Once More with Feeling

Once More with Feeling is a Neon Genesis Evangelion Peggy Sue Fanfic. We'll allow the author describe the plot:

"This is a fic I had been working on since...hell, around half to a decade ago now after having my mind destroyed by 'The End of Evangelion'.
The idea being basically that Shinji decides in Third Impact to 'go back', but Lilith takes a different idea of what 'go back' means, inserts a steel rod into his back to make up for his complete lack of a spine in the OT, then sends him back into the past. Angst mostly intact, but with full knowledge of the future and the ability to actually stand up for himself (shock horror!)."

So, Shinji finds himself now in the past, determined to prevent all past mistakes and avert the The End of the World as We Know It. Once More With Feeling is a straight example of a Peggy Sue fic. The writer devotes a lot of time to describe and developing the world -- including a bunch of background details -- the characters, their emotions and conflicts.

Once More With Feeling can be found here. For many years it was in hiatus (due to a severe Writer's Block), and readers had feared it was a Dead Fic. A new chapter was posted in July 2013, and the author called the story "live" again, but it's been years (again) since more has been seen, and the fic is (sadly) considered dead once more.

Tropes used in Once More with Feeling include:

• Action Girl: Asuka, Rei and Misato
• Arc Words: "I am, I." This is thought by various characters whose ways of thinking are changed for the better by Shinji, namely Rei and Asuka.
• Assimilation Plot: SEELE and Gendo's real intentions
  • Also, as a side-effect from Instrumentality, Shinji went back to the past with not only his own knowledge and memories, but also those of the people around him. For example, he has Asuka's memories of when her mother went crazy, knows the rather intimate (and private) details of Kaji and Misato's history (and a couple things that Kaji never told anyone), and full knowledge about the true events of the Second Impact.
• The Atoner: Shinji. Misato and Hikari cannot understand why he seems so determined to make everybody happy. They can not understand it because neither of them knows he blames himself for everybody's deaths and for letting everybody down.
• Battle Couple: Asuka and Shinji started the path to become one as battling the Sixth and Seventh.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Asuka/Shinji. It was there in the series but it has increased due to Shinji having a better insight in Asuka's feelings and emotions. Sometimes they seem being channeling Kouji/Sayaka.
  • Amusingly, they actually enjoy trading barbs back and forth.

Shinji: Asuka's mad at me. All's right with the world.

• The Berserker: Shinji's first battle made NERV believe his EVA had gone berserker. It hadn't.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Shinji.
• Broken Ace: Shinji again. Comes across as The Ace to the rest of the characters, but deep down he's fighting hard to keep himself from falling into old habits; add to that the massive amount of guilt and self-loathing he feels towards his actions in the original timeline.
  • And Asuka is still one. That is what you get when you are a Tetsuya Tsurugi Expy.
• Brother-Sister Incest: Shinji has decided he will romantically pursue Asuka and treat Rei like a sister this time around. However he also thinks his feelings towards Rei are as deep as his feelings towards Asuka. He also finds Rei physically attractive, and sometimes he has to remind himself she is his sister.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Shinji does this twice.
• Canon Immigrant: Someone asked the author if Mana Kirishima would show up. He answered: "Who is Mana Kirishima?" After looking for information about her, he stated she would show up, but nobody better count on it being more than one scene or her role being big.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: If someone asks Asuka, she will say that Shinji is just a friend... but if another girl shows interest, Asuka will warn her away. Rei does not appreciate that either her schoolmates are obsessed with Shinji.
• Combat Pragmatist: Before battling Israfel, Asuka mutters "Two against one is hardly a fair fight." Misato sharply informs her the last thing she wants to give the Angels is a fair fight. Shinji is not particularly concerned with fighting fairly either (and in fact he has a quite unfair advantage about the enemy, and he uses it wantonly).
• Deadpan Snarker: Because of his former life and his new no-nonsense attitude, Shinji has developed a very sarcastic, caustic sense of humor.
• Dead Fic: Long believed to be one, but the release of a new chapter in July 2013 (and subsequent "work-in-progress" teasers) allayed those fears.
• Driven to Suicide: Mentioned, but not really invoked. After Shinji reveals his whole story to him, Kaji wonders how the kid has kept himself from "eating the gun", so to speak.
• Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: When Shinji thinks about what he did the only time he saw Asuka naked he disgustedly wonders what he was thinking.
• Emotionless Girl: Rei begins like this but she slowly starts opening up. However she decides to hide her changes from Gendo and SEELE out of a growing sense of self-preservation.
• Eva Fins
• Falling Into the Cockpit: Subverted. Gendo and everyone else believe Shinji is piloting EVA for first time. He is not, but he successfully deceives them.
• Fiery Redhead: Asuka is quite the spitfire, although Shinji's influence is subtly helping her to control and channel her temper better.
• Forgiveness: Shinji seeks everybody's forgiveness by not screwing up things this time, even if no one remembers what he did.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Shinji. He blatantly tells Asuka that she is the only person he would have gone to the school dance with.
• Heroic BSOD: Shinji has a near mental breakdown in chapter 13 when he's recounting his story to Kaji and a JDF intelligence officer; they have to slip him a mild sedative to calm him down.
• Humongous Mecha: The Evas.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: A hilarious version. Shinji, on a whim, reveals the whole bit about "I'm a time traveler who's trying to change the past to atone for my mistakes"... to Pen Pen. The bird's response?

[Pen Pen] stared at his back for several long, long seconds before continuing into the kitchen, retrieving a can from Misato's stash, stopping in consideration, retrieving a second, and retreating into his fridge.
"Yeah" Shinji muttered as he stacked the plates in the dishwasher. "That's about what I thought you'd say".

