Episode 09

Episode Information
Episode #09
Title 1: 瞬間、心、重ねて Shunkan, Kokoro, Kasanete With One Accord in a Flash Title 2: Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!
Written By	Hideaki Anno, Akio Satsukawa
Directed By	Seiji Mizushima
First Aired	11-29-1995
Video Release Date	6-5-1996 (Japan-Video/LD), 1-23-2001 (US-DVD)
Angel Appearances	Israfel
Eva Sorties	Eva-01, Eva-02
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Episode 08"	"Episode 10"

Overview

Asuka joins Shinji’s class at school, and moves in with Misato and him in their apartment. As Asuka adjusts to Japan (or rather, everyone else adapts to her...), a new Angel attacks which is capable of splitting itself into two identical copies. Eva Unit 01 and Eva Unit 02 are defeated, and the JSSDF is forced to drop an N² Mine the Angel, forcing it to stop to regenerate for several days. In the meantime, Asuka and Shinji must train using a classical music track to carry out a coordinated attack against the Angel and synchronize their combat moves perfectly, which is the only way to defeat the Angel.

Synopsis

Episode 9 opens with a series of still shots of Asuka, accompanied by a clicking camera lens. We then are shown that Toji and Kensuke have been photographing her and selling the photos. We also see in this sequence that Asuka has a locker full of love letter from admirers from her new school.

Shinji arrives on campus and Asuka greets him with a cheerful "Guten Morgen," and asks if Rei isn't there. Spotting her, Asuka doesn't wait for Shinji to introduce her, instead taking matters into her own hands by introducing herself. Asuka declares that they will be great friends, and is perplexed when Rei answers, "If I'm ordered to I'll do it." After witnessing this conversation, Toji asks if only weirdos are Eva pilots.

Back at headquarters, Kaji comes on to Ritsuko. Ritsuko, who is seemingly used to this behavior on his part, smiles and points out that Misato is watching them. When Misato demands to know why he is still in Japan, Kaji reveals that he is staying there "on loan".

Just then, alarm bells start to ring; the on-station cruiser Haruna reports that a large object has been detected approaching the Kii peninsula; the seventh Angel, Israfel, has begun his attack. Shinji and Asuka are sortied in Unit-01 and Unit-02. Though they have been ordered to work together, Asuka takes the lead and bisects Israfel with a single blow. Shinji is momentarily impressed, until the two halves revive as separate Angels.

We then cut to the aftermath of the battle, in which both pilots were defeated, and their Evas ended up upside down. At their debriefing, they bicker about who was at fault, and are lectured by Kozo Fuyutsuki. we are also told that the U.N. had interveaned and temporarily stopped Israfel with an N² Mine, which destroyed 28% of his body. But Israfel is already restoring himself.

Kaji gives Misato a plan to defeat Israfel: a coordinated simultaneous attack on each half's core. Shinji and Asuka must be in total accord in order for this mission to succeed, so it is decided that Asuka must move in with Misato and Shinji, and that the two of them will spend all of their time together in the few days remaining until it is believed Israfel will revive. Asuka comments at this point that she would rather move in with Kaji, and a little heart briefly appears on screen.

Toji and Kensuke drop by to visit Shinji, and are surprised when they meet Hikari, who has come to visit Asuka. All three are shocked that Shinji and Asuka are living together until the situation is explained to them. The training seems to be partially successful, as Shinji and Asuka speak the same lines in unison when they answer the door. But, they still have a lot of work to do. They are training to synchronize their movements by touching the same spots on separate twister mats, but constantly get it wrong. Asuka blames Shinji, but when Misato asks Rei, who is there observing, to give it a try, she and Shinji synch perfectly on the first try. Humiliated, Asuka runs from the room, prompting Hikari to command Shinji to follow her. "You made a girl cry!" When he finds her, Asuka promises to "pay back" Misato for humiliating her. They then continue their training.

