Rambles and shitposts i guess :l

It’s absolutely fantastic, and it made me weep in a few places. Above is my favourite shot from the short film (the whole exchange of which I’ll discuss in a little while…)

The 30th. anniversary short demonstrates Khara still understands what drives Asuka, and that they know what made NGE so successful — two things that will make any serious fan beam with pride. In name and meaning this short acts as an episode 27 that I’d argue represents what we didn’t see of Asuka’s instrumentality — though I’d argue that it didn’t go down quite like this as the short is aware of its place in the meta, I think that this is a way of showing the same processes that went down in Asuka’s instrumentalities.

Firstly, let’s discuss the textual standing of the two Asukas (Asukii?), which I feel is the core of understanding how this view of instrumentality works. Asuka Soryu (in the seifuku) is paired with Asuka Shikinami (plugsuit.) I don’t wish to talk about the meta-analysis of theatrical in super high resolution right now, but I’ll keep it short and say that Soryu is the ‘original’ Asuka while Shikinami is a meta-evolved version that at some level understands her place in the story as a character, and in this short she represents a sort of ‘performance’ by the character. This is also shown by her bow, indicating her plugsuit as a costume that she is wearing.

Through this short, Shikinami takes on the role of the spiritual guide in the way Rei and Kaworu do for Shinji in Shinji’s instrumentality. Shikinami shows Soryu different scenarios that she wishes for after showing her the rules of the world she has found herself in during the instrumentality; she must close her eyes, wake up, and something else will happen. Shikinami continues to act as the spiritual guide by helping Soryu enter the worlds she wishes to see.

Here’s where things get fun; this short is all about the motif “Asuka is Asuka, and that’s okay.” Through the short we see Shikinami misinterpret — through no fault of her own — Soryu’s wishes. She gives Soryu scenarios that mirror other people’s wishes and desires; such as being in the Reiquarium “I thought you wouldn’t want to be alone,” or being a giant woman (as a reference to Anima,) “I thought you would want to be strong.” These are things that Soryu wishes for in a vacuum, but the short wants to tell us that only Soryu can act on deciding her own happiness.

Where Soryu is given access to her idealised worlds, she finds something wrong with them, and this is because they are not hers. In acting to a predefined narrative she has already decided on, Asuka takes away who she is by idealising herself. This is why the ‘romantic scenario’ that Shikinami gives her doesn’t work out; she is still herself, she is brash and unromantic, so she accidentally punts stupid Shinji off a cliff. Story narratives don’t work for Soryu because the story narratives that Soryu initially believes will make everything better are not about her — they are about someone who she thinks being would make life easier.

Wish fulfilment also doesn’t work for her. Kyoko telling her she’s good and trying to ‘fix’ her past doesn’t work either — it doesn’t feel ‘right’ to Soryu. It’s not her past that’s the problem. This part of the short is telling us that Asuka has reached a point where she is okay with who she is now. I’d like to argue that it’s her future that matters to her.

The closer the cycles get to Asuka’s true wishes, the more heartfelt they become. Soryu enjoys the idea of being with Mari, but she still wants her own world. When she is given her own world, and truly given something she thinks she wants, her instrumentality revelation is granted to her; all Asuka really wanted was the knowledge she could live in a better world, and that she could be given that control. And then, she would be okay. She could go on living if she knew that her life could be something other than the misery she’s known.

This short is telling us what it is Asuka truly wants — and that’s not a character pairing, or a romance, or to have been someone none of this ever happened to. She wants to know that the world can be a better place tomorrow than it was today. After being given her ‘wish’ of living a life with Shinji, she very powerfully rejects it. She realises here that she wants to make her own world of her own volition, whether that involves these dreams as they stand right now or not. She merely needed a spark of hope (through fanservice, yes) to do it.

This scene with the train station and the alternate dimensional express genuinely made me WEEP. It felt so true to the original show in terms of shot composition (and the cel style animation. Oh my god. The cel style animation!!!!) Ahhh!!! It was like falling in love with NGE all over again…

Quite literally, Asuka is Asuka (Asuka cannot fit the mould of someone else’s desire, and her experiences from before her time in Eva inform who she is, something she can’t let go of) and that’s alright (Asuka needs to take her destiny in to her own hands, and make the world a better place herself, and through this she can know her own happiness.)

This retelling of Asuka’s instrumentality is of course non-literal. The short makes it clear — Asuka has already woken up and been choked on a beach and felt toooootally sick. However, the parallels it has to deep-instrumentality* are clear in that she experiences a mirage of different scenarios that allow her to confront her wishes, and then even receives a congratulations scene with everyone at the end in singing KST. Yet I’ll point out that even here, Soryu takes control and retains the fact that she is who she is; she’d never sing in public!

*deep instrumentality: a name I’m giving to the portion of instrumentality where the souls lose their definition and everything becomes more non-literal. Everyone has finished airing their trauma at this point, and now it’s time for connections and life lessons.