Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22 "You Can (Not) Advance" Review

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the Evangelion TV series and Rebuild film series.

Rebuild 2.22 is much more of a mixed bag than 1.11 was. 1.11 was pretty standard practice, solid all the way through. 2.22 has its good, its bad, its great, and its awful.

While 1.11 was very faithful to the original, 2.22 makes many, many deviations: some good, some bad. But ultimately, the interesting thing is that all these deviations lead to the exact same destination, in most cases. Everything is made much more overt, much more obvious, which you could consider to be a good thing or a bad thing. Subtle nuances in the TV show become broad strokes in the film.


The Good

You could very easily accuse 2.22 of being hamfisted or contrived in its approach to character development. But I wouldn't say that. I think for the more limited format of film, the more gaudy proclamations of character are appropriate and more or less necessary. They've condensed 12 episodes of Evangelion into less than 2 hours, exactly doubling the pace of the first film. So concessions must be made. Furthermore, as a big ole' sentimental shmuck, I find some of these highly overt bits of character development incredibly endearing. And even if Rebuild 2.22 only offers tiny glimpses of truly great content, any new quality time spent with these beloved characters is deeply appreciated.

To explain the changes more directly, I'll start with Asuka. Asuka starts out as even more of a huge dick than she does in the TV series. Like, she was a little irate in the TV series. In Rebuild she's downright berserk. But her soft side shines through in equal measure. They actually removed my favorite bit of Asuka's character -- how she repeatedly insists on attempting to befriend Rei despite Rei's refusal. Considering Rei is a potential rival not only to Asuka's crucial identity as an Eva pilot, but also as a highly notable rival for Shinji's attention, Asuka's insistence on being kind to Rei really shows her warm nature, deep down.

But that's a very subtle thing, so instead, in the film, Asuka volunteers to activate Eva 03 so that Shinji and Rei can have their meal with Gendo -- which is basically tantamount to stepping aside and letting Rei have Shinji (not only is she letting them spend quality time together, but she's enabling Rei to unestrange Shinji and Gendo, ingratiating Shinji to her for the rest of his life!). See what I mean? Same warm heart in Asuka, it's just being expressed differently between the TV and the film versions.

The Great

There's another scene I quite enjoyed. I was heartbroken that they took Rei's joke out of 1.11. But she did something in 2.22 that was just as telling -- she totally played Gendo for a chump. Remember that scene in the TV series where Gendo tells Rei it's time for lunch? We actually see them go to lunch this time. And Rei plays it up all smooth, see. She pretends like she doesn't know what's going on, and asks Gendo if eating is enjoyable, and if it's enjoyable to eat with people.

Gendo, believing Rei's just being ignorant since he raised her in a leaky basement, gives her the typical affirmative answers. So Rei says, "Well, gee, if it's enjoyable to have meals with people.... you should have a meal with Shinji!" PWNED! Okay, so it's not exactly a joke. But it does show that Rei is capable of more than stoicism, she understands more of what's going on than she allows herself to show. Not only that, but Rei & Shinji's relationship in general has been increased, and that's a very promising development.


The Bad

Now onto the bad... Rebuild 2.22 adapts the two greatest moments in the Evangelion TV series, episodes 18 and 19. These are iconic, mind-blowing moments, decisively some of the best episodes in TV history. But 2.22 adapts them.... pretty poorly. They're just not all that effective. The cutesy pop song they used while Evangelion 01 ripped apart the errant unit -- I completely understand the concept. But all it did was muddle the brutality of the scene, for the contrast to have been effective they'd have to ramp up the brutality as well. And Shinji not being able to actually see what's happening? That greatly diminishes the effect.

There was also a subplot of Asuka and Rei competing to cook for Shinji. This struck me as incredibly cheesy and old-fashioned. I mean, ehhh, let's be honest, that's literally a Sailor Moon plot. Sailor Moon's a spectacular show but it's not an appropriate parallel for Eva. I think they could have come up with something better -- especially when Anno said Rebuild was supposed to be more relevant to the current generation.


The Awful

Rebuild 2.22 adds a new Eva pilot to the mix. And she's.... pretty atrocious. I'm trying my best not to hate her, so bare with me. She may actually be an important character in the future. She may actually have a great backstory, she may provide a key piece in Rebuild's endgame. She may ultimately prove to be some kind of trope inversion or her role in the higher concept may be to denounce this type of fluff rather than endorse it.

But we Lilim are doomed to live in the present, and as it stands: Mari Makinami is the worst fucking character in Evangelion history. I'd rather they have included Jet Alone... or even that darn recap episode, formerly Evangelion's lowest point. Thus far there exists no evidence to suggest Mari has any worth or purpose what-so-ever beyond the utmost laziest of fanservice. We can only hope that Anno is fully aware of this, her awfulness is intentional, and he has a higher purpose in mind.

Deja Vu

Yet again, at the end of this film, Kaworu appears to confirm that Rebuild is in fact a continuation of the original series in some sense, and that these events have (mostly) occured before. Some people take this too far and imagine that Rebuild is a direct sequel to EoE: as in, the Asuka & Shinji we see at the end of EoE are somehow the same Asuka and Shinji we see in Rebuild. That's nearly impossible and would require quite a strange reveal.

It's not that Rebuild necessarily happens in the same 'universe' as EoE. It's that this exists in the same multiverse or possibly the same multi-history timeline, where certain characters (Rei and Kaworu), are aware of other universes or previous iterations. This is clearly what we're supposed to think, at least for Kaworu, at this point in the story. What Anno ultimately has planned we'll have to wait and see.

But I think this aspect may pan out as we expect. The fact that Rei appears outside of the logic of space and time both in the original TV series (episode 1), in Rebuild, and in EoE, seems to suggest that not only is Rebuild a continuation of the original series, but that the original itself was not the first time these events have occured either. It seems like a kind of reincarnation loop where the world is reborn a little better each time. Some hardcore fans aren't fond of this idea and write it off as "Oh, well Lilith can do anything, that's the only reason Rei appears" but that's an excruciatingly thin explanation when we have a much more substantive one that is not only available but is now being heavily implied in Rebuild.