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I’m really not convinced of the efficacy of the “digest version” movie adaptations of so many popular anime shows. Decades ago, they made sense; 24-hour cable TV wasn’t around, so they were used to fire interest in the stuff on TV ( Heidi), fill in gaps in the story ( Space Runaway Ideon), provide a much-needed ending that was precluded by the TV show being canned ( Baldios), or revitalize an ailing series with toy licensing potential ( Gundam).
 1996’s Evangelion: Death and Rebirth doesn’t serve any of those purposes. It’s a piecemeal product that is made up of several parts. Its first 70 minutes is Evangelion: Death, a tightly-wound edit of the show’s first 24 episodes. On its face, this isn’t a terrible idea; the movie manages to include all of the best robot fight parts, and even throws in some pretty good new sequences. But since then, these new bits have been folded into the remastered version of the TV series, making the entire affair kind of superfluous to the dedicated fan. One might argue that this flick is a good way to introduce new fans to the series, but it doesn’t serve very well in that respect, simply because so much material is left out.
That still leaves the remaining half-hour of the movie (titled Rebirth), though. That part of the film starts to wrap up the entire story, presenting fans with a mouth-watering new ending (with more explosions, and more on-screen deaths of their favorite heroes), which they’d been demanding since the show’s shockingly subdued, weird original conclusion in March of 1996. This is the good stuff, the stuff worth tuning in for; it’s not groundbreaking, but it’s exciting, bold, and fluid stuff.
This final half-hour of Death and Rebirth eventually got worked into the first half-hour of The End of Evangelion, the grand conclusion to the entire saga that hit Japanese theatres in July of 1997. You know what this means, right? It means that Death and Rebirth, which consists entirely of edited footage from the TV series, new footage that got folded back into subsequent home video releases of the TV series, and the first bit of End of Evangelion, is entirely, 100% superfluous. On its face, it turns out to have been a cash grab, a way to keep interest stoked and money flowing in while director Hideaki Anno and GAINAX labored over the “true” finale of the series. It’s not bad; it’s just not necessary.
It’s even more interesting to reflect on this, however, after sitting down and having a look at Evangelion 1.0: You are (Not) Alone, a recent effort by Anno and his new Studio Khara to breathe some life back into the Evangelion franchise. How do they accomplish this? By re-telling, in digest form, the first third of the TV series.
Ahem. That’s right. The original Evangelion movies represented a do-over of the show’s narrative and initial ending. This means that Evangelion 1.0, the first part of a new Rebuild of Evangelion project, is a do-over of a do-over; a meta-mulligan, if you please.
 That isn’t to say that it’s bad stuff. Evangelion 1.0 is very much not bad; it preserves most of what made the show compelling—the frightened, seemingly ineffectual protagonist, the weirdly scary iconic robots, and the permeating religious imagery—and polishes it up with modern digital animation. The action scenes have more verve, the drama has more detail, and we get a better look at teen hearththrob Rei Ayanami’s goodies.
Unfortunately, however, Evangelion 1.0 represents a continuation of what Evangelion: Death and Rebirth represented: the creation of an entertainment product that is, at the end of the day, 100% not required viewing. Evangelion 1.0 is a facelift, but there’s no new insights to be gained here. The new stuff is promised in the forthcoming sequel, which will feature a radically changed Asuka and a new female pilot for fans to slobber over, but it’s just not here. It’s a damn good thing that Anno and his crew have done such a good job with the new animation, because it’s really the film’s facelift that makes it worth seeing.
But Death and Rebirth? Very much not necessary. Looking back at that film gets us back to the whole “what’s the point of digest movies?” discussion. Sure, we have a few that went down as classics, like the original Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy. But most of these films are a waste of time at worst (the Nadia movie) and an agreeable but superfluous diversion at best, like the Gundam SEED recap films. Anyone out there remember how great they were? Didn’t think so.
>> James (Tuesday, June 29, 2010)
I can see where Mike's coming from, and his sentiment appears to be one that’s shared by many others. Admittedly, I’m sure a long-time Eva fan could get by quite easily without having seen 1.0 but I think they’d be doing themselves a disservice, missing out on a beautiful visual overhaul and a number of small yet significant alterations to the story. However, for newcomers to the franchise, watching 1.0 is an absolute necessity. What would the alternative be? You could sit them down in front of the first six episodes of the TV series, but that would only lead to confusion as certain elements of the plot wouldn't mesh with the films to come. It’s for that reason alone that 1.0’s existence is really justified in my mind, with the increase in animation quality being an added bonus.
As an aside, 1.0 may well be the third incarnation of the opening part of the story after the original series and Death and Rebirth, but I also think it's the best of the three. I love the series but I’ve always felt it got off to a rather laborious start. 1.0 really tighten up the pacing and the characters come across as less one note as a result.
>> gwern (Wednesday, May 26, 2010)
Cataphract wrote:
> Funny how this guy completed ignored all of the differences between Eva 1.0(such as Misato showing Shinji Lilith and knowing that it is Lilith rather than Adam) and the original series and instead made it sound like it's a copy cat of Death and Rebirth
Oh, yes, because Misato's lack of ignorance is *such* a huge difference - why, it completely changes everything we know about the character and her motives, no, it changes everything about the entire series! Truly, small changes like that make 1.0 well worth the watching.
