Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone | |
---|---|
Directed by | Hideaki Anno (chief) Masayuki Kazuya Tsurumaki |
Written by | Hideaki Anno |
Produced by | Toshimichi Otsuki |
Starring | Megumi Ogata Megumi Hayashibara Kotono Mitsuishi |
Cinematography | Susumu Fukushi |
Edited by | Hirofumi Okuda |
Music by | Shiro Sagisu |
Distributed by | KlockWorx & Khara Taewon Entertainment Red Ant Enterprises[1] Dybex[2] Dynit[3] Universum Film AG[4] FUNimation Entertainment [5] |
Release dates | September 1, 2007 January 24, 2008 March 13, 2008 April 3, 2008 April 18, 2008 July 1, 2008 October 20, 2008 October 30, 2008 November 19, 2008 February 30, 2009 |
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Box office | ¥2.0 bil. ($18.7 mil.) |
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:序, Evangerion Shin Gekijōban: Jo, lit. "Evangelion New Theatrical Version: The Beginning") is a 2007 Japanese animated film written and chief directed by Hideaki Anno. It is the first of four films released in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy based on the original anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was produced and co-distributed by Anno's Studio Khara.
The plot is largely a point-for-point adaptation of episodes 1 through 6 of the original anime. While some scenes and events are replications of the original series, others unfold differently with new or omitted scenes and newly-available 3D CG technology.[6]
Plot
Shinji Ikari is sent for by his estranged father, Gendo. As he wanders around town because of the out of service trains, he is caught in the crossfire between the U.N. army and the fourth Angel (third in the original version), Sachiel. Rescued by Captain Misato Katsuragi, Shinji is brought to Tokyo-3 and Nerv Headquarters, where he is guilted by Gendo, who turns out to be Supreme Commander of Nerv, into piloting Evangelion Unit-01 against Sachiel because the pilot of Evangelion Unit-00, the mysterious Rei Ayanami, is too injured to do so. After the initial fight, Shinji is taken in by Misato as her new housemate and enrolled in middle school. The film portrays Shinji's attempts to "settle in" with his newfound life alongside Misato, Rei, and the other characters while continuing to defend Tokyo-3 and the world from the coming Angels as the new pilot of Unit-01.
At the film's climax, the Angel Ramiel tries to drill into Nerv Headquarters. To try to motivate the despondent Shinji, Misato takes him down to the deepest level of the base, Level-EEE in Central Dogma, and shows him a giant white entity crucified to a giant cross-like restraint: the Angel Lilith (which, contrary to its design in the original series, has a face mask like the Angel Sachiel instead of the Seele logo), which Misato explains is the goal of the Angels and that any contact between them and Lilith would bring about the end of all life on Earth.
With this information and the encouragement from his new friends in school, Shinji and Rei attempt to kill Ramiel by sniping it using the Evangelions and an experimental positron rifle, which requires the entire electrical power output of Japan to function. Rei is nearly killed in the battle, though Shinji is able to save her by prying her out of her damaged Eva using Unit 01's Progressive Knife. Shinji and the normally cold Rei have an emotional moment, with Shinji try to convince her not to say goodbye before a battle and Rei eventually shares a warm smile with him.
The final scene opens on the surface of the Moon, with what appears to be blood splashed across a large swath of it. Nine coffin-like containers are arranged in a line on the surface, with five of them open. Kaworu Nagisa awakens and rises, naked, from the fifth container. In front of him is an unidentified white giant, surrounded by construction equipment and scaffolding, wearing a purple Seele mask which resembles the one worn by Lilith in the original series. Kaworu engages in a brief, cryptic conversation with the Seele 01 monolith, saying that "the third one" hasn't changed at all and that he looks forward to meeting Shinji.
After the end credits, a trailer for the next film, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, was shown.
