THOUGHTS - Evangelion 3.0: You can (not) Redo

So, I gave in and watched the 3rd and currently most recent movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion saga, You can (not) Redo and to be honest, the movie blew me away in so many ways. I guess the first thing that hit me was the Ending of 2.22 having such an impact on the series and how this movie is completely different to the original Neon Genesis Evangelion. Like, okay Shinji fucked up trying to save Rei - he fucked up big time. He nearly causes Third Impact for Christs sake. 14 years later and it's 2029 and everyone hates Shinji. Asuka, Misato, Ritsuko, they all hate him, and in fact they hate NERV too. Why would they hate NERV? Because they (who dissolved from NERV, who are now known as WILLE [best name 10/10 organization]) realized that Gendo Ikari wants to initiate Third Impact, in fact Rei stays behind because Gendo tells her to and Shinij finally realizes that REI IS A FUCKING CLONE OF HIS MOTHER.

Nagisa makes his grand return into the Eva universe in this film, only to [SPOILERS] die again because of Shinji's stupidity. The ending of the movie also makes a head turn, with Asuka, Shinji and Rei all walking away from the destroyed Tokyo-3 and leaving it open for the fourth and final movie; 4.0 FINAL. Now to be honest, this movie is a complete game changer. It destroys the plot of NGE and it goes it's own way, and I am fine with that. I still think 2.22 is a better movie, but 3.0 is a great watch for those who are wanting more Eva. I won't score it, but I'll tell you that it's worth watching just to see how weird things get when Hideaki Anno and his team are pushed out from the original NGE's plot.

REVIEW - The End of Evangelion (1997)

To say that Studio GAINAX's 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion was anything less than a success would be lying right out of my teeth, but when things become popular, they also get their haters. Evangelion's biggest flaws to most people were both the animation in the later episodes and the highly controversial ending (which creator Hideaki Anno received DEATH THREATS over). However due to the success of the series, Gainax decided to amend the ending of the TV Series with two theatrical animated movies. The first of these, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth was simply just a recap of the TV series and the first half an hour of the movie that I shall be reviewing today. Boy, if you thought the ending to the TV series was intense...you ain't seen nothing, NOTHING yet.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Studio GAINAX's wonderful mindfuck known as The End of Evangelion.

Forewarning: SPOILERS AWAIT IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH

The End of Evangelion picks up after Episode 24 of the original TV Series. The Angels are dead. Shinji Ikari and NERV are victorious in their battle against those who are bent on the systematic destruction of humanity, Gendo Ikari has every card possible that he could, it seems all could be well.

Ladies and Gentlemen when your movie opens with a 14 year old boy masturbating over a 14 year old comatose German girl you know you're in for some fucked up shit.

SEELE, another organization who are in charge of the Evangelion Units 5-13 decides to kickstart the key plot goal from the original TV Series; The Human Instrumentality Project and the coming of Third Impact (WHICH BY THE WAY IS WHAT THEY SPENT 26 EPISODES OF EVANGELION TRYING TO FUCKING AVOID). The Japanese Special Service Defence Force begins an all out assault on NERV HQ. Shinji is lethargic after his traumatising battle against the final Angel, Kaworu Nagisa (the only person who ever actually showed Shinji an inch of compassion in his entire life), Asuka is in a coma and Rei is STILL trying to figure out what her real purpose is, even though she's not the real Rei Ayanami and just a clone of Shinji's mother, Yui. A mass exodus occurs at NERV, Ritsuko is murdered by Gendo right in front of Rei and Lillith and Misato promises to have sex with Shinji if he gets in damn robot which can't happen because A: SHE'S LIKE 27 AND HE'S 14 and B: Misato is shot and bleeds out to death, not before giving Shinji a kiss before abandoning him in front of his Evangelion. Asuka meanwhile was placed in Unit-02 in the Geofront's lake and immediately wakes up out of her coma and sees 9 Evangelion units wanting her blood. She realizes that she has to kill them all in what has to be one of the best and most iconic fight scenes in anime history in order to survive, which she does

