FGC:Episode 01 Cut 034

FGC:Episode 01 Cut 034

Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	034	Sachiel displayed on the monitor (the two men in front). He turns to face the screen. Ikari (OFF):“It's an Angel.”	Reichu: ("Aa, machigai nai." & "Shito da.")Gendo's extremely casual demeanor is apparent as soon as he enters the stage. Although my knowledge of Japanese is somewhat limited, Gendo definitely gives me the impression of someone who is in control and under control. His speech is very informal (considering Japanese is a language inundated with honorifics), but it's also very simplistic — Gendo says no more than he has to, never louder than he has to. I am really not much of a Gendo fan, but I must profess: I'm a big fan of Fumihiko Tachiki's performance. The more I hear it, the more I appreciate its subtleties. Not to mention he has a great voice. Sharp-kun: Not to turn this into a debate on the merits of the subbed/dubbed versions of Eva, but I find what Reichu says here on Gendo's voice to be very true, and something that was lacking in the dub. ADV Gendo was given a more “evil genius” type voice, which doesn't work as well. Magami no Er: Gendo's voice also seems to convey a certain tone that accentuates people's names. Think of the way he says, "Shinji", "Rei", "Yui", "Fuyutsuki", and, in the movie, "Akagi Ritsuko-kun". Reichu: That's an interesting observation. Now that you've pointed it out, I'll never be able to listen to Gendo without noticing. ::D Additional Commentary   Kendrix: Ah, at times I'm rather envious of the Japanese writers, their language gives them so many tools to characterize both their characters and their relationships to others just by having them say some sentence. What you guys say about Gendo's speech really suits his character - He doesn't really respect his superiors or many of the people he deals with (Remember his younger self blatantly smiling in Fuyutsuki's face, obviously bullshitting him with a good ounce of trollish delight?), and it's only right for a very pragmatic big boss guy to talk in a dry, concise manner. "Do it!" I also noted the accentuation thing, and I always thought that it was very appropriate for the individual scenes - He hardly uses Shinji's name, so when he does, it's plot relevant. As for Gendo's English VA... I get that many of you would be attached to the version you knew but... If you ask me, he ruined it. ""(The Rebuild one was somewhat better, but not that much.) He sounds too much like a... cliched over-the-top villain of sorts (I don't know if America's rampant hate of him (He isn't really that popular anywhere, but I did make the observation that the English fandom has more of a tendency to omit his few positive traits than most of the German fanfics... he has haters here, too, but the extent of simplification is notably different... just my impression, though.) is possibly caused by that, or if he got that sort of voice because the Americans who made the dub hated him), and Gendo's supposed to be sorta ambiguous. Also, he's not really that bossy arrogant guy who hurts others for fun and profit, he's more like... very pragmatic to the point of callousness, bitter and tired. On the point of Sachiel... I like these little scenes that hint at the Angel's intelligence/as monstrous or mechanical as they look... here, he seems to be looking at the camera, like he's aware of the tiny humans watching him... which is proven right when he later decides to shoot down cameras. Of course, us veteran fans hardly notice anymore, but this is the point where that monster is first rather paradoxically identified as an Angel. Nice idea here, since our legends mention that YHVH spawned that other population of beings there... not that far fetched (for someone reading this from an outside perspective) that the other batch of creations might've gotten the other fruit and have, like, their own stories... It is also worth noting that while they often disguised themselves in human form, some old testament scenes paint Angels as rather lovecraftian... not sure if Anno knew that or just went for expectation-subversion, but it's still kinda cool. (Islam, of course, outdoes them all, they put great emphasis on how Allah is utterly abstract. He'd make good cosmic horror material if he wasn't sorta benevolent... then again, the Qu'ran often states that he "does as he pleases" Rather intriguing/fascinating.) TheUserName: So how does the monitor work exactly? Orbital satellite perhaps, relaying signals back to Nerv HQ for a direct visual feed? Reichu: Sometimes they receive feed from satellites, but they also have a number of cameras set up on the ground. In #25', you can see these feeds get sabotaged one-by-one by the JSSDF. Sachiel looks especially cute in this shot… although he looks suspiciously thin about the waist when he spins around.