Matarael's first appearance is really cool. The scene with it sliding around in the water looks great. In fact, Matarael looks great overall. It may be the shittiest Angel in the series, bar none, but it's fairly memorable. Too bad we never got to see a Rebuild version of it. I bet that would have been cool.
Clockiel's probably the closest we'll get.
"Nothing can exist in the world of death we call Antarctica. Or should I simply call it Hell?" Christ Fuyutsuki, dramatic much?
The subs make it seem rather dramatic, yeah. What Gendo says right after as a response sets off some ticks and tocks in my head though. He says "But here we stand, mankind, still living as lifeforms", or something like that. The latter half is kind of suspicious. Still alive as living beings? Or as lifeforms? That almost makes it seem like the anti AT Field the Giant of Light/Adam set off is still in effect. Especially since Fuyutsuki says in response to this that it's 'because they're under of protection of the power of science'. Which if it were the case, would mean that there exists a way to neutralize the anti AT Field waves, possibly how Misato survived in the capsule if it were equipped with that.
And this dialogue in general is what made me understand why I thought that Fuyutsuki seems like he would be good at taking care of kids. While Gendo continuing speaks of science as the power of mankind and what not, speaking as if he were above everything, as if he represented mankind or something, Fuyutsuki speaks like an old retired professor who's tired of all the experiments and is in deep regret and atoning for mistakes he's caused through his research. Fuyutsuki, rather than mystical science stuff, simply would rather be with people and likes them. He almost reminds me of one of the professors at my college who's technically retired but is still on contract who's very friendly, laid back and is quite popular with his students. Fuyutsuki also seems like the type who would be popular with his students. He and Gendo seem like polar opposites. Something about the way they converse to each other almost strikes me as a parallel of Misato and Ritsuko's light-hearted banter over serious matters. Though here it's as if they're just on the same team even though their personal viewpoints are very different. In fact, Gendo's definitely in charge, Fuyutsuki seems to just be reluctantly tagging along.
Anyway
Ep. 11: In the Still Darkness
Ritsuko, Maya, Aoba at coin laundry and run into Fuyutsuki in the train. Yeah I rather like these sort of off-work run-ins among the Nerv staff because it's nice to see how they interact. I think it's these small gems that make Eva shine, really, I really like these small talks. Also I just realized that Fuyutsuki calls Gendo 'Ikari', which probably makes him the closest person to him in the show atm.
Yeah that phone call with Shinji and his father is really sad. I don't really get Gendo's deal with Shinji is. The manga, I haven't actually read it, I believe made it seem like he was too scared to interact with him, scared to screw it up or get too close. Here he seems really brash and treats him like someone would treat a little dust on their shoulders.
The pacing of this episode is pretty hilarious. Black out. Is it Ritsuko's fault? "It's not my fault...". Well backup should be up soon. "What? Backup is also cut?" Would be terrible if an Angel showed up. "Unidentified object detected on radar." lol
JASDF detects the Angel but they aren't at all concerned because, "it's definitely headed towards Tokyo-03 anyway". I wonder it they're a little suspicious of why though? Also I realized that they called it the 8th Angel, and yeah, Matarael is actually the 9th. So this would mean that Nerv/Seele is keeping one of them secret. Which I assume would be Lilith, since we don't know about that one at all yet, and really don't at all until like at the very end. Well actually, Kaworu didn't know about Lilith. So either Seele did know and didn't tell him because they needed to get rid of him, the last Angel, or Gendo wants to keep it a secret from Seele because he needs to get his hands on Adam in secret. Well actually it would be ludicrous for Seele not to know, because they discovered the Black Moon in Japan along with Lilith. So what's with the cover-up? I guess so the Angels don't find out? But it doesn't seem like they react specifically to Adam, since they all think Lilith is Adam, meaning they just instinctually set out for one of the Seeds of Life, whether it's their own progenitor or not. Then again, Gaghiel attacked where Kaji was at presumably because it was sensing Adam. So if they can all sense both (or maybe it can only sense the closer one?) why would they all go for Lilith? Because it's bigger? Looks like I derailed on peripheral questions.
