FGC:Episode 07 Scene 02

The purpose of Nerv and the Evangelions

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Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	064	Unit-01 inside the cage. IBUKI (OFF):“Unit-01 has cleared the cooldown threshold ---. Please shift operations to the second stage.”	Kendrix: And of course we go straight from comedic homeroom antics to explicitly sketching out some parts of the greater scope that have so far only been implied. That Shinji's still going on about that same train of thought suggests that he went to this experiment right after school.
	065	Close-up of Shinji. SHINJI (MONO):“Protecting the Earth... That's what Eva is for.”	UrsusArctos: The entry plug is explicitly compared to a womb here. Shinji's finally starting to figure what he's getting into...but the full significance of it eludes him until the bitter, bitter end. ath: Here's Cut 328 from Episode 02 in all its Freudian glory. Kendrix: His expression, conveyed just through the eyes is this very effective kind of lowkey disturbed, "Whats the ground I'm even standing on", like when you ask yourself the sort of existential questions you can't tolerate for long because they would make you question the points and implications of everything you do every day. He never quite addressed it, but he IS still processing what he saw and was subjected to back in Episode 02.
		(Insert the “eye” scene from episode two). SE <<Sound of the inside of the womb>>
	066	Only his eyes change. SHINJI (MONO):“Just what is Eva...? The entry plug smells like blood...”
	067	Interior of the entry plug. Shinji looks up. He looks into the camera. SHINJI (MONO):“So why do I feel so relaxed here?”	Kendrix: He may be used to working with Eva-01 but he's still very much disturbed by the sense that there's something very living, even outright human about it, which is why this sense of calm must be rather paradoxical and uncanny to him. It does fit with how he generally views the Eva as this paradoxical object that "protected" him early on and gives him purpose and usefulness and the right to all these new friends and perks, but at the same time subjects him to suffering and is just plain wrong.
	068	Close-up of Shinji. He talks to himself as he looks through a book. SHINJI (MONO):“--In the end, I don't know anything at all.”	Sailor Star Dust: I've always loved the sudden cut from 067 to here. (Funny how Shinji's finally giving that Nerv manual(??) a proper read, when you consider Episode 01...)
	069	A moving platform. Five people – Misato, Ritsuko, Ibuki, Hyuga, and Shinji – in a variety of poses. They're chatting during a break from work. (Silhouettes with no mouth movement)	Kendrix: Anno always maintains a "mature"/"cynical" mood with these constant background discussion of technical and political concerns as they would be encountered in real life - the importance of saving the earth doesn't suddenly negate all other concerns. UrsusArctos: There's a strange mixture of real-world logic and a lack of it here. Manufacturing logic dictates that they should've built a stock of spare parts to go through in the event that the Evas were damaged. As we'll see later, Nerv wastes money in weird places.
		RITSUKO:“What's the status of Unit 00's bio-chest component?” IBUKI:“Heavily damaged. We'll make a new one, but it will barely fit within our supplementary budget.” RITSUKO:“I wonder if things will get a bit easier after Unit-02 arrives from Germany?” HYUGA:“It might be just the opposite. It's not cheap to dispose of Angels that have been killed on the surface.”
		MISATO:“This place really is tight when it comes to money. I thought the fate of mankind was at stake here.” RITSUKO:“It can't be helped. Man does not live by Eva alone. It's going to cost money if those who survive are to keep on living.” MISATO:“Budgets...! So, the Commander has gone to another conference?” RITSUKO:“Yes, he's on the plane now.”
	070	Extreme long shot of the scene. IBUKI:“It's nice and quiet here when the Commander's away.”
	071	Close-up of the tail of an SSTO aircraft flying at ultra-high altitude. It emits a deafening roar! SE <<ROOAR>>	UrsusArctos: The "ROOAR" is ridiculous - at that altitude there should be no atmosphere, and hence no sound. FrDougal9000: Hey, it works as a pretty decent joke when you consider the dialogue in the previous shot. I can deal with physics suddenly being tossed out the window for a second.
	072	The interior of the aircraft, seen from the front. All the seats are empty. Just the head of a man (Ikari) can be seen in silhouette. At the end of the cut a door opens (revealing the shadow of a man). SE <<Background noise – sounds inside the aircraft>>	UrsusArctos: This shot is a tribute to two of NGE's science fiction inspirations, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Andromeda Strain. Comparison HERE.
