Ayanami Rei, cosplayed by Anh (click for large image)
Across the whole anime universe(?) there are two characters that give me huge headache when it comes to photoshoot concept. They are Ayanami Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Goku from Dragon Ball. They are two very popular, almost mainstream, anime characters that everybody know even if they are not particularly into anime, comic or game. I've seen them so many times over the years that seeing them anywhere hardly trigger my creativity anymore.
I used to be a fan of Evangelion and I am planning to do an Evangelion shoot later this year/early next year so I really have to know the characters. So I read the manga, re-watched the 26-episodes TV series, the first movie "Death-and-Rebith", the classic "The End of Evangelion" and the new movie Evangelion 1.0 movie "You are (Not) Alone". Now I think I have a nice idea about most of the character but still... I have a hard time coming up with a concept for Rei.
I think the main difficulty is she is sooo well known that there is no ONE Rei. Every person have a different perception on this character. If you google for images of this character you'll notice throughout the years people had portrayed her as sad, happy, sexy, mean, friendly... etc. There is no one image of Rei that everybody agree upon.
Despite all those perceptions from others, I think Rei is a little creepy, to say the least. She is this very pale, emotionless girl almost always being seen wearing all these heavy bandages and yet we have never seen scars or even hints of wounds on her... really I mean, does it even make sense...?
It's almost as if she's not a human being.
Thanks to my friend Anh for being the awesome undoing-bandages-Rei! ^__^)
Really? I actually think she's easy to shoot uniquely. But I think that's because others I think take the simpler or (even non-existant) sides compared to what I want to portray. (Specifcally it's her kinda messed up relationship with Gendo that I find most interesting about her character, and thus what I want to focus on in the photoshoot I hope to do some day.)
ReplyDeleteI don't quite get the "sexy" side. I think that's something more invented by fanboys. Well, the unconciously sexy I guess is in character, since I don't think she sees herself as a sexual being.
Though in addition to her different sides, there are three different Reis presented in the series. Each has their own differences despite the same body amd being a vessel for Lilith. (And as such arguably isn't quite human.)
epiic: The relationship between her and Gendo is definitely a very interesting topic. To me I found Gendo interesting for the exact same reason. For Rei I am more interested in her relationship to "her-selves" (XD).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the "sexy" part. I think it's just a very causal (though not quite accurate) approach to interpret this character. ^^;;
the tru Rei is blank and void of emotions. since she was created and not born, she is just a shell.
ReplyDelete-bishop