I watched the first episode of the new “Rebuild of Evangelion” anime, titled “Evangelion 1.0, You are not alone”. Why is it called 1.0 and not 1.1 or 1.5? Because it is the same as the original. Yes dear reader, you have read correctly: There is nothing new to be seen here. It is the same storyline, and by same I mean: It is the same with lots of omissions, important scenes having been completely deleted. This wouldn’t be a problem if those gaps were filled with new content, new ways to interpret the story, new hints and clues leading to the meaning of this piece, but no: This rehash is not a new interpretation like most people claim, but the same thing we’ve seen before. Yes, it does have better animation. Yes, the action is pulse pounding and well done. But story-wise nothing justifies re-watching.
Another problem is the aforementioned action. Indeed, the visuals and fight choreography are pleasing, yet the story seriously lacks in comparison with the original. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t even like the original, but one thing it did exceed at was building tension, displaying a facade of cruel life, only to have this facade violently ripped off by oncoming onslaught. In this rebuild there is no time for exposition, there is no time to calm down and organize ones thoughts, everything is action packed from start to finish with only few times to stride away form the dazzling visuals. And the short intermissions simply don’t make any sense if you haven’t seen the original, the character development falls brutally short, and new viewers will wonder, what exactly the motivation of the participants are, or more likely complain about the characters being mere caricatures.
Some might argue, that the original is already so good, it needs no new interpretation. But if that is the case, why just not watch the original? And the updates to the graphics simply don’t cut it alone, if you desire a bit more than fighting. You want some action or just liked the original because of its explosions? Then I full heartily recommend this episode to you. If you enjoyed the original story however, I urge you to stay away. And if you didn’t like the story because of Shinji whining all the time…., well he is still whining, just not as much, but now there is no more story remaining either. A fair tradeoff critics might exclaim, and I am not sure how I feel about this either.
So what NGE 1.0 really amounts to is a visually updated Neon Genesis Evangelion 1-6, cramped into movie length. Not more, not less.
But I am aware that this might all be intentional, since the ending does diverge from the original, and maybe the numbering to 2.0 of the next episode signifies the changes which are need to really justify a rebuild. But only time will tell, and right now it doesn’t look good. Still, I enjoyed the action. Probably what the anime, including the original, was about in the first place.
