Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
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Rebuild of Evangelion movie series |
Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone is the first film in the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series. It premiered in Japan on September 1st, 2007.
Overview
Evangelion 1.0 is an alternate retelling of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series, covering material up to the battle against the Angel Ramiel in Episode 06 of the original series. Evangelion 1.0 very faithfully recreates many scenes from the original series, often shot for shot, but with better animation quality, using modern digital animation technniques.
Plot Summary
Shinji Ikari receives a message from his father, asking him to come to meet him. He is picked up by Misato Katsuragi, and taken to meet his father, at the headquarters of his organization, Nerv. Meanwhile, the city of Tokyo-3 is attacked by a strange creature, the Angel Sachiel. At Nerv HQ, Shinji is shown what his father has been working on: A giant "robot," Evangelion Unit-01. Shinji's father, Gendo Ikari, forces him to pilot it, saying he is the only one who can. Shinji fails to defeat the Angel, and is nearly killed, but Eva-01 goes berserk and defeats the Angel on its own. Shinji is officially instated as the pilot of Eva-01, the Third Child. Shinji runs into problems in school with Toji, whose sister was injured in the battle. The Fifth Angel, Shamshel, attacks Tokyo-3, and Shinji is forced to battle again. He defeats it, but he disobeyed orders during the fight, and decides to run away. After contemplating suicide, he is brought back by Nerv employees. At school, Toji decides that Shinji isn't a bad person, and they become friends. Following this, Shinji interacts with his fellow pilot, the mysterious Rei Ayanami for the first time. Another incredibly powerful Angel appears, Ramiel, who nearly kills Shinji with its powerful beam attack. It then proceeds to drill down into the Geo-Front cavern below. When Shinji recovers, Misato takes him down to Terminal Dogma, where she shows him Lilith, a white giant hanging from a cross. She explains that if an Angel were to unite with Lilith, it would cause Third Impact. This encourages Shinji to pilot Eva-01 again. A plan is developed to defeat Ramiel by using all of the electrical power of Japan to power an experimental positron rifle which Eva-01 will use to snipe Ramiel while Rei, in Eva-00 supports by blocking its attack. After missing with his first shot, Shinji is successfully able to destroy the Angel.
Meanwhile, in the final scene, the camera pans up from the end of the battle with Ramiel and zooms in on Earth's Moon. On the Moon, a line of what appear to be coffin-like boxes is on the lunar surface, with a giant stain of blood intersecting the landscape through the middle of the row of boxes. Out of one of these rises a nude Kaworu Nagisa, who begins talking to Chairman Keele's Seele 01 "sound only" monolith communicator. Behind them on the Moon appears to be a secret Seele base, with a white giant with an appearance similar to Lilith restrained behind them in a pit covered with scaffolding. Kaworu says that the "Third" hasn't changed, and he can't wait to meet Shinji.
Similarities between Rebuild and Original Series
Many scenes were recreated almost shot-for-shot. See: "Guides:Neon Genesis Evangelion vs. Evangelion 1.0"
Differences between Rebuild and Original Series
For a thorough list of differences between the first Rebuild movie and the original series, see: Differences between Rebuild 1.0 and Original Series
The Final Scene
There is a lot of speculation about the implications of the final scene and what it means. On the whole, it at least seems that the film's creators were trying to ease fans back into accepting a new, altered version of Evangelion by making the first film and almost shot by shot recreation of the original story, but in the last scene turn this on its head, and effectively warn fans to expect big changes to the plot of this new series.
- For in-depth analysis of the final scene of Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0, see "Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: The Final Scene"
Soundtrack
- Hikari Utada's song "Beautiful World" is the main theme for the movie.
Reception
On its opening weekend in Japan, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone took the #1 place at the box office: 236,158 people spent 280 million yen (about US $2.4 million). Unusually, it earned this much money despite playing at only 84 theaters, though many of them were packed to capacity [1]
Notes
- The first trailer for the film was released online on July 13th, 2007
- After the credits finish, a trailer plays for the next movie in the Rebuild series, "Evangelion 2.0". Amusingly, its structured exactly like the "next episode on Evangelion" segments that ended each episode of the original series, including the same musical theme and a voice-over by Misato.
- An animation error: when Misato and Shinji are in the elevator, right before it opens and they meet Ritsuko for the first time, the instructions printed next to the level display clearly say "Emargency" instead of "Emergency".
