Rei III
is the twenty-third episode of the Japanese anime television series Neon Genesis Evangelion, created by Gainax. The episode was written by Hideaki Anno and Hiroshi Yamaguchi and directed by the animator Shōichi Masuo. In the episode, Rei Ayanami, the pilot of the giant mecha Evangelion Unit-00, is attacked by the sixteenth in a series of enemies of mankind called Angels, Armisael, and decides to commit suicide to defeat the enemy. Following her death, her fellow pilot Shinji Ikari and Misato Katsuragi, head of the strategy department of the military agency Nerv, discover thanks to Dr. Ritsuko Akagi that Rei is a series of replaceable clones.
The episode is characterized by dramatic tones but still by a speed and dryness in the exposition of the series's mysteries. Critics also interpreted some imagery from the episode, including a nude scene involving Ritsuko and Rei's battle against Armisal, as sexual imagery of rape. "Rei III" contains cultural references to Christian iconography, quantum physics, the concept of death drive postulated by Sigmund Freud, and Sailor Moon, among others.
"Rei III" was first broadcast on 6 March 1996 and drew a 6.9% audience share on Japanese television. The episode received an ambivalent reception from critics. Some of them praised the revelations of Rei's true identity and the action scenes; other reviewers criticized said revelations, plus the animation quality and the voice acting.
Plot
Asuka Langley Soryu, a pilot assigned to the giant mecha Evangelion Unit-02, sinks into clinical depression in the grip of an existential crisis. She leaves the home of Misato Katsuragi, her legal guardian, to go to the home of her friend Hikari Horaki, where she spends her days playing video games. Gendo Ikari, supreme commander of the special agency Nerv, is questioned by the secret sect Seele about the previous battle, in which he used a weapon called the Spear of Longinus against Seele's plans.During Gendo's interview, the sixteenth in a series of enemies of mankind known as Angels, Armisael, is sighted. Rei Ayanami, pilot of the Evangelion Unit-00, confronts it in combat, but is violated by Armisael, who violates the Eva-00's body and sneaks into Rei's mind in the form of another self. Shinji Ikari, Gendo's son and pilot of the Evangelion-01, goes out to rescue Rei, but is also attacked by Armisael. To kill Armisael, Rei decides to let herself explode while inside the Eva-00 with the Angel. After the fight, Misato tries to console despondent Shinji, who refuses her comfort.
Nerv warns Shinji that Rei has survived. Rei, however, proves unable to remember the fight, treating Shinji coldly and saying she is the third one. Ritsuko Akagi, head of Nerv's science department, is sent by Gendo to a Seele interrogation in place of Rei. Ritsuko, feeling betrayed, calls Shinji and Misato to explain several dark truths about the Evangelions and Rei. They descend into the depths of the Nerv headquarters, discovering that Rei is a collection of clones with a soul that is activated from time to time and can be replaced. Out of anger and resentment at Gendo, Ritsuko destroys Rei's clones before breaking down in tears.
Production
Genesis and staff
In 1994, Gainax released an initial presentation for Neon Genesis Evangelion containing an initial synopsis of the twenty-third episode. In the original draft, the episode, initially titled "The Human Instrumentality Project", would have centred on a series of revelations of secrets about the Evangelions, the true intentions of Gendo Ikari and Ritsuko Akagi, and the Human Instrumentality, a project pursued by Gendo and other characters in the series to evolve humanity towards a new stage of evolution. In the following episode, "Now, the Promised Time", Rei's secrets would be revealed, and twelve powerful enemies called Apostolo, later called Angels, would descend from the Moon. The proposal document also specified how the Human Instrumentality was to free man from the curses and original sin that plague him, recreating a mentally and physically perfect being. According to Evangelion Chronicle, an official encyclopaedia on the series, it is unclear whether or not such a perfect being in itself corresponds to Rei; Rei is, however, created during the preparation process for Human Instrumentality in the initial scenario, although this is not explicitly stated in the final version that was later aired.From the earliest planning stages of the series, several mysteries about the figure of Rei were planned, but their nature changed in the course of the series. In the final version, no clear explanation is given as to the nature of the Instrumentality, but the nature of Rei and the Dummy Plug is revealed nevertheless. It was originally planned to make Rei a completely alien entity, but Evangelion staff later decided to make her at least genetically human. From the early stages, Neon Genesis Evangelion director Hideaki Anno also had the idea of presenting the death of a clone of Rei and replacing her with a new Rei. The director himself compared the idea of a reset of Rei's character to a character from the Ultraman franchise, Hideki Gō, in the series The Return of Ultraman. Hideki is portrayed as a character who at the end of each episode seems to change and become more connected to the members of his group, the Monster Attack Team, but with each new episode, his character returns to where he started. The staff of Evangelion, including assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki, later expressed regrets about the choice to introduce a new Rei in the final episodes of the series, thinking that Rei III's character was not explored as well as the other clones.
