Evangelion Mark.04

File:Mk.04A.png

Eva Mk.04A

Evangelion Mark.04 is the collective designation of a series of artificial beings possessing characteristics of both Angels and Evas. They first appear in Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo. Their purpose appears to be that of autonomous weapons, with objectives varying depending on the specific sub-type.

In Eva 3.0

The first three series of Mark.04 units seen are based around a saucer shape. Individual units superficially appear inorganic in nature, but this could be due to the extensive use of restraint technology. Instead of possessing individual cores, they utilize a feature called a core block.

Mk. 04A

Mk. 04A are mobile units observed during Operation US, defending the orbital space where Eva-01's tesseract is being held. Shigeru Aoba refers to them as "the auto-defense system's mass weapon." They use A.T. Fields as a means of propulsion through space, and attack through the use of an Anti A.T. Field. Their own defenses appear meager, as they are easily one-shotted by Mari in Eva-08.

The main body is disc-shaped, with two cores on one side, and the lower body of an Eva with scissor-like legs emerging from the other. The back surface features four pylons, the "Eva-04" logo, and a design featuring two Evas holding hands which bears some resemblance to the IPEA logo. The overall appearance is somewhat evocative of a bacteriophage.

Multiple 04A husks can be seen on the decks of Wille's fleet wired into the power system, indicating that Wille have encountered this variety prior to Operation US and determined a way to utilize their power source post mortem. Both 04B and 04C clearly liquify when they die, so it's unclear how Wille are able to successfully the 04A for power.

Mk. 04B

Mk. 04B was built into Eva-01's tesseract prison. It consists of a mobile core block, similar to the disc component of the Mk. 04A units, and immensely long reflective ribbons that extend from the tesseract itself. The ribbons appear to reflect sunlight to employ it as a weapon. 04B is also said to utilize a "field-reflective coating", which appears to neutralize Eva-02's A.T. Field and leave it vulnerable to an attack that pocks its entire surface.

Mk. 04B is destroyed by an energy attack from the briefly awakened Eva-01.

Mk. 04C (Nemesis Series)

Mk. 04C, also called the "Nemesis Series", appear in the polar oceans where AAA Wunder is being outfitted: a cadre consisting of four core blocks and spontaneously generated attacking units ("pillars of light").

The four core blocks, holding thirty-two cores apiece, lie beneath the water's surface, shielded by a cloaking cocoon. The Nemesis Series' principal strategy is to keep its core blocks protected, and deploy mobile pillars of light on the surface, which develop into towers of stacked units that link together to form a lattice around a target. The pillars of light employ a "saturated attack", which appears to instantaneously vaporize anything that contacts it.

If the cocoon is breached, the core blocks can attack with prehensile ribbon-arms, resembling those of Zeruel from NGE, but otherwise seem largely helpless. When the core blocks are destroyed by the Wunder's guns, it can be seen that their interior is entirely core-material.

When the Nemesis Series appears, Misato states, "They're back", and Ritsuko later says, "we should retreat like we usually do." This possibly suggests that Wille have had multiple run-ins with Mk. 4C, but were not able to confront and defeat them until the activation of the AAA Wunder.

In Eva 3.0+1.0

Another set of three Eva types, based around the number "4" and most likely a second series of Mark.04 units, are encountered in Paris at the beginning of Evangelion 3.0+1.0. Unlike the ones in Eva 3.0, these much more closely resemble actual Evangelions, but are similarly fused with technology at a level far beyond the Eva norm. These units do not utilize core blocks, and instead are formed from two or more Eva units merged into a single being. The number of times the "4" in their name repeats is how many individual Evas are present in units of that type.

Eva 44A

Pronounced "Four-Two-A". Two Evas joined front-to-front. A Spear of Longinus is held in place by this fusion and its tines emerge from the "head" end of the unit, to be used as a weapon via ramming. The 44As have no heads, and each neck stub has a mask similar to the Fourth Angel's initial face tied over it; this arrangement also keeps the entry plug hatch bound shut. The ones encountered are said to be modified for aerial capability -- with hands and feet replaced with drone-like rotors, and the surface area of the body extended via membranes -- indicating that non-flying types exist. Ritsuko says that the group encountered in Paris have formed their own colony, and it's unclear if they are still under Nerv control. They single-mindedly attack Eva-08, completely ignoring the Wille landing team.

The 44As, being airborne Evas equipped with Spears of Longinus that attack in groups, seem intentionally poised to evoke the Mass Production Model Evangelions from The End of Evangelion. The shot of them creating a circular formation around Eva-08 especially acts as a callback to the MP Evas' introductory scene, where they circled above Eva-02 before landing.

Eva 44B

Pronounced "Four-Two-B". Power-feeding companion units to 4444C, comprised of two Eva torsos and legs linked at the shoulder by a power-generating unit. In place of a normal Eva upper body, they have a rounded cylindrical section with ten evenly spaced holes on its upper forward face. According to Ritsuko, the ones encountered in Paris were modified for power-feeding purposes, and it's not known how they would look or function normally.

When the 44Bs emerge from the 4444C's cloaking cocoon and move forward into position, they lift their legs high with every step in the manner of goose-stepping Nazi soldiers, a possible reference to the German occupation of France during World War II.

Eva 4444C

Pan up on Eva 4444C

Pronounced "Four-Four-C". The upper bodies of four headless Evas attached to something resembling a stylized drill platform. Where the lower body of each Eva would be, there is instead a prehensile drill-like apparatus and its spherical socket. A positron rifle and its associated machinery is situated in the middle of the entity, with the power-feeding array jutting out below, and a bundle of tubing with the rifle aloft emerging out the top, held upright by the four Evas in a manner evoking four people carrying a palanquin.

A halo-like structure forms a handrail for the four Eva torsos. Two more glowing rings structures flank the cannon on either side, and together with a fourth hoop on top that glows when the gun is fully charged, there are four mock halos in all.

The Evas, like all other Mark.04s, are headless. A wire emerges from the neck stub of each one, to which the Fourth Angel-like mask is attached. The eye holes of the masks are, interestingly, still employed by the members of 4444C to "focus" their positron cannon's attack in a manner similar to the Angels' "cross-explosions".

Reinforcing the mysterious link between the Mark.04 Evas and Evangelion Unit-04, the Eva bodies on this unit are, in terms of armor configuration and coloration, effectively identical to the New Theatrical version of Eva-04 that has been revealed in movie tie-ins such as the pachinko game CR Neon Genesis Evangelion ~Saigo no Shisha~.

The spherical power receiver is covered in an array of "eyes" which alternate between magenta and cyan in color. When first seen, they have the symbol of "Neo"-Nerv inside them. This structure may be intended to reference the Ohmu from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (the film version of which Anno worked on), giant pillbug-like arthropods with many eyes that alternate between red and blue in color depending on the Ohmu's mood. While the overall resemblance is quite superficial, there may exist deeper parallels that shed light on what's going on in the post-Third Impact world -- namely, the Mark.04 Evas were perhaps designed to maintain and spread the core-converted world in the interest of "purification", similar to how the Ohmu maintained and spread the Toxic Jungle of Nausicaa which, while temporarily antithetical to human life, served the long-term purpose of removing environmental pollution.

Origins

Their origins are clouded in mystery. The designation suggests a link to Evangelion Unit-04, which could potentially be related to the Impact-like event that Eva-04 caused. In Eva 3.0, it's implied that the Eva-like beings in and around Nerv HQ were once human, semi-evolved during Third Impact in a deliberate Instrumentality attempt. It's possible that Eva-04's failed Impact was a prelude to this, and transformed the people at the Second Branch into near-Angel beings that were subsequently modified with Eva technology.

The image on the Mk. 04A's saucer suggests a possible IPEA connection, although the nature of such a link is completely unknown. In the present day the Mark.04s are either implicitly or explicitly under the control of "Neo"-Nerv.

References

Evangelions

Evangelions (general)

Failed Evangelion Prototypes | Simulation Bodies

Eva-00 | Eva-01 | Eva-02 | Eva-03 | Eva-04 | Mass Production Evangelions (Evas 05~13)

Rebuild of Evangelion: Mark.04 | Eva-05 | Mark.06 | Eva-08 | Mark.09 | Eva-13

Eva 8+2 | Mass Production Evangelions | Failures of Infinity

Other: Extracanonical Evas