I figured it's been a while since I've watched Neon Genesis Evangelion in its entirety, so going into Evangelion 1.11 would be kind of a fresh slate viewing, or at least a memory-jogging one. It turns out the former isn't actually possible, but it was certainly a different experience nonetheless. Coming from someone who originally watched Eva on rented VHS tapes, and then again and again on ever-deteriorating copies of said tapes—I have no problem confessing my high school crimes; sue me (wait, don't)—this is a true visual treat. You Are (Not) Alone is Eva for fans of animation, and it looks stunning on Blu-ray.
If you've somehow remained an Eva virgin after all these years, the basic premise is fairly straight-forward. Meek teenager Shinji Ikari is called to the headquarters of Nerv, a paramilitary organization located in Tokyo-3, with the sole purpose of assisting in the prevention of another cataclysm on the scale of the Second Impact. That disaster managed to wipe out half the human population, so something of a similar nature would no doubt finish the job.
To combat this, Nerv fights the good fight against attacking creatures known as Angels with their own bipedal beasts: the Eva Units. These giants aren't robots any average person can just hop in and pilot, though, as total synchronization requires children of a very specific nature. Shinji is such a child—the Third Child to be precise—and his fate is intertwined with Eva Unit 01 whether he wants to pilot it or not.
Seasoned veterans might roll their eyes at such a simplified introduction to the series, but that's essentially what sparks this flame, and it should be interesting to see whether or not the Rebuild project can attract fans that weren't weened on the series proper at some point. Will today's viewers take to such a whiny protagonist right off the bat? To be fair, in regards to that criticism at least, I don't think a lot of "manly" anime viewers consider what Shinji is up against from the very beginning. "Hey, fourteen-year-old kid! I know you're barely through puberty, but get in this hulking purple mech and fight horrifying monsters that we don't fully understand!"
Yeah, you'd probably cry to daddy and pout ceaselessly in the face of that crisis, too.
Evangelion 1.0 (and 1.11) covers the first leg of the journey, and for the most part it stays pretty true to the established narrative. The real treat here is seeing it all gloriously reanimated, with many key scenes extensively redone and shown in a more visually dynamic light. Shinji's first battle against the Angel Sachiel is really something special, with Unit 01 glowing a neon green under the moonlight. In fact, even the quickest of moments now display expert fluidity, whether it's an electric kaiju whip-through of a Tokyo-3 building or the orb-like explosions of a hundred missiles in the blink of an eye. This extra attention to detail really pays off in the film's climax: an intense sniper mission that makes the production of its television counterpart seem downright anemic.
I was telling one of my friends who isn't particularly into anime (but he loves him some FLCL) that I was watching the first of the Rebuild movies. After explaining the concept behind them, he asked "have they run out of ideas?" Fair question, but Evangelion is proper fodder for a full-on reboot like this for a handful of reasons. The most obvious is profitability, of course. In a world where one can purchase Evangelion bicycle shorts to go with their Eva-01 bike, it should come as no surprise that Gainax and its partners are itching to return to the series.
Beyond that, though, there are so many iconic visual moments throughout the series that it makes sense to want to present them as fantastically as possible. Hell, I spotted a ton in just the 30-second preview of You Can (Not) Advance, the second film in the Rebuild tetralogy. I don't know that these will mean a whole lot to newcomers, but it must be exciting to see some of the more intense imagery for the first time, whether it's Unit-01 going berserk in the middle of Tokyo-3, or that very same unit silhouetted through a crimson shower of blood.
Revisiting this show in a new light may have gotten me all hot-blooded, but it's definitely tough to judge You Are (Not) Alone as a film. There's really not much of a movie-like structure to it, and those familiar with the series will identify it more as a collection of the episodes it represents. Something like End of Evangelion, which was clearly structured as a film, is easier to evaluate as a stand-alone product, but this just has me waiting to see what direction Hideaki Anno and co. take the story in next. The original series was notorious for cost-cutting measures masked as bold stylistic choices, so half the fun is seeing what happens when those budgetary restraints are drastically loosened.
While it could certainly be worse, the special features are by far the most disappointing aspect of this disc. With so much having gone into the theatrical recreation of this series, it's a little disheartening to have a brief comparative (and narration-free) featurette as the only production document. It may not be the only special feature, but unless you plan on poring over promotional materials it's the only one of note.
This naturally opens the door for Blu-ray releases called Evangelion 1.12, 1.13, and so on. However, unless potential future releases include drastic additions in the bonus materials department, this is the best bet. Despite my moaning about the extras, it's really a spectacular looking film, and anyone with access to a Blu-ray player and interest in the series—established fan or not—should check it out in HD pronto.
