#okay so WILLE rescues Shinji from orbit right

[caprice-nisei-enjoyer]

Got kinda bored watching Rebuild 3. They really Gainaxed it up with lots of robot fights. I know Evangelion is technically a mecha anime, but the appeal is very different from, say, Power Rangers. Every one of Evangelion's fights reveal something about the characters fighting. And it's not just cute little Aesops about caring about your friends; it's heart-wrenching, vulnerable stuff. Characters in Evangelion actually experience the horrors of war.

Rebuild 3, on the other hand, starts with a neat action sequence in low-Earth. We get to see what Asuka and the new girl in action. But the stakes and consequences aren't set up until the climax of the fight! Asuka gets in over her head but Shinji ex Machina saves her and their team gets what they want with no consequences. She doesn't even comment on it later.

The other really interesting thread in Evangelion is the mystery/conspiracy plots. Gendo does have a conspiracy up his sleeve, but he's apparently doing it almost solo (Fuyutsuki, Rei, and Kaoru are helping him out) in the abandoned shell of NERV HQ. So there's no double-crosses, no tense secrets or startling revelations. The mystery is just between the writers and the audience, and it grates even more because of how tight-lipped most of the characters are about everything else going on. Asuka lost an eye in the decade+ that passed between films*. Why? What happened? There's no answer because the writers think that mystery is more exciting than exposition. It's C3-PO's red arm all over again.

This is the curse of Gainaxing. The original series was really deliberate, even methodical, in how it set up actions and consequences, cause and effect, and meted out information. The plot affects the characters and the characters drive the plot. So when it got a little screwball towards the end with the insane supernatural stuff, I stuck with it because I cared about the characters. But it's easy to copy that tone and mood without understanding the storytelling skills that make it work.