VFTF1

I am skeptical about this for one simple reason: if NERV could make an accurate copy of a human brain - then why would it need to build a giant super computer that is meant to mimic a human brain? Why go to the trouble of trying to combine a computer and a human brain, if you have the technology to make an exact replica of the human brain? The very fact the MAGI is a computer - an artificial human creation that tries to mimic the human person by being hooked up to a human brain and having a personality "encoded" (to the extent that that is possible - which is never perfect) - then its' very existence is proof that NERV cannot actually just build a human brain. The human brain is the most advanced 'natural computer' in existence - human science has insufficient knowledge of how it operates and while it is theoretically possible to postulate that an organization like NERV could gain that knowledge - if it did so - it wouldn't need the MAGI. Pete

Ho ho ho Nice try at ridiculing my previous theories But it doesn't hold water because we DO see Ritsuko's mother - we see her in the episode where the Angel takes over the Magi. Remeber the brain inside the computer? THAT is Ritsuko's mother. Her brain is now literally in the computer - that is the brain taken out of her skull. It's not some ornament or artificial brain because there would be no reason to make it LOOK like a human brain. In fact - the human brain is too complex to replicate - but apparently you CAN now stick wires into it and use electrical stimulation to merge it with a computer. So - it can't be Ritsuko's mom because she definitiely dead - proof of which is the fact that her brain is shown in the computer Pete

Ok ok ...then a different comparisson. My ex(?) girlfriend (the "?" denotes that I think she still loves me, she call me every day, and we're going out next week, but she had this two month period of seperation...)... er anyways... My ex(?) girlfriend NEVER saw Star Wars, NEVER saw ANY of the sci-fi classics...Planet of the Apes - no. Nothing. Zero. She has now watched Alien, Transformers (2007) and Terminator 4 with me. 1 episode of SDFM TV (Pine Salad) and was looking over my shoulder on a train ride from Berlin to Warsaw gawking at Macross:Frontier (the episode where Sheryl is recuperating at Alto's dad's place) - she loved the visuals. The point - she is a tabula rasa. When we go watch a movie Like T4 we come in there with usually 20 years worth of movies, cartoons and TV shows that deal with these subjects. We're a picky crowd and often times our raw emotions don't come out because our minds are buisy analyzing and comparing. This is why I love watching my ex(?) girlfriend watch this stuff. She has nothing similar to compare it to. She showed me the movies and tv shows she grew up with - and most of them were about young people living on farms and falling in love. None of it had any context because context was political and you couldn't risk the wrath of the censors by putting in too much context (the socially charged political movies came later - but my ex(?) girlfriend grew up in the 70s which were relatively calm in Poland compared to the revolutionary 80s)... Anyways - point is - she has never seen these types of American movies, and would never have been introduced to it without me. So I think her reaction is often spot on in terms of merits and demerits of a film beause it's so pure. Case in Point: I will never forget the awesome adventure that was watching Ridley Scott's Alien with her - the first one. She was wet with fearful sweat, clinging to my arm, would actually scream and hide her face at certain times - and honest to gosh didn't get to the end of the movie. She begged me to turn it off at the point when Sigourney Weaver is the only survivor left and is trying to get to the escape pod, and then the Alien is standing there, just on the other side of a narrow corridor - that scene was such a terrifying culmination for my ex(?) girlfriend that she literally hid her head under the covers and told me to turn the movie off. And then she had nightmares. It was great! Great because that's exactly how a movie like Alien is SUPPOSED to make you feel. Now - going into Terminator, I was expecting a lot more desperation. Instead, my girlfriend loved Sam Worthington because "he's hot" and wheeped when Sam gave his heart to save John Connor, and was generally moved by the whole "salvation" plot arc. She also was blown away by the non-stop relentless action. "It's really impressive that it's just so non-stop. Every minute there's something exciting happening." All true and right - but the movie did not give her pause to consider that there was a nuclear war and that people are suffering. At least - it didn't make her cringe like Alien did. And really - it SHOULD HAVE. Pete

