20https://bestanimations.com/SignsShapes/Arrows/Left/leftarrow15.gif https://anilist.co/review/6531 20https://bestanimations.com/SignsShapes/Arrows/Right/rightarrow29.gif https://anilist.co/review/13151 This Review Contains Spoilers for Evangelion 3.0 and End of Evangelion 520https://externalpreview.redd.it/N5HEW8XCJ3bc0frzRCXtRqXxnaKAPy11gz9DgxUI.jpg?width=640crop=smartauto=webps=698363baf0a20e2d64143238433eabb427dcc040 We return once more to Evangelions Rebuild movies this time taking a look at the last movie for the foreseeable future Evangelion: 3.0 You Can Not Redo the third installment in the planned tetralogy. As I stated before each passing Rebuild movie deviates more and more from the original television show. 1.0 was largely the first few episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion with a fresh coat of paint and 2.0 recapped the next arc but deviated more and more until it stunningly concluded with completely new material. I predicted that in 3.0 wed chart completely new territory as the Rebuild continuity completely divorced itself from the television show. And I was correct But being new is one thing being good is another thing entirely. With this in mind what do I think of You Can Not Redo? How exactly does 3.0 fare next to its predecessors whether that mean the rebuilds or the television show? Unfortunately I find myself criticizing the new direction. As it turns out whats new is largely old in some ways. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can Not Redo follows directly where 2.0 left off with the third impact averted and Rei and Shinji trapped inside Unit 01 via the Spear of Cassius that Kaworu threw. With all signs pointing to them being responsible for the decimation of Tokyo3 UN raids the Geofront and the NERV staff is incarcerated. Most importantly this movie marks the moment in which The Children of the Rebuild Rei Asuka Shinji Mari and Kaworu will finally come together. 520https://c.tenor.com/00cEC0EPzsAAAAM/hahaha.gif Whoopsie just kidding In reality Evangelion: 3.0 You Can Not Redo takes place a whopping fourteen years after 2.0. The Third Impact was just narrowly avoided but not before obliterating Japan and killing off most of the worlds already fledgling population. Shinji wakes up after being comatose to discover a battlehardened Misato as the head of a new organization WILLE. The movie follows Shinji as he tries to discover what has happened to the world and figure out if he can save it with his new mysterious ally Kaworu Nagisa. https://www..com/watch?v=jKk8xsaPx7k The first thing viewers will notice about 3.0 well assuming theyre the type to stick around after the credits is that it completely deviates from the preview established at the end of 2.0. The children are in the same location I suppose though the Rei we know and love isnt there but its not so much a meeting its a fight and their interactions with one another are pretty fledgling. While the Third Impact has technically been averted it might as well not have been because the world is still ravaged. We dont see the NERV staff being incarcerated. Really the only thing from the preview that made it to the film is the fact that Asuka wears an eyepatch now. Id encourage viewers to skip the preview as it just makes the opening of the movie more confusing. It can be pretty hard to parse out whats going on in the film. The timeskip from 2.0 to this one doesnt help in this regard as it takes a moment before we even realize weve gone fourteen years into the future. From a viewer standpoint one moment everything is fine and everything has gone to crap in the next. Its fine for movies to have timeskips between installments but theres usually context that makes the skip less jarring. Off the top of my head I can think of three series that pulled it off a lot more gracefully. Theres a fiveyear timeskip during the Avengers duology of Infinity War and Endgame. The latter picks up right after the first and has a timeskip after the movie has started ensuring that viewers have the payoff to the previous plot threads while simultaneously making the timeskip obvious. Theres a tenyear timeskip between episodes I and II of Star Wars but time jumps between movies have been established at this point and the events of I had wrapped up sufficiently so that a timeskip wouldnt be jarring. Hell the second Indiana Jones movie Temple of Doom takes place one year prior to the first but it essentially doesnt matter since the previous film wrapped up so nicely that viewers could easily jump into the next establishing the episodic nature of these films. It might seem offtopic to talk about Hollywood films in an anime review but its to establish how 2.0 fumbled its handling of the timeskip and ultimately made for a more confusing experience than it needed to be. Its not only confusing but its unsatisfying 2.0 didnt wrap up nicely the ending built a lot of momentum and plotthreads that were ultimately discarded due to the timeskip. 