Posts Tagged ‘neon genesis evangelion’

With the release of Evangelion 1.01, a lot of fans of the original are finally getting to see the redone movie version. Information about the film has not been hard to find since it made its premiere now over two years ago. But finally after theatrical screenings, film festivals and convention appearances the movie is finally hitting the streets. For those of you who haven’t actually kept up with the movie, there are a few things you should know before going in…

Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.01: You Are [Not] Alone
Who’s Going to Enjoy It: Fans of mechs, the original TV series, Now and Then Here and There, Ghost in the Shell

Shinji Is Still Annoying:

If any part of your initial reasons for disliking the TV series involved the phrase ‘Shinji is annoying’ I have bad news. He’s not any better here and the vast majority of his dialogue involves him being whiny and emo. However, there is a very bright silver lining…

Evangelion Benefits Greatly From the Movie Format Switch

For me personally, one of the biggest reasons for hating the series so much was the pacing. It was bad enough that the series was just so slow but there were just so many moments that had to be filled and when there’s nothing else, there’s always Shinji to be whiny. Thanks to shrinking the first six episodes (about 150 minutes) down to a nonstop 110 minute feature, the pacing of the story is greatly improved and features much less whiny Shinji.

The Presentation is exactly Like the Original… Just Cleaner

Anyone who had fears about the movie taking the story in drastic new directions has nothing to worry about with the first movie. Though there are no promises for the next three movies of the series, Evangelion 1.0 remains a faithful adaptation of the first six episodes only looking much more impressive and defined. All of the most memorable scenes remain in place including the introduction of Pen Pen when first visiting Misato’s apartment which is still one of the few moments from the original that I actually remember laughing at.

If you’ve seen the original Eva TV series, you pretty much known exactly what I am about to lay out. If you are one of the many out there who aren’t already familiar with the Eva story here it is as spread out as I can make it: A short time ago, an alien (referred to as angels) attack caused about half of the world’s population to die. Since that time, the Earth has prepared for the next invasion by creating NERV, a defense company that has specialized in research on how to defeat the angels. Opening up the movie is the hero Shinji Ikari, a middle school student who has been sent for by his estranged father and head of NERV, Gendou.

After getting caught in the crossfire of another angel attack and the Japanese military, Shinji is brought before a large and imposing mech and told to pilot it or leave. Hesitent at first, Shinji finally relents and becomes the second Eva pilot after seeing another pilot lying almost dead ready to fight again. In the 110 minute movie, the story will take audiences up to the close of the sixth episode of the television series. This is going to take everyone through three angel attacks, Shinji’s first day living with Misato, his first day of school and the beginnings of his twisted relationship with the first Eva pilot, Rei.

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So while ACEN is happening this weekend, I am sitting in my home in Oregon. Would love to be there but just wasn’t going to happen. Nebs is there however and posted an interesting tidbit that came up from Matt Greenfield during the ADV panel. When asked about the live action Evangelion movie that ADV has been rumored to have been working on since 2005, Greenfield said “Soon & I’m not kidding.” Later in the day during the Eva panel, Greenfield clarified that statement with (Nebs Quote) “the closer he gets to sealing the deal the less he can say anything about it. & the fact that he can’t say anything at all anymore should be a clear sign to us how close the deal really is. He seemed pretty confident.”

So there you have it folks, we have definite confirmation that there is stuff he can’t talk about!

Earlier today, Moetron posted images scanned from the latest Dengeki Hobby Magazine which features character and mech artwork from the upcoming Eva 2.0 film. Included in the artwork are images of Asuka plus our first real close up images of new character, Mainami Mari Illustrious (previous announced to be voiced by veteran seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto).

I don’t know, something about the way she looks makes her feel out of place to me. Am I alone on that one?

Ms Illustrious, I presume?

