Resources:End of Evangelion Screenplays
Overview
A now-defunct Japanese fan site called "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Mysteries" (NEON GENESIS EVANGELIONその秘密) posted a document they described on the front page as the "secret dialogue" (裏台詞, ura serifu) for The End of Evangelion. On closer inspection, these turned out to be screenplays for both episodes of the film, marked "For Internal (Company) Use" (社内検討用). The website, perhaps for fear of legal repercussions, does not specify where or how it obtained the documents, although they appear to be entirely authentic.
Since the fan site is currently available only through the Internet Archive (provided one knows the page's original URL), the manuscripts have been archived locally.
Differences
The screenplays are fully recognizable as The End of Evangelion, although there are a large number of differences between them and the final product. A rather incomplete list:
Episode 25'
- Rather than "Air", Episode 25′ was originally entitled "The Door Into Summer" (「夏への扉」, "Natsu e no Tobira"), a reference to the science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. (The second title, "Love is destructive.", is already present.)
- Shinji masturbates in his room instead of at Asuka's bedside. The presentation is a bit more surreal than the final: Shinji's room in pointilism, unspecified "inserted images", imagery of "breasts becoming dew", Shinji's face as he ejaculates, etc., and his room returning to normal afterward.
- His semen-covered hand and infamous line are already present, however.
- Following the operators' chat in the Command Center, Kensuke and a wheelchair-bound Toji say their farewells to Shinji. The two are being sent to Germany for reasons unknown. This scene made it to the storyboard stage before being deleted.
- Misato's monologue in the car is mostly different.
- After her monologue, Misato goes to Shinji's room and tells him that they'll be staying at headquarters starting that night, to no response.
- The meeting between Gendo and Seele is longer (see Olivier Hagué's translation)
- After Misato reads the hacked computer file, she says, "So, that's why they need the thirteen Eva Series units" instead of "So, that's the real truth behind Second Impact".
- When she wakes up in Eva-02, Asuka says "Kimochi warui".[1]
- While in the inactive Eva-02, Asuka wonders why the A.T. Field won't unfold and says, "I'm scared... Mama, help me, Mama." Kyoko's background dialogue while Asuka chants "I don't want to die..." is absent. The only "metaphysical imagery" present at this point is a "reassuring image of Asuka's mother".
- Asuka says "Hitotsu" ("One") instead of "Erst" after taking down the first Eva Series unit.
- Misato's expositional speech to Shinji underwent some rewrites, ex.: Yui is specified to have played a role in Second Impact, the 18th Angel is directly referred to as "Lilin", and Lilith is compared to Adam but not called a "source of life". The dialogue about Angels and humans "rejecting" each other is absent; in its place are enigmatic comments that seem to be directly linked to Fuyutsuki and Yui's conversation at the end of the film (also present in this screenplay).
- Asuka & Eva-02's battle against the Eva Series bares little resemblance to the final version. Much of it has not been planned out yet.
- Eva-02's final moments are different: it runs out of power while fighting, is immobilized and "de-armored" by the Eva Series, goes berserk (albeit with Asuka still cognizant) and starts fighting back, tries blocking the incoming Spear with its A.T. Field, is skewered through the head, and at last is killed by subsequent Spears.
- There is no brutal evisceration.
- The needle gun in the right pylon is used during Eva-02's brief retaliation. It will later be relocated to the main fight, for use against Eva-10.
Episode 26'
- The opening scenes with Eva-01 are different, involving: Eva-02's decapitated head, an irate Shinji, more explosions (with any people caught therein reduced to red particles), the Spear of Longinus wielded by Eva-01 and becoming rainbow-colored, and Eva-01's wings increasing in number three times (from 2 to 4 to 6). Eva-01 receives a "Pattern Blue" reading after liberating its S2 engine.
- Eva-01 is not "crucified".
- The Evas are tentatively described generating a magic square in the sky rather than the Sephirothic Tree of Life.
- Gendo has a scene following his rejection by Rei where he comments on the proceedings and wonders what's happening to Shinji. A Kaworu torso grows out of his left hand and turns into a smiling Rei (a sign that Adam has taken on Lilith's form).
- Eva-01 does not fuse with the Spear of Longinus to become the Tree of Life. It might be absorbed into Lilith at this point (but it's kind of ambiguous...).
- Right before Yui's "This Rei is your heart" line, Gendo was to say, "Is it all right, Yui? Do you intend to entrust Shinji with everything?"
- Maya only says "Sempai" once during her final moments.
- Keel's "happy end" is prefaced by a final interchange between the Seele members.
