Anno, as you can tell if you have watch this, just want to get it over with. He admitted he don't miss making Evangelion, I agree. The rebuild must have sapped a lot of energy out of his creative pool. The lack of general direction is clear. The sets up for emotional payback is shallow, extremely so. You would probably only accept the payback if you have watched the original series and, perhaps, like me, have their view about the animation industry and entertainment in general shaped by Neon Genesis Evangelion. He signed off on the series with quite a nonsensical inside the mind montage, imitating what he did for EoE, with none of the emotional weight.
Before that, let's all accept this fact that most of the Evangelion fans got trouble with. Most of Evangelion fans are in it for the wrong reason. Evangelion was never meant to be intriguing nor deep. It was meant to be cool as hell and an outlet for the director's angst at the time. The team and Anno did magnificent, exceptional work in 1995. I don't think there was quite something to level of Evangelion had came out since. It has everything, conspiracy, religious reference, action, character's drama and real, very heavy emotional weight and a mesmerising soundtrack. At the core of it all is the fantastical animation direction. Anno got rid of the stigma that TV series can only look so good. His genius direction turned mundane old TV into the future. They used a tons of trick to not having to animate so much, and pulled it off in spectacular fashion. For 3.0+1.0, they, uh, didn't do so well.
The rebuild series has always been the playground for Anno than actual work. He tried all sorts of stuff out, and in the end added them all in. The motion capped fight segment was jarring, complete disgusting in contrast to the usual animation, including hand drawn. The gap between them is just so ridiculous, it's hard to not criticise. Part of why 3D animation in Japanese animation industry is still so average, is that they have yet to be able to go all in, foregoing 2D. I am also baffled by the 3D animation framerate. It being so inconsistent hurts my head when I was watching it. The previous entries don't have as much movements involving these 3D model, so it's not as jarring. One thing that's terrible about 3D, is that to animated impacts or bending of materials, it would require tons of work, much more than just drawing it in 2D. Try to animate object surface actually caving in, frame by frame, and you'll see how god damn insane it is. Khara simply do not have the tech nor the expertise to make it look amazing. They abuse camera tricks a lot, to avoid exposing the flaws in their animation. Unfortunately, I think Anno belongs in the 2D world. His 3D is simply not good.
That said, the other parts looked great. I can see a lot of Shinkai-esque techniques being employed, imposing real image and texture and touching it up instead of completely drawing over. Shinkai wasn't the first, A1 used it extensively too, but boy did he abused the crap out of that. It makes for some beautiful frames of the peaceful village life. That's nothing special, at this point, unfortunately. 3.0+1.0 was 10 years too late to impress audience with that. I also like the assets they use for the interior of the ship, sick bays etc.. Those are pretty nice.
Anno wanted to make Space Battleship Yamato, robot version with NGE, I think this is the closest he had gotten. Tons of flying combat, none very memorable. He didn't do very well here unfortunately. It looked great, but nothing memorable, nothing like entrails splashing on the street or blood covering half of Gendo's face.
A few of the fun part in the other side battle and conversation was the throw back to some of Anno's trademark. Manga style segment, art shift, just animated outline, even breaking the fourth wall by adding in imageries of the work set they were making the film on. (the room with long hair Rei was where he filmed the shitty mocap fight). That's a nice goodbye to Evangelion in term of art.
That being said, if he actually spend some time doing something like 3.33+1.11, he should seriously spend more time touching up the space ship fight, the fight inside the head, and the half impact. Those parts don't look great. Some even look amateurish.
I don't think I enjoyed 3.0+1.0 music as much as I did the others. Most tracks I remember was a variation of a previous composition. It's not that they are not good, but I was spoiled by 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 fantastic new tracks that 3.0+1.0 felt disappointing.
Then, we should move to the meat of why everyone hates the Rebuild.
Recontextualise the characters relationship, and now giving them a send off is, very annoying:
Good examples include someone like Gendo who remains the same throughout the series, but I also felt he was too villainy for his appearance this time around, yet not enough to really stab everyone deeply. His dealing with the Akagis demonstrated his cruelty in the original series, not just his ruthlessness in asking Shinji to kill his own friend, that is excusable in that they are in this for the sake of survival. In the remake, they made him into some sort of cartoon villain for a while before he enters the other side.
