Evangelion Movie 1: Jo

Seeing as how I am a fanboy of the original series of Neon Genesis Evangelion, you will have to take everything I say with a grain of salt. That said, it is pretty much inevitable that everyone watching this is already a fan of Evangelion anyway. So let's begin by making this clear: This is not Evangelion. It may look like Evangelion, it may claim to be Evangelion, but it isn't.

The movie covers episodes 1 through 6, beginning in much the same way as the series did, and ending with the 5th Angel's attack. We see much of the scenes faithfully recreated, up until Misato ... comes to pick up Shinji, and they begin talking as fast as they possibly can. The dialogue moves by ridiculously fast, in an incredibly thinly-veiled attempt to cram as much of the series as they can into the space of a single movie, with horrible results. Their sacrifice of quality for the sake of quantity thoroughly destroys the pacing, which, upon retrospect, was a big part of what made Evangelion what it was. There were a lot of long, atmospheric shots that helped to build the tone of the series, and here, they're gone.

In fact, even the overall style feels different. It seems to opt for darker, richer colours than the original, which honestly doesn't suit the style of the original series at all. It could be argued that animation has since moved on from the original series, but then, look at End of Evangelion. That was fantastically animated, and kept with the style of the series perfectly.

Another thing it seems to have lost track of is the soundtrack. Another interesting part of how the original series was directed was how rarely they used background music, often opting for silence punctuated only by the cicadas. Here? Pretty much every scene has a musical score behind it. This is how normal shows function, not how Evangelion is supposed to function. And even then, some of it actually seems like something Gainax would have used in Gurren Lagann, as opposed to Eva. Even with their choice to use more music taken into account, it still feels like they could have done a better job, although this is a comparatively minor nitpick.

Another major point is that the dub is very badly done. Aside from the fact that all the acting is forcibly quite bad (although this is less the actors fault and more the fact that they have to talk very fast to keep up), one particularly noticeable thing is that most of the original cast has been replaced, mostly by much less fitting voice actors. Whilst some changes are welcome, for example Touji sounding considerably better than he ever did in the main series, most are very distracting. And even the ones who stayed don't sound remotely similar to how they did 14 years ago. The most noticeable example is Spike Spencer's performance as Shinji. For the first half of the movie, I was thoroughly convinced that they had replaced Shinji's voice actor. With a female one, no less. Shockingly, Spike is still in the role, but sounds absolutely nothing like he should. How this could happen is an absolute mystery, considering he's been playing nothing but Shinji and Shinji knockoffs for the last 14 years, but somehow he botched his performance quite badly.

Now, I know that a fairly basic argument against this is that it isn't trying to be like the original series. This is somewhat thwarted by the facts that A: Pretty much everyone who watches this will be judging it by the standards of the series, and B: It doesn't stand up very well on its own either. The pacing and dialogue have ruined any chance this had of being a replacement Evangelion in its own right, as well as the plot and directing being skimmed over. Considering the series always had a habit of throwing you in without knowing what the fuck was going on, imagine how that works when everything is thrown at you at a mile per minute. Hint: NOT VERY WELL. I can't imagine a newbie to the franchise would have the slightest clue what the fuck was going on.

All in all, I was somewhat worried that Hideaki Anno might have lost it, what with being sane now. And to my surprise, I was right. This has completely failed. It doesn't capture anything that made Evangelion a loveable series, and while it does clear out some of the faults it had, it doesn't balance things out nearly well enough. The only redeeming features are a handful of new scenes, all of which are quite good, and strangely more in the vein of the show than anything else in the movie, most notably the final scene that raises an enormous amount of questions about Kaworu, and promises that the single greatest reason to watch this movie is the promise that the next one will do things very differently.

Final Words: What a disappointment. Let's just hope 2.0 makes it worthwhile.

Animation/Graphics: 8/10
Story/Plot: 5/10
Music/Background: 5/10
Voice Acting: 2/10

Overall: 4/10

I won't pretend I'm a master of story telling, or that I am the most observant anime fan, but this film left a bad taste in my proverbial mouth. It wreaked of a rush job, or if not that, of a film created solely as fan service. That is a slap in the face to long time fans.

