FGC:Episode 09 Scene 01

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If I'm ordered to, I will

Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	001	BOY (OFF):“Hey, have you seen her yet?”
	002	BOY (OFF):“Oh, yeah! Yeah!” BOY (OFF):“Seen who?”
	003	BOY (OFF):“You dork, you haven't seen the foreign girl yet?”
	004	BOY (OFF):“Foreign girl?”
	005	BOY (OFF):“Yeah, she's in 8th grade, Class A.”
	006	BOY (OFF):“She just transferred here last week.”
	007	BOY (OFF):“She's hot!”
	008	BOY (OFF):“Her name's Asuka Langley Sohryu, did you know that?” TEXT:“Great Deal 30 yen per picture Asuka Langley Sohryu Photo Order sheet”	UrsusArctos: Is making a business out of selling creep pictures of classmates routine? There's no way that this is right. Zusuchan: If Kensuke and Toji did it with Asuka, I presume there's no reason they couldn't previously have done it with other girls.
	009	BOY (OFF):“She's seriously cute.”
	010	BOY (OFF):“Since she was raised over there but born here, do you think she matured early?”	UrsusArctos: This picture is downright criminal and the associated conversation about "maturing early" makes it even more revolting. It feels like a barbaric throwback to sexist shounen tropes in a series that goes out of its way to avoid or deconstruct them. Pluto: In Japanese schools, students are assigned to a classroom and the teachers rotate. Students in an all-girls school will usually change in the classroom before gym class but in co-ed schools, they have a designated changing room for gym class. Zusuchan: The "matured early" comment comes off somewhat ironic, considering Asuka's need to be seen as adult, but incapability to truly be one. thewayneiac: Since they're going out of their way to be cliched here, I'm surprised this sequence didn't end with a broken camera and Toji and Kensuke covered with bruises. Additional Commentary   Zusuchan: I hadn't intended to say it this early on, but considering Ursus's comment, I might as well-I honestly think the idea of Eva being such a deconstructionist work is flawed at best. Many of the things usually talked about in such a context (things ending badly, a depressed MC pilot who really doesn't want to be there) were mostly already done before by other (often quite high-profile) works and many of the usual tropes really just don't appear at all, so they can't really be deconstructed in the first place. Even this batch of more fun and optimistic episodes don't come off to me as deconstructing the usual mecha/anime tropes, but rather as just using them to tell its story. The fact that things go to shit later on and episodes 7-13 end up with darker leanings on rewatches isn't really deconstruction, at least not in the way I understand it*-it's just using tropes to trick the audience and then later on letting go of them. Me misunderstanding the meaning is very good possibility considering deconstruction's dictionary meaning is entirely different to its seeming primary usage as something akin to "exploring a popular trope's consequences in a realistic environment; showing its meaning within the work itself etc". Dr. Nick: It's probably not a particularly hot take to say that Evangelion's super weird, super deconstructive reputation is largely the reputation of its final two episodes, but when evaluating its impact, it's also instructive to keep in mind what the mecha anime landscape looked like in the mid-1990s. The genre was bifurcated: on the OVA side, the older fans were spoiled with really high production value serious business titles like Giant Robo the Animation, Macross Plus and UC Gundam OVAs, whereas on the television side mecha was dominated by the child-friendly Yuusha and Eldran franchises. The Gundam and Macross juggernauts were experimenting on television, but in their case that meant going unabashedly cheesy (G Gundam, Macross 7) or a wizard-did-it levels of fantastical (Gundam Wing). So the time was definitely ripe for some dark, psychologically fucky genre disruption.
	011	BOY (OFF):“Don't be stupid! I bet she broke up in Germany,”
	012	BOY (OFF):“and she's here in a foreign land with a heart that can't be mended.”	Pluto: In Japanese schools, everyone must change their shoes upon entering. The notes are in Asuka's shoebox where students change from their outside shoes to indoor shoes when entering every morning. Each student has their own assigned shoebox. UrsusArctos: Very interesting, I never knew that students had to change their shoes upon entering school. I like the idea, it must help keep school corridors significantly cleaner! Mr. Tines: One of the more harmless cases of locker-box as mail-drop in anime; no invitations to duel or thumbtacks in the street-shoes. In all, this is a very anime cliché heavy episode
	013	TEXT:“To Miss Sohryu”	Pluto: Since all students have the same uniforms and shoes it's common to see students write their names and class numbers on them in case they get lost for some reason. Not everyone does this but it's pretty common. Mr. Tines: cf. Jun's school shoes in Rozen Maiden (being the only other instance that comes immediately to mind) UrsusArctos: I was wondering why Asuka wrote her name on her shoes! If everyone is changing nearly-identical shoes upon entry and risks mixing them up, it makes absolute sense. thewayneiac: Maybe I shouldn't mention this, but I recall that this scene really confused our old friend Reichu, who obviously hadn't seen enough anime. She thought these were letters from an ex-boyfriend in Germany.
