The NGE Fan-Geeks Commentary Project

[Reichu]

EDIT: Here are the links to other commentary-related things, all in one convenient place!

- The NGE Fan-Geeks Commentary Page (http://www.evamonkey.com/commentary/)
Threads
- Commentary: OP (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=142052)
- Commentary: ED (Fly Me To The Moon) (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=154126)
- Commentary: Next Episode Previews (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=156557)
- Commentary: Episode #01 (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=144586)
- Commentary: Episode #02 (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=155082)
- Commentary: Episode #03 (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=162282)
- Commentary: Episode #04 (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=169656)
-
Commentary: References (Names) (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=142405)
- Commentary: Research (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?t=143000)

And now, your previously scheduled "first post":

_________________________________

This might just be a bout of temporary insanity... Certainly wouldn't be the first time for me. :P

We could contact ADV and offer to do a commentary track for them if they pay for us to go to the US ;)

I dunno... I think I might be afraid to work with ADV even if I had the opportunity.

But here's some ideas I got about doing a collaborate NGE-Geek commentary... Granted, the whole idea is pretty out-there, but I'm crazy enough that I would do it -- provided a few other people were crazy enough to do it too.

I agree with MDWigs about some sort of online conference being the best way to go about doing this. (Unfortunately, I have no idea how those work, but I'm never beyond looking into new stuff if I'm interested enough.) However, I think doing a commentary off the tops of our heads is out. Some interesting things happen when you go by spontaneity alone, but a commentary to something as complicated as NGE would need to be *completely* (at least, almost completely; a *little* spontaneity might be good) planned in advance. Scripted, if you will.

If there's anything I hate about multi-person commentaries, it's that people are always talking over one another -- interrupting and cutting each other off. (And oftentimes the less assertive speakers are the ones who have more interesting stuff to say. :mad: ) On the ANF NGE-Geek Commentary, that would be out. We would all know what we were going to say beforehand and when we were going to say it. (Even so, some audio editing would probably be a must to get things to flow right. I fool around with audio a bit, so I'd be up to the task of putting together the final cut of a particular commentary, after I get some better utilities anyway.)

And we would find a way to say everything that needs to be said, utilizing every possible second of time if necessary. When things in the series are especially hectic, further discussion on a particular subject might need to be relegated to a later time when there is less going on. (So what the heck would we do when EoE ends and we still need to throw a handful of ideas at the listener? I guess play the strings "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" in the background of the commentary, followed by "Everything you've ever dreamed", and hope the listener sticks around even though there's no more video to watch.) That means talking during every OP, every ED, every budget scene, EVERYthing.

It would be cool if as many forum folks (preferably the regulars, to keep things intimate ;) ) participated as possible. Well, anyone who's not predisposed to troll-like behavior and has demonstrated that they have valid things to say. Granted, I think some of us probably have more to say than others (and there are probably those of you who'd PREFER not saying anything), but I think a lot of us should make at least SOME sort of appearance.

Not to demonstrate any kind of bias, but here are some of the people I'd want to participate (my brain will be stupid and inevitably forget some names; apologies in advance), in no particular order:

Myself (heh), MDWigs, Shin-seiki, Sharp-kun, Incisivis, tv33, Dr. Nick, Achtung_Affen, wayneiac, and, heck, I'd even want to hear some words from NakedEye, GandalfsWhisper, HWPS, and felineki. Eva Otaku would certainly be a nice addition (although he hasn't hung around here much during my stay at the forum), as well. (Granted, I don't know how good Dr. Nick and AA are at spoken English... Things wouldn't feel right without you guys, though! :crybaby: )

Granted, this kind of project would require a helluva lotta cooperative work between anyone crazy enough to become involved. But, hey, I'm all for it! Wayneiac seems to have already volunteered his soul... If there are others, I guess we might as well start brainstorming.

[Dr. Nick]

I love the idea, but my spoken English is simply not good enough for this kind of project. And I believe we all have so much other things to do, that creating a full audio commentary would be nearly impossible (not to mention the time-zone problems...).

So, my suggestion is, if we're going to do some kind of commentary, it should be something text-based, maybe even in a website form. Maybe a sort of visual rundown of the series using screencaptures or something. It wouldn't be as flashy, but it is something we might be actually able to pull off.

(And Reichu, those smileys of yours need a bit of tweaking.)

[Incisivis]

Not to demonstrate any kind of bias, but here are some of the people I'd want to participate (my brain will be stupid and inevitably forget some names; apologies in advance), in no particular order:

Myself (heh), MDWigs, Shin-seiki, Sharp-kun, Incisivis, tv33, Dr. Nick, Achtung_Affen, wayneiac, and, heck, I'd even want to hear some words from NakedEye, GandalfsWhisper, HWPS, and felineki. Eva Otaku would certainly be a nice addition (although he hasn't hung around here much during my stay at the forum), as well.

Well, I'd be up for it, though frankly I don't know what I'd offer. If the commentary is supposed to be about setting the record straight regarding the "technical" details of Evangelion, then I'm really not your person. But, yeah, anything I can do.

[Shin-seiki]

I love the idea, but my spoken English is simply not good enough for this kind of project. And I believe we all have so much other things to do, that creating a full audio commentary would be nearly impossible (not to mention the time-zone problems...).

So, my suggestion is, if we're going to do some kind of commentary, it should be something text-based, maybe even in a website form. Maybe a sort of visual rundown of the series using screencaptures or something. It wouldn't be as flashy, but it is something we might be actually able to pull off.

(And Reichu, those smileys of yours need a bit of tweaking.)I agree with Dr. Nick, a website would be the way to go. Reichu, didn't you already suggest that idea, i.e. a site to compile all our fan-geek analyses of the show? I think that a lot of what has already been posted in this forum could serve as a seed for such a project...

ps the official Japanese script (from killingmantras site) that you have translated for the Rei-ep25 thread (and other scenes :-" ), could form the backbone for the project.

[tv33]

I agree the technical problems involved in an audio commentary would be too great; however a web site is a good idea. A still picture commentary would be great, as well as essays and conversation that have taken place in the more complex threads. Then every time someone posts a thread like “Questions about Eva” we could whore out the site. :P

[NakedEYE666]

I'd definetly do it. Mostly I'd be like "uuhh" and "yeah, what he said" but if you need someone like that I'd be pleased. It'd be a heck of a lot better than most commentaries and interveiws with people unaffiliated with the series.

[MDWigs]

Website idea aside, we could make at start at scripting of sorts, by creating a thread for episode 01, discussing everything we deem important from that episode, and when that's fully run it's course, move onto episode 02, etc...

That way we at least have a groundwork for everything important that happens in a series and can at least make sure we dont miss anything out. From there we can get to the stage of delegating who says/explains what, but first things first I think.

[NakedEYE666]

Website idea aside, we could make at start at scripting of sorts, by creating a thread for episode 01, discussing everything we deem important from that episode, and when that's fully run it's course, move onto episode 02, etc...

That way we at least have a groundwork for everything important that happens in a series and can at least make sure we dont miss anything out. From there we can get to the stage of delegating who says/explains what, but first things first I think.

I think that's a great idea! :D

[Reichu]

Well, okay, I'll admit that the AUDIO commentary idea was a bit insane... Why didn't I think of the web page idea in the first place? -_-;

Well, I'd be up for it, though frankly I don't know what I'd offer. If the commentary is supposed to be about setting the record straight regarding the "technical" details of Evangelion, then I'm really not your person. But, yeah, anything I can do.

To speak purely for myself, but I've found Amanda's essays and various posts to be extremely insightful into certain characterization issues. Ya'll have probably heard me plugging them at some point or another.

Setting the record straight would be only ONE facet of a commentary, I think. Personally, I would like it to be a compilation of many different things:

- Pure factual information. Various trivia, behind-the-scenes information, staff-related tidbits, some insight into NGE's diverse sources of inspiration, etc. (That would mean doing some research into the weird religious aspects, as well, just to make sure we get them right instead of repeating hearsay without references. )

- Observations, theories, debates, and debunks. This would probably be the biggest part of the commentary, considering how much of NGE isn't spelled out for the viewer. Common misconceptions and n00bisms are promptly dealt with. Important details are noted and possible explanations offered up. When multiple viewpoints are valid in their own right, they will be rightfully represented by their respective parties. No petty arguing -- everything will be done as elegantly and sportsmanlike as possible.

- Humor. After all, we shouldn't be taking EVERYTHING seriously; a little levity here and there would probably be appropriate. The forum certainly isn't a stranger to bouts of silliness. (Granted, a lot of those can be attributed to a single person... :D)

But, anyways, I'd like to see a good hodgepodge of stuff in the commentary. If it was all technical details, it would be awfully boring.

I agree with Dr. Nick, a website would be the way to go. Reichu, didn't you already suggest that idea, i.e. a site to compile all our fan-geek analyses of the show? I think that a lot of what has already been posted in this forum could serve as a seed for such a project...

That would require the godawful task of weeding through the last year of threads and hand-picking the good stuff (of which there is QUITE a bit). I'd be crazy enough to do such a thing, but preferably we'd have at least a few people partaking in the procedure. That way, not just one person's idea of what is "valid" or "funny" (or whatever) will be represented, and the stuff that is "universally good" will be less likely missed in the Skimming Frenzy.

[Also, anything that our ANF folks have posted on other forums that's worthwhile -- presuming said posts are still floating around -- ought to be rounded up as well.]

Once all of the Relevant Crap is collected, some poor soul will be selected for the arduous task of organizing it under Relevant Episode and making a crude outline of sorts. (Should DEATH be covered, as well?) At the same time, all of us should go back, watch the series again, and take note of any additional things that we think ought to be said.

ps the official Japanese script (from killingmantras site) that you have translated for the Rei-ep25 thread (and other scenes :-" ), could form the backbone for the project.

:naughty:@Shin-seiki

Truthfully, I'm far too incompetent in Japanese to process the entire body of scripts for NGE -- at least, anytime soon. That would be a more long-term project that doing something as crazy as a collaborative written commentary! Besides, my script pages consist of four-column tables as it is -- try to squeeze tons of commentary in there and things would get pretty ugly. However, one thing I could do is the cut-by-cut breakdown with the little screenshots (which, even in and of itself, would take a huge amount of time), which would probably suffice in providing a framework to lay out comments upon (or, rather, to juxtapose our comments to relevent scenes/individual cuts).

Website idea aside, we could make at start at scripting of sorts, by creating a thread for episode 01, discussing everything we deem important from that episode, and when that's fully run it's course, move onto episode 02, etc...

That way we at least have a groundwork for everything important that happens in a series and can at least make sure we dont miss anything out. From there we can get to the stage of delegating who says/explains what, but first things first I think.

So how SHOULD be go about doing this? Working on an episode-by-episode basis is a great idea, I think, but I'm also quite fond of the idea of milking preexisting writings for all they're worth. So where do we begin?

I'll be waiting for everyone's input! (So, er, assuming a project of this magnitude is officially a-go, should I start breaking down the cuts and taking tons of screen captures in my pockets of spare time?)

[thewayneiac]

Website idea aside, we could make at start at scripting of sorts, by creating a thread for episode 01, discussing everything we deem important from that episode, and when that's fully run it's course, move onto episode 02, etc...


For some reason the first thing I thought of when I read this was, "Ok, we need to be sure to point out the first of the many scenes where Shinji stares at his hand."

[Reichu]

Just on a side note, the item that we really ought to start with is the OP rather than the body of Episode #01. Yay! That means I get to mention Sammael-sama!!

http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/00_sammael.jpg

The OP is rather jam-packed with information; there are some things about it that I still have questions about. How's about I throw together screenshot page for that and we start the discussin'?

Well, I should probably wait for everyone's thoughts on my other post before I get too ahead of myself... Sleep is probably a good idea right now.

[tv33]

This may have been discussed before but that picture reminds me of a Seraphim, the highest rank of angels. Apparently their true form is beyond human understanding so they have 6 wings (Though the picture has 12) that cover their entire body leaving only their heads exposed. They are the angels that talk directly to God. I wonder if there is a connection.

[Dr. Nick]

Setting the record straight would be only ONE facet of a commentary, I think. Personally, I would like it to be a compilation of many different things
Well, if we ever get this project up and running, the amount of text produced will be huge. That's why heavy editing will be required, so that useless repetitions, blunders and such will be deleted from the final version. And of course, even though there are no 12-year-old aolers here, thank Jebus, spelling and grammar check wouldn't hurt either.

[Springymajig]

Not that I bothered to read all of this but I think a website could be more comprehensive and would avoid people like me asking questions every 2 minutes.

[Sharp-kun]

Very nice idea. :cheers:

When would we be planning to do this? I know I've got degree exams coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm sure other members do as well.

[MDWigs]

So how SHOULD be go about doing this? Working on an episode-by-episode basis is a great idea, I think, but I'm also quite fond of the idea of milking preexisting writings for all they're worth. So where do we begin?

I'll be waiting for everyone's input! (So, er, assuming a project of this magnitude is officially a-go, should I start breaking down the cuts and taking tons of screen captures in my pockets of spare time?)

Perhaps we can combine the two, work through the episodes, providing both new analysis as well as searching for previous writings that are applicable and then putting them together.

Of course there will be meta-topics that cover multiple episodes, so we will have to think about how we will treat those. Also we need to consider how to bring forth ideas such as (to pick an arbitrary example) whose soul is in Eva-00. There are a lot of important scenes in episode 5 on this issue, but it's not until episode 14 where you can really make some sort of confident comment. And there are all sorts of tangents that run off this, like the comment in episode 17, when Touji is chosen as the Fourth Children, that all the potentials are being kept in Shinji's class. That comment (and the subsequent mother/child link that it implies) is important when considering Eva-00, but doesn't come into play until later.

These issues shouldn't be hard to overcome; we just need to agree on a uniform way in which we should treat them.

I agree with Reichu on the general makeup of the commentary, it’s got to be something people want to listen to, so it has to be funny in places, and informative, but also give opinions and impressions, and not have everyone talking over the top of everyone else. The technology to do online conferencing is fairly straight forward, everyone just needs a microphone basically (a good quality one if possible) and a relatively fast internet connection.

As for when we can do it, well like Sharp-kun I'm coming up to my University exams. Not that it has really stopped me before, but I will have to pull back a little then. From June onwards though I'm on summer holidays till about mid-semester, and though I'm planning on doing some travelling, I'm sure I'll have lots of time then to help out.

I wouldn't start collecting screenshots just key though Reichu, we can probably share that burden.

[Reichu]

Perhaps we can combine the two, work through the episodes, providing both new analysis as well as searching for previous writings that are applicable and then putting them together.

Of course there will be meta-topics that cover multiple episodes, so we will have to think about how we will treat those.

Well, just to start out, we can dump the important multiple-episode issues into their own categories and figure out how we want to present the information later. Other stuff can be organized more succintly under the relevant episode or even scene/cut. I could throw together a webpage of sorts that would be our 'working blueprint', into which both new and old writings would be collected. The per-episode discussions should probably occur in this thread, unless we really want to make a new thread for each one. (Sharp-kun's the mod; what does he think?)

But how to handle something like which old stuff goes into the blueprint? I say everyone who has some time to kill goes through the past year of stuff, hand-pick anything we might want to use, and send the snippets to me so I can compile them into the blueprint. (And those of you with less free time... Er, I guess you can just look over the work the rest of us have done and make suggestions on anything we've blatantly missed that you think should be there, or whatever.) Assuming everyone's okay with me taking on this arduous task; I'm a sucker for punishment sometimes, so I think I'd actually *enjoy* putting it together. :P

Spamming the forum with the "old stuff" is probably a no-go, so how about this... PM me with the additions. (I say "PM" because my e-mail is currently being stupid... -_-; ) Copy+Paste the bits of text that you think should be added and include a link to the original thread (or particular page of threads). When I incorporate it into the blueprint, I'll include information like who made the original post and who recommended it for inclusion. It's perfectly okay to forward stuff you yourself have written, provided you're only doing it because you think it's valid/thought-provoking/witty/funny/whatever -- i.e., it's something that SHOULD be in the commentary, or is at least worth considering for inclusion. As I get 'recommendations', I'll update the website so everyone can check out what people are submitting, and all the meantime we'll be having 'new' discussions here. How does that sound to everyone?

<<I agree with Reichu on the general makeup of the commentary, it’s got to be something people want to listen to, so it has to be funny in places, and informative, but also give opinions and impressions, and not have everyone talking over the top of everyone else. The technology to do online conferencing is fairly straight forward, everyone just needs a microphone basically (a good quality one if possible) and a relatively fast internet connection.>>

Wait... I thought there was a general consensus among the others that this should be written as opposed to spoken? That doesn't really matter at the moment, though, as everything needs to be scripted in advance anyway.

These issues shouldn't be hard to overcome; we just need to agree on a uniform way in which we should treat them.

:nod: So everyone who's planning on participating, share your thoughts!

As for when we can do it, well like Sharp-kun I'm coming up to my University exams. Not that it has really stopped me before, but I will have to pull back a little then. From June onwards though I'm on summer holidays till about mid-semester, and though I'm planning on doing some travelling, I'm sure I'll have lots of time then to help out.

We certainly need you and Sharp-kun, though personally this is a project that, if we're really going to go through with it, I'd like to have completely finished by the end of the summer. (Assuming I get into the university I'm applying to, I will have absolutely no free time starting this fall...) Certainly, we can start the 'skimming old materials' process now, at least...

I wouldn't start collecting screenshots just key though Reichu, we can probably share that burden.

Heh-heh, thing is, I already have a ridiculous number of screenshots already on my computer. Just counting all the files in my "Snappies (Unorganized)" folder, there are some 6,960. And anyways, if we do agree on using a webpage format where the episodes are broken down by cut number or something, I'd be the one who would have to put the screenshots together anyway, being as I can't think of anyone else around here who wants to look at the Japanese scripts and figure out the individual cuts.

I personally think having full episode screenshot breakdowns by cut number would be a very useful tool for throwing this together. It would give everyone a definite numerical way to refer to a particular scene, and such.

Well, if we ever get this project up and running, the amount of text produced will be huge. That's why heavy editing will be required, so that useless repetitions, blunders and such will be deleted from the final version. And of course, even though there are no 12-year-old aolers here, thank Jebus, spelling and grammar check wouldn't hurt either.

Yes, I agree that the final product should be immaculate -- no typos or random spelling/grammar errors (unless they're done completely on purpose ;)). Editing -- and lots of it.

This may have been discussed before but that picture reminds me of a Seraphim, the highest rank of angels. Apparently their true form is beyond human understanding so they have 6 wings (Though the picture has 12) that cover their entire body leaving only their heads exposed. They are the angels that talk directly to God. I wonder if there is a connection.

Well, that image would be one of the things that would be covered by the commentary. Indeed, that is a seraph, but it has twelve wings because it's not just any seraph -- it's Sammael (aka Satan), the greatest of the seraphim before his fall (and arguably after :naughty: ). Obviously, that's the sort of topic for which we'd have to hit the books to make sure we get it completely right.

[Dr. Nick]

Just a quick suggestion, what about color-coding the script passages according to their general topic category? For example, when we're killing classic n00b or AWL-errors, those should be written with flaming red, technical BS could be blue, highly controversial issues with orange etc.

[MDWigs]

On the issue of actually doing an audio commentary, I was thinking more down the road, post website creation. If we have a website with all of this information there, we can use that as a script to do an actual audio commentary. Just a thought.

Everything else seems great to me. I've got some free time in the next couple of weeks before I really need to start studying so I'll do my best to go over what we've discussed here and pick up some good stuff (though I think the PM's have a character limit, so I'll stick all the stuff I find into a big file and upload it somewhere).

Colour coding sounds like a good idea too, I like flaming red for newb errors ^_^

I think we could produce some very good work out of this.

[Reichu]

On the issue of actually doing an audio commentary, I was thinking more down the road, post website creation. If we have a website with all of this information there, we can use that as a script to do an actual audio commentary. Just a thought.

Hmm, yes, that is true... But, still, what about great ANFers like Dr. Nick (and Achtung_Affen, when he does show up)?

Everything else seems great to me. I've got some free time in the next couple of weeks before I really need to start studying so I'll do my best to go over what we've discussed here and pick up some good stuff (though I think the PM's have a character limit, so I'll stick all the stuff I find into a big file and upload it somewhere).

Hmm, I forgot about the damn character limit... Blah, whatever, send stuff to me via e-mail after all. Outlook Express is being a harpy, but I know a way to read my e-mails without it.

Colour coding sounds like a good idea too, I like flaming red for newb errors ^_^

Heh, we can figure all of that out later when we put the page together. I like the idea too, though.

