[EVA] Eva Manga Stage 82

[Gwern Branwen]

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Anuraag Agrawal <anuraaga at gmail.com> wrote:
...
> Shinji:  But I just don't know what's right or what's wrong anymore.  Who's
> words should I trust, what exactly do you want, I just don't know.  Even
> though I piloted Eva, nothing changed.  I just lose the people important to
> me.  I tried so hard yet couldn't change a thing!
> *Misato slams her hands against the wall around Shinji*
> Misato: Are you still going to act like a baby?  Even if it was like that up
> til now, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be like that from now on.  This
> is an order, get in Eva.  Get in Eva and save Asuka.  That is what you can
> do now.  That is what you have to do.  This is my last instruction (order).
> It's not like you can just abandon Asuka, can you?
> Shinji: No...
> Misato: Good boy.  Once this's over, I won't be giving you any more orders.
> Pick for yourself, by yourself, the path you must go down.  You're not a kid
> anymore.  Being pushed around by what adults tell you, acting spoiled,
> throwing a tantrum, shutting yourself off in your shell, it's all over now.
> You graduated.  Don't be scared, take the next step by your own free will.
> Look for the answers without anyone's help.  Why did you come here, why did
> you pilot Eva, why are you here right now, what you yourself want to do from
> now on. And if you're able to find the answers, make sure to come back.

Shinji is much less argumentative in this than in
http://www.evaotaku.com/html/air.html EoE Shinji is all I hurt other
people and you don't understand me, whereas manga Shinji is more 'I
tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter'.
Much less dialogue period, actually.

> *Misato kisses Shinji*
> Misato: That's an adult's kiss.  We'll continue when you get back.
> *Misato pushes Shinji into the elevator*
> Misato: Have a safe trip. (ed: or however you want to translate/not
> translate itterasshai)
> *Door closes*
> Shinji: Misato! Misato!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> The title of the stage was written in English, so I left it as is as much as
> I would have rather translated meirei as order...

:( When I saw it, I was thought, 'gosh, I hope whomever translates it
for Viz renders it as 'The Last Command', so I can make geeky Star
Wars jokes.'

> Wow what a chapter.  Shinji's not as lame as EoE, and the lead-up to the
> kiss is much more natural (nice graduation present, I'd say).  But the
> conversation is all about Shinji, so it lacks some of the Misato self-guilt
> of the EoE version.

Yeah. What strikes me is how the previous exhortation almost seems to
try to put a different spin on the 'that was an adult kiss' - in EoE,
with the recrimination, it's very difficult to take it any way but
sexually. With the speech, though, about growing up & no longer being
a kid & graduating, one can squint and see it European-style (if you
will) as a congratulatory kiss, and the promise perhaps alluding to
dinner and parties and gifts.

(One may be kissed or hugged immediately coming off the stage with
one's diploma, but one doesn't sit down there and have the fancy
dinner with much toasting. That's later.)

> Talk of saving Asuka is interesting, but I'm not
> keeping my hopes up that events will play out all that differently in the
> end.
>
> --AA

The Asuka focus is also interesting - 2 mentions of Asuka as the major
reason to go fight, whereas in EOE Asuka is only mentioned by Shinji
as someone he hurt (on par with Kaworu) and as part of Misato's dying
gallows humor. But I'm not optimistic either. Sadamoto seems pretty
bloodthirsty, and if Asuka is important enough to Shinji to make him
go fight (rather than Misato begging him to go fight), that just makes
the harpies apparently killing her all the more devastating to
Shinji...

-- 
gwern