Production
In September 2006, the October edition of the Japanese anime magazine Newtype, the first film of the Rebuild of Evangelion series was announced to be released in the summer of 2007 with an expected running time of 90 minutes.[7] During pre-production, Toshimichi Ohtsuki stated that director Hideaki Anno rewatched the entire original television series back to back. It was revealed the success of the series had caused misunderstanding and disarray amongst fans and the new films would clear up any confusion.[8] In the December 2006 issue of Newtype, Anno revealed he was happy to finally recreate Eva "as he wanted it to be" in the beginning and that he was longer constrained by technological and budget limitations.[9] Anno chosen to release the new EVA movie in 2007 as he was previously budget restricted.[10]
In November 2006, the film passed onto the drawing phase and was revealed the film would retain many members of the TV series and would occur around the time of the events of the episode 5-6 in 2 part story arch of the TV series with the climax being Operation Yashima. Anno confirmed that the segment didn't originally turn out as he intended and that he planed to recreate the sequence to fit his original concept. Shinji Higuchi was involved in collaborating to Operation Yashima.[9][10]
During the production stages, Anno confirmed the film would remain faithful to the series[11] and that Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami and Kaworu Nagisa would appear in the first film and would be central characters to the "Rebuild Of Evangelion" series.[8] All the original voice actors were confirmed they would reprise their roles.[8]
Production was carried out by PJT EVA while Klockworx was involved in the films distribution in Japan. Advertisement for the film was carried out by Media Suits and Gainax launched the films official website in late 2006.[10] The films title was officially revealed at the 2007 Dengeki Movie Festival.[12] The full theatrical trailer was released in late July 2007 and was also PV to the films theme song.[13]
Release
Weeks leading up to the films theatrical release, the film was promoted by numerous media outlets including Japanese edition of Rolling Stone[14] and Pizza Hut running promotional campaigns to encourage audiences to see the film.[15]
The film was originally planned to premiere in Shinjuku at the Cinema Square Tōkyū theater, but was changed to the Milano 1 theater inorder to accommodate the growing crowds.[16] At the film's theatrical premiere on September 1, 2007, the film's official Bandai Channel news feed reported full houses and full applause from fans.[17] The film opened on 84 screens and in first place at the Japanese box office during its opening weekend, with some 236,158 spending 280 million yen (about US $2.4 million) to watch it.[16] The film dropped to second place during its second week.[18] and was later reported to be seen by approximately 1 million people in its first 4 weeks after opening.[19] The film has become Gainax's highest grossing film of the series earning 1.468 billion yen (about US $12,774,801) beating the previous record set by The End of Evangelion which only earned 1.45 billion yen (US $12.6 million) and Evangelion: Death and Rebirth which earned 1.1 billion yen (US $9.6 million).[20] The film was re-released under the title "Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone" in theaters with an additional 266 enhancements made in April 2008 to conside with the DVD release.[21]The film was ranked as the 4th highest grossing anime film at the Japanese box office in 2007 earning a total of 2 billion yen during its theatrical run.[22]
Reception
The film was well received by fans of the series and audiences alike, some forming lines outside theaters on the films opening day.[11] Eiga reported users gave the film "A-"[23] while on Japan Yahoo! Movies fans gave the film an average of "4 out of 5 stars".[24][11] Anime News Network gave the film an overall "B-", stating the film had "great animation, excellent fight scenes, some hints at exciting changes to come and a cool cameo at the end". The film was however stated at "feeling pointless and dull at times with the cast's previous emotional complexity being dumbed down".[25]
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone received the 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair award for anime of the year; Anno received best director.[26] The film was also nominated for Animation of the year at the 2008 Japan Academy Prize,[27][28] however lost to Tekkon Kinkreet.[29] The film was awarded the DCAJ Chairperson Award during the 22nd Digital Contents Grand Prix in Akihabara on October 11, 2007.[30] The film also won the Harayasa Tōkaimura Award at the 7th Annual Japanese Otaku Awards on January 5th, 2008.[31]
Sequel
The films sequel Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance was previewed in the credits. The film will continue where the first film left off, as well as introducing Asuka Langley Soryu, a new character, redesigned EVA units and a new storyline.[32] The film has a tentative release date in Japan around summer 2009.[33]
International release
The first international screening of the film was on October 12, 2007 as the closing film of the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival in Japanese with Korean and English subtitles.[34][35][36] The film has been released internationally throughout early to late 2008. The film was released in South Korea (January 24, 2008), Malaysia (July 1, 2008), Singapore (March 13, 2008), Hong Kong (April 3, 2008), Taiwan (April 18, 2008), Germany (October 2008)[37], and Italy by Dynit (October 30, 2008).[38] The film was released on DVD in Australia by Red Ant Enterprises on November 12, 2008.[39] The film was released in France by distributor Dybex at the out of competition screening at the 2008 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.[40][41] The film made its Canadian premiere at the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema in November 2008.[42]
In late 2008, FUNimation Entertainment issued a cease and desist order to fansubbers of Evangelion 1.0 on behalf of Nippon Television, along with several other anime properties.[43] An announcement was also released stating they had officially picked up the film for a North American release for November 10, 2009.[5] There is no word on the official cast members, though several of the voice actors from the original English dub of the series, including Spike Spencer[44] (the voice of Shinji Ikari) and Tiffany Grant[45] (who voiced Asuka Langley Soryu), have expressed interest in reprising their roles. Tiffany Grant also pointed out, however, that the series were dubbed over a decade ago and most often their original voice actors have simply moved on and can't be found, citing the voice actors that did not return for the Evangelion movies and Director's Cut episodes.
