Magami No ER: Hard to tell, but Rei actually looks rather sad, almost like she's looking at this "forgotten" ball. I like how the script puts it like that. Poor ball
Reichu: That reminds me of something that Gilgamesh (at EMF) wrote about this cut:
'I see the tennis ball lying on the blacktop all by itself in the rain at the end of episode three and I say to myself, "This seems to be a symbol for how the children are torn away from their childhood before it even begins. This is the Japanese education system. Of course, it all ties into how the Eva represents those duties which we do not wish to do but we must fulfill, and those duties are forced on these children. In this way Eva is social commentary." Maybe that's going too far, you may say, but I say, "Why would they draw the tennis ball in there, all by itself, if it had no meaning? They could just as easily have left it out of the picture.'
Granted, that is an awful lot to read into one measly shot. But overanalyzing this show is what being a fan is all about, right?