	073	Ikari stares out a window with his arms crossed. The reflection of his face can be glimpsed in the window. The man comes up to him. MAN (OFF to begin with):“Excuse me. As we're sharing this flight, do you mind if I sit here?”	SEELE-01: I only just realized that this is actually one of the few scenes in the entire series in which we see Gendo outside of NERV. The only other times: In episode 5, he goes to see the remains of the 4th Angel; episode 12, in Antarctica; episode 17, in a train with Fuyutsuki (and even then, going into NERV); and some scenes in episode 21 (which pre-date NERV). Kendrix: This seems to be where Rei got her tendency to sit next to and look out of windows all the time - if anything, Gendo's body language is even more closed off, and the indirect shots (such as announcing the other dude's arrival by showing us the hem of his jacket) helps to frame this whole scene as an impersonal business conversation
	074	Long shot from the back of the aircraft. A news program is being shown on the monitor. The man sits down. MAN (BACK):“(Once he has seated himself) So the revised budget for the sample collection passed without difficulty.” IKARI (BACK):“The committee members think first and foremost of their own survival. They'll spend willingly to that end.” MAN (BACK):“And their argument had been that no further Angels would appear. I have another piece of good news. Except for the U.S., all council members have approved the budget for Unit-06. Well, it's probably only a matter of time before the U.S. approves.”	UrsusArctos: To the disappointment of mecha fans everywhere, Eva-06 and Eva-08 (mentioned two shots below) had to wait until a whole new continuity to appear. That aside, the scheming that goes on between these two is couched in indirect talk and subtleties. Dr. Nick: Definite shades of early installment weirdness in this scene, even though we're already in episode 7.
	075	The man, with Ikari in the foreground. He is watching with his eyes upturned. His gaze is cold. The man holds a pocket-sized bottle of alcohol in his hand. MAN:“They have an allergy to unemployment, that country.” IKARI:“...And your country?”	UrsusArctos: Post-2008 this little bit of dialogue has turned painfully ironic.
	076	Long shot of the aircraft interior. The faces of the two men cannot be seen. MAN (OFF):“We will participate in the construction of Unit-08 onwards, as the second development project remains viable. However, there is the problem of a pilot not having been discovered...” IKARI (OFF):“The Angels have appeared once again.”	Kendrix: And here we have another reinforcing statement on how hard it supposedly is to build Evas and how rare compatible pilots supposedly are.
	077	Ikari remains looking out the window. IKARI (ON):“We have no other option but to defeat them.”
	078	Close-up of the man. He looks at his pocket-sized bottle of whiskey as he speaks. At the end of the cut he looks out the window. MAN:“I, too, have no wish to see a repeat of Second Impact.”
	079	Antarctica, an enormous crater, with the SSTO aircraft in the foreground. The color of the oceans has changed, and both ice and landmass have disappeared. SHINJI (OFF):“... Then the Second Impact which vaporized Antarctica ...”	FrDougal9000: One of my favourite things about Evangelion is how the storytelling flows naturally from scene to scene; even though we jump to a completely different location and cast of characters, we're never left confused as to what's going on. That can be seen here, when we transition from the man mentioning Second Impact to Ritsuko telling Shinji about what really happened with the Second Impact.
	080	A junior high school history textbook. RITSUKO (OFF):“Right. In the history textbooks, it's a catastrophe that was caused by the fall of a massive meteorite.”	Dr. Nick: ADV's old home video releases of Evangelion actually dealt with certain text-heavy shots such as this by using "overlays", a curious VHS-era method of on-screen text translation distinct from the more well-known "hard-subs" (for details, see svenge's explanation, kindly preserved for posterity by the EvaMonkey). Perhaps owing to the less-than-stellar image quality of that era, some viewers didn't even realize it was an American edit and were left wondering why these Japanese kids were using English-language schoolbooks. I've seen this happen on the forums. ADV's translation of this page can be found here, in its full image-glory (plus some translator's footnotes). (For those who, for whatever reason, cannot load the picture, click the "Additional Commentary" tag below.) Additional Commentary   Dr. Nick: Second Impact and the World Afterwards 1. Second Impact In the final year of the 20th century on September 13. 2000 a massive meteorite fell on Mt. Markham in Antarctica. More than two billion people in he southern hemisphere were immediately killed by the tsunami and rising water levels caused by the melted ice. This was the worst disaster mankind had faced in recorded history. 