Evangelion 1.01: You are [Not] Alone

It's here, it's finally here!!! The beautiful and eye-catching blood red-stained Theatrical DVD release of "Evangelion 1.01: You are (not) Alone" is here! And you can bet I am 100% jovial and ecstatic with the outcome.

For clarification, "You are (not) Alone" is by no means a simple re-cut or remake. This is not your "Death and Rebirth" movie. And after watching the movie, that fact is made all the more clear. Rather than stringing a bunch of episodes together to create a sort of anime marathon, we get a "new" movie experience. Though the movie covers episodes 1 through 6, subtle changes, reordering, additional new scenes, detail revamping, and a much more different pace create an awesome new take on the "Evangelion" franchise we know all too well. Shiro Sagisu once again lends to the Eva soundtrack. The soundtrack is not at all the same, but strikingly similar at the same time. I'm still on the fence on how I feel about it. Nevertheless, and without giving too much away, the ending product is phenomenal and quite unbelievable -- definitely highly commendable.

Every element in "You Are (not) Alone" is precision to the tenth power. Sound quality is stunning and the detail work is extremely eye opening. Tokyo-3 looks so realistic, as does the rest of the environment. Computer interfaces and mechanics has also gotten a face lift, and I'm sure any fan would be pleased with it. Most noteworthy is the penultimate battle against Ramiel. The folks at Gainax have given Ramiel more agility with its shape-shifting ability, making the fight all the more intense. Seele also seems to grab an earlier role than its series predecessor. The ending is spectacular, one of the few instances where a completely new scene sequence is presented. This is also the point where any skepticism of a "simple remake" are discarded. Take my word for it: you'll be floored when you see the ending.