So, er, I guess: SEND ME STUFF! [I.e., stuff that you should should be considered for inclusion in this commentary thing.] SEND ME YOUR MONEY AND YOUR VIRGIN SONS, TOO! [Probably kidding about that one.] And I'll start looking through the forum crap, myself, when I'm not trying to get some of my art projects done.

[Dr. Nick]

Hmm, yes, that is true... But, still, what about great ANFers like Dr. Nick (and Achtung_Affen, when he does show up)?
Hire Tom Berenger to be my voice.

[tv33]

It also occurs to me that we would have huge gaps in things to talk about from episode to episode. This is also another reason I don’t think an audio commentary would work too well. In episode 21 or 24 for example would we struggle to say everything we wanted to in the time allowed before another topic came up, there might be too much to talk about in the 25 or so minutes. However if we do a text version we can ramble on as long as we want to make sure we cover everything in their entirety.

[Sharp-kun]

The technology to do online conferencing is fairly straight forward, everyone just needs a microphone basically (a good quality one if possible) and a relatively fast internet connection.
This might be the thing to finally force me to get a new microphone ^^;;;

I'm on a cable connection, so bandwidth isn't an issue.

it, well like Sharp-kun I'm coming up to my University exams. Not that it has really stopped me before, but I will have to pull back a little then. From June onwards though I'm on summer holidays till about mid-semester, and though I'm planning on doing some travelling, I'm sure I'll have lots of time then to help out.
I'm the same. From the beginning of June onwards I'll be free. I'll be away for a bit in August for an anime convention in England, but other than that I shouldn't have anything major. 4 months of freedom....


I wouldn't start collecting screenshots just key though Reichu, we can probably share that burden.
I can get us some Renewal shots if we need them. :)

The per-episode discussions should probably occur in this thread, unless we really want to make a new thread for each one. (Sharp-kun's the mod; what does he think?)
I might, and be very clear that this is that I might, be able to get the Admin to create a subforum here for it. Something like that hasn't been tried before, so I have no idea whether they'd do it. Its something we can always try once we actually get started.

Ideally the best way to do it would be a thread per episode, as well as a general thread for issues that take place over the course of the series.


But how to handle something like which old stuff goes into the blueprint? I say everyone who has some time to kill goes through the past year of stuff, hand-pick anything we might want to use, and send the snippets to me so I can compile them into the blueprint. (And those of you with less free time... Er, I guess you can just look over the work the rest of us have done and make suggestions on anything we've blatantly missed that you think should be there, or whatever.) Assuming everyone's okay with me taking on this arduous task; I'm a sucker for punishment sometimes, so I think I'd actually *enjoy* putting it together. :P
I think I've got quite a few old threads saved on CD somewhere, I'll have a look.


We certainly need you and Sharp-kun,
I'm needed? I'm touched :teehee: :ph34r:



Wait... I thought there was a general consensus among the others that this should be written as opposed to spoken? That doesn't really matter at the moment, though, as everything needs to be scripted in advance anyway.
I don't really mind, each method has its own merits.

of the things that would be covered by the commentary. Indeed, that is a seraph, but it has twelve wings because it's not just any seraph -- it's Sammael (aka Satan), the greatest of the seraphim before his fall (and arguably after :naughty: ). Obviously, that's the sort of topic for which we'd have to hit the books to make sure we get it completely right.
On a purely visual level the pic reminds me of the angels in the series. I see a head and core, though I'm probably stating the obvious ^^;;;

[Reichu]

This might be the thing to finally force me to get a new microphone ^^;;;

Heh heh, same here.

I can get us some Renewal shots if we need them. :)

Well, if you like. If we decide to go with a tabular format similar to what I use here (http://avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/episode-25/episode-25.html) [dagnammit, Shin-seiki, would you hurry up so that everyone else can see the others? ;)], the screenshots are going to be so small that it doesn't really matter what the original source was. But if, say, you think any of the shots look particularly crappy, you can always send some nice Renewal versions my way.

I might, and be very clear that this is that I might, be able to get the Admin to create a subforum here for it. Something like that hasn't been tried before, so I have no idea whether they'd do it. Its something we can always try once we actually get started.

Well, worth a shot at least.

Ideally the best way to do it would be a thread per episode, as well as a general thread for issues that take place over the course of the series.

And a thread for the OP -- don't forget the OP! Having just one general thread for "whole-series issues" might be a bit messy; probably a thread per issue might be better. On second thought... do we REALLY want another thread devoted to "Whose soul is in EVA-00?"?

I think I've got quite a few old threads saved on CD somewhere, I'll have a look.

Excellent...

On a purely visual level the pic reminds me of the angels in the series. I see a head and core, though I'm probably stating the obvious ^^;;;

Well, heh, soon as we start this thing up (whenever/however that happens), the nature of that pic will be covered. I remember Shin-seiki linking me to some older threads where it was discussed to some degree, though gawd knows if those are still around...

So, like I said before... Let's all scour the forum (and whatever else is lying around) and inundate Reichu with the choice materials! I am one who desires pain! Give me despair! Hurt me more!!! :ssj:

... Well, I got a little carried away, but you get the idea.

It also occurs to me that we would have huge gaps in things to talk about from episode to episode. This is also another reason I don’t think an audio commentary would work too well. In episode 21 or 24 for example would we struggle to say everything we wanted to in the time allowed before another topic came up, there might be too much to talk about in the 25 or so minutes. However if we do a text version we can ramble on as long as we want to make sure we cover everything in their entirety.

That's definitely true. A webpage version would certainly be advantageous in that respect (among others). But, as had been said, we'd have to write everything in advance ANYWAY, so after the website version is done, we could always execute an audio commentary 'adaptation' if we were crazy enough. As far as having enough time to cover everything -- well, we have OPs, EDs, budget scenes, and DEATH, don't we? ^_^

[NakedEYE666]

I can't wait till the discussions are all done and it's time to decide what to canonize (in the biblical sense) Mwahahahaha!

[Dr. Nick]

I'm the same. From the beginning of June onwards I'll be free. I'll be away for a bit in August for an anime convention in England, but other than that I shouldn't have anything major. 4 months of freedom....
Lucky sons of... My summer schedule has been decided too, and it doesn't look pretty: School ends at the 14th of May, after which I have sweet, sweet free time till the end of the month. Unless a miracle happens, I'm going to spend the whole of June in lag forest cutting firewood, so my internet time will be seriously reduced. After that, a couple of days of local geek-happenings, and the at the 12th of July my 180-day-long military service starts.

Because I'm going to be away from here for such a long time, I'm going to spend those coming free days to flood this board with my intellectual contributions (stop laughing, dammit!). Well, not flooding really, but I got two or three pet theories I want to post here before my freedom is taken away from me (the big-*** soul copying thread I've been talking about in the past, and another one about LCL).

Hey, the forum software has started censoring the word ***. What if we were to talk about the animal? lol

[Reichu]

Because I'm going to be away from here for such a long time, I'm going to spend those coming free days to flood this board with my intellectual contributions (stop laughing, dammit!). Well, not flooding really, but I got two or three pet theories I want to post here before my freedom is taken away from me (the big-*** soul copying thread I've been talking about in the past, and another one about LCL).

I was wondering about happened to your soul copying theory... (How long ago was that, anyway?) Another thread treating this "imprint"/"copy"/whatever stuff has been a long time coming. Some additional discussion probably wouldn't hurt as far as da commentary goes, either.

Hey, the forum software has started censoring the word ***. What if we were to talk about the animal? lol

Well, you still have "donkey" and "onager" to choose from... Or the scientific names. Can't forget about those. :P

[Jinpun]

Once the actual construction of the website begins... It could probably be usefull to split it up into a spoiler and non-spoiler sections. Let me elaborate...

When a user connects to the website...Immediately she/he will choose between the spoiler and non-spoiler sections. The non-spoiler section would include an analysis of each episode in its entirety without ruining the story for anyone who hasn't seen the entire series. Important connections would be hinted at there...and the actual connection would be made in the spoiler section. This would mean that 2 analyses of each episode will need to be done, one with spoilers of the rest of the series and one without.

For example, in episode 5 the relationship between Rei and Gendou is shown more deeply (I.E. the seen where Gendou burns his hands in the process of opening the plug to see if Rei is allright). Now the viewer is wondering, "Why does Gendou care so much about Rei?" Obviously, to those who have seen the series know more about Rei, such as she is a clone of Yui with the soul of Lilith, and she is needed for Gendou's version of complementaion, which is (arguably) why he is so concerned about here.

Now in the non-spoiler section, something like, I dunno, "Gendou goes to Rei's rescue as her importance is revealed later on..." would be said, or something like that whatever...you get what I'm saying. In the spoiler section we would come right out and say, "Gendou needs Rei, heres why..."

I dunno, just a thought about something that could be done. This website/commentary sounds like a great idea, on a seperate note.

[Reichu]

Once the actual construction of the website begins... It could probably be usefull to split it up into a spoiler and non-spoiler sections.

Actually, my thought was that this commentary would be geared at those who have seen NGE in its entirety and want to know what the he11 is going on. I mean, who watches the commentary before they've seen the film? (Doubtless there must be some weirdoes out there who do, but something about their methodology doesn't make much sense.) I think it should be the same here. Worrying about spoilers is more trouble than it's worth. On the other hand, we should give everything its rightful place; e.g., we'd take note of things like EVA-00's incident in #05, but we wouldn't get into the whole soul issue until #14 or something.

Generally speaking, I'm not very sympathetic to people who go and spoil things for themselves. In certain situations, yes, it's good to avoid spoilers (a review that's intended to get people interested in watching something, for example). But for the most part, if you don't want to spoil things for yourself, you should watch the whole thing before you go looking around for information.

[Sharp-kun]

Actually, my thought was that this commentary would be geared at those who have seen NGE in its entirety and want to know what the he11 is going on. I mean, who watches the commentary before they've seen the film? (Doubtless there must be some weirdoes out there who do, but something about their methodology doesn't make much sense.) I think it should be the same here. Worrying about spoilers is more trouble than it's worth. On the other hand, we should give everything its rightful place; e.g., we'd take note of things like EVA-00's incident in #05, but we wouldn't get into the whole soul issue until #14 or something.
I would agree on this (even in my current drunken state :ph34r: ). The commentary should not be spoiler free. To skim over issues that are important just for those that have not yet watched the whole series dilutes the whole thing.

[Dr. Nick]

I would agree on this (even in my current drunken state :ph34r: ). The commentary should not be spoiler free. To skim over issues that are important just for those that have not yet watched the whole series dilutes the whole thing.
Amen. Let's just put up a proper disclaimer to fends off n00bs.

By the way, we should have some kind of system when referring to or quoting the English translation of the series, because there are several translations; are we going to use mainly ADVs scripts or Literal Translation Project, how do we mark which source we're quoting etc.

Drunken moderating... scary.

[Reichu]

ARGGHHHHhhh... This project is already threatening to make my head do The Scanners Thing. So many questions, so many questions!!! Where do we begin!??!?

:imitates Shinji before wanker scene: "Tasukete... Tasukete, MDWigs..."

[Dr. Nick]

ARGGHHHHhhh... This project is already threatening to make my head do The Scanners Thing. So many questions, so many questions!!! Where do we begin!??!?
Already having second thoughts, are we? And I thought you were begging for pain a couple of posts ago...

But I urge all of you who are going to participate in this project to remain as realistic as possible. From personal experience I know that huge-$$$ projects like this tend to a) take about 1400% more time than originally planned, and b) attract all kinds of negative forces of universe. Murphy's Law will be even more ruthless than usual and there will be screwups. And this will happen - alot. (http://lsnhs.leesummit.k12.mo.us/awpteam/bsod.gif)

So, Reichu, are you prepared that your doujinshi will be delayed even more? I believe you are the right person to do the main editing-job, since you have the skillz to produce huge amounts of text but still keep it interesting. But this project will require something else too - really obsessive devotion. Are you really geek enough to be able to pull this off?

I don't want to scare you, or anybody for that matter, but if we're going to start this project, we must take it to the finish too. Otherwise WE WILL BE LAUGHED AT! Mwahahaha!!! *cough cough*

If we're actually going to do this thing, I say we start with dissecting the opening intro. That would be a good way to practice safely, before attacking the series itself.

And it is my honest opinion, that we don't need a subforum for this - that would be too flamboyant and even maybe considered elitistic. Let's follow Ali G's guidelines and keep it real. Thank you for listening.

[Sharp-kun]

And it is my honest opinion, that we don't need a subforum for this -
Maybe not at the start, it depends how many threads this starts to span.

Remember that there will be people not involved in this who will be using the Eva forum, I don't think we want to have 26+ threads all on this that they have to sift through to find one they've posted.

[Reichu]

Already having second thoughts, are we? And I thought you were begging for pain a couple of posts ago...

Oh, and I'm sure the pain has only just begun. :) But just because I'm having a bout of temporary insanity doesn't mean I'm having second thoughts -- I'm just confused as all he11.

So, Reichu, are you prepared that your doujinshi will be delayed even more?

Pfffft, I already know at this point in time I'm not ready to start it anyway. There's no Muse barring me from doing something as crazy as this commentary.

I believe you are the right person to do the main editing-job, since you have the skillz to produce huge amounts of text but still keep it interesting. But this project will require something else too - really obsessive devotion. Are you really geek enough to be able to pull this off?

Considering that some force magnetizes me to this forum like the obsessed geek that I am, I'll say that's a safe bet. I do believe that we can do this, and I don't mind being the Execute Editor-Person... although maybe I'll feel a little better once duties are apportioned out or something.

I don't want to scare you, or anybody for that matter, but if we're going to start this project, we must take it to the finish too. Otherwise WE WILL BE LAUGHED AT! Mwahahaha!!! *cough cough*

Amen. You don't know how much I laugh at myself for the things I haven't finished.

If we're actually going to do this thing, I say we start with dissecting the opening intro. That would be a good way to practice safely, before attacking the series itself.

I'm ready whenever the rest of you are. :D

[Sharp-kun]

I'm ready whenever the rest of you are. :D
Feel free to start without me. I'll be busy for the coming month with degree exams, though I'll still be here whenever I can. Whether I'll have time to contribute though is unknown.

[GandalfsWhisper]

I'd just like to say that I'd be happy to help out with this, granted I haven't posted much on the eva forum of late but that doesn't mean I've lost interest.

[HeWhoPostsStuff]

I've been trying to keep up with this a bit, and though I'm not familiar at all with the way audio commentary works, not to mention that I'm not nearly as informed as most of the rest of you are about Eva, maybe I could contribute something small somewhere down the line, if only to give everyone else something to bash, heh.

[Reichu]

I've been trying to keep up with this a bit, and though I'm not familiar at all with the way audio commentary works

Heh, neither am I. Just to start out, we wouldn't be aiming for an audio commentary -- we'd make a web page with a written commentary incorporating stuff from all those participating. Read the whole thread when you have a moment. ;)

not to mention that I'm not nearly as informed as most of the rest of you are about Eva

I think in the process of writing a commentary, some points are going to be raised that haven't been addressed before. Really, with a series of this length and breadth, there's still plenty for even the most NGE-saturated of us to learn.

I've started throwing together a preliminary 'outline page' for the OP, so we'll see how that goes...

[Shin-seiki]

I've started throwing together a preliminary 'outline page' for the OP, so we'll see how that goes...Umm, did I jump the gun, with my OP thread? I'll withdraw it if you had sonething else in mind...

[Reichu]

Umm, did I jump the gun, with my OP thread? I'll withdraw it if you had sonething else in mind...

Well, see my post in the OP thread -- we'll work things out.

BTW, the only reason I haven't responded to your PM yet is because I'm still confused as he11 about how we're going to go about things. Hope you don't mind. -_-;

[Reichu]

A lot of "general" commentary comments are being posted on the OP thread, which is fine, but, for future reference, I would prefer to keep the general stuff here whenever possible. Just for sanity's sake.

In the process of editing comments together, one thing has jumped out at me as needing to be addressed: Consistency. Certainly, there are plenty of items where we're more than allowed to express differences (differing viewpoints is one of the things that will keep this interesting, IMO), but there are others where I think group consistency is best: Spelling, notation, etc. Here are some of the ones I can remember offhand:

[1] Episode Notation

Everyone seems to have their own method of "episode notation", I've noticed. Personally, I use the format "episode #(number-number)"; this habit probably emerged as a result of translating. In Japanese, the episodes are given as dai (number kanji) wa; dai = #, wa, here, = "episode". As the editor, I'm predisposed to favor my own notation, but if anyone has any quibbles with it, please let me know.

[2] Character Names

The spellings on some of these inevitably differ depending on who you're talking to. As a general rule, I tend to go with the "official Romanizations"... although, yes, even I stray from these here and there. (Well, not with the angels' names, of course -- are you crazy? ;)) Let's actually look at how the names are spelled in something official -- say, Newtype 100% Collection:

Shinji Ikari
Rei Ayanami
Soryu Asuka Langley
Misato Katsuragi
Ritsuko Akagi
Gendo Ikari
Kozo Fuyutsuki
Ryoji Kaji
Maya Ibuki
Makoto Hyuga
Shigeru Aoba
Kensuke Aida
Toji Suzuhara
Hikari Horaki
Yui Ikari
Naoko Akagi
Keel Lorenz
Pen^2
Kaworu Nagisa
Soryu Kyoko Zeppelin [not in Newtype; taken off her gravestone in #22]
Shiro Tokita [the JA guy; not in Newtype, but this is almost certainly what the official spelling would be, following the trend here]

[Disregard the name order issue for the moment -- I'll get to that later.] These are official. Ergo, in our collaborative commentary, we should probably all put our personal preferences aside and use them. That could also equate to, "Write the names however you want and Reichu will edit them to conformity."

I personally like to reflect the long vowels when I write the names (hence, "Gendou", "Touji", "Soh/uryuu", etc. ... though one might wonder how I managed not to program "Hyuuga" and "Kyouko" into myself), but the Japanese themselves don't normally do this when they write their own names in Roman letters. (I have plenty of printed materials lying around to back this up.) Should we sacrifice the integrity of the original syllables or the integrity of the official spellings?

My vote: Use the official spellings (that includes Pen^2).

(But, speaking of "sacrifices", I have an idea for an omake page for the commentary that would help keep us from making any sacrifices at all. But I'd be better off whipping up an example for what I have in mind than actually trying to describe it.)

[3] Japanese Name Order

When the Japanese say their own names or write them in Japanese, it's surname first. However, in most translations, the names are flip-flopped to "westernize" them. The more hardcore (i.e., "geeky") translations don't, though perhaps it's worth noting that the Japanese themselves, in their OWN printed materials, will almost ALWAYS flipflop the names so that they're surname last. You can see this trend in the official spellings above (although I don't know what the deal is with the Soryu duo -- I'd think that "Langley-Soryu" or "Zeppelin-Soryu" would be the effect of westernization).

Personally, I'm inconsistent and I go between both practices. When I hear the name "Eastern style" a lot, as with an anime character, I'll write their name surname-first. Otherwise, I usually westernize the order. Coming from a person like me (who is notorious for her "properness" when it comes to things like this), such inconsistences might seem shocking. ;) But nevermind me -- for the commentary, we ought to settle on one or the other. "Hideaki Anno" or "Anno Hideaki"? "Shinji Ikari" or "Ikari Shinji"?

My vote: Western style.

[4] Eva Notation

I really do think we should use the "EVA-##" notation when referring to "the girls". It's more official than "Unit", as I've hopefully demonstrated, and that's what counts, no matter how annoying I've been about the matter. ;) However, as Dr. Nick demonstrated, whether or not to write it "EVA-##" or "Eva-##" is evidently open to debate.

Personally, I've come to use all caps when refering to a specific Eva. As in, EVA-01, EVA-02, etc. However, as I demonstrated in the first sentence of this paragraph, my instinct otherwise is to write the term "Eva", considering it's short for "Evangelion" (which us crazy foreigners don't normally write in all caps, I'm hoping).

Pluralization is also an issue. With Japanese terms like anime and manga (just to use two common examples), pluralizing by adding an "s" to the end is a definite no-no. However, I do think, for all intents and purposes, we should be able to pluralize "Eva" by simply adding an "s" to the end; same with "Evangelion". Any objections?

My vote: "EVA-01 is the coolest Eva eva."

[5] Angel Notation

I've already got my mind firmly set on using the official spellings of their names, even when they're sort of incorrect ("Matarael", for example). One minor issue worth bringing up, though, is whether or not to capitalize the term "angel" as "Angel" for referring to the shito of the show -- for example, "Van can sprout angel wings on a whim", as opposed to "Lilith isn't really an Angel".

My vote: Ah, whatever. Capitalize it.

[6] Pronouns

The only place where this is really an issue is with the Evas and Angels -- and, yeah, I've made a lot of fuss about it in the past. You don't need to change your personal preferences in everyday posting by any means, just come to some sort of consensus on how to handle this in the commentary.