Well - technically there was "misery and hunger" - when Kyle and Star were making grilled kyote. That was SUPPOSED to be the misery and hunger episode. But seriously - casting F-ed up with star. She's way too cute. She needs to be in a Disney movie. I mean - the girl is just too adorable, or at least the director did nothing to make her less cute and addorable and more poor, radiation stricken, starving and desperate The radio thing also annoyed me. With all the nuclear radiation - radio couldn't possibly function that well. I mean - nowadays broadband or mobile internet are sometimes slow. Imagine what infrastructure would be like following a nuclear war? There wouldn't be any. PERIOD. The problem with this movie is that there seems to have been ZERO research. If McG and his people are too comfortable to even IMAGINE what deprivation and poverty look like - because that's the feeling I got... you know from what? Ok - remember the whole "Christian Bale goes ape sh!t at the lighting director" episode on youtube? To me - you know what that communicated? It communicated that the people on that set were thinking: "I'm cool because I work in Holywood and I'm making a multi-million dollar action movie." What I'm getting at ist hat usually when I hear people talk about working on the set of a movie that later turned out to be really good- usually everybody on the set reall gets into the mood and atmosphere of the scenes and the story they are doing. Here it seems that they were very focused on their professional lives and their status. And it shows in the final movie. Again - I realy DID like it. And I AM happy to hear there will be more sequels. But yeah - work on it guys. People should have bad breath, no teeth, pourous skin infections. People should be dropping dead of viruses and lukemia all over the place. There should be scenes where people starve, finally manage to FIND a living animal, kill it, and end up puking because it was radiation poisoned. The film should have been a greusome nightmarish view of the future. Instead it looked like Captain F-cking Power. THAT was the main problem. I mean - when John Conor was invading Skynet all by himself I was like "this is so Captain Power" - and it was. Pete

No. The Obasa - the one Kaji keeps meeting up with to get new orders from and to discuss his spy info with. She shot him. That's because Kaji said "oh - it's you" and looked at ease. He only looks at ease when he sees Obasa. Pete

Next week - I will finally have my newest SOC in hand!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FINALLY will be the proud owner of the KING OF SPAAAACE!! GLEEEEENDIZAAAAAAAAAAA AND OOOOOOLLLLL SPAAAZZEEER SETTTO!!!!!!!!!! BANZAI!! Can't wait. Pete

Obassa. Pete

Doug Bendo must be very popular with women. "Hey - who cares if you're 40? You look 30, so you ARE 30!" They would love that line of reasoning... But the thing is - I was never very good at guessing peoples' ages. It's actually not that easy. Besides, people keep getting my age wrong. When I was 23, people thought I was 35. Now, I still look the same pretty much, and people think I'm 30. So I guess I look "younger." Who knows. And I could never guess any of my girlfriends ages either. I thought my ex-ex was 20 - she turned out to be 28. I thought my ex(?) was 28, she turned out to be 35... Whatever. Age has no meaning for me anyways. Beyond that - who cares "how old" Ranka is? If Doug Bendo REALLY wants to argue the point - then my view is that what matters is how mature the person behaves and what the person does. A 50 year old is capable of behaving like an immature jerk, or commiting theft, murder and rape, of being ignorant, mean and cruel. A 14 year old, meanwhile, could be a math whiz, very polite, helpful and full of positive energy. Age is meaningless. I think it's discrimination of young people and children to immediately say that if a girl like Ranka is sexy and smart then people who see that in her are pedophiles. I mean - just what is Ranka supposed to look like and how is she supposed to act? Are all young people supposed to be wrapped in blankets and locked in their room until they turn 18? And is it pedophilia to notice that a teenager looks good? Dresses nice? Is fun and smart? Again - that's why I say that the statement shows more about Doug Bendo than about Macross Frontier. He just can't handle the concept that good looking smart young girls might exist and that to acknowledge it does not ipso-facto immediately mean you're a sexual predator. Besides - that's also an incredibley narrow minded way of looking at Macross Frontier. I mean - nudity is not used randomly. There are contexts for it, just like there are contexts for the violence. Oh - and of course I assume Doug Bendo (like most people who make this "eeww! pedophilia!" argument) has no problem with the violence. The violence is just fine and dandy. It's the love and sex that's bad. This is why Robotech is superior - it gets rid of all that pedophile stuff and just focuses on blowing people up. Still - it's not surprising. What else can he argue? I mean - in order to prove that Robotech is better than Macross Frontier, you DO have to misrepresent the latter. You can't compare them on their merits, so you need to try to create the impression that Macross Frontier is child pornography. After all - how many newbies who might also have a prejudice about Japanese anime being moe in general are going to check? They'll just hear Bendo say "it's another one of THOSE anime" and be like - "ewww!" and never consider it's made by the same guy who made Macross SDF... But then again - sometimes I feel like the Western anime community is split into three parts: 1. The people who like hentai, and who enjoy the purely sexual aspects of moe, and who...I don't really understand - which is not a criticism - but I've encountered anime fans who are very different from me - in the sense that they don't collect mecha, and I'm not exactly sure WHAT they are fans of - or what they watch..but they just generally like "anime" - whatever that means. Vague - I know. I was kind of thinking "4-chan crowd" --- but that's not fair, since I've NEVER been to 4-chan ...maybe once...but it was very complicated to navigate... 2. Us. That is to say...I guess we are all old people who grew up in the 80s or earlier - I know some people on this board grew up in the 70s - and I like to think that since we've all been around, we have more discerning taste - although due to our NOT being Japanese (most of us) and NOT living in Japan (most of us) we are - no matter how hard we try - somehow outside of the norm in terms of serious Japanese otaku culture 3. The Robotech crowd -who harp constantly about bringing anime to America, but usually then go on to label most anime as pedophilia, and have no problem cheering on a live-action movie of their "anime" that will look like Transformers... meaning that they have nothing to do with anime except using the word sometimes. Oh my - I've run my mouth off again Incoherent babble ends! Pete

