{"id":177,"date":"2016-09-23T02:25:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T02:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=177"},"modified":"2016-09-23T17:22:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T17:22:56","slug":"review-evangelion-3-33-you-can-not-redo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/23\/review-evangelion-3-33-you-can-not-redo\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Evangelion 3.33 – You Can (Not) Redo."},"content":{"rendered":"

Evangelion<\/em>. One of the most polarizing anime franchises in history. Since its inception, in 1995, Evangelion<\/em> has served to be unapologetic, uncompromising, and unabashedly twisted, but at the same time, Evangelion<\/em> has offered its own kind of unique, almost abstract at times, beauty. Beneath all the iconographic fluff and deep-rooted depression of its protagonist, Shinji Ikari, there is an underlying beauty to the madness. To some, there is an appreciation of its visual and musical merits, combining some of its darkest imagery with the music of Beethoven and Bach, and to others, they\u2019re just glad they don\u2019t have it as bad as Shinji, looking on with intrigue and fascination as his world is tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down. Evangelion<\/em> is a project of disturbed beauty, from top to bottom, on the part of one Hideaki Anno, a true perfectionist when it comes to his beloved creation, and the proof of that is the 4-part \u201cRebuild\u201d film series that he\u2019s been spearheading since 2007. Granted, things have slowed down a bit, with the fourth and final film currently in a \u201ccoming sometime in the next decade\u201d status, but if there\u2019s anything to be said about the third movie, it\u2019s that nobody has any idea just what will happen when the smoke clears.<\/p>\n

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Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo<\/i> is the true turning point of the tetralogy, and while steering completely away from the original series and forming its own path, it tends to form a path that, to some, is nigh incomprehensible. For one, this takes place 14 years past the events of 2.22 <\/i>and the accompanying Third Impact, which caused the Earth to become pretty FUBAR, and Shinji\u2019s the one to blame. Because regardless of continuity, some things just remain the same. However, thanks to some divine intervention by everyone\u2019s favorite gay robot pilot, Kaworu Nagisa, Earth remains partially intact, but not without three warring factions all wanting to stake their claim: NERV, still fronted by Gendo Ikari and still wanting to dethrone God as supreme ruler of the universe; SEELE, the mysterious 2001<\/i> monoliths who are still lobbying for the joy of rebirth; and introduced in this film, we have WILLE (pronounced \u201cveel-eh\u201d), fronted by Misato Katsuragi and populated with former NERV-ers, taking on the \u201cchaotic neutral\u201d role by wanting to restore order and balance to the world by any means necessary. Namaste<\/i> to that. And, of course, we can\u2019t forget about that temperamental scamp Asuka and the woman we all still know nothing about, Mari, who have taken to playing soldier to Misato and WILLE in the 14 years since the Third Impact. Oh, and Rei\u2019s just chilling in the back, she\u2019ll just pop up here and there in this film.<\/p>\n

To note, this is the first film in the tetralogy to be presented in 2.35:1 Cinemascope, which is somewhat of an anomaly for modern anime; only a handful of titles are presented in this ultra-wide format, namely the series The Fruit of Grisaia<\/i> and the Kizumonogatari <\/i>films, as well as in segments of the series Erased<\/i> and Madoka Magica<\/i>. It\u2019s certainly a unique design choice for this film, as it presents a much wider viewpoint of the scenes at hand. 3.33<\/i> also appears to be the most extensively-produced of the series, so far, using many animation production techniques ranging from standard storyboards to CG modeling, virtual photography, and even rotoscoping. All of the \u201cRebuild\u201d films look great in their own right, but 3.33<\/i> is by far the best looking of the series, despite its darkened and hushed tones of red, blue, and gray permeating throughout.<\/p>\n

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The English dub cast brings a very solid performance to the film, as expected, combining voices old and new for an experience that\u2019s both familiar and refreshing. Veteran voices Spike Spencer, Tiffany Grant, and Allison Keith haven\u2019t missed a beat, and they are joined by the more recent Funimation cast additions, including Brina Palencia, Jerry Jewell, and Colleen Clinkenbeard, along with some newer additions in Caitlin Glass and Felecia Angelle, to only name a few. The 5.1 surround sound mix is incredibly crisp on the Funimation Blu-ray, with a very well balanced blend of boisterous explosions and epic orchestral themes working with and around the dialogue of each character. It is a small step down from the previous releases, though, having Dolby TrueHD 6.1 surround tracks, whereas 3.33<\/i> only has 5.1 Dolby tracks, but this will only be seen as such a step down by those with sharp ears. Either way, with a quality sound system and a well-placed subwoofer, your house will be booming with this film playing through it.<\/p>\n

