Volume 8 (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Volume 8
新世紀エヴァンゲリオン Shin Seiki Evangelion
Author:	Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Publish date:	JP: December 19, 2002 US: March 3, 2005
Volume chronology
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"Volume 7"	"Volume 9"

The eighth volume of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's manga adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion. This eighth volume is subtitled Mother (MOTHER) and is comprised of Stages 49 to 56.

Overview

Volume eight adapts Episode 20 and Episode 21 of the anime series.

Summary

Stage 49: …Kiss (•••Kiss)

It's been thirty days since Shinji was absorbed into Eva-01. Shinji is seeing himself as a child during the time that Gendo relinquishes him to live at his uncle's house. This is after Yui was absorbed into Eva-01. Gendo tells Shinji that his mother is dead after young Shinji asks where his mother is. The idea of the death of his mother manifests as the test Evangelion during the first ever contact experiment with Project E.

Gendo instructs Shinji to pilot the Eva, to which Shinji says, "You didn't want me! You can't have me now! You can't come back for me now!" Shinji at this time remembers the death of Toji by the Dummy Plug System's control of Eva-01, and in exasperation Shinji knifes his father, who falls dead to the floor. Back in reality, Ritsuko gives Maya a plan to salvage Shinji from the plug. Maya shows amazement that Ritsuko could come up with the plan so fast, but Ritsuko explains it was her mother's plan. She said the same thing happened ten years ago during the development of the Evangelion. However, that time they failed to salvage Yui Ikari from the Eva. Ritsuko ends her explanation with "...I think Commander Ikari used to be different..."

Kaji visits Misato, who just found out that all the children in Shinji's homeroom are pilot candidates. She begins to ask Kaji about Adam, and about the Instrumentality Project, but he quiets her with a kiss. Misato breaks away from him and he leaves, saying "Today was our eighth anniversary, you know. I'm sorry, but I'm still in love with you."

Stage 50: Into the Heart… (心の中へ… / Kokoro no Naka e...)

Shinji sees the form of what he thinks to be his mother in a placid sea of fish. She calls to him, and tries to relax him in her arms. Shinji tells her that he must fight, that he must go back, but she tells him that he's done enough, and that he can rest with her for forever. He gives in to her and begins to rest with her watching over him. In the common reality, Rei comes out of the tube in a room deep in NERV she is sometimes seen in. Gendo is waiting for her. She asks about Shinji and what will happen to him. Gendo doesn't know, and he starts to put his hand on her face but Rei brushes it off. She leaves while thinking about the emptyness that was inside her. She would fill it by thinking about Gendo, but then Shinji came and filled that void with something more satisfying and pure. She hopes for Shinji's return to them.

The salvage procedure commences, and in Shinji's reality images of the people he knows appear, along with a "secondary" Shinji, the Shinji that recieves the criticism while the other Shinji rests with his mother. The people who come into his reality are just images in Shinji's mind that represent the things he has learned from them. The image of Kaji tells him to "Look reality in the face." Gendo tells him "Don't turn away." Shinji reacts violently to all these statements, saying "I'm going to stay right here! She said I could stay forever!" The salvage procedure fails, and Shinji's clothes are released from the entry plug along with LCL. Rei, watching, prays, "Please, come back. Ikari-Kun, I don't want to be made of straw anymore." The image Shinji has of his mother combined with his wishes starts to rot, and her true form is exposed. She is the embodiment of the vague memories repressed in Shinji of his mother's 'death' in the test Evangelion. It is also the wrong dependency on his mother that creates that image and is that image. He was woken up and now confronts that image and his dependency on her.

Stage 51: Mother (MOTHER)

Rei focuses her prayers on that false image, and says "I am you. You are myself. You are what used to be me." The test Evangelion says "Yes, you are me...Why? Why do you interfere?" Rei prays "Give him back to me." Shinji is frightened by the image of the test Evangelion and tries to free himself. He calls for his mother, and a bright form of a woman with long hair, the true embodiment of his mother, comes from behind the test Evangelion. After a bright flash Shinji finds himself lying in the shallow surf of a beach. When he gets up he sees his mother and father standing under a tree, with him as a baby. His mother is nursing, and as she nurses she says that "If he has the will to live...he can make a Heaven wherever he is." Shinji wants to go over to her, but he is frozen in place. His mother, Yui, looks over at him and says "You can come to me if you want, you know. Is it that you can't move? Or is it that where you really want to go...isn't where I am?...I'll always watch over you, Shinji. You can go wherever you want, and I'll still be watching over you."

