Since I don’t have a blog I guess I’ll just write my thoughts over here. I won’t spoil much since there is no spoiler tag and I don’t remember much about the main series, so I wouldn’t be able to compare this to the original anyways.
Regardless, I prefer to think about these movies as a different take on the series. I think these movies are best watched a while after having watched the anime series and The End of Evangelion, since they overlap on the beginning, which even makes some people who just finished the original skip the first movie altogether and go straight to the second one.
My thoughts on the original series and EoE back when I watched them 8 years ago were that it was good, hell, it was great, even if it was a bit dense, just not the 12/10 series that would change your entire way of seeing life as some people would say on the Internet. I do get why you could learn a thing of two from it though, since it really is an anime that motivates you to think, considering the amount of introspection that their own characters go through.
However, I have also learned some small life lessons from mediocre anime (like “It’s more satisfying to hear a single “thank you” than a lot of “sorry”s”) so I don’t really know how to think about this. I won’t develop on my thoughts about the original series in this post since it has been a while and they could perfectly change if I were to rewatch them now.
As for the Rebuilds, I watched the first to the third movies right after finishing the series (4.0 hadn’t come out at that time, but it had been announced!) and rewatched The End of Evangelion with the great Thugginator and some flashii people in 2019. When the 4th Rebuild movie released in 2021, I couldn’t be bothered to rewatch the other 3, so I just didn’t watch it at the time.
Fast forward some years until last month and I see that some cinemas where I live are playing the Rebuilds, so I tell my friends who have not watched the original series to go since “it could be fun to watch anime in the cinema”. The only thing one of them knew was the infamous hospital scene in EoE, which was funny. I somehow manage to convince them all to go with me and we get some tickets for 1.0. I was a bit excited since I hadn’t gone to the movies in like half a year too.
The only thing I remembered about 1.0 is that it was basically a summary of the first few episodes, but since I had forgotten about most of the series, there were some scenes which I recognized, other scenes which had been deleted or summarized and some sentences which had been on a corner of my mind for a long time, but I hadn’t remember that they were from Evangelion (“Another unfamiliar ceiling…”). The quality of the animation greatly surprised me too, although I guess the fact that I was watching it on a movie theater helped too. I also remembered that the movies have a post-credits scene, so I forced my friends to watch through the credits with me, something that I would do as well for the other three movies >:)
The first movie pretty much feels like a setup for a story. Many of the scenes in which the characters reflect on their actions are removed or shortened, thus speeding up the rhythm of the plot relative to the original one. I don’t think this is inherently bad, since trying to do the same as 95’ Evangelion kinda removes the point of making the rebuilds altogether, and because I don’t feel like the general public would really miss those scenes. I liked the movie overall, my friends did too and they also thought that the fan service scenes were funny. and the next day I was already asking my friends and trying to arrange a date in which all of us could go and watch 2.0.
Next week it was time to go and watch 2.0. I also got some soda and popcorn since I usually don’t get them and got on my seat. I barely remembered anything again, other than it started to diverge a bit from the original series.
In the end, it was an enjoyable watching. Sure, it felt a bit rushed, as it is a 90 minute movie, but I liked how it tried to do new things and there were two more movies remaining, so there could be time to develop the areas that hadn’t been explored in the other two movies.
Again, a couple of days after I was already pestering my friends to watch the third one since I needed the motivation boost of having the tickets for the next viewing so I could get through the week. One of them wouldn’t be able to join, but he promised to watch the 3rd one on his own so he could join for the last movie.
I remembered that 3.0 was when everything starts to get confusing and surely it was. The animation and the overall art was really good though, better than the previous two. I can’t develop much on how confusing the plot starts to be since I would break my self-imposed no-spoiler rule, so let’s just say that when my friend who couldn’t watch the movie with us saw it some days later, he immediately called me because he didn’t understand anything. Overall, I had to explain to all of my friends some things since I had the additional context of the original series and that already was a bad sign, since, as I said at the beginning of this post, I consider the movies to be “a different take on the series”, not something that you have to watch the original series (which people probably did not remember when this movie came out) in order to truly understand.