From here on, we\u2019re heading into major spoiler territory – I won\u2019t reveal everything <\/i>but there will be serious spoilers abound, so if you don\u2019t want to be spoiled by some of the plot details, skip down to the bottom of this review. Otherwise, here we go.<\/p>\n

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Shinji\u2019s been sealed away, and when he finally comes to, things aren\u2019t quite as he remember. For one, he\u2019s sealed on a platform with several guns pointed at him and sporting a choker around his neck. The people around him look on with cold, almost callous looks. What exactly has changed? 14 years have passed, and while Misato and her commanding officers have aged, Shinji and the other pilots seemed to have not aged a day. Why is this? \u201cThe curse of the EVAs,\u201d claims Asuka. Throughout this time, Shinji has been a comatose prisoner of WILLE, serving time for triggering Third Impact, which proves that if you\u2019re Shinji, you\u2019re damned if you do get in the robot and damned if you don\u2019t. The guy just can\u2019t win, especially here, where Shinji is threatened that if he pilots an EVA, he will be killed on the spot, thanks to that nifty little choker around his neck. A button gets pushed and he goes kablooey. Wouldn\u2019t expect anything less from this series, now, would you?<\/p>\n

With an emergency command triggered by nearby drones, WILLE launches their attack, using their flying battleship Wunder<\/i> as their offense, and Misato makes it especially clear that they have no need for Shinji and want him to do nothing. This poses a very stark contrast to the final moments of the second film, where Shinji \u201cfinally\u201d \u201cnuts up\u201d and plays the role of \u201cBig Damn Hero\u201d to save Rei from an Angel attack, only for his role to be completely diminished at the start of the third film. Again, damned if you do and don\u2019t. There\u2019s a secret to Wunder<\/i>, though, in that its main source of power lies within the ill-fated EVA Unit-01, all without the need of Shinji piloting it. So how\u2019s Shinji going to escape his captivity within Wunder<\/i>? A wild Rei Ayanami shows up, via EVA Unit-00, to break Shinji out of Alcatraz. And now, the story truly begins.<\/p>\n

And by the way, it takes about 33 minutes for the title card to show up.<\/p>\n

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Back on what\u2019s left of Earth, everything has been torn asunder. The NERV geofront, completely eradicated, all due to the Third Impact. The outside world, wholly decrepit and damaged. Empty. Silent.\u00a0 Welcome to your new world, Shinji Ikari. It comes standard with a gay piano player who wants to bring you happiness, a girl who doubles as the reincarnate clone of your mother, a cell-like room for you to reside in, and the world\u2019s greatest Dad himself, Gendo Ikari, with a grand entrance. He introduces Shinji to the new Evangelion Unit-13, which he will be piloting alongside Kaworu because it\u2019s all a part of Gendo\u2019s master plan at universal domination, you see. Oh, and yes, there\u2019s a fanservice scene of brief female nudity to be had, at around the 37-minute mark; and yes, it\u2019s incredibly out of place with the tone of the film. It\u2019s Evangelion\u2019s<\/em> version of a running gag, it\u2019s gonna happen no matter what.<\/p>\n