That scene with Gendo and Fuyutsuki standing with their feet in buckets of water is hilarious. And the way the candles are placed on the desk makes it seem like some cultist gathering. This whole episode is full of funny scenes, for having the lamest Angel, it's pretty good. And as you say, it's the first episode that all 3 pilots work together.
When Fuyutsuki remarks that the first attack on the HQ was not an Angel but rather some person, Gendo replies that mankind's greatest enemy is itself. Maybe 19th Angel/Lilin foreshadowing?
Rei says that she's not favored among the pilots by Gendo. It could be as you say. My initial thought was that Gendo favors noone. My next thought was that since she says "I can tell", maybe it could also mean that she can tell that secretly Gendo regards Shinji with more favor.
Asuka whispers to Shinji that she thinks Rei is rather scary since she wouldn't hesitate on any options to accomplish her goals and then calls her a self-righteous/justified type. The sub said "self-righteous bitch" which I think is an overexaggeration, if possibly a mistranslation. I don't really get the phrase anyway. Considering what she was saying to Rei, I guess she considers Rei to be too dutiful in accomplishing her objectives? If I just hear Asuka call her that, my initial reaction is, wow that's a bit ironic. But would that be true? Asuka is a bit damaged and prideful, but all things considered she is pretty normal. Rei is kinda the oddball in how she behaves how she does and just does things without any hesitation.
And I just realized that Asuka brings out the best in Shinji on a regular basis. I think they're good friends, even if they don't realize it. Shinji even gets into arguments with her, which says a lot. Good friends argue, as they say. Misato I suppose takes care of the back-end stuff of Shinji, opening up his heart to allow connections like the one he currently has with Asuka.
The fight scene is odd. If they dropped the gun, then Matarael show have cried it to sludge. And it seemed like it stopped crying only to start crying when Asuka went to go defend. And she said her role was to neutralize the Angel's AT Field while blocking the acid. Yet she only just stays in place. Does simply being in range of the Angel's AT Field automatically allow the Eva to neutralize it with their own? Doesn't seem like she's doing anything in particular. In episode 1, Unit-01 had to pry it open with its hands. Yeah, all odd.
Shinji makes some silly comment about maybe how being afraid of the dark and carving away at it with fire to live on is why humans are special and why Angels might be attacking them etc etc. Which sounds like total BS and Shinji just trying to get in some clever word. Or maybe just random musings.
Overall a pretty funny episode. The fight scene was lackluster and confusing, but the episode itself, all the rest of it, was pretty good. Either had nice interactions, nice atmosphere, or humor. Matarael itself wasn't as bad as I remembered either. It's not terrible. Losing to gunfire automatically makes it the lamest, but technically so did Gaghiel. Sandolphon died to fricking cooling fluid, I think that one was the lamest and least entertaining. That whole episode was pretty uninteresting. This was was at least filled with good stuff all throughout, and was also the first 3 pilot episode. And Shinji starts to wonder what Angels are and what not, which I think starts to break at the standard conventions of monster of the week shows, not that I've seen too many. Ironic that he would start wondering about why Angels attack them and the such in one of the first monster of the week episodes.
Ep 12: The worth of a miracle is
The Giant of Light/Adam has the shoulder binder thingies that the Evas store their prog knives in, odd.
Misato was placed in the emergency capsule. I think it's useful to note that her father immediately closes the hatch when she calls out to him. No last words, no nothing. Then he calls over and dies. Rather unromantic and not something I see often in shows. Though in this case, the action of saving her itself spoke volumes.