Hideaki Anno and Hiroshi Yamaguchi wrote the screenplay for the episode; Anno and Tsurumaki handled the storyboards. Shōichi Masuo took on the role of director, assisted by Masahiko Otsuka and Ken Anso. Shunji Suzuki worked as chief animator and alongside Tsurumaki as character design assistant.
Development
As the setting for the battle against Armisael, Gainax chose a real place, the Ōwakudani Valley, already presented in the episode "Hedgehog's Dilemma". The authors' original plans called for the appearance of a ribbon-shaped enemy inspired by the Möbius strip, which later became the Angel Sahaquiel. According to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, character designer of the series, the idea behind the Angel's design was to demonstrate how Evangelion"Rei III" and the last episodes of the series in general have very dark tones compared to the previous episodes. According to Japanese cultural critic Hiroki Azuma, the narrative is also much faster; Rei's battle, for example, lasts only a few minutes. Yūichirō Oguro, editor of the extra material from the various home video editions of the series, similarly pointed out that despite the various tragedies that happen to the characters, the narration of the episode is dry and without excessive drama, with a cold attitude. Moreover, during Ritsuko's scene in the Terminal Dogma, Ritsuko gives the viewer several informations during the climax of the episode, but the information quickly follows one after the other, confusing the viewer. According to writer Emily Wati Muir, Rei's battle also has elements of several genres, fusing them, and saying that Rei's "robotic and military appearance and its connection to religion come from the mecha genre"; however, "the romance and her sacrifice come from the sekai-kei genre", a narrative genre in which a character's emotion and action have strong consequences on the whole fictional universe.
"Rei III" and the other episodes of the second half of the series suffered considerable production problems. Due to continuous delays and a schedule that was getting closer and closer to its conclusion, "Rei III" and the following episodes were produced in a short time, resulting in a drop in animation quality. After the conclusion of the first broadcast, therefore, Gainax remade the episodes involved from scratch, including "Rei III". Several sequences were redrawn, and completely unedited sequences were added to better connect with the ending and to clarify some unexplained plot points. The extended version of the episodes, called the director's cut or home video version, differs from the on-air version in several respects; Gainax first released the new footage in the movie Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth and later in the 1998 Evangelion Laserdisc edition.
In the director's cut version of "Rei III", Gainax added the scene in which Gendo and Fuyutsuki discuss the death of Rei II in front of a capsule-shaped tank. The Armisael battle scene was expanded, adding a sequence in which a pile of flesh with the shapes of the Angels from previous episodes is formed from the body of Eva-00. In the director's cut version of the battle from Armisael, a giant white Rei is also formed, similar to the one later visible in the movie The End of Evangelion during Human Instrumentality, while on Shinji's hand, many small Rei are formed, which also represent a visual anticipation of the series finale. In the scene where Ritsuko shows Rei's clones in the Terminal Dogma, several images of photographs and sketches are also shown in the director's cut version, showing the Second Impact and the events that took place during the creation of the Evangelion units. The images were removed in later home video editions, including the Renewal of Evangelion edition. The Japanese voice actors reinterpreted several scenes from scratch for the director's cut version. Kotono Mitsuishi, Misato Katsuragi's performer, gave a more mature setting of her character than in the television version. According to the official liner notes of the series, this change could be due to Mitsuishi's career; after Evangelion, she went from comic roles like Sailor Moon
Cultural references
In the first scene, coffee cans of UCC Coffee are framed, a real existing brand that was already present in Gunbuster, an earlier work by Anno and the Gainax studio. In the scene where Asuka plays video games in Hikari's house, Seca games are seen instead; the brand is a reference to Sega, one of EvangelionIn the scene in which Ritsuko takes Misato and Shinji to the depths of the Nerv headquarters, a double helix-shaped lift is visible. The same double helix shape can be found in Armisael's early form, similar to the structure of DNA, and in the Spear of Longinus, a weapon mentioned by Seele used against Arael in the previous episode. The very name of Central Dogma, a section of the headquarters, comes from the molecular biology concept of the same name. When Ritsuko shows Misato and Shinji the room in which Rei was born, the words "top", "bottom", and "strangeness" are visible on the walls. The three terms come from quantum physics, referring in particular to quarks. The room also has the seven eyes of Seele emblem on it, a symbol referring to the seven eyes of the Lamb of God from the Book of Revelation.