For the Evas, I really think "she" is the way to go. Not only is this is a great way to confuse n00bs who've seen the series and still have no idea what's going on with the Evas, but I really think it's the right thing to do. Japanese doesn't normally use pronouns so this isn't an issue for them. Finnish uses the same pronoun for males and females, so transgender individuals have one less thing to worry about. English (to name the language most of us here are using) has three types of pronouns that are used constantly: masculine, feminine, neuter.

With the Evas, neuter is obviously the conservative route, although I feel it is unnecessary. We can't really prove the Evas' biological sex one way or the other, but regardless of that they are essentially feminine entities. Ergo, we should acknowledge that with our pronouns.

The Angels are more iffy, IMO. My own personal opinion is that the whole lot of them (I'm only talking #03~16 here) are genderless, as angels traditionally are. I assign them to genders just for fun and out of admiration, really. I made a thread a while back to the effect, "if the angels had genders, what would they be?"; multiple people chipped in their opinions, and the final roll call went something like this:

Sachiel: male
Shamshel: female
Ramiel: female
Gaghiel: male
Israfel: both [Kou/gold = male, Otsu/silver = female]
Sandalphon: male
Matarael: male
Sahaquiel: female
Ireul: female
Leliel: female
Bardiel: male
Zeruel: male
Arael: female
Armisael: female

Not that any of this is terribly important. I just think it would be "cute" if we all used the same pronoun to refer to a specific angel, that's all.

Lilith is obviously a chick, but I personally think Adam is more iffy, despite the name. However, I will concede to calling Adam a "he" (as a formality, if nothing else) if ya'll give some of my other thoughts consideration. ;)

My vote: All Evas = female. Adam = male. Lilith = female. Other Angels = (see list above).

[EDIT: ARGH! I knew I was forgetting something. For those who have already posted your votes, please edit to incorporate #7 if applicable. Thank you. :bow:]

[7] Shorthand for Referring to the Series

A personal pet peeve of mine is the usage of "Evangelion" or "Eva" to refer to the series itself. This is mostly because of my, er, unique form of fandom; I cannot call myself an "Eva fan" and have the right point come across, if you follow my meaning. But that aside, for maximum clarity I would prefer to use shorthand OTHER than "Eva" or "Evangelion" to refer to the show. I suggest the acronym "NGE" -- it's quick, painless, and the only other "NGE" I can think of is "National Geographic Explorer", so we're pretty safe. ["NGE" also has an advantage over "SSE" -- for "Shin-seiki Evangelion" -- in not being commonly used in directional shorthand. I.e., "south-south-east."]

My vote: NGE. (Hooray for acronyms!)

Damn, I'm exhausted... That's all I can think of for now. Everybody chip in your thoughts, hear?

[tv33]

My vote: Use the official spellings (that includes Pen^2).

I agree.


My vote: Western style.

I agree


My vote: "EVA-01 is the coolest Eva eva."

I agree....


My vote: Ah, whatever. Capitalize it.

Why the hell not?


My vote: All Evas = female. Adam = male. Lilith = female. Other Angels = (see list above).

That’s the way I always do it, so I agree

[GandalfsWhisper]

^
^
^
I agree with them. (Although I'm a little conflicted on the issue of official spellings)

[Jinpun]

I concur as well. Everything you said is fine and more importantly simply makes since. The whole pronoun for the Angels thing I think is no big deal really, its not that hard just to say "Sachiel" as opposed to "he."

EDIT - In response to number 7...I really don't see a big deal in saying Eva, Evangelion, or NGE. I often interchange the 3, but I'd be fine with saying NGE as opposed to Eva.

Also, I will volunteer to do the whole research thing. I live pretty close to a library and if anyone needs anything looked up, you can either post it or PM me with what exactly you want me to do/find/search for. I am rather busy with work and school, but I will do my best in trying to help, I guess I am just trying to say, if you give me something to research, it may be a few days before I can do/finish the research (I.E. Don't expect a next day response very often. Sorry.)

[Sharp-kun]

[1] Episode Notation

Everyone seems to have their own method of "episode notation", I've noticed. Personally, I use the format "episode #(number-number)"; this habit probably emerged as a result of translating. In Japanese, the episodes are given as dai (number kanji) wa; dai = #, wa, here, = "episode". As the editor, I'm predisposed to favor my own notation, but if anyone has any quibbles with it, please let me know.
No problems. I'll probably forget and refer to them as "Ep XX". If so feel free to yell at me.

[2] Character Names

My vote: Use the official spellings (that includes Pen^2).
Agreed.


[3] Japanese Name Order

My vote: Western style.
Agreed.


[4] Eva Notation

My vote: "EVA-01 is the coolest Eva eva."
Thats how I do it, so agreed :)

[5] Angel Notation

I've already got my mind firmly set on using the official spellings of their names, even when they're sort of incorrect ("Matarael", for example). One minor issue worth bringing up, though, is whether or not to capitalize the term "angel" as "Angel" for referring to the shito of the show -- for example, "Van can sprout angel wings on a whim", as opposed to "Lilith isn't really an Angel".

My vote: Ah, whatever. Capitalize it.
No preference.

[6] Pronouns

My vote: All Evas = female. Adam = male. Lilith = female. Other Angels = (see list above).
Fine by me ^_^


[7] Shorthand for Referring to the Series

A personal pet peeve of mine is the usage of "Evangelion" or "Eva" to refer to the series itself. This is mostly because of my, er, unique form of fandom; I cannot call myself an "Eva fan" and have the right point come across, if you follow my meaning. But that aside, for maximum clarity I would prefer to use shorthand OTHER than "Eva" or "Evangelion" to refer to the show. I suggest the acronym "NGE" -- it's quick, painless, and the only other "NGE" I can think of is "National Geographic Explorer", so we're pretty safe. ["NGE" also has an advantage over "SSE" -- for "Shin-seiki Evangelion" -- in not being commonly used in directional shorthand. I.e., "south-south-east."]

My vote: NGE. (Hooray for acronyms!)
No problem

[Reichu]

Aw, your gave the general Commentary thread a sticky?
Sharp-kun-->:huggles:<--Reichu

(Don't worry, HWPS, you're going to be the next victim of that smilie.)

[felineki]

[1] Episode Notation

Episode #** Works fine for me.

[2] Character Names

I'd say official spellings. They're what I've used most of the time, and seem to be the most widely recognized.

[3] Japanese Name Order

I'll go with western as well, just because it would be less likely to confuse any n00bs that read it, etc. We are speaking in English, not Japanese, after all. ;)

[4] Eva Notation

Ditto what Rachel said.

[5] Angel Notation

I'd say capitalize it, since it seems to be a proper noun... it's referring to a specific set of "Angels" not just "angels" in general.

[6] Pronouns

I agree with Rachel here, too.

[7] Shorthand for Referring to the Series

NGE, since we will be talking about the Evas themselves a lot, so this would avoid confusion.

Also, like Sharp-kun said, I might end up saying "Ep. **" or "Gendou" at some point, and if I do, I don't mind it being edited. :)

[Reichu]

Also, like Sharp-kun said, I might end up saying "Ep. **" or "Gendou" at some point, and if I do, I don't mind it being edited. :)

Heh-heh, don't worry about this sort of thing. The only real purpose of this "poll" is not to change anyone's personal habits, just to give me permission to "Edit For Conformity". Which I don't mind doing, otherwise I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of asking people about this stuff. :)

[MDWigs]

Wow, everyone's done so much work! Sorry I haven't contributed yet, I've been busy with coursework these last couple of days (when not playing poker). Anyway I'm working on my response to the opening thread now; I just wanted to comment here:

[1] Episode Notation

You're vote sounds good. Though we should also probably specify the notation for the "Genesis" collections too (on the off chance we will reference them).

Officially I think its Genesis Number:Number, eg. Genesis 0:12.

[2] Character Names

Official names. Though I'll probably use Gendou, Kyouko and Touji still out of force of habit.

[3] Japanese Name Order

Western Style.

[4] Eva Notation

I currently use Eva-01, but EVA-01 is just as good (though again, I'm sure I'll forget to actually write that ^_^).

[5] Angel Notation

Capitalise it.

[6] Pronouns

I'll trust your list on this one ^_^

[7] Shorthand for Referring to the Series

NGE is good.

Thank you Reichu for organising this, it needed to be done, and you've put in a lot of work and done a terrific job of it. In other words your have my full permission to "edit for conformity". With this framework we should be able to have a consistent well written commentary.

[NakedEYE666]

I vote for Japanese name order!

*timidly backs off*

(Hey that reminds me of the time in Japanese class where we did a roleplay, and my name was Shinji, and I played the part of the slacking off waiter that brings cold food and reads manga in the back room the whole time! Yay!)

[Gundampilotspaz]

I vote for Japanese name order!

*timidly backs off*



The closer we can get it to the original the better. The only way to truely understand Evangelion is the learn Japanese. Its like the Bible...the only way to read the bible the way it was ment to be is in Latin.

Same thing.

[NakedEYE666]

The Bible is in latin? I thought it was hebrew? Well I've got no clue, so no reason to even answer that question. But anyway I agree about the Bible comparison. Also to understand it the fullest one would have to have knowledge and understanding of word/phrase/any other kind of connotations in language or motions or anything, I'd think.

But I just like the Japanese name order better since it sounds smoother :D

( <---- supercficial )

[GandalfsWhisper]

The Old Testament is in Hebrew/Aramaic (I forget which) the new testament is in Latin.

[Shin-seiki]

The Old Testament is in Hebrew/Aramaic (I forget which) the new testament is in Latin.The New Testament was written in Greek, the Old in Hebrew.

[GandalfsWhisper]

The New Testament was written in Greek, the Old in Hebrew.


Greek, eh?

Then why do all the priest speak Latin? (Not that I don't believe you, I'm just curious).

[NakedEYE666]

Mmm... I'm guessing since Rome speaks latin, and the Pope is in Rome? (Or am I wrong?)

[Shin-seiki]

Greek, eh?

Then why do all the priest speak Latin? (Not that I don't believe you, I'm just curious).If you mean Roman Catholic priests, well that's the church of Rome, and Latin was the language of the Romans; but Greek was the lingua franca of the ancient world, and the language of the great majority of the people to whom the New Testament (in its original form, e.g. letters written by St Paul) was directed.

[Gundampilotspaz]

If you mean Roman Catholic priests, well that's the church of Rome, and Latin was the language of the Romans; but Greek was the lingua franca of the ancient world, and the language of the great majority of the people to whom the New Testament (in its original form, e.g. letters written by St Paul) was directed.

The old testiment was written in old hebrew. The New testiment in Latin. But the bible, sence it was created by order of Constintine The Great, was writen in Latin. So to understand the bible the way the men who put it together intended, you need to read it in Latin. The Old Testiment is no word of word taken for the Jews so most of it was rewriten to be understood in latin.

The Bible is strange. When Constintine ordered the creation of a universal christian canon the bishops and prists gathered together in, or near, the city of New Rome (as it was know then. New Rome was ordered to be constructed on the place of a crumbling Greek city of Bizantim(sp?). It was no completed in Constintines life time and upon its completion it was named after the great emperor. Constantinople) They looked over hundereds of stories that were written about the history of the world. Tons were left out and the bible was set up. The Bible is not everything, its just what ancinet roman prists want it to be.

[Reichu]

The old testiment was written in old hebrew. The New testiment in Latin.

From what little I know, Shin-seiki was right. Check this out. (http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/)

Anyways, we might as well see what the vote results are so far. Thanks for everyone that took the time to vote. As for everyone that DIDN'T, Sammael has sent his minions after you and will report the results to me shortly, although you still have time to save yourself. :naughty:

Dr. Nick: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
felineki: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
GandalfsWhisper: yes, conflicted, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
Gundampilotspaz: [3] Eastern-style, rest unknown
Incisivis: all unknown
Jinpun: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
MDWigs: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
NakedEYE666: [3] Eastern-style, rest unknown
Sharp-kun: no problem, yes, yes, yes, no preference, yes, no problem
Shin-seiki: all unknown
Someone: all unknown
thewayneiac: all unknown
tv33: unknown, yes, yes, yes, "why the hell not?", yes, yes

[Gundampilotspaz]

From what little I know, Shin-seiki was right. Check this out. (http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/)


O whatever the first time it was brought all together in a thing called the Bible, it was in Latin.

[Dr. Nick]

My votes - all yes (EVA vs Eva is such an insignificant thing that I won't start to nitpick. We have better things to do anyway.)

And Sharp, I take back my words about that subforum. :redface: We've been busy like darling elves, so that might come handy later on, as the project progresses.

BTW, we're not the first ones to write a detailed rundown of Evangelion. Several times in the past I've posted a link to Dr. Dennis Redmond's academic Evangelion rundown-commentary-analysis. The online version doesn't exist anymore, because the book has now been published (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0809325357/qid=1083528154/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/103-0660073-2694211?v=glance&s=books), but I believe you all should find and read this pile of garpage (well, that part about Eva anyway). A fair warning though, the Evangelion-part alone is over 150 pages long. -_-;

Redmond's essay (or whatever) starts off as a fairly normal study of Evangelion's visual and thematic aspects, but goes completely batsh*t crazy in the end. It is the worst case of over-interpreting I've seen in my life, period. It's painful to read, but I think it might give this project team some new ideas (or ph34r). So off to the library I say!

Also, there are some other academic essays about Eva, but I haven't had the time to read them through. This page (http://www.corneredangel.com/amwess/acad_2.html) has links to some of them, in case someone is interested.

[tv33]

Also, there are some other academic essays about Eva, but I haven't had the time to read them through. This page (http://www.corneredangel.com/amwess/acad_2.html) has links to some of them, in case someone is interested.

Wow, thanks for the link. Some of those are quite interesting; I am surprised to see collage professors writing papers about anime. I find this (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~schong2/fwpca2001.html) one in particular funny, and interesting.

Edit- This ( http://members.fortunecity.com/wndrkn/mecha.html) essay is ok in a technical sense, but she really missed some key plot point that would have helped her understanding of Eva.

[Reichu]

Goodness gracious me -- a study of NGE? In printed form?!? But I need that $50 for art supplies (I get far more of those for school than textbooks), thank you very much, Mr. Redmond. :wonders what kind of library would carry such a tome:

I'll take your word about how crazy his essay is, Dr. Nick, until I get my arse over to a heavy-duty library. Sometime this summer, probably. Then again, my duties for this project are overwhelming enough as it is... Jinpun's already volunteered his soul for bookworming -- can I have anybody else? Come on, now, don't be shy! Research assistants will get plenty of recognition when this insane project is done with!

I need some volunteers on other matters, as well. First off, is there anyone around here less busy than Shin-seiki and Sharp-kun who'd like to help take screenshots for episode #01? If you have the time and the means, please, raise your hand! I'll give you instructions later.

Another thing we have to decide on is the matter of dialogue translations. I figure for the actual episodes, we'll want to have an additional column in which the character dialogue for each cut will be displayed alongside the screenshot thumbnails (and our comments, of course). But there is the dilemma of which translations to use. (Both Dr. Nick and Shin-seiki have shared their concern over this with me, and rightfully so.)

It's a shame ADV's "Platinum" DVDs aren't coming out sooner (then again, we do want to have this commentary ready for the incoming tsunami of misconceptions those DVDs are bound to create, don't we?), as the "DC" releases demonstrated a very noticeable leap in translation quality. However, I believe for the most part ADV's original translations are serviceable. Aesthetically, I prefer them to the Literal Translation Project, and, ironically enough, there are times when the ADV translation is more literal/accurate than the LTP!

Personally, I'd want to throw together a unique script for us to use, and not straight-out use any of the ones that are preexisting. For episodes #01~#20 + EoTV, I would probably use the ADV script as a foundation, check it against the Japanese dialogue and make changes where appropriate or necessary, and use the LTP as a reference for alternate translation possibilities. For #21'~#24', we'd use ADV's revised translation as a foundation, and references handy would be the original ADV translation, the LTP, and bochan_bird's translations of the NPC scenes. DEATH and EoE are messier, since there are fansubs galore; but we'll worry about those two later.

Now, I wouldn't be letting my opinion alone steer the direction that the dialogue translation ultimately goes in -- everybody else will be free to make suggestions and criticisms. This is a group effort, after all. But I do think landing on the translation that we think is the closest to the 'truth' will be very important for certain scenes. There are some cases where the translation is the difference between understanding, misconception, or missing an important point entirely.

So, anyway, to get to the point, if anyone else thinks my 'script idea' is worthwhile, I'll need a volunteer (you know, at LEAST one) who'll be willing to transcribe ADV's episode subtitles for me. I have so much other crap to do, I need all the help I can get from you guys!

[Gundampilotspaz]

I'll take your word about how crazy his essay is, Dr. Nick, until I get my arse over to a heavy-duty library. Sometime this summer, probably. Then again, my duties for this project are overwhelming enough as it is... Jinpun's already volunteered his soul for bookworming -- can I have anybody else? Come on, now, don't be shy! Research assistants will get plenty of recognition when this insane project is done with!



What kind of research would have to be done?

[Jinpun]

So, anyway, to get to the point, if anyone else thinks my 'script idea' is worthwhile, I'll need a volunteer (you know, at LEAST one) who'll be willing to transcribe ADV's episode subtitles for me. I have so much other crap to do, I need all the help I can get from you guys!
What exactly would "transcribing ADV's episode subtitles" involve? I know no/0/zero Japanese, but if there is still some way I can help, I will try. Perhaps you could explain the process?

[Reichu]

What kind of research would have to be done?

Check out the OP Commentary page (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/op/op.html) I've been throwing together -- I make plenty of suggestions there. Bah, whatever, I'll summarize them here. (And, mind you, this is just the stuff that crops up in the commentary alone.)

- Tree of Life and Sephirotic Systems (and any relation they may have with each other and/or NGE) [To borrow Jinpun's description. ^_^ I already have Jinpun on this one, though having another bookworm couldn't hurt one bit.]

- Possible connections between angels and eyes (or eyed wings, more specifically). I plan on looking into this later, since I love them angels so much, but, same as before, multiple researchers = gooood.

- Origins of the term "absolute terror", what it actually means, and any relevance it might have to the way it's used in the show.

- Significance of the fig leaf in the Old Testament. (Yeah, we know Adam and Eve used them to cover their naughty bits, but we need sources. Like actual quotes from Genesis and maybe even some of the stuff that academics have said about the matter. Quoting academics never hurt.)

- Seven Eyes of God. Where this is mentioned and anything else you can find about it.

Hmm, that should be about it for the OP. Again, I can't stress the importance of proper research to this project. If we've actually bothered to go and look all this stuff up, our commentary will stand the test of time about a hundred times better than if we relied entirely on hearsay. And like Dr. Nick, it'll give the commentary the sort of faux-academic flavor it badly needs. There is a specific way I'd like the research to be done, so, uh, I'll just quote my PM to Jinpun and save myself a little effort:

In the end, we'll probably most be doing paraphrasing (putting the information from the books into our own words), with a few direct quotes sprinkled here and there. I know the "proper" way to do all this because I had to suffer through some college English courses. Citation formats condoned by the MLA should make us look pretty intellectual and respectable, so I say we use those. I can dig up some websites in case you're unfamiliar with it.

Still up for bookworming, G-spaz? :devil:

What exactly would "transcribing ADV's episode subtitles" involve? I know no/0/zero Japanese, but if there is still some way I can help, I will try. Perhaps you could explain the process?

Don't worry, no knowledge of Japanese is required. Basically, transcribing the subtitles means that you write them down in a textfile so that they can be easily referenced. You just copy them exactly as they're displayed on the screen (although indicating which character says what is a plus ;)), and that's that. This is obviously much easier if you have a DVD-ROM on your computer or, if not, have the ability to see both your computer monitor and the TV screen on which the episode is playing simultaneously. If neither is the case, I wouldn't bother -- it's not worth the trouble.

[Jinpun]

If neither is the case, I wouldn't bother -- it's not worth the trouble.
Unfortunately, I fit into the "neither" category. Sorry.

On another note, I did get a little research done at the library, but I will be going back there tomorrow, so I will try to post my findings then. (Although I do have the AP Calculus exam I need to study for (its on Wed.), so I might not be able too). I will also look at some of those other things you posted Reichu, outside of the ToL and Seph Sys ^_^ .

[MDWigs]

I've got a bunch of scripts in a directory titled ADV, which are different from the LIT scripts I have.

From episode 01 of the LIT scripts:

Female Voice: The identified moving object is still approaching
our position.

Male Voice: We have a visual image of the target. Transferring it to the
main screen.

*Two men (Gendo and Fuyutsuki)

Fuyutsuki: It's been 15 years...

