Shin Evangelion Movie:||

kariohn

After many years of waiting, after constant delays, and an additional few months of waiting for the english version of the movie, it's finally here, and Evangelion, at long last, is over, also watch out for some spoilers here and there, probably. Now, before I get to the review itself I'm gonna say this, when looking at it from an objective standpoint, atleast personally, I don't think the story itself was too amazing, it's pretty decent but not that great, it was really convoluted and I don't really understand some of the things that have happened during the movie, and there was simply too much information for my baby little brain too handle, animation looked really iffy at times, but in the end, I thought it was a really enjoyable watch, and it executes the story it does tell really well, and I don't think they could've really done it any better. It was a fantastic end to the franchise, and probably the best of the rebuild movies. And now, let me get to the specifics. --- ***THE STORY*** Probably the strongest aspect of the movie, pretty much everything was tied up very nicely by the end, and while still having a few questions about what exactly happened with some specific things, that's mostly just me not having the brain capacity to really remember everything that happened in both 3.0+1.0 and the previous movies, those questions aren't exactly something that hinders my experience in any major way as these are only really minor tidbits that I can probably find out if I search the wiki a little bit, but other than that, I haven't found any major flaws within the story. --- ***THE ART & ANIMATION*** Now this is a bit of a mixed bag, some shots are simply incredible, brimming with detail, animation being fluid as hell, but at the same time you'll have some shots that just feel rushed, the CG shots being the biggest example of this, with some (not all, surprisingly) shots just not looking up to standard with some of the other scenes in the movie, it's most noticeable near the end of the movie, in the scene where, ~!fourth impact is happening, and there showing up a giant rei head reminiscent of eoe, however instead of opting to 2D or atleast 2D looking CGI, they instead made the head pretty realistic looking, which definitely shocked me when I saw it, and I still don't really know how I feel about the decision, but I think I can turn a blind eye to that.!~ Aside from that one example, I don't have any real major issues with the overall look of the movie. --- ***THE CHARACTERS*** I really like the characters in this, they've really developed them quite nicely over the span on the film, with pretty much every character having their personalities and everything fleshed out and really make them feel like they've matured since the beginning of the series. There's really not much to say aside from this, aside from maybe the designs of both the characters and Eva's, and that hasn't really changed too drastically, but there were some new pretty interesting designs I quite liked, I really love the humanoid look of the Eva units and I don't think I'll ever get tired of that type of mecha design (yes I know, they're technically not mechas, it's just easier to call them that.) --- ***THE SOUNDTRACK*** The soundtrack, like in pretty much every Evangelion movie, is just top-notch, with some classics returning here and there, there's really nothing bad I could say about the soundtrack, it's great all-throughout. --- And that's probably the end of my review, overall it's a really fun watch, it's not perfect, it's not a masterpiece, but it's not terrible, it ties everything up quite nicely, leaves no loose ends, and just leaves you with a little smile at the end, it's incredible just how much Evangelion shaped not only the anime industry but just every piece of media in general, and it's wild to think that it's almost been 3 decades since the anime originally aired, and almost 3 decades of really bizarre merchandise you wouldn't even know you could make merch of, but they sure did find a way.

planetJane

img880(https://magicplanetanimedesign.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/uxzj6in.jpg) --- ~~~_SPECIAL WARNING: This review contains extensive spoilers for the reviewed material, and assumes familiarity with it and the remainder of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise._ ~~~ -----------------------

In a very real sense, this is the end of something. ***Neon Genesis Evangelion*** has existed as a series since 1995. Long before it became a "franchise" as such, there were those original episodes and the films that followed them, most famously *End of Evangelion*. The _Rebuild_ movies, always controversial, serve as a way to rewrite and redefine Evangelion, which has remained true through the rocky first, the astonishing second, and the burned-black, emotionally deadened third entries in the series. That ___Thrice Upon a Time___, the fourth and final, will spawn mountains upon mountains of discourse is only natural. This is Eva. One can talk forever about its influences and its impact, but there is nothing else that is truly like it. Twenty-six years of history come to a stop here. Welcome to the end of an era. Let’s start not at the beginning, but at the end. After the harrowing of the soul that was You Can (Not) Redo, Thrice Upon a Time concludes as the only iteration of the Evangelion series to receive a wholly unambiguous happy ending. There is no room for confusion here. Shinji Ikari is all grown up, and accordingly, this movie will make you weep like a proud parent on graduation day. For a certain kind of Eva fan, this is a claim to be met with skepticism. Eva derives no small part of its immense reputation from being a truly withering under-the-microscope look at depression. But it’s important to clarify our terms here: Thrice Upon a Time does not rob Eva of that accolade, it reinforces it. After twenty-six years of spiraling, Thrice assures even those of us in the darkest pits of misery that yes, there is a way out of this. As a kind of anti-End of Evangelion, it is an open window disguised as a trap door. img880(https://i.imgur.com/967eayO.jpg) Which is to say, _having a happy ending_ and _being a happy movie_ are two different things. _Getting_ to that ending is quite the ride, a fact only enhanced by Thrice‘s incredible length, clocking in at two and a half hours. Improbably, it earns every second, but one could be forgiven for wondering. After some action-focused eye candy to start things off with a bang, and which mostly stars Mari, the film refocuses on its protagonist. We open with Shinji in near-catatonic burnout. He is entirely non-verbal for the first forty minutes of the film, and the first words anyone says to him are an accusation that he is a spineless loser. When, at one point, he gets a look at Asuka’s collar, has a PTSD flashback, and vomits on the spot. This, just so you know, is what we’re dealing with here. That he manages to, in the course of only the film’s remaining 110 minutes, go from there to where he is by its finale is nothing short of astonishing. If Thrice Upon a Time did not have two and half decades of cachet to lean on here, it probably wouldn’t work. Over the course of Thrice Upon a Time, we see Shinji make sustained and–this is key here–permanent character growth for, arguably, the first time ever. His character actually changing in a sustained way, the way one’s character is supposed to change as they grow up, rather than simply shifting. Where You Can (Not) Redo seemed to bitterly mock the very idea of ever growing as a person at all, Thrice demonstrates that it’s possible with nothing more than some genuine care. Village 3, the town of survivors that Shinji, Asuka, and one of Rei’s clones are based in for the first third or so of the film, is a place where people are forced by the aftermath of the near-Third Impact disaster to work together. img880(https://i.imgur.com/HQwoF2e.jpg) It is in this environment, shepherded by two of his old friends; the now-adult Kensuke and Touji, that Shinji is finally able to make real, positive changes to himself. Village 3 shows Shinji what he does not have. His friends have become adults, started families, and, in the way that their circumstances dictate, become healthy and productive people. Shinji has none of that, and although he never says as much out loud it’s clear even early on in the film that he’s keenly aware of it. img880(https://i.imgur.com/Sl8QzJF.jpg) But he’s not alone, here. Asuka stands at a distance from Village 3–as she always has from everyone–and the Clone Rei, naïve as a newborn, rapidly integrates into it, only for her to die near the film’s one-third mark. This could easily send Shinji spiraling, but the fact that she appears to die happy seems to spark something inside him, which Kensuke in particular helps nurture, and this becomes the catalyst for his growth. img880(https://i.imgur.com/ITkzHUt.jpg) It’s tempting to map out his entire emotional journey here, but a fair amount of it feels so natural that doing so could be an article unto itself. If we skip ahead to near the film’s climax where Shinji is suddenly not only able to face Gendo but do so unafraid, you could be forgiven for thinking a natural transition impossible. Yet, it simply does, there is no explanation for it beyond the built-up credibility of Shinji’s long history as a character. They make sense because he’s Shinji. Further in, the middle stretch or so of the film is a clash of dazzling surrealities. Massive battleships slug it out in conceptual spaces, nonce terms like The Key of Nebuchadnezzar, The Golgotha Object, and The Anti-Universe gain biblical significance fitting their names. img880(https://i.imgur.com/SodIgg8.jpg) It’s all wonderful, and all Extremely Anime, in the genericized sense of the term that commentators like myself tend to avoid using. Explosions, giant robots and monsters, incomprehensibly vast scales of combat, and of course the plethora of proper nouns. Asuka pulls a plot-significant item out of her eye at one point, you get the idea. Rarely is this done as well as it’s done here. Somehow all of the disparate parts make perfect sense, and one would not be wrong to invoke one of Eva’s own successors in the feeling of how. There really is a bit of __Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann__ in it. img880(https://i.imgur.com/xMYyg6m.jpg) img880(https://i.imgur.com/Y7GI74I.jpg) img880(https://i.imgur.com/ubzsXPc.jpg) But, yes, the key thing. Shinji fights Gendo. He fights Gendo bravely and while wholly accepting himself, and this lets him question his father in a meaningful way for the first time. As the two’s bout turns from physical to conversational, Gendo reveals what we’ve all known all along. He is, beneath his monstrous acts, beneath his abuse, beneath the mad scientist and would-be godslayer, a deeply lonely man willing to go to inhumanly great lengths to see his late wife again. The most evil men tend to be simple, and Gendo is no exception. Shinji defeating Gendo is an entire generation conquering shared trauma. The sort of solidarity that is direly needed in an era as grim as ours, and the sort that means even more coming from Evangelion than it might almost any other series. img880(https://i.imgur.com/ug8f4jz.jpg) It’s prudent to take an aside here to say that the film is of course not perfect. There are faults to be found, but they’re minor and mostly on the production side. Studio Khara’s CGI-heavy, live action film-influenced visual style has always been divisive, and it will never be moreso than it is here, putting the capstone on what is far and away their most well-known series. For my money, I’d say it works in some contexts better than others. Truly disturbing and otherworldly imagery, like Asuka’s loss against Unit 13, or a bizarrely photorealistic, haunting echo of End of Evangelion‘s “floating Rei” are excellent. img880(https://i.imgur.com/a8qmSy0.jpg) img880(https://i.imgur.com/2rV9EBS.jpg) In other places, especially in certain battle scenes, one can’t escape the feeling that there’s a grandiosity that these fights should have that they don’t always quite pull off. Mostly in the form of the sheer scale of the actors involved–especially the battleships–not always coming through. Still, these criticisms are easily offset by the other, aforementioned visual merits. On a slightly more substantial level, one could argue that limiting the film’s perspective to mostly Shinji limits its impact. The death of the Clone Rei relatively early on being the example I suspect many will glom onto. But I think this is the wrong tack to take. Shinji, despite everything, has been all of us. Which is not to say he is all of us. Some folks, even some who love Evangelion dearly, have left that particularly dark phase of our mental illnesses long behind us. But we have all been “back there”, where every room is suffocating, and any activity is a distraction from our mind’s attempt to eat itself. And the fear of going “back there”, of possibly hurting yourself or worse, hurting others, is very real. Which is the exact thing that makes it so cathartic when, pushing back against twenty-six years of history, his own initial characterization, and the countless reductionist depictions of the character as a spineless wimp, Shinji wins. The Son, finally understanding his Father, vanquishes him without further struggle. img880(https://i.imgur.com/KnemIOX.jpg) The new world he creates, as he is made able to do, is not some perfect paradise. It is a world not unlike ours, though I suspect, perhaps, a little brighter. Of course any distance between the two is a mere illusion. After such a long time clawing at one’s own soul, any daylight is welcome. If the film’s climax seems to leave some questions unanswered, they simply don’t feel relevant. It’s Mari who pulls Shinji from his rapidly-fading sketch world into the new universe he’s created. The ending scene depicts Shinji, now an adult, living a truly, peacefully, ordinary life. img880(https://i.imgur.com/x2XG2PW.jpg) And so, the Sun shines on a world without Evangelions, and, for us, without Evangelion. I am reminded by Thrice’s finale not so much of any other piece of Eva media, or indeed any of Gainax’s other marquee properties. Instead, my mind turns to the finale of the largely-overlooked ___Wish Upon The Pleiades___. In that series’ finale, which marked the end of Studio Gainax’s time as a going concern as a producer of TV anime, no words are wasted on complicated, overwrought goodbyes. Instead, as here, it’s simply on to the next. The next universe, the next adventure, the next dawn, or, if you prefer, the neon genesis. img880(https://i.imgur.com/AJ1vgPc.jpg) The final remarkable thing about Thrice Upon a Time is that it puts Neon Genesis Evangelion on the whole in the past, and at the same time, immortalizes it for the future. The end of an era, but the beginning of a new day. It is over, but it will be with us forever.

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heychrisfox

This final entry into the Evangelion series is a really complicated piece to watch in a lot of ways, if you consider how long and wild of a ride it has been to finally conclude such a monumental series like this. It's had so many highs and lows, and has been both the subject of ridicule as well as a literal cultural landmark that defines genres and the medium as a whole. So the question is: how do you make a film that ends all of that? How do you do something which has no equal proper justice? Do you try to match it? That is vain and conceited. Do you try to surpass it? That's presumptuous and may not even be possible. Or do you approach the thing like an adult? Calm, collected, accepting of the faults, but managing. In a lot of ways, and on more levels than just one, 3.0+1.0 is exactly that. This isn't a film that cares about your expectations. Yes, it attempts to meet them, and yes, it does try to surpass them. Whether it does or not is opinion. Whether you like it or dislike it is an opinion; it always has been. Whether this is good or not is an opinion. So let's stick to the facts for a minute. The acting is great. I was worried initially with some voice-acting changes. Beyond a few flubs of lines in the English dub, it's all well portrayed. The soundtrack is also well put together. Once again, from a few odd choices made, overall the OST hits many different cords, from delightful, to nostalgic, to bizarre, to bombast. The visuals are phenomenal. Studio Khara is leading the industry in amazing anime-CGI, and you can certainly tell they put their heart into it. This is also, surprisingly, their strength and weakness in 3.0+1.0. Many of the scenes are some of the most amazing action seen throughout anime. Others are... rough, to say the least. Some of the human characters have janky and stiff movement, and in other scenes, are a bit overexaggerated. These are much more forgivable to some of the CGI during the end of the second act, once the film gets into high gear. You can tell that the team was either affected by Covid, or otherwise, just did a sloppy job. Many of the models look like clunky video games designs from the Playstation era, while others enter the territory of the uncanny valley, appearing uncomfortable and unappealing. This is a particularly sad blemish, as the rest of the traditional animation is beautiful, and would have been much more beautiful to witness. In terms of the plot, it also struggles a bit. The raw density of the series, and the wackiness of its sci-fi elements, make it a bit nonsensical at times. The series has always had a love and hate relationship with technobabble. Sometimes it sounds appropriately interesting and cool as it should; other times, the weird concepts discussed get a little silly. While this might not normally be a problem it compounds with the wackiness of the plot itself. Some of the situations and concepts addressed are so broad and complicated, the characters literally outright tell the audience, almost as if they are reciting the scientific logic directly to the audience. It can be very jarring when two characters who masterminded a scientific marvel discuss the exact marvel like they are both hearing about the thing for the first time. There are surely ways that this could have been done. The film is certainly flawed in a lot of ways. But I don't think there's any way to remove those flaws and imperfections. I think that's part of the point the film is trying to make by the time it reaches its conclusion. Evangelion, just like its lead character, has always been flawed but definitely feels matured by the end. Lots of the allusions to adulthood versus childhood seem to agree with that perception too. End of Eva was young, depressive, and cynical; 3.0+1.0 is thoughtful, wise, and resigned. It's an appreciation of its past and what it did, while also an acceptance that this truly is the past, and that moving onward and forward is the only path ahead. Almost three decades on, it helps itself, its many teams, its many ideas, and its many viewers to take a deep breath and look plainly at "a world without Evangelion." For better or worse, but hopefully for the better.

Wavieff

> “…lesser men trying to emulate his greatness mistook the superficial for the essence.” > -Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day img(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/839734152470724661/1124781473929646090/1real.jpg?width=1248&height=702) Hideaki Anno is a genius. He’s a super fan turned auteur, assistant turned master, a director turned referential catalogue. He can do spastic bursts of energy (His And Her Circumstances), he can do quiet contemplative train rides (Neon Genesis Evangelion), and he can do everything in between, no matter the medium (Love & Pop). Seemingly, Hideaki Anno can do very little wrong, and even if he did, he’d still remain at the top of the list for anime’s greatest directors, lodged right up there with Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Satoshi Kon. But even the gods can stumble. 1995’s Neon Genesis Evangelion is, arguably, Anno’s Gesamtkunstwerk, the echelon of animation, combined, torn apart, and put back together in so many different ways it becomes mindboggling. And if Evangelion is a Gesamtkunstwerk, End Of Evangelion is a step above, not only acting as an alternate conclusion to the telelvision show, but as a conclusion to this section of Anno’s life, a retrospective on his depression, his anger, and his attempts towards piecing his life back together, all amidst a struggle with the medium, his fans, and the world. Though many, many others assisted Anno on this project with their own personal flourishes, Evangelion is unique because of its intimacy. How often do you get to delve into someone’s lifelong trauma, their illogical inaction, their recession into themselves? And even less often do you see the lack of resolution to these things. Yes, our characters recieve some sort of temporary relief, but Evangelion makes its characters confront these life events as monuments that can’t be surmounted in a single leap. The spritzy red-haired Asuka must come to terms with failure, that she can’t always be the best. The introverted klutz Shinji must confront his problems face on, lest his world be constant running away, never amounting to anything. The ever-expressionless Rei must find out who she really is with little to no assistance from others, and must continually discover herself over and over again month in and month out. These aren’t simple questions these characters confront, these are life long struggles, and these teenagers are confronting these struggles deep within themselves every episode, and with each episode we see them carve out their own definition of who they are, or we see them regress, we see them fail. Even in side characters like Misato and Kanji, whose curmudgeonly relationship splinters again and again despite all efforts because of deep-seeded issues like Misato’s loss of her father at a young age, and seeking some sort of a father figure in her lover as a replacement. # ***You don’t see this in just anything.*** img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/839734152470724661/1124781862250889317/3a31d16adeb053f196a1bd608ea9c3e2-2629917476.png) And you don’t see this confronted with humour, either, with the joys of life as well as its sorrows, with a bag full of absurdities for every grounded emotion! Evangelion is notoriously slapstick at the drop of a dime, much more so towards the beginning, but again, with each passing episode we get to peer further and further into who these characters really are. Anno and his team don’t hide anything from prying eyes, in fact, he practically invites us to pry further, to peer into the aspects of himself he doesn’t particularly enjoy, but acknowledges nonetheless, all through the guise of a real robot show; A type of show Anno is an immense fan of! Is there anything more personal than doing what you love and knowing who you are? It’s with these thoughts that I went into the Evangelion Rebuild films with, films that promised to “rebuild” (hence the name) the story of Evangelion, with a practically endless stream of money provided by Anno’s new studio, Studio Khara, and bringing on a variety of talent from equally-classic OVAs of the time period. However, my mentality proved to be a big mistake. The Evangelion Rebuild films start off as cute summaries with a few additions, namely, more fight scenes, one more character, and a few alternate twists. 1.0, the eponymous first film, summarises the first ten episodes fine enough, but immediately you’re hit with a bat named ‘uncanny valley’. Where was ‘Hedgehog’s Dilemma’? Perhaps the most notorious Evangelion episode, episode four, where our protagonist Shinji Ikari foregoes his responsibilities of saving the world to seep into himself, to escape, to ignore the world collapsing around him in hopes that it would all just go away. This is accented greatly by the lack of dialogue, the noise of clacking train tracks, and wide shots which hold for tens of seconds. ‘Hedgehog’s Dilemma’ assists in knowing the character of Shinji, because by his posture and by his inner thoughts, you can hear the doubts he has not only in himself, but the world around him. It’s this episode where Evangelion became something special to me, as I, too, forego responsibilities in the pursuit of ignorance. Escapism. An all-too-human emotion I’m frequently partial to. And I’m not saying that ‘Hedgehog’s Dilemma’ had to be in Evangelion 1.0, the constraints of the film’s length are obviously going to play a part there, but we don’t get a single character moment like ‘Hedgehog’s Dilemma’ to peer into the character which is what Evangelion was all about. Instead, we get an extended fight with Ramiel, a floating screaming tetrahedron representing the opposing force of the series, The Angels. The fight scene is punchy, flashy, and looks great, but raises an eyebrow. Is this what Evangelion was really all about? Sure, it contained these elements, but they acted as outbursts for character progression, for emotion, not action for action’s sake a la Mission: Impossible. Again, not to say that there’s anything WRONG with Tom Cruise-esque stunts, but that’s not what the series has come to be. Ah, you may say, so this is the Rebuild. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/839734152470724661/1124782451823235113/The_Sixth_Angels_Halo_Rebuild-76306756.png) It only gets more and more concerning as it continues. 2.0 sees the introduction of our tertiary protagonist, Asuka, who is now named something different, from Asuka Langley Souryuu to Asuka Langley Shikinami. Which checks out, because hardly are the two the same character. Sure, both may possess the staunch adamancy towards our protagonists and the endless desire for victory, but that’s just about where the comparisons end. 2.0 doesn’t delve any more into Asuka’s character, instead making her as abrasive as possible, establishing herself as a sort of rival to Rei and Shinji instead of an anti-heroic ally, and we don’t get any sort of insight into why she is like this. She is merely like this because this is the Asuka we know. Sort of. Like a Great Value item, you can just feel that something isn’t quite right, that something isn’t name brand. And 3.0 just goes completely off its rocker, timeskipping after 2.0’s ending to plop us alongside Shinji in a reddened world we don’t know nor care about, riddled with floating CGI ships a la Space Battleship Yamato and people screaming at Shinji for what he did, though never telling him what he did outright. If there’s anything 3.0 proves, it’s that Evangelion is truly a Rebuild, a rebuilt husk of its former self. Only the shell, none of the filling. It may look pretty, but that’s all there is to it. 4.0, then, is much of the same that the third film gave us. The opening scene in Paris has little to no relevancy to the actual plot, instead acting as a time capsule of a tech demo which has already been outdated just a year later. Compare this to Across The Spider-Verse and…No, don’t, that’s just unfair. One outstanding example of just how different this film is in its depiction of its heroines. 4.0 objectifies its women where the 1995 television series critiqued it. most of the shots are framed in such a manner to upskirt our heroines, to peer in on them partially nude or fully nude. That says enough as it is; 4.0 is filled to the brim with lecherous angles for the sake of debauchery. At this point, I wasn’t asking for 1995’s ake on three-dimensionally-written two-dimensional drawings - the previous three movies primed me into not expecting that - I just wanted some consistency, motivations, and personalities befitting of a character, any character. But all I get are Asuka dropping her catchphrase, “anta baka” forty-five minutes into the movie, as a sort of glint of the sun, as Studio Khara inquires, “Did you remember that line from the television show?” with a reprehensive grin on its face. # ***“It’s me, Aida Kensuke,” a man says in this film. But is it?*** img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/839734152470724661/1124781474252587108/huh.png) This film waxes and wanes between existentialism and staunch optimism, never striking a true balance between the two, merely placing weight on either one or the other like life itself was easily black or white. Where were the grey hues? Where was shunning all responsibility because all you know how to do is reject? A childlike exposition while a one-eyed redhead force feeds you certainly shouldn’t set you back on track. But otherwise wouldn’t be understood well-enough, would it? Gone is the intimacy and the personality and the brevity of the original. Gone is the diary entry styling of everything being laid on the table, yes, this is merely another franchise film in a sea of franchise films. Open wide, because there are many, many more on the way. Buy our merchandise! For as much as I hated this film, when Shinji Ikari sat alone, framed smaller than a rabbit, ocean stretching beyond the reach of the screen, clouds littering the sky with their multitude, for a single moment I felt knowing of him again. Of his loneliness, of eternal self-contemplation, and bewilderment of my small part in the world. It was ‘Hedgehog’s Dilemma’; we were given a moment to contemplate with him, to peer out into the world so oppressive, so incomprehensible, so foreign. That is, until a body-tight skinsuit-wearing blueberry girl walks up to him and explodes into a burst of tangerine semen. # ***The Evangelion Rebuild films substituted the superficial for the essence, and it was difficult to witness this great piece of art lose its life.*** img(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/839734152470724661/1124781474781077504/whao.png?width=1745&height=716)