A few sequences later, Ritsuko also mentions the Guf Chamber, briefly mentioned in the first director's cut scene of the twenty-first episode, saying that Rei's soul was the last soul to leave the Guf, which was empty during Ayanami's creation. In Jewish mysticism, the Guf is a portion of the Heavens in which the souls are supposed to inhabit before their earthly incarnation. According to a legend, when this room is empty, the world will end. According to writer Kazuhisa Fujie, from the information given by Ritsuko and other scenes of the series, two Guf's chambers exist in Evangelion. One Guf's chamber was opened by Adam during Second Impact, while the other is opened by Lilith during Third Impact. The Guf is mentioned again in The End of Evangelion during Third Impact as "the door to the beginning and the end of life" when holes open on the body of the Angel Lilith and human souls return to where they came from; in the original storyboard for the movie, the term actually indicates Lilith's holes on the hand, known as stygmata.
The introspective scene in which Rei confronts Armisael is a reference to a similar introspective sequence presented in the 151st episode of Sailor Moon SuperS, the fourth season of Sailor Moon, a series Hideaki Anno worked on as an animator. In the same sequence, a piece of the soundtrack called "Thanatos" can be heard, in reference to the Greek deity of death of the same name; according to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory, Thanatos is a violent and self-destructive drive present in all human beings. In the scene where Ritsuko destroys Rei's clones, a MessagePad on which "Destrudo Release" is written is also visible; the term destrudo refers to the destructive drive of the same name postulated by Edoardo Weiss, another exponent of Freudian psychoanalysis. Virginie Nebbia has compared the image of the aquarium containing Rei Ayanami's various soulless clones to a scene in the manga Bio City by Daijiro Morohoshi; in Byo City, the protagonist has a vision of a collective consciousness that wants to encompass humanity, graphically represented as a multitude of women with identical faces arranged as if in a tank. In the course of the episode, a graveyard-like place is also framed with several carcasses of prototype Evangelion units that failed during their development; according to Nebbia, this idea had already been presented by Anno in his previous TV series, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. In the director's cut version, the Evas graveyard has the shape of a Jewish Tree of Life, or Tree of Sefirot. Kazuya Tsurumaki and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto in an interview linked Rei's true identity, who is revealed to be genetically human and Angel together, with Go Nagai's Devilman protagonist Akira Fudo, a character who is also a hybrid, half demon and half human.
Analysis and themes
According to Anime News NetworkThe nature of Evangelion units and mysteries about Evangelion
Asuka, having fallen into depression and realized she is useless, never meets the gaze of other people and refuses to even look at her friend Hikari in the eye. Misato, on the other hand, shows a cold attitude at the sight of the Angel Armisael, maintaining distance and feeling anger towards Nerv as she is left in the dark about its secrets. After Rei II's death, Misato enters Shinji's room and attempts to console him by holding out her hand; Shinji rejects Misato's touch, telling her to stop. According to Virginie Nebbia, Misato attempts to console Shinji sensually, offering him an adult relationship, which then connects to The End of Evangelion, in which Misato kisses Shinji. The official filmbooks on the series offer an explanation of the scene, saying: "Misato stretched out her hand to Shinji. At this time she may have intended to offer her body to comfort Shinji. However, this was merely substitutive behaviour to assuage her loneliness". According to the Evangelion Chronicle encyclopedia, Misato is rejected by Shinji because she only tries to use him as a distraction, and Shinji "is sensitive to this kind of deception".
