Touches You

Thanks for the memories!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I did not watch the original 26 episodes series but I watched in these days all Evangelion films, because of the high ratings: Death and Rebirth (a recompilation of the original series), The End (a rewriting of the End of the series, still considered one of the best Anime ever), and then the last three, 1 and 2 which reboot the series apparently without mayor changes, and 3 which goes in new territories. At first I will write about Evangelion in general, and then about this specific movie here. In all Evangelion the writer touched any possible demagogic stereotype and cliché on earth: father/son relationship, Oedipus complex, a bit of the typical Manga Style sexuality, cheap psychology, and a huge amount of very cheap esoterism with symbolisms of all kind. My opinion? A big omelet of everything, which finally means absolutely nothing. Wiki says that after the failure of his previous works (which he judged as childish) he wanted to make something "deeper". My impression is that he did not even try to BE deeper, rather just to SEEM deeper in order to impress the audience. And I am afraid that only the Naive could be impressed by such a confused mess.I can still see why this show had success: Evas are cool, fights too, and there is enough mix of drama, action, teenage nerd sexuality in the typical Japanese style, and some sort of epic. I suppose that if you are younger than me and without any knowledge of psychology or esoterism, and a bit nerd, you may enjoy this works pretty much more than I did.About this film: like the number 1, it is almost a copy and paste of the series, but this time with some more changes, which, as another reviewer said, I also find good, giving more action and some more credible psychology, and less of the biblical potpourri which the author should make eternal amend for (being really stupid and pretentious). If you enjoyed the series and/or the recompilation and/or the number one, you will surely enjoy this movie. I loved the end, being myself a terrible romantic. Even if then the number 3 completely ruined everything.

"The Third Impact is beginning. This is the end of the world."Evangelion 2.0 is a much bigger departure from the original series than the first movie was, and it's an incredible anime feature, as a result. Everything is bigger and better, and it feels much more like a movie than just a collection of episodes. The animation is once again fantastic, the new battle scenes and Angel designs are impressive, and all the story/character additions and character changes are absolutely for the best. The writing and flow of the story has been notably improved, to the benefit of all of the main characters. I also have to mention how great the music is; it serves as a perfect compliment and counter-point to what's happening on screen, and at times demands as much of your attention as the visuals do. Casual Evangelion fans, die-hards, and newcomers should not hesitate to check out these movies. It's completely accessible to a new audience, while retaining and expanding upon the core of why this series is one of the most popular and influential. I'm no Evangelion fanatic, but I can't deny the quality of what I'm seeing in progress. 1.0 was great, and 2.0 is fantastic. I CANNOT wait to see where the third movie takes us, next. This is one of the best movies (animated or otherwise) that I've seen in quite a while.

Thats just it. Awesome.The first rebuild movie just sort of retold the first six or so episodes of the original series. It looked great, but you could never shake the feeling of been there seen it (except for the improved Angels obviously) This one goes far, far beyond that. It sums up the plot of episode seven up to something around twenty. Thus it seems a little bit rushed, but on the flip side you're never able to catch your breath. The visuals are breathtaking at moments. The Angels are pretty much unrecognizable from their predecessors (which is a good thing in my opinion) and simply gorgeous to behold. The score also knows how to please.Where the movie really shines though is the story department. Instead of a retelling we get a re-imagining. Starting with a completely new character, piloting EVA05 and ending with a quite different... well ending. Its like they mixed the original episodes with End of Evangelion. While many scenes are still recognizable, they are often arranged differently or put into a completely different context. More than that, the movie strays from the source in quite a view key elements and reveals a lot of things far, far earlier than the original series. Also it explains far, far more. At the end of the ride you will have a pretty decent idea what the "Human Instrumentality Plan" is, for example. Something the original series didn't really bother to explain at all. There are completely new parts to the story as well. It's true that Asukas character falls a little short on screen time, but all in all I like her much better here than in the series. Her story ark and thus her development feels rushed but is still solid, and the ending is one of the biggest twists in this movie. And in the end... there are two movies left I think, and the way Asukas story goes in this one, she's fated to take on a much bigger role in future installments. In general the three children show new sides to them that were only hinted at before. Especially Rei gets a whole subplot that will definitely please fans of the character.All of this combined keeps you on the edge the whole time. You simply don't quite know where its headed. At the end of this second (of four) movies we have almost reached the end of the series which really makes me hope for an original very different outcome than before. Besides... the series was almost over at this point, but with the movies, we're only halfway there.In conclusion. If you liked EVA (and you're not a nitpicker), you're gonna love this. It's a hell of a ride. Don't miss it.

(PARTIAL SPOILERS) The first Rebuild of Evangelion, You Are (Not) Alone (a.k.a. Evangelion Shin-gekijoban: Jo), was essentially an upgraded distillation of the first six episodes of the original Shin Seiki Evangelion television series. Little was lost or added, and key scenes were recreated shot-for-shot, all the way down to the most famous "fan service" peek-a-boo angles.The second installation of the four-part Rebuild series, You Can (Not) Advance, sets itself an almost impossible task: To condense seven hours of the TV anime, episodes 7 to 20, into a single 108-minute feature.Continuing the tradition from the first Rebuild film, upgrades are everywhere. Both the bomb-Angel Sahaquiel and the satellite defenses deployed against it are unfurled with aplomb, and there's a fresh exhilaration to the Eva units desperately sprinting to the Angel's projected point of landfall. The preamble to the battle against the infected Unit 3 has been shortened, favoring instead an extended sequence of bloody desecration accompanied by a chillingly ironic selection of background music. The film concludes with a disturbingly metamorphic version of the unstoppable Angel Zeruel, and when Rei attempts to blow it up at close range, this time her N-2 bomb isn't just a cute little canister.Beyond these three points, however, the film is more an impressionistic retelling of the series than a literal one. In place of those strained scenes where Anno had characters stand stock-still for long, awkward moments, we have elaborate images of people moving about and living in Tokyo 3, and there's a pleasant sub-plot written in to unite all the main characters. Shinji is allowed to be slightly stronger, even revealing a useful domestic skill, and we lose much of his protracted soul-searching, though we still get a taste of it toward the end of the film.While the TV series was sometimes criticized for its tendency to stop and navel-gaze, with the reduced run-time there is inevitably a rushed feeling to You Can (Not) Advance, and nobody suffers for it more than Asuka.Asuka arrives frenetically and with minimal introduction, seeming to have been given license to chew the scenery in exchange for the little time she's allowed on it. Her "Sohryu" inexplicably replaced by "Shikinami," Asuka retains variants of a few of her most memorable scenes, but her early arguments with Shinji feel forced, and we lose delightful sequences like the synchronized battle against the splitting Angel Israfel. Asuka shows more depth more quickly than she did in the series, but it feels as though she has to fight for every moment of screen time.Rather than bringing anything unique to the franchise, new character Makinami Mari Illustrious seems to be little more than a bloodthirsty stand-in for Asuka. Where Asuka has been toned down, Mari has gone over-the-top, and her scenes could just as easily have been written for the redheaded half-German girl.Sadly, while the TV series had remarkably good incidental English (if horrible incidental German), You Can (Not) Advance opens with a lengthy sequence dubbed by English speakers who were clearly phoning it in. Kaji gives it his best shot, but he's given lines that are well beyond the capabilities of seiyu Yamadera Koichi.Like its predecessor, You Can (Not) Advance aims for nothing less than shock-and-awe. The lack of breathing time, coupled with some wrenching twists to the original story, enhance the intensity tenfold. Be sure to stick around until the end of the credits, where you will find not only an ad for the next film, but a very important concluding scene as well.