Evangelion Unit-08

Evangelion Unit-08
エヴァンゲリオン8号機
Model Type	Production Model
Pilot(s)	Mari Makinami Illustrious
Soul(s)	Unknown
First Sortie	Evangelion 3.0

Evangelion Unit-08 is a new Eva unit appearing in Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo and piloted by Mari Makinami Illustrious. Its full designation is Evangelion Production Model Custom Type-08.

Profile

Eva-08 has a cluster of eight green eyes on the front of its helmet and is bright pink in color, matching the plugsuit color of its pilot, Mari. The Eva is first seen in the film in the iteration Eva Type-08α　(Alpha), but following its initial sortie is upgraded to Eva Type-08β (Beta), with a corresponding change in helmet shape and body armor.

Operational History

The Eva is launched into space with Eva-02 to partake in the mission to recover Eva-01's tesseract-shaped container. However, it fails to gain sufficient altitude and instead provides cover fire to Eva-02 when the Evanangelion Mark.04 Code 4A initiate their attack. It is successful in sniping every Code 4A, allowing Eva-02 to reach the tesseract. When the Code 4B emerges, the Eva has already begun to lose altitude and is forced to withdraw from the battle.

When the Mark.09 boards the AAA Wunder to retrieve Shinji Ikari for Nerv, Eva-08 attacks with a handgun and successfully destroys the Mark.09's head. (This does not, however, disable the enemy Eva.)

It is later deployed with Eva-02 to prevent Eva-13 from initiating Fourth Impact. The Eva remains hidden in a crevice in the ceiling of Central Dogma, armed with a sniper rifle. It snipes the Mark.09 when it attempts to assist Eva-13, shooting it several times and forcing it to take cover. When Eva-02 runs out of battery, Eva-08 drops a recharger pod to the bottom of Central Dogma, allowing Eva-02 to recharge. When Eva-13 reaches the top of Lilith's corpse and nears the Spears of Longinus, Eva-08 attempts to snipe it with Anti-AT Field Ammunition, but the bullets dissolve on contact with Eva-13.

Shortly after the beginning of Fourth Impact, Eva-08 and Eva-02 manage to reach the surface of the ruined Tokyo-3. While Eva-02 goes to fight the awakened Mark.09, Eva-08 attempts to prevent Eva-13 from completing Fourth Impact. Eva-08 succeeds to jumping onto Eva-13 as it falls following the death of Kaworu, and manages to forcefully eject Shinji's entry plug. This causes the Door of Guf to close and brings about the true end of Fourth Impact. Eva-08's hands are partially turned to core due to their contact with the surface of the awakened Eva-13. It is later seen being recovered with the remains of Eva-02. Its arms are heavily bandaged but it is otherwise intact.

Original Concept

The original Eva-08 design floating over an halo in preview

The Eva's original design was seen in the original Eva 3.0 preview from the end of the 2nd film. The Eva was in a dark space hovering upside-down over a giant halo. The Eva's helmet was horned and greatly resembled those of Eva-01 and Eva-06. Its eye slit was in the shape of an anchor, a possible allusion to "Ikari", and the Eva had three eyes, recalling one of the Adams along with Eva-01's ascended Near Third Impact state. There were two large angular formations on the Eva's back, possibly intended to be dual entry plug hatches. The narration spoke of "The quickening Eva-08 and its pilot(s)".

Over the course of production, most of the concepts for Eva-08 appear to have displaced onto Eva-13, with only certain aspects of the helmet design remaining in the final Eva-08.

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