T5W#202-Top 5 Rebuild of Evangelion Moments

This weekend was a bit of a doozy.  I doubt anyone missed the news that, at long last, Neon Genesis Evangelion is now back in our lives thanks to Netflix.  Conviently (?) Netflix forgot to mention that they decided to go with a brand new dub of the entire series, as well as Death (True)2 and The End of Evangelion.  Reception to that has been…more one sided negative than mixed from the fanbase, particularly in regards to the fact that Netflix didn’t try to use any of the original ADV voice actors like Spike Spencer, Alison Keith and Tiffany Grant as Shinji, Misato and Asuka just as Funimation has done for their dubs of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.  I feel I could do a Top 5 rant on Netflix’s Evangelion Dub but I only watched the first two episodes and Death (True)2 (btw that one is just the “Death” half of Death and Rebirth, so only the character recap of Episodes 1-24).  In other words, despite my own fury at it, judging it without watching it in full would be unfair.  SO, I’m going to do something else.  Rather than count down my Top 5 moments of Eva in general, I’m gonna focus on the Rebuild era of movies, which have had just as many ups and downs as anything Evangelion related (Evangelion 3.33 holding most of those downs). Also, I just heard that at Anime Expo this year we’ll FINALLY get to see the first 10 minutes of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 aka the final chapter of the Rebuild Quadrilogy…so that’s cause for excitement.  So, without further ado, I present this weeks Top 5 Wednesday: my Top 5 Rebuild of Evangelion Moments

#5-Kwaoru’s First Appearance (Evangelion 1.11-You Are (Not) Alone)

Evangelion 1.11 isnt the bold new retelling that most fans were promised with the premise of Rebuild.  Matter of fact, the bulk of the film feels like an HD compilation film of the first six episodes of the series.  It’s not bad at all, it’s actually better than you think.  However, the movie does introduce some clever tidbits towards the close of the film, showing us that this isn’t going to be the Evangelion weve seen before.  And who better to herald that promise than a brief appearance by our favorite Angel, Kwaoru, who is chilling out on the moon with the Lance of Longilus and a buried Evangelion unit while surrounded by the SEELE moniliths.  It is a very brief moment to close out 1.11 but it was effective as hell and easily stole the show despite the credits coming immedietly after it.

#4-Eva Unit 01 vs. The Third Angel HD Edition (Evangelion 1.11-You Are (Not) Alone)

As I said above, Eva 1.11 is more of a compilation movie than an out of the gate new telling of the classic Eva story.  Still, the movie looks gorgeous and the first twenty minutes are a near beat for beat retread of the first two episodes, right down to the music cues.  That means when Evangelion Unit 01 reactivates and goes berserk against the Third Angel, the music kicks in and the rush of excitement at watching that classic scene reborn can be felt in full.  As I said in my review of 1.11 last year, this movies purpose isn’t to reinvent the Evangelion wheel but rather to assure old school fans that this project can work with some familiar ground being covered as well.  By the time Angel 3 explodes and Unit 01 walks through its inferno, you know that the legend has returned and it looks better than ever.  Its an assurance that this 4 part tetralogy could work after all.

#3-Mari’s 1st Battle (Evangelion 2.22-You Can (Not) Advance)

Mari, Mari, Mari.  Glasses, snarky and go getter attitude, looks good in a pink plug suit, she was the first newly major piece of Evangelion lore introduced into the Rebuild series and she did so in the most epic fashion.  The opening of Evangelion 2.22 sees the bespectacled cutie riding in an unfinished Eva ready to kick some serious ass.  Mari sings, hardly flinches and is way more cheerful than even Asuka was during her debut as an Evangelion pilot.  Mari was quickly established as a mysterious Evangelion fan girl who got the biggest thrill piloting her giant robot and hardly loses her smile.  Her introduction was the perfect way to kick off Evangelion 2.22 aka the strongest of the Rebuild movies to date.  It sucks they haven’t done any character exploration with her yet and relegated her to just action sequences…but hey there’s still one more movie to correct that.

#2-Battle in the Sky (Evangelion 3.33-You Can (Not) Redo)

Evangelion 3.33 is easily the weakest of the current three Rebuild films.  I felt like it took all the good will and strong strides of 2.22 and took a huge step backwards, confusing the hell out of the audience and making us all feel just like Shinji: lost, confused and just begging to scream, “WHAT THE F*** IS GOING ON!!!???”  However, you wouldn’t expect the movie to head in that kind of direction considering it opens with Asuka and Mari in a low orbit freedive battle with an Angel to retrieve a dormant Shinji and Eva Unit 01.  Not only do we get to see two of Evagelions greatest kickers of ass in battle again, but it also is a massive feat of animation that feels like a true progression on the awesomeness of Evangelion 2.22.  It also shows off Asuka cool eyepatch sporting redesign.  3.33 opened with the best potential possible…too bad the rest of the movie never matched it, no matter how hard it tried.

#1-Shinji risks all to save Rei (Evangelion 2.22-You Can (Not) Advance)

In all the years ive watched Evangelion, it hasn’t been often ive heard many cheering for Shinji Ikari to save the day.  Considering how much grief the poor kid goes through in the TV Series and End of Evangelion, it’s easy to see why he is so broken and no one wants to help him.  Evangelion 2.22 sought to try and do something different with the Eva pilot everyone loves to hate.  In what ends up being a damning choice, Shinji decides to risk even the end of the world to rescue Rei Ayanami from the Angel that has absorbed her.  It’s a powerful and beautiful sequence that shows that Shinji has actually grown over the course of these two Rebuild films.  Even Misato and Mari cheer the kid on to do what his heart tells him to, and that’s to save Rei.  It may have meant the start of Third Impact but the finale of Evangelion 2.22 is easily Shinji Ikari’s shining moment in the entire franchise.