New Perspective Evangelion
is a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfic by Dartz-IRL.
Noriko is a 14-year old Japanese student, and is the Fourth Child, pilot of Unit-03. On the surface, she appears as a normal, albeit a buff and busty, young girl. However, underneath the surface is a 22-year old Irishman, who was given a "life transplant" in the form of transferring his soul into Noriko's wounded form following a plane crash that severely injured her. What follows is Noriko's journey to discover what it means to separate someone else's life from their own, and whether she will lose her identity in the process of gaining knowledge, or will become something greater.
It has been a Dead Fic since October 2016. The author began a rewrite five years later, but it has not been updated since 2021.
Tropes found in this work:
- Abusive Parents: Asuka's father is the classic "tear your kid down if they're less than perfect" parent and, according to Asuka, only acknowledges her as his daughter when it's to give himself some attention or fame.
- All There in the Manual: The E-Mail Noriko sent? Can be found in the Evageeks thread.
- Amazonian Beauty: Noriko. She is the most physically powerful of the pilots, and is apparently pretty busty and attractive as well.
- Anachronic Order: Chapter 13. It starts with Tokyo-3 in flames, then alternates between the buildup to Sahaquiel's attack, and to its eventual defeat.
- Berserk Button: Kaworu's very existence seems to be one for Noriko, mostly due to how he appears to be responsible for Noriko's predicament, as well as what appears to be a genuine dislike towards his character, though it's not fully explained why she doesn't like him.
- Big Disaster Plot: Chapter 13 and 14 focuses on this. Sahaquiel decided not to play by the rules and proceeded to bomb Tokyo-3 from orbit, nearly obliterating the city. Misato took matters into her own hands and decided to launch the largest nuclear missile strike in 15 years, which successfully killed Sahaquiel, but destroying most satellites in orbit, causing parts of the North Atlantic and Europe to be irradiated, and causing at least 20,000 people to get cancer within 20 years. The aftermath of the battle shows that Tokyo-3 lost most of it's power, with it only coming back for only a few hours at a time to preserve power, causing people to not be able to bathe in at least a week and destroying the homes of many families. The death toll, in total, was around 1.4 million people, excluding the irradiation deaths.
- Boom, Headshot!: Noriko name-drops the trope when, during the mission to secure Unit 04 from the Americans, she takes out Asuka during the first combat simulation with her Eva's pistol.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Noriko wets herself after stopping Shinji and Asuka's cable from falling further into Mt. Asama.
- Cassandra Truth: Done three times in the story:
- The first was when Noriko decides to tell Haruhi about everything that goes on in NERV, including Seele, the angels, and the Evangelions. The only thing she does is change several names as to make it look like pure coincidence. It's Subverted, however, when NERV not only deletes Noriko's story but also begin to target Haruhi.
- When History gives Noriko an assignment on writing an essay of what would happen if Second Impact did not happen, she decided to tell what actually happened post-2000 in her world. Played Straight, however, since her essay was rejected, being called "too fantastical and cyberpunk" to be likely.
- This trope is Zig-Zagged in the case with Asuka. She is caught in the mix of believing Noriko's knowledge about future events, but also doesn't fully believe her since she believes she is either brain-damaged or delusional. She comes to the compromise that, if the 11th and 12th angel are as Noriko told her, she will fully believe her.
- Child Soldiers: The Evangelion pilots. Moreso than the original series since their training is delved into in more detail, such as fire-arm training and leadership skills.
- Creepy Child: Rei and Kaworu, of course.
- Kaworu should be noted as having knowledge of how Noriko got to the Evaverse, which manages to make him creepier than canon.
- Crossover: Kinda one with Haruhi Suzumiya. Turns out, she is not actually Haruhi. Her real name was Sakura Ikazuchi, who, after her parents were killed during one of the first Eva battles, was driven insane by grief and fully believed herself to be Haruhi, due to being a major fan of the series. She later forced her friends into her fantasy, forcing the characters roles onto them, as is the case with Kyon.
- Covert Pervert: Asuka keeps a collection of "private" magazines beneath her bed, as well as admits that her favorite part of Shinji is his ass.
- Noriko could also qualify, but is not exactly "covert" about it. She can't keep stop thinking about Shinji's "assets" when she sees him in his plugsuit, and masturbates only on the weekends at the least due to Asuka sleeping in, and even then she is apparently still loud enough for Asuka to notice.
- Deadpan Snarker: Noriko's inner thoughts are surprisingly sarcastic.
- Door Stopper: It's fourteen chapters in and over 150,000 words long. There've only been three Angels featured so far (the 8th, 9th and 10th, but still).
- Eagle Land: A mix of Type-1, and Type-2, when the Americans come to visit to negotiate the release of Evangelion Unit 04. Noriko does not seem to have a very high opinion of Americans at all, viewing them as very jingoistic, over-the-top, and cheesy, especially when it comes to speeches. However, she does admit that they are at least trying their best when it comes to making Units 03 and 04, and the American General even tries to give a Rousing Speech to Noriko in order to boost her self-esteem, though she doesn't really care and is annoyed by his efforts.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: What Sahaquiel attempts, which destroyed Minamiizu and nearly obliterated Tokyo-3.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Subverted. The original Noriko was a native Japanese speaker who could barely speak English, but the poor sod controlling her reigns now is a native English speaker who must relearn Japanese. Something that very nearly gets her into trouble with the NERV higher-ups. Even when she fully understands the Japanese language, she is very bad at speaking it herself, speaking in fragmented, broken sentences, and only speaks fluently when recounting her memories. She even got the nickname "Cavegirl" from Asuka due to it.