I have the first manga - in French at that But beyond that - no I'm just happy I got to sign my name as "Chief Detective" - I'd do it more often, but usually it's you who's out solving myseteries while all I'm doing is fawning over anime girls It was exciting to embark on my very own mystery solving quest armed with no knowledge of Japanese, relying on somebody else's subs, and lots of circumstantial evidence! Yay! Pete

Yep. That is true. And of course - the prime candidate for the low budget/good vs high budget/not so good comparisson .... Star Wars. Now - I really liked the prequels - but it's amazing what they were able to achieve in a New Hope. Although, to be fair, the budget for the prequils went towards revolutionary computer animation - Yoda being probably the best example, but not only. So there is a good excuse for spending lots of money... But yeah - in Terminator - it was just a case of them having all this money and so everything had to be elaborate and very decorative and somewhere they lost the point. I mean - the low point for me was just how easily John Connor rescued all those people from a concentration camp, and how ...well...poo..how well fed those people looked! I mean - they just plucked some extras off Sunset Boulevard, put them in sheets, dirtied them up a little and told them to run around and make some moaning noises. Then, once filming was done - everybody went out for pizza. Needs work - those scenes. Nonetheless - I did like the story, and Sam Worthington did a good job I thought - and overall my problem was indeed with some of the visuals mainly and not with the story as such. Pete

I think that says more about Doug Bendo than about Macross Frontier. Pete

Yes - and this is one of the best dialogues in the series between Rei and Shinji in episode 19 - Shinji: He praised me and I thought we understood eachother, and I trusted my father, but he doesn't understand me! Rei: Did you try to understand him? Shinji: I tried! I tried! Rei: You're running away from hard truths again. Shinji: What's wrong with running away from a world that sucks!? And really - I agree with Shinji. Gendo is "right" - but so what. I mean - if humanity sucks so bad that they need the Human Instrumentality Project to evolve - and even then Gendo says that all evolution ultimately ends in death - then that's a pretty sucky reality. Much better to go to a sci-fi movie, take a hike in the beautiful mountains or do something else - ANYTHING else but take part in the madness. The only reason Shinji does keep coming back to pilot EVA is: 1) Sometimes he gets praised - and that makes him feel good (whether by his father, Misato or Ritsuko) - but he quickly realizes how shallow that praise is when those kids laugh at him on the bus ride home. 2) To protect those he loves - like in episode 19 And of course- Kaji is, as usual, right, when he stands around watering watermellons during the huge battle and Shinji says "what are you doing here?" -- to which Kaji responds "that's my line." It is. Since Shinji is the only one who can save them by piloting EVA - so what is he doing there...? Anyways - man...is this a great series! Pete

