![]() Now Rebuild of Evangelion isn’t so much a big-budget reboot of the original series as it is a stealth sequel continuing where End of Evangelion left off. The series’ original theatrical ending, 1997’s The End of Evangelion, is an emotionally devastating tour-de-force not for the faint of heart it’s an 87-minute existential crisis that plunges you deep into the nightmarish depths of human despair, desire, cruelty, and loneliness. In its totality, Evangelion combines the philosophical existentialism of Solaris, The Wall’s animated psychedelia, and the cryptic meta-mythos of Twin Peaks ( arguably Evangelion ’s closest Western equivalent). In the original 26-episode anime (1995-96), this traditional giant-robot premise eventually devolves into a psychoanalytic study of human subjectivity - defined by pain, isolation, and the ever present boundaries between the self and others - that accumulates into an assimilation plot to merge all of humanity into a single consciousness using the Evas and its pilots as pawns. Lonely 14-year-old Shinji Ikari is called upon by NERV’s steely commander (and his estranged father) Gendo to pilot Evangelion Unit-01 as the designated Third Child, joining fellow pilots Rei Ayanami (the mysterious First Child, pilot of Unit-00) and Asuka Langley (the fiery Second Child, pilot of Unit-02). And now, 26 years after Hayao Miyazaki protégé Hideaki Anno’s magnum opus premiered on Japanese television and changed anime forever, Evangelion has come to a definitively satisfying and life-affirming conclusion.įor the uninitiated, the basic premise of Evangelion is this: 15 years after a near apocalypse known as the Second Impact kills two-thirds of the human population, a paramilitary organization known as NERV constructs a series of humanoid mechas (giant robots) as humanity’s last defense against extraterrestrial beings (Angels) to prevent a cataclysmic Third Impact. Ever since I was 15, Evangelion has been there for me, a formative presence in my life that I’ve obsessively returned to over and over again. ![]() Evangelion is my personal Rosetta Stone, allowing me to decipher everything from psychoanalytic theory and gender relations to my very own understanding of trauma and the world that I inhabit. ![]() I’m more than just a fan who channeled her love of a Japanese cartoon into collecting merchandise (at current count I have four posters and seven figurines) and cosplaying at geek conventions. You know the way some people owe their lives to the impact of a novel they read or claim that an artist’s music “saved them” from the darkest parts of their lives? That’s what Evangelion is to me. If it weren’t for Neon Genesis Evangelion I wouldn’t be the person I am today. It’s taken me a few days to write this review because a significant part of me feels like I’m grieving. A scene from Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time.
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