Eye-gasm-FUU!!!
I know one of my top goals while I was in Japan was to see Eva 2.0. Looking at the site, I was disheartened because according to their schedule, all of the theatres had done their screening back in the first week of September. Imagine my surprise and delight then when I was in Ikebukuro and saw it still listed in the major theatre there! I was even more surprised when I saw two other titles in a smaller theatre a block away - Cencoroll and Kara no Kyoukai Chapter 7. I saw all of them except for KnK, because my Japanese isn't good enough to understand it (the dialogue and subject matter is pretty dense). Eva 2.0 was definitely a must-see, because after the awesomeness of 1.0, I could not wait what would probably be a year to see it. But first let me talk about Cencoroll.
Cencoroll is a project almost entirely handled by one person, with music by Ryo of Supercell fame. Both of them are pretty famous for their past indie works on Nico Nico, and seeing the trailer back at Anime Boston made it look to be slickly animated. I was not disappointed - it's a tad short at 30 minutes, but not a single bit is wasted in terms of setting the story and world. It is VERY quirky, as it revolves around these kids who can control these white blob monsters that can alter their shape at will (think of them like living mochi). The rules of the world are established fairly quickly though, and by about the 10 minute mark you get caught up in the pacing. A nice and fun little diversion, but I'm not sure if I would want to see it expanded into something bigger, like a TV series. From what I heard it debuted at NYAF, but if you didn't catch it the trailer can be seen here.
If Cencoroll is the equivalent of the indie film, then Eva 2.0 is the Behemoth Summer Blockbuster. I'm pretty generous when reviewing movies, but seriously - Eva 2.0 has been the best movie for me this year, going toe to toe with Star Trek even. While the first movie stuck pretty close to the TV versions, the 2nd one basically screams, "THIS IS NOT THE EVA YOU KNOW". And this is a good thing. One thing you have to understand about the original TV series is that the director, Anno Hideaki, was fighting a severe depression while making it, and it definitely shown through towards the latter half of the show. It was dark, it was a mindfuck, and a waste of a great story. The hardcore fans may argue to the death with me otherwise, but honestly trying to analyze the ending as some sort of high art just reeks of pretentiousness.
If Anno was suffering from depression at the time of the TV series, it is QUITE obvious he's in a different, happier place now. It's as if he looked back on his show, said to himself, "Oh hell, I need to do this PROPERLY now." There is a definite and concrete progression to all the characters - in the TV, you had these pilots that were all messed up in the head. They take a couple steps forward in improving themselves, but by the end they've taken five billion steps back and are even MORE mentally unstable. Eva 2.0 fixes this - the pilots still have mental issues, but there is no more backtracking - they all dig themselves out of their respective dark holes. Shinji gets more confident as he discovers his reasons for piloting Unit 01, and by the end of the movie it's like he's taking a few lessons of manliness from time-skip Simon of Gurren Lagann. There are also hints thrown in that MIGHT tie the movie to End of Eva's storyline, but at this point I'm not sure if it's definite, or if it's just a wink and nod to the fans.
Without getting into spoilers though, this movie isn't going to make Shinji x Asuka fans happy. Her character's been a bit toned down - she's no longer the psycho bitch she was by the end of the TV, but instead, she overcomes her insecurity issues. Rei also comes off as more likeable, simply because you can see her personality change as a result of being with Shinji and his friends. She turns from a lifeless doll to something, well, more human. And Mari - oh god, Mari. Appearing in the beginning and at the end of the movie, her appearances are few, but damn if she doesn't make an impact. Her personality is very gung ho, almost like a homage to those robot shows from the 70s. Unlike the other three pilots, she doesn't have any mental issues - she genuinely LIKES piloting the Evas. Maaya Sakamoto does a great job in making her character badass and HOT. Seriously, you guys can have your Asuka and Rei shrines - I'll be building mines to Mari when I get back.
Other than that, they've gone and combined some of the Angels for the purposes of keeping the storyline moving. They all make for some EPIC action scenes, and it was honestly too much to take it all in the first time around (hence me watching it again). While the events are different, it takes you to the equivalent of about episode 21 or 22 in the TV, or whenever it is that Kaworu is introduced. He makes an appearance after the movie credits, and I'm pretty sure the last two movies will focus on him.
Having said all these wonderful things about 2.0, I'm still hesitant about 3.0 and 4.0. We are at the point where the TV series started becoming twisted and incomprehensible, so there is still a chance for Anno to troll us again. I'll be optimistic though, and with the rumors of 3.0 being in Summer 2010, I would definitely fly back out to see it.
Oh, and I should also mention how when I was going to see Eva 2.0 a 2nd time, I noticed a line for some kind of event at the same theatre. Turned out that they were starting to let people purchase tickets for the Tales of Vesperia Theatrical Movie. The movie debuts on October 3rd, so this was an advance purchase - the first showing was going to have the director and some voice actors appear as guests. They wouldn't open until 5 pm that day - it was around 10 am when I went. And yet, the line had approximately 10 - 15 girls waiting already. The friend I stayed with in Japan is a pretty hardcore Tales fan, so after Eva 2.0 I volunteered to camp out in line for her until she was able to show up. As I made my way to the back of the line, which had grown to about 30 people now, I was feeling just a tad awkward about being the only guy in the entire line. Some of them were looking at me funny too, as if to say, "What's HE doing here?" I haven't played Vesperia yet (waiting for the PS3 version), but I guess it's quite the fangirl bait!