Honyopenyoko

~~~ __SPOILER WARNING__ >I was casually writing my thoughts on shows I finish watching and I poured up something way longer than I expected, so I told to myself, why not try to publish it as my first review ever. Here goes nothing. Finally, after quite a long time, the long awaited last installment Evangelion 3.0+1.0 comes. I was glad to see producers being aware of how long they have made us waiting as they have put recaps of the previous 3 movies at the beginning. Okay, jokes aside. This movie was a fantastic visually stunning bomb with amazing characters. Even though the animation is being its strongest point, it doesn't carry the greatness of the show on its own. Characters and story make another great aspects of Evangelion as well. img420(https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2021/03/25/evangelion-blogroll-1616636910220.jpeg) First things first, we got to see the world after the near Third Impact. Starting with organization WILLE led by Misato, that should be known from the previous movie. Right away the action scene where Mari really shined. Next we are moved to the environment called Village 3, where people that survived near Third Impact are living their lives. Here we are reunited with our 3 main characters. Shinji, haunted by his trauma from what he caused. Asuka, living in the outskirts of the village and being alone as usual. And at last, the clone of Rei. Of course they are accompanied with supporting cast which helped the story flow too (their classmates, etc.). I want to talk about Ms. Look-alike... yeah, that's how they called her. I really enjoyed her character in the first 40 minutes of the movie. It was fun and astonishing watching her trying to grow as human. But alas, she was not one so she couldn't. It's cute how she was the spark for Shinji's character development and growing up, making him realize there are still people caring about him, despite her death. Regardless of that, she died happily and he probably knew that, hence his strong determination that could be seen afterwards. img420(https://i.imgur.com/6CM5UHC.jpeg) Oh boy, this was all of the characters peak. I still can't believe how well they made them. Shinji growing both physically and mentally, finally being bold enough to face his father and even question him why and what is he doing. Asuka's sacrificial attitude was showed here too. Sadly she didn't get that much of a shining time here (at least from my POV), but her angel blood scene was so epic, I had goosebumps from it. img420(https://i.imgur.com/9aoYPpl.jpeg) But Mari, oh god, just how much fun character she is. I already liked her since the 3rd movie but here she shined the most. The mystery about her was also unveiled. She was also the one that pushed that spark in Shinji further and we can see both of them together at the very end, most likely being in a lovers relationship. They were so sweet. The voice acting was handled very well. All of them managed to do their job in every scene, but I expected no less because they are experienced voice actors. The fact that a lot of them were my favorite ones eased all of my doubts and made me enjoy it even more. Thanks to all of them. So yeah, those 3 were the strongest aspect of the movie in my opinion. Now I will move on what I think were the flawed things. Starting with OST, action scenes OST to be more precise. Sure there were some banger songs, but most of them weren't that significant like, for example: [The Wrath of God in All its Fury](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFpTFAgSC5Y). Also another thing I found problematic was that most of the sounds were way louder than the OST itself so sometimes it was unhearable. Although it might have been a problem with file or sound on my side. Next the CGI. I've heard some harsh comments about that, but I was questioning it because I've seen no problem with it thus far at that point of time. But then it came, maybe one of the most impactful among fight scenes in the whole movie, and it got such a bad CGI treatment it hurt to watch. But what can be done, it didn't affect me much as it got better later on. The animation, was splendid, but on the other hand, there were scenes that just got such a bad treatment despite it being 2D. I'm looking at you, poor Ritsuko. But most of the time it was, as I said, beautiful. img420(https://i.imgur.com/tGz6SBw.jpeg) At last, the literal Neon Genesis was created, a world without Evas, which ironically, is something relatable to our Neon Genesis Evangelion experience as of now, or so you could say. I also think that we should take something from the ending of this series. To be honest, it was such a satisfying ending to the NGE series, seeing most of the characters living happily ever after. I'd never imagine that I'd be seeing a happy ending here, but it makes me so glad. They always deserved to lead peaceful cheerful lives after all of that happened. I would even welcome some Slice of Life spin off series, but I highly doubt that would ever come as you could consider it being unnecessary milking. As I've mentioned already, the interaction between Shinji and Mari at the end was so sweet and touching. And that's when [One Last Kiss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s64_FQY9-1c) starts playing. Damn, it hits different after you've watched the movie. To finally sum it up, I loved almost everything about this movie and I consider it to be the peak of Evangelion series. At the right end, at the verge of tears, the satisfaction comes. img420(https://i.imgur.com/pSjmGhf.png) ~~~

PhosPhossu

#The journey is over# Shin Evangelion is the product of over 60 years of the anime industry, not only the ending for the biggest and most influential anime series in japan but something that can serve as a graduation for otaku. Striking visuals, a perfected Shiro Sagisu leading the soundtrack and a matured and satisfied Hideaki Anno behind the script and general direction, shin Evangelion is the result of the ideas of 4 directors and a massive staff and it shows, it's filled to the brim with content and references to other anime. It is anime at it's best, it's extremely fun and wacky while still being emotional and relevant. And this movie is self aware, it knows what it has to do and the burden it's carrying, it's not just some cheap and rushed way of ending everything. It's well thought out and crafted with care. The perfect word to describe the feeling after it is fulfillment. Visually, it's what you would expect from something this grand, the background art is constantly amazing probably the best I have ever seen in an anime, the character acting is excellent and as expected of something that used real actor rotoscoping and 3d storyboards it's very dynamic and live action like. It's avant-garde and different without being non-sensical and cluttered. As for the action animation, it's incredible for most of the movie with one or two scenes that didn't work, the CG is not preferable over 2D eva action but it's used extremely creatively and they completely nailed it. The soundtrack is a mix of NGE with EoE, it has a lot of vocal tracks and menacing chorus but it's also full of warm "slice of life" tracks and brings back music from other gainax works. The music timing is genius and there wasn't a single time I felt a track shouldn't be playing or that another one should be used. # img220(https://files.catbox.moe/u0jmmu.png)# ~~~~~~____SPOILERS FROM NOW ON____~~~~~~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 As for the story and themes, doing something that works as a sequel to 3 works at the same time is quite hard, but Anno managed to deliver flawlessly, in the literal/action plane of action we follow a sequel of 3.33's story, continuing the whole deal with NERV vs WILLE and etc, but things get weird with the final and additional impact and the META scenes come in and turn the film into something totally different and it is reminiscent of episode 25/6 and end of eva's instrumentality part, it begins to give closure to every character that didn't have it in end of eva, and we basically pick up right after EoE/25/26 thematically since Shinji seems to already have his closure and is now helping the others which was a fucking incredible move to keep things fresh and make the old ending even better. Of course, we got confusing lore as always and a lot of plot twists and a backstory and proper closure for Gendo which had a bleak sad ending in EoE, Kowaru aswell. The cast was at their peak and everyone was extremely satisfying. # img220(https://files.catbox.moe/kbm36s.png)# The main theme in this movie is quite obvious, moving on. Asuka moves on from Shinji, Shinji moves on from his guilt and becomes genuinely proactive for the first time, Gendo gets a life lesson and changes his ways, Yui is not a "mega mastermind" anymore and helps, Kowaru has an actual ending where moves on from constantly chasing Shinji and acting like a "god", Rei moves on from trying to protect Shinji and her lack of personality, Misato moves on and starts being honest and fixes what she felt guilty of even if she wasn't able to give a mother to her son and Mari is Mari. img220(https://files.catbox.moe/viczee.png) The over the top scenes, the emotional moments, the incredible art and soundtrack, everything about it screams instant-classic and for sure will stay forever with me. # img220(https://files.catbox.moe/pxxm3d.png)# __only a feeling of peace remained__

deadscream

I know it’s kind of a faux pas to be part of the rat race to get the first review in after just a day, (or in my case, hours), but I just have way too much shit to say from just the first viewing. I’m not a writer so this review is most likely going to suck. What ended up happening here is I was taking too many notes during the movie, and at some point I ended up with enough stuff to fill up a review, so hey, why not? The very fact that *I*, dumbass extraordinaire have anything to say at all beyond “I liked it” or “this sucks” should speak for this film’s quality. Plus, in seeing it so early, I had the unique privilege of formulating an opinion without the hot takes or interpretations of others tainting my mind. Anyway, if you don’t want to read the ramblings of my brain at 2 AM, please click off, that’s literally all this is going to be. Real quick Me History here with me and Eva and my having seen it like three times. I figure this is probably what informs my opinion the most. The first time I saw it I was like 14, depressed, and very dumb. I was very impressed that any series would have… themes??? ABOUT DEPRESSION?? Obvious 10/10. The second time I watched it I was like 16, depressed, and dumb, but in a different way. Somewhere along the line I had adopted the doctrine of “only media that makes me feel happy all the time is good”. Yes, my friends, I was a hopepunk person! Somebody like me could absolutely not jive with Evangelion and its whole despair aesthetic. The most recent time I had watched it I was 18, suicidally depressed, and still dumb, but with *new wisdom*. Art can and should actually make you feel more than one emotion! And! Evangelion is *not* just a nihilistic misery fest. Yes, life is difficult, you will suffer, you will never be able to fully understand others, but as long as you are alive there will always be chances for happiness. It was on this third watch that Eva finally landed with me and cemented its place among The Faves. I came into this movie expecting a retrod of End of Eva but with little changes here and there, but it really is its own beast. Whereas EoE is hyper focused on Shinji, in this movie he doesn’t speak for 40 minutes. For this first stretch, we’re treated to Ayanami-look-alike falls in love with life while Shinji is wordlessly miserable. In both movies he’s depressed out of his mind, but they hit very distinct vibes of depression. End of Evangelion hits “Everybody sucks, life sucks, I will embrace death and solitude”. Shinji outright asks, “why aren’t you ever nice to me?” In Thrice Upon a Time, Shinji instead asks “why are you all being so nice to me?” This is my personal favorite brand of depression, one I go back to a lot: “I am a piece of shit who has done terrible things, I don’t deserve good things happening to me ever”. The answer to Shinji’s question is beautifully simple: “because we like you”. I think this is the first time I cried in the movie? It’s a very nice, low-key beginning, but then Ayanami-look-alike explodes into LCL. Thus ends what I’ll call “The Child Phase” of the movie. I’m calling it this because I think the split between parent/adult and child is at the core of all this. Quick aside here, I think there’s something to be said about Asuka and Rei, the franchise’s cash cows, specifically being mass produced and stuck in the same physical age, like dolls. And yet they’re at radically different mental ages, with Rei as a child and Asuka having grown up as an adult ahead of Shinji. [David Brothers wrote something about this and he’s smarter than me, give it a read.](https://tumblr.iamdavidbrothers.com/post/138966732767/evangelionautocritique) So, uh, on the topic of these different generations, there’s a lot I got here in my notes. Shinji’s generation had doomed the children, like Gendo’s before him. That’s relevant, ain’t it kids? Um. Misato! An interesting development here for her as a deadbeat mom who has to be absent from her son’s life to protect him. There’s a nice close to her arc here where she fully accepts her role as Shinji’s guardian for everything that entails- protecting him, loving him, accepting responsibility for the things he did under her watch. And of course, we have the other important parent in this movie, Gendo. Unlike what you see in End of Evangelion, the conflict is not resolved not through introspection but willingness to understand and trust others (this is the truth that Shinji discovers in EoE. This *is* a sort of direct sequel, remember). The final battle with Gendo and Additional Impact, let’s talk about that, yes? While the imagery itself isn’t as gorgeous as it was in EoE, I found it just as stunning. Yes, the CGI is kinda sus, but it worked for me in drawing attention to the artifice of everything. The catalyst for Additional Impact is the “Imaginary Eva”, an Eva made material through the foolish perception of fiction as reality, which just looks like Giant Naked Rei but with a human face. “Human” here meaning, 3D, real world, jarring as fuck in a cartoon human. This is extremely fucking cool, I’m sorry. Other stuff that does this is the stock images, Shinji reverting to storyboards, Shinji and Rei talking on set in front of a compilation of footage from the other Eva animation, etc. It’s a lot more direct than the footage of the cosplayers and the theater in EoE as far as getting across the point of “this shit is fake, embrace reality”. Uh what else about this battle- this and the fight against the nine billion EVAs are the most “whoa dude look at these robots punching each other” that the series gets. Truly, an Evangelion movie for a post-Gurren Lagann world. Back to character shit! Gendo, a mainstay in the “four bad anime dad memes” that the kids love so much benefits the most from this movie. When Kensuke suggests that Shinji talk to Gendo, I immediately think “no way is that fucking happening that guy is the devil and needs to die”. Yet it’s at his most monstrous, face-blown-off state that Gendo is most vulnerable and most human. We finally see him connect to, or at least talk to his son in any meaningful capacity, we see what drives his dependence on Yui and desire for instrumentality. Both Gendo and Shinji were incapable of interacting with people, but while Shinji decides to let everyone die, Gendo is driven to stay with his dead lover forever and use her as a twisted security blanket. It’s quite the departure from the typical image of Gendo as just some cold, calculating villain. Kaji says a son can either pat his father on the shoulder or kill him. End of Eva is definitely on the kill side of the spectrum. As a child, especially a teen, it’s extremely easy to just view your parents as villains, but as an adult, one reckons with the fact that not only are they just imperfect people, but people who have felt almost exactly what you have as you grew up. It’s at this point in the movie where it becomes clear that Shinji’s an adult now— there’s probably something being said about Anno’s relationship with the new guard as an old head, but I’m too dumb to say anything about it. But yes, what does it mean to have an adult Shinji? The revelation he reaches is beyond “I will live with others”, being instead “I will live for others”. I said earlier that Shinji gets sidelined for this movie, and that works best at the end where he frees Asuka, Kaoru, and Rei. He talks through each of their issues, as Yui did with him in EoE. A couple things to note here- Shinji and Asuka find themselves on the same beach as they did in EoE, but instead of choking her and bursting into tears, he just shows her kindness. Growth from “you will interact with people and it’s gonna suck sometimes” to “be outwardly kind to others”. And Kaworu! The ever one-dimensional anime dream boy Kaworu. His whole perfect boyfriend schtick is stripped down: it’s a front to make the people he’s attracted to happy because he selfishly believes it will make *him* happy. Interesting stuff! As an ending/sendoff to all of Evangelion, it’s excellent. The four pilots who have been 14 since 1995 are finally adults, and all of their arcs across the franchise have come to a close. They/we learn it’s okay to live in a world without Evangelion, and without revisits or reboots. The countless Evangelions in the sky are replaced with living beings. Shinji is deconstructed, reconstructed, and revived in the real world with the rest of his friends. They don’t have to be in anything anymore as the same angsty teens, and we don’t need to see them that way either. Or fuck, at least I hope not. I should probably talk about Mari somewhere in this review. In a movie that otherwise over-explains itself in a lot of areas, I’m glad they left a lot of things up to the viewer when it came to her. There’s a lot to examine for yourself, I know I’ve been trying to come up with something based on her Mary Iscariot deal. The mother and traitor of Jesus… or perhaps the two sinners closest to Jesus. There’s something there! On some level it’s weird to pair her up with Shinji so much, but I read that as “Shinji is willing to implicitly trust a complete stranger with his life and continue to get to know her as an adult”. Extraneous Thoughts: The movie definitely benefits from its 2.5 hour run time, I do wish more anime would spring for this kind of thing. 90 minutes is for cowards. There are WAYYYYY too many booty shots of teenage girls in this. Just way too horny in an uninteresting way. I’m not gonna try to ascribe authorial intent here but I feel like they fell into the old trap of I’m Going To Become The Thing I Critique. I’m scoring this at a 100, this has made me think and feel more than anything I’ve seen in a while. Bye, all EVANGELIONS!

AlexiSan2003

A espera de 10 anos não foi atoa ou calculada ela só foi o destino para entregar tudo que essa obra queria uma nova visão um novo recomeço, Hideaki Anno se superando mais uma vez. Trazendo uma visão mais otimista para esse obra marcada pelo desespero da humanidade sendo vista na série original e no filme end of Evangelion mostrando o amadurecimento dos personagens mas deixando buracos ainda na obra, foi um novo suspiro, uma novo dia para Anno esse filme serviu para juntar o desespero e a esperança em um só. ~~~img220(https://s4.anilist.co/file/anilistcdn/staff/large/n100111-X0Rz7A1171gv.png)~~~ Eu estou extremamente satisfeito com tudo que a Rebuild entregou para acarretar para esse final que fecha não só a Rebuild, mas tbm o anime original (1995) e o filme End of Evangelion(1997) que se entrelaçam em uma só lança para entregar a maravilhosa mensagem de Evangelion. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d3/04/a8/d304a8ac0657865fca115f13e15df40e.jpg)~~~ Vamos começar falando da animação e a produção que melhorou muito tbm passou muito tempo desde que lançou o terceiro filme dessa tetralogia, vc observa os caprichos tanto nos ambientes e cenários nos personagens e suas vestimentas, nos ângulos da câmera, na sua abordagem ao longo do filme tem coisas no Cgi que minimamente incomoda Mas é algo tão pequeno na composição de cenas que é usado esse método que vc nem liga quando vc está imersivo no filme tanto nas cenas de ação e as mais contemplativas. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/236x/40/10/f8/4010f82453af2a97cf4137b3905c7798.jpg)~~~ Vamos falar agr dos personagens, falando superficialmente uma Gama muito mais explorada dos personagens, tanto Shinji, Rei e Asuka incriveis e sempre muito bem representados, ótima finalização para Mari, Misato e Gendo Ikari surpreende mostrando mais do seu personagem e Suas falhas, suas motivações e suas semelhanças isso eu adorei muito bem colocada. Mas o grande destaque foi com certeza a Fofura da Rei que eu achei sensacional a construção gradativa e delicada dos personagens que só Hideaki Anno um dos poucos que consegue fazer isso com maestria. Os outros personagens tbm eu gostei muito os secundários tanto suas mudanças e perspectivas. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9f/0b/0f/9f0b0f193257dc8bb7e55570edaf1ab7.jpg)~~~ A trilha sonora é maravilhosa com certeza umas das coisas que Evangelion Sempre fez muito bem, tanto a sonoridade e tempo das músicas no tempo certo e com o clima adequado para cada uma delas. CONCLUSÃO esse filme é Evangelion no seu estado puro na sua construção e mensagem da Humanidade o Elo entre o nosso próprio desespero e esperança, o nosso ser humano se tornando maduro e não abdicando de seu pecados e sempre olhando para o futuro com amor e felicidade. Tudo que Hideaki Anno queria mostrar dessa jornada estão ai, suas mudanças, seu crescimento e definitivamente o amor pela sua obra Definitiva e atemporal que é Neon Genesis Evangelion! ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/ea/cc/45eaccd9b92c53750b4ad0e3896de5e1.gif)~~~

JakeTitan

Evangelion was one of those series I appreciated but never fully understood and loved. I gave the original a 9/10 when I finished it and gave the End of Evangelion a 10/10 based on my enjoyment. There was something about the series that rubbed me the wrong way initially so I wasn't able to fully understand why everyone loved it so much. However, once I watched the rebuilds 1-3 I immediately felt a form of love for the series that I had once slept on. While the original series focused on the Darkness of the human mind and ignored the superficial and Biblical aspects of the series, the Rebuild series was able to capture everything the original series tried and then built on it. I feel as if it was something I could watch and instead of connecting to it and spiraling into madness, it was refreshing and enjoyable yet kept those dark and twisted elements. So when I was finally able to watch this movie, I knew it was going to be good. I have too much to say about the movie so organizing my thoughts into categories might be a bit easier: ----------------------------------- __Art and Animation: __ 10/10 The art was insanely detailed. Still frames in the beginning were super refreshing and enjoyable to look at and the actual animated scenes were incredibly detailed with 0 short cuts taken. I'm sure this is why the movie took so long overall since I cant imagine it being that easy looking at other movies and anime as reference. The CGI had 0 weak points and unlike lots of other series, blended into the bigger picture to make it look amazing. The only movie similar to this in its use of CGI and regular animation is Kizumonogatari which I also love. ------------- __Characters __ : 10/10 Characters who Reaapeared in this movie were given way more attention to detail. Side characters like Touji, Kensuke, Midori and even people who barely appeared like Sakura and Kohji were fleshed out. Everyone had something incredibly deep or interesting to say with a lot of their backstories or recaps on where they have been being super interesting or important. Everyone was tied deeply to the story and that made it feel fluid and real. Shinji's Development: Shinji was purposely left unable to think for himself at the beginning of the movie, symbolizing his escapism literally cutting himself off from the world. Eventually, he is able to think for himself and after lots of exploring this new world, witnesses the death of Rei which leads him to believe he should go with Asuka. Once everyone attacks NERV's base and its time for Shinji he finally realizes that the two things he avoided (Taking responsibility and Helping others) were things he is meant to do, he decides to stop his dad not only so that he can save everyone but also learn a little about why he was abandoned. This is VERY big for Shinji as he has never gotten a chance to do either and as the story continues he is able to slowly solve all the problems he has caused leading to the end of the movie where he is shown with Mari just like how his father is with his mother. Gendo's Backstory: Gendo is somewhat the same as Shinji, he felt being alone was the only way to stay unhurt but unlike Shinji, he was given an escape path. Gendo's character for the longest time has revolved around the fact he is unable to become a parent and all he wants is a world where he can be loved by Yui again. This is important for the decisions he makes and it shows up a lot throughout the series. He is willing to destroy the world a million times over to obtain his goal, which makes his decision to love his son and let him take over very important. Their fighting was essential to end the story as best as possible and his final appearance is one I believe is of legendary status. Asuka's Development: Asuka is also similar to Shinji Backstory wise and we have known throughout the series that her involvement with the EVA project in Germany is likely the only thing that made her different and changed her character. Her decision relies on the fact she needs to separate herself from Shinji and become the best version she can however she keeps reminiscing on the past before she decides it's time to move on. Kaworu's Development: Kaworu is a character paralleling Gendo and Shinji, his entire life's goal is to be happy by making Shinji happy but instead he just causes problems. His death in the last movie was very moving but I think this rebirth was way better. Rei's Decision: Rei being the only one left wanted to protect the EVA's but Shinji's wish was to rebuild the world where none of that exists and so after Rei tried to protect Shinji in multiple iterations across multiple movies, she decides to let him make the decisions and gives up her goal. This is vital to the finale and something I loved so much. Misato and Kaji: Their relationship wasn't expanded much here but the way Misato continues Kaji's will was amazing, you love to see it. --------------- __Story:__ 10/10 Every moment was enjoyable and digestible. In my opinion, the original series ends in a very confusing way due to being focused on Shinji's point of view, however, this iteration of the series works to have it be way easier to understand while also keeping that odd and bizarre storytelling. This movie does an amazing job at storytelling and uses practically every method I know of (Backstory, Conversation, Action and Events) to keep the story going leading to the end. The actual contents of the story were also amazing and I loved every moment so here's a quick summary so I can make it easier to explain. Shinji, Rei and Asuka go to a small town where their old friends live, Shinji doesn't want to live and so after motivation from everyone decides he needs to try something or life will always be meaningless. Eventually he returns to Misato's Side and is sent to a cage where he waits while they launch an attack on NERV HQ at the location of the 2nd Impact. Gendo uses every move he can and eventually after lots of conversation and action, the additional impact is triggered and Shinji hops in Mari's unit to catch up to Gendo. Shinji talks to everyone nearby including dead people inside of the EVA and Misato copies the other ship's behavior and makes a new lance to kill Lillith and end the impact. Shinji inside of unit 1 and so when this lance arrives he decides to use it to get rid of the EVA units, he goes to take the burden but since he is in Unit 1 his mothers soul pushes him away and takes it into her own hands. Shinji wakes up on a beach and the animation loses detail until Mari appears and it cuts to a new reality where Shinji and Mari are dating like Gendo and Yui and everyone else is living their lives, showing life is how it should be and it cuts off. ________ My final thoughts: This movie felt perfect. I have seen a lot of people putting out mixed reviews but while i was sitting in my chair watching this, every moment felt amazing. After crying 6 times and witnessing possibly the best anime content I will ever see, I would like to just appreciate everything this series has done and say thank you for reading this. 10/10, no doubts.

BeatleJews

~~~img(https://i2.wp.com/codigoespagueti.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Rebuild-of-Evangelion.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&quality=80&ssl=1)~~~ ----- This review will primarily focus on the movie 3.0+1.0 Thrice upon a Time but at the same time, I'd like to cover the entire rebuild saga since --as many people who have seen all four movies will agree, the story of the Rebuilds is not one that can be fairly judged if not by the sum of its parts. So, for starters, I want to show my gratitude to all the people involved in the development of this series of films; I can gladly say that the wait for all these years (even though yours truly is a very recent fan of the franchise by comparison) was worth every second. Even for those, who didn't like these rebooted franchise as much as I did; truth must be told that at least new people were made aware, or even newfound fans, of all the things that made this franchise great in the first place. Be it it's characters, be it's incredible animation, plot developing, storytelling methods or it's recurring themes. I used to be of the belief that the Rebuilds were going to be tonally different from what old fans of the franchise had come to expect. After many rewatches, and particularly, watching this movie (kind of) proved me otherwise. When 1.0 premieres in 2007 we are introduced to a very familiar setting and characters; some might even go as far to call it a recap movie of the first 6 episodes of NGE, which is a fair statement, but also it has to be mentioned that some minor but crucial plot elements are changed this time around. When 2.0 came out, we are met with our first major plot twists that drastically sets apart the Rebuilds from the NGE timeline: Shinji is introduced to Asuka _Shikinami_ Langley, Rei is given quite the character twist, with her trying (and failing ;( ) to bring Shinji's and his fathers cold relationship back together; and finally, Shinji's emotional breakdown and consequent attempt to save Rei Ayanami from her tragic fate. 3.0, considered by some the black sheep from the series, does quite the time skip and deals with the consequences of Shinji's actions on the world and how he alone left it on the brink of ruin. He soon finds himself completely isolated in world filled with people who now despise him and/or are dissapointed in him. And then, there's Kaworu Nagisa, who seems to be the only friendly face that roots for him and is actively interested in helping Shinji atone for his mistakes. This of course just leads to Shinji hanging on to him in order to unconsiously feed upon his goodwill and desperately trying to make things "right", only for the end result of to be almost the same as the last time. __ENTER EVANGELION 3.0+1.0 THRICE UPON A TIME__ It's in this situation that we are finally dropped into the final movie, 3.0+1.0 (referred to as "Thrice" from now on). Being the longest entry of the whole series (2 and a half hours long), I found it to be totally a service in order for the audience to better grasp what Shinji's erroneous actions had come to, and, at the same time, look at him cope with the harsh reality; convincing himself that there's no chance in hell that he can be forgiven; that he is no longer worthy of people's praise. Basically resigning himself to be a walking corpse, devoid of any emotions but, the fear of dying. This may be a little bit of a spoiler but, Shinji doesn't even utter a word in the first 25-30 mins of the film. This only goes to show how mentally broken Shinji actually is before he finally tries to take his first steps towards rehabilitation. The second half of the movie can only be described as mixture of many familiar elements, namely End of Evangelion and the NGE Manga. This is what I mean when earlier, I said that The Rebuild of Evangelion was something tonally different from the original show --and, that after watching this film, I can safely say that if you saw NGE and End of Evangelion, and more importantly: read the manga. You will find a lot of the themes touched upon very familiar but to me the execution is what makes all of this franchise worth it in the first place. The themes of self-acceptance, the chaotic, contradictory and heartless nature of the world around us are shoved in our faces time and time again; The people who have seen the original show should be more than aware of this at this point. However, I find the delivery of these themes to be made in quite the different context. If in NGE, Shinji is totally seduced by the idea of getting rid of a world full of uncertainty, pain and the fear of betrayal no matter how hard he tries to avoid it (and ultimately his realization that a world without human interaction is one full of emptiness); Thrice does this in the context of Shinji himself being almost apathetic to the whole thing and ultimately facing the scheming master, and final executor of the Human Instrumentalization Project, Gendo Ikari. I think it's important to shed a light on the masterful dichotomy that is presented to us the moment Shinji and his father have probably the first sincere conversation in years at this point surrounding Gendo's past, his anxieties, the many reasons behind his absence during Shinjis childhood and ultimately Shinji's response to his fathers decision to destroy everything for the sake of his own selfish wishes. SPOILER:~! I find the way he is put in the podium this time around as the subject through which Instrumentality is justified and, at the same time, is given the spotlight to explain his situation and the motivations behind his acts that culminates with him and Shinji having a final heart to heart conversation about the nature of their relationship, Gendo's suffering after loosing Yui and finally their confrontation on a setting that can only be described as a beautiful homage to NGE and playing around the visual motifs from the franchise as whole. !~ The EoE/Manga parallels do not stop here, in fact, I am of the opinion that the manga might be biggest source of inspiration for the writing, particularly for the character of Mari Makinami Ilustrious. I want to address the issue of Mari by simply saying that she is given some more background about her identity and what interests she has underneath, but in the end, too little too late; but I can see myself liking her more on rewatches. As for the rest of the cast, I can only say that somehow, many of them have pretty much achieved peak godhood in regards to how much I love them, their goals, and individual developments are very well made, I can't even begin to give examples because I would just end up mentioning every character; that's just how good they are. __ANIMATION AND ART DIRECTION__ This movie is absolutely gorgeous to look at and if the amount of big studios involved in it's production apart from Khara that are credited (MADHOUSE, Ufotable, Graphinica, White Fox, etc...) doesn't prove my point, I don't know what will. The character designs are so clean looking and are able to convey so much emotion on the viewer. The cinematography, as I said is full of homages and call backs to the Evangelion media that manage to stay on the fine line between being pandering and unique, while also being quite the technical feat in itself. The fight scenes are beautifully chaotic, although I might not be the biggest fan of the Evangelions (yk, the actual mechas) appearance on the rebuilds (give me those dummy thick evangelions everyday over the virgin slender design everyday >:), they are very slick looking while trying to break the paradigms of how and Eva should look like (unit 05 and Neo Nerv units on Thrice come to mind). SPOILER: ~!There's also some very big artistic decisions that might disliked by some viewers, namely this movie's version of Rei Lillith which looks --at least to me, purposefully uncanny and ultrarealistic as a meta nod to the mixture between reality and fiction that occurs during this section of the movie.!~ __SOUND DESIGN AND MUSIC__ The music on is quite different from what we had been listening during the past 3 movies. What I mean by this is that, in addition to Shiro Sagisu's superb soundtracks, there are also a lot of english-composed songs that make the whole movie feel like it was made by a whole other studio altogether (this is a good thing). To make things short, I'm really looking forward to the OST to come out in the near future. __FINAL REFLECTIONS__ Neon Genesis Evangelion is and always will be a testament to Hideaki Anno's love for his craft, his own personal struggles with life, and his perspective in order for individuals to reach happiness in world full of chaos. It almost feels unreal to sit here before you and write a review about the last movie of Evangelion we will probably get, at least one involving Anno himself. I know I didn't really have much negative criticism to say about the film but my biggest problems with it boil down to the series being films and not a full-on anime show, which in my opinion would've greatly benefited to give more breathing ground to the plot elements to develop, but well, this is just my own personal nitpick. I also regret not being able to watch this in a theater. In conclusion, Thrice was a movie that finally has given closure to the long running Rebuilds saga and a very satisfactory one at that; It is also safe to say that this movie in particular will live on to be a farewell letter to one of the greatest anime franchises of all time --One to reminds us about the strange beauty behind the struggles and suffering that human life, and, most importantly, human interactions can entail. No matter how hard it is for us to take responsibility for our mistakes, there's always a chance to revive, reconcile with ourselves and grow into stronger individuals in the end, all it takes is making the first step and keep on walking, the possibilities are indeed endless. ~~~ Goodbye and thank you, All of Evangelion...~~~ ~~~img(https://resize.cdn.otakumode.com/ex/1200.630/0.521.827.434/u/c885a422f98549ac8eadf58c4362e39d.jpg)~~~

bakesupreme

goodbye evangelion. and thank you Hideaki Anno! we will always <3 you! Evangelion is the greatest anime franchise ever built and one of the greatest works of fiction to ever be produced. its existence literally changed anime. this work means an incredible amount to so many people around the world including me. i love evangelion and it was the 3rd (technically second) anime i ever finished and until i discovered and completed the MONOGATARI series it was my fav anime for a long time. this is the end of the series and here are my thoughts on its finale. im absoluetly rekd rn im sorry. im not so sure what to say... i have no idea what anyone else things of anything specific for this buuut before i start with the bad i wanna point something out. ok so during the fight scene in shinjis memories on the set in the anti universe as well as the rei head, i am 100% positive that was on purpose and so was any of the stand out shitty cgi. and no this is not to say the parts in regular action sequences where stuff got a lil stiff or bland was on purpose. im not sure why its like that and was thinking to myself for a solid minute "did the budget get cut for the movie halfway thru and the rest of the movie will be like this shit, did they forget to apply animation or wutever to the cgi, did they animate this 10 years ago but didnt reanimate it with the rest of the show?" but no it def like that on purpose. CONS 1. i would have to say the biggest problem was myself and my expectations... regardless of the fact that i turnt off everything as soon as i got home from work, ate dinner and showered, re watched 3.33, waited for my fucking mom to go to bed so i could start this shit at 1258 AM as well as trying to tone down my excitement and the guarantee this would be good for months after viewing the trailer as well as getting high off of one last kiss... nuna that shit worked... No, this was not bad and i was entertained but i think i woulda rather this been dropped on us like an n2 mine with no buildup or anything, than have to wait for months after the announcement. ive been able to keep things neutral in the past for many movies and show (cant say video games cuz i never finish em LMAO) but this show is so important to me for many reasons but the fact that ive been waiting on this shit since the day i planned on watching the original evangelion series, had excitment building for months when the trailer dropped in january? and then when the announcement dropped mid july that we would be getting it in less than 2 months time... yeah it was destined to be impossible but no matter. future rewashes will most likely leave me more content, happy and satisfied. 2. while the plot didnt ever feels disconnected, sometimes i think things lacked direction. will revisit this. PROS 1. BBAA (beautiful breath-taking amazing animation). in the past i have made the claim that the 3 kizumongatari movies have the best animation ever. period. while those movies have some funky cgi as well i think thrice upon a time has taken that trophy away from studio shaft. we will see though because my rewatch for the kizu movies will probably commence within the next week. but really this movies animation is nuts. i absolutely love the style and i think this will be a game changer. its shiny and smooth, but not so shiny and smooth as to be heartless, fake and manufactured like wonder egg priority. its saturated and grainy, but not so saturated and grainy as to feel straight out of the 80s 90s or 00s. at a certain point i literally thought to myself "these animators needa get out of the animations studio and into their own studios and paint fucking art meant for rich assholes walls" i mean goddam those rice terraces looked like they belonged in a frame on the wall of the fucking louvre. 2. the ending. i literally know not a single souls take on the ending but i loooved it. since i first watched the original series just over a year ago, re watched it about 9 or 10 months ago and watched the rebuilds however long ago i have thought about which character i preferred more and which one i preferred to be with shinji. at first i liked rei, but then after my rewatch i realized how great of a character asuka is and how much i enjoyed her character. id never given much thought to mari and while i never disliked her... i didnt LOVE her. lets just say she was never my pfp on steam or discord aight. and while at this point im more of "i like rei, asuka, mari, misato and sakura equally" person i did not mind at all Anno "forcing" that relationship into exisctence and i quite enjoyed it. mari occupies more time in the limelight in 3 and especially 4 so we see more of her personality and its rather nice. 3. Curios Rei. holy fuck this shit was the best on god. was sad when she turned into orange juice. also LMAO ANN0 FUCKING MADE LONG HAIR REI CANNON AAAA HAHAHAAAA! some thing i still need reflection on 1. the overall story. i didnt think it was bad. but probably because of my expectations it doesn't sit right with me. 2. the soundtrack. umm this was good but not 2 or 3 good... i think. of what i remember. part of what makes many scenes in evangelion so good/emotional/memorable is its amazing score. if hedgehogs dilemma wasnt playing in the background of misatos and ritukos conversation it would not be that important or impactful. but instead its a solid scene that hits for me in both versions. and i dont think that happened here to the extent it does in the original series, eoE and some of the other rebuilds until maybe the end. there were several scenes that were on the cusp of being awzome and or making me emotional, but never pushed me over the edge. my favorite part i think was the point where we see gendo become scared of shinji (idk thats just the best point and words i can use to describe where the portion starts) all the way up to the end. was a bit confusing at times but by far the most emotional and maybe even impactful part of this movie. cried when yui showed up and then again a bit before one last kissed started rolling. the final installment (for now?) of what is (at this point cuz of rewash) my second fav ever (fav at the moment) anime was a little disappointing... which is disappointing, but it was still great. the animation and style was awzome and the action was very good. i rly hope in the future i can churn up more excitement out of this but this time around, im sorry to say it didnt hit as hard as i would have liked. in the future i would LOOOVE to see more from evangelion and i would be ecstatic‼️ if they created a slice of life continuing where this series left and off and even gave it some run up. im kinda 50/50 with SoL but the reason for that is because the majority of SoL is mass produced, written by bakas and i havent watched a lot lol. but who knows whats next if there is even is A next Sayonara evangelion. sorry to see you go. you mean a lot to me and i cant wait for what Anno does next.

