Evangelion: The "Rebuild" Films + Thrice Upon a Time (2007 - 2021)
I decided to collect here some reviews I posted for the entries in the Neon Genesis: Evangelion series of films made following the "End of Evangelion" (which was in 1997 of course and I reviewed some time back, I'll link for more).
This was for sure a way fi make some extra money from the IP, but I also would say that, while sometimes varying in quality (they got better as they went along), showed a unique and bold way of recontextualizing a series that lasted for many hours on television.
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007)
So, this is... turning into a commitment, I suppose.
I thought I would simply jump from "End of Evangelio" to the 3.33 film (since that appears to be the follow up to that end of the story)... but but but, sports fans, Hideaki Anno created a whole other spinoff series of movies reencapsilating (er, "Remixing") the original show. So... I feel it behooves me to watch this one and then 2.22 before I go to 3.33. Damn. This reminds me why getting into Manga always looked like a giant hassle. But, hey, let's give it a whirl...
(30 minutes or so in) Oh, so Anno decided to do his own Star Wars special edition... only if he somehow managed to get all the original actors back and reshoot everything seemingly the same... except for the slick effects now able to rock on the computer thingamabob. Only it is also the Special Edition that manages to trim off certain edges - it has to, it is 6 episodes put into a 103 minute run time (roughly that's a half hour down, with other effects and ideas put in that I don't have time to do a YouTube comparison video on) - and I have mixed feelings. Oh, and the title comes up *52* minutes into the movie... a record?
Objectively, this is not at all badly produced and the character work is still fine on the whole, and it has the gigantic feelings and terrific voice acting of the original (why not, the original Japanese cast is here - don't try the English dub by the way, it feels off... Re-Edit - I did eventually go to thr English dub and it is... whatever), and it was sweet to see the relationship develop between Shinji and Misato again, like flipping through an old photo album... except it is not so old, it is "new." The serialized storytelling stil has more umph as, you know, a *serial,* but as a movie I don't doubt a newcomer would find it a fun rousing piece of apocalyptic sci fi.
But I'm with those who don't think there was anything that off or needed extra sprucing up with the equivalent of Rims on a car; the "old" action animation was spectacular, not just for what it was but for today, like in the 2020s, and you could tell the artistry and care the animators put into the wretchedly beautiful violent set pieces. Here, there is still work, but it is also... unnecessary? And that's hard to shake. Frankly, some of it also doesn't look as good or.. no, that's not fair, it is more about it being far less organic to the rest of the world the characters are in like the original series. By the climax it was even more noticable.
Or, quite simply, it's a big mistake to watch this so quickly (like within weeks) of watching the original - years later? Shrug.
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Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009)
For me, an encapsulation of this movie vs the TV show comes with *that* elevator confrontation between Rei and Asuka, where they talk about Shinji and their roles in the Eva's and how they decidedly don't see eye to eye.
Both show and movie have that scene, but it is just different enough that, if you have seen the show recently enough to the film, you will sit up and take notice. And maybe you are wondering about what cuts deeper (or maybe not, but I will say anyway), and suffice to say I prefer the elevator scene between these two young ladies in the original show.
Part of it is simply because of the time (the "work" in writer-speak) that we have in the episode version of the storylines that builds up to this moment - this is right before the one hour mark in the film version - but a major part of it is how daring it was for Anno and his team to keep on that silent beat in the show (53 seconds!) how long neither is saying anything until Rei comes out with what she is thinking about and Asuka explodes on her and the tension from Asuka is intensified.
The reactions both have are not dissimilar, but as dramatic as it is within the scene itself, in the movie it doesn't have the same weight of feeling (and of course there isn't the same pause, and I get it because Anno would know the audience might expect that). You have this moment between the two that we haven't even realized that should happen, that needs to happen, between two very different personalities (Rei being so docile the "doll" comment isn't inappropriate, and Asuka the hothead who hates those around her as she hates herself), and...
This crucial character scene is a problem with the movie "remix" or "rebuilding" or whatever it's called for me (in my day - as I shake my 1980s/90s cane at you whippersnappers - we called it a "Special Edition" ala Star Wars), where you have many of the same story beats and the voice acting and character animation is still involving and captivating and the dramatic tension and stakes are moving and psychologically fraught and substantively dense... but it points to why spreading out the story and finding time for little moments works for this kind of epic of apocalyptic wat on a show.
