Review of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

3.0 caused Anno depression again. If I make 3.0, I would probably be too. 3.0 is the third entry into the Evangelion Rebuild series. By now, if you are a newcomer to the series, you are just pushing it. This is the 3rd in a series where character's contexts are written in the original 26 episodes + 1 movie. There's no point diving in here. I gave the Rebuild title some thoughts, and I think of all the movies in the 3, 3.0 was the most rebuild of the rebuild. Rebuild suggests reconstruction into the original form. For an Evangelion act, this is actually in line.Evangelion, first and foremost, was Anno's Space Battleship Yamato. This is as close to a space battleship he had ever come. The ship in the movie can fly! Joke aside, this falls into the 18/20-24 range of the original series, when Shinji, despite coming so far, have things around him falling apart, most of the time not entirely his fault, but some is. For example, Asuka's breakdown was caused by her fragile self, but compounded that was Shinji's role as the chosen by his father, which made him do things that's not plausible in the eyes of Asuka, accelerating her breakdown. His presence also caused Rei to self destruct. Shinji's role in 3.0 mirror that somewhat, as he started to lose those he holds dear, he went into isolation as he distanced himself from everything and everyone, only for an alien to jolt him and, only to reduce him back deeper into the hole.

I preface that, because I am aware most fans of the original series, such as I, hates the rebuild, especially 3.0
I watched 3.0 in theatre, it was magnificent. I don't think many movies deserves to be in theatre, Shinkai's copy pasta is one, Koe no Katachi should really be watch at home in silence to appreciate the emotional heart of the movie. Evangelion definitely belongs in the theatre. It's bombastic, sometime mindlessly filled with action and visual flair. While I'm at it, I might as well elaborate a little on the strongest point of Evangelion as series, as well as the rebuild, the visual. I think 3.0 was much more striking than 2.0. The choice of colour, the models are much more bold yet blend into the 2D characters much better. I was very impressed with the destructive landscape, the strange way the Evas move, and the damn apocalypse. However, the selling point, the bombastic fight in the beginning with the flying ship, is a tard silly. That wasn't good action. Anno tried to be innovative with the camera following the swinging angel. I think that needed more rethinking. However, for aspire artists out there, that's the type of thing animation can do that traditional movies can't. Find more angles and shots like that and adapt them to your will. Excessive stills in animation ala Shinkai makes me want to put him out of his misery. In the art front, nothing much to complain about, and plenty to celebrate.

Though, the meat of Eva is going to be tough this time around. Anno's ground breaking series was memorable because it really wasn't a straight forward action show. It's an action show with heart, but that heart is pain, mix in with some religious symbolism cum conspiracy nonsense. Every one has a little bit to contribute to the mess. The shift from more action oriented to more retrospective, explorative of human emotion was very well done. While the show runners bragged about how it was because they ran out of budget, I think it was always going in that direction. Ritsuko's character was building up to her climax since the beginning, so were Misato. Misato with a beer in her mouth, wondering if her friendly approach was a bit too on the nose, is a classic in setting up characters without being, well, too on the nose. I mention build up, because the Rebuild series sort of throw that trash out of the window. It feels more like Death, the recap of the original, than a proper series in itself. Fans are left confused, emotionally, about what the hell is going on. I think intellectually, most people who watched it a few times probably get what's going on. It is not difficult to figure the more mundane stuffs out. However, Anno was ping ponging in the emotional sector, which most Eva fans are in for, and they left, dissatisfied with everything.

Let's discuss the plot, though this had been done to death already. 14 years after Shinji almost kills everybody, now everybody hates him for it. They tell him not to try to do anything stupid. He decided to because his new (old) gay bud assured him with his life, that it can be fixed just by doing some random task that his father intended him to. Apparently, it was all a trick, and his father was counting on the fact that his gay bud will perish and everything will be reset due to interference from his subordinates. Likely, he wanted to trigger the impact on his own term, not on Seele's term, whom he killed by shutting their life support? down just before the entire thing went down. Another win for daddy Ikari. Keikaku Douri. Of course, this angers fans. I think it is one thing to skip over what happened in the immediate aftermath, it is another to whiplash the viewers through his emotional act, done between 16 to 24, to in a span of around 1 hour. We all love Kaworu and his less than 15 minutes of screen time in the original series. His appearance was mysterious, yet he was emotionally frank to Shinji, and served as that character whom Shinji longs for all the while, until Shinji had to treat him like a lemon. That was masterful. I don't think there had been such a great 1 episode character. That was all thanks to the emotional train Shinji had to run on for 23 episodes before someone like Kaworu showed up. In this, Anno sort of tried to pull the same trick. Sure, the gey duet was fun, Kaworu is as charming as ever, but Shinji didn't have 24 episodes. We are watching the rebuild, not the series. While it indeed seems traumatic, Shinji finding out he was hated by everyone he used to be close with, the girl he saved didn't exactly get "saved", and later he found out all of that was entirely justified, it wasn't 24 episodes of many moments of Shinji mopping around, and being let down by his father. That was great. This Shinji feels more shallow, empty, easily pushed around and even more egoistical than the original. It's not even the more reflective sort of egoistical and the pain of being so alone, it feels unjustified by many. I think others have hammered the point, he just woke up and everyone don't explain anything, just hates him. That sort of pain doesn't feel good. That leaves viewers confused and angry, they wanted more, more discussion, more conversation, more details. Anno gave none of that. However, personally, I sort of get him. I think this is what he felt when fans were throwing shits at him for the remake, and the original series ending. He did retrospectively went in to clarifies that he gets our dissatisfaction. Him finding out he destroyed the world, is sort of that. But, that doesn't mean as a story, it was satisfying to watch.

The soundtrack by Sagiru has a lot of new composition. They sort of cheekily tell us to try out new things during the piano part. I can't say I was unsatisfied with the soundtrack. Sure, the original series music gives me chill, but the new tracks still delivers. I like that the rebuild just build more new stuffs rather than falling back to the original, if I am honest. The piano is fun, the melancholic piano pieces were just magical sometime. Music remains the second strongest suit of Evangelion.

To be honest with you, had Anno just remake the original series with better visual, almost like the Death recap but with more scenes, more backstory, more details. I probably would have been satisfied with it. But, I would not have loved it. This, as much as I dislike everything they did to the characters, I am fine, and excited for every new release. I bow to Anno for daring to be crazy, shit on the fans and then be confused why everyone hates it. I hope he can leave Eva behind, finally, and retire.