Anyways, only one movie remained. Even with all of the confusion of the third movie, it seemed a bit like all of us were going to miss this weekly tradition. We went to watch 4.0, the only one that I hadn’t watched (although I had seen one of the frames of the last scene in Twitter back when it was still Twitter some years ago, and I knew that the general consensus was that it was the best one of the four), so it would be the only showing in which I would be going almost as blind as them.
4.0 is longer than the rest, and it took around 9 years after 3.0 for it to get released (the gaps between the first three movies are way shorter). I have a bunch of thoughts about it but again, no spoilers, so I will just say that the CGI is kind of bad, and even though it solves some questions that 3.0 created, it still has a rushed ending that you will (not) understand (haha, I put not in parenthesis like in the first three titles) unless you have watched The End of Evangelion.
However, regadless of it’s flaws, I remembered that right at the ending before the credits would play one of my friends said that he didn’t understand anything, and another one told him “it doesn’t matter, it was good” and started clapping. Then the credits started to play with the One Last Kiss and Beatiful World songs and I explained them my theories from what I vaguely remembered from the series and EoE while the credits were playing since we were waiting for an after credits scene.
Even though I have read a bit of wiki articles these past few days in order to solve some of my questions, I might just end up rewatching the original series since it has been a while after all, and I’m in kind in the appropriate mood to watch it sort to say. This being said, I have also learned that there are a bunch of games which don’t seem that bad and there is also the manga that I have never read...so maybe you will see another Eva post in the future.
In conclusion, you definitely have to watch these movies a bit of time after having watched the series, that way you won’t be bored at the areas in which they overlap with the original series. There are some things that are different from the original, but I find it natural, since the original Evangelion series had a bit of the feelings of the author on it, and in the 4th of October of this year it will be 30 years since the first episode was launched. And, as I said before, 4.0 came out in 2021.
This makes me think, maybe I should write a story now… I wonder what my future self would think of it.
wow this took like two hours to write, i didn't realised it until now, i was so focused...
Regardless, I prefer to think about these movies as a different take on the series. I think these movies are best watched a while after having watched the anime series and The End of Evangelion, since they overlap on the beginning, which even makes some people who just finished the original skip the first movie altogether and go straight to the second one.
My thoughts on the original series and EoE back when I watched them 8 years ago were that it was good, hell, it was great, even if it was a bit dense, just not the 12/10 series that would change your entire way of seeing life as some people would say on the Internet. I do get why you could learn a thing of two from it though, since it really is an anime that motivates you to think, considering the amount of introspection that their own characters go through.
However, I have also learned some small life lessons from mediocre anime (like “It’s more satisfying to hear a single “thank you” than a lot of “sorry”s”) so I don’t really know how to think about this. I won’t develop on my thoughts about the original series in this post since it has been a while and they could perfectly change if I were to rewatch them now.
As for the Rebuilds, I watched the first to the third movies right after finishing the series (4.0 hadn’t come out at that time, but it had been announced!) and rewatched The End of Evangelion with the great Thugginator and some flashii people in 2019. When the 4th Rebuild movie released in 2021, I couldn’t be bothered to rewatch the other 3, so I just didn’t watch it at the time.
Fast forward some years until last month and I see that some cinemas where I live are playing the Rebuilds, so I tell my friends who have not watched the original series to go since “it could be fun to watch anime in the cinema”. The only thing one of them knew was the infamous hospital scene in EoE, which was funny. I somehow manage to convince them all to go with me and we get some tickets for 1.0. I was a bit excited since I hadn’t gone to the movies in like half a year too.
The only thing I remembered about 1.0 is that it was basically a summary of the first few episodes, but since I had forgotten about most of the series, there were some scenes which I recognized, other scenes which had been deleted or summarized and some sentences which had been on a corner of my mind for a long time, but I hadn’t remember that they were from Evangelion (“Another unfamiliar ceiling…”). The quality of the animation greatly surprised me too, although I guess the fact that I was watching it on a movie theater helped too. I also remembered that the movies have a post-credits scene, so I forced my friends to watch through the credits with me, something that I would do as well for the other three movies >:)
The first movie pretty much feels like a setup for a story. Many of the scenes in which the characters reflect on their actions are removed or shortened, thus speeding up the rhythm of the plot relative to the original one. I don’t think this is inherently bad, since trying to do the same as 95’ Evangelion kinda removes the point of making the rebuilds altogether, and because I don’t feel like the general public would really miss those scenes. I liked the movie overall, my friends did too and they also thought that the fan service scenes were funny. and the next day I was already asking my friends and trying to arrange a date in which all of us could go and watch 2.0.