	014	KENSUKE (OFF):“Oh, man... Everybody and their brother! Asuka! Asuka!”	Mr. Tines: Asuka's place at the centre of attention naturally attracts absolute jealousy from the other girls UrsusArctos: Interesting, it never occurred to me that they'd be jealous of Asuka. When I look at it, the very visible disgust on the faces of the girls when Asuka's hair blows up to reveal their faces (now in focus!) seemed like they were thinking "How can those stupid boys make fantasies about such a rotten personality?" And indeed, the sheer disgust visible in this shot does make mincemeat of those ridiculous romantic fantasies about her character. dzzthink: Despite her popularity, Asuka really only talks to Hikari and Shinji during school. UrsusArctos: Which goes to show that she's only popular among those who don't know her in the first place. Hikari's been shown to have female friends or at least companions in class, so there seems to be more than meets the eye for her getting along with Asuka - more than something simple like "let the two girls whom everyone wants to stay away from find company in each other"
	015	TOJI:“They're just ignorant.” KENSUKE:“Thank you, come again.” TOJI:“At least the pictures don't reveal her personality.”	UrsusArctos: Both the gentle, nerdy Kensuke and Toji of the hidden depths appear to have devolved significantly for them to stoop to selling creep pictures of Asuka. It makes Toji's comment about her personality seem both ironic and hypocritical. (As an aside, this is the only episode we see Toji in a school uniform)
	016	ASUKA:“Hello!”
	017	ASUKA (OFF):“Shinji!”	Zusuchan: I have a feeling the previous cut being dirty photos of Asuka against the Sun now being followed by Shinji against the same blue sky is probably somewhat intentional-at least I hope it is, because it'd be a nice way of really subtly communicating Shinji's mind being full of such dirty thoughts about the new student too.
	018	ASUKA:“Guten Morgen!”
	019	SHINJI:“Guten morgen...”
	020	ASUKA:“Hey, why so gloomy this early? This is the gorgeous Asuka greeting you! Look a little more happy about it! So the other one's here too, isn't she?” SHINJI:“Who's that?”
	021	ASUKA:“What are you, stupid? I'm talking about the First Child, of course!”
	022	SHINJI:“Oh, if it's Ayanami...”
	023		Mr. Tines: The only person not intrigued by the newcomer
	024
	025		UrsusArctos: Interesting that someone so often visually linked to the sun announces her presence by casting an annoying shadow. And Rei's German textbook is an absolute doozy, check out the In-Depth page for just how much is packed into it!
	026
	027		UrsusArctos: That's a German biology textbook, and Rei is reading about Plasmids. Turns out that Rei can read German, although this interaction provides ample reason for why Rei doesn't bother speaking to Asuka in German. dzzthink: Pretty funny how Asuka deliberately decides to climb up on a higher platform and obscure Rei's book with her shadow.
	028	ASUKA (OFF):“Hello!”
	029	ASUKA:“You must be Rei Ayanami, the pilot of the prototype.”
	030
	031	ASUKA:“I'm Asuka! Asuka Langley Sohryu.”
	032	ASUKA:“I'm the pilot of Eva Unit 02. Let's be good friends!”	Mr. Tines: Asuka still has a massive crowd of onlookers, even though she's stopped blocking the stairway UrsusArctos: Could this crowd of onlookers have stopped to watch her confront Rei in particular? Rei is already known to be a silent, strange, friendless sort of person. I imagine they're curious to see how she reacts to someone so completely her opposite.
	033	REI:“Why?”
	034	ASUKA:“Because it'd be convenient, in lots of ways.”	Mr. Tines: Actually a perfectly reasonable response; boosting team cohesion for one thing. Rei is the one being inefficient here.
	035	REI:“If I'm ordered to, I will.”
	036A	ASUKA:“Talk about odd.”	UrsusArctos: One of the little unforgettable moments of the ADV dub was Tiffany Grant's "Freakazoid!" here. Zusuchan: That sounds...so incredibly wrong. UrsusArctos: Which is precisely why it was so unforgettable.
	036B	TOJI:“I'll say. Are only weirdos chosen to be pilots?”	UrsusArctos: An astute observation from the one person who might have been the only non-weirdo among the pilots, if Bardiel hadn't gotten to his Eva first...
	037		UrsusArctos: This is Gaghiel's "Blood Type", an image briefly seen in the opening, and comparable to Shamshel's own in Episode 05. The Karyotype is 46,XY. I don't know if the presence of a Y chromosome was simply because they chose a human male Karyotype to create this image, or if Gaghiel is meant to be "male" as far as the Angels have biological sex.
	038	KAJI:“Have you lost some weight?” RITSUKO:“Have I?”	Mr. Tines: Establishing that there's a history amongst the adult cast UrsusArctos: Also establishing that Kaji's flirtations aren't limited to Misato, even if his history with her is special.
	039	KAJI:“You must be enduring an unrequited love.” RITSUKO:“How did you know?” KAJI:“Because... "A woman with a mole in the pathway of her tears is destined to a life full of them."” RITSUKO:“If you're trying to put a move on me, I'm afraid you can't.”
	040	RITSUKO:“There's a very scary lady watching us.”
	041		UrsusArctos: Misato's pulling off an honest-to-goodness Kubrick stare. The shot composition is excellent and keeps the subject of Misato's ire in frame while making her feelings perfectly clear. Misato's breath fogs Kaji's reflection, which is dead center, while Ritsuko is present but nearly insignificant down at the bottom of the frame, and the red of Misato's jacket makes her snorting like an angry bull sound appropriate.
	042	RITSUKO:“Long time no see, Kaji.”
	043	KAJI:“It's been a while.” RITSUKO:“You're actually pretty careless, aren't you, Kaji?” MISATO:“He's as much of an idiot as ever.”
	044	MISATO:“If you're done handing over Unit 02, hurry up and leave!”
	045	KAJI:“I just received orders this morning that I'll be staying here on loan. So the three of us can hang out again, just like we used to.”
	046	MISATO:“Who'd hang out with YOU?”
	047	MISATO:“Enemy attack?!”

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