I'm in the same league of Eva fans as Rob, and yes, let's just say that the first movie is not that innovative, and that while it looks gorgeous later on the film, it doesn't really justifies it existence save for being the foundation for the next movies.

Now, the new one, for what I've seen, it's a completely different beast, both in animated and story/plot content, than the TV series.

Better or worst? I can't really say since I just superficially saw some shitty CamRip of 2.0 and I'm waiting for the proper release, but at a glance, it's really different from the TV series.

The only reason I'm remotely excited by these new evangelion movies is that I can see them on the beig screen.
By the way, I am also a fan of the origional ending. End of Eva was only marginally more nessesary than these rebuilds.

The difference, though, is that Alan Moore wouldn't attribute his ending for Watchmen to a complete nervous breakdown, of which Anno admitted to suffering during the production of his ending(s) for Eva. He wanted to make an ending that wasn't influenced by his psychosis, so I'm personally okay with it so long as the original creator is the cause of it...as Moore has said of Watchmen and the idea of adapting it into a movie, this new interpretation does nothing to diminish the original work. I still have all my Eva DVDs, and I'm fairly certain this movie won't break into my house and burn all of them.

I hate the original ending...or at least the original Episode 25. First half of End of Evangelion puts that episode to shame...and then the second half of the movie is just as messed up the final episode (which is why I wonder why they bothered to spend so much money making a new ending). Well, I loved the movie a lot more than the TV ending, anyways.

But yes, these Rebuild movies are obviously a cash grab. I don't really condemn Gainax for it, as all animation studios make shows/ movies to make money. If Gainax can get away with exploiting Evangelion, it's all thanks to those legions of insane Evangelion fans in Japan who still buy everything related to the fifteen-year old series. I'll just hope that Gainax makes something new and awesome, like Gurren Lagann, after they cash in this time.

I've seen the second movie, and it is SO much better than the first, and the ending is just insane. Without spoiling it, the last fourth of the movie changes everything about one of the most critical parts of the series so much so that the next two movies are gonna have to be completely new stuff

"New dub?" I watched this yesterday and wondered what exactly was new about it. The one thing I noticed (perhaps besides a toned-down Shinji) is the replacement of Gendo's original English VA, which is a severe downgrade.

i like the new movies 'cause they added shadows and stuff. also i think they make more sense. also i didn't pay any cash for them.

The first movie follows the original storyline very closely, and i really enjoyed it. they basically just tuned op the visuals, and released it to blu-ray. HOORAY! it's fully high def pretty.

The second one, I've seen a crappy cam rip of... this one is not about the visuals, this is when the direction of the story begins to severely deviate from the original.

as an eva psycho myself, to the point where i actually convinced one of my high school teachers to play the entire series as a philosophy/psychology extra course, I'm holding judgment... the 2nd one takes some shattering plot turns, that i need to see play out before passing judgment.

if you really want to understand evangelion you must see all the series except the last 2 episodes, then watch the 2 (or just the second half of the first one and the second) movies and then yes, watch the last 2 episodes and all close perfectly. It's all 1 big history , but that's the real order, thers no second ending, just one but mixed

wait... it's pronounced Eh-Van-Gal-Lee-Un? I always pronounced it as Ee-Van-Jee-Leon. Like Evangelist...

I'm sorry, but I don't see anything here that is any different from the vast majority of anime. Typical Japanese Hiroshima allegory, same still images with motion lines, same exact style of drawing faces, same rushed voice-acting style, same plethora of shit blowing up and making *SHHHHINGGG!* sounds.

I lost my love for anime in 1995, and I have never gotten it back. I've learned to hate it because it never improves, changes, innovates, or grows. It never surprises me or gains my interest because I'm distracted by the fact that all anime looks essentially the same.

I'm sure that the majority of anime fans are sitting through it, acting like they like it for peer approval, while secretly thinking "Man, this looks JUST LIKE the last twenty anime movies I saw."

I'm also convinced that a huge number of male anime fans are only into it because they see so many female anime/manga fans, and they think that the whole "shared interest" thing will get them laid.

That's just a theory, and it's only my opinion, but I think it's pretty close to the mark.

To each their own, but I'm here to tell you, guys: You don't need to suffer through bad animation to get girls. There are better ways.

Can't blame Gainax for the theatrical reworkings when they look so damn sexy! Especially since even the remastered episodes of Eva look pretty rough. This is on blu-ray you say?

I'm an anime hater (the vast majority of it is unwatchable), but Evangelion is the best animated series I've ever seen. TV ending is the best (and the true ending), and the End of Eva is for fans who hated the original ending and demanded satisfaction (which Anno hated, which is why he did such horrible things to all the characters).

I downloaded the first movie sometime last year and yes it's just like the series, but it's also supposed to be a retelling of the series. Cash grab? Yes. Potential for awesome? Yes. I'm excited to see all four films.

Now if only they'd get that live action Weta Workshop version going...

