Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

Part of a series of articles on the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

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.

Shinji on the telephone after arriving in Tokyo 3

Remaining battery power timer running down

Misato at a bar with Ritsuko (not shown)

Ramiel heading toward Tokyo 3

A brief shot of Kaworu

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 arrives at Tokyo-3 just in time for the attack of the Angel Sachiel. Shinji is forced to pilot Eva-01. Eva-01 goes berserk and defeats the Angel. Shinji becomes an Eva pilot, alongside the mysterious pilot of Eva-00, Rei Ayanami. Shinji runs into problems in school with Toji, but after defeating the next Angel Shamshel, Toji likes him more, along with his friend Kensuke. Another incredibly powerful Angel appears, Ramiel, who nearly kills Shinji with its powerful beam attack, then proceeds to drill down into the Geo-Front cavern below. A plan is developed to defeat it by using all of the electrical power of Japan to power up an experimental giant positron laser which Eva-01 will snipe Ramiel with while Eva-00 supports. Ramiel easily repulses attacks by all conventional weapons but eventually succumbs to Eva-01's attack.

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 what appears to be Lilith restrained behind them in a pit covered with scaffolding. Kaworu says that he cannot wait to meet Shinji "again"...

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

• Whenever the ocean is seen, it is colored red. This includes numerous shots throughout the film, not just at dusk but in full mid-day. 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". No explanation is given for this.
  • Further...all water in the film is colored red, not just the oceans. When Shinji and then Misato take baths, the bath water itself is colored red.
• LCL is blood red now, not orange (depriving fans of previous comparisons of LCL to "Tang")
• 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, etc.
  • 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".
• 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 its paint scheme than it did in the original series. Evangelion Unit-00's color scheme is also different: instead of being solid orange, the bottom half of its body is colored white, while the top remains orange.
• Sachiel and Shamshel's designs are more or less identical to their designs in the original series, though updated with better animation.
  • Sachiel's blood is now red, when in the original series it was blue.
  • In the original version, Shamshel had eight insect-like legs beneath its head, which locked into position and did not move. Shamshel's new design has ten insect-like legs beneath its head, they are a bit longer, and constantly twitch back and forth convulsively. Shamshel now has a Sachiel-style bird-skull on its back (note that so did Gaghiel in the original series). 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. In Rebuild, Shamshel explodes in a shower of blood, leaving only its energy-whips impaled into Eva-01. In the original series, recovering Shamshel's damaged core allowed Nerv to eventually produce their own artificial S² Engines, which led to the destruction of Evangelion Unit-04 during an activation test, and ultimately were used in the Mass Production Evangelions. This raises the question of how Nerv will be able to produce artificial S² Engines if Shamshel's was destroyed, and thus they could not recover it.
• The Angel Ramiel also appears in Rebuild, and at first its design seems identical to the simple tetrahedron shape it had in the original series. However, it soon displays incredibly metamorphic capabilities, capable of instantly shifting into a bewildering array of geometrical designs (stars, pinwheels, etc.) While Ramiel's core was never seen in the original series, as it is internal, Ramiel's core is made visible in Rebuild during several of the alternate forms it morphs into. Ramiel also vocalizes much more in Rebuild, making several whale-like sounds, howling in pain unnaturally when it is injured.
  • Ramiel's attack, originally coming out of the mid-line of the octahedron, 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.
• When Eva 01 screams as it goes berserk for the first time, unlike in the original version, a cloud of condensation visibily exits its mouth, reinforcing the effect that the Eva is actually a living breathing organism.
• The introduction of Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari has been somewhat shortened: the scene starts with Shinji training at Nerv HQ, then immediately makes a jump cut to Toji punching Shinji. After this flash foward, the narrative then backs up and we see Shinji walking into class for the first time while Misato makes a voice-over discussing the "hedgehog's dilemma" with Ritsuko. Then it flashes forward to after Toji has knocked Shinji on the ground, and Rei comes to stand over him. Hikari doesn't talk that much, even though they bothered to add her into cast shots on production photos.
• Unlike in the original version, in Rebuild when Shinji goes to school and walks into class for the first time, he keeps his SDAT audio player's headphones on, "tuning out" socially interacting with the other students before he even walks in the door.
• 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 little differently. In the original series, it was first brought up when Shinji sees his father's burned hands when he is inspecting the core of the dead Shamshel. Because Shamshel leaves no corpse in Rebuild, this entire scene in the research tent doesn't happen. Further, when Eva-00 went berserk in Episode 05 it just punched the window Gendo was standing behind, while in the slightly reworked berserk incident in Episode 14 (caused by the mutual compatibility experiment with Shinji) Eva-00 stopped punching the window (which Rei was behind) and proceeded to bash its head into the wall. Because its probable that the events of Episode 14 won't be adapted into Rebuild (it was basically just a clip show), in Rebuild when Eva-00 goes berserk in flashback, it punches the window Gendo is behind, then proceeds to bash its head into the wall as it did in Episode 14, essentially combining the two berserk incidents into one scene.