• • Played straight with Kaji, who admits he needed several hours of hard drinking after getting proof of Shinji's claims of time-travel.
• Ironic Echo: Asuka to Shinji: "You're not the type of person who just sits around, moping in your bedroom for hours on end."
• Lady in Red: Asuka wears a stunning red gown to the school dance; Shinji even arranges for the DJ to play Chris De Burgh's "Lady in Red" for them to slow dance to.
• Latex Space Suit: The plugsuits.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Shinji's new attitude is due to him being aware of what is at stake and refusing to fail everybody again. Hence, he is more determined and dangerous in battle. (Lilith also tweaked his personality a bit for the better in the process of sending him back.)
• Mama Bear: When Shinji and Asuka were fighting Gaghiel Shinji could not focus properly. Then he tried reaching out for Asuka's mother, screaming mentally her daughter would die if she didn't help them. Kyoko reacted so furiously the backlash knocked Shinji out, as Unit-02 easily forced Gaghiel's jaws open. Asuka reached a 100% synchronization with her EVA right then.
  • Misato is also fiercely protective of Shinji and Asuka. (Kaji notes that she was perfectly willing to kill to protect Shinji.)
• Meaningful Name: Averted. We get to see things from the JSSDF's POV this time around, and the Code Names they use are deliberately meaningless; the guy actually responsible for the designations tends to name them after random, everyday things that happen to be in the room with him. Example: Operation "Wallpaper" is the name for their highly classified ongoing investigation into SEELE and NERV, while their highest ranking source is known as Agent "Balcony".
• Mind Screw: This is Evangelion. It is to be expected. Other than the Third Impact, a minor but humorous one happens when a package is been delivered to the Katsuragi household while Shinji is at school. Shinji doesn't want to try figuring out how Pen Pen had signed for it because he suspects the truth would destroy his mind.
  • A lot of things Pen Pen does tend to mess with Shinji's or Asuka's minds; Misato has somehow turned the bird into an alcoholic and he apparently reads the Wall Street Journal every morning to check stock prices.
• The Mole: Shinji. He reveals the truth to Kaji, hoping the older man and spy will help him to avert the Third Impact. In turn, Kaji gets him in contact with the Japanese military, and he (Shinji) becomes their best source of info on the activities and goals of NERV and SEELE. He even gets a code-name: Balcony.
• No Endor Holocaust: Averted. The author doesn't shy away of showing how much people perish in the battles and how much collateral and property damage they cause.
• Noodle Incident: The Jet Alone mess? It's just mentioned in passing.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Genre Savvy Shinji goes out of his way to act completely inept in his first combat simulation (and does such a good job of it that the staff nicknamed him "Godzilla"), then asks for a week of intense combat training so he can have a more believable explanation for his piloting skills.
• Oh Crap: From Gendo and Ritsuko when Shinji stated he remembered how his mother died. Also, Shinji realizing that one of the changes in the timeline was that the Angels were becoming more powerful and more dangerous than he remembered.
• Older Than They Look/Wise Beyond Their Years: After traveling to the past, Shinji looks (naturally) like a teenager. However he mentally and emotionally is rather older. A secondary character actually notes this.
• One-Liner: Lampshaded. Shinji notes to himself that one of the best parts of going back in time is "Using all those clever lines you thought up too late."
• Out-of-Character Moment: Like many Peggy Sue fics, this comes into play. Several characters have noted that Shinji's current personality does not match up with previous reports on him. Also, Ritsuko became suspicious of Shinji after she noticed the supposedly "Berserk" EVA 01 use a prog knife the same way she had seen Asuka do in a video report even though Shinji and Asuka had yet to meet.
• Peggy Sue
• Playing Cyrano: Kaji plays Cyrano to Shinji during the school dance. Unlike most examples, it goes off more or less without a hitch: Kaji is in no danger of loving Asuka as anything other than a daughter surrogate (and is already in love with Misato), Shinji repeats his given lines to himself to the point where he can quote them perfectly, and Asuka is genuinely interested in Shinji. Plus...with Ryouji Kaji as your Cyrano, how could you possibly lose?
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shinji and Asuka are like this. Asuka and Rei also are, but their relationship is mellower than it was in the original timeline.
• Robeast: The Angels.
• Sense Freak: Rei's discovery of and response to the simple sensual pleasures of a spa visit (not to mention silk pajamas) in chapter 12 contribute strongly to her decision and determination to thwart Gendo's plans.
• Shipper on Deck: Shinji tries hooking up Touji and Hikari. He also tries setting Rei up with Kensuke. Kaji also gives tips to Shinji for winning Asuka over. There also is an interesting inversion: Obviously Shinji is not against Kaji and Misato hooking up, but after telling Kaji how his death left Misato devastated in the original timeline, Kaji decides to stop flirting with her until the Angels, Gendo and SEELE are defeated and dead.
• Took a Level in Badass: Shinji
• Tsundere: Asuka, of course. Though she's beginning to show more of her "dere" side than she ever did in Canon; due to her interactions with Shinji, she's started to re-examine her life.
• Tragic Keepsake: Shinji somehow brought Misato's cross-shaped pendant with him to the past (likely Lilith/Rei's doing) as a reminder of his past mistakes. It becomes important later on when it's used to prove his time-travel story to Kanji and the military.
• WAFF: During the scenes involving Shinji and Asuka.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Some fans have wondered what happened to Rei/Lilith after her last chat with Shinji. The author has stated she was barely a memory that has since faded.