MAJOR Content warnings all over this episode. Seriously. Not being ironic here. Suicide, sexual abuse, just… all of it.
Generational trauma strikes again as we learn all these kids parents had just as tragic and messed up lives as they did. And to solve the mysteries of who killed Mr. Ryoji Kaji, Josh does some deep internet sleuthing to the archives of early 2000s weeb haven angelfire.com to get the real truth. We discuss the awful tension of elevator rides while menstruating with a rapidly dropping sync rate… as well as the many other traumatic histories of Asuka Langley Soryu. Poor poor kid. But Shinji and Pen Pen are just happy to be here, in spite of everyone’s drastically darkening tone. On a more serious note, lots of discussion about the prescience of this shows ability to portray trauma and it’s lingering symptoms in ways we’ve only recently come to understand and reckon with in modern society.