Studio/Company: FUNimation
Available: Now
Rating: PG-13
>> Samuel Trejo (Saturday, April 10, 2010)
who has blue ray?
>> V (Wednesday, April 07, 2010)
No.
"Eva 1.0" is the theatrical version which never got a US DVD release
"Eva 1.01" is the "special edition DVD"...which had such severe darkness problems that FUNimation shouldn't have released it, but they did anyway.
"Eva 1.11" is the Blu-ray, utterly definitive version, with jaw-dropping visual quality, as well as about 3 minutes worth of new scenes.
>> William Chavis (Friday, April 02, 2010)
1.0 Stands for the DvD version of the Film
1.11 Stands for the Blu-ray version. As well as a few min of extra footage.
>> V (Wednesday, March 17, 2010)
My fansite, ReVolutionOfEvangelion.org, make a full hour video comparison between "Eva 1.01" and "Eva 1.11" - http://revolutionofevangelion.org/review-of-funimations-dvd-release-of-rebuild-of-evangelion-1-01-eva-1-11/
There were three versions of this movie, Eva 1.11 supersedes all of them:
Eva 1.0 - theatrical version that ran in Japan. FUNimation didn't release this on DVD nor should they have; it was already redundant; they gave it a limited-run screening at conventions.
Eva 1.01 Special Edition DVD - utter crap. No, Eva 1.11 does not have "266 minor animation improvements" -- that was Eva 1.01. They were mostly things like fixing spelling errors and coloring gaffes, minor things.......the problem was that there was a flaw in the DVD master template, so the *entire print run* of Eva 1.01 has *SEVERE DARKNESS PROBLEMS*. Night scenes bare borderline unintelligible and look like silhouettes (my fansite has comparison shots pointing out how bad it is).
So what's the point in having some minor coloration fixes if its *too dark to even watch the movie?* it affected basic story comprehension.
Later in Japan, Eva 1.11 was released: the Blu Ray version.
Eva 1.11 has 99 other minor animation fixes, but more importantly *it utterly fixes the darkness problem that Eva 1.01 had*...it's even clearer than the original theatrical Eva 1.0 version!
More importantly, it's got about 3 minutes of *actually new scenes*
That doesn't seem like much, and they're all in the first 15 minutes, but they were *sorely missed* -- some scenes got cut for time and were never animated for the original version, and they went back and created them for the Blu Ray:
While short...30 seconds is a long time in a movie if you think about it; it's not just stillshots and panning shots:
it's 3 minutes of *dialogue-heavy* scenes, all in the first 15 minutes, and thus *are mostly in the important introduction-scenes of most characters*. I.e. the entire long running conversation that Shinji has with Misato *when they first meet* that esablishes both of their personalities is now restored.
On my fansite, I have *video recording* of me asking FUNimation about this at their Anime Boston convention panel...SIX MONTHS before they released the flawed Eva 1.01 version. They said they were aware there were different versions but they hadn't *settled* on one yet.
Nonetheless, by Christmas they released the flawed Eva 1.01 release...which had been ON THE STREET in Japan for 18 months, so EVERYONE knew it had darkness problems. They released it ANYWAY.
Forcing fans to double-dip, because the REAL version, "Eva 1.11" they pushed back to Spring.
Look, maybe they simply didn't have Eva 1.11 ready by Christmas but didn't want to miss the shopping season. I understand that. But they should have been honest and presented it as "hey, get the early Christmas version to be the first kid on your block with it!"
Now...it's funny: when you see FUNimation trying to pitch Eva 1.11 at their convention panels, other than "it's a blu ray" they have no real way of promoting it short of saying "we lied before, tricked you into buying a bad product, this is the jaw-dropping really good version that we intentionally withheld from you".......so instead they just fumble around.
Fumble around going uh..."it's Eva one point one point one one one hahaha there's a lot of ones!" and sort of brush it off; they're afraid to market it because it reveals their trick. (dude...call it "Eva one point eleven" so people can easily tell the difference!" it's what I do)
And as for the "Everyone does this" response...Manga Entertainment got the rights to distribute Rebuild (using FUNimation's dub of course) in the UK...and they didn't even BOTHER to release Eva 1.01 !!!
So Eva 1.11 is the version we were waiting for.
Mr Luster I wish you had talked about the new English dub more, which recast most of the roles but was nonetheless amazingly good.
Your review is head and shoulders above Mike Toole's poorly researched and misleading comparison of Rebuild of Eva to Death & Rebirth.
>> Joseph Luster (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)
According to FUNi: "The stunning rebuild of the anime masterpiece is now extended and enhanced with never before seen new animation and 266 visual and audio improvements."
>> Alexander Case (Sunday, March 14, 2010)
Out of curiosity, what is the difference between the 1.0 release and the 1.11 release?
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