Episode 22

Episode Information
Episode #22
Title 1: せめて、人間らしく Semete, ningen rashiku At least, be human Title 2: Don't be.
Written By	Hideaki Anno, Hiroshi Yamaguchi
Directed By	Akira Takamura
First Aired	2-28-1996
Video Release Date	2-5-1997 (Japan-Video/LD), 5-29-2001 (US-DVD)
Angel Appearances	Arael
Eva Sorties	Eva-00, Eva-02
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Episode 21"	"Episode 23"

Overview

Asuka's synch rate is on a downward spiral after her defeat at the hands of the Fourteenth Angel, Zeruel, and her frustration with Rei, Shinji, Misato and (unknown to her, dead) Kaji is on the rise. Angrier and more disturbed than ever, she is forced to relive her dark, traumatic past during the encounter with the Fifteenth Angel, Arael.

Synopsis

The Episode begins with Asuka and Kaji aboard the Aircraft Carrier on their way to Japan. Asuka talks to Kaji about Misato and tells him that he is the only person she loves, in what amounts to an excessively strong schoolgirl crush. Kaji rebuffs her, saying, "You're only a child."

Other dark images of Asuka's past abound, including images of her mother lying in hospital and holding a doll. The real Asuka watches as her previously neglectful mother refuses to recognize her and treats the doll as her daughter, while her father (Langley), speaks to and then makes love with the lady doctor in the next room. Asuka refuses to cry at her mother's funeral after she commits suicide.

Asuka ignores Shinji and there is visible tension between her and Misato at dinner. Soon afterwards, her stepmother (The doctor) calls up and both of them speak in German for a while before she hangs up , and tells Shinji the truth about her stepmother before getting angry and wondering why she is telling all this. She screams her hatred of Shinji, Misato, Rei and herself in the bath, and hates menstruating since she doesn't want to be a mother. At a train station, she tries to phone Kaji but doesn't get him, and is extremely annoyed to see Shinji there, talking to Rei.

Asuka glares at Shinji at the train station.

Her mental disturbance is noticed by Ritsuko, who has seen her synch scores deteriorate since her defeat to Zeruel. Asuka runs into Rei in the elevator, and after a long silence, Rei speaks, telling Asuka to treat the Eva like a person. Enraged at Rei trying to help her out, Asuka slaps Rei and storms out of the elevator. She talks to Eva-02 for a while, telling it that it's her puppet, before deciding, "This is stupid."

Right then, the Angel Arael arrives, holding position in Low Earth Orbit very far from Tokyo-3. Rei is sent to shoot the Angel, with Asuka as a backup, but Asuka refuses to be her backup and takes point position instead. Ritsuko mentions to Maya that they need to think of a replacement pilot for Eva-02. Arael remains just out of range of Asuka's Positron Rifle, and generates a beam of visible light similar to an A.T. Field that penetrates the Eva's mind.

The Eva fires but Arael is too far for the shots to contact, it convulses and shoots causing damage all over Tokyo-3. Asuka screams in pain as the Angel tries to enter her mind, and soon the Angel succeeds in breaking into her mind, revealing even more of her inner trauma, and how she constantly desires for attention by being the best in everything. As Eva-02 shuts down and the pilot continues to wither mentally, Rei is ordered to shoot the Angel with a sniper version of the Positron Rifle (Similar to but much less powerful than the one used against Ramiel), but beam is too weak to penetrate the Angel's A.T. Field at that range.

Gendo orders Rei to retrieve the Spear of Longinus from Terminal Dogma, which she uses to deadly effect on the Angel. The Spear, however, is lost. Shinji tries to console Asuka, who is even more upset after the mental attack and hates the idea that Rei saved her.

On-Air Version

• The only scenes the audience sees of Asuka's mindrape in the original version is of her wondering why she's crying when little (Presumably at her mother's funeral after deciding she wouldn't cry anymore) up until her telling the 15th Angel to stop making her remember all that "bad stuff" since she'd "forgotten about it".
• Material absent from the On Air version:
  • The attempted seduction scene on the Aircraft carrier.
  • The scene in the bathroom where Asuka declares her hatred for everyone including herself.
  • The scene where Asuka sees Shinji talking to Rei and reacts with Jealousy.
  • Most of the mind rape including important flashbacks to Episodes 9, 10, and 15.
  • The last few seconds of the hospital scene where we hear Langley and the Lady Doctor thrashing around in the next room.
• The On Air version includes the opening credits; they are missing from the Director's Cut.

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Notes

A view of the Spear and Arael from Earth's orbit

• Hyuga mentions that Arael "isn't budging from its satellite orbit", then Aoba says that "It's maintaining a set distance from" them. Although this should imply that Arael is in Geostationary Orbit, the shot of the lance heading for the Arael show that it is a lower orbit, since Geostationary Orbit(Which is 22,000 miles, or 36,000 kilometers above sea level) allows a full third of the Earth to be visible. Judging from the angle of the throw, the landmass under the Angel is probably Australia. While Geostationary Orbit can normally only be achieved by a satellite over the equator and at the previously mentioned altitude(36,000 kilometers), the raw power of the Angel's S² engine could allow it to simply hover in any position in orbit, something impossible for a normal satellite.

• In a description of the flashback scene from the beginning of 22, the S² Works booklet designates the lady doctor as Langley's "mistress" ("aijin").

Analysis

• Ritsuko comments about the Angel trying to understand a human mind, which implies that Arael was trying to understand humans or make contact with them. The beam of light functioned like an attack on Asuka's mind because it forced Asuka to expose and relive the terrible memories and fears that she had shut away deep inside her mind.
• Based on Asuka's reaction at seeing Shinji in her mind during the attack ("What are you doing there?! You won't do anything! You won't help me! You won't even hold me!") along with the accompanying screen shots to flashbacks of important scenes in Episodes 09, 10, and 15 respectively, it appears that Asuka has feelings for Shinji and has been trying to get him to notice her all this time.

Asuka behind her "Wall of Jericho", Episode 09.

• Arael, along with succeeding Angels Armisael and Tabris, forms a triad of Angels that try to understand or communicate with humans. As such, Arael forms one of three parts of a classical Angel: Arael representing the wings, Armisael the Halo, and Tabris the body.
• In the director's cut editions, either Eva-00 or the Spear lets out a bellow that sounds exactly like a berserk Eva-01 when the Spear breaks the clouds. Whether the Eva or the Spear itself makes that noise is unclear, but a very similar sound is heard in End of Evangelion when the Spear fuses with Eva-01's core.
  • Where the power for throwing the Spear comes from remains a mystery- either the Eva itself is using its A.T. Field energy to propel the Spear, or the Spear is capable of self-propulsion once thrown. How Rei aims the Spear at a target so far away and in orbit is also not explained, but Rei is no ordinary human, and she might have been able to synchronize with her Eva at a much higher rate under duress.

Quotes

• Asuka remembering her seducing Kaji before arriving in Japan: "Asuka, you're still a child. Those things can wait until you grow up a little." "What?! That's no fun! I'm already grown up enough! I'm already a grownup! I'm a grownup! I'm a grownup! So look at me!"

• Asuka thinking how Misato, Rei, Hikari, Ritsuko and Maya see her (In that order): "Soryu Asuka Langley, pleased to meet you! Are you stupid? (It's my) Chance! So look at me!" "No (it's different), this is not me!"

• Asuka, upon seeing Shinji in her mind: "Why are you there?! You won't do anything! You won't help me! You won't even hold me! No one! No one! No one!" Asuka crying when little: "So look at me!"

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