Plug Depth prototype here, from the Rebuild movies? The show calls it Graph Depth, where going to far risks mental toxicity/contamination. I wonder what it means though. The container itself is only half submerged in LCL fluid, while the plug inside the container is what lowers into the deeper end. Which I guess makes sense, since you don't want the whole entry plug moving up or down the Eva's neck, only the cockpit plug thing. Mental contamination from what? And also harmonics and sync ratios are different things, where Shinji's current Harmonics are 50 points lower than Asuka's.
One of the operators mentions that Shinji was 'born to pilot an Eva'. Some foreshadowing? I don't exactly remember the details of his birth and circumstances of Yui.
This is the episode that focuses on how similar Misato and Shinji are to each other. I wonder if we can extrapolate some details about either based on information from the other. Like when Shinji wonders why Asuka got mad at him for slowly catching up to her sync ratio and harmonics, Misato tells him that it's because he's always cautious and attentive to other's impressions of him. Could it be that she always was or is like that? Also while Shinji improving his test scores isolates him more from Asuka, Misato getting promoted starts to isolate her from her friends. In this episode, Ritsuko calls her 'Major Katsuragi' when trying to tell her how reckless her 'plan' is. First signs of friction?
Oh there we go, the South Pole has red oceans. And the big air carrier is carrying a long wrapped pole thing, which I assume is the Lance of Longinus.
Sahaquiel, I don't remember having either a negative or positive impression from my first view. The Rebuild adaptation really blew my mind though by how epic and awesome it was. A little ambivalent on the humanoid Angel within the Angel though. The animation for the Angel battle was pretty great, I'm surprised by the amount of action there was. Perhaps not as much as the one against Israfel, but with the budget restraints slowly revealing itself, I was pretty impressed. I totally forgot that the AT Field assisted mach dash was in the tv series.
Sahaquiel first destroys observation satellites with its AT Field, which Ritsuko mentions is a new way of using it. So this would be the first offensive utilization of it. Prior to this point, we only saw it as a defense, for neutralization of that defense, and sometimes for flying. Well, hell the AT Field assisted sonic boom run is in this episode, so I'm sure she's familiar with the general application of the AT Field, including destroying stuff, so maybe she meant new for the Angels. Crushing things with AT Fields seems pretty reasonable compared to like, say Leliel or Ariel. And when the bridge team is examining the small droplet bombs, Misato says something like, "such destructive force, as expected of an AT Field", which means that the little droplet bombs also had AT Fields on them. I wonder how that works. Remote AT Fields? Unless Sahaquiel can preserve some of itself when it splits off droplets like that, so that it can retain its AT Field.
I rather like the small Misato and Ritsuko banter scenes, here they're joking about how much destruction Sahaquiel might cause when it falls, like creating a new lake or what not.
Rei doesn't like meat? Maybe it goes beyond just being a vegetarian and her subconsciously not wanting to eat her 'descendants'. Though in that case, I suppose vegetables are technically Lilith based too, so that wouldn't work.
Seeing as Unit-00 uses its prog knife to cut open Sahaquiel's AT Field, it must be one of the weaker ones. I wonder how AT Fields expands anyway. Unit-01 in this episode was able to project the typical hexagon shape ones by pushing it to the max. Or maybe that was Sahaquiel's AT Field. Because in episode 11, Asuka tanked the acid tears without projecting the AT Field and just blocking it with her body. Makes sense that the smallest area of the AT Field would be the shape of the body, the shape of the ego. Sachiel tanked the JASDF gunship fires without projecting the hexagons but did later project them to block berserk Unit-01. Hm...
Shinji gets praised. Finally, a bone to the poor puppy! He seems so happy, and the episode ends on happy note. Shinji is happy, Misato and the three children are eating together, with Asuka managing to pick an event where Rei wouldn't feel uncomfortable joining. Almost a bit anxious, seeing him so happy like that.
Sahaquiel's design does look a bit wacky and silly compared to the Rebuild version. Or even by itself comparing it to the previous Angels, just a blob of orange makes it look like a really bad kindergarten crayon drawing or a clump of play-doh. Liked both episodes though, even though some of the character models looked a bit off sometimes.
