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TV Series
Q: How screwed up was/is Hideaki Anno? After viewing the 26 TV episodes and the movies it appears that either this project greatly troubled him, or his life is not making any sense to himself yet alone to anybody else. A: Hideaki Anno's mind was very troubled. As an out of the closet "otaku" in the anime business, he strived to make his art known to the world and clearly defined to himself. His latest attempt to do so was also his most popular and widely received. It seems that it also helped him to find a little bit of peace of mind. The following is an anti-suicide letter that Hideaki Anno wrote on July 10, 1995 (three months before his new series ShinSeiki Evangelion hit Japanese airwaves). It is self explanatory. This letter was originally published in Anime FX (c) Issue 10.
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The worldview (of SHINSEIKI EVANGELION is ) colored with a pessimistic vision. Actually, I started the story with a setting from which I had purged all feelings of optimism. A fourteen-year-old boy (Ikari Shinji) is afraid of getting close to other people. He tries to live in a closed world, making attempts to get to know him useless, and ruining efforts made to try and understand him. Convinced that, since he feels abandoned by his father, he is an unwanted person, he is yet a coward, unable even to commit suicide.
A 29 year-old woman (Katsuragi Misato) also keeps her contacts with others as light as possible. She protects herself by running away into relationships that are strictly on the surface. They are both afraid of being hurt. They might both be thought of as being unsuited to be heroes, lacking the strength of self that marks such a person. And yet I made them the heroes.
It is said that "To live is to change". I started this production with the desire that they and the world change by the time the story reaches its conclusion. That is my genuine sense of things. I am able to put all of myself into SHINSEIKI EVANGELION - a self who for four years was a wreck, unable to do anything. I began this thinking just one thing: "I mustn't run away"- after having done just that, run away, for four years - where all I was doing was simply not dying.
I thought of this production with the feeling that "I want to see if I can put these feelings on film." I know that this is a senseless, arrogant, and difficult course of action - but it is my objective. I don't know what the result will be... because the story has not yet ended in my mind. I don't know what will become of Shinji or Misato, or where they will go. This is because I don't know what the staff will be thinking as we go on.
I feel that this is irresponsible... But it is also natural, given that we are striving for a synchronization of ourselves and the world of the story. At present this is the only theory I can use to create, despite the risk of being 'derivative'. That is the only place where our 'original' exists, after all... |
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Ironically enough, ShinSeiki Evangelion first aired on Tokyo's Channel 12 at sundown, 6:30p.m., October 4, 1995 - the same time when Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonment came to an end, leaving behind the days of penitence. It was at 6:30p.m. that all of Heaven's fury in the form of Angels (or "Disciples") first brought their judgement upon man. Men must face their angels, even as they face their demons, who have the same creator. (Do yourself a favor and try to find a copy of Anime FX issue 10. It has a huge six-page article on the beginning and middle [I doubt that there will ever be an end] of Studio Gainax.)
 Q: What are the First, Second and Third Impacts? A: The Impacts refer to the major events (earth shattering) that mankind and Angels alike face on this planet. The First Impact (thought to be the meteor that collided with the earth 60 million + years ago that killed of the dinosaurs by many fans) was actually the splitting of a God-like being (formed again in EoE) into Adam and Lilith (and caused the Black Moon and White Moon to seperate and embed themselves under Tokyo-3's present location and Antarctica respectively). This "Impact" set everything in motion as eventually all the Angels came from the White Moon (and Adam) and mankind soon appeared thanks to the Egg of Lilith (the Black Moon). The Second Impact occured when man succeeded in shrinking the Angel Adam to embryo size (after he was awakened by the testing of the artificial S2 unit by SEELE's people). The energy released was considerable enough to melt the Antarctic Ice Cap and cause a Great Flood that almost wiped out mankind (and supposedly destroyed the White Moon and awakened the rest of the Angels from their slumber). Wars, famine and plagues spread across the Earth in the Flood's aftermath helping to expand the damage done. It is unknown if this Impact was intentional or not. The Third Impact took place when mankind initiated the final phase of evolution. By overcoming the Darwinian dead-end that he was faced with, man took it in his own hands to "evolve" into a single being and return to one whole single entity (as it was before the First Impact). When the Third Impact was complete, man as a species no longer existed and therefore had become totally extinct.
           
The Third Impact
 Q: What is the difference between getting killed and evolving to the next and final stage of evolution? What happens if one gets killed before the Third Impact occurs (i.e. Misato and Ritsuko)? A: Supposedly (according to many religions) when humans die, their souls are judged on their thoughts and actions that they performed when they were alive (sometimes thought as a "self-judgement") and they either return to Heaven from hence they came, or they go to Hell if their existence on Earth was wasted and their evil thoughts and deeds outdid their good ones. The Third Impact (by Lilith) merges Mankind into one being (as it originally was long ago) devoid of any pain. Keel and SEELE seemed to believe that a return to God (the single-form being in which the Lilim would return to their egg [the Black Moon], and rejoin with Adam & Lilith) was a more satisfying existence in comparison to the distressful one we curretnly know. Apparently the Angels came to the same conclusion, but only one could achieve the goal, at the sacrifice of the other.