Next week it was time to go and watch 2.0. I also got some soda and popcorn since I usually don’t get them and got on my seat. I barely remembered anything again, other than it started to diverge a bit from the original series.
In the end, it was an enjoyable watching. Sure, it felt a bit rushed, as it is a 90 minute movie, but I liked how it tried to do new things and there were two more movies remaining, so there could be time to develop the areas that hadn’t been explored in the other two movies.
Again, a couple of days after I was already pestering my friends to watch the third one since I needed the motivation boost of having the tickets for the next viewing so I could get through the week. One of them wouldn’t be able to join, but he promised to watch the 3rd one on his own so he could join for the last movie.
I remembered that 3.0 was when everything starts to get confusing and surely it was. The animation and the overall art was really good though, better than the previous two. I can’t develop much on how confusing the plot starts to be since I would break my self-imposed no-spoiler rule, so let’s just say that when my friend who couldn’t watch the movie with us saw it some days later, he immediately called me because he didn’t understand anything. Overall, I had to explain to all of my friends some things since I had the additional context of the original series and that already was a bad sign, since, as I said at the beginning of this post, I consider the movies to be “a different take on the series”, not something that you have to watch the original series (which people probably did not remember when this movie came out) in order to truly understand.
Anyways, only one movie remained. Even with all of the confusion of the third movie, it seemed a bit like all of us were going to miss this weekly tradition. We went to watch 4.0, the only one that I hadn’t watched (although I had seen one of the frames of the last scene in Twitter back when it was still Twitter some years ago, and I knew that the general consensus was that it was the best one of the four), so it would be the only showing in which I would be going almost as blind as them.
4.0 is longer than the rest, and it took around 9 years after 3.0 for it to get released (the gaps between the first three movies are way shorter). I have a bunch of thoughts about it but again, no spoilers, so I will just say that the CGI is kind of bad, and even though it solves some questions that 3.0 created, it still has a rushed ending that you will (not) understand (haha, I put not in parenthesis like in the first three titles) unless you have watched The End of Evangelion.
However, regadless of it’s flaws, I remembered that right at the ending before the credits would play one of my friends said that he didn’t understand anything, and another one told him “it doesn’t matter, it was good” and started clapping. Then the credits started to play with the One Last Kiss and Beatiful World songs and I explained them my theories from what I vaguely remembered from the series and EoE while the credits were playing since we were waiting for an after credits scene.
Even though I have read a bit of wiki articles these past few days in order to solve some of my questions, I might just end up rewatching the original series since it has been a while after all, and I’m in kind in the appropriate mood to watch it sort to say. This being said, I have also learned that there are a bunch of games which don’t seem that bad and there is also the manga that I have never read...so maybe you will see another Eva post in the future.
In conclusion, you definitely have to watch these movies a bit of time after having watched the series, that way you won’t be bored at the areas in which they overlap with the original series. There are some things that are different from the original, but I find it natural, since the original Evangelion series had a bit of the feelings of the author on it, and in the 4th of October of this year it will be 30 years since the first episode was launched. And, as I said before, 4.0 came out in 2021.
This makes me think, maybe I should write a story now… I wonder what my future self would think of it.
okay given that the thread says no spoilers in the title but what I'm about to write has spoilers in it:
DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED! FLASH WHY IS THERE NO SPOILER TAG
I'M ONLY GOING TO GIVE THIS WARNING SO AFTER THIS POINT THERE ARE SPOILERS! FOR EVA AND SEVERAL OF ANNO'S OTHER WORKS
Shin Eva is definitely interesting but it never really tickled the fancy of what I thought made Eva good. However I will set my negative thoughts aside for now and talk in a more positive/neutral way about Rebuild. In what way is rebuild another take on Eva? It's actually not an easy question to answer because people will say things like "it's more positive" but I don't think they get to the heart of the matter. What makes Rebuild different, for me, is it feels like Anno is looking back at all his other works and reflecting on them and their common themes. You probably noticed, for example, that each Rebuild gives homage to another work in its soundtrack: 1.0 is the original Evangelion, 2.0 is KareKano, Q is Nadia. 3.0 + 1.0 (or :|| if you're a nerd) seems to break this pattern. If you examine the plots of the movies, you'll see there are also common threads between KareKano and 2.0, and Nadia and Q, respectively.
