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Wrapping up all the loose threads, Hideaki Anno has given us the true End of Evangelion.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion

End of Evangelion

Review by Matthew Anderson

Final Evangelion Movie

Company: Manga Entertainment

Running Time: 115 Minutes

Region: 1

Rating:R (Language, sexuality and Violence)

EXTERNAL EXAM

In the year 2000, a meteor crashes into the Antarctic. Called the Second Impact, this causes massive flooding and an environmental disasters all across the globe. In the resulting chaos, a new United Nations was formed, under the auspices of a group called Seele. Using information from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Seele knows that strange creatures called Angels are coming. According to the scrolls, if the angels succeed in their mission, the Earth will be destroyed.

Fifteen years later, the organization known as NERV was created. It's purpose: to defeat the Angels by any means necessary.

Their leader, Gendo Ikari, assembled some of the finest scientific and military minds to work on creating and maintaining the Evangelions, gigantic robots created with unknown technology to combat this new threat.

Now with all of the angels gone, NERV is on the verge of being shut down. At the same time, Misato finally discovers the truth, but has little time to examine it.

Under orders from Seele, the UN launches a bloody attack, killing everyone they can. During this confusion, Gendo enacts his own plan, leaving Fuyutsuki and Misato to deal with the Japanese Military. Fully aware of Seele's plan, Misato knows that the soldier's targets are the Eva pilots!

Askua, revived from her coma is now on the attack, trying to stop Seele's plan by destroying all of the Dummy Plug controlled Evangeions.

With Asuka fighting a loosing battle, and Rei missing, the future of the entire world rests on Shinji's shoulders, in more ways than one.

Too bad all he wants to do is die.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: This is the best looking version of End of Evangelion I have seen to date. There are no defects, artifacts, color bleeds or pixels except in scenes with a large amount of red colors. The motion is fluid, and the image is sharp and clear. Compared to Hong Kong DVD and the Japanese Laser Disc neither can beat this transfer.

AUDIO: There are 7 audio tracks on this disc; An English and Japanese 5.1, English and Japanese2.0 mix, English and Japanese DTS and one 2.0 Commentary Track.

Both 5.1 will knock your socks off. The sound comes at you from all sides, with a perfect mix of music, dialogue, and sound effects. Quite loud in volume, you may find yourself scrambling to turn it down.

The English and Japanese 2.0 is much more subdued. While there are some good surround sound elements, it does not pack the punch the 5.1 does. The Japanese 2.0 is clear and has a little more volume than that of the English 2.0

With the commentary, the speakers are in the foreground, with the movie coming from the sides and the back.

I do not have a DTS receiver, so I am unable to comment on these tracks.

EDITS: Absolutely no edits to the movies. Taking a different approach than ADV, Manga Entertainment has not replaced the Kanji with English titles.

The only "edit" was the inclusion of English titles at the end of the second half of the movie. In the original version, it just ends, no credits.

EXTRAS: A little disappointing, compared to the first DVD. We do have the audio commentary with Amanda Winn Lee (Director and voice of Rei), Jason Lee (producer and voice of Aoiba) and Talesen Jaffe (voice actor and director). We have the two "Manga Entertainment" trailers for End of Evangelion, and the Manga Extras Section. Don't get your hopes up, it's just a collection of commercials for Manga, Sputnik 7, and Palm Pictures releases. No pictures, no text information, no Japanese trailers.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Quite an amazing movie. Wrapping up all the loose threads, Hideaki Anno has given us the true End of Evangelion. However, the "metaphysical" twists and turns of the TV series are back, with a vengeance. At least it was done in context with the third impact. Anno has done a great job of blending the action, drama, and suspense into a clear and concise script.

ACTING: Having enjoyed the ADV English dub, I was very disappointed with Manga's version. While the original actors do a good job, the new "replacement" just don't past muster. The delivery was either flat and monotone or way overdone.

The Japanese cast, on the other hand, do a fantastic job. Putting the right amount of emotion into the scene, you can enjoy their exhilaration as they win, and feel their pain when they loose. Yukio Miamura really shines in these episodes as she transforms from comatose patient, to royally pissed off hero.

FAN SERVICE: Mostly tight clothes and boob shots. There is some nudity, but nothing sexual. During the "trailer" at the beginning of the movie, you have a live action shot of Tokyo-3!

FINAL EXAM

So many opinions!

What is there to say that has not been said by a thousand other web sites, in a thousand countries. Hard to follow, just as confusing as the series, same ending; bigger budget, beautiful, amazing story, fantastic animation, a fitting end, the biggest load of crap ever put to celluloid.

Like I said, so many opinions.

The truth is, End of Evangelion is so many things to so many people, it would take a special feature to cover all the opinions. While that is an idea for a latter issue, that is not the purpose of this review. What you are here for is to find out wither or not this movie is worth getting.

First of all, you should not watch this movie if you have not seen all 26 episodes. "Death and Rebirth" will not fill in all the blanks. While "Death and Rebirth" is mostly a "clip" movie, it does not follow a linear progression, and new viewers will be very confused. Hell, even old viewers got confused. If all you care about is finding out what happened after the end of episode 24, go for EOE.

Many people felt that the original ending for Evangelion just didn't make sense. We go from Shinji killing the finial angel in episode 24, to the middle of the Third Impact in episode 25. While we do get some insight about Shinji's mental state as well as his relation to the world, it left so many unanswered questions. How did the Third Impact start? How did Misato die? Why were Ritsuko's clothes floating in LCL? What were the angels? What were the EVA's? Why was Shinji such a wimp?

End of Evangelion answers all of these questions. It also razes a few, but I will leave that issue for another time.

Despite Anno answering al these questions, people still complain that EOE is still confusing. Rumors abound that, like the TV series, they ran out of money. According to the rumors, that is why they added live action segments, reused art work and bizarre writing to cover up this problem. It's bull$#!-. It's all a matter of context. Once you understand that the events in episodes 25 and 26 takes place during the finial 20 minutes of EOE, most of your questions will be answered.

Manga has done a fine job with this release, but I feel it is a little below par compared to their Death and Rebirth. While the picture was excellent, there seemed to be some pixels problems but only during red alert and high action segments. The lack of extras was a surprise, and while amping up the sound was a great idea, it's lost on those of us who don't have a DTS receiver. To be fair, I was so wrapped up in the movie the first time, I only noticed the problems when I went looking for it.

The dub is still a sticky point for me. I just don't feel that the new "secondary" cast members were quite up to par with the original cast. They just didn't seem to be that familiar with the story, and their performance suffered.

The commentary is interesting, and even educational. Talesen Jaffe provides a wealth of information, and I hope that one day I will get to sit down with him and talk Evangelion with him.

Despite my issues, "End of Evangelion" is a excellent ending to a very daring and inventive series. Like "Cowboy Bebop", this entire series should be a major part of your anime collection. With out EOE, you collection will never be complete!

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