Episode 07

Episode Information
Episode #07
Title 1: {{{japanese_title_k}}} {{{japanese_title_r}}} {{{japanese_title_e}}} Title 2: A Human Work
Written By	Hideaki Anno, Yoji Enokido
Directed By	Keiichi Sugiyama
First Aired	11-15-1995
Video Release Date	{{{video_release}}}
Angel Appearances	none
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Episode 06"	"Episode 08"

Overview

Ritsuko briefs Shinji on the real nature of Second Impact, the Angels, and the Evangelions' mission to defeat them. Misato and Ritsuko attend the public demonstration of a new Angel-fighting robot, Jet Alone, built by a rival defense contractor to NERV. However, the nuclear-powered robot quickly runs out of control, and Shinji must use Eva Unit 01 to load Misato onto Jet Alone so she can she can enter in its automatic shutdown code, before it melts down in a nuclear explosion.

Synopsis

Episode 7 opens with a phone conversation between Gendo and an unknown person, who tells Gendo that he has answered the information requests with falsified data, and then asks if he should do something about "that other matter". Gendo tells him that no further action is needed.

Meanwhile, it's breakfast time at Misato's apartment, and we learn that Shinji is embarrassed that Misato is a slob who drinks beer for breakfast. He doesn't even want his friends Toji and Kensuke to see her. But as it is Parent Visitation Day, she visits the school.

Gendo boards an airplane and has a conversation with an unknown person where we learn that the budget for building more Evangelions has been approved.

Back at H.Q., Shinji is briefed on Second Impact, learning that the meteor impact story is a cover-up, and that the 1st Angel, Adam, had been discovered in Antarctica, and had massively exploded during the investigation. The mission of the Evas is to prevent a Third Impact.

The next morning at breakfast, Shinji is surprised to see Misato in full uniform. She is going with Ritsuko to a private company's demonstration of its Angel fighting giant robot, Jet Alone. Before the demonstration, Ritsuko questions the executive in charge about the safety of sending a robot powered by a nuclear reactor into battle. He replies that it's better than a weapon that causes mental instability in its pilots and goes berserk like an hysterical women. Although Ritsuko seems angry during the conference, while Misato seems indifferent, as soon as they are alone Misato starts yelling and kicking a locker while Ritsuko shrugs it off.

During the demonstration, Jet alone goes out of control and his reactor goes critical; the abort signal won't work. Misato decides to catch Jet Alone with Unit-01, enter Jet Alone wearing a radiation suit, and delete its programing directly. First, however, there is a delay to get permission to tell her the delete code, "hope". Shinji catches Jet Alone, and Misato successfully boards it, but the code won't work. She desperately tries to shove in the control rods by hand, when everything suddenly shuts down on its own. Misato realizes that what just happened was programmed to happen from the start.

There is then a scene with Ritsuko telling Gendo that except for Misato's intervention, everything went as planned.

The next morning everything is back to normal at the Misato residence. Shinji is as upset as usual until Toji and Kensuke point out that she shows him a side of her personality that no one else sees because she considers him family. This pleases Shinji.

End of Episode.

Notes

• The person to whom Gendo is speaking on the telephone sounds like Kaji, and is played by Kaji's seiyu, Koichi Yamadera, but it's probably impossible to say for sure whether its actually supposed to be Kaji, or if its just another example of economy in casting.
• Jet Alone is named after Jet Jaguar, Godzilla's robot sidekick from the 1973 film "Godzilla vs. Megalon". In an early draft of the Megalon script, Jet Jaguar is named Red Alone. The screen writers simply took the first half of the final name, and matched it with the second half of the tentative name.
• In the original Japanese dub, one of the Jet Alone tech crew tells Misato that the odds of it simply stopping on its own are 0.00002%. The English dub by ADV Films accidentally left out a zero, saying that the odds are only 0.0002%.
• In this episode, we actually see what is left of Old Tokyo: it was destroyed by a nuclear bomb a matter of days after Second Impact, as a result of post-Impact political unrest. By 2015, it is an uninhabited half-flooded wasteland, occasionally used by the military as a testing ground for potentially dangerous new weapons like the giant robot Jet Alone.
• The Angel Ramiel's corpse is still being cleared away from last episode. Lt. Hyuga directly points out how expensive removing its dead body is.
• Evangelion Unit-02 and its pilot are said to be "on their way" from Germany in this episode. Both of them will arrive next episode in a massive UN naval convoy.
• While on the plane to a conference, Gendo first mentions the planned construction of a larger number of additional Evangelion Units. Gendo specifically discusses the international construction plans for construction up to a planned Eva Unit 06 and Eva Unit 08.

Analysis

• The timeline for the series can be measured fairly accurately through the first four episodes, but after this point we are left with mostly best-guess estimations. Ramiel's corpse is still being cleared away, and Eva 00 is still being repaired, from the battle in the previous episode. Thus, it does not take place very long after Episode 6. Meanwhile, Eva Unit 02 and Asuka are said to already be "on their way" from Germany, so it takes place fairly soon before Episode 8.
• This episode is cited by the production team and fans as the end of the "Introduction Arc" that began the series. Starting with the arrival of Asuka next episode the "Action Arc" begins, with "Monster of the Week" Angels being fought for several episodes.

Quotes

• Toji: "Hmm, Misato is just so cool."
  Shinji: "Yeah I used to think so too, but she's such a slob, she's always embarrassing me and she never does anything but lie around the house. She's not embarrassed about it, but I am."
  Kensuke: "You're a lucky guy."
  Shinji: "What do you mean?"
  Kensuke: "Ikari really is just a kid, now isn't he?"
  Toji: "He sure is."
  Shinji: "Meaning what?"
  Kensuke: "You get to see the true side of her that she doesn't allow us to see. That's very much like a family." (Shinji pauses then realizes the truth of what Kensuke has said, and walks home smiling)

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