Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!

Moment and Heart Together

Asuka’s definitely livening the series in every way possible. Her attitude has taken the dull and made it exciting. She’s taking the general feel of the show and turning it upside-down.

This episode has marked the meeting of Rei and Asuka, and it shows a lot about Rei when they do. She has no interest in getting to know anyone. She’ll only do as she’s told. She smiles when with Gendo, and she smiled that one time for Shinji, but she has a long way to go. Asuka on the other hand is upbeat, and filled with pride. She goes all out. There’s no other way to go.

I like how Asuka and Shinji seem to be on the same wavelength in how they act and react, yet when they try to keep in step, Asuka struggles. She and Shinji act similarly in their daily habits, but Asuka can’t accept the idea of working with someone else. Rei on the other hand will do what she’s instructed. If her instructions are to match Shinji with the attack pattern dance, then she will perform the movements without flaw. This is the only way she can do it. And for Asuka, showing Rei and Misato her ability is the only way she can do it.

The class representative telling Shinji to go after Asuka, his doing so, and his time spent with Asuka following, it continues to show that Shinji’s personality is somewhere between Asuka’s and Rei’s. He’ll do what he’s told to, but he’s not as set to follow orders and only follow orders as Rei is. Asuka may just bring out the best of Shinji, while he may be the key to bringing out the best in Rei in time.

The battle came across as unrealistic, as their pre-determined strategy just happens to work rather flawlessly in the end, but I’ll suspend my disbelief as I continue on with the series.

Continuing with the humor, I found the final dialogue to be enjoyable, as Asuka jokes about Shinji trying to kiss her, and his “You were awake?” response, leaving Asuka to think he really did kiss her while she was asleep. It looks like Asuka will introduce some situational humor into the series.