So the single form is the previous state, but that doesn't make it any more or less mature. Though as a side note, it would appear that Yui became a god (of equality to the Lilith & Adam combined being), and left with the Longinus Spear, having all the necessary tools to start the process over again elsewhere.
However, the "Judgement of Humanity" as individuals would still occur if the Third Impact was started by a Shito returning to Adam. Humanity would not evolve into one pure creature, but would die as individuals and each soul would be arbitrated on the deeds of each seperate individual.
 Q: What about animals? Does only man evolve leaving the animals the Earth? A: Yes, only man evolves. Eventually, maybe someday another intelligent form of life will inhabit the Earth and the Lance of Longinus and the EVA-01 will return and allow them to start their own form of evolution. Who knows, maybe this is how we found Lilith and the Lance?

Well, PenPen, it looks like the planet is all yours. Help yourself to all the beer left in the fridge.
 Q: What is "GeoFront"? What does if have to do with anything? A: GeoFront is a huge underground city that lies underneath Tokyo-3. It was built using a pre-existing valley that was originally at sea level (before the Second Impact) and made to house NERV HeadQuarters and to hide Adam and keep Lilith safe until the time of the Third Impact was at hand. It is heavely guarded from Angel attacks with numerous armor plating and the "defense city" itself, Tokyo-3 (whose main purpose was to protect GeoFront). Its main problem in terms of defense was that it had no real security against actual humans (i.e. Kaworu or the entire Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force). There is a large forest and lake in Geofront too. When the Third Impact began, it was clear that GeoFront had another purpose to it. The giant hollowed out cavity was in reality the Black Moon (aka the Egg of Lilith) which is where all human life began and began to end (don't worry, there's no test on this).
 Q: If the Angels wanted Adam so badly, why didn't they attack NERV and Terminal Dogma in force? Surely this would have overcome the EVAs and toppled NERV in one strike. A: It definitely would have been more than enough to accomplish their goal if the Angel's goal was simply to return to Adam, but there was more to their existence than that. The Dead Sea Scrolls foretold of the coming of the 17 trials that mankind must endure and overcome in order to gain eternal salvation as a whole. These trials were to be given one at a time and each more difficult than the previous. New ways of thinking and sacrifice would be necessary in order to triumph over the almost impossible odds of combat with the very Angels (or Apostles) from Heaven themselves. Man had to prove his worth, prove that he could think and act beyond his limited means in order to gain access to eternal and painless life. Angels had to prove that they deserved the reunification of their own being too, and their test must have been a one by one confrontation with mankind.
 Q: I've watched all 26 episodes of Evangelion and there is still one thing that I don't understand. In episode 24, Kaworu keeps mentioning the word "Lilim" as reference to a person. Who is "Lilim"? Is it just another way of saying "Lilith"? A: Wow! You've seen all 26 episodes and that's the only thing that you didn't get? You should feel very proud. I lived the entire series and I still don't know 100% what the #*~$ is going on. But to get back to your question, when Kaworu says "Lilim", he is referring to man. "Lilim" refers to the demon-spawn of Lilith. Just as all Angels are from Adam, and to Adam they must return, all human beings are from Lilith, and to her we must return. The human-looking legs that protrude from Lilith's lower half (even after her legs grow back) prove this, as does the LCL that is her blood. It is also the liquid that allows pilots to communicate better with their EVA's and breathe while they're in the Entry Plug (it acts a lot like amniotic fluid). And besides, I like being thought of as "Demon-Spawn" too. It's cool! It can also be in reference to a shortened form of "lilliputian", which means "small" or "little", or can be used to mean almost "insignificant". In comparison to Angels, this is exactly what humans are. It is also in reference to Gulliver's Travels in which the the tiny country that Gulliver comes across (in which he is a giant) is called "Lilliputian" or "Lilliputa" (meaning "Land of the Small People"). The term "Lilliputian" is also used in the 13th episode as the title Lilliputian Hitcher in which the 11th Angel, Ireul, attacked the Magi Super-Computers in the form of a computer virus. Also very tiny - but in this case, a very large threat.