The film will make its US Premiere at the 24th Santa Barbara International Film Festival.[46]
In addition, the movie reached its very own high peak at iNAFFF 2008 (Indonesia International Fantastic Film Festival 2008) in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia. The movie was supposed to be screened only once in each city. However,it came into the fans' disappointment that the tickets were sold out few days in advance. The very own Festival Director, Rusli Eddy then declared one additional screening in Jakarta and two additional screening in Bandung as to follow fans excitement. It also came to the festival management's surprises that all Evangelion tickets are sold out. In total, Evangelion 1.0 had fulfilled the satisfaction of nearly 1500 Evangelion fans in Indonesia. The festival also granted the movie with "iNAFFF Audience Award 2008" for the outstanding enthusiasm from the fans.
DVD release
The two-disc "Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone: Limited Design Edition" was released on DVD in Japan on April 25, 2008. The release contains "266 shots" that received minor enhancements and fine tunings in picture, editing, and sound quality.[21] The first disc contains the movie and the script, while the second contains music videos, trailers, and the "Explanation of Evangelion" feature, which overlays the film text overlays to explain what things are. [47] In addition, each DVD set contained actual film strips of five animation frames from the film (which were otherwise only available in the "Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 All Collection" artbook), some of which received bids at online auctions over 29,000 yen or over $200 (frames from the famous scene of Rei smiling at the end of the film were sold for 152,000 yen or about $1,460).[48] Only 300,000 of these special-edition DVD sets were made. The film was released on DVD in a "Normal Edition" on May 21 2008.[47] A Blu-ray Disc release has not been announced at this time.
By April 29, less than one week after its release, more than 219,000 DVDs of the film were sold, making it the best-selling DVD of 2008 in Japan at that time.[49]Ultimately, the "Limited Edition" Release ranked as the fourth best-selling DVD in Japan in the first six months of 2008, selling an estimated 263,395 copies in that time.[50]
Music
In mid 2007, Utada Hikaru was chosen to provide the ending theme song for the film. "Beautiful World" was chosen from her single Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry. She also provided a reprised remix of the series original ending theme "Fly Me to the Moon", known as "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) -2007 MIX-", from the version she released in 2000 on her Wait & See ~Risk~ single.[51] It served as the soundtrack to the first full theatrical trailer[52] and was well received by fans selling nearly 881,000 copies as well as boosting Utada Hikaru's sales.[53][54]
The complete score for the film, composed and arranged by Shiro Sagisu, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with performances by the London Studio Orchestra. An album featuring full-track selections from the film's score, without any editing to fit them into the film, Shiro SAGISU Music from "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone", was released on September 26, 2007.[55]
The Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone Original Soundtrack, with the complete score and Utada Hikaru's "Beautiful World" and "Fly Me To The Moon", were released on May 25, 2008. Many of the tracks on both soundtracks are rearranged versions of songs from the original series, with "Angel of Doom" among the new compositions, being used in a promotional clip as well as in the films climatic fight with Ramiel.
References
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- ^ "Evangelion Rebuild 1:0 acquis par Dybex" (in French). Retrieved 2008-04-28.
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- ^ "2nd Eva Film Remake to Add Redesigned EVAs, New Girl". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
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