• Misato actually grabs and physically pulls up Shinji, after his defying her orders in the battle against Shamshel. Shinji running away after her rebuke and sleeping under a box is also new, as is the scene where he appears to be contemplating suicide only to be stopped and taken back to Nerv. Kensuke and Shinji do not meet.
• In the original version in Episode 04, Shinji ran away and wandered through Tokyo-3, then eventually through the countryside where he found Kensuke, then Nerv agents captured him the following morning. In Rebuild, Shinji does not go to the countryside, but wanders through Tokyo-3 for most of this sequence. At night, he is so portrayed as so pathetic that he actually spends the night sleeping in a cardboard box in an alleyway as opposed to in a movie theater. He then wanders along a road on the outskirts of Tokyo-3 heading out of town, but then ultimately on his own decides to turn around and head back. Seconds after deciding he should head back, Nerv security agents catch up with Shinji and bring him back.
• In the original series, Shinji having to deliver Rei her ID card at her apartment was set up by a humorous scene in which Ritsuko comes over to Misato's apartment for dinner, dressed informally. The dinner is really bad because its really hot and spicy insta-food curry that Misato made, and Misato comically gets really drunk, then teases Shinji about having an excuse to see Rei. In Rebuild, this has been replaced by a more subtle scene between Ritsuko and Misato in the restaurant they go to that offers a good view of the "ceiling city" (the underside of Tokyo-3 hanging from the top of the Geo-Front). Ritsuko gives Misato the card, asking her to make Shinji give it to Rei. Shinji is heard wondering why his father asked him to give the card to Rei. Why Gendo and Ritsuko want Shinji specifically to give Rei the card is not yet known.
• "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, whose body then explodes in a hail of blood.
• 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 actually has to use his progressive knife to pry it open.
• 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.
• In what has garnered a fair amount of publicity, because Rebuild of Evangelion is a movie series, not a TV series, there's much less censorship and therefore there's a lot more nudity. Little has been outright changed, but for example, in the original series when Shinji and Rei are in the pilots' locker room changing into their plug suits, there's a partition between Shinji and Rei, so both Shinji and the viewer just see from her silhouette that she is naked while she changes. In Rebuild, the camera actually shifts angles so its on the other side of the partition, and viewers see Rei fully naked as she changes. Her physical motions are pretty much what they were in the original series, it's just that they're not trying to artfully hide it anymore. Further (and this is a matter of some concern for a number of fans) in the original series, naked people weren't animated with nipples, as this probably would have upset the censors. That's just the style they used to animate naked people. Notably, in the original series' film, "The End of Evangelion", they did animate Rei with nipples when she was naked. In Rebuild of Evangelion, probably because it is also a movie, characters are actually animated with nipples, and its a lot easier to see because the animation quality is better. Further, in the original series (including the movies) Eva pilot plug suits are supposedly skin tight, but they don't have a "wet t-shirt" effect because there are various plastic bits over the breasts. In Rebuild of Evangelion, there are no such plastic sections and Rei has a full-on wet t-shirt effect when she wears her plug suit.
• Misato's rank is now "Lieutenant Colonel". In the original series, she was initially a Captain, and then promoted to Major in Episode 12. The rank structure of Nerv in Rebuild, however, hasn't really changed because of this as Misato neither outranks nor is subordinate to anyone in Nerv different than she was in the original series. So far it just seems to be a slight cosmetic change.
• 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. Presumably the numbering of all later Angels will be accordingly shifted up one. It has been theorized that this is because Kaworu is being counted as the "Third Angel" (given that Seele already knows about him), but this is pure conjecture and actually might be discredited by later revelations.
• Misato is now fully aware that Lilith is being held inside of Nerv HQ, and correctly identifies her. In the original series, Misato didn't know Lilith was being held in Terminal Dogma until Kaji revealed it in Episode 15, and even then, both of them thought she was really Adam. In Rebuild, Misato already knows about Lilith, and further, she knows its Lilith and not Adam. Misato actually shows Lilith to Shinji before Operation Yashima to encourage him to fight Ramiel.
• Lilith's design has been altered and she has a Sachiel face now - When Misato shows shinji Lilith in Terminal Dogma, it does not have the purple triangle "seven eyes of God" mask it did in the original series...though Seele's new symbol in Rebuild still incorporates the triangle-with-seven-eyes symbol into its new design. Instead, Lilith has the same "bird-skull" face as Sachiel, with what appears to be real eyes in them; it appears to be her actual face and not a mask. The hundreds of white feet sticking out of the stump of Lilith's torso are present once again, but they branch out even more than previously, with feet branching out of other feet, and 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. Further, Lilith is already impaled by the Spear of Longinus, while in the original series Gendo and Fuyutsuki had to go to Antarctica in Episode 12 to retrieve it and she was not impaled on it until the end of Episode 14 (off screen). They've apparently already retrieved the Spear in Rebuild.
• 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 "Lilith" has a purple mask similar to that seen on the original Lilith, with what look 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- the same design as that on the crest of Seele and the original Lilith.

