The early drafts for Episode:24 printed in the magazine JUNE Supplement 09/1996 issue (『別冊JUNE』1996年9月号). From 1 and 2. The drafts were credited to Akio Satsukawa (薩川昭夫),[1] an Evangelion scriptwriter that also worked with Anno in nine other episodes, including Episode 6, 9, 15 and 21. Anno, interviewed by this magazine, explains he first gives scriptwriters a general outline of the episode, which they organize into a plot, forming the first draft. It is then brought up for staff consideration and suggestions, reworked into a second draft by the writer, which goes through the same process. Afterwards, a "definitive draft" is produced and harmonized with the larger plot which is when it finally receives Anno's revision and credit, to be further re-worked into a shooting script. Anno mentions he fixed up the later script in a more final form. This is detailed in the Evangelion Original publication, which features the "definitive draft" for all episodes.[2] These Ep 24 drafts had not yet gone under Anno's revision and are attributed only to Satsukawa, unlike the definitive draft. It is very similar to the version aired in Episode 24, with a few plot-related differences.[3] That is in fact the one considered as the "original script" in production notes.[4][5] Thus, these should not be considered Anno's authorial intent due to his lack of direct involvement, rejection of elements included, and subsequent modification by him and other staff into the "definitive draft" and final script aired on Episode 24.[6][7]
There are several myths surrounding these drafts, besides Anno's involvement. Satsukawa was not chosen specifically for this episode, as Anno hadn't seen his previous work on Watcher on the Attic. The reason for his hiring was that Satsukawa had worked with Anno on Nadia. The drafts include indications of their early production, as Anno had many new ideas with every new episode of Evangelion,[8] but these drafts contradict central plot elements of finalized episodes as early as Episode 15,[9] Some elements thought up by Satsukawa for these drafts, such as Shinji's cello playing and cello piece, were moved to other episodes he worked on, with as this usage being moved to Shinji kissing Asuka in Ep 15.[10] Incidentally, Satsukawa still considered he had put his all in Episode 15, not Kaworu's story.[11] Anno explains how elements present here went against his ideas, to a larger degree than other rejected proposals.[12][13] The public bath scene was made more casual to reflect it as the open social occurrence it is in his native countryside.[14][15] Many of the plot points here caused backlash from Anno and staff for straying so much from early ideas, with staff expressing surprise at interpretations.[16] Episode director Masayuki even threatened to resign. Additionally, some details were even missed due to the late production time constraints, such as Kaworu not being supposed to touch Shinji's hand,[17] nor was Shinji supposed to blush in some scenes.[18] Character designer Sadamoto later noted how Satsukawa diverged from the more neutral original outline[19] as a little boy possessed by a cat, the actual Angel.[20][21] Kaworu's character seems to be the most diverged from Anno's early ideas, notably he was the only one not named by him but rather Satsukawa.[22] His name was decided relatively late in production, after all others and beyond the initial Proposal stage, and many details from this episode were shuffled around, and Kaworu's appearance was cut down from two to one episode.[23] Of course, this was also affected by the fact that as the series got produced the production staff ran out of time and Kaworu, considered a minor character at the time, got reduced and pushed further in appearance. At that point, Kaworu would show up slightly early also, in episode 22 rather than 24.[24] This is one of many rejected ideas from individual staff members that didn't make it past Anno or anyone else. For instance, Mitsuo Iso had his own entire draft for the episode, and his Kaworu would have his own human-sized Eva 05 rather than taking over Eva 02, with a more straightforward confrontation deeper in Terminal Dogma.[25] In other examples besides Ep 24, Yamashita, wanted Asuka to become a werewolf. In Eva 2.0, Enokido wanted Mari to say "anta baka" and completely replace Asuka, including kissing Shinji, in one of the movie's at least 16 different drafts.[26] In summary, Kaworu as presented in these drafts is not Anno's brainchild, but Satsukawa's.
