Neon Genesis Evangelion/Trivia: Difference between revisions

* [[Writing by the Seat of Your Pants]]: Downplayed. The series does by and large follow the plot as it was outlined in the original first draft proposal, with the first half or so being more or less beat-for-beat to the outline. But a case of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] with the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway leading to much of the script having to be scrapped and Anno being in heavily treatment for his clinical depression, meant that the show starts seriously deviating from said proposal around Episode 16 and forwards.

 

* Many of the characters were named after various WWII-era naval vessels, most often aircraft carriers. ''Katsuragi'', ''Akagi'', and ''Soryu'' were all aircraft carriers; the ''Akagi'' led the attack on Pearl Harbor. ''Ayanami'' and ''Fuyutsuki'' were destroyers; ''Fuyutsuki'' rescued survivors from the great ''Yamato'' when she was sunk near Okinawa in 1945. ''Kirishima'' and ''Hyuga'' were battleships that were part of the fleet which attacked Pearl Harbor. ''Ibuki'', ''Maya'' and ''Aoba'' are names of heavy cruisers; the ''Ibuki'' existed only on paper, it was never built. The ''Hyuga'' is another warship. ''Langley'' is also the name of two American aircraft carriers, and the ''Graf Zeppelin'' is the name of an uncompleted Nazi-German aircraft carrier.

** Similarly, Ikari means "anchor."

** The second variant is when the kanji for ''unusual''(!) (which is 希) is removed from the above. This new term (波真, which is now ''nami shin'') now has an entirely new meaning: ''True Wave''. This would be best represented by how, near the ending of ''Rebuild 2.0'', Makinami unleashes an entirely new form of the EVA. She explains this as a pilot "rids itself of its humanity", and she uses code word to unlock this new form: ''The Beast''. Note that the Angels are, as per NERV's research, [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|supposed to bear a 99.89 percent similarity to humanity]]. That research, along with the above information, makes this "Beast" form not a coincidence.

* On another note, the interconnecting theme to the pilots here is how they have some usage of [[wikipedia:Momentum|the equation for momentum]] of light used in [[Visual Pun|Chemistry(!)]] and other sciences. Applying [[Fridge Logic]] based on the above given information, we have (in SI Units): Makinami (representing momentum, in kg*m/s) = Ayanami (representing frequency, in "1/s") x Shikinami (representing wavelength, in "m") x Shinji (representing mass, in "kg"; remember his name literally means ''anchor'').

* The Evangelions were based visually on [[Go Nagai]] creations ''[[Devilman]]'' and ''[[Mazinger Z]].'' Anno cites the terrifying face, slender build, hunched back and chest plate as coming from Devilman, while its glowing eyes with the red markings were derived from Mazinger Z. The first shot of Evangelion, with its large head, was a direct homage to the first episode of Mazinger Z.

* The opening shot of ''The End of Evangelion'' is a mirror image of the closing shot of ''Evangelion: Death''. The opening shot of ''Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0'' is a reflection of the closing shot of ''The End of Evangelion'', with a few... scenery details removed.

* The US voice actors for the three main Children all married the original voice actors for the [[Bridge Bunnies]]: [[Amanda Winn-Lee]] (Rei) is married to Jason C. Lee (Aoba); [[Spike Spencer]] (Shinji) was formerly married to Kendra Benham (Ibuki); and [[Tiffany Grant]] (Asuka) is married to Matt Greenfield (Hyuga).

* Frame by frame on Episode 22, during the [[Mind Rape]] sequence, we get some...[[Incredibly Lame Pun|creepy analysis]] of what the Angel is doing. In order (apply [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] throughout):

** [[wikipedia:Gnoll|Gnoll]] is a cross between a gnome and a troll. "Groll" (German for "resentment") is also accurate.