I created an account just for making this review. By seeing my pseudonym on the internet, you can guess that I have a special interest in the original series which drastically changed my life for the best or the worst... a curse of some kind in my quest for understanding my existence. You can now understand that this will not be your typical review, but more of a reconciliation of my state of mind.
I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time around 2000. I was around 16 years old and it kind of called me even more because of the age proximity with the characters. At first I was just expecting some giant robots until the plot and the twist unfold after the first couple of episodes. The character development is still unmatched to this day. It made me cry so much due to the connection I made to my personal life which is freaking drastic, it is just insane. Even today, nothing has changed about that.
Basically, there is a character that I was just despising. A character that I share a bond with. I was literally witnessing my life on screen... in granularity. I am not talking about the story of course, but who that character is. The background, the family, the emotions, the challenges, the attitude, the determination, the pride, the hate, the anger, the perfectionism, the independence, the beauty, the torment, the pain, the emptiness, the all or nothing... if you didn't guess I am talking about Asuka Langley Sohryu, then I don't know how you couldn't figure it out. I could not endure looking at her, it was hurting me. I cried so much because I understood why I was like that and for the first time in my life, someone somewhere had been able to paint me in a picture without even knowing me, and that person had been able to create a character that literally was me in a nutshell. I was just hating her... until I realized it was me. To this day, if I had to simply describe myself, the only thing I would need to do is referring someone to go watch the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series. They would be able to make the link without a shadow of a doubt.
To this day, it just haunts me. I am even doing some art and she is my point of focus, because she is proof of my existence. Ironic that a fictional character can be a proof of my existence, but in reality people will never really know who I am while millions know who she is, so in reality people will know what kind of person I am inherently.
So all this for explaining that the original series changed my life. I was expecting this movie series to maybe bring me other philosophical revelations about myself by analyzing this character under a new optic. To my huge disappointment, this was not possible because Asuka is not the same character. There is a reason why they changed her name to Shikinami, because this Asuka is just heavily inspired by Sohryu, but it is not her in this second spin.
I am not going to go further than this, but the story revolves around Shinji and there is no character development which was literally why the series was so disruptive. So nothing that was good from Neon Genesis Evangelion was there. Just questionable choice and plot decisions... like who the hell is Mari?
This was nothing more than a fan service that was not meant for the fans... like the new Star Wars trilogy. If there is something you need to get out of this is just don't bother if you are a fan of the original. The only thing you are going to find here are crushed expectations.
I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time around 2000. I was around 16 years old and it kind of called me even more because of the age proximity with the characters. At first I was just expecting some giant robots until the plot and the twist unfold after the first couple of episodes. The character development is still unmatched to this day. It made me cry so much due to the connection I made to my personal life which is freaking drastic, it is just insane. Even today, nothing has changed about that.
Basically, there is a character that I was just despising. A character that I share a bond with. I was literally witnessing my life on screen... in granularity. I am not talking about the story of course, but who that character is. The background, the family, the emotions, the challenges, the attitude, the determination, the pride, the hate, the anger, the perfectionism, the independence, the beauty, the torment, the pain, the emptiness, the all or nothing... if you didn't guess I am talking about Asuka Langley Sohryu, then I don't know how you couldn't figure it out. I could not endure looking at her, it was hurting me. I cried so much because I understood why I was like that and for the first time in my life, someone somewhere had been able to paint me in a picture without even knowing me, and that person had been able to create a character that literally was me in a nutshell. I was just hating her... until I realized it was me. To this day, if I had to simply describe myself, the only thing I would need to do is referring someone to go watch the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series. They would be able to make the link without a shadow of a doubt.
To this day, it just haunts me. I am even doing some art and she is my point of focus, because she is proof of my existence. Ironic that a fictional character can be a proof of my existence, but in reality people will never really know who I am while millions know who she is, so in reality people will know what kind of person I am inherently.
So all this for explaining that the original series changed my life. I was expecting this movie series to maybe bring me other philosophical revelations about myself by analyzing this character under a new optic. To my huge disappointment, this was not possible because Asuka is not the same character. There is a reason why they changed her name to Shikinami, because this Asuka is just heavily inspired by Sohryu, but it is not her in this second spin.
I am not going to go further than this, but the story revolves around Shinji and there is no character development which was literally why the series was so disruptive. So nothing that was good from Neon Genesis Evangelion was there. Just questionable choice and plot decisions... like who the hell is Mari?
This was nothing more than a fan service that was not meant for the fans... like the new Star Wars trilogy. If there is something you need to get out of this is just don't bother if you are a fan of the original. The only thing you are going to find here are crushed expectations.