Moreover, in the June interview, Anno was asked about expanding Ep 24 with these elements for the then-unreleased home video versions. He however, decided against it on the expanded Director's Cut episodes and chose to focus on Misato and her relationship with Kaworu instead, despite his considerable expansions to other relationships Shinji had as in Episode 22. [27] Doujinshi author Nobi Nobita provided June magazine with non-official illustrations. She even participates in the longer and often-omitted second half of the June interview. Nobita made a doujin expanding Asuka's mind attack sequence.[28] Unlike suggestions by June, Anno took inspiration from her doujinshi for Episode 22's DC, but chose instead to use it for Asuka's relationship with Shinji, removing the ambiguity over it possibly referring to Kaji present in the original doujinshi. This show a decreased interest on Anno's part on the draft's ideas.[29] The interviewer also does not differentiate between drafts and asks questions about it its content, was conducted in April 1996,[30] whereas the drafts were released in the magazine's September issue, presumably at June's request. This indicates they had not yet read the drafts at the time of the interview. Rumours of censorship are also unsubstantiated - the network had not even seen the episode before airing it, due to its rushed production.[31] Afterwards, they demanded to see Episodes 25 and 26 because of a single contention point - Kaworu's death being too graphic.[32][33] Anno later also expressed he communicated Kaworu's character poorly and denied "thinking much" about any yaoi elements.[34]
Translations of the drafts are available on Evageeks: Draft 1 ; Draft 2
Translation by Reichu of the earlier draft, The Cat and the Transfer Student on Arqa Apocrypha
References[]
- ↑ "脚本：薩川昭夫 "Screenplay: Akio Satsukawa.
Illustrations included in this magazine are also made by a third-party doujinshi author, and are not official. - ↑ "In TV anime, as the staff meetings between producers and the directors proceed, the screenwriters write the script.The manuscript goes through the "first draft", "second draft", and the script becomes the "definitive draft." The director draws the storyboard based on the script that has become the "definitive draft". The storyboard is the movie’s blueprint, which has been filled in with the composition of each cut, acting, lines, second count and the like. In anime, the greater part of the director’s "directing" process occurs in the phase of drawing this storyboard. It is not unusual for the contents to change in the storyboard stage. There are also cases when it becomes almost a completely different story.
Among all 26 episodes of the TV version of “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, Director Anno himself wrote the scripts for five episodes, and is credited jointly with other screenwriters for the scripts of 20 episodes. The number of scripts that were jointly credited are the definitive drafts of scripts based on plots by director Anno written by screenwriters and gone over directly by director Anno. [..] Just by looking at these numbers, you will understand how much director Anno pulled the series together by his personal authorship." - Evangelion Original I - ↑ "The process of how these scripts reached the point of definitive drafts is exactly as follows.
First, Anno prepares a memo that simply writes out each episode’s idea. The screenwriters write a script based on that memo. Going through staff meetings that center on the director, the screenwriters go through the second and third drafts and for the time being are finished. In addition, Anno directly goes over the scripts that the screenwriters have finished and the script becomes the definitive draft.Not matter how high their level of completeness is as TV anime scripts, the times when the scripts completed by the screenwriters do not match Anno’s sensibilities or creativity, do not pass.After the script’s definitive draft, Anno ends up revising and correcting even further in the storyboard stage. You can say there is a thorough system for producing the film according to Anno’s intent. - Evangelion Original II - ↑ "This book is a collection of scripts for "Neon Genesis Evangelion." Excluding the stories whose scripts Anno handled directly, the scripts traced the following process in reaching the point of definitive drafts. First, Anno prepares an idea memo for each episode. The screenwriters write a script based on that memo and go through staff meetings that center on the director. On behalf of the staff, the screenwriters go through the second and third drafts. And then Anno directly corrects and revises the finished script and it is completed. As you’ll understand if you see the text, in scripts that are completed this way, the directions regarding the screen image are meticulous and the action and staging are quite concretely depicted. Therefore, the storyboard that is written in characters (letters), that is, the "wordboard-al" hue is also strong." - Evangelion Original III
