Evangelion 1.0 Complete Records Collection

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Title	Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone Complete Records Collection
Original Publication Date	May 2008
Publisher	GAINAX, khara
Pages	512 + 298 +234
Dimensions	32.6 x 23.3 x 8.3 cm/4200g

The Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone Complete Records Collection (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：序 全記録全集)(ISBN 978-4-903713-17-5) (ISBN 978-4-905033-01-1)is a massive collection of material related to the first Rebuild movie. It consists of three books packed together in a cardboard box. The first book, hardcover and also in a hard slip cover, contains everything from interviews with staff to concept art and a breakdown of the movie cut by cut. The other two books are the storyboard for the movie split into A and B parts. It was re-released in 2012 with khara/Groundworks as publisher.

Contents

film

A breakdown of the entire movie cut by cut, with dialogue under some shots. From the khara logo all the way to the end trailer and credits. Music cue sheet and additional scenario also in this section.

archives

"Eva-01 on a 10m grid"

New logo designs, color palettes for the various characters, new character, Eva and angel designs, 3D models of various vehicles, buildings and other structures, layout pages, monitor display screens and generally a metric ton of stuff.

One of the most interesting parts in this section is that it shows Evangelion Unit 01 on a 10m grid along with a train car and a regular car. This finally gives Evas an official height of 80m from the ground to the top of the pylons, although this is assumed to apply to Rebuild only.

art

Concept paintings of the various scenes from the movie.

Kazuya Tsurumaki - Director (25/07/2007 & 05/12/2007)

Translated by Riki

Kazuya Tsurumaki

He supported the TV series as an assistant director with Masayuki. In the film version of "The End of Evangelion", he created the dynamic Evangelion Mass Production Units and Evangelion Unit-02 action. Kazuya Tsurumaki, who also worked on "FLCL" and "GunBuster2", created edgy and sharp images. In "1.0", the climax of "Operation Yakushima", what is the meaning behind the act of "REBUILD"? And what is the meaning of doing a new Eva?

If I'm going to participate in this project, I want it to make worthwhile.

Interviewer: According to Mr. Sadamoto, when he saw that you, who was the least likely to participate in the project, was taking part, he thought that something really special was going to happen. From your own point of view, what was the reason for your participation?

Tsurumaki: I was misunderstood at first, and ended up "participating" in the project before I understood exactly what was going on. When I first heard about the project, I was called by Anno, and I was thinking, "What, what?" He asked me out of the blue, "What would you like to work on next after GunBuster 2, Evangelion 2 or the new work of a very famous anime?" I was confused, but as I was giving my opinions on this and that, I came to the conclusion that "Eva 2" was the way to go. At that time, Anno's new work was supposed to be a completely different project from "Eva".

Interviewer: Is "Eva 2" something different from the "New Movie" that you're working on now?

Tsurumaki: I had assumed that Anno's next anime would be called "Evangelion 2". Even so, it's not a pure sequel, it's something as different as "First Gundam, Gundam 0079" and "MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM SEED". In short, the anime that Anno-san is going to make will all be titled "Evangelion".For example, a work like "The Gutsy Frog" would be called "The Gutsy Evangelion", and "Star of the Giants" would be called "Baseball Evangelion". It's a kind of branding, like "VAIO" for all Sony computers.

That's what he meant by "2". At that time, there was talk that if I wouldn't do it, he would assign it to someone else. Apparently, Mr. Anno wasn't going to officially direct the film, so it was okay to have a completely outsourced staff.

Interviewer: I see. There has been talk of a "G Evangelion" like the "Mobile Fighter G Gundam" in the Gundam series for a while, hasn't there?

Tsurumaki: Now that I think about it, there must have already been talk of a compilation at that time. But I just assumed that he was talking about "Evangelion 2" and listened to him. I told him, "If you're going to make Eva, you have to do it yourself, and if you're going to do anime again, I'll have to help you."

Interviewer: So there was a twist in the story, and it turned out that Anno's next project was a remake.

Tsurumaki: That's how it ended up (laughs). To be honest, if it hadn't been for the Evangelion remake, I think I would have felt more comfortable participating. That's my honest opinion. However, even if it was Evangelion, as long as Mr. Anno is going to do anime again, I think I should participate in that work, so I had mixed feelings about it.