Regime

__Part Zero: My Relationship with Evangelion__ Before I begin, I want to illustrate my relationship to evangelion. I only watched it for the first time about 2 years ago now. I enjoyed watching it then, and rated it highly, though as time went on, I began to doubt that rating. Had I only put it so high because of its legendary reputation? Then, by chance, maybe 6 months ago, I somehow ended up reading an Evangelion fanfiction. I don’t feel great about it either guys, but it’s what happened. That fanfiction portrayed a happier version of the timeline, where the characters began to communicate, rely on each other, and find their own happiness in the later half of Evangelion, instead of drifting apart and suffering like they do in the show. This helped me understand Evangelion’s nature as a tragedy, and many of its core themes. The clearer explanations of events in the fanfiction combined with the many wiki-dives I had to make allowed me to get a firm understanding of what was actually going on. Equipped with that information, I watched the show again, and End of Evangelion again, and this time, I understood what was going on, and the themes being portrayed, as well as I think they could be understood. This cast any doubt I had about the show’s quality out of my life, and its status as a 10/10 alongside EoE was restored. I only had a short time to wait for 3.0 + 1.0, as I was only a true, fully realized Evangelion fan from a little before those last months between Japanese and English releases. Today, I saw the film, and today, I’m writing this review. It might be a “preliminary review”, as there are certainly elements of the film I don’t completely understand, perhaps in the way that I didn’t originally understand Evangelion or EoE, but more likely, just technobabble (biblebabble?) bullshit, so I feel comfortable writing it now. __Part One: Thrice Upon a Time__ I only realized today that the title refers to the fact this is the third time the series has ended, and the third version of the tale, because I am an idiot. The first ending is that presented in the show’s last two episodes. What exactly is happening in these episodes is very unclear, especially without having seen EoE, but even after, it is up to interpretation. Shinji is either embracing or rejecting instrumentality, and it’s difficult to say which is happening. The main argument towards rejecting is the fact that the characters are presented in individual form, rather than as a sentient mass. I reject this argument, however. As the show tells us, this is just a representation of what is happening in instrumentality, as our minds cannot comprehend billions of souls connecting. We witness the events of entering instrumentality as individual humans talking, albeit with access to each other's memories, because this is how we can understand human interaction. My belief is that what is happening here is that Shinji is learning to accept himself as he merges with all of humanity, entering and embracing instrumentality. In the omedetou scene, Shinji has found self acceptance, and joined with the whole. However, to achieve this, he and humanity have sacrificed human form and human nature. I think you could call this the bad ending. While the characters achieve happiness, the moral becomes that humans cannot achieve happiness, cannot understand each other without forsaking human form. This is an oversimplification, as Evangelion is a complex series, and my take on EoE will be even more so, because this is not a review of EoE, but discussing its ending is also important. In EoE, instrumentality begins. We are given the context of how Shinji is given the choice to accept or reject instrumentality: Rei, treated like a human for the first time by Shinji, chooses to take away Gendou’s ability to be the focal point of instrumentality and bestow it on Shinji. Based on a few shots from the last two episodes of the show, we can assume that the context is the same in the show. Shinji, also, is not prepared to choose, but when he asks Asuka (or his own mental construct of Asuka, unclear) for help, she rejects giving any, and Shinji, in anger and frustration, begins instrumentality. In instrumentality, however, as he comes to understand everybody, and encounters his mother, he comes to a conclusion that he’d rather continue to live as a human, even if it involves suffering, than reject humanity for happiness. It is stated that anybody with a will to live can return to human form, and the “one more final” scene takes place on the beach. I’m not even going to unpack that can of worms here. This, to me, is the “true ending” of Evangelion. I’m not prepared to call it the “good ending”, because there is much that isn’t good. Not everybody returned from instrumentality, and most character relationships ended unresolved. A “good ending” for evangelion would have averted the events of this movie altogether. I believe thrice upon a time is an attempt at writing this good ending. __Rebuild__ But what is the rebuild quadrology? Why does it exist? I haven’t done too much research into the behind the scenes of why, but I’m a little doubtful about the claims that it is because ‘Anno was happy to finally recreate Eva "as he wanted it to be" in the beginning and that he was no longer constrained by technological and budget limitations”’ as phrased by wikipedia. Firstly, the story throughout the four films is a mess, and if there ever was a four-movie plan it went seriously off rails. Secondly, while budget limitations did exist, Anno had a large amount of creative freedom, and there is nothing in these films which could not have been depicted with technology in the 90s. I’m not flat-out saying that the rebuild quadrology is a cash grab, but I’m also not saying it isn’t. More likely, though, I think it’s an attempt at a retelling that got derailed by various factors, and ended up going in a completely new direction. To briefly summarize/review the three movies before 3.0 + 1.0, 1.0 is essentially a prettier version of some of the first arcs of Evangelion. It might as well be a remaster. However, to fit the movie runtime, a lot of the important small moments are lost. 2.0 is, for much of its runtime, in the same boat as 1.0, until the very end, where shinji begins the third impact early, before being stopped by Kaworu in the post credits. This is the moment where the timeline begins to seriously diverge. Mari is also there, and we’ll talk about her later. Part of me wonders if this is the original plan. Perhaps the rest of the movies were meant to play out as a remaster, but box office, or critical response, or Anno’s own doubt caused him to stray from the path. There’s no way to know. Finally, with the timeline diverged, we get 3.0. I’m not going to water down my take here: 3.0 fucking sucks. It begins after a 14 year time skip. Firstly, the CGI usage, which was fine if too noticeable in the first two, becomes more frequent, and significantly worse, in my view. We spend most of this film staring at CGI objects, and some of them, like the navigation bridge set of the Wunder, are absurdly bad. The plot can be very briefly summarized as “nobody tells shinji what’s going on, he does some gay piano stuff with kaworu, then they start a fourth impact, and then it stops, having no discernable consequences.” I severely doubt this timeskip was originally planned, although I haven’t researched whether it was. But it’s a fucking mess. There’s nothing to ground us in this world, and we have no way of understanding what’s going on, or why. If anyone had explained anything to Shinji, the plot wouldn’t have even happened. We, the audience, are not given any tools to understand what any of the impact things mean, what’s happening in the plot, or what goes wrong with Kaworu’s plan, or even whether Kaworu is trustworthy, as he is a villain in the original and the audience is likely to be suspicious of him. So, at the conclusion of the fourth impact, Shinji walks off with an Asuka and a Rei, and we’re left wondering what the fuck is going on, for 9 years. This is the stage that has been set for 3.0 + 1.0. It cannot be a great follow up to 3.0, but rather, if it is to be great, must be great in spite of 3.0. I had, previously, believed that this was not the case, and that 3.0 + 1.0 could recontextualize 3.0 to make it good, but that hasn’t happened, and I think I was silly for ever believing it. __Part Two: The Technical Aspects: Letting Me Down__ Most of my review of this movie is going to be in relation to the story being told, because that is what is most important, but more than ever, the technical aspects are worth discussing. The art in this movie is incredibly hit or miss. Most of act one is pretty incredible. The landscapes of the post impact world, and of the village, are incredible, and it is a perfect stage for the story it is to tell. Some of the floating 3d objects are too noticeable as 3d, but they’re acceptable. The fight scene is also done well. Act two is more CGI heavy than act one, but overall, they’ve gotten a lot better at modelling, animation, texturing, and compositing, and it doesn’t look awful… until act three. Act three is even worse than 3.0 was. The first of the two big offenders here is this movie’s rendition of Giant Naked Rei, which is the worst looking CGI I’ve seen in any anime, and I’ve seen the asteroids in Cowboy Bebop. Part of me thinks she’s supposed to look bad, but if that’s the case, it was a Very Bad Call. EoE’s GNR was an unsettling masterpiece of art, looming over the environment. This looks worse than CGI from youtube shitposts. If they were trying to achieve an uncanny valley, they didn’t really succeed, because it was too laughable. If they were trying to make it hyperrealistic in the anime world, a la the town at the end, they really fucking failed. Regardless of what they were trying, though, it is unmistakably bad. The second is the CGI section of the fight between Shinji and Gendo, while they knock around buildings. This looks like baby’s first blender, with the background and props being laughably bad, lacking in detail, looking absurd being knocked around, textured poorly. The terrible cherry on top is the mechs themselves. Other sections of the movie have CGI mechs, I believe, and normally it looks fine, even if I prefer hand-drawn, but here it’s laughably, laughably, laughably bad. There are other examples of bad CGI, but also some examples of good, but I’ll refrain from listing them off. I don’t know if the things in question were rushed, or meant to be bad to drive home a point, or whatever, but they were a mistake. I also want to point out this film’s relationship to fight scenes, then contrast it to the original show and EoE’s. In this film, and 3.0, they are mostly there to hold viewer attention, and show off shiny CGI toys. This is how lots of bad action movies in modern day treat fight scenes. Some of them, like the paris fight in the beginning, are actually executed pretty well, and I’m not going to claim I wasn’t laughing in joy at an Eva being speared with the Eiffel Tower, but this does not redeem how the fight is being used. In the original, and EoE, mech fights are mainly there not to entertain the audience. Many do the exact opposite by being excruciatingly slow and having the characters make frustrating, but in character decisions. They are often used to highlight a character’s current mental state, or to force them to make difficult decisions, or otherwise progress or develop their character. The flashiest fight in the non-rebuild continuity is probably Asuka vs. the Eva Series. The fight is incredibly entertaining and wonderfully animated, but its main purpose isn’t to hold your attention or fire your dopamine receptors, but rather to highlight how Asuka, after coming into contact with her mother in the Eva, and understanding the true nature of AT Fields, has managed to become a fulfilled version of herself, her confidence no longer an arrogant display driven by trauma, but rather a realized and healthy competence and belief in oneself. Ultimately, though, all that fails, because the Eva Series can regenerate, and the odds were never even, and Asuka is subjected to pain, and killed, regressing her, and spurring Shinji into action. I could write ten more paragraphs about the importance and brilliance of this fight without running out of things to say. There is not a single fight in 3.0 or 3.0 + 1.0 which serves a role a tenth as important as this single fight, or many others throughout the original show. They are pure CGI and animation spectacle, lacking in further depth or importance. This concludes this section of my review. __Part Three: The Plot__ I don’t love summary as review, but sometimes, laying groundwork is important, so I will do some brief analysis of structure and recap of events. Following a fun but ultimately pointless action-packed prologue, this movie consists of three acts. Act One follows the three Eva pilots into a village, where humans are surviving despite the effects of previous impacts. Here, Shinji struggles with overcoming guilt and grief, while Rei, possibly the most sheltered Rei we’ve seen in the franchise thus far, is taught how to be a human. Asuka tries to push Shinji out of his grief, but isn’t very successful, and mostly mopes. Force feeding scene is pretty hot though. This is the strongest act of the movie. The art is consistent and excellent, the characterization is strong. The village, and the aged-up characters within provide the grounding the film needs. I also get a Hikari old enough to be my waifu. We finally get to see what effect the end of 2.0 had on the world. The landscape is haunting, but inspiring, as hope grows from the ruins of an old world. Here, Rei is constantly being played against ideas of life, growth, and motherhood. She’s taught very basic things about human behaviour, and takes them to heart, developing into a fine version of herself. We’ll talk more about her later. Eventually, though, it comes to an end. Rei pulls from his depression, the Rei dies of LCL withdrawal, and Wille comes to pick up the pilots, concluding this act. The second act, as I define it, begins aboard the Wunder, and ends when Shinji enters the negative zone, or whatever you want to call it. This act has a few good character moments, but most of it is a regression to the flashy style over substance of 3.0. I exited the first act believing that this movie could, despite all odds, be a ten out of ten, comparable to EoE. Here, the hopes of that faded. While there was more, and better characterization than 3.0, most of it was pointless fight scenes, and an excuse to flaunt more 3d models. Here, we get more technobabble, and while I’m sure some of it is comprehensible, I think the majority of it is invented on the spot and serves no greater purpose. Finally, we enter the third act, amidst even more technobabble. Wille has failed to stop NERV’s plans for instrumentality, and has in fact played directly into them, as unlikely as it seems. As an aside, most of the scheming in the original show seems fairly believable, but here it feels very absurd. Your scenario always included two failed impacts, and the exact actions of dozens of people? Mmmkay. Gendou departs for the negative zone, and Shinji declares he will pilot unit 01 to stop him. Misato and him have a well-written moment, and a cheesy but effective standoff between him and the crew, who blame him for the dead during the partial third impact, before he departs. Here, Gendou tries to defeat Shinji. He intends to, and succeeds at destroying all spears which could be used to avert instrumentality. While he does this, he finally opens up to his son. More on this later. Misato sacrifices herself and the Wunder to create another spear, which is received by shinji. This spear is representative of humankind’s willpower and knowledge to succeed in the absence of gods. At the same time, Gendou realizes that he can’t find his wife in instrumanality, and that he has failed to grow as a person after his wife’s death. With the spear, Shinji now has the ability to do basically anything with this impact. He’s not restrained by a binary like in the original series. First, he takes the souls of Rei, Kaworu, and Asuka, resolves their character conflicts, and casts them back to the real world. Then, he intends to rewrite time so that there are no Evas, using himself as a sacrifice. Instead, Gendou and Yui do so together, and Shinji is returned to the real world, where he is shipped with Mari. This act is largely successful, and has some interesting ideas, but it is held back by some very embarrassing CGI. __Part Four: Character Dynamics__ In the last part, I avoided diving too deeply into characters and dynamics, and I will do so now. The reason why this movie works, despite some stumbles, is because it has powerful character dynamics. If the production and writing of this series was ever cynical or lackluster, here it is restored, and done largely very, very well. However, others are not as strong, which hold this movie back from true greatness. __Rei and Motherhood:__ One of the first things our Rei in this movie sees is a pregnant cat under a train car. She doesn’t know what it is, and she stares at it with her Rei eyes. Rei is constantly being shown scenes of growth, rebuilding, and motherhood in the first act. She lives with Hikari, where she regularly interacts with Hikari’s child. She works the fields, and helps them to grow and rebuild the town. The members of the village help her become a more complete person, despite her odd ignorance about the world. The reasons for Rei’s comparison to motherhood are fairly obvious. The exact nature of Rei in this film is not as clear to me as it is in the original series. Is she still the vessel of lilith? I’m not entirely sure. But she is still a clone of Shinji’s mother, and she has a role to play in that part. In act two, Asuka says to Mari that Shinji didn’t need a lover, but a mother. Rei is the one who coaxes Shinji from his grief, and she does it gently, using the tools of human interaction she’s learned from the townspeople. She briefly acts as his mother in this regard. The line is still blurred between that and lover, as Rei and Shinji’s dynamic often is, but with all the visual representations of motherhood present here, I think it’s fair to say she takes the former role. The completion of her growth is represented by when she is coaxed out of her black plugsuit, a representation of Gendou’s control over her, and into the old school uniform that is so iconic for her character. This represents her once again becoming one of the Reis we know. Soon after, however, she dies of LCL withdrawal, her plugsuit becoming white, again symbolizing her return to a realized Rei we know. A part of this story I didn’t quite know how to weave in is Asuka’s assertion that Rei is programmed to like Shinji. This is either intentional by NERV, as Asuka implies, or an effect of her being a clone of Shinji’s mother. Rei simply says she doesn't care, as it makes her happy. I thought that was a pretty powerful moment. We don’t get more Rei until Shinji enters the Negative Zone (I will not call it anything else) and this time it’s the Rei from 1.0 and 2.0, soul still in unit 01’s entry plug. Our only real interaction with her is at the end of the movie, when Shinji tells her to find happiness without orders or Evas, and that there is a version of her that did so once. This interaction isn’t particularly deep, sadly. __Asuka and ???:__ Frankly, I don’t think Asuka had much character in this movie. Maybe rewatching will change that, but she was mostly utilized during fight scenes, and didn’t often play a central role. She made it clear her feelings for Shinji had lapsed. When Shinji recovers her from the negative zone, her resolution seems almost more forced than any of the others. There were aspects of her I didn’t fully understand. The movie seems to be saying that in this timeline the Asuka’s were also clones like Rei, but it doesn’t dive too deep into it, and she’s mainly following the same old motivation of proving herself as a pilot. Perhaps on subsequent viewings I’ll see more in her character, but I really don’t think there was much there. __Shinji and Responsibility, Misato and Motherhood:__ Shinji’s character has always been about responsibility. In the original show, he struggles to shoulder the responsibility of piloting Unit 01. He wants to make his father happy, but he also resents that his father only wants him for piloting the Eva, only uses him because he is the only tool which can be used. He ultimately pilots to protect Rei, Asuka, and the rest of his friends, but when that help hurts others, he runs away. He constantly wants to run away from his responsibilities. He gets caught in a loop of forming resolve, piloting, people getting hurt, and running away. Near the end of the show, he seems to become fully realized, but killing Kaworu breaks him. He’s basically just pulled along for the ride by Misato and then Unit 01/Rei for most of EoE, trying to avoid responsibility and hurting more people. In rebuild, Shinji must deal with the same things again, but on a greater scale. This time, Shinji has caused the partial third impact, killing billions, in his attempt to save Rei. The grief of this action causes him to become rash in 3.0’s end, causing yet another impact. But he overcomes this grief early in this movie, at the end of the first act. This is unusual for Shinji: in both other endings, he only manages to become a complete person during instrumentality. Here, though, he seems to finish his character development before Rei’s death, and, as someone who is now already accustomed to loss, takes that death very well. He is prepared to take his responsibility, and decides to rejoin Wille. Shinji is absent for most of act two, as he is being held in an explosive-rigged room to keep him out of trouble, but he arrives at the end. He’s already confident, and ready to pilot Unit 01 to try to save humanity. But the ship’s crew isn’t ready to accept that, and they threaten him with guns, as Misato ordered, despite Misato’s own approval of Shinji going, to the point where Sakura tries to shoot Shinji, with Misato taking the bullet for him. Misato defuses the situation by accepting her own responsibility. She says that as Shinji’s guardian, and surrogate mother, that Shinji’s actions were her responsibility. His successes were her successes, but even more, his failures were her failures. Her characterization in 3.0 appeared to be that she was angry at and distrustful of Shinji for causing the partial third impact. Here, it is revealed, perhaps as a retcon, perhaps not, she simply wanted to protect him, to stop him from having to harm others to help: she believes that if he had not done what he did, NERV would have caused a full third impact long ago leading to their destruction. But she knows that hurting others hurts Shinji, and she doesn’t want him to hurt anymore. But she knows that Shinji is now the only one that can stop Gendou, so she gives him leave to go. Misato also has a son in this movie. Her son, and her relationship to that son, are not given much screentime, but it’s revealed that she has virtually no relationship to him. It seems to be that she believed she was a failure as a parent to Shinji, and did not believe she could parent another. Although she doesn’t live to see her son again, her willingness to accept responsibility for Shinji is likely a willingness to also accept responsibility for her son. __Gendou and Loneliness:__ Until the third act, I would have said that Gendou’s characterization was significantly worse in rebuild than it was in the original. The original Gendou is always grounded in his motivation to reunite with Yui, no matter the cost. This movie, and 3.0 both seem to neglect Gendou as a character for most of their runtimes, with the audience left to assume his motivation is the same. But suddenly, in the film’s third act, Gendou is catapulted from one of the worse portrayals to one of the best. We get to see Gendou as a human person in a way we don’t in the original. Gendou possesses a tragic motivation in the original, but we mostly get to view him through Shinji’s eyes, as a cruel, neglectful, manipulative, and abusive father. All of this is true of Gendou, in both continuities and all three endings. But during 3.0 + 1.0’s last act, we are given time, at last, to view Gendou through his own eyes. We knew Yui was everything to Gendou, but we’ve never before seen Gendou’s life before Yui. He was, as you might guess, a person devoid of almost any other human interaction. The way they talked about his childhood: his lust for knowledge, his dislike of others, in some ways reminded me of my own. I think you could read him as autistic, a person not cut out to exist in our social society, and craving one without barriers, or as a stereotypical Japanese man, unwilling to open up, keeping his emotions inside. Meeting Yui changes that. Yui accepts him for who he is, and she brings him happiness through human companionship. This is the brief period of his life where he is truly complete and healthy as a person. I think we understand a little more why Gendou is willing to remove humanity’s humanity for his wife, after this sequence of a film. Before Yui, he was always alone, but he didn’t know what he was missing, and was happy in that loneliness. After Yui, he was once again alone, but this time, he knew what he was missing. The healthy thing to do would have been to grow, and change. Seek out new connections with his friends, with his son. Instead, he decided to do anything he could to bring Yui back, especially as her soul was still trapped within an Eva. He was willing to do anything: to kill others, to sacrifice his son, to destroy humanity’s humanity, to become complete once again. I think the original show’s characterization of Gendou is very strong, and certainly more consistent throughout, but I always viewed him as not just tragic, but also as a little humerous, as the wife guy willing to kill humanity is a bit absurd. But given this additional lens, and insight into Gendou’s childhood, it’s not quite as funny anymore. __Atonement with the Father__ In the original continuity, Shinji never truly confronts Gendou. Instead, his plans are foiled by Rei, who, after being given a greater degree of autonomy through Shinji’s treatment of her, decides to reject Gendou, and steals from him Adam, and gives the decision of whether to complete instrumentality to Shinji instead. It’s possible, up to interpretation, that Gendou doesn’t even get to enter instrumentality with the rest of humanity. Shinji is never given the opportunity to atone with the father. Atonement with the Father is a stage of the Hero’s Journey where the protagonist encounters a strong, masculine figure, carrying a strong and brutal ideal. It is sometimes literally a father, sometimes not. Here, the protagonist must overcome or reconcile with the father, sometimes both. Shinji, ultimately, in this film is given the chance to atone. I think there’s something of value to this: it feels a little more mature. Not just viewing the father, even the abusive one, as a villain, but as a person. Shinji knows that he cannot defeat his father in combat, but rather must converse with him. Gendou realizes his own failure to grow and change. Yui is supporting and protecting Shinji in a way he never did, instead of doing whatever it takes to return to him. Gendou is ultimately given a heroic role: alongside Yui, he sacrifices himself to help create Shinji’s better role. I believe that the strongest part of this movie, of this quadrology, is the way Gendou has been treated. I don’t like constantly comparing Evangelion to Anno, but it seems like he wanted to be a little more mature. Gendou isn’t as pathetic, but instead is more sympathetic. The role of the father is not just manipulator, abuser, mistreater, but instead, of a human being who made mistakes, and learned to move on. __Mari: The Piece that Doesn’t Fit__ Not all is right in the characterization of Thrice Upon a Time, however. Mainly, it’s that 3 movies after her introduction, Mari is still flat, and has zero depth. Her role in this movie is twofold: participate in fight scenes, and get shipped with Shinji. The reason I say “shipped” is because this is exactly as forced as this phrasing implies. They have very little time together on screen, no chemistry. I think Anno wanted to avoid getting Rei together with Shinji, because she’s his mommy, and Asuka together with Shinji, because she’s 28 in this film, despite never acting like it. For whatever reason, though, he felt the need to include a love interest, and that would be Mari. Perhaps to serve his happy ending. I don’t really know why this character was introduced in 2.0, and if she ever had a different role to play in an earlier draft, but ultimately, she really doesn’t do anything important, and is used in one of the worst elements of this film, her relationship with Shinji. __Part Five: A Happy Ending__ I didn’t discuss Kaworu in the last part, because I’m going to here. There have been hints before to Evangelion as a cyclical narrative, or a interlinked multiverse, and it seems to be finally confirmed by this movie. There are many Evangelion worlds, and Kaworu remembers a little bit of being in the other ones. Kaworu initially views his role in this multiverse as to make Shinji happy. Their names are written next to each other in the Book of Fate, whatever the flying fuck that means. In his sequence with Shinji near the end, however, he accepts that he was trying to bring himself happiness by trying to make Shinji happy. The implications of this distinction aren’t particularly important. He states, also, that this Shinji has changed, and is not acting the way he usually does. Kaworu even loves him a little less, or a little differently for it. Kaworu ultimately isn’t even in this film much, and he doesn’t end up together with Shinji, although it would make much more sense than Mari. But his presence serves to tell us that this time, things ended a little differently. Shinji’s new world without Evas seems to be a break from the cycle of Evangelion, one where all the children can be happy. The show ends with a shot of the characters at a photorealistic train station, living normal lives, before the camera pulls back and out, revealing the city they live in is a fully photorealistic one. This seems to represent that they’ve returned to a more normal world. One where, at last, the children of evangelion get to be normal children. This is why I believe this is meant to be the good ending. Not everybody made it here: most notably absent is Misato, but the children, once forced to be soldiers, some bred for the tasks, get to live normal lives. I'm happy that this ending gets to exist, so that at least one version of these characters, in our collective minds, finds peace and happiness. __Conclusion:__ To me, though, it still cannot be the true ending. The movie has too many flaws, and it's predecessor even more so. While there are a few things it does very well, even at times better, it cannot match the sheer consistency. quality, depth, and excellency of the original show and EoE. 3.0 + 1.0 is a film of contradictions. It is both the most beautiful and worst looking movie I've seen in a long time. It contains genius character arcs and very lackluster ones. Given its predecessor, perhaps that was the most that was possible. I'm glad, though, despite rebuild's flaws, and its now cemented status as the inferior Evangelion version, that this film was able to give it some redemption. I'm not convinced this is the story Anno originally set out to tell, but it's one I'm glad he did, in the end. I'm not going to pretend I like this movie nearly as much as End of Evangelion as an ending, but that's not to say I didn't like it a lot. The first act in particular is an absolute triumph of anime. I've said most of what I set out to say, and now only one thing remains: the score. My scores for 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 were all provisional, because they are all hard to judge without knowing what they are building up to. Now, I can finally give those films final scores. 1.0 and 2.0 are receiving scores of 8.6. This is, to me, the rating of "solid, very worth your time, but not excellent". 3.0 will not be receiving the same love. It's getting a 7.0, a fairly low score in my system. I don't think it's actively bad, and it's very watchable, but it fails holistically as an Evangelion movie, and its sequel succeeded in spite of it, not because. The only reason to watch this movie is so that you can see the sequel. I think Thrice Upon A Time is the best movie in Rebuild, and the first to bring something new to the table. It earns a score of 8.9 If it weren't for the technical flaws, shoehorned relationship, and neglect for a few main characters in the end, it could have landed as high as 9.5, even with a second act I don't like as much as the ones before or after it. I'm sure as I stew on it more, it will move up and down, and it will do the same on subsequent viewings, especially if it turns out there are elements I was missing beneath the surface. For now, though, I'm happy placing it at that score. I'm glad that the troubled quadrology has been put to rest, and Evangelion, at least for now, comes to an end once more. Hopefully the talent trap that is Studio Khara will make some new, original works with their talented staff. And maybe lay off the CGI for a little while.

niheii

The whole movie was made to make Evangelion look like a massive play, characters start falling off the set, long dialogues take places on stages, they start discussing the title of the show as title cards appear behind them, key frames, weird CGI, sketches, storyboards, sound stage with equipment visible, and buildings made of cardboard are all included during the last impact. Why? Well, because Anno’s use of [ Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distancing_effect) (distancing techniques) are heightened to a new level in the finale, but thats because he’s willing to say goodbye to this universe in order to overcome it completely. The film is filled with voluntarily clumsy techniques to remind you that you’re watching a fiction, an animated fiction. An example of this is when Shinji is looking at the blue sea and it slowly disintegrates into its purest forms of creation. The last impact is the fusion of different imaginary projections. Reality and it’s representations fuse. img420(https://p.favim.com/orig/2019/03/08/animation-beach-sea-Favim.com-6994983.gif) A giant meta meta meta circle-jerk of Anno still reminding you after 26 years that if you relate or take heart to anything in the series you're an idiot and should get help, and for filtering so many people and not caring about his own hubris, I love him even more. And seeing as 'big' Evangelion fans don't like this and typical pretentious otaku fans don't either, it makes this film even better and furthers Anno's point. 'I liked the mecha fights and music! but i felt disconnected and confused watching it, it felt hollow :(' remember when i said Brechtian? or 'this is nothing like the 90s anime or EoE i want to live in perpetual nostalgia!!!!' yeah it's almost like one of the main points of the film is to mock these 2 types. YOU WILL grow up YOU WILL stop watching anime YOU WILL go outside YOU WILL be emotionally mature YOU WILL find someone you love and loves you back YOU WILL support yourself and others YOU WILL find happiness in reality, . YOU WILL do all of these things right? It's expected of you, that is what growing up means, and that is what Anno thinks also, and if you refuse to do so? You are rendered useless. I could talk about the Fichtean/Hegelian philosophy of consciousness in Rei or the dialectical materialism she shows as she also expands consciousness by modifying nature/her environment through labour, but the moral of the story is that Anno hates you and you should stop watching anime and interact with people, me included. thx. btw EoE is still his magnum opus. ok bye. img570(https://i.imgur.com/tGz6SBw.jpeg)

