Guides:Evangelion 2.22 FAQ

Evangelion 2.22 FAQ

This is a compilation of frequently asked questions for the film Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance.

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General/Setting Questions

How did the Angel escape at the start of the film?

It's unknown.

Speculation : One explanation is that mankind simply doesn't have the technological means and knowledge to keep an Angel in captivity. But Ryoji Kaji's later comment that EVA-05' self-destruct mechanism worked as planned, and his later conversation with Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki revealing that the destruction of Bethany Base, along with the Eva Unit 05 and the Third Angel, alongside the stealing of the Key of Nebuchadnezzar was ordered by Gendo to slow down SEELE's plans heavily imply that Kaji(or an accomplice) orchestrated the Angel's escape.

What base is seen at the start of the film?

Bethany Base.

What is the huge landscape of graves Shinji and Gendo speak in?

Judging from what Misato said in the previous film about how half the worlds population was wiped out in the second impact. It is believed to be the graveyard of the all the deaths that occurred in that time frame (since Yui technically not only didn't die, but her disappearance was some time after the second impact).

Who orders Eva-02 to attack the Seventh Angel?

Probably NERV's Euro branch since they own Unit 02 throughout the film.

What is the Key of Nebuchadnezzar?

See main article Nebuchadnezzar's Key

What is the seaside facility that the children visit?

A research facility that works on restoring the ocean water back to blue. Kensuke mentions this when they first arrive.

What is the huge red circle Fuyutsuki sees from Space?

It's the vortex from Second Impact 15 years ago, situated at the South Pole, which for unknown reasons stayed opened even after the Second Impact stopped.

What is the orange Tank that Rei is floating in?

A vat of what appears to be LCL, the 2.0 CRC names the place as "Mysterious Underground Facility (Specialized for Rei Ayanami)". It's implied by her conversation with Shinji in the seaside facility when she states that she's like the fishes in the vat and can't live anywhere else that she must make regular sessions inside that tank, or else her life would be in danger.

What is Rei eating during her dinner with Gendo?

Alimentary pills. Note that earlier in the movie she's seen taking similar pills in her room at night, just before the scene change to Shinji, Misato and Asuka finishing their diner, suggesting that Rei's diet is almost exclusively composed of these alimentary pills.

Why did Nerv Second Branch vanish?

The Second Branch was testing on EVA-04 a new internal power unit designed to overcome the operational time limitation of the Evangelions, when a freak accident destroyed the Eva and wiped out the whole Branch with it. Kozo Fuyutsuki later raises the theory that the explosion might have been the result of a sabotage.

Why aren't Eva-00 and Eva-02 sortied alongside Eva-01 against the Ninth Angel?

Unit 00 was put on standby, it wasn't completely ready as it was still recovering from the previous angel attack. Unit 02 was put into storage since there was a treaty put in place only allowing a country to own and operate three Eva's, and Unit 03 was still considered an Eva at the time the incident occurred.

Where is the train that Shinji speaks to Rei in?

The train doesn't physically exists, it's a place created by Shinji's psyche when he fall unconscious. It's usually during these scene that we have the more introspection and learn more about Shinji's psyche.

What is the Awakened Eva-01 doing with the Tenth Angel(Zeruel)?

After curb-stomping it to a complete K.O., EVA-01 "dived" into it's core to retrieve EVA-00's core, with Rei absorbed inside it.

Did Kaworu manage to stop Third Impact at the very end of the Film?

The obvious answer is yes : when Kaworu impales EVA-01 with the Spear of Cassius, the vortex disappeared, the gravitational phenomenon that made chunks of the landscape float stopped and the Eva took back it's physical form.

Yet according to the next movie, things might have been more complicated than that...

Character Questions

Why are Gendo and Shinji visiting Yui's grave?

It's the anniversary of Yui's disappearance. Gendo comes to her grave every year since them.

It's implied Shinji visited the grave every year too until three years before the beginning of the story when he ran away and didn't came back to visit Yui's grave until that moment.

