Despite having not finished my other one
, I decided to make a new liveblog. This time something that is more popular, the second Rebuild Of Evangelion movie. Only the second, because I don't have the first one.
Anyway, a bit of backstory first: The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion is the most (in)famous work of Studio Gainax directed by Hideaki Anno, who infamously suffered a Creator Breakdown during the run of NGE, which shows quite badly. To be honest, I haven't seen much of it and mostly read the manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (who was also the character designer of NGE). But there is probably no anime/manga fan who don't know about the Mind Screw and the... "controversial" ending, which is mostly responsible that bouncy breasts aren't the only things, that have a trope named after Gainax...
A couple of years later, Anno is way more stable than before and decides to remake NGE. This time as movies instead of a TV series. This is Rebuild Of Evangelion (which is actually only a Fan Nickname, although one extra on my DVD calls it that, too). Not really Lighter and Softer, but more stable with less angsting and maybe, just maybe, with a happy ending. Or at least one that wasn't so screwed up like in the original series (or rather the End Of Evangelion movie). There are supposed to be four, but the last two haven't been released yet. Let's hope that Anno won't suffer another breakdown until then...
As I said, I only have the second movie, so we have to skip the first. Less work for me. Of course, I won't do this LB in one go, that would take way too long. Instead I split it into multiple parts of (probably) varying length. Also, I watched it before, but only the German dub. This time, I take on the Japanese one (with German subtitles).
But enough talk, let's begin with the first part of the LB.
First scene, we here various English status reports (apparently spoken by native speakers) and a close-up of an Evangelion pilot, face concealed by a helmet (I think). Then the pilot says that she (it's clearly a girl's voice) wants to have the report in Japanese, since it's here first time. The she is pulled back and we see the inner of the Evangelion, with lots of red text. As we can see more clearly now, she is wearing a green plugsuit, in which she feels apparently uncomfortable. One of the voices say that the new suit wasn't ready in time, so this one is to tight. Especially in the upper area. I think, we all know what she means. Also, the Eva (05 by the way) is a prototype, but Mari (no, I don't pretend to be oblivious about her identity) doesn't mind, since she can finally control it. Excitedly, she starts it.
Cut to something else, an angel, I guess. It destroys a gate and some surrounding tanks. More tanks try to shoot it. Emphasis on "try". Then another cut to... Well, the command center, I guess. And HOLY CRAP! Kaji's English is really as horrible as I read. I'm not sure how good it was in the German dub, but it was definitely better than this. Very jarring with all the native speakers around. Maybe justified since Kaji himself is Japanese, but I think that he talks rather often with people of other nationalities and therefore speaks English often, so he should be better than this. But enough bashing of his nonexistent English skills. They talk about stuff, I have trouble following and even more trouble writing it (and the fact, that Kaji's lack of linguistic abilities is quite distracting, doesn't help), but it seems that the angel did something, they didn't think was possible, although Kaji says that it was quite possible (whether they actually understand what he is babbling, is another matter). "The analysis of the permafrost extraction of the third angel was so extensive that only bones remained". No, I don't really understand. Also, I wrote that mostly based on the subtitles. Expecting me to comprehend his "English" would be sadistic. He finishes with something that sounds like "Go La" and puts on a helmet. The subtitles say "Viel Glück", so I guess it was supposed to mean "Good Luck". Jesus...
From horribly bad English to the Eva, on the way to the angel, with a singing Mari. She seems to be very happy, even though she will fight against a monster, that can't even be killed by tanks. Of course, I should rather say, "because". When she sees the angel, she stops singing and activates her A.T.-Field. The angel consists of a long spine with a skull, which reminds me a bit of a dinosaur. It also has a body, which kind of reminds me of an insect and glowing red eyes. Mari thrusts a spear (or something like that) towards the angel, but it doesn't really work. The angel makes a counterattack and Eva 05 (and Mari) got hit. The Eva is thrown back and Mari complains that it's too heavy and tries to stop it but the Eva still hits a wall. "Then just with brute force!" Isn't that what you just did? The angel, whose body is weirder than I thought, seems to get a halo, but it isn't one, I think. A pillar (or something) appears, the edges glowing (which just looked like a halo) it goes up, destroying the ceiling (although it doesn't even seem to be there). It's a bit hard to follow. The angel reaches the surface, the pillar shatters, but another pillar, one of light, is glowing to the sky, with angel flying along it. "Target has broken through the limbo area. Now moving into Acheron." Eva 05 follows and pierces the angel's head against a pillar. But the angel... does something and Mari is in pain. But it's fun, so she doesn't mind. You don't happen to be a masochist, Mari? Anyway, she then punches it's body (with the core) against the pillar. But he time limit (for what anyway?) is starting to run out. "The synchronization with the limbs is too rough. The arms have too little strength." Well, that's not good. The angel fires a beam with it's eyes and cuts off parts of the Eva's body. Mari seems to get angry. And she succeeds in destroying the angel's core, resulting in a lot of blood. Then the entry plug gets ejected, followed by a purplish explosion.