2. Upheaval in the Northern Hemisphere The Nations of the Northern Hemisphere also suffered severe damage from the flooding and chaos ensued. Two days after the fall of the meteorite on September 15. 2000, collisions between refugees sparked a war on the India-Pakistan border, and armed conflicts began all over the world. On September 20, an N-Bomb was dropped on Tokyo and 500 000 people were killed. Until the Valentine Cease Fire was signed on February 14. 2001, hostilities continued all over the world. 3. Transferring Second Tokyo The Temporary Government of Japan gave up on restoring the Tokyo that had been destroyed by the N-Bomb, and the decision was made to transfer the capital to Matsumoto City in Nagano. Construction of Tokyo 2 began in 2001. Redevelopment proceeded rapidly and by early 2003, Tokyo was fulfilling its functions as the capital. In 2005 a second transfer was approved by Congress. Tokyo 3 is currently being built in Fuji-Hakone. 1. First Impact This is also called the Giant Impact, a collision between a meteorite and Earth that resulted in the creation of the Moon. It is believed to of happened 4 billion years ago. 2. Fall of a Massive Meteorite The object which fell on Antarctica was less than 4 inches in diameter, a very small meteorite. However with an enormous velocity of 95% of the speed of light, its effective mass was more than 4.02 times 20 squared to the 10th. Fifteen minutes before its impact, it was sighted by the Mexican astronomer Ceimoa Nan. (picture of Nan) Ceimoa Nan (1971~) Translation Notes: "N-bomb" should be "a new type of bomb". "Ceimoa Nan" should be "Seymour Nunn".
	081	An extra edition newspaper (from 15 years ago). There are water stains, traces of patchwork, and so on. RITSUKO (OFF):“However, truth is often suppressed. Fifteen years ago, mankind...” TEXT:“Giant Explosion at the South Pole”	ath: From the Evangelion Encyclopedia, once again: The Evangelion Encyclopedia:The newspaper Maiasa Shinbun, episode 7: The name of the Maiasa Shinbun (lit. "the newspaper of all mornings") that is used to show the official version of the reasons for Second Impact) is most probably the fusion of the names of two existing newspapers, the MAInichi Shinbun ("the newspaper of all days") and the ASAhi Shinbun ("the newspaper of the Rising Sun"). The head office address is the same of Gainax's. So, MAInichi Shimbun (毎日新聞) + ASAhi Shimbun (朝日新聞) = Maiasa Shinbun (毎朝新聞).
	082	The three on a moving walkway. Misato looks like she's gone away from the subject at hand. RITSUKO:“...discovered in Antarctica the first object, humanoid, designated as an “Angel.””
	083	Misato is averting her gaze. (She doesn't have good memories of the incident.) A wind blows at the end of the cut. RITSUKO (OFF):“However, in the midst of the investigation, they set off an enormous explosion, the cause of which is unknown.” SE <<The sound of a door opening OFF>>	Sailor Star Dust: This is why the scripts feel like such a treasure trove of information! Though various things can be inferred, it's nice to see what the script flat-out says about a character's thoughts. Kendrix: So there's already a quite deliberate allusion to the existence of some backstory there.
	084	Long shot of the moving walkway!! RITSUKO:“That's the true identity of Second Impact.”
	085	Shinji, with Ritsuko in the foreground. SHINJI:“Then, what we're doing is...?”	Kendrix: I wouldn't trust Shinji if he didn't have this little ""Oh shit!" reaction here. He probably realized that giant monsters rampaging weren't a good thing, but no one told him it was THIS dire. One wonders how far it would have helped or made things worse.
	086	Shinji and Misato behind Ritsuko, who is in the foreground. RITSUKO:“To prevent the occurrence of a potential Third Impact... That is the purpose...”
	087	Misato's folder. The NERV logo is visible. RITSUKO (OFF):“...of NERV, and...”	FrDougal9000: I can't help wonder if there's something similar to the Kuleshov Effect going on with this cut. It's just a shot of Misato holding her folder, but with Cut 083 implying her anger at Second Impact, it makes this shot look like she's angrily holding the folder.
	088	Shinji and Misato behind Ritsuko, who is in the foreground. At the end of the cut Ritsuko takes notice of Misato. Without otherwise moving, she turns her gaze towards her. RITSUKO:“...of Evangelion.”
	089	Ritsuko looks towards Misato. Among other reasons, Ritsuko wishes to change the subject. RITSUKO:“By the way, I understand that it will be held tomorrow as scheduled.”
	090	Misato has been averting her gaze. She still feels something painful when Second Impact is discussed. Without otherwise moving, she brings her gaze back towards Ritsuko. She wears a serious expression. MISATO:“I understand.”

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