Episode 05

Episode Information
Episode #05
Title 1: {{{japanese_title_k}}} {{{japanese_title_r}}} {{{japanese_title_e}}} Title 2: Rei I
Written By	Akio Satsukawa, Hideaki Anno
Directed By	Keiichi Sugiyama
First Aired	11-01-1995
Video Release Date	{{{video_release}}}
Angel Appearances	Ramiel
Episode chronology
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"Episode 4"	"Episode 6"

Overview

Eva 00 is finally repaired, and Shinji tries to get to know its enigmatic pilot, Rei Ayanami, better. However, he is confounded because she is extremely insular, has no friends at all, and the entire record of her past has been erased. In the midst of this, a new and powerful Angel, the floating monolith Ramiel, attacks Tokyo-3.

Synopsis

As the episode opens, we finally get a flashback that explains how Rei got her injuries. Just days before Shinji arrived at Nerv, and it must have been immediately before Misato's arrival, Rei is piloting Unit-00 in an activation experiment, when the Evangelion suddenly goes berserk. The Eva holds her head as if she were in agony, and then tries to pound her way into the control room. The power is cut off, but before Unit-00 powers down, Rei's Entry Plug is ejected and starts bouncing around the room. Gendo orders Special Bakelite pumped into the room to cushion the blow, but it's too late. When Unit-00 stops, Gendo rushes into the test room and forces open the red-hot hatch with his bare hands. His glasses fall to the floor and begin to melt from the heat. He's relieved that her injuries aren't more serious than the are, and smiles.

Back in the present, Ritsuko tells Misato that mental instability in the pilot is the suspected cause of the incident. Something else seems to occur to her, but she thinks better of saying it. Misato, Ritsuko, and Shinji are present when Nerv technicians are examining Shamshel's remains. Although they can't analyze the stuff the Angel is made of, they can tell that its "inherent wave pattern" is 99.89% similar to that of humans'. Shinji looks over Ritsuko's shoulder and nods, pretending he knows what she's talking about. While watching Gendo examining the deceased Angel, Shinji notices the burns on his hands, and asks Ritsuko and Misato about them. Ritsuko tells Shinji about the super-heated hatch; Shinji reacts with disbelief.

Some time later at school, Toji and Kensuke notice Shinji watching Rei and tease him about it, but Shinji replies that he was just wondering why she's always alone. Later, back at Nerv HQ, Shinji notices Rei happily chatting with Gendo. It's the first time he's seen her happy and smiling.

That evening, Ritsuko is eating dinner at Misato's place. Misato prepared the food, so it consists entirely of beer and under-diluted instant ramen. Only Misato finds it edible. Ritsuko then asks Shinji to deliver Rei's new Nerv I.D. card. When he looks embarrassed about going to a girls home, Misato teases him.

The next morning, he knocks on Rei's door and receives no answer, but finds it unlocked and walks in. The place is an unspeakable mess, littered with trash and bloody bandages. He notices Gendo's glasses sitting on a dresser top and tries them on. Just then Rei emerges, presumably from the shower, naked but for a towel. She seems more concerned for the glasses than her nudity, and crosses the room and snatches them from his grasp. He trips and they fall in a heap with him on top of her, also somehow upsetting a drawer full of Rei's undergarments. After a pause of several seconds, she asks him to please move; only then does he notice that his hand is on her breast. Still seemingly unconcerned, she dresses, takes the glasses and leaves while Shinji is still stammering out an explanation.

When they arrive at HQ and her card won't work, he finally manages to hand her the new one. While riding the escalator, Shinji asks Rei if she isn't frightened of her impending re-activation experiment in Unit-00. When she asks doesn't he have faith in his father, Shinji bitterly denounces him, getting his face slapped for his troubles. Once again, Rei will show some emotion when Gendo is concerned. Rei takes Gendo's glasses aboard the Eva as a good luck talisman, and the Re-activation is successful.

Just then, Ramiel, the 5th Angel attacks. Knowing that Rei isn't ready to fight, Gendo sends out Shinji in Unit-01. As soon as he surfaces from the Eva hanger, Ramiel blasts Shinji with an ultra-power particle beam! End of episode.

Notes

• Eva Unit 00, only briefly glimpsed before now in Episode 2, is given a full introduction in this episode.
• Timeline-wise, the accident in which Eva 00 went berserk inside of "Experiment Station-02", leading to Rei's injuries in the first episode, happened 22 days before this episode begins. Episode 3 occurs "3 weeks" after episodes 1 and 2, and about 8 days pass between the end of Episode 3 and the end of Episode 4. In Episode 2, Gendo said that Rei would be out of the hospital in "20 days", and she was back in Episode 3. This should mean that at most 22 days pass between Episode 1 and the beginning of Episode 5, but 21 days (for three weeks) plus 8 days, equals 29 days. However, Hyuga might have just been "rounding up" when he said "three weeks".
• When Eva 00 goes berserk, after Rei is already ejected, it attacks a window that Gendo Ikari is standing behind.
• "601" is the NERV computer systems' code number for "cannot be analyzed".
• Toji and Kensuke say that they first met Rei when she joined their school about a year ago (they are in 8th grade, she joined in 7th grade).
• When Shinji enters Rei's apartment, he notices that her floor is conspicuously dirty and badly scuffed by her shoes, before proceeding to take off his own shoes. In Japan, it is of course customary to take off one's shoes when entering a home, and this is a telltale sign to a Japanese audience (perhaps not quite as noticeable to a North American audience) that Rei is indifferent and aloof to her surroundings. Also, he apparently hasn't opened any of her mail in quite some time, but just lets her mailbox overflow.
• There is still blood on Rei's pillow from when she was injured. As she is not injured now, and wasn't wearing bandages even the day before, it appears that she just didn't bother to wash it.
• Rei seems to be taking a lot of medication for some unspecified reason, as there are several pill bottles on top of her microfridge.
• According to Ritsuko, Angels are composed of "a type of matter characterized by both particulate and wave-form properties". However, "although composed of a different form of matter, their actual composition in terms of the arrangement and coordinates of the pattern, is a 99.89% match to ours".
• Rei appears unusually relaxed when sitting in the LCL of the Entry Plug, after the reactivation test ends. At several points throughout the series, Rei almost seems to "bathe" in LCL. The same shot accurately depicts water bubbles escaping from Rei's mouth, as the pilot is indeed submerged in fluid.
• Geography-wise, Ramiel first appears from over the sea, and approaches Tokyo-3 by passing "over Tonosawa".
• When this episode aired on Adult Swim, several edits were made to censor it:
  • In the official English dub only, Shinji reacts to Ritsuko saying that Gendo burned his hands rescuing Rei by saying "bullshit! My father did that?" When the episode aired on Adult Swim, the word "bullshit" was muted out entirely (as Shinji's face was not visible in the shot, its removal was not obvious).
  • The brief shot revealing that when Shinji falls on top of a naked Rei his left hand is pressed directly on her right breast was edited out.