Interviewer: Is "Eva" such a resistant existence?

Tsurumaki: Of course. I mean, I think, "Of course, everyone is resistant to it."

Interviewer: But as a result, it's not a remake, it's becoming something new called "REBUILD".

Tsurumaki: Yes. This "New Movie" is practically becoming "Evangelion 2". I don't know if Anno originally had this in mind, or if he just came to his senses during the script writing meetings. At first, it was just a compilation.

Interviewer: That's what everyone has been saying.

Tsurumaki: It's been a little over a decade since the TV anime ended, and for new fans who want to watch "Evangelion" now, it would be hard to rent all 26 TV episodes and the movie version at a video rental store. So if you're wondering, "What's the story behind Evangelion?", If you want to know what Evangelion is all about, you can rent it and watch the whole thing in about three to four hours on a holiday. If that's the way "Evangelion" is going to be developed in the future, it's better for business. Besides, it would be relatively easy to make. We were just saying, "Let's make it easy." At first, it was just a compilation.

Interviewer: In reality, though, you've come to a place that's far from easy at all.

Tsurumaki: According to the original plan, after "GunBuster2" was finished last summer, I completed one film every six months, and by the end of this year (2007), the trilogy was completed. It was supposed to be finished in a year and a half. I thought, "Well, that's not too hard, so it's okay." In the original plan, there must have been about a hundred new cuts for the first part, "1.0". The rest would be digitally edited. Even the 14 episodes of the TV series are not really a compilation, although they are a compilation in terms of pictures.

Yoshiyuki Tomino was always good at that kind of thing, and I think Anno made episode 14 based on works like "Uso dancing in a hallucination" (*1) from "Mobile Suit Victory Gundam". It was a compilation, but not a compilation. Anno may have had something similar in mind from the beginning. For me, too, if I'm going to do something, it's worth doing it if it's similar but different. That's why I don't think I had any motivation from the beginning, but rather after I started making it, I found the value in making it.

(*1) You can watch the episode from here, https://www26.gogoanimes.tv/mobile-suit-victory-gundam-episode-45 or https://animeflix.eu.org/mobile-suit-victory-gundam-episode-45

Interviewer: I see. How do you divide up the actual directing work?

Tsurumaki: To put it simply, Masayuki directed the first half of Part A, and I directed the second half Part B. In total, Mr. Anno is looking after the film as the general director.

The reason I thought, "Even if it's a compilation, it's okay," is because I can do Operation Yakushima in the second half. In the TV series, everything after the storyboard for episode 6 was ordered by another company, and Gainax had no control over it. So I had some regrets that I wanted to do something more.

・・・

Working on remembering 'Eva's grammar'

Interviewer: Shinji Higuchi and Tomoki Kyoda drew the storyboards for the new film, right?

Tsurumaki: The storyboard itself had two parts, one from the TV series and a new part created by the two of them, and I was the one who put it all together in the end. Both Mr. Higuchi and Mr. Kyoda came up with different storyboards from the previous Eva series. We ordered new storyboards, so of course they thought, "There's no point in making it the same as before." I think it turned out to be an interesting storyboard in its own way. But when we got to the stage of putting it together, some people said, " It doesn't feel like Evangelion." So we went back to the old storyboards and checked the DVD, and while remembering the "Evangelion grammar" again, we tried to incorporate their storyboards into the Evangelion. That's what I did for a long time.

Interviewer: Mr. Higuchi was in charge of the storyboard for "Operation Yakushima," but where did Mr. Kyoda work on the storyboard?

Tsurumaki: He is mainly in charge of the storyboards for the new cuts, which are detailed as connections, and the conversations and human drama. Mr. Kyoda's work on "Rahxephon" and "Psalms of Planets Eureka seveN good night, sleep tight, young lovers" may be perceived by the public as being influenced by Evangelion, but when you look at the storyboards, they are quite different from Evangelion. I think it's inevitable, because things may have changed after "Eureka", and I myself have changed over the past ten years. So I decided to remember the grammar.

Interviewer: What exactly is this "grammar" that you speak of?