SwagPuncher

~~~_This review contains no spoilers_~~~ Evangelion is my favorite and by far the best anime I have seen, and its movie End Of Evangelion, is absolute perfection. It is quite easily the greatest ending of all time. So already these mediocre rebuilds felt like a slap in the face to the beautiful finality of Evangelions original ending but with Evangelion 3.0+1.01, it had to live up to being the new ending for its series and surpass End Of Evangelion. So, is there any way to surpass perfection? Well, definitely not like this because this is fucking bad. Evangelion 3.0+1.01 makes me sad. Not because of any emotional beats (because all of them are not deserved or straight up taken from the original series) but because this is now the newly accepted conclusion to my favorite franchise. I know that the common opinion is that people are loving this movie, and I'm happy to hear that, but I didn't, and I want to express why that is. First off the positives. The visuals were overall very appealing until things started moving The soundtrack was full of bangers (especially that last song oh my god) Made Gendo a better character overall Although it wasn't earned, as a diehard Eva fan it was hard not to like the last scene Now for my critiques which far outweigh my positives, unfortunately. I have a lot of minor nitpicks, like how the CGI animation was Berserk 2016 level bad at times, and how the movie stretches on for too long after its climax (which comes out of nowhere by the way) but all of them are nothing in the face of my two biggest complaints. BIG ISSUE 1. Evangelion 3.0+1.01's characters are hollow shells of their former selves, reduced from some of the greatest ever written to insanely mediocre. Take Asuka for example. In the original series, she had adopted an egotistical and too sexual for her age persona due to her trauma from her mother. When exposed, she was plunged into a depression that she overcame by realizing her mother's love. It's a phenomenal character arc. In this movie, Asuka's character is.... angry girl with an eyepatch. She went from one of my favorite characters ever to a character I didn't care for at all. Same thing with Misato, whose entire original character is discarded to be a painfully generic commander. Rei is quite possibly the worst offender. She's gone from a clone searching for purpose through connection to a brain-dead clone who doesn't know a single thing and has to learn what everything is like babies and baths and saying thank you. The movie spends 45 FUCKING MINUTES following her weak ass character arc. Even my boy Shinji gets disrespected as his development mimics End Of Evangelion but fails to execute the way that movies did...which leads to my next point BIG ISSUE 2. Evangelion 3.0+1.0 fails at recreating moments from End Of Evangelion HARD. This movie's final act is basically a reskin of scenes from EoE but done laughably bad when compared to that movie. To avoid spoilers I won't go into too much detail but moments like a certain characters death lacks all the emotional impact of EoE, the super similar climax fails with hardly any build-up and awkward execution, and the ending, while attempting a similar message as EoE doesn't hold a candle to it, as it misses out on all the subtlety, impact, and build up through Shinji's original decision that that movie had. 3.0+1.0 also has a long hallucinatory sequence of intrapersonal reflection for the characters, and while the look into Gendos past was very appreciated, this sequence tried to cram the original depth of the characters in at the last second. The idea to rebuild an already flawless franchise was troubling from the start but to end not only the movies but the entire franchise with this? I can't help but wonder where the genius that created the original series and movie has gone. If you want a gripping, deep, horrifying, and perfect ending for this series you won't find it here. It was already done 24 years ago.

ProperPsycho

Thrice Upon A Time picks up right where the last movie ended off, exactly how it should for the way 3.0 ended. The slice of life scenes are cute and it's nice to see them enjoying themselves (even if it doesn't last very long and there is still that classic Evangelion depression looming around the corner). Shiro Sagisu's music is as great as it's been the entire Rebuild series. It's calm when it needs to be and hype and dramatic when it needs to. The animation is smooth aside from a few scenes that use unnecessary CGI where it's a bit too smooth. The same goes for the art in general, which is pretty and colorful and provides a lot of chances for great wallpapers but there was a few times the CGI stuck out. Although there were times where the CGI seemed intentional, the fight with Shinji and his father could be excused as intentional do to the fact that that scene is based on old TV shows that had people in costumes stomping around miniature cities which Hideaki Anno is inspired by. The other time the CGI seemed intentional was the giant head, which if you've watched it you know what I am talking about. in those scenes to me it felt it was done that way so it would make viewers uncomfortable, and in my case it definitely grossed me out cause of how much it stuck out. The one time I absolutely couldn't get behind the CGI was towards the beginning in a scene where Asuka got aggressive with Shinji force feeding him it's clear they used CGI and motion capture, and although I am sure there was a reason for them doing that, I just couldn't find a way to justify it myself and even if I did it was just not very visually appealing. As always with the Eva series the characters are well written and you feel for them. At the beginning we see Shinji with the same lack of motivation he had through out The End Of Evangelion but unlike that movie where he is more forced to get in the Eva and get over his depression, in this movie we see him slowly regain his motivation and he alone makes the decision to get back in the robot without anyone really even bring it up which is a first for the series. We finally got to see Shinji have genuine confidence and control of how he feels and accept that life isn't easy. Which we kind of got to see in the original series but in those it was more acceptance rather than him over coming it. Asuka is extra aggressive in this movie and we are shown why but this movie doesn't really focus much on Asuka's character till the end so there isn't much to say about her. The twist with her character was seriously unexpected and genuinely surprised me. Rei had a few moments too, seeing how this new Rei clone reacts to the world in an absolutely clueless way was interesting. Although I would have liked the movie to talk more about the other Rei clones it was nice seeing how this clone grows closer to Shinji. Much like Asuka, Rei didn't have a huge focus on her character or much attention at all in the middle and near end of the movie. Finally Misato almost had nothing for her this entire movie till the end. The Main thing that happened with her was us finally being able to see what happened between 2.22 and 3.33 that caused her to become so serious. The end sequence was exactly what I loved about the original series with a twist of Shinji being the one therapizing others rather than them therapizing him. Before this movie the show and the movies felt pretty much disconnected which they absolutely shouldn't because as Hideaki said himself Evangelion is a repeating story, so if they feel disconnected there's an issue but, with the ending we've been given it makes it clear that the Rebuilds are sequels to the show. The way the movie ended left me completely satisfied, not wishing for a different one or asking for more. Not every good thing needs to continue forever and ever and this movie understands that and ends in a way that allows itself to be put to rest. Evangelion is done, Hideaki Anno told the story he wanted to tell. with the Rebuilds he set out to fix what he was unable to do with the original series and this movie does exactly that.

Danizel

~~~ # Review~~~ Essa é a minha primeira review escrita no AniList, eu deixei a preguiça de lado por pelo menos uma vez e vou finalmente ter a vergonha na cara pra escrever uma review sobre a franquia de anime favoritas, que eu cresci assistindo desde os meus 11 anos de idade. Essa review é meio grande, mas foi meio necessário, tome o tempo que quiser. Uma música pra você ouvir (se quiser claro) enquanto lê ao mesmo tempo, pra não ficar tão massante ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osu9EMAJuWo&t=1069s&ab_channel=JettPistol) ~~~ Para poder escrever sobre Rebuild of Evangelion eu vou ter que puxar um pouco do texto para o anime original: Neon Genesis Evangelion e The end of Evangelion ~~~ ~~~__~~~Neon Genesis Evangelion e The End of Evangelion~~~__ ~~~img220(https://alimenteocerebro.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Neon_Eva.gif)~~~ A minha relação com o anime de 1995 é de extremo amor e afeto, pois eu assisti em um período na minha vida que era meio perturbado, talvez a minha saúde mental tenha melhorado desde do dia em que vi pela primeira vez. Esse anime foi a primeira fonte de entretenimento em que eu consegui me identificar, inclusive com o próprio protagonista, por isso eu sempre odiei (e ainda odeio) o Shinji Ikari. Eu consigo me ver nele, e eu não acho isso algo bom. Porém o meu ódio pelo protagonista da obra, não quer dizer que ele seja mal escrito, pelo contrário, é um personagem complexo e cheio de camadas, e é perceptivel o cuidado em que Hideaki Anno teve em escrever os seus personagens principalmente o Shinji. E um dos principais trunfos da direção de Anno em Neon Genesis Evangelion é a sua capacidade de mudar completamente a história apenas para conseguir vender a atração para os "turistas". No começo é de se esperar que o espectador vá assistir esse anime com a expectativa de ser um anime de Mecha, no mesmo estilo de Gundam ou Circulo de fogo (puxando mais para o ocidente). Porém Anno, pega essa expectativa e muda completamente o turno da história, e o espectador apenas percebe que Evangelion não é um anime normal de Mecha, e sim um anime sobre a humanidade e seus sentimentos. ~~~img220(https://media4.giphy.com/media/Y0my9gsGdMsTK/giphy.gif) ~~~ Talvez esse seja o diferencial de Neon Genesis Evangelion no mundo dos animes, não é apenas um anime para assistir para se divertir ou se distrair. Neon Genesis Evangelion é um anime para você lutar contra o seu maior inimigo, você mesmo. O anime podia ter sido um anime mainstream de Mecha, com garotas bonitas, robôs gigantes e explosões, pois afinal quem não quer ver isso? Porém o tema principal de Evangelion seja a depressão. Depressão não é apenas sentir tristeza, pelo o contrário, depressão é falta de sentimentos, um entorpecimento emocional. Todos os personagens de Evangelion sentem vazios, alienados e um auto-ódio no lugar de tristeza ativa. E isso é reforçado pelas próprias cores da palheta do anime, que ironicamente, os momentos mais famosos geralmente utilizam apenas uma palheta de cores, para dar uma sensação de aridez, rispidez, desolação e privação. Essas cores geralmente são: O azul para as cenas hospitalares: ~~~img220(https://i2.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/img5.jpg?w=700&ssl=1) ~~~ O amarelo para as cenas que remetem a sonho: ~~~img220(https://i1.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/img6.jpg?w=700&ssl=1) ~~~ E o vermelho para as coisas que remetem ao apocalipse: ~~~img220(https://i0.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/img7.jpg?w=700&ssl=1)~~~ Outro detalhe que eu acho interessante no anime, são os diálogos, personagens raramente estão nos mesmos quadros de câmera quando estão falando um com o outro. ~~~img220(https://i2.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/img8.jpg?w=535&ssl=1)~~~ E essas técnicas que o anime utiliza só vai se intensificando ao decorrer do anime, pois os personagens e suas relações vão se desgastando. Porém, nem tudo são flores, Evangelion tem os seus defeitos, um deles são os personagens serem extremamente complexo, porém quase nenhum tem uma conclusão de arco propriamente dito, o único personagem que tem uma conclusão por si só é Shinji, porém fora ele, você sente falta de saber o que aconteceu com o restante. Outro defeito de Evangelion é o seu extremo pessimismo, principalmente em The End Of Evangelion, o filme acaba em um tom pessimista, que por si só acaba sendo vaga e a mensagem que o diretor queria passar, sai em vão, pois tudo bem, entendemos que o escapismo é ruim e afins, mas é um pouco perigoso o filme focar tanto nessa ideia de escapismo ser ruim e acabar sacrificando a própria mensagem. ~~~__Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone__~~~ ~~~img220(https://pa1.narvii.com/6759/b6c9e1e90b537ebe05a4967688bf1880cd308d06_hq.gif) ~~~ Ok, depois que fiz um resumão sobre o anime original ( um dia, quando eu rever eu talvez escreva uma review completa só sobre Neon Genesis Evangelion e seu filme) vou começar a fala sobre os rebuilds. Talvez Hideaki Anno tenha percebido que a sua obra tinha algumas falhas, e decidiu tentar contar ela novamente, porém dessa vez é perceptivel o amadurecimento do mesmo, o tom nos rebuilds é diferente. Neon Genesis Evangelion é um anime sobre pessoas emocionalmente confusas que pioram a cada dia, aos poucos, e a audiência é obrigada a assistir essas pessoas piorando até o dia em que elas quebrem. Já o Rebuild of Evangelion são essas mesmas pessoas, só que a cura é mais visivel. A mudança de tom é diferente também por conta de Anno e seu histórico de depressão, já que durante o período em que ele estava fazendo Neon Genesis Evangelion, ele estava em volta de sua depressão. Já enquanto ele faz o rebuild of evangelion, ele já conseguiu superar a sua depressão. E isso muda e muito a história, pois antes era uma história com a visão de alguém que estava por dentro disso. Já dessa vez é uma história com a visão olhando por fora. ~~~img220(https://i0.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kawoshin.gif?resize=500%2C185&ssl=1) ~~~ O primeiro filme rebuild, por si só não muda muito a história, apenas alguns detalhe e alguns diálogos, que só os mais atentos ou os que estão com a mente mais fresca que vão perceber. Agora dessa vez também é mais direto ao ponto, cortaram algumas partes dos primeiros 6 episódios para apenas ir ao que interessa. A animação é superior, por conta de ser atual, ela consegue misturar bem as cenas de CGI junto com as cenas 2D, e você realmente sente o peso dos Evangelions andando e lutando, assim como a paisagem é magnifica. A trilha sonora como sempre é impecável, Shiro Sagisu é fenomenal em trazer sentimentos que estão na tela para as músicas. E como eu estava falando ali em cima no texto, o tom é diferente e apesar da história desse primeiro rebuild ser praticamente as mesmas coisas dos 6 primeiros filmes, os personagens estão um pouco diferentes. Rei é mais humana, Shinji é menos apático e menos covarde, e Asuka é menos arrogante. Para um primeiro filme da série faz bem o seu papel em habituar Evangelion para um novo público. ~!Uma coisa que eu não me agradei muito foi a introdução do Kaworu no final do primeiro filme, é praticamente inútil e muda na da história já que ele só vai fazer algo mesmo lá para o terceiro filme, enquanto isso ele apenas fica sentado e fala uma frase pra instigar cliffhanger!~ ___~~~Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance~~~___ ~~~img220(https://i2.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/eva1.gif?resize=251%2C177&ssl=1)~~~ A partir do 2° filme, que a história realmente começa a divergir do anime original, indo para outros caminhos, e introduzindo até mesmo personagens novos. A animação sofre uma evolução, e fica ainda mais bonito, assim como a trilha sonora ainda é espetacular. Alguns detalhes da história são diferentes, mas até o 2° ato do filme chega no mesmo lugar do anime original ainda, porém o 3° ato pra frente é algo completamente novo e inédito. E o desfecho do filme passa uma mensagem de esperança e perseverança. Assim como é notável a evolução que o personagem de Shinji tem, ele realmente faz algo por vontade própria ~~~ ___Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo___~~~ ~~~img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/79f2c5ecfe7bec0c42f6a93b86aace6f/tumblr_puz1xuQMIj1qg67clo1_540.gifv)~~~ Para mim, o 3° filme dos rebuild foram os mais fracos, dava pra se ter resolvido o conflito do filme em um dialogo de 10 minutos, se os personagens simplesmente tivessem sentados e conversados sobre o que aconteceu, o filme teria tido menos de 1 hora de duração, eu não consegui engolir isso o filme inteiro, assim como usa o clichê do mocinho se juntar ao vilão sem ele saber que é o vilão, e o filme em seu ato final repete o acontecimento do 2° filme, é praticamente em vão tudo isso. Kaworu diferentemente do anime original é mais bem trabalhado, dessa vez as suas interações com o Shinji são realmente românticas , assim como eu achei interessante a forma em que Misato foi trabalhada dessa vez, e mesmo com uma aparência fria e maltratada, no fundo ela ainda é uma pessoa de coração mole e que perdoa Shinji. Assim como a Asuka dessa vez realmente tem uma razão para tratar mal o Shinji O cenário desse filme é extremamente criativo e bonito, mesmo com um vermelho sangue, ainda consegue transmitir a sua beleza e seu tom apocaliptico. E reforça ainda mais o ritmo claustrofóbico e desesperador que esse filme tem. Na minha opinião esse filme podia ter sido melhor, eu senti ele um pouco apressado, jogaram muita coisa pra explicar em pouco tempo. É confuso, mas não é aquele confuso bom, é aquele confuso que chega a dar dor de cabeça, e eu sei que é proposital, pois afinal, é Evangelion. Mas no original mesmo sendo confuso, se você prestar atenção tu vai entender bem, já nesse 3° filme, pelo menos pra mim não foi assim ~~~img220(https://i1.wp.com/evangelionbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/img17.png.jpg?w=500&ssl=1)~~~ ___~~~Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time~~~___ ~~~img220(https://ptanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/shinji-depressed-v1.gif)~~~ Finalmente, vou escrever agora a review sobre o filme final, que era o intuito desse textão todo. A animação desse filme está em seu ápice, porém em alguns momentos de luta em que tem CGI, ela agride um pouco aos olhos, não é feio, mas também não é bonito. Assim como o filme quebra a sua expectativa, pois o final do filme anterior daria a entender que o filme já começaria em um clima caótico e desesperador, porém é o contrário, o filme tira 1 hora e meia do seu tempo apenas para desenvolver os personagens e o mundo Hideaki Anno percebendo que o final de The End of Evangelion era meio problemático, ele decidiu então fechar de vez essa história de uma vez por todas. Mas o diferencial é a esperança. Pois a esperança traz mais significados ao melhor anime da História O final de The End of Evangelion era meio em vão já que era completamente pessimista e acabava em um tom incompleto, e isso não é algo ruim, é o propósito do filme, porém dessa vez, Anno cresceu como pessoa e diretor e conseguiu fazer um final digno para o fim de toda essa saga. As coisas ruins existem para nos conduzir pelo caminho do amadurecimento. Pois a mensagem do filme é sobre ciclos, os ciclos existem, tantos os bons e tantos os ruins, mas nós que decidimos seguir em frente e aceitarmos as nossas dores, as feridas mais profundas, com o tempo e amor podem ser curadas. É interessante também dessa vez o filme focar uma parte do seu tempo apenas para focar nos sentimentos de Gendo Ikari, coisa que até então no anime original não tinha. E como apesar de tudo, ele não é muito diferente de seu filho, e apesar de os dois quase serem as mesmas pessoas, ambos tomaram rumos completamente diferentes, pois nós não somos o que os nossos pais foram, nós somos nós mesmos. E que apesar de a vida ser dura e cruel, viver vale a pena, e aproveitar o agora, ainda mais com as pessoas que temos do nosso lado, pois esses momentos que são preciosos. E a evolução e amadurecimento de Shinji engrandece ainda mais a obra. Hideaki Anno conseguiu fazer um filme que apesar de reescrever completamente a história, não ignora completamente The end of Evangelion, pelo o contrário, ambos os filmes se complementam. __~~~_Finalização_~~~ __ Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time é um grande acerto, e vai marcar para sempre a história dos animes daqui para frente, confesso que os filmes rebuilds tenham superado o anime clássico, e eu tenho muito a agradecer por ainda estar vivo pra poder finalmente ver a conclusão do meu anime favorito, que me salvou de um período complicado. Obrigado, Hideaki Anno. Obrigado, meu pai. Adeus, minha mãe. E à todas as crianças do mundo, parabéns. Adeus, todos os Evangelions. ~~~img220(https://ptanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/EVANGELION-3.01.01-THRICE-UPON-A-TIME-movie-poster-with-all-main-cast-cropped-destaque.jpg)~~~

Drakmalar

__WARNING__: This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Evangelion as a franchise (at the exception of the manga). I watched Evangelion for the very first time like 11 or 12 years ago. It was almost accidentally via youtube, dubbed in my native language as a little 7 or 8yo kid. I still remember feeling lost, confused and mostly hooked while watching it. It wasn’t easy trying to understand any of its themes back then and in fact what I was more or less able to understand was rather little (obviously), but there was something about it that really caught my interest and in a weird way, the show felt like a warm haven where I could just relax and think about whatever was on my mind at the time. Through the years from then on I continued to watch and rewatch the show over and over again, and it became a tradition to rewatch it either every year or every two years. The first time I only had access to the first 25 episodes (I guess I wasn't able to find the 26th episode dubbed or something), and it was not until many years later that I would get to watch End of Evangelion for the first time. Which means that my experience with this series has been fragmented over time and the consequences of this is that it has become a very important part of both me as a person and my life as a whole; constantly revisiting the series over the years, excited to find new pieces of the puzzle and see how much I would be able to take away on my next rewatch. I’m 19 now, and what seemed like a strange show full of personality that I did not understand but that did certainly attract me, ended up being my emotional refuge and even a happy place for me in my early adolescence and still is even to this day. It was a series that showed a hyperactive child the value of calm and the importance of paying attention to both music and sounds. Evangelion is an especially particular series when it comes to sound, at least for me. Since I always thought that the show does an excellent job at creating an atmosphere and context by making the most of the means that the medium has to offer, and I think that is an excellent starting point to start talking about the Rebuilds themselves. This is because I feel that Hideaki Anno has always strived to push the realm of animation to the limit and that he is someone who wants to make the audience feel something new with each work of his. The clearest and most recent example was the production of the last Evangelion film, where through the documentary produced by the japanese NHK chain, we can see how he wanted to get out of the traditional mold of animated productions and tried to use and apply methods used in "live action" cinema to accomplish it. For example, he rejected the use of traditional storyboards; so everything was recorded and built first with real actors and cameras in sets, and then the footage would later serve as a base for the drawings. I’m sure that this has been done before, but in an industry and culture as strict and traditional with methods as the japanese, the fact that he tried to do it despite knowing that it would be harder, and because he thought it would make for a better product and help in making this film feel much different than the other three, makes it really interesting and worth pointing out in my opinion. To be completely honest I am neither the biggest fan of cinema nor the biggest consumer of it, but I firmly believe that anyone with an interest in this industry or cinema as a whole can appreciate what Anno tried to do and I think that we can all agree that this says a lot about Anno as a director; he’s an obsessive perfectionist whose goal is to surpass himself as a creator each and every time, and he will give everything for his own satisfaction and for the enjoyment of the viewer. In the NHK documentary for the 3.0 + 1.0 film there’s a quote that I find quite interesting and one that is tied to this idea of Anno as a man who gives his everything; it comes from Hayao Miyazaki, the well-known studio Ghibli director and one of the geniuses of Japanese animation with whom unfortunately I am not particularly familiar but who I have learned to respect based on how little I have seen and how much I have heard and read about him. He expressed in relation to Anno; "Anno creates films while spilling blood." I've seen a lot of people criticizing this film for its use of CGI, and while I think of that as a perfectly reasonable take (as I consider that for example, in Evangelion 2.0 there were also instances of CGI that didn't look particularly good), I think people are forgetting that this is nothing new. The use of CGI in evangelion goes way back to even EoE, and in my opinion Anno has always been a creative who seeks to explore different forms of expression in order to portray different emotions and ideas. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. The scenes with Rei's head in 3D in this latest film, for example, seemed weird to me. But even so, I think it is important to value all the good that there was over the bad. Because there was plenty of good, and while there were scenes that were questionable, in general this film uses 3D in an absolutely masterful way in its construction of both scenarios, spaces and fights. Generally speaking, the production of this film is incredible and it looks breathtakingly beautiful. I also want to add that I don’t really like this tendency (of which I am also a part of on some occasions) of questioning 3D resources so fiercely, being that I think that we should prioritize artistic intention over how “good” something looks. I have to say that my interest in this franchise has always been completely external to Anno, which may sound strange but I never had an interest in him as a person; I was exclusively interested in Evangelion as its own work. That was until relatively recently when I really became interested in him as a creator. It’s important to note that I was always aware about his involvement in the franchise and his journey as a creator, but I just did not see him as a piece of interest in what the Evangelion puzzle was for me. Although with the passing of the years and my most recent rewatches of both the series, EoE and the rebuilds, I have to say that now more than ever I consider myself a fan of his. And above all, I greatly respect not only his way of working but his way of doing things and his trajectory, because I also know what it feels like to go through depression. The difference is that while I was locked up in my room, this man was able to carry out his life, his career, and his creative vision. I want to vindicate the importance of someone like Anno being who he is today, because we are talking about a man who has openly spoken about his struggles and even about having reached the point of having suicidal tendencies, and despite all of that he still continues to keep creating successful creative works as well as having a wife and people around him who love and respect him, I personally find it simply beautiful and motivating. I consider the Rebuilds to be born from his perfectionism and for his own perfectionism (which doesn't mean that they are in fact perfect in any way, far from it), he is a man who is clearly having a hard time following his own message present in Eva (that about living life and not looking for refuges and places where one can hide from real life; because he continues to take refuge in the production of not only evangelion, but also in other franchises that he loves so much), but who is perfectly aware of it and wants to vindicate how difficult it is to apply the message in our daily lives. One can never escape our desires and urges as human beings, but we can try and improve eventually, little by little. And I think that Evangelion is fundamentally a franchise that talks about the importance of continuing to try even if we know that we are never going to be perfect or the living image of what we want to represent. Always, at some point we are going to degenerate in some way or deviate a bit from our goal; but the message and our desire to continue must and can continue there. This is how I understand the Rebuilds, as a kind of gigantic metatext that serves as a comment for his work, the relationship that he has with it and the relationship that we have as fans/spectators with Eva as a whole. I see each of the installments of this tetralogy as different windows that allow us to appreciate from different perspectives what Evangelion is and what it has been for all of us. There is an excellent essay on this subject on YouTube called "The Curse of Evangelion" with a duration of 39 minutes that I totally recommend. Basically, its creator explains what each part of the puzzle means like this: “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (not) Alone is about how Evangelion is still there, unchanged. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (not) Advance is about how you cannot advance if you embrace escapism. Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (not) Redo is about how wasting your time in escapist limbo is wasted time that you cannot regain and that you cannot go back in the past to fix your mistakes. A personal theory of mine is that 1.0 is how Eva is, 2.0 is how the fans see Eva, and 3.0 is how Anno sees Eva. So 3.0+1.0 will be how Anno sees Eva and how it truly is. And it will likely act as a final resolution to the entire Evangelion franchise.” youtube(https://youtu.be/rHIvs0Q-uKI) I also want to point out that I consider it a complete lack of critical sense to say that any of the four installments are bad as films. Again, I want to reiterate that I am not even close to being a cinephile, but you don't have to be a chef to know when a dish is delicious and when one is raw; and I consider that all films without exception have a spectacular direction, beautiful artistic designs, excellent color usage, a great and very remarkable soundtrack for each of the installments and an excellent structure for each of them. What I mean with “structure” has a lot to do with the pacing of the films, as I feel that they do a great job of constantly keeping you engaged and interested in what's happening. I can understand if someone tells me that he liked “x” film less than the others or if they straight up hate one of the installments. And in fact when it comes to the third film, I honestly do not like it very much; mainly in the narrative sense. But I think that without a doubt all the installments are more than successful when it comes to being highly enjoyable and fun entertainment products that dwell deeper into the Evangelion universe. Which maybe wasn’t necessary but what is “necessary” anyway? When was Evangelion ever about “necessity”? It was always about conveying a message. In my opinion, all of these films have an excellent cinematographic quality to them, and they work in the process of being individual, smaller units that are meant to be seen as a larger, bigger work whose purpose is to send us a message and give closure to us as viewers and to Anno as a creator when it comes to Eva. Following that line of reasoning, it is important to understand that Evangelion is above all a work about characters and the themes that are tied to them. Everything else (although excellently executed) serves only as an accompaniment to aid the narrative of the characters and make their stories something more interesting and credible through (most of the time) psycho-cosmic parallelisms. By this I mean that, for example, both the angels and the city of Tokyo 3, are completely replaceable elements and whose presence can be completely ignored and the same story would still be able to be told, one that goes beyond the small parts that make it up. After all, this idea is explored in the series itself; in the original anime there are entire episodes where the presence of angels and the city itself (I bring them up again since those are the examples I used) is completely ignored and they work almost like background noise. How many scenes can you remember as a spectator, of Shinji or any other character completely lost in thought in an abstract setting without giving importance to said setting or the threat of the angels? And I think that’s the key, Evangelion has always been about the metatext and about giving messages above its own logical sense as a fictional world. And it's exactly what the Rebuilds do and prove by twisting and playing with many of these elements. Kaworu himself has an introspective moment in the last film where he seems to be recognizing his own role as a character in a fictional story. I think the Rebuilds were an attempt by Anno to play with our expectations and our understanding of the series, with the purpose of showing us how far he was capable of going with his own perfectionism and trying to make the message behind the series clearer than ever, along with the different motivations of the main characters. On this note, I want to add; I think that the Rebuilds do an excellent job of expanding the characters and showing different facets of them. We saw a Shinji more mature than ever, and finally we were shown the kind of change that he was supposed to have undergone at the end of EoE. We saw Shinji confront Asuka directly and talk to her, we saw him confront his father and learn to understand him (and in the process giving the viewers many answers that many of us may have already had before, but that were mainly theories only sustained by pure interpretation. I think now more than ever it became clear who Gendo was and what his motivations and intentions were, same with some other characters), we even saw an evolution in his relationship with Misato. Who in this film takes a literal role of mother and acts like one, and Misato is a character that, to me, brings out why I like the versions of the different characters in this last film so much. It's been years for both the characters, the staff and us in real life, and seeing Misato being a mother, Touji being a father and a doctor (someone who used to be rude and a bit violent, now treating people with affection and consideration), seeing Kensuke as this kind of understanding fatherly figure, Hikari as a mother and a mirror of humanity to Rei, even seeing Kaji's son was something I liked. Yes, they are fictional characters, but we have some form of appreciation and “love” for them after so many years. And I think the biggest lover of all of them is Anno himself, who has said on occasion that he doesn't have any kind of emotional connection to the work. But still, I firmly believe that he has to have some kind of appreciation and affection for them regardless. I think if he really didn't love Evangelion he wouldn't have dedicated a quarter of a century to the franchise, and it seems more than reasonable to argue that if he decided to go that far and do all of this it is because at some point he cares. And I am convinced that in some way this latest film is an effort that he makes to feel completely satisfied with his masterpiece and in an attempt to give it what he might perceive as “proper closure”. We are talking about a person who literally put his soul into his work, from good to bad. Including his own traumas and concerns. Keep in mind though that most of this is obviously pure interpretation of my own, and I want to highlight that because I feel like I've seen people make a huge mistake while talking about Anno on the internet. Because the truth is: we don’t know him, and we are never going to. And I don't think it's reasonable nor logical to base your entire perception of an individual and think that you truly understand something about him or what he was truly going for with any of this from just little bits and pieces scattered on the internet from interviews and documentaries from different points in time. Having seen the documentary made by the NHK japanese chain, I have to say that it is obvious how involved this man was and the amount of sweat and blood he left on the road to get this film done. It would give the impression that Anno first of all wanted to vindicate his message with the Rebuilds; a message that he seems to consider was incomplete with the original work. I remember hearing something about how he commented that he would like to have the same capacity that his wife has when it comes to making people leave her stories with this notion of wanting to live and go outside. The expression "going outside" is particularly interesting today, in a near-post-pandemic context where some countries are returning to "normalcy" while others are still trying to rise to the surface for a breath of air. And it is that now more than ever in this context of pandemic the message of a film like Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 is particularly appropriate and comforting. Since the film reflects a post-apocalyptic world where the worst that could happen has happened and where it does not seem that things are necessarily going for the better, and yet people continue to fight to rescue and show the beauty of life and the value of the small things. All the scenes in the village and the scenes with a focus on agriculture are essential to convey what I think is a romantic message about the value of routine, of what you have, and of appreciating the little and even seeking happiness when there is a clear lack of abundance. I think the fact that we don't see anyone die or suffer in the village reinforces this idea; It is a safe space but surrounded by death where we are taught that there is always and can always be a place for hope. The only death we see is that of Rei and even that is relatively far from the village and particularly "happy", since Rei dies in peace and with a smile. And Shinji sees this event as a push that makes him want to move on, now with more conviction than ever instead of portraying it as a traumatic event that pulls him back. Showing in the process the great evolution of the character and, for the first time, a self-confident Shinji who actually seeks the best for everyone. This is a good time to talk about Mari, a character that I think is being particularly divisive in the community but one that I personally adore. She went from being a character that I didn't understand and didn't like at all to being one of my favorites. I think the best way to define Mari is as an external element to Evangelion that appears out of nowhere and with great force to present to the viewer what the original series tries so hard to hide; that one can (even in the worst of situations) find enjoyment and joy, and that many times it’s all a matter of seeing the situation from the right angle or having someone who allows you to appreciate how enjoyable something can be. In fact, for example Hiroyuki Imaishi (who has participated in the different entries of the Evangelion franchise and was the head of projects such as Gurren lagann or Kill la Kill in recent years) has expressed in interviews that he precisely did not like that idea that is in Evangelion about how being an eva pilot is a horrible thing. Well, he said that if it were up to him, he would gladly get on the eva. And the fact that the Rebuilds give way to represent that way of thinking with a character seems great and perfectly logical to me. Mari is an antithesis to everything Evangelion represents, she is literally the only character who loves with all her soul to pilot her Eva and who does it with energy, emotion and joy even if she is in the middle of very dangerous situations. And even in those moments she can smile and try to give everything. And not only in extreme situations but also in more everyday situations, she shows what seems to be great affection for the people around her. In particular, scenes she shares with Asuka come to mind, where we see that clearly some kind of friendship bond is formed between them and how despite the fact that this Asuka (Shikinami) is much more shy, introverted and lonely, she allows Mari to be around her, she trusts her, and even lets her hug her. There is a scene in the documentary that shows the "behind the scenes" of the film where Moyoco Anno (Hideaki Anno's wife) talks about how she felt when meeting him, and what she says I think reveals exactly the kind of character that Mari represents in the movies. She expresses that: "Back then it was like he didn't care about himself, it was all about work. At some point I thought he would actually die. It was as if he… had forgotten how to live. (... ) It was like "Nobody is taking care of you? I guess I'll have to." Many interpret these words as definitive proof that Mari is a character created by Anno with his wife in mind, as a kind of archetype that represents in the movies what Moyoco represents for Hideaki in real life. I won’t act like I have any right to confirm nor deny any of this, but the truth is that in my head, this idea of him wanting to create a character of this style, with a more positive and supportive attitude and worldview makes perfect sense. And for me Mari is just that, more than a character, an archetype of solidarity, affection and fun that exists as a resource to personify a change of tone in the movies. Much can be said about the character but the truth is that as strange and stupid as her fan-service seems to me, I think that’s exactly the point. I think Mari's point is to tell us "look, you can just enjoy things and be stupid and that's fine. After all, you're not hurting anyone." I do not intend under any circumstances to discredit or belittle the work done in the original series and in EoE, but the truth is that both end in abstract, ambiguous points and are full of possibilities for continuations at a narrative level. And actually from that perspective I love Rebuilds as I feel like they gave us just that; they gave us answers to questions like: “well, we were just told that shinji changes and accepts reality at the end of EoE. But what does this mean? How is he going to act from now on and what exactly did he actually learn?” What I mean is: I consider that while EoE provided us with a more “meta” final where the closing of the narrative of the characters is open to interpretation and where the final message is "Go outside and live your life" without properly giving closure within the context of the narrative of the show, the Rebuilds are more like, “This is what happened, and this is what the characters are going to do. Now go ahead, Go outside and live your life just as they will”. A difference that may be insubstantial or even unnecessary for some, but one that to me marks a clear division between NGE and the Rebuilds, and to be honest right now I think I much prefer this ending rather than the one present in the original work. But at the end of the day, does it matter? The only thing I hope is that people have enjoyed all of these works and that they have helped them to want to be better or at least that they have had fun while watching. In the end that is what truly matters, and we should be super grateful that not only Anno but also an important part of the staff and people who worked at NGE are still with us and that they were able to once again work on another project of this franchise one more and final time. 26 years have passed, and we should celebrate that the greatness of Evangelion not only lives on, but also that its creators are still here with us and continue to create. Bye bye, all of Evangelion. And thanks for reading. __DISCLAIMER: The final rating isn’t representative of anything, the only reason why i’m even giving a rating is because anilist doesn’t allow you to post a review without assigning it a number that ranges from 0 to 100. If it were for me, I would post all of my reviews without ratings as I feel that trying to encapsulate a work of art on a numerical scale is completely nonsensical. __

