[EVA] Anime News Network review of 1.01

[once at ix.netcom.com]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Drew Lewis <83drew at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 11, 2008 10:54 AM
>To: "The english-language evangelion mailing list." <evangelion at eva.onegeek.org>
>Subject: Re: [EVA] Anime News Network review of 1.01
>
>I agree, harsh but true.  I don't mind the more straightforward approach for
>the most part.
>
>My suspicion is that the lack of subtlety others have complained about is
>mostly due to the time compression.  The actual time difference isn't much,
>but getting everything thrown at you in one shot might make things seem more
>rushed.


Well...I have to say that I mostly agree with the review. DEATH was perhaps a more artistically successful attempt to summarize the TV story, as it at least took a remix (Yamaga's own term) approach rather than time-compression. 

If these new films are truly "khara" (apparently the lower-case is preferred when the studio's name is written in English; it will appear this way on the Vol. 11 manga credits) works rather than Gainax ones, then it may not be Gainax that has the cojones issue, as Zac puts it. And from an artistic standpoint, perhaps it's more admirable that Gainax makes a GURREN LAGANN--even if it's not a revolutionary work as the 1995-97 EVANGELION was--than for khara to spend their time rebuilding a monument to a revolution.

I'm not sure I would have made these films at all (I would have much preferred Anno tried something new and non-Eva related instead), but if it's to be an Eva story, isn't there a tremendous opportunity untaken for a story focussing on the early years of Gendo, Yui, Fuyutsuki, Naoko, Kyoko, Ritsuko, Misato, and Kaji? We only got glimpses of the events of 1999-2014 in the original story--this is time that could be *uncompressed*. You could make an entire new series out of it.

--C.