Tsurumaki: It's difficult to explain, but the easiest way to understand is the way the cuts are connected. For example, the rhythmic insertion of cuts in the flow. You can break up the cuts to make the flow more pleasant, or leave out cuts that should normally be included. There is also the difference in size between close-up and panoramic shots of the characters, and a peculiar stoicism. This stoicism is related to the fact that I dare not move the film. Originally, this was a directing method that I developed in order to distribute resources well so that the schedule and quality of the TV series would not collapse, and it is directly related to cost performance. After that, I went in the opposite direction, moving things around. This was the case with "Kare Kano" and "FLCL" as well. I dared to go back to "Evangelion" again.

I realized once again that if I don't pursue the finely honed sensibility of the images of that time, it won't become Evangelion.

Interviewer: When did you start working on the storyboards?

Tsurumaki: It was from October to the beginning of December last year (2006). Originally, I had planned to make a 90-minute film, but I had already increased the length of the film through storyboarding, and it ended up being almost a hundred and ten minutes long, which is like a massive work. I think I dropped it once more in the rough editing stage.

The original script was tightly written, but at the stage of finalizing the script and storyboarding, we started to say, "Let's include that scene," or "Let's include this scene," and it ended up looking like a collection of famous scenes. I'm trying to trim it down once more.

To put it more fundamentally, is it an event film to entertain the original Evangelion fans, or is it a film to attract new fans? If it's the former, then it's okay if it's a collection of famous scenes, even if it's a broken story. My mind was wavering from day to day as to which it was. One day I'd say, "Fans will be upset if we don't include that scene," but the next day I'd say, "No, no, no, it's just a collection of famous scenes." I spent a lot of time compiling the storyboards while dealing with such conflicts.

When I finally got the film together, I started to get the feeling that I should make it into a movie, so Anno cut it down and made it into a film.

Interviewer: What were some of the difficulties you had in putting the film together?

Tsurumaki: I think making a film means cutting off the branches and leaves and concentrating on the trunk. But since it's originally a TV show, there are many good branches, and those are the ones that I enjoy. In particular, the first six episodes are usually completed in two sets, so there are many branches and leaves attached to the three sets of stories as the trunk. But if you don't remove the branches and leaves, the story doesn't become a movie.

Also, at the screenplay stage, a new branch was introduced: the adult-like conversation between Ritsuko and Misato. I thought it would be a response to the childish side of the story. In the early days of TV, it was still a robot animation. But Evangelion as a whole left a serious impression in the latter half of the series. I think Anno is trying to adjust the balance by adding an adult perspective and bringing in the serious atmosphere of the latter half. However, in order to put it all together in the main body of the story, these are branches and leaves that are not necessary.

Interviewer: Overall, it seems like the fourth episode where Shinji wanders was omitted.

Tsurumaki: That's a scene that was omitted in the initial script, but we were able to bring it back. In particular, Anno-san has been adding a lot of interesting urban scenery to the film, especially with the CGI buildings. In this way, the situation where Shinji wanders around is necessary to show the vastness of the terrain around TOKYO-3, and to give a sense of life through the monorail transportation. So I took it all back, and then cut down the parts that were too much, leaving only the necessary parts.

Interviewer

I also felt that overall, Shinji's feelings were slightly positive.

Tsurumaki: That's a difficult part. In a normal story, the protagonist grows up and ends up winning, but Shinji seems to be positioned as a character who never grows up. However, if you look at the TV series closely, you can see several milestones in Shinji's growth that you wouldn't mind seeing as the final episode. I think that's episode 6 and episode 19. The end of episode 19 goes in a different direction, but if they win against Angel and declare, "This is the last episode!", I think that would have made for a really good robot anime.

When you think about it, it's not that Shinji hasn't grown up. It's just that there's an even tougher development waiting for him, and he repeatedly worries and gets lost. The final "growth" was not portrayed clearly, especially in the last episode of the previous movie, so Shinji was perceived as a very spoiled character.

We haven't decided on the ending for this (1.0) yet, but it seems that there is a plan to make it a happy ending, so I thought it might be better to make it a more straightforward story of growth from the beginning. In the storyboard I submitted to Mr. Anno before the final draft, I had drawn a clear picture of growth. But Mr. Anno changed the nuance a bit. Maybe he thought that was too much.