Then, we move on to Asuka. I think a lot of people would be pissed that Asuka don't ended up with Shinji, since they are in the Asuka camp from the original series. I am in Asuka camp, but not for Shinji's affection. I think people should look back at the original series with a clearly perception shaped by age. Asuka wasn't interested in Shinji romantically in the way that people imagine. I think her lust for Kaji, for acceptance and reverence shifted from Kaji to Shinji because Kaji returned to Misato's side. They were licking each other wounds would be more accurate, but by licking I think I meant salting it. In the remake, 2.0, Anno decided to simplify the entire thing by making Asuka had a crush on Shinji, and also remove my favourite part about her, her struggle with her past being rejected by her mother. Her backstory is now just her losing her parents and work to be praised. Basically Asuka got relegated to just a friend who got a crush on Shinji. This is very frustrating, but understandable change. The movies have much less time to invest in these characters, so simplifying Asuka's act is wise. That said, he might as well kill Asuka for me, really. The strong, yet inside extremely fragile, lonely version of Shinji, was simply awesome. She's extremely interesting, very admirable, very sympathetic yet also very despicable. She's the other side of the depression part of the equation. Instead of learning from each other, Shinji and Asuka both pushed each other away to protect their own ego, despite Shinji lusting after her. Anno sending her off with a pathetic montage of her training, and feeling lonely is just disappointing. I thought he had the right approach to them initially. They were too caught up in their trouble to care for each other. If Shinji can understand Asuka's own loneliness, which is exactly the same as his, and sympathise with her instead of selfishly wants her to be nice to him, and vice versa, as what happened in 3.0+1.0, would be cool. However, stripped of the original relationship, this one seems pretty bland. I don't think this could have gone any other way, seeing as the intention of Anno mirrored his attitude towards the original series cast, not the Rebuild world that he created, so it turned to garbage. The part that I like the most about 3.0+1.0 Asuka is her relationship with Kensuke. I was actually a little disappointed that they took the angle of him being her mentor now, instead of lovers. Everything suggested that sort of relationship, staying together, being naked, being comfortable, he cares for her needs. Unfortunately, I think Anno recognised that if they are together, the shippers will lose their shit. I would have slapped the shippers and tell them to piss off. Kensuke being with Asuka is the most uncomfortable, difficult morally for everybody, but to me that's the relation that would have make the most sense. Since Anno slapped that thought out of his head a long time ago, by not setting up Kensuke and Asuka in 2.0, he chose the easier path. Kensuke and Asuka just make perfect sense, they are of the same mental age, he's a mature and capable man now, while she was always looking for a pillar to lean on, to acknowledge her. I really don't think I am wrong about this. In any case, Asuka remake made me lose all interest in her as a character. 3.0+1.0 added in very nice stuffs such as Kensuke, but other than that, it was disappointing.
Then there's Rei. Rei was one of the better act in the movie, initially. Her gaining her human emotion is adorable, and then gotten rid of should have been a gut punch. Unfortunately, it really isn't. I know emotion stuffs are very very difficult to achieve as a movie maker. However, the true masters were always capable. I think her concept of finally getting to be human just to be killed is a little too foreign. Let's look at good examples. It took Pixar an entirety of 5 minutes to make me and others cry through the marriage life montage. Miyazaki made me cry at the oddest thing such as in Howl's, when Sofia struggle to climb the hill to find the castle. I don't think this suits Anno's strength. Rei disappearing don't feel much. I think it served as the stepping stone for Shinji to finally grow out of his shell. Good try, though that's just the beginning of the problem. New Rei was always, a little odd. Her role isn't as the magical device such as the original, so her personality as a person isn't so intriguing. In the original, her relationship to Gendo makes Shinji interested in her. As their relationship grew and Rei becoming more human, less of an artificial vessel, she was taken away, replaced with a doll. However, her understanding and willingness to be sacrificed was always intriguing, because of her backstory. I think Anno himself do not know how to bid her farewell, for he himself do not know what Rei 3? was supposed to be. For me, it looks like letting a cage bird be free. In the original and the remake, Anno referenced her as a caged bird a few times, unable to live outside of her cage. Thus, Anno giving the character the freedom to fly sorts of work, but not for me personally. I think the mess up concept of the original, mocking the Yamato nadeshiko modesty as being empty inside, and then their willingness to sacrifice for others as akin to suicidal, a result of them thinking they have no value as their own. This was again referenced in the remake, but that still doesn't make her character worth saying goodbye to. I don't see it as a farewell to the mockery of that archetype, she became her own in the remake, so it's a lot less fun for me.
Next on the chopping block is my boy Kaworu. I think Kaworu is not as interesting as he was in the original. His role was similar, he's the maturity of Shinji. He was genuinely interested in Shinji when the entire cast was not able to be with him, which quickly endeared him even though he appeared for 1 episode. That's very impressive writing. I loved Kaworu in the original, but this Kaworu seems a little odd. I think his role is no different to the original, only added in that he carries part of the burden shouldered by Shinji. That's rather counter-intuitive when Shinji's journey in last half of the entire rebuild series had been to accept the burden he was given. Kaworu death was beautiful the last time, his farewell wasn't as fun. I do think Anno straight up telling us Kaworu was born to give Shinji happiness is pretty funny. That works. The other abstracts, not so much.
