FGC:Episode 10 Scene 02

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 1	Episode #10 Scene List	Continue to Scene 3 >>

Screenshots

Cut #

Description/Dialogue

Commentary

049

UrsusArctos: The overhead light looks like the moon. As we will see later, Rei has a particularly deep association with the moon and water.

050

051

ASUKA (OFF):“What are you up to?”

SHINJI:“Studying science.”

ASUKA (OFF):“You're such a diligent student.”

SHINJI:“You can say that, but I have to do it anyway.”

052

ASUKA:“Ta da! Since I can't go scuba diving in Okinawa, I'm going to do it here!”

053

SHINJI:“Really?”

ASUKA:“Let's see. What're you working on?”

054

ASUKA (OFF):“Let me take a look.”

055

ASUKA:“You can't solve an easy equation like this? There, done.”

UrsusArctos: Asuka leaning over like that is evocative of Misato's [intro photograph] and with [distorted image of Yui]. It also prefigures Asuka rolling onto Kaji on the carrier flight deck and demanding he acknowledge her as an adult.

056

ASUKA (OFF):“It's so easy.”

SHINJI:“How can you solve a difficult problem like this, and not make good grades on your tests?”

thewayneiac: He closes his eyes for a moment, then figures, "If she wants to show me I might as well look."

057

ASUKA:“Because I couldn't figure out what the questions said.”

UrsusArctos: Did it never occur to anyone to give her special coaching in written Japanese since, as a pilot, she might have to send or receive written orders/instructions/information in that language? It's not like the problem wasn't predictable in the first place. Spoken Japanese is pretty easy compared to learning Kanji, and even someone who speaks Japanese at a native level is likely to have problems in writing the Kanji if they weren't taught it in the first place. IIRC, learning the Kanji goes all the way into high school with some particularly difficult/rare Kanji at the junior college level. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that.

dzzthink: I have some limited experience in this area but I can confirm that speaking and writing are completely different playing fields in some languages like Japanese/Chinese. You could be "fluent" in terms of speaking/listening with other people but you can be illiterate at the same time due to the complexity of the writing system. Each character for every phrase and object can be unique and will have to be memorized and correctly used.

058

SHINJI:“You mean you couldn't read the questions in Japanese?”

ASUKA:“Right, I haven't learned all the Chinese characters yet. We didn't study it in college over there.”

SHINJI:“College?”

ASUKA:“Oh, I graduated last year. So, what does this one say?”

SHINJI:“It's about thermal expansion.”

ASUKA:“Thermal expansion? That's kid stuff! To put it simply, things expand when they get hot, and shrink when they get cold.”

Mr. Tines: Chekov's gun is loaded. And the topic was first year (rising 12 years old) highschool physics back when I did it.

UrsusArctos: Can't remember if it was 6th grade or 7th grade when I was first taught the topic, but that sounds about right.

thewayneiac: The only time I got an "A" for the semester in anything science related was the semester we learned this. It was just algebra, and I was good at algebra. They'd give us the element, plus two of three of temperature, pressure, and volume, and have us solve for the missing factor.

059

SHINJI:“Well, yeah, but...”

ASUKA:“If I were to warm up just my breasts, do you think they'd grow a little bigger?”

SHINJI:“I wouldn't know anything about that!”

Zusuchan: This is pretty clearly Asuka flirting with Shinji-even if you want to argue the reasons are, well, somewhat different than "I like him", it certainly shows she's not uninterested enough to not do something like this. Shinji's reaction is, of course, complete embarrassment and nothing else.

UrsusArctos: While I don't think anyone can reasonably argue that Asuka and Shinji are uninterested in each other (they so obviously are!), it's a whole different thing to say that they're "meant for each other".