Quote:
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Originally Posted by LifeDistortion
This movie is really great. Really insane and weird. I really enjoyed it.
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Really?
Anyway
Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance
8/10
You may remember that several pages back in this thread, I posted a review of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, doing a point by point breakdown of the differences between this and the original anime. Well:
SPOILERS AHEAD
-I would say Rebuild 1.0 was 25% divergent from the original; this one is closer to 50%. The general story arc follows the same path, but many of the specific plot points have changed. I'm guessing the third installment will be 75% divergent, with the fourth installment (I read somewhere that it's supposed to be a quadrilogy) being nearly 100% original. I'm hoping the general ending will be the same though, because I really liked End of Evangelion. Either way, I know the Japanese are infamous for retconning, but I'm hoping not even Hideaki Anno thinks of the Rebuild as "canon".
-Asuka is handled somewhat differently this time (and for dub fans who hate Tiffany Grant, sorry, but she's back). She's the same general character and she does add levity to the story, but there are changes: she ends up rooming with Shinji and Misato not out of having synchronize their biorhythms to fight an Angel that's two bodies under one mind, but because Misato wants them to get along better. Also, she ends up piloting Unit-03, which I'll come back to.
-Rei is fleshed out a bit better. She still has that ethereal "am I a human or a doll" feel to her persona, but she does things the original was never shown be capable of: she smiles at one point; she shows caring for Shinji, and she even actually plans to host a dinner party with everyone so that Shinji and Gendo can possibly bond...which brings me to the next point.
-The Unit-03 battle and its outcome go from tragic to downright mean-spirited to the characters. Not only does Shinji have to fight Unit-03 on his own, but he knows Asuka is piloting it! Not only that, but the battle takes place on the day Rei's dinner party was supposed to be! To top it all off, Asuka winds up maimed and in quarantine, and this was after she makes peace of sorts with Misato and Misato tells her how much fun life can be. The original orchestral background score was replaced with a really depressing song...this whole sequence is a test for those who loved the original to see how willing they are to accept change.
-It seems that so far the only role of Mari, the brand new character, is to act as a placeholder when the changes to Asuka's role take her out of the action. She seems likeable enough, though, so I'm hoping her role will be expanded in the third and final installments.
-Some of the Angel redesigns are pretty cool. Sahaquiel (the Angel that tried to fall on the the Geofront from space) was made more complex, coming out of an outer shell with an appearance similar to Leliel (the Angel Shinji got trapped in), unfolding into what can only be described as a more contemporary version of its original shape.
-Kaworu's role is more that of a traditional anime villain...at first anyway. It remains to be seen how he'll end up being treated this time.
Overall, I orginally didn't want to see the Rebuild, but now I want to see the whole series just to see how it plays out. Do I want to own it as I do nearly all the manga, the Platinum Collection of the original anime, and Death & Rebirth/End of Evangelion? Not at this point.