Geektionary

Note: You will notice that The Geektionary occasionally uses first person references in violation of this site's standards and practices. This is the exception that tests the rule. Don't anyone else do this.

Introduction

Like anything else, geeks have their own unique subculture, and Evangelion geeks are no exception. The aim of the Geektionary is to provide a little guide to the incomprehensible geek-culture saturating the entire commentary (the FGC community in particular). People who actually have lives are bound to ask these kinds of questions: “What the heck do all those acronyms stand for? What is this ReDeath they keep on mentioning, or Thumbnail Theatre, for that matter? And what's all that weird Japanese they keep on throwing in? I speak English, goddamit!”

Some terms, like “AMV” and “shipping”, are hardly specific to NGE geekdom, but we will explain their significance to the fandom nonetheless. For explanations of various other Internet geek memes you might see in use (like the omnipresent “n00b”), I recommend Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia.

Acronym Quick-Reference Guide

Acronyms/abbreviations/TLAs are a running joke at the ANF Evangelion forum. Terms from the show quickly become TLA (three-letter acronyms), but then, inevitably, new acronyms need to be invented for any often-referenced idea — and sometimes merely for their own sake. Many of these are self-explanatory, but those marked by asterisks will be further explained in the lexicon section.

2I: Second Impact

3I: Third Impact

AATF: Anti A.T. Field

AEL: Artificial Evolution Laboratory

AMV*: Anime Music Video

ANF*: AnimeNation Forums

ATF: A.T. Field (Absolute Terror Field)

AU*: Alternate Universe

AWL*: Amanda Winn Lee

BIB*: Big Irony Bomb

CE: Contact Experiment

CI: (NGE2) Classified Information

CP: Commentary Page

D&R: Death & Rebirth

ED*: Ending

EGK*: Evil Gekijouban Kyoko

EMF*: Eva Monkey Forums

EMK*: Evil Manga Kaworu

EoE: End of Evangelion

EoTV*: End of TV

EU*: Expanded Universe

FAR*: First Ancestral Race

FGC: (Evangelion) Fan-Geeks Commentary (Project)

FMttM: Fly Me to the Moon

FoK: Fruit of Knowledge

FoL: Fruit of Life

GGNR*: Giant Giant Naked Rei

GNK*: Giant Naked Kaworu

GNR*: Giant Naked Rei

GOS*: Girlfriend of Steel

GOS2*: Girlfriend of Steel 2

GSF*: Genetically Similar Facsimile

HCP: Human Complemention Project (see HIP)

HIP*: Human Instrumentality Project

JA: Jet Alone

JSSDF: Japanese Strategic Self-Defense Force

KFR*: Kentucky Fried Rei

LAEM*: Live Action Evangelion Movie

LCL*: Not what you might think

LnY*: Longinus no Yari

LoL*: Lance of Longinus

LTP*: Literal Translation Project

MGNR: Mini Giant Naked Rei

MP*: Mass Production (Model Evangelion)

MPB*: Metaphysical Biology

N²*: No(n) Nuclear

NGE: Neon Genesis Evangelion

NPC*: New Production Cut

OP*: Opening

P3II*: Pre-3I Instrumentality

RCB*: Red Cross Book

REGK: Really Evil Gekijouban Kyoko (see EGK)

RIAO*: Rei in Appearance Only

RNR*: Regular Naked Rei

S²*: Super Solenoid

SoL*: Source of Life

SDSS: Secret Dead Sea Scrolls

ToL: Tree of Life

UBF*: Über Bitch Fight

Lexicon

Addition Drama Track

To save Reichu's phalanges some effort, look [1]. Then, go [2] and download the picsub. There is little more to say.

