Differences between Evangelion 1.0 and Neon Genesis Evangelion

For main article, see: "Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone"

See also: Guides:Neon Genesis Evangelion vs. Evangelion 1.0

Rebuild 1.0 is for the most part a retelling of the first six episodes of the original series. However, many important points have been changed; as some minor changes as well. These are all listed below.

Plot Differences

Lilith, now already impaled by the Lance of Longinus

• The appearance and identification of the Angel Lilith, who is already impaled by the Lance of Longinus, happens at the end of the movie, just before the commencement of Operation Yashima, unlike the veil of secrecy kept in the original series where Lilith was never seen until Episode 15 and wrongly identified as the Angel Adam until Episode 24.
  • More notably, Gendo and Fuyutsuki speak about a "contract with Lilith," which did not exist in the original series.
• Shinji does not see the Eva's actual, biological face at the end of the Sachiel battle.
• The deepest level of Nerv HQ is now referred to as "Central Dogma" on computer screens, not "Terminal Dogma".
• There's another Lilith-like giant on the moon. This giant is revealed in the final scene, being excavated in Seele's Moon base. This giant has a purple mask similar to that seen on the original Lilith, with what looks like giant stitches sewing it on to the giant's face. Barely visible below one of the fake "eyes" are three eyes and part of a triangle. This is the same design as that on the crest of Seele and the original Lilith.
• The scene in the original series where Ritsuko is first introduced when she has just finished working on Eva-01, while it is submerged in coolant, has been removed.
• The Angel numbering system has been altered: Sachiel is now the "Fourth Angel", Shamshel the "Fifth Angel", and Ramiel the "Sixth Angel", when in the original series Sachiel was the "Third Angel", and so forth. The names of the Angels are never mentioned either.
• Immediately after the Sachiel fight, while Shinji is unconscious and recovering in the hospital, he has a surreal dream in which he's on a train and is talking to Rei's voice. Scenes similar to this happened often in the original series, but only from the battle against Leliel onwards. At the very end of this scene a "bug-eyed naked Rei" floats quickly towards the screen.

Character Differences

• Misato's elevation in rank to Lieutenant Colonel comes along with vastly improved knowledge about Nerv's operations and secrets. Misato, who first saw Lilith in Episode 15 (and who had no clue about the Angel's existence before that point) is the one who shows Lilith to Shinji and explains the possibility of Third Impact and Nerv's intentions to avert it.
• Shinji seems willing to pilot Eva-01 for the sake of the injured Rei alone. In the original series, he gained added confidence from the fact that Eva-01 moved to protect him from falling ceiling lights, but these do not fall in the movie.

Evangelion Differences

Eva-01's new white skin hands

• Evangelion Unit-01's design has several minor changes, including a slightly different chest plate design and shoulder pylon shape, as well as having more green stripes in her paint scheme.
• Evangelion Unit-00's color scheme is also different: instead of being solid orange, the bottom half of her body is colored white, while the top remains orange.
• The lights in the cage area do not fall during Sachiel's attack on Tokyo-3 (although they are shown shaking from the tremor caused by Sachiel's attack), resulting in Unit-01 not forcefully moving its arm to protect Shinji.
• Eva-01's helmet does not fall off at the end of the battle with Sachiel, as it did in the original series.
• When the armor on Eva-01's hands is burned off due to grasping Shamshel's energy-tentacles, her skin tone is now white, unlike the dark skin tone seen in the original series. So, the hand has a great resemblance to a human hand.
• When Eva-01 goes berserk and screams for the first time, a cloud of condensation visibly exits its mouth. This reinforces the effect that the Eva is actually a living breathing organism.
• When Eva-01 regenerated her broken arm during the fight against Sachiel during the original series, the two ends of the break just reunited in a flash of light from both ends. In Rebuild, better animation now results in the separate muscles in Eva-01's arm twisting and wrapping themselves back into the proper place.

