A still blue sky is pierced by the roar of helicopters as we enter Evangelion’s fifteenth episode. Evangelion loves contrasting the abrasive intrusion of military hardware and the serene beauty of the natural world – but even as it labors over that contrast, it can’t help but loving the military hardware in its own right. Anno seems a lot like Miyazaki in that way; aware of the ugliness implied by his otaku passions, but unable to deny those passions, with both the love and the critique coming through in his work. Though Anno also extends his interrogations to his basic narrative structures, while Miyazaki has seemingly never lost faith in the purity and power of the classic adventure fable.

But this episode is not about that.

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It’s a strange thing, how the process of describing history seems to fundamentally transform it. Fitting the events of Evangelion’s first half into a historical record lends its battles clarity, coherency, perhaps even a sense of purpose. New trials are announced through stark title cards, and their resolutions are conveyed just as cleanly, twenty minutes of hardship transformed into thirty seconds of recap. The picture that emerges depicts an inexperienced but talented team, rushing to improve their defensive capabilities, but handling each new challenge with absolute professionalism.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion’s thirteenth episode opens on a shot of the NERV offices in disarray, as we pan across a desk stacked with loose papers, scattered electronic apparatus, and a worryingly placed coffee cup. The pan concludes by settling on the source of this disorder: Ritsuko Akagi, NERV’s chief technology officer, currently in the midst of a maintenance check on NERV’s Magi supercomputers. Ritsuko praises her assistant Maya for her efficient system checks, but when she notices an error, she takes over and demonstrates a typing speed and mastery of engineering far exceeding her star-struck assistant. The two central axis of this episode are thus immediately set: NERV’s physical layout and electronic mechanisms, and the brilliant technical chief who rules over these machines.

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We witness its genesis as a great light, a blinding spark searing the atmosphere, visible even from the surface of the moon. Then comes the furious wind, as our vision cuts in to a snowy hellscape stained rust red, as if the earth itself has suffered some great and terrible wound. A ragged figure trudges with purpose across this nightmare, his arms cradling an unconscious young girl. As we peer down through a shattered bunker, the man sets his cargo down in a metal tube, and she briefly wakes – but her cry of “father” is cut off, their final connection severed by the sealing of the tube. And then the shivering landscape upends entirely, as a great and terrible creature rises to remake the world.

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Having most recently tasked our heroes with mastering Dance Dance Revolution in order to defeat an angel in a dance-off, followed by wrestling in a volcano while wearing a fat suit, it should be clear at this point that Evangelion’s reputation as a grim and self-serious production is perhaps a touch overstated. While we’ve already run through episodes that grapple frankly with topics like social isolation, anxiety, and depression, the arrival of Asuka has heralded our entrance into the middle act of Neon Genesis Evangelion, where it most closely resembles a conventional episodic giant robot show. Shinji has gained friends and allies, the full NERV team has been established, and the stage is properly set for a menagerie of bizarre angels to attack NERV. But all of that is not to say that this stretch of episodes is lacking in aesthetic craft or distinctive personality – on the contrary, episode eleven’s pacing and directorial style offer one of the most clearly defined and energetic personalities of the show so far.

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After being forced to share the stage with that idiot Shinji during both her grand debut and her first official mission, Asuka Langley Soryu at last enjoys the full spotlight in Neon Genesis Evangelion’s tenth episode. No collaborating with wimpy boys, no interference from that creepy Rei Ayanami, no one at all to stop Asuka from demonstrating her brilliance as the greatest of Eva pilots, a hero with the talent, beauty, and courage necessary to inspire humanity’s future. Stand back and secure those dropped jaws, folks. Asuka has arrived.

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While Neon Genesis Evangelion’s eighth episode served as Shinji and Asuka’s formal introduction, any camaraderie they might have developed during that adventure was more or less necessitated by circumstance. In the wake of that explosive field trip, their initial impressions seem stable: Shinji finds Asuka mean and terrifying, while Asuka considers Shinji weak and childish. Their ability to work as a team outside of any but the most desperate of circumstances is basically negligible; thus we enter Evangelion’s ninth episode, an episode famous for being the most ridiculous, farcical, and unabashedly Super Robot-influenced episode of all Evangelion. Get ready folks, it’s time to dance like you want to win.

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