Episode:09

"Moment and Heart Together" is the ninth episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Overview
Asuka moves into Shinji and Misato's apartment where he and Misato live. As Asuka adjusts to Japan, the Angel Israfel attacks. After apparently being defeated, Israfel splits into two identical copies and defeats both Units 01 and 02. In desperation the UN takes the drastic step of dropping an N² depth charge on the Angel, temporarily disabling it and giving NERV six days to find a way to defeat it. They determine that both parts of the Angel must be defeated perfectly simultaneously, so Misato puts Shinji and Asuka in a training regimen which has them spending as much time together as possible in order to synchronize their actions to pull off a coordinated dual attack set to a timed dance routine. Asuka and Shinji do not take well to such close conditions however, and the training is deemed a failure. Nevertheless, Shinji and Asuka are able to pull off the routine almost flawlessly, destroying the Angel.

Synopsis
Episode 09 opens with a series of camera shots of Asuka in the school, and then Asuka is shown opening her shoe locker full of love letters which she steps on. Then we learn that the pictures were taken and are being sold by Kensuke and Toji.

Shinji arrives on campus and Asuka greets him with a cheerful "Guten Morgen," and asks if the First Child isn't there. Spotting her, Asuka doesn't wait for Shinji to introduce her, instead, taking matters into her own hands by introducing herself. Asuka offers to be good friends with Rei, saying it will be "convenient", but gets perplexed when Rei answers, "If I'm ordered to, I'll do it." After witnessing this conversation, Toji wonders if only weirdos are chosen to be Evangelion pilots.''The elegant and yet cheerful fight scene in the second half of the episode is the ultimate high point. The beauty of it lies in the fact that the 62 seconds of combat in the show is actually depicted in approximately 62 seconds. In this scene, various methods such as split-screen are used to produce a flashy presentation that is truly benefitting a robot anime, but depictions of this sort in this show can only be seen in Episode Nine.''

''Episode Nine is also the episode where Asuka's character gets filled in. At the beginning in the scene where she talks to Rei at school, she is standing on the edge of the flower bed, but this is because in Director Anno's plans regarding her, one of the things was "she is a girl who endeavors to stand at a higher spot compared to the person she is addressing when greeting people."''

''In Episode Eight, she also addresses Shinji from the top of the elevator.Asuka says, "This is the wall of Jericho, never to fall!" of the sliding door that separates the two rooms, but the "Wall of Jericho" is a reference to the Western film It Happened One Night (1934, America). In the movie, a rich runaway girl and an unemployed newspaper reporter end up spending a night in the same room, and they put a blanket as a divider, calling it the "Wall of Jericho." Incidentally, the original "Wall of Jericho" is a castle wall that appears in the Bible. [And it is known for being taken down in the Biblical story, despite being supposedly invincinle. In the film, the girl loses her initial disdain for the reporter and they begin to fall in love. Asuka is, in effect, daring Shinji to take the walls down, a reference lost on him.]''

''Also, she says, "It is proper that boys and girls sleep apart after the age of seven," but the correct proverb is "it is proper that the boys and girls sit apart after the age of seven." This is a saying in the ancient Chinese Confucian text of The Book of Rites, and the seat refers to a straw mat. In ancient China, sitting on the same mat meant that the two were husband and wife. Is it the genius girl's pride that leads her to want to use difficult sayings, even though she's not supposed to be used to Japanese yet?''-Platinum Episode Commentaries

At headquarters, Kaji meets with Ritsuko. Ritsuko, who is seemingly used to Kaji's behavior, smiles and notes that Misato is watching them. When Misato demands to know why he is still in Japan, Kaji reveals that he is staying there "on loan", and offers the three of them go out like their college days, and suddenly, the alarm began to ring; an Angel is approaching.