The night before the battle, Misato has to work late. When Asuka hears this, while stepping out of the shower, she hints to Shinji that they are all alone. When she doesn't get any response, she storms into Misato's room to sleep alone. Later that night, she sleepwalks into Shinji's futon. He leans over to kiss her, but stops when she calls in her sleep for her mother. He realizes that she's just a child herself.

Back at headquarters, Kaji gropes Misato on the elevator; she protests only halfheartedly. A little later, Ritsuko teases Misato about her relationship with Kaji.

The day of the battle arrives. Shinji and Asuka launch their coordinated assault to music selected by Kaji. The plan works perfectly, except that after destroying both cores with a flying drop kick, they miss their landing and fall in a heap. The episode ends with them bickering over whose fault it is.

Notes

• This episode takes place soon after the previous one, effectively forming the second half of the introduction-of-Asuka story.
  • Like Episode 08, Episode 09's end credits are tinted red, in honor of the arrival of Asuka and Eva 02 to Japan.
• An image of the aquatic Angel Gaghiel briefly appears, on Ritsuko's computer screen as she is looking over information about it.
• This marks the first time that Eva-01 and Eva-02 are deployed at the same time.
• When Shinji arrives at Misato's apartment to find that Asuka has moved in, and Asuka thinks that he is being kicked out in favor of her (not that both of them will live with Misato), Asuka says there wasn't enough room for all of her things, and Shinji is shocked to see that she has taken many of Shinji's things from his room and put them in a box as if to ship them out. Included in the box is the pink heart shaped plaque that first appeared in Episode 04, which reads "Shinji's Room" that Misato (apparently) hung on the door to Shinji's room.
• Although Asuka is normally unmovable and refuses to show signs of weakness, to the point that she will stick her head in a freezer to prevent herself from crying when she is upset, she cries in her sleep while mumbling about her mother: this will be explained in Episode 22.
• Upon close observation, Asuka is actually the one missing the beats in the synchronization game, not Shinji, even though she's loudly blaming it on him.
  • To everyone's surprise but Asuka's shock and disgust, when Asuka refuses to do the training anymore Misato suggests that Rei attempt the dance routine, resulting in Rei and Shinji synchronizing perfectly on the first try.
• At the end of the episode, Shinji flinches when the holographic image of Asuka tries to slap him. This awkward dynamic could be explained in theorizing that Shinji merely flinched reflexively, although it should be noted the his head jerks forward as if he had acutely been hit.
• Evangelions have a holographic projection telephone device located just outside the Entry Plug (holographic projection technology is seen during other parts of the series, such as meetings of the Human Instrumentality Committee; apparently this technology has been developed by 2015, but it is fairly advanced and not in commonplace use).
• Not only can an Eva pilot enter and launch an Evangelion without external aid (as seen last episode), here we see that both Asuka and Shinji can disengage their Entry Plugs and exit both of their Evas, without external help.
• During Israfel's second attack, it showed the Angelic ability previously displayed by Sachiel to upgrade and evolve its abilities in response to external threats, as it had by then developed an energy blast attack fired from the faces of its two copies.
• During the makeshift party Misato holds while Asuka and Shinji are training, Hikari Horaki can be seen playing with Pen Pen. In Episode 24, when Tokyo-3 has to be mostly evacuated of non-essential personnel because its not safe anymore, Misato gives Pen Pen to Hikari and her family for safe keeping when they leave the city.
• A sign behind Misato says that Nerv HQ's post office is located on Level B-09.
• Exactly 62 seconds actually do pass between when the countdown timer starts and when the battle ends.
  • This is really the only time in the series that the "5 minutes of internal power,but only one minute at maximum usage" rule explained in Episode 03 is followed. At all other times, Evas have 5 minutes of internal battery power.
• At the end of the episode when the two Evas fall on top of each other in a "compromising position" and Asuka and Shinji begin bickering over what happened the night before over the open communication line, Misato, Fuyutsuki, Hyuga, and Aoba wince in embarrassment (while Ritsuko shrugs her shoulders in embarrassment). However, Kaji openly laughs at the comic situation, and Maya can be seen to be stifling a chuckle.
• When they mess up the dance routine, Asuka exclaims "sheiss!" (German for "shit!"): when the episode aired on Adult Swim, this was censored by playing a loud beep over the word. This is ironic, given that the word "scheiss" had actually already been used uncensored in Adult Swim's in-house produced flagship show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. This was also the first episode to receive a "TV-14" rating when it aired on Adult Swim, most likely due to sexual content.

