Jack and Calumon Reviews Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone

[Jack and Calumon]

[HEADING=1]REBUILD OF EVANGELION: 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone[/HEADING]​

Evangelion did something historic when it aired, something no-one expected it to. It de-constructed the entire Mecha anime genre, it even went into other genres and de-constructed the elements that it possessed. This series (And two films) left everything laid bare. Rebuild of Evangelion is not a remake, but a retelling of the Evangelion story, a retelling that aims to give us the story of Evangelion in 4 huge budget Anime movies, free from constraints of technology, time and most importantly, money. This is meant to be a familiar, yet new story of Evangelion. Production began in 2002, and we saw the first instalment, Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone of this 2007 so it's clear that Hideaki Anno certainly took his time on this, and what does he have to show for nearly 10 years of work.

A fantastic film.

After Second Impact, the gardeners went on strike. Everyone suffered.

If you've been reading my reviews of Evangelion at all recently, you know the basic story. Shinji has been summoned by his Dad to fight monsters called "Angels" and join Nerv, an organisation dedicated to fighting the Angels. Shinji is joined by Misato, director of operations and his guardian and other pilots like Rei Ayanami, a quiet girl who doesn't seem too good at socialising or reacting at all. The premise is the same one we know and love, but that doesn't mean that the entire story is the same. There have been the promised changes to what the series made that we were promised, though I have to say, the film does not change that much of the immediate storyline when you consider that this was promised to be a new Evangelion experience. A few plot threads are introduced earlier and there's some new things in the world, but the immediate differences are not all apparent. This film seems actually more like an update to the first six episodes, taking them, cutting out the fat, and making them pretty for a modern day release.

Oh yes, the film looks gorgeous. Everything about the film looks wonderful. The art is sharp and colourful, and I believe that the landscapes are some of the best I have ever seen in animation, better than the likes of Disney and Studio Ghibli. The animation is even better than the original series' already fantastic animation, making it even smoother, crisper and other words that mean they did a stellar job. They do use sometimes more realistic lip movements for the characters, which can make it awkward when dubbing lines because of differences in the languages, but that isn't so much of a problem. Not only are the visuals updated, but the audio is as well, doing what End of Evangelion did and re-recording pieces of the soundtrack with a bigger budget, making them sound even sweeter. The sound effects are also updated, so you get high quality explosions blasting through you at one moment before you enter a quiet scene where even the slightest drop of water can be heard. Yes the film keeps up Evangelion's tradition of being a quiet film when people are talking, so you have to turn the sound up to hear them at times, Rei Ayanami being a bad offender for invoking this, and then it gets to a bombastically loud fight scene that'll make the neighbours believe that your hammering in a new painting with a shotgun.

Okay, so the film looks and sounds very nice in all it's big budget glory but what about the voice acting. Oh, the voice acting. On the whole in both languages, we have really solid performances. The returning actors are all still fantastic and actually sound even better, probably because they've done all this before and so they are familiar with their roles and can give us the best performances possible for this franchise, with the standout being easily Spike Spencer as Shinji Ikari, who manages to make Shinji much easier to listen to, with less of a whining tone in his voice. I said "returning actors" because the English dub seemed to have trouble gathering all the actors from the series. In this film, I counted 3 actors who returned to their roles, one of them who I didn't even expect to hear in this movie. So, most of them have been recast in the English version, but they do give good performances still. I actually think that Rei's new voice actor, Brina Palencia, surpasses Amanda Winn Lee's portrayal from the original series. However, like in End of Evangelion, Fuyutsuki seems to have problems. Not in his actual acting, that's fine and good (not stellar, but passable), but he sounds a little too similar to Gendo Ikari, who also has a new voice. The fact that these two sound fairly similar and they share a lot of scenes together meant that I was often confused who was talking unless I saw the lips myself. This isn't a deal breaker for the dub, as the quality you'll find here is still higher than most. I'm just glad we didn't get any more comedy squelch sounds.

Just 'cos you have glowing computers does not mean you can't turn on the lights.

I guess the only main thing I can flag up against this movie is the fact that it is not quite the re-imagining that Rebuild of Evangelion was said to be. I know it's the first film, but it's also almost a complete re-telling of the first part of the series. This would not have been so much of a problem if I wasn't that much of a fan of the first episodes of the TV series. I found them to be slow, drag on a lot and could be downright draining in some scenes since very few of the main characters actually try to put on a good mood until a few episodes in. Rebuild does quash my complaint people not having much emotion at the beginning through changes to characters and even to the voices, and makes things less drawn out by cutting out some unnecessary parts and the fact it condenses six episodes into a 90 minute film, but despite this, I still don't feel like it's good enough. It's probably just me. I expected they would overhaul the entire series, so call me a little disappointed if I'm given the same thing again.