TheIkari

Bueno, hace poco se estrenó la última película de esta tetralogía de peliculas que reinventan el concepto original. Siendo fan de la serie original, la cual es mi anime favorito, estoy sumamente descontento del resultado final de esta saga de peliculas. Y es por esta serie de peliculas NO son Evangelion. Y no me refiero que no son Evangelion por tener cambio en la trama y añadir nuevos elementos, sino porque temáticamente, es todo lo contrario que hacia la obra original. Inicialmente solo iba a reseñar la última película, pero como siento que serían más interesante explicar por qué pienso que en general la tetralogía no me parece Evangelion. Además como esta película esta ligada a varias precuelas, sería algo injusto dedicarle un escrito a esta y no a toda la saga de peliculas. - Evangelion 1.0 You´re (Not) Alone - Siendo honesto, no tengo mucho que decir de esta. Se podría decir que es un 90% igual al anime, pero con ligeros cambios. La película adapta desde el primer capítulo hasta el enfrenamiento contra Ramiel (el ángel rombo). La película pese adaptar varios capítulos, se acopla muy bien al ritmo, sí, hay cosas que son algo apresuradas, pero realmente no hacen algún tipo de daño a la continuidad o desarrollo de la película. A su vez los nuevos acontecimientos y cambios no desentonan con la trama original. Los personajes en cambio son muy parecidos a los de la serie original, marcados por sus defectos y virtudes, y las interacciones que forman estan bastante bien, al haber diversas interacciones distintas esto permite más exploración en cada uno de los personajes. Ya en cuanto a la dirección, es un calco del anime, hay un monto de tomas y enfoques que son lo mismo que el anime. En cuanto a la animación, el CGI no desentona mucho, la calidad del dibujo y la fidelidad a los diseños originales es bastante buena. La música es acorde a las escenas y es bastante ambiental. En si la película no está mal, tiene una trama y personajes consistentes, la fidelidad del material original es bastante buena, pero a la vez agrega cosas nuevas, el nuevo apartado técnico no desentona y tiene algún que otro giño aquí y haya a la serie original que como referencias estan bastante bien. En cuanto a los inconvenientes solo habría uno, y es uno que considero hasta cierto punto severo, y es que la película es sumamente derivativa de la serie original. Al punto de que tanto la dirección es tan derivativa de la serie al punto de ser la misma. El problema de esta película es que todos sus aspectos positivos vienen arraigados a la serie original. Si fuera una adaptación no habría problema alguno, pero al ser una reinversión de la serie original queda como si sus aspectos positivos no fueran por mérito propio, sino por la historia que está tratando de darle un punto de vista diferente. En si la película no es mala, en general es bastante buena, pero su problema es que más que una reinversión del material original, es un calco de hora y cuarenta de algo obviamente superior. Pero igual es recomendable, sobre todo si eres un fan de la serie original. - Evangelion 2.0: You can (Not) Advance - Ok, aquí comienzan los verdaderos problemas de la saga, y es que esto más que un producto de “Evagelion” es más como un maldito fanfic de la historia original. Y repito, el problema no es que sea un calco, el verdadero problema es que más que ofrecer una nueva perspectiva del material original, es un puto fanfic, y no, no estoy exagerando con la parte de que es un fanfic. La película empieza con la introducción del personaje de Asuka hasta que Kaworu detiene el tercer imapcto. Esta película cambia toda la historia de Evangelion con algún que otra referencia aquí y allá, y con se queda con los conceptos de la serie original. Si bien las ideas que tiene esta película no son malas, como un Shinji más seguro de sí mismo, una Rei intentando de interactuar con los demas y una Asuka más agradable, esta parte falla por los siguientes motivos que más adelante pasare a explicar. 1. Relleno 2. Intrascendencia 3. Fanservice Y los 3 puntos estan relacionados. El 80% de la película se trata de la interacción de los personajes en la escuela. Pero realmente esta parte de la película es relleno ya que solo vemos pura interacción de personajes sin desarrollo de la trama, además que todas estas relaciones serán olvidadas a futuro, ¿Rei y Shinji? Rei morirá en esta película y su muerte si bien afecta en la tercera de Eva, el efecto de su muerte sol dura unos cuantos minutos. ¿Shinji y Asuka? Después su relación será rescrita en la tercera y cuarta película, y el desarrollo de su relación es nulo. Eso hace que el 80% de la película es puro relleno intrascendente. Si bien la parte del acuario es un poco interesante ver los efectos del segundo impacto en el mundo, realmente es una parte que aparte de eso es intrascendente para los personajes. Y el punto final es el fanservice, y es que en general la película es eso, mero fanservice para hacer más digerible a los personajes. El cambio en sus personalidades y sus nuevas relaciones realmente no aportan absolutamente nada a los personajes debido al apresurado desarrollo, no hay una exploración o nuevo punto de vista para los personajes, solo hicieron a Asuka como si fuera una tsundere del montón, a Rei si bien con más proactividad, a la vez la hacen más seca como personaje al eliminar alguna clase de conflicto o introspección. Con lo de las interacciones va de la mano con la caracterización. En esta película cualquier clase de introspección o conflicto personal es eliminado por completo para que te encariñes de los personajes. Las nueva interacciones debido a las personalidades ahora son más genéricas que nunca, porque ahora Rei, Asuka y Shinji caen en una especie de triángulo amoroso genérico. El problema principal de las relaciones de los personajes y del romance que hay es que el desarrollo es sumamente apresurado, además de que estas relaciones a la larga como antes dije terminan siendo intrascendentes. Oh, y el personaje de Mari, el personaje en toda esta película y en general es un personaje sin mucha personalidad, hasta cierto punto hasta se le puede calificar como un fetiche otaku. Aun que he de decir que el personaje por lo menos fue útil en la película y en la tetralogía. En cuanto al final pues diría que sí, es entretenido, y para la escena del tercer impacto pues si bien se hace de una forma diferente, es consistente con respecto a las normas del mundo de Evangelion. Pero la parte en la que aparece Kaworu si es una salvada de ultisimo momento grandísimo. En cuanto a los aspectos audiovisuales, pues lo mismo que la anterior. El cgi es competente todo el tiempo, y la verdad la música diría que es hasta cierto punto mejor que la de la anterior película. En fin, es solo mero fanservice, realmente no hay nada rescatable en la cinta. Si, puede ser entretenida, realmente es pura paja la mayoría del tiempo y el ritmo caga mucho el desarrollo de varias cosas. Siendo sincero no es tan terrible, pero si es definitivamente mala, y es solo un mal augurio para lo que está apunto de venir. - Evangelion 3.0: You can (not) Redo - Llegamos a la parte donde viene verdaderamente lo malo del Rebuild. Si bien la segunda película era fanservice, esta es ahora completamente estúpida en todos los sentidos. Esta iré resumiéndola mientras destaco cada uno de los errores de esta película. Empezamos con una pelea mal dirigida en donde estan rescatando a Shinji en una especie sarcófago gigante en el espacio, en toda la película ni en la cuarta explican por qué lo mandaron al espacio y ni quien lo mando, pero bueno, un hechicero lo hizo supongo. Después Shinji despierta, y lo vemos en Wille, en donde comenten dos errores de una. 1. Todas las personalidades de los personajes con respecto a la película anterior son reescritas. Si bien en Thrice Upon a Time se explica parte de lo que ocurrió en el time skip, no justifica en nada el cambio de las personalidades. 2. Si bien le explican a Shinji algo, no le dicen las consecuencias de sus acciones, y en vez de explicarle y que se haga cargo de sus responsabilidades, lo tratan de una forma súper córtate y desinteresada, incluso aunque ese tipo de conducta puede generar que Shinji se quiera alejar de ellos (oh, espera, justo eso sucedió). Nerv rescata a Shinji y es llevado a sus antiguas instalaciones, donde su padre lo trata como el culo (que sorpresa) después conoce a Kaworu. En esta parte de la película que más que nada se trata de Shinji interactuando con el entorno y con Kaworu, la trama se vuelve tediosamente lenta en lo que son meras interacciones intrascendentes, para ser una película de casi hora y cuarenta ¿Qué costaba al menos ser una exploración de los eventos del time skip? Digo, si la película fuera eso al menos se justificaría su duración, y a la vez entenderíamos el porqué de las nuevas personalidades de los personajes. Es casi cuando va a ocurrir el evento de mayor peso de la película cuando por fin pasan cosas de importancia, Fuyutsuki hizo lo que todo Wille no pudo hacer de forma sencilla, explicarle a Shinji lo que hizo, cosa que al menos pudo haber hacho que Shinji verdaderamente reflexione sobre sus acciones, pero nah, solo se deprime y vuelve a ser un personaje pasivo, después llega Kaworu que lo anima y le quita el collar que tenía para ponérselo el ¿wtf? ¿Cuál era la necesidad? Hasta el día de hoy sigo sin entender el porqué de esa acción ¿acaso no pensó que pasaría si oprimen el botón en media batalla? El eva que pilotarían no serviría al perder a uno de los dos pilotos y la misión seria al caño. Oh, y si, ahora hay un eva que se controla a partir de dos pilotos, aún sigo sin entender el cómo en tiempos tan jodidos y con lo difícil que ya es de por sí que un piloto controle a un eva, ahora por la cara te ponen a uno que es manejado por dos pilotos, no jodas. Ahora también te ponen el concepto de la lanza de Cassius, la cual se supone que es semejante a la de Longinus, pero es la primera vez que la introducen y no detallan que es, si es de Adan, o es una especie de réplica a la de Longinus, no explican un carajo. Después en el momento de la misión ocurre una batalla jodidamente mal dirigida, de la cual a veces no se entiende qué carajo está pasando. En la cual Shinji se comporta como un retrasado mental, ya que Kaworu le die que algo anda mal y que no deberían seguir, pero Shinji se pasa por el culo las advertenias de Kaworu, y casi la caga al punto de casi generar un cuarto impacto. Y al final Kaworu termina detonando el collar, el cual le explota la cabeza y lo mata. Y con esto quisiera por ultimo hacer una comparación entre la relación de Shinji Kaworu en la serie orignal con la del Rebuild. En la serie orginal si bien Kaworu aparece relativamente poco, el impacto que genera en Shinji es de vital importancia, ya que este aparece en una parte muy avanzada de la historia, en donde Shinji se siente mal con si mismo debido a que cree que todos los acontecimientos negativos fueron culpa de el (cosa que no esta tan alejada de la realidad), y cree que la gente lo odia por eso, pero aparece Kaworu, un chico que es agradable con él y que se nota interesado y preocupado por el no porque sea un piloto, sino porque es el, cosa que era otro problema con Shinji, y es que solo encontraba su valor al ser piloto. Es por esto que la relación pese a lo poco que dura funciona bastante bien, y por eso la parte de la traición tiene tanto peso en trama con en el personaje de Shinji, ya que al matarlo no solo pensara que ya ha nadie le importa, sino que pensara otra vez que todo lo que le pase a su seres queridos es culpa de él. A diferencia de la serie original, no existe este apoyo emocional entre Shinji y Kaworu, y es porque durante media película quitando la parte de la confusión de lo que está pasando, Shinji no tiene ningún conflicto, y realmente se muestra como si estuviera bien, así que realmente la relación la mayoria del tiempo no goza de esa trascendencia como la de la serie original, ya que cuando realmente Shinji tiene un conflicto es cuando le revelan la verdad, eso es solucionado en segundos, haciendo que en general la relación sea sumamente superficial. Ya después de la muerte de Kaworu, detienen el cuarto impacto y dejan a Rei, Asuka y Shinji en medio de la nada, así que tendrán que caminar para encontrar algún punto donde los puedan rescatar. Esta película se mandó más cagadas narrativamente que es sorprendente. La mayoría del tiempo no hay construcción de nada, los efectos de los acontecimientos de la segunda película se dejan al aire incluso en la cuarta película ¿y qué quieren que les diga? De momento es la peor de todas. Si, la animación y música estarán bien, pese que la dirección sea bastante mala, pero eso no compensa todos los errores cometidos. Oh, y si creen que esto no se puede poner peor, solo esperen a la cuarta. - Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time - Ok, la tercera es terrible, pero la cuarta es aún peor. Pero a ver por qué digo. Al igual que con la tercera detallare un poco en la trama, y conforme la voy contando resaltare en que falla y que aciertos tiene la película. El principio es básicamente que Wille está intentando recuperar al Eva 02 que esta en Paris ¿Por qué en Paris? Ni puta idea. Llegan los de Nerv y empieza la primera batalla de la película. Y sigo sin entender de dónde sacan la tecnología tanto los de Wille y los de Nerv. Estamos hablando de un mundo semi distócico en donde la mitad del planeta se encuentra en muy mal estado, pero tienen una tecnología superior a la de hace 14 años incluso con todos los inconvenientes ambientales. Por cierto, algo que me llamo la atención es que cuando esta en Paris todo es cubierto de rojo, que es parte de las consecuencias del tercer impacto, andan con trajes como si fueran astronautas, y cuando una parte de la zona vuelve a la normalidad, parece que ya pueden respirar ya que se quitan los cascos, así que supongo que la zona roja debe de ser algo sumamente contaminado con un aire del cual cuesta respirar o algo por el estilo, pero Shinji, Asuka y Rei anduvieron caminando kilómetros en la zona roja para buscar a alguien que los rescate, y no les paso nada, y el tema de la zona roja lo dejan al aire. No sé si usaban trajes por otro motivo que se me olvida o es que en verdad nunca explican que efectos tiene la zona roja. Oh, y ya que mencione al trio, Shinji, Asuka y Rei son rescatados por una villa, en la cual viven Touji y Kensuke. Si bien el cómo detallan el cómo vive la villa, realmente diría que este tipo de escenario es medio idealista. Pasaron por una catástrofe ambiental que el ser humano jamás había tenido, además que las situaciones políticas se dejan al aire. No es como si estuviera pidiendo que Eva se convierta en Logh y detallen sobre política, pero en serio que la situacion actual del humano es jodidamente severa al punto de que dependen de empresas para su supervivencia. Con esto de la villa hay una parte medio slice of life en donde la nueva Rei conoce más del humano, y si bien no está mal ya que al menos deja de ser un personaje tan plano como en la tercera, pero con esto solo hay una serie de imágenes de Rei conviviendo con los pueblerinos sin alguna clase de desarrollo. Ahora Shinji durante esta parte de la película es más un personaje sumamente pasivo el cual lo pasan sermoneando una y otra vez al punto que cansa, Shinji no es que sea pasivo, es que ahora literalmente no hace nada, es cuando se va de la casa de Kensuke cuando realmente hace algo. Si, Shinji es un personaje que ahora está dañado, asi que tiene sentido que no haga nada, pero es que es como si ahora solo fuera un cuerpo sin personalidad, en anime original durante las etapas pasivas de Shinji esto daba paso a monólogos internos que detallaban en su verdadera personalidad y sus conflictos, en esta película ni eso se hace. Y es cuando por fin empieza a reaccionar es porque los otros personajes estuvieron insistiendo de que lo haga. La muerte de la nueva Rei me parece mala. Primero por qué el personaje realmente nunca tuvo algo de especial, si bien los montajes y la parte slice of life fue para humanizarla, esto hasta cierto punto fue artificial, porque realmente no es que la volvieron un personaje más humano, sino que solo aprendió nuevos conceptos y actividades. Y segundo porque su muerte reescribe al personaje de Shinji, el cual durante toda la película tenia baja autoestima, estaba indeciso y no quería hacer nada, para después pasar a ser una persona completamente diferente a la persona que era en un inicio, paso de ser a alguien con una actitud pasiva a ser un tipo confiado de sí mismo, decidido y con voluntad, en el resto de la película su nueva personalidad no mantiene un rasgo de la antigua. Y no, no es malo que el personaje por fin tenga autoestima, el problema es el cambio tan repentino por un solo acontecimiento, que por cierto, no debería de afectarle mucho, el antes odiaba a esa Rei porque su existencia significaba que lo que hizo en la segunda película fue en vano, así que hasta hace poco la odiaba, y durante esa parte no se mostró tanta interacción entre ellos. Pero bueno, Shinji decide ir con Wille incluso aunque eso implique que lo traten como un prisionero. Hay como una especie de subtrama en la que una de los miembros de Wille habla sobre porque odia a Shinji y que quiere matarlo, cosa que al final termina en Misato siendo disparada por otra chica que no quería que Shinji se subiera al Eva. Y la verdad es que esto al menos pudo haber generado un conflicto medianamente interesante, pero este tipo de sub trama falla por tres motivos. 1. El personaje no importa. Si quiera tiene una personalidad establecida ¿a si por que ha de importarme el conflicto en primer lugar? 2. El conflicto solo es introducido, no es como si se desarrollara realmente, ya que para eso se tendría que al menos explorarlo, pero no hay nada. 3. A la larga esto termina siendo intrascendente, hasta el disparo que recibe Misato termina siendo intrascendente para la trama. Hay una pelea, que la verdad no esta tan mal en dirección, la animación es fluida, el soundtrack ni lo recuerdo, y bueno esta entretenida, pero solo hasta ahí. Ah, y al parecer tanto Asuka y como Gendo tienen algo de ángeles en sus cuerpos, cosa que es medio rara. Porque en el caso de Asuka lo justifican con lo ocurrido en la segunda película, pero no se detalla lo suficiente. Y con Gendo se dice que fue por la llave de Nabucodonosor (no sé si se escribe así), pero nunca se dice como coño hicieron este objeto que supuestamente combina al humano con el ángel, pese haber aparecido en la segunda película también ¿no hay efectos secundarios? ¿Cómo se hace esa combinación? ¿Quién, cómo y para que la creo? Tal vez soy un poco quisquilloso con esto de los conceptos, pero al ser cosas que afectan tal cual en la trama y personajes al menos algunas explicaciones se podrían dar. Ahora Shinji debe de detener el plan de Gendo, el cual es básicamente la instrumentalización humana, pero no usando el cuarto impacto, sino el antiuniverso, si, la película ahora mete conceptos de la nada que nunca fueron introducidos. Básicamente el antiuniverso es un plano superior en donde se proyectan los pensamientos del individuo, es por eso que en las batallas entre Shinji y Gendo hay escenarios como la ciudad de Tokyo 3, las instalaciones de Nerv, el departamento de Misato, etc. Y con este antiuniverso Gendo lo que quiere es hacer que el mundo que cree ahí se vuelva en la realidad, y eso se lograría a través de las lanzas de longinus y cassius. Puesto así no parece tan complejo el asunto, el problema es que la película apenas lo explica y lo hace de una forma muy apresurada y hasta ambigua, ya que la película no detalla en los límites del antiuniverso. ¿Es que si me imagino algo se proyecta en el antiuniverso? ¿O es que solo apela a recuerdos? ¿O ideas? Nunca es explicado. Shinji se da cuenta de que si el antiuniverso es un mundo más psicológico que material, el combate físico no serviría de nada, y él tendría que ganar psicológicamente. Aquí Gendo expone su pasado, de que era un chico con problemas sociales, pero Yui fue la única persona que lo entendio y blah, blah, blah. El problema con este trasfondo es que es sacado de la nada de forma súper expositiva, si bien me gusta el que le den algo de humanidad a Gendo, y que a la vez justifiquen sus objetivos, aquí es que su pasado es sacado de la nada. Después Gendo se da cuenta de que Yui estuvo dentro de Shinji (de una forma metafórica) y decide rendirse, una redención más patética no puede haber. Ahora Shinji tiene el control del antiuniverso y el tendrá que decir que será del mundo. Y a continuación no solo la peor parte de la pelicula, si no que también lo peor de toda la puta tetralogía de Evangelion. Y es que Shinji habla con una especie de representaciones de Kaworu, Asuka y Rei, en donde habla con ellos, y crea una realidad para cada uno con sus deseos… ¿Qué está mal con esta parte? TODO. Para Asuka nos meten otro trasfondo de la nada para empatizar con ella, el cual se nota que es sacado de la nada, ya que a diferencia de la serie original, este trasfondo no afecto a su futuro, no se muestra que este verdaderamente afectada por este. Y en general es que todo este lio de las realidades se resume en putas escapismo. Anula las muertes de los personajes para darles una realidad alterada y tener finales felices sin tener consecuencias de la realidad anterior. Esta mierda es todo lo contrario a lo que fue The end of Evangelion. En The End tanto Adan y Lilith son destruidos, y Shinji recupera su fe en la humanidad, realidad y en sí mismo. Pese que pudo reescribir su mundo, no lo hizo porque el acepto su realidad. En cambio aquí Shinji rechaza la realidad y la reescribe para todos para dar un mensaje sumamente ofensivo. ¿Para qué mejorar nuestra realidad, cuando la puedo reescribir? Esto en ningún sentido es Evangelion, y no es un buen final. Me da gracia como la gente ve el final de la serie original como uno pesimista mientras que este como uno optimista, cuando es literalmente todo lo contrario. Y al final vemos a Shinji en su nueva realidad, con su nueva waifu (Mari), corriendo en una estación de trenes mientras que la cámara se aleja y se ve la ciudad en una estética live activon, claro que sí, que buena conclusión. Esta última pelicula fue un desastre total. 0 explicaciones, la primera hora de la pelicula es paja, se meten nuevos conceptos ultra fumados y que tampoco son explicados, personajes con conflictos o pasados sin desarrollo y sacados a último momento, y por sobre todo, putas escapismo al final. En definitiva es la peor de todas del Rebuild de lejos. Ni la segunda fue tan descarada, y ni la tercera fue tan desastrosa. Rebuild of Evangelion no es una mala tetralogía por que no sigue al pie de la letra al material original, es mala no solo por su tan mala construcción, sino porque no respeta al material original y no ofrece nada. No hay una nueva exploración, no hay una nueva perspectiva, no hay nuevo mensaje que tenga que ver con los temas de la serie original, no hay nada. En general Rebuild of Evangelion es mero fanservice para que Anno siga recaudando platita. No sigue para nada la esencia original de Evagelion. Y solo termina siendo un producto de casi nula calidad. Aquí estan las notas que le doy a cada pelicula: Evangelion 1.0 You´re (Not) Alone: 6/10 Evangelion 2.0: You can (Not) Advance: 4/10 Evangelion 3.0: You can (not) Redo: 2/10 Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time: 1/10 Y recuerden chicos Rebiuld of Evangelion are (not) Evangelion

