| Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. | |
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The Japanese film poster is nearly identical to that of the first film but adds Asuka and Mari to the artwork. |
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| Kanji | ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版: 破 |
| Rōmaji | Evangerion Shin Gekijōban: Ha |
| Directed by | