is the seventeenth episode of the Japanese anime television series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi wrote the episode, while Minoru Ohara worked as director. The series' protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy whose father Gendo recruited him to the special military organization Nerv to pilot a gigantic, biomechanical mecha named Evangelion into combat with Angels. In the episode, mecha Eva-04 and Nerv's Second American Division disappear, while Toji Suzuhara is selected as the pilot of Eva-03. Hikari Horaki, class leader of Toji and Shinji's class, asks Toji to prepare something for him to eat.
"Fourth Children" has references to scientific and religious concepts such as nucleotide bases, apoptosis, the Dirac sea, the God Marduk, and crucifixion. Writer Shinji Higuchi was inspired by the Ultraman franchise, conceiving the episode as the "calm before the storm" of the following episode, "Ambivalence". Higuchi also wanted to portray Hikari's feelings for Toji to emphasize the tragedy in "Ambivalence", in which Toji is injured during battle before Hikari can offer a bento for him.
It was first broadcast on January 24, 1996, and had a 7.3-percent audience share on Japanese television. The episode had a mixed reception from critics. The Anime Café and Film School Rejects disliked its poor pacing and animation quality, while Newtype, Anime News Network, and Digitally Obsessed appreciated its plot, characterization, and script.
Plot An organization named the Instrumentality Committee interrogates Nerv Captain Misato Katsuragi about Leliel, the twelfth of a series of beings named Angels, and its attempted contact with the Eva-01 mecha and its pilot, Shinji Ikari. Misato denies any attempt. After the interrogation, Nerv captain Gendo Ikari says that the Angels are beginning to gain consciousness.
Toji Suzuhara visits his sister in the hospital. The second U.S. section of Nerv in Nevada disappears after an experiment with the Eva-04, and the US government decides to transport Eva-03 to Japan. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi discusses the Dummy System, a new piloting system, with Gendo. At school, Toji is assigned by his class leader, Hikari Horaki, to bring overdue homework to Rei Ayanami, who has been absent for several days. Hikari tries to offer to accompany Toji, but she is stopped before she can speak, and Toji invites Shinji instead. Shinji accompanies him and, noticing Rei's dirty house, cleans her room; Rei blushes and thanks him.
Gendo and Nerv deputy commander Kozo Fuyutsuki discuss the Eva-04 incident and the Dead Sea Scrolls on a train. Ryoji Kaji, an investigator and Nerv member, tells Misato that the Marduk Institute, believed to be in charge of choosing Eva's pilots, does not exist. Kaji goes out with Shinji, discussing life and unpleasant situations in Kaji's garden. At the school in Tokyo-3 city, Toji is called by Ritsuko Akagi. During the afternoon, Toji and Hikari meet at school; Toji says that he has no one who prepares lunch for him, and Hikari offers to prepare something for him to eat. In the final scene, as Eva-03 travels through the skies of America, Toji silently throws a ball into the basketball court.
Production Genesis and staff
In 1993, Neon Genesis Evangelion studio Gainax submitted a presentation for the series entitled with synopses of the planned episodes. The proposal was published the following year. For the first twelve episodes, Gainax followed it with only a few minor script alterations. From the thirteenth episode onward, the production deviated from the writers' original plan and the proposal. According to Michael House, American translator for Gainax, Neon Genesis Evangelion main director Hideaki Anno initially intended to give the story a happy ending; during production, however, he realized he had created problematic characters and changed his plans. Hiroki Azuma, a cultural critic who interviewed Anno, said that Anno began criticizing obsessive anime fansknown as otakuwhom he considered close-minded and introverted as the series aired and created a dramatic, introspective mid-series story. As noted by Azuma, while Evangelion parodied previous anime and used "a lot of clichés" in the first part, Anno later subverted the anime tropes; comic characters like Asuka and Toji "must not be seriously injured" in an anime, but Anno broke the implicit expectations with the public making them injured in battle. Beginning with "Lilliputian Hitcher", the production 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.