CamTheCritic

To begin with, I wanted to mention that this review, while specifically being written for the final film, will contain spoilers as well as mini-reviews for three Rebuild films that preceded it. Considering the tetralogy of Rebuild films are essentially one long story altogether, I think a holistic approach to evaluate the final film would be best. Img400(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Rebuild_of_Evangelion_logo.jpg/220px-Rebuild_of_Evangelion_logo.jpg) Likewise, I would like to explicitly state that I am a fan of Evangelion as a whole. I genuinely think the manga adaptation, to some extent the original TV anime series, and undoubtedly the sequel film End of Evangelion is excellent. However, I am not a fart sniffing elitist snob that will lecture you in attempt to proselytize into the Cult of Evangelion. The Evangelion Franchise is not the zenith of the medium nor peak fiction. But, it is special. Regardless of how you personally feel about Evangelion, the Franchise has cemented itself firmly into the otaku consciousness & even seeped into general popular culture as well. Fundamentally, it is a revolutionary franchise that has changed the landscape of the medium as a whole. I say all this just to give you some idea as to where I am coming from with my personal feelings on the Franchise as well as present my level of experience and knowledge of Evangelion as a whole, which will inevitably affect my perception. Nevertheless, let’s get into the review! - - - *The First Rebuild Film* - - - This film plays it remarkably safe. In fact, it is nearly a shot-for-shot remake from some of the core concepts and scenes in the original TV anime series. However, some of the new 3DCG animation tends to look like shit (which will be a trend in the movies that follow this one as well). I am honestly unsure if I would call this film a visual upgrade. Sure, it looks more aesthetically contemporary; however, it often over-relies on shitty CG, whereas the original run was very faithful to traditional hand-drawn animation techniques, which added a lot of visual flare and style. As an illustration, the hand-drawn frames I have added below are infinitely more emotional and energetic than something that can be produced with standard 3DCG techniques. Img400(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWg3qKfX0AEzILP?format=jpg&name=large) img400(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWg3qxnWAAAr8jE?format=jpg&name=large) Though, I’ll concede the new remake did make improvements in some areas, such as making the movement of the Evangelion units significantly more fluent relative to the clumsiness of the original. I actually really like this change because it further reinforces the theme that these robots are, in fact, essentially alive and sentient metal rather than just something that requires control. Img400(https://i.gifer.com/3Iga.gif) img400(https://i.gifer.com/1uYc.gif) Perhaps, this is a nitpick, but, I think, in general, I just prefer the aesthetic of original run, which felt more tonally and thematically appropriate. But, you be the judge; I am rather indifferent either way! Img400(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/55/NGE_Comparison.jpg/300px-NGE_Comparison.jpg) img400(https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max1000x1500/cms/feature/98581/img11.jpg) Nevertheless, aside from the aesthetic rabbit hole, this film was extremely serviceable as a re-introduction into the franchise and had a kickass final scene, setting up for the next film in the tetralogy. It is hard to pinpoint anything that particularly stands out here as it is so faithful to the original TV series. Also, there are no big changes to the continuity presented in this film, so I have little to say about it altogether. Overall, this movie was more or less 7/10 material for me. - - - *The Second Rebuild Film* - - - This is where the continuity of the Rebuild films really becomes completely divorced from the original TV anime run as well as the End of Evangelion to some extent. After the safe start to the Rebuild film tetralogy, this second movie offered a refreshing new take on the Franchise as a whole, while still retaining some of the core elements that made the original so great. For instance, this film has a perfect balance of the more slice-of-lifey scenes coupled with high impact action scenes as well as some occasional moments of brevity, which was a formula that made the original run so endearing as well as entertaining. I particularly like one of the opening scenes where Kaji takes our famed trio on a little field trip, portraying some of the aquatic life which had went extinct due to the Second Impact. During this scene, there were clever dialogue exchanges that mirrored the visual metaphor of the aquarium being shown. For instance, below is a scene where Rei and Shinji are gathered around one of the exhibits on display. Shinji remarks that he wishes “the fish had more space to swim in” as a little gest; however, Rei takes this remark super seriously, remarking “impossible, these little ones cant live outside this tank.” In relation, just like the fish, Rei is practically restricted to spending most of her life at NERV HQ within the confines of an entry tube. Similarly, Rei, like the fish, knows nothing outside her metaphorical tiny tube of NERV HQ, her respective orders, and the Evangelion units. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/09ae800ead7525a5e884c850e4faf017/tumblr_pc8ml6n0uJ1vm1a59o1_500.gifv) Moments like these as well as others added emotional weight to the film, which further contrasted with the gore & carnage being shown on-screen during the action set pieces. Also, these seamless dialogue exchanges helped not only explain some of the exposition of the new timeline but also add some insight to the inter-personal relationships among the characters. Moreover, this movie had some other subtle character moments too that added a lot of depth to the film, notably the planned dinner party to reunite Shinji with his father Gendo. img400(https://i.redd.it/l2zyf3i7iry41.jpg) On a technical level, the animation was mostly great here other than a few moments a shitty CG, which plague the Rebuild franchise. In addition, the soundtrack offers enhances classic tracks from the franchise as well as some new bangers entirely. It was genuinely stellar. Other than that, the climax of the film in the final action set piece offers the most destruction and shock & awe factor we have seen from the franchise up to this point, featuring Shinji Awakening his Evangelion unit in an attempt to defeat the immediate Angel threat as well as save his newfound friend and potential love interest in Rei. Overall, I was very engaged the entire way through the runtime of this second film, and I think it was excellent as a whole. img400(http://25.media.tumblr.com/ee3a19869e9f31c0f2ee5e87bb0f022c/tumblr_mjmeywjoA11riyvejo1_500.gif) However, this film does run into some hiccups. Notably, the introduction of the New Asuka as well as Mari. I call her New Asuka because this Asuka is not the same Asuka seasoned Evangelion fans are used to – both in spirit and quite literally in name. img400(https://pm1.narvii.com/6477/201420f7f259fbb10f03e70461a5b3f0a3ae4bcc_hq.jpg) In fact, her character is almost entirely different aside from some shared surface level tsundere traits. For instance, before piloting the new Evangelion Unit 3, Asuka calls Misato and tells her about how happy she is with life and how it is nice to have friends. What?!? Would the original prideful loner Asuka ever say such a thing? Certainly not. img400(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DependentEqualFieldmouse-size_restricted.gif) Moreover, the original Asuka shows up in episode 8 of the TV run and affectively foils Shinji, brimming with confidence and self-assurance in her own ability to pilot her Evangelion unit. Throughout the original TV anime series, she actively seeks to work by herself in order to impress others and reassure herself of her own prodigal capabilities. In fact, she is extremely reluctant to work with Shinji and especially Rei to defeat an Angel threat, even if the fate of the world itself lies on their shoulders. However, ironically, she takes many L’s by various threats throughout the original run, showing us that she actually works best in a team in spite of the fact that she wants to work by herself. This complex later induces her into severe inner-turmoil, ultimately resulting in her sync rate with her beloved Evangelion unit to plummet into nothingness. img400(https://i.imgur.com/kjPRwgE.png) Conversely, the Rebuild Asuka immediately takes up Rei’s offer to help Shinji and Gendo get together with the planned dinner party. Likewise, the famed elevator scene, which originally lasted 50 seconds in the TV anime, is now reduced to 10 seconds. In my opinion, this is a huge blunder because the awkward elevator ride was meant to parallel and further reinforce how uncomfortable the relationship was between Rei and Asuka. Now, reduced to 10 seconds, it practically signals that, while their relationship is precarious, they seem to put aside their differences to work together to reach the same destination (exactly what they later do). Asuka’s willingness to help Rei also makes little sense from a canonical perspective too as Asuka’s tsundere jealousness would never permit her to submit to not only a love rival but also a rival, and perhaps superior, Evangelion pilot. Beyond that, the Rebuild movies hardly touch upon and, in fact, never even mention Asuka’s trauma regarding her mother, which actually adds a lot of depth to her character and helps explain some of her motivations and tendencies. There is so much more to say here, but, TLDR New Asuka and old Asuka are not remotely the same character. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4cf_g5ZXAg&ab_channel=NimbleFox) This film also adds a new character named Mari into the mix, and she is yet another Evangelion pilot. However, this film is essentially just a vessel of introduction for her, so I have little to say about her here (I will touch upon her more later). img400(https://static3.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-Rebuilds-Mari-Trio.jpg) Overall, this movie did, indeed, have some hiccups; however, as a package altogether, I thought it was great. So, I would rate this movie within the realm of 9/10. The little teaser for the next film at the end of the movie also adds a lot of anticipation for 3.0. At this point, I am thinking I cannot wait to see where this franchise is going next! - - - *The Third Rebuild Film* - - - Whereas Rebuild film 2.0 had a few mistakes, it contained so many changes I enjoyed that my overall perception of it was very high. Unfortunately, I am unable to say the same about 3.0. In my opinion, this is the moment where the Rebuild franchise nosedives in quality. As aforementioned, at the end of 2.0, Shinji awakens his Evangelion unit in order to defeat the Angel threat and rescue Rei. He is even actively cheered on to do so by Misato alongside his other contemporaries in order to save the day! But, 3.0 entirely retcons this moment. In fact, 3.0 even retcons the entirety of the preview for the next film presented at the end of 2.0! youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGy4RimdR9o&ab_channel=CloudCcl) Here, Shinji is lamented, not only by his former champion in Misato, but also by all of his contemporaries. They actively despise him for invoking the Near Third Impact in spite of the fact that humanity wouldn’t even exist without his actions. In the opening of the film, Shinji awakens in the same near-comatose state reminiscent of Asuka in the End of Evangelion. Likewise, it is stated that 14 years have passed since the end of the second film. So, from an audience perspective, we are all wondering what the hell happened during this timeskip alongside Shinji. In essence, we are effectively just as lost of Shinji. Shinji, as well as us as the audience, shortly later discover that Shinji is not even on a NERV battleship (where he awakens from a coma), but actually he is on a WILLE ship commanded by Misato. Furthermore, we discover that the newly introduced WILLE faction actively opposes NERV and aims to defeat their mission to bring about the Fourth Impact and Human Instrumentality as a whole. This is a lot for both Shinji and the viewers to take in! img400(https://wiki.evageeks.org/images/thumb/e/ec/Wille-logo.png/200px-Wille-logo.png) During this section of the film, Shinji is also greeted by Asuka & Mari as well, who further torment Shinji for invoking the Near Third Impact despite being the only pilot able to defeat the Angel threat at the time. Nevertheless, it is here where yet another narrative disconnect from 2.0 rears its ugly head. During this rather morbid re-introduction, Shinji questions why Asuka & Mari have remained the same age even though 14 years have passed. To answer his inquiry, Asuka cryptically responds that it is merely the “Curse of Evangelion.” I absolutely despise this reply for a myriad of reasons. Firstly, here, Anno is prioritizing meta-narrative commentary on the Evangelion franchise over in-canon logic. The Curse of Evangelion is (probably) referring to the fact that these characters are unable to age merely due to merchandising reasons and how the rather toxic fanbase will not permit these characters to age either. For one reason or another, Anno seems to actively despise his progeny in Evangelion and frequently adds in little easter eggs to purposefully insult his own fans. In fact, he famously did this by showing hate mail he had received in End of Evangelion. Beyond that, there are numerous fan theories on how Anno hates his fans and Evangelion as a whole – some of which I will provide below. img800(https://external-preview.redd.it/kC_7SmB_9LDk9dVHGpdqdHz02OwUt8kpac3-sfT2kCU.png?auto=webp&s=30cab80262b788dc545e889d337a0eb478a618bd) Regardless, another reason why I hate Asuka’s response is that it is never once touched upon later on the story. Shinji never inquires about what this supposed Curse is or how it functions – he merely accepts it like a good little boy because the plot commands it. In fact, this Curse is never even remotely explained or mentioned throughout the rest of the tetralogy, which presents a possible plot hole or at the very least an unanswered plot thread. After this exchange, eventually, Rei as a tool of NERV raids the WILLE’s airship base to rescue Shinji. This occurs after everyone explicitly states that Shinji never actually rescued Rei at the end of 2.0 and remark that Rei doesn’t even exist. At this moment, upon seeing Rei, Shinji understandably accepts her hand to return to the comfort and familiarity of NERV alongside the loving embrace of Rei. I mean, what reason does he have to stay at WILLE? His previously most trusted allies are actively being untruthful with him, not explaining anything to him, and treating him like a prisoner. To further reinforce the prisoner metaphor, Shinji is branded with a literal death collar that can be activated remotely at any time by Misato, his former champion. img400(https://cdn.donmai.us/original/4f/f2/4ff2456ec0361bd987c793e124098adc.jpg) Upon returning to NERV, we gain a little more insight as to the state of the world. Whereas NERV was once prominent, it is now reduced to practically nothing. The organization now only has the support of SEELE, Gendo, Fuyutsuki, Rei, and Kaworu, who had previously stopped the Third Impact from reaching fruition in the final moments of 2.0. Ultimately, once again, Shinji is accosted into piloting a newly-manufactured Evangelion Unit 13, which is actually commanded by two pilots. As such, Kaworu and Shinji are commanded by Gendo to pilot the new Unit. img400(https://i.gifer.com/2mhz.gif) Following this moment, a vast majority of the runtime is dedicated to developing the relationship between the two and wrapping up some plot threads with Rei. It turns out that the Rei at NERV, which had previously rescued Shinji on the WILLE ship, is not the same Rei he attempted to rescue at the end of 2.0. This, understandably, angers and traumatizes him, further encouraging him to right his wrongs from 2.0. In order to repent, Shinji aims to develop a relationship with Kaworu, pilot Evangelion Unit 13, free Lilith from the two Spears binding the entity, and save the day (once more)! As a side note, some of the scenes with Kaworu and Shinji bonding were visually interesting, especially the piano scenes. img400(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/63/63/41/636341b05e8535f9c7f0a9e4aaef2139.gif) I also rather liked the scene of Kaworu adopting Shinji’s death dog collar (for lack of a better term) in an act of trust. Kaworu, who Shinji is practically just getting to know, is being more honest and trustworthy than Shinji’s previous foremost ally in Asuka, which helps to explain a lot of his motivations throughout the film. img400(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/20/b0/01/20b00168a520896e2941104d6001cdf7.gif) However, the production staff really go out of their way in this movie to affirm Shinji’s theorized bisexuality. I mean, every interaction between the two just radiates Boys Love energy to the nth degree. I don’t necessarily mind this at all, but the sentiment is so in your face in this film that it is borderline insulting my intelligence as a viewer. Overall, I much prefer the more subtle take on Shinji’s probable bisexuality presented in the original TV run. After developing their (gay?) relationship, the two Children enter Evangelion Unit 13 and descend into the depths of NERV HQ in order to remove the two Spears aforementioned. But, they are unable to do so without the opposition of WILLE, explicitly Mari and Asuka. During this struggle, Kaworu vaguely mentions that something is wrong, yet Shinji ignores his ominous warning anyways, determined to make amends for the Near Third Impact and accomplish his task this time around. Unfortunately, this moment presents yet another flash of frustration from both the viewer’s as well as Shinji’s perspective. img400(https://wiki.evageeks.org/images/thumb/8/87/Evangelion_13_holding_the_two_Spears_%28Rebuild%29.png/300px-Evangelion_13_holding_the_two_Spears_%28Rebuild%29.png) Earlier, I lamented Misato’s unwillingness to the explain the current state of the world, and I bemoaned Asuka’s unwillingness to explain the Curse of Evangelion. Now, I cannot help but to ironically laugh of Kaworu’s unwillingness to explain the basic issue at hand in the movie’s (and perhaps the world’s) most crucial moments. Even worse, during this scene, Kaworu doesn’t prevent Shinji from pulling the spears out, even though he presumably had the power to do so since Evangelion Unit 13 utilizes a duel entry plug system. So, not only does Kaworu be exceedingly cryptic at this critical moment, but he also suffers from inaction. For me, this makes zero sense from a character or a plot perspective, and this instance is a rather blatant display of events happening merely because the plot commands it. Ultimately, Shinji as well as the audience discovers Gendo had tricked the two Children to pull out the Spears to trigger the Fourth Impact. In addition, Kaworu transforms into an Angel to much of his surprise. After these events take place, in order to prevent the Fourth Impact from occurring, Misato alongside the WILLE vanguard remotely activates the death collar, blasting Kaworu into goo right next to Shinji. Yet again, Shinji had failed while simultaneously nearly invoking yet another Impact event. Upon seeing practically his best friend die, unable to rescue another person close to him similar to the situation with Rei, Shinji is left in a state of utter despair, reverting back to a severe PTSD state. The film concludes with Asuka and Mari rescuing Shinji’s “pathetic” ass, walking into the sunset and returning back to the embrace of WILLE. Img400(https://i.makeagif.com/media/6-24-2015/vjdjai.gif) As a whole, I cannot help but to feel severely disappointed by this film. While being the shortest film in the tetralogy in terms of runtime, it certainly felt like the longest. Between the lack of notable action scenes, muddy and mixed character motivations, and severe retconning, I was just thoroughly underwhelmed with 3.0 as a cinematic experience. Ultimately, we end the movie just as lost as we were at the beginning of it all from a viewer’s perspective. Practically, nothing happens. Nothing was explained. Worse yet, Mari is still a shallow character relegated to being Asuka’s side kick and spouting a few one-liners. Ultimately, the Rebuild franchise has forsaken the characters seasoned Evangelion fans have come to know and love to pivot towards a more plot-driven perspective. But, the plot makes as little sense as the characters’ actions. This film fundamentally does not work as a standalone film nor as a piece in a larger story. It is clear that it went through a myriad of re-writes, which failed to add any value and presumably made the underlying plot muddy altogether. My sentiments on 3.0 cannot be summarized by any other word other than letdown. After how great and optimistic 2.0 was, THIS is the follow up. I feel like I am on an episode of PUNK’D. Most of the plot-threads set up in 2.0 were discarded in the follow up film, which makes little sense from a plot perspective. Even the climax of the film and the final action set piece is rather lame. As a package, I would rate 3.0 exactly that – a 3/10. At this point, I am left to pin my hopes with the final film in the tertralogy to recuperate what little faith I have left in the Rebuild franchise. - - - *The Final Rebuild Film* - - - This film serves as a direct continuation of the events from 3.0, which is ironic considering 3.0 completely trashed the events in 2.0. Nevertheless, Asuka and Mari take PTSD-ridden Shinji to a little village supported by WILLE, representing the remnants of humanity. Here, Shinji is re-introduced to his old pals Toji and Kensuke, however, Shinji’s old friends are now full-grown adults with responsibilities, jobs, and even families. Ultimately, Kensuke and Toji are living fulfilling lives in a broken world, whereas Shinji remains completely lost without purpose. Furthermore, Shinji, in his state of despair, is unable to accept nor return the hospitality and love of his former pals, further depicting his hopelessness. Likewise, Shinji encounters Kaji Jr., the progeny of Kaji and Misato, which further reinforces the theme that life must go on even in this fractured world. Img400(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExnhEidUcAQ1ZFI.jpg) But, the introduction of Kaji Jr. brings little substance to film as a whole. In fact, Kaji Jr. is only shown once, doesn’t do anything meaningful, and merely serves as a vessel to retcon prior events (a sentiment which seemingly plagues the rebuild franchise as whole). Turns out, Kaji, not Kaworu, is the hero who stopped the Third Impact from reaching fruition! This makes absolutely zero narrative sense. We are explicitly shown that it was Kaworu who stopped the Third Impact by throwing the Spear through Shinji’s awakened Evangelion Unit 1 at the end of 2.0. But, this movie wants us to somehow believe Kaji abandoned Misato during this event, flew up into a helicopter, and did *something* to stop the Third Impact. What this something is *is* ironically never explained throughout the runtime of the film. I even took the liberty of going through a myriad of forums, praying someone could explain how in the world a normal human like Kaji in a helicopter could prevent this remarkable supernatural event from occurring. But, no one can coherently explain this disconnect, which certainly presents a massive plot hole. My best guess as to why Anno and the production staff included this change is simply because Kaji is a fan-favorite, lacking a lot of screentime in the Rebuild franchise as a whole. Enough of this rant however, let us move on! Throughout this long-winded village sequence, which accounts for nearly half of the film’s total runtime, blank-state Rei is able to connect with the villagers, adopt her own personality traits, and even take up some communal responsibilities like gardening and looking after Toji’s young daughter. Conversely, Shinji essentially wallows in self-pity during the same period. Nevertheless, Rei later serves as a catalyst for Shinji to change and return to a more optimistic view on life. Ultimately, Rei visits Shinji in his lonesome despair on the remnants of NERV, presenting Shinji with his famed cassette player and attempts to connect with him. In doing so, Shinji, in due time, renounces his own self-hatred, accepts the new Rei and current state of the world, and becomes determined to make amends, yet again, for his actions. Img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/0f1ba78f3e3220e2a286696f58d4866e/1f5974bea830f6c7-b0/s540x810/1cce0d631d957872e8f6ae757da9800ba0477116.gifv) But, since this Evangelion, happy and simpler times cannot last for long! Unable to live from NERV or her respective tube for long, Rei is marked for death. In her dying moments, she visits Shinji one last time in an effort to breakthrough and reach Shinji with her final remarks and, like Kaworu, subsequently explodes into goo right next to Shinji. For context, this is right around the time Shinji has finally recovered from his severe depression and PTSD, resulting from the events of 3.0. Rei, who is the embodiment of motherly love and unwavering affection to Shinji, dies in front of a recovering PTSD patient, depression ridden, borderline on the verge of suicide Shinji. This moment of shock must surely trigger a relapse. But, no! Because the plot demands it, this somber yet remarkable event gives Shinji newfound determination to pilot an Evangelion unit with Mari, Asuka, and WILLE to confront his father one final time and stop Instrumentality. Img400(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Te2RQPgR32A/hqdefault.jpg) Truly, I cannot put into words how little this makes sense, from both a plot perspective as well as character perspective. At this point, unable to save Rei for a SECOND time, Shinji should be completely shut down, rendered to a vegetative state permanently. He should also thoroughly lament his situation and life and become catatonic altogether in essence. But, nevertheless, 3.0+1.0 demands that the show must go on (even though, by all metrics, Shinji’s response makes no narrative sense)! After Rei’s goo explosion, as aforementioned, Shinji gears up alongside Mari and Asuka to confront NERV and more specifically his own father in the final battle. It is here where the movie pivots to a more slice-of-lifey feel to straight up action! Although I rather enjoyed the subtle and quiet moments of the village setting, I am definitely ready to see some robot fights in my mecha anime! But, WAIT, 3.0+1.0 subverts my expectations yet again! Rather than showing fights between Evangelion units, you know, the staple of the franchise, Rebuild dedicates the destined confrontation between NERV and WILLE via a ship battle. I’m sorry, what?!? Am I watching *Last Exile* or *Evangelion*? Perhaps the most iconic image in the entirety of the Franchise is Asuka breaking the battleship in half with her Evangelion unit in End of Evangelion. This is a perfect opportunity for Anno and the production staff to portray a throwback to this moment, pay homage to the series roots, and provide excellent fanservice! But, they completely miss this opportunity! Beyond that, the ship battle sequence completely looks like shit. One would think a high budget legendary production would be better animated in its climax, but I suppose not. Img400(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/36/ff/1e/36ff1e1ea19567bbd696a8edd5e5e843.jpg) Regardless, after this brief exchange of blows, Gendo relieves himself of piloting the NERV ship, leaving Fuyutsuki in charge. Gendo then descends onto an adjacent platform and confronts Misato, but this scene presents yet another opportunity of narrative disconnect. Misato, the commander of WILLE, finally apprehends and corners her foremost nemesis. In this moment, Misato and all of WILLE should literally unload nearly all their weaponry on Gendo. At the end of the day, the death of Gendo is the death of Instrumentality – Mission Accomplished! But, what do they do? They slowly essentially park the ship down, get out of it, and confront Gendo in a rather laughable exchange. Rather than Misato taking action, Ritsuko, Second-in-Command, is the one who actually capitalizes on this golden opportunity. In a parallel to End of Evangelion, Ritsuko shoots Gendo without wavering, unlike her previous iteration. Yet, Gendo is unaffected by this exchange of fire as, at this point, Gendo transcends humanity practically. In essence, Gendo is literally Superman. As laughable as it sounds, it is the most direct and apt comparison I can make. The dude has laser vision, the ability to float, and a myriad of superhuman and supernatural capabilities. Ultimately, Gendo, not threatened by the morally defeated WILLE faction, operates Evangelion Unit 13 and subsequently awakens it, invoking the Fourth Impact to serve as a catalyst for Instrumentality. Img400(https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/002/058/230/272) With the chips down, WILLE must now reluctantly rely on Shinji Ikari, the protagonist of our story, to confront his father in Evangelion Unit 1 in the final *final* battle much to their own hesitation. Now, we commence the shittiest action sequence of the entire Rebuild franchise in the franchise’s most critical moments. Due to lack of available footage since 3.0+1.0 is still recent, I have included some highlights (or more aptly named lowlights) below in some YouTube videos. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDLEfBfhJy4&ab_channel=Pilemia )youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WWWrRtFlGc&ab_channel=PattawutWin ) Although the confrontation between the two in an action set piece was rather cathartic and memorable (albeit shitty looking), the main issue with the CG is that the Evangelion units have zero weight to them. Conversely, in End of Evangelion, when Asuka fights the mass production units, the fights have a real sense of weight, momentum, and violence. In fact, you can physically see the units kick up the earth and struggle to balance in the fights. However, in the Rebuilds, everything just kind of … floats. In the Rebuilds, the action sequences between the Evangelion units feel more reminiscent of a little boy smacking his action figures together than meaty mecha units clashing. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBhbZMHgDqg&ab_channel=Zeruel84 ) It is hard to exactly put into words, but those who have seen the films can understand the gest of what I am trying to get across. As a whole, this sentiment plagues the final movie altogether. There are essentially four major battles throughout the runtime of the film; however, I can hardly remember a single thing that happened in them. Likewise, you could remove all of these action set pieces from the movie entirely, and everything would ultimately end up the same. Rather than having memorable and emotion-packed spouts, the Rebuild franchise seems to focus on a Dynasty Warriors-esque approach, having the famed units fight thousands of enemy grunts as opposed to actual major threats. Img400(https://d2cdo4blch85n8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/First-10-Minutes-of-New-Evangelion-Movie-Featured-image-alt-1568x941.jpg) On top of looking shitty, the conflict between Gendo and Shinji is rendered meaningless as a Deus-Ex Machina plot device rears its ugly head to level the playing field. Shinji basically pulls out a supernatural Spear of Cassius or Spear of Hope out of his ass. It is this very Spear which enables him to fight on par with Gendo. Regardless, ultimately, since this is Evangelion, the conflict between Shinji and Gendo could never be resolved merely by some fisticuffs. In a surreal sequence reminiscent of End of Evangelion, Shinji does the one thing that scares him more than fighting the Angel threats themselves – confront his father. During this scene, Gendo and Shinji finally come to understand one another and their respective POVs in a long therapy session. Img400(https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*0bfWaUKAt4qq3RePIicksQ.jpeg) The Hedgehog’s Dilemma is perhaps the most central theme in the Franchise as a whole. Essentially, the Hedgehog’s Dilemma states that the closer we get to people, the more we risk of getting hurt. In relation, this Dilemma seems to be what plagues the Father-Son relationship between the two. To circumvent this Dilemma, Gendo, alongside SEELE, aim to institute Human Instrumentality to merge humanity into a single entity. As a result, Gendo will finally be reunited with his beloved Yui, the one person who was able to breakthrough Gendo’s unemotional shell and love him unconditionally. However, the irony of all this is, in doing so, Gendo neglected the love Shinji felt for his father in turn. For both Ikari’s, one lacking romantic love and the other lacking paternal love, they were forced to seek external validation to soothe their own respective self-pity. In this sense, Shinji and Gendo poetically parallel one another. Img400(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ezbgiXfURjI/VPjMynViUcI/AAAAAAAACuc/dD9ZUen42MU/s1600/SA_TEDx_V2-15.jpg) After the exchange among the two Ikari’s, Gendo finally comes to understand Shinji as well as the error of his ways. While this moment was very cathartic and finally provided some resolution between the two, I am rather indifferent about how it was executed. It seems awkward to me that Gendo would sacrifice so much – his own humanity and to some extent his own progeny – to just give up after the first real challenge to his ideals. Moreover, Gendo is fundamentally not a nice man. The dude’s actions resulted in an untold amount of carnage and deaths, actively endangered children, and aimed to, in essence, destroy the entire world. At the end of the day, it is my belief that Gendo is beyond redemption. Worse yet, Gendo is defeated by Talk no Jutsu, which, while predictable and narratively coherent, is a bit underwhelming. Nevertheless, the movie adopts a more forgiving outlook on his character, granting him the opportunity to redeem himself. In fact, Gendo gets the ultimate form of redemption – the martyr treatment – sacrificing himself to put an end to his ideal Instrumentality, leaving Shinji to deal with the remnants of Instrumentality altogether. Img400(https://i.redd.it/fu0csj3ggzh51.png) From there, with Shinji in charge, he subsequently enacts his ideal form of Instrumentality. But, Anno spices up the finale of the film with his ideal topping – retconning. After Asuka’s run in with an Angel during 2.0, it turns out that she was just one person among a myriad of clones, further downplaying her character and autonomy. Likewise, it is revealed that Kaworu and Shinji’s relationship was rather superficial the entire time as opposed to genuine. As it turns out, their relationship was destined via the Book of Life, and Kaworu’s ultimate goal was to prioritize Shinji’s happiness over his own. In fact, Kaworu explicitly states during this sequence that their relationship was a “pre-destined circular narrative” ordered by the Book of Life essentially. Unlike the other Children, Rei actually gets the best outcome through Shinji’s Instrumentality in my opinion. Although it was short, Rei and Shinji briefly exchange some words, and Shinji decides that Rei should be able to live a life without Evangelion units and just be a normal girl. Finally, Rei can be her own person rather than just merely a tool in a grander scheme. In this final act, Shinji attempts to stab himself with the asspull Spear and reset the world, but his act of martyrdom is circumvented by the spirit of Yui taking Shinji’s place, which was also a nice moment for the film. Consequently, Yui’s sacrifice allows our protagonist to live on in his newly envisioned ideal world. img400(https://media2.giphy.com/media/hQBN5vPDbw03S/giphy.gif) Once more, like Gendo’s redemption, I am left with a feeling of indifference regarding Shinji’s resolution. Personally, I always held the notion that Shinji would *rebuild* the world – a sentiment that came from the Rebuild franchise being named exactly that. However, Shinji, rather than rebuild the world, effectively abandons it, adopting a brand new world entirely. While this decision is narratively coherent, I do not feel it is thematically appropriate, especially after the village sequence. The village sequence constantly reinforced the theme that life must go on in a broken world. Conversely, Shinji’s answer is to just “rewrite the world, a world where new people will live – Neon Genesis.” Nevertheless, the ending of the film was visually interesting, reminiscent of End of Evangelion, and provided a nice sense of closure to the Franchise altogether. Similarly, the end of the Rebuild franchise offers a much more optimistic tone as opposed to End of Evangelion. In a direct parallel, the original Evangelion timeline begins with clear blue waters and ends with poisoned red waters. Conversely, in the Rebuild timeline, the story begins with poisoned red waters yet ends in clear blue waters. As a whole, I think this visually reinforces the more positive tone the Rebuild timeline was trying to get across. Similarly, in End of Evangelion, Shinji gets help from everyone else to push him along his wary path; however, here, Shinji is the one who helps everyone else instead through Instrumentality. Img400(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9vZhwcXEAYTZbk?format=jpg&name=900x900) As a package, the ending of the 3.0+1.0 was both cathartic and frustrating. For the best viewing experience, evaluate this final film in the tetralogy emotionally rather than intellectually. At the end of the day, the themes of Evangelion have always been at the forefront of the series rather than its complex plot or ever-expanding lore. Thus, for my final sentiments on the film, I would rate 3.0+1.0 a 6/10, slightly above average. Personally, I believe the 2nd movie in the tetralogy is the best, then the first movie, then the final film, then lastly 3.0. - - - Closing Remarks - - - Probably the most pervasive issue with the Rebuild franchise is Anno’s tendency to shamelessly self-insert himself into the narrative. It is no secret that Shinji is somewhat of a representation of Anno himself, especially during his depressive episodes. To the same extent, Mari is a self-insert character of Anno’s own wife rather than an actual autonomous character in the Rebuild franchise. Ultimately, the point I am trying to get across is Anno, fundamentally, cannot control himself. Between a myriad of re-writes, ever-expanding lore, unnecessary fanservice, wasted runtime, and retconning prior events, Anno consistency illustrates a lack of control in his own progeny with Evangelion. For instance, the world is ending throughout the carnage of eminent Instrumentality, but I can hardly become invested in this event as female plugsuit cooch is shown every ten seconds on screen as a distraction. Worse yet, Asuka spends 90% of the movie half naked. Img400(https://i.gifer.com/2Zvg.gif) Img400(https://25.media.tumblr.com/180be7063f3935ec6649403d5a905e2d/tumblr_mpdt0jw0eA1rtwdrro1_500.gif) Img400(https://i.redd.it/5dryv73c70v61.png) Now, the Franchise has always had fanservice between the famous plugsuits and the babe known as Misato. But, it was always utilized to a more narratively appropriate extent. For instance, the plugsuits were a necessary form of equipment to help the Children better synchronize with and pilot the Evangelion units. Likewise, Rei’s famous nude scene in the original run was to further illustrate the point that Rei is fundamentally different than Shinji and Asuka, devoid of human emotion. In a direct parallel, compare Rei’s lack of reaction to Shinji discovering her naked to Asuka’s hyper-emotional reaction of Shinji discovering her naked. Img400(https://animebathscenewiki.com/images/6/6a/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_5_2.png) Img400(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSgl0NSCkuKRq_fDm_Zzpcw4FFYOqKbHIgp5mQg38NGwiq5YL9qvhxuP8EqqHHSW4Y9i50&usqp=CAU) Even some of the fanservice revolving around Misato served a narrative purpose. For instance, notice, in this shot, how seemingly embarrassed Shinji is and how small he is portrayed. Ultimately, Shinji’s exaggerated small size and general sense of flusterment further reinforces the theme that he is merely an emotionally unintelligent child, unable to comprehend how to feel in this rather suggestive situation with his pseudo-guardian. Img400(https://i.imgur.com/7uxkQRA.png) The main point I am trying to get across is the fact that fanservice is okay, even great, if used correctly. But, the Rebuild franchise does not use fanservice in a subtle or coherent manner. Fanservice in the Rebuild timeline is just showing some titties for the sake of it. The over-indulgence of fanservice is especially ironic considering how Anno is historically known for hating how the Evangelion fanbase portrays Asuka and Rei in the waifu wars. Img400(https://i.redd.it/vp059noqdsi71.png) On another note entirely however, the lore of Evangelion expanded a ton in this final film and all throughout the Rebuild tetralogy. Anno introduces new bits such as Black Lilith, the anti-universe, the Book of Life, the Gogotha Object, and the Wanderers among many other new concepts. But, does any of this lore actually contribute anything meaningful to the story at hand? I would argue that it does not. The expansion of the lore does not inherently result in the expansion of the world of Evangelion. As an illustration, we are only shown Village 3 in the village sequence aforementioned. But, it is stated there are many other villages that exist with the support of WILLE as well. How do these villages function? Are they worse off or better off than Village 3? If Village 3 has Asuka and Mari, does that mean the other villages have no protection? Are the Wanderers outside the other villages as well? What is the population of these villages and the world at large? All of these questions seemingly basic questions are left unanswered. img400(https://re-how.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/d47627-44-948139-0.jpg) Worse yet, there are even more *major* questions left unanswered as well. I mentioned some of these earlier like the Curse of Evangelion or how Kaji stopped the Third Impact. But, let us discuss some other ones that could present potential plot holes. In 3.0, Shinji is given Toji’s shirt at NERV HQ. How did his shirt end up there? How did NERV function at all with effectively zero staff? Who built the mass production Evangelion units? What was the Angel threat portrayed at the beginning of 3.0? What are the Wanderers? What happened after the Third Impact between movie 2 and movie 3? Who funds WILLE? Who is Mari? What is Mari’s ultimate plan or goal? What is Mari’s relationship with Gendo and Yui? How is her last name Iscariot relevant to the underlying plot? Is Asuka even human? Why didn’t Rei leave Evangelion Unit 1? How are Shinji and Kaworu connected in the Book of Life? Who wrote the Book of Life? In all honesty, I could go on for days revolving around unanswered questions. Now, I will finally move on to Anno’s most blatant display of self-insertion throughout the entire Rebuild franchise – the epilogue. Earlier, I alluded to the fact that Shinji is a representation of Anno himself, and Mari is a representation of Anno’s wife. Well, the epilogue ends with showing the fandom of myriad of ships – Asuka with Kensuke, Kaworu with Rei, and, lastly, Shinji with Mari. This is yet another moment of absurdity that makes zero narrative sense from both a plot and character perspective. img400(https://otakukart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/evangelion-3.0-1.0-1.jpg) Firstly, the connection between Mari and Shinji is practically non-existent. Mari calls him “doggy” a few times, and that is practically the extent of their entire relationship. In essence, Mari is just the new girl with big tits who just moved to town. Compare this to the nuanced relationship between Asuka and Shinji. During Shinji’s darkest time, Asuka forces Shinji to eat, albeit forcefully, to ensure Shinji’s continued survival. Likewise, after Shinji succumbs to a PTSD flashback of Asuka wearing the DSS choker (previously referred to as the death dog collar), Asuka makes an effort to cover it up around Shinji by wearing a scarf. Similarly, as Shinji wallows in self-pity all by himself, she secretly checks up on him to see how he is doing. Moreover, Asuka actively attempts to cook a meal for Shinji and helps to see the planned dinner party come to fruition during the events of 2.0. Furthermore, Asuka is the foremost love interest of Shinji throughout the entirety of the rest of the Franchise. Ultimately, it is very clear that Asuka has a crush on Shinji, and this notion is consistently supported with evidence throughout the Rebuild tetralogy. Altogether, the most narratively coherent love interest for Shinji is Asuka. img400(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQblQmyD2FhEwfjR1X8wME5cScrfcoXOAyiKFq85Cqrv4WwrqpEbXoSIqFk-8OAfIBXAyU&usqp=CAU) Nevertheless, Shinji essentially gets cucked by one of his former best friends in Kensuke. In relation, the relationship between the two feels just as forced and unnatural as Mari and Shinji. While some have interpreted their relationship as more of a paternal love, I did not interpret it this way. It appears, to me at least, Asuka has forsaken her crush with Shinji over the timeskip to ultimately end up with Kensuke. Waifu wars aside, my previous points still remain extremely pertinent to Anno’s lack of self-control. As a package, the tetralogy of Rebuild films are horrifically incoherent and inconsistent with one another. In fact, it is clear Anno has a completely different goal in mind and tone for each and every movie in the tetralogy. Consequently, the four films viewed as one story simply does not work well at all. As a result, none of the resolutions depicted in the final film feel properly earned. As a whole, I would be hard pressed to call Anno a good director. For context, Anno conceived the original TV anime series in a shorter time period than it took him to create two Rebuild films. In my opinion, this speaks volumes as to how Anno is simply all over the place creatively. A good director knows when to make compromises to get the production finished in a timely fashion with their respective vision. Conversely, Anno seems like the type of guy to have a vision in mind, write an entire script, then abandoned it at the last second because it no longer feels right to him. In fact, this sentiment is further supported by his infatuation with retconning and the rumors swirling around a myriad of re-writes. At the end of the day, I love this franchise. But, I cannot say with authority that the Rebuild franchise provided anything of value to Evangelion as a whole. Perhaps, none of this was ever worth it. img400(https://allthemediamatters.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/rebuild.jpg?w=1100) - - - Epilogue - - - If you read this entire review, I wanted to thank you in advance. I wanted to make sure that this review would be the most definitive analysis I could make on the Rebuild franchise. If you agree or disagree, feel free to let me know with a comment on my profile! Also, feel free to drop a follow as well; I generally follow back! I know it was long, but Evangelion is a piece of fiction truly deserving of discussion and certainly criticism. If you want to see my thoughts on other series, I have some other reviews up on this site as well [Demon Slayer Mugen Train ](https://anilist.co/review/9344), [Record of Raganrock](https://anilist.co/review/11884), and, so far, [So I'm A Spider, So What ](https://anilist.co/review/12070). Similarly, I provide detailed notes for each title I consume on my lists! I also plan on doing more reviews in the future! With all that being said, Cheers! Here is to *finally* an End to Evangelion! img400(https://c.tenor.com/EfPTKEAbpNwAAAAM/evangelion-neon-genesis-evangelion.gif)