All in all, Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone is a solid film, but one that doesn't seem to take too many risks with what it's doing. One might say that the reason for it's lack of changes is so that it is easier for newcomers to be able to get into the series easily. Overall, the film seems to want to ease people into this film with it's familiar elements while keeping us interested and away from saying "Oh, it's the same thing again!" with the changes it introduces. It seems to have questionable execution on that second part, but that shouldn't stop you. The film is great and deserves a watch.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The first Rebuild movie is a perfect example of why not to make a 90 minute film out of an episode based story. Especially NGE's story.
It simply retreads the story of the first 6 episodes lacking any of the build-up that the show had.

And then there was the part where...

Spoiler

...Misato takes Shinji into Terminal Dogma just to prove a point. In the show she would most likely be executed for doing that, but in the movie she just casually walks in there like it's nothing.

Way to kill the sense of threat, movie.

Anyway, the second Rebuild movie is way better since things actaully happen in it.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

And then there was the part where...

Spoiler

...Misato takes Shinji into Terminal Dogma just to prove a point. In the show she would most likely be executed for doing that, but in the movie she just casually walks in there like it's nothing.

Spoiler

Well she can in the movie, since she's of a higher rank in this continuity, so presumably can do these things. I guess they just didn't want to drag out revealing Lilith since fans already knew and it was kind of a vital part of the story, gives the angels a reason to continue attacking NERV and the Geo-front.

But yeah, you have a point, does take away the threat from that plot point. Still, the redesigned Ramiel fight certainly raised that threat back up and made Shinji seem awesome, so I can let that slide.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Awesome review, I like the points you made here. Personally, I'm interesting in seeing where the reboot takes this series... as long as it doesn't end up like "End of Evangelion" shudder...

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I remember when I got this movie on Blu-ray.

The animation and picture quality blew my mind.

Although nothing really happens that fans of the series haven't already seen. The second movie is better than the first in pretty much every way. Still like the sniper scene though, my favourite part of the movie.

 

[Casual Shinji]

And then there was the part where...

Spoiler

...Misato takes Shinji into Terminal Dogma just to prove a point. In the show she would most likely be executed for doing that, but in the movie she just casually walks in there like it's nothing.

Spoiler

Well she can in the movie, since she's of a higher rank in this continuity, so presumably can do these things. I guess they just didn't want to drag out revealing Lilith since fans already knew and it was kind of a vital part of the story, gives the angels a reason to continue attacking NERV and the Geo-front.

But yeah, you have a point, does take away the threat from that plot point. Still, the redesigned Ramiel fight certainly raised that threat back up and made Shinji seem awesome, so I can let that slide.

I did like the tweaked design of Ramiel and how when it screamed it almost sounded human. But then that whole speech Misato lays on Gendo ("Believe in your son") felt somewhat out of place, particularly this early in the story.

The problem I have with the Rebuild movies is that things are changed while staying within the context of the original show. And that context was always pretty strict. You change something within it and the whole dynamic gets thrown out of wack.

 

[Innegativeion]

And then there was the part where...

Spoiler

...Misato takes Shinji into Terminal Dogma just to prove a point. In the show she would most likely be executed for doing that, but in the movie she just casually walks in there like it's nothing.

Spoiler

Well she can in the movie, since she's of a higher rank in this continuity, so presumably can do these things. I guess they just didn't want to drag out revealing Lilith since fans already knew and it was kind of a vital part of the story, gives the angels a reason to continue attacking NERV and the Geo-front.

But yeah, you have a point, does take away the threat from that plot point. Still, the redesigned Ramiel fight certainly raised that threat back up and made Shinji seem awesome, so I can let that slide.

I agree with that suggestion, jack, though I've not seen these newer movies yet. My biggest issue with NGE the original series (the end movie included) was that everything... EVERYTHING of any significance at ALL was rushed out the door in either the kowaru episode or the ending movie.

Spoiler

There was so much incoming info it basically all bled together.

adamcreatedangelsthatarehumansbutwithimmortalityandnocreativitylilithcreatedhumansterminaldogmaissomekindof
secondmoontheresthisthingcalledthetreeoflifebutwedontknowwhatitdoesreiislilithkowaruisadam
gendouwantstocausetherapturetoseehisdeadwifeeventhoughhisdeadwifeisreallyeva01 etc.

I had come into the series expecting a grand lovecraftian style mythos, after reading some spoilers on a wiki. It's still there, it's just all rushed at the end. Kind of disappointing.

"End of Evangelion" shudder...

average EoE viewer:

Spoiler

 

[Jack and Calumon]

And then there was the part where...

Spoiler

...Misato takes Shinji into Terminal Dogma just to prove a point. In the show she would most likely be executed for doing that, but in the movie she just casually walks in there like it's nothing.

