Re-Take
|
"When Aoba called B Wing's construction sloppy he hadn't seen anything like THIS!" |
|
"Miss Misato, please don't go out like that. It's embarrassing." |
Evangelion Re-Take is a multi-volume adult dojinshi written by Studio Kimigabuchi, which presents an alternate ending to The End of Evangelion. Because of its art and story it has become one of the most popular fan-created works among the Evangelion fan community. Anime critic Hiroki Azuma praised it after receiving the collection as a gift[1].
Contents
Re-Take vol 1
Re-Take Volume 01 begins where The End of Evangelion left off, with Shinji strangling Asuka on the beach after Third Impact. From there Shinji wakes up in the hospital just after the 12th Angel attacks with Rei sitting by the bed and Asuka behind the door (just as in the anime). At first Shinji believes all the event he witnessed were a dream, but eventually he realized they were future event. He decides to change these events for the better. When fighting against Unit-03, Shinji breaks all the limbs of the Eva and safely recovers the entry plug. Against Zeruel, Shinji goes into battle earlier than canon to prevent Asuka from not winning the battle and losing her pride. Shinji vows to help Asuka even when she thinks she does not need help. Shinji and Asuka become closer to the point of eventually become a couple. When they confess their love to each other, they have sex without protection (important plot point).
Rei meanwhile becomes depressed--eventually committing suicide--because Shinji starts to ignore her (and later admits to Rei that Asuka is the one he loves). Shinji's ignoring Rei stems from the fact that he now knows what Rei's true identity really is, and it scares Shinji. Rei attempts to emulate Asuka by wearing blue eye contacts, making her hair red, and saying Anta Baka, but Shinji rejects Rei and says he like Asuka. To make things worse, Asuka from the Post Third Impact world starts appearing before him. This Asuka is bitter that Shinji tried to kill her after Third Impact and that he (in her view) has the nerve to become happy with the past version of her.
Re-Take vol 2
Volume 2 begins with Shinji and Asuka laying in bed together. Asuka is somewhat surprised about their having so much sex, while Shinji--who's depressed about Rei's suicide--claims that he just wants to be with her. However, the next Angel, Arael appears. Shinji protects Asuka during the Arael battle to prevent her from being mentally-raped, but he ends up targeted as a result. During the battle, Misato becomes suspicious about Rei's condition since her suicide "attempt". The battle ends with a powerful A.T. Field destroying the Angel, revealed to be Eva-01. Shortly after this battle, Post-3I Asuka appears before Shinji again, prompting Shinji to reply that the current Rei is "the third".
After a short discussion about Shinji's mental state by Ritsuko and Misato, the narrative shifts, in which Asuka, consistently failing her sync tests, resolves to quit piloting her Eva. Ritsuko then questions Shinji for a time, concluding that he is seeing hallucinations, and has been "polluted" by an angel. Coming to terms with the fact that this pollution will eventually kill Shinji, Asuka decides to propose marriage to Shinji, who happily and naively accepts, unaware of his approaching fate, and thinking the proposal is only about her pregnancy that she just revealed to him.
After handing out marriage invitations to the jovial members of Nerv, Shinji finally approaches Gendo. Gendo says he has to go to Matsushiro on that day, so he will sent Fuyutsuki to Matsushiro instead. Asuka's final sync test reveals that she is unable to pilot her Eva any longer, and even though she has attempted to prepare for the day, she feels that her "shelter has vanished [pg64]. Shinji makes peace with Rei. He says he was avoiding her because he loved Rei and he felt that love threatened what he and Asuka had. Shinji invites Rei to his wedding. The hallucination Asuka comes to taunt Shinji and say he is not father material. Shinji tries to apologize for what he did to her and says that he isn't hers anymore, but Asuka does not forgive Shinji and says he is all hers.
Unit-02 is sent against Armisael even though Asuka's sync score is too low. Armisael attempts to attack Shinji but Asuka grabs it before it can get to Unit-01. Armisael starts to infect Unit-02; Gendo orders Unit-02 be self-destructed to mentally break Shinji. Shinji tries to prevent it but Asuka herself starts the self-destruction. She tells Rei to take care of Shinji for her and blows up. Kaworu, observing the explosion, comments how the events are different from the scenario he expected to encounter.
Re-Take vol 3
After the battle, Shinji had to be restrained for nearly a week. The doctor believes he is showing signs of his mental disorder. Misato goes to visit Shinji; he comments on how he cannot cry because he mentally shut down to block out the pain. Shinji starts to make a hobby out of folding newspapers and Rei, an an attempt to make good on her promise, tries to provide more newspapers for Shinji to fold, but is rejected. Kaworu arrives and asks Rei if he is able to see Shinji because he wants to kill him. Gendo makes plans to fight against the Committee using Shinji and Eva-01. Gendo is confident that Shinji will follow Gendo's scenario because he has experiences a loss of a loved one.
