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Part 1 : Commentary
Translation by Patrick Yip
The STANDARD TRANSLATION COPYING POLICY (tm)
Want to repost or archive this? Just follow these
rules:
1) Don't change the content, although formatting is ok. You
can translate it into html, just don't go inserting your
own paragraphs, or changing words (even spell-checking).
If you want to translate this, you have far too much free
time on your hands. Mail me.
2) Bill me as "Patrick Yip <[email protected]>",
despite what email address you see this coming from.
3) Leave this disclaimer intact.
This applies to all my translation that have been
released (either
posted to the Evangelion ML, or
rec.arts.anime.misc). You don't need
to send me mail to ask permission to archive
this, but it might be
a nice gesture to let me know you did it.
Now the real stuff. The first part contains the
"commentary" of the
RCB.
THE RED CROSS BOOK (aka RCB) -- the final(?) canon of
Evangelion
translated by Patrick Yip ([email protected])
1997/10/19
The Red Cross Book (referred to as RCB onwards) is the
pamphlet
sold in the cinema to those who came to see the movie
"the End of
Evangelion". It cost 800 yen. The book is A-4 in
size and landscape in
orientation. The cover is pitch black with a red
Georgian cross
superimposed on it, hence the name "Red Cross
Book" On the cross, the
words "THE END OF EVANGELION" was printed, in
thin, match-like manner.
What makes this book particularly special and
meaningful to all EVA
fans is that, for the first time, we hear the voice
from Gainax about
why and how the movies were made. We also know a great
deal about the
answers to some of the most discussed after mysteries
in the anime. The
"commentary" "glossary" and
"production notes" are three parts that are
most informative. I shall strive to translate these
three sections so
that all the EVA fans could know the latest update of
the "official"
answers to the EVA mysteries (real-life or anime :-)
THE COMMENTARY
**************
"THE END OF EVANGELION" is the final of the
series "Neon Genesis
Evangelion". This movie is composed of the 25th
episode "Air" and
26th episode "True Heart to you" (Magokoro wo,
kimi ni).
At the end of TV EP.24 "The last Shito/Nagisa",
Kaworu Nagisa, the
first one who understands our hero Shinji Ikari, also
the last
Angel, was killed Shinji's own hand. Ep.25
"Air" starts right after
this. Therefore, Ep.25 and Ep.26 are the continuation
of TV EP.24
"The last Shito".
In TV, after the EP.24, EP.25 "The end of the
world" (Owaru Sekai)
and EP.26 "The one who calls only I/Love at the
center of the
world" (Sekai no Chuushin de AI wo yondake mono)
were shown, and
the series ended afterwards. Therefore, after the end
of TV EP.24,
the story of Evangelion can be said to branch into two.
There is
one ending as shown in TV EP.25 & 26, while the
Ep.25 & 26 as
shown in "THE END OF EVANGELION" is another
ending. (Here we use
the kanji number for TV Episode, and Arabic number for
the movie
episodes) -- PY: I use EP for TV and Ep for movie --
TV "Neon Genesis Evangelion" was an anime
series which ran from
1995 October to 1996 March. The planning and original
story were
done by GAINAX, which is known to produce anime
"The Wings of
Honneamise" and "Fushigi no Umi no
Nadia", also games like "Princess
Maker". The animation production was done by
GAINAX and Tatsunokopuro.
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" has always been,
since its inception to
this movie, evolving with the director Hideaki Anno as
the centre.
From the theme, the skeleton of the story, up till the
single pieces
of the dialogue, they all bear the stint of Anno's
creative
individuality.
When Evangelion was shown on TV, it received the
enthusiatic support
of many fans. Discussions started on many topics: The
intriguing
SF settings, the dyanmic fighting scenes, the
metaphysical taste
derived from the appearance of many Christian and
psychoanalytical
jargons, the super-intensive amount of information.
Evangelion
overtakes all prevous anime on all these counts. It
could be taken as
real "Neon Genesis" of anime. The tremendous
popularity could match
the biggest hits like "Space Battleship
Yamato" and "Mobile Suit
Gundam". The "Eva phenonmenon" was
created.
The big theme in Evangelion is the "heart of
people". This is also
one of the attractions of this series which counld not
be found in
other anime works. The relationship with others, the
meaning of
the existence of self, what is the self.... Evangelion
started as
a realistic SF mecha action anime. At first, the
"people's heart"
issue of the main characters is just some add-on to the
drama.
However, as the plot moved forward, the issue of
"people's heart"
grew much bigger than other elements like mecha actions
or the
solutions to the mysteries.
At the last episode of the TV series, "Sekai no
Chuushin de
AI wo yondake mono", it became an odd-looking
episode which
depicted only the internal world of the hero Shinji
Ikari. Although
that was fulfilling for the main theme, the drama of
the characters
and further development of the Eva world were left
unfinished as
the story ended.
It became an exploding issue as the last TV episode was
considered
incomplete. The voice of the fans grew stronger and
stronger as
they demanded the proper ending of the drama, the
explanation of
the mysteries or just a new story. With a view to
meeting these
demands, it was decided to remake the EP.25 & 26.
At first, the remade episodes 25 and 26 were supposed
to be released
in OVA, but during production it was decided that it
would be a
theatre release. There is a "EVANGELION DEATH AND
REBIRTH" (Shito
Shinsei) which consists of the summary episode of the
TV series
"Death" and the new remade "Air"
which serves as a climax.
However, since later the content of the remake grew to
an unexpected
proportion, the content shown in "REBIRTH"
was actually 2/3 of the
new episode 25. As the first part of the final, "EVANGELION
DEATH
and REBIRTH" was shown in March 1997.
It has been 4 months after "EVANGELION DEATH AND
REBIRTH", and now
the completion of the final is shown. This is this
movie "THE END
OF EVANGELION"
As mentioned before, "THE END OF EVANGELION"
is the continuaton from
TV EP.24 "The last Angel". All the Angels had
died. Now the final
phase, the Human Complementation Project of Seele, had
started.
The Strategic Self-Defense Force attacked the
Headquarter of NERV.
The deathly fight between Asuka's EVA-02 and the mass
production
models of EVA series. The resolved mysteries. And then,
the ending
of the HCP. The heart of Shinji.... In Ep.25 (AIR) and
Ep.26 (True
Heart to You), the drama of main characters, actions,
solutions to
the mysteries etc are all contained. Also this is done
in an
experimental way, which strives to follow the TV series
in bringing
up the real issue of "people's heart". As its
title suggests, this
is the ending of the final of "Neon Genesis
Evangelion"
The chief director and script play is Hideaki Anno. The
castings of
Ep.25 (Air) is Waya Tsurumaki (PY: don't know whether
this is the
correct translation) and that of Ep.26 (True Heart to
You) is Hideaki
Anno. The animation production is, as in EVANGELION
DEATH AND REBIRTH,
jointly done by GAINAX and PRODUCTION I.G.
The movie lasts for about 87 minutes.