Ok - done with episode 19... Welll THAT wasn't very informative Although... yeah ...I looked at Toji's leg and saw it wasn't there :( :( I hope him and Class Rep get married and live happily ever after. Beyond that - this episode had nothing to do with EVA-03. Toji asks Incho to tell his sister nothing's wrong with him... but he never gets and answer, and the subject dissapears. He does have a dream with Ayanami and Shinji in it...but the dream is more about Shinji than about him. And then Misato says he was a mistake Wah. Well... Fine. I hereby announce that my view on the matter of the core of EVA-03 is, on the basis of episode 18 of NGE, the view espooused by Kaji about the impossibility of knowing yourself and others, about how when you think you know Gendo's plan, you actually know nothing, and finally - since there's so much made of mothers in EVA - that men and women are seperated by an ocean and "woman" means "One that is Far Away" in Japanese. THAT is the answer to the mystery. Case closed Pete Chief Detective

Oh I'm not watcing NGE for the second time - more like the two hundred four million seventy seven thousand gazzilionth time The thing is - I never anywhere saw that the sister was crippled. Hospitalized yes - but it was never made clear what her injuries were. As for Toji..well...I don't remember him being crippled either. But anyways - I've just watched episode 18 now. So...Ritusko, while driving with Misato and talking says: No. Ok. I'm just teasing :) Of course she doesn't say that or anything even close But she DOES say: And this is a response to Misato asking if everything with EVA-03 is ready. Naturally - it's anybody's guess as to what this means. It could mean any of a zillion minor technical problems to any ominous evil soul sucking plot schemes... And on this note - I think it's VERY telling that THIS is the episode in which we get Kaji's speech to Shinji where Kaji says: Kaji's speech, where he brings into doubt the idea of 100% understanding of people - and where he SPECIFICALLY tells Shinji "you only think you know your father. In fact, you don't know anything" is are perfect inner monologue that can be interpretted to reference the entire anime. Certainly it must be held as a light upon this episode - it tells us that the questions we have surrounding EVA-03 will never be 100% answered. Final point: I have a suspicion that Gendo is behind this "failure" of EVA-03. He wanted to use the dummy plug all along - he's itching to use it last episode. This episode, with Shinji's recalcitrance in the face of EVA-03 - a recalcistrance that his father could have counted on - the excuse to use the dummy plug appears. Gendo is growing impatient with people and the short comings of people - the dummy plug is a scientific advance that tries to take the unpredictability and recalcitrance of human behavior out of the equation. Next episode, we'll find out exactly what's up with Toji in the hospital, and what is said about his sister. Off to watch the next episode...sadly - I am out of Chicken Curry. Well..actually Turkey Curry...with rice. It's all gone. And I have no potato chips. I do have a donut down stairs but I don't like eating donuts in bed because it has some frosting on it that'll fall on me and the bed and get everything dirty and sticky. And it's hard to sleep with sticky fingers and sticky stuff on the bed and it gets everywhere. Pete