Santt

~~~__Considerações iniciais__~~~ Nesta _review_, irei colocar tópicos que considero relevantes a serem analisados sobre minha experiência ao assistir o filme em questão. Tentarei ao máximo não colocar qualquer tipo de _spoiler_, mas recomendo terem assistido ao filme antes de ler a _review_. Já fiz uma _review_ para cada filme que antecede esse, recomendo lerem cada um deles antes de ler esse, pois pode ser que algumas coisas que irei citar aqui sejam referente a coisas que estão presentes nas _reviews_ passadas. A sinopse abaixo foi algo pensado por mim mesmo, tendo como base minha experiência ao assistir o filme. (Tempo de leitura: 8 minutos) ----- ~~~__Sinopse__~~~ Após o desastre causado pelas decisões e ações tomadas pelo Shinji no filme passado, ele entra em colapso e apenas quer ser esquecido. Mas após vários acontecimentos, ele vai tomando motivação para agir no cenário caótico causado pelas ações de seu pai, que anseia pela unificação dos seres, onde não há qualquer tipo de bem ou mau. Embarcamos para o final de "Rebuild of Evangelion". ----- ~~~__Introdução__~~~ Após quase 10 longos anos do lançamento do filme 3, "Rebuild of Evangelion 4" vem em 2021 para concluir essa nova visão de "Evangelion". Fãs do mundo todo aguardaram quase uma década para ver a conclusão definitiva da série. Segundo o lendário criador e diretor Hideaki Anno, esse é o fim de "Evangelion". ----- ~~~__Enredo__~~~ Boa parte do tempo do filme, principalmente o início, é focado em "remontar" o Shinji colapsado após os acontecimentos do filme anterior, isso o filme faz com maestria. Diálogos e representações visuais foram utilizados para transparecer os pensamentos do Shinji. Eu gosto de falar que essa forma de trabalhar o psicológico do Shinji é feita de uma forma "crua", vou explicar: imagine um pedaço de carne cru, esse pedaço de carne é a forma como o psicológico, não só do Shinji, mas também de alguns outros personagens, é mostrado. Agora, com um pedaço de carne cru, você é quem vai preparando passo a passo da forma que você quer prepara-la, como um cozido, assado, frito, etc. assim como os temperos que você vai usar. Isso é um ponto interessante de "EVA". O próprio autor falou que cada um tem seu modo de interpretar a obra, por isso coloquei como um pedaço de carne cru que você vai preparando em sua cabeça. Assim como você pode querer a carne frita, alguém queira a carne assada, e também há aquele que quer a carne crua mesmo, sem nenhum tipo de preparo. Então, a forma como o filme demonstra esse pedaço de carne cru é feito de uma forma muito boa e até mesmo genial, algo louvável dessa conclusão. Então, tendo retomado a maior parte do psicológico do Shinji, o filme vai desenrolando eventos para sua conclusão, por isso voltamos aquelas lutas entre robôs. Sim, o longa é muito voltado para ação também, principalmente do meio pro final. Isso não é algo ruim. "Rebuild of Evangelion" demonstra desde seu primeiro filme um bom tempo voltado para a ação, sendo até primordial ter em sua trama. Um grande problema que vejo não só nesse filme, mas também em todas as séries de "EVA", é a carência de explicação no eventos e meios presentes na história. Toda essa sacada de "instrumentalização humana" é até "aceitável" da forma que você interprete. Mas sinto que falta uma maior atenção nas causas primordiais da história referente ao 1º e 2º impacto, por exemplo. A obra tem muita atenção voltada para seu elenco, e falta atenção em explicar esse ponto que citei, gerando até confusão. Após ter um bom parecer da situação do mundo assim como as causas geradas pelos objetivos do pai do Shinji, somos encaminhados para o desfecho. Os últimos 50 - 30 minutos de filme são sublimes. Pontos excepcionais que tinham que ser explicados, aqui foram. Uma coisa que eu gostei bastante dessa nova visão de "Evangelion" foi a parte em que mostraram que muitas coisas foram causadas pela simples rixa entre pai e filho, isso não foi muito bem abordado no "EVA" dos anos 90. Com as cenas finais sendo remontadas nos principais cenários da obra, além da extremo foco no combate, muitas das respostas são dadas da forma onde você queira interpretar e também as que foram objetivas em serem explicadas. "ser", "humano", "humanidade", "desejos", "alma", "sentimentos", "amor", "vida", essa palavras são o que digo serem as principais para o final. Com uma boa experiência dada com o decorrer do filme, o que mais "quebrou", na minha opinião, foi o final. O final tem seus méritos, emocionante e para alguns satisfatório. Mas para mim, a escolha do final não condizia muito com o que a obra vinha se demonstrando desde o início até alguns momentos atrás. Mas não tiro muitos méritos dele, por que, como já disse, é um bom final para a conclusão. ----- ~~~__Personagens__~~~ Personagens que antes foram distanciados do protagonista, agora vão reencontrando-o, cada um com sua visão sobre as consequências que as decisões tomadas por ele causaram, assim meio que, sutilmente, vão deixando as coisas mais claras para o protagonista. Em um mundo remodelado, não só o Shinji vai se desenvolvendo, mas também outros que se interligam diretamente com ele e com os eventos principais do longa. Tudo isso foi muito bem planejado e executado. Literalmente uma pedra que vai se lapidando conforme acontecimentos vão se desenrolando, tudo isso para que os momentos finais sejam ainda mais emocionantes. Isso mostra que não é só o protagonista que tem seu tempo para ser introduzido. Pena que alguns dos personagens tenham apenas sido jogados, às vezes carecendo de uma melhor atenção ou sequer forma muito bem introduzidos. ----- ~~~__Produção / Animação__~~~ "Fate/stay night [Heaven’s Feel] III. spring song" e "Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train" são filmes com uma produção / animação surreais, mesmo assim, considero que "Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time" elevou um pouco mais isso. Não é apenas sobre ter muitos movimentos e luzes para ser bonito, mas também saber utilizar muito de ângulos. Ângulos de câmera, esse filme elevou isso. Não tenho muito o que falar sobre os ângulos, apenas digo que sintam eles. Anno elevou isso a níveis estratosféricos. Aqui não tiveram dó em fazer isso bem feito. A trilha sonora também é impecável. Além de possuir várias faixas clássicas, há também algumas novas, assim como músicas originais. A música do final é de se emocionar. Acho válido dizer que "Rebuild of Evangelion 4" é o filme em anime mais bem produzido / animado dos últimos tempos. Se você busca qualidade visual e sonora, aqui é um bom lugar. ----- ~~~__Conclusão__~~~ "Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time" é um excelente filme para concluir a nova visão de "Evangelion". Tudo o que os outros filmes não fizeram, aqui ele fez de uma forma muito boa. Quase tudo o que ele apresentou e realizou é de extrema qualidade. Minha visão dele é bem positiva, mas há coisas que não me cativaram o suficiente para fazer dele extremamente bem feito. Tenho ressalvas quanto ao final, é de fato muito emocionante, mas não encaixou a ideia de tomar aquele rumo após todos os acontecimentos. Gostaria de lembrar de uma frase que o Hideaki Anno (diretor e criador de "EVA") disse uma vez, foi mais ou menos assim: "a obra não é para ser interpretada apenas de uma forma, penso nela como que se tenha várias formas de interpretação, variando de pessoa para pessoa." Essa frase pode até fazer sentido com o exemplo da carne crua que citei lá em cima. E realmente, "Evangelion" tem várias formas de interpretação, o que está presente nessa _review_ e na nota é a minha. A ponto de curiosidade, é como o [ToT](https://twitter.com/ToTTheGreaT) falou: "Thrice Upon a Time é válido sim, mas dizer que é melhor que The End é 100% efeito momentâneo do _hype_." [(link do tweet citado)](https://twitter.com/ToTTheGreaT/status/1426997595076022275?s=20) ----- ~~~__Considerações finais__~~~ Para você que leu até aqui ou não, lhe desejo meu muito obrigado! É evidente que dei mais atenção nessa _review_ do que nas _reviews_ dos outros filmes, pensei em falar de uma forma mais geral aqui. Caso puder e queira, deixa algum comentário, positivo ou negativo (por favor, só evite ofensas) sobre essa e outras _reviews_ que já fiz aqui. Para comentar, irei fazer um post aqui no AniList falando exatamente sobre essa _review_. Também não deixa de conferir as _reviews_ que fiz para os outros filmes de "Rebuild of Evangelion". Novamente, meu muito obrigado!

Pockeyramune919

[ img20(https://bestanimations.com/Signs&Shapes/Arrows/Left/left-arrow-15.gif) ](https://anilist.co/review/6570)

[ img20(https://bestanimations.com/Signs&Shapes/Arrows/Left/left-arrow-15.gif) ](https://anilist.co/review/6786) **This review contains major spoilers for Evangelion: 1.0+3.0 Thrice Upon a Time** ~~~[A brief word on the dub](https://anilist.co/activity/275862640)~~~ img520(https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2021/03/25/evangelion-blogroll-1616636910220.jpeg) In early 2017, I watched the 1995 mecha classic,*Neon Genesis Evangelion*. While I don't think it's a perfect show, *Neon Genesis Evangelion* quickly established itself as one of my favorite anime. Eager for more *Evangelion*, in 2020, I decided to watch the Rebuild movies. The first film of the Rebuild tetralogy, *[Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone](https://anilist.co/review/6501)* was largely a retread of the first few episodes of the television show now with a fresh coat of paint. It really didn't bring anything new to the table, but it largely didn't need to. At a time where I was increasingly aware of what I *didn't* like about *Evangelion*, revisiting those initial episodes reaffirmed everything I loved about it. Its sequel, *[Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance](https://anilist.co/review/6531)*, was where the Rebuild continuity came as its own as something distinct from the original television show. With unique strengths, it seemed like the Rebuilds was shaping up to tell a story that was more positive than its predecessor's and I was here for it. While the plot *[Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo](https://anilist.co/review/6570)* was the most distinct at that point, it seemed woefully derivative in terms of tone and message. It was confusing, dour, and mean-spirited, seeming to mock viewers who enjoyed *2.0*'s positivity. While I ended up not liking 3.0 overall, I remained cautiously optimistic that the then-unreleased fourth and final Rebuild film could turn things around. A big part of my dislike towards *3.0* came from its similarity to *End of Evangelion*. When I initially watched *End of Evangelion*, I was a bit put-off by it, but I told myself that this was the point and gave the movie a high score. The more time passed, the more I realized that I didn't like *End of Evangelion* as much as I had led myself to believe. I decided to rewatch *End of Evangelion* to make sense of my feelings and in [one of my most comprehensive reviews to date](https://anilist.co/review/6786), I did. There, I realized that I didn’t like *End of Evangelion* at all. My opinion would only continue to sour, as the TV ending, the ending I prefer, is largely ignored in favor of *End of Evangelion*, meaning that, for 24 years, it served as the final word on the series. *Thrice Upon a Time* was originally supposed to release last year, but it saw several delays and after each, my hype grew. This all goes to show that I had a lot of expectations going into *Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time*. It was like the weight of the world was on its shoulders — it had to live up to its wait, live up to not only concluding the *Rebuilds* on a high note, but the *Evangelion* series as a whole. Expectations usually bite me in the ass when it comes to enjoying an anime, so it's only natural to assume that this movie would fall flat. But it didn't. img520(https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/067/7dd/0dd1487825dcafd1b8e966c923c76a5bc3-evangelion-lede.rsquare.w700.jpg) img520(https://i.imgur.com/DFeUJgd.jpg) Against all odds, I enjoyed *Thrice Upon a Time.* *Thrice Upon a Time* is the definitive ending of the *Evangelion* series, putting a satisfying pin on character arcs that were started 26 years ago. The movie contextualizes and enhances all that came before. I find myself not only more appreciative of the *Rebuilds*, but of *End of Evangelion*, too. Sure, I still might not particularly *like* it, but because it’s longer has the last word on the series, its existence no longer feels like it's threatening my enjoyment of *Evangelion*. Since there's a new, happier ending in *Thrice Upon a Time*, the dour tone of *End of Evangelion* doesn't leave me feeling so sour. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to watch it again in the future, since I'll be able to chase its bitterness with *Thrice Upon a Time's* sweetness. All that said, even if I think *Thrice Upon a Time* is a nigh-perfect end to the series, it's far from a perfect movie in-and-of-itself, with plenty of flaws that I'll get into. At the end of the day, while *Thrice Upon a Time* isn’t amazing, it does amazing *things*. img520(https://preview.redd.it/he2gxf8ipqh71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fc80ae29a5b0990528a40a2682b920505a88f12) *Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time* picks up right where *You Can (Not) Redo* left off, with Asuka, Rei-Q, and a despondent Shinji traveling through the crimson ruins of Tokyo-3. The three are eventually picked up by an adult Kensuke who takes them to a settlement comprising of survivors of the Near Third Impact. Some of these survivors are familiar faces such as the aforementioned Kensuke as well as Touji and Hikari, who are now married with and parents of an infant. Shinji, Asuka, and Rei-Q settle into their individual routines: Shinji continues to suffer from PTSD due to the events of the *You Can (Not) Redo*, Asuka aloofly watches over the village, and Rei-Q slowly begins to develop the sense of self that was denied from her. Meanwhile, Mari and Wille engage in a skirmish in the ruins of Paris against a group of NERV's Evangelions, eventually subduing them and restoring Paris to its former glory. With Paris' resources available, WILLE uses them to arm their Evangelions for the final confrontation with Gendo Ikari's NERV. Will they be able to prevent him from enacting Instrumentality? Yes. The answer is yes. Though if you want the precise *how* and *why*, you might need to trawl EvaGeeks, the wiki, and any discussion threads you can get your mitts on. Call this movie an angle between 90° and 179° because it is *obtuse*. The plot is easily the weakest aspect of the film. *Thrice Upon a Time* certainly has other problems, but I'd argue that they can be looked past. Since it's such a central aspect of the movie, the plot, unfortunately, has no such luck. img520(https://i.redd.it/qi3oksq7tmh71.jpg) It's a bit telling that, when writing the synopsis, I couldn't for the life of me tell you *why* The Battle of Paris was significant until I looked it up on EvaGeeks. *Thrice Upon a Time* continues some of the bad habits of *3.0*, namely firing rapid-fire technobabble at you with no context nor time to digest it. Do the terms overlap, Black Lillith, anti-universe, Book of Life, Evangelion Imaginary, Spear of Gaius, Maria of Iscariot, pseudo-lillin, signal suspension plug, or L Density mean anything to you? No? Well, that's too bad, *Thrice Upon a Time* will chug ahead, anyway! I hate to say it, but I kind of just had to let the main plot wash over me, since I had no chance of actually following it. Maybe I'll have better luck upon a rewatch after delving into the aforementioned material, but I really shouldn't need a guide to understand a movie. The aid of a wiki should be *supplementary*, not *complimentary*. And I should state I could still follow the film, somewhat, just in a much more broad manner than I'd have liked. No matter how much the characters tried to drown me in technobabble, I could still parse a simplistic goal throughout the movie. One of these goals might be "WILLE needs to destroy Evangelion Unit 13 before it activates" or "Shinji has to go to a different dimension to stop Gendo from enacting his plan." As it so happens, you don't need to understand *that* much to say "GO, GOOD GUYS, GO!" but it definitely makes for a more shallow viewing experience. What the movie lacks in a cohesive plot it makes up for in production values. It feels like Anno has used each *Evangelion* movie to rectify the fact that the original *Neon Genesis Evangelion* infamously ran out of money at the end of its run. This feels particularly true for *Thrice Upon a Time* which features some truly stunning visuals. Just a few that come to mind are a giant Shinji laying down as he stares at Kaworu’s, piano, crimson hands reaching up at the night sky, and the shot of a crimson Eiffel tower from below. The photorealistic CGI giant Rei head is another standout visual. It's the thing of nightmares, taking a plunge straight into the uncanny valley. Seeing it smile sent chills down my spine. The Giant Naked Rei from *End of Evangelion* can eat its heart out. img520(https://i.imgur.com/nm1xY9C.jpg) For all its problems, the absolutely balls-on-the-wall insane plot facilitates some pretty cool fight scenes. The Battle of Paris, Asuka and Mari fighting against the horde of Evangelion Mark 0.7s, and the battle between Evangelion Unit 1 and 13 are all very engaging. The fights definitely aren't for everyone; you have to appreciate spectacle, style over substance. While this could understandably be a letdown for some, I really found myself immersed in the spectacle. Even if there's not as much strategy involved, seeing Unit 2 and Unit 2 gun down a swarm of enemies, watching said enemies burst into a spiral of rainbow crosses, then watching Unit 2 and 8 defeat the remaining horde with a corkscrew team attack is fun as hell. The battle between Unit 1 and 13 is extremely imaginative, with the two mechas battling in what appear to be tokusatsu sets of various locales from the series. As the units clash, it appears like they're going through different "takes." It might not be a complex fight, but it more than makes up for it in its uniqueness and symbolism. Then there's the music, good God, there's the music. Wonderfully composed by series veteran Shiro Sagisu, *Thrice Upon a Time's* OST is packed. Sagisu makes the most of the film's two-and-a-half-hour runtime, treating viewers to over 50 tracks, including several insert tracks. I've always loved the music of *Evangelion*, so trust me when I say that Shiro Sagisu has outdone himself here with an amazing range of certified img18(http://s3.amazonaws.com/pix.iemoji.com/images/emoji/apple/ios-12/256/b-button-blood-type.png)**angers**. Some notable tracks include the obligatory Decisive Battle arrangments, [Euro Nerv](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6xXxm81NE), [EM10A alterne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk3YdQ2eYk8), and [EM20 =wunder operation= ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiRDENdUC48)(hey, just because something's obligatory doesn't mean it can't be a img18(http://s3.amazonaws.com/pix.iemoji.com/images/emoji/apple/ios-12/256/b-button-blood-type.png)op ); the delightfully, unexpectedly funky and triumphant [gekitotsu! gouten tai daimakan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G67S4hJbPWg); the hauntingly beautiful [what if?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fakPYtFzQPY); the similarly [beautiful Voyager - Gravestone Without Date](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mWDoZbz2Y); and [Joy to the World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAQ9wmPqGxk) which harkens back to *Neon Genesis Evangelion's* Hallelujah scene. The most unexpected track for me was [Hand of Fate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDclmm2iwMY). I was pleasantly surprised to hear this R&B track which makes for a sad and lovely character theme for Rei-Q as she begins discovering herself while in the village. img520(https://media1.fdncms.com/orlando/imager/u/magnum/29800600/evangelion_rei.jpeg) But of course, these all pale in comparison to this movie's main theme — One Last Kiss by Hikaru Utada. One Last Kiss was featured heavily in this movie's promotional materials and plays during the final scene and credits. It is essentially what Komm, süsser Tod is for *End of Evangelion*. Both songs are emblematic of movies they hail from, with Komm, süsser Tod being a depressing song wrapped in a pretty bow about wishing to kill oneself in response to the belief that they're worthless, while One Last Kiss is a bittersweet (with emphasis on the "sweet") song about cherishing the memories of the one you love despite the possibility of you parting. Both in-universe and metatextually, the song fits really well and helps the ending stick with me. Both Komm, süsser Tod and One Last Kiss are earworms of the highest order, but while listening to Komm, süsser Tod leaves me feeling drained, One Last Kiss fills me with pleasant memories and hope toward the future. Utada's vocals moor the song — Utada's timbre keeps the song from feeling overly poppy and ingenuine, similarly to Anno's own quirks and sensibilities as a director keeping this movie from feeling like a fix-fic. On a more personal level, Utada is the perfect singer for this theme. Their work on the *Kingdom Hearts* series, (particularly the long-awaited *Kingdom Hearts III*) not only leads me to associate their songs with childhood, but growing up, as well. img520(https://i.imgur.com/zgPet5a.jpg) One area where I *don't* think *Thrice Upon a Time's* stellar production values are put to good use is in its fanservice. In the Next Episode previews, Misato always promises the viewers that there will be more [fanservice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeKmaEqngvQ&t=23s) and, she certainly made good on her word come *Thrice Upon a Time,* which boasts a metric fuckton of it. While I certainly think fanservice can work in certain contexts, it doesn't here. First, you have the problem of [Anime Camera Angles](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anime-camera-angles) wherein a shot will be weirdly framed in order to titillate rather than to convey important information or create a cool image. A notable example is the scene when Sakura's crying. It's a bit hard to take seriously since there's a portion of the scene where her ass takes up most of the screen. Then there's Mari "Girl-With-Big-Boobs" Makinami Illustrious who is almost always accompanied with copious amounts of jiggle that I suspect is less because they were that committed to showing the physics of breasts and more because they knew it could titillate viewers. Then we move on to more insidious examples of fanservice, notably Asuka who seems allergic to clothes for a good portion of the film as she prances around in panties and an open jacket, her breasts *just barely* not visible. There's a particularly uncomfortable scene where she's trying to sleep at night. Instead of depicting her restlessness by focusing on her face or body in general, we're treated to a close-up shot of her legs and panty-covered crotch instead. It doesn't help that Anno pulled a "she's-really-a-three-thousand-year-old-dragon," by making Asuka chronologically 28 years old but not really alleviating creepiness at all because *she still has the body of a 14 year old*. It all just feels so unnecessary and makes parts of the movie feel supremely weird. It's telling that the *most beautifully animated scene of all of Evangelion* is of an aged-up Asuka on a beach, her plugsuit having begun to rip. While one can make the argument that it's because she grew in an instant, it still feels like it was done just for the sake of fanservice, and that's a shame because it undercuts a pretty beautiful scene. img520(https://i.imgur.com/kd4YoRC.jpg) I'm not the only one to criticize this film's plot and fanservice, but I *do* seem to be one of the few who's willing to acknowledge an unpleasant truth — these things aren't new to the *Rebuilds*. *Neon Genesis Evangelion*'s plot is infamously hard to parse. If it wasn't, EvaGeeks wouldn't be so ingrained as a part of the fandom. *End of Evangelion* is quite esoteric and you most likely won't understand it upon your initial viewing. I really don't get how people can be *that* angry about this movie being confusing if they're *Evangelion* fans. It comes with the territory at this point. In regards to the fanservice, Asuka is displayed acting similarly in the original show, yet people tend to brush it off by saying "well, Anno's making a *point* about fanservice." The fact of the matter is that some of this film's biggest problems were always a part of the franchise. In some ways, *Thrice Upon a Time* stands for everything wrong with Evangelion. But the good ultimately drowns out the bad and I'm left with a film that ultimately symbolizes everything I *love* about *Evangelion*. img520(https://i.imgur.com/zpiHbQK.png) Like the television show, even if *Thrice Upon a Time* can be supremely confusing, it's Pepsi Crystal-clear where it matters: its characters. It’s largely thanks to this that *Thrice Upon a Time* is as satisfying as it is. In my previous Rebuild reviews, I praised sections of the films that I referred to as "downtime:" scenes characterized by a release of tension and a focus on more mundane activities as opposed to the action scenes that feature higher stakes.*2.0*'s "downtime" is what made the film's climax so satisfying (the rise before the fall, if you will), while *3.0*'s "downtime" is the best part of the movie. The "downtime" of *Thrice Upon a Time* takes place in the settlement and comprises a decent percentage of the runtime. It's a lot less "fluffy" than the equivalent section of *2.0*. It's a lot more somber, more introspective; it can get downright uncomfortable at times. As this section of downtime focuses on Shinji, Rei, and Asuka all at once, it makes for a very compelling and efficient character study. This section is the best the *Rebuilds* have to offer in terms of character depth, approaching the reflection we see in the original television show. Here, we see Rei-Q begin to accept herself as an individual, we see Shinji realize that he can be loved despite all that's happened, we see the depth of Asuka's isolation and how she tries to downplay it, and we see humanity's resilience and love in the face of disaster. It's all very great stuff. Then Rei dies. img520(https://preview.redd.it/80llrawhpqh71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=04fc3f51bbb55e14cf7c070c4b46c91c0786b237) By the end of the section, you know it's coming, but it's still a punch in the gut to actually see. I was so upset that I had to pause the movie and get some fresh air, walking up and down my street at 2:00 in the morning to clear my head before starting the movie again. I've said that a mark of good art is being able to invoke a visceral emotion and make the viewer *feel* something whether it's good or bad. I stand by that and I commend Anno for being able to make me grieve the death of a fictional character. It still ends sup being a bit ridiculous when it's the *fourth* time in canon that Rei has died. I thought it was kind of pointless the *first* time it happened in the Rebuilds and it felt especially so now. I'm just not sure what viewers are supposed to get out of this that they couldn't have before. At the very least, I found it much more impactful than Rei's initial death in the Rebuilds, which felt like a cheap, mean-spirited fakeout, more than anything. But then, in terms of character, it's all up from here. img520(https://i.imgur.com/K3cuzz2.jpg) We see character growth and resolutions that feel very earned. Everything feels like a love letter to the series and those who popularized it through their love and support. As a result, *Thrice Upon a Time* stands in stark contrast to the bleakness of *End of Evangelion*. One of the first things you'll notice is Shinji playing a much more active role. While he does spend the first section of the film in a depressive state similar to the one he found himself in during *End of Evangelion*, he gets better comparatively soon, spending much less of this movie morose. This allows him to rise to the occasion and play an active role in this film's resolution, allowing him to be the hero that he was always capable of being. It's such a treat to see a confident Shinji. In a development 26 years in the making, we're treated to Shinji and Gendo actually talk through their problems. With a cast that's been terminally closed-off as *Evangelion*'s has, it's brilliant and heartwarming. img520(https://preview.redd.it/fj0foxwh09h71.jpg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da4c6700deeb2dd97c82033992b51b7c8eaeb772) The maternal relationships of this movie are also much more satisfying than they were in *End of Evangelion*. Here, Misato and Shinji get to end their relationship on a loving, high-note. Instead of a bloody, paedophilic kiss, they part with a hug. In EoE, Misato dies asking if she did the right thing, but here, she goes *knowing* she's done all she can in following her heart. Here, Yui doesn't just say goodbye to Shinji, but showcases her love by using Unit 1 to sacrifice herself instead of Shinji. While it's fanservice-y, there's something undeniably great about seeing Asuka finally be able to grow up and it's touching that Asuka and Shinji get to be on the iconic “final beach” without the latter strangling the former. img520(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,pg_1,q_80,w_800/2e8147c12b1796706dd0961e37172cfe.png) We see Shinji helping his friends work through their insecurities before he rids the world of Evangelions and angels, ushering a new era of peace, a new beginning a *Neon Genesis*. While the ending is largely open-ended, I'd like to once more reiterate that it's clear where it counts. *Thrice Upon a Time* tells us that the madness is over. In the final scene, we see an adult Shinji, Asuka, Mari, Rei, and Kaworu at a train station. Free of his DSS choker and with *One Last Kiss* playing in the background, Shinji and Mari run up the stairs of the station holding hands. The shot pans out to reveal a live-action city. The message is clear — with Evangelion over, it's time to experience the joys of the world beyond, the real world. img520(https://preview.redd.it/6cuhezwh09h71.jpg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee346311ca95ae539f313cc7d79523d848e46025) And yeah, you read that right — the person who gets to close out this saga with Shinji isn't Rei, Asuka, Kaworu, nor Asuka. It's *Mari*. Mari, who has been treated as a joke by fans from inception, seeing her as nothing more than a cheap cash grab. Mari, who by the series’ end *still* doesn't have much of a character and whose backstory is hinted at, *at best*. The fact that she's given so much importance and is the closest thing to a canon romantic partner should logically make me mad. Au contraire; I find the shit *hilarious*. I guess part of it is because I always liked Mari. And part of it is that it's just so delightfully *odd*, at the end of the day. img520(https://formeinfullbloom.