Postby AdamMalkovitch » Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:46 pm
It was fucking beautiful, I didn't cry until VOYAGER started playing, but fuck I cried so hard. I was a blubbering mess until the end of the credits.
The first act was so gorgeous, the visuals and sound evoke such a comfy, small town feel, which is fitting. I'm really glad my initial predictions of a survivor colony being in some wasteland was totally wrong. Hiding DSS chokers under the plug suit collars of Asuka and Mari was fuckin genius, I never even considered that. It was cathartic seeing another chaotic rotoscoped sequence of Asuka fucking with Shinji, I felt the force-feeding scene paralleled the kitchen scene in End of Evangelion very well. I was so sure all the twists and reveals had been spoiled for me, so I was shocked and a little excited when Asuka dropped the fucking bombshell that not only was the "original batch" of Reis genetically altered or psychologically conditioned to love Shinji so that they would Awaken Unit 01, but ALSO that Asuka was built as a series of clones in the same way. I also loved seeing the shots of the L-field experiments with Ryoji, I had no clue coreization could go THAT deep, shit was like 10 feet. The Wanderers were a great way to keep everything tied back to the real plot, like "this place is beautiful and a sanctuary of hope and life, but Gendo is still out there, and the planet is still fucked. You're not done yet, but you can rest for now." I teared up HARD when Shinji asked why everyone was so kind to him, if TV series Shinji was 15 year old me, 3.0+1.0 Shinji is current 21 year old me. Rei Q's death wasn't expected, especially not so soon in the story. Poor bastard saw two heads explode in the span of a week lol.
Act two was just as fantastic, because despite a large chunk of it being setup for the invasion, the rest of the second act was some of the hypest shit I've ever seen in my life. During that first chunk we got to learn Misato's true feelings, what happened to Kaji [sort of, that bit confused me. Did he die to stop the Near Third Impact, or did he die to stop the proper one, the resumed Third Impact?], what the bandanas mean, and also that Kitakami is way less cute than I thought she was when she only had like 6 lines. AND, we FINALLY got to see what said Third Impact actually was, with MK.06 having ripped off Lilith's fuckin head, causing the Failures of Infinity's heads to fall off as well and fall into Terminal Dogma as the giant skulls we all assumed were just edgy imagery when watching 3.0. The invasion of Ground Zero, oh my GOD bruh. Coolest shit EVER. The upbeat music for the first part [is Hooked on the Last Train a remix of something else? It hardly sounds like a modern Sagisu composition], and then things getting more intense as Unit 08 and New Unit 02 fucking diVE THROUGH A TORRENT OF SKULL-HEADED EVAS AND THEN THEY TURN INTO A FUCKIN GIGANTIC DRILL SO MARI AND Asuka FUCKING AT FIELD PUNCH THROUGH IT LIKE THE FUCKIN GUNBUSTER INAZUMA KICK DESTROYING GURREN LAGANN HHNNNGGGGGGGG yeah i liked it :] So fucking sick seeing Asuka go full Angel too, no wonder she was so mad after N3I they put a whole ass dildo in her eye. And then Unit 08 stealing the invasive type Mark.09's arm for herself and coming back to grab Shinji and dramatically dive into the gates of Hell with both Mari and Asuka in the entry plug, oh fuck so good.
