Neon Genesis Evangelion

Episode Four depicts the wanderings of Shinji, who has run away from Misato and NERV. Shinji and Misato hurt each other with their thorns as they try to get closer, and yet even then, they need one another. The relationship between these two is indeed just like the "hedgehog's dilemma" that Ritsuko had mentioned in Episode Three. There is no battle with an Angel and it largely stays away from addressing any of the mysteries, but when considered from a thematic perspective, this is truly Eva-like drama. In reality, this episode was once omitted in terms of the series composition and it was planned that what is now Episode Five would come after Episode Three. But as production progressed, staff members voiced their opinion that perhaps there was a need to depict Shinji's relationship with the people around him after Episode Three, and thus, this episode was made, greatly changing the contents from what had originally been conceived. Because of this, the script for this episode was written after the script for Episode Five had already been finalized. This is the one and only episode of all the TV and movie episodes in which Director Anno did not have a direct hand in the plot and script. In terms of performance, the highlight has got to be the final cut at the train station where Shinji and Misato gaze at each other. This cut, which has absolutely no dialogue or movement, lasts roughly 50 seconds. It is a silence that would normally be inconceivably long, but it depicts Shinji's difficulty to express himself in words. Incidentally, the ballad playing during this scene is "Bay side love story -from Tokyo-." And the song playing before that, when shinji hits Tōji, is "FACE." Both are songs sung by Masami Okui. Kïchi Jinme, who did the storyboards, is the pen-name that Junichi Satō, famous for such shows as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, uses when he works on robot anime. Even after this episode, for Evangelion, he continued to work on episodes that contain very few combat scenes and focus on drama instead. Akio Satsukawa is a scriptwriter who has worked on such projects as the live movie Stroller of Attics. For GAINAX fans, his exquisite film editing work on Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is also unforgettable. And in Episode Three and Four, fans can also enjoy their fill of the dialogue that he worked into the episodes.