You know, ReVolutionOfEvangelion and others were warning me about this being a clip show, but it really wasn’t that much of a letdown. I actually needed a review of the series because there were a lot of details I missed the first time around, like the names of the angels and how the battle with the one angel that introduced Asuka - - the one in the ocean - - took place over the sunken ruins of a city. So many details of Eva’s world whiz by before you really get to digest them. I also liked the strange Kubrick-esque quality to the montage of title cards for the first half of this. It put a monolithic, almost clinical perspective on all the action, injecting the same kind of underlying sense of off-kilter menace you’d see in THE SHINING or 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. So if this was just a matter of dealing with budget cuts, then Gainax definitely found a creative way to spin it, making it seem like a review presentation by NERV’s clandestine cabal.
Actually, the whole hallucination sequence in Rei’s head had a Kubrick quality, too. I suppose the Gainax guys must have watched the Criterion Box Set right before they plotted this episode out. Again, I like how convincingly Rei’s issues are being portrayed. Yeah yeah… there’s always creative license, but as much I liked the show FIREFLY, for example, I often felt the character River was often played too cute and charming for a dangerous autistic. Rei isn’t cute - - although, judging by all the fan art and bikini figurines, I know that a lot of you disagree with me. What I mean is that this show plays her maladjustment as awkwardly and uncomfortably as it would be in real life, and that’s something I appreciate. I’m getting what people were saying from the beginning about how Eva’s so appealing because it puts such damaged people into the archetypal mecha scenario.
Now, the overall conspiracy is rearing its head with the Lance of Longius, that familiar item of Gnostic occultism. Gainax might not be trying to make a point with all these religious allusions, but there’s NO WAY they can continue to play dumb about its inclusion. I’m sure that lance is going to factor into destroying one of the unstoppable angels, eventually.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.
