Fanfic / Mobile Fighter Evangelion

The ad that started the whole thing.

"It's all about the journey. And seeing if even the extra advantages given by 'Super Robot Pills' can counter the 'Gainax Syndrome' inherent in Evangelion as a whole. Plus, as you've gathered with all the tidbits tossed around [...], this world is a bit... different, from canon."

— The Author, giving somewhat of an understatement.

"I'm pretty sure Completely Awesome Absolute Disaster, describes most of the Characters in this story. Especially Gendo."

— Stavaros_Arcane

In a Post-Apocalyptic world, Shinji Ikari must battle horrifying monsters in a giant robot to prevent another disaster like that which almost wiped out humanity years before... if Doctor Akagi's mad science and his own father's eccentricities don't traumatize him first.

Wait, what?

Mobile Fighter Evangelion, an Alternate Universe story, reconstructs Neon Genesis Evangelion, the notorious Deconstruction of the Super Robot genre, as one of the Super Robot shows it was deconstructing, based solely on the author's memory of a print advertisement he saw as a kid.

Take note, however, that Word of God has stated that the very nature of Evangelion itself might be too much for the might of the Super Robot... but where's the fun in spoiling?

Also take note: despite the title, and despite the use of actual Gundam units, there are no crossover elements plot-wise to any Gundam franchise. However, aside from various shout-outs to other franchises, there are significant cameos from and references to Team Fortress 2 and Black Lagoon.

It can be read in FF.net and SpaceBattles.com (first thread and second thread). As part of the lead-up to the finale, it has also been cross-posted to SufficientVelocity.

Finally, on January 6, 2017, the story concluded.

Go to Nobody Dies to read the story that inspired the creation of this particular bit of madness. Check Advice and Trust, The Child of Love, Evangelion 303, The Ikaris, or The One I Love Is... to see other AU Eva fics. Go to Children of an Elder God, Hail to the King, Last Child of Krypton, Shinji And Warhammer 40 K, Superwomen of Eva and Thousand Shinji if you are interested in crossovers.

Note that there be spoilers below!

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Tropes used for SCIENCE!! in MFE...

• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Gendo is an awesome Dad for once, though as Episode 5 revealed, he's still quite the Manipulative Bastard.
  • Ritsuko is...passionate about SCIENCE, though she also seems to have Gone Mad from the Revelation.
  • Pen-Pen is described as Special. Of course, we already knew that, but it's nice to see it acknowledged. Case in point: Pen-Pen is a Gundam pilot, or rather, he controls every Gundam in Tokyo-3.
  • Shinji is a "Goku-like Determinator."
  • Rei is an Icy, queenly Drill Sergeant Nasty. However, she's still quite Moe, as seen in Episode 5.
  • Mari is now an 8-year old girl, and the sister of Asuka. Curiously, she has some traits of the series version of Asuka, like insulting people she does not like.
  • Asuka is a cheerful, excitable Innocent Fanservicing fangirl.
  • Misato has a variation. Her personality is mostly the same as in canon; the difference is how she was when she was younger. In canon, Second Impact made her catatonic. In this fic, young Misato ends up in Australia after Second Impact and goes on an adventure.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul
  • Shinji and his Father's relationship in canon is the reason why Gendo has consistently won "Worst Father In Anime" award in polls. Here, they actually do have a relationship based on love and respect. Gendo still is a manipulative man, but it's clear they do love each other and are capable of actual conversations.
  • Asuka in canon was infatuated with Kaji. In MFE, she's far more distant from him, though notes he's kinda cool due to stronger family ties with her mother's soul, her father, and her little sister.
  • Rei in canon was willing to slap Shinji when he said that he thought Gendo was wrong. Rei in this story lacks the same bond with Gendo, and Shinji's first meeting with her was her calling out Gendo for trying to put an untrained pilot into an Eva. She still follows his orders as the Supreme Commander of NERV, but the relationship is more of a subordinate-superior relationship.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: There are many examples of it on this story, but any moment of peace that Shinji has with Misato and Gendo can count as this.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Gendo's "Welcome to Tokyo-3" postcards. Several of them are amazingly epic pictures, but the last is Gendo eating a sandwich with the caption of "OM NOM NOM NOM."
• Ascended Extra: Mana Kirishima and Mayumi Yamagishi have been upgraded to the assigned pilots for the Jet Alone Project. Also, they're Nephilim.
  • In the same manner, Shiro Tokita. From only being in a single episode in the original show, he has become a part of the main cast in Tokyo-3, and a very important one.
• Badass Boast: Gendo Ikari gives one on behalf of humanity as a whole in Episode 16, following Iruel's attack on the school.
  "So to the Angels that remain, wherever you are…because somehow, some way, I know that these words will reach you. No matter how you choose to strike us, we will fight. No matter how much blood of ours you seek to shed, we will make sure that you choke on it! No matter how many times you may catch us in a moment of weakness, we will band together and stand as one! You seek to usher in the end of the world? You see us as mere lambs to be slaughtered? JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?! I’ll tell you who we are. We are humans. And we do not have to justify our existence to the likes of you."
  • Upon her ascendance, Zeruel also gives one before destroying half of Berlin-2.
• Badass Cape: Gendo...again. Also seems to double as a Utility Belt.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Angels, according to Ramiel in Episode 9.
• Bold Inflation: The psychic voices of the angels.
  • No Indoor Voice: All the Angels except Tabris speak in all caps. Zeruel additionally uses italics when not speaking in her human voice.
• Bridge Bunnies: Same crew from canon, except all of them are changed in some way: Hyuga is good at haggling, Aoba is a girl, and Maya has a twin brother named Miyata...who's ALSO a Bridge Bunny.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Gendo again. This time he's joined with Ritsuko.
• Canon Immigrant: Mana Kirishima and Mayumi Yamagishi; see Ascended Extra.
  • Mari Illustrious Makinami of the the movies is now Mari Langley Sohryu, Asuka's eight-year old sister.
• Child Soldiers: What Nephilim were created to be. Rei fought in the Central American Wars; Mana and Mayumi are on loan to the Jet Alone Project from the JSSDF.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Subverted with Gendo. He may act crazy, but everything he says or does has a purpose. It's just that what he does to achieve those purposes is insane.
• Combining Mecha: The Jet Alone in this story has this as a feature.
• Cool Bike: The "Misato Takes Shinji to NERV" scene is given a refreshing face-lift thanks to one of these. Observe.
• Covers Always Lie: As mentioned above, it was the author assuming things about Neon Genesis Evangelion from seeing a poster when he was a kid that were very different from what the real thing was (and his desire to create a story worthy of said assumptions) that started this whole project.
• Crazy-Prepared: Apparently, Nerv's idea of combat simulations "as comprehensive as possible" include a skirmish with a demon fox.
  • Misato in general, with plans for any, every and all situations, including all mechs being hijacked or Tokyo-3 being filled with saboteurs.
• Cute Bruiser: Much to Rei's consternation, this is Misato's title for her during Shinji's training. There's a good reason for that.
• Darkest Hour: Chapter 26—Shinji is trapped within Leliel, Asuka has suffered Mind Rape from Arael, Mana is out of commission after eliminating Arael in return, Pen-Pen is dead after ensuring the destruction of Armisael, and Toji and Unit-03 have been absorbed by Bardiel. Only Rei and Mayumi are left to face off against the unholy abomination Bardiel has constructed from Israfel's bodies and the three captured Evas, Units 03, 04, and 05.