Spoiler

Well she can in the movie, since she's of a higher rank in this continuity, so presumably can do these things. I guess they just didn't want to drag out revealing Lilith since fans already knew and it was kind of a vital part of the story, gives the angels a reason to continue attacking NERV and the Geo-front.

But yeah, you have a point, does take away the threat from that plot point. Still, the redesigned Ramiel fight certainly raised that threat back up and made Shinji seem awesome, so I can let that slide.

I did like the tweaked design of Ramiel and how when it screamed it almost sounded human. But then that whole speech Misato lays on Gendo ("Believe in your son") felt somewhat out of place, particularly this early in the story.

The problem I have with the Rebuild movies is that things are changed while staying within the context of the original show. And that context was always pretty strict. You change something within it and the whole dynamic gets thrown out of wack.

I think my next counterargument comes with the next review. Things are changing heavily with 2.0. Might not change the end result, but certainly massive change from series.

Spoiler

There was so much incoming info it basically all bled together.

adamcreatedangelsthatarehumansbutwithimmortalityandnocreativitylilithcreatedhumansterminaldogmaissomekindofsecondmoontheresthisthingcalledthetreeoflifewedontknowwhatitdoesreiislilithkowaruisadamgendouwanttocausetherapturetoseehisdeadwifehisdeadwifeisreallyeva01 etc.

Spoiler

You're right, they do seem to rush things at the end. I'm guessing they were thinking about actually explaining it in 25/26 originally along with the End of Evangelion events, but then they looked that their budget was about as big as Shinji's balls and decided to cram it all in.

Despite that, Episode 24 is my favourite episode not only in the anime, but the best thing I've ever watched in my opinion, and I have rewatched it several times, loving every second.

Personally, I'm interesting in seeing where the reboot takes this series... as long as it doesn't end up like "End of Evangelion" shudder...

I have a sinking feeling that Anno might try to outdo the amount of grim, depressing and maddening things he put in End of Evangelion. However, the series has been much more lighthearted so far, maybe it'll keep up this tone?

 

[Casual Shinji]

The thing about the Rebuild movies that I've always enjoyed is the fact that Gainax has stopped making fun of itself. By that I mean, with Evangelion a very core principle of the shoe was this idea that of mechs being part of mind and soul as much as body. With shows like Gundam and Macross the mechs were always very distanced from the actual people controlling them, always like an extension of the body and fighting.

What Evangelion did was take this idea of extension and apply it mentally and emotionally to the characters, so that the extension is as much in their mind and comes as much from willpower as it does from their ability to handle and pilot such beings. It's a far greater form of extension and so when there was a fight in the series there was always a threat beyond that the suit might get damaged. An Eva getting damaged meant huge amounts of emotional duress for the protagonists of the show.

What this lead to was, after End of Evangelion this sort of impression that Gainax were ashamed of just how bitter, depressing and (to many people) unfulfilling the series had become, somewhat forgetting that deep, dark rabbit hole of darkness was what made the series stand out due to its complete subversion and how it took the mecha anime to logical extremes. We ended up with shows like FLCL and Gurren Lagann which had a definite element of parody and self-referencing that more or less showed Gainax's reservation about their biggest hit. Now I absolutely love FLCL and think it's possibly one of the best modern anime series, but it definitely made fun of Gainax's prior work in a way that smacked off embarrassment.

Now with the Rebuild movies it shows Gainax's going back to Evangelion with a level of pride I haven't really seen in the studio for their monster since End of, and I think that's great because the level of self-mocking appreciation for Evangelion that Gainax has somewhat tainted the shows original shock factor and sincerity.

It is indeed nice to see Gainax really show off its muscles again after all these years, but I wish they could've put all that strength behind a totally new project. The Rebuild movies make it feel as if Gainax is stuck to NGE, like they'll never be able to step out of this franchise's shadow and work on something different.

Like you said, nearly every show they made since NGE has been somewhat burdened by its memory.

 

[wendeego]

Evangelion 1.11 is pretty decent, but it definitely suffers from how similar it is to the source material. The visuals are drastically upgraded, but at the same time some of the quirkiness was excised from the original, and a lot of the character development as well. Not to mention that the Angel fights were obviously designed for the television format and get a little wearying after a while.

But you know what? I don't care about any of the above. Because the last fight with Ramiel in the film is so well done that every time I see it, it blows through all my reservations and transforms the movie into one worth seeing by anybody. It takes a pretty interesting fight from the original and turns it into the emotional centerpiece, ramps up the tension to ridiculous levels and pretty much justifies the film's creation in the first place.

The second Rebuild movie has an amazing ending too. Look forwards to it, if you haven't seen it yet! Or if you have, definitely interested to see your take on the material, because it's one of the more polarizing parts of the franchise and I think it would be worth seeing your take on it.

 

[Steffan Max]

Awesome review!

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

**snip**

Awesome review! Looking forward to your review of Evangelion 2.22.

Why? Because: Asuka.