is the fifteenth episode of the Japanese anime television series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was created by animation studio Gainax. The episode, written by Hideaki Anno and Akio Satsukawa and directed by Naoyasu Habu, was first broadcast on TV Tokyo on January 10, 1996. The series is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm known as Second Impact and is mostly set in the futuristic, fortified city of Tokyo-3. The series' protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy who is recruited by his father Gendo into the special military organization Nerv to pilot a gigantic, biomechanical mecha named Evangelion into combat against beings called Angels.
In the course of the episode, the agent Ryoji Kaji conducts investigations into an institute called Marduk and gathers together with his Nerv colleagues Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi for a party. After the party, Misato, Ryoji's ex-girlfriend, confesses to him the real reason why she left him years before. Meanwhile, Shinji meets his father to visit the grave of his mother, Yui, and kisses fellow pilot Asuka Langley Soryu.
According to screenwriter Satsukawa, "Those women longed for the touch of others' lips, and thus invited their kisses" is the Neon Genesis Evangelion episode in which his personality is most reflected. During the episode, entirely focused on the relationships of the characters and devoid of action scenes, use is made of religious symbolism and music outside the original soundtrack of the series, including Johann Sebastian Bach's "Suite for Cello Solo No.1 in G Major".
"Those women longed for the touch of others' lips, and thus invited their kisses" drew a 6% audience share on Japanese television and received mixed reception from critics. Some reviewers criticized the script, the interpretation of Kotono Mitsuishi, Misato's voice actress, the music, and Asuka's behavior. Other reviewers appreciated the kiss between Shinji and Asuka and the one between Misato and Kaji, praising the religious symbolism and the focus on the relationships between the protagonists.
Plot The commander and deputy commander of the paramilitary agency Nerv, Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki, discuss their projects and Ryoji Kaji, a secret agent engaged in investigations in Kyoto into an institute called Marduk. Meanwhile, Shinji Ikari, a pilot at Nerv, asks his colleague Rei Ayanami what kind of person his father Gendo is and tells her that she reminds him of a maternal figure. Misato Katsuragi, head of the strategic department of Nerv and legal guardian of Shinji and Asuka Langley Soryu, heads to a wedding party with her friend Ritsuko Akagi and Kaji, her ex-boyfriend.
Shinji visits his mother's grave with his father, then returns home to play the cello. Asuka, who left shortly before for a date, also returns home and compliments Shinji's cello playing. Feeling bored, Asuka suggests to Shinji that he should kiss her, and the two exchange a kiss. Meanwhile, a drunk Misato is escorted home by Kaji; she reveals along the way to Kaji that the real reason why she broke up with him years before was because he reminded her of her father, with whom she had a conflicted relationship. Misato bursts into tears, and Kaji kisses her. The next day Misato discovers Kaji secretly entering the deepest section of the Nerv headquarters; Kaji then shows her a crucified giant, which he identifies as Adam, the first Angel.
Production Series and episode background
In 1993, Gainax wrote a presentation document for Neon Genesis Evangelion entitled containing the initial synopsis for the planned episodes. The Proposal document was then published in 1994. For the first twelve episodes aired, the company roughly followed the schedule envisioned in the first draft, with only a few minor script differences. However, from the thirteenth episode onward, the production deviated from the original plan of the writers and what had been initially envisioned in the submission document. According to Michael House, translator for Gainax at the time, Neon Genesis Evangelion main director Hideaki Anno initially intended during the making of the series to give the story a happy ending. However, during production, Anno realized that he had created characters that were too problematic, so he changed his plans. According to Hiroki Azuma, a culture critic who personally interviewed the director, Anno began to criticize obsessive anime fans—known as otaku in Japanese—whom he considered too close-minded and introverted, and so changed his original plans by creating a more dramatic and introspective story toward the middle of the series. Beginning with "Lilliputian Hitcher", the production also ran into severe scheduling problems because of delays in episode delivery. Gainax had completed only twelve episodes by the time the series began airing after nearly two years of production, leaving the staff to produce the remaining fourteen in just six months—roughly one-third of the time they had spent on the first twelve.
The fifteenth episode of the series was originally to be titled , rather than "Those women longed for the touch of others' lips, and thus invited their kisses". During "Shinji, once again", which was part of a series of episodes with the same basic theme, Shinji would make the decision to ride the Eva Unit 01 once again after "a recovery". The heavily damaged Eva-01 would also be remodeled and upgraded. The staff decided to abandon the original idea while working on it, with some of the ideas later being used for the sixteenth episode, "Splitting of the Breast", or the nineteenth episode, "Introjection". The exploration of Misato's past and inclusion of a scene concerning "romance comedy" was initially supposed to occur in the seventeenth episode, entitled in the Proposal. The Proposal does not specify if "romance comedy" was referring to the kiss between Shinji and Asuka or something else. In the final version of the episode, Kaji shows Misato a giant identified as the first Angel, Adam; it is revealed in the series finale that the giant's true identity is that of Lilith, the second Angel. According to character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the original story for the series did not feature Lilith, but was included following the premiere of the series and some staff research performed on Christianity; Sadamoto stated that Lilith's inclusion occurred because "not touching [her] seemed to hurt Anno's pride".