520https://i.ur.com/dn5MRbM.jpg My bare synopsis gives you much more information than the movie itself gives viewers. As you can surmise this makes for a disorienting experience. Id urge for new viewers to read a brief synopsis going in as itll help a lot in getting acclimated to the new world. Many questions were buzzing in my head throughout the film and they really only began to be answered at the halfway mark of the film. Even then the answers werent really satisfactory and raised as many questions as they answered. Ive heard the movie isnt newcomer friendly but I think the point is moot because I watched the original series and I still didnt really know what happened. Since I have watched the original series I knew it would be a good idea to check fan encyclopediae like EvaGeeks for answers. So like the original series youll have to rely on supplementary materials if you hope to understand 3.0. A counterargument to my criticism could be that this is the point. Shinji has woken up after being in a sort of stasis for fourteen years. As such he doesnt know whats going on so it would only make sense that we the viewers similarly dont understand whats happening. Ill concede that this certainly makes sense but unfortunately I dont really care. While its certainly artful that the structure of the movie emulates Shinji being a fish out of water it doesnt make for a very pleasurable viewing experience. Annoyance being intentional doesnt change the fact that Im annoyed. In my review of 2.0 I stated the Rebuilds are a new continuity a seemingly more hopeful one. A continuity in which even if characters must go through horrible trials to get there theres a light at the end of the tunnel. 520https://i.kymcdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/027/528/519.jpg I greatly disastrously misread the last movie or at least what the movie meant moving forward. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can Not Redo vehemently spits in the face of any hopeful interpretation of 2.0s ending. For facing his fears and following his heart to save the girl he loved Shinji is brutally mercilessly punished. Hes initiated Third Impact somehow resulting in him being the catalyst for the newest apocalypse. His worst fears are realized in that everyone hates him. Hes robbed of his newfound purpose due to him being barred from piloting an Eva. Most damningly the girl he loved has seemingly perished despite his efforts making all the pain hes caused for naught. And thats only the beginning of the film things get far far worse at its end. 520https://i.ur.com/wn94z2Y.jpg Unlike the hopeful yet still tense movie I imagined 3.0 is oppressively depressing and hopeless with constant reminders that the world has been irrevocably damaged and Shinjis to blame. We watch Shinji descend further and further into madness and despondency. Theres not much hope to be had but theres just enough to get stamped out at the end breaking Shinji and the audience further. Theres a gloomy tone throughout making it more tonally boring than 2.0 and more tonally offputting than 1.0. To be clear theres nothing wrong with a bleak show somehttps://anilist.co/anime/85/KidouSenshiZetaGundam ofhttps://anilist.co/anime/16498/AttackonTitan/ myhttps://anilist.co/anime/1/CowboyBebop/ favoritehttps://anilist.co/anime/16664/TheTaleofThePrincessKaguya/ anime arent the happiest. There is however something fundamentally undesirable about a show that basks in bleakness because when everythings dark nothing really is and you stop caringhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarknessInducedAudienceApathy because its all the same in its unpleasantness. 520https://i.ur.com/SOrQ5kx.jpg Honestly my aversion could just be due to my own expectations. The ending of 2.0 did seem hopeful it was sweet but 3.0 retroactively made it this horrible choice of Shinjis all so that it could foster a depressing tone. It just feels so out of left field in light of what was built up. As an Evangelion veteran this isnt exciting we already got a depressing tone in the original. It actually reminds me of End of Evangelion in its unflinching exhausting bleakness. A question I had after the movie was whats the point? Whats Anno hoping to achieve with this reimagining if it ultimately comes out to be the same as the original? Oh sure the setting might be different but the takeaway seems like itll be largely the same. Currently it seems like its hitting the same beats as the original but worse. Like in 1.0 the theme of the movie shines clearly. Towards the end of the movie Shinjis goal is to reverse the damage he caused redoing his time with the Evangelion. Kaworu even lulls Shinji into thinking redos are feasible. He states that to get good at the piano Shinji must keep playing a piece until he is satisfied with it. One look at the title shows that Shinji must learn that this lesson doesnt apply to life no matter how hard one tries they cant change the past they cannot amend past mistakes they must simply live with the horrible consequences. 3.0 also retroactively reveals the theme of 2.0. Namely that no matter how hard you try you cant advance in your relationships you cant advance towards a brighter future your efforts will only blow up in your face. You can even take these themes to a metatextual level. No matter how much fans may want it Evangelion wont advance to become a happier series there wont be a redo of the series in which everyone is happy in the end. Like Shinji with the events of the third impact trying to redo Evangelion only results in a product thats as depressing as the original. Again Im left asking whats the point? This sentiment could have been made by simply not making any more Evangelionrelated works. Why spend millions of dollars to essentially flip off the audience? Burning money while angrily tweeting about the Evangelion fan base would have achieved the same effect with less hassle. 520https://i.ur.com/t4lAmPR.jpg For what its worth the rebuilds are apparently supposed to be more hopeful than the original. It should also be noted however that production of 3.0 caused Anno to relapse back into depression. Make of this information what you will. One thing Ive heard is that the Rebuild series is happier due to the characters being less messed up. This sentiment only works in regard to the first two movies. Its true that in the rebuild continuity Shinji is less cowardly and morose Rei emotes more Asuka is less of a gremlin and Misato has more social moors and is less of a possible predator. These changes make it easier for some to empathize with the characters but on the flipside this makes it more heartbreaking when they suffer great misfortune. 