was left to the introspection of the main characters. The script's tone was influenced by the staff's mood, since they were tired and exhausted. Shinji's mood changed from the twenty-fifth episode of the classic series, creating inconsistencies. With the sense of tension of the original series gone, the producers had difficulty; Kazuya Tsurumaki worked on the feature film considering it unnecessary until the end. During the realization of the series and Death and Rebirth, Anno asked anyone who worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion to suggest ways events could be closed; Anno trusted in particular Higuchi, Sadamoto, and Ikuto Yamashita, mecha designer for the series. One of Yamashita's proposals for the never-made feature film involved the Eva-01 attacking the headquarters of the German branch of Nerv, in possession of a weapon called the "Long Range Universal Invasion Cannon", or "Dead God Spine". In the mecha designer's scenario, there would have been a war between Evangelions in a world affected by mysterious rays of light capable of turning people into werewolf-like creatures. Nerv's base would have been a sterilized stronghold surrounded by wolfmen; Shinji in a flashback would have become his Eva, with which he would have swapped bodies. The Evangelion pilots would have had weight in politics but Asuka would have been viewed with suspicion by the Nerv and as a traitor by Germany. In a scene of Yamashita's script, Shinji would have run with the werewolves, acclaimed as their king, while Rei would have cold-bloodedly killed a werewolf, saying she hates animals. Additional changes were made at the script stage; in one of the opening sequences, for example, Shinji would say goodbye to his two former classmates and friends, Kensuke Aida and Toji Suzuhara, at their middle school in Tokyo-3, just before their sudden departure for Germany. Picking up on the last scene of Neon Genesis Evangelion eighteenth episode, Toji would shoot a basketball while confined to a wheelchair. In "Sincerely Yours" Lilith and the nine Eva Series would form a triangle-shaped pattern, later replaced in the final version by a horizontal Tree of Life. For the last sequence, in which Shinji strangles Asuka until the girl caresses his cheek, Anno based it on an event that happened to an acquaintance of his; the woman on one occasion was strangled by a malicious man but as she was about to be killed, she caressed him. When the man stopped squeezing