Evangelion 1.0: You are (not) alone - A Review that’s...different

This movie isn't really a movie, which is why the review is different. It's the first installment in the high budget redux of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a groundbreaking anime series from the mid '90s. I happen to quite like anime, regardless of its links with freak-ass perverts who taint deviant art with their disturbing work. There are tons of people out there who appreciate anime without ever going near that shit. Like me, sat at my laptop drinking a Cobra (the beer, not the reptile) and unwinding with no intention of torrenting some 'hentai' and wanking my brains out like so many strange bastards are probably doing as we speak. If such activity was a well kept secret it'd be fine but unfortunately it's so widely known about these days that on average most people have heard of 3 anime movies and one of them is a porno, probably Legend Of The Overfiend, a segment of which I witnessed on Channel 4's 'Top 100 Greatest Cartoons'. Sort of proves my point. The other two people will have heard of would probably be Akira and Ghost In The Shell or one of Miyazaki's films.
This is all something of a digression, I'm not here to defend anime nor to demonise pervs, I'm just saying it's not all like that, that element of it is a minority in Japan but experiences majority downloads in the UK and US, who are also the only people who do deviantart jobs (it didn't take long to find that, the guy who did it attends the same college as me) and the like, goes to show who the real pervs are, I'm sure the directors of these smut and gore fests are well aware of their clientelle (yep, gore, molesting school teacher cum demons covered in tentacle-like dicks are a favourite). If our perverted bretherin went out and at least tried to get laid or something real anime would be in far better stead to get a look in. One such series, often fetishised, is Neon Genesis. The original series for anyone inexperienced in the anime world would be biting off more than you could chew. It's really fucking heavy at times. This new redux while no less dark is a bit easer to swallow, I would recommend it to anyone who reads this and has some incling of interest, be warned, the only way you're gonna get it is via the online video site Veoh.com for which you'll have to download their player to watch it all the way through, totally worth it in my books.
Evangelion or Eva is about a post appocalyptic Japan recovering from the wake of Second Impact which was the arrival of Lilith, the Second Angel (the first being Adam if you know your way around the old testiment). Second Impact basically tore the world in half, dealt some frighteningly major damage and blew up Tokyo leaving only this creepy red ocean. In light of this and the expected arrival of another 10 angels a facility was constructed and an auxillery city, Tokyo 3, built around it. This facility, the geofront is an astounding scientific feat that harbours the headquarters of N.E.R.V. who were founded to fight the angels. The way they do this is through the Evangelions, big, badass cyborgs that can only be piloted by one specific person. At the start there are two units active, Unit 00 and Unit 01, the prototype and the test type. One of the pilots is the mysterious blue haired girl Rei, she doens't talk very much but when she does it's normally damn well worth saying. The other is our main character, Shinji Ikari. He's complex. No ordinary heroic protagonist. He's an introvert for a start, he's also paranoid, afraid to love anyone, disgusted by himself and desperately seeking the approval of his astranged father Gendo who runs NERV. Other characters include Shinji's boozy, headstrong guardian Major Misato Kuseragi, an enthusiastic, caring hothead who cares deeply for Shinji though her reasons for this are ambiguous. Then there's Ritsuko, dunno her last name, head scientist of NERV, blonde, tall, smokes alot, single, lonely, but passionate and kinda funny at times. Later in the movie Shinji's classmates Suzuhara and Aida, they don't like him at first but later circumstances mean they end up friends. There's also some other minor figures and Pen Pen, but I'll let you find out who he is on your own (you'll love him, doesn't matter who you are).
This movie covers the first six episodes of the series with the superfluous stuff filtered out. During the course of the movie 3 angels turn up, making for 3 very impressive and substantially different fight scenes. The animation is gorgeous although due to the quality of the video upload seeing what the hell's going on a night is a bit of a bugger. The subtitles are of poor quality as well, the subber at one point cannot cope with so many people talking at one time so he just writes 'BALLSBALLSBALLS' over and over, luckily that bit is too dialogue important, stuff like 'All systems nominal', you know, space age jargon. The fact of the matter is that Evangelion is breathtaking, it's beautiful and it really has an impact, although there's a lot to take in I think anyone unfamiliar with the series should just about be able to follow it without swerving off the track. It's an amazing adaptation and film in its own right, give it a look, you won't regret it.