I didn't think I'd like the whole thing with adding new characters and EVAs and such, but the second movie totally changed my mind about that. EVA-05's pilot seems like an interesting character and its redesign was just epic. I'm not sold on the one from the moon and I still haven't seen anything about the supposed unique EVA-08 that has nothing to do with the mass production units from EoE, but all in all, I'm really loving this reimagining on the series so far.

I'm a huge anime fan, Neon Genesis was my gateway anime and to this day it remains one of the best tv series(animated or live action) I've seen.

Gainax may be merchandise whores, but when it comes to their actual productions they rarely falter, remember this the studio that gave us Nadia, Gunbuster, Eva, His and Her Circumstances, FLCL and Gurren Lagann (you can add Mahoromatic if you must). I'd be lying if I said that Anno remaking Eva wouldn't be a dream come true for me, so heres hoping Anno is able to complete the vision he had for the series now that he is in a better state of mind and has access to resources that weren't available to him when Gainax was still a fledgling company more than a decade ago.

unless there is some hardcore 3way action between Shinji, rey and asuka...there is no reason for this

The single worst anime ever made gets a fucking retread. No. Nonononono. No. NO.

You know.. after the early 90's when I watched this I thought I was rid of Evangelion and it's bloated, pompous, idiotic, worthless, non-intelligable, crack-addled mindfuck of rampant stupidity, nonsensical and utterly pointless random symbolism of absolutely nothing, one-dimensional, obnoxious, hideously unlikable characters, the pinnacle of godawfully pretentious piss-poor, lazy, unwatchably moronic, painfully dull, exceptionally boring, and all over abysmally bad writing and painful fucking garbage from the untalented, worthless hack called Hideki Anno, whose work I will always equivalent to the anime director of Ed Wood. ....Just with substantially less talent or competence, and only a disgustingly undeserved overinflated ego to compensate for his self-absorbed vomit which mutates into a barely held together production.

I thought that I was finally rid of this absolutely horrible series after I suffered through the tedium and suicide attempts that this truly horrible work of failure caused the first time around. So much that I'd managed to spend years trying my best to forget and pretend this piece of shit never happened.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is THE worst, most horrendously intelligence insulting, puke-worthy piece of scumfucking failure that has ever, or will ever be produced anywhere in the world.

It's bad enough that it even exists, but it's even worse that such a miserably valueless show that has not the slightest iota of decency or worth continues to somehow slime it's way into the consciousness of the anime industry, like a foul smelling dried and stinking log of shit, coated along the walls of Japanese animation history.

And now... it's actually being remade? So that it's mind numbingly moronic, obnoxious, festeringly bad, pretentious, insultingly miserable half-assed experiment of complete and utter failure and it's lingering stench can somehow live on???

There is no justice in the world.

If there was, Japan would have sank into the ocean the very minute the original Evangelion premiered. Not be remade.

I personally hope that everyone involved in the production of this and every other Evangelion-related production in the history of the world, dies a horrible, painful, and gruesome death well before their time.

Only that, and that alone, would restore the slightest shred of faith that I could potentially have in any world that could allow that inconceivable shit to be made.

I don't "hate anime" per se. What bugs me about it is the mind-melting dialog. There's a reason the only quotes from anime anyone recites are ones that are unintentionally funny ("IT'S OVER NINE THOUSANNNNNND!"). The animation techniques are sometimes innovative or interesting, but they often can't construct a coherent plot to save their lives. Very often, the "end" of an anime is about as satisfying as one for "Star Trek: Voyager," except instead of technobabble saving the day, it's "the beauty of her inner spiritual life force" or some other baloney that makes a girl's clothes explode, her skin light up like a neon sign, and then blow up the bad guy.

And this isn't an attack on liking anime. I like lots of genuinely stupid things (the 80's "Flash Gordon" movie, vintage episodes of "Doctor Who," the "Earthworm Jim" cartoon, etc.), but I don't go around telling people that there's some deep significance to those shows the same way I'm told by some anime fans. I get this "oh, American shows/animation/whatever just don't have the same deep, complex stories and emotional resonance," and then they get pissed off when you point out that panties are flashed every other frame. Further, the genre suffers from the same problems that other forms of media suffer from: Marketing departments that want the show to go on forever, writers who don't know where they're going with their story, characters created just because someone thought of a nifty superpower or costume...

It's a form of entertainment, not a religion. The translations stink for people who hang as much on the spoken script sounding natural as the visuals. I mean, if some kid can make two-cel anime mouths move with "Baby Got Back," why can't the same be done for ANY anime, if for no other reason that to eliminate stupid, pointless, and unnecessary vocalizations to cover the length of existing animation? It's why half of the anime "comedies" don't work; most of the humor comes from puns between Japanese and Chinese, which forces the US distributor to make up new (and lame) reasons for some character hitting another with a mallet.

I like how the movie gets right to the action here.