Without going into detail, much of this film feels like it simply wants to rush through a good part of the original series. There are many moments during the first 30 minutes or though that I felt, "Oh... wow, that's probably the exact same angle, and scene from ... the TV series." I understand why this was here, for nostalgia, but after the first few cut and pastes it felt more like a gimmick to please some non-existent group of idiots who wanted this film to recapture the depth and complexity of the original. Instead, it comes off as shallow and cliche during much of the film. They were happy to cut out much of the character development, but yet they found it necessary to include a tremendous amount of technical jargon for the sake of having it there. I admit it builds tension during these scenes, but it falls flat due to the rest of the films' shortcomings.

Perhaps my biggest issue with the Evangelion "remakes" is the way they're being released. As a standalone film, 1.11 falls flat on its face. If this had been an OVA series, or simply another 26 episode anime series, then they could have given this story the treatment it deserves. Simply put, much of what made the original great simply wasn't there.

What it lacks most is soul.

<<This is a review from somebody that has never yet watched the actual NGE series, so I'm mostly writing this to warn people like me that dive into the movie thinking it's ultimately the same thing just with newer animation.>>

Avoid this movie at all costs ( and potentially the next ones if you didn't already like or get intrigued by this one). At best, just go watch the actual NGE and if you like it then only THEN come back and watch this movie. Don't under any means watch it without knowing anything of NGE.

Why? Was it that horrible despite the very high ratings ... on MAL?
Yes. And here are my justifications.

Story & characters - 4

I honestly still have no idea how to put my finger on what I had to deal with in 1 hour and 40 minutes of this movie. During the first 30 or 40 minutes I was still scratching my head wondering what the hell I was even watching and why nobody even wanted or cared to explain, only for me to suddenly be bombed with information middle way through, which...still didn't explain much. Don't get me wrong, I honestly appreciate when a show tries to tell a story by using images rather than words, yet in this case it just didn't cut it. (EDIT: After watching the first two episodes of NGE I can say how it is done way better even though they still don't tell you what's going on, but the message was sent perfectly). In other words, pacing just threw itself out the window and committed suicide.

The characters weren't the saving grace of this movie either with Shinji constantly being a drama queen. I have no issue with characters trying to act pitiful, I can understand how a 14 years old kid with a father complex can find the situation too much for himself, however, it developed too fast for me to remotely care. No, actually there was a lack of development to it altogether, however much I tried to justify it. I can see what it was that the directors tried to show, yet it just came out as "detached".
Rei, i saw too little of her to care or even question, though I give her that she could potentially be an interesting character, while Kaworu was the only character that I was remotely interested in basing myself on the last 20 seconds of the movie and out of my own superficial reasons (Akira Ishida *coughs*), which is actually quite sad.

I also heard that this first movie covers the first 6 episodes of NGE...so...6x23min = 138 min = 2 hours and 18 minutes of content translated into 1 hour and 40 minutes. With just 38 minutes of difference (one episode and a half) between the two, they managed to do a lot worst than the actual series (taking for granted that the series is better)? Congrats ! Achievement "Focusing on the wrong things" unlocked !


Animation & Sound: 5,5

It was nice, though looking at the footage of the old series I don't think that it looks any better. Maybe smoother, but not really better. Actually, I don't even think a remake or retelling (or whatever this is) was needed, unless it was meant to serve as eyecandy for those that already watched the original Evangelion. Though, yes, the combat actually does look better.

The sound was quite forgettable and actually quite unfitting at some points, so I have no idea what happened there or what atmosphere they wanted to establish.

Enjoyment & Overall- 3,5 (rounded off to 4 )

Unfortunately, because of all mentioned above it was very hard to even give a shit of what was going on anymore so that summarizes my enjoyment on point. I was really baffled that what I was watching, Neon Genesis Evangelion, THAT Evangelion, revolutionized the anime market because from this movie I just couldn't see it even if I tried to somehow justify it for being a "new concept". I just couldn't.
But since my bafflement was so high, I decided to give a chance to the original NGE. Just to save you the pain though, I can assure you that you, Eva-newbie, miss nothing from not watching this movie.

