... that's a neat bit of foreshadowing there!

Oh boy! Our official introduction to the Seed of Life for all the other Angels, the 1st Angel… Adam!

I honestly remember getting some serious chills when I first saw Kaji unveil Adam as a cryogenically-frozen fetus-like creature to Gendo & Fuyutsuk, although his description of it as “the first human” in some translations always confused me (the ADV dub simplifies this to instead have Kaji refer to the Adam fetus as, “the key to the human instrumentality project”).

Also, interestingly the “Fly Me to the Moon” ending credits segment has a red filter overlaying the usual animation this time around! That feels like a neat extra detail to signify Asuka’s arrival into the show!

So that was NGE, "Episode 8: Asuka Arrives in Japan/ASUKA STRIKES!", and overall it was another solid banger and a powerful introduction to Asuka’s character, establishing important traits about her character while setting up for future developments for her as the series progresses! And with that we finally have our main ensemble cast for NGE in the form of Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Misato, Ritsuko, Gendo & Kaji completed!

Next up is Episode 9!

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