FGC:Episode 03 Scene 03

Toji

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 02	Episode #03 Scene List	Continue to Scene 04 >>

Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	059	Perspective of a camera finder. The focus is on a plastic model Kensuke:“(Engine Sounds) GYUOOO~~N DA-DA-DA-DA-DODODON.” He moves the plastic model. When he brings it down, there is somebody further in.	Reichu: This model is of a Heavy-Fighter VTOL, which we met in episode #01. Incisivis: I guess they are still kids (though with a toy collection numbering over a hundred, I should be the one to talk). Shin-seiki: (O59~O57): Here we have some new secondary characters appear for the first time. Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari, at first glance, all conform to readily recognizible "types" one might expect to find in a school setting, not just in anime and Japan, but from just about anywhere: Toji is the macho, physical jock/bully; Kensuke, the four-eyed nerd; and Hikari, the uptight "goody-two-shoes". Of course, since this is NGE, there will prove to be more to all three characters than indicated by such stereotypes…
	060	Kensuke takes his eye away from the camera and looks up. Kensuke:“What's up, Class Rep?”	OMF: I love Kensuke's reaction here. So otaku. Any other 14-year-old caught playing with model planes and making machine gun noises would curl up and die at this point. Kensuke just looks up like he's been reading a book or something. The man clearly loves his work. Soluzar: Hardly anyone calls Hikari by name. Asuka is the only one who I can think of who does. Shin-seiki: (060~063): The office of "class representative" is, as far as I know, something peculiar to Japanese schools: a student leader elected by the class, whose duties include making sure that assigned daily routines (watering the plants/flowers, feeding the goldfish, etc) are carried out, and generally seeing that good order and decorum are observed in class. She (it's always a she, at least in anime; I can't think of one male class rep in all the anime I've ever seen) also does the "Rise! Bow!" deal when the teacher enters the classroom. thewayneiac: Yes, it's so peculiar to Japan that Right Stuf once translated it as "Hall Monitor" because they thought no one would get the reference. (This was in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, none of which takes place in school; the term was being used as an insult.) OMF: Actually, we had elected "class reps" in my school. However, their duties only included moaning about too much homework in school meetings and complaining that they were elected. Shin-seiki: I have a theory that this trio (Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari), to the extent that they "represent" anything beyond themselves, can be considered emblematic of the Freudian concept of Id, Ego, and Super-ego. See more. tv33: Kensuke looks a lot like Jean Ratlique from "Nadia"; make sense, as they had the same character designer.
	061	Kensuke across from a girl in pigtails. A class rep on a mission. Hikari:“…Did you give him yesterday's print?” Kensuke becomes nervous. Kensuke:“What? Um…”	Reichu: According to Wada-kun, a print is "a piece of paper [on] which is written the information or messages from the school to the parents of the students."
	062	Hastily tries to hide printout in class desk. He pushes it two times. Kensuke (OFF):“Well...”	OMF: Sigh! It would appear that even in Tokyo-3 the paperless office is still just a pipe dream. I wonder why the hell students simply aren't e-mailed the daily printouts? Perhaps by 2015 e-mail really has been made unusable by Viagra and mortgage spam! HeWhoPostsStuff: An early indication of Kensuke's self-centered personality. He's been so engrossed in his own fantasizing this whole time that he's forgotten completely about his friend. Reichu: You think he was lying when he said nobody was at the Suzuhara residence? Toji flat-out tells us that his father and grandfather are always at work, and Toji himself has been keeping his sister company at the hospital. HeWhoPostsStuff: Why do you think he tries to hide all the papers he was supposed to have given Toji when Hikari comes by? I'll bet they never even left his desk. If he actually tried to get the stuff to Toji, then what does he have to feel guilty about?
	063	Kensuke abruptly sits hunched over to conceal the stuff in his desk. Kensuke:“No, there didn't seem to be anybody at Toji's house.” Hikari:“Aida-kun, you're on good terms with Suzuhara, aren't you? He's been absent for two weeks. Aren't you worried?”
	064	Shinji, with Kensuke in front. Kensuke (from behind):“Do you suppose he's been seriously injured?” Hikari (OFF):“In that robot incident? The TV said that nobody was hurt.” Kensuke:“No way. You saw the explosion site at Mt. Takanosu, didn't you?”
