Just watched Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0
Evangelion 1.0, You Are Not Alone!
I just watched it!
So. Who wants to discuss it? Because I know from experience nothing generates discussion like trying to figure out what in the buttfuckery goes down in Hideki Anno's head.
I seriously enjoyed it, moreso than I imagined I would to begin with honestly. Many people told me it was basically a frame for frame match of the first few episodes, so I approached the movie knowing it might be the borefest that Death and Rebirth was, all intertitles and badly edited rehashing of the same story.
I was pleasantly surprised that there was subtle differences in the animation, which kept it interesting and changes in plot that made the reward of watching so much more enjoyable.
The biggest factor was that YES, no NEXT EPISODE bullshit where the fight stops halfway through and then you needed to wait for it to be retold in an unfortunate flashback. The third angel fight scenes was just so much more *effective* because of this absence.
The small changes in animation, the contrast in the faces, the 3d-scapes, the lovely cel animation colouring that made everyone so much more attractive was also beautiful.
Tokyo 3 was particularly stunning, you really notice that they paid more attention to the interlocking devices, the use of lighting and colour to highlight the background, even the little mesh over the gaps where the buildings come up to protect our imaginary inhabitants in Tokyo 3.
I have to say the most IMPRESSIVE of all though, were the Angels.
Mr Manta-ray's face lift, complete with awesome creepy claw things sent little shivers down my spine, it was actually horrifying to see that thing fill the screen instead of the sodden lump of a beached whale it was in the original anime.
The biggest kudos of course goes to Mr Diamond Angel, whose might morphing power ranger powers had me in sheer awe. I liked that the configurations of its body changed every single time, it was always something new to look at. Even the drill got an update. There was this sense that the production company was THROWING money at this thing, which was great.
I just hope that Anno learned from his mistakes and has enough left over for the ending this time. I wonder if he will take it all the way to End of Eva, or will it be more Freudian analogy and Lacen's Mirror stage all over again.
There was a great sense of pacing for me throughout the movie, very few lags in progress, even for someone who knows what will happen next. I was terrified that they would wrap up Mr Diamonte too soon and start all over again with Asuka's entrance near the end of the movie since it seemed like they were rushing through the episodes so quick. Luckily I was wrong. The climax and the third act, using the Shield and the raised castle and all of Japan seemingly working together as a whole was brilliant. Diamonte-kun's sexy contorting shapes helped a lot too.
And finally, that's one hell of teaser there!
Yes, it's a desperate ploy to suck in the fangirls by bringing in Kaworu earlier, and what can I say? It worked. Imminent gay is always nice. Nudity doubly so.
I liked the implications of Seele's base on the moon (?). Seele itself, had a nice facelift with a logo instead of just the number. I'm sure someone will go ahead and analyse the numbers and know exactly who it is that was talking to Kaworu, likely Keel, but I loved the look of the double of Lilith on the moon.
I can only imagine it means a changed ending. Don't think I missed that line from Gendo saying, "Soon Shinji and Rei will draw closer together." This is a completely divergent path from the End of Eva psychology where Gendo had always intended Rei to merge with him, but instead She chose Shinji leading to all that uncertainty and the ultimate failure of third impact. In 1.0, pushing the kids together may mean we get a different source of enmity. I would like to think the alternative storyline follows Seele's ploy, trying to push Shinji to merge with Kaworu instead of Rei. Or Maybe had Rei merge with Kaworu, so on.
It's also awesome to have potentially two Liliths. One on the moon, obviously hobbled together and one on earth which was nicely touched up with wobbly legs and arms and body parts. It makes me lean towards the, Shinji is KEY to third impact theory.
Also because Kaworu specifically mentioned that it was always The Third. My curiousity is peaked, since it implies that this event has happened before. That it isn't the first time that Seele has tried for instrumentality. Likely this is what Second Impact was for them in movieverse, but they could also be doing the humanity-has-tried-but-failed-at-instrumentality-several-times-now-and-has-been-continually-reset shindig. Or they're just suggesting that Kaworu and Shinji are meant to be, and that Kaworu always seems to have to save Shinji from himself, and he's done it before.
I wonder about Kaworu appearing from the boxes, four of which have already been opened.
SEE the opened boxes could signify the angels which have appeared: Adam, Third, Mantaray and Diamonte-kun, but equally, they could also represent the pilots currently on earth.
Nine boxes. Wasn't there something like 14 angels originally through? or 17? I know they cut down on Angels, but I wonder how much they did cut down.
The Lilith on the moon is also distinctly male, but that might just be the interpretation for Kaworu, since Lilith on earth is a reflect on Rei is thus, is female.
Bringing him earlier into Shinji's life means Shinji has less reason to spew emo all over the place since he has a close friend instead of being virtually isolated. Then again, we're speaking of the king of angst and woe, no doubt he's going to be all WAH I CAN'T BE GAY or still stubbornly cling to the You Don't Understand Me paradigm.
I really hope that they do change the direction of the ending since it would mean we can see what else Anno can deliver from his crazy little head. It's probably going be just as fanservicey and yet, completely unsatisfying as the End of Eva.
So far though, I like what I see.
Though I admit, the new girl character concerns me. Megane characters are never a good sign for the fight against sexism. Then again we already have the most submissive girl in anime as the ultimate sex icon, ie, Rei, so how much worse could it get? And now I get the feeling she's going to turn out to be a submissive slut, incorporating the worst of both Misato and Rei's qualities while making Fanboys happy in their pants. Please make her sensible. Fight the stereotypes japan! You can do it!
