I’ve seen most of the series as well as Death and Rebirth, but my Blockbuster has been out of EoE for almost three weeks now. I’ve got a good idea of the story and the relationships between the characters, but there are some things that still have me mystified.
The angels are the offspring of Adam, yes, but where were they before they showed up at Tokyo 3? Presumably, they were “born” before Adam reverted to an embryo and was encased in bakelite. Sandalphon was gestating in that lava pit before awakening and fighting Asuka, while Tabris/Kaworu was engineered by SEELE. Did they ever explain where the rest came from?
On a related note, how and when did they recover Adam’s embryo? Misato was the only member of the Antarctic Expedition who survived Second Impact, and the intro to Death and Rebirth with the spreading wings made it seem like they failed to confine him. Were they successful and another expedition was sent to pick it up, or did they try again somewhere else?
Yui Ikari’s soul inhabited Eva-01 after she disappeared during the activation experiment. What happened? Did it absorb her? Eat her? Whatever the case, she was in its immediate presence when it happened. How did it work with Asuka’s mother and Eva-02, or Naoko Akagi and Eva-00 (assuming it really is her soul in there), considering they were both already dead?
And what are the Evas, exactly? I gathered mostly from the episode where 01 eats the angel’s S2 unit that they consist of a creature engineered from the flesh of either Adam or Lilith that’s kept under control by the armor and by input from the pilot. Does “activation” consist of them acquiring a soul (eg Yui Ikari’s)? What about the batteries: do they sustain the creature at all or do they only power the restraining armor?
With regard to Gendo changing his last name from Rokubungi to Ikari, do people really do that in Japan, or was that just something he thought up himself? I don’t subscribe to the idea that he was just using her to get close to SEELE, but I could still see him changing his name to that end, even if he really loved her.
Also, I’m curious about Professor Fuyutsuki. He fell for Yui Ikari while she was working for him, even though she ended up with Gendo. When he confronts Gendo with the truth about Second Impact, their exchange goes something like this:
“You bastard! It was all a coverup!”
“Sure was. Pretty cool, huh?”
“…guess so. Mind if I join you?”
Is that about how it worked? What more is there to the character? Everyplace I’ve looked he gets overlooked in favor of the other characters.
I gotta say, this series is a lot cooler than I gave it credit for. The intrigue is pretty neat, and I enjoy the ghoulish brutality of scenes like Unit 01 ripping 03 to pieces, the 14th angel getting devoured, or grown-up Shinji having to watch Misato relive her dirty animal sex with Kaji. I hardly even notice the quasi-symbolism. It’s a trip, to be sure.