*Note* The information below may contain spoilers, read at your own risk!

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I’ve watched the Neon Genesis Evangelion series, time flies by. I remember I was still in highschool and watching the original series with a couple of my close friends. It helped to rejuvenate my interest in anime and to introduce a legion of fans to arguably one of the greatest anime series of all time. This time around, Gainax is bringing Evangelion into the new Millenium with 4 movies (the first 3 being a retelling of the original series and the last being a entirely new ending). The first film entitled, “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, was released in Japanese theatres on September 1st, 2007 and it seemed to be well received by critics and audiences. Since it’s yet to be released in North America, it took me awhile to find a copy to actually watch.

When I started watching the film, I you can easily tell that Gainax had improved the animation by including some CGI animation. There were definitely additions, changes and omissions when it came to backgrounds, scenes and dialogue. Some notable changes were that many non-speaking scenes were deleted in order to maintain a faster pace for the film, I suppose to condense 26 episodes into 3 feature length films. One key omission was when the scene whereby Shinji and Rei were standing infront of the EVA 01. The ceiling caves in and there were about to strike the two when the EVA unit unexpectedly shields them. This scene was pretty important in showing the relationship between Shinji and the EVA, but it was totally removed.

One noticeable change was the attack between the floating Fifth Angel versus EVA 00 and 01. This is the scene where Shinji fires the Positron cannon to destroy the Angel and Rei holds the shield to protect them from enemy fire. The scene seemed a lot darker and the Angel was more “animated” during it’s attack sequences. The whole mood seemed more desperate and the battle more spectacular. Even with changes to the scenes, all the familiar characters were there (Asuka Langley-Soyeuse has yet to be introduced) as well as the main plotline (13 Angels were prophecized to destroy the world and bring about Third Impact). The first movie roughly covers the first 6 episodes of the original series. What I find particularly funny is that with all the high tech gadgetry that’s in Tokyo-3, Shinji still listens to a cassette walkman and his classmate uses an old camcorder.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the film and I’ve been eagerly anticipating the return of the anime series. With the improved visuals and sounds, I’m definitely going to get this on DVD or on Blu-Ray (once I get a Playstation 3). The only real concern I have is that because the whole series is being condensed into a couple of movies, I’m afraid that some subtle yet important details are overlooked. Other than that, I definitely recommend this series to everyone, especially those who are fans of Evangelion. Though there was a notable absense of the memorable “Cruel Angel Thesis” soundtrack, the new theme song, “Beautiful World”, sung by Japanese pop idol, Utada Hikaru, is definitely a nice song. Check out the video below:

Now I can hardly wait till the next movies come out! Perhaps I could just rewatch the original series to tide me over till then.

-Stephen