—THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVOIDS SPOILERS NEW CONTENT FROM THE NEW MOVIES—-
Evangelion is one of those shows where if you say you’ve never seen it before in the presence of anime fans, you’ll probably get kicked out of the building. It’s one of those classic shows that’s considered a fan requirement, along with Dragon Ball Z, Cowboy Bebop, and Tenchi Muyo.
The plot of the series mainly revolves around the annoyingly crybaby Shinji, the pilot of Eva Unit 01. I’m not kidding when I say he’s annoyingly crybaby. There were times when he was incredibly annoyed at how much he complained or whined about something. Sometimes, yes, he was justified, but those cases were often rare.
The time is 2015 AD Angels have been attacking humanity. His goal is to end all life on Earth so that he can start anew. The organization, Nerv, is created to devise a means of defense against the Angels, as our conventional weapons have no effect. What they come up with is the Evangelion units. A combination of machinery and soft parts, Evas are essentially large pilotable mechanisms, which will only work when piloted by teenagers. Shinji, the son of the man who created the Evas, becomes one of those teenagers, even though he doesn’t want to. What takes place is a fantastical, deeply woven plot, full of theological references and crazy enemies.
The show was an immediate success, but poor funding, time constraints, and a deep depression led to Neon Genesis Evangelion ending well ahead of schedule and in ways no one expected. The last few episodes of the series were essentially pointless acid trips. It wasn’t until later, when they made the two movies, that the show came to an end.
Now, years later, Hideaki Anno, the creator of the series, has recovered from his deep depression and is completely remaking the series into what he originally intended it to be. Instead of one show, this time the series would become three movies.
The first movie, Evangelion 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone, was almost exactly like the first half of the show. Very few changes apart from about 10 minutes of added cutscenes, some changed dialogue, totally new animations, and revamped Angels. This was not so surprising to me. I mean, at this point in the show, things were going according to plan. It was pretty much how he wanted it. The new animation was beautiful and included a lot of CGI, which is very well integrated into the 2D animation to make it look like it’s not CGI at all. The revamped Angels were great. The Angel who changed most dramatically was the fifth Angel, Ramiel. In the series, this angel was just a black diamond with a laser. In 1.11, he was a translucent octahedron that transformed into geometric shapes when attacking or defending, making him significantly cooler and more entertaining to watch.
Going into version 2.22, I wasn’t expecting so many changes thanks to the lack of changes in version 1.11… Wow, that took me by surprise. Almost the entire second half of the show was rewritten into this movie. Almost nothing is the same. Totally different angels, a new pilot, a lot of stuff removed, and a totally different cause for the ending of the movie.
I’ll start with the new driver as this was the only disappointment for me. Illustrious Mari Makinami, the fourth daughter. Yes, fourth child, not fifth. “But what about Shinji’s friend? The one Shinji nearly killed when he first tried the Dummy Plug.” You could say. This never happens in 2.22. To avoid spoilers, let’s say the scene still happens, but it’s not the same person. There’s not much to say about Mari anyway, which is why I was so disappointed. Mari has maybe 10 minutes of screen time. We don’t get to see much of her personality other than that she loves flying and fighting in Evas, and she likes the smell of LCL, the liquid that pilots breathe into Evas. I would have loved to see more of her, and I’m sure we will in 3.33, but since she had a somewhat big role at the end of this movie, she should have gotten a little more screen time.
As for the parts that were cut, I have to wonder what they’re going to do with this. In the original series, Tabris, the Seventeenth Angel, was a young teenager named Kaworu Nagisa, who befriended Shinji. In the end, Shinji was forced to kill him. This all happened long before the end of the series, whereas in 2.22, he only makes a few cameos, which implies that he will appear in 3.33. I have to wonder how things will play out as 3.33 ends with the start of Third Impact, just like the show did. Which of course, as I mentioned above, starts in a COMPLETELY different way than the program.
So now the main question is, “With all these changes to what was already a popular, award-winning show, is it still good?” The simple answer is YES. My God, yes. In my opinion, and at the risk of getting a lot of hate, these new movies are far superior to the original series. While the show holds a place close to my heart, I can’t deny that it was incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to understand. The show required not only multiple viewings, but also a lot of online research just to SOMETHING understand it all. Even then, almost all the information you find online about the original show is just speculation and fan theory. With the new movies, the story is explained much better and done at the right pace so you don’t feel like you’re just looking at a bunch of exhibits.
So, in a nutshell, if you enjoyed Neon Genesis, you’re going to love these movies. If you have never seen Neon Genesis, these movies are perfect for you. If you’re a hardcore Neon Genesis fan who turns red at any mention of change, then you should probably stay away.