- The Eva Series' cores are described as vivid blue to start with, and become red as they insert the Spears.
- Gendo's final lines are the same, but his death is different: he's just shown turning into LCL and a "particle of red light". His LCL joins the pool in Terminal Dogma prior to Rei retrieving his glasses.
- Immediately after Gendo's death scene, Eva-01 is shown "within Rei's body", trying to penetrate its exposed core with the Spear of Longinus.
- The original Japanese lyrics for M-10 (what would become "Komm, süsser Tod") were apparently going to be displayed as subtitles during the film.
- The title card for "I need you." appears earlier in the film, near the beginning of the live action sequence.
- A much longer and more involved live action sequence is present.
- This was filmed but excised from the final. It was eventually released on the bonus DVD included with the limited edition Renewal of Evangelion DVD Box Set.
- Shinji destroys the original Spear of Longinus.
- The Eva Series destroy their cores when they pull the Spears out -- they didn't kill themselves before -- upon which they spontaneously petrify.
- The Black Moon cleaves in half instead of bursting apart.
- The giant Rei's body is described changing into red LCL and red particles of light. (Her arm drops later, though, so apparently this transformation isn't complete?)
- The entry plug is shown being ejected from Eva-01 and falling to Earth.
- Two different ending scenarios are being considered at this point.
- Last A: The prototype of the final ending. It depicts grave markers erected by Shinji, inscribed with the names of the people he'd known (with the exception of Rei). Asuka is shown kicking down her marker. (A stand of grave markers, complete with one that's been kicked down, are still there in the finished film, but no explanation is provided.) The infamous throttling scene is present, but Asuka's line afterwards is different: "Idiot. I'd never let someone like you kill me."
- Last B: Also uses the desolate beach for its setting, and includes the grave markers. The Rei "specter" is briefly sighted. Shinji is lying on the beach holding the hand of a disembodied white arm, and he talks to himself about how he'll "never see them again" but he'll go on living regardless.
- End credits are present, set to an unspecified song (probably would have been "Everything You've Ever Dreamed"). Behind the credit scroll, there would have been a Moon-Earth-Sun-Stars sequence similar to what appears near the end of the final film. Here, Eva-01 is lying on the surface of the Moon instead of floating in space.
Translations
A full translation into English is not yet available. Olivier Hague translated/summarized many of the scenes towards the end of episode 26', which may be found archived at MDWigs' site. Additional scene translations by Reichu are included below. (With any luck, more will be added over time.)
Episode #25'
Misato's Car Monologue
○ Mountainside Highway - Night
Beyond the dilapidated old town, car lights blinking on and off.
Misato's car stopped at the side of the road.
Misato inside the car, her severe expression reflected in the rear view mirror.
Misato: "The final Angel, Adam's children, they're are all gone. Kaji-kun, it's just like you said.
Misato: "And the remaining Eva Series. They still haven't given an order to dismantle them. The committee still plans to use them in their scenario, whatever comes next. The Evas, and not Lilith."
Misato: "We can't surrender our lives or the Evas to Seele's lot."
"Get Ready"
○ Shinji's Room
It's dim and the lights are off.
Shinji cowers in bed.
S-DAT with dead battery display switching on and off.
The sliding door opens and Misato's silhouette appears.
Misato: "Shinji-kun. Starting tonight, we're staying at headquarters. Get ready."
Shinji doesn't respond.
Misato knits her brow. (Not needed?)
"I Don't Want to Die"
○ Lake bottom
Eva Unit-02.
Depth charges explode at point-blank range.
Plug interior, hit by massive tremors.
A frightened Asuka.
Asuka: "...I'm alive?"
○ Geofront
Depth charge vehicles arranged on the periphery of the underground lake ejecting their load.
Giant pillars of water rise from the surface one after another.
○ Lake bottom again.
Eva-02.
Depth charges detonating one after another at point-blank range.
Plug interior being jolted around a lot.[2]
Asuka: "Why isn't the A.T. Field spreading?"
Asuka: "I'm scared... Mama, help me, Mama."
Direct hit to the head. (The eyes go out.)
Asuka seizes her head with both hands.
Asuka: "No... I'm don't want to die. I don't want to die."
Shock waves continue to hit Asuka.[3]
Asuka: "I don't want to dieeeeeeeeee!!"
Insert. A reassuring image of Asuka's mother. (Some track-up.)[4]
Asuka's tearfully smiling face.
Asuka: "Mama... So you've been here, Mama."
Suddenly, the entry plug lights up.
The monitor comes back online, as well.
An utterly dumbstruck Asuka. A cold smile forms on her face.
