Episode 7: The Human Creation/ A Human World
Just when I was getting used to this show we are suddenly introduced to a new and interesting wrinkle in the story of Ritsuko and Gendo. I don't know what these two are up to, but I can bet when Misato finds out she won't be happy at all.
We start this episode on a very humorous note, namely breakfast time at Misato's apartment. While Shinji prefers the taste of coffee to wake him up, Misato prefers a nice cold beer to start her day. Then Kensuke and Toji show up to walk to school with Shinji and they of course make it a point to say hi to Misato. Even more hilarious is Misato's appearance at Shinji's school for the parent/teacher meeting. When he car comes screeching into the parking lot, all the boys look out the window and stare at her. While Shinji doesn't quite understand what they see in her, Kensuke is busy using his video camera to film her and the girls are angry their male classmates are so hormonal. Later in his EVA, Shinji begins to wonder what the EVA really is and why has feels so comfortable in it.
Important developments in this episode are the three short conversations. The first occurs when we learn that the EVA 02 is being brought to Japan from Germany (reinforcing the global power of NERV) and that Gendo is at a conference. The second conversation has Gendo on a plane, telling his aide that NERV will be getting a bigger budget and that everyone except the United States has agreed to build the new EVA. The last major conversation is the one Ritsuko and Shinji share. She tells him that the real cause for the Second Impact wasn't a meteor falling to the ground: it was an Angel that crashed in the Arctic and then exploded for unknown reasons.
The next day, Misato heads to Old Tokyo with Ritsuko for a demonstration of the new military robot called JA. It is a tall two-legged robot like the Evangelion but it uses an internal nuclear reactor instead of the EVA's electrical power source. Ritsuko publicly debates the merits of that reactor and the robot with the UN spokespeople who take this opportunity to criticize NERV's work against the Angels. The UN say it's only a matter of time before they are able to figure out how to break through the Angel's AT field. Ritsuko and Misato realize that there is an information leak in NERV because no one outside of NERV should know about the existence of the AT field. The two ladies attend the JA field test where JA's nuclear reactor goes out of control. As it begins to overload the UN tries to shut it off but for some reason JA won't respond. Misato says she will manually try to shut it off but she needs the secret code to shut it off. In a direct attack on the UN by the show's creators, the UN high officials all try to shirk responsibility and the UN members in Tokyo are let down by UN red tape. Misato calls in EVA 01 and finally is able to get the password, which is "hope". Shinji protests Misato's plan because he doesn't want her to take the risk of being hurt but Misato says she has to do this or she will regret it for her entire life. Misato finally gets inside JA (while she is wearing a protective suit of course) and the code doesn't work: someone has tampered with JA's internal system! Just when all seems lost, JA's core returns to normal and Misato knows someone set this all to happen this way. Later in Gendo's office Ritsuko says everything went according to plan and that there was nothing unexpected that occurred.
While walking to school the next day, Kensuke and Toji tell Shinji how cool Misato is. Shinji says she is just sloppy, embarrassing, messy and that he doesn't understand what they see in her. His friends tell him that the only reason she lets him see that side of her, the side she shows to no one else, is because he is family to her.
Stellar is the word that comes to mind when describing this episode. I loved the fact that the focus was squarely on Misato this episode. Not only did we see her resolve and capability, the discussion the boys had at the end sheds some insight into her personality. Ritsuko is also turning out to be quite a dangerous character and her relationship with Gendo is something I'm sure we will see explored very soon. With this one episode we not only learned the true Second Impact, the truth behind Misato and Ritsuko but we also had a nice attack on the UN. What more can you ask for?
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