Why does Kaji say he feels like 'Tarō Urashima'?

Tarō Urashima is a Japanese legend about a fisherman(the eponymous Tarō Urashima) who rescued a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin, the Dragon God, under the sea. He stays there for three days and, upon his return to his village, discovers that 300 years have passed. Kaji has been out of Tokyo-3 for two years, but the city have changed so much since(probably due to the extremely rapid growth of the city) that he feels as if it's been since many more years since he left, hence the comparison with Tarō Urashima. Kaji telling that to Shinji could also be seen as deliberate irony considering the position the latter finds himself in in the next movie.

What is that handheld device Asuka uses at the aquarium and school?

Asuka's device (which she uses in a similar manner to Shinji's SDAT) is a Wonderswan, a real world Japanese video game console produced by Bandai from 1999 to 2003. Two versions existed (both meant to compete with the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the Gameboy Color), the original Wondersawn and Wonderswan Color.

Why do Gendo and Fuyutsuki go to the moon?

Gendo and Fuyutsuki travel to the moon to view the production of Eva Mark. 06 after they learn about its creation from Kaji.

Why does Kaworu say "Father"?

It's currently unknown.

What happened to Misato during second impact?

Like in NGE, a young Misato was present with her father in Antarctica when the Second Impact happened, and like in NGE, she was the sole survivor thanks to her father's sacrifice, which served as her motivation for later join Nerv and want revenge against the Angels.

Why does Ritsuko argue with Misato about the attack on the Eighth Angel?

Ritsuko thinks that Misato's plan(to catch him with the Evas' A.T. Fields) is far too reckless and that the chances of success are almost null, and tells her that she should put Lilith and EVA-01 on a safe place instead of relying on what Ritsuko think is an insane plan, all because Misato has a personal vendetta against the Angels for the death of his father during Second Impact.

Why does Asuka want to handle the Angel on her own?

Asuka has always been one that prefers to solo her missions as she believes teamwork would just slow her down. It's all about her personality.

Why does Shinji say that his Eva smells like Mother?

Because he most likely smelled a scent while in the entry plug, and subconsciously related it with his mother's scent, as well as Rei's. That moment was a foreshadowing of the two revelations in 3.0 that Yui's soul is EVA-01's control system and Rei a clone of Yui.

Why does Gendo praise Shinji?

We are not sure : maybe Gendo was genuinely impressed by Shinji's actions against the Eight Angel, or maybe his praise was another way to manipulate his son into wanting his father's approval and ensure his loyalty, or maybe it was a little of both.

How were Shinji's hands injured?

When an Eva is damaged, the pilot feels part of the pain as a feedback of the synchronization with the Eva, at great plug depth, the pilots also starts to physically receive part of the damage sustained by the Eva. When stopping the Eight Angel, EVA-01 sustained very heavy damages to the hands due to the Angel impaling them by morphing his hands into spear-like appendages, made worse by the extreme pressure of the Angel's propulsion.
Speculation : The pain feedback seems to also generate a lot of heat on the pilot's end, illustrated by Shinji's plugsuit showing sign of partial melting in the hands. That's why Shinji is later with bandaged hands, to treat the burning injuries.

Who is the woman that Gendo sees Rei as during Dinner?

That would be Yui, his wife.

Who is Mari talking to on the phone in English?

Her contact in Japan for her infiltration in Tokyo-3. Its identity is unknown.

Why does Kaji act like he's about to kiss Shinji?

Probably for comedy sake, as Kaji was previously shown with Ritsuko and Misato to love getting under people's skin by teasing them.

What are Asuka and Rei arguing about in the elevator?

Asuka believes she's only worth being an Eva pilot. Rei tries to tell her that there's more to life than being an Eva pilot, Asuka finds this insulting as it's coming from someone who only pilots the Eva as well.

Who is the boy that Shinji sees on the train in his dream?