Gendo: Yes, certainly.

Fuyutsuki: Angels.


From episode 01 of my "ADV scripts":

Staff: Unidentified intruder is still coming towards us.

Male Voice: We've got it on visual. I'm putting it on the main screen.

*Two men (Ikari and Fuyutsuki)

Fuyutsuki: It's been 15 years...

Ikari: Yes, well now we know for sure. The Angels are back.

Now these ADV scripts have all the LIT stuff at the top, which is strange becuase they "sound" like the ADV version.

I haven't got my copy of Eva handy at the moment so I can't check (don't worry I'm in the process of *getting* the episodes so I'll be right to make comments on each episode).

I don't know if these scripts represent the ADV dub script, or the sub script, or just another version of the LIT scripts. If someone could check that would be great, becuase it would save someone a whole lot of time transcribing ^_^

[Reichu]

I don't know if these scripts represent the ADV dub script, or the sub script, or just another version of the LIT scripts. If someone could check that would be great, becuase it would save someone a whole lot of time transcribing ^_^

Heh, it's definitely the dub. I have Tristan MacAvery saying "The angels are back" branded onto my brain tissue, sadly enough for me. In the subtitles, Gendou's line goes, "Yes. Well, now we're sure. It's the Angels." OOoo, I just love the way Fumihiko Tachiki delivers that line! When we get to the episodes, I'll probably be fawning all over that guy. For such a cold, evil bastard, Gendou sure has a nice voice. (Or maybe I'm just weird... I dunno.)

Thanks for checking, though, Wigs! ;)

[tv33]

- Tree of Life and Sephirotic Systems (and any relation they may have with each other and/or NGE) [To borrow Jinpun's description. ^_^ I already have Jinpun on this one, though having another bookworm couldn't hurt one bit.]

I keep looking for information about it but all I get is weird religious sites that look cheap and don’t say where they got their information from (As in from what holy texts.)

When we get to the episodes, I'll probably be fawning all over that guy. For such a cold, evil bastard, Gendou sure has a nice voice. (Or maybe I'm just weird... I dunno.)

Anyone who doesn’t like Gendo's (Japanese) voice is either deaf, or feverishly mad.

[Reichu]

I keep looking for information about it but all I get is weird religious sites that look cheap and don’t say where they got their information from (As in from what holy texts.)

:lol: Isn't there a library at your college or wherever you're currently residing? ;)

Anyone who doesn’t like Gendo's (Japanese) voice is either deaf, or feverishly mad.

Ooo, I agree. When we start commenting on the episodes, you and I will have to fawn over Tachiki-san together. :teehee:

[tv33]

:lol: Isn't there a library at your college or wherever you're currently residing? ;)

Yes (In fact someone jumped off the 15th story of it a few months ago, amazingly he lived, though I am pretty sure he was hoping he didn’t), but that would require me to get up off my ***. I'll see what I can do; I don’t know how up they are on their biblical texts, though they must have something, if not there is always the public library.

[Incisivis]

Anyone who doesn’t like Gendo's (Japanese) voice is either deaf, or feverishly mad.

I've been called the second one before. :P

[Gundampilotspaz]

Still up for bookworming, G-spaz? :devil:


Thoughout my two year fandom of the series I've done moderate research. Nothing that would be enough for this commentary.

If Spock were here he would call me an irrational, Illogical human being. Sounds like fun!

[Dr. Nick]

I suggest we start dissecting episode one after we've cleared those more complicated points of the opening that require further researching (Tree of Life, Absolute Terror, fig leafs etc.). I don't think these first episodes require that much preliminary work, so slight overlapping won't be a problem; I'm planning to create a thread about the behaviour of LCL in entry plug use, but that is in no way anything crucially important.

I also suggest that we divide episode commentaries at least onto two pages: scrolling up and down kilometer-long pages can otherwise become quite exhausting.

[Gundampilotspaz]

I suggest we start dissecting episode one after we've cleared those more complicated points of the opening that require further researching (Tree of Life, Absolute Terror, fig leafs etc.). I don't think these first episodes require that much preliminary work, so slight overlapping won't be a problem; I'm planning to create a thread about the behaviour of LCL in entry plug use, but that is in no way anything crucially important.

I also suggest that we divide episode commentaries at least onto two pages: scrolling up and down kilometer-long pages can otherwise become quite exhausting.

Two pages or more. As for some of the more complicated issues they could be brought up and solved during the episode commentary. Or they could be solved later as they don't apper as important symbols intill later in the series.

And we can always go back once we have more imformation.

[Reichu]

I suggest we start dissecting episode one after we've cleared those more complicated points of the opening that require further researching (Tree of Life, Absolute Terror, fig leafs etc.).

Well, soon as this upcoming week is over, I'll be able to hopefully do some diggin' of my own. My college library has some interesting religious references, and I might as well see what the county library has, as well. Plus I have to actually throw the commentary page for Episode #01 together -- not that we can't start discussing the episode beforehand, of course.

I don't think these first episodes require that much preliminary work

Probably not... Although I can probably think of some issues we should discuss beforehand for them. One thing I've never really looked much into is the role of geography in NGE. Personally, I think it might be interesting to look into the Real Life places mentioned and depicted in NGE. But that's just me.

I also suggest that we divide episode commentaries at least onto two pages: scrolling up and down kilometer-long pages can otherwise become quite exhausting.

Not to mention there are some poor sods out there who aren't on broadband, and all those little thumbnails add up. :P

Anyways, gotta get ready for class and psych myself up for a weekend of Semester's End hell. YAY!

[Jinpun]

Still, I think it would be best if we could clear up everything in the ugly courier font, before we proceed. Just so we can get some idea as to how the finished product will look like, with or without the ideas in courier.

[Z Metalla]

Hmm... what an interesting idea! I don't think anyone's done something like this... although I may be wrong... But, still, it's a wondeful idea, and I wish y'all the best of luck in this exciting endeavor. :D

...oh yeah, I'm back. Not like you missed me. ;)

[Sharp-kun]

Sorry for not being around as much of late. This week is exam week (Economics tomorow -_-; ) so most of my time is being taken up with that.

Theres also the small issue that my copy of Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden arrived a few days ago, that eats into the time I have left ^^;;;


Couple of weeks and I'll be back at full strength :)

[Reichu]

A quick note that my schedule will be back to its usual, mediocre state once this week is out (how many times have I been saying that...?) and I will once again be in a situation to pour my free hours into geeky endeavors such as this commentary project once again!!! A few jolts from my Reichu Electroshock Attack and I should have this thing up and running again in no time.

Until then, though, I get to stay up all night again doing things that I should have done weeks ago. ("'Time Management'? What is that?") And some things that I COULDN'T have done weeks ago.

Also, anyone who feels up to it, please spam HeWhoPostsStuff and tell him that we love him and need him for this commentary project regardless of how worthless he's convinced himself that he is. I only want to spray him with a fire extinguisher and force him to listen to "Sonic Adventure" music as a last resort. :naughty:

[AchtungAffen]

****, i'm so ****ing late here!

Thanks Reichu for counting me in! I'm so sorry I haven't heard about this before. Thanks to Dr. Nick for letting me know about this.

I'd like to add: some months before, the evil spaniards had the same idea, episode dissection. Around that time I used to be the admin of that forum, so I made a users group, made a particular private forum, and made the guy with the idea the admin of that group. Everything was about to start, when a dumbass hacker blew the sql database and the forum was lost. Partly it was my fault for not having backups, its just that PHP worked so bad there that it was impossible to do a backup! I'd have to copy and paste almost 25 megs of sql data in raw text! Plain impossible.

I have VoIP. I don't have a webcam, but VoIP seems to be a good communication method. I never used it though, as my sis is too technologically dumb to use it where she is, so its useless here, if we can't talk with her.

I have a server and a forum installed, wich is brand new, configured with ranks and stuff (very nice, I took all the JSDF ranks and put them there!), but never used. I have it closed. If its necessary I'll open it for this kind of project.

I've been very busy trying to get up to date with my college studies (until now I was neglected it a lot), and also I have my poor GF neglected because of college, I think she's about to dump me for that. WTF, I can handle myself alone... hold it! In the good sense you perv! But what I wanted to say, I've started to write everything I think of Eva, 18 chapters of an amalgamation of ideas. I tried to be as empiric and positive as possible, leaving outside references for coffe table chit chat. I'm on chapter 5 right now. I have some ideas of my own wich I never discussed on english speaking forums, like the three types of ATF manifestations or the factor for synch, also some critics (some very smart ones made by the evil spaniards) to the soul imprinting theory, some comments by Bochan_bird about why its light of the soul and not light of the heart, and stuff. The bad thing is that the whole text is in spanish, but if it would work for this, I'll retranslate it to english.

I mean, since the year started I kinda neglected my Eva life. Its almost like I neglected myself with it,and felt very empty. And now I'm very very genki about Eva again, and would like to do as much as I can.

Also I need to improve my english, I have an english level exam this year, and because I have no formal english education, I'm with very bad odds to do it.

So, I want to help as much as possible. I really don't know the actual state of the project, but I'd like to let you all know that I'll do whatever it takes to help. Please count with me!

Thanks.

[AchtungAffen]

Just on a side note, the item that we really ought to start with is the OP rather than the body of Episode #01. Yay! That means I get to mention Sammael-sama!!

I found some myth info on that particular picture and some other pics. Regretably maybe, it comes from another eva website:

http://evangelion.fateback.com/mysterieskabbalah.html

I heard some of the evil spaniards call that pic in particular the luciferkad or something of that sort. Don't know if that'll help.

[Reichu]

I found some myth info on that particular picture and some other pics. Regretably maybe, it comes from another eva website:

http://evangelion.fateback.com/mysterieskabbalah.html

I heard some of the evil spaniards call that pic in particular the luciferkad or something of that sort. Don't know if that'll help.

Hmm, some stuff there that I've never heard before... The problem with these NGE sites (and a lot of Internet sites in general) is that they rarely, if ever, say where they got their info from. My policy is not to believe them unless I can find the same information in a more reputable resource. [EDIT: Also, how much can we trust a site that says the soul of EVA-00 is probably Naoko?]

There are a couple of Hebrew/Jewish institutes in the general area where I live... Methinks I ought to plan visits to their libraries sometime.

[AchtungAffen]

I go to a catholic college, it of course has a theology faculty. I've been thinking about asking some of the theology professors about the pic. I might get the info on the first image of the opening by next week, if I get to talk to one of those guys and they know what it is, if its really something about Satan.

The theology library is just too big, and I wouldn't know where to search for this info. So I'll have to ask for it. As many of these things seem to be hebrew I don't think I'll get anything (we all know how much catholics love jews, even though the pope says its allright, I know, I'm a jew and I see how much some of them love me)

[Reichu]

I go to a catholic college, it of course has a theology faculty. I've been thinking about asking some of the theology professors about the pic. I might get the info on the first image of the opening by next week, if I get to talk to one of those guys and they know what it is, if its really something about Satan.

As far as I can tell, it is. Have you looked at the Commentary: OP thread and the website I've been throwing together?

[Reichu]

GYAHHHH!!! Is the commentary project dead? Or will things be bouncing again in a week or two? The silence around here lately is making me anxious... Perhaps without good reason, but does anxiety ever make sense?

Well, for anyone that cares, I've ordered a few books on the Cabbala and the Zohar using the Almighty Interlibrary Loan; hopefully those will arrive soon-ish. Also, my summer classes start on the 24th, so I'll go digging at the college library then. If things get really desparate, I can look into doing research at one of the local Hebrew institutions (assuming they give outsiders -- or females, for that matter -- access to their resources).

On a final note, I started assembling the Episode #01 Commentary Page. You can keep tabs on its progress here (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/episode-01/episode-01.html) and share your comments/criticisms. Although it should be mentioned that we are NOT starting commentary on Episode #01 yet, so no comments of that nature, please. I will create a thread for the Episode #01 Commentary when we're good and ready (unless someone has the nerve/insolence to do it before me ;)).

For the most part, the descriptions (in italics) are translated, often loosely, from the script. Often I skip over (or rewrite) stuff if it doesn't make complete sense to me; I don't really have the time at the moment to get consultation from more educated folks on every tiny bit I don't fully understand. As Stuff Man chanted in our Portfolio & Presentation class, "It's good enough!!" The dialogue is a mishmash of ADV's subtitles and the LTP, with occasional Reichu tweaks. If you don't like the way I handled something, feel free to yell at me (long as you're polite about it).

I will need assistance from Sharp-kun or anyone else with access to better screenshots than ADV's pre-"remastered" Collection 0:1 has to offer. I will need the original Japanese titles (i.e., "text on black screen"), any of the shots that ADV mauled with overlays, and new screenshots for the scenes badly plagued by 'afterimage' (or whatever you want to call it).

Enough blabbering. Time to go clean the latrine.

[Shin-seiki]

"This one says he's not dead!"
"What do you mean, 'e's not dead?!"
"I'm getting better!"
Whack!!

I just thought we were just slacking off, cuz a lot of regs were busy with exams etc. This project shall rise, Frankenstein-like, from the slab!

[Reichu]

I just thought we were just slacking off, cuz a lot of regs were busy with exams etc.

Does that include you? You haven't made any additions to the OP in a while. That mean you're done with it?

This project shall rise, Frankenstein-like, from the slab!

It better! All work and no play makes Rachel a dull girl.

[Shin-seiki]

Does that include you? You haven't made any additions to the OP in a while. That mean you're done with it?Perish the thought; I have no excuse for my lack of contribution beyond the pernicious laziness, and, for lack of a better word, writers block, that has been affecting me for quite a while now.
It better! All work and no play makes Rachel a dull girl. I shall try to get my *** out of 'slack off' mode...

[Sharp-kun]

GYAHHHH!!! Is the commentary project dead? Or will things be bouncing again in a week or two? The silence around here lately is making me anxious... Perhaps without good reason, but does anxiety ever make sense?
Exams alas, have to take priority >_<

I know MDWigs is in the same position.


On a final note, I started assembling the Episode #01 Commentary Page. You can keep tabs on its progress here (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/episode-01/episode-01.html) and share your comments/criticisms. Although it should be mentioned that we are NOT starting commentary on Episode #01 yet, so no comments of that nature, please. I will create a thread for the Episode #01 Commentary when we're good and ready (unless someone has the nerve/insolence to do it before me ;)).
Looking nice :)


I will need assistance from Sharp-kun or anyone else with access to better screenshots than ADV's pre-"remastered" Collection 0:1 has to offer. I will need the original Japanese titles (i.e., "text on black screen"), any of the shots that ADV mauled with overlays, and new screenshots for the scenes badly plagued by 'afterimage' (or whatever you want to call it).
I'll get them at some point this week, probably by tomorow night :

[Reichu]

Exams alas, have to take priority >_<

Heh heh, I understand. :thumbsup: I was in the same position, er, a week or so ago. Didn't have any exams per se, but I did have to do a shnitload of work.

I'll get them at some point this week, probably by tomorow night :

Don't worry about it for now; Shin-seiki's offered to get some for me. I'll be sure to bug you later on, though. ;)

[Jinpun]

I, like everyone else, have been very busy as well, with work and school I feel like I could collapse at any moment -_-.

And with the OP, I don't feel I have anything else usefull to say, when the first episode begins I will start analyzing agian.

I haven't had much free time to go to the library or read, so I have been slacking on my research job a bit, sorry Reichu -_-;. As soon as my classes end, which isn't until the 26th (unbelievable), I will start the research up agian, but until then I will be on hiatus.

[Reichu]

So, heh, basically I should just shut up, stop worrying, and take advantage of the fact that everyone's so busy so that I can actually have at least one commentary page ready when the time is right. (Is there any way in all the universe I'll be able to finish *29* of these things before the summer's out? :scared:)

[Sharp-kun]

So, heh, basically I should just shut up, stop worrying, and take advantage of the fact that everyone's so busy so that I can actually have at least one commentary page ready when the time is right.
Sounds about right :P

[Shin-seiki]

I just came across a folder of pix on my HD from the 'Collector's Edition' CDs. This is part of the same collection of NGE art that included the Newtype Collection that I made available earlier. This folder is labeled "collector's edition cd1", and contains a nice assortment of images from the first few eps, including a couple dozen images from the Series OP (hence it's relevance to this thread). These pix are large ( typically around 200-300 KB), HIGH-QUALITY renditions of scenes and characters; they're most likely the best versions of these images that are available.

I've zipped up this folder (36MBs) and uploaded it to my web-host; it may be downloaded at the usual site:
http://homepage.mac.com/csf2860/FileSharing6.html

I should have posted this when we started this project, but I'm afraid I forgot that I even had this stuff... so solly!

[Gundampilotspaz]

Though are great!



Something just hit me that might help the project. About two years ago me and some of my friends were going to watch all of evangelion to celebrate the release of Death and Rebirth. I had to devide the series into three parts to watch over three days. ( 9 episodes each day) But I went into it a little more and devided the series into sections by the patters that I saw. I endded up deviding the series into five differnt parts of understanding. I could possibly recall it from memory, but I'll try to dig up the orignal. It also contains notes on the reasons behind the devision.

[MDWigs]

I'll be rather busy for the next couple of weeks (ahhhh exams!) however after that I will have a good while of solid free time which I can use to contribute to this project. I'm going backpacking around Europe with a couple of friends in the Summer, but that shouldn't distract me too much.

[Reichu]

Le sigh... Progress on the Episode #01 commentary page is going much more slowly than I'd forseen (even after significantly lowering my standards for the thumbnails). Taking a broad look at this entire project, the timing situation isn't too good. Not only do I have far more work for myself than I can foreseeably accomplish (unless some of my work gets doled out a bit... well, okay, a LOT), but as a group we seem to have little chance of getting this thing finished within the next three months unless we go into hyperactive mode now and pull through without faltering.

Twenty-six normal episodes, plus DEATH and two uber-episodes (i.e., EoE) in thirteen or so weeks. Is there any way in hell that can be done?!? Just putting together the commentary pages is work enough. I can't see how we can discuss the episodes in the depth that is required of this project in just a couple to a few days apiece. We also need to consider the editorial work I have to do, research, appendices, and designing/execution of the final page.

From my calculations (I actually have done a bit of math), we definitely need more time than the next three months provide (unless we can pull of a miracle of NGE proportions -- we're virtually working with an O9 System). However, there are also problems with extending the project beyond that time, from what I can tell.

My memory's a little fuzzy at this hour... But I definitely recall Dr. Nick reporting an inability to participate after summer, which is a definite problem. He's like an auxillary engine for this poor overworker leader; take him away, and we lose a lot of the driving force being the project, to say the least. I know -I- could well be a problem, as well; if I get into RIT, I will become a full-time student and have to bury myself in work. Fun things like NGE would be relegated to "whenever the heck I have a minute or two to be a geek again". (Then again, RIT might give me the finger. It remains to be seen.)

So, how does everyone else fare? And any thoughts on how the hell to finish this thing?

Maybe there's hope if I just abandon the idea of putting these commentary pages together, but, without, there isn't much of a foundation or framework to organize our comments around. And the advantages of processing the Japanese scripts are enormous. How can these ideals win against such overwhelming time constraints?

[Shin-seiki]

Well, we can just keep going, and just get done what we can, while we can (tho at the rate we're proceeding, I wonder if we'll get as far as #05-06).

One problem I anticipated from the beginning, is that all the really juicy stuff that will be especially interesting to comment is very much weighted towards the latter half of the series( #14 on) and especially from #20 on.

You could consider jumping ahead to the 'good stuff', or even switching the emphasis to significant, individual scenes.

This project is your baby Reichu, so I'm willing to go along with whatever course you chose, and will continue to contribute to the extent that I am able...

[Sharp-kun]

From my calculations (I actually have done a bit of math), we definitely need more time than the next three months provide (unless we can pull of a miracle of NGE proportions -- we're virtually working with an O9 System). However, there are also problems with extending the project beyond that time, from what I can tell.
Do we really have to finish it all over the summer?

[Dr. Nick]

Do we really have to finish it all over the summer?
My sentiments exactly. Why should "this summer" be some kind of all-dictating deadline for our project? When the Platinum commentary track comes out the Eva-fandom will be doomed no matter what we do. This "shadow-commentary" of ours on the other hand is supposed to represent the highest pinnacle of positive geekery ever achieved in this field, so we must carry it out meticulously. If we start rushing things, it will only end up as a disaster. Time and budget overruns are bound to happen in large undertakings such as this; it's completely natural, so we must not let them stress us. Remember, Rome wasn't burned down in a day.