	065	Beyond the mountains, a giant crater. All of the trees are burnt and leveled. Kensuke (OFF):“Not only were Iruma and Komatsu dispatched, they brought in troops from Misawa and Kyushu. I'm sure there were more than 10 or 20 people injured. Even some killed…”	Reichu: This clearly isn't the epicenter of Sachiel's suicide explosion from #02, on the outskirts of Tokyo-3, so we must be seeing the place where Sachiel stepped on the N2 mine. Since they're talking about a "robot incident", here, I suppose that means Sachiel, and not just the Eva, is being considered a "robot" by the general populace. (Indeed, in the manga, a girl asks Shinji if "that monster" was another country's secret weapon.) In episode #01, the aerial view of the explosion site is cropped-in (C-127), so we don't see the trees on its outskirts. Mr. Tines: But you'd expect to see flattened trees beyond the crater where the earth was excavated. Dr. Nick: Not to mention there is no way that the power line could have survived the blast. Sometimes explosions in NGE tend to cause unrealistically minimal shockwaves compared to their size (as can be seen in cut 008 in episode #02 -- notice the seemingly undamaged buildings right next to ground zero), but if that indeed is the crater caused by the N2 mine, then we have a blooper here. Reichu: Also, if Mt. Takanosu is where Sachiel stepped on the mine, I guess the Tonosawa region must be more extensive than I highlighted in the map. Kensuke's throwing a bunch of new names of us here. We heard about Iruma in episode #01; Komatsu in Kanazawa Prefecture and Misawa in Aomori Prefecture are both air base locations; Kyushu is the southernmost island in Japan. Check out their locations relative to Tokyo-3 here. Keisuke-kun: Kensuke is quite the conspiracy theorist. The news reports say that no one was hurt, but he comes up with all this info on troop movements and technical stuff and declares something else.
	066	Toji opens the classroom door vigorously. His brow is wrinkled in anger.	OMF: Angry, yes. But from the look on his face, I'd say he's been crying as well. Reichu: Awww… C'mere, Toji, let Reichu give you a hug…
	067	Both are taken by surprise. Kensuke:“…… Toji.” Hikari:“Suzuhara…”
	068	Toji throws his bag on the desk.
	069	Shot from below. Toji surveys the classroom. Toji:“Wow, has the class population dropped or what?”	Reichu: And… break out the Kansaiban! Toji's pecular mode of speech gives away the fact that he is not originally from the Kanto region (where Tokyo-3 is located) — he's an Osaka boy. MDWigs: Most of the original Gainax boys are from Osaka; Takami Akai, Hiroyuki Yamaga and Hideaki Anno were all students of the Osaka College of Art. The Kansai dialect does sound quite different, but it's not that bad, just strange to people from other parts of Japan (think "Osaka" from Azumanga Daioh). Shin-seiki: I think there's an unwritten rule that every anime has to have at least one character that stands out with a Kansai accent: Think Lum and Ten in Urusei Yatsura, Kero-chan in Card Captor Sakura, Osaka in Azumanga Daioh, Kitsune in Love Hina, Caldina in Magic Knights Rayearth, Innchan in Angelic Layer, Tasuki in Fushigi Yuugi, and so on… Reichu: English translations often meet the challenge of trying to "represent" Kansaiben by substituting it with an American Southern, mild Ebonics-tinged, or Brooklyn accent. (Source) ADV doesn't really bother and simply makes Toji speak more informally than the other characters, but Viz's translation of the manga goes all out. To be honest, I find reading a Brooklyn accent to be bad enough, and that ADV chose not to have Toji say stuff like "Youze guys" in either of their English adaptations (sub and dub) is something to be commended for. Incisivis: Tell me about it. I tend to assosciate the addition of "overt" accents with edited anime on TV (British and Brooklyn seem to be popular ones), and because of that, and since it's kind of jarring anyway, I'm glad that didn't happen. To be honest, I can't understand the trend. I think it would be enough to just stumble upon the fact of Kansaiban on the Internet, especially if you don't have any clue why this character suddenly has an accent.
	070	Toji sits on the desk. Kensuke speaks in a light manner while peering into his camera. Kensuke:“They've been evacuated. Or transferred to other schools.”	Reichu: Considering the true nature of Class 2-A (which we'll learn much later), one has to wonder why any students were allowed to leave… Keisuke-kun: I'm guessing only the important candidates were made to stay. Reichu: Far as we know, they're all equally qualified. Well, except for the couple that actually are Eva pilots. tv33: Why is it that Toji doesn't have to obey the dress code? Reichu: 'Cuz he'll beat up anyone who argues with it. (But it's not as if Toji never wears the standard school attire.) HeWhoPostsStuff: 'Cuz the jocks always get special treatment. Bet he'll go to college on a football scholarship too, while he's at it. :P Reichu: Depends on whether or not he manages to "get better" from the injury he'll sustain later on… :( Keisuke-kun: I'm not sure, but at the school I attended there were some kids who didn't wear the whole uniform. Hell, I'd take off my jacket sometimes because it was so hot. The teachers usually don't care. In Toji's case, he's wearing gym clothes, but when some girls in my school did it for one class, the teachers told them off. But I don't think Shinji's teacher even knows he has students.