Angel Differences

Changes in Angel designs

• Sachiel is virtually unchanged from its previous incarnation with the exception of the blood being changed from blue to red, and when the second face is revealed Sachiel's eyes glow red.
• When Sachiel self-destructs, its body explodes into blood for a second, though this is quickly outpaced by the massive energy-blast created by its self-destruction.
• Shamshel, is now of a more reddish color, and has several spine-like 'legs' rapidly flailing, as opposed to the stationary ones seen originally. There are also two fangs seen protruding from its mouth and a Sachiel-like mask on the back of his head.
• Instead of its body simply being a more or less straight rod, Shamshel's body now curves into much more of an "S"-shape when it is in combat mode, somewhat like a cobra.
• When Shamshel died in the original series, its entire body just went limp, allowing Ritsuko's science teams to study an almost fully intact Angel and eventually create artificial S² engines. In Rebuild however, Shamshel explodes in a shower of blood, leaving only its energy-whips impaled into Unit-01.
• When Shamshel explodes in a cloud of blood (mostly off-screen), the resulting rain of blood actually creates a rainbow.
• Ramiel benefits from a variety of transformations and "attack modes". The Angel's particle beam appears to be significantly more powerful than the one in the original series, being capable of destroying heavily fortified batteries or tearing down a mountainside in a momentary burst.
  • This attack, originally coming out of the mid-line of the octahedron shaped Remiel, now comes out of the core itself. In addition, the core is seen splitting into four to enhance the attack's destructive power.
• Ramiel's original drill was a separate organ which seemed to be an internal structure which extended out of it. In Rebuild, the drill is formed by Ramiel's outer body itself: the bottom point of the tetrahedron "drips" down like melting glass then coils into a drill.
• Ramiel's core is made visible in during several of the alternate forms it morphs into. Ramiel also vocalizes much more in Rebuild, making several whale-like sounds, howling in pain when it is injured.
• Operation Yashima, the final battle against Ramiel, is expanded a great deal in Rebuild. In the original series, Shinji's first shot from the positron rifle interacts with Ramiel's energy beam, causing both to warp and miss. Ramiel's second blast is deflected by Eva-00's shield, while Eva-01's next shot hits Ramiel and destroys it. In Rebuild, conventional military forces are used against Ramiel to try to distract it from the Evas, but Ramiel easily zaps missiles closing in on it from all directions and then demolishes several massively fortified artillery batteries located in the hills around Tokyo-3. Eva-01's first shot actually does hit Ramiel, but due to Ramiel's extreme toughness, this doesn't kill the Angel - it just shapeshifts again into a star-pattern and fires a shot which throws back Eva-01 and partially destroys the mountain the Evas are based on. Shinji manages to crawl back to the positron rifle, just as Ramiel fires a second shot. However, Shinji is shielded from Ramiel's second beam attack by Eva-00, holding its shield, and Eva-01's second shot with the positron rifle kills Ramiel.
• Lilith no longer bears the purple mask depicting the seven eyes of God, as in the original series. She now wears a bony, owl-like mask, almost identical to Sachiel's face. Concept art shows Seele emblems embedded in the eye sockets, implying that the mask is indeed an artificial construct an not Lilith's actual face. In addition, she has a large scar across her chest, much like Misato's, embedded with several black crucifixes. Aside from these details, she is largely identical to her previous incarnation.
• The hundreds of white feet sticking out of the stump of Lilith's torso branch out even more than previously, with feet branching out of other feet whilst constantly twitch convulsively.
• Lilith now has a diagonal scar across her chest with crucifix-shaped nails around the edges. The shape of the scar and its location being evocative of Misato's scar in the original series..
• Even though Misato mentions that Second Impact was caused by "contact with an Angel", the Angel Adam is never mentioned.

