“After the Second Impact, Tokyo-3 is being attacked by giant monsters called Angels that seek to eradicate humankind. The child Shinji’s objective is to fight the Angels by piloting one of the mysterious Evangelion mecha units. A remake of the first six episodes of GAINAX’s famous 1996 anime series. The film was retitled “Evangelion: 1.01” for its DVD release and “Evangelion: 1.11” for a release with additional scenes.” Letterboxd Synopsis
On this random Saturday, I just had the urge to sit down and watch something, and after scrolling through Prime for thirty minutes, I saw that the Rebuild films would be leaving in 12 days. So I told myself, why not. Little fact about me, I love Evangelion. I have seen everything except the last rebuild movie as recently as 2019. The year before I started the anime blog that would eventually become this, so I haven’t really gotten to talk about one of my favorite pieces of media ever outside of it appearing on my favorite anime lists back when I did those. And yeah, 7 years later I was quickly reminded why this is an all-time great piece of media.
Evangelion is a story about a young boy (Shinji) with a lot of issues. In a world with just as many. This depiction of Japan is so visceral. The visual language used in this movie/series is so amazing. This movie is just a retelling of roughly the first 7 episodes of the anime. It follows Shinji being invited and brought to the company. Learning how to pilot his EVA and going through the rough emotions of whether he even should. It lays the foundations for everyone’s relationships and just how fucked up everyone is in this fucked up world.
Shinji is an all-time character. He really is the embodiment of a young teen with deep trauma that manifests itself in attachment and validation issues. Things that, on some level, I think all of us have felt in our lives, but most particularly in this volatile, really malleable age that is being a pre-teen. A lot of these issues stem from the loss of his mother and the abandonment and cold shoulder of his father. Throughout this entire movie, it’s very sad to see him scratch and claw for that validation, and when he fails, be so hard on himself. He has no sense of self-worth or inner happiness. Only able to seek those things from outside, but not knowing how to even maneuver real-life relationships because the ones that he should’ve formed with the people to teach him that just didn’t happen. It’s the hedgehog dilemma that is brought in the movie. It just makes for a sad boy doing a dangerous thing not because he wants to, or feels a calling to, but because he is told to. And in some of the best dialogue in the movie, he does wrestle with that, but no conclusion is found in this movie.
I just want to briefly touch on the other characters because this movie is really about Shinji and his relationship with them. Gendo (his father) is such an interesting, ominous person. There are plans within plans with him being at the head of this organization fighting the angels. He’s one of those characters where everything feels tactically planned with him. I’m excited to re-see how his arc plays out in these movies. Same with Misato. The self-appointed caretaker of Shinji who sees all the faults in him and all the wrongs done to him but can’t deny that they need him. It feels like she sees some of herself in him to an extent. And then there’s Rei. I know I’ll be talking about her more in the next couple movie reviews; as for this movie, she is another big mystery. Taking the name that Gendo and his wife would’ve chosen if Shinji was a girl. Very favored by Gendo himself. No questions asked about her duty. She is the obedient child, and I’m so interested to see how her and Shinji’s relationship grows.
Visually, for a movie that came out almost 20 years ago. This is still some of the best animation you will ever see. Anno is, in truth, a generational director. I seriously think you can cut all dialogue from this movie and just visually this story could be told. There are so many moments that, just from a frame or scene, tell so much. There’s a reason why so many things from this franchise have legitimately become iconic. From the angel designs to the Eva designs. The semi-futuristic Japan and the bloody water. This is a visual masterpiece. Also, the score is phenomenal. There’s a specific scene here where the dialogue is backed by these intense piano notes, and I was just in awe. And the range of music is great too. The overall soundscape is to die for. From the alien noises the angels make to the voice acting. I love this dub cast. I think it’s some returning and some different from the original series. But between both, I love them all.
So yeah. Evangelion has been one of my favorite things for a long, long time. So there’s no surprise that I absolutely loved this movie. Being pretty much a retelling of the first chunk of episodes, the pacing does feel just a tad bit fast to fit the movie time, but make no mistake, this is an amazing movie. It is visually phenomenal and, story-wise, sets up for some really interesting character and philosophical moments moving forward. I’m definitely going to binge through these in the next few days.
Evangelion 1.1 You Are (Not) Alone – 10/10