Then there are common themes that speak to the whole of Anno's corpus. For example basically every one of his major works speaks about the triumph of humanity in some way. In Gunbuster it is about defeating an alien threat. In Nadia, the main villain Gargoyle wants to use Atlantean technology to turn humanity into a slave race. Gargoyle isn't just a comic book villain because he has an argument. He points to all the evil things human beings do - war, slavery, crimes, etc. and argues that humanity is simply to evil to continue existing autonomously. Gargoyle may be considered the birth of the stereotypical Anno villain because this archetype is repeated several times in other works. Notably in Evangelion, the main antagonists are SEELE who want to implement Instrumentality because people keep hurting each other and individuality opens up the opportunity for rejection and hatred. In KareKano this theme is repeated as Arima and Miyazawa are faced with people who don't think their relationship will succeed. This even continues to his latest work, Shin Kamen Rider. The final villain Hongo fights (and the AI behind SHOCKER) want to basically put humanity into a hell world where they lose personal autonomy. In all these works the triumph of the main protagonist reflects the triumph of humanity with some kind of message where humans are worth redemption despite the bad things they do and the ways they mess up.
3.0 + 1.0 still strikes in the ballpark of this theme but it also diverges a bit insofar as it seems to be promoting the idea people can be happy without having to be "stuck" in the world of Eva etc. thus the time loop theme which is prevalent throughout all four of the movies. Thus no more Eva = freedom and therefore a true End of Evangelion. Hehe. And they broke the fourth wall too, to my displeasure. Finally, though, it was satisfying to have an end to the series which went on for so long waiting so many years for Rebuild to finish.
I would say it's very easy to appreciate Shin Eva if you place it in the context of Anno's other works and want to see how he's changed over time as a director and perhaps as a person (for however much we can psychoanalyze from his works, at least). In general, the assessment that he has gotten away from making everything darker and darker is definitely true though that doesn't mean his new works aren't in an objective sense dark at times.
OK, now to respond to Sword's comments. I definitely agree on the art getting better as the movies go on, and the CG does get better too, but there is also more CG in the later movies as Khara become more proficient which I think is bad. CG never melded well in Rebuild and it's a clear downgrade from the animation of the original Eva. Remember this? https://youtu.be/8A3OOC5FdTc (among many others). There seems also to be a trend of saying that 1.0 and 2.0 are good, 3.0 is bad, with mixed assessment of 4.0. I disagree with that. 2.0 is definitely the worst rebuild and 1.0 is definitely the second-worst. This leaves the latter two and 4.0 is definitely better than 3.0. 2.0 is a time wasting short movie with many useless or boring or badly made scenes and drawn-out action sequences when most fights in the original Eva weren't that long. 3.0 + 1.0 also has drawn out combat however it's a much longer movie so it can afford the time wasted. 3.0 is criticized because people don't know what TF is going on, but it had to break the mold and get into a new setting or there's no way we could've had the finale. Still no explanation for the curse of the Eva though. I know what the most common explanation is but it is really not that great and if that is what Anno intended I think he messed up.