ADV

A veritable empire in the realm of anime localization, which acquired the NGE TV series when the Texas-based company was still young and localized it for western countries*. The English dub they produced remains — as part of the bigger, perpetually futile Dubs vs. Subs debate — an apple of discord within the NGE community. Their pre-Platinum releases were not, like many domestic anime releases of that time, up to par with the expectations of today. While the horrendous picture quality was not their fault, the translations used for both the subtitles and the dub obscured, distorted, or outright erased many of NGE's finer points — thus making deeper understanding of an anime that so heavily utilizes subtlety more unobtainable than would a reliable translation. (And the dub, by the very nature of dubs, exacerbated the problem.) Other strikes against ADV include:

• The promotion of misinformation via the descriptions on the video packages and “supplemental” materials included in their releases.
• Their failure to wait for the Japanese video releases of the final TV episodes, resulting in an unnecessarily long wait for the NPC episodes. (But as an unintended “bonus”, this meant that we did get the original TV cuts of these episodes. ::p)
• The utilization of overlays in the Collection volumes.
• Their decision to release Platinum in such close proximity to the long-delayed release of the “Directors' Cut” episodes. Getting the pre-Renewal NPC episodes locally is still a boon for completists, but this bad commercial decision — “bad” as in “respectibility meter down another point”, not “bad” from the cold and inhuman money-milking POV — was still a peeve for many.
• No need to go on with various other minutiae… Despite the bad timing of Platinum, ADV has largely redeemed themselves with it. See Platinum for more details.
• I'm only certain about the US, UK, and Canada. Not sure about elsewhere, or how releases lacking the ADV label were, or weren't, connected to ADV. Anyone?

Akira

A fanon name for Dr. Katsuragi, coined by Reichu, and sometimes used as a shorthand identifier. Borrowed from Akira Ishida (Kaworu's seiyuu) due to speculation that Kaworu was cloned from Misato's father. That it is buried, in reverse order, in the string "Katsuragi-hakase" (= Dr. Katsuragi) is coincidental.

AMV

Anime Music Videos. A popular pastime of gaijin (i.e., non-Japanese) anime geeks is editing together video from one or many anime to go along with a song. The resultant monster is an AMV, and making these things is an art in and of itself. Evangelion music videos are extremely commonplace, but only a few are truly great; a couple of fan favorites are Kevin Caldwell's Engel and ShonenDizzyCow's Evangelion Opus. Go to animemusicvideos.org for more info (along with tons of shiznat to download).

ANF

AnimeNation Forums, the popular anime-centered forum community of www.animenation.com. Over the years, its "Evangelion" subforum has been a great place to talk Evangelion and was, during its Golden Age (possibly starting Summer 2003), arguably the best NGE community on the Internet. It saw the birth of the Commentary Project, and the vast amount of discussion that has been generated there (or by the associated people, in general) acts as the heart and foundation of everything FGC. The "good ol' days" appeared to be officially over towards the end of the prior August 2005, when commentator thewayneiac began to mourn the forum's death. While the forum is not actually dead, a lot of old favorites have either vanished, gone irregular, or become lurkers, but, at least, some of the vets are still around, and enough newbies flow in to keep things from going altogether stagnant.

Angel Tower

The grotesque form that bubbles out of EVA-00's back in episode #23', a conglomeration of Armisael's dead siblings, immediately after Rei's metaphysical interchange with the 16th concludes, and a matter long perplexing fans. Infrequently referenced by its Japanese equivalent, "shito no tou" 使徒の塔. Coined by Reichu.

Angelic Days

See Love Eva.

Anti-shipping

See Shipping.

AWL

Amanda Winn Lee, the dub voice of Rei and ADR director for the English adaptation of the two movies (and unofficially for parts of the TV series). She has earned a harsh reputation among most of us geeks for a number of reasons — most highlighted by her Commentary of Evil. This acronym is particularly useful because, as tv33 put it, “Her true name is too evil to be typed in full.”

Apostle

The literal translation of "shito" 使徒, although "Angel" is used instead as the official English-language counterpart. (See e.g. the OP sequence and computer screens throughout the show.) The term "Angel" creates significant confusion among fans due to the fact that, for the majority of the time, it's used to reference Adam and her offspring (it's "us vs. them" = "humans vs. Angels") -- sometimes implicitly just the latter -- only to have Misato later reveal that "we humans" are the 18th Angel. (And Lilith is, of course, the 2nd, though never directly stated in the show.)

• The entire issue of what "human" and "Angel" actually mean aside, we are left with one other problem: There isn't any term that refers specifically to Adam's children, Angels #3 through #17. As I thought it would lend some long-needed clarity to fan discussion, I proposed the utilization of "Apostle" as the easiest and most straightforward option.