The Final Scene

"The story presented to the public was just a cover-up." The neutrality and accuracy of the article is disputed. It should be cleaned up to present unbiased information. Please discuss this issue, or begin editing the page.

What has generated a large amount of fan speculated is the cliffhanger final scene of the film: the movie cuts from the normal ending of the Ramiel battle, and shows one final scene 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, who is communicating using his "Seele 01 - sound only" monolith. Behind them on the Moon appears to be a secret Seele base, with what appears to be Lilith restrained behind them in a pit covered with scaffolding. This Lilith, unlike the one Misato shows Shinji, actually looks exactly like the one from the original series. Kaworu says that he cannot wait to meet Shinji "again..."

There is a lot of speculation about what all of this 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.

The most shocking interpretation of this, as well as other hints dropped in the film, is that "Rebuild of Evangelion" is not supposed to be a "re-imagining" of the original story, but is somehow actually a sequel to the original story. The idea being that originally, just "we the audience" knew that the Evangelion storyline had been "rebooted", when actually, within the storyline itself, the world of Evangelion has been "rebooted", and most characters are unaware of this but a few are.

The idea behind the "Rebuild is really a sequel" theory runs something along the lines of that after the events of "The End of Evangelion", the original Shinji and Asuka became the "Adam and Eve" of a new humanity, or that some other people who had the "will to live" also returned from the Sea of LCL and restarted civilization with them. Either way, they weren't instantly able to restore human civilization, and society basically fell back to primitive levels. Over thousands of years, human society re-emerged, forgot its real origins, and just thought it had evolved normally, never knowing that a previous society had existed. However, there are still hints of what happened before, most notably that the final scene seems to reveal that there's still a giant streak of blood left on the Moon from when the Rei/Lilith hybrid died in the final scene of The End of Evangelion, and shot a stream of blood into the sky. Further, the oceans in Rebuild of Evangelion are all curiously red...as if they're still remnants of the Sea of LCL left behind after The End of Evangelion. Also, while most characters seem unaware that there has been a "reboot", Kaworu seems to be fully aware that the Evangelion universe has been literally "rebooted", and remembers what happened the last time.

If true, this would imply that "Rebuild-Shinji" and "Rebuild-Asuka", are actually the distant descendants of the original Shinji and Asuka from the original TV series, and history is repeating itself, that is, time is repeating itself. This also opens the even more outlandish possibility that the original TV series wasn't even the first time all of this has happened, but one of many installations in an endlessly repeating time cycle, each of which is slightly different each time (comparable to the revelation in The Matrix Reloaded that there were actually five Zions before the current Zion, each one would be destroyed, and a new set of people would be tasked with founding another Zion, each thinking its Zion was the "original" and knowing nothing of the previous ones).

Also unexplained is the nature of the "Lilith" giant on the Moon, which looks like the original Lilith. In the original series, a major plot element is that Misato was "out of the loop", being deceived, and didn't know the full truth behind the Angel being held in Terminal Dogma. Even when she found out about its existence, she was led to believe it was Adam, when it was really Lilith. So if Misato thinks this "Lilith" is indeed "Lilith" at first...could there later be a revelation where it turns out Misato has actually been lied to, and its somehow not Lilith? Why does Seele even have a secret Moon base this time? It's worth noting that the original ending of the TV series outlined in the Neon Genesis Evangelion Proposal mentioned that the final Angels would descend from the Moon to attack Earth (these final Angels were apparently later reworked into the function that the Mass Production Evangelions take on in The End of Evangelion). Further, according to Proposal, an original plot element would have been a rush to find an ancient ruin left by the First Ancestral Race (creators of both Adam and Lilith, and thus, both humans and Angels), a ruin often translated as "Arka" (there are several varying translations). Could the "Arka" be on the Moon? All of this is purely speculation, but one thing is clear: this is no mere "re-imagining"...

This is highly controversial, purely speculative, and we are waiting on the revelations of the next 3 Rebuild films. It may just turn out that the creators of Rebuild of Evangelion are just trying to trick us with misinformation.

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