So yeah,this is basically my first anime review I've ever did in my life,and while I could've started with more obvious choices I decided to start with a rather odd one

 

And what better way to start this with the mindf**k that is the Evangelion franchise?Yyyyeah kinda the awkward place to start I know.

 

Well,my history with the Evangelion franchise is fairly recent,I started watching the original series at the end of 2012 and being utterly and absolutely confused the whole way through,however it wasn't bad at all but there is one and only one thing that made me hate the original series instead of being a fan of it.....The ending.....oh my god the ending.And by that I mean both the original ending with the -we ran out of budget- scenes and the End of Evangelion.....both really pissed me off especially the End of Evangelion,which I assure you to this day is still the most confusing thing I've ever seen in my entire life...I'm not even joking when I say this,like holy shit I really hated the End of Evangelion and it left a soar taste in my mouth for the Evangelion franchise.

 

Thankfully,thanks to Ryan from Brainscratchcomms who recommended it to me,I discovered the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series,which are basically a sort of retelling of the original events but in a much better more understandable manner in terms of storytelling

 

I started with the first movie:Evangelion 1.11(or 1.0) :You are (Not) Alone,which is a retellingsummarization of the first 8 episodes of the show.And I have to say,I'm really impressed by what I saw

 

 

For one,the production value has obviously increased tremendously,the animations look beautiful,the characters and backgrounds are more detailed and overall it's beautiful to look at in HD,the music was improved and the voice acting in the English dub(which btw is done by Funimation) is great and spot on most of the time.

 

Though the best thing about this movie for me is how the story differs from how the original series was told.The story is now more understandable and easy to follow more than the original series,some characters are now more fleshed out,especially one specific character that I used to hate so much in the original series:Shinji Ikari

 

He's now at least a much more believable character than how he was in the original series,his bitching and whining has been reduced a lot and instead of forcing the viewer to feel sorry for him like the Original series's fail attempt to do so(which made him really annoying and unrelatable in the original series)by making him bitch about it all the time,instead it shows his struggle to find meaning in his life rather than him complaining about it.Sure there are still some of those moments where you wanna tell Shinji to STFU,but it's way more less than what was in the original series and at least they're trying to redeem his character and make it more relatable than his previous whiny emo self from the original series.

 

The movie did a great job in summarizing the first half of the show and that's in just 1 hour and 40 minutes,and I had more enjoyment in those 1 hour and 40 minutes than the first 8 episodes of the show.And it's also more welcoming for those new to the series so I highly recommend that if you wanna start watching Evangelion,start with the Rebuild series of movies.

 

They have better production value in terms of animation,music and voice acting and they're much easier to get into than the original series....though you might wanna check the original series if only to see how everything started though personally I don't recommend doing so

 

 

Overall I'm impressed by the first Evangelion movie in the Rebuild,sure not all of the issues that I had with the original series were fixed.But it fixed enough of them to make me enjoy the series and "Not want to strangle Shinji for one"

 

 

With that in mind I give Evangelion 1.11:You are (Not) alone a score of:

 

8 out of 10

 

 

 

I'll get to the other movies later down the road but not now as I have quite the number of animes to finish.Until then

 

I hope to God I really hope that the fourth and last movie would actually be good and end up not being a clustermindf*** like End of Evangelion.....though from what I've seen so far I think Gainax actually learned and might avoid that.......hopefully....maybe....for the safety of what remained of my Brain and sanity

 

k then

 

apparently no one here watch this..but that's ok

k then

 

apparently no one here watch this..but that's ok

Ipm not a ghost you know... ¬¬

Ipm not a ghost you know... ¬¬

I meant someone who'd actually discuss the series here with me

 

But alas,it has to be something from Shonen Jump otherwise no one would bother with it here

And here I thought End of Evangelion was the best part of the whole franchise. Different strokes for different folks.

And here I thought End of Evangelion was the best part of the whole franchise. Different strokes for different folks.