Eva-02's four monitor eyes light up.
Misato & Shinji: Humans & Angels
○ Central Dogma Deep Underground Facility
Misato's car emerges from a tunnel. (First person view-ish.)
Graveyard with dozens of scrapped Evas from a decade before.
They're lined up in the darkness like sprouts growing from a seedbed or white spermatozoa. (Use #23 NPC)
Misato and Shinji heading for the Cage.
Misato: "They intend to cause Third Impact, using the Eva Series, and return all humanity to nothingness."
Misato: "Fifteen years ago, people, including your mother,[5] reduced the scale of Second Impact by making Adam undergo degradation."
Misato: "Shinji-kun... what's made you fight up until now?"
Shinji is silent.
Misato: "The Angels. Enigmatic, non-communicative entities. The 18th Angel remaining in the end is mankind. The Angel called Lilin, born from Lilith, who is like Adam.[6]"
Misato: "Angels and Man are fundamentally the same thing. Angels are merely another possible humanity: humans that cast aside human form."
Misato: "People cannot live without the mothers of life -- the Sun, Earth, and Moon. But an Angel that isn't dependent on them would be a new form of life, capable of surviving the harshest conditions.
Misato: "Eva was its model."
Misato: "People will probably perish, any which way. But right this moment, we can't just sit back and let humanity get annihilated."
Misato: "Okay? Destroy the entire Eva Series. Preventing Third Impact is the only way everyone can stay alive."
Asuka Versus Eva Series (2)
○ Geofront
The Eva Series slowly and steadfastly encircle Eva-02.[7]
Eva-02 brandishes its prog knife.
It stabs the knife into Eva-11's face.
The blade of the knife yields with a snap.
Sparks scattering, the blade goes into the Eva's head.
Eva-02's right hand. The next blade comes out.
Asuka: "Next!"
Eva-02 prepares to leap onto Eva-06.
However, Eva-11 restrains 02 by the arms. (11's head is fracturing.)
The cable is severed by the other Eva.
The countdown starts.[8]
Asuka: "Tch!"
Inserts of hand-to-hand combat.
Asuka: "Dammit! I shouldn't be the only one running off internal power here!"
Inserts of hand-to-hand combat.
Asuka: "Why are they still operational?!"
Eva-02 tears off Eva-11's head. (The vertebrae remain attached.)
Asuka: "...They couldn't all have S2 engines?"
Eva-11 pursues even though its neck is broken.[9]
Asuka: "Geez! They just don't stop! I can't even count on that idiot Shinji!"
Asuka Versus Eva Series (3)
○ Geofront
Another one or two Evas are taken down with a spinning round kick? (Give this some thought.)
After dealing the blow, or whatever, the timer count finally hits "0".
Eva-02 comes to an abrupt, lurching halt.
Asuka: "Crap! I've stopped already?!"
Eva-02 receives a light kick from the front.
It collapses heavily into the forest.
Eva-02 is pinned down and immobilized with a knife (Spear?) in each arm.
The Eva Series open their mouths wide.[10]
Still holding 02 down, they bite off the chest armor.
(This is, again, a straight image of rape.)[11]
Asuka seizes her chest, her expression tainted with disgrace and humiliation.
Asuka Versus Eva Series (4)
○ Geofront, once again
Eva-02's armor is torn off and the basic body exposed.
A white Eva plants down 02's face, about to forcibly dislocate the mandibular joint.
Asuka's face strains as though her own jaw has been seized.
Her face is fraught with humiliation and rage.
Asuka: "Dammit! I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you!!"
Eva-02's four eyes suddenly open.
It's gone berserk.
Eva-02 fires from the needle gun in its right shoulder pylon.
The other Eva's head is torn asunder.
Eva-02 delivers a kick to the Eva's back, then rises.
Asuka: "How dare you harm this beautiful body."[12]
A Spear of Longinus suddenly flies towards Eva-02. (From an Eva Series unit or launched by a Giant Transport Aircraft, maybe?)[13]
The A.T. Field stops it at first, but its light is devoured and eroded.
Asuka: "The A.T. Field can't be--!?"
The Spear of Longinus pierces Eva-02's head.
Asuka lifts her face.
She presses down on her left eye as blood ceaselessly streams between her fingers.
Asuka (enduring great pain): "What is this...?"
The shapes of the Spear stuck into the ground and the fully immobilized Eva-02.
Asuka: "No! Spears of Longinus?"
(Three whooshing sounds.)
And then, the Eva's chest, abdomen, foot, etc., are skewered.
