There's a lot to say about the final piece of Evangelion work that Hideki Anno is going to helm, the last piece of "official" Evangelion story to be told and a lot of it is the usual fare when it comes to the stuff that makes up Evangelion.
And I won't bore you with it if you're just a casual viewer, suffice it to say that even veterans of the series are going to scratch their noodle at this a little bit.
But to my review.
I like it, it's an ending that is final - supposedly - and it "works" in the world of the Remake series. But there's a massive problem with it that needs to be said.
In the Evangelion series there was enough room to do story build up, for the plot to be explained that you can understand whats coming for EoE.
This story feels unfinished in that the majority of it isn't needed, the quiet moments in the country where Rei 6 learns to.accept humanity and Shinji comes out of his self-disgust is beautiful, it's quiet and it's a set piece to give Shinji a reason to fight.
But it isn't needed, there's nothing in it that is required to be there and it stumbles as we were told in 3.0 that Toji was dead, he's not, he's alive and has a family.
The ending felt rushed if I'm going to be fair to it, the build up to 4th impact comes without any dramatic descent, it's just happening, Gendo overrides the heroes, takes Unit 13 and merges with it.
Then Shinji enters Unit 1 and battles him in a mental landscape of a world that we've never heard of before, beyond the Gates of Guf.
I feel like Anno is trying to fit in all his ideas into this final project so he can bookend the series and walk away, but it fails to do so as it doesn't answer anything ultimately.
There's references to the long held belief that the series and movies have been a long looping set of ideas that really never ends and I liked it, but then there's the out of nowhere change that comes in right at the end that allows Shinji to survive and fixes the world to be without Evangelions.
Now.
To the big honking Mammoth in the room.
The Ending.
Fans of Evangelion have known for a long time that Hideki Anno doesn't exactly have the best relationship with us, it's sort of a seething hatred, a level of anger and resentment on both sides for being - in both words - a stubborn (well I said a word for bum but apparently that's not allowed now)
And Anno has ended the story of Evangelion by doing something I didn't expect him to do but makes sense with the way things go. Rather than give half the fanbase a middle finger and giving the wanted happy moment for the other (even though both sides would not work in the "happy ending" that would come of that) he choose the third option.
Which is a big ol' middle finger to all of us. All the Rei Stans, all the Asuka Stans, all the EVERY single Stan that is part of the ever lovin' ever toxic as (uigly word for boink) ever silly Evangelion Fandom.
And gets an Adult Shinji paired up with a girl who he had less than 10 minutes of screentime with in the entire movie series.
It's kinda magnificently brilliant in how cruel, how spiteful, how twisted and vindictive it is to all of us while at the same time making the most sense.
Mari was the weirdest yet the most "balanced" of the "Eva Children" in this iteration and having a balanced and stable Shinji ending up with her works.
I just have a bitter pill to swallow as my German Redhaired waifu wasn't even seen in the ending and everyone else was! That's kinda the most painful part.
But why the 6/10?
Well the animation on it's own was fantastic, the art direction and set pieces were perfect as was the voice acting from the original cast - not the Netflix one - and it looked brilliant....
All until we get to the Eva Unit 1 and 13 fights, half of them were in 3D animation and one of the problems with Anime 3D animation is that it can be janky as all hell in places. This one does that where the movements are smooth as hell and the 3D models are pitch perfect
it's just that they're "painfully" slow, and its clear the entire scene is there for little reason other than to cut costs on animation. There were points where I noticed that the scenery was solid blocks and would move when hit but wouldn't be affected by the impacts, there was a particular scene with a house that just floated along after being hit with a Spear of Longinus and I thought "ooh god, when my eye is directed that rather than the fighting robots, that's bad"
Couple that with the confusing ending, the blatant loathing that Anno has for the story and the fanbase and the bitter pill needing to swallow, it isn't something I'm going to watch again.
Evangelion is a masterclass of storytelling and thought, but I still do believe that Hideki Anno needs a wrangler to fix things when they get too out there.
Summary: It's an ending...it's not what we wanted but it's an ending.