• Doorstopper: One of the longest EVA fanfics around.
• Dead Fic: It was for a while, but not anymore.
• Death by Adaptation: Believe it or not, Pen-Pen.
• The Determinator: Shinji Ikari may become one in the Rebuild films, but here he's one right off.
  • Episode 9 shows that Rei has much practice in this trope.
  • Mana Kirishima is as well. Probably exemplified best when she powered through Arael's Mind Rape attack through sheer Overdrive-enhanced willpower.
• Disney Acid Sequence: Any of Rei Ayanami's flashback sequences during Episode 23, or as close as one can get in literary form.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Pen-Pen, against Armisael, via a one-two combo of Heroic Sacrifice and Taking You with Me.
• Expy: ...Let's say that we shouldn't let Ritsuko mess with corn and leave it at that.
  • Tomoe Ikari, Shinji's uncle and Yui's brother, is a character borrowed from Nobody Dies. However, unlike the effeminate design Gregg Landsman settled on, Tomoe here is essentially this guy◊.
  • Rei Ayanami is pretty much Major Kusanagi, at least in behavior.
  • Misato's team would look even more familiar if they started spontaneously shooting each other.
  • Shiori Aoba, the Gender Flip version Shigeru Aoba, has certain similarites to one Two-Hands Revy...
• Fate Worse than Death: MAGI-00, known as HEROD, is the partially pulverized body of Naoko Akagi. And she's still aware. It would lapse into And I Must Scream if she couldn't already interact with others.
• Fetch Quest: The Angels aren't mistaking LILITH for ADAM in this story; they just think LILITH knows where he is.
• Flash Back Echo: A large portion of Episode 17 involves Exposition via timeline (taking place of the canon anime's Clip Show, with the caveat that it actually supplies new information), accompanied by flashbacks for a large portion of them. This timeline turns out to be something being written down in the present by none other than SEELE-01, Keel Lorenz.
• Forceful Kiss: Done in Episode 18 to Shinji Ikari by Yomiko Nagisa - the nephilim vessel of the Angel Zeruel - of all people. Shinji proceeds to be ignored by Yomiko for the rest of the episode.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Played with in Episode 16; Shinji and Ryo don't actually switch bodies or personalities...but everyone else thinks that Shinji is Ryo and vice-versa, due to Iruel's manipulation of their AT-Fields.
• From Bad to Worse: Australia, already a death trap, no longer exists as a country because Second Impact mutated the wildlife.
  • Averted in North America, with Second Impact creating the American Giant Hornet; according to the message board, it's a Hot-Blooded insect that is currently driving the Africanized "Killer" Bee to extinction, due to it being the only "challenge".
    • Still not completely averted, since Second Impact caused the sea level to rise by approximately seventy meters, resulting in this◊.
• Gambit Pileup: Gendo has the Plan. SEELE has the Scenario. Tabris has his own agenda. Ryoji Kaji is still playing the angles.
  • As of Episode 11, Iruel is around and going it alone.
• Gender Flip: Shiori Aoba.
  • A semi-example with Yomiko Nagisa, aka Zeruel - before Rebuild Zeruel was considered the most masculine of the Angels.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Ritsuko's split personality is a result of finding out the angels kept on observing humanity before the Impacts, and never being able to find an answer.
• Hot-Blooded: Shiro Tokita. You know, the head of the Jet Alone Project from canon.
  • Mana Kirishima definitely qualifies.
• I Call It "Vera": Misato's Husky Russkie teammate Mr. Kasparov calls his precious minigun 'Sasha' (It should be obvious why) and the Evangelion-scale model 'Olga'.
• Insistent Terminology: Gendo coined the term LCL, though for some reason Ritsuko wanted to call it Tang.
  • Also, all Giant Piloted Robots (as opposed to the Angel-cloned Cyborgs that are the Evas) are called Gundams in jargon, regardless of design details or materials. Naturally, fanboys the world over are not pleased.
  • The Sneeze Cut trope is actually called the Quantum Sternutation Effect (or QSE) by Ritsuko. Gendo, as revealed in Episode 6, is immune.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Rei Ayanami, bearing elements of both Type 1 and Type 2.
• Large Ham: Gendo (as seen in the original proposal), and Ritsuko... great merciful heavens Ritsuko...
  • Shiro Tokita, in spades.
• Living Bodysuit: Ryo Sawamura is this for Iruel, the Tenth Angel.
• Lighter and Softer-Darker and Edgier: While the story has serious and dark moments, it has a much more light tone than the series that this story came from. Despite this, the story has very dark moments that rival those seen on the original EVA series.
• Loss of Identity: How Iruel elects to make Shinji suffer for Ramiel's defeat.
• Mad Scientist: ...just look at who's listed as a Ham.
• Magnificent Bastard: invoked Gendo in Episode 8. Misato practically invokes the trope.
• Manipulative Bastard: Doesn't matter how great of a dad he's become, Gendo would not be Gendo if he weren't this.
• Mauve Shirt: The Sawamuras. Ryo was possessed by the Tenth Angel and was killed when Mana destroyed his head to destroy the core, and Ryo's father committed suicide due to his son's death and Mana pushing him over the edge.
• Mic Drop: This is how Gendo Ikari concludes his Badass Boast from Episode 16.
• Motion-Capture Mecha: The Jet Alone.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • NERV.ADVERTISING.STARRING.GENDO.
  • "I'm standing on top of a motorcycle being driven by a hot woman." Yeah, this Gendo gives the one in Nobody Dies a run for his money.
• Mythology Gag: In the third episode of the TV show, Kensuke and Toji sneaked out of the shelter during an Angel attack by asking to go to the restroom. In Episode 6 of the story, we see both Kensuke and Toji inside a shelter during an Angel attack, with the former wondering why they built the restrooms inside the shelter. Toji lampshades this by saying that building the restrooms outside of a shelter is "retarded".