And Reichu, you remembered right: my 180 days long military service starts the 12th of July and I don't think I'll be using much internet during that time. You can blame the Russians for that; their little human-zerg-rush in 1939 caused us a sort of national mental trauma, and because of that every Finnish man still today has to learn how to become a goddamn forest ninja (http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/images/wintwar10.jpg). Well, maybe my expertise in killing will come handy when we start commenting ep. 25'. http://www.oeh-wu.at/forum/images/smilies/comeandgetsome.gif

[Reichu]

Well, I certainly agree with Dr. Nick. This is the sort of thing that should not, and cannot, be rushed if it's to blossom into the epitome of geekery that we've been envisioning. If this thing is "my baby", it looks like I'm going to be gestating for quite a while. (And what a strange baby this will be... How many fathers have contributed genetic material so far? ;)) I should probably stop worrying about this project into the wee hours of the morning; but, hey, as you've noticed, fretting comes a bit too natural to me.

So I guess we'll just be taking this slow and letting it sustain our geekdown for the next year or however long this takes. As long as I have you fellows as my co-conspirators, I will continue to bear the standard. So that means that once you've become the best forest ninja of them all, you have to come back here and play big-time catch-up, Niko!

We really ought to think about closing up the OP, though. (How many times has that been said?) Everybody's probably itchy to move on. At the very least, we can start discussing some of the stupid Episode #01 Conundrums that have been popping up at me...

And on a final note, should I bother with the supplemental dialogue added to the Renewal release? (I'm definitely bothering with supplemental dialogue in general, since a lot of it is more important than it might at first seem.)

[Sharp-kun]

So I guess we'll just be taking this slow and letting it sustain our geekdown for the next year or however long this takes.
Not slow, just as it comes. :)


We really ought to think about closing up the OP, though. (How many times has that been said?)
What does "closing up" consist of?



And on a final note, should I bother with the supplemental dialogue added to the Renewal release? (I'm definitely bothering with supplemental dialogue in general, since a lot of it is more important than it might at first seem.)
Depends how relevant it is.

[Shin-seiki]

We really ought to think about closing up the OP, though. (How many times has that been said?) Everybody's probably itchy to move on.
Aaacck! No way! I still got a lot of stuff that I haven't addressed yet... Maybe you can declare it semi-closed, in anticipation of whatever a certain slowpoke, whose initals are SS, may yet have to contribute ;)

[Reichu]

What does "closing up" consist of?

Well, I have a feeling that we're going to be tweaking the ENTIRE commentary throughout the project, ergo, the OP page will still be changing even as we're working on EoE. But by "closing up", we basically should try to resolve as much as possible (see my various comments in < > for various items I think need closure).

Finishing all of the necessary research before we move on seems silly, however... A lot of the topics requiring research in the OP are relevant to the entire series, anyway. We should just keep on digging whenever we can and add stuff as we find it. However, if we finish commenting on EoE and all of the research still hasn't been done, yes, that would need to get finished before we could call the Commentary complete.

Aaacck! No way! I still got a lot of stuff that I haven't addressed yet... Maybe you can declare it semi-closed, in anticipation of whatever a certain slowpoke, whose initals are SS, may yet have to contribute ;)

Heh heh... I figured, and I'm looking forward to your additions whenever you get that spark of inspiration. (The way things are going, you have at least another year to procrastinate. :naughty:) I don't intend to close off parts of the commentary just because we're moving onward; we can go back and change/add stuff at any time. This thing is dynamic, after all.

[Keisuke-kun]

Oh dear sweet jesus how did i miss this...

Sorry. I would really like to help. My current situation is....

Im in Japan. I donT have NGE (Just the movie) with me so the only way to see it woiuld be to buy the japanese version but I won't be able to fully understand it. I have school but don't have to worry about studying cause even if I understood the teachers my grade won't count for anything. I just have to study Japanese a bit everyday. I would really like to help out with this. I don't care if you give me credit or not but I have just way to much spare time to ignore this (including classroom time which half the time consists of staring at the wall.

Please give me a job. Bookworm I can't do cause the library barely has english stuff. I am good at grammar and vocab, however. I also have access to people fluent in Japanese and english.

Just a couple coments now.

The problem with scouring the forum is that so much stuff has been deleted so we might miss things (although I believe Sharp-kun would have saved the most important crap). Also on the translation things. There are only 2 official translations of the names (and all romanized japanese language). I can't remember the actual names but it doesn't matter.

There is phoenetic translation which is more english friendly pronunciation-wise: Shinji, Toji. There is also what the Japanese favor for some god awful reason which is less user friendly: Sinzi, Touzi.

And making a subforum is probably necessary. However opening a seperate forum would probably risk all the work being lost (like some certain spanish people).

Oh one more thing:unsure: . Im a guy.... :redface:

Please don't ask about my username. Long story. But I don't wanna make a new accout as I like being seen as registered one month after the forum was started and unlike other forums I can't change my name.

[Keisuke-kun]

One more topic Id like to bring up. When you do the comentary for eps 21 to trhe end are you gonna do DC eps or normal? I think we should go with directors cut as it gives us less to explain when we go into Death and End of Eva

[Reichu]

Im in Japan. I donT have NGE (Just the movie) with me so the only way to see it woiuld be to buy the japanese version but I won't be able to fully understand it.

Well, I'm making commentary pages for every episode that include tweaked translations of everything. You can also get the Literal Translation Project scripts online easily. Being able to actually watch the episodes is critical for commenting on them, so if you have to watch them in raw Japanese with a printed translation in your hands, that's better than relying on memory alone.

I also have access to people fluent in Japanese and english.

I might have to take you up on that one... Also, you have to study Japanese, eh? Want to help me type up the Japanese scripts?

The problem with scouring the forum is that so much stuff has been deleted so we might miss things (although I believe Sharp-kun would have saved the most important crap).

Yeah, Sharp-kun did say he had some stuff saved somewhere. There is a lot of good stuff that's been done in the previous year (since a lot of our current Big Members only joined within that time, myself included ;)), and I definitely think we should try to preserve that somehow.

There is phoenetic translation which is more english friendly pronunciation-wise: Shinji, Toji. There is also what the Japanese favor for some god awful reason which is less user friendly: Sinzi, Touzi.

Well, the former is the one Gainax uses on its official printed materials, so we're definitely going to be using that one. I can't tell you how much I cringe whenever I see something like "Konnitiha".

And making a subforum is probably necessary. However opening a seperate forum would probably risk all the work being lost (like some certain spanish people).

I think a subforum would be a good idea, as well. Why would it "risk all the work being lost", though?

Oh one more thing:unsure: . Im a guy.... :redface:

Could have fooled me... -o-; Damn it, we need more estrogen in this bloody forum!

Also, we're definitely going to be doing the New Production Cuts. The originals will be mentioned (or dealt with directly, as with the original version of the Armisael encounter used in DEATH), at least, but the NPC is what we really care about.

[Keisuke-kun]

Well Ill start looking at the LTP. I may be able to download some of the eps. I already have the series in America so it shouldn't be that much of a crime. The DVD's cost about 4000 yen each adding to 28000 yen in all. Thats $280 dollars american. I can probaly get one DVD every so often except now its a challenge as for some reason This really good store that had them closed.

[Dr. Nick]

A few general ideas considering the commentary:

First of all, I think we won't be needing any kind of text color coding; I find our current layout color scheme quite pleasing to the eye, and adding too many extra colors would just make it look less a quality site.

Secondly, I believe Reichu mentioned some time ago that it would be good to have larger versions of some key scene screenshots available. Here's my suggestion how it should be done:
When there's a larger image available, it could be viewed by clicking the corresponding thumbnail image (the larger version would open to its own window). To indicate which thumbnails work as such links, they should have noticeable colored outlines, preferably bright red ones.

And lastly a few minor spelling issues. I don't have my NGE-materials on this piece of crap lag forest computer, so somebody educate me which is the official spelling, AT-field or A.T.-field? Also, what are the official spellings for Marduk and Malebolgia?
And maybe it would be a good thing to devise an "official list" of those forum acronyms we're going to use in the commentary - after all, we can't just throw them in randomly like we tend to do here.

[Reichu]

First of all, I think we won't be needing any kind of text color coding; I find our current layout color scheme quite pleasing to the eye, and adding too many extra colors would just make it look less a quality site.

lol You like the blue background? I've been using that color for a lot of the web pages that I make, since it seems to work so nicely. (Quite unlike the stupid "starfield" background I use on my festering homepage. Gawd, I need to update that thing. And change the background, while I'm at it.) But I second that -- using more text colors wouldn't contribute much aside from retinal fatigue.

Speaking of making the site look quality, what's everyone's opinions on Smilies? They're a fun thing to have on the forums (well, before the upgrade they were a bit more fun...), but are they the sort of thing we'd want in the commentary? I only ask because I'm finding that myself and some other people are using Ascii emoticons in their comments, and we probably ought to consider how exactly to handle those.

When there's a larger image available, it could be viewed by clicking the corresponding thumbnail image (the larger version would open to its own window). To indicate which thumbnails work as such links, they should have noticeable colored outlines, preferably bright red ones.

Hmm, sounds like a plan. I just need to figure out how the heck to do it! I'm a bit of an HTML n00b and I have a bad habit of sticking to simple practicality when throwing pages together in Dreamweaver. But fear not, I'll find a way...

And lastly a few minor spelling issues. I don't have my NGE-materials on this piece of crap lag forest computer, so somebody educate me which is the official spelling, AT-field or A.T.-field? Also, what are the official spellings for Marduk and Malebolgia?

In the scripts, it's A.T.FI-RUDO (the "A.T." in Roman letters and the "FI-RUDO" in katakana), so I'd say "A.T. Field" would be the best bet. "Marduk" is the correct spelling (although I'm sure there are alternate spellings floating about). "Malebolgia"? Are you referring to "Malbolge"?

And maybe it would be a good thing to devise an "official list" of those forum acronyms we're going to use in the commentary - after all, we can't just throw them in randomly like we tend to do here.

Heh, we can always make an appendix listing for them. It could be divided into two parts: Acronyms directly based on the show (LoL, SoL, FoL, ToL, ATF, etc.) and ones that resulted from somebody's (possibly demented) imagination (GNR, RNR, GNK, EoTV, BHW, KFR, EGK, etc.). We could throw in a small glossary of other "NGE geek-isms", like using "harpy" to refer to the MP Evas and such.

[Keisuke-kun]

I like the last suggestion for an acronym page. And the current layout of the site is fine.

[Dr. Nick]

Speaking of making the site look quality, what's everyone's opinions on Smilies?
Ascii only in my opinion. Special forum-type smileys would make the page look less professional.
"Malebolgia"? Are you referring to "Malbolge"?
Yes; for what I know, it's some kind of reference to the layers of hell. "Malebolgia" is the way it's spelled in Finnish Spawn-magazine, but I'm not sure what's the correct English form.
Heh, we can always make an appendix listing for them. It could be divided into two parts: Acronyms directly based on the show (LoL, SoL, FoL, ToL, ATF, etc.) and ones that resulted from somebody's (possibly demented) imagination (GNR, RNR, GNK, EoTV, BHW, KFR, EGK, etc.). We could throw in a small glossary of other "NGE geek-isms", like using "harpy" to refer to the MP Evas and such.
Yeah, that is probably the best way to do it. We just need to put a huge, epilepsy-causing link onto the main page so people will actually read the appendix.

[Sharp-kun]

Speaking of making the site look quality, what's everyone's opinions on Smilies? They're a fun thing to have on the forums (well, before the upgrade they were a bit more fun...), but are they the sort of thing we'd want in the commentary? I only ask because I'm finding that myself and some other people are using Ascii emoticons in their comments, and we probably ought to consider how exactly to handle those.
I would leave things like ^_^ ^^;; and =^.^= in.

[tv33]

=^.^=

What the heck does that mean?

Anyway, if we are going for a professional look we should probably leave them out. However with some of the joke we will undoubtedly toss in there it might be confusing to tell if we are being serious or not.

For example if we made a joke about Kaworu being the clone of Keel’s former lover, some one might thing we were serious without a “;)” smiley.

[Sharp-kun]

What the heck does that mean?
a cat =^.^=

[Keisuke-kun]

//\\=^.^=//\\

Its Ryo-Oki!

Anyway I like the normal typed smileys better than actual smiles. With smiles someone mught overuse them

Like:

:| <_< -_-; :thumbsup:

[Reichu]

With smiles someone mught overuse them

It was much easier to overuse smilies with the old bunch (they were so much more expressive, IMO). But anyways, even if we did allow smilies on the commentary, overusage could be easily avoided via the Divine Hand of Editorial Judgment (or the Auxilliary Hand of the Forest Ninja Axeman ;)).

On the current status of the Commentary At Large... I think once I finish processing some of the research and additional comments that have been made since my last update oh-so-long ago, we should be in a fairly good position to start commenting on Episode #01 (just to get this thing moving along). Of course, as I've mentioned before, the OP will still be open for new stuff and changes, it just (presumably) won't be stickied anymore. But don't do anything until I give the word, Sharp-kun!

My first summer class has started and is already shaping up to be Hell On Earth, just without the Cacodemons and Arch-Viles. I have to pass this thing in order to get my associate's and finally graduate from this 2-year college (it's only taken me, what, four years?...), so naturally it takes top priority. One guess as to where most of my free time will be going, though. :naughty:

:stares at Sharp-kun's new avvy:

[Sharp-kun]

I'm other happy news my exams finish on Friday. After that I'll be able to devote more time to this.

[Keisuke-kun]

Yeh its a weird avvy -_-; . Mr. Fibbles? Does he lie a lot?

I was kinda worried casuse we seemed to be going so slowly. But then I remember. "Exams of course."

Anyway I plan to pick up the first DVD this weekend so I'll be able to comment better. Since this will go relativley slow I won't have to blow my money all at once. ^_^

Unfortunateley my plans to buy a PS2 went down the drain with this. :$%&#!:

Nah I don't care that much...

[MDWigs]

I am in the middle of a hellish exam period right now (though I must admit I do still find time to procrastinate far more than I should).

I have three exams coming up in the space of 26 hours. Yippy!

Will throw my opinion into the ring at the end of the week after exams.

Actually better make it after the weekend. Summer party is this weekend, and I'm going to be doing some very heavy celebrating ^_^

[Sharp-kun]

:stares at Sharp-kun's new avvy:
Its from the Sci Fi series Red Dwarf.

One of the crew goes insane, gets various psychic powers and goes around in a dress, with a little puppet he calls Mr Flibble.

"Mr Flibble's very cross... You shouldn't have run away from him......

http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck06/images/image_bank/5-3l.jpg

[Sharp-kun]

Well, exams are over. :) Just got a few small things to sort out and I'll be able to contribute properly :)

[Incisivis]

Its from the Sci Fi series Red Dwarf.

One of the crew goes insane, gets various psychic powers and goes around in a dress, with a little puppet he calls Mr Flibble.

"Mr Flibble's very cross... You shouldn't have run away from him......

http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck06/images/image_bank/5-3l.jpg

Awww...man. I love Red Dwarf. That episode's one of my favorites. :P

[Gundampilotspaz]

Something that might be worth looking into. While rewatching the series I have already noticed the number 17 pop up twice. The first time was in episode 5 the time intill Rei's reactivation test was 1050 minutes, or 17.5 hours. In 6 the heat sheild will withstand the beam for 17 seconds.

17 angels.......

Foreshadowing? Or absolutly nothing?
( I know there are 18 angles but 17 pop up in the series, the 18th isn't revialed intill EOE.

[Keisuke-kun]

According to my nuber website the number 17 is some of the following.

According to Guy Tarade, it is the number of the Holy Spirit.

Ominous number for Italians, as the number 13 in Occident. Thus, in Italy, there is no bedroom 17, no 17th floor, etc., this because of the number 17 that in Roman number is written XVII, considered as the anagram and the numerical value of the Latin expression VIXI that means "I lived" therefore by extension "I am dead".

Number of the Son of Man, according to Abellio.

Symbol of the man participating to both worlds, celestial and terrestrial, according to Prevorst. Henry Blanquart goes in the same way telling that it "represents the junction between the material world and the spiritual world".

Some people believed that the Sky was divided into 17 celestial layers. (cant use it but...)

The Japanese poetry Haiku contains 17 syllables.

The girls having 17 years old, have on average 17 square meters of skin. (WTF?)

PS Most of this crap is useless but it might be worth to mention

http://pages.globetrotter.net/sdesr/nu17.htm Here the whole 17 page

[Dr. Nick]

Lay off the numerology already, I say! It's for fools. Fools!

[Keisuke-kun]

I was just replying to his post. I did say we can't use it...

[Reichu]

For the benefit of the commentary project, I've started translating some of the stuff from Newtype 100% Collection. For all intents and purposes, these translations are intended to "read well" as opposed to being literal -- but so long as all of the relevant information is there, who cares, right? The first three pages I've completed are available here (http://www.avians.net/rkc/temp), with more to come. These are scans from my own thoroughly mutilated copy of the book, so, naturally, they're H-U-G-E. And they're not going to be online forever, so get them while they're hot!

NOTE: Yes, I know I didn't translate everything. I can't exactly commend most of the Gainax staff for their neat handwriting. :P (And a lot of it's too damn small!)

[Keisuke-kun]

Cool Thanks!!!

Sorry you had to mutilate your book. I know how you feel, sorta.

[Reichu]

You know... On second thought, I can do better than that. Scans are offline for now, but they'll be back later with a vengeance!

[Keisuke-kun]

I already read them luckily.

[Reichu]

Well, the first three pages (http://avians.net/rkc/temp/newtype-part1.zip) are ready! Some documentation on the surface portion of Tokyo-3, which, among other things, should help cover up any confusion on the "mirror system" (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/snappies/05_shuukou-biru.jpg) (which I recall turning up while we were working on the OP). Props to tv33 for helping me out with the more difficult-to-read stuff. (I.e., by translating the German translations and giving me some idea of what the Japanese chicken-scratch is supposed to be saying.)

Coming up next: The Geofront, NERV HQ, and the Central Tactical Command Room.

[Keisuke-kun]

You know german too?

[Reichu]

You know german too?

A very paltry amount. That's why I mentioned tv33 providing assistence. ;)

[Keisuke-kun]

kakkui.....

[Dr. Nick]

I need to write this out of the way before I forget this completely; while we were researching random mythological crap for the OP-commentary I promised to present a completely bizarre theory about the origins of the Tree of Life. Strictly speaking this has nothing to do with NGE itself, there's only a feeble thematic connection and I don't think it's even worth mentioning in the commentary. But it's really interesting crap otherwise.

The father of this idea is Erich von Däniken, a famous Swiss pseudo-scientist, self-appointed expert of exoarcheology and an author of number of more or less crazy books. In short, the main point of all his theories is that the human culture is extraterrestrial in origin and that some of these mythological tales and legends of ancient cultures are actually descriptions of our alien masters' activities (kinda like the protoculture hypothesis in Macross).

It has to be admitted that von Däniken has some unique ideas and some of his findings are pretty amazing; but on the other hand he is deep down more of a scifi-writer than a scientist and because of his habit of grossly overinterpreting and oversimplifying things he ends up talking a lot of total BS. I have only read his older books, but for what I've heard he's gone pretty insane during the last few years; he wasn't a cult member before, but recently there has been a rumor around that he's been funding a some sort of UFO theme park in Switzerland... Well, use Google and consult your local library if you're interested and make your own judgements; I'm not here to bash anyone. *nervous laughter*

Ok, here's how this crapola connects with our ToL-research and some of the relevant themes in NGE: von Däniken also believes that human race as a species was created by the aliens by means of genetic manipulation, and that the creation myths of old religions (such as Genesis in the Old Testament) describe this ancient event. Or course the stupid newbie humans couldn't understand the highly advanced technology of their masters and thus used religious and mythological terminology to explain all this to themselves.

Däniken's major idea here is that the Tree of Life is actually a n00b depiction of DNA double helix; and indeed, the oldest depictions of ToL in Sumerian/Babylonian art often portray it as clearly resembling a double helix. But as thousands of years passed, the last traces of this alien knowledge disappeared and the original meaning behind this symbol was lost. And as more and more artistic liberties were taken by the new generations, finally even the original shape of ToL faded away from art.
I'm not very good at explaining this kind of humdidum, but I hope this gives you at least a rough impression of Däniken's theory. I'm trying to locate the exact literary source that you can check it out for yourselves. Thank you.

[Reichu]

I need to write this out of the way before I forget this completely; while we were researching random mythological crap for the OP-commentary I promised to present a completely bizarre theory about the origins of the Tree of Life. Strictly speaking this has nothing to do with NGE itself, there's only a feeble thematic connection and I don't think it's even worth mentioning in the commentary. But it's really interesting crap otherwise.

You can say that again! (The magazine "Skeptics" would have a blast tearing Herr von Däniken apart. :P) Thanks for the random mythological crap; never know, it might come in handy someplace...