According to reports that surfaced on 2ch and ANN earlier this morning, Maaya Sakamoto (Mishio in Kanon, Haruhi in Ouran, Hitomi in Escaflowne the Movie, Tomoyo in Tsubasa… the list goes on) will be voicing the new character in Eva 2.0 named Makinami Mari Illustrious (yes I’m serious). The announcement will be made official in the upcoming EVA-EXTRA01 magazine. There are few details regarding what type of character Ms. Illustrious will be but the ripples it will create in the Eva universe are certain to be noteworthy.

Also set to be announced in the magazine is news that Asuka will be voiced by her original seiyuu, Yuko Miyamura. The film is set to be released to Japanese theaters on June 27th. Funimation has already licensed the first movie of the quartet with plans to release it in the states at a to be determined date.

The Intro
 
Neon Genesis Evangelion has had a huge following within the anime community ever since it’s release. Hailed as one of the best SCI FI anime titles to ever be released, it is said to have a story that will pull you in and make you think of things in an entirely new way.
 
Well, I just watched the first volume and now I can only think one thing… These people have A LOT more patience than I do!
 
The Story
 
The year is 2015 in Tokyo. 15 years ago, a meteor hit Antarctica causing the polar ice cap to melt instantly and flood the Earth. The eco system was ruined but the part of the human race that managed to survive went on. Also around that time, huge monsters known as ‘Angels’ started attacking Tokyo. Coincidence??? I think not!!
 
Now, 15 years later the ‘Angels’ are attacking once again and conventional weapons aren’t doing the trick to beat them (not that they ever did before) so the world decides to unleash it’s most fearsome weapon… huge robots known as Evangelions (or Evas) that can only be piloted by 14 year old children. Confused yet? That’s O.K. because so am I.
 
Four episodes are served up to us on this first volume and after watching it I have a headache! The first episode is simply titled ‘Angel Attack’. In this episode we meet our main character, a boy named Shinji Ikari who is the son of the most powerful man in the world. Alone and emotionally abandoned, he is brought into Tokyo by his father for the sole reason of they need him to pilot one of the Evas even though it’s quite possibly life threatening. Also introduced to us is Shinji’s captain and provider of fan service, Misato Katsuragi. A beautiful young woman who works for the company that makes and runs the Evas, NERV.
 
An Angel is attacking Tokyo and Shinji is forced into an Eva and into battle even though he has never once even been inside one of these things when he is told that if he doesn’t do it, it’ll be up to the only other pilot who is a girl named Rei who is bandaged so badly from her last battle that she could be a stand in for the mummy. Fighting valiantly he manages to pull off a victory somehow (or so we’ll told when in the previews of the next episode) even though the last few seconds of this episode leave us with the distinct impression that he is about to become the shortest lived main character to ever grace a television screen.
 
Over the course of the next three episodes, the story starts to thicken out ever so slightly. In the second episode, we see how exactly Shinji won his battle through a series of flashbacks and his incessant whining about how nothing looks familiar and since he is in an entirely new city that he has never been in before, one has to comment with the obvious ‘Duh!’ response. He also moves in with his Captain, when she decides that he shouldn’t be left alone (which also warranted a ‘Duh!’ response from me as I watched).
 
In the third episode, we see Shinji at school. Two weeks have passed and he’s still very quiet and reserved, not letting anyone get close to him which after the lonely life he’s led does make sense and make me feel for him ever so slightly. In this episode we meet two more characters which would be his classmates. First we have Kensuke Aida. An incredibly imaginative kid who is absolutely enthralled by the battles that are happening between the Angels and the Eva. The next one would be a crude kid named Toji Suzuhara who after learning that the new kid is actually the pilot of the Eva who caused his kid sister to be put into the hospital from being almost killed by falling debris in the last battle, promptly gives him a welcome to the school with his fists. Soon after though, Shinji is called into battle again and the two kids come up with the bright idea of sneaking out of their shelter so that they can watch the battle up close. After they are almost killed (almost means they were literally less than 5 feet away from being crushed by Shinji’s Eva), Shinji manages to save them and the city once again and earn the respect of the two classmates.
 