(Gotta admit, some of the girls were cute though - if my friend had taken any longer to show up, I would've started practicing my nanpa skills...)
Cencoroll is a project almost entirely handled by one person, with music by Ryo of Supercell fame. Both of them are pretty famous for their past indie works on Nico Nico, and seeing the trailer back at Anime Boston made it look to be slickly animated. I was not disappointed - it's a tad short at 30 minutes, but not a single bit is wasted in terms of setting the story and world. It is VERY quirky, as it revolves around these kids who can control these white blob monsters that can alter their shape at will (think of them like living mochi). The rules of the world are established fairly quickly though, and by about the 10 minute mark you get caught up in the pacing. A nice and fun little diversion, but I'm not sure if I would want to see it expanded into something bigger, like a TV series. From what I heard it debuted at NYAF, but if you didn't catch it the trailer can be seen here.
If Cencoroll is the equivalent of the indie film, then Eva 2.0 is the Behemoth Summer Blockbuster. I'm pretty generous when reviewing movies, but seriously - Eva 2.0 has been the best movie for me this year, going toe to toe with Star Trek even. While the first movie stuck pretty close to the TV versions, the 2nd one basically screams, "THIS IS NOT THE EVA YOU KNOW". And this is a good thing. One thing you have to understand about the original TV series is that the director, Anno Hideaki, was fighting a severe depression while making it, and it definitely shown through towards the latter half of the show. It was dark, it was a mindfuck, and a waste of a great story. The hardcore fans may argue to the death with me otherwise, but honestly trying to analyze the ending as some sort of high art just reeks of pretentiousness.
If Anno was suffering from depression at the time of the TV series, it is QUITE obvious he's in a different, happier place now. It's as if he looked back on his show, said to himself, "Oh hell, I need to do this PROPERLY now." There is a definite and concrete progression to all the characters - in the TV, you had these pilots that were all messed up in the head. They take a couple steps forward in improving themselves, but by the end they've taken five billion steps back and are even MORE mentally unstable. Eva 2.0 fixes this - the pilots still have mental issues, but there is no more backtracking - they all dig themselves out of their respective dark holes. Shinji gets more confident as he discovers his reasons for piloting Unit 01, and by the end of the movie it's like he's taking a few lessons of manliness from time-skip Simon of Gurren Lagann. There are also hints thrown in that MIGHT tie the movie to End of Eva's storyline, but at this point I'm not sure if it's definite, or if it's just a wink and nod to the fans.
Without getting into spoilers though, this movie isn't going to make Shinji x Asuka fans happy. Her character's been a bit toned down - she's no longer the psycho bitch she was by the end of the TV, but instead, she overcomes her insecurity issues. Rei also comes off as more likeable, simply because you can see her personality change as a result of being with Shinji and his friends. She turns from a lifeless doll to something, well, more human. And Mari - oh god, Mari. Appearing in the beginning and at the end of the movie, her appearances are few, but damn if she doesn't make an impact. Her personality is very gung ho, almost like a homage to those robot shows from the 70s. Unlike the other three pilots, she doesn't have any mental issues - she genuinely LIKES piloting the Evas. Maaya Sakamoto does a great job in making her character badass and HOT. Seriously, you guys can have your Asuka and Rei shrines - I'll be building mines to Mari when I get back.
Other than that, they've gone and combined some of the Angels for the purposes of keeping the storyline moving. They all make for some EPIC action scenes, and it was honestly too much to take it all in the first time around (hence me watching it again). While the events are different, it takes you to the equivalent of about episode 21 or 22 in the TV, or whenever it is that Kaworu is introduced. He makes an appearance after the movie credits, and I'm pretty sure the last two movies will focus on him.
Having said all these wonderful things about 2.0, I'm still hesitant about 3.0 and 4.0. We are at the point where the TV series started becoming twisted and incomprehensible, so there is still a chance for Anno to troll us again. I'll be optimistic though, and with the rumors of 3.0 being in Summer 2010, I would definitely fly back out to see it.
Oh, and I should also mention how when I was going to see Eva 2.0 a 2nd time, I noticed a line for some kind of event at the same theatre. Turned out that they were starting to let people purchase tickets for the Tales of Vesperia Theatrical Movie. The movie debuts on October 3rd, so this was an advance purchase - the first showing was going to have the director and some voice actors appear as guests. They wouldn't open until 5 pm that day - it was around 10 am when I went. And yet, the line had approximately 10 - 15 girls waiting already. The friend I stayed with in Japan is a pretty hardcore Tales fan, so after Eva 2.0 I volunteered to camp out in line for her until she was able to show up. As I made my way to the back of the line, which had grown to about 30 people now, I was feeling just a tad awkward about being the only guy in the entire line. Some of them were looking at me funny too, as if to say, "What's HE doing here?" I haven't played Vesperia yet (waiting for the PS3 version), but I guess it's quite the fangirl bait!
(Gotta admit, some of the girls were cute though - if my friend had taken any longer to show up, I would've started practicing my nanpa skills...)