After These, Just One More Set of Evangelion Reviews

Sunday, July 21, 2019

After These, Just One More Set of Evangelion Reviews

Issue 9 --- Issue 10
What kills me about re-archiving stuff from my Evangelion web pages is this.

I leave their tabs open when I close Firefox, so the Midi's start blaring when I open it back up. It's imperative that I post these reviews up since the midi from this one is Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". I can't let this song get ruined like I allowed a couple of Road Warrior marks ruin "Iron Man".

Stage 9: The Trial of a True Fan

A new angel has arrived, and despite his problems at school, Shinji is ready to pilot. After trying to waste the enemy with his rifle, the angel is able to take out the Eva's umbilical cable. To make matters worse, Shinji also must avoid crushing Toji and Kensuke.

This volume has some great color artwork and with the battle having a good cliffhanger point, it makes this the best action packed Eva yet. No, there isn't much for character building, but everything does fit together well making this worth while.

Stage 10: Shonen and Knife

Shinji is feeling rebellious. First, he allows the two kids into the plug. Then, he disobeys Misato's order to retreat. Now Shinji has 30 sec. to take one last stab at the enemy.

Again, some beautiful artwork, and continuing the battle from where it left off works well unlike Dragon Ball Z on the tube does (email russthebus-cubs@lycos.com if you think they should replace it with Robotech or Voltron on Cartoon Network's Toonami). I do feel that the anime is better when it comes to being episodic. It allows for better character development, but the ending does seem to show us that Shinji has more feelings than we first thought.

Neon Genesis Evangelion © 1995 Gainax

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The Bus's Transit of Anime Reality

This is how I became a rabid otaku. My first website was not suppose to be strictly dedicated to anime, but all things that were a 17 year-old Russ (Star Wars, Red Dwarf, and Highlander).

It became my first lesson in website design. Don't try to cover too much because you are going to be left disappointed. So I kept it to anime, and it wasn't till college took up most of my time did I ever feel disappointed by it.

I was also the creator of a fairly popular Neon Genesis Evanglion site: EvaUnit03's Tokyo 3 Station. This is where I took Danielle Scott's idea of incorporating alternative rock with the series for a critical and musical look at Evangelion.

The anime reviews for the show can be found at http://evaunit03.homestead.com/. The manga reviews can be found at Russ's Online Home.

A Critique of the Chinese Subtitled Version

Evangelion: Death

Evangelion Death is basically a review of the entire series up to Episode 24 that uses the rap around device of the first four children playing classical pieces on stringed instruments. For each kid who joins in, his story is told. Through Shinji we also learn the story of Misato and Ritsuko. Since I don't know Japanese as well as I thought, maybe that hurt my opinion on the editing. Maybe I just prefer chronological order.

There are a few enhancements to the animation to set up the second film, Rebirth, but everything else is from the T.V. series besides for the rap around device. If your like me and saw Eva through A.D. Vision, they did a lot of unreasonable editing (allegedly restored), so we missed a lot via this company. If you enjoyed the series you'll enjoy this, but if you're overly anxious for the conclusion like I was since I felt the T.V. series ending was perfect, you could get bored with the Death, and fast forward 45 minutes to Rebirth.

Evangelion: Rebirth

All of the angels have been destroyed, so what is there left for Nerv to do? On that thought, Seele decides its time to take Nerv back from Gendo Ikari by hacking in and taking over the Magi. Luckily, Ritsuko creates the 666 program through Casper which stops this invasion.

Before the hackers stuck, Misato had been searching for answers about the concept of the Third Impact. Shinji is looking for sympathy after killing Kaworu, and Asuka has become almost totally unreceptive to anything. Unfortunately, the cast can't go back to these plans because Seele has launched an assault force to kill everyone in Nerv to make sure Seele is absolutely in control.

Obviously this film sets its self up for a sequel, especially since we find out what Seele now has as their secret weapon. I don't support why the films were made, but this is a beautiful piece of animation which surpasses the quality of Gainax's last big film Wings on Honneamise. The story is superb, and I was actually impressed in the emotional performances of the voice actors. It has some of the most superb sequences I've ever seen in an anime, and its sound track lives up to the series's. Love the end of the T.V. series or not, this 45 minute film will blow you away.

On that note about the soundtrack, here's the theme song in midi form.