Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

It's hard to imagine that fans of Evangelion won't be pleased with this leaner, gorgeous rebuild of the original anime series. And if you're new to Evangelion, this is a great place to start. 

You Are (Not) Alone is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the first six episodes of Evangelion. It's somewhat condensed but still containing all the major moments and plot points. While the next three movies promise new story additions and characters, this movie contents itself with mostly cosmetic changes, along with tightening up the story, a few extra scenes, and eliminating some filler. There wasn't a lot in the first six episodes that needed to be altered. 

That means slightly less whining from Shinji. SLIGHTLY.

The animation and visuals are outright beautiful, especially on blu-ray. I could recommend this on that aspect, alone. The re-designed Angels and action scenes are improvements over the original's (especially the sixth Angel), in my opinion and the voice work is great.

Does You Are (Not) Alone make the original series redundant and unnecessary (or vice-versa)? No, I don't think so. Both of them have merit, and both are worth watching. But, I'm very interested in seeing if the next three Rebuild of Evangelion movies rectify some of the mistakes that the latter portion of the series fell prey to.

Evangelion 1.11 is basically a retelling of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series ep1-6 with very few deviations from the original. Of course, this is a decade newer with a much larger budget, so the animation quality itself is vastly superior, spectacular by every sense of the word. If I have any complaints they are that this new version simplifies the characters and their faults (in my opinion, the crowning achievement of the original show) and instead focuses more on action and intense battle scenes. However, this directorial decision also makes the whole thing more streamlined and accessible for the average anime fan. Finally, the English dub of this film is fantastic, practically as good as the original Japanese audio and that's saying something!

Suggested rating: PG-13 for violence and brief nudity

Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone permeates limitless possibilities and pathways in a story so connective and universal yet shakes the foundations of the genres on which it stands on so much a new and profound experience emerges from its daring. Young Shinji Ikari arrives in Tokyo-3, a city rebuilt after a cataclysmic event called Second Impact that shed the world of half the human population, to meet and work for his estranged father. It turns out he only wants his son now to pilot a giant humanoid machine named Evangelion Unit 01 made to stop unknown beings referred to as Angels from eradicating the rest of humanity. Shinji is shocked and broken hearted but nonetheless agrees to pilot it. The question he now asks is why?

Evangelion 1.0 wants to know the answer. Besides saving humanity from eminent destruction, what does Shinji want, desire, need or even get from piloting such a contraption? Praise from the world? Respect? Purpose? His father's love? As Shinji begs for the answer to these questions the city befalls attacks by Angels that serve more than just an excuse for action scenes. When the Angels attack Shinji sees the sides of people around him he never saw before. It forces him and the others around him to understand their relationship to one another.

One of these is Shinji's follow pilot Rei Ayanami, a cool and collected girl who spends better part of the movie giving a ponderous stare into space more or less oblivious to those around her. When she does react she hardly seems to understand her own feelings. Shinji asks her why she pilots an Evangelion and her answer is as simple and contemplative as the movie.

The film is the first in a planned production of four films that re-imagine the 90s series Neon Genesis Evangelion. One of the most remarkable things about this movie is how easily the episodes translate into the arch of a feature length film. Despite that the movie is as much if not more so for viewers who have never seen the series. The movie itself refines certain points left unclear in the original show, making this version more clear and understandable for old and new viewers alike.

Though the final film in the set of four promises a completely new end to the story, old fans will find the first movie very familiar. However old fans who pay close attention to certain scenes in this movie will learn that the film does more than retell the story and in the process may redefine two of the most overused formats ever in the history of cinema.

Evangelion has been a never-ending cash cow for Gainax and all associated parties since it was released, so it's not surprising that they've decided to go back to the well with a four-movie revision of the original series. The new movies offer a chance to see Evangelion animated with the budget that such a famous title deserves. The fight scenes are slick and everything is well put-together. It's not absolute top of the line animation, and it hews very closely to the default anime art style, but it's certainly better than the infamously low-budget original animation.

My memory of the original series is a little hazy, but what's shocking about this movie is how close it sticks to the TV show. Several scenes are line-for-line, shot-for-shot reprises of scenes from the original, and as far as I could tell there weren't any major changes in the plot, although I think the order of the Angels might have been shuffled around a bit. The main change is tightening everything up and making it an efficient, fast-moving giant robot action movie.

And that's fine if your main problem with Evangelion was the lack of action, but it also removes a lot of the show's style, and completely eliminates its almost meditative pace. With an actual animation budget, the show doesn't need animation shortcuts like the long almost-still scenes that crop up periodically, but losing those makes Evangelion lose some of its definitive flavour. A lot of the moments in the movie just don't have the emotional impact that their equivalents in the TV series do -- it's just one plot point after another.

Evangelion 1.0 is an effective movie, and retains some of the original's charm. But all the same I feel I can't really recommend it to anyone. If you've seen the TV show, this will all be a retread for you. If you haven't, then I would still recommend the original over this remake. The original series was far from perfect, and there was a bunch of room for a new interpretation of the general story, but Evangelion 1.0 chooses to play it safe and winds up being kind of forgettable.

While I knew a little about the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion through the reading of various fan sites dedicated to it, I've never actually sat down and watched an episode of the series. So when opportunity came by to experience the Rebuild of Evangelion, why not start the slate clean?

Rebuild of Evangelion is actually a tetralogy based on the original anime series by the same creative team, but it's not exactly a shot-by-shot rehash in that it does include some extra scenes, and I guess the objective is to allow the tetralogy to encapsulate what worked in the original, while at the same time to perhaps make it the more definitive telling of the story. Kind of like how comic books like to do the various reboots and tweaking of origins to suit the times.

We're introduced to Shinji Ikari, the teenage kid whose father Gendo is commander of an organization called NERV, which developed the Evangelion mechas to fight against alien Angels who invade Earth. To a layman like me, it's something like Ultraman battling monsters, except that are certain constraints here that make Evangelions interesting. Firstly, they are dependent on launch pads and are wired to NERV control, and what more, piloting these sophisticated mechas involves some bio-fusion between children, and the bots. Imagine having the fate of the world resting on the shoulders of a child, and what more, a rookie one in Shinji, who has to learn the ropes on the job. To complicate matters, he's the reluctant hero who whines a lot, is indecisive, and seems like he could lose it all anytime.

But that's exactly what makes Evangelion a joy to watch. The flawed heroes, compounded by the fact that with every increasingly powerful Angel to battle, the Evangelions seem to be more patched and repaired after each encounter, you'd wonder how long it could hold up before actually crumbling. The battle sequences here are nothing less than spectacular to watch, as we discover along with the heroes, just how best to defeat the vastly different Angels. Animation wise there's nothing to specially shout out about, as it's quite standard 2D fair with the usual attention to details.

Being the introductory movie, this film begins quite unconventionally in the thick of the action to grip your attention and never let up. As it moves along, it does drop hints of previous incidents, while introducing us to new characters along the way, expanding its mythos and universe. And in all intents, it does leave many doors opened for questioning, and it's almost definite that these would (hopefully) be answered in the subsequent films. Oh, and for action junkies, I give the thumbs up for the final battle in this movie - the creative team really do know how to make everything look really bleak!

For those who are new to the series, I quite sure this will serve as an excellent starting platform into the Evangelion universe. For those who have already been in the loop (and probably hated the series ending), this could be interesting for you to see what changes were made, and whether you will prefer the tetralogy instead.