Evangelion 3.33 is avail for pre-order NOW, comes out 4/24!

Exciting!

I never got through the TV series — too many long, static shots of silhouetted people in elevators talking about budgets, and long, panning landscapes with birds (or locusts) chirping. Every 20 minute episode felt like an hour and fifty.

(I was watching it in Japanese, on Japanese TV, unfluently, back in 1996, when it was EXPLODING over there: anime stores were taken over with EVA merch, it aired on television a bunch, incl. a New Years-ish marathon that I stalwartly attempted to sit through, drinking [fell asleep around episode 8…])

I tried to watch it with English subbing on VHS a couple years later, back in New York. And then on DVD a few years after that, back in Tokyo again. 

I never got through it. 

So when I checked out Evangelion 1.11 in 1080p a couple months ago, I wasn’t expecting much.

But awesomely, it was retelling the same-ish story as the TV series, but WITH A BUDGET. There were identical shots and dialog as in the TV series, but everything moved faster and looked better. There was still dramatic tension, but it didn’t feel like the director was trying to eat up a few extra seconds with another long still shot of whatever.

If you’ve tried to get into Evangelion (the TV show) and just couldn’t, you should try 1:11 and 2:22 and the upcoming 3:33 (and 4:44 in another year)… it’s really good.

Evangelion 3.33 is avail for pre-order NOW, comes out 4/24! ^_^