Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance

So welcome to the landmark event of 2011.  After an unbearable wait of two years, finally "Evangelion 2.0" has been released, the sequel to "Evangelion 1.0", which came out in late 2009, making it one of the very first movies ever reviewed on this blog.  This is the second part of the Rebuild of Evangelion, a remake of the original series while hopes to rebuild the story after blowing it to pieces in "End of Evangelion".  Yes, its been that long, that when "Eva 1" came out, Planet Blue was still "Tales From the Q?" I had only like three readers, and I had yet to have gone completely insane reviewing "Dissidia" yet.  Seeing "Evangelion 2.0:  You Can (Not) Advance" is basically the fulfillment of all my hopes and dreams.  Now I have the years and years wait for "Evangelion 3.0" to look forward to.

Throughout my lifetime I've seen a lot of movies that I've really liked.  Tons of them.  Look back at my blog history, of all the movies I see, most of the reviews are positive*.  And there are plenty of movies that I'd want to see again, "Tron: Legacy" and "Inception" being at the top of the list.  But its a really rare thing for me to want to want to watch a movie all over again once the end credits roll.  "Evangelion 2.0" got that reaction out of me, just as its legendary mindfuck ancestor "End of Evangelion".  Its up there with "The Departed" a movie I saw on Saturday, then went back to see the very next weekend - when it was somehow even better.  "Evangelion 2.0" is like a great song I can't get out of my head, I just want to listen to it all day long.  I have become evangelized by this movie, and now I must spread the word.  I'm ringing the bells from the mountainside:  come now, see "Evangelion 2.0"!  All must be Saved!

While "Evangelion 1.0" was simply a straight-up remake of the first portion of TV show, "Evangelion 2.0" decides to slowly break away from the plotline.  First it introduces a completely new character and a couple new Angels.  Then you notice that one character isn't in the right place for this battle.  Then by the end balls have finally found their way to the walls, and shit goes completely off the walls into utter insanity.  "2.0" goes so far that I'm completely at a loss as it what they could possibly do next with the last two movies.  But since this is "Evangelion" we're talking about, its probably going to be completely insane and awesome.

(Spoilers abound.  Series terminology abounds.  I won't even try defining this stuff.  You should watch the movie first.)

In "Evangelion 2.0" finally Asuka Langley Soryu Shikinami** has finally appeared, joining the cast with Shinji and Rei.  Back in the old series, Asuka was easily my favorite character due to being a cartoon version of my sister, minus the red hair and German-ness.  Loud, bossy, arrogant, jealous, angry, yes, Asuka was the best.  Her catch-phrase "what are you, stupid??" still rings with a loving tone in my heart.  In a pretty awesome entry, Asuka destroys an Angel all by herself, then joins the team being forced to live with Shinji in Misato's apartment.  So after plenty of anime teen jokes, they're working together to kill the Angels.  Asuka this time seems a bit more tolerant of Shinji even though she still calls him "stupid".  Naturally Asuka has a difficult relationship with Shinji, since she wants to sleep with him on minute then murder him the next.  And with Rei now being set up as a serious love interest (all this love stuff is represented by the girls learning how to cook - feminists, you can get murderously angry now), you'd think that Asuka would really go over the deep end this time.  But oddly, she seems to actually accept Rei and Shinji, which shows a far more adult sensibility about her.  The old Asuka would curse in German and get even more angry.  Of course, "Evangelion 2.0" does treat Asuka as a bag of fanservice, including a downright shameless scene of her crotch at one point.  Just watch out for her second Plug-Suit.

The storyline this time at first seems like a somehow more sane retelling of the story.  Rei, rather than being a quiet mindless doll, actually works up a plan to make Shinji and his dad less cold to each other by cooking a dinner.  I mean, wow, Rei, that's so human of you.  Of course, I couldn't imagine a more socially awkward moment than dinner with Gendo Ikari, what could you even talk to the man about?  World domination?  Folding your hands?  Funky boogie intro themes?  Rei, in the famous elevator scene, actually stops Asuka when she tries to hit her.  In a really touching moment, Toji, Shinji's friend who originally became the tragic pilot of Eva Unit 03, doesn't pilot the doomed robot.  Instead he gets to play with his little sister who gets out of the hospital - the first time we the audience ever have seen her!  And for a moment, it seems like the movie will ride this good mood all the way... until the other shoe drops and all Hell breaks loose.

By the way, I still haven't gotten used to Rei's new voice actor.  But considering her character's change in this version, it fits in a way.  Asuka sounds a bit different, probably because of natural aging in her voice actress, Tiffany Grant.  Shinji is still the same old same old.  One thing that's very annoying is that Gendo and his evil chancellor, Fuyutuski, both sound nearly the same since both had their voice actors change.  So you can't tell which one is talking while they're planning world domination together.

Mari, the new girl, is probably going to be the biggest single point of contention here.  Being the new character, Mari initiates a xenophobic response from me, so she has a lot to prove.  She doesn't really have any major plot importance so far, she's just been fanservice so far.  Mari, with her glasses, looks a bit like Ninamori from "FLCL" (made by the same studio and directed by the same mad genius).  Riding into battle singing a song, she kicks ass while cursing up a storm, and being sexually attracted to the smell of the plug fluid, which smells like blood.  But we never get to see much of her.  Clearly she has some kind of secret plan, having hyjacked Eva 02.  Interestingly she has the ability to make Evas go Berserker on command, but beyond that she's a mystery.  What's really going to piss people off is that Mari takes Asuka's old place in the battle against the last Angel to appear.  They both are about as successful.  We'll have to wait for "Evangelion 3.0" and "4.0" when Mari has more than fifteen minutes of screentime to discover if she's any good.

