The End of Evangelion.

Review #2344: The End of Evangelion.

Cast: 

Megumi Ogata (Shinji Ikari), Kotono Mitsuishi (Misato Katsuragi), Megumi Hayashibara (Rei Ayanami), Yūko Miyamura (Asuka Langley Soryu), Akira Ishida (Kaworu Nagisa), Fumihiko Tachiki (Gendo Ikari), Motomu Kiyokawa (Kozo Fuyutsuki), Yuriko Yamaguchi (Ritsuko Akagi), and Hiro Yuki (Makoto Hyuga) Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Hideaki Anno.

Review: 

"Evangelion is my life and I have put everything I know into this work. This is my entire life. My life itself.”

Naturally. You may or may not have a pretty good idea of what Neon Genesis Evangelion is. The original anime (aired from October 4, 1995 - March 27, 1996) was directed by Hideaki Anno, who had developed the series as a way of dealing with personal responsibility that reflected his depression that he had suffered years prior. Born in Ube, Yamaguchi in Japan, he had an interest in artwork and short films from a young age, which paid off when he read an ad for a film (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) that needed more animators. Anno helped to co-find the studio Gainax in 1984 and worked in animation direction on a variety of films and shows. Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987) saw him work on key aspects of the design but also saw him affected by the film's failure with audiences. His debut as a director came with the anime Gunbuster (which ran from 1988-89). However, the lack of creative control given to him in his next work with Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which came about from a decade-old pitch from Hayao Miyazaki that Anno served as a chief director before handing over duties in the middle of it due to exhaustion (having just seen the anime in its padded length of 39 episodes, well...). Anno suffered from depression for a number of years after Nadia came out. Okay, so there were actually two movies when it comes to the Evangelion feature film project. Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (as directed by Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, and Kazuya Tsurumaki) came out in 1997 that, well, I didn't feel like covering because it basically is just there for those who don't want to watch the first 24 episodes anyway (to say nothing of the edits such as "Evangelion:Death (True)"). The End of Evangelion was directed by Anno along with his protege Kazuya Tsurumaki, who had directed a handful of the aforementioned anime. Since the release of the film, Anno has directed in both live-action and in anime form, most notably with Shin Godzilla (2016) and, well, a "Rebuild of Evangelion" tetralogy (2007, 2009, 2012, 2021) that served as an alternate retelling of the show that saw Anno and Tsurumaki direct the four films.

Okay, so the final couple of episodes may or may not have confused people (jokingly or not, I interpreted it as "Touch grass"). For all of the labels and things one can discuss in tandem with the anime ("Postmodern", on a religious scale, Freudian, whatever), it really is just one of those times where, well, you just have to experience it for yourself to really absorb what it takes to create something for the public. To be around people is to know that they will let you down just as much as you may let down others but that you just have to keep going in the face of reality. Sure, the anime was a phenomenon because, well, it looked and sounded cool (we do not speak of people that act as fans of characters), but it also was a show that wanted one to actually look at themselves and connections. For me, I took some of it as a mecha soap opera (maybe with a little bit of calling it "self-therapy") and just "rolled with it" while being quite fond of the penguin and "Misato" (thinking back, it doesn't hurt to be the second banana in my rankings). With that in mind, the movie is pretty neat in terms of its animation (and uh, a few choice ideas near the end) and its overall reach in terms of dread that actually could be thought of as bleakly amusing for some. Life is bleakly amusing but if you choose to accept the parameters, you can make your own path, I suppose. When one looks back at both the anime and film, you don't feel like you're watching a cash-grab with the latter because it still seems fresh and interesting to see the introspection, ourselves or otherwise. It rests with Ogata in terms of looking at the anguish and doubts that arise in the dilemma of oneself (each of these people have their illusions that they would rather not see come across). I appreciate that blend of action and psychological/existential horror, which could be highlighted in a variety of scenes, such as the buildup to the climax or the awakening to Asuka. As a whole, regardless of where one is with anime or animation, The End of Evangelion is an experience worth seeking out for oneself. 

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Well, we have finished another New Directors Month. I wanted to open up a bit of variety with the choices this time around, and there were a wide variety of directors (and films) that missed out for the month (which either means I'll get to them sometime in 2025 anyway or maybe do in 2026): 

[Nagisa Ōshima] In the Realm of the Senses, [Douglas Sirk] Imitation of Life   

Tim Hunter's River's Edge, [Monte Hellman] Two-Lane Blacktop, [Terence Malick] Badlands

[Robin Swicord] Wakefield, [Sam Wood] Our Town, [Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg] Murder Inc

[Lars von Trier] Dogville, [Robert Benton] Bad Company, [Frank Beyer] Jacob the Liar (1975)

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.

Review #1892: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.

Cast: 

Kōichi Yamadera (Spike Spiegel), Unshō Ishizuka (Jet Black), Megumi Hayashibara (Faye Valentine), Aoi Tada (Edward Wong), Tsutomu Isobe (Vincent Volaju), Ai Kobayashi (Elektra Ovilo), Mickey Curtis (Rashid), and Yūji Ueda (Lee Sampson) Directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. 

