First up is the people’s choice awards where everyone can vote, no matter who you are.

There is also a “blogger’s choice” as well, which you may vote in if you have your own anime blog.  You can get to those votes by clicking on each category link.

Voting will go on until May 15th, and winners will be announced June 1st, with the winner garnering a dating sim game featuring trap Impz as the main heroine the anime blogging world’s unending adulation.

April 29, 2008
Buso Renkin – DVD Set 1
Champion Joe
Death Note – Volume 4
Kujibiki Unbalance – Volume 1
Witchblade – Volume 6

Manga

April 29, 2008
Air Gear – Volume 8
Alive – Volume 4
Aventura – Volume 2
Dororo – Volume 1
Hell Girl – Volume 2
Kitchen Princess – Volume 6
Nodame Cantabile – Volume 13
Puri Puri – Volume 5

April 30, 2008
After School Nightmare – Volume 7
A.I. Revolution – Volume 3
Black Sun, Silver Moon – Volume 5
Cipher – Volume 11
Devil Kings Basara – Volume 1
Dorothea – Volume 1
Gon – Volume 4
I Hate You More than Anyone – Volume 4
Oh My Goddess! – Volume 29
Presents – Volume 3
Tears of a Lamb – Volume 2
TRAIN+TRAIN – Volume 6
Variante – Volume 3

Name: Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion New Theatrical Version: Prephase
Genre: Science Fiction, Action
Episodes: N/A
Released: September 1, 2007
Based On: Remake of Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series
Director: Hideaki Anno
Produced By: Khara
US Distribution: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Shinji Ikari: Megumi Ogata
Rei Ayanami: Megumi Hayashibara
Misato Katsuragi: Kotono Mitsuishi
Gendou Ikari: Fumihiko Tachiki
Ritsuko Akagi: Yuriko Yamaguchi
Kouzou Fuyutsuki: Motomu Kiyokawa
Maya Ibuki: Miki Nagasawa
Kaworu: Akira Ishida

Major English Cast

N/A

Score

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 149/170 (87.6%)

Review

Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone is the first of four movies in the Rebuild of Evangelion project.  Evangelion 1.0 is about a boy, Shinji Akari, who is guilted by his father and commander of NERV, Gendou, into piloting a giant mecha that Gendou created called Evangelion.  The purpose of the Evangelions are to defeat strange alien attackers called angels whom threaten the existence of mankind.

Shinji must battle with himself, and his caretaker Misato, in trying to figure out why exactly he is there at NERV and whether he wishes to remain there and pilot the Evangelions, while also dealing with both his estranged father as well as Rei, the other Evangelion pilot who is largely unable to pilot her mecha due to injuries during a test on her Evangelion unit.

Meanwhile, Gendo and the organization that oversees NERV, SEELE, appear to know much more about the angels, what they are, and where they come from than they lead others to believe.  This is all in the name of achieving the mystically named Human Instrumentality Project, which is the ultimate goal of SEELE.

The animation for the Evangelions and angels – especially the final angel in this movie – are spectacular, though the style of the movie tends towards having duller and darker colors, so the movie isn’t as bright as it could be.   Meanwhile, the story seems to hold up pretty well and still leaves a lot to look forward to in the 3 sequels that are to follow.

There is still a lot of mysteries in the motivations of many of the characters, which is to be expected in the first part of four of a series, but from what we know about the characters, their motivations seem realistic and well done.

There are two primary negatives with this movie I thought, however.

First was that if you’ve seen the TV series, then you aren’t going to get a lot of new material by watching this.  While you are teased at the end by possible new events occurring in the 2nd movie, there is little new in this movie except maybe a bit here and there.  The main thing one gains by watching this is modern animation quality and redone Operation Yashima sequence.

The second negative was the fact that the music is basically what it was in the TV series.  I guess if there was anything the creators of the movies could afford to change, it was the music, but maybe it too is too iconic to make too many changes to.  There are some added tracks to the soundtrack, though (I think).

Overall, if you’re new to the Evangelion franchise, I think this is an excellent introduction.  If you’ve already seen the TV series, then this movie may be worth a watch for the improvements in animation quality, but don’t expect to see a lot new.

First Watched: April 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

And remember: The relation between my service and your status is unrelated.

Go Straight to the Screenshots | Go Straight to the Review

• Naeka’s friends remark how it seems that Naeka hates men after another incident between her and the men’s kendo club when Naeka finds a love letter in her locker. She almost tosses it, but decides to keep it for the time being.
• Kousuke then says how Naeka is afraid of love due to an incident in her past when she made a bento for a crush, but it was so horrible that after taking one bite, the boy started foaming at the mouth and transferred out of the school in fear of Naeka’s “attempted poisoning.”
• Naeka wakes up from a nightmare about the incident, and notices the letter is missing. Kogarashi arrives to return it, but Naeka says she was going to throw it away. Kogarashi is about to put it in his “Maid Guy shredder” when Naeka grabs it away and Kogarashi notes that her “faith in love” hasn’t fully vanished and reveals Naeka’s hidden stash of love manga/novels/magazines.
• Fubuki rushes in and chides Kogarashi for interfering, but he tells Fubuki that it’s also their duty to protect the family’s bloodline, and neither Naeka – who claims to be on the “path of the sword,” nor Kouske – who just plays eroge’s all day – appear on a good relationship track.
• Kogarashi then makes a special drink for Naeka, which causes her to go after Fubuki, who then has to tie up Naeka and Kousuke (who wanted to film the episode) and beats Kogarashi.
• Fubuki decides to teach Naeka how to cook fried shrimp to help her get over her mad memory, and ends up being successful. As a result, Naeka decides to meet the unknown letter writer the next day.
• After being out of it all day, Naeka goes to the appointed time and place and finds that the letter writer is a girl who is obsessed with her after watching her compete at kendo. However, just as Naeka tries to escape, Kogarashi appears and opens a trap door which tosses Naeka and the girl into a “love room’ and leaves them there.
• Once she escapes and gets home, Naeka attempts to institute divine punishment against Kogarashi…

This seemed to be an overall so-so episode, but one which had a couple of good highlights in it.

First off was the poisonous bento Naeka made when she was in middle school, which was hilarious. When I did the last episode review for Special A, I kind of ragged on it for doing the “bad cooking” joke. Why I think this is different is because a) it was only a a little part of the episode, and 2) they took it to such an extreme.

Usually the “bad cooking” joke consists of either someone pretending they like it when in actuality the food is really bad, or maybe at most doing the throw-up bit. But having the guy instantaneously start drooling and convulsing is a new one to me.

The second good part was with Kogarashi’s drink that causes Naeka to go all yuri on Fubuki (much to Kousuke’s pleasure) and resulted in a half-undressed Fubuki reining divine punishment down on everyone else.

Other than that, however, I thought this episode wasn’t all that great, with Naeka flopping between the “way of the sword” stuff and the curious about the love letter stuff. Jokes about Naeka’s boobs are funny every now and then, but it looks like we’re having them about every episode (though luckily really only once this time), which is going to get old fast, I’m afraid.

I still think this this show still has potential since it can put new twists on old jokes – but actually has to put a new twist on them. Overall, this episode was probably a decent watch, but not as good as the first two episodes.

This week’s Podcast Stats:
Time: 16:21
Download Size: 11.2 MB

Opening theme:
“The WORLD” by Nightmare
First opening theme to Death Note

Ending theme:
“Through The Years And Far Away” by Low
Ending theme to Voices of a Distant Star

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Enjoy!