Evangelion: 1.11 You Are {Not} Alone [Blu ray] [Blu-ray]

Movie - 4.5Regarded as one of the more notable franchises in anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion is something of an oddity. It's essentially a shounen (as in geared towards a young demographic, check Wikipedia for a more thorough definition) and mecha (giant robot) series, but at the same time possesses a plethora of other complexities: Freudian psychoanalysis, a heck of a lotta' melodrama, fan service (again, check Wiki if you're unfamiliar with the term), allusions to Christianity, bits of comedy, and a lot of convoluted plot twists. And with that said, it can be difficult to stomach for those who don't know the series or just aren't used to the over-exaggerated nature of anime in general. Evangelion 1.11 is basically part 1 of a quadrilogy that's a "rebuild" of the series that initially aired in 1995. It took the original story (in this case, condensing the first 6 episodes) and key animation, made a bunch of tweaks with cleanup and CG, and ultimately gave us this first chunk of the overall revision. From my own experience with the series (albeit 7 or 8 years ago), I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Having spent such a long hiatus from this franchise and from anime in general the last couple of years it was a pleasant surprise for me to rediscover part of what made anime so enjoyable in the first place (being all those complexities I mentioned above), not to mention comparing the astounding amount of new art and animation quality to my old DVDs of the series. The only drawback I would say 1.11 has, though, is a lack of character development, which I believe will make it extremely difficult for newcomers to understand, at least until all 4 movies can be viewed consecutively. But aside from that, the pacing is much, much faster with a good majority of it being in the Eva battles, and beautifully animated to boot.Video - 5.0Presented by FUNimation using the MPEG-4 AVC codec at an original aspect of 1.85:1 (framed at 1.78), I'm glad to see FUNi finally jumped off their recent trend of upscaling all their anime and actually getting their hands on an HD master. Evangelion 1.11 looks absolutely stunning, not just in comparison to its serial counterpart, but as a standalone piece of animation. The cleanup effort they made on the original art and new integration of CG and cel animation meld together perfectly. Colors are rich and vibrant from the cityscape of Tokyo-3 and its green mountains to the inside of NERV headquarters and all the black murkiness that accompanies one of the underlying themes of the franchise. Line detail never looked sharper, giving a great amount of dimensionality to the characters, Evas, Angels, and backgrounds. Contrast is also never too bright, resulting in a very pleasing look to the overall picture. There may have been just a tiny bit of color banding on a few quick scenes, but I'm just too happy they got off their butts and actually made a real transfer with a real HD master in the first place. Fans of the series will be pleased.Audio - 5.0Also of great notoriety is the fact of FUNi adding a lossless Japanese track to their package, breaking the other recent trend of lossless dub / lossy JP presentations. The TrueHD 6.1 track sounds fantastic with lots of separation and immersion from the front, side, and rear speakers. I have a 7.1 setup, but was amazed at the clarity and directionality of the com announcements during the action sequences. You'd literally see the person on-screen talking, and then hear someone else in the back corner of your room, and then another person on the opposite side, and then hear several other voices simultaneously. Side surrounds get a good workout as well, even in the most subtle of moments like traveling down an elevator, hearing a railway train pass by, or the infamous sound of summer cicadas. LFE output is also very potent, though never too overwhelming, and compliments the action very nicely. The only thing that may detract viewers is the "tinny-ness" of the voice acting. When things get dead quiet, it tends to reveal that digital ringing or whatever that results from recorded voicing, but it's only a problem if the volume's too high (like I had mine...). Dialogue and music are also very well-channeled through their respective speakers and suffer no levels of dropout or distortion. This is reference material if you ever want to showcase anime.Extras - 3.01.11 comes with a graphics progression bit, a bunch of theatrical trailers for the movie, and a bunch of other trailers for FUNi's upcoming releases. None of these are too great, aside from the Darker Than Black trailer, which I really hope will get just treatment for its eventual BD release. But what really got me was the little booklet that came with the movie. Not only does it textually fill in the gaps of the graphics progression feature, it also explains a lot of the general terminology used in the animation process and gives a little insight on how and why they did so. If anything, I'm just severely disappointed that there weren't any interviews with the creators and producers explaining the changes they made or their intentions with doing this rebuild in the first place. Perhaps they'll include them in spurts on future releases of the other movies?Overall 4.5As much acclaim as the Evangelion franchise has received or as much hype people have given it in the last 15 years, it's probably safe to say it still remains a title of much [whatever] you wanna' push on it. Fans who know and applaud all the subtleties and complexities of the series will enjoy this a great deal, if not for a second round of storytelling, then at least for the rebuild effort in the overall art and animation quality. FUNimation presents Evangelion 1.11 with an admirable effort (finally) giving consumers an actual HD experience in both video and audio quality. While the extras are a bit sparse, don't let that stop you from at least checking this out. If you're not really into anime or don't know the series too well, then you may want to just give it a rent until all 4 films are available to watch at the same time. Highly recommended for fans, though.