For anyone who actually cares (I haven't heard too many comments from you people, so I havta wonder...), the next four pages (http://avians.net/rkc/temp/newtype-part2.zip) are done (or as done as they're gonna get). The Geofront and the Central Tactical Command Room -- yay! The secrets behind Maya's little pink pillow and how much an official NERV mug costs!

Not sure what I'm going to do next, though...

[Reichu]

Hmm, not that you folks are especially excited about the whole commentary thing anymore (maybe I'm just being a short-sighted pessimist...), but I got a little work done on the appendix-thingy... Observe my suffering! (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/appendix/appendix-frameset.html)

[Shin-seiki]

Hmm, not that you folks are especially excited about the whole commentary thing anymore (maybe I'm just being a short-sighted pessimist...), but I got a little work done on the appendix-thingy... Observe my suffering! (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/appendix/appendix-frameset.html)Well, speaking for my own self, I've been tied up with entertaining company from up north for the last week or so... We all appreciate your efforts, and we're depending on you to keep this project a going concern. Just be patient, and keep in mind that we can't all match your slightly hyperactive level of productivity.

[Reichu]

Just be patient, and keep in mind that we can't all match your slightly hyperactive level of productivity.

"Hyperactive"? In my own possibly distorted self-perception, I'm not getting enough done! :lol:

[HeWhoPostsStuff]

"Possibly" distorted? Heck, you were the one who originally intended to get this entire thing done over this summer, which even from the perspective of this Saturn-buying, wacky hat-wearing, Sonic the Hedgehog music-bashing weirdo is simply insane. Seriously, slow things down a bit if you have to, no one here is in half as much of a rush to get this done as you are, and you're doing most of the work, heh. Trust me, no one's gonna criticize you if you need to slow down or take a break for a bit, we shall contribute when called.

Off-topic, yeesh, of all my quotes to toss into your sig...

[Reichu]

"Possibly" distorted?

Is it just coincidence that that's Dr. Nick's custom title now...?

Heck, you were the one who originally intended to get this entire thing done over this summer, which even from the perspective of this Saturn-buying, wacky hat-wearing, Sonic the Hedgehog music-bashing weirdo is simply insane.

Indeed. And once I realized that, I changed my tune. Somewhat.

Seriously, slow things down a bit if you have to, no one here is in half as much of a rush to get this done as you are, and you're doing most of the work, heh. Trust me, no one's gonna criticize you if you need to slow down or take a break for a bit, we shall contribute when called.

Come to think of it, the reason I'm in hyperactive geek-mode is probably due to the fact that I'm making a huge lifestyle change in the fall. When I'm a full-time Illustration major, I doubt I'll have much if any time to do all of this stuff... So I figure, hey, might as well take advantage of my relatively undemanding schedule while I can, because soon enough it will all be over.

That said, the rate that this project is going, we'll probably be *lucky* if it's finished two years from now... How many of the core commentators are willing to maintain their geekdom for one show that long?

Off-topic, yeesh, of all my quotes to toss into your sig...

Something about you, of all people, drawing comparisons between wedgies and thongs seemed absolutely priceless. :D

[Keisuke-kun]

That said, the rate that this project is going, we'll probably be *lucky* if it's finished two years from now... How many of the core commentators are willing to maintain their geekdom for one show that long?


If Im considered a "core commentor" then yes. If not then...yes I guess.

[Incisivis]

That said, the rate that this project is going, we'll probably be *lucky* if it's finished two years from now... How many of the core commentators are willing to maintain their geekdom for one show that long?

I would. Hell, I've been into transformers for six years now. Going by that logic, NGE has at least four years left in the gas tank.

Much as I contribute... *cough*

[Keisuke-kun]

Plus fumes.

[Dr. Nick]

A couple of additional consistency issues regarding the commentary:

- How to write the official NGE-related acronyms (or acronym-like words) such as LCL and AT-field, with or without dots? In official sources like the Program Books etc. they're written with dots (A.T.-field, L.C.L), but I personally tend to leave the dots out because it makes typing helluva lot faster. The United Nations, UN, is of course written without dots.

- The Evas' "gouki"-names, if somebody wants to use them. Reichu or Felineki can probably set uniform spelling rules regarding them.

- What about the word Geo-front? There are different spelling variations; Geo-front / Geo-Front / Geofront. Which one is the most correct (because that's the form we want to use, I assume).

- Gainax or GAINAX? I prefer the former, because long strings of capital letters can get annoying. But since I don't even know what the name means (if it means anything at all), I don't want to make hasty decisions. Somebody show me the way here, I'm not going to waste my precious dialup time searching for the info myself.

And I think we can all agree that every time a cut number is mentioned in the commentary text, the number has a bold formatting. Currently the formatting is being used quite randomly, which is something we need to fix (or more accurately, Reichu gets to fix).

BTW Reichu, have you created any sort of list of people participating in the project? I believe such a thing would come handy when the commentary progresses. It could be used to monitor which members have submitted in their comments for a particular episode. And if somebody has been slacking off a lot without any explanation, a motherly but strict private message would be sent to retrieve the lost lamb back to the herd of the damned. That would help to keep this behemoth of a project together.

So, who have not yet submitted in their ep. #01 comments? Z Metalla and AchtungAffen?

[Keisuke-kun]

- How to write the official NGE-related acronyms (or acronym-like words) such as LCL and AT-field, with or without dots? In official sources like the Program Books etc. they're written with dots (A.T.-field, L.C.L), but I personally tend to leave the dots out because it makes typing helluva lot faster. The United Nations, UN, is of course written without dots.
I think with dots would be fine cause it looks more professional. Plus its not like we are so short on time we can't spare a few seconds.
- The Evas' "gouki"-names, if somebody wants to use them. Reichu or Felineki can probably set uniform spelling rules regarding them.
I doubt we'll use the gouki names as we might confuse noobs. Lets just stick to one way of saying most things to keep it consistent.
- What about the word Geo-front? There are different spelling variations; Geo-front / Geo-Front / Geofront. Which one is the most correct (because that's the form we want to use, I assume).
I dont know...I'm betting on "Geo-Front," though.
- Gainax or GAINAX? I prefer the former, because long strings of capital letters can get annoying. But since I don't even know what the name means (if it means anything at all), I don't want to make hasty decisions. Somebody show me the way here, I'm not going to waste my precious dialup time searching for the info myself.
Well so far the only other thing in capitals is EVA-##, L.C.L., A.T.-Field, ect and we won't be writing things "After GAINAX's A.T.-Field spread L.C.L. spilled on EVA-00, EVA-01, and EVA-02." Its best to keep things as official as possible.
And I think we can all agree that every time a cut number is mentioned in the commentary text, the number has a bold formatting. Currently the formatting is being used quite randomly, which is something we need to fix (or more accurately, Reichu gets to fix).
Fine by me
BTW Reichu, have you created any sort of list of people participating in the project? I believe such a thing would come handy when the commentary progresses. It could be used to monitor which members have submitted in their comments for a particular episode. And if somebody has been slacking off a lot without any explanation, a motherly but strict private message would be sent to retrieve the lost lamb back to the herd of the damned. That would help to keep this behemoth of a project together.

Yeh we should make a list.

This is all my opinion. Reichu has the final word.

[Reichu]

- How to write the official NGE-related acronyms (or acronym-like words) such as LCL and AT-field, with or without dots? In official sources like the Program Books etc. they're written with dots (A.T.-field, L.C.L), but I personally tend to leave the dots out because it makes typing helluva lot faster. The United Nations, UN, is of course written without dots.

In the scripts, anyway, A.T. Field is written with dots, LCL isn't. (LCL is also written without dots in Newtype 100%.) "UN" is usually written in Japanese (kokuren), but, yeah, on all of the vehicles they write it "UN". I say leave the dots out as a general rule, except where the original source uses them consistently (such as A.T. Field).

- The Evas' "gouki"-names, if somebody wants to use them. Reichu or Felineki can probably set uniform spelling rules regarding them.

Well, a couple of folks have been using these entirely of their own volition -- so I say, heck, let's leave 'em in. But what do you mean, "uniform spelling rules"? I don't think anyone has been spelling them wrong...

- What about the word Geo-front? There are different spelling variations; Geo-front / Geo-Front / Geofront. Which one is the most correct (because that's the form we want to use, I assume).

I honestly don't know, in this case. My instinct would be for "Geofront" -- they probably show the "correct" spelling in the computer displays in the show somewhere, we just haven't been paying enough attention.

Speaking of computer displays, they indicate that "LONGINUSU no yari" is 'officially' "Spear of Longinus" -- yet we all use "Lance of Longinus" pretty consistently. I'm not sure what ya'll want to do in this case.

- Gainax or GAINAX? I prefer the former, because long strings of capital letters can get annoying. But since I don't even know what the name means (if it means anything at all), I don't want to make hasty decisions. Somebody show me the way here, I'm not going to waste my precious dialup time searching for the info myself.

I always thought the name sounded like a brand of "feminine protection" products myself... but that's just me.

I believe in the Japanese opening credits, "GAINAX" is shown in all caps... But, then, pretty much every in the OP is in all caps. I thought maybe we'd go the all-caps route with Big Organizations in general -- NERV, SEELE, GEHIRN, GAINAX. All big, evil organizations. (So would that mean MARDUK -- or whatever we decided the spelling was -- would be in all caps too?)

And I think we can all agree that every time a cut number is mentioned in the commentary text, the number has a bold formatting. Currently the formatting is being used quite randomly, which is something we need to fix (or more accurately, Reichu gets to fix).

:sigh: Indeed, indeed. As the editor, I shall abide by the Committee's decisions. ;)

BTW Reichu, have you created any sort of list of people participating in the project? I believe such a thing would come handy when the commentary progresses. It could be used to monitor which members have submitted in their comments for a particular episode. And if somebody has been slacking off a lot without any explanation, a motherly but strict private message would be sent to retrieve the lost lamb back to the herd of the damned. That would help to keep this behemoth of a project together.

Yeah, I actually threw a list together back when I was alerting folks that the episode #01 commentary was open:

AchtungAffen; Dr. Nick; felineki; Incisivis; GandalfsWhisper
Gundampilotspaz; HeWhoPostsStuff; Jinpun; MDWigs; NakedEYE666
Sharp-kun; Shin-seiki; Someone; thewayneiac; Washu-chan
tv33; Z Metalla

But then, AchtungAffen hasn't submitted anything at ALL, even though he expressed interest. GandalfsWhisper hasn't been around at all lately, and NakedEYE didn't "officially" submit anything to episode #01. Jinpun actually told me that, in general, he doesn't feel like he has much to add, but he'd try to continue helping with the research. This list will probably change as we go along -- hopefully the core commentators will stay consistent (they better), but there will probably be various uncommitted folks who comment for some and disappear for others. I guess we'll deal with them in the "Final Cut", two years down the road. :P

[Shin-seiki]

With regard to the list of contributors to the Commentary, there are a few people not on that list that I wish were; some of the old-timers like Sayijan Prince, Siendra, and Duff (Duff has the excuse that he enlisted in the army); also it would be great if Brendan (Evaotaku) and Evamonkey were on board, (Brendan just drops in once in while, and disappears again), and, believe it or not, while he and I had our little blowout, I would like to hear what thekillingmantra has to say...

[Keisuke-kun]

Yeh I remember the Sayajin Prince but haven't seen 'em lateley. I recognize all those names from one time or another but Sayajin Prince is the most familiar.

And Reichu that email I sent you failed(according to mailer-daemon).

[HeWhoPostsStuff]

Speaking of computer displays, they indicate that "LONGINUSU no yari" is 'officially' "Spear of Longinus" -- yet we all use "Lance of Longinus" pretty consistently. I'm not sure what ya'll want to do in this case.
I actually looked up the two words "spear" and "lance" at dictionary.com, and I found that the main difference between the two is that a "lance" has a metal head on the end of it, while a "spear" doesn't necessarily have to. Thus technically "spear" would be more accurate when referring to the big red thingy in NGE, though the term itself comes from the Biblical account (though the name "Longinus" is never mentioned, heh), wherein the soldier in question would have been using a "lance"...in any case, "Lance of Longinus" flows off the tongue (er, keyboard?) better in my opinion, but in any case I figured you might be interested in knowing that...

I believe in the Japanese opening credits, "GAINAX" is shown in all caps... But, then, pretty much every in the OP is in all caps. I thought maybe we'd go the all-caps route with Big Organizations in general -- NERV, SEELE, GEHIRN, GAINAX. All big, evil organizations. (So would that mean MARDUK -- or whatever we decided the spelling was -- would be in all caps too?)
Actually, I've seen "Gainax" written out in really wacky ways...I think I once saw it written as "gaInax"...I think the logo which appears at the beginning of EoE is capitalized somewhere along those lines, I'm not sure if it's the "official" way of writing it though. As for the organizations, I usually just capitalize the first letter the "traditional" way, only because a lot of people seem to think that if they're all in caps they must be abbreviations for something. We'll probably have clarified that somewhere else on the site, but just writing them the "traditional" way would probably kill a lot of the misconceptions straight away...

[Reichu]

With regard to the list of contributors to the Commentary, there are a few people not on that list that I wish were; some of the old-timers like Sayijan Prince, Siendra, and Duff (Duff has the excuse that he enlisted in the army); also it would be great if Brendan (Evaotaku) and Evamonkey were on board, (Brendan just drops in once in while, and disappears again), and, believe it or not, while he and I had our little blowout, I would like to hear what thekillingmantra has to say...

Well, we can always try inviting some of these folks -- but, like AchtungAffen is proving so far, that tactic doesn't necessarily work... I might be able to get ol' mantra interested (but, with him, who really knows). Guess it's worth a shot, anyway. Unless someone else wants to, I'll try to get in touch with these folks soon-ish, as well as "nag" some of the folks who haven't contribributed for episode #01.

I actually looked up the two words "spear" and "lance" at dictionary.com, and I found that the main difference between the two is that a "lance" has a metal head on the end of it, while a "spear" doesn't necessarily have to. Thus technically "spear" would be more accurate when referring to the big red thingy in NGE, though the term itself comes from the Biblical account (though the name "Longinus" is never mentioned, heh), wherein the soldier in question would have been using a "lance"...in any case, "Lance of Longinus" flows off the tongue (er, keyboard?) better in my opinion, but in any case I figured you might be interested in knowing that...

Any idea where the name "Longinus" DOES come from? And isn't the term "Lancea Longini" mentioned somewhere or another?

At any rate, I mentioned the "Spear of Longinus" tidbit mostly because we've been adhering to "official translations" otherwise, and it would be inconsistent to digress with this one. Yes, "Lance of Longinus" does sound better, but it's apparently not what the creators wanted. (On the side, I probably ought to go and find that screenshot, just to make sure this isn't just a hallucinatory delusion on my part.) However, that WOULD screw up our acronym system, since SoL is already used... We might just have to keep "Lance of Longinus" in use for that mere reason. ;)

On the subject of organizations... I guess writing them "the normal way" would make sense, and we could save all caps for ACRONYMS.

Here from more of you people on this stuff, I would like.

[Dr. Nick]

Well, a couple of folks have been using these entirely of their own volition -- so I say, heck, let's leave 'em in. But what do you mean, "uniform spelling rules"? I don't think anyone has been spelling them wrong...
That's true, those few people that use the gouki-names spell them very consistently. But since we already have a spelling guide for human character names (+ one penguin), I think it's only fair to have an official list of Eva-names too.

About the lance / spear -issue, I say we stick with our estabilished "lance" and add an explanation of why we're doing so.

On the subject of organizations... I guess writing them "the normal way" would make sense, and we could save all caps for ACRONYMS.
Agreed. Not long ago I myself used to write the organization names with caps, but I dropped that habit when I thought about it and came to the conclusion that there was no reason to do so (and like Stuffman said, we must think about the n00bs). And I also suggest we write Gainax normally, even if it turned out to be some bizarre Japanese acronym - whatever it means, it's an estabilished company name after all.

[Shin-seiki]

Well, we can always try inviting some of these folks -- but, like AchtungAffen is proving so far, that tactic doesn't necessarily work... I might be able to get ol' mantra interested (but, with him, who really knows). Guess it's worth a shot, anyway. Unless someone else wants to, I'll try to get in touch with these folks soon-ish, as well as "nag" some of the folks who haven't contribributed for episode #01.I wonder why we haven't heard from Starmorpher or Uberdirector in the commentary; I know they're still active posters at AN.



Any idea where the name "Longinus" DOES come from? And isn't the term "Lancea Longini" mentioned somewhere or another? Uh, Longinus is the name, in Christian tradition, of the the Roman soldier who poked Jesus on the cross with the Lance of Longinus... (or Lancea Longini, as they would have put it in Latin, back then)

[Shin-seiki]

I actually looked up the two words "spear" and "lance" at dictionary.com, and I found that the main difference between the two is that a "lance" has a metal head on the end of it, while a "spear" doesn't necessarily have to. Hmm, I always thought the primary distinction was that a lance was designed to be used from horseback (hence the various British cavalry regiments designated "Lancers"), while a spear was what you used with your feet planted on the ground. (One exclusively for throwing is a javelin, one of intermediate length that one could either throw or stab with is a spear, and a real long one [15' long or more], that is used in densely packed infantry formations like the Macedonian phalanx, is a pike.)

[Reichu]

That's true, those few people that use the gouki-names spell them very consistently. But since we already have a spelling guide for human character names (+ one penguin), I think it's only fair to have an official list of Eva-names too.

Well, actually, I was planning to make an appendix page that's basically one big NGE glossary (based on the super-cool NGE Dictionary (http://cherry.webdos.net/~kokey/eva/dic/), which is completely in Japanese and doesn't seem to acknowledge EoE's existence but is otherwise great). We'd include brief entries for everything, even the stupidest minutae (like the various brands of beer Misato drinks), and include such things as:

- the entry's name in Japanese characters (or however the hell it was originally written)
- straight romaji transliteration (including long vowels and not changing the order of a character's name -- e.g., "Hyuuga MAKOTO")
- "official" translation versus literal translation (Angel vs. Apostle, EVA-01 vs. First Unit, etc.)
- a picture (thumbnail linked to big version)
- what episodes it appeared in (if appropriate; this would obviously be inappropriate for an entry like "Shinji Ikari")
- links to key sections of the commentary (appropriate for things like the Alpine Renault)
- anything else ya'll can think of

Seeing what I mean would probably be easier than me trying to describe it... At any rate, I think this would definitely be a good addition to the site.

About the lance / spear -issue, I say we stick with our estabilished "lance" and add an explanation of why we're doing so.

What would the explanation be, anyway? Because "Lance of Longinus" rolls off the tongue? Because of the aforementioned acronym conflict? Or am I missing something?

Not long ago I myself used to write the organization names with caps, but I dropped that habit when I thought about it and came to the conclusion that there was no reason to do so (and like Stuffman said, we must think about the n00bs). And I also suggest we write Gainax normally, even if it turned out to be some bizarre Japanese acronym - whatever it means, it's an estabilished company name after all.

Well, sometimes confusing n00bs on purpose is fun... :D

But let's see what Sharp-kun and Wigs think about this, since they're two of the other Big Shot ( ;) ) commentators -- if they both agree with this scheme, I'd say we're set. But I encourage all Minions and Pawns to share their opinion, as well.

I wonder why we haven't heard from Starmorpher or Uberdirector in the commentary; I know they're still active posters at AN.

Changing interests, maybe? Sometimes even regulars might decline from participating in something like this, since they might feel like they don't have enough to add or whatever. Nagging is sometimes an effective tactics ( :looks at Stuffman: ) but not always. Well, like I said, there's no harm done in contacting these people.

Also, I noticed NakedEYE hasn't participated much in the commentary, even though he's definitely still around.

Uh, Longinus is the name, in Christian tradition, of the the Roman soldier who poked Jesus on the cross with the Lance of Longinus... (or Lancea Longini, as they would have put it in Latin, back then)

Heh heh, I guess you misinterpreted my question... I was wondering, since Longinus isn't mentioned by name in the BIBLE, where his name IS mentioned.

[Shin-seiki]

Heh heh, I guess you misinterpreted my question... I was wondering, since Longinus isn't mentioned by name in the BIBLE, where his name IS mentioned.Oh... -_-; Sometimes it helps to read all of the previous posts. I thought it a little strange that you, of all people, would be asking about that ;)

[Jinpun]

What would the explanation be, anyway? Because "Lance of Longinus" rolls off the tongue? Because of the aforementioned acronym conflict? Or am I missing something?
Well in most religious texts, in regards to Longinus, he is reffered to be holding a lance (most of the time) as opposed to a spear. So then with NGE "Lance of Longinus" would be used to solidify the association.