- ↑ Another example: While contributing to all episodes as a key frame animator, he (Mitsuo Iso) also – in addition to what’s been credited – proposed a number of setting details affecting the script direction and the work as a whole. On episode 13, “Angel Invasion”, he was involved as screenwriter and assistant settei artist. This was his screenwriting debut. He shares the “Screenplay” credit with Akio Satsukawa and Hideaki Anno. Since the script contents that Iso completed were over twice the usual amount, they were recompiled by Akio Satsukawa and turned into the final manuscript through Director Anno’s edits. -Mitsuo Iso Animation Works: Preproduction
- ↑ "As for the Evangelion manga, Sadamoto claims to have made it entirely by himself, without consulting with anyone, so any differences with the anime were all decided solely by him; this in contrast to the anime where all decisions were made as a group, all sitting in the same room and arguing." - Sadamoto Milan Manga Festival 2013
- ↑ "So for those of you who were wondering, the famous first and second drafts of episode 24 are not in this book, however the content that is in here is still pretty interesting. The included script for episode 24 is much closer to the actual episode that was produced – the original version, not the Directors’ Cut version – but there are some differences. (Does that mean we should call this the third draft? Heck, for all we know, it might actually be the fifth draft, or eighth draft, or something… making a show like this is a lot of work!)" - Evangelion Original III review
- ↑ But Mr. Anno's style on EVANGELION was not so. He wants to put it together episode-by-episode. It's just like the style of a manga. In your typical manga, the artist doesn't have any picture of the last scene, or the last episode. They just think of building up on past episodes. And finally, the manga artist, and his assistants, and editor...[BURIES HEAD IN HANDS], they work out an idea about the last sequence. If it's a good idea, the whole episode is very good. If they can't make a good idea, the whole episode is not so good. It's an unhappy story. And I think that's what happened with the last two episodes of EVANGELION. Mr. Anno and his staff couldn't make a good idea for it. He told an anime magazine in Japan that he couldn't make what he wanted because of schedule or budget. But that's not correct. I talked with Mr. Yamaga and Mr. Anno. They said, "It's not only a problem of schedule or budget. It's a problem of what the ending is going to be." Mr. Anno couldn't decide. Mr. Anno's and my own style of production are very different. - Toshio Okada, Return of the Otaking
- ↑ https://forum.evageeks.org/post/364688/NGE-Ep24-Script-First-and-Second-Drafts/#364688
- ↑ Anno: That’s right, that’s right. There was a scene in a music room after an evacuation, when no one was there. Interviewer: What is the connection between Kaworu-kun and this image of music? Anno: I don’t think it was words. It was as communication, when he’d first come. Interviewer: Shinji also played the cello, and played music once, didn’t he? Or else, was that a variety of therapy, or something? Anno: No, I don’t know. That was the scriptwriters’ idea. Well, it was just that the character gave off the feeling of a cello. Interviewer: Did that first script do anything like take on that sort of form? Anno: It didn’t. It just went as far as the scenario.
- ↑ Interviewer: So, your first meeting with Mr. Anno was when you participated in "Nadia: the secret of Blue Water" as an editor, right?
Satsukawa: That's right. The editing of Nadia was originally planned to be done by [...] But there was trouble between Mr. Anno and the said editor. That's how the office I worked in got the job after the 10th episode.
[...] you made your screenplay debut as a scriptwriter with Mr. Jissoji's "The Watcher in the Attic," Did Mr. Anno saw it?
Satsukawa: No, he didn't watch "Attic".
Interviewer: So he asked you (to be his writer) out of the blue?
Satsukawa: Right. He probably never read what I wrote.
[...]Funnily enough, personally, I am not like that. In Eva, for example, I think the part where my personality was truly projected wasn't this Kaworu part, but episode 15.
[...] Satsukawa: I picked the cello piece that Shinji plays in episode 15. - Love & Pop Theatrical Booklet (1998) - ↑ Sore o Nasumono: Neon Genesis Evangelion Concept Design Works
- ↑ Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection
- ↑ Anno: As might be expected, this was what you’d call above my tolerance level. [...] Anno: Around the time when you’re a middle school student, you often go with friends to public bath-houses and stuff, right? On the way home from school and so forth. Also, going there right after you go play at the beach, just as you are. There are more public baths in the boonies, you see. So it almost feels like a watering hole for men. Well, people don’t go washing each other’s backs or any skinship things like that. In any case, it’s a sort of place that you can all go to together, play there, and head home.
- ↑ Interviewer: Speaking about the blushing, is it because Shinji was happy that someone said they like him? Anno: Yes, Shinji kun really didn’t experience carnal desire there.