	071	The classroom is sparsely occupied. The desks of the students who transferred away are in the foreground. Kensuke:“After all, no one wants to stay after that last battle inside the city.” Toji:“Yeah, you're probably the only one who's actually enjoyin' the chance to see a real war.” Kensuke:“I suppose so. So where have you been, Toji? You were gone for so long.”	Mr. Tines: There are fewer pupils here than there were in the survey of the class in 050~054.
	072	While looking into his camera, Kensuke turns his head to look at Toji. He speaks in jest. Kensuke:“Did you get caught in the crossfire or something?”
	073	Camera's point of view. Toji, his face intense. Toji:“My kid sister did.”	Reichu: Toji's little sister is one of the characters whom we hear about a few times but never actually see. (There are quite a few of these in the "cast".) I'm not sure if there is any specific reason why Anno keeps her off the screen. If NGE were "any other anime", one might have expected to see her once or twice. OMF: Even though we never see her, her presence really never leaves. HeWhoPostsStuff: Although the anime never names her, a bunch of fanfiction writers more or less came to a consensus on what to call Toji's sister in their stories, I forget what it was though… "Maiko", or something along those lines…
	074	Kensuke removes the camera, his reaction serious. Kensuke:“……”
	075	Toji's legs. Toji (OFF):“My kid sister… was crushed beneath a pile of debris… She survived, but she's been in the hospital ever since. Both my pop and gramps work at the lab, and there's no way they can leave their posts right now. So, if I ain't with her, she's all alone at the hospital.”	Soluzar: I see. 24-hours-a-day jobs. Allowing for sleep, even, 16-hours-a-day jobs. It's a tough life in Tokyo-3. OMF: Gendo runs a tight ship. I doubt anyone asks for time off in Nerv. thewayneiac: Major Plot Point Alert! If there's no one else but Toji, his father, and his grandfather, what member of his family that you would normally expect to hear about here is missing? Reichu: What's with the bold? It's only a "major plot point" for a measly two episodes. ;;> Sharp-kun: "The lab"? Nerv, perhaps? Keisuke-kun: I think all the students' parents work (or have worked) for Nerv (or Gehirn). Reichu: It makes sense. If you think about it, that's probably the real reason why these kids are in Class 2-A. But, er, not to get ahead of things again… thewayneiac: Also, I've always wondered, did the shelter she was in collapse, or did she not evacuate for some reason? Reichu: Assuming she was in a shelter, NGE might be making the subtle point early on that, even in the shelters, you're not really safe from the calamity above. (We'll see a rather, erm, vivid example of this in a much later episode.)
	076	Toji has a glaring expression. Kensuke blinks. Toji:“Man, that robot's pilot was plain awful! I'm downright pissed off! What the hell's the point of our own guy wreckin' the city?” Kensuke leans forward and whispers. Kensuke:“Speaking of which, did you hear the rumor about the transfer student?” Toji:“———Transfer student?” He points with his chin to a suspicious Toji as he speaks. Kensuke:“Him, over there.”	Magami no ER: To save you from a giant green monster with a bird-like face? But seriously, Toji has the right to be upset. Reichu: Although he should be upset at the Eva herself, not Shinji. ;;> Shin-seiki: Kensuke comes across as a bit of a weasel in this episode, IMO. Soluzar: One can't help but consider his remarks here somewhat ill advised…
	077	Shinji from behind, looking as if he's reading.
	078	Kensuke and Toji, with Shinji in front. Kensuke:“He transferred here while you were absent… right after the incident. Don't you think that's odd?” SE <<Sound of door opening>>	OMF: Something tells me Shinji has the volume on his walkman turned up really loud. He's probably heartily sick of hearing about "the incident" and its morbid details morning after morning. Reichu: Not so loud that he couldn't hear the door open, though.
	079	An elderly teacher enters.	thewayneiac: Ladies and Gentlemen, at last the true star of our show, Nebukawa-sensei! Let's give him a big hand!

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 02	Episode #03 Scene List	Continue to Scene 04 >>