Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance

     This week, I was finally able to sit down and watch the second movie in the Evangelion movie trilogy, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. In comparison to the first movie, it has better action, better animation, and drastically deviates from the original storyline in more ways than one. Overall, it was a complete upgrade from the first movie and a fantastic addition to the Evangelion franchise.

     The story picks up right after the events of the first movie. Shinji Akari and Rei Ayanami have worked together thus far to stop the advancing angels that have come to Earth to completely annihilate the entire planet. In the middle of another angel fight, a new and powerful evangelion emerges (piloted by a girl named Asuka Soryu) and defeats the angel single handily. Shinji and Rei begin to work with Asuka to strengthen their forces but they are far from the perfect team. Asuka acts very stubbornly and rude and Rei remains quiet and conserved while Shinji struggles internally with the weight of the human race on his shoulders as well as a crippling sense of loneliness. Through many hardships and struggles, the three pilots must defeat seemingly stronger enemies one after the other as humanity's last line of defense in preserving the lives of millions.

     While the first movie set up a good foundation and was a nice way of revamping the series as a whole, it was missing a lot that was looking forward to seeing in the second movie, namely the addition of Asuka as the third Evangelion. Although she can be very off-putting to most of the characters in the movie, she is a very complex character that was illustrated very well in the original series. With that being said, halfway through the movie, something involving Asuka happens that caught me completely off guard. The deviations between the movie and the original series suddenly changed from minor things to completely rewriting the plot. It definitely led to some fantastic fight sequences and emotional moments, but I won't know if it was the right decision to make until I see the third and final movie. At this point, they have completely changed the outcome of the series and I am excited to see what they do with it.

     Overall, the second movie is definitely my favorite out of the two and I'm hoping that they take it to the next level in the final installment of the movie adaptations.      

Evangelion: 1.11 You Can {Not} Advance

     Over the holiday break, I finally found the time to watch a movie that was highly recommended to me by a lot of my friends. Evangelion: 1.11 You Can {Not} Advance is a Japanese animated movie that is based off of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a TV show that ran for 26 episodes. Although the series originally ran from 1995 to 1996, this movie came out in 2007 and introduces breathtaking animation to a classic story with fantastic writing, plot, and characters. The story takes place in a desolate future where the world has been vastly damaged during the second impact, a mysterious disaster that killed half of the world's population. In Tokyo, Japan, the military has been developing technology to prevent such a disaster from ever happening again. In the middle of these developments, strange and nearly invincible monster's known as "angels" attack the earth and try to bring disaster to the planet once again. The military must use the only means they have to defeat these creatures which are humongous humanoid robots that are piloted by humans. The story follows a young boy named Shinji who has to pilot one of these robots and deals with the stress of the future of the entire human race resting on his shoulders.

     Overall, this movie is not supposed to be a complete retelling of the original series and handles it more like a reboot. There are new characters, new scenarios, and at some points, complete deviation from the original story that will keep fans of the old series , as well as people who have not, thoroughly entertained throughout the whole production. That being said, there is no way for any movie to capture the same feeling and emotion that a 26 episode series can and because of that, this movie is no substitution for the original series and should be viewed before watching the series only if audience members want the highlights of the series as a whole. Aside from the stunning visuals, characters are developed very fluidly and they feel like actual people trying to live their lives in a world with an uncertain future. The movie has no problems dealing with death and people that are squeamish of blood and violence should avoid this picture completely.
 

   
     This is the first of three movies that were made for the series and I haven't gotten the chance to see them just yet. Based off of the cliffhanger at the end of the first movie and the beautiful animation and direction that it has however, I will be sure to watch the next one and I am very excited to see if they can top themselves in the second installment. I will report back here once I have gotten around to finally watching it.