(Finally someone to discuss the series with ^_^)

 

Well if you love End of Evangelion,more power to you I respect your opinion

 

It's just,no matter how many times I rewatched both the original series and End of Evangelion itself,I can never understand what's going on in the End of Evangelion

 

Though after watching a review of the End of Evangelion but GRArkada on youtube I think I might got a glimpse of understanding...but overall how End of Evangelion basically ended with the 3rd impact happening despite we spent the entire series trying to stop it only for HUMANS(not another Angel) to initiate it anyway?It kinda disappointed me

 

But hey,that's just me though,feel free to explain End of Evangelion to me cuz I'm desperately in need for one

Edited May 19, 201411 yr by Red Tribal

(Finally someone to discuss the series with ^_^) Well if you love End of Evangelion,more power to you I respect your opinion It's just,no matter how many times I rewatched both the original series and End of Evangelion itself,I can never understand what's going on in the End of Evangelion Though after watching a review of the End of Evangelion but GRArkada on youtube I think I might got a glimpse of understanding...but overall how End of Evangelion basically ended with the 3rd impact happening despite we spent the entire series trying to stop it only for HUMANS(not another Angel) to initiate it anyway?It kinda disappointed me But hey,that's just me though,feel free to explain End of Evangelion to me cuz I'm desperately in need for one

I'm not sure that EOE is as confusing as people make it out to be. The plot would seem more straightforward if it weren't for the avant-garde visuals. Most of the christian symbolism didn't go beyond being just symbolism (which the japanese seem facinated by.)I have only seen the first 2 of the rebuild films.

I'm not sure that EOE is as confusing as people make it out to be. The plot would seem more straightforward if it weren't for the avant-garde visuals. Most of the christian symbolism didn't go beyond being just symbolism (which the japanese seem facinated by.)I have only seen the first 2 of the rebuild films.

The chirstian symbolism in my opinion was absolutely pointless and added nothing to the story from what I've understood in the series,they've just put it there just to look cool according to them.

 

My whole confusion with EOE stems from the whole connection with the angels,NERV and the overall plan of the other organization that want to initiate the 3rd impact even though the last angel was defeated

 

Again,if you understand the plot of EOE,I'll be more than happy to hear from you ^_^

 

I'm serious I'd be happy if you explained the movie to me ^_^

The chirstian symbolism in my opinion was absolutely pointless and added nothing to the story from what I've understood in the series,they've just put it there just to look cool according to them.

 

My whole confusion with EOE stems from the whole connection with the angels,NERV and the overall plan of the other organization that want to initiate the 3rd impact even though the last angel was defeated

 

Again,if you understand the plot of EOE,I'll be more than happy to hear from you ^_^

 

I'm serious I'd be happy if you explained the movie to me ^_^

It's been years since I've seen the show or the movies, but from what I remember...

 

Gendo and SEELE wanted to initiate the Third Impact to bring humanity into a godlike state.  Unit 01 is the key to starting it. Unit 01 basically gives shinji a choice after the third impact begins (probably because unit 01 is his mother, and Rei is a clone of his mother, which gives him more influence than Gendo or SEELE could have predicted), and he chooses individuality rather than the godlike unity of the primordial soup which was what SEELE wanted.  They both got what they wanted in the end, though it looks pretty bleak for Shinji.

 

The second half of the movie, the "Third-impact" is basically an excuse for the creators to put in a bunch of cool visuals and christian mythology.

Edited May 20, 201411 yr by Hardrada

It's been years since I've seen the show or the movies, but from what I remember, Unit 01 basically gives shinji a choice after the third impact begins (probably because unit 01 is his mother, and Rei is a clone of his mother, which gives him more influence than Gendo or SEELE could have predicted), and he chooses individuality rather than the godlike unity of the primordial soup which was what SEELE wanted.  They both got what they wanted in the end, though it looks pretty bleak for Shinji.

 

The second half of the movie, the "Third-impact" is basically an excuse for the creators to put in a bunch of cool visuals and christian mythology.