Shinji begins to swim in the sea towards a "scent," to which he questions, "Ayanami? Misato?" He rematerializes from the core of the Eva-01, drenched in LCL. Rei in response kneels to the floor and sits to rest, saying "I feel...happy." Behind her Kaji looks at his NERV card and says, "Never noticed before. It's pretty much the color of blood."

Stage 52: Flashback (回想 / Kaisō)

Rei visits Shinji in the hospital, and Shinji thanks her. He doesn't know why. They both say that they are glad to see each other again. SEELE has Kaji kidnap Fuyutsuki. Fuyutsuki is taken to SEELE where they question him. They bring up Eva-01's acquisition of an S² Engine, and how Shinji should not be made a child of God (his absorption into Eva-01 was proof of this to SEELE). They do not agree with Gendo trying to make a god. They make Fuyutsuki tell him everything he knows, from the beginning. Fuyutsuki begins. A flashback starts, and it is the year 1999 in Kyoto, Japan. Fuyutsuki is in the Metaphysical Biology Laboratory, reviewing a paper with Yui Ikari that she wrote. He questions her on her plans for the future, citing lab work as one of the options. She tells him that there's another option. She would like to start a family if she meets the right person.

The scene changes to Fuyutsuki getting a call from someone asking him to post bail for a Gendo Rokubungi. Fututsuki meets Gendo at the police station, and learns he was arrested for getting in a fight. Gendo tells him "Well...I'm used to getting bad reactions." Fuyutsuki replies with "I think you're going to get another one from me." Another scene change happens. This time Fuyutsuki and Yui are hiking in the woods, and it is fall in Japan. Fuyutsuki knows Yui has been going out with Gendo, and asks her, "...I can't imagine you spending your life with him...What do you see in him?" She replies with, "He hates being alone. And I find him very endearing. Other people just don't understand him...that's all." Here, Fuyutsuki removes his hand that he had placed on her shoulder. Fuyutsuki's finishing thoughts are "...Everyone I knew who had an opinion said the same thing: Gendo Rokubungi married Yui Ikari for two reasons: Access to her groundbreaking theories...and to the patron supporting her work. Eventually I heard the esoteric name of the organization. SEELE-in German, the "Soul."

Stage 53: A Giant Made of Light (光の巨人 / Hikari no Kyojin)

Fuyutsuki's flashback continues, and glances into the day of Second Impact in the year 2000 on Mt. Albert Markham, Shackleton Coast, Antarctica. Another flashback takes place in 2002 on a ship, where Gendo tells Fuyutsuki that he has been married to Yui, and that he now has a son. Fuyutsuki questions Gendo's safe return to Japan a day before Second Impact occured. Fuyutsuki tells Gendo that he is there on the ship to make observations and to lend some credibility to the official report on Second Impact. Fuyutsuki turns in his data along with Gendo. The official report didn't include the image of the Giant of light. What the UN published told of a meteorite that hitting earth and causing the Second Impact. The Giant of Light photo was not published, but an image of the government giving the official public announcement was. In the backround was a man named Kiel and Gendo, and from this Fuyutsuki knew there were some strings being pulled.

Another flashback goes to 2003 in Hakone, Japan. It takes place at the UN Artificial Evolution Laboratories. There, Fuyutsuki confronts Gendo. He begins with telling Gendo of how he left the photo of the Giant of Light out of the report. He also brings up the Dead Sea Scrolls, and how Gendo has a large sum of money in his bank account for a college professor. He also brings up the fact that Gendo left the expedition in Antarctica a day before Second Impact, and that he had brought all his files with him even though research hadn't been completed. Gendo acknowleges all this and is impressed and amused with Fuyutsuki, though Fuyutsuki vows to go public with his knowledge of how Second Impact was caused by "You people."

In response, Gendo says "As you wish. I want you to see one more thing, though." Gendo takes Fuyutsuki down deep underground, and shows Fuyutsuki the Geofront, which Gendo says was built by some other civilization. He calls it "A vast underground chamber, spherical in shape," a portion (over a thousand cubic kilometers) of which is still buried. They go inside Gehirn (soon to be NERV) headquarters, and meet Naoko Akagi, who is working on the MAGI super computers. She describes them as a computer system that will be able to make connections on it's own. Then Fuyutsuki is shown the Evangelion prototype, which reminds him of the Giant of Light. Gendo reveals that the Giant of Light has been dubbed "Adam," and that this Evangelion prototype, Eva-00, is a copy of Adam. He calls Project E the "plan to regenerate Adam." Gendo ends with, "Prophecy has led us this far. But it's time for mankind to start writing his own."