A child version of Shinji when Gendo abandoned him.

Who allowed Mari to pilot Eva-02?

Probably the unknown organization backing her, the fact that EVA-02 was sealed in a vault under the IPEA's jurisdiction could mean that said organization is the IPEA itself, or that at least it had ties with Mari's organization.

Why does Rei have Shinji's SDAT with her in Eva-00?

When Shinji resigned from being an Eva pilot after the fight against the Ninth Angel, he threw is SDAT(an old possession of Gendo) in a bin. Rei found it and kept it for her.

She brought it with her probably for the same reason she brought Gendo's old glasses in her entry plug during the fight against the Sixth Angel : as a talisman from someone close to her to give her courage.

Why does Gendo ask why Yui is rejecting him?

He probably thinks that as the control system of EVA-01, she's the one that's making the Eva reject the Dummy System controlled entry plug. Since Gendo is the one who ordered the use of the Dummy System as a replacement for Shinji, who resigned for piloting, he feels that as a sign that Yui is rejecting him personally.

What is happening to Shinji as Eva-01 awakens?

As his Evangelion attained the Pseudo-Evolution Phase, Shinji's Plug Depth attained extremely high levels, dubbed the "Great Beyond Depth", which let him unleash the true extend of the Evangelion power and defeat the Tenth Angel. When the pseudo-evolved EVA-01 made contact with the Angel's core to retrieve Rei Ayanami, who was then absorbed inside it, Shinji was in a meta-physical tunnel connecting his entry plug with the Angel's core. Once he managed to save Rei from the Tenth Angel, both were absorbed inside EVA-01's core, where Shinji stayed until the beginning of the third Rebuild movie.

Where does Shinji pull Rei out of?

From the Tenth Angel's core.

Eva/Angel Questions

How Many Angels appear in the film?

Five in total :

• Third Angel
• Seventh Angel
• Eight Angel
• Ninth Angel
• Tenth Angel

We also have the First Angel, who first appeared at the end of the previous film, making various apparitions through the movie.

How did the Ninth Angel (Bardiel) get into Eva-03?

When Eva-03 is flown out of the U.S. base it enters through a storm. As in the case of the original series, it is hinted (but never outright stated) that Ninth Angel lurked in the storm and infected Eva-03 as it passed through.

What is happening to Asuka inside Eva-03's entry plug?

It's not clear, the Ninth Angel might have made a direct contact with Asuka while it was taking over EVA-03.

Speculation : Unused storyboards revealed that it was initially planed that the Angel would physically and mentally torture Asuka during the whole incident, making a parallel with the traumatic experience her NGE counterpart suffered under the Angel Arael's attacks.

It's also possible that the experience left her with lasting marks.

What are the four figures seen in the Second Impact flashback?

Four "Giants of Light" that were present at Second Impact.

Speculation : In the preview for Eva 2.0 at the end of the first movie, the term Adams is used to describe them, suggesting that collectively those four giants are the undeclared First Angel, instead of NGE's Adam.

Why is Eva-05 so different?

Because it's a Provisional Unit.

Speculation : It's possible that EVA-05 wasn't finished yet by the time of 2.0, but was deployed on urgency to stop the Third Angel, explaining the unit lack of arms and legs, replaced by four wheeled limbs and two mechanical pincer arms respectively.
Another possibility is that this Eva was a failed attempt to create an Evangelion, and that it was provisionally designed as Evangelion Provisional Unit 05 and used to guard Bethany Base while a proper Evangelion Unit 05 was under construction.

Why wasn't Eva-02 at Nerv HQ from the beginning?

EVA-02 was built by NERV's Third Branch in Germany, and during the first meeting we saw between Gendo and SEELE in 1.0, the former said that EVA-02's activation tests began at the same time that EVA-01's first sortie(against the Fourth Angel), meaning that by the time of the beginning of the story, EVA-02 wasn't ready to be deployed yet, and thus was still in NERV's Third Branch.