Actually - in the same scene that this dialogue takes place, Ritsuki reacts with great emotion (womanly jealousy) when Gendo tells Rei that he will take her to lunch ("It's time to eat"/imlication is "we're going to eat now"). They ARE emotional people. It's just that Ritsuko herself never talks much about herself (which Misato notes and she admits), and when she DOES talk about herself (episode with the MAGI occupied by the Angels), it's to say that she, unlike her mother, is a scientist foremost, while her mom was a scientist, a mother and a woman (the three components of the MAGI/"the human experience") - but of course, this statement of Ristuko's is a facade - she is a woman, she needs manly love, and she's jealous of Rei. And her jealousy boils over in the scene where she makes the statement about the core/"one child." Evageeks is wrong again it seems - or at least they don't seem to be thinking things out as much as they should - "wrong" is too strong and actually quite a pointless word in this discussion. When Shinji runs away in episode 4, there IS a candidate they can use in his place -Rei. Who cares if she's still in bandages? She was in bandages in episode 01 and Gendo did not hesitate to prepare to have her used when Shinji refused to pilot the EVA. Putting aisde the fact that he can always grow another Rei if one is destroyed, the point is that Rei CAN be used to pilot EVA-01. The only reason that they want SHINJI is because of his synch ratio - and the better Synch ration means that the EVA can be used for Gendo's purposes and further the goal of Instrumentality and godhood. This is why Shinji is important. It's not because he's the only one who can pilot EVA-01, it's because of his synch ration. However - remember that even that goes down when he's stressing. Anyways - Toji comes along at a time when Shinji is stated to be emotionally unstable and unfit to pilot EVA due to the trauma that he went through in the Angel-Shadow. Asuka is useless (bad synch ratio) and Rei is preoccupied. The EVA-03 is on the way - so why not try a new Child out? The question "do they select the pilot of the soul first" IS answered. In Toji's case - they select both at the same time (Toji because they can use his sister and the emotional bond the two have). In Shinji and Asuka's case obviously the soul of selected first - the pilots come later. Wow. Amazing how two people watching the same thing can walk away with the opposite feeling. I did not feel Toji was uplifted at the prospect of piloting EVA-03. He comes back to class pale and stone-faced. He stares blankly at the furnace after school and mechanically tosses a basketball around. If you want "uplifted" - look to Kenske's begging Shinji to pilot the EVA. He hasn't even gotten an official proposal, but as soon as he's heard that there's a new EVA to be piloted, he's practically bursting at the seems to do it. Toji does it ONLY because he figured that since they want him - he can ask them to give his sister the best hospital care - something he otherwise couldn't have done. But I wouldn't say he's particularly uplifted about it. And why should he be? He saw what Shinji went through fighting the purple penis angel. Kenske seems to have gotten over that and gone back to being a mecha-loving otaku. Toji is sensitive enough to know that piloting EVA is no uplifting matter. As to him being a jock that everyone loves...mm...dunno. Yes - sort of. But...Asuka certainly has no love for him - and for that matter he's not swarmed by girls. Class Rep likes him a lot, but she's not about to come out and say it bluntly... I'd say Toji is more somewhere along the lines of a regular guy who'se a bit more manly than Shinji.... A variation of Otaku. Shinji, Kenske and Toji are all otaku - they are all variations of nerdiness. Toji is the nerd who is good looking and seems to be a jock and a bully and a tough guy but deep in his heart is pensive, sensitive, family oriented, quiet and alone.... That's a type of nerdiness too. I didn't catch this - but I'm going to watch the episode now...but Toji ends up crippled?! And his sister already was crippled!? That's sad. Pete

Of course it is!! We'll be watching episode 5 tomorrow! The silence was the result of everyone thinking real hard about all of the interesting points we've raised! I'd be happy to have YOU write the "official" thread Episode 5 review to start out discussion of episode 5 with!! BOMBA!! Pete

Ooooo ! Trashy Robotech-gossip! Spill the beans - let us clueless folk in on it! Pete

Yeah - all of this bothered me too. In fact, people in the post nuclear future wore trendier clothing and were generally cleaner than people in LA circa 1984 - if you compare how Kyle Reece and the bum looked to how the "poor starving post-nuclear kids" from TS looked. And that IS what made this film fall short of the epic masterpiece it COULD HAVE been. Namely - it was a sanitized, family-friendly post-apocalyptic landscape where the effects of nuclear armagedon were neglible. And the concentration camp scene - did it make you shiver? Did it make you cringe? No. It made me think "this is the concentration camp film set." They had all the elements - and the story idea was great - but they so totally dropped the ball in terms of design - in terms of the mood of the future. It was no where near as awesomely dark and depressing as what we saw from Kyle's dream in T1 or the beginning of T2 when Sarah was narrating. Agreed. Pete

I'm just happy that someone ELSE went off topic in a MW thread before I did for once! So anyways... When I played the Paladium Roll playing game, I didn't want to pilot a Veritech fighter because I was scared of flying and the whole thing just seemed fragile due to the jet mode. Instead, I insisted on piloting a MK II Monster. I felt safe in one of those and would be the heavy artilery guy that would blow up the enemies AFTER they shot up all my team mates... But one time, during a mission, I picked up a dead Zendradi and threw him at a nuclear warhead which blew up and - according to the dice - did minimal damage to me, but basically insinerated all my friends. They were really pissed at me. To this day, I don't know how a Monster can pick up ANYTHING - because it has no hands. But I did. I also was really fond of the covers to the RPGs. Pete

Shadow Strikers - if you watch Macross Frontier, please post your thoughts/comments in the threads that Azreal linked for you - people will respond/comment. Maybe this thread can be closed and if Shadow has anything to say about specific episodes of MF - he now knows where to go thanks to the above list ? Pete