Well, sometimes confusing n00bs on purpose is fun... :D

But let's see what Sharp-kun and Wigs think about this, since they're two of the other Big Shot ( ;) ) commentators -- if they both agree with this scheme, I'd say we're set. But I encourage all Minions and Pawns to share their opinion, as well.
Not that is matters much, but I don't see a problem with the "-gouki" suffix, or the writing of Gainax as however we want. Do as you please.

Heh heh, I guess you misinterpreted my question... I was wondering, since Longinus isn't mentioned by name in the BIBLE, where his name IS mentioned.
Well after some digging I was able to find this:
As for the name of the centurion, we must rely on tradition as recorded in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called the Acts of Pontius Pilate, which tells us:

Then Longinus, a certain soldier, taking a spear, pierced his side, and presently there came forth blood and water (Nicodemus 7:8).
Source (http://www.smotj.org/priories/stlonginus/)

So apparently it comes from the Gospel of Nicodemus...

[HeWhoPostsStuff]

Shin-seiki, you could be right about the "lance-spear" differentiation, I just sorta went by what dictionary.com told me, maybe you'll find something I missed if you look the words up there or elsewhere...in any case, even if you're correct, "spear" would still be the more correct term to use in reference to the Big Red Twisty Thingy (or BRTT...maybe that'll solve the acronym problem, Reichu? :D), since I doubt that the aforementioned was intended for use on horseback, heh.

As for the "Longinus" bit, I tried looking the name up in a Latin dictionary for the heck of it, but the closest I found was "longus," simply "long." It apparently was a real Roman name, though, since there was a certain philosopher named Longinus also on record when I looked around...even more interestingly, the Roman soldier's original name was not "Longinus" at all, but he supposedly changed it after some sort of miracle. You also might want to check out this site for some other legends in regard to the spear-guy Longinus: http://sxws.com/charis/relics8.htm The site owner's got an obvious religious agenda, and I don't know where he got some of this info, but apparently the Longinus legend gets even wackier after the famous piercing incident...thought some of you might be interested in that. All I can verify about it is that none of this stuff's from the Bible either, heh.

[thewayneiac]

Hmm, I always thought the primary distinction was that a lance was designed to be used from horseback (hence the various British cavalry regiments designated "Lancers"), while a spear was what you used with your feet planted on the ground. (One exclusively for throwing is a javelin, one of intermediate length that one could either throw or stab with is a spear, and a real long one [15' long or more], that is used in densely packed infantry formations like the Macedonian phalanx, is a pike.)


Shin-seiki, you could be right about the "lance-spear" differentiation, I just sorta went by what dictionary.com told me, maybe you'll find something I missed if you look the words up there or elsewhere...in any case, even if you're correct, "spear" would still be the more correct term to use in reference to the Big Red Twisty Thingy (or BRTT...maybe that'll solve the acronym problem, Reichu? :D), since I doubt that the aforementioned was intended for use on horseback, heh.


I checked my 1000+ page Webster's unabridged, and it confirms the "lance = metal head' definition. It refers to the 16 foot cavalry weapon as the "modern day lance". So the composition of the spearhead was originally the only difference.

[Keisuke-kun]

I think today some missles are called lances.

[Dr. Nick]

So the composition of the spearhead was originally the only difference.
So technically the Roman pilums are lances, because they have metallic spearheads - observe (http://www.romancoins.info/MilitaryEquipment-spear.html). More accurate English definition for pilum might be "combat javelin", because it was mostly used as a short-range throwing weapon.

[Reichu]

Well, I went and made sure (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/snappies/m25_spear-of-longinus.jpg) I wasn't completely off my rocker. "Spear" it is.

I'm personally all in favor of making "Spear of Longinus" the official Commentary jargon. Acronyms and alliteration be damned.

[Reichu]

Well, I probably have much better things to do, but I started up that glossary thing I was babbling about earlier just to show everyone what I mean... You can access the thing here (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/appendix/appendix-frameset.html). It's very incomplete and ugly right now (but, then, what part of the commentary project isn't?), but it gives you an idea, anyway.

:wanders off and tries to remember what she's SUPPOSED to be doing:

[Dr. Nick]

Well, I probably have much better things to do, but I started up that glossary thing I was babbling about earlier just to show everyone what I mean...
I'm just repeating what Shin-seiki said, but are you going to add that "flaming hair" -part to the "visual iconography of the Angels" entry? And did you get my third ep. #01 axe session pm?

[Keisuke-kun]

What about my email?

I just remember that you don't normally check your PM.

[Reichu]

I'm just repeating what Shin-seiki said, but are you going to add that "flaming hair" -part to the "visual iconography of the Angels" entry?

Done. (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/appendix/op_angels_f.html) I sort of had to make up some text to go along with the flaming hair bit. If you think it totally sucks, Shin-seiki, feel free to submit a replacement.

Depending on where my mild ADD takes me, I'll probably update that blasted OP page one of these days. :P

[Z Metalla]

:-" Just here to tell you I'm still alive... And that I'm not sure if I'll stay on this project or not... o.O First i started procrastinating, then I stopped visiting AN... :doh: Fear not, I will either have something ready within a week, or you may cut me from the project.

...Which means I'm gonna get my rear in gear.... hopefully.

[Reichu]

:-" Just here to tell you I'm still alive... And that I'm not sure if I'll stay on this project or not... o.O First i started procrastinating, then I stopped visiting AN... :doh: Fear not, I will either have something ready within a week, or you may cut me from the project.

...Which means I'm gonna get my rear in gear.... hopefully.

Well, I can only do so much to encourage people to participate. Pull out if you must, although it creates a bit of a hassle for me if people are noncommittal. (Editing comments in, only to have to edit them out later, and such.)

[Reichu]

Guess that means Z Metalla is out...

Just a small update to let everyone (everyone who cares, anyway) know that things are (obviously) going slowly at the moment. I actually AM going to be getting a new OS soon (finally), so I've been busy trying to clean off my hard drive somewhat, not to mention preoccupying myself with various silly things. Fear not -- episode #02 will come.

[Keisuke-kun]

Yeh sorry. I had exams the last week so I haven't had time to type up the rest. I still have almost half of the 38 done and can finish it within 2 weeks; one if I go apeshit on it.

[Reichu]

Yeh sorry. I had exams the last week so I haven't had time to type up the rest. I still have almost half of the 38 done and can finish it within 2 weeks; one if I go apeshit on it.

No problem. ^_^ Actually, just send me what you've managed to get done and I'll take care of the rest. (I really appreciate the work you've done, BTW.) And if you could start up on #03 (I believe I gave you the Japanese script for that) whenever you have a chance, that'd be great. :thumbsup:

[Keisuke-kun]

Give me a week (maybe an extra day or two) and Ill deliver to you.

[Keisuke-kun]

problem....big, strange, problem.

NJ Star somehow removed half the important component to run it from my computer along with the work I did (still have it all writen down though.)

What should I do? Did I miss something?

[Z Metalla]

Eheh, yeah... Committing to big projects is really tough for me. -_-; Sorry for wasting your time... -_-; I will be watching the progress of this project with great interest, however... Good luck and best wishes to all of you! ^_^

[Dr. Nick]

Okay, it's time for me to bog off for a moment. If everything goes smoothly I shall return in January and nitpick your brains out then. So keep the commentary project up and running.

And Z Metalla, even if you're not contributing comments directly to the commentary you can always bring up viewpoints and random ideas here in the forums. The more discussion the better methinks.

But now, into the woods! Wheeee!

[Z Metalla]

I'll try to. ^_^ See you in January (hopefully!), Doc.

[Reichu]

Episode #01 is now unstickied. (Thanks, Sharp-kun.)

Coming up next: "Fly Me To The Moon" and/or "Next Episode Previews". After that, Episode #02. See you there!

[Keisuke-kun]

Yay. :Remembers that for ep 2 to start he has to finish typing it up:

....

Im gonna try reinstalling it Reichu.

[Reichu]

Looks like the next phase of the project is going to be delayed even longer than expected. Upgrading from Windows ME (the nightmare that is currently disabling my computer bit by bit) to Windows XP is apparently Hell On Earth. Bill Gates is gonna pay!!! (I'm seriously envying Shin-seiki and his Mac right about now...)

[Keisuke-kun]

Yeh I heard macs are bettr. My uncle was gonna sell us his G4 but we never bought it.

[Sharp-kun]

Yeh I heard macs are bettr. My uncle was gonna sell us his G4 but we never bought it.
Macs are the spawn of satan.

[Keisuke-kun]

Why? A lot of people tell me macs are better for video and audio software.

[Reichu]

Although I personally haven't done much to further the project recently (guess why ;;> ), there is some discussion being done in the shadows about possible turns the project can take. Considering if these covert plans amount to anything it'll mean less work for me, I'm all for it. In any case, I'll keep you fellows posted if anything actually happens, and maybe the new conspirator will decide to post a few words...

[Keisuke-kun]

Ah...We have a mysterious worker in the shadows.... :shifty: :ph34r:

[The Eva Monkey]

In any case, I'll keep you fellows posted if anything actually happens, and maybe the new conspirator will decide to post a few words...You make me sound like James Bond. I'm flattered. :naughty:

[Keisuke-kun]

Reichu. It seems most of the Japanese forum people use this japanese typing program that you can DL. Maybe it will work in word.

here (http://animenation.net/forums/showthread.php?p=4050225#post4050225)

Its worth a shot. Oh and Im sending all the way to page 30 now. Only 9 more to go :spin: :dance: :spin: :dance:

[AchtungAffen]

Why a program to type in japanese when you can use the Windows japanese IME?

[Keisuke-kun]

With XP she can now read Japanese in word but not type it. I have no Idea what you are talking about.

[Reichu]

Why a program to type in japanese when you can use the Windows japanese IME?

So you're still around, AA? I still want you on the commentary, you know... ;)

When I upgraded to XP, I supposedly installed full Japanese text support. I mean, I have the option to change my language setting to Japanese, but when I go and try to type, the usual English language characters turn out. So I don't know what's up with that...

[Keisuke-kun]

Oh. On a japanese keyboard you have to switch to japanese. Hit the little dash next to the number 1. After that your letter should come out underlined with a dotted line. Then you just type like thinks like ohayo. And the characters pop up as you go (note: hit n twice to get the japanese ん ) For kanji or to switch it to katakana hit space bar while the text is underlinend. Chose what you want and hit enter.

maybe thats the problem or I just typed all that for nothing. Or maybe you need to configure the keyboard to jap.

BTW did you get the pages I sent?

[AchtungAffen]

Check this out:
http://home.comcast.net/~kagamix2/xp-compatible/japanese_setting.html

Yes you can type japanese in word using only the IME. I don't have XP, so I'll post a screenshot about how it is on Win2k, but I also did it on my pops XP machine.

1.- Selecting from your system languages the Japanese ime:
http://pics.reiliberationparade.com.ar/articles/ime/1.jpg

2.-IME Pad shows up (note: on some installations of win2k this thing never appears. Don't know why or how)
http://pics.reiliberationparade.com.ar/articles/ime/2.jpg

3.- Choose Hiragana
http://pics.reiliberationparade.com.ar/articles/ime/3.jpg

4.- Writing and selecting kanjis
http://pics.reiliberationparade.com.ar/articles/ime/4.jpg

Its possible! NJStar sucks a big time, cuz it uses bitmap fonts. Long live MS Ime! I also have some very nice japanese character sets I got around somewhere, nika chan was the name or something. Very nice!

[Reichu]

Hey... It works now! I think I figured out what the problem was, but now it doesn't matter anymore! 私は日本語でタイプ．．．　Oh, forget it, my Japanese is too bad. Thanks for the help, AA.

I thought I sent you an e-mail, Washu-chan, telling you that I'd finished up episode #02's script?... If you could start on #03, that would be great. :thumbsup:

[Keisuke-kun]

Man my email service sucks. I have missed several important emails. One was from my teacher at virtual school about the course starting. I missed it and now I think Im missing her emails again. I hate hotmail...

Well Its all good now. Ill start day after tommrow when I have a 5 day break from club.

[The Eva Monkey]

Hello all. I still feel kinda like an outsider here, as I don't post all that much.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Reichu at this past Otakon to discuss the Fan Commentary with her. I'll be working with her in the coming months to create a really nice format for the commentary. I'll be providing her with a nice visible place for the commentary, as well as more reliable server access.

I have a programmer friend who I have spoken with. He is willing to design a system for this commentary that will be simple yet effective at creating and formatting this commentary, while eliminating the drudgery of tables and data entry on the part of Reichu. This will not be for a bit, but for now, the project has splendid potential, and I'm quite eager to offer what I can in terms of web and Eva expertise, so that this commentary can become an essential resource for Eva fans net-wide.

[Sharp-kun]

h Reichu at this past Otakon
Lucky. I'll have the fun of meeting MDWigs next weekend at Amecon. I get the impression it'll be more drinking than Eva discussion though ^^;;;

[The Eva Monkey]

Wigs is someone I would most definitely like to meet one day. Damn you United Kingdom! Damn you for being so far away!

[Reichu]

Thanks for giving a formal introduction, Aaron. ^_^ Welcome to the team!

I have a programmer friend who I have spoken with. He is willing to design a system for this commentary that will be simple yet effective at creating and formatting this commentary, while eliminating the drudgery of tables and data entry on the part of Reichu. This will not be for a bit, but for now, the project has splendid potential, and I'm quite eager to offer what I can in terms of web and Eva expertise, so that this commentary can become an essential resource for Eva fans net-wide.

I'm certainly looking forward to whatever you guys can cook up. In the meantime, I'll just continue doing things the laborious, old-fashioned way, just because I prefer it to doing nothing. Episode #02 is coming along, but there's still some work to be done... I should probably just go ahead and throw the FMTTM page together to incite SOME action in the meantime.

[The Eva Monkey]

*looks around sheepishly*

FMTTM?

[Reichu]

*looks around sheepishly*

FMTTM?

Old jazz number composed by Bart Howard and used a sickening number of times in NGE. ;)

[Keisuke-kun]

I. Hate. Jazz.

I seriuously hate Jazz so very very much.

[The Eva Monkey]

Ohhh.... Fly me to the moon. Anybody ever find out why they picked that as the ending theme? I know the moon and Rei are very important in the series, but is there anything other than that?

[NakedEYE666]

I think it just fits. Flying away...

[AchtungAffen]

My all time dream career was becoming an anime musicalizator, you know, the guy who selects and makes music for animes. Because I thought many anime music just sucked big time. But I gotta say, choosing that song on Eva, made me have a little hope that I was probably mistaken, on some cases, of course.

[Sharp-kun]

Any screencaps you need for Ep 2?

[Reichu]

I have the Platinum DVD, so I can get quality screencaps myself (for once!)... but I can always give you little "assignments" to help speed things up. ;) :looks for Sharp's e-mail...:

Aside from the usual "getting ready for school" stuff, I've managed to get rather preoccupied watching new anime. (Well, "new" to me, anyway.) I guess it's not extremely unusual behavior -- I remember Dr. Nick went on an anime-watching spree during his final weeks of freedom, right before his military service started. But no matter how much I attempt to broaden my horizons... in the end, I always come back to my one true love. :eye sparkle:

And, che, I have scant few hours before my last day of work in which to finish excavating a burial cavity (some might call it "digging a hole") for our old, decrepit dog, for whom Wednesday will be her last. So sad... But since when was this thread my personal blog?! :eek:

Does anyone have any ideas on how we should actually handle FMTTM? I was thinking of just making one commentary thread (which may or may not translate to one commentary page), which would include:

- links to screenshots for the four variations (the regular blue, #08 and #09 red, #19 b&w, and the Renewal credits orange)
- maybe a cute little animated GIF of the normal version (Rei keeps on spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning...)
- link to my uber-guide of FMTTM usages
- maybe putting up some shots from the full version ("SAABISU SAABISU!!")
- the song lyrics

And everyone can comment away. I can't imagine there's really that much to say, but there are some topics of discussion that I can think of... and I'm sure MDWigs (whenever he returns to us ;_;) has some juicy production info stashed somewhere. If nobody offers any suggestions, I'll just go with my half-baked plan.

[Sharp-kun]

I have the Platinum DVD, so I can get quality screencaps myself (for once!)... but I can always give you little "assignments" to help speed things up. ;) :looks for Sharp's e-mail...:
My file hosting is back, so getting them to you will be far easier ^_^

and I'm sure MDWigs (whenever he returns to us ;_;) has some juicy production info stashed somewhere. If nobody offers any suggestions, I'll just go with my half-baked plan.
I'll be seeing MDWigs this weeked (and no doubt we'll get rather drunk), so some interesting ideas might come up then ^_^

[Shin-seiki]

I have the Platinum DVD, so I can get quality screencaps myself (for once!)... but I can always give you little "assignments" to help speed things up. ;) :looks for Sharp's e-mail...:I just finished 208-236; I'll send the link presently...


Does anyone have any ideas on how we should actually handle FMTTM? I was thinking of just making one commentary thread (which may or may not translate to one commentary page), which would include:

- links to screenshots for the four variations (the regular blue, #08 and #09 red, #19 b&w, and the Renewal credits orange)
- maybe a cute little animated GIF of the normal version (Rei keeps on spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning...)
- link to my uber-guide of FMTTM usages
- maybe putting up some shots from the full version ("SAABISU SAABISU!!")
- the song lyrics

And everyone can comment away. I can't imagine there's really that much to say, but there are some topics of discussion that I can think of... and I'm sure MDWigs (whenever he returns to us ;_;) has some juicy production info stashed somewhere. If nobody offers any suggestions, I'll just go with my half-baked plan.Sounds good to me (looks foward to the Full ED http://perso.wanadoo.fr/atil/forum/sourcils.gif )

[Someone]

- link to my uber-guide of FMTTM usages

Some questions in mind...
- What do you mean by "my uber-guide of FMTTM usage"?
- Do the four variations include the credits
- Are we going to comment on every preview for the next episode?

I'm currently having mental block now, so I can't think of any good suggestion. Sorry :bow:

However, the planning so far seems good to me. Looking foward to it. :)

[Sharp-kun]

I'll get those shots to you as soon as possible, probably next week as I'm working the next 2 days then leave for Amecon at 6AM on Friday >_>

[Reichu]

My file hosting is back, so getting them to you will be far easier ^_^

Su~goi! I sent you the e-mail, so you're all set.

I'll be seeing MDWigs this weeked (and no doubt we'll get rather drunk), so some interesting ideas might come up then ^_^

Do NGE and alcohol go together? I ph33r the possibilities! Let us all know how things go.

Sounds good to me (looks foward to the Full ED http://perso.wanadoo.fr/atil/forum/sourcils.gif )

:|...

:pulls paper fan out of nowhere and starts pummeling Shin-seiki whilst shouting high-pitched Japanese incomprehensibly:

Meh, too much anime. ;)

Some questions in mind...
- What do you mean by "my uber-guide of FMTTM usage"?

This thing here (http://www.avians.net/rkc/reichu/s2-works/reichu_s2works_fmttm.html).

- Do the four variations include the credits

Eh? I thought FMTTM was the credits? You'll have to elaborate...

Are we going to comment on every preview for the next episode?

Sure, as long as people think there's something worth saying.

[Sharp-kun]

Do NGE and alcohol go together? I ph33r the possibilities! Let us all know how things go.

I presume better than Excel Saga and alcohol. A few friends and I had an 8 hour Excel marathon a few weeks back ^^;; That was interesting.

[Reichu]

I presume better than Excel Saga and alcohol. A few friends and I had an 8 hour Excel marathon a few weeks back ^^;; That was interesting.

Cripes... Sometime you'll have to write a book, Anime and Alcohol: Maximum Effect, Maximum Enjoyment. As it goes, I have a hard enough time watching Excel Saga sober -- not because I don't like it, but because of the sheer amount of strain its particular brand of insanity puts on my cranial nerves. ;)

[MDWigs]

Do NGE and alcohol go together? I ph33r the possibilities! Let us all know how things go.


Sure they do! It doesn't really help with understanding, but with comprehension :P

I fly back into the UK yesterday after some fairly extensive tripping over the last couple of months. I am lugging my backpack to Amecon this weekend, then around the UK some more until early September when I will move into the sharehouse Ill be living in for the next six months while I finally finish University (after five years, two degrees and an honours thesis thrown in on the top I am getting _tired_). Then I have plans to move down to London and start working, that is if I don't follow up with PhD work at Oxford... Hmmm ^_^ I don't think I'll be going back to Australia for a while yet. So yeah Eva Monkey! The UK is a lot closer to the states than Australia is. Though I met a lot of really great people from the US these last two months and now I've got a large collection of contacts of people who have offered to put me up, so I may be out you way sometime soon (maybe after I graduate). I've backpacked Europe and Japan, so I guess the states is next!