I usually check the reviewers&rsquo; anime compatibility to see if I'm likely to enjoy the anime or not. One of the highest compatibility to this anime was 38.8% which should have flagged me early on since they've ALL given it high ratings. So I'm writing a small review simply to add yet another one. To warn off people.

I'd like to say that I've watched the series and what I liked the most, was probably the story.
But this movie is bad. Really bad.

They've completely ruined the story.

They haven't changed the art in any way. It&rsquo;s more or less a hideous AMW of the series.

The sound was ... so-so.

They've made the characters out as either insane or emo.

Unfortunately, I don't like the things I wrote above. So the enjoyment was pathetic.

Even if it receives so many 1s, I'll give it a 2 because I COULD imagine something worse. Even though it's hard to.

This one is entirely skippable.

For the most part it just compiles together the first 6 episodes of the original series while adding some differences that barely change the trajectory of the story.

I guess back in 2007 there was some appeal to see Evangelion with "improved" visuals, but it's 2021 and well,... maybe it's my opinion, but 2007 Evangelion's art and animation has not aged that well. The cut corners and blemishes are very easily noticeable when compared to newer anime of our times. I'd even argue the 90's original fares better in comparison.

Maybe you'd think, that they would at least re-do the battles with more ... vibrant animation and new choreographies, but 2 out of 3 times you'd be wrong. I opened up Netflix to compare this with the original show and the first two battles almost seem like literal shot-to-shot/new-coat-of-paint remakes to me and let me remind you - I prefer the art of the original. At least the final battle seems to be where the animators went all out by giving the Sixth Angel (originally fifth) a re-design, that perfectly shows-off their animation craft and how they improved it since 1995.

I guess the movie has one purpose: if you are going to marathon the Rebuild series, you might as well start here and get the full experience.

I adore Evangelion. I absolutely love the series and EoE, so of course I have to watch the Rebuilds, but at the moment I'm not particularly enthused. The animation is better, yes, especially in some particular scenes, but I can't help feeling that this particular film is a bit pointless. I know the next three films will diverge from the original slightly and this film does what it sets out to do, and I enjoyed it, but I doubt I'll ever watch it again. It is literally just the first six episodes adapted on a scene by scene basis, except the bit where Shinji almost ... leaves and probably some other bits.

Also, I'm just going to leave this here before I watch Evangelion 2.0: this film adapts the first six episodes pretty much scene for scene. Asuka hasn't even been introduced, and is only mentioned once in passing. How the hell is the next one going to adapt the remaining 20 plus EoE? Okay, I'm guessing 25 and 26 are left out in favour of EoE. The Jet Alone episode and Magma Diver are probably also gone. But that still leaves 16 episodes plus a feature length to compress into one feature length. I will edit this review after watching Evangelion 2.0, which is why this is the first review I've posted here even though I have two other reviews I started first and have yet to post (of Toradora! and FLCL).

EDIT: Okay so 2.0 and 3.0 are nothing like the original series.

As far as shot-for-shot retellings of the first six episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion go, Rebuild 1.0 is good. The updates to animation look nice, the few lines of dialogue/scenes added to the story are fine, the pacing is well done, and everything comes together in a way to make a fine, singular movie. Rebuild also does some great stuff! Ramiel looks amazing, the finale comes together to do justice to one of the best scenes in EVA as a franchise(Is any retelling of EVA complete without Rei's smile?), and the fact they made it come together to be its own movie is admirable.

But ... there is very little reason to watch Rebuild 1.0 if you already own NGE. Not even if you want to watch the second Rebuild, you can just watch up until the end of Rei II from the original series, slot in Rebuild 2.0, and congratulate yourself for saving the money you'd normally spend on this movie. But if you can watch Rebuild 1.0 for free or as part of a subscription or really in any way that's not putting your hard-earned money up for this product specifically, there's no harm in watching.