One thing I really didn't like and thought was cheesy as hell was Shinji's sync rate "not being zero, but the closest number to zero, infinite." Like god man just have it so that they already knew that and lied to him in 3.0 saying it was zero so he wouldn't even try to pilot again. I adore how the animation gets so fucking wacky in the third act, with the kaleidoscope effect and hyperrealistic Evangelion Imaginary, I also loved the fight inside the Golgotha Object, all the cuts fuck with you to make you think it took way longer than it did, when in actuality, those cuts were jumping between different visions and memories. At first I hated the animation of the fight, since it was all mocap, but then I realized it's supposed to be parodying tokusatsu, which EVA's fights are based on. Mocap always looks like garbage when applied to stylized character designs, and the team used that to their advantage to make the fight feel almost cool, but awkward and flaccid in the way so many Tokusatsu fights can. I know it's intentional that the animation looks bad, cause the mocap had a similar framerate to the 2D in 2.0 and what little of it was in 3.0, so it didn't clash super hard with the 2D animation like the Golgotha fight does. Also notice how it goes back to the normal awesome animation after the initial Tokusatsu set fight in the city. Just another way to fuck with the viewer's head while in the Anti Universe. And speaking of the mocap, it was super clever to have Unit 13's second set of arms folded up on it's chest instead of using, and therefore having to animate, them. One of my favorite things I'm sure will be shit on by those who aren't familiar with Anno's other works is the large amount of reused animation in the Anti-Universe, so sick to see it recontextualized and reused in a way that makes sense. A gripe I have is... much more dire. Evangelion Imaginary looks goofy as fuck. I hate it. I realize it's supposed to be a blend of a real world human actor and CG elements, but the way they did it just looks like some Monty Python or Angela Anaconda shit. I really hope when we get 3.0+1.11, the face is touched up. Maybe make the cheeks slimmer, the eyes smaller, make it actually look scary like I know it's supposed to, and it's ALMOST scary. It's so close. For now though, it's a Giant Naked Blemish on an otherwise nearly perfect movie. Misato's death didn't hurt, certainly not as much as it did in EoE. One thing that confused me is that Mari clearly appears in the Gendo backstory bit, and refers to Fuyutuski as professor when she visits him in one of the Guardian ships. So it IS the same Mari that appeared in the extra chapter in the manga [Sadamoto you lying sack of shit you will pat for this]. But, she looks exactly the same as she does like 20 years later. We know that being associated with the Evangelion project causes your body to stop aging, but that didn't start for a couple years. Gendo aged a lot in that time... so maybe Mari worked directly with Gendo and Yui on the project, and just didn't age at the same rate as he did before starting the project stunted all their growths. Also why did Fuyutsuki's head explode? There was no reason for his head to explode. He doesn't need to be exposed to LCL. Did he just give up at life or something? The final spear being named Gaius was a fucking nerdgasm for me, I remembered looking up "cassius and longinus" after watching 3.0 and learning about a Roman senator named Gaius Cassius Longinus, so that shit was awesome. The one thing that totally stumps me and makes no sense is Kaworu and Kaji in the Golgotha Object. Kaworu makes sense, and it makes sense that he sits at Gendo's desk since he took over Additional Impact from him. But why was he talking to Kaji? Why was Kaji even there?
The ending was absolutely gorgeous. The Neon Genesis' music and visuals were so incredible, and the true ending to all of Evangelion being very similar to the manga ending but with the characters' memories and experiences left intact makes it my favorite ending of all three main timelines. I know people hate Shinji being with Mari, but it makes total sense. Rei II went with Kaworu and they both found happiness, Asuka stated she no longer felt anything for him, and I'm sure she went on to go for Kensuke. Mari rescued Shinji from a fading Anti Universe which held on far longer than it probably should have in the rewritten timeline he made with no EVAs, she helped him get to Unit 01 in the Anti Universe and was one of the few people who didn't seem to blame him for N3I and 3I.
The music was incredible, the visuals were [almost] all fantastic, the Japanese performances perfect, and the metaphors and ideas were powerful. I'm glad everyone got a happy ending, even if I think Gendo and Fututsuki especially didn't deserve theirs. I don't care that we didn't have every minute detail of backstory and "what happened" between 2 and 3 explained to us. Anno knows we're smart, being given all the answers outright isn't his style. I don't think it's quite as good as End of Evangelion, but it's so SO close, like one photorealistic Rei head away from being taking over for EoE as my favorite movie of all time.
Also the dub is a mess. Not bad, but fuck is it sloppy, and clearly rushed to meet the amazon prime video streaming release. Misato's line is supposed to be something about Kaji died to end N3I but we know that's not true, he was ending the real Third Impact that happened afterwards. And how the hell do you leave in a bad take and then have the good take right after it, Fuyutsuki? That's literally a Sonic 06 mistake bro. That said, I'm glad it wasn't fuckimation. They've ruined enough of EVA already. Though now I'm interested to see if the other dubs are this messy, and how they compare to fuckimation's.
New EVA memes grand total: 10
"This is cute" - Rei being cute
Rei holding her boobs
Shinjibarf.png
Asuka with a taser gun
"The reactivation of Unit 13 is only a matter of time! The reactivation of Unit 13 is only a matter of time." - dub Fuyutsuki
Ritsuko unloading a whole ass clip
"I have deeds. TO PERFOOOOORM" - dub Gendo
Evangelion Imaginary = Angela Anaconda
"Mommy Misato performs eye surgery on giantess Angela Anaconda while Christmas music plays"
Shinji saying "big boobs"
Last edited by
AdamMalkovitch on Fri Aug 13, 2021 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
*injects Angel blood* I know what the fuck an EVA is now :)