Rei's identity
"Rei III" represents the conclusion of a trilogy dedicated to Ayanami's character, which began with the fifth and sixth episodes, entitled "Rei I" and "Rei II". The episode focuses in particular on the true nature of Rei, who turns out to be a clone. The first Rei, introduced in a flashback from the twenty-first episode, turns out to be the first clone; the Rei who dies against Armisael is the second, and the new Rei who appears after Armisael's battle in "Rei III" is the third clone. All the clones that Ritsuko reveals are kept in the Terminal Dogma are soulless puppets; only one Rei at a time has a soul, and the soul upon the death of an active clone is then transferred to another. The book Evangelion Glossary, published by Yahata Shoten, noted how the different Rei clones differ due to different environments and experiences. According to Animedia magazine, despite the revelation about Rei's true identity, the series still leaves open questions, but several clues suggest that Rei is a clone of Yui Ikari. According to writers Kazuhisa Fujie and Martin Foster, it would explain her feelings of affection towards Shinji, a reflection of Yui's maternal love. For the series's filmbooks, this revelation also shows the reason for the name of Eva's pilots; in the original Japanese, the pilots are called "Children", keeping the plural in the case of a single subject, a foreshadowing of Ayanami's various clones. Rei is also revealed to be aware of her clone status, while Seele is not.According to Anime Feminist, Rei's nature as a clone could be the cause of her poor health; she takes several pills during the series and has a dismembered body in The End of Evangelion, unable to keep her form. Schizo Evangelion, a book containing several interviews with the staff of the series, describes Rei as a representation of the concept of motherhood and as a "slave", an "oppressed life born of violence", a child who was hopelessly abused before she was even born, and a sad person "who cannot kill herself even if she wanted to". Kaichiro Morikawa, noting how Rei is presented in "Rei III" covered in bandages as in the first episodes of the series, pointed out that the bandages are a stylistic and design element, not an actual treatment; according to Morikawa, they do not represent Rei's psychic wounds but rather her role as a warrior.
According to Virginie Nebbia, the functioning of the individual minds of the clones remains a mystery, but there seems to be a backup of Rei's memory; the backup, however, is not about feelings, or perhaps only unconsciously, as evidenced by Rei's behavior in front of Gendo's glasses. Rei III sees Commander Ikari's old glasses, which Rei II has guarded in her home since the beginning of the series; Rei III tries to break them but starts to cry, revealing that it is an emotionally important object. Fabio Bartoli also noted how after Rei III's birth, the glasses reflect an increasingly intense light. Rei III, according to Anno, demonstrates in that scene that Gendo still has the memories of Rei's previous clones. Rei III tries to metaphorically break that bond by attempting to break the glasses held by the previous Rei, who was obsessed with Gendo.
"Rei III" presents rebirth through the birth of the third Rei, a recurring Neon Genesis Evangelion theme. Writer Dennis Redmond, on the other hand, interpreted the cloning of Rei as a metaphor for modern capitalism; according to Redmond, "Rei III" also "turns the android and cyborg narratives of the 1980s against themselves". Academician Stevie Suan noted how Rei's soulless clones smile, something Rei in the series rarely does. Japanese academic Kaichiro Morikawa compared the aquarium in which the clones are kept to The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living artwork by Damien Hirst, which consists of a preserved tiger shark in formalin in a glass-panel display case. Academician Fabio Bartoli has linked the triad of Rei clones to the three stages of the soul postulated by the Jewish Kabbalah. Rei I represents Nephesh, the vital and biological breath; Rei II represents Ruach, the raising of man from a purely biological aspect and the distinction between good and evil; and Rei III represents Neshamah, the fruit of the connection between God and man.
