Evangelion 3.0 Footage Analysis

Hello readers! Wow, we've sure come a long way in about thirty posts, haven't we? OVER 1,000 HITS! I can't thank ya'll enough, it's good to know at least one eukaryote out there is reading my wonderful rants about movies, anime, life, etc.

On that note, sorry for my recent hiatus. Even though I don't regularly update, I've been especially busy lately with some stuff involved with that mysterious "Real Life" concept... hmm, wonder what this is. However, none of this really matters because our prayers have been answered! A blessing has been given unto Man! It iS A MoThEr fReAkInG mIrAcLe mAn, hOnK hOnK hOnK.

After literally years of waiting, GAINAX has finally released a clip of Evangelion 3.0. For those who don't know, I am a total geek for anything Neon Genesis Evangelion, so this is a big deal. At least, for me it is. Evangelion 3.0 is part of Anno's recreating of the series into four updated movies, collectively titled Rebuild of Evangelion. There's actually quite a story behind the origins of Rebuild of Evangelion after the series was literally about ten years old, so let's dive right into that first.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

When you think of crossovers, you probably think of horribly done fanfiction. You probably think of fans making impossible, even nonsensical combinations of characters and storylines. More canonically, you might even think of the few TV or OVA specials of some shows or anime, respectively, that crossover or simply just cameo characters into a crossover. CLAMP, however, has managed to do something completed different with their amazing crossover anime, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

It's actually difficult to call Tsusbasa: Reservoir Chronicle a crossover anime. Fans of Cardcaptors or Cardcaptor Sakura will notice that in the poster to the left, the two main characters of the story are indeed taken from one of CLAMP's previous anime series, one that I grew up with and is close to my childhood heart. However, you'll also notice that there are two other characters in the poster that are completely original. In a sense, they are actually all original. What CLAMP has done is they have taken some characters from previous anime series that have created, but removed all of the characters' backgrounds and histories within their original world. Now, they have a completely new life, history, and destiny. This makes Tsubasa a much cleaner and more natural-feeling crossover to the point that it simply doesn't even feel like one. Instead, Tsubasa feels like a completely original story, which it is, clearly geared toward fans of the CLAMP universe, yet is still open and new enough to attract hoards of new fans.

Gurren-hen

Firstly, I apologize for the sudden change in font; I had some random spacing issues that caused this font the change all over the place, and I ended up standardizing with this style. Anyway, I once explained the film I'm about to review with the following analogy: "Gurren-hen is to Gurren Lagann as Rebuild of Evangelion is to Neon Genesis Evangelion." It turns out I was a little bit wrong about that. You see, Gurren-hen in itself is defeated. Like Rebuild of Evangelion, Gurren-hen is meant to be an abridged retelling of a portion of the anime in a movie format. While Gurren-hen is this, it also isn't. It's kind of confusing, almost comparable to double-think or your basic contradiction.


In a much earlier post, I reviewed the first half of Gurren Lagann, a recent anime series about mechs, fighting spirit, and spirals. This blog post conveniently fits in between that and my review of the second half of the anime, because Gurren-hen, also known as Childhood's End, is an abridged version of the first half of the anime. However, that's almost too strong of a definition of Gurren-hen, because that's exactly what  most of the movie is: an abridged version, to a very, very, very high degree.

Gurren Lagann

Throughout my various ventures through different types of media for entertainment, anime is one that I hardly take. Actually, the only anime I've ever seen in full is Cardcaptors with my little sister, back when I was a little Doorsey and finished later on. I have a certain detest for Fullmetal Alchemist, but I do not totally hate mainstream anime. For example, I'm really just itching to find the time to watch all of Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Oh wait, what was I talking about? Right, Gurren Lagann.

About a week ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a very recent anime series, entitled Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann--or just Gurren Lagann for the English version. I checked it out on YouTube, noticing that the company that owned the series had made it fully available on the site--albeit in anything higher than 360p, boo. I watched the first episode, and there my journey began. Sure, my journey wasn't exactly to reach the surface, transcend the stars, or pierce the heavens, but I definitely had started something extraordinary. By the way, I am totally going to spoil half of this anime, so be cautious in reading further!