Oh if only that were the case

The dismembered Evangelion units repair themselves and proceed to absolutely demolish Unit-02, with one of them using the Lance of Longinus to pierce the Eva's head and destroying Asuka's left eye....which leads us into the most iconic and arguably the best few seconds of the whole Evangelion franchise (Skip to 8:10)

Asuka obviously dies just in time for Shinji to arrive in Unit-01 and see the gruesome scene around him. The 9 Evangelion's take advantage of this moment to use Eva Unit-01 to initiate Human Instrumentality, which also involves Rei merging with Lillith and Becoming God.

You still with me? Well the worst part is yet to come.

Shinji and God begin their transcendence to the heavens as they merge together through God's FOREHEAD EYE VAGINA (I am not even kidding) as everyone on Earth slowly becomes a mess of LCL and clothing due to Third Impact. Shinji accepts the fact that the world must be remade to advance humanity, there's a red mark on the moon, the 9 Eva's are all crucified and worst of all Shinji ends up on a beach alone with Asuka - who by the way is ALIVE now - and although he almost fucking chokes her to death, he realizes that they must repopulate the planet to evolve humanity and OH MY SWEET FUCKING JESUS IS THIS MOVIE THE DEFINITION OF A MIND FUCK THROUGH A SCREW HOLE WHEN WILL IT FUCKING END.

*ahem*

It is safe to say that, this movie is not for everyone. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm not going to bother going further than giving you the score this time, because this movie is something else. The first half an hour to an hour of it isn't too bad, it's typical EVA, but once Asuka begins her fight....the movie spirals out of control. The animation is much improved on from the original series and the soundtrack is just unnerving right to the core. I'm giving The End of Evangelion a 6.2/10 because of how bloody weird and hard to comprehend it is.

QUICK REVIEW - Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11 and 2.22

Now this isn't going to be anything like a normal review, it's just gonna be a couple of paragraphs on each movie maybe with a picture or two sprinkled in for a more visually appealing review :)

You are (not) Alone (2007)

Probably the most literal rebuild of the Rebuild's so far, Evangelion 1.11: You are not Alone is pretty much a shot for shot remake of episodes 1-8 of the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now, while some people may think this is a bit strange  that Evangelion would be getting a remake already but hey Hideaki Anno's an indecisive guy who just wants to screw with us fans because he enjoys seeing us suffer (he legitimately does). The story is exactly the same; Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami are two 14 year old children with more mental catastrophes than you can shake a stick at and they are tasked with piloting the synthetic humanoid lifeform known as "Evangelion", a mech that's designed to combat Angels, giant monsters who really want humanity dead after something 15 years ago called the Second Impact. Of course there's more to it than that but of the two movies I have seen upto this point, there's not a lot different about 1.11 and the original series' first 8 episodes. The animation quality far surpasses the original show however, and each scene is re-created faithfully to its original counterpart. The soundtrack is mainly the same but redone with higher quality instruments, but there are a few new tracks such as the FANTASTIC Angel of Doom. On it's own, You are (not) Alone is a great tribute to the original series and an entertaining as hell movie to watch.

You can (not) Advance (2009)

Now, onto the final movie that I have seen of the 3 currently available movies; Evangelion 2.22: You can (not) Advance. This movie is where the plot deviates from the original series is some places (such as Asuka being not only the pilot for Evangelion Unit-02, but also the test pilot for Unit-03, originally Toji's role in the original anime) but it still goes upto the point where Shinji fights the Angel that infiltrates NERV HQ (not the Final Angel) but after that things change in preparation for Evangelion 3.33: You can (not) Redo (which I am waiting for its dub before watching). The animation is still beautiful and the soundtrack still orgasmic, however the events portrayed in this movie are epic as fuck...so epic in fact that 2.22 is my favourite movie ever made - anime or otherwise.

REVIEW - Sakura Trick (2014)

So guys, I think I finally found it. Something that rivals Sword Art Online as the absolute worst anime I have ever seen (although it doesn't beat it, I'll get to that at the end). There's no point in even waning in this paragraph because I'm just putting it off aren't I?

Sakura Trick by Studio DEEN.

Now, the plot to Sakura Trick is kinda tricky (FUCK OFF THAT WASN'T A PUN) to discuss because of each episode being it's own self-contained plot or rather, each HALF of an episode being it's own self-contained plot. You see, this show doesn't follow the general construct of an anime story and rather follows the Cowboy Bebop approach and doubles that. Each episode has 2 (with one episode having 3) 12 minute segments with their own plot. Anyways, onto the actual plot description.

OH BOY.

So our main character Haruka is about to begin her first year in High School alongside her childhood friend Yuu. Now that's fine and dandy and all but here's the catch; they will be the final class to ever complete a full course at their school, as it's set to be demolished after they graduate. So after their opening ceremony, Haruka and Yuu get bored and go to empty classroom (because this is Japan - you're ALLOWED to do that apparently) and decide to do something that will "remember his place once it's gone". And so, like any normal Japanese schoolgirls, they kiss. Now I wouldn't mind this and in fact the best thing about this show is that it embraces lesbianisim, however, I think they embrace it a bit too much. See having a relationship with the same sex -fine. However, doing stupid shit like falling on her intentionally every two seconds to kiss her in every.damn.episode. kinda spoils the exclusivity of the relationship. I wouldn't have a problem with this but there are two lesbian couples in this show, and even a lesbian love triangle! Other than the lesbian-ness of it all, it's just mainly the characters fucking about and doing shit like Shopping for that one scarf Yuu wanted or Complaining about Haruka's bra size being a C when it's actually a D...I will say that some episodes are at best decent and watchable because of their moments but then other times it draaaaggggsssss about something I don't care about.

Now onto the characters of Sakura Trick and oh boy do I have some words to say about how forgettable and boring these cast members were. Out of the entire cast, my favourite person was Yuu's older sister, who I can't even remember the name of. Now this may have something to do with my liking of anime girls who're tall and have glasses (See; Makise Kurisu who doesn't always wear glasses but sometimes does). Nobody else in this cast stuck out to me apart from Haruka because her hair colour is one of the only ones that isn't a shade of either light blonde or ashburn brown. Seriously, they're that bad. In fact, I'd say that the cast as a whole rivals that of the cast of School Days and Sword Art Online as being one of the worst casts in an anime EVER.

Now personally while I think that pretty much everything else in this show is complete garbage, the show has one standout quality that is actually the best in it's class. The animation in Sakura Trick stands as some of the best animation I have seen in any show to date. Seriously, this shit looks gorgeous and I cannot find a single fault in how beautiful the backgrounds are, how well characters move or how detailed some scenes can be. It's actually perfect in this regard.

Wait...this show had a SOUNDTRACK?

Literally forgettable. Even Sword Art Online managed to get this one down to a T. Apart from the opening (The hilariously badly named Won*Chu Kiss Me) I couldn't remember one thing from this OST. Moving on.

Overall, this is a mess, an actual beautiful mess. Despite it having possibly the best animation in any ever, Sakura Trick stumbles at being an anime to show that it's okay for girls to like girls. Bad plot, forgettable cast, great animation and horrific sound, Sakura Trick is one of the worst anime I have ever seen and it's message is poorly delivered. Now if you'll excuse me I have a hole to hide in to prepare from the hate off of the Yuri fans.

Story: 3

Characters: 1

Animation: 10

Sound: 1

Personal Enjoyment: 2

FINAL SCORE FOR SAKURA TRICK: 3.4/10

REVIEW - Kill la Kill (2013)

You know, once in a while there comes along an anime that can totally surprise you, especially when people you know bash the show to bits (this happened with Neon Genesis Evangelion too). However, I do love surprises, especially when it comes to anime. Now, while I don't think today's anime is the best thing ever (or even the best anime of Last Year: Shingeki no Kyojin takes the top spot there for me), I do think that it's one of the more refreshing anime I have seen in recent times.

