Halloween Anime Roundup: Thoughts on Neo-Genesis Evangelion
Three to four years ago now, I first started watching episodes of the original “Neon Genesis Evangelion” series. Less than two years ago now, I attended an Anime Boston panel where I got to meet cast members of the “Evangelion” remakes coming out, including Spike Spencer (Shinji), Brina Palencia (Rei), Trina Nishimura (Mari), and J. Michael Tatum (Kaji). However, it was just this October that I finally got around to picking up copies of the remakes currently available on DVD. Even now, watching the DVD's really brings back the excitement and wonder I experienced when I first discovered the original series as an older teenage girl.
There's no need to cover the plot of “Evangelion” because everyone who is anyone in anime fandom already knows what it is. And I'm virtually certain that we all know the drill with the characters too, so I'm not going to give a super-detailed analysis of them since that's already been done. All the old characters from the original “Evangelion” are back, and all are instantly recognizable. However, they are treated a bit differently than they were in the original, and there's at least one new cast member: a hyper-competent pilot named Mari who seems to love her job just a little too much.
I've now seen both of the “Evangelion” movies that have come out now, 1.11 and 2.22, and already I'm noticing some key differences between this version and the old one (though admittedly my memory of the old show is a bit fuzzy since it's been so long). For one thing, the Angels aren't all the same as they were in the old version. Some of them are instantly recognizable from the original episodes, but others seem to have changed. Since there's going to be two new movies, presumably the same number of Angels will appear in total, so I'll be interested to see which ones remain and which ones get swapped out. It's my experience that in this version, more than in the other one, the Angels seem to be very colorful-in addition to the prism Angel there's been an Angel glowing in rainbow lights for example. In the old “Evangelion” there was a blinding white Angel with white wings, so I'll be curious to see if that one ever surfaces (in the original, of course, that Angel was also responsible for mind-raping poor Asuka and causing her to have a psychotic break, so who really knows).
One change that I was happy got made has to do with when Kaoru gets introduced. In the original, he doesn't even show up until the last couple of episodes, and then he lingers for just a little while before he's killed-whereas here, he's been lurking around since fairly early on (also, he's apparently now voiced by Jerry Jewell). It also seems like we're getting more information on the Second Impact and Lilith earlier in this remake than in the original, but it could be that I just didn't get to that part for awhile when I watched the original because I watched the episodes of the original over a period of many months.
When I was going into this, my biggest concern was that it would dispense with a lot of the truly scary and deep stuff that was in the original, until it became just another mecha series. So far, though, that hasn't happened. The Angels are still as scary as I remember them, NERV and SEELE are just as mysterious and shady as I remember them and the threat of annihilation by the Third Impact is, if anything, delivered more effectively because it's brought into the plot so soon. And of course, the characters' original personalities and issues, and all the deep psychological discussion from the original, remain perfectly intact-except that in this case they actually try to talk and work through their problems rather than suffering in silence. In particular, the scenes in which Shinji tries to get Rei to open up are heartwarming because his efforts actually seem to be paying off-after a point in the second movie you can clearly see her trying to interact on a more human level. I'm still waiting to see what becomes of Asuka. In this remake she's the one who gets stuck in the Angel-infested Eva unit (the one Shinji's Eva tears up with the dummy plug system) so she isn't fighting now, but I'll be curious to see when her issues come to the forefront and how she deals with them.
For awhile now I've been of the opinion that every anime fan should watch “Evangelion” at least once. They may or may not like it, but they should at least watch it. And now, thanks to these remakes, those who don't want to sit through the convoluted and occasionally incoherent machinations of the original show and End of Evangelion have a second option, though that option isn't complete yet. Granted, I still feel fortunate that I got into the show before the remakes became a thing, so I didn't have to choose between them.
I will say this: there is one thing I miss about the original, and that's the OP.
So, have the original “Neon Genesis Evangelion” OP, and have a scary day ;)
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