A huge outline of a humanoid shape is drawn on the burnt ground.
Cody MacArthur Fett: And here we see the grand Evangelion tradition of drawing giant chalk outlines in the ground where the Evas and/or Shito fall getting kicked off. Their use only gets more baffling from here on out, folks.
Additional Commentary
Dr. Nick: Just out of curiosity, why would you prefer Shito over Angels? Those various gouki-nicknames for Evas at least had a little bit of practical rationale behind them and they're also explained in the Geektionary. I'm such a weaksauce fan that seeing that bit of Japanese there confused me for a few seconds until I remembered the source language term.
Cody MacArthur Fett: A good question. The reason I prefer the term Shito over the term Angel is fourfold. First, is because I'm a fairly devout Christian (and American) and using the term "angel" in a negative connotation just strikes me as odd; second, because none of the enemies faced in NGE strike me as being particularly Angelic in appearance; thirdly, because "Shito," to English speaking ears at least, is a much more appropriate name for an alien race; and fourthly, and this might sound odd since I usually prefer the English dubs of animated shows, because it was something that Gainax added to the English dub of NGE for unnecessary religious symbolism -- much to the eyebrow raising of the ADR staff. I use the term Angel most of the time when I'm writing forum posts so that people know what I'm talking about, but when I'm writing fanfiction (or doing commentary) I prefer to use the term Shito.
I also use the term ATF to describe Absolute Terror Fields, but that's mostly just because I love acronyms.
Alemann: What do you think about the term "Messenger"? This is what "Shito" means on Japanese. If this was implemented, in my opinion, there would be a balanced compromise between the SF and the pseudo religious elements in the show. "Messenger" still has that sufficient religious clang to it, and, at the same time, doesn't refer to any specific religion.
Cody MacArthur Fett: I think it makes them sound like part of the Covenant, but I also think that it probably would have been the better choice when they were writing the dub's script -- in fact, it was the original choice when they were writing the script. However, like I said before, Gainax wanted to go with unnecessary religious symbolism and ADV -- unlike the case with the singular form of Children -- wasn't willing to fight them on it, so the point is moot.
thewayneiac: Gainax intended the pointless religeous symbolism of "Angel" for "Shito" or Apostle all along, hence the word "Angels" appearence in the opening credits.