What is the Vatican Treaty?

The Vatican Treaty is law by all nations the prohibits any region from owning and operating more than three Eva's at a time.

What happened to Eva-04?

It "vaporized" along with NERV's Second Branch in the United States during the testing for a new internal power unit for the next generation of Evangelions.

Speculation : During Fuyutsuki's conversation with Gendo(spied by Kaji) the former implies that what happened wasn't an accident, but a sabotage. The potential perpetrator is unknown.

What is the "True Evangelion" Seele wish to create?

SEELE want to transform an Evangelion into a godly being to use it as the catalyst for the Human Instrumentality Project. They planned to use Evangelion Mark.06 for that task.

Why is Eva-02 sealed by the IPEA?

The U.S. Government gave Unit 03 to Japan and the Japanese Government agreed. With Unit 00, Unit 01, and Unit 03, they have three Eva's and can not sortie with Unit 02 as that is a fourth Eva and that would be a violation of The Vatican Treaty.

Furthermore, Europe still technically owns Unit 02.

How is Mari able to pilot Eva-02?

It's unknown.

Speculation : It's possible that the rules to pilot an Evangelion are different than in the original series, and that the pilots are really interchangeable, at least when the Production Models are concerned. Also, Unit-02's core is seen being switched out before Mari comes to pilot it.

What is Eva-02's Beast Mode?

A special mode that remove all of the physical restraints of the Evangelion to make is "lose it's humanity" and transform it into a giant beast entirely specialized for combat. It's a sort of "controlled" Berserk Mode where the Eva is still under the pilot's control.

This Mode is also shown to make appear physical alterations to the pilot(under the form glowing green pupils) as well as greatly increase its aggressiveness as long as the Beast Mode is active.

Why does Eva-01 reject the Dummy System?

It's implied that it's Yui inside EVA-01's core that reject the Dummy System as a consequence of it being used to heavily injure Asuka, one of Shinji's friends, despites the latter's frantic pleas to Gendo to stop.

How does Eva-01 become so powerful at the end of the film?

When EVA-01 fell out of energy, Shinji Ikari's will to save Rei Ayanami from the Tenth Angel reactivated the Evangelion and brought it to a new state of power, where the latent Evangelion's powers could be unleashed under various devastating capacities(offensive and enhanced defensive uses of the AT Field, eyebeams) and the need for an external power source removed.

This new Mode also generates an halo above the Eva's head.

What is the Evangelion Kaworu uses at the end of the film?

That would be a completed Evangelion Mark.06.

Weapon/Technology Questions

What is Eva-02's giant crossbow?

A Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow MM-144.

The weapon designation is written in German as Überelektromagnetische Armbrust MM-144 on the side.

Where is Golgotha Base?

It's unknown.

What is the Dummy system saying as it takes over?

When "unfolding" itself to block the pilot's hands on the commands and take the control from him, the Dummy System let a long robotic humming sound. Actually, when played backward, that sound forms a phrase from the end of the SF movie The Forbin Project : "Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for human pride as to be dominated by others of your species." It's the speech that Colossus makes at the end of the film when he has successfully dominated humanity. On the movie it's probably a cameo to signify how the machine(Dummy System) is now dominating the human(the Eva pilot) in the control of the Evangelion. Looks like someone in Golgotha Base as a very twisted sense of humor...

Why is Asuka's Eva-03 Plugsuit so revealing?

First, it's not the plugsuit for Eva-03, but a multipurpose test plugsuit, probably used to test every new Evangelion.

As for why it's so revealing, the first answer is probably for purely fan-service purpose. It also probably serves later to emphasize Asuka's helplessness in from of the Ninth Angel when it takes over EVA-03.

On a meta-level, that plugsuit could also references the "experimental plugsuit" mentioned in the radio drama on the CD Addition, with was very revealing for the sake of attracting more audience, but obviously never shown.

What is the spear Kaworu using to stop Eva-01?

That would be the Spear of Cassius.