************************ PY @ TOKYO ******************************
First the usual disclaimer of translation:
The STANDARD TRANSLATION COPYING POLICY (tm)
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**********************************************************************
Secondly, the FAQ of "What is 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 :-)
*********************************************************************
PRODUCTION NOTES
================
(PY's Note: In the Production Notes, a lot of staff's names
are introduced.
Although I have a Japanese Name Dictionary, I have got
lazy and decided
to go for the translation without bothering to find out
the
pronounciation of the names. This means many of the names
would be left
untranslated, and absent from this version of translation.
I hope I
could get the name right later. My apologies.
Also please note that I keep the Japanese convention of
writing the
surname first, followed by the "first-name")
Two kinds of title logo of "THE END OF EVANGELION"
were designed. One
is the logo used on the poster and the advance-sale ticket.
Another
one is used as the title in the movie, following the hand-written
style of the title used in "REBIRTH". It is the
latter title logo
that is used on the cover of this pamphlet.
The movie ep.25 "Air" is based on the script already
in place during
TV production originally intended for TV Ep.25. Because of
various
problems during production, this script was not used and
the TV Ep.25
"The Ending World" was done in a same way as TV
Ep.26 in which
the drama was developed within an internal mind universe.
Because of
this, it could be said that this ep.25 is a return to the
original
intended story. In contrast, the movie ep.26, when compared
with
TV Ep.26, contains much more content on the story and plot,
thus
deepening the theme brought out in TV.
Since this movie is supposed to be the remake of the last
two
episodes of the TV series, the TV episode format is followed,
with each episode having its own subtitle and eyecatch scenes.
(PY: you know, those static scenes that contain nothing but
black background and white Japanese/English words)
The animation production of this movie, PRODUCTION I.G.,
is known
to have produced anime movies like "Pat Labour 2 the
Movie" and
"Ghost in the Shell". PRODUCTION I.G. made the
most out of the big
composition production effort put into this movie, a theatrical
film, and it became a high quality film.
In movie ep.25 "Air", the director is Tsurumaki
Katzuya, the
deputy director in the TV series. Although the script play
is from the
hands of the chief director Anno Hideaki, and all the operations
from direction downwards are also generally entrusted to
Tsurumaki.
Masuna Yuki (?), also the deputy director in the TV series,
is
responsible for the animation draft (PY: kai-konte? those
pencil
drafts of the scenes as they should look in the real animation).
Also, Higuchi Shinji partcipated in script play as well as
animation
drafting. They all followed the instruction from Director
Tsurumaki.
The direction of the movie ep.26 "True Heart to You"
was taken up by
Chief-director Anno himself. Because of that, this movie
bears a
strong flavour of his individual taste. As for animation
drafts,
Jime Kiichi and Higuchi Shinji also took part.
Masuna Yuki, who was the deputy director of the TV series
and the
director of the movie "DEATH", served several responaibilites
in
this movie: animation drafts, original print, virtual water
artist.
The depiction of water is the most difficult part in animation,
and
he worked as the art director of all depiction realated to
natural
phenonmena like water and waves. As a result, a post called
"virtual
water artist" was recreated for such responsibility.
He also drew
the original print for the advertisement poster of this movie.
There are two art directors in ep.25 and three in ep.26.
In ep.25,
the art director for scenes centred on charcters is Kouse
Kazuya
from PRODUTION I.G.. Kouse is known as the animator of movies
like
"Pat Labour 2 the Movie" and "Ghost in the
Shell", and he worked
twice as the art-director in the TV series. Honda Yuu is
the main
art director, as well as the animator for the "opening"
The art directors for ep.26 are Suzuki Gotoni, Hiramatsu
Teishi and
Anno Hideaki. Suzuki and Hiramatsu are both the art directors
for
the general scenes, while Anno concentrates on the mecha
scenes and
cuts centred around special effects.
In order to depict the interal world of Shinji in ep.26,
real life
scenes were employed in one part of the movie. Because of
this
decision, a team called "Special Production Team"
was formed. The
script play and chief director in this team is also Anno
Hideaki.
The post for special effect director was taken up by Higuchi
Shinji.