If you look at "1.0" as a stand-alone movie, I wanted it to be a story about Shinji growing up, winning, and ending on a happy note. I tried to make it look like a normal movie.

Interviewer: I'm sure the audience will be highly satisfied with this movie, including the way it fits together.

Tsurumaki:I think it will definitely be easier to watch. Of course, people who like Shinji as a useless person might be repulsed, but I do think that if it's Shinji up to episode 6 on TV, it's not surprising that this would happen.

・・・

We can go further and explore the nuances of color with digital photography.

Interviewer: I'd like to ask you about the making of the film, but did you participate in the location scouting?

Tsurumaki: Mr. Anno has started to do location scouting more often, and a small group of us would go out on a quick trip just for a certain cut. I participated in about two or three of them, especially the ones in Hakone. We took aerial shots around Lake Ashinoko with a helicopter. I also went to the Keiyo substation in Chiba. I'm very reluctant to go out, so before I go there, I sometimes think, "I just need pictures," but it's fun to go there. Anno-san is so happy to be there that he flies all over the place. I even thought, "For Anno-san, this is more of a purpose than a location hunting trip." (laughs) I didn't participate, but I also went to the Miyagase Dam.

Interviewer: Mr. Tsurumaki, do you take a lot of photos when you are out on location?

Tsurumaki: Of course, location scouting is like going out to take pictures. But in my case, rather than using what I took as material, the photos are just clues to help me recall the atmosphere, and the slope and expanse of a place are things that you can't understand unless you go there. But once you've been there, you'll have to worry about how to visualize it, and whether you'll be able to capture it properly.

For example, in the previous TV series, we went to Hakone to do location scouting before the series started. At that time, I thought, "The ridges of the mountains are really high. Normally, when you draw buildings and then draw mountain ridges and horizons in the open spaces between the buildings, you would draw them low, but in Hakone, they are surprisingly high. That's because the geographical features are more like a basin. I thought I knew this when I drew it, but as I worked on it for a long time, I started to forget it (laughs). I was glad that I was able to remember it once again.

Interviewer: Some of the scenery that you scouted on location, such as telephone poles and buildings, were drawn in celluloid.

Tsurumaki: To begin with, Mr. Anno told me that he wanted to draw the poles and buildings in celluloid because they were characters. There are only two types of anime drawings: those with outlines and those without. Celluloid drawings have outlines, but backgrounds do not. From Anno's point of view, characters should be drawn as if they have outlines, while other things don't have to have outlines, in other words, they should be done with background art. That's why not only telephone poles, but also vending machines and public telephones are all cells, which in Anno's opinion are characters.

He was very particular about the outlines, and wanted to use cells for the buildings from the time of the TV series. However, with the technology of the time, if you drew it in celluloid, it wouldn't really blend in with the background, so I think they gave up on the idea because it would have been too difficult in terms of quality. One of the advantages of using CGI is that you can create a building with outlines that blend in with the background. I thought it would be better that way, too.

Interviewer: Including that, digital technology has been introduced in "Eva" this time, how do you deal with it?

Tsurumaki: For me, shooting digitally is much more important than 3D-CGI. I've been saying this since "GunBuster2", but the fact that I can create images that depict light using digital photography is huge. With celluloid, it was almost impossible to do that, and even though there were techniques such as incident light and transmitted light, they could only be used in a limited way. Now, with digital filming, we can depict the light itself, which I think is a huge step forward.

The glowing green parts of EVA-01 TEST TYPE in the night battle scene of episode 2 were supposed to look like that, but we couldn't do it in the celluloid era. To be more exact, we could do it if we tried, but it required a lot of work and cost. This has been dramatically reduced by digitalization. Even back then, there were ways to do things like multiple exposures and special effects like brushes, but the effects were not as good as the time and effort required.

Thanks to the use of digital technology, there are more colors to choose from and I can tweak them during the shooting process without having to use any safe colors. In the days of celluloid, you had to compromise to a certain extent. For example, if you wanted to draw a skirt with a bit of skin showing on the sides, you had to make the area skin tone, otherwise it wouldn't look like skin. Even if the scene is lit with red lights, the skin part has to be painted symbolically as skin tone, otherwise it won't look like skin. So there was a lot of compromise to ignore the light and keep the skin tone. However, with digital photography and digital coloring, we can go further and explore the nuances of skin tone in red light.