The final episode on this disc is the best I think. In this one we see Shinji feeling down on himself again (which I know is how he is and after his hard life is expected but come on, we get the point already!) he runs away from the apartment that he shares with Misato. He spends two days wandering around before finally he is brought back and is told flat out that if he doesn’t want to be an Eva pilot that he should leave because it is too dangerous to have a pilot with a lax attitude.
 
The Good and the Bad
 
To be perfectly honest, I am having a lot of trouble finding good things to say about this anime. The only reason why I put this one into my DVD player in the first place was because of everyone who kept telling me how incredibly wonderful it is and after watching the first volume I have to wonder what is the big deal?
 
So far all I have seen is poor animation quality, an incredibly confusing story that just refuses to inflate and shallow, annoying characters (except for one which I’ll get to in a bit). To be perfectly honest, I do not see what the big deal about this series is.
 
If I really had to find a positive to the story that I’ve seen so far it would be Misato. Even though she serves the two prime purposes of being Shinji’s captain and giving out loads of unessacary fan service (which appears to be one of the selling points of this series since it is advertised in the previews for the next episode), she is still the only character that I’ve found myself liking so far in this series.
 
 
Extras
 
There aren’t a whole lot of extras to talk about on this disc. You have the ADV trailers, character profiles, a link to the ADV web site if you happen to have a DVD/CD ROM combo drive on your computer and the DVD credits. The only really helpful one of these is the character profiles which aren’t as helpful as I would hope since there are only 4 or 5 profiles on the disc and 3 of them are for Angels and the Eva.
 
One really cool thing about this volume though is that it has a hidden easter egg. Anime titles traditonally do not have hidden items on them for you to find but there are those rare exceptions and this is one of them.
 
In order to view the hidden egg, all you gotta do is go into the extras menu. When you enter this menu, character bios should automatically be highlighted so all you gotta do is press up to highlight extras and then hit enter on your remote. You’ll be treated to a clean (textless) showing of the opening and closing animations.
 
 
Music
 
The music is one of the big good points so far about this series. The opening theme is a very upbeat song called ‘A Thesis Of The Crying Angel’ and even though the opening animation is incredibly annoying to me (it is a montage of stills that goes by way too quickly) the song is very catchy. The ending theme is a soft jazz song called ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and it actually makes me think of the anime Cowboy Bebop for some reason. Either way, the songs are good and even the music from within the series are pleasing to listen to.
 
Overall
 
Overall I can’t in good conscious give this volume of this series a good review. It was confusing, stale and boring to me. In all honesty, after seeing three episodes I stopped the disc and got online to double check with friends that I was indeed actually watching the series that everyone loved so much and that it was going to get better later.
 
Assured that it will get better with later volumes, I am going to press on with this series and hope that everyone is right. It can’t possibly get the reputation of one of the best anime series in history if it doesn’t right?
 
I am updating this paragraph now ready to say that this series does get better. After the first six episodes, I was sort of entertained but when I got to volume three… I was very entertained. I can’t say that this series is the absolute masterpiece that everyone else says it is yet but I can say that if you have the patience it might be worth sticking it out.
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
The Intro
 
At the conclusion of my review of the first volume of this series, I promised myself that I would at least give this series a second chance because of the huge reputation behind it. I mean, it can’t be THAT bad if it has that much of a following can it?? So, into my DVD player went Volume 2 of Neon Genesis Evangelion and finally, I’m starting to see why this series is so popular… though it took six episodes.
 
The Story
 
Volume two picks up where we left off last time with Shinji still whining every chance he gets. Four more episodes to are shown to us in the volume traditionally reserved for character development and this series is not one to break that tradition.
 
The first two episodes takes us into the heart of Rei and starts by taking us back three weeks before Shinji even arrives at NERV and shows us what happened to make Rei look like a mummy’s worst nightmare and why she is much closer to Shinji’s father than he ever will be. Not the most interesting episode of the series and to be perfectly honest, that’s not saying much since so far this series has been nothing but boring.
 
Within these first two episodes, there is some very healthy leaps into character development (I just wish the same healthy leaps could be taken with story development) as Rei and Shinji learn new things about each other and start to move ever closer to sharing an actual bond and friendship which is ever so vital when you’re on the battlefield inside of giant robots fighting off hideous aliens called ‘angels’.
 
‘A Human Creation’ is the seventh episode of the series and this is when the series actually starts to show some life!! This is the episode used to develop Misato and I can happily and readily admit that I actually semi enjoyed this episode!! Misato shows incredibly bravery in the face of a possible nuclear meltdown when one of NERV competitors tries to unleash it’s brand new mech that runs off a nuclear reactor (what idiot thought up that bright idea?!?) and as you can imagine, it malfunctions during it’s first showing.
 
Misato is shown in more than one light in this episode and while she still gives out plenty of fan service (over and over and over again), she shows that she’s more than just a pretty face, big chest and nice legs (did I say that outloud?)… she has heart and courage, if not absolutely no domestic skills.
 
The final episode on this disc is easily the one where I started paying more attention simply because a brand new character is introduced that makes me want to pay attention! It is in this episode that we meet the next Eva pilot who happens to be a fiery German girl named Asuka Langley. She’s tough, she’s got a mouth on her and she isn’t afraid to verbally slap Shinji around whenever she feels the need! Go Asuka! That alone earns her major points with me since I wish more people would slap Shinji around more often.
 
Askua breaths new life into this series that I can’t help but feel like was dead on arrival. She’s sassy, she’s sexy, she’s overly confident, she’s exactly the character that this stale and slow series needs to add that spark of actual entertainment!
 
Along with Askua comes her captain/guardian, Kaji. While hints of a past relationship between him and Misato are dropped like bombshells all throughout the episode, he certainly also has fun with dropping hints that maybe Shinji and Misato have a present relationship that they aren’t letting anyone in on. Why not?? Back when I was 14, if I were living with a woman like Misato I would lie my butt off about having a relationship with her. But then again, Shinji isn’t me (thank the gods!)
 
The Good and the Bad
 
Once again, I’m having trouble coming up with a lot of good points about this series. It took me six episodes before I actually started to like this series. Six!!!! That’s a full volume and a half….. that’s a full 180 minutes of my life that I had to spend trying to like this blasted series all because I gave into peer pressure and started watching it because everyone I know said that it was the say all and end all of anime masterpieces! There’s a lesson in that kids……. Just say no to peer pressure!
 
I can’t stand most things about this series and I’m someone who can find good in almost any anime. The music is tolerable but still not something that I listen to if I have a choice about it. The animation is very much below where it should be and the story is still moving so slow and no questions are being answered!
 
The only two bright lights so far in this series are the characters of Misato and Asuka, both of whom are funny, quirky and bring some fun into an otherwise stale series.
 
Music
 
As I said earlier, the music is pretty bad. The opening theme starts off good enough with it’s slow melodic female vocals but then it moves into pop and that’s when I hit the fast forward button. The closing theme is that soft jazz song and all I can ever think when I hear it is ‘Wow, Van Morrison had a sister’.
 
Extras
 
The extras on this disc are tame as all we are treated to is the ADV web site link (once again, only helpful if you have a DVD/CD ROM drive on your computer), more character bios, ADV trailers and DVD credits. Hopefully this will change soon.
 
One intresting thing that I’ve discovered though is that this volume also has a hidden easter egg on it. In order to view it, view all the bios on the volume and then when you get to the last one, hit 1 on your remote and you’ll see an extra hidden bio of the fifth Angel.
 
Overall
 
Overall I want to tear this series to shreds and forget that I ever saw it but I can’t do that because of the last two episodes on this disc where Misato and Asuka were brought in. Those two characters alone are what kept me entertained throughout the second half of this volume and those two characters is what gives me hope that this series is starting to finally pick up so, reluctantly I am going to be putting Volume 3 into my DVD player very soon.
 
This series has an incredible reputation behind it and I’ve only known one person to agree with me on my reviews of this series but alas, I press on for that is the life of a reviewer. Just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean that we get to automatically by pass it.
 
If you’re into mech anime, you’ll probably enjoy this series. It takes the time to develop a very complicated deep story line that not even I can understand yet but it gets better starting with volume 3. You’ve used up this much of your life, you might as well let yourself have a reward by watching the series when it gets better and actually worth watching.
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
The Intro
 
Irony is a horribly funny thing at times……… and at other times it’s terribly annoying. I spent the first six episode of this series absolutely hating it and then it got good and I started to allow myself to enjoy it a little and then I popped this volume into my DVD player and now I enjoy it a lot!
 
The Story
 
Volume 3 finally picks up the pace with fabulous character development! Three episodes are on this disc as we see the pilots at some of the their strongest and weakest which is a vast improvement over only seeing our characters at their weakest over and over again.
 
The first episode on this volume is absolutely wonderful! Asuka enters the Japanese school system and instantly start making tons of friends and quickly becomes one of the most popular girls in school (among both and girls and guys but especially with the guys who think she’s the hottest thing in their age bracket they’ve ever seen). Unfortunately not all adjustments go as well when Askua makes her Japanese battle debut and ignores procedures so that she can show off………… and embarrasses NERV by getting her butt handed to her by an angel. But not all hope is lost as her and Shinji did manage to damage and stun the angel which gives them six days to learn how to work together through various methods (all of which are hilarious and well worth watching).
 
This episode shows wonderful development of character in everyone as new relationships are starting to develop between Shinji and Askua but also Kaji and Mitsato. To be perfectly honest, all doubts about if this series was going to worth watching to the end were wiped away after watching this episode.
 
The second episode involves Askua and Shinji going after an unhatched (yes, apparently they hatch) angel found deep within a lava volcano. This episode doesn’t have a strong significance towards the main plot of the series but it does show even more development in the relationship, feelings and teamwork between Askua and Shinji even if it does have a lot more fan service than I think is nessacary.
 
The final episode is definitely interesting as the power to the city is cut off just as an angel is approaching. Not knowing what is going on, the three pilots are left on their own to figure out how to get inside the NERV complex and find out what’s going on without any adult advice or supervision. Also a great episode, it ends the volume perfectly leaving you wanting to see more, more, more!
 
The Good and the Bad
 
While almost all the bad points of the previous volumes are continued with this one (slow and confusing story line, bad music, terrible lack of any good extras, etc., etc) it’s almost forgivable because of the character development that they put into this one.
 
Askua, Shinji, Rei and Misato are shown in new lights as they show real growth in their personalities and feelings towards each other and I actually find myself caring about what happens to them but I am most interested in the relationship between Shinji and Askua as they seem to be absolute polar opposites but it’s still not completely unbelievable to see them coming together as a romantic item. That is definitely something that I will be paying close attention to over the next 5 volumes and 2 OVAs.
 
The animation quality is still below where I’d like to see it but after seeing it this many times, I’ve learned to adapt to it and get used to it. I don’t like it and I don’t like that I had to adapt in the first place but at least now I don’t feel the need to whine about it as much as I did before.
 
Music
 
The same crappy music that we’ve been hearing over and over is still here. The background music is nothing to get excited about the main themes are still just as annoying as ever. Do yourself a favor and skip over them.
 
Extras
 
The extras are pretty bad once again.  You have even more trailers that are selectable from the menu. Along with this comes the web site link and character bios. Again, nothing to get remotely excited about.
 
