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AAA Wunder (Autonomous Assault Ark Wunder) (AAAヴンダー), is WILLE's main aerial battleship from the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. It is a giant, winged, flying ship that serves as main base of operations to Captain Misato Katsuragi and her crew. "Wunder" is pronounced "Vuhn-der".
Profile[]
Features[]
Serving as the main vessel of the WILLE fleet, the AAA Wunder is a highly featured ship with a wide variety of features to aide WILLE in their wide variety of strategic goals.
The ships most prominent feature is its ability to sustain powered flight for itself, as well as other objects indefinitely. It is unclear what limits, if any, exist for this flight, however through the films the Wunder is seen carrying large fleets of naval ships, over a dozen ships outfitted with enchanted shields of virtue and Evangelion Unit-08/Unit-08β. The Wunder also appears to be capable of atmospheric exit, re-entry and at least some form of spaceflight.
Internally, the AAA Wunder is run by its own Magi system called the Magi Achiral. Much like the NERV Magi, the Achirals are built of three connected sections, however unlike NERV's Magi which was only one unit, the Magi Achiral consists of hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller units which appear to work together. These units are stored in a large, cylindrical room with a rotating elevator and gangway to reach the separated pod each unit is stored in.
The bridge of the ship has three seats to be manned, as well as the captain's deck. When taking flight, the entire bridge transforms and raises before being locked in, similar to the plug of an Evangelion unit. Once sealed, the entire bridge becomes pressurised with LCL gas; the arrangement of the seats connects to a massive arm attached to the back of the bridge; and the walls turn into displays from which the outside can be seen. It is unclear if the ship needs to be in this configuration to take flight or if it is only required for combat.
In combat, the Wunder is capable of producing an extremely dense and powerful A.T. Field at command. The Wunder also has more traditional weaponry in the form of multiple arrays of controlled turrets on the top of the ship.
Originally, the AAA Wunder was powered by an N² Reactor which can be seen spinning at the back ship[1], however after the takeover of the ship by WILLE and subsequent Operation US the ship was modified to use the recovered Evangelion Unit-01 (Rebuild) held within a containment chamber as its power source, likely due to its awakened state.
Support Craft[]
AAA Wunder Nekozame-class orbital assault craft concept art by Ikuto Yamashita.
In order to board or escape the AAA Wunder in case of emergency, the ship is also filled with several Nekozame-class orbital assault craft.[2] These pods are located all across the ships body though while stored, only the upper half of the pods are visible. When in use, the pill shaped pods undergo a minor transformation as four appendages expand from the lower half forming fins, each of which has a screw element which is able to spin to move the pod using Archimedes screw motion. The inside of the pods are heavily reinforced to protect the crew. Despite their name suggesting they may have assault capabilities, the pods appear to be completely unarmed.
One of the main purposes of the Wunder is to act as a vessel to protect life and as such, the ship is equipped with a large number of deep space seed pods capable of spreading the natural life of Earth into space. These pods are relatively small and appear to use some form of AT-Field powered propulsion to move them through space. Unlike the Wunder itself, these pods can't exit the atmosphere on their own, needing the Wunder to carry them to space for their deployment.
In addition to the craft which directly interface with the Wunder, using its extremely powerful AT-Field, the Wunder is capable of lifting a massive fleet of ships, as well as anything else including Evangelion units, into the air with it allowing the ships to follow and support it wherever it goes.
History[]
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo[]
Operation US was undertaken to retrieve Unit-01 from orbit. After Shinji and Evangelion Unit-01 are retrieved, the Unit is used as the ship's main engine and power generator, allowing the airship to fly. Strangely, the wings generate a blood-like substance when damaged, suggesting that it is biological in nature. When it is attempting to fly, the entire fleet of battleships are brought into the air along with it thanks to its A.T. Field. the Wunder later gains two Halos. The shape of the A.T. Field generated seems to be malleable as seen during the battle against Evangelion 13 where the latter is sealed inside it.
It is important to note that during battle the command bridge rises up and is screwed into the ceiling much the same way an Evangelion Entry Plug is inserted into the back of a particular unit. After which point the bridge is flooded with LCL through gas system, charged, and connected to some unknown biological component that is a part of AAA Wunder.
The airship is attacked twice during the movie. The first time, it is attacked by the Nemesis Series, which Misato uses to demonstrate the power of the Wunder now that it has an Eva to power it and destroys them. The second time, it rams Evangelion 13 in order to seal it before Fourth Impact gets worse, only for Evangelion Mark.09 to attack the Wunder and destroy several of its rail guns. Mark.09 then attempts to take control of the vessel, being the "Wunder's Original Master". Upon Mark.09's destruction, Misato and her crew regains control of the Wunder.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time[]
It was revealed that the original designation for the AAA Wunder was NHG Buβe (NHG)-***1) (NHG ヴーセ), as the Wunder was stolen from NERV, and explains why Ritsuko refers Mark.09 as the Wunder's original Master since all NHG airships have an Evangelion as its Master, and hence NERV has created Evangelion Mark.09-A to attempt another retrieval of the Wunder. This also explains why the AAA Wunder bears a similar appearance as other NHG series airships except that Misato decides to repaint and dismantle it into its current colour scheme and design.
The AAA Wunder is revealed to be an incomplete product of the NHG Series airship, hence its more simplified configurations and lacking the Opfer Type beam attacks mounted in the other NHG series airships, using rail guns instead.
After sustaining heavy damage from another of the NHG Series airships, the crew, except Misato, escape to the ruins near Village 3 using the Nekozame-class orbital assault craft. Once evacuated, the ships spine is converted into the Spear of Gaius and is subsequently delivered to Shinji by driving the ship into the eye of Evangelion Imaginary annihilating the craft in the process.
Crew[]
Combatants[]
- Misato Katsuragi - Ship Captain, Commander
- Ritsuko Akagi - Deputy Commander
- Shigeru Aoba
- Makoto Hyuga
- Maya Ibuki
- Sumire Nagara
- Hideki Tama
Other Crew[]
- Sakura Suzuhara - Medical Officer
- Koji Takao - Head Engineer
- Midori Kitakami - Assistant Engineer
Evangelion Pilots[]
- Asuka Shikinami Langley - Pilot of Evangelion Unit-02 and subsequent variants
- Mari Makinami Illustrious - Pilot of Evangelion Unit-08 and subsequent variants
- Shinji Ikari - Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 (Only in 3.0+1.0)
Trivia[]
- According to Ikuto Yamashita, the idea for the ship using an N² Reactor was inherited from the Jet Alone Kai featured in Neon Genesis Evangelions PS2 game. [3]
- The term 'Achiral' originates from chemistry, mathematics and physics. It is used to name objects that are identical to their mirror image.
- "Wunder" is the German word for "miracle".
- The bridge of the Wunder bears a resemblance to Mark.09's second head.
- The Wunder and its introductory scenes draw heavily from the Universal Battleship New-Nautilus in Anno's previous work Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. Shirō Sagisu's score from the Nadia soundtrack was adapted and used for Wunder's launch and first battle.
- 'Buβe' means 'Penance' in German.
- In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, a plaque written in German says:
Buβe Kiellegung 21. Juni 11805 Sonderbehörde NERV Leitschiff der Hüter von Guf-Klasse
- Translating it to English it means:
Buβe Keel Laid 21. June 11805 Special Authority NERV Lead Ship of the Guardians Of Guf-Class
- The same plaque was written over with AAA Wunder and WILLE in blue paint.
- On February 13, 2024, during WONDERFEST 2024 Winter a plastic model based on the AAA Wunder was announced by Max Factory's "PLAMAX" line, scheduled to be released later in 2024.[4]