The on-station cruiser Haruna reports that a large object has been detected approaching the Kii peninsula; the seventh Angel, Israfel, has begun its attack. Shinji and Asuka are sortied in Unit-01 and Unit-02. Though they have been ordered to work together, Asuka takes the lead and bisects Israfel with a single blow. Shinji is momentarily impressed, until the two halves revive as separate Angels.

We then cut to the aftermath of the battle, in which both pilots were defeated, and their Evas ended up upside down. At their debriefing, they bicker about who was at fault, and are lectured by Kozo Fuyutsuki. We are also told that the task of stopping the Angel was transferred to the U.N., who used an N² depth charge, which destroyed 28% of its body, leaving it to regenerate over the course of six days. Meanwhile, since Commander Ikari is absent, Misato is put in charge of NERV, and talks with Ritsuko about the bills and Ritsuko, who have a plan for the next battle, tells Misato that the plan isn't hers, but Kaji's.

Shinji returns home, while he thinks no one is in, but gets surprised that his room has been taken by Asuka, and comments at this point that she would rather move in with Kaji, and complains about how Japanese people live, and get surprised when Misato barges in to notify them about their plan.

The plan to defeat Israfel was: a coordinated simultaneous attack on each half's core. Shinji and Asuka must be in total accord in order for this mission to succeed, so it is decided that Asuka must move in with Misato and Shinji, and that the two of them will spend all of their time together in the few days remaining until it is believed Israfel will resume its attack, despite them refusing the plan at first.

Toji and Kensuke drop by to visit Shinji, and are surprised when they meet Hikari, who has come to visit Asuka. All three are shocked that Shinji and Asuka are living together and even matching outfits yet again, until the situation is explained to them when Misato comes back with Rei. The training seems to be partially successful, as Shinji and Asuka speak the same lines in unison when they answer the door. But, they still have a lot of work to do. They are training to synchronize their movements by touching the same spots on separate twister mats, but constantly get it wrong. Asuka blames Shinji, but when Misato asks Rei, who is there observing, to give it a try, she and Shinji synch perfectly on the first try. Humiliated, Asuka runs from the room, prompting Hikari to command Shinji to follow her saying "You made a girl cry!". When he finds her, Asuka promises to "pay back" Misato and Rei for humiliating her. They then continue their training.

The night before the battle, Misato has to work late, so she won't return home early. When Asuka hears this information, while stepping out of the shower, she hints to Shinji that they are all alone. When she doesn't get any response, she storms into Misato's room to sleep alone. Later that night, she sleepwalks into Shinji's futon. He intends to kiss her, but stops when she calls for her mother while she is sleeping. He realizes that she's just a child herself. Back at headquarters, Kaji grabs Misato on the elevator and kisses her; she persists only halfheartedly. A little later, Ritsuko teases Misato about her relationship with Kaji.

The day of the battle arrives. Shinji and Asuka launch their coordinated assault to music selected by Kaji. The plan works perfectly, except that after destroying both cores with a flying dropkick, they miss their landing and fall in a heap. The episode ends with them bickering over whose fault it is.

Notes and References

 * What Rei read is Luke 15:11-32 - The Parable of the Lost Son of Luther Bibel 1545.
 * This is one of the first of two episodes in which Shinji refers to Asuka as "Soryu". Ending with Episode 10, he starts referring to her by her first name; most likely because they've grown accustomed with living together, and she is no longer "new" to Tokyo-3.
 * Like Episode 08, Episode 09's end credits are tinted red, in honor of the arrival of Asuka and Evangelion Unit-02 in Japan.
 * A sign behind Misato says that NERV HQ's post office is located on Level B-09.
 * This is the only episode in which Toji wears the school uniform of Class 2-A, though he only wears it when he and Kensuke go to Misato's apartment to check in on Shinji and at their subsequent party there.
 * When Asuka in Unit-02 jumps onto a building to attack Israfel the first time, the building's sign reads "Studio Fantasia", a Gainax subsidiary involved in animating .
 * This is the last episode that shows Ramiel's corpse in Tokyo-3.