Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance [Blu-ray] [DVD]

Following on from Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone, Evanglion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance continues the story of a group of teenage mecha pilots in their fight to protect humanity from the giant being called Angel who want to destroy the world.Unlike the previous film which was basicly a retelling of the original TV series from episodes 1 through 6 with new elements added in, EVa 2.22 is a complete remake with key elements from the series.Asuka is finally introduced in this movie, with the surname 'Shikinami' instead of 'Soryu' and a slight change in personallity. She still the bitchy red head who goes out to kick butt whenever she can, but she also more anti-social compared to the TV series. She's basicly more of your tipical Tsundare.A new addition to the Eva cast is Mari Illustrious Makinami, who is introduced at the start of the film as the pilot for the new Eva Unit 05 where she battles against a new type of Angel.The film does make use of elements from the series such as Eva 03 going out of control and eventual destruction by Shinji's Eva 01 and the Angel Zerul's attack on Nerv headquaters.All and all, the film is a must to any anime collection. The animation is top quality,the story telling well paced and the action scenes are outstanding. Eva 2.22 does a great job of reimagining the Eva series, and with the third movie Evangelion: You Can (Not) Redo coming to Japanese cinemas this year, the franchise is only going to get better.

Note: this is a review of the region A (US) version, which technically should be the same disc, just another region code.Neon Genesis Evangelion is originally a manga and an animated TV-series made in Japan in the 1990s. The basic storyline is set in the future (2015) after the mysterious "second impact" which killed off a large part of the human population. Some time after the impact Earth was attacked by powerful monstrous beings known as "angels". The story is complex and simple at the same time. The basic plot is a battle between humanity and aliens, with a lot of references to the earlier japanese Super Robot genre (Mazinger Z, Tetsujin) as well as kabbalistic/religious symbols and psychology, which gives it a lot of character (as well as room for interpretations as everything is not explained). There is also the usual anime mix of cuteness and violence, but beware because Evangelion is not for children. Also, the imaginative work is really something.Evangelion 2.22 You Can Not Advance is the sequel to Evangelion 1.11, as well as a reworking of the original TV-series. If you haven't seen the TV-series nor the first movie (1.11) you should do this before seeing 2.22. In essence the films are a new version of the TV-series with both graphic improvement and changes in the story.While 1.11 was more like a recapitulation and comprimation of several TV-episodes (with much improved graphics), 2.22 rewrites the original story and introduces new characters and ideas. The result is amazing and psychedelic leaving the viewer mindboggled waiting for Evangelion 3.33.

Evangelion 2.22 is the better of the Rebuild quadrilogy so far. Not only does it have gorgeous animation, the voice acting, fight scenes, music and definition is better than before. I own 1.11 on Bluray and it looks nothing compared to this.I don't really like the box art much since it's recycled art from 1.11, but that isn't really a drawback, just personal preference.The Bluray comes with a DVD also, which I didn't know it had so I was quite pleased when I found it.The artbook is also good - nothing spectacular but has some interesting stuff in, for example a few of the behind-the-scenes in creating the 3D models. Also feature a glossary for newcomers to the series.Overall, great film and great packaging. A must have for Eva fans.

The second of the four films retelling the story of 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' sees the story begin to diverge from the original in some rather drastic ways. The film takes us from the arrival of Asuka (whose last name has been changed from Soryu to Shikinami) to the apparent beginnings of Third Impact. As well as the name change for Asuka there are a number of other major changes from the original such as the design of some of the Angels being changed and others being combined, Asuka doesn't have a crush on Kenji, it isn't Toji who pilots Unit 03 and an entirely new character, Mira, is introduced.Although I still prefer the original, this second film in the 'Rebuild' series is certainly entertaining and the animation is great, far better than anything the original series could have hoped to achieve, the English dub is also very good. One of the changes made that I like most is that there is some nice development of Rei's character.There are some problems I have with the film however, namely that some of the changes made to the storyline aren't properly explained and the new character Mira isn't properly developed. I feel that the reason for these problems is that 'Rebuild' is a series of films rather than a TV series. I feel that if 'Rebuild' had been a full TV series then there would have been more time to introduce and develop the changes and given a bit more depth to the series.While I wouldn't say that this series of remakes is as good as the original 'Evangelion' series it is turning into a very interesting series of movies and is definitely a must see anime. I feel a rating of four stars is appropriate.