Last week I talked about Neon Genesis Evangelion and why you should drop what you’re doing and watch Rebuild of Evangelion. This week, we’re talking about Evangelion 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo, the most recently released Rebuild movie. Two quick notes: 1) The movies were released in theaters as Evangelion 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 When released on home media they were rechristened 1.11, 2.22 and 3.33 to reflect the DVD/Blu-ray’s longer length and other small changes. 2) There will be spoilers in this article.

Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance was the best of the Rebuild movies thus far. It streamlined a huge chunk of the original series, had an engaging plot and handled favorite characters such as Asuka Langely Shikinami/Soryu excellently while introducing new story elements and even a new character, Mari Illustrious Makinami. 2.22 ended on one of the biggest cliffhangers you can end on – Shinji Ikari, in an attempt to save Rei Ayanami, may very well just have started the 3rd Impact, aka the end the world (sorta). It’s been a three year wait for 3.33, a long and painful wait with only some intriguing clips from the preview at the end of 2.22 to tide us over. Asuka with an eyepatch? Who is Kaji holding at gunpoint? Are Fyutuski and Gendo taking a bromantic getaway in the North Pole while the world is ending?

When 3.33 came out, we pretty much didn’t answers to these questions. All of the preview footage was scrapped and instead a much bigger bombshell was dropped on us. We’re introduced to Shinji Ikari in Unit 01 being rescued from a cross-shaped (of course) coffin in space and brought to an amazing airship, only to find his friends and coworkers from Nerv acting very angry and even frightened towards him. Shinji, it seems, has slept through the last 14 years.

The 14 year time jump was an excellent bomb to drop, but I (and a lot of other fans) are really hoping we get to see some of that scrapped preview footage. That 14 year gap leaves not only many unanswered questions but a lot of potentially excellent characterization; the changes in the cast we’ve grown used to are pretty extreme, ranging from Maya’s easy irritation with newbies to my personal favorite bit, the interaction between Asuka and the now joined up Mari Illustrious Makinami. It’s worth noting that I hated Mari previously – I thought she was completely out of Evangelion’s character tone, Mary Sue-like in her abilities and personality. Though she’s still not my favorite character in the cast, her interactions with Asuka in 3.33 made me stop hating the character. While I don’t see the any of the personality flaws that are a package deal for Evangelion’s cast, the way she works with Asuka is really endearing and I wish we would have gotten more of their odd friendship in 3.33. I guess I’ll just have to stick with doujinshi for now.

The pacing of 3.33 is all over the place. It starts with a gorgeously bombastic action sequence, moves quickly into the 14-year bombshell and then…stalls out for a significant period of the movie. This is a weird change compared to 2.22 or even 1.11, where tons of stuff happened – the first two movies bring us up to essentially the tail-end of the series, with 3.33 picking up approximately around episode 24 (“The Beginning and the End, or ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door'”). On first watching I didn’t care for this slowed pacing compared to the action of the first two movies, but on the second viewing I grew to appreciate what was being conveyed by Shinji’s drawn-out experience at Nerv. It’s a good reference to how Shinji ran away after the defeat of the 5th Angel. It’s that same painful disconnect from what’s really happening in the world; by moving the audience’s point of view to the disconnected place Shinji’s decided to run away to and following his lack of interest in what’s happened these 14 years, we’re kept in the dark as much as he is. Instead of the adventures of the crew of the Wunder, we’re treated to a sequence of non-events that really let us understand that no matter how confused Shinji is, he is also passive – no, not cowardly, but passive. Upon seeing Gendo, Shinji once again becomes so passive that he lays around in his room for days on end, bored and silent, just waiting for the moment his father needs to use him again.

It takes Kaworu reaching out to him (a person Shinji can actually be brave enough to care for because Kaworu shows Shinji love first) to break Shinji out of this passive regression. Rebuild!Shinji is at least a little more GAR than original!Shinji (that is to say he could be called gar at least once), so I was very happy to see him resume doing something. Of course, after the 14 year time skip, very few people want Shinji to do the one thing he thinks he needs to do – get in the fucking robot.

The last action sequence of the movie is everything that’s right with the Rebuild of Evangelion. Beautifully animated and inventive combat, a confusing trip of symbolic mysticism, and good ol’ fashioned heartbreak. The information dropped leading up to and during the climax of the movie is intriguing and definitely took me two viewings to really grasp, which is always something I’ve loved about Eva (that other people, fairly, have despised); Evangelion doesn’t give anything away easily. Eva wants you to think about what you’re seeing and think deeply.

Something Eva hid deeply? How about the odd glyphs that have been showing up in design aesthetics during all 3 movies, such as on Angel-sealing pillars, floor decorations and even buried in the glow of Asuka’s eyepatch. In 3.33, enough of these glyphs were shown during a short sequence that something of a cipher was created; over on r/evangelion it was quickly realized that these glyphs corresponded with piano keys (almost unsurprising considering how pivotal the piano was in 3.33). A user took the notes shown during the short sequence and translated them to music. The outcome was a 32-note tune used in the actual soundtrack of 3.33 during an important scene. WHAT IS THIS I CAN’T EVEN. The level of detail here is incredible and wacky and completely amazing.

Evangelion 3.33 isn’t as good as 2.22 was, but that’s not entirely its fault. 3.33 has taken on the challenge of getting the audience into a character’s head when the character hasn’t even been inside his own head or in this greatly changed world for 14 years. We’ve gotten a little spoiled by Rebuild’s pacing and have forgotten how the original series put so much time and effort into making us, the audience, feel as uncomfortable as its own characters and just how important that is to the immersion into these people and this often-times awful situation. You Can (Not) Redo is a good movie, but it’s more than just that, it’s a thoughtful movie, and thoughtful is what Evangelion is all about.

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