Episode 01 Supplemental Notes and Analysis

From The NGE Fan-Geeks Project

Notes

• When Misato asks Shinji if his father sent him a Nerv ID card, he hands her the letter that his father sent him summoning him to Tokyo-3. All of the printed out words on the entire letter are censored and blacked out because it is classified information. The only actual information on it is a handwritten message from Gendo which reads: "COME -- Gendo Ikari". Shinji presumably tore up the paper out of frustration at his father, and then taped the pieces back together (after getting a load of Misato's picture??).
• Misato's blue car is apparently based on a modified 1981 Alpine Renault A310. However, the A310's driver's seat is on the left hand side, while the driver's side of Misato's car is on the right side. Further, Misato's car appears to be battery-powered, and does not use gasoline. Further, Misato's car seems to have some sort of GPS display monitor on the dashboard.
• When Misato and Shinji are entering Nerv HQ, the hexagonal sliding door they walk through has the misspelling "cauntion" written on it
• Eva-01's shoulder normally just as the word "EVA" written on it, with a number "1" superimposed over it. However, when Shinji and Misato first drive up to Eva-01 in a hovercraft, the entire word "Evangelion" is written on its shoulder due to an animation goof.
• Sachiel's respiration system is somewhat unusual; this is made more clear in production sketches, but apparently it "breathes in" through the gills on its thighs, and "breathes out" through what are apparently two large "nostrils" located between where the hip and crotch/main body core meet, diagonally above the gills on the thighs.
• The announcer at the beginning of the episode says that "a special state of emergency has been declared for the Kanto and Chubu regions"; Tokai is the district between Tokyo and Nagoya. Kanto and Chubu contains Tokai and the large area north of it.
• Geography-wise, Sachiel approaches Tokyo-3 from coast to the east, and is said to be "moving from Highway 83 onto 88" when it arrives at Shinji's original position. When Shinji first appears at a phone booth before he arrives in Tokyo-3 itself, a road sign he is standing right next to says that his current position is 12 kilometers from Tokyo-3 and 35 kilometers from Gotenba. Also, an aviation support unit spreads "from the direction of Odawara". Soon afterwards Sachiel "penetrates the Tonosawa area" crossing the "tertiary self-defense line".
• Background announcements in Nerv HQ after Misato and Shinji enter state that the "Sigma Unit" is under a complete lockout.
• The levels of Nerv HQ are all designated in the elevators as "B-(level)"; i.e. we see Misato and Shinji pass by a sign on a wall that says "Level 20", and the elevator they are in designates this as "B-20" etc (the "B" is drawn in a fuzzy digital font causing some viewers to confuse it for an "8"). When Misato and Shinji are passing along a shaft (going through Level 20) that extends several levels down, Level 30 and Level 40 can be seen progressively further down the shaft. Thus, levels with higher numbers in Nerv HQ are deeper underground. Other maps show that different subsections of Nerv HQ have different letter prefixes ("A-15", "K-05", etc.), but the main subsection that the command center is located in appears to be a large hexagon-shaped vertical shaft with each level designated with the prefix "B-".
• Misato's map indicates that Nerv's command center is located on level B-20, saying: "Nerv Headquarters: Central Dogma B20". Of course, Nerve's Commander Center is a massive room many levels in height, so level B-20 is presumably the level which Misato normally accesses it on. Misato has left a handwritten note in red ink on the map with an arrow pointing to the commander center, saying "this area!". Looking closely it can be seen that Misato has also left another note with arrows pointing to two other areas on the same level: "WC", which presumably stands for "water closet", that is, the lavatory (bathroom). When Misato encounters Ritsuko, she tries to hide the map behind her back out of embarrassment that she needs to use it.
• Every recurring major character in the series appears in the opening credits throughout the series, including Shinji's classmates (who don't appear until Episode 03), and Asuka and Kaji (who do not appear until Episode 08) and even a sketch of Kaworu (who turns up in the very end at Episode 24), probably because it would have been more expensive to create more than one opening sequence.
• Despite being the head of Nerv's Tactical Operations division, Misato is apparently a relatively new arrival at Nerv HQ, as she gets lost on her way into the base, prompting Ritsuko to comment that she's "lost again" (i.e. it's not the first time that she has been in Nerv HQ, but she is has not been there long and still gets lost). In the next episode, Misato says that she just moved to Tokyo-3 "the other day" and there are still unopened boxes in her apartment.

Some of the Incidents Described Above
From left to right, starting at the top left: Shinji's torn id Misato's car Cauntion! A hovercraft takes the characters to Eva-01

Analysis

• Gendo never properly wears his uniform, even while in front of the JSSDF generals who, prior to the transfer of power when the N² Mine attack fails to stop the Angel, are technically in command and his superiors. Fuyutsuki keeps his uniform properly zipped up the entire time, but Gendo just wears his uniform's jacket open. It's possible that this is just economy of animation and character design (Gendo never zips up his uniform throughout the entire series), but it could also be an intentional subtle hint that Gendo has no respect for the JSSDF at all.
• When Ritsuko first meets Shinji and Misato, she is wearing a one-piece swimsuit, which she was wearing under a diving suit, with her lab coat over it. However, between when Ritsuko, Misato, and Shinji meet in the elevator and when they reach Eva-01, Ritsuko has changed into her normal clothes (blue shirt, black skirt, and stockings); in addition, Misato has put on her trademark red jacket. They're supposed to be hurrying to Eva-01 as fast as they can to sortie it against the Angel: Misato could conceivably have just thrown her jacket on while walking, but Ritsuko apparently took the time to change her entire outfit?

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