  • Cue a Sneeze Cut from Anno-sensei that's sitting right beside them in the same shelter.
  • In Episode 8, a truant ninth-grader complains about his homeroom teacher always rambling on about Second Impact.
  • In Episode 9, Tabris references the Hedgehog's Dilemma.
  • In Episode 14, when discussing the plan to stop Sahaquiel - named Operation Shop Till You Colony Drop - it's mentioned that the original working title was Operation Fly Me To the Moon.
  • In Episode 16, when Gendo is flashing back to the time where he nearly strangled Shinji to death, he poignantly thinks: I'm so f***ed up.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The story was inspired by this. As a kid, the author saw the page image without knowing anything else about Evangelion, and made incorrect assumptions about the characters and setting. This fanfic is based off these original impressions.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: By Word of God, the design of Pieter Langley, Asuka and Mari's father, is based off of Liam Neeson. Later chapters show he acts like certain roles with him as well.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Invoked by Gendo in Episode 6 regarding Unit-01.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Gendo plays up his wackiness for his own benefit. Meanwhile Kihl Lorenz pens the semi-comedic "Second Impact: The Book: An Irreverent Look at the Worst Disaster in the History of Humanity"
• One-Steve Limit: Averted; joining Hikari Horaki from canon is Hikari Kirishima, the overseer of Mana and Mayumi.
• Only Sane Employee: Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga. Lampshaded when Gendo states that he has no significant quirks or psychological issues, and that he sometimes wonders why he even hired him. The reason turns out to be that he's great at acquiring things.
• Papa Wolf: Pieter Langley, father of Asuka and Mari.
• Reconstruction: The original Evangelion showed the consequences of kids being forced to fight and not being informed about anything. The fic shows what happens if you prepare them for what they have to do.
• Red Baron: Pieter. His nickname, according to Kaji? The Jackal.
  • Shinji also gets this; after the death of Ramiel, he is known amongst the Angels as the Defiler.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The three MAGI of canon - Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar - are joined by a fourth MAGI named Herod.
• Rousing Speech: In Episode 16, when morale is flagging after Iruel's assault on the school, Gendo delivers one that gets the whole crowd roaring.
• Running Gag: In almost every episode, Gendo has pulled something out of his cloak, from the grapple gun to a bottle of root beer, from a flamethrower to a box of Pocky.
  • Unit-01 keeps wrecking Toji's home; once against Sachiel, a second time against Ramiel.
  • Randall keeps sneaking up on people without them noticing. His explanation is always "I AM A CAT."
• Separate Scene Storytelling: In Episode 19, as the Pilots face off against Samael in the present, there are lines of dialogue where Asuka seems to be conversing with someone about her past, which occur via flashback (playing with the Pensieve Flashback trope in the process). By the end of the episode, we see the source of Asuka's dialogue: footage of Asuka's last therapy session before leaving Germany, being watched by none other than Gendo Ikari. This continues with "The case of Misato Katsuragi" and "The case of Rei Ayanami". The former plays it as straight up separate scenes, while the latter has Rei hallucinating flashbacks due to her emotions over her past actions conflicting with her admiration of Gendo.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Mana and Mayumi, respectively.
  • Also with Kaworu and Yomiko.
• Shout-Out: Has it's own page.
• Smug Super: Mana believes herself and all other Nephilim superior to humans, constantly looks down on them and suffers from crippling Lack of Empathy. When she causes Genji Sawamura to commit suicide for not giving a crap about killing his son, while ALSO not giving a crap about THAT, Gendo gives her a brutal Breaking Speech showing exactly how hollow her nephilim superiority is.
• Sneeze Cut: Played with; see Insistent Terminology.
• Super Prototype: The Jet Alone.
• Super Robot: The Jet Alone in this continuity truly belongs to this class now. Its debut in Episode 8 alone satisfies at least five items on the checklist, never mind the fact that the robots that make up the Jet Alone are the Shining and Rising Gundams.
• Tagalong Kid: Misato used to be this when she was traveling in Australia.
• The Man Your Man Could Smell Like: Parodied at the beginning of the fourth episode.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted; Shinji is ordered to attend at least one therapy session with a psychiatrist after being 'eaten' by the Fifth Angel.
  • Played with, it was The Spy all along
• Transforming Mecha: The Jet Alone. So far, we have seen Jet Mode and Gundam Mode.
• Tsundere: Annette seems to be this where her cousin Shinji is concerned. The story DOES mention that she's not romantically involved, and that she is a rare Platonic Tsundere. Ironically, Asuka herself, being the deconstruction of the trope that she was, was not.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ramiel after Unit-01 essentially cripples its soul.
• Vocal Dissonance: Zeruel's psychic voice is described as "loud and rumbling like an avalanche" even though the Angel is in the form of a fourteen year old girl.
• Walking the Earth: A variation with Misato after she landed in Australia after Second Impact.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Ramiel's final attack had a power generation level of five million megawatts. In other words, after fifteen seconds of continuous use, you have the equivalent power of the Hiroshima bomb. Good thing Unit-00 stabbed its core before it could fire.

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