I have good news to report. Even after giant space creatures repeatedly savage planet Earth, boiling its seas and killing two billion people, Lawson will survive. And UCC Coffee. And Yebisu beer.
Where to begin with Evangelion 2.0, which opened in theaters across Japan this Saturday? The scene outside Kabukicho's Milano-Za was one of restrained anarchy. Mr H______, a friend from studio D_____, had early-bird tickets and offered to queue up for a spot. (I would rather see anime films with Mr. H_____ than almost anyone else. I will always remember the dinner we shared several years ago after seeing Aim for the Top 2 together. So moved was he by the film's dénouement that at one point he began quietly weeping into his tonkatsu.)
We eventually made it into the fourth showing in the thousand-seat capacity theater; according to Mr. H______, the audiences of the first two shows had been filled near entirely with cosplayers. ("It was like a sea of Ayanami Reis," he remarked wistfully as he described the scene to me.) I had indeed had trouble finding him in the controlled pandemonium outside of the Milano-za; a large stage had been erected in the courtyard in front of the ticket office, upon which a series of cosplayers wooed the crowds with photo-ops and giveaways. As I made my way to Mr. H______, I found my way temporarily blocked by what appeared to be an interpretive dance performance by a group dressed like the monoliths of Seele.
The movie? Pardon my Japanese, but absolutely fucking awesome. From the very opening, which features a bespectacled schoolgirl in a prototype Evangelion unit pummeling the living shit out of some insane-looking creature (and with a nigh-incomprehensible English running commentary, no less), the action barely lets up for the next hour and forty five minutes. This is "post-anime." It feels like a culmination of every trick, every technique, every mind-bending spin Japanese animators have been perfecting for the last half century. We all know that most anime flicks start with a literal bang, often an atomic-style mushroom cloud. Evangelion 2.0 drops bombs (and worse) on the hapless citizens of Tokyo-III every ten to fifteen minutes, bouncing the characters like pinballs from one potential holocaust to the next. Alternately breathtaking in scope and claustrophobically intimate, high-tech and rustic, epic and personal, one emerges from the experience dazed, confused, and strangely satisfied.
I will save you a run-down of the plot, which I'm sure other "Eva" fans will do a better job at covering than I, as it is basically the plot of every other entry in the series: schoolkids forced to pilot giant robots in a battle that inevitably results in more harm to them than the enemies they are fighting. But don't let that superficial similarity fool you: Evangelion 2.0 is without a doubt one of the single most impressive anime films to come out of Japan in the last few years, both technically and artistically. The production feels lavish, decadent, even cutting edge; the credit roll reads like a who's who of anime legends. It is difficult to tell where CG stops and cel picks up, and vice versa, in many places. The Angels are more bizarre-looking than ever before, strange creatures that truly feel like something created by a utterly alien intelligence. The breakneck pace of the combat sequences is accentuated by the spectacular animation of the Eva units, which snap out of slack poses reminiscent of vintage Mazinger Z cartoons into deliriously warped portrayals that look like they stepped out of a Studio 4C production, the movement so fast and fluid that the human eye is barely able to track it. Yet some of the absolute best parts of the film are quiet portrayals of everyday life in the streets of the city, coupled with psychedelic side-journeys into the minds and souls of several of the characters. Anime is at its best when a talented group of borderline insane creatives comes together to make a film as much for themselves as for fans, and Evangelion 2.0 is, I'm happy to say, one of these increasingly rare cases.
The film's strong points are also its weak ones. That frenetic action feels more like Michael Bay's "Transformers" than "anime" in a lot of places, and in-your-face product placement is back in full force. And being by definition a part of a larger whole (at least two additional follow ups are currently planned), the plot begs for further enlightenment and resolution. This means those not familiar with the basic storyline are probably going to get lost. But who cares? If you have even the slightest interest in anime, this is one long, strange trip worth taking.
I do agree that the action felt a bit more "Hollywood movie" than I would have liked, but after a while I just didn't care. That one final scene was awesome, and more or less sold me on the entire movie.
It truly is the bold re-imaging of Eva that Anno promised.
Posted by: wah | June 28, 2009 at 01:43 PM
i wonder if they kept the wierd religous slant to it like the original . you know the " you are not sons of adam you are sons of lillith " stuff that most people ( like me )would have to research .
Posted by: jim m | June 29, 2009 at 05:11 AM
Absolutely. It wouldn't be Evangelion without gonzo religious refereces. I think most people in Japan would have to research it to make heads or tails out of it, too -- including, I suspect, many of those who actually worked on the actual series.
Posted by: MattAlt | June 29, 2009 at 08:27 AM
I'm seething with jealousy. My film-going this weekend was Bay's Travisty-formers: Exploitation of the Fallow at the local drive-in (entierly because my wife & kids wanted to see it).
Sigh.
Posted by: AcroRay | June 29, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Takekuma Kentaro seems to agree with you.
http://takekuma.cocolog-nifty.com/
Is it that good?I've seen the original and the two movie more than a decade ago.Now being the father of eleven years old,I'm a bit reluctant to go to the theater.
Posted by: Aceface | July 04, 2009 at 12:19 AM
Thanks for the link. I'm not a huge fan of the Evangelion series, but the interesting thing about 2.0 is that it's actually fascinating to watch AS AN ANIMATION even if you aren't an anime fan. It's the first anime to come along in years to actually "wow" me from a technical standpoint. (Which is kinda sad when you think about how Japan used to really lead from that standpoint.)
That said it does help to have at least a passing familiarity with the general storyline and characters -- as usual for "highbrow" anime there is nary a thought of a recap for those just joining in.
Posted by: MattAlt | July 04, 2009 at 09:59 AM
Yeah,I was watching late night 蒼天航路,an anime based on the romance of three Kingdom themed manga.
The manga is classic but the anime sucks.Lacking budget and enough time I guess.
Posted by: Aceface | July 04, 2009 at 12:55 PM
In the anime world, I think budget = time. :)
The viewership for those late-night anime shows must be abysmal but I suspect the channels still charge through the nose for the airtime...
Posted by: MattAlt | July 04, 2009 at 04:20 PM