Chapter 2 - Page 36
In which Zaero cannot hit the broad side of a barn.
Sooooooo, this page should have been up Wednesday, but between a case of paralyzing melancholy — oddly enough, none of which actually affected me on V-Day itself, since I was keeping myself so busy trying to get what you see here done last night — and exhaustion related to not getting much sleep all week, the hours I could devote to this page were pretty few and far between. But once I found and made the time, I think the results were well worth the wait, even if it doesn’t really push things forward all that much — at least, from my perspective, playing with different effects and such on the ol’ Photoshop.
Plus, I just really love that first big panel. Shame I had to crop the hell out of everything else to get it all on there and drop a couple of drawings, but hey, it works, right?
So about that Evangelion movie … honestly, it’s been a week now, so it’s not so fresh in my mind, but the big couple of things I remember about it are how it repeatedly hits you over the head about how this story is about Shinji finding his place in the world, either through rewritten dialogue or through very particular trimming and editing down so the key lines that hit that idea pop a li’l more. I’m thinking it might be the latter, honestly. The opening that summarizes the first two episodes flies by a little too quickly, utterly destroying the slow build that especially the first episode of Eva so excels at. Consequently, Shinji’s emotions and decisions ring a little more hollow; you don’t feel the anticipation (or maybe anti-anticipation) of him meeting his father again as much as in the original TV series. Also — and this is something that bugged my pal Levi in a major way — the moment where EVA-01 protects Shinji in the hangar bay is gone. Whether this means something is askew in the big picture or it was just plain cut is up in the air, but I always liked that moment, especially once all the big reveals were made.
Indeed, most of the major changes were in the context of the bigger picture — as it stands, it’s a pretty straightforward digest version of the first six episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with the vast majority of the shots set up the same, but a few flashes of all-new animation and a few new twists here and there. There’s an all-new epilogue to the arc that suggests things are going to be all-new, all-different from here on out, and the final struggle against the Angel that’s drilling into NERV headquarters — which itself was brilliantly re-imagined for modern animation — is much more heroic and much less desperate and skin-of-their-teeth, which is nice for Shinji. Indeed, the fights throughout have a lot more “pop” and pizazz, which is nice given that it’s over a decade later and they really have the budget for it now. Levi said the fight with Sachiel, the first Angel fought (originally the Third Angel, now for some reason the Fourth — again, the Big Picture has clearly been altered somehow) seemed a little disappointing, or shorter, or something, but I imagine that without that anticipation and tension built up by the way the TV series breaks it in two and saves all the cool stuff for the end of the second episode, something feels missing without actually being missing.
Also, all the business from episode four where Shinji mopes off is a lot more tolerable. There are actually some neat and visually interesting moments in there, like a moment where he’s looking at Tokyo-3 from afar from a high cliff that I don’t think was in the TV series, but at the same time has a very mid-1990’s feel to it, especially the way the wind rustles Shinji’s hair. It’s really cool. Also, there’s a bit where Shinji sleeps under a sheet of cardboard in a bad part of town which … I don’t know, it makes it feel more like Eva takes place in a larger world; the show always somehow felt detached and empty to me (the percentage of the population killed by Second Impact was supposed to be pretty big, come to think of it), but having Shinji wandering aimlessly through the big city and then sleeping on the still-busy evening streets makes the world of Evangelion feel so much bigger.
I liked it a lot, moreso when the pacing smoothed out right after Toji socks Shinji in the jaw (there’s a lovely bit of juxtaposition set up from the moment before, with Misato telling Shinji he did a good thing at the end of episode 2; that’s when I think things really started working). Definitely want to see it again, whenever someone decides to spend the dough to license it here in the States.
Levi’s bringing some more anime ’round tomorrow, including what he claims is the best new thing he’s seen since Honey & Clover, which is high praise indeed since he’s seen some pretty good things since then. But I can’t remember the title. Whoops. I guess I’ll find out what it’s called tomorrow.
See you guys again Wednesday.
–Jonathan