In an instant, Eva-02 is turned into an objet d'art.[14]
Episode #26'
The Spear Returns
○ Subtitle: "Yours Sincerely"
○ Geofront
Woods whistling, Eva-01 hovers in mid-air with two wings.
Uprooted trees, the wreckage of JSSDF ordnance, etc., in the area rise into the air.
Eva-01's satanic face
Shinji in plug interior. (No interface headset.)
Shinji: "Asuka?"
Eva-02's head held in the mouth of an Eva Series unit.
(The severed end is not pretty, as though the head was forcibly torn off.)
Shinji: "Uwaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Rei notices that something's wrong with Shinji. (Side profile close-up, insert.)
Rei: "Ikari-kun?"
Shinji is nonetheless enraged.
Eva-01 unleashes four wings at once.
○ Surface of the Moon
The Spear of Longinus stuck in the ground, casting a long shadow.[15]
It flies out with a "whoosh".
○ Geofront Peripheral Section
From off-screen, there's dialogue from a panicking military correspondent, etc.
JSSDF Intelligence Officer: "There's an object flying in from the outer atmosphere at just under the speed of light!"
JSSDF Intelligence Commanding Officer: "What?!?"
A light piercing the atmosphere. (Insert.)
Fuyutsuki: "No, not the Spear of Longinus?!"
The Spear of Longinus comes to a sudden stop right in front of Eva-01.
Eva-01 slowly takes the Spear of Longinus in hand.
Shinji (miserable): "No more... I can't take any more of this!!"
In an instant, the Spear becomes the colors of the rainbow.
Eva-01's wings become six in number, as well.
Everything around turns to light and is blown away
Command Center 2 is hit by the shock wave.
Aoba, kneeling on the floor as he looks up at the console monitor rolling with noise???
Aoba: "Eva Unit-01 has released its S2 engine! Changing to analysis Pattern Blue!"
Fuyutsuki: "This is bad."
Forest, ruins, ordnance, and people are swept away as grains of light. (Red light for people only.)[16]
The Eva Series are standing there. They and Eva-02 are untouched.
The Eva Series watch intently, without emotion.[17]
Eva Unit-02's eyes look as though maybe they're watching this, with a similar detachment.[18]
Shinji is screaming.
The wings of light increase two at a time and issue forth, simultaneously on both left and right sides.
Seele (1)
○ Seele Council Room[19]
"At last, our hopes will be realized."
"The original Spear of Longinus has returned, as well."
Keel: "There aren't quite enough, but it can't be helped."
All: "Return the Eva Series to its rightful form."
All: "Evangelize humankind and restore us to our true form."
All: "With equal amounts of death and prayer, restore all people to their true state."
Keel: "And may all souls be at peace."
Keel: "Then, let the ceremony commence."
Rei's Ascension (Partial)
○ High altitude skies
Pure blue sky.
The eleven Evas hang in the air above the sea of clouds.[20]
Shinji continues screaming.
Eva-01's wings of light finally become 12.
○ Terminal Dogma
Lilith's mask floats on the LCL. (Not needed?)
Ikari lingers.
His left hand. Red particles of light flitter about.
Like a jimensou, Kaworu's upper body emerges from around the base of his thumb.[21]
This in turn transforms into a smiling Rei.
Ikari: "Adam is taking on Lilith's form."
Ikari: "Has it... begun? This isn't Rei's doing. Yui? No... Shinji?"
Ikari: "Is Shinji doing this?"
Shinji continues to scream.
Eva-01's 12 glowing wings of light.
The form of a giant Rei slowly rises up from below the sea of clouds.
Shinji is in shock, eyes still full of tears.
Shinji: "Ayanami, Rei?"
At the sound of her name, Rei blinks open her eyes (which are formed in the process). (Eva-01 across from her.)
Shinji has no screams left.
Above the clouds. Rei and the 11 Evas opposing each other.
Notes
All notes by Reichu. Acknowledgments to RockManBalls for providing translation help. You're awesome, man.
Sometimes the dialogue is identical to that in the final script. In these cases, I often found myself referencing the best translation of EoE's dialogue out there, Bochan_bird's. (Especially since I'm none too great with dialogue.) These screenplay translations are my own work, by and by, but when I didn't feel like I could come up with a "better" take on a particular line (not that any of the lines I did translate differently are "better"), I went with what he got. Not sure if he would consider that a compliment or mere thievery. Given our "ambivalent relationship"... Er...
Anyway!
