So we know XTC exists because Shinji wears this shirt (because he has good taste in music). We also know the Ode to Joy exists because Kaworu hums it diegetically, so presumably Beethoven existed also. Are there any others?
The title is pretty self-explanatory, but I would like to extrapolate a bit. Given their emotional states and character arcs at that point in the story... do they have sex that night? One detail—of many—I love about Re-Take is Asuka's explicit acknowledgement that they pilot the Evas and could die any day, so why wait if there's no guarantee there's anything to wait for?
I think Re-Take actually gets Asuka right here: Shinji grabbing and holding her would shatter her emotional defenses, and given the recency of their most positive interactions (dancing, volcano) she would want to. But I'm not sure Shinji would. He is not as sexually driven as Asuka at that point, though that does change after episode 19.
Anyway, just speculation. I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts!
Hello everyone. I've been thinking about this scene a lot and wanted to share some thoughts on how it's actually underanalyzed, particularly regarding its impact on Shinji.
A recurring theme throughout the series is how Shinji's pain is brushed over. We see him get hurt, but we don't see him get tended to. He's just expected to get better. I can't quite decide whether this is Anno critiquing traditional standards of masculinity or if he's reinforcing it. Because this is what Asuka does in the kiss scene:
She suggests he's scared to kiss her on the day his mom died. This isn't the "worst pick-up line ever," it's emotional abuse. She's preying on Shinji's vulnerability to get him to act how she wants. We know why Asuka does this; it doesn't make it OK.
She grabs his nose to stop his breath. An unexpected physical violation in a moment of intimacy. Pain during love.
After Shinji runs out of breath, she runs away in disgust, leaving him alone, confused and vulnerable.
And it's played for comedy. If the girl I loved at 14 did that to me I'd throw myself out a window.
It's hard to say whether Shinji and Asuka are "in love" at this point, but I'd say yes, albeit in the way confused teenagers are. He has wanted to kiss her since (at least) episode 9; she has wanted the same for at least as long. I don't believe Asuka was every "romantically interested" in Kaji the way she is in Shinji. She sees Kaji as a way to validate her maturity and independence, but she becomes attracted to Shinji almost immediately because he's the only boy in the world who can understand her: as an Eva pilot. Being an Eva pilot—a child soldier who might die any day—is so intrinsic to the show and its genre that it's rarely, if ever, remarked upon in the series. Yet it's so, so important to how those two connect to each other.
Asuka is the one who offers, then retracts, the chance to deepen that connection. Shinji's passivity does not justify her abuse; her abuse makes his passivity understandable. Of course he should have held her. It's why a re-enactment of this scene is the final thing Shinji sees before he "ends it all:" it is the source of his greatest trauma with the most important person to him, as well as his greatest regret with her. If only he'd held her. I've had the same feeling with the love of my life.
It informs another vital aspect of how I interpret that End of Evangelion scene: that he is not arguing with (and eventually choking) a real Asuka in any sense; that Asuka is a projection, his own self-doubt and shame manifest as the person most important to him ripping him to shreds in the environment in which she (or "she") hurt him most. I would argue, through all of the show's complex character interactions, it's the single most important one in encapsulating its themes: overcoming the pain of human connection.
It's the kiss that sent it all tumbling down.