I watched Evangelion 1.01 : You Are (Not) Alone both because of Interest In the series as well as the chief director of these 3 films Hideaki Anno Is also directing Shin Gojira and I wanted to get a feel of his style and It's safe to say I beyond Impressed. All my friends who watch Anime on the regular have always told me to check out the Evangelion series with high recommends since I'm big on giant beings beating the crap out of each-other. Holy crap this movie Is just.. PERFECT.. where do I begin?Well for one thing, the animation Is absolutely PERFECT. I loved the mixture of traditional animation and 3D animation! The blending of the two really brought out the best In Anno's directing style and shows he's down to do something different and to do It right! Sound Design wise, the soundtrack Is just awesome & the Inclusion of the Utada Hikaru track Beautiful World at the end was a lovely choice and It honestly made me re-wind the movie a few times. The sounds of the mechanics and the Eva Units were realistic and even while animated, the sound design really brought out the believability In both weight and maintenance, the angels though.. holy crap.. Angel 6 Is without a doubt one of the most beautiful yet scary as hell designs ever! The way this thing would shift to attack was breathtaking and how It's charging sounds were basically a screaming woman In a higher pitch not only stunned me but also made me question the angels and their true nature, that coming from an animated movie just shows the ferocity behind the film's team. I watched the dubbed version of the film and I personally loved everyone's performances, everyone came off well fit to their characters and played them perfectly. No one felt out of place or out of character and they all gave a believable show.The movie's story Is what I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did. Normally with giant anything In the story, main character backstories are kinda here nor there.. but Attack On Titan proved me wrong and.. so did Evangelion. I cared about Shinji, Rei, Misato & everyone In-between the mix, no one felt just THERE, the backstories & character personal galore made me connect with the main characters and they all felt real! One of the things I really loved with the film was the well balanced out drama and action, the film didn't pull a "John Carter" and each bit was just as engaging as the last!Speaking of which, the drama In the film Is superb as Is the action. Watching Shinji go through the film doubting himself and not being able to accept that he's a good pilot with that emotional struggle was INTERESTING and left me cheering for him until the very end of the movie. Rei was left with some mystery towards her, but she still gave off a strong & cold performance until the end where she begins to break down a few walls. Misato from the beginning I saw as the big sister type, she was funny, unpredictable & In some ways the perfect teacher for Shinji! In the end It's her words that finally end the inner turmoil Inside Shinji's mind, she makes him realize this Is a one size fits all deal, everyone Is at risk. Couldn't give enough praises for the drama! Now, the action. When action hits the screen you feel every bit of It right In the center of your chest, the stakes are high the energy Is catastrophically addicting to watch and no matter your setting, you're cheering, gasping & crying al the way through each fight Is an emotional rollercoaster. I found It rather refreshing how well the drama and action were balanced out & how the team mixed at times was astounding! While the classic trope of "talking while fighting" was there, but It didn't feel like a burden and It helped that what was being talked about was Interesting!Evangelion 1.01 : You Are (Not) Alone was one hell of a ride, I loved every minute! I became Invested In almost every character, I cared about their turmoil and well being, the action sucked me In and delivered an awesome experience In and of Itself. Can't get enough of It!I was surprised to see this movie was made In 2007 no less, so It's almost on It's way to 10 years old, but you'd never guess that watching the movie. The movie has aged beautifully and I cannot wait to see the next two!I give Evangelion 1.01 : You Are (Not) Alone a 5/5and a HIGH recommend!

Had to add in English subtitles myself but worth it to have this film in my complete Evangelion Collection.