In the original 1993 draft, the idea of an American division suddenly disappearing and an accident during the construction of Eva-04 were already planned. The names of Hikari's sisters and the Marduk Institute were also in the proposal. The Marduk Institute was described as an organization that acts on the "hypothesis of new mental cranial nerve vibrations", and only orphaned teenage boys could synchronize with the Evangelions; in the final broadcast version, it is a fictitious society behind which Gendo Ikari is hiding. The seventeenth episode was supposed to depict Asuka's first date and Misato's past, intended as a light episode before the series reaches its climax. Elements of the initial idea later flowed into "Magmadiver", with Asuka and Kaji at a shopping mall in the opening scene, and into the episode "He Was Aware That He Was Still a Child." The original script of the eleventh episode, "The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still", included a mention of the S2 engine taken from Shamshel's body; Ritsuko would have said that the S2 engine is an unknown energy whose basic theory is "only a hypothesis". In another scene, Gendo asks Rei to join him for a meal while she lies completely naked inside a tube. In an interview, the series' character designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, said that the image of Gendo returning to his room to find Rei waiting for him naked formed the basis of his initial conception of Rei Ayanami. According to assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki, the staff originally conceived Rei as the clone of Gendo's deceased wife, making her both a wife and a daughter figure to him; Tsurumaki added that the most compelling aspect of their relationship lay precisely in the fact that they never entered into a sexual relationship despite the incestuous atmosphere of the original concept. For the image of a girl suspended inside a tube filled with liquid and bubbles the staff also drew inspiration from the Fight! Iczer One OVA anime series.
Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno wrote the screenplay for "Fourth Children", while Akira Oguro drew the storyboards. Minoru Ohara directed the episode, and Mau Hanabata was its chief animator. Production involved studios other than Gainax, including FAI International, Neox, and Cockpit Studio. Singer Aki sang "Jungle Version", a "Fly Me to the Moon" cover, as the episode's ending theme.
Development and writing
Shinji Higuchi, who worked on the episode's script, wrote "Fourth Children" as the "calm before the storm" of "Ambivalence" and "Introjection," focusing on the character's interpersonal relationships before showing Shinji losing the emotional support of Toji and Misato. The story is preparation for the following episode in which Gendo betrays Shinji; according to writer Virginie Nebbia, Higuchi borrowed the technique of two linked episodes from the Ultraman franchise. Because of his commitments to Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996), he left the rest to Anno after writing the draft for "Fourth Children" and Ambivalence", causing problems for the production. The episode's original draft did not initially include the scene in which Hikari offers to make Toji lunch. Furthermore, the script explicitly called for reusing a discarded idea from the series' fifth episode, "Rei I", in the episode's ending scene: Toji, jealous of the attention Shinji received from the girls at school, would attempt a basketball shot and miss in "Rei I". The following episode's original draft also included a scene in which Toji visited his sister in the hospital and gave her a present.
Higuchi wanted to emphasize the fragility of Tokyo-3 city and its infrastructure at this stage of the series, with Shinji's school portrayed as a building that can be dismantled at any time. Nerv, by contrast, is depicted as increasingly powerful. According to Higuchi, the relationship between Shinji and Misato is as fragile as Tokyo-3. He compared this scenario to the Return of Ultraman series. In Return of Ultraman, Hideki Gō alternates between the Monster Attack Team and the Sakata family, his civilian friends and recurring characters in the series. His friends Ken and Aki Sakata, however, suddenly die in a car accident. Enjoying plots with an "overwhelming sense of impermanence," Higuchi tried to recreate a similar story; however, he regretted making Hikari a stereotypical "young girl in love". He wanted to recreate a "vacillating" adolescent mind, since he could not express himself in junior high school when he fell in love with someone. According to Higuchi, Neon Genesis Evangelion characters usually do not trust other people. Hikari falls in love with Toji, however; this contrast underscores the tragedy of Toji, who is severely injured in battle in the following episode.
Evangelion Chronicle magazine noted that "Fourth Children" has many scenes set at dusk and distant shots, creating a third-person perspective; this directorial device presents events in an objective, detached manner, in contrast to the introspective, subjective perspective of other scenes in the series. Higuchi said in an interview that he disliked plots driven only by characters emotions, and wanted to make something similar to Jun Ichikawa's films. Azuma noted that Anno used directorial techniques similar to those of Jean-Luc Godard from the seventeenth episode onward. According to Azuma, however, Anno was not directly influenced by Godard; Anno named among his influences Kihachi Okamoto instead, a director influenced by Godard. The episode's filmbook noted that Kaji is possibly modeled on UFO Captain Foster. Higuchi said that Anno asked him to portray Kaji like Masao Kusakari, who played Shunsuke Ryuzaki in the television series Pro Hunter. The Dummy Plug story was originally included in the episode "Lilliputian Hitcher", written by animator Mitsuo Iso; Iso, however, was not involved in the making of subsequent episodes, so the idea of a pseudo-personality for Rei, introduced in "Fourth Children", was the brainchild of another staff member. Furthermore, the episode has a vending-machine scene typical of Gunbuster, an earlier work by Anno.
Cultural references