- Fantastic Racism: Noriko fully believes that Kaworu is incapable of expressing actual emotions and that his feelings, especially for Shinji, are completely fake, simply because she thinks that he, as an Angel, is incapable of feeling human emotions.
- First Kiss: Shinji and Noriko share a first kiss after she admits she likes him, but Shinji reveals that he likes Rei and doesn't like Noriko romantically, which deeply upsets Noriko, but finds comfort that Shinji found someone to love.
- First Period Panic: Noriko gets one when she feels a pain in her gut and needs to go to the bathroom, only to discover she is on her period. It especially does not help that she is a 22-year old man in a girl's body. Misato comes and gives her a tampon. After inserting it, her response?Noriko: (Shivering) Kimochi Warui...
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Noriko does not believe in God or Heaven, due to the knowledge of what happens in the Catholic Church (i.e Pedophilia), and believes God is simply luck and nothing more, despite the fact that Kaworu showcases god-like powers and can appear in her dreams, and her general predicament is fantastical and unbelievable.
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Follow the Leader: Quietly based on the original I was a Teenage Dummy Plug by Foxboy. - Gender Bender: Deconstructed. Takes a rather more realistic approach than others, focusing more on the effects of being trapped in the body of someone of the opposite sex, rather than using it for fanservice.
- Genius Ditz: Noriko has the lowest IQ score out of all the pilots and does subpar to terrible in school, specifically History, which she has an F in. However, she is extremely good at math, and was an engineer in her previous life. It's to the point where she managed to shock both Asuka and Ritsuko during Mr. Langley's presentation of his railgun.
- I Choose to Stay: Noriko comes to this conclusion, believing she would feel guilty for abandoning real people who'd become her friends.
- Just Friends: Noriko has a crush on Shinji, but she doesn't want to act on it and just stay as friends, due to how she still isn't comfortable with dating a boy, her duty as a pilot, not wanting to hurt Shinji, and the fact she knows Asuka has feelings for Shinji.
- Majorly Awesome: Major Katsuragi, who orders the largest nuclear strike in fifteen years, without blinking.
- Nuclear Option: After N2 Weapons fail to destroy the orbiting Sahaquiel after it obliterated Minamiizu and nearly destroying Tokyo-3, with conventional weapons doing nothing, an attack using more powerful nuclear munitions is ordered.
- Nuclear Weapons: The final straw Misato uses against Sahaquiel, launching the most devastating nuclear strike in 15 years, which succeeds in killing it, but the after effects of the nukes serve as a consequence of this.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Zig-Zagged regarding Noriko, and Deconstructed Trope in regards to whether it's good, bad or in-between. The MC was originally an 22-year old Irish Engineer who is now in the body of a 14-year old Japanese student, but she is desperately trying to hold onto her past life and not remember any of Noriko's past, for fear of actually losing herself, so whenever something does happen that makes her remember something, she takes two steps back. She doesn't know what will happen, but if Misato's advice is taken, then her personality will be a blend of both her old life and her new one. However, her fear of losing her identity, coupled with her hormones and sexuality being warped because of her body, makes her too afraid to consider if it is good or bad, and remains a conflict throughout the story.
- Oceanic Airlines: The plane crash was an Oceanic Airlines flight, and the airline is apparently run by one John Locke.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rei, despite still being the stoic, shy, and reserved girl she usually is, is far more expressive towards Asuka's insults than in the Anime. It's to the point where, when Asuka begins berating her and telling Rei her emotions are fake, she starts quivering in anger, but then let's go of it before anything worse can happen.
- Proud to Be a Geek: Noriko. She loves tabletop RPGs, likes to build model kits in her spare time, looking up RP forums to see the hypothetical stats of the Evangelions, and in general loves Sci-Fi and Anime. Though when she tries to join the Anime Club at school, she doesn't participate, since she does not want to infringe on Shinji's hobbies.
- Self-Insert: A shockingly good one at that!
- Shout-Out: Usually things such as Star Trek or Star Wars, but usually some obscure reference or quote from some anime. Though most of the time it is played with jarring unsubtlety, with references either flying the reader's head or not being able to make sense in the context they are used.
- Shinji played a RPG about biomechs called Engels in Kensuke's club.
- The short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin, specifically during the aftermath of the battle with Sahaquiel, where Noriko questions if it was the correct thing to launch the nukes.
- "7-7-7-7 7-7-7-7-Batman", which is the launch code to fire Unit-03's missiles.
- Noriko begins looking through her old self's journal entries, finding out that she used to cosplay as Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan.
- Shrinking Violet: Noriko. Due to being originally an Irish man and Evangelion fan, being put into a teenage girl's body and being in the Evangelion universe severely tarnished her sense of self. It's to the point where Shinji Ikari has more self-esteem than her.
- Show Within a Show: Blue Aru, a stand in for the actual Evangelion series, being based around actual fighter pilots with Babylonian mythology mixed in.
- Soul Fragment: Bits of Noriko's memories and interests mesh with the MC. Her characteristics, such as her love of athleticism, carry on despite the MC controlling her not being into physical activities. It's unclear if her soul is completely vacant from her body or if it's still there, but has just meshed with the MC.
- The Social Expert: Heavily Averted in the case of Noriko. She has no idea what to do when it comes to the issues of the characters and is very bad at direct communication, such as when Asuka gets into an argument with her father, where, instead of Noriko trying to console her, immediately leaves once Asuka tells her to. This is a result of her belief that she would make things worse if she tried to do so, and believes it's better to do something she knows rather than what she doesn't.
- Tsundere: Noriko notes herself as one, but also thoroughly deconstructs the concept. She personally describes herself as a type-2, being mostly sweet and nice but still having a bit of fire in her once in awhile. She is especially one towards Kaworu, for (maybe) putting her in her predicament.