Aesthetic Differences

Rebuild improves the aesthetic of the original series scenes

• Because of the expanded budget and technology, Rebuild is far more detailed than the original six episodes of NGE. In the opening scenes, the remains of seaside settlements are seen as far more desolate and overgrown, plant-life sprouting from cracks in the sidewalk and most of the architecture cracked and broken, and Tokyo-3 is full of pedestrians and traffic, suggesting a bustling city instead of a ghost town.
• In addition, the oceans are now blood red, presumably from this continuity's version of Second Impact. Whenever the ocean is seen, it is colored red. Further, a shot of Earth from orbit in the final scene reveals that the entire planet now appears to have red oceans from space, instead of looking like a "blue planet".
  • Things like freshwater lakes, however, are still normal blue water. For example the underground lake inside of the GeoFront. When Shinji, and later Misato, take baths in Misato's bathtub, it appears to be red, but this might be because the color of Misato's bathtub has been changed from blue to red. The swimming pool that the girls in Class 2-A swim in at school also still has blue water.
  • LCL is also blood red now, as opposed to orange.
• There is a shot in the opening minute of the film of what appears to be a giant chalk outline of a humanoid figure on red ground in the middle of the city, surrounded by buildings. This is similar to the chalk outline of Eva-01 seen in Episode 05 in the original series, marking where she fell on the ground after Shamshel threw her. However, this is shown in literally the first minute of the film, before Shinji even appears on screen.
• Lighting is more dramatic. The monotone grey control room seen during Operation Yashima is now in darkness, the only light being emitted from the control monitors, casting the faces of the Misato and the other characters in highly contrasting shadows.
• There's a larger emphasis on action. The climatic battle with the angel Ramiel now opens by launching a heavy barrage of missiles that are quickly torn to shreds and erupt in a firework-like cascade.
• Nerv and Seele now have new logo designs: Nerv's new logo has the word "Nerv" extending out of the left-hand side of an upside-down apple, with the old motto "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world" either coming out of the right side of the apple or below the word Nerv. The fig leaf from the old Nerv logo is retained - now superimposed onto the apple. However, the original Nerv logo is still used on various equipment throughout the film. Apparently both the old and new logos are used by Nerv, though the new logo is more prominent and used on ID cards.
  • On a minor note, "Nerv" is now universally spelled using all-capital letters. Several times in the original series it was not, thus making it clear that its really not an acronym. The best example of this is when in the original series Misato hands Shinji a "Welcome to Nerv" booklet while they're driving into Tokyo-3. In Rebuild, this same "Welcome to Nerv" booklet now reads "NERV" in all-capitals.
• Seele's new logo incorporates the old logo, a triangle with the seven eyes of Lilith on it, with an apple inset inside of the triangle with a snake coiled around it. Written on the middle of the Seele apple is the phrase "Überm Sternenzelt richtet Gott, wie wir gerichtet," which is taken from lines 71 and 72 of Friedrich Schiller's original poem Ode to Joy. This translates as "Above the starry canopy, God judges as we judged".
• A.T. Fields are "rainbow-colored", like the color-shifting effect seen on the surface of soap bubbles, not orange.
• The computer training simulation scene re-appears in with more or less the same dialogue, but it is now a very complex CGI sequence in which Eva-01 and Sachiel fight in a wireframe, virtual reality Tokyo-3 simulation. Instead of taking place in Unit-01, Shinji is in training version of an Eva's head and spine, with an exposed, pulsating larynx and telescope-like projections on top of the eyes which move.
• In the original series, when Misato is leading Shinji into Nerv HQ for the first time, she's still new to the base herself so she comically tries to find her way around using a fold-up map she's brought along. Later on, when Ritsuko first meets them in the elevator, Misato hides the map behind her back out of embarrassment. In Rebuild the scenes of Misato and Shinji trying to find their way through Nerv HQ are cut for time, and it cuts straight from Misato's car entering the GeoFront to the elevator scene. However, when they're in the elevator, Misato is still hiding a foldup map behind her back from Ritsuko. Thus it seems that Misato and Shinji may have still been lost for a while, but "off screen".
• Ritsuko is not seen wearing a diver's wetsuit, due to the scene being removed entirely.
• When Shinji goes to school and walks into class, he now keeps his SDAT audio player's headphones on, "tuning out" socially interacting with the other students before he even walks in the door.
• The introduction of Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari were somewhat shortened.
• During the fight against Shamshel, instead of opening with a volley from a Pallet Rifle, Eva-01 uses a gigantic Gatling Gun, which drops a large amount of spent shell casings that destroy several vehicles on the ground.
  • After the Gatling Gun is sliced in half by Shamshel, Misato does send Shinji a standard Pallet Rifle as a replacement. Thus the old Pallet Rifle design is still present in Rebuild, however it is called just an "Assault Rifle" now.
• When Shinji and Rei are in the pilot's locker room, changing into their plug suits, Rei is shown fully naked from over the curtain - as opposed to only seeing her silhouette through it.
  • Rei's nipples are now visible in the scene that Shinji sees her getting out of the shower.
• Misato now grabs and physically pulls Shinji after he defies her orders in the battle against Shamshel. Instead of being revealed in a flashback that he left after Misato yelled at him, these events are simply presented in the chronological order they happened in.
  • Shinji no longer goes through the countryside or finds Kensuke after running away. Nor spends the night sleeping in a movie theater, but instead a cardboard box in an alleyway.
• The entrance to Central Dogma is a bit different: instead of a simple door, a complex interwoven tapestry of DNA-shaped rods uncoil themselves, pulling away horizontally and vertically.
• The flashback to the incident in which Evangelion Unit-00 went berserk, resulting in Rei's injuries at the beginning of the story, is introduced a differently, and is a blend of the two scenes from the original series.
• When Shinji has to save Rei from Eva-00's superheated Entry Plug at the end of the film, he doesn't just pull it out as in the original series, but has to use his progressive knife to pry it open.

Miscellaneous Differences

• There's a lot more product placement in the film, though its nothing particularly gratuitous: Yebisu beer and UCC Coffee have returned, but there's a lingering shot when Shinji opens Misato's pantry and it's just filled with "junk food", and its full of "Doritos". This was apparently part of cross-promotion with Doritos, as to promote the film in Japan for a limited time Rebuild of Evangelion characters appeared on Doritos bags. Several other brands are visible, notably Pizza Hut.
• The final scene of the film has no counterpart in the original series, and fully demonstrates that the storyline of the Rebuild films are not a pure remake of the original series, but will instead contain drastic departures.

Shot by Shot Comparisons

For shot by shot comparisons of Rebuild Evangelion 1.0 with the original series, see Neon Genesis Evangelion vs. Evangelion 1.0