When an anime series elevates itself to legendary status, it’s no small wonder that its creators will continue to milk the sacred cash cow. Evangelion has inspired a larger fanbase and more merchandise than a good portion of “giant robot anime” to follow it. (I won’t mention the Gundam franchise because that comparison would just be unfair.) It starts off based on the rather whimpy kid, Shinji Ikari. He’s chosen by his taciturn father, Gendo, to be a pilot to one of his creations, the Evangelion Unit 01. [Note: It’s pronounced Ey-van-gell-eon.] Beings known as Angels have come to Earth with the goal of destroying humanity, and the only weapons capable of dealing damage and destroying them are the Eva units, which are piloted by Shinji and a girl named Rei Ayanami. This is because, you know, Japanese school kids who can barely function in society make for badass fighters. (Again, will not mention Gundam.)
The best part of Evangelion 1.11 is that it seems to be a recreation of the original series that takes all the important an salient events of the original storyline of Evangelion and pieces them together as a stronger and more cohesive plot. It has been a long-suffering complaint of both fans and critics of Eva for years that the initial 1/3 of the original series was concentrated awesome. Past that point, the creators must have gotten collectively high on some strong stuff, because it made less and less sense all the way to the head-scratching end. Gainax had tried to rectify that to ensure the popularity of Eva continued by producing two short movies that supposedly would properly end the series in a less confusing manner. They lied. However, now it seems they’ve gotten on the right track of recreating the series to capture what had made the first part of the original run so awesome. Essentially, Evangelion 1.11 is a restructuring to make it the series it should’ve been all those years ago. Dedicated fans can rejoice to the sounds of angel song, while critics like myself can be pleasantly surprised.
Funimation didn’t do too terribly in voice casting for Eva 1.11, but it’s definitely an anime best viewed in its original dialogue for total emotional effect. But, to give it the royal treatment, they have taken the movie disc of Eva 1.01 and given it a second disc full entirely of extra features and content. The production videos and commentary interviews were above and beyond the best of the lot, but there are plenty of other extras to whet your appetite on. I almost feel like this is the true initial release and that Eva 1.01 was just a hurried decision to just get the thing Stateside.
As a whole, Evangelion 1.11 has surprised me. The fact that it cut out the nonsense I put up with from the original caught me attention and actually makes me eager for 2.0’s release. It has enough extra content to make it truly a two-disc set worth collecting, especially since it’s relatively easy on the wallet. This reconstruction of Evangelion is off to an excellent start, and Funimation has done its American release much justice. Let’s just hope it stays on course and continues to shape up into an awesome series of movies.