- ↑ "The scenario for episode 25' is close to what was seen on screen... You just had the "farewell scene" with Shinji, Tôji and Kensuke (that remained in the storyboards with a few differences, but was never "shot", it seems), a "new" scene with Asuka waking up in her Eva-02 like she did in (TV) episode 25 (and saying an early "kimochi warui" ^^)..." http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/oldeva/2001-March/039253.html
- ↑ There's a note here, (赤と紫パラの置き換えで), which I'd be able to translate if I knew what the hell the para part meant. Damn these animators and their jargon.
- ↑ Another note here, (長尺で). Again, I suspect this is some bit of animator jargon and I have no idea what it's referring to.
- ↑ I honestly don't know how you can have just a little "track-up" (TU), but that's the best I can do for (TU加味). I'm doing pretty bad here.
- ↑ Misato says, "Anata no okaasan-tachi", literally "your mother" followed by a vague pluralizing suffix that usually functions along the lines, "and those in association with him/her". Probably an allusion to "coworkers" here, i.e. the fine people of Gehirn, though I could be wrong. That the body of people specified as playing a role in what happened to Adam includes Yui here is interesting, since she was never part of the Katsuragi Expedition... Or am I reading too deeply into a deleted scrap of dialogue? Maybe.
- ↑ "Like Adam" in what way? Doesn't really bother specifying.
- ↑ Honestly not sure what その様にも is "doing". Yes, I did look it up.
- ↑ Whoa, whoa, hold the phone. In this version (manuscript #2), the umbilical cable actually got severed earlier by the JSSDF, complete with "I don't need the umbilical cable blah blah blah!" So what's going on here...? Is this an artifact of editorial oversight, maybe? Proposal: Perhaps in the draft before this (manuscript #1, I guess), the cable WAS supposed to be severed by Eva-06(?), but, starting with this one, the JSSDF cuts it -- and they forgot to write these two lines out. Whoops? Not that nitpicky fans were ever supposed to see the manuscript anyway.
- ↑ If the damage sounds like it doesn't match up -- it's either because it doesn't, or I just don't get them Japanese verbs. 首を引きちぎる makes it sound like Asuka was trying out a move she learned from playing too much Mortal Kombat, but 首が折れて makes it sound like a neck is still there, just... broken. I'm lost.
- ↑ Doesn't really specify whether it's one Eva or many. Bloody Japanese.
- ↑ Um... huh... Maybe a reference back to something from earlier in the script. I'll try to fix it at some point so it makes actual sense.
- ↑ The juxtaposition of a partly-naked Eva-02 with Asuka huffing "HOW DARE YOU HARM THIS BEAUTIFUL BODY" is somehow both ridiculously awesome and mindbendingly ludicrous at the same time. Yes, that was a worthless "Note"; I apologize.
- ↑ Well, the latter is a possibility I've never heard anyone suggest in those "Who threw the Spear?" fanwanking sessions... Though I guess if there weren't this underlying assumption that we were only dealing with nine Spears -- in the final movie, that is -- somebody might have.
- ↑ Anno has a thing for "objet d'art" references in his scripts. Skewered Eva-02 is objet d'art. Dead harpies are objet d'art. Frozen Eva-01 with dead Shamshel is objet d'art. I bet there's more. I'm not sure if this is just Anno being weird, or foreign word appropriation being weird.
- ↑ There's a note here -- (#24 新作部と"25 で見せとく) -- but I have no clue what 見せとく means. Newly-produced material for #24 is being referenced.
- ↑ An interesting detail. But I can just imagine the creative meeting after this. "Er, Hideaki-kun, that's cool and all, but don't the trees have souls, too?" "...... Curses! Now I have to rewrite the whole scene FROM SCRATCH!!!"
- ↑ Don't know how to translate その様を here. Blah.
- ↑ Not sure about this, either.
- ↑ All of the dialogue in this scene survived intact to the final version. The only changes involved reassigning the first three lines to Seele 01, 04, and 09, respectively.
- ↑ Another note here I can't translate that looks like animator jargon, (絵画的に・疑似回り込み). Plus... eleven Evas? Since when?
- ↑ Regarding the 人面ソ in the screenplay, RockManBalls says, "Methinks it's supposed to be written 人面瘡, jinmensou, a Japanese horror obsession of a tumor or piece of skin with a person's face." Scrumptious.
External Links
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Mysteries @ The Internet Archive. Retrieved 4/19/2009.
- MDWigs' Musings: EoE Live Sequence and Alternate Endings. Retrieved 4/19/2009.
- The Evangelion Otaku Page. Retrieved 4/22/2009.
- The End of Evangelion Motion Picture Screenplay. Translated by Bochan_bird. (Despite the name, this is a translation of the final movie's dialogue formatted into a "screenplay", not the pre-production screenplay.)