Analysis

• Timeline-wise, this episode is one of the few points in the series which can actually be firmly dated: when Misato is marking off on a calendar the day that the final battle against Israfel will take place, we see that it occurs on Friday the 11th. In 2015, Friday will fall on the 11th only in either September or December. It is not at first clear which month it is, because the bottom of the calendar cannot be seen (December has 31 days, September only 30). However, December can be ruled out, because in later episodes a period of time longer than one month passes, but it is still "2015". For example, over 30 days pass in Episode 20 alone, and if Episode 09 took place on December 11th that would push the following episodes into 2016. However, computer displays of dates after Episode 20 (i.e. on Maya Ibuki's laptop during The End of Evangelion, etc.) still say that it is "2015". Thus, the final battle against Israfel takes place on September 11th, 2015.
  • The Angel Ramiel's corpse is still being cleared away in this episode, as it was also still being cleaned up in Episode 08 and Episode 07, after it was killed in Episode 06, linking all of these episodes fairly close together on the timeline. Further, Asuka is still treated as a new arrival at school, so this episode does not take place long after Episode 08, and in Episode 07, the naval convoy transporting Asuka to Japan was said to already be "on its way" from Germany. Shinji arrived in Tokyo-3 no later than August, 2015, and roughly a month passes between Episode 01 and the end of Episode 06.
• Shinji responds to Asuka's greeting of "Guten morgen" with another "Guten morgen"; does this mean that Shinji has learned German between last episode (when he knew no German whatsoever) and now?
  • Not really. Shinji just picked up on a basic greeting phrase from German. That doesn't really mean he knows significantly more than he did before.
• Asuka has been described by the series' creators as a girl "who seeks to put herself above all others": continuing this visual motif from Episode 08, when Asuka first introduces herself to Rei Ayanami, she apparently makes it a point to be standing on a railing so that she is physically high above Rei, as well as all of the other students.
• Kaji seems to flirt with Ritsuko at the beginning of this episode, which might confuse some first-time viewers into thinking they have a romantic past together. However, nothing revealed during the rest of the series ever implies that Kaji was seriously flirting with Ritsuko, and specifically flashbacks in Episode 21 to when Kaji, Misato, and Ritsuko were in college do not suggest anything of the kind. Kaji is merely "fooling around" here (in a more overt example of the "casual guy" mildly flirtatious attitude he exudes in many other episodes of the series) quite possibly to arouse jealousy out of Misato on purpose to tease her.

Quotes

• {The explosion from the Angel's destruction has caused Eva 01 and Eva 02 to fall on each other in a "compromising position", and Asuka is yelling at Shinji)
  Asuka: What the hell were you doing staying up all night?!
  Shinji: "Devising the strategy for today's battle!"
  Asuka: "Liar! I know you tried to kiss me while I was asleep!"
  Shinji: You cheat! You were awake?!
  Asuka: "Oh God, I just meant that as a joke! Did you really try to?!"
  Shinji: "No, I stopped..."
  Asuka: "Pervert! Fiend! Idiot!" ("slaps" Shinji over the holographic intercom) "I can't believe you!"
  Shinji: Well you were the one sleepwalking and talking about your mother!"
  Fuyutsuki: (listening to the whole argument) "They've embarrassed us again."

This article bears the unpleasant designation of "Stub." This is a Bad Thing. Provide a great service to NGE fan-geeks everywhere by making it awesomer!