When I talk about all Hell breaking loose, I mean it.  First of all, Asuka is shot down halfway through the movie when she pilots Eva 03, and Shinji has to watch while Eva 01 rips that one to pieces when it gets infected with an Angel.  She's going to be back in the next movie, only with an eyepatch.  Shinji then has his first of what I imagine will be many psycho freak-out hallucinations, this one taking place that orange train.  After he tries to take down NERV headquarters, he leaves the   Then Zeruel appears.  If you've seen the original series, you'd know that Zeruel is arguably the most dangerous Angel of them all, being almost unstoppable in open combat.  It took Unit 01 going completely berserk to stop it.  When Mari tries that trick, it fails completely.  Rei tries herself to fight the thing, but winds up getting eaten.  Zeruel evolves into a half-Rei, half-Angel monster, leaving only Shinji to fight it.

This is where Shinji, to my honest shock, suddenly becomes a hero for the first time in "Evangelion" history.  For us fans who have known this kid for years, Shinji is probably the worst hero in anime history.  He spends most of the series moping around, fighting monsters only because everybody bullies him into it, and by "End of Evangelion" he's had a complete nervous breakdown.  By that point he won't even fight, even when everybody around him is getting killed.  While Asuka pulls some badass levels off the chart, Shinji mopes unable to do anything but get captured and cause the Apocalypse.  This time, however, Shinji actually does something heroic.  When Rei gets eaten, he pulls Eva 01 to its absolute limit, or as the silly technobabble says "he's broken the bonds between the Earth and the Heavens".  Screaming about how he doesn't care about anything but saving her, he kicks Zeruel's ass, reaches into the metaphysical border, and pulls Rei out.  But goddamnit, he saves Rei.  Its a great moment of anime teen love overcoming the universe, I'm reminded of the ending of "Eureka Seven".  At one point I swear to God Shinji physically transforms into Takkun from "FLCL".  Misato gives Shinji encouragement because this is the great moment where he's finally found himself.  After ten years of being a mopey depressed whimp of a character, Shinji is fighting for himself, his dreams.

So I guess Rei is the romantic winner in this version.  I guess that would be nice and all... if only Shinji hadn't accidently triggered the Apocalypse while doing it.  Luckily after the credits Kaworu comes down from the Moon to stop it.  It... makes sense in context, I swear.  In "Evangelion 3.0", I guess Kaworu is going to have a more prominent role.  Maybe we can finally figure out what his deal is.  Though as happy as I am for Shinji to have found true love, he's going to have to learn eventually that Rei is actually a clone of his mom mixed together with the soul of Lilith and that Gendo has an entire vat of spare Reis in the basement.

So "Evangelion 2.0" really goes all the way, nearly bringing about the end of the world while basically concluding its protagonist's heroic journey.  So that leaves me with the burning question:  what the Hell are they going to do next?  What kind of trials will Shinji have to face?  How can they top nearly destroying the Earth?  By destroying the Earth?  They did that already in "End of Evangelion".  Honestly the only place this series can go is by ending the universe.

See you in the next movie, "Evangelion 3.0: Q?".

Fanwank Corner:  My theory that the Rebuild of Evangelion is actually a sequel and not a remake seems to be gaining more and more ground.  The remake's version of Second Impact is described in greater detail.  It was apparently caused by a group of men trying to destroy Original Sin, which sounds a lot like SEELE's plan from "End".  Then we see Misato's flashback to Second Impact, where appears a group of smiling female figures.  They're distorted a bit, but I'm pretty sure the Rei ghosts that stole everybody's soul.  Plus Second Impact's crater looks a bit like the Black Moon.  Not to mention that Kaworu is working to save Shinji "this time".  My theory is that whatever they're calling "Second Impact" this time is actually "Third Impact" from "End of Evangelion".  All this will be explained in the insane Fourth movie.  Either that or the Third Movie will be the end of a trilogy and the two timelines will somehow converge.

At the very least we can all hope for an ending better than "Lost".

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* I don't actually like 80% of the movies I see, but I don't review every movie I see.  I only review crappy movies if I think there's something to be learned from them.  This is why you never got to see a review of "The Social Network".  It wasn't good enough, I had nothing to say, so no review.

** The naming convention of "Evangelion" bases every character's last name on a Japanese WWII warship.  Asuka going from "Soryu" to "Shikinami" seems to be to be a major step down.  The Soryu was an Aircraft Carrier that fought in Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, and was finally sunk at the Battle of Midway.  In its day, it was one of the deadliest and most powerful ships on Earth.  Shikinami, however, is just a Destroyer that did a lot of escort missions, really without any major distinction.  On the other hand, Rei is named after the Ayanami, another Destroyer of the same class that's just as forgettable of a warship, so it makes it more equal, I guess.  The new girl, Mari, is named after the Makinami, of a Destroyer of a more advanced class.  Shinji, I think gets the shortest end of the stick, being named Ikari which is just an anchor.