Studio Trigger's Kill la Kill

Kill la Kill takes place in a sort of advanced but still modern Japan mainly in a school known as Honnouji Academy. The story centers around Ryuko Matoi and her quest to find out the murderer of her father, with the only evidence of the crime being half of a giant scissor left inside her fathers body. With this in mind, Ryuko heads off to Honnouji Academy, and finds out that it's a totalitarian school that's basically run by the Student Council President, Satsuki Kiryuin. Satsuki runs the school out of fear with her super powered uniforms, the Goku Uniforms (not sure if Dragon Ball reference or not) which give the students super powers based on their star-ratings: The more stars, the more powerful the Goku Uniform. Ryuko challenges Satsuki to a fight, but loses and is severely under-powered to be able to take on Satsuki. She heads back to the destroyed home of her deceased father, and vows to take revenge on Satsuki. Then, out of nowhere, Ryuko falls underground and discovers a black sailor uniform which she dubs "Senketsu". With Senketsu draining Ryuko's blood, Ryuko swears to get to the bottom of her fathers murder and find the culprit once and for all, whether it be Satsuki or otherwise. What I like about this story compared to every other revenge story in anime is the unpredictability of the plot twists and how batshit insane it gets sometimes. It's a fresh take on the magical girl anime and while unlike Madoka Magika which deconstructed the genre, Kill la Kill embraces it's genre and takes it on a wild acid trip which completely entertains from beginning to end. 

The characters are some the strongest and weakest points of Kill la Kill. On one end of the scale we have pretty damn good characters like Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin and on the other end we have horrible characters such as Mako Mankanshouku and Harime Nui. I like Ryuko for her resolve and strength which reminds me a lot of Eren Jaeger from Shingeki no Kyojin. She's strong and has a sight on her goal which she never lets go of now matter how convoluted her view becomes sometimes, although she's not my favourite character, by far. That honour goes to Satsuki Kiryuin, the Student Council President in Honnouji Academy. Her strength, her ability, her form are flawless. If I was one of those weebs who claimed to have an anime waifu, it would probably be Satsuki (with Rin from Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne coming second). She is second to none, with interesting character development to back her up, a strong voice provided by the amazingly talented Ryouka Yuzuki and some of my favourite quotes from a recent anime. Like I said though, this cast is not all good. Mako can be plainly annoying at times with her stupid antics and her nonsense (although she was the source of one pretty damn good GIF) and Haime Nui just pissed me off every time she was on screen and she's one of my most hated female anime characters alongside Asuna Yuuki and Kotonoha from School Days.  

Animation-wise, Kill la Kill is sometimes REALLY good, but other times it's pretty bad. The action scenes are more often than not draw droppingly beautiful and gorgeously choreographed, but other times mainly during the slice of life stuff, the animation takes a turn for the worst in quality and it looks really unpleasing to the eye. Character designs look pretty good and unique (Mako is kind of generic though) and the frame rate is solid for the most part while taking a drop every once in a while.

The soundtrack to Kill la Kill was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who also composed the 2013 mega hit Shingeki no Kyojin, which has to be my favourite soundtrack to anything ever. While I don't think it's as memorable, Kill la Kill's OST is pretty damn good and it's two openings, Sirius and ambiguous are two of my favourite anime openings, although the two ending themes are so damn forgettable it hurts.

Overall, Kill la Kill is a fun ride with some bumps in it's proverbial road. While I don't think it's the 'savior of anime' or anything like that, I personally think it's worth watching. While some of the characters are truly horrible and the animation becomes sub-par sometimes, it's one of the better anime that were release last year.

Story: 10

Characters: 6.5

Animation: 7

Music: 8.5

Personal Enjoyment: 8

FINAL SCORE FOR KILL LA KILL: 8/10