Shinji stuck on a broken piece of planet, naked except for some sad leftover clothes, gambling his dignity away with Asuka while Rei watches with that deadpan face and threatens both of them with more humiliation if they stall too much. That’s basically the energy here. It’s blackjack, yeah, but it feels more like a really horny arguments compilation than a card game half the time. You hit, you stay, you pray you don’t bust, because every fucked up hand is one more bit of clothing gone and one more excuse for Asuka to scream at Shinji about what a useless perv he is. And also she’s right, but she’s also slowly stripping, so who’s actually winning here? Quiet part out loud: the best moments are when she’s raging, cheeks red, tits out, still pretending this is all about pride and not about the fact that she’s been trapped alone with him for years and obviously horny as hell.

I liked how the blackjack itself isn’t trying to be clever. Cards pop, you slam “hit” like an idiot, you go over 21, Asuka calls you a dumbass and loses her skirt anyway because Rei is tweaking the rules just to watch them squirm. You get that weird mix of Evangelion angst and dumb sex-comedy, like someone took the original show, cut out all the robots, and said “ok, now they just play horny casino on a rock in space.” Incorrectly, I kept expecting Gendo to walk in or some Angel to show up, but nope, it’s just this awkward threesome energy where Rei’s the referee with god powers and zero patience. There are small things that kept bugging me, like how one particular voice line repeats a bit too much right when you’re trying to focus on the next hand, but then you’re suddenly staring at Asuka’s bare ass and forgot what you wanted to complain about in the first place. Also I still don’t understand why Shinji sometimes looks like he might cry even when he wins a hand, though honestly, feels in character. The humor swings from cringe to actually funny without any warning. One second it’s a cheap boob joke, next second Rei just casually calls out their entire trauma in one line. It’s messy, horny, kinda trashy, and somehow that fits these three way better than it should.