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/shinjiandmari.png?w=584) I could talk about how Shinji getting with Mari makes the most sense, as one isn't entitled to a relationship with someone just because of prior history. Spontaneity can lead to long and happy relationships. I could talk about it symbolizing the fact that it's okay to go beyond your comfort zone and pursue someone you originally may have written off as "shallow." But ultimately, I don't need to. Because that's the beauty of the ending — it's extremely open-ended. While Mari getting with Shinji is implied, it's not outright stated and there's room for really any interpretation you want. Do you want Shinji to get together with Asuka? Shinji with Rei? Shinji with Kaworu? Rei with Kaworu? Rei with Asuka? Mari with Asuka? Do you want a polyamorous cuddle puddle? Do you wish for none of them being paired up because you believe that giving them romantic relationships is saying that they *need* to be partnered in order to be happy? If you want it, you can have it. The possibilities are endless and the ending is rife for fanfiction. All I really care about is that these characters who have been suffering for so long finally get to have a happy ending. I'd like to illustrate a point. These are pictures of the pilots in casual wear — together and seemingly not having to worry about the threat of the angels. img520(https://64.media.tumblr.com/52ed93966ac415612cc516245d294243/tumblr_ncib934c0q1qm9irko1_1280.jpg) img520(https://i.imgur.com/OusVQgz.jpg) img520(https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/11/eb-0.png?w=640) img520(https://preview.redd.it/xsb7gnyi03x51.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=c0328df78d20c3a751f9da52a544438531cc9749) img520(https://den-deca.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/eNRhjST-1024x835.png) img520(https://tbib.org//samples/6216/sample_bb9a30045df108e0012bfe908b1b4000c2022b0e.jpg?6728737) img520(https://tbib.org//samples/2413/sample_e6e0addfb6c734dafec44158ddb538608864cd10.jpg?7267664) [This was my wildest fantasy](https://anilist.co/activity/133922970), my most unrealistic hope for these characters. Against all odds, my wish came true and I had the goofiest smile on my face when I saw it. The biggest caveat to this is the film loses almost all of its punch if you just watch the Rebuild movies. The Rebuilds were apparently designed to be satisfying for both old and new fans and it's largely failed in terms of the latter. At the end of the day, you really have to watch the original series and *End of Evangelion* to appreciate the Rebuilds. While, sure, the Rebuild continuity does have its own beginning, middle, and end, and it’s relatively self-contained, you lose a lot of buildup that makes *Thrice Upon a Time* as satisfying as it is. The visual callbacks to the previous endings, Shinji talking to Gendo, and the happy ending all *work*, but lose their impact without the connection to what came prior. *Thrice Upon a Time* isn't anywhere near the best movie I've seen, but because of all it means for *Evangelion*, it's become one of my favorites. It has solidified and immortalized my love for this franchise. Hideaki Anno has gone on record to say that, while this will be the last *Evangelion* installment he works on, he's leaving the door open for others to contribute to *Evangelion*, ala the long-running *Gundam* franchise. As much as it pains me to say it, I think this will be where I get off this ride, too. If you have tastes similar to mine, this probably is as perfect as an ending for *Evangelion* as we're going to get. Since the *Gundam* comparison has already been introduced, this feels like the *[Turn A Gundam](https://anilist.co/review/5663)* of *Evangelion* — an entry positioned at the end of a long timeline that closes a series characterized by pain and suffering with a surprising amount of uplift. Both *Turn A* and *Thrice Upon a Time* form dualities with bleaker counterparts in their respective series — *Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam* in *Gundam's* case and *End of Evangelion* in *Evangelion's* case. In both, they showcase the best of what the series has to offer whether in terms of hope or despair. Thus, even if you disagree with me that this is the best possible ending for *Evangelion*, you'd probably agree that *End of Evangelion* was a great ending for the series. Either way, it's hard to imagine what returning to this universe can add. I should clarify that this is where I *hope* to get off this ride. Knowing me, if they jangle some new *Evangelion* keys in front of me, I probably *will* go for it, but I'm almost certain that it won't be nearly as satisfying as *Thrice Upon a Time*. The final word of *Evangelion* is positive, with all the Children finally able to have a happy ending. This feels like a perfect place to put a pin on *Evangelion* and be able to walk away with a smile. So, with that, I say Good morning Good night Thank you Goodbye, all of EVANGELION ~~~img200(https://i.imgur.com/spMtc5h.png)~~~ youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYeOVn0PhSk)

TheAnimeBingeWatcher

It’s rare to find a story that ends thrice. Hell, it’s rare to find a story that ends _twice._ The vast majority of fiction gets a single ending, good or bad, and that’s what we have to deal with. But Evangelion, of course, is not the vast majority of fiction. It’s a masterpiece, an icon, a game-changer, a generation-definer, and every other superlative you could throw at it. It’s been an object of endless praise, endless disgust, endless fascination, and endless discussions of every stripe. If there was any story worthy of ending three times, any story with enough depth to _justify_ ending three times, it would be Evangelion. First came the TV ending, a product of a production meltdown somehow finding true meaning in its own compromised abstraction. Next was End of Evangelion, a veritable cataclysm of imagery and ideas bursting forth unchained from its creator’s mind. And now, over two decades later, the story has concluded once more with Thrice Upon a Time, the last of the Rebuild movies, almost a decade in the making. As long as I’ve been an anime fan, this movie has been a question hanging over the entire franchise. Its eternally unfinished nature was something of a punchline. With so many years passing since 3.0, many were beginning to wonder if this movie would ever even come out. It seemed like the Rebuilds would remain eternally incomplete, the questions they posed about their own existence forever unanswered. Just one more confounding uncertainty in a franchise lousy with them. And yet, against all odds, Thrice Upon a Time is here. The movie was finished and release. Evangelion is over, for the third time in a row. But this isn’t just one more iteration of an Eva climax. It’s not just the end of this usual series of Rebuild movies. No, 3.0 + 1.0 is, well, the end of Evangelion. The _true_ end of Evangelion. The end not just of the Rebuilds, but of the franchise itself. It’s a swan song for everything that Evangelion has become, everything that it’s meant to people, and everything we must become in its passing. It’s an elegy to itself and the people who cared about it, a two-and-a-half-hour goodbye that’s been twenty-six years in the making. And in retrospect, perhaps it was inevitable for it to be anything but. As I discussed in my review of You Can (Not) Redo, the third Rebuild made it clear that these movies are all about the Shinjis of the world who never grew up. Evangelion was a source of hope and change for so many people who saw themselves in its listless, lost protagonist. It gave comfort to so many people who saw their struggles with depression and isolation reflected in Shinji’s journey. But some of those fans, rather than taking Evangelion’s lessons to heart in their own lives, chose to nestle deep into its bosom and never leave. It was a source of comfort, yes, but also a prison preventing them from growing up and growing beyond the boy on screen. For some, the Evangelion franchise is as much a symbol of paralysis and arrested development as Eva-01 is to Shinji. And the reason the Rebuilds exist is to interrogate that paralysis. Giving us familiar iconography and easy, indulgent solutions before viciously ripping them away. Showing us a world that continues to grow and change while Shinji, literally and figuratively, remains a child. The question posed by the Rebuilds is nothing more or less than the question of how to move on from Evangelion. How do we break the Eva’s shell and find our way to self-actualization? How do we escape this prison we’ve built for ourselves and face the world in all its beautiful, terrifying possibility? How do we, like Shinji, stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again and accept life and our place in it? How does a boy like Shinji grow into a man? And with this question finally clear, Thrice Upon a Time fully dedicates itself to answering it. It’s hard to discuss without getting into spoilers, and I don’t want to ruin this film’s many surprises for those who’ve yet to see it. Suffice to say, though, after an opening action scene that ups the bar for sheer Gurren Lagann-inspired lunacy in this franchise, there’s literally no action for the entire first half of the movie. The first hour and change is a period of reflection, exploring the world that’s grown and managed to survive amid the destruction of the Third Impact. It gives all the characters a chance not just to breathe, but _find_ themselves. Outside the demands of piloting an Eva and being wrapped up in Seele/NERV’s plans, Shinji, Asuka and Rei begin to discover sides of themselves they never knew existed. They try new things, they come to new conclusions, they experiment with a life that’s lived on no one’s terms but their own. For the first time in the entire franchise, we see what it looks like when these characters, free from the shackles of the prison known as Evangelion, get to be _free._ We see who _they_ choose to be, what _they_ decide to become, the versions of themselves that _they_ ultimately find strength in. It’s sixty minutes of pure self-actualization and it’s one of the most moving stretches of cinema I’ve seen in a very long time. Seeing these traumatized kids finally begin to _live_ after two decades of suffering... god. I don’t have the words to do it justice. But it wouldn’t be Evangelion if happiness wasn’t won through blood, sweat and suffering. And after a first half dominated by slow-burn character work, the second half is able to plunge straight ahead into this franchise’s biggest, longest, most apocalyptic battle of all time. From here to the end, it’s nothing but sheer, unadulterated chaos as Misato and Wille attempt to stop Gendo’s final plan from coming to fruition. The imagery is utterly insane. The scope of the battlefield is incomprehensible. The sheer volume of high-concept abstract ideas thrown around makes the entirety of last film look like a coloring book. Huge lore revelations explode into being one after the other, each one making less sense than the last but who cares when they result in spectacle this fantastic? Well, for the most part; by far this movie’s biggest flaw is that some of its CG-heavy animation just looks... bad. Like, really bad. Studio Khara’s mostly done a really great job of making its CG elements look good, but a lot of stuff in this movie just does _not_ work visually. Maybe if they’d spent less time lovingly rendering so many unnecessary ass shots, they could’ve retooled the CG and made it look better. But no, apparently tasteless fanservice continues to be one hill this franchise just _can’t_ shake off no matter how hard it tries. Blegh. And then... there’s the ending. I won’t spoil what goes down during Shinji and Gendo’s final confrontation. It’s too transcendent a sequence not to experience blind. All I can say is that here, at the end of all things, Shinji finally grows up... and we grow up with him. We grow past the fear that kept us trapped. We grow past the self-loathing that imprisoned us inside the Evangelions of our own making. Imagery from past endings collides, disintegrates, and reconstructs itself. Every character is released from their chains and let out into the world, ready to face it at last. It feels like an act of spiritual cleansing, for us in the audience and every last character we’ve seen ourselves in for so many years. And it’s beautiful. It’s beautiful and overwhelming and I dare anyone not to turn into a blubbering mess by the end. Even after all these years, I’m not ready to say goodbye to Evangelion. I’m not ready to leave Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and all the rest behind. But impossibly, this ending makes me feel like I actually _can._ It makes me see how far I’ve come since I first watched the original show four years ago. It makes me understand how much they’ve given me, how much I’ve learned from them, how rewarding it’s been to see them rise up in triumph one last time. And if they’re ready to face the world at last... then maybe I am too. And that’s always been the point, hasn’t it? Through all its permutations, through all its different versions, Evangelion has always been a story about moving on from Evangelion. From the very start, Hideaki Anno has used this franchise as a vessel to explore his demons, forever searching for a way forward. In the TV show’s original ending, he realized it was okay to try and love himself, despite all the voices in his head telling him he didn’t deserve to. In End of Evangelion, he plunged into the deepest depths of his despair, and yet came out the other side convinced there was still a chance for things to get better. Through all the darkest moments of this franchise, Evangelion has never lost hope that the lost children of the world- Shinji, Anno, all of us- could still find a way to grow up. And now, in Evangelion’s third ending, that path forward has finally opened to us. After twenty-six years, we’ve finally found the courage to leave our Evangelions behind and step out into the world as fully-formed people. First we accepted our base humanity, then we accepted our capacity for evil, and now, Thrice Upon a Time asks us to accept our capacity for good. Our ability to keep fighting until we finally find peace, to endure countless cycles of torment until we’re able to love ourselves, to spend twenty-six years stuck in childhood and still mange to grow up when all is said and done. It was never too late for us to be happy. It was never too late for us to embrace the world. And even if it took us longer than expected- in more ways than one- we were bound to find our way there eventually. The Evangelions, after all, have always been representations of childhood. And childhood was never meant to last forever. It’s unlikely this franchise will ever fade from the public consciousness. We will still be talking about Evangelion for decades to come, just as we will always carry our childhoods with us to come extent. It will be with me forever; that much I know for sure. But we can still learn to let go, to appreciate what the past means to us without letting it define our future. The modern anime landscape, set in motion by Eva itself, will continue to grow and change, carving new paths of meaning and connection. The children who fell in love with this show will grow up and- hopefully- take its lessons to heart without wallowing in it. Ultimately, the best way I can think to honor Evangelion is to move on from Evangelion. Let Thrice Upon a Time be the franchise’s last entry, as it’s so clearly designed to be. This movie is as final a goodbye as one could possibly wish for, closing the book on twenty-six long years and looking forward to a future full of new possibilities. Evangelion is over, this time for good. And that’s okay. Because the gifts it gave to us will remain long after the final credits roll. I said at the start of this review that it’s rare to find a story that ends thrice. It’s rarer still for each ending to be so good that the story feels incomplete without them. I was always satisfied with the TV show and End of Evangelion, to the point I was skeptical what point there was even making these Rebuild movies in the first place. Now, though, I can’t imagine Evangelion without them. Through all their ups and downs, these movies are as much part of the NGE tapestry as everything that’s come before. And while I still vastly prefer the show overall, I’m truly grateful for this sense of ultimate closure. I will always love Evangelion. I will always think about Evangelion. But now, I can leave it knowing that everyone I grew so attached to is going to be okay. That they’ve found their peace. That they’re working toward the lives they deserve. And for all their sakes... I’ll work toward mine too. Thank you, Shinji. Thank you, Rei, Thank you, Misato, Kensuke, Toji, Ritsuko, Yui, Kaji. Thank you, Asuka. _God,_ thank you, Asuka. Thank you, Hideaki Anno. Thank you, Gainax. Thank you, Khara. Thank you, Evangelion. And to all the children... congratulations.

CookieFrog

_Neon Genesis Evangelion_ has always been a deconstruction of something. It began 'simply' as a deconstruction of the mecha genre, with the first half of the original show telling the story of a young boy who must suffer through the surprisingly painful ordeal of piloting a beastly, world-saving robot, constantly being told to fight against unholy angels. Then, it became a deconstruction of the human ego and psyche, as it broke down every single character into despair, explored what lead to their downfall and, nevertheless, showed us what continued to give them, and us, hope for a better future. In a way, this was also a deconstruction of Hideaki Anno's horrible depression, especially with the follow-up movie/masterpiece _"End of Evangelion"_. A decade later, after Evangelion was remade with some nice-looking updated visuals and not much else, it then began to deconstruct its own story, and by Rebuild 3.0 was exploring a whole different narrative about Shinji's fall into even deeper despair after failing, and almost completely destroying, the entire world. In each deconstruction, there was always a sense of some hopelessness in the face of crushing despair, yet with hope always remaining with the audience. Even with each character living unfulfilled lives, often related to parental roles or unresolved relationships, we could still accept Evangelion's hope, and look to an uncertain future with confidence. _Evangelion: 3.0+1.0_, however, reconstructs what was once deconstructed, in order to finally put it to rest. There are still the classic tropes of Evangelion, such as a hellishly-confusing plot, socially broken characters, completely bizarre imagery, and dialogue that constantly refers to godly ideals and objects, and yet it feels more like these tropes are actually being put to rest. We still have previously-established characters, usually from the original series, dominating the plot and development, and a lot of cues are taken straight from End of Evangelion, but they are actually there to finally give resolution to each character. Almost everyone finds a way to be healed in this finale, from Rei learning how to live as a human being, to Shinji learning not only how to fully accept his own life and decisions, but others' too. While not everyone got a full conclusion, it's still quite unusual to see all this resolution in Evangelion of all places, especially something so unusual as Shinji having a meaningful conversation with his dad, and actually helping others instead of needing to constantly be helped. But, however alien these changes are, they feel necessary to giving a satisfying ending to what could, and probably should, have been ended a long time ago. This isn't really the Evangelion we used to know. All this rebuilding has made a film that, while fitting and familiar in many places, feels completely different from what was 'concluded' in 1997 with End of Evangelion, from CG to Mari. But, as the blending of animation/fiction and reality in the final act showed, Evangelion needed to be freed from its old self, trapped in not only Shinji's tortured mind, but also the constant state of debate and discussion about both it and its creator. Sure, this movie is nowhere near perfect; the animation (while often superb) did falter occasionally during CG bits, no fights stood out nearly as much as most in the original series, and the mind-muddling sci-fi/religious elements didn't work as much for me now. I've seen many view this film as Hideaki Anno's last "fuck you" to Evangelion fans, many others seeing the character conclusions as fanfic-level quality, and I sort of understand where these perspectives come from. In fact, I much rather prefer End of Evangelion as a movie and experience, and I probably would have been happier if Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax/Khara had just stopped there. However, this is probably the best way I could've said goodbye to this series after all the Rebuilds, no matter how different it was to my expectations. Then again, what is Evangelion without destroying some form of expectations? Maybe we all just needed to leave this franchise in the past forever, cherishing our memories and experiences, and move on. Not just the audience, but the creators too. Goodbye, all of Evangelion. It was nice knowing you.

TheBirdOfHermes

I was never the biggest fan of the Evangelion series, it was always a 7/10 to me. From the original to the first three rebuild but this, this movie was something else. This movie was something I have never experienced before, and doubt I will ever experience again. This movie is beautiful in every way, visually, auditorily, story wise, character wise and acting wise. Everything about this movie is perfect. If I had to describe this to someone... I couldn't. There simply are no words to do so, all that I could maybe say is "It's a 10, go watch it" and that is it. I watched this with my dearest friend who is a massive Eva fan and both of us where in complete awe the entire movie. Every scene trumped the last. Everything just felt like. After we finished we were speechless. There is nothing to say about it Even this review is just going around in circles like a madman's ramblings, because that what this is. It has been almost 2 hours since we finished and my mind is still a blank canvas. Nothing remains, I am blown away by the work Anno and everyone else put into this. Was it worth the almost 10 year wait? Yes, yes and yes. It was worth every year, every month, every day, every hour, every minute and every second of those near 10 years of waiting. I rated this movie and easy 10/10 but it feels wrong. It doesn't feel like it's on par with my other 10/10s, it needs to be higher. Evangelion 3.0+1.0 is in a category of its own. Evangelion 3.0+1.0 is the peak of anime, and the best anime movie I will ever expect to watch. Evangelions 1-3 where an amazing watch as well, BUT they are just ok compared to this Behemoth. Before I watched this I thought Mari Illustrious Makinami was one of the worst characters in Eva. This is not true anymore, she is one of the best characters and even other characters like Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki have become amazing. I could not have asked for anything more and even believing that something else needed to be there is sheer arrogance. I once again say it, Eva as a whole was a 7 out of 10 show for me, always was. I never in my wildest dreams thought anything Eva related would break trough what I thought was a 10/10 but it did. I never thought Eva would make me question what anime is and what it can be, but it did. I never thought Eva would make me feel empty and hollow but not sad... but IT DID. I have no more words to describe what this movie is to me. I am thankful that I was able to see it and experience it with a dear friend. This was a true journey which I will never in my life experience ever again. I cannot express how grateful I am to Anno and everyone who puts YEARS into this movie This was a journey I was thankful to take part in Thank You Anno for everything

Coolgu275

img220(https://i.imgur.com/ROBMYMz.jpg) What can I say, this movie was an end to an era for me. My friend introduced me to this anime when we were sophmores in highschool. I binge watched the 1995 version in one sitting and I deeply regretted that, because I was confused and that I felt like I hadn't fully grasped the message that the anime was trying to convey. I ended up rewatching the anime several times and I am glad that I did. An anime like that ages like fine wine should be rewatched multiple times. Fast forward three years later to my freshman year in college and I saw that all of the rebuild movies were available on amazon prime video. I watch all of them and let me tell you, they made me appreciate the series and made me respect Hideaki Anno as a creaor even more. as a person who has also struggled with depression as well, Hideaki Anno shows all of that in his work. I can't say that I grew up with this anime because it simply wouldn't be true. Although I can say that I definitely wish I had and that I saw it from the beginning. One of things I want to eventually scratch of my bucket list is meet Hideaki Anno and have a one on one conversation about his world building, character development, and how his own experiences in life and depression gave him the ability to create such a masterpiece. img220(https://i.imgur.com/AacMht0.jpg) I know that this won't be an official review because I am biased towards this anime. How could I not be, this anime has changed my perspective on so many things. I love watching anime where the main character is influenced by the world around him, and by his family and friends. In this moive Shinji is thrown in head first into a world that he knew nothing about similar to the series. What I mean by that is that he had never seen an angel before, nevertheless he has never had to fight one. Nonetheless he has to fight or he and everyone else will die. From day one a very heavy burden gets placed on his shoulders as well as the sholders of the other Eva pilots like Rei and Asuka, as well as Kaworu. The series as well as the movies show the main cast of characters overcome the burdens placed on them by society and even loved ones. More importantly, the overall premise of the Series shows that hurting others and being hurt is what makes us humans. It's also what makes us unique and sets us apart from other creatures. ~!The main characters mature throughout the movies especially shinji that goes into a state of depression due to witnessing Kaworu die right before his eyes and nearly setting off the fourth impact. Not to mention that Asuka, Rei, and Shinji all look like they are 14 due to the curse of the Evangelions. !~ __ Ratings__ __Plot: 9.8/10__ img220(https://i.imgur.com/76gViGu.gif) It's NGE. We shouldnt expect anything different. Although there were a bunch of new events added,as well as character dialogue, it still turned out amazing and was an awesome second take at the series. __Character Developmet: 10/10__ img220(https://i.imgur.com/OfioEMt.gif) The character development surpassed all of my expectations. Seeing Shinji finally accept the world for what it is and not run away frim his father as well as himself made the movie even better. __Cast: 10/10__ img220(https://i.imgur.com/mVIlE82.gif) I am so glad that they brought in Mari as one of the central characters to the movies. As a reader of the manga, I was really curious about her and I wanted to see her more on screen as well as learn more about her. __Final Thoughts:__ webm(https://i.imgur.com/nxBNkbF.mp4) This movie was a great way to say goodbye to not only my favorite characters of all time, but to the Series as whole. Thank you Hideaki Anno for all that you have done for us. Thank you for giving us this amazing series and these amazing characters.