>> Joseph Luster (Tuesday, March 02, 2010)
I still have yet to see this, but I just got a copy of 1.1 in the mail and plan on checking it out soon. Expect my thoughts to materialize on this very site at some point in the near future.
>> soundwavecA (Monday, March 01, 2010)
Have to see the second film to really understand were Anno is taking Eva with the Rebuild movies as they are definitely not recap films. Would have to suggest reading Justin Sevakis review on ANN for more info in Eva 2.0 as he pretty much nailed it.
>> Zzzzzzzzz (Sunday, February 28, 2010)
To say 1.0 was done in digest form is way off the mark because that is ignoring the fact that this is a Movie and not a series so it has limitations that it did not have before, those scenes that are missing(the ones not relevant to the storyline change to come) are not there for a reason, that is they break the flow of a movie. A series can have those scenes while in a movie they end up on the cutting room floor and if they are that important they end up as deleted scenes. Even if those scenes were there it would only be the Evangelion series without the opening and ending scenes.
>> Cataphract (Wednesday, February 24, 2010)
Funny how this guy completed ignored all of the differences between Eva 1.0(such as Misato showing Shinji Lilith and knowing that it is Lilith rather than Adam) and the original series and instead made it sound like it's a copy cat of Death and Rebirth. In addition you belittled 2.0 when 2.0 is a different beast entirely. It differs GREATLY from the original episodes.
>> bob (Thursday, February 18, 2010)
first of all even though this is a remake of the first 6 episodes there is a lot of noticeable change like the whole sea is red not just near Antarctica and the eva series goes past unit 5 and goes all the way to 8 i think and the blood stain is still on the moon from the end of evangelion so the rebuild series may not even be a remake but a sequel to the end and the story is ultimately taken in a new direction in 2.0 with major plot changes and a new pilot
>> V (Wednesday, February 17, 2010)
Mr. Toole it is utterly unfair to compare Rebuild #1 with Death&Rebirth: D&R was, nakedly, a "clip show" - i.e. "clips" of the show, slapped together.
How can this be "a do-over of a do-over?" ...newcomer fans would be confused by your wording, into thinking that it is *literally* a clip show (granted, you do a good job of saying that the visuals are completely redone)
While you could complain that you feel it doesn't start changing things fast enough (hey, they had to "ease fans back into accepting" that they'll change some things)...how can you say it's "just a clip show"?
***Further, the entire English dub is NEW now: even the two returning cast members have 13 years of experience now;
I was at your "dubs that time forgot" panel at Anime Boston, and I was impressed with the attention you put onto the alternate Gundam dubs of similar scenes: why are you now ignoring that the dub has been completely updated and with many recast voices?
If any section of any show deserved a re-dub, it was the first 6 episodes of Eva - ADV didn't really understand what to do with it because they only got 2 episodes at a time from Japan. Misato sounds drastically better now.
So the dub is new...and the animation is amazingly good (Eva's original budget was shoestring)
...further, they *need* to go slow introducing new fans to the series. "What new fans?" - hey, at Anime Boston they asked a full panel room to raise their hands if they'd seen Eva, and out of 200 only half had seen it.
If we define "Eva fandom" as "people who saw the subtitled version 13 years ago" *of course* it will seem redundant. THEN AGAIN if we define "the only real Gundam fans" as those who saw the subtitled version IN THE YEAR IT AIRED...that drastically reduces the size of the "real" fanbase. Is there a "real" America? A "real" Eva fanbase? I don't know many people who watched the show subtitled that long ago.
NEW fans, and further, English dub fans, will be delighted.
Not *once* in this comparison did you mention that the English dub is new.
but I digress...
the big problem is that...while on paper, it makes some sense to compare Death & Rebirth to Rebuild....the minute you actually hear a detailed summary of what Rebuild is, you'd drop the comparison: simply making such a comparison kind of implies to new potential viewers that its just a clip show.
Also..."End of Evangelion" was the REAL ending...but you collectively judge "The Eva movies" based on *Death & Rebirth*? The whole reason they made Death & Rebirth wasn't just to "churn out more product" - it was "our production schedule for making End of Eva is falling behind, so lets throw what finished footage we have now at the fans, wrapped up with some clips of the series, to bide some time"
Furthermore, you ignored the stuff they changed...what did you think of the Planet of the Apes-esque twist ending *set on the Moon* at the end of Eva 1.0?
>> Wintermuted (Wednesday, February 17, 2010)
Completely agreed on both assessments, however as the Renuild series has revealed, that 1.0 has a great deal more going for it in regards to how differently stories will be diverging in the later films, making it much more essential viewing. I'd even argue that one would have to have watched the original series to really gain anything from the Rebuild experience save from visual panache.Despite all the early talk of a more accessible Evangelion, what we have is an interesting alternate reality where anything is possible. And in doing so, 1.0 is merely a glossy prelude to a fan sucker punch.
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