Reichu, I do have a heap of stuff about FMTTM, and I'll post it all once I get my computer unpacked an hooked back up again.

And Sharp, see you this weekend!

[The Eva Monkey]

I've backpacked Europe and Japan, so I guess the states is next!
If you ever decide to, and you'll be sight seeing in the north east, New York, Washington, Baltimore, etc, be sure to do it in the summer, swing by Baltimore, and Otakon, cause I would like to meet up if possible, and if you go to Otakon, you can possibly meet up with Reichu as well. And you never know, I might need some assistants for an Eva Panel. ^_^

[Sharp-kun]

Well I'm back, so I'll get to work on FMTTM tomorow, and get those shots for Reichu this week ^_^

Off topic, but just to give some highlights of the weekend:

I got:

Eva Cardass Masters
Another D&R Program to sell on Ebay
Maya plushie
EVA-02 plushie
EoE OST
An unopened UCC Shinji coffee can :D

DDR against MDWigs, to Cruel Angels Thesis. I was utterly defeated.


Also, just for the UK people here:

ADV will finally be releasing a Perfect Collection here, with different box art than the US.
Platinum will come out a few months later ;)

ADV also said that they're currently looking for a director for the LA movie, before they go onto casting.

[MDWigs]

Cruel Angels Thesis Eurobeat version to be exact! ^_^

Amecon was a lot of fun. I didn't actually watch that much anime, but I met some great people, had some really interesting discussions, drank a lot of beer, and spent most of Sunday night in a glowstick dancing mania in the J-Dance and then J-Pop/Anime parties.

Off to Edinburgh tomorrow, will be back posting as normal (as much as I ever am anymore) mid-September.

[Soluzar]

Is there an 'offical' site for the commentary, as i found this (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/op/op_frameset.html) URL in one of the other posts,but it only contains the OC, and episode one, and I'm sure I saw Reichu say in another post that episode two was now complete?

[Sharp-kun]

Apologies to Reichu, but last night one of my hard drives died. This means that not only can I not get on my main PC (it was the boot drive), but I also lost all the Eva screencaps I'd taken. I'll get them again as soon as pos.

[Shin-seiki]

Well I'm back, so I'll get to work on FMTTM tomorow, and get those shots for Reichu this week ^_^

Off topic, but just to give some highlights of the weekend:

I got:

>>Eva Cardass Masters<<
Another D&R Program to sell on Ebay
Maya plushie
EVA-02 plushie
EoE OST
An unopened UCC Shinji coffee can :D

A complete set?! Sharp, you have so got to scan these and make them available... Maybe Reichu could get them translated for us :j

[Keisuke-kun]

A complete set?! Sharp, you have so got to scan these and make them available... Maybe Reichu could get them translated for us :j

Maybe but I think she has enough translating to do at the moment -_-;

[Shin-seiki]

Is there an 'offical' site for the commentary, as i found this (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/op/op_frameset.html) URL in one of the other posts,but it only contains the OC, and episode one, and I'm sure I saw Reichu say in another post that episode two was now complete?That's up to date; #02 has not been published yet, we're still working on the screen-caps, etc.

[Reichu]

Is there an 'offical' site for the commentary, as i found this (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/op/op_frameset.html) URL in one of the other posts,but it only contains the OC, and episode one, and I'm sure I saw Reichu say in another post that episode two was now complete?

My signature says that episode #02 is HALF complete. I have most of the text part complete, but we just need to finish compiling the screencaps we need.

There really isn't a "home page" for the commentary right now, but it would probably be a good idea for me to type one up, that introduces the project and some of our current participants and such (and makes plentiful apologies for my humiliatingly basal knowledge of webpage construction)... It will all happen when the time is right.

Apologies to Reichu, but last night one of my hard drives died. This means that not only can I not get on my main PC (it was the boot drive), but I also lost all the Eva screencaps I'd taken. I'll get them again as soon as pos.

Oh man! Sorry to hear that. Is the phenomenon of hard drives spontaneously dying one of those things that can happen "any time, anywhere"? :gets paranoid:

A complete set?! Sharp, you have so got to scan these and make them available... Maybe Reichu could get them translated for us

Heh, as if my rudimentary Japanese skills weren't being challenged enough by the scripts and Newtype 100%? Well, if a card looks like it might have something important/useful on it, I can always give it a try... I would appreciate scans, as well.

And now... to go shopping for the staples of dormitory existence.

[Soluzar]

That's up to date; #02 has not been published yet, we're still working on the screen-caps, etc.

Cool. OK, sorry to trouble ya. Thanks for the info, I suppose you'll post here when there's a site update.

It would be so cool if there was some way that you could record this stuff as audio, synched to the DVD, so that it could be played through WinAMP as the DVD ran with sound off. Or something like that. What I'm trying to say is that it's a really good commentary, and I'm really impressed with what you've done so far.

EDIT: D'Oh! I missread Reichu's .sig, sorry.

[Reichu]

It would be so cool if there was some way that you could record this stuff as audio, synched to the DVD, so that it could be played through WinAMP as the DVD ran with sound off. Or something like that. What I'm trying to say is that it's a really good commentary, and I'm really impressed with what you've done so far.

Thanks! We're actually planning to *eventually* make a condensed audio version of the commentary (although I have no idea how...), but I think this is best done once the extended web page version is complete -- which, obviously, isn't going to happen anytime soon. This definitely isn't the sort of thing that should be rushed; as long as we maintain a steady pace without any glaring hiatuses, we should be fine.

[The Eva Monkey]

We're actually planning to *eventually* make a condensed audio version of the commentary (although I have no idea how...), but I think this is best done once the extended web page version is complete -- which, obviously, isn't going to happen anytime soon.Rachel and I discussed this among other things at Otakon. This may not happen, I would like to see a bunch of hardcore Eva enthusiasts sit down and do audio commentary, but it may not be possible. The only audio commentary is that of the DVDs. I made some demo commentary tracks a while back. you can subect yourself to them if you so choose. Hopefully you won't have a seizure.

http://www.evamonkey.com/em_commentary.php

I will be assisting Rachel with the web development on this project. That is my area of expertise, so I'm going to stick to that. The commentary project may be moved to the evamonkey.com server to make work on the project a bit easier. I've also got a programmer friend who may be able to design a simple system that would eliminate the drudgery of formatting comments. A lot of ideas are being tossed around, and the project looks to pick up steam once some ideas are finalized.

One thing I know for certain, is that this commentary web page will have some distinct usability issues. Its going to be quite interesting putting this together as a full web page. Hopefully it can be structured in an ergonomic way.

[Reichu]

I will be assisting Rachel with the web development on this project. That is my area of expertise, so I'm going to stick to that.

I would like you to be a commentator, as well! The OP and episode #01 lust for thee!

[The Eva Monkey]

All in good time. Besides, I'm much more interested to comment upon the second half of the story. I can make whatever comments I can in retrospect as I work on the design portion.

[Reichu]

All in good time. Besides, I'm much more interested to comment upon the second half of the story. I can make whatever comments I can in retrospect as I work on the design portion.

Oh, but that ruins the spirit of the thing! Everyone is pretty much waiting for the second half of the series -- where the "fun" really begins -- but we're resolved to working our way through the whole... bloody... series. It's tedious, but it needs to be done, and there are issues to be discussed and things to be said. Boring though it may be, I'm sure you do have things to say.

And when we start episode #02, I do hope that you participate in the forum discussion thread!

EDIT: One final update to the website before I head to college (and certain doom!). I've done a number of things on this fine evening:

- w00t! There's finally a MAIN FRIGGIN' PAGE (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scripts/). (Which means, Shin-seiki, update the link in your Anime Forums sig!) This page serves as an introduction to what we're doing, introduces the key players, answers potential questions, and provides a much-needed disclaimer. BTW, if any of you are unhappy with the little write-up on your person, or you want me to include more/less personal information, let me know by PM.

- The two frames on the top are replaced by one. The downside to this is that the dropdown menus are damn ugly, but the coding required to do something pretty makes my brain overload, so we'll let Monkey-Man concoct a much-needed replacement later on. I've added another layer to link to the new intro and table of contents pages. Also note the pretty picture, tinted blue to go with the site's boring blue color scheme.

- The OP page has been marginally updated. There's still a lot of work left, but it's an improvement, at least.

- Scenes 1~5 for Episode #02 are now open for commentary. (See thread for Episode #02, which I'll be making presently...)

Much more remains to be done (such as incorporating additional comments and changing "Washu-chan" to "Keisuke-kun"), but, alas, sleep takes priority.

[Sharp-kun]

Oh man! Sorry to hear that. Is the phenomenon of hard drives spontaneously dying one of those things that can happen "any time, anywhere"? :gets paranoid:
This was a very old one, so no need to worry ^^

[Sharp-kun]

A complete set?! Sharp, you have so got to scan these and make them available... Maybe Reichu could get them translated for us :jI'll scan some/all at some point (not before I get my comp sorted - this one isn't really sutiable for much). As far as I'm aware it isn't a full set. Wigs will be able to correct me as he sort of explained them when we went through them. I believe its the Series set. Still quite a lot of cards.

[Reichu]

Well, I made it to my dorm safe and sound! After being persuaded to attend some rock concert (a local band, I presume) and jumping around like a fool for two hours (not much different from playing DDR), I'm pretty wiped out, and they've got these orientation activities lined up for the next few days. (And after that... classes!) It's good to be a transfer student, ain't it?

Anyways, we'll see how I can fit my geeky inclinations into this new phase of existence I'm entering. Love will find a way. Moment, though, I'm pretty damn tired. It will probably take me a while to get used to sleeping directly over my computer, though. At least my roommate's not here yet and I can play all the Maaya Sakamoto I want.

Keep the comments coming! Parts 6~8 will come, eventually.

[Sharp-kun]

New PC will be put together on Wedneday (most likely), once thats done I'll have access to all my anime stuff at the moment. I don't trust this PC enough just now to put my massive drives full of anime and cool stuff in it >_>

[Reichu]

And now, for an actual general announcement!

I encourage everyone to look at the "intro" page (just click on the linky in my sig) so I can put the finishing touches on the "who the hell are we?" section. Namely, I'd like to be able to include everyone's Real Name, Homeland, and Current Lot in Life, just so that we appear to the world as a bunch of good, honest, Stranger Than Fiction geeks and not a bunch of Internet anonymities. But if you really, REALLY are against having that kind of info online, let me know (and if you're lucky, I might not send Sammael off to swallow your soul). Also let me know if you have any qualms with (or things to add, for that matter) your little writeup, and I'll correct that pronto.

[Sharp-kun]

My Current Lot in Life is a student. I've no problem with info of me being online. Really, if actually been stalked by one member here, who knew what trains I got into Uni, and what time I'd be in a local sci-fi store, where she pounced. Threads on that probably still exist somewhere....

[Keisuke-kun]

[sarcasm]What about social security number? want that ? [/sacrasm]

Looks like you already got my stuff up. Im a student. And stuf...

Reichu: Im really sorry. So far I haven't been able to start ep 3 because I have internet school that eats up my time. I don't think I will have school today so I will do as much as I can.

[Reichu]

[sarcasm]What about social security number? want that ? [/sacrasm]

I'll take credit card. ;)

Reichu: Im really sorry. So far I haven't been able to start ep 3 because I have internet school that eats up my time. I don't think I will have school today so I will do as much as I can.

As you can see in my sig, I've actually already started it. Already up to the part where Touji "clobbers" Shinji, too, so I'm probably just going to pound out the rest as time allows. I could give you episode #04 to start up in your free moments, though... ;) Can't remember if you got the script for that or not, so look for a PM shortly.

As far as not having any time, don't worry about it. Quite literally, I have no life outside of academics (thought that might change once I started living on an actual campus, but I was apparently mistaken), so I have free time to waste on such frivolities as this project. That is, when I'm not looking to pull long, sleepless stretches of work like I am right now. :runs away:

[Keisuke-kun]

Yeh but you don't have a curfew. I go to school at 8:00 am get back at 7:30 PM (wonder why school takes so long? Kyudo) and then I do some work and eat dinner and go to bed at 10.

Recently the weekends have been bad too. I dont have ep 4 yet but the weekends might be clearing up (unless I get my dream and spend 5 extra hours on sundays and saturdays on kyudo in preperation for the test next month.) But afetr that I should be free on weekends.

[MDWigs]

Current Lot in Life: Student, Software Engineer, Traveller of the World! ^_^

For me this one is likely to change a great deal over the next couple of months. I am (finally) on my last legs at Uni, lectures started Monday, and come mid-January I will be completely finished. What comes next? I don't think I will be moving back to Brisbane any time soon, and this "traveller of the world" gig is pretty exciting, however I think my almost exhausted savings will necessitate me to get a job here in the UK when I finish (ah the blessed pound!). So yeah, I'll keep everyone posted.

Meanwhile, I am back! Ok I have said this before, but now I actually am. Uni has started up, I have moved into my new house, the cable has been connected and I've set up the wireless network. I'm going to start the slow process of going through all the Eva related stuff I've missed these last couple of months and then expect some heavy duty posting from me in the near future.

[Reichu]

Ah, back before the end of September, just as promised! (I was starting to get a little worried!) You have been greatly missed, as always. You'll have to tell us about your adventures sometime...

Sad to say, I -still- haven't gotten around to adding your (and various other people's) later comments to the OP. Ah, well, all in good time. The page probably looks somewhat nicer than it did last time you looked at it, though.

Meantime, a cold and procrastination have gotten me into a bit of trouble over here... I am seriously going to have my entrails handed to me in dimensional illustration today. And, unless I manage to pull another all-nighter, things don't look too good for tomorrow either... Ta-ta!

[MDWigs]

Yes I am back, completed exhausted after my little adventure, and with a renewed energy to discuss all this Eva related. If you are interested in what exactly has been occupying all my time over the last couple of months check out www.genesisdreams.com but beware, rants and ponderings of reality abound! ^_^

The page does look a great deal nicer! I asm still working my way through it, but be prepared, comments will soon be forthcoming!

[Reichu]

Just to let everyone know, I've edited the first post of this thread so that it contains links to all of the various Commentary-related threads. Convenient, no?

[Reichu]

Since Soluzar brought it up in another thread, I asked about Kaworu's line in #24, "Adam. Warera no haha taru sonzai"... Apparently, it translates literally as "the existance [life] that was [is] our mother's". Interesting. It seems to imply Adam's femininity rather directly, in any case (despite the name). Since we're going for maximum accuracy, I say we start calling Adam a "she" in the commentary; it's only right. ;)

On another note, since episode #03 is coming up and Shamshel continues to get referred to as a "he" on the basis of having a "phallic" body, I urge everyone to look at my favorite 'evidence' to the contrary. First this (http://www.avians.net/rkc/14daughters/scans/manga-vol2_angel-kiss.gif), but, more importantly and disturbingly, this (http://forums.evamonkey.com/viewtopic.php?p=8646#8646). :cackles evilly and vanishes into the shadows: BTW, the diseased, brilliant man who drew those is none other than Yoshitoh Asari, the character designer for Sachiel, Shamshel, and Zeruel.

[Soluzar]

Since Soluzar brought it up in another thread, I asked about Kaworu's line in #24, "Adam. Warera no haha taru sonzai"... Apparently, it translates literally as "the existance [life] that was [is] our mother's". Interesting. It seems to imply Adam's femininity rather directly, in any case (despite the name). Since we're going for maximum accuracy, I say we start calling Adam a "she" in the commentary; it's only right. ;)

Yay! I got something right! Is this a first? Should I write it in my diary? So what does the 'taru' part mean exactly? My Japanese is not great, but I can usually work out a translation for stuff if I need to. That word/suffix 'taru' I couldn't find anywhere.

Oh, In a similar vein, Reichu, where are you getting the original Japanese scripts from? Did you buy the official script books, or do you have another source? Whichever it is, are they in Romaji?

[Reichu]

Yay! I got something right! Is this a first?

Your fifteen minutes of fame? Heh heh. If you keep getting your feet wet with this stuff, I'm sure there will be more to come.

So what does the 'taru' part mean exactly? My Japanese is not great, but I can usually work out a translation for stuff if I need to. That word/suffix 'taru' I couldn't find anywhere.[quote]

Turns out, it's archaic Japanese, so I guess Kaworu was trying to be 'poetic' or something. (Seems pretty consistent with his artsy-fartsy character. ;) ) I inquired about taru over here (http://www.animelyrics.com/forum/topic_show.pl?tid=16762).

[quote]Oh, In a similar vein, Reichu, where are you getting the original Japanese scripts from? Did you buy the official script books, or do you have another source? Whichever it is, are they in Romaji?

I believe you will find all of the answers by clicking on the link in my sig... ^_^

[Soluzar]

I believe you will find all of the answers by clicking on the link in my sig... ^_^

Yeah, I'm just slow at the moment. I had read that page. It just slipped my mind, undoubtedly due to the lateness (time difference!) of the hour.

The site you linked to will prove usefull to me no doubt. It's my ambition to be able to watch anime 'raw' one day, but that day is still a way off. I also harbor the yearning to play japanese videogames in their 'raw' form, but since written japanese is whole orders of magnitude harder than spoken, I doubt I'll ever get to that point.

I have a vague idea that you mentioned it once, but I can't recall, and doing a search on 'script' is only likely to cause pain, so I'll ask you now: Is there anywhere I might be able to find the scripts, in Japanese, but written out in Romaji? It have the idea that it might help my comprehension get to the next level if I can read and listen to the japanese at the same time.

[Reichu]

I have a vague idea that you mentioned it once, but I can't recall, and doing a search on 'script' is only likely to cause pain, so I'll ask you now: Is there anywhere I might be able to find the scripts, in Japanese, but written out in Romaji? It have the idea that it might help my comprehension get to the next level if I can read and listen to the japanese at the same time.

Not to my knowledge. I gave this treatment to episode #01 (want me to e-mail this to you? I did send you an e-mail, BTW), but that's it. EvaMonkey wants the "romaji" scripts for his site, which I can certainly provide as I process the Japanese scripts little-by-little... but only after the boy starts contributin'!

And, here ye, here ye, all commentary folks who actually read this thread! When I was looking for info on the Renewal bonus disc for Soluzar, I was finally alerted that, in fact, "Eva tomo no kai" includes a cut-by-cut breakdown of the OP sequence. Gee, wish I'd known that a few months ago! Anyhow, in a bout of pure insanity, I updated the OP page with the correct cut numbers and added a column for cut descriptions, throwing in the lyrics for "Zankoku" while I was at it. Of course, the rest remains to be updated... Eh, one day.

The descriptions confirm C-028 (the red sphere) as being a core, but no elaboration on the strange lines that are on it. Also, I glanced over some of the cut commentaries (which I'll definitely have to try translating at some point), and the Mysterioso Parchment is, as I predicted, part of the "Secret" Dead Sea Scrolls. Damn, I'm good. ;)

And, the following may be a bit too personal to include here, but since I'm overseeing this thing, I might as well share. Regrettably, I once again feel the need to express worry over the future of this project. After having a heart-to-heart with my mum earlier today, the consensus, as far as my personal life goes, is that this obsessive fandom is basically wasting my time and squandering my potential. Why devote myself so heavily to someone else's creation when I should be off bringing my own unique brand of Art (TM) into the world? (I'm supposedly an artist, after all, and as far as my parental units are concerned, it's my inevitable lot in life. As in, "I was born to be an artist; I have no other options." Well, in theory I DO, but you get the idea.)

It's a tricky matter... Part of me is very heavily invested in my fandom despite the fact that Society At Large looks down upon such efforts as this. Unmanaged geekdom breeds societally reclusive otaku; although I'm a bit of a recluse by my very nature, having all of this geeky stuff to preoccupy me probably doesn't help. Perhaps the obvious solution IS to simply "manage" it (and my life has actually been a constant battle with balancing personal interests with the somewhat less fun priorities); though, as far as my mother is concerned, "eventually, you just have to let it go and move on". Sounds like what Anno and Tsurumaki have been trying to tell us all along.

On the other hand, investing oneself in another's work can be "societally acceptable". Anime is less so, since it's so recent, but have you ever seen how completely and utterly geeky literary criticism is? It's the kind of overanalysis that makes us look pretty good. And devoting oneself to literature or classic films or art history would be "valid", yet what I'm doing here isn't, in the eyes of some (and myself at times). Yet part of me feels that, "stupid" and "wasteful" as all of this seems, there is a place for such efforts... wherever that might me.

Oh yeah, and my mom thinks that I should just forget about my doujinshi completely and channel my creativity into something that isn't derivative. (Blah... Is there ANYthing I could make that somehow ISN'T "derivative"??) I bet lots of you are glad to hear that. :P

Anyway, the threat looms overhead of Reichu being gradually pressured into getting a life. But can she continue being a geek at the same time? Oh, the suspense!