Hideaki Anno and Akio Satsukawa wrote the screenplay, while Jun'ichi Satō produced the storyboards under the pseudonym Kiichi Hadame. Satō, who previously worked on Sailor Moon, wrote episodes with important moments between Misato and Kaji, like the twelve-first. Naoyasu Habu served as director, with Masahiko Ohtsuka as assistant director. Shunji Suzuki worked as chief animator with Katsuichi Nakayama and Naoya Furukawa as assistant chief animators, while Mitsuo Iso and Takeshi Honda served as assistant character designers. Production involved other studios besides Gainax, such as Cosmos, Studio Mark, and FAI International. In an interview, Satsukawa stated that the fifteenth one is the Neon Genesis Evangelion episode in which his personality is reflected the most, as there is no Angel and only one scene with the Evangelions.
Development In the wedding scene with Misato, Ritsuko, and Kaji, the staff added a line in which Kaji says, "To live is to change". According to members of the series' staff, Hideaki Anno often includes remarks of this kind in his works to ease his own anxiety, even though, in their view, he never truly changes as a person. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto contrasted Anno with Mobile Suit Gundam series director Yoshiyuki Tomino. Sadamoto argued that, despite Tomino's outward stubbornness, he genuinely takes an interest in other people, especially women; Anno, by contrast, urges himself to change and not withdraw from others through statements of that kind, yet, according to Sadamoto, he has no genuine interest in other people. In the same scene, Misato fixes Kaji's tie, and he thanks her in a close-up. Yūichirō Oguro, the editor of supplemental materials included in the Japanese edition of the series, stated that the use of close-ups is typical of Satō's style. According to Satō, the original storyboard for the scene where Kaji kisses Misato did not specify whether Misato's hands should remain dangling or hug Kaji's back, and Anno made a decision later; Misato raises her hands and then lowers them again in the final version, as if she was hesitating over whether or not she should accept Kaji's kiss.
In the episode's original draft, the informant who provides Kaji with information was a man rather than a woman and, unlike in the final version, did not use feeding stray cats as a cover. In the following scenes, Hikari would have invited Asuka out for ice cream, while Asuka would have expressed concern for Shinji and recognized Hikari's feelings for Toji, suggesting a double date. Other dialogue differences involve Ritsuko's scene, in which she would have said that life is interesting precisely because the human heart harbors contradictory feelings, and Kaji's conversation with Misato, in which he would have remarked that she had become more honest with age, while Misato would have replied that she would not even have had the courage to speak to him if not for the alcohol. In the scene where Shinji looks at Rei, Asuka was also meant to show an annoyed expression. Before the storyboard stage, Yui's date of death had not yet been established, and Misato would have mistaken the giant beneath Nerv headquarters for Eva-03.
For the scene in which Kaji nostalgically reflects on Misato having started wearing high heels, the staff drew on one of Hideaki Anno's personal experiences. Before the storyboard stage, Gainax also planned a scene showing the attractions at the amusement park during Asuka's date. Mitsuo Iso drew the second Angel, Lilith. In Gainax's original design, the ruins of an ancient ruin called were to be revealed beneath Nerv headquarters in the second half of the series; Arqa was later eliminated in the final version of the series, and Gainax asked Mitsuo Iso to design Terminal Dogma, its replacement. Iso depicted Lilith, then referred to as Adam, hanging from a cross with a regular crystalline structure, with the idea that it was a special material that could resist its "force field." Iso drew details of the seven eyes of Lilith's mask following the director's instructions. In his original designs, Lilith would have had writing on its hands and a swollen abdomen, similar to that of a pregnant woman; however, Anno rejected the proposal to avoid suggesting deformity or disability. The idea of the mutilated lower body also came to Iso; Iso himself noted that even in the works of anime director Mamoru Oshii, with whom he had worked in the past, there are characters with similar lower bodies.
Music and voice acting
Misato's voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi sang a cover of Bart Howard's song "Fly Me to the Moon", called "Misato 4beat", which was used as the episode's ending theme. The staff used an instrumental piano version of the same song when Misato is kissed by Kaji. In addition to the original soundtrack of the series, composed by Shirō Sagisu, in the wedding scene the staff used , a pre-existing piece composed by Daizo Saito and Shunichi Makaino. "Tentoumushi no sanba" was popular in Japan at the time and was usually used during weddings. The staff recorded the song during dubbing without using a pre-existing recording; Iwao, Nagasawa, Miyamura, and Ogata recorded the song.