Kaji is another person I have problems with. He both played a bigger role in the rebuild, as well as not since he appeared much less. His dream of preserving life, then saving humanity, then as Kaworu sidekick in keeping the entire world in balance, is speed run in 3.0+1.0. I don't know how well that can work. Kaji's death in the original series was the first death of any major characters. That death was much more impactful than his random walk into the abyss of 3.0+1.0. The problem with Kaji, which sort of encapsulates a lot things about the previous characters, is that 3.0 was too vague, and 3.0+1.0 was too explicit. A lot of 3.0+1.0 should have been in 3.0. 3.0 focusing on Shinji's journey sort of ruined it. Kaji played a part in Shinji's life, but he played a much bigger part in the secondary protagonist, Misato. I find it baffling that he was killed off so casually, and his death don't exactly make Misato better or worse. The fact that his son is just sort of inserted was regrettable as well.
Misato is another victim. Her act got expanded quite a bit for 3.0 and 3.0+1.0. I still prefer the old Misato sacrifice, much less dramatic but much more sorrowful. Her new role as a mother and an atoner just don't mesh well in my head. That's not to say it doesn't make sense. Many people have mentioned that her being harsh to Shinji seems unreasonable when she's the one who encouraged him to go deep, triggering the impact. This Misato seems older, less naive and self-torturing like her original series self. But, I don't feel her as much as I feel the original. Her rant about her insecurity to Kaji was one of the most memorable talking moment in NGE for me. With this version of her, the emotion is somehow less complicated, even though she forsaken her son to save the world, just as her father forsaken her for, whatever he did. From his perspective, I feel as if she's doing the exact same thing her father did. That angle should have been expanded, but they only have 2.5 hours of run time, there's not enough time to cram that in.
I don't have much to say about Ritsuko. They make no reference to Naoko relationship with Gendo, which relegates Ritsuko to a forgettable sidekick of Misato. It is very disappointing that such an icon was disrespected by her creator. Ritsuko was a force in the original. Her struggle with her feeling, and mother's, carved the tone for the later half of the series. Gendo wouldn't appear to be such a bad guy if it weren't for him keeping the Akagis under his thumb, revealing to us the depth of the man's desire and depravity. I don't think I was more devastated for any of the character than I did for Ritsuko when her mother's personality in Magi betrayed her and supported Gendo, just as she did for most of the series, constantly messing with the kids for his own end.
Lastly, my least favourite addition to the series, Mari. To me, she symbolises the rebuild: arbitrary, unimportant, enigmatic and ultimately, confusing. She's hinted to be Shinji's parents college friends. Probably she was one of the first to feel the effect of not aging from being a pilot. She also has a real name that the professor mentioned. In any case, none of her backstory, profile or anything of that nature matters. She don't fit into anything, at all. Her addition was pure marketing, as far as I have heard. When they utter the word, fanservice, she is the walking fanservice. I don't see how much connection she has with Shinji to be his friend or partner or whatever by the end of the show. I don't see her often, or know her enough, for her words to Shinji be of much value. In 2.0, she encouraged Shinji to go back and board the Eva to save everyone. Then she saved Shinji at the end of 3.0, and in 3.0+1.0, she's sort of involved. That's about it. Why is she here? Anno don't seem to care.
I think she's the answer to my frustration about the remake. She shows that Anno really don't give a crap about the rebuild nor the original story and character. They used to represent aspects of his depression and relationship back in the days. Now, with his head in a different place, he was unable to reconnect with the emotion he had back then. I have so much more gripes with the characters, such as Toji, Kensuke reduced role in the previous 3 movies, only for this one to try to compensate. Them adding a few new faces and juggle them around in 3.0, which gives them nowhere enough screen time for their drama to feel real, such as the younger Suzuhara, who had his brother's old sentimentality back when she was hurt, as well as that staff girl who secretly resents Misato. There's also a few more new characters from 3.0 with more lines to fresh them out, but damn was it lacking. Most of these should have been introduced in 3.0, not introduced and resolved within 3.0+1.0. Rebuild's story and characters are handled so poorly, it really hurts the hardcore fans.
The rebuild series gap in the middle really calls for a TV series exploring the events right after, establish emotional connection with the rest of the crew, so the danger they face is more impactful
I am glad that Anno had finally lifted the curse of Evangelion that he had been under for so long. He clearly ran out of ideas, or inspiration for the series, but his fame and money pulled him back into the project. While the entire experiment had been more disappointment than excitement, I think the tone of the story and series reflected something more positive. Anno is no longer able to torment his characters, because he's no longer tormenting himself. He had always wished for them to be happy and hopeful, but he can't let them be so, because he himself in that moment wasn't. Now that he had been happily married for 20 years, to a women who's also passionate about her own work like him, who understand, sympathise and accept his quirks, whom some described as resemble Asuka in her fiery attitude, he no longer cares that much about his characters or his self on screen. Seems like he just wants to show off cool techs on screen. As a fan of NGE, I resented that. However, as a person, I think, I am fine with that. Shinji no longer has to choke another person to keep her with him, he's with someone who's happy to be with him now.
Goodbye Anno,
Goodbye Gainax,
Farewell, Evangelion.
If he actually returns with a series filling in between 2 and 3, I will be pissed.