Well there's a lot more to say but I only have so much space so I'm going to end it here for now
DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED! FLASH WHY IS THERE NO SPOILER TAG
I'M ONLY GOING TO GIVE THIS WARNING SO AFTER THIS POINT THERE ARE SPOILERS! FOR EVA AND SEVERAL OF ANNO'S OTHER WORKS
Shin Eva is definitely interesting but it never really tickled the fancy of what I thought made Eva good. However I will set my negative thoughts aside for now and talk in a more positive/neutral way about Rebuild. In what way is rebuild another take on Eva? It's actually not an easy question to answer because people will say things like "it's more positive" but I don't think they get to the heart of the matter. What makes Rebuild different, for me, is it feels like Anno is looking back at all his other works and reflecting on them and their common themes. You probably noticed, for example, that each Rebuild gives homage to another work in its soundtrack: 1.0 is the original Evangelion, 2.0 is KareKano, Q is Nadia. 3.0 + 1.0 (or :|| if you're a nerd) seems to break this pattern. If you examine the plots of the movies, you'll see there are also common threads between KareKano and 2.0, and Nadia and Q, respectively.
Then there are common themes that speak to the whole of Anno's corpus. For example basically every one of his major works speaks about the triumph of humanity in some way. In Gunbuster it is about defeating an alien threat. In Nadia, the main villain Gargoyle wants to use Atlantean technology to turn humanity into a slave race. Gargoyle isn't just a comic book villain because he has an argument. He points to all the evil things human beings do - war, slavery, crimes, etc. and argues that humanity is simply to evil to continue existing autonomously. Gargoyle may be considered the birth of the stereotypical Anno villain because this archetype is repeated several times in other works. Notably in Evangelion, the main antagonists are SEELE who want to implement Instrumentality because people keep hurting each other and individuality opens up the opportunity for rejection and hatred. In KareKano this theme is repeated as Arima and Miyazawa are faced with people who don't think their relationship will succeed. This even continues to his latest work, Shin Kamen Rider. The final villain Hongo fights (and the AI behind SHOCKER) want to basically put humanity into a hell world where they lose personal autonomy. In all these works the triumph of the main protagonist reflects the triumph of humanity with some kind of message where humans are worth redemption despite the bad things they do and the ways they mess up.
3.0 + 1.0 still strikes in the ballpark of this theme but it also diverges a bit insofar as it seems to be promoting the idea people can be happy without having to be "stuck" in the world of Eva etc. thus the time loop theme which is prevalent throughout all four of the movies. Thus no more Eva = freedom and therefore a true End of Evangelion. Hehe. And they broke the fourth wall too, to my displeasure. Finally, though, it was satisfying to have an end to the series which went on for so long waiting so many years for Rebuild to finish.
I would say it's very easy to appreciate Shin Eva if you place it in the context of Anno's other works and want to see how he's changed over time as a director and perhaps as a person (for however much we can psychoanalyze from his works, at least). In general, the assessment that he has gotten away from making everything darker and darker is definitely true though that doesn't mean his new works aren't in an objective sense dark at times.
OK, now to respond to Sword's comments. I definitely agree on the art getting better as the movies go on, and the CG does get better too, but there is also more CG in the later movies as Khara become more proficient which I think is bad. CG never melded well in Rebuild and it's a clear downgrade from the animation of the original Eva. Remember this? https://youtu.be/8A3OOC5FdTc (among many others). There seems also to be a trend of saying that 1.0 and 2.0 are good, 3.0 is bad, with mixed assessment of 4.0. I disagree with that. 2.0 is definitely the worst rebuild and 1.0 is definitely the second-worst. This leaves the latter two and 4.0 is definitely better than 3.0. 2.0 is a time wasting short movie with many useless or boring or badly made scenes and drawn-out action sequences when most fights in the original Eva weren't that long. 3.0 + 1.0 also has drawn out combat however it's a much longer movie so it can afford the time wasted. 3.0 is criticized because people don't know what TF is going on, but it had to break the mold and get into a new setting or there's no way we could've had the finale. Still no explanation for the curse of the Eva though. I know what the most common explanation is but it is really not that great and if that is what Anno intended I think he messed up.
Well there's a lot more to say but I only have so much space so I'm going to end it here for now
I completely forgot to read this topic last week, I think I opened it on my phone which marked it as read then I forgot to look at it again... Almost did the same thing today but I came up with a clever solution >:))
I remember the watch session pretty well and how it went. I don't recall if I watched the NGE anime in full before that? It feels like I really should've but I'm really weird when it comes to actually watching things. What I do remember is that it was great, and EoE as well.