- ↑ I: But it caused female audiences in front of their televisions to shriek with joy. M: We never thought it will turn out like that. T: Was it not planned? M: We really only realised it afterwards and never thought of much at that time, after all we were going berserk. - Shizo/Parano interview "judging Hideaki Anno in his absence"
- ↑ M: That interview in which he pushes all responsibility to Satsukawa is interesting. But when we came up with the original idea, did it start out as such? H: eh? M: Not that level of homo, did Satsukawa up it? H: His descriptions are def top-notch. [Indicating, he is a good writer] M: In JUNE it shows that the scripts originally had skinny dipping, musical duets and stuff (laughs) A: Skinny dipping?! M: Yeah, completely naked. I didn’t want to draw that, like to a “If thats how it is I’ll quit” extent. A: Isn’t that basically porn? M: So when I stated we must change it, it became Anno’s expert bathing. A: His favourite public baths. H: Why hand-holding though? M: Because thats what the script said. H: (flips to the relevant page of the script) it says “touched his hand”. Isn’t it touched, but you drew “hold” (laughs). M: Because thats what the artist drew and I wasn’t really too concerned and ok-ed it. (laughs) there was basically no time. - NGE Storyboards Collection, Vol.3-4
- ↑ According to the the storyboards
- ↑ Evangelion Proposal
- ↑ He wasn’t the last Angel from the baginning. At first, the information they gave me only said that Kaworu was a humanoid Angel who appeared at the finale stage of the Anime. But at that time, I had already worked out something similar—since the gradually appeared Angel all had different shapes and characteristics, they should become more closer to human. Then there also came with the subtitle “Cat and Transfer Student” when they were planing it. If I have to figure out Anno’s intention, I think he may awared the “Monster Messenger and Boy” (Ep.33) in The Return of Ultraman. It is where a monster named Muruchi appeared. - All About Kaworu Nagisa interview with Sadamoto
- ↑ Anno: "[...] In the initial stages, he was a pretty boy who carried around a cat. The very first plot title was “The cat and the transfer student.” It was a story about transfer student carrying a cat coming to the school and so forth. As we went on with it, in episode 24, it had already moved away from the school, so. It would have still have been good if it had come between episodes 11 and 16, though."
- ↑ Character Name Origins
- ↑ The conclusion is that it probably was Akio Satsukawa. Nagisa can also be read as Messenger, perhaps he came up with the name when he was writing the script. We all think it fits Akio’s taste. What struck me most was how Akio expanded the world, he made Kaworu a JUNE character……Or I should say a male/male tanbi(“aesthetic”) romances character that went berserk. [...] Interviewer: Is this what they called the dreamy first script? Yes, Yes. In the end, Anno changed it to the bath scene. Anno took Akio’s idea into a very unique perspective, which end with this Kaworu who give you a decadent feeling, in my option. There is one thing that doesn’t need to cover up: they wrote EVA’s script as long as possible. In other words, the script they gave Anno had two Eps length, then Anno modified it into a story. So I think he probably cut off a lot of Kaworu’s story. - All About Kaworu Nagisa interview with Sadamoto
- ↑ ■ Episode 22: “The Cat and the Transfer Student” [Storyboards] (5) This episode number was later produced as episode 24, “The Final Messenger”. [From Iso:] “At this point in time, the name ‘Kaworu’ wasn’t decided yet, so in memos we called him things like ‘the transfer student’ and ‘bishounen’. The Proposal had a humanoid Angel accompanied by a cat, but he was changed to an Angel that could transform from a boy into a cat. Setting him against the human-sized Eva-05, we created a story with a showdown on a human scale. The Proposal also called for the laboratory’s secrets to be revealed, and in my own version of the screenplay I proposed a climatic scene wherein Eva-05 dropped down before the eyes of the boy Angel (who had invaded ever deeper into Central Dogma) and blocked the way forward.” - Mitsuo Iso Animation Works: Preproduction
- ↑ Mitsuo Iso Animation Works: Preproduction: ■ Episode 22: The Cat and the Transfer Student [Storyboards] (1)
- ↑ Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection
- ↑ Interviewer: In the video edition, is there nothing like getting a power up from that sort of thing? + + Anno: I’m thinking of adding a few scenes. I had the feeling that it’d be good to focus on Shinji and Kaworu-kun’s story. However, I also think that, if I have the extra time, I have to make Kaworu-kun with just Misato. The truth is that Kaworu-kun just greeted Rei by chance and he’s only spoken with Shinji, hasn’t he? There’s no need for him to meet other people, but if the only one that I haven’t made him meet up with is Misato, I kind of wonder whether that’s awkward.
