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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 (Patrick.Yip@ing-barings.com) 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 Oneamis"
and "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia", also games like "Princess Mecha".
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.
Red Cross Book Translation, Part 2
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