Review: 

"If you want to create animation, it's important to watch a lot of things that aren't anime. If you don't, it'll all be the same as what became before and originality won't be easy. Originality is very important, and I get a lot of my inspiration from live action movies and music." - Shinichirō Watanabe

Oh hell yes, I was anticipating doing this film. You may or may not recognize Cowboy Bebop within the history of anime, but I will admit that this was my first foray into anime beyond seeing a bunch of anime films (now, the second attempt at watching anime series in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its own feature...that will be for another time). The series was created by the production team at Sunrise: director Shinichirō Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane, and composer Yoko Kanno. Billed as "a new genre unto itself", Watanabe got his start in the industry in the mid 1980s that went from production staff to director in a number of years, starting with Macross Plus in 1994. With this being his first solo effort, he treated each episode as if it was like a mini-movie, complete with having the ending of the 26-episode series early on; the show actually first started with Bandai offering to sponsor a show as long as it had a spaceship so they could sell it, but their disapproval of early footage led to limbo before Bandai Visual became the new sponsor. The series aired in an irregular way: It first aired on April 3, 1998 but with a first run of only five episodes due to its 6PM timeslot on its network in Japan. Then, on a satellite network, the entire run of 26 episodes (referred as "sessions") ran from October 24 to April 24, 1999 on the satellite network Wowow. Two years later, it aired in the United States on Adult Swim (the late-night block for Cartoon Network started in 2001). In addition to anime, two manga works were released for serialization in Asuka Fantasy DX; Shooting Star ran had a brief run from 1997 to 1998 while the second one ran from 1998 to 2000. Nobumoto, who had served as the writer for numerous episodes of the series (sessions 1, 3, 6, 12, 13, 15, 22, 23, 25, and 26), wrote the film, which was announced in September 1999 that started production in July of 2000. The show did have a clear end point, because Watanabe, convinced it would be a hit, didn't want to it to be something that would possibly tie him to making the show for years and years like Star Trek, but a film was constructed that is set in-between the series that retained the core four voice actors of the series with Yamadera, Ishizuka, Hayashibara, and Tada (I would mention the English dub and the fact that it retained the same four used for the show, but loose purists like me stick with the original actors to begin with, but your milage may vary. There also is a remake that came out years later, but this is no time for fairy tales).

I love the show, let me get that out of the way. The blend of numerous genres such as the Western or pulp fiction made for one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen, one that started and ended with a bang in ways that made it a great decision to see all the way through. Style over substance? Well...duh? The film (referred to with the subtitle "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in Japan as opposed to just "The Movie") is definitely more rewarding for those who have seen the show than someone going in fresh (one that is quite episodic but worth the ride), but I think it works exactly to what made the show so great in the first place. It is a vibrant movie that cultivates a web of conspiracy into general thrills and warmth that comes from watching these sublime characters and voices come together with nice visuals and a general atmosphere that stands apart from the usual number of animated films. You can see the main four in simple terms in how they proved so endearing: the calm and collected ass-kicker, the jack-of-all-trade father figure, the conniving tease with unpredictability, and the energetic free spirit. The dysfunctional family of bounty hunters is endearing to those who enjoy these folks and the banter they share, regardless of whatever presence lurks (in this case, a villain with some sort of meaning not usually seen in the series). 

Consider the opening sequence with Yamadera and Ishizuka being involved in stopping a robbery (bounty job that is four targets rather than three) that lasts just four minutes but tells all you need to know (or already know) about these two characters with the right touch of action and charm. The touches of noir are present here with aesthetic that involves Arabic elements (namely because there's a place in the film seen to help tell certain elements of the story). 115 minutes is a considerable amount to ask, but it does do a careful job in cracking its own story down to the eventual endgame while still having time for engaging character moments that come across here within the question that comes in if one is living in the real world. Isobe may not be the most conniving threat seen in this particular anime lore, but he does resonate well in making a quality match with invoking the futility of trying to run from the fear of death. Kobayashi acts as the diminished mirror of him in terms of humanity (i.e. being a one-time ally for us to watch in the same way you would see from other one-time characters seen in the anime). Yamadera and his self-assured confidence carries the film quite well as a look upon people trying to circle away from their past but never quite escaping it - an antihero if there ever was one, but a quality antihero worth watching. Given that the film splits its time with the characters usually apart, Hayashibara fares pretty well in managing the enigmas present in the character and the plot without being lost in it. It is fairly inevitable where the film will go at some point, but it is the ride that matters most in getting there, and it is a generally involving one that doesn't meander or talk down to its audience, instead letting things breathe before getting back on the trail. As a whole, it proves rewarding for fans of the anime and diverting for newcomers, which is probably the best of both worlds when it comes to its enduring legacy after two decades. Generous or not (because hey, this is my rating system), I thought it was a pretty fun feature and one that should be worth one's time to see.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

This closes out September. Be ready for a whole month of horror movies, as you would expect. There will be a variety of decades covered in horror, but a special twist will start out the month.