Eva:3.0+1.0 Trailer #2 Commentary Pt.1

King Records has put out a somewhat higher quality version of the trailer than the one on the EVA-EXTRA app, so it’s time to rip this puppy apart! (What a great summer to be an Eva fan.)

To start with, the trailer labels every individual shot with a “Sn” (scene) number and a “C” (cut) number. This marks a huge departure from all Eva before this — NGE and NTE alike. “Sn” numbers were never before used to break up the Cuts into subcategories. The cuts were simply labeled from 001 (or 0001) to however far they needed to go, in roughly chronological order (though “missing numbers” where omissions have taken place, and things being out of order where some individual cuts or blocks of cuts got shifted around, is common). It should be interesting to eventually, maybe, hear about what caused them to change things up this late in the game — 3.0+1.0 being the fourth and final film, and all.

In any case, in telling us the scene and cut numbers here, khara is hypothetically giving us a very scant look at the film’s actual structure, which is also something quite new, but rather in keeping with their unusual promotional strategies. Let’s dig in, going by Scene/Cut order rather than trailer order.

Sn002 C010

Asuka, Rei, and Shinji walking through the red wastes filled with Failures of Infinity. This sequence has been teased at in khara short films like Peaceful Times (F02) Petit Film and Until You Come to Me, and it’s nice to see that we’ll be getting it in some form. Cute that Asuka and Rei are walking fairly closely together — they formed a slight connection at the end of Q, so maybe they’ll get some juicy interactions. Shinji of course is dragging behind, with a swaggering slouch that both suggests his depressed state of mind, and might also recall that slow, swaying walk that Eva-01 has done more than once. There are at least three Failures here: a right and left arm closer to us, and two right arms in the background. The animated “core” effect inside them indicates that, even though they are currently motionless, there is some form of life within.

Sn002 C018

Asuka checking her compass and leading the way. At the end of Q, the place where they’d landed had an “L Barrier density” that prevented the Wunder crew from coming to get them (something elaborated upon in the 3+1 clip released earlier this month), so they have to travel to a less heavily contaminated zone. The edge of a water body, perhaps.

Asuka’s sleeves are black and maroon instead of white now, and her right one is also missing the orange shoulder tab. Compare with before. Removable sleeves that have more plugsuit underneath? Curious.

Sn054 C010

Unclear where this is taking place. The glow in her eyes and the earnest, pensive look on her face — what could she be looking at?

Sn105 C001
Sn105 C002

We last saw Eva-13 fall somewhere in the Tokyo-3 area, impaled on the two Spears. Gendo, in his and Fuyutsuki’s final scene, implied that Eva-13’s Awakening was all according to plan. I didn’t anticipate this particular visual, but I’m not surprised by it. Fuyutsuki did describe that horrifying contraption as the ‘original Eva control system’, which sounds rather useful if they intend to do something with Eva-13. Notice how the Eva’s second set of arms are back in the chest now, the red ‘wings’ are gone, and new pylons have been placed onto the shoulders. The spears are left in place, and there’s a curious glow where they enter the core. There’s a couple of places on the rack where the Eva doesn’t QUITE fit, but with those spears poking out of its back I wonder how they got it to lie flush at all!

It’s a little difficult to tell, but that’s Gendo standing in the foreground. (The shaggy hair plus the “one hand in pocket” thing give him away.) What could he be planning? Eva-13 being placed on the same device where Yui entered Eva-01’s core raises the disturbing possibility that Gendo intends to make Eva-13 a true “counterpart” to 01, as it were… If he fuses with 13, then we would have Yui and Rei in one Eva, and Gendo and Kaworu in another. “It’s like poetry; it rhymes.” Last we saw, Gendo still hadn’t used the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, as well. Will he inject himself with it, and then, as Fuyutsuki said in Q, “sacrifice everything, including his very soul” … to the Eva?

Sn109 C002

Shinji looking at the SDAT. Background looks like somewhere on the Wunder. The end of Q left it an open question whether Rei would pick up the SDAT after Shinji dropped it, and this seems to confirm that she did. This shot mirrors the one from 3.0, where Shinji was looking at the SDAT after Ritsuko gave it to him.

Without additional context, this is a little ominous… Back in Q, the SDAT was the sole token Shinji was left with of “his” Rei. Remember that in 2.0, Shinji actually threw the SDAT into the trash, and he only got it back because Rei found it and took it into battle with her, and ultimately it somehow followed Rei’s soul into Eva-01’s entry plug. And then, later in Q, Shinji “discards” the SDAT once again — albeit for entirely different reasons — and, because of a different Rei, it’s ended up back in his possession again. The fact that he’s looking at it in a very similar way as when he first got it back… Is this maybe a hint that something happened to Rei Q?

Sn115 C003

Supporting the idea that Shinji is in fact on the Wunder, we have this shot, which is a mere six “scenes” later. As per the Wille senior crew norm, Misato is hiding her emotions, and Ritsuko looks disapproving about something. :p

If you look on the wall above Ritsuko’s head, you’ll see the text “SPACESUIT and PLSS”. (The latter means “Primary/Personal/Portable Life Support System”.) Does this mean… is Wunder going to GO TO SPACE?? Fans have been anticipating Gunbuster callbacks ever since we got the Nadia ones in Q, and the Avant1 already delivered a tiny bit on that by having Mari do the Gunbuster Pose at the end, so just maybe…? Gunbuster-related service or no, the mystery of what in the world happened to the Moon has been lingering on the horizon (literally, in this case…) ever since we got those two enigmatic shots of it in the last film, so with any luck we’ll get to see what’s happening there firsthand, as it were.

More next time! Talk about the trailer on the forum with us?