i don't have anything else

neon genesis evangelion (episode five, "rei, beyond the heart" / episode six, "showdown in tokyo-3")

Sending this one a day early because I think (?) I have a thing coming out tomorrow (?) but if I don’t then… uh… we’ll pretend this never happened.

In episode four, somebody (Ritsuko?) refers to Shinji as the “Third Children,” meaning, presumably, that there are two other children. (Also, from here on out we’re just saying “Third Child,” etc even if it’s technically incorrect… my tolerance for Evangelion English has its limits.) The First Child is Rei Ayanami, she of the blue hair, red eyes, and unreadable silence.¹ The Second Child will arrive in episode eight.

But now, it’s Rei time: episodes five and six are devoted to the question of who Rei Ayanami is, exactly. Since she’s spent the first four episodes injured, it’s only now that we get to see her acting on her own. Her main narrative role has been to remind Shinji that he can be replaced with this girl w…