The original show is finally coming out on blu ray in the US and Uk. Pre orders start next week. US NEON GENESIS EVANGELION UK https://evangelion.alltheanime.com/ Spoiler Although I never actually believed for a second that it would make an appearance in the new movie I am a little bummed it didn't.
It’s nice that they finally addressed the majority of hanging plots from 2.0. One thing I especially liked in the new movie was Spoiler Finding a middle ground with Shinji’s angst and eventual determination to finish the conflict. Which also proved useful when literally all of willie’s options were exhausted and shinji making the big choice to pilot eva 01 again.
I streamed the movie last night and honestly... this was Hideaki Anno's Masterpiece. and I cried happy tears at the end. I am not ashamed to say that. I watched the dub cut and I really appreciated hearing the majority of the original cast again. What stunned me at first was hearing Amanda Win Lee as Rei AGAIN! There were some changes to the cast but at least it's not Netflix Dub bad. It just felt good to hear the original voices reprising their roles for quite possibly the last time. Spoiler I personally felt the 30 minute climax of introspection and abstraction was Anno putting everything about his struggle with depression on screen and in full force, but unlike EoE where he fell into despair, this was his way of coming to terms and moving on from it. The one part of it I felt was unintentionally funny but poetic was seeing the same 'stage show' headspace from the original TV series ending redone as a TOKUSATSU movie set. The fight between Eva-01 and 13 in Tokyo 3 with the buildings sliding around like building blocks until Shinji falls against the fabric backdrop before crashing through the set. And as Shinji's metaphorically closing the set, you the Evas hanging on racks in the back, with the Wunder and its three sibling ships as miniatures hanging from cables and the Entry Plug control seats as props. There's also the nice touch of the original blue Eva-00 on the rack as an Easter Egg. Another mostly unspoken plot point be addressed was seeing Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's 'final chapter' of the Manga made semi-canon with regard to how they made Mari not a Mary Sue. He called his chapter "fan service" but we all know that's been a code phrase for almost everything important in Eva since the beginning. Her role in the films was always Shinji's motivating force since her introduction, and it's no surprise to find out she was based mostly on Anno's real world wife who helped him through his depression.
Another positive outcome Spoiler Compared to EoE is that Shinji actually made the effort to want to get better, and someone being there to listen and support him.
There is also seeing the antithesis of the previous film. Spoiler Where in You Can(Not) Redo, everyone was blaming Shinji for the condition of the world, the people of settlement 3 including his former classmates and friends show him a more positive reception, and are more accepting of what has become of him as a result of what he's been through.
I've always loved it from an analytical standpoint. Even writing a couple of College papers about it.
It was a weird ride, but it was a very satisfying end to the franchise. After nine years of waiting, it didn't disappoint.
If we're talking about the biggest WTF moment mine would be Spoiler Asuka pulling that thing from her eye and turn to an Angel.
Biggest WTF moment for me was Spoiler Asuka being a clone this time around. I had a hunch something was up with her backstory with how they dodged it until now, but I thought it would be something like her mother never losing her soul and Shikinami being a maiden name or her father's last name. Still trying to wrap my head around it, really. I guess Sohryu existed in this timeline as the fetus they cloned? And her personality was programmed like Rei's but to emulate Sohryu based on whatever the Dead Sea Scrolls said about her? With souls being reincarnated over and over again in this world, would this be Asuka's soul inside a clone body?
Spoiler maybe I missed it but was this Rei ever explained? Was it the Rei from eoe peaking into different dimensions/timelines/future/whatevers? She appears again in the new movie while Rei Q was looking out unto the lake. In 1.0 In 3.0
In 3.0+1.0 Spoiler My problems are when WILLIE went to fight NERV and a bunch of shit was revealed that they apparently always had the ability to do (ex. Asuka and her eva pulling some weird energy mecha. Ok.) And then we get to the human instrumentality part and it’s obvious that they’re redoing EoE because they regret it, lol. For anyone who hasn’t seen the original media, they’d probably have no idea why there’s naked rei this time around (not that it made much sense in the first place).
It actually makes (a little) sense in the original series. Rei was partially cloned from Lilith's DNA and and she took her shape when she joined her to begin the Instrumentality as the complete Lilith now with Adam in her womb.
Spoiler: Get in the spoiler, shinji the "reconciliation" as it were with the father was kind of cathartic.
That was a great way to end it, didn't see the pairing coming till the very end but I found myself okay with it. I also find the message of growing up not insulting but touching, more it is okay to move on from things then wanting to go back... Also, kudos to Amazon, I am not sure why or how they did it, but it was satisfying to hear on the english end the majority of the old cast reprise their roles for the films. I am happy those that wanted to see this through to the end got this chance unlike from what I read of the netflix re-dub. It just added to the satisfaction of ending this for me.
I watched it this evening. Overall, a good third ending to the franchise, but there’s still a lot to unpack for me. Thankfully I can rewatch all 4 movies on Amazon Prime. I still hate that they mention stuff like the Door of Guf, Nebuchadnezzar's Key, and Spoiler the three other ships like the Wunder, only completely operational flippantly like we’re supposed to know where they fit into the plan for Instrumentality. My biggest questions: Why did Spoiler Shinji tell someone (I think it was Mari) that he wasn’t going to remake the world, just have the Eva go away, and in the end, the world was remade anyway? Also, was Spoiler Asuka on the beach in her tattered plug suit finally in an aged body? She looked quite different lying there in the beach, right before he jettisoned her entry plug, in which which she looked young again for a split second.