Stage 54: The Birth of NERV (ネルフ誕生 / Nerufu Tanjō)

Another one of Fuyutsuki's flashbacks is shown. This time, the year is 2004 in Hakone Underground Experimental Facility 2. Yui is in Eva-00, and Gehirn is about to start an experiment with the prototype. Young Shinji is present. The experiment fails and Yui disappears in Eva-00. Fuyutsuki says that Gendo had changed then. That time is when "The Instrumentality Project" was conceived, and the regeneration of Adam was pushed to just the prominence a side project would have. SEELE was withdrawn behind the "Committee for the Instrumentality of Man."Gehirn was reformed into NERV, but without Naoko Akagi. She had thrown herself off of the MAGI systems to die from the impact of hitting the floor.

Back in present time, Kaji helps Fuyutsuki escape (though he was the one to kidnap him for SEELE). His reasoning is "I'm trying to get the truth. This is my way of getting it. And I just realized, whatever it is... NERV is closer to it now than SEELE." Fuyutsuki is delivered back safely to NERV. In present time, Ritsuko and Maya are looking at Eva-01 in the cage. Maya informs Ritsuko that Rei didn't come for her test when she was called, and that they can't find her. Shinji had taken her to a garden on the grounds with a large fountain. Rei places her hand in the water and says to Shinji, "The first time we touched...I didn't feel anything." To which Shinji says, "Huh?" She replies with, "Your hand. The second time, it felt a little queasy (when Shinji fell on her in her room). I think. The third time...I felt warm inside. It was the heat from your hand, even through the suit (when Shinji came to her in the plug after they defeated Ramiel). But the fourth time...I was just happy. Happy that you were concerned about me (the time when Shinji put her hand under water when she burned it making tea)." Then she asks him, "Could I...hold your hand again?" They hold hands.

Stage 55: Message (伝言 / Dengon)

Kaji is seen in an undisclosed area. He's bleeding. He's shot a second time, probably by a member of SEELE. As he's dying he sees a vision of the city children he led to death crowding around him. Misato listens to a message from Kaji that was recorded on her answering machine. He tells her, "You have the truth. Get on with it."She knows that he has died. Shinji comes home and knows that Kaji has died. Hyuga tells Misato while they're sitting outside NERV headquarters that construction of Eva-08 through Eva-13 has started. Misato thinks that the committee has a plan that she is unaware of. She takes out a capsule of data that Kaji slipped into her pocket as he was kissing her earlier. She's ready to use it to find the information that was kept hidden from her.

Stage 56: Of Jealousy (ジェラシー / Jerashī)

At Misato's apartment, Shinji, Asuka, and Misato are in the middle of a meal when the phone rings. It's Asuka's stepmother. After the talk with her stepmother Asuka yells at Shinji after she tells him "It's not like I hate her or anything...I just...don't feel comfortable..." She hurries into her room and begins to think of her real mother. At NERV, Ritsuko looks at a picture of her young self with Gendo and her mother, then heads to give Rei her test. After giving Rei a shot, Ritsuko says "I saw you yesterday out walking with Shinji. ...Is that why you've started to look...more like a human being?" She then says she though Rei was just a doll, and that she's impressed that Rei has Gendo and Shinji wrapped around her finger. Rei denies that she's a doll, and says "It's true that I only liked Commander Ikari...but...isn't that the same for you, Dr. Aka-" At this time Ritsuko in a fit of anger begins to strangle Rei with a plastic cord, but stops herself when she realizes what she's doing. She says to herself while thinking of her mother, "It's exactly...what she did."

Notes

• Kaji's death in the manga is far more explicitly shown than it was in the anime. Whereas the anime has a gunshot ring out, whereas the manga has Kaji bleeding out on the ground while the specters of his brother and friends coming to greet him as he passes on.

Analysis

• Rei's pleading is interesting on two levels:
  • Rei converses with Unit-01, having found that their connection is that they are parts of a whole; one was what the other used to be, but they recognize one is the other. While the conversation is brief, it helps reinforce the connection between Rei and Yui.
  • Rei's feelings for Shinji become clearer. She clearly cares for him, whether its love or friendship is not explicitly stated, but she does want him back, and flatly tells Yui she cannot keep him which spurns Yui to give Shinji the choice to stay with her or return to the others who care for him.

Manga Volumes

Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Volume 9 | Volume 10

Volume 11 | Volume 12 | Volume 13 | Volume 14