Analysis

• Rei is actually part of a series of clones produced in NERV HQ; the Rei we see here is actually the second Rei, or "Rei II". When one Rei dies, she can be replaced with another. So why would Gendo risk badly injuring his hands to save Rei if, by her own admission later in the series, she can be replaced?
  • Gendo might be trying to keep up the charade that Rei is not a clone to the other NERV personnel involved in the activation experiment; most of them do not know that she is a clone.
  • Gendo might have just been swept up in the moment; he cares a great deal about Rei because of her connection to Yui, and might just not want to see any harm come to her even if she can be resurrected.
• Gendo sent Shinji out alone in Unit 01 against the Angel Ramiel; Fuyutsuki specifically asked if he would send out Rei in Unit 00 and he said she wasn't ready to fight yet. However, Gendo was willing to send Shinji out against Sachiel in the first episode, when he was totally unprepared for combat.
  • Although this does show a degree of callousness on Gendo's part towards his son, Unit 01 was physically capable of fighting when it was sent to fight Sachiel, while right now they haven't confirmed that Unit 00 is fully operational yet (because the tests were interrupted).
• When Rei speaks with Shinji right before they launch their Evas for the fight against Ramiel, she is standing silhouetted against the full Moon. Throughout the series, Rei Ayanami is associated with the recurring visual motif of the Moon. Rei is a "vessel" for the soul of Lilith, and during First Impact 4 billion years ago, the Black Moon transporting Lilith collided with Earth, and Earth's Moon formed from the resulting debris. Thus, in a sense, Rei (or the soul of Lilith she carries) actually created the Moon.

Quotes

Official Japanese dub

• (asking about what caused Eva 00 to go berserk during an activation test)
  Misato: "So, what caused the accident during the last experiment?"
  Ritsuko: "We still don't know. However, we believe that mental instability on the part of the pilot was a primary cause."
  Misato: "Mental instability? In Rei?"
  Ritsuko: "Yes, her mind became much more disturbed than we had anticipated."
  Misato: "So what happened?"
  Ritsuko: "I don't know. But it could be..."
  Misato: "Did something occur to you?"
  Ritsuko: (to herself) "No...that can't be it..."
• (Shinji is staring at Rei in the distance, who is wearing a bathing suit)
  Toji: "Hey, chief! What are you lookin' at so intently?"
  Shinji: "Nothing!"
  Kensuke: "Was it Ayanami? Am I right?"
  Shinji: "No!"
  Kensuke: "Oh, come on! That's suspicious."
  Toji: "Ayanami's boobs, Ayanami's thighs, Ayanami's...
  Kensuke and Toji (in unison): "calves!"
• (Shinji accidentally falls on top of the naked Rei, his hand directly on her breast, and Shinji freezes in shock)
  Rei: (in an extremely calm voice) "Do you mind moving?"
  Shinji: (Jumps to his feet) "I-I-I..." ( Rei gets up and walks to the other side of the room, slowly and completely naked) "...uh, uh, uh..."
  Rei: (slides a pair of panties on; in a calm, almost confused voice) "...what?"
• (Shinji and Rei have arrived at Nerv HQ and are on the escalator)
  Shinji: "You have a re-activation experiment today, don't you? Wouldn't it be great if it were successful this time? Say, aren't you afraid of getting in Unit-00 again?"
  Rei: "Why"
  Shinji: "I heard that you were hurt pretty badly in an earlier experiment, so I was wondering if you were okay about it."
  Rei: "Aren't you commander Ikari's son?"
  Shinji: "Yeah."
  Rei: "Don't you have faith in your own father's work?"
  Shinji: "Of course not! How could I trust him?"
  (Rei angrily turns to face Shinji.)
  Shinji: "What?"
  (Rei slaps Shinji.)

Official English dub

• (Shinji is staring at Rei in the distance, who is wearing a bathing suit)
  Toji: "Hey, big shot! What are you staring at so intently?"
  Shinji: "Um, nothing!"
  Kensuke: "He's ogling Rei!"
  Shinji: "I-I-I am not!"
  Kensuke: "Ah, come on!" (singsong voice) "we saw you look-ing!"
  Toji: "Yeah, at Rei's mammaries! Rei's silky thighs!
  Kensuke: "Yeah!"
  Toji: "Her calves! Her...
  Toji and Kensuke: (in unision) "...NAUGHTY BITS!!".
• (When Shinji accidentally falls on top of the naked Rei)
  Rei: (in an extremely calm voice) "Will you get off?"

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