I seem to be the only person on Earth who liked this movie... Sayng that ROTF was better is pretty harsh; though I didn't see ROTF...so I guess I can't compare. I would like to get this on DVD - and need to get T3 as well. In a way, T3 is IMO the weakest of the four, and of course the original Terminator is the best. T2 is good - but I dunno... I think that the "Arnold is good guy terminator" motif that runs through 2 and 3 doesn't hold a lot of water. T4 does a better job with this motif insofar as the main character (ther Terminator) is concerned - he's good, but he's actually bad and doesn't know it - and then he has to make a choice for himself - and then he needs to choose the ultimate good because even a new life doesn't wash away old sins... You guys are way too harsh on this movie. It was damn good. I think it was just a victim of the bad economy and action movie fatigue. This movie is kind of like the Mad Max of 2009. Seriously- I don't know about you- but I love watching admitedly "crappy" action movies of bygone decades... T4 was good. I'm not going to argue the point since it just boils down to me getting all emotional during the film because my (ex?) girlfriend is very sensitive and NEVER watches Sci-Fi AT ALL so all of this was new for her and once she started tearing up, I did too 'cause that's just how I am.... anyways... I'm glad I saw it. Didn't see GI Joe, ROTF, nor did I see Star Trek (regret that last one). Will have some catching up to do with the DVD player me thinks... But dag - dag dag. So much harshness towards this movie Why? Pete

I have no clue what you're saying - but even though I am human and you are from outer space (or Japan in this case) - we can still understand eachother through the power of VAJRA MATING CALLS!! BOMBA!! Pete

Unless I'm mistaken - in the meanwhile you can try starting a laundry business... Pete

Roy's advise is only for blond guys. Going after girls doesn't work for dark haired guys. I have dark hair, like Hikaru. And like Hikaru, I never knew how to aggressively go after a girl - instead they'd just fight over me. Pete

Regarding Rei - that is a good point about Lilith being the mother of humanity...except that Rei is the mother of humanity, not Lilith. In fact, remember the elevator scene, when Shinji tells Rei he saw her cleaning and that she looked like a mother. Rei is embarassed. Rei also does not know what exactly she is. She does, however, have latent memories - I think. Memories that were perhaps somehow etched upon Yui's DNA... and here's something I might be flat out wrong on - but I always thought that Rei wasa clone of Yui. That Gendo made her for his sexual and personal pleasure, and that he lied to Shinji when he said that he didn't need photographs, that what was in his heart was enough. In fact, he needed a clone. As for my earlier quote: well then why does Ritsuko flat out say that there is one child whose core can be prepared immediately? This clearly implies that an EVA cannot at this time be readied for any of the other children in the class. Probably because they don't have any good candidates for the core. Also - I always got the feeling that NERV spies on all the children to get good psychological profiles on them all, so as to help in the eventually preperation of an EVA for them. So naturally NERV knew about Toji's compassion for his sister and would use that to their benefit. Finally - from a literary standpoint: One of the key story elements in NGE is the revelation that EVA-02 is Asuka's mom and that EVA-01 is Shinji's mom. And this goes a long way in suddenly making clear why the show gives us such a detailed history of Shinji's family troubles, and even features Asuka pretending to talk to her mom on the phone and crying and calling out her mom's name in her sleep. What am I getting at? Just this: During the episode where Toji is chosen as the fourth Children, we the audience do not know about Shinji and Asuka's moms being in the EVAs. But we have this huge backstory that features both of their mothers and their complex family relationships and traumas. These backstories do not turn out to be arbitrary, but are masterfully "completed" by the revelation that the mothers are in EVAs. Toji - at this point in the show, ALSO has his backstory, which features his sister. The only mention he ever makes of his mother - by implication - is that he doesn't have anybody to cook for him. Beyond that, the psychological drama of Toji plays out viz-a-viz his sister, just like the psychological drama of Asuka and Shinji play out viz-a-viz their mothers (and in Shinji's case, his living father). Even Rei's psychological drama - her sexual exploitation by Gendo, her strange motherly bond of affection to Shinji, her struggle with her humanity - all of it as shown in the series becomes ultimately tied up in the EVA 00. Story wise - the Evangelions are manifestations of the psychological struggles of the pilots in their every day normal lives. Yet I am supposed to believe the following is true: Everything NGE shows us about Shinji's family life becomes manifest in EVA-01. Everything NGE shows us about Asuka's family life becomes manifest in EVA-02. Everything NGE shows us about Rei's family life becomes manifest in EVA-00 Everything NGE shows us about Toji's family life is POINTLESS AND HAS NO BEARING AT ALL ON EVA-03 ?? That makes zero sense. Zilch. Pete