520https://i.ur.com/rxX6jKU.jpg Speaking of which this go around the characters were fine I suppose. They didnt really grab me as much as before. Shinji acts in a manner youd expect for a young man who just discovered that he caused the apocalypse while trying in vain to save his crush. While she goes back to being prickly I still prefer this version of Asuka who I like to call Pirate Asuka. Arrghsuka if you will. Sure shes an ass to Shinji but it seems like she has a legitimate reason to be this time around instead of being a general bully. Plus I like the unique angle of her being a grizzled war veteran. Im not sure its fair to say that they reversed her character development from the last film we see Asuka in a very different world than the last movie another problem with the timeskip. However that doesnt change the fact that at least on the surface it very much seems like the old Asuka. 520https://i.ur.com/20LntaJ.jpg Speaking of grizzled veterans I was really interested in what they did with Misato. Gone is the bubbly yet nononsense team momhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TeamMom replaced with a stoic commander. Despite all of this she still harbors affection toward Shinji as evidenced by the fact that she doesnt blow him up when she has the chance. Its a shame Misato is barely in the movie though she certainly makes an impact in how starling her transformation is. Gendo is more the same though somehow even a bigger jerk than he was in the television show. 520https://i.ur.com/FA42pHa.jpg I was sorely disappointed to see that Mari still has a bit part. Sure she has a bigger role than in 2.0 but shes still hardly in the movie. Shes still a treat whenever shes on the screen though. This only makes me want more of her. At this point Im resigned to the fact that if I want to see more Mari my best bet is buying figures of her. Honestly most of the characters saw little screen time. The only ones who were prominent were Shinji and Kaworu. Kaworu stole the show after having glorified cameos in the previous two movies. I love how hes so supportive of Shinji. Their chemistry was amazing and there was electric bishounen BL energy whenever they were on the screen. They even changed his design from previous movies to give him softer features. Im halfsurprised there wasnt a kiss. 520https://3.wikia.nocookie.net/cb20120322052756/evangelion/images/3/38/KaworupilotingMark.0628Rebuild29.png 520https://31.media.tumblr.com/81e4855a278a1a976d67a57376778e1c/tumblrmvumv04UWj1slvqiko1500.gif But of course this is 3.0 were talking about. Kaworu tragically dies while stopping another impact his blood splattering all over the Evangelion cabin next to Shinji traumatizing the poor boy further as hes robbed of two people who unconditionally loved him. After two movies of teasing it feels like such a waste to kill him after one movie. But I suppose theyre just trying to emulate the show. 520https://preview.redd.it/zqe8bim2q0o41.png?width=960crop=smartauto=webps=4db4a40eb879978425b2dbcd593c777935d5cd49 The action scenes were decent though they felt more sporadic this time around. The pacing of this movie made it feel like not a lot happened when some pretty big things did unfold plotwise. I attribute this to the pacing and structure which is mostly Shinji either moping or bonding with Kaworu. For what its worth though I did think Evangelion Unit 013 with its dual cockpit was pretty awesome. https://www..com/watch?v=isyg0nNoPPU The art direction is still great and a standout scene is Shinji losing his grip on reality after finding out that he didnt save Rei. This makes for a very uncomfortable scene as Shinki walked in front of a shifting background with a wideeyed haunted expression on his face. At first I was going to say the music was worse but upon listening to the OST again I have to admit there are quite a few gems some of which I added to the review. Unfortunately 3.0 doesnt feature a rendition of Decisive Battle. 520https://i.ur.com/fSh9Jyg.jpg There are certainly things I liked about Evangengelion: 3.0 You Can Not Redo: the battles were pretty cool Kaworu played off of Shinji nicely and the setting itself was interesting. But these are overshadowed by my grievances including many characters lack of screentime the fumbling of the timeskip and the dismal tone of the movie that departs from 2.0s. After being so excited at the end of 2.0 Im really disappointed in the direction Anno decided to take 3.0. 3.0 while being new ends up taking too much of what I dont like about the original series to fully enjoy it. 6.5/10 D Ive seen Neon Genesis Evangelion being likened to Star Wars in popularity some going so far as calling it the Star Wars of anime. Taking this analogy a step further we could say the Rebuilds would be the Sequel Trilogy of anime. The momentum built by 2.0 and The Last Jedi is squandered by The Rise of Skywalker and 3.0. In both series I was prepared to like the sequel/reimagining more than the original but the latest installment sullied my goodwill. The rebuilds however have something that the Sequel Trilogy doesnt. The rebuilds havent concluded yet. The rebuilds could very well turn themselves around and leave a tetralogy that I enjoyed overall. For now I remain cautious in my optimism. 520https://i.ur.com/08YoqE6.jpg https://www..com/watch?v=utXF0PGPD3Q