The intention of the watch session was also to then continue on with the Rebuilds and, like you mentioned, we skipped 1.0 and went straight to 2.0 because it is mostly a retelling of what already happened in the original anime series and, maybe if its been a while since you've watched it this may be true but, I do not agree that this is a good way to watch these films.
I hated it. I feel like I remember dropping out somewhere halfway through the film but I'm not entirely sure. I'm a stickler for details and there were too many differences between the original anime and what was going on 2.0 to consider it a continuation and for a long time it was my opinion that the Rebuilds were not worth the time at all.
Last year for a class we had to watch either the original Evangelion anime series or 1.0 as preparation for a class. 1.0 was being screened in a classroom for people without access to the material otherwise and if you'd already seen either before you'd be fine to just not join in. Since the screening also got livestreamed in a Kaltura classroom I decided to join in anyway out of curiosity, pretty much to challenge the opinion I formed based on my experience jumping straight to 2.0.
I do think my opinion would have differed a lot if we had first watched 1.0. I still prefer the original series + EoE out of the two, but it would've at least been more understandable. For people who were already intimately familiar with both like thugginator and other people in that watch session this wouldn't have made a lot of sense, but for me, who in that moment really fell in love with the intricacies and details of the original, I felt like it had dimishing effect. I feel like Evangelion is a series where small details and moments of introspection matter.
I read Sangui's post despite not having seen anything beyond 2.0 yet but I'm glad I did. (and probably also spoiler warning here as well then?)
I haven't really explored a lot of Anno's other works but reading your post has certainly made me more interested in doing so. Especially the points about his directorial eras being reflected in the soundtracks to and other aspects of the Rebuilds. I think I will make the effort to watch all of those and then revisit all of the Rebuilds and see how I feel about them then.
I remember the watch session pretty well and how it went. I don't recall if I watched the NGE anime in full before that? It feels like I really should've but I'm really weird when it comes to actually watching things. What I do remember is that it was great, and EoE as well.
The intention of the watch session was also to then continue on with the Rebuilds and, like you mentioned, we skipped 1.0 and went straight to 2.0 because it is mostly a retelling of what already happened in the original anime series and, maybe if its been a while since you've watched it this may be true but, I do not agree that this is a good way to watch these films.
I hated it. I feel like I remember dropping out somewhere halfway through the film but I'm not entirely sure. I'm a stickler for details and there were too many differences between the original anime and what was going on 2.0 to consider it a continuation and for a long time it was my opinion that the Rebuilds were not worth the time at all.
Last year for a class we had to watch either the original Evangelion anime series or 1.0 as preparation for a class. 1.0 was being screened in a classroom for people without access to the material otherwise and if you'd already seen either before you'd be fine to just not join in. Since the screening also got livestreamed in a Kaltura classroom I decided to join in anyway out of curiosity, pretty much to challenge the opinion I formed based on my experience jumping straight to 2.0.
I do think my opinion would have differed a lot if we had first watched 1.0. I still prefer the original series + EoE out of the two, but it would've at least been more understandable. For people who were already intimately familiar with both like thugginator and other people in that watch session this wouldn't have made a lot of sense, but for me, who in that moment really fell in love with the intricacies and details of the original, I felt like it had dimishing effect. I feel like Evangelion is a series where small details and moments of introspection matter.
I read Sangui's post despite not having seen anything beyond 2.0 yet but I'm glad I did. (and probably also spoiler warning here as well then?)
I haven't really explored a lot of Anno's other works but reading your post has certainly made me more interested in doing so. Especially the points about his directorial eras being reflected in the soundtracks to and other aspects of the Rebuilds. I think I will make the effort to watch all of those and then revisit all of the Rebuilds and see how I feel about them then.
Yea, I can get why people wouldn't like 2.0 since it's where it diverges the most from the original, not only plot wise but also changes the personalities of the characters a lot.
I think you watched the anime before Flash, I recall you sharing a screenshot of best character penpen at some point before.
(it wasnt this one but i think penpen is cool so i will post)
I think you watched the anime before Flash, I recall you sharing a screenshot of best character penpen at some point before.
(it wasnt this one but i think penpen is cool so i will post)