"Special effect director" in this context means
the director for
the filming of special effects. The real life filming was
done
according to the combined opinion formed between Hideaki
Anno and
Higuchi Shinji.
Although CG (computer graphics -PY) was widely used in Evangelion
TV, those CG scenes were all computer screens, processed
in a
2-dimensional manner. This time, in "THE END OF EVANGELION",
broadened
3-dimensional CG was used. The core of the CG production
is
Omnibus Japan, which did the CG in "Pat Labour 2 the
Movie" and
"Ghost in the Shell". Most of the CG scenes are
found after
the start of the Human Complmentation Project in ep.26. Some
examples include the cut which has the surface of the Earth
gradually
buried under more and more big crosses, and the cut which
has
numerous Rei swimming around. This time, the most difficult
challenge
for CG is the issue of translucence. Also, in order to create
a
visual feeling closer to other cuts, some scenes, after the
normal
CG operations, underwent a further analog filiming process
with
filters. The CG effect seen in the staff roll (in ending)
was also
done by Omnibus Japan.
PRODUCTION I.G. also did several C.G. cuts. One of them is
in ep.25,
in which 9 gigantic transport planes carrying the mass-production
model of EVA's first appeared. The nine big planes are seen
from
a bird-eye's view from top, with one plane overlapping another,
and
they each slided towards a different direction. Such scene
is nearly
impossible in conventional anime camera work, but C.G. makes
it
possible. The "Eirin" mark (the trade-mark of the
studio appeared
at the beginning of the movie -PY) is also C.G. done by PRODUCTION
I.G. So it is also billed as 3D animator in the telop. As
for the
CG seen in the computer screens, they were all done by Gainax
in-house, as in the TV series. This is billed as the 2D animator
in
the telop.
There is a substantial part in movie ep.25, which repeats
the
content shown in "REBIRTH", released in spring
time and is the first
part of the final. One quarter of it underwent various retouch
work
so as to improve its quality.
The effective use of classical music in Evangelion TV series
and
the spring movie "DEATH" leaves a deep impression
to everybody.
In this movie, 2 classical pieces were used: "Air on
G" and
"Jesus bliebt meine Freunde" by J.S.Bach.
"Air on G" is a version from a new recording arranged
by Sagisu Shiro.
It is used in the scene in which the second half of the battle
scene
between EVA-02 and mass production model EVA's is intermixed
with
the scene when Gendou faced off Ritsuko. "Jesus bliebt
meine Freunde"
is from a compliation of an existing source. It is used in
the real
life scene in ep.26.
2 songs were written for "THE END OF EVANGELION",
both are produced by
the team of Anno Hideaki and Sagisu Shiro. One is "THANATOS
- IF I
CAN'T BE YOURS", heard in the end of ep.25. This is
the vocal version
of the BGM "THANATOS (E-13)" used in TV Ep.19 "Man's
Battle". Vocalist
is LOREN and lyrics is by MASH. Song and arrangement is by
Sagisu
Shiro. THANATOS is the god governing death in Greek mythology.
It also
carries a meaning of "impulsive desire for death"
in psychoanalysis.
As for the other song, it is the insert song used in ep.26
"Komm,
suesser Tod". The lyrics is the English translation
of words composed
by chief-director Anno (PY: In my opinion, this is no translation,
but
inspired rewriting of the Japanese words). The title is a
German,
meaning "come, sweet death". Vocalist is Arianne,
and song and
arrangement are by Sagisu Shiro.
There are altogether 18 BGM with new music and recording.
The BGM used
in this movie were done according to the opinions from chief-director
Anno. So new music is even used in the part which repeats
the story in
"REBIRTH"
It can be seen that the Municipal Haishima Kindergarten of
Akishima
city is billed in the "Thanks to" section in the
telop. The is the
kindergarten to where the daughter of Ishikawa, the producer
of
PRODUCTION I.G., goes. Since chief-director Anno wanted to
use some
children songs as close to real-life recording as possible
in the
sand bank scene of ep.26, Ishikawa and his team-mates went
to that
kindergarten and recorded the songs.
(END of PRODUCTION NOTES)
Red Cross Book Translation, Part 3
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