What are your thoughts guys? Discuss.
I just watched it!
So. Who wants to discuss it? Because I know from experience nothing generates discussion like trying to figure out what in the buttfuckery goes down in Hideki Anno's head.
I seriously enjoyed it, moreso than I imagined I would to begin with honestly. Many people told me it was basically a frame for frame match of the first few episodes, so I approached the movie knowing it might be the borefest that Death and Rebirth was, all intertitles and badly edited rehashing of the same story.
I was pleasantly surprised that there was subtle differences in the animation, which kept it interesting and changes in plot that made the reward of watching so much more enjoyable.
The biggest factor was that YES, no NEXT EPISODE bullshit where the fight stops halfway through and then you needed to wait for it to be retold in an unfortunate flashback. The third angel fight scenes was just so much more *effective* because of this absence.
The small changes in animation, the contrast in the faces, the 3d-scapes, the lovely cel animation colouring that made everyone so much more attractive was also beautiful.
Tokyo 3 was particularly stunning, you really notice that they paid more attention to the interlocking devices, the use of lighting and colour to highlight the background, even the little mesh over the gaps where the buildings come up to protect our imaginary inhabitants in Tokyo 3.
I have to say the most IMPRESSIVE of all though, were the Angels.
Mr Manta-ray's face lift, complete with awesome creepy claw things sent little shivers down my spine, it was actually horrifying to see that thing fill the screen instead of the sodden lump of a beached whale it was in the original anime.
The biggest kudos of course goes to Mr Diamond Angel, whose might morphing power ranger powers had me in sheer awe. I liked that the configurations of its body changed every single time, it was always something new to look at. Even the drill got an update. There was this sense that the production company was THROWING money at this thing, which was great.
I just hope that Anno learned from his mistakes and has enough left over for the ending this time. I wonder if he will take it all the way to End of Eva, or will it be more Freudian analogy and Lacen's Mirror stage all over again.
There was a great sense of pacing for me throughout the movie, very few lags in progress, even for someone who knows what will happen next. I was terrified that they would wrap up Mr Diamonte too soon and start all over again with Asuka's entrance near the end of the movie since it seemed like they were rushing through the episodes so quick. Luckily I was wrong. The climax and the third act, using the Shield and the raised castle and all of Japan seemingly working together as a whole was brilliant. Diamonte-kun's sexy contorting shapes helped a lot too.
And finally, that's one hell of teaser there!
Yes, it's a desperate ploy to suck in the fangirls by bringing in Kaworu earlier, and what can I say? It worked. Imminent gay is always nice. Nudity doubly so.
I liked the implications of Seele's base on the moon (?). Seele itself, had a nice facelift with a logo instead of just the number. I'm sure someone will go ahead and analyse the numbers and know exactly who it is that was talking to Kaworu, likely Keel, but I loved the look of the double of Lilith on the moon.
I can only imagine it means a changed ending. Don't think I missed that line from Gendo saying, "Soon Shinji and Rei will draw closer together." This is a completely divergent path from the End of Eva psychology where Gendo had always intended Rei to merge with him, but instead She chose Shinji leading to all that uncertainty and the ultimate failure of third impact. In 1.0, pushing the kids together may mean we get a different source of enmity. I would like to think the alternative storyline follows Seele's ploy, trying to push Shinji to merge with Kaworu instead of Rei. Or Maybe had Rei merge with Kaworu, so on.
It's also awesome to have potentially two Liliths. One on the moon, obviously hobbled together and one on earth which was nicely touched up with wobbly legs and arms and body parts. It makes me lean towards the, Shinji is KEY to third impact theory.
Also because Kaworu specifically mentioned that it was always The Third. My curiousity is peaked, since it implies that this event has happened before. That it isn't the first time that Seele has tried for instrumentality. Likely this is what Second Impact was for them in movieverse, but they could also be doing the humanity-has-tried-but-failed-at-instrumentality-several-times-now-and-has-been-continually-reset shindig. Or they're just suggesting that Kaworu and Shinji are meant to be, and that Kaworu always seems to have to save Shinji from himself, and he's done it before.
I wonder about Kaworu appearing from the boxes, four of which have already been opened.
SEE the opened boxes could signify the angels which have appeared: Adam, Third, Mantaray and Diamonte-kun, but equally, they could also represent the pilots currently on earth.
Nine boxes. Wasn't there something like 14 angels originally through? or 17? I know they cut down on Angels, but I wonder how much they did cut down.
The Lilith on the moon is also distinctly male, but that might just be the interpretation for Kaworu, since Lilith on earth is a reflect on Rei is thus, is female.
Bringing him earlier into Shinji's life means Shinji has less reason to spew emo all over the place since he has a close friend instead of being virtually isolated. Then again, we're speaking of the king of angst and woe, no doubt he's going to be all WAH I CAN'T BE GAY or still stubbornly cling to the You Don't Understand Me paradigm.
I really hope that they do change the direction of the ending since it would mean we can see what else Anno can deliver from his crazy little head. It's probably going be just as fanservicey and yet, completely unsatisfying as the End of Eva.
So far though, I like what I see.
Though I admit, the new girl character concerns me. Megane characters are never a good sign for the fight against sexism. Then again we already have the most submissive girl in anime as the ultimate sex icon, ie, Rei, so how much worse could it get? And now I get the feeling she's going to turn out to be a submissive slut, incorporating the worst of both Misato and Rei's qualities while making Fanboys happy in their pants. Please make her sensible. Fight the stereotypes japan! You can do it!
What are your thoughts guys? Discuss.