So what exactly happened during the Third Impact? Short version: everyone and everything became completely FUBAR, and it\u2019s all thanks to\u2026 Shinji. Yes, going back to the second film, when Shinji saved Rei from being consumed whole by an Angel, the fusion of EVA Unit-00 and Unit-01 was enough of a stimuli to set off the Third Impact, but it was thanks to Kaworu and his magic moon spear that altered the event into the \u201cNear Third Impact,\u201d still setting off enough to eradicate life on Earth and bring about a twisted form of evolution. Of course, for Gendo Ikari, this was just another Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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By the second act, Kaworu\u2019s presence is firmly established in the film, as is his connection with Shinji. The connection between Kaworu and Shinji is certainly not new to this film series, as it dates back to the original TV series, but in this movie in particular, the connection is made especially noticeable with quite a bit more development. Shinji\u2019s endured the long standing argument of \u201cnature vs. nurture\u201d throughout his entire life, and the series thus far has been a shutout victory for the \u201cnature\u201d side of things – Shinji\u2019s always been pushed around, ordered around, told what to do and when to do it, and has been around people who give him very little in return. Gendo? Barely a father to him. Rei? Cold and very emotionless. Asuka? Give me a break. The only one who gave Shinji any kind of nurturing is Misato, and that\u2019s only outside the confines of NERV, if there\u2019s any to be had. So with Kaworu in the picture, playing a serious direct role with Shinji in the film, Shinji is finally able to feel nurtured and form a co-dependence with Kaworu, homoerotic overtones put aside. The basis of any kind of relationship lies with trusting and nurturing one another, and it is exemplified with Shinji and Kaworu here more than ever before. But the biggest sign of their trust comes when Kaworu takes possession of Shinji\u2019s explosive choker and wears it in his place, allowing Shinji to pilot the EVA without threat of death.<\/p>\n

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This is where things start to get really<\/i> crazy, as things heat up into the third act of the film. Nearing the climax, it\u2019s shown that Shinji\u2019s silver-haired (boy)friend isn\u2019t wholly innocent with his intentions, but he\u2019s not entirely villainous, either. And Kaworu isn\u2019t all that he seems to be, either. Both Shinji and Kaworu gear up and head inside EVA Unit-13 to excavate two spears, those of Cassius and Longinus, to undo the events of Third Impact, but in what\u2019s become a recurring theme of this film, they are not what they seem to be. Oh, and \u201cRei\u201d is following along in her EVA, as an insurance policy of sorts. This is where I\u2019ll stop giving out plot spoilers, so I\u2019ll just say that the climax of the film is just as insane, iconographic, and blood-thirsty as anyone would come to expect from this franchise. Revelations are made, battle lines are drawn, EVAs are fighting one another, Angels are awakened, heads are exploded\u2026 well, okay, only one<\/i> head is exploded, but it is the noblest sacrifice I\u2019ve seen in a long time, and everything, if you can believe it, turns out worse<\/i> as a result. Like I said, Shinji just can\u2019t win. When the smoke clears, though, all that\u2019s left are our three main pilots – Asuka, Rei number 12, and Shinji – standing in the empty Tokyo-3. God\u2019s in His heaven, but all is certainly not right with the world. Not after this<\/i> film.<\/p>\n

After it is all said and done, Evangelion 3.33 <\/i>may just be the most emotionally draining, taxing, and exhausting installment of the franchise, so far. But I can\u2019t personally condemn it as a bad<\/i> film. It\u2019s disjointed in parts and it relies too heavy on interpersonal drama, sure, but that\u2019s part of what makes the Evangelion<\/em> franchise what it is. It\u2019s unapologetic, uncompromising, and unabashedly twisted, and 3.33<\/i> fits that\u00a0criteria to a T. It\u2019s not going to please everyone who sees it, nor is it going to leave everyone wholly satisfied with its foreboding final scene, but after 20-plus years of the Evangelion<\/em> franchise, that\u2019s to be expected at this point. What does this mean for the fourth and final film, though? How will the story reach its supposed \u201cFINAL<\/i>\u201d conclusion? Will we ever find out what Shinji\u2019s listening to on his tape player? No one really knows. There isn\u2019t much we can all do but wait and hope that Anno won\u2019t lose his mind again<\/i>. Repeated viewings of this film will only cause more questions than answers, but this is certainly a required viewing for all Evangelion<\/i> fans – it\u2019s not quite at Event Horizon<\/i>-levels of madness, but it\u2019s real close. God only knows what \u201c3.0+1.0: Final<\/i>\u201d will bring.<\/p>\n

Verdict<\/b>: <\/b>Rent It. Not entirely a must-own, but definitely a must-see-once. Evangelion 3.33 is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Funimation Entertainment.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evangelion. One of the most polarizing anime franchises in history. Since its inception, in 1995, Evangelion has served to be unapologetic, uncompromising, and \n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[29,47,28,45,8,49,50,48,46],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation","category-film","tag-anime","tag-asuka","tag-evangelion","tag-evangelion-3-33","tag-film","tag-neon-genesis-evangelion","tag-rebuild-films","tag-rei","tag-shinji"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/maxresdefault-2.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-2R","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}