Final Impact-An Evangelion Gundam Anime Corner Special (Part 8)

Previously:

Kaji got a back story and Shinji almost punched his Dad before his Eva went next level Berserk, ate an Angel and sent Shinji to another plane of existence…so not the best day ever.  And as we pick up with Final Impact: An Evangelion Gundam Anime Corner Special, we see that Shinji’s not the only one having the first of many bad days to come.
 
Volume 8 (Episodes 20-21)
In the Anime:
After the battle with Zeruel, Shinji merges with his Eva, becoming trapped within for over a month while the others try to find out how to bring him back to the real world.  During his journey within the Eva, Shinji encounters the spirit of his mother, Yui Ikari, before he is suddenly freed.  While Shinji recovers, Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki is abducted and interrogated be SEELE regarding Gendo’s recent action, prompting Fuyutsuki to reflect on his past.  The former Professor reflects on his life before NERV: How he met Yui and later Gendo and his connections to the earliest days of Project Eva.  Kaji manages to find Fuyutsuki and free him but signs his own death warrant in the process.  Spending one last evening with Misato, Kaji leaves her all the intel he has collected before he is killed by an unknown assassin.  Meanwhile, Rei’s own human side continues to grow and Asuka finds her own self worth challenged having suffered two back to back defeats from two Angels.

In the Manga:

·        Shinji’s travels through Eva Unit 01 contain far more graphic and nightmarish imagery including Shinji stabbing Gendo in anger and Yui mutating into Eva Unit 01. 

·        New scenes for Kaji involving Asuka and Misato.  With Asuka he tries to keep her spirits up when shes concerned about Shinji.  With Misato, Kaji kisses her in a scene reminiscent of an earlier one in the Anime before she pushes him away.  Kaji tells Misato this was their 8^th Anniversary and he still loves her. 

·        Kaji and Misato do not have sex after Shinji emerges from Eva Unit 01.

·        Gendo and Rei have a scene where Rei expresses concern for Shinji and rejects Gendo when he refuses to go to Eva Unit 01’s side to wait for him.

·        Rei pleads with Eva Unit 01 to give Shinji back to her, confessing she does not wish to lose him.

·        Shinji’s Mother’s soul separates from the true Eva apparition and shows Shinji a memory of her and Gendo with a Baby Shinji.  Yui tells Shinji she’ll always watch over him before Shinji is returned to the real world.

·        Shinji and Rei walk to a courtyard in the Geofront, where Rei asks Shinji if she can hold his hand again.

·        Kaji is shot, just as he is in the Anime (the glove of the assailant looks very similar to Gendo’s).  Before he passes, the spirits of his brother and friends come to meet him.

·        Asuka shows up just after Misato listens to Kaji’s final message.  Asuka desperately pleads with Misato to tell her what has happened.  She acts the same way to Shinji when he returns home.  Because of this and what he knows already, Shinji deduces to himself that Kaji really is gone.

·        Ritsuko attacks Rei during a check up when Rei speaks out about their shared affections for Gendo.  This is eerily reminiscent of when Ritsuko’s mother, Naoko, killed Rei’s previous incarnation under similar circumstances.

And things just keep getting worse and worse for this cast of characters, good to know some things hardly change between various iterations of Neon Genesis Evangelion.  A lot happened this week so I’ll try to break it down evenly.  Shinji’s introspective Eva journey came complete with new nightmare fuel imagery including his Mother mutating into the being that he saw way back in Volume 1 and Shinji even killed Gendo…harsh stuff (even if Gendo deserves it, it shouldn’t be Shinji that ends him).  On the outside, Kaji made his rounds as if he knew what was coming for him very soon.  The Manga omits his sex scene with Misato in favor of something more…idk, something that just works in its own way.  Kaji might not see a future for himself (in keeping with him believing he doesn’t deserve happiness) but that doesn’t stop him from keeping hope alive for everyone else.  I’m also gonna throw in a radical theory that given the look of the glove worn by Kaji’s killer, I’m gonna say Gendo was the one to end him.  Why? I don’t know but we did see that Gendo was looking in on Kaji personally during the course of his investigations.  Kaji’s death in the Anime was a shock.  In the Manga, it’s much heavier with the added knowledge that Shinji knows he’s gone and Kaji got to see the spirits of his brother and friends waiting for him, all of that added onto Misato’s heartbreaking reaction to Kaji’s final words to her.  Everyone else wasn’t having an easier time with things either.  Ritsuko almost strangled Rei cause she doesn’t want to share Gendo with her (affection wise) and man, seeing that it mirrored how Ritsuko’s Mom killed Little Rei in the past gave me chills.  If Rei weren’t Rei, that would make things awkward going forward.  Who Rei is being awkward with is Gendo, furthering her evolution.  She’s worried about Shinji when he’s stuck in Unit 01 and wants Gendo to be worried about his son as well.  Yet when he shrugs concern off, Rei shrugs him off too and goes to wait for Shinji.  I think next to Rebuild of Evangelion’s Rei, the Manga Rei is my second favorite version of the Evangelion Poster Girl.

 
So…could things get any worse for Shinji and the very emotionally unstable staff and Eva Pilots of NERV?  This is Neon Genesis Evangelion folks…of course it’s going to get worse, a lot worse.  Just how much so, you’ll have to come back Next Friday to find out, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.