[EVA] Misato the crack shot

[Harold Ancell]

At 09:55 PM 8/19/2007, Drew Lewis wrote:

>On 8/19/07, Carl Gustav Horn <once at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Misato is not a professional soldier.  She is a fighter definitely,
>> > & the NERV cops are paramilitary I guess, but more like armed police.
>>
>> What the 1995-97 story never explained is how Misato acquired not
>> only combat training, but training sufficient to take out three
>> assault-rifle packing JSSDF troops

A gun is not a magical totem, conferring upon its wielder any
special ability.  In this case, surprise and hitting where they
aren't wearing body armor counts for a lot more.

Shooting a bunch of armed people does not indicate any skill, and
while their failure to quickly take the "bridge" was I'm sure mostly
a matter of dramatic necessity, in "real life" the use of grenades
(free and launched) would have made that a short affair against
people without fragment protection (body armor and helmets).

>> armed with only a pistol, a pistol
>> she had never been seen before to use, except for pointing it at
>> people's backs. (It would be one of my special otaku requests to have
>> such a special flashback scene in the new films explaining this).
>
>              I always figured that she was seconded from some other branch
>of the UN military to Nerv for the duration of the crisis.  I can't think of
>any evidence of this offhand, but it would explain a few of those questions
>if she were a former infantry or  armor officer.

I don't have anything handy to cite and Wikipedia says there is no information
about her past between college and NERV (except for a bit from the manga about
"genetic research" WRT PenPen), but I *thought* it was canon she had done a
stint in the ground part of the JSDF before joining NERV, and so she's as
"professional" as an ex-JGSDF officer might be.

Learning to shoot well with a pistol only requires time, opportunity, and
determination as well as some aptitude, and while coaching is helpful, it's
not essential past the basics.  She could have learned once she was in NERV
at a level where she was issued one, I'm sure in its depths it has at least
one good conventional range.  And there *has* to be least a short course for
those who, especially in Japan, have no prior training.

Most people also say they need at least monthly refresher practice for a
handgun (long gun skills don't seem to deteriorate much), but that doesn't
seem to be true for me---however I started shooting in kindergarten, and
based on the abilities of all my blood relatives it would seem I have some
genetic aptitude as well.

All in all her performance in the one time she used it "in anger" is
entirely credible given a few reasonable assumptions like the above.

                                        - Harold