And the funny/sad thing is I actually do *like* what Anno and his team do with Asuka in the movie in that she isn't *as* belligerent and stand-offish as her previous TV version, like they find some nuance with her in some smaller moments (like the conversation she has with Misato right before she has to go and pilot against the Angel that's taken over the Eva at around the 2/3rd mark)...although even here she loses out on getting to grapple and reckon with her inner pain and here her likability is thinner, a "bad ass" so to speak.
Moreover, the redone action and monster/Angel animation, like in 1.11, doesn't connect with what else is being animated. It's not quite to a level of how we may see horrible 90s CGI with live action today, but it's not far off, and for my money even in 2023 the animation for the show has aged better than that in the movies. If I didn't notice the story beats as much I could let that slide, but I'm not so sure. And look, I don't want to be too nitpicky though; I not only can enjoy this as it's own piece of action-sci-fi-angst-ridddled doomsday theater, I think if you decide to watch this before the 90s show/End of Evangelion it can be a good time if you are looking mostly for exciting set pieces.
As far as the emotional tissue connecting so much of this, like when shinji makes *that* decision, and then that one too (and what happens when caution is thrown to the wind) it's difficult to let go of how impactful and shocking it came off previously and it comes up a little short when condensed and compressed.
But the moral of today's story holds here, folks: kids, if your dad orders you to destroy your friend and compatriot in another possessed robot-alien hybrid, maybe you... should?
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Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012)
Journal Entry # 389 in "Shinji Ikari Just Needs a Hug" Or, maybe someone should've sat that Brat Idiot Shinji down and showed him the Bridge on the River Kwai? (Specifically Guiness at the end like "My God, what have I done?")
Yeah, definitely a better version of that not-End of Evangelion finale (from the TV Show, I dont mean the released to theaters version from 1997, which is great); I can't help but wish I could get stoned and watch this in IMAX, but am glad I gave myself a break from it all last summer when I blew through the series, End of Evangelion and the first two Rebuild movies in a month like I was, well... Shinji on one of his I WILL DO THIS NO ONE CAN STOP ME!! AAAH DADDY GAVE ME A NAME moments).
Hideaki Anno and his team push mind-bending visuals and physical matter itself past the breaking point. It's a curious thing that this is a superior effort than the previous two "rebuild" or re-do films, where (almost as I wonder an experiment just to see if he and his company of collaborators and voice actors could do it) he is reshaping the original series and final film with grander CGI effects and even more burning-hot melodrama.
It is still consistent in that tone of the previous films more than the original series (which will still be, while imperfect, the best of the lot of Evangelion creations), but what sets this apart I think is that Anno a) jumps ahead the story in time by 14 years, which makes the new group that is attacking Evas an interesting twist and b) he is condensing much less story.
It maybe didn't help things watching the two Rebuilds so close to the series and End of Evangelion film, but it's more than that. You Can (Not) Redo feels like the world around Shinji is so out of whack, with the entire world covered in mostly red and decayed after a decade and a half in ruins, ones he knew before either turned sour or unrecognizable and with his father still in this unending quest to fuck with the laws of physics it feels like, that it's little wonder he simply latches on to the first guy who gives him some friendship.
It's a gripping story with (over) elaborate action, where the machines sometimes turn into ferocious head-ripping animals, and for all its grandiose moves (in Neon Genesis no way bro) it comes down to what it means to be young and confused and feel like the weight and fate of the world is at stake (and to be painfully gullible).
Again, because Anno isn't trying to stuff hours of story into a much smaller box, he manages to "re-do" a story that leaves him a little more space to play with imagery and symbolism - piano playing as a means to try and free a spirit with music, the keys and inside of a piano being seen as one of the delights for me here - so it is a much firmer foundation to experiment and noodle around with the ideas, especially with Rey Anamani (who is bewildered that she isnt... real).
Not as profound or searing as Evangelion is at its greatest, but it is a triumph for its creators and animators.
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Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)
"This... is what you do to bond with someone." ::uncontrollable sobbing::
"Shinki Ikari... the only thing a son can do for his father is pat him on the shoulder or kill him." (Yikes, talk about a binary choice!)
Also:
(Paraphrasing "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" 1969 which popped in my head a lot):
"Well, I can understand how you feel. You worked hard, piloting that Eva, and I suppose you feel you let everyone down, and you made a fool of yourself and everything."
[Opens the door to leave, then stops]
"But did you notice something, Shinji Ikari?
"What's that?"
"The world didn't come to an end." 😉
"The birth of a new world. Neon genesis."
(For real, Charlie Brown would actually be the one to give Ikari a pep talk in the first third of this, "The Continuing Saga of Shinji Needs a Hug" ... but then the Big Fourth Impending Impact is about to happen halfway through this, and Shinki gets his act together to go back into the Eva one more time.... Come to think of it, this eventually reveals itself, as the Finale of this very long and Grandiose and Maximalist Opera to be this: The Festivus Episode (you have to fight your father, after all....)
Thrice Upon a Time is in a sense a second time around at doing an "End of Evangelion" story, only this is meant to be a true ending - like Hideaki Anno is telling us "OK, this is really it, I'm going in and wrapping things up for you all, and for me, and get ready for ALL of the feelings" - andnthe exciting part about it above all is that it's the first truly new story from Evangelion in a long time.
The other films in the "Rebuild" series can't help but be compared to what was done in the original series in the 90s and the film (and/or the remixes, but I'm not bothering with those for now), and while there was plenty of gorgeous and visually eccentric animation to go around, there was also the sense that there couldn't be many surprises since we've seen this before.
With Thrice, this is following the characters and the world to a place post "Third Event" as it were, which seemed like an end on a particular sad and dour note for Shinji as he let everyone down with falling prey to his bad influence that was an enemy agent (and with such great hair, where can I get that stylist - but I digress), so it is welcome to have a story that can slow down a bit and give us time as the characters truly rebuild themselves spiritually and psychologically.
The first like thirty to forty minutes of this (after an action packed intro set piece) is about life in a small village of survivors and how much Rei and Asuka fit in while Shinji is just in his own bubble of pain and self doubt until that finally breaks and he realizes, oh right, other people could use some help with some chores and other work. It is a welcome change of pace from everything that is hectic sometimes in this series...
Not that it lasts! Of course it then ramps up into what is the sort of climax of the series of events that have taken place over many years, and it has to come back to a character who had plotted and maneuvered so much which is Shinji's megalomaniac dad Gendo. His plan is... way too bonkers and crazy to even put down here, it's best to just watch it for yourself (and you know what he really had in store with his "imaginary" Eva is so wild that one of the other characters comments on it, in *this* universe with how many Angels and oh nevermind), but what's important is that it comes back to a real reckoning between father and son.
I'd say it's like Star Wars in that way of a father and son finally coming to blows, and maybe Luke will bring his broken down paternal figure to humanity again, but the thing that is so striking with Thrice is that Gendo is more on the surface the Emperor than a simple Vader compromised villain... and which also makes how much Shinji ultimately breaks through to the humanity of his dad, who sees himself more in line with a God and wants to bring humanity with the aliens for this new project and so on and I can't get into all the convoluted bits, all the more impactful.
At the end of the story, while part of us wants the dad destroyed to smithereens, it isnt really his story, it's Shinji's, and it's about what it means to grow up and actually look at your parents as a (awfully terrible but still) human being than just this monolithic paternal mound of rock.
The writers and directors make a good half of this film full of mind-blowing action and animation special effects - I do hope one day it re releases on IMAX so I can watch it as loud and large as possible for every intergalactic bit of hallucinogenic madness on display in the designs and backgrounds and robots - and yet they give everyone an ending, and they find it to be a much more positive kind of trajectory than what was left with the end of the previous Rebuild film and the series in the 90s.
I don't think that the end of this negates what happened there if you really loved that sort of end (and I know I do), but Thrice, while not perfect and featuring a couple of animation choices I wasn't a fan of (the giant imaginary Eva is great in concept, but less appealing in execution), is mostly brilliant, inspired and heart-affirming for what it wants to give those whove stuck with these films and the series and everything for decades. Thrice Upon a Time is bursting with big feelings, extravagant style, delirious colors, and what can sometimes fall short for a franchise (like, say, Star Wars) which is... closure.
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