Armisael's battle and sexual imagery
During "Rei III", the second Rei makes contact with an Angel, Armisael. Armisael's behavior, like Leliel with Shinji in "Splitting of the Breast" and Arael in the previous episode, would suggest that the Angels are curious about humans and their feelings. Arael violated Asuka's psyche in "Don't Be", while Armisael violates Rei's body in this episode. Armisael seeks first-degree contact with an Eva pilot; in the following episode, the Angel Tabris attempts first-degree contact with Shinji, but Shinji initially rejects him, as Tabris himself points out when touching Shinji's hand. For Nebbia, the form of Armisael and Arael also reflects a change in the design of the enemies; in previous episodes they were similar to the giant monsters of Japanese cinema, known as kaiju, whereas now their appearance is symbolic.Armisael attacks Eva-00 on the basis of the knowledge gained from his predecessors, Arael and Leliel; this suggests that the Angels are interconnected and gradually acquire intelligence. The confrontation also emphasizes how the differences between Angels and humans are minimal. The official filmbooks on the series emphasized how Rei's mind feels both pain and pleasure during the fight. According to Anime Feminist, the battle also presents the image of rape towards Rei; the Seele's interrogation of Ritsuko, in which Ritsuko is seen naked in front of the Seele members, could also suggest that Ritsuko was raped during the interrogation. According to Fangoria magazine, Rei demonstrates a stoic attitude towards the enemy, and there is an element of body horror in the battle.
Rei, unlike Asuka, argues on equal terms with an Angel, responding firmly and demonstrating great mental strength. In the deep layer of her consciousness, Rei comes to terms with her inner self and faces the deep loneliness of her heart. Rei therefore unconsciously begins to cry. As in "Splitting of the Breast", in which Shinji confronts another younger Shinji, Rei confronts herself. Rei argues with Armisael, who is half-immersed in an orange liquid similar to the one leaking from the Angel Lilith, believed to be Adam, kept in the deepest layers of Nerv. Rei asks Armisael, "Who are you? An Angel? The person that we call an Angel?", thus recognizing Angels as people.
Armisael speaks to her gently, using words that come from Rei's unconscious mind. Armisael approaches Rei, asking, "Won't you become one with me?", a question echoing a scene from the twentieth episode. Once Rei is awakened, Armisael attempts to join Shinji and Eva-01. Rei realizes that Armisael's actions against Shinji are a reflection of her unconscious desire for Shinji. Rei understands that she wants to become one with Shinji and realizes the changes that have taken place throughout the series in her psyche. Through her interaction with Shinji in previous episodes, Rei has acquired human emotions, a clear will, and a sense of self. By shedding tears, she also realized that she is human. Academic Gabriel Tsang described Rei's subsequent decision to kill herself and "her willingness to sacrifice" as a representation of "personal freedom". Megumi Hayashibara, Rei's Japanese voice actress, also stated that: "When she cried, it meant the waters of the pool were coming out at last. The struggle to draw your feelings forth, the reconciliation between your surface and your death - that, I believe, is where we truly become alive, truly become human begins".
Reception
"Rei III" was first broadcast on 6 March 1996 and drew a 6.9% audience share on Japanese television. In July 2020, Comic Book Resources reported an 8.6/10 rating for the installment on IMDb, making it the fifth-highest-rated Evangelion episode. Merchandise based on the episode, including a line of official tee-shirts, have been released. Japanese television station TV Asahi published a ranking of the 100 most significant scenes in the history of animation; Rei's suicide scene managed to reach 53rd position. Rei's suicide reappeared in another ranking by the broadcaster, in a survey of the most touching scenes in Japanese animation, in which it achieved ninth place."Rei III" had an ambivalent reception from anime reviewers. Digitally Obsessed
The action elements, the episode's dark tone, and revelations have been particularly praised by the critics. Screen Rant ranked "Rei III" among the best Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes, praising it for its darkness, as it "marks the beginning of the downward spiral into madness that is the series' finale". The same website also ranked Rei's battle against Armisael second among the best battles from the show. Fangoria described the whole sequence as one of the most "viscerally unpleasant" of the franchise. Yahoo similarly ranked "Rei III" among the best Evangelion episodes.