 Q: Uh, I've got the ADVision subbed release of all the episodes and and don't remember seeing "Lilim" mentioned even once. Does Kaworu really say it? Is it just mistranslated? What gives? A: ADVision chose to translate "Lilim" as "humanity" in their subtitled release of episode 24 (along with misspelling both "Lance of Longinus" and Kaworu's name [but that's not important to NERV intelligence at this moment]), but funny enough they chose to keep the term "Lilim" in their dubs. For the full reason on this matter I sent one of NERV's best field agents into the fray to find out how and why something as important as Kaworu essentially telling us that we are children of Lilith could be omitted from the subtitled copy of the Genesis:12 release. She got this following reply from Brad Atwell of AD Film ...:
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The omission of the term "Lilims" was my decision, more personal aesthetics than anything really. "Lilims" is neither descriptive nor clear in meaning. "Lilith's minions" conveys the intention in a more comprehensible manner. Lilims are the children of Lilith, ergo humanity. "Humanity" once again is a substantial and familiar concept, whereas "Lilims" is inarticulate. The term Lilims is used in the dubbed version for those for whom it's removal is just too irksome. I hadn't realized this would be such a significant issue, but, even so, I dislike the term for the aforementioned reasons and wouldn't re-insert it were I given the opportunity. Please post this statement in any discussion group where the issue is questioned. I do welcome criticism, but it is much more helpful prior to the script's completion. |
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Although I would have preferred "Lilim" remain (especially and even moreso in the sub [and especially especially because it is part of the original script that Gainax wrote!]) I easily could have lived with his take of "Lilith's minions". That would have been just as descriptive (even more so). So our question still remains: Why was it translated as "Humanity" when that does not even allude to Lilith in the least? We here at the EVA FAQs know that it isn't that big a deal, but we would prefer a better translation especially for our subs. And just so we catch Manga Entertainment before it's too late, before you guys translate End of Evangelion please remember to translate "Lilith's Egg", "The Red Earth/Soil Ceremony", "the Tree of Life" and any other religious references correctly. Your patrons would truly appreciate it (and love ya for it). Keep up the good work, guys (and gals)!
 Q: How can you be sure that Misato killed Kaji? We only see that she got her gun and NERV ID back before the incident, but I don't quite see if it is enough evidence. Is there something that I've missed? A: Yes. Misato gets her gun back and in the very next scene (but not mere seconds after [it's called a "cut" people]) we see Kaji welcoming someone that he has been waiting for and obviously knows well in a very secluded place. Then he is shot. Later, Misato arrives home (very upset) before anyone could have discovered the body and gotten the news to her that Kaji had been killed. She then listens to his message on the machine and is totally destroyed (listen to the message again, Kaji knows that he is going to die soon and he is clear that he wanted to see Misato to tell her something important ["those words he couldn't say eight years ago"]). Too bad she recently gave up drinking. Boy that's gotta suck! Lots of readers have written in reminding me that Hideaki Anno himself has stated that only "somebody either from NERV or SEELE shot Kaji". They said that when the condemned man said "You're a little late, aren't you," to the unseen assailant he was just expecting his death (and not necessarily Misato) after double crossing both NERV and SEELE simply to know the truth. In my opinion, however, he said it way too familiarly (like how he usually talked to Katsuragi-san) than he would to a faceless minion. I have faith, however, that Anno would make something as tragic as Kaji's death even more tragic by allowing it to come about from the only person who ever truly loved him (i.e. Misato). Also, when the NERV MP gave back Misato's badge and gun he says that Kaji "is being taken care of." While this led others to suspect someone else, don't you think that the MP would know that someone as manipulative as me would be playing Katsuragi like a game of mah-jong and that they were insinuating that by giving her back her gun this was how it was going to be "taken care of"? She, just like everybody in NERV was just my little puppet doing my work for me.
Misato here again.... Gendo apparently (and conveniently) forgot that there is yet another obvious "assassin" that Kaji was very familiar with. Remember that old lady who was his contact in many an episode? Fearing he may talk (after betraying every side he was spying for) she may have had to take the hunk down for to keep her identity and the ties behind her position a secret.
 Q: Okay, well if Misato did it, why did she kill Kaji? I thought that she loved him. A: Well, it's one of those "love/hate" relationships. Don't forget how messed up Misato is inside her noggin. But the reason she did not hesitate to kill her long-time boyfriend is fairly simple, she thought that the only reason that he was in NERV HQ was to be a spy. Now there are two parts to that: She thought that she was only being used and abused by him; and he was a danger to NERV (especially after kidnapping Fuyutsuki). It was her privaledge and her duty. But once again she acted too quickly and didn't give her emotions and feelings for him enough time to surface. She only thought about the consequences of her action after the bullet hit the bone.
 Q: What is up with the ProtoType Eva Unit 00? When Rei is testing it (episode 5) and also when Shinji tests it in a later episode, it goes psycho and does a lot of damage to itself and to its pilots. Ritsuko also made a comment that it was trying to kill her. Why does this happen?

The EVA-00 does not contain a very stable mind.
A: To start things off, every Eva unit seems to have the mind or soul of a female in it in one form or another. The EVA-01 has Ikari Yui trapped in it (which is how she disappeared in 2004), EVA-02 has Asuka's biological mother's mind in it (which is what caused her to go crazy), and it is Akagi Naoko's demented psyche that is trapped in EVA-00. Although Naoko suffered from no noticable breakdown from her initial synchro test back when NERV was Gehirn (unshown in the series), it is assumed that the "ghost" that her mind left in the Eva was seriously disturbed. The fact that it went Berserker when Rei and Shinji were piloting it (both spawned from the hated Yui Ikari) and took swipes at Ritsuko (the daughter who tried to seperate herself as far as possible from her mother) goes a long way in proving this. It goes crazy because it does not want to have to synchro with its pilots, or it has an overwhelming urge to attack those that it sees in front of it.
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