Evangelion 1.0 takes us right back to those first few episodes I struggled with, and almost recreates them shot-for-shot. The movie starts much the same way, with Shinji on the streets during an Angel attack, before being picked up by Katsuragi and briskly escorted to NERV HQ. He's thrust into service as the pilot of EVA Unit 01, suffers the cold shoulder of his father, and grows jealous of the relationship Rei has with him. He suffers injuries from Sachiel before his EVA goes berserk on it, he takes out Shamshel while simultaneously saving Toji and Kensuke, and him and Rei have to set up on a nearby mountain in order to snipe Ramiel with the electricity of the entire country. So far so Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The most immediate difference is the massive animation upgrade Evangelion 1.0 enjoys. It's a huge step-up, from cheap still images from the 90s, scaled up to multiple moving layers, crisp colouring, and even dashes of CGI here and there to really up the scale. This movie is, by all accounts, gorgeous, and visually competes with anime being made today. But it's not just that. While many scenes from the show have simply been recreated with better animation, the increased budget allows for some interesting new shots as well, such as the city surrounded by crimson red oceans, a slightly tweaked appearance for Lillith, and Ramiel has been almost completely redesigned. No longer is Ramiel an unmoving prism with a fleshy drill coming out the bottom, but it's now a fully animated creature that shifts shape and form into other mathematical shapes and patterns.
On the other hand another big, obvious difference is how much was cut to condense it down into a tight movie. Evangelion 1.0 definitely prioritises the angel fights over anything else, and they are recreated in full without exception, some even enjoying a bit of an expansion. This means a lot of the more nuanced character work is gone. We don't see Shinji's first introduction at school for example, instead cutting straight to the punch to the face he gets from Toji. Then again, we don't get overlong shots of banality backed by the annoying sounds of a chirping cricket so that's a plus in my book (although the cricket does make a bit of a cameo once or twice).
During the first half of the show, I made some public remarks about how women were treated in it. On one hand it seems like a celebration of women and what they can achieve, placing them high in NERV's hierarchy, portraying them as professionally very capable and knowledgeable, whether it be piloting an EVA, or commanding a military operation, and the show passes the Bechdel test on a number of occasions. On the other hand the female characters were often shown in compromising positions, sexualising and objectifying them. Back then I understood it as just an aspect of adult anime, and now I understand it even more as showing Katsuragi's promiscuity and desire for sexual validation, or Shinji's awkward teenage misogyny. And yet looking back I still feel it went a bit too far and could've gotten the message across without seeming so sleazy and exploitative. This aspect is not gone from Evangelion 1.0. We still get an obtrusive shot of Katsuragi's butt in hotpants taking up half the screen, and Shinji and Rei still have their awkward encounter in her apartment (which is actually one aspect where better animation was a bad thing - no, I don't need to see the bare breasts of a fourteen-year-old girl). However there is less of it. What's left are quick shots that never linger too long and never reappear, and of course after having watched the show in its entirety, I understand the context much better so it didn't bother me nearly as much.
Ultimately this still feels like Evangelion. As far as I'm concerned it's a strict upgrade to this part of the show, but I hear 2.0 takes the story in a vastly different direction so I'm definitely looking forward to that. As a movie in it's own right I'm not sure how well it would stand up. My viewpoint is likely coloured by having seen the show so recently, which inadvertently added a whole bunch of context I wouldn't have had if I had just jumped in with the movies. It's very fast-paced and lacks some of the deeper character moments, but I think enough of it is left intact for the message to still get across. Of course by this point in the show we hadn't really tackled the deeper themes either, so it's hard to judge. I give Evangelion 1.0 a solid 8/10. As I said, as far as I'm concerned this was a strict upgrade to those episodes in the show.
The most immediate difference is the massive animation upgrade Evangelion 1.0 enjoys. It's a huge step-up, from cheap still images from the 90s, scaled up to multiple moving layers, crisp colouring, and even dashes of CGI here and there to really up the scale. This movie is, by all accounts, gorgeous, and visually competes with anime being made today. But it's not just that. While many scenes from the show have simply been recreated with better animation, the increased budget allows for some interesting new shots as well, such as the city surrounded by crimson red oceans, a slightly tweaked appearance for Lillith, and Ramiel has been almost completely redesigned. No longer is Ramiel an unmoving prism with a fleshy drill coming out the bottom, but it's now a fully animated creature that shifts shape and form into other mathematical shapes and patterns.
On the other hand another big, obvious difference is how much was cut to condense it down into a tight movie. Evangelion 1.0 definitely prioritises the angel fights over anything else, and they are recreated in full without exception, some even enjoying a bit of an expansion. This means a lot of the more nuanced character work is gone. We don't see Shinji's first introduction at school for example, instead cutting straight to the punch to the face he gets from Toji. Then again, we don't get overlong shots of banality backed by the annoying sounds of a chirping cricket so that's a plus in my book (although the cricket does make a bit of a cameo once or twice).
During the first half of the show, I made some public remarks about how women were treated in it. On one hand it seems like a celebration of women and what they can achieve, placing them high in NERV's hierarchy, portraying them as professionally very capable and knowledgeable, whether it be piloting an EVA, or commanding a military operation, and the show passes the Bechdel test on a number of occasions. On the other hand the female characters were often shown in compromising positions, sexualising and objectifying them. Back then I understood it as just an aspect of adult anime, and now I understand it even more as showing Katsuragi's promiscuity and desire for sexual validation, or Shinji's awkward teenage misogyny. And yet looking back I still feel it went a bit too far and could've gotten the message across without seeming so sleazy and exploitative. This aspect is not gone from Evangelion 1.0. We still get an obtrusive shot of Katsuragi's butt in hotpants taking up half the screen, and Shinji and Rei still have their awkward encounter in her apartment (which is actually one aspect where better animation was a bad thing - no, I don't need to see the bare breasts of a fourteen-year-old girl). However there is less of it. What's left are quick shots that never linger too long and never reappear, and of course after having watched the show in its entirety, I understand the context much better so it didn't bother me nearly as much.
Ultimately this still feels like Evangelion. As far as I'm concerned it's a strict upgrade to this part of the show, but I hear 2.0 takes the story in a vastly different direction so I'm definitely looking forward to that. As a movie in it's own right I'm not sure how well it would stand up. My viewpoint is likely coloured by having seen the show so recently, which inadvertently added a whole bunch of context I wouldn't have had if I had just jumped in with the movies. It's very fast-paced and lacks some of the deeper character moments, but I think enough of it is left intact for the message to still get across. Of course by this point in the show we hadn't really tackled the deeper themes either, so it's hard to judge. I give Evangelion 1.0 a solid 8/10. As I said, as far as I'm concerned this was a strict upgrade to those episodes in the show.