And I will keep doing this. I'll resubmit until you post it because it is NOT worth an 8.2.
And I won't bore you with it if you're just a casual viewer, suffice it to say that even veterans of the series are going to scratch their noodle at this a little bit.
But to my review.
I like it, it's an ending that is final - supposedly - and it "works" in the world of the Remake series. But there's a massive problem with it that needs to be said.
In the Evangelion series there was enough room to do story build up, for the plot to be explained that you can understand whats coming for EoE.
This story feels unfinished in that the majority of it isn't needed, the quiet moments in the country where Rei 6 learns to.accept humanity and Shinji comes out of his self-disgust is beautiful, it's quiet and it's a set piece to give Shinji a reason to fight.
But it isn't needed, there's nothing in it that is required to be there and it stumbles as we were told in 3.0 that Toji was dead, he's not, he's alive and has a family.
The ending felt rushed if I'm going to be fair to it, the build up to 4th impact comes without any dramatic descent, it's just happening, Gendo overrides the heroes, takes Unit 13 and merges with it.
Then Shinji enters Unit 1 and battles him in a mental landscape of a world that we've never heard of before, beyond the Gates of Guf.
I feel like Anno is trying to fit in all his ideas into this final project so he can bookend the series and walk away, but it fails to do so as it doesn't answer anything ultimately.
There's references to the long held belief that the series and movies have been a long looping set of ideas that really never ends and I liked it, but then there's the out of nowhere change that comes in right at the end that allows Shinji to survive and fixes the world to be without Evangelions.
Now.
To the big honking Mammoth in the room.
The Ending.
Fans of Evangelion have known for a long time that Hideki Anno doesn't exactly have the best relationship with us, it's sort of a seething hatred, a level of anger and resentment on both sides for being - in both words - a stubborn (well I said a word for bum but apparently that's not allowed now)
And Anno has ended the story of Evangelion by doing something I didn't expect him to do but makes sense with the way things go. Rather than give half the fanbase a middle finger and giving the wanted happy moment for the other (even though both sides would not work in the "happy ending" that would come of that) he choose the third option.
Which is a big ol' middle finger to all of us. All the Rei Stans, all the Asuka Stans, all the EVERY single Stan that is part of the ever lovin' ever toxic as (uigly word for boink) ever silly Evangelion Fandom.
And gets an Adult Shinji paired up with a girl who he had less than 10 minutes of screentime with in the entire movie series.
It's kinda magnificently brilliant in how cruel, how spiteful, how twisted and vindictive it is to all of us while at the same time making the most sense.
Mari was the weirdest yet the most "balanced" of the "Eva Children" in this iteration and having a balanced and stable Shinji ending up with her works.
I just have a bitter pill to swallow as my German Redhaired waifu wasn't even seen in the ending and everyone else was! That's kinda the most painful part.
But why the 6/10?
Well the animation on it's own was fantastic, the art direction and set pieces were perfect as was the voice acting from the original cast - not the Netflix one - and it looked brilliant....
All until we get to the Eva Unit 1 and 13 fights, half of them were in 3D animation and one of the problems with Anime 3D animation is that it can be janky as all hell in places. This one does that where the movements are smooth as hell and the 3D models are pitch perfect
it's just that they're "painfully" slow, and its clear the entire scene is there for little reason other than to cut costs on animation. There were points where I noticed that the scenery was solid blocks and would move when hit but wouldn't be affected by the impacts, there was a particular scene with a house that just floated along after being hit with a Spear of Longinus and I thought "ooh god, when my eye is directed that rather than the fighting robots, that's bad"
Couple that with the confusing ending, the blatant loathing that Anno has for the story and the fanbase and the bitter pill needing to swallow, it isn't something I'm going to watch again.
Evangelion is a masterclass of storytelling and thought, but I still do believe that Hideki Anno needs a wrangler to fix things when they get too out there.
Summary: It's an ending...it's not what we wanted but it's an ending.
And I will keep doing this. I'll resubmit until you post it because it is NOT worth an 8.2.