What are you watching?

[Dirty Duck]

Since we're on the topic of EVA: is Rebuild worth watching? is it really just ''let's take this super surreal piece of fiction and add more robots'' fighting or is there anything of substance in there?

I'm cautious about them because I don't want it to ruin EVA for me - which is like the only good anime other than Berserk.

I'd watched them after seeing the show and really wasn't keen on them. The first one had hardly any changes, the second one branched off from NGE but was still hitting similar key moments (which I felt were done worse), and the third one was finally completely its own thing...but I just thought it sucked.

Despite my feelings I still wanted to see Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time in the cinema due to my finding it significant that it was saying "goodbye, all of EVANGELION" (killer tagline, honestly). While it didn't release in cinemas in the UK for nearly 2 years after its release due to covid I did watch it when it released. I didn't feel the need to pay it much respect since I didn't expect to enjoy it so I put it on my iPad during a train journey home from London.

But despite my expectations I found that I actually did like Thrice Upon a Time. Quite a bit. I've seen it multiple times since and every time I've thought "okay, this is the time the bubble bursts" but then...I've actually liked it a bit more. I've since gone back and watched all the others through again and I do think I appreciated 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance a lot more. What it does with its repeated beats from NGE are worse than NGE if you're reading it as a piece that's trying to achieve the same things the series did, but it's not. It never was. Thrice Upon A Time makes that clear. It's a different approach to the story but it isn't one that tries to replace Neon Genesis. This sort of cyclical storytelling doesn't seem too uncommon in Japanese media, where the original thing happened...and then once again from a different angle, but in a way that isn't so presumptuous as a "remake".
It doesn't feel like it's treading on the original-they don't ruin what came before even if you aren't keen on them. When I didn't like the film series that was fine. They were the Rebuilds, their own thing. They don't try to retcon anything or change anything. NGE happened, and now this is happening. Get off the train whenever you feel like. End of Evangelion is still better but Thrice Upon A Time feels like the result of Anno introspecting for nearly 10 years after the first three rebuilds lowkey sent him into another depression. It's a film that feels hopeful without feeling fairytale. I don't love every aspect of it-there's some moments that are so steeped in lore bs and some lengthy action scenes in the middle which feel more like something developed by Platinum Games than Evangelion-but for all it's foibles it feels like a film made with heart and a fitting goodbye to the franchise.

3.33: You Can (Not) Redo still sucks though.