Overall
 
I’m so happy that I can finally say that this series is worth watching! It was getting really annoying with the way I had to keep saying that this series was horrible but I’m finally starting to see what everyone was talking about. I can’t say that I’m as fanatical as everyone else has been but it is at least good now and some of those religious undertones that I was hearing about finally make their big appearance in this volume with Shinji asking the other pilots ‘If Angels are messengers of god, why are our enemies called angels?” Good question, Shinji……… why don’t you answer it for me??
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
The Intro
 
And once again into the trenches of this anime series do I travel in order to bring back this review for you, my faithful reader who asks nothing of me but my honest opinion on japanese animation that sucks your wallets dry but keeps your minds entertained. Here I am with my review of volume four and believe me, if parts of this review are sounding repetitive after reading my last few reviews…… it’s because they are!
 
The Story
 
Volume four brings us three more episodes (what ever happened to four episodes per disc???) and unfortunetly once again does a backslide that just irks the hell out of me! When I finished off the last volume, I was excited to keep watching this series. The last volume had me entertained and actually caring about the main characters and actually wanting to know if they were going to overcome the evil that threatened Tokyo 3. Unfortunetly, the anime backslide has struck and this volume takes me right back to the point of almost wanting to jab my eyes out instead of watching this series.
 
The first episode of this disc is an intresting one to say the least. When Misato gets a promotion to Major, it sparks some discussion between the characters. Everyone starts to talk and think more about the attention that they’ve been receiving lately. Especially the positive attention which some (mostly Shinji) are definitely not used to. Closer bonds are formed as once again they take on an Angel who kind of looks like a giant Manta Ray in the sky who’s sole purpose is to fall from the sky onto NERV headquarters and blow up. While others were impressed with the animation of this episode, I can’t say that anything about it struck me as particularly wonderful nor did it stand out against the rest of the series.
 
The second episode focuses on one of the characters that has been almost completley ignored so far which is definitely a nice change of pace since I was getting really sick of most of the main characters (well, except Misato and Asuka…. I never get tired of them hehehe). It is in this episode that we learn a lot more about the head scientist of NERV, Ritsuko along with her relationship with the main computers systems of NERV, the Magi. We learn more about her past and to be perfectly honest this was the only good episode on the disc simply for suspense and getting to take a break from the mind mumbing bore that is the main plot.
 
The final episode of the disc is one of those episodes where you have no idea what’s going on half the time so you just kind of sit there hoping that at some point things will start making sense and then before you realize it, the episode is over and you’re left wondering what you just watched. The first half of this episode serves as a recap. It goes over every single angel that has attacked Tokyo 3 thus far and how it was defeated. This is extremely useful to me, as I’m sure it is to the rest of the viewers, because this episode is confusing enough but add on the fact that I’ve been lucky to force myself through this much of the series and it becomes a goddess send so that I can remember everything that has happened. The second half of this episode however, I can’t be so kind about. The second half of this episodes takes us on a whirlwind tour of various projects that NERV is working on. Nothing is elaborated on and we have no idea why we’re seeing these things but there they are.
 
The Good and the Bad
  
This is where things are going to start getting really repetitive, even more so than in former reviews of anime series. This series is not winning me over. None of the bad points that I have mentioned before have been fixed…… not even the horrible extras.
 
Music
 
The music also has yet to win me over. While some of the background music is intresting with it’s catchy beats. I can’t say the same for the theme music. I’ve found myself skipping over them completely for most of the series now. I’ll listen to the main theme once at the beginning but then I will skip over it the rest of the time and I won’t even listen to the ending theme once. I’m not sure that I’ve listened to it in it’s entirety since Volume 1.
 
Extras
 
As I mentioned, the extras are boring and nothing to get excited about.
 
Maybe the better features are located within the DVD ROM features but I have yet to see them or see any kind of report about what is in them so I can’t comment unfortunetly.
 
Overall
 
I couldn’t be less thrilled about watching the rest of this series but I believe that in all fairness, I can’t start reviewing half the series and then stop. I’ve only done that twice before so far here at Epinions and neither time was my choice and so since I do have the option of continuing with this series…… I shall do so. Only six more entries remain (four more TV volumes followed by 2 OVAs).
 
Hopefully things will pick up soon, I’m way past the first third of the series so I’m waiting for it to pick up as was promised to me.