T5W#363-Top 5 Evangelion Movies

Last week, July 19^th to be more precise, Hideaki Anno’s bloody and divisive but unforgettable mecha epic The End of Evangelion turned 25 years old.  Now that certainly merits a Top 5 list of its own but I already did one for the 20^th Anniversary five years ago (see here: http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/t5w101-top-5-favorite-things-about-end.html ).  So what could I do to commemorate another landmark celebration for one of the most important Anime movies of all time?  Bring in the rest of the family.  Earlier this year it was announced that GKids, a popular Animation Distributor in the US that mostly has seen the rerelease of pretty much the entire Studio Ghibli catalogue, had gotten the US distribution rights to Evangelion 3.0+1.0-Thrice Upon A Time.  This means that not only would the conclusion of the Rebuild of Evangelion Saga be given a limited theatrical release, GKIDS would also be releasing it on Blu Ray, which hopefully means the Amazon Prime versions of the Rebuild saga with the bulk of the original Evangelion English Dub Cast would be put out too.  So to honor two celebrations I guess, today I’m ranking the Top 5 Evangelion Movies.  This’ll include the original duology of films that concluded the original 1995 series plus the entire Rebuild of Evangelion Saga…and yes, every movie is being included…except for the Revival of Evangelion aka the originally intended release format of Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion…mostly because I’ve never seen it before, anyway onto the Top 5.

 
#5-Evangelion 3.33-You Can (Not) Redo

While the Rebuild of Eva films visually got crazy stronger with each new entry, this was the first real misstep in the story.  We went from somehow improving characters from the original series and even making Shinji a very different, stronger protagonist to knocking him to a brand new low point by throwing him into a new world with zero explanations and a seeming unwillingness to be clear about anything.  Everything that was promised during the preview at the end of Evangelion 2.22 was completely ignored (save for Asuka in the eyepatch).  You Can (Not) Redo might’ve been a great showcase for the fan favorite Shinji/Kwaoru pairing.  Overall though, it was a divided chapter in the Rebuild Saga and left many wondering if Anno could recover from this for the finale…even Anno himself knew this and had to take a near decade break before we got the answer to that, more on that later.
 

#4-Evangelion 1.11-You Are (Not) Alone

From a certain standpoint Evangelion 1.11 is basically a Compilation Film, comprised of the first six episodes of the original series, in pristine new high quality animation.  And yeah, a lot of the new changes Rebuild promised don’t pop in until the last 20 minutes of the film.  But this was also the first new Evangelion since The End of Evangelion (I just realized it was released in 2007, ten years after End of Eva).  Taking that into account, Evangelion 1.11 is a great piece of Anime history given new life.  The seeds of new character directions are quietly planted while classic and memorable sequences like Eva Unit 01’s first sortie are lovingly recreated and arguably made even better than before.  With a high production budget, Anno is able to make his mecha move like he always intended.  It’s not quite the hitting the ground running start but it’s a soft reintroduction to the world of Evangelion and a nice appetizer for things to come with this new retelling.

 
#3-Evangelion 2.22-You Can (Not) Advance

Now this is what everyone though Evangelion 1.11 was going to be.  Evangelion 2.22 finally begins making major changes to the original storyline with new Evangelions, new Angels and a brand new poster girl for the franchise, Mari Illustrious Makinami.  Let’s also not forget everyones favorite red head bad ass Asuka arrives too.  Like 1.11, familiar moments are revisited from the TV Series but are greatly improved with better visuals, much faster moving mecha and a greater emphasis on deepening the relationships between the core cast members.  Shinji, Asuka and Rei are presented very differently here than in the original series, actually forming genuine friendships and wanted to get to know one another.  And that finale, jeez it set a high bar for Anime Film Cliffhangers.  It put Shinji in a whole new light for many viewers.  No longer was he a depressed and very damaged young man who could care less about the world he felt wronged him.  Even with he fate of the world at stake, Shinji still presses forward to save the ones he’s come to care about.  It’s a real F yeah moment for a character many have belittled in the past and a sign that the Rebuild of Evangelion Saga was on the right track.  The subtitle says we can’t advance but I think we advanced quite a long way personally.
 

#2-Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion

The Myth.  The Legend.  The Finale Anno warned us about if he was pushed.  The End of Evangelion is an appropriately dark and depressing ending for one of the most challenging and thought provoking Anime ever made.  NERV and it’s crew are placed in a no win scenario with Third Impact bearing down on them and Shinji, far more broken than ever before, now saddled with the responsibility of determining Mankinds future.  It’s bloody, it’s brutal and it’s unrelenting and unforgiving.  In many ways, it was the ending the TV Series was building towards but never got in the end.  The End of Evangelion is also a gorgeous landmark in Anime cinema, pushing the limits of violence, psychedelic imagery and just plain nightmare fuel inducing sequences that are both haunting, memorable and occasionally a little but awesome (Asuka vs. the Eva Series anyone?).  The End of Evangelion was so polarizing yet so beloved upon release that it’s still widely discussed and debated today, a true sign of the staying power of Evangelion in Animation history.

 
#1-Evangelion 3.0+1.0-Thrice Upon A Time

Ten years after Evangelion 3.33 left us worried, Hideaki Anno returned to finish the story he wanted to retell and man oh man it was worth the way.  Evangelion 3.0+1.0 had a lot to prove after 3.33 and I knew it was going to be something special when the first thirty minutes involved Shinji, Asuka and Rei taking a breather and reflecting on everything that had transpired previously and learning from it all.  This is a long movie (one of the longest Anime films ever made) but it uses its time very wisely and delivers the promise of a very new and arguably better ending for Evangelion.  I’ve said before, Rebuild was made by a very different Anno and the Rebuild Saga has been filled with more optimism and hope than it’s previous incarnation and 3.0+1.0 is the end result of that optimism and hope: a very unexpected happy ending for Evangelion.  The emotional payoff is so great it’s actually easy to overlook how crazy good the action is and they certainly saved the very best for last.  I placed this movie at #2 on my Top 5 Titles I Reviewed in 2021 and it was just shy of a perfect 10.  Be that as it may, Evangelion 3.0+1.0-Thrice Upon A Time is still a damn good movie, one of the Best Films of 2021 PERIOD and one of the best Anime titles I’ve ever seen in my life…damn…what an experience.
 

Honorable Mention:
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth

So originally, The End of Evangelion was meant to be a huge 2.5 hour finale comprised of a one hour recap of the TV Series before delving into the new finale.  However, due to production delays, the decision was made to split the project and release the recap (Death) along with the first 20 minutes of The End of Evangelion (Rebirth).  In effect, if you watch this movie, you only need to see the recap and then put on The End of Evangelion since there’s basically no difference between what’s in the Rebirth segment and the actual movie.  That being said, the Death Recap is one of the best Anime Compilation Films I’ve ever seen and is a good encapsulation and character study of the entire cast.  Everyone gets a section, the best action gets highlighted and many of the shows most popular moments are seen as well.  All of this is mixed to the rare sight of Shinji, Asuka, Rei and Kwaoru all practicing together for a performance of Pachelbel’s Cannon in the final closing credits.  This entire segment has since been released as a stand alone called Death (True2) and while you don’t necessarily have to watch it prior to End of Eva, it’s still a pretty nice experience in and of itself and a good recap of the major plot points before everything terrible goes down for everyone in the epic finale.