Cut to a plane. Somebody say that the target is eliminated, Unit-05 vaporized and the pilot ejected, so nothing we didn't see. Then to the inner of the plane. Kaji (talking Japanese, thankfully) notes that the self-destruction of the Eva was successfully activated (I guess, that's what the countdown was). And he doesn't like it that they have to use children to achieve their goal.
A red sea and Mari's entry plug floating on it. Mari exits it and complains that no one told her that the synchronization is that strong. She takes off the helmet and we see that there is a trail of blood on one side of her face. More importantly (at least to me), she is wearing glasses. At least, she is glad that she is still alive but she says that she doesn't like it that she have to use an adult. I have the feeling that I heard something similar, just a moment ago. Oh, there is also some giant cross-shaped light thingies. You know, the things you see in NGE all the time. Mari says good-bye to Eva 05, just as if it were a living being. Considering that she is a rather... devoted pilot, it's nothing unusual, but I can't help but wonder...
A title card informs us helpfully that we are watching Evangelion: 2.22. That's all we get for an opening.
A graveyard, a huge place with nothing but gravestones. That's said rather generously, since they are little more than poles with a name carved in a stand. "We two weren't here since three years." Yes, it's Gendo Ikari with Shinji in front of Yui's grave. Shinji can't really imagine that she is lying here and can't even remember her face. Actually, she doesn't even really lie here. Gendo remarks that he has no pictures of her and he carries in his heart. "That has suffice for now." Heh, "for now"... Anyway, Gendo gets picked up by a helicopter. It's not actually a helicopter (it doesn't have any rotors), but it flies and looks like one and I don't know what else I should call it. Anyway, in the helicopter, Shinji sees ZOMG TEH REI! (sorry about that, but I felt that I wouldn't get through this without referencing the meme and I wanted to get it out of my system as soon as possible). Shinji calls for Gendo and says that he is glad that he could talk to him. Gendo says "Good." Nothing more. Helicopter flies away and Shinji leaves, Misato waiting for him. They drive through a green landscape and Misato remarks that their meeting wasn't so bad as Shinji thought and that he could visit his mother's grave, but he just says that he went their, because Misato wanted it so. She thinks that his father is proud of him, but then she gets a call and some metal-y thing falls from the sky onto the road. But Misato can evade it.
Then we see cannons shooting and ships, on which they are. Just as thought, they are shooting on an angel, with long, thin legs, with which it seems to walk on the red water, and a ball hanging on a... pole between them. It looks more like the ball is pierced by it. Anyway, the cannons have no effect (of course), the angel does... something and the water forms multiple giant crosses, destroying the ships.
Cut to the command center, which name I forgot. We are informed that it's the seventh angel and that it stands before the Sakami bay. The emergency rule is imposed and we return to Misato, quickly driving to the command center. A stealth bomber drops Eva 02 to Misato's surprise. The Eva floats through the air (at least that's what it looks like) and tries to grab a gun. The angel extends some... let's call them wires, and attacks the Eva, which evades the wires, reaches the gun and points it towards the angel. It shoots it's head and the angel disintegrates, the "pierced" ball falling down. Shinji remarks that the core is destroyed, but Misatos says that it was just a bait. The body integrates again and the pole with the ball (most likely the core) swings up, taking the place of the head. Also it turns red. Eva 02 fires some shots against it, but they are blocked by the A.T.-Field. Then it throws the gun away, and kicks against it (with some shouting by Asuka), but is still blocked. With a spike on the Eva's foot, it breaks through the A.T.-Field and the ball and pierces the core. The angel explodes. Cross-shaped (of course). Eva 02 lands on a parking lot, where Misato's car stands, which gets thrown away. Did I mention that Misato and Shinji are still in it? I wonder if her insurance covers this...
Next scene, Eva 02 is carried away, with Shinji, his friends and Rei watching it. Kensuke seems to be impressed that Eva 02 is red. I feel reminded of a certain episode of The Simpsons. Asuka, who stands on top of it, says that the color isn't the only thing that's different and that Unit 00 is just a prototype and 01 a test model. According to her, Eva 02 is the "first true Evangelion". It's good to see that she's confident as ever. Misato comes and introduces her as Sor... I mean, Shikinami Asuka Langley, the pride of the European Air Force. Apparently, Asuka knows Misato already. She even calls her by her first name. Rei walks away. Asuka calls her "the lap dog that was allowed to play pilot for Unit 00". They'll probably be good friends.
Quiz time! What are first words, she says to Shinji? Correct, it's "Anta Baka"! I briefly considered counting the Anta Bakas, like I do with the pantyshots in the Aika liveblog, but decided against it. Anyway, Asuka reprimands him, because he wasn't there, on such an important day. Then she kicks his foot away, letting him fall down, and remarks that he isn't very watchful. A very sympathetic person. She apparently doesn't like the fact that he became pilot through his father. Granted, that is kind of justified...
And that's the end of the first part of this liveblog. I'm not sure when the next one comes, but I doubt that it will take long. Of course, that's what I thought of my Aika LB too...
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