Misato runs into Shinji's room to tell Shinji that Asuka is really alive. Asuka says her mama protected her from dying. Shinji and Asuka start to have sex but Asuka suddenly vanishes and hallucination Asuka appears. She tells Shinji he should not try to escape reality; the core imploded so it is impossible for Asuka to have survived. Hallucination Asuka wants Shinji to drown in his remorse. Shinji proceeds to choke Asuka like in End of Evangelion. Asuka replies, "How many times do you have to kill me before you are satisfied?" Shinji screams.
Shinji runs away from the hospital and meets up with Kaworu. Shinji asks Kaworu to attend his sync test and Kaworu agrees. Shinji breaks free and grabs Kaworu. When Misato tells Shinji to stop, Shinji explains that he is going to consume Kaworu because he wants the S2 organ inside of him. Shinji consumes Kaworu and the detectors goes off saying that Pattern Blue is dispersed across a wide area. Shinji later learns that Kaworu was actually a human, not an angel. Maya becomes guilty of the information Ritsuko and Gendo are hiding from Shinji and she takes him to Terminal Dogma. Asuka is in Terminal Dogma, but her mind is not in the body. Shinji and Asuka's child was an angel and it transported Asuka's body to Terminal Dogma before the explosion occurred. In return for her life, it took away her mind. The Pattern Blue in the atmosphere was the last angel dying.
Re-Take vol 0
Re-Take vol 0 is a look at the first 3 volumes of Re-Take from post 3I (Post third impact) Asuka's point of view. She tells the story as she sees it explaining how she plays little mind games with him and eventually making her braking down.
Re-Take vol 4
The ending leaves Re-Take open ended, similar to The End of Evangelion.
Re-Take After
After is about the alternate universe Shinji and Asuka (instead of their post 3rd Impact counterparts). They gradually learn to deal with their feelings for each other after learning about the events that happened in Re-Take volumes 1 through 4.
Re-Take All Ages
All Ages is a version of the Re-Take series with the sexual content removed. Volume 1 contains Volume 1 and 2 of the original release while Volume 2 has volumes 3, 0, and 4 of the original series. Despite the sexual content being removed, the violent scenes are kept--including some scenes being added--giving this Re-Take release a Gothic/horror feel of sorts.
Soundtrack
To help promote Re-Take Kimigabuchi created a soundtrack containing 8 tracks.
- Reincarnation
- Girl
- Double Blind
- The Last Angel
- God Bless
- Re-Take
- Ever Dream
- Holy Day
An additional 5 tracks where used in the promotional MAD videos. 2 of the tracks where variations of the Re-Take theme with the remainder keeping within the industrial style of music.
Trailers
Official trailers:
- "Evangelion Re-take PV from Studio Kimigabuchi" -1:57; "official trailer when the 18x edition volume 4 (ReTake 4) was promoted in an earlier Comiket"[2]
- "Evangelion Re-Take Ep3 Trailer" - 2:46; "official trailer used by Kimigabuchi to promote the All-Age edition volume 3 in Comiket"
Fan-made:
- "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Re-Take" - 1:50
- "evangelion trailer RETAKE video promocional 3(evangelion RETAKE trailer)" -4:55
- "Evangelion RE-TAKE Animated Intro" - 1:51; part of a stalled EGF project to animate Re-take (trailer mixes Re-take stills, End of Evangelion and NGE TV footage)
Live-action
The group TMA ("specialized in parody/re-enactment of anime + porn") produced a video enacting Re-Take titled Ever-ReTake, recreating scenes up to Eva-02's self-destruct[3]. All-ages clips have been edited together into 3 YouTube videos (32:42):
- 【TMA】EVER RE-TAKE (1/3) (10:54)
- 【TMA】EVER RE-TAKE (2/3) (10:51)
- 【TMA】EVER RE-TAKE (3/3) (10:57)
Analysis
- Although Re-Take mixes events and lines from the anime and manga, the fact that Shinji and Rei were initially closer than Shinji and Asuka, the reference to Rei and Shinji's hands touching, the implication of Touji being killed if Shinji didn't save him, along with other things (Shinji having brown eyes instead of the blue of the anime series) suggest that anime-universe Post-3I Shinji and Asuka ended up in the manga-universe.
- Even though Shinji is depicted with brown eyes in Re-Take, he's depicted this way in quite a bit of Eva merchandise/pictures in general.
- The little girl at the end of Volume 4 when Shinji and Asuka are back on the beach as been the subject of debate, with fans thinking it's Shinji and Asuka's daughter to even Misato as a child. However, the most likely explanation is the little girl is simply a returnee from the LCL Sea, being a symbol of hope that more people will eventually live on.
References
External links
- Studio Kimigabuchi (Japanese)
- Re-Take Archive