In that sense, who the director of photography is is just as important as the art director or the animation director in the digital world. Eventually, people will say, "I watch this anime just to see the work of this director of photography." With the advent of digital technology, shooting has the potential to grow to that level. I think that the dynamic character portrayal in "Gurren Lagann," which Gainax is currently working on, is a big part of the work, but I'm just as impressed with the hard work of the shooting as with the drawing. I think it's worth watching "Gurren Lagann" just to see that light.

Interviewer

So you're saying that anime is still evolving. That's great to hear.

Tsurumaki

Even if it's something that the shooting team is working hard on at the moment, the art director may come up with another suggestion like, "We'll draw all the light here," or the drawing team may say, "We want to express the texture of the skin better, so we'll draw the highlights of the skin in a separate cell and add something different to it. For example, I want to draw the highlights of the skin in a different cell, and then add something different to it." I think that borderlessness will continue to grow.

Interviewer: In the field of effects, they've already started to use different cells for shooting and processing.

Tsurumaki: Yes, that's right. Just as animators Hisashi Ezura and Mitsuo Iso originally did, I expect that the kind of shooting processing that can only be done by drawing artists by creating different materials will continue to develop. The way Mr. Emura processes the flames and the reflections on the surface of the water are things that can only be done by someone with a very high level of knowledge in the art of drawing. Then there's Makoto Shinkai. I feel that the ability to express the atmosphere of Mr. Shinkai's works has reached a considerable level, including the fact that he takes care of everything until the end.

On the other hand, in general, when you think about the animation industry, it is still difficult to decide how far to go in filming, and we are still in the trial and error stage. This is because it is difficult to determine how far to go in filming, how to make it better, and how to make it worse.

Interviewer: It's true that you can change the color of the art, the paint, and the texture of the special effects in any way you like.

Tsurumaki: That's right. I don't think it's been more than ten years since the industry went completely digital, but the TV industry is finally starting to establish a standard that says, "It's okay to shoot up to this level," and I don't think there are many works yet that are being made with a proactive stance instead of taking it easy. Of course, there are examples of theatrical films such as "BLOOD" and "INNOCENCE". It's just my personal intention, but I'd like to gradually pursue the filming aspect of "Rebuild of Evangelion", and by the time the final work is completed, I'd like it to be recognized by the world as "this is filming animation". Of course, this will require the involvement of the director of photography, Toru Fukushi.

・・・

advertising

Contains various posters as well as the two trailers broken down cut by cut.

the other

Contains pic of all the other promotional stuff: movie tickets and pamphlets, OST and DVD covers, Doritos packs, UCC coffee cans and other stuff.

scenario

Contains the 42 page script.

(Numbers-kun translates a deleted scene involving Kaworu.)

poster

A foldout poster of Rei drawn up by Sadamoto

List of Official Publications

General: Newtype Film Books | Newtype 100% Collection | Movie Pamphlets | Eva Fan Club | Evangelion Chronicle

Production: Neon Genesis Evangelion Proposal | Evangelion Original | Storyboard Collections | Concept Design Collections

Sore o Nasumono: NGE Concept Design Works | Groundwork of Evangelion

Art Books: Der Mond | Die Sterne | Carmine | 2015: The Last Year of Ryohji Kaji | Photo Files (Adam & Eve) | Evangelion Chronicle Illustrations

Other: E-Mono | Evangelion RPG: The Nerv White Paper | Evangelion RPG: Angelic Advent | End of Evangelion: Boku to iu Shingou | It's A Miraculous Win| | All About Kaworu Nagisa: A Child of the Evangelion | Schizo/Parano

Rebuild of Evangelion

General: Movie Pamphlets | Groundwork of Evangelion | Evangelion the New Movies: Storyboards | Eva Extra

Eva 1.0: Evangelion 1.0: Entry File 1 | Evangelion 1.0 Complete Records Collection

Eva 2.0: Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection