Description

NERV’s arctic Bethany base is under attack by the Third Angel, and a new EVA pilot, the irrepressibly enthusiastic Mari, is dispatched to destroy it in EVA Provisional Unit 05. She succeeds by self-destructing the EVA, escaping to safety with seconds to spare. Elsewhere, a quieter moment is occuring—Shinji and his father Gendo, the emotionally distant director of NERV, are visiting the grave of Yui, Gendo’s departed wife and mother of Shinji. The tranquility doesn’t last. The Seventh Angel is attacking, and its destruction is the duty—and pleasure—of the brash, narcissistic pilot Asuka. Her arrogant attitude gets a splash of cold water when Misato, who has her own share of hang-ups, orders her to cohabitate with the shy, humble Shinji. Personal tensions, sneaking suspicions, painful histories and pangs of romantic interest crackle among the personnel and teenaged pilots of NERV, a counterpoint to the global politics, technological intrigue and of course shocking and spectacular battles that define human resistance against the fearsome and enigmatic Angels.

Kicking in where last year’s Fantasia presentation EVANGELION: 1.0 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE left off, the second installment of the four-part REBUILD OF EVANGELION feature-film series continues the revision of Hideaki Anno’s popular and intensely controversial anime television series of the 1990s. Anno’s NEON GENESIS EVANGELION was already a heady and challenging work, loaded with moral and psychological complexity, arcane religious references and exhaustive, intricate technological ideas. Revisiting the arc of the story anew a decade later, Anno has refined, polished and amplified the adventures of Shinji, a young pilot of the powerful cyborg EVA weapon-suits, and his colleagues at NERV, augmenting the anime’s technical quality—the mecha sequences are impressive and the battles breathtaking, as are the displays of futuristic urbanism—and fine-tuning the tragicomic web of personalities at the heart of the EVANGELION mythos. Essential viewing for discerning anime fans!

—Rupert Bottenberg