So basically the whole thing with Shinji's psychy and the world's ending is just so Anno can riff his depression off and throw a bunch of symbolism?Cuz really the conclusion doesn't give any shred of hope for neither Shinji or even Asuka,it won't be easy for those two repopulate the world again and create an AdamEve effect nor that all of the people who died during the third impact would accept their individuality and come back.

 

I hope to God that the Rebuild series fix this,which btw is the reason why I love the first movie so much cuz they've fixed a lot of stuff that I hated about the original series in that movie(well,the first 8 episodes anyway)so I have faith that the 4th movie would fix the ending to be at least understandable without the madness I've seen in End of Evangelion

So basically the whole thing with Shinji's psychy and the world's ending is just so Anno can riff his depression off and throw a bunch of symbolism?Cuz really the conclusion doesn't give any shred of hope for neither Shinji or even Asuka,it won't be easy for those two repopulate the world again and create an AdamEve effect nor that all of the people who died during the third impact would accept their individuality and come back.

 

I hope to God that the Rebuild series fix this,which btw is the reason why I love the first movie so much cuz they've fixed a lot of stuff that I hated about the original series in that movie(well,the first 8 episodes anyway)so I have faith that the 4th movie would fix the ending to be at least understandable without the madness I've seen in End of Evangelion

I thought the EoE ending was fine, but it'll still be interested to see how they change the ending for this new series.  I saw the rebuilds recently, but I don't remember the first one changing much from the episodes other than updated visuals and cutting content to fit the length. 

I thought the EoE ending was fine, but it'll still be interested to see how they change the ending for this new series.  I saw the rebuilds recently, but I don't remember the first one changing much from the episodes other than updated visuals and cutting content to fit the length. 

What I liked about the first Rebuild movie,as I've stated above,is that during the cutting process,they cut a lot of Shinji's bitching and whining,He's now at least a much more believable character than how he was in the original series,his bitching and whining has been reduced a lot and instead of forcing the viewer to feel sorry for him like the Original series's fail attempt to do so(which made him really annoying and unrelatable in the original series)by making him bitch about it all the time,instead it shows his struggle to find meaning in his life rather than him complaining about it.Sure there are still some of those moments where you wanna tell Shinji to STFU,but it's way more less than what was in the original series and at least they're trying to redeem his character and make it more relatable than his previous whiny emo self from the original series.

 

The first rebuild movie basically cut the bullshit and went straight ahead to the good points about the Evangelion franchise.

 

Sure it didn't change much,but it cut the stuff that hindered the first couple of episodes in the series

 

It's better to show the viewers and give them the choice to relate to Shinji and feel sorry for him rather than hammering them in the head saying(please feel sorry for our character you have to or else)

Edited May 20, 201411 yr by Red Tribal

What I liked about the first Rebuild movie,as I've stated above,is that during the cutting process,they cut a lot of Shinji's bitching and whining,He's now at least a much more believable character than how he was in the original series,his bitching and whining has been reduced a lot and instead of forcing the viewer to feel sorry for him like the Original series's fail attempt to do so(which made him really annoying and unrelatable in the original series)by making him bitch about it all the time,instead it shows his struggle to find meaning in his life rather than him complaining about it.Sure there are still some of those moments where you wanna tell Shinji to STFU,but it's way more less than what was in the original series and at least they're trying to redeem his character and make it more relatable than his previous whiny emo self from the original series.

 

The first rebuild movie basically cut the bullshit and went straight ahead to the good points about the Evangelion franchise.

 

Sure it didn't change much,but it cut the stuff that hindered the first couple of episodes in the series

 

It's better to show the viewers and give them the choice to relate to Shinji and feel sorry for him rather than hammering them in the head saying(please feel sorry for our character you have to or else)

I think the original Shinji was a Gary Stu anyway.  I'm sure the creator has worked out his own problems by now.

I think the original Shinji was a Gary Stu anyway.  I'm sure the creator has worked out his own problems by now.

What I got from the original Shinji is that,he's pretty much a manifestation of Anno's depression and the problems he got in real life.Though the Rebuild series now has more people working on the story not just Anno himself so we won't experience the madness that we witnessed in EOE hopefully