thewayneiac: Shin-seiki and I made quite a discovery awhile back. The Angel Ramiel is directly based upon the Super-X mech from Future Police Urashiman. Until we made this discovery, we thought Ramiel was supposed to look like the Blue Water from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
Fireball: For someone who actually watched Urashiman before Evangelion, I instantly recognized the design. Also the reflection on Ramiel's surface of clouds passing by, speaks once again for the richness of details the show offers.
thewayneiac: We recognized it instantly too, except in reverse. We saw Eva years earlier. The thing that surprised us the most was that no one that we knew of had ever commented on it before.
Quiddity: I was quite impressed that in a monster of the week style show, the designers would go the exact opposite route, and rather than make this episode's Angel complex and frightening, they made it about as simple as possible, a giant floating 8-sided diamond. Although with the next Angel in episode 8 the designers would go right back to the more cliche method of monster design, they did rehash the simplistic design later on in episodes 13 and 24. Although the difference being that in both those cases the designs were a necessity of the plot.
Additional Commentary
UrsusArctos: Good old Ramiel, who auditioned for the part of the Death Star in Star Wars but was turned down due to her habit of bursting into song whenever she moved. Not to worry, unless you've an Eva, since she's big, tough, and armed with the power of SCIENCE! She's got an internal nuclear reactor and creepy howling. What more could you ask from an Angel?
K9Thefirst1: Ya gotta give props to the pre-production team at GAINAX: A giant flying singing blue diamond isn't usually what one thinks of when they think "Giant Japanese Monsters." Plus it's cheap to animate to boot.
Sailor Star Dust: Isn't this sound effect also used in Gunbuster, or am I thinking of the "energy charging" sound that Ramiel has in Eva: 1.11?
Reichu: The energy charging / scream SE is the one that I matched to the fluctuating gravity well (space monster) in Diebuster. Woe!, even SSD can no longer tell the two Evas apart!!
Sailor Star Dust: They've sort of blurred together for me in some ways, but not completely. Thanks a lot for clarifying.
The Flying Fortress: "Finally it's my turn to show up at this show, then? Who is the insolent one who dares defy me?"