Really, Shinji is on screen for what, thirty seconds and then stuff starts blowing up?
I know the film is only maybe two hours long, but that seems a little bit quick to me.

Then again, I've never seen the TV series, so maybe it was always that way.

I totally agree with you actually. I feel like even if he was having a nervous breakdown at the time, the original ending of the series was awesome and I have always seen End of Evangelion as just an add on. It doesn't replace the ending of the series, it's just part of the ending. I feel there is nothing more that needs to be said in the series and just like all the Anime remakes that are coming out since Hellsing Ultimate did so well, they are just wanting to cash in on it.

I honestly would have been interested if they did a series based on what happened before the original series (I.E. more of the building of NERV and all that) but I know even if they did that, they'd fuck it up anyway. Really thought, like i said, everything about this series has been said and I loved it, see no reason to change it but if you like it, ya know, whatever. Not my place to tell you, what to like.

I was originally let down by the end of the anime series. Gainax has had that problem with several series. His and Her Circumstances was absolutely perfect for the 1st 12 episodes, but then it somehow just got derailed and went no where. As far as anime movies go, saying that they all look the same, shows either a serious lack of experience or just a downright dislike for the medium. I dare anyone to say that anything Satoshi Kon has created movie wise is generic or looks like every other anime movie. Yeah you could say it, but it would be disingenious at best, and absolutley moronic beyond that. Yes I am an anime fan, quite a rabid one in fact. I freely admit that there are good and bad series, but for fucksake we have that here every nite on t.v. and that's with real people being filmed. I'll take asumanga daioh over the absolute waste of airtime that was seinfeld what utter fucking crap. As has been said before "to each their own." I won't be buying the rebuilds of Eva anytime soon, can't see supporting the licensees ripping off their fans. Someone mentioned the weta live action Eva. I can't see that being anything other than an absolute abortion. Thank goodness for Netflix.

I've already watched this subbed, and its good. Faithful to the original, but tuned up, streamlined and polished.

I don't really understand why people won't give it a chance, it's loads better than the bleach and deathnote movies.

The Eva TV ending and the Eva movie ending complement (heh) each other until the point where Shinji chooses one way or the other, which happens very late in both. Until that point, the series conclusion views things from the psychological perspective, while the films show what was going on in the "real world". For instance, if you notice, there are still shots briefly shown in ep. 26 (mainly of dead characters) that aren't explained until End of Eva.

As for these movies, well, I'm waiting until version 1.11 comes out. Hopefully I'll have HD hardware to watch it on by that time. I'm holding out until then, since the 1.01 version had brightness issues that weren't fixed until the latter iteration. But I'll get it eventually...I'm an Eva whore.

BTW, I prefer the manga over the series. If the overly-pretentious, emo attitude of the series gets to you, you will prefer it, too.

First off, I'm a person who liked the series, but didn't totally embrace it. I was more on the Serial Experiments Lain bandwagon at the time. Not that it should be a battle over what's better. I simply enjoyed the complexities of Lain better and dove into those instead.

I caught 1.0 at a con a couple weeks ago. It's good for a second viewing of the series, though I don't know if I'd recommend it for people experiencing Eva for the first time since it cuts down the character building for a lot of the supporting characters, who I found more interesting than the main character and his struggles. The latter is what the arc of the first reboot movie is all about, so if you're not a fan of Shinji at all, you're not going to like this movie. The new backgrounds and animation are stunning and lift the experience up a few notches. What missing in the first eight minutes are the quieter conversations where the larger budget enhances the emotions felt from viewing them. Those make the movie worth it enough for me.

The rebuild of Evangelion is probably equal parts cash grab and artistic obsessiveness on the part of Anno. Are the new Eva units obvious merchandising fodder? Yes. Has Anno made his dissatisfaction with Evangelion's original run and then its extended ending(s) clear from the get-go? Yes.

But the cash grab element is pretty damned blatant. The DVD that's coming out today is "Evangelion 1.01" (the English translation of "Evangelion 1.0"). Word on the street is that "Evangelion 1.11" is due for release Spring 2010. What's the difference between 1.01 and 1.11? Two minutes of footage. That's right, Gainax is betting that fans will shell out for another disc because it has two minutes that ended up on the cutting room floor the first time around.

I absolutely love Evangelion but I really don't know if I'll be able to stand Shinji's bitching all over again, in English, sheeeeeesh.

The Japanese have a way of always coming up with a grand idea featuring several cool characters AND a whiny annoying boy. Just check out Final Fantasy XIII, it's not missing the male bitching character either.

I saw this two years ago as a bootleg. Nothing really is changed in that one.

Wait 'till the second movie comes out. A LOT has changed in it. I have that on bootleg as well. I'm willing to bet it'll end on a completely different note. I'll buy this when I get come cash though.

I've never seen this. It looks interesting, but all the different versions are confusing. What order should I watch it all in?

Ah, sweeping generalizations about anime, gotta love it!

I've never met an anime fan that I did not pity.