- ↑ Nobi is not sure that female manga writers will be able to match the imagination of the male authors. Anno wanted to do a longer story involving Asuka's menstruation, but because he felt it was impossible for a man to write, he abandoned it. Only a single scene remained. He feels he can't match the way Nobi portrayed Asuka in the doujinshi "Absolute Safety Razor" (or "Absolutely Safe Razor" - "Zettai Anzen Kamisori"). - Second Interview
- ↑ Bridal Veil, full scanlation
- ↑ (April 25, 1996; at GAINAX)
- ↑ Episode 1, for instance, took six months to be only written, but in later episodes this become far more constrained, to about 5 months for the middle episodes. In contrast, Episode 24 took three weeks after its definitive draft was decided, while Episode 26 took three days.:
When Anno thought of Eva, he wanted to create an anime that would surpass "Gundam" and "Yamato." However, he became dissatisfied with his early ideas. The script for the first episode took half a year to complete. He was stuck after that, so he wrote episodes 5 and 6, and then came back to episode 3. He felt he had to go beyond regular TV anime in developing realistic characters in episodes 3 and 4. However, the first six episodes left the staff drained and feeling weighed down by the heavy mood, so he felt it necessary to lighten the feeling of the series for episodes 7, 8, and 9. This early stage of production took 4 or 5 months in total; the storyboards were done in two months. However, the schedule became more and more constrained. The series was only finished thanks to the supreme efforts and talents of the staff. Episode 26 was completed in only three days. Episode 24 was put together almost entirely by Masayuki alone in the space of three weeks. Second June Interview - ↑ Anno and the rest of the Gainax team had been pushing production of the various episodes up closer and closer to the deadlines issued by their TV station, to the extent that they were actually biking episodes over to the broadcast center on Beta tape only minutes before the broadcast time77. This was tolerated, because Eva had some of the highest ratings of any show ever - until Episode 24. Episode 24 arrived at the station so late that it couldn’t even be watched before being broadcast - it was slapped in a Beta drive and transmitted directly, without being reviewed by any staff at the station. Episode 24, you’ll recall, is the Kaworu episode, which aside from the homosexual overtones (probably not actually an issue), ends with, er, a pop. Bear in mind that this was broadcast in a 6.30pm weekday slot on Japanese national television. The network went apeshit - it may have been in silhouette, and he may have been technically non-human, but you can’t show a 14 year old popping his 14 year old friend’s head off at 6.30pm on TV, even in Japan. Gainax, and Anno specifically, were accused of deliberately holding back the episode to prevent the network from seeing it before broadcast - and the network staff demanded to see the storyboards for the next two episodes. - Rob Fahey
- ↑ Incidentally, aversion to gore also motivated Tōji not getting killed, at the request of the producer.
- ↑ Jinken: You only look at the superficial aspects of the story, and towards the end, the character Kaworu Nagisa appears. I was watching the movie as a regular person, and I was wondering why this character appeared at the end of the movie. Did you think about the fans who came in for the yaoi? Anno: Not really, I didn't think that much about it. Jinken: I thought that Kaworu Nagisa was a character for commercialization, like Saint Seiya. Is that not the case? Anno: Actually, I had planned for him to appear a little earlier. I didn't have any intentions to go that far, but I did intend on having a bishounen [the little boy controlled by the cat]. Jinken: On the contrary, it made him a very memorable character, though. Anno: If the planned relations had worked out - the plan was that the ‘unconscious Shinji-kun’ would be Ayanami Rei, the Shinji-kun who appears on the surface would be Ikari Shinji, and the ‘ideal Shinji-kun’ would be Nagisa Kaworu-kun. [Kaworu was] supposed to be an ideal male but when I tried putting him together he was just a strange fellow (laughs). That was something of a lack of capability on my part. - 2000 December Anno: Interview ‘with a member of Waseda University for the purpose of “character study.