Anime Review: Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

So I don't actually have to do a blog post this week, but I decided that I should do one anyways because there is still a few things that I want to review before the end of the semester. If I skip another week like back in Fall Break, then that would make it two things that I wouldn't be able to review. I could always just keep this blog going even after my writing class is over, but I'm still debating that since it would consume some of my time.


Anyways, this week's post is a continuation of the blog that I did two weeks ago. This week I'm picking up where I left of with the second film in the series. This one is called Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance and its name in Japanese is ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版: 破 (Evangerion Shin Gekijōban: Ha) which literary means: Evangelion New Theatrical Edition: Break.


This film picks up right where the first one left off, and they don't even give you a break in the action. The movie starts right off by introducing you to a new girl that is piloting Provisional Eva Unit 05 and is going to fight the skeleton of resurrected Angel number three. They have a brief but action packed fight and the new pilot wins by self-destructing her Unit.

New Character

The next thing that happens is very interesting to me because it reveals something peculiar about the new character. At this point we still don't know her name, but after self-destructing her Unit, she uses the emergency escape system and survives the blast. One of the guys overlooking the fight says: "I just don't like using children as pawns for the convenience of adults." So this guy is obviously not happy about sending in a teenage girl to fight a monster and almost getting killed.


But what's interesting is the response from the girl. Once she gets out of the escape pod she says: "I just don't like using adults as pawns for the convenience of children." That is something that really shocked me when I read it (I'm was watching a fan-sub version of the film). Even while she was fighting the Angel, she was saying something to the effect that even if it was dangerous, she didn't care because it was fun for her.


I don't know what to make of that. On one hand I think that she is very cool and strong (I've mentioned before that I really like strong female characters). But then I have the feeling that she's kind of nuts. Also keep in mind that I'm not able to fully analyze her because they don't really give that much background information about her. Although we do find out that her real name is Mari Illustrious Makinami later in the movie.

Mari with Eva Unit 05

Her Eva Unit is also unique because it's way different than the other three that we have seen so far. While Asuka's Eva Unit is the first production model and is the first one built for actual combat (Unit 00 was a prototype and Unit 01 was the test type), Unit 05 has no legs or arms. Instead, its arms have been replaced with jousts and claws, while it has four legs attached to wheels for movement.


They introduce a few more characters in this film, but they aren't that important. Plus, they are introduced somewhat later in the film and I don't want to talk about something that might give away some of the story. 


Basically for this film, it's pretty much like the last one. This film is meant to introduce new characters and move the story forward just like the last film. They do this while introducing you to new Angels that the children have to defeat and personal issues that they have to resolve if they wish to get better. Because while Asuka is probably one of the best pilots among all, she has no sense of teamwork and this often leads to trouble while fighting angels.


If you've watched the first film, I totally recommend that you watch this one as well. This one is not out in the US yet, and I couldn't even find a possible release date for the US. They have to dub and sub it, so this usually takes a while for companies like FUNimation to do. While I do find this somewhat ironic that small fan sub groups are able to do faster and better translations of the animations. I won't go off topic too much, but I do like point-out that some of the translations done by big animation companies don't make sense sometimes.


Anyways, that's all I have to say on this film. I hope that I didn't confuse you with what I said. Trust me, it's a really good film and you'll be glad when you finish watching it. I tried looking to see if they had a date for the next film, but I couldn't find anything. I read in some forum boards that they probably think that 3.0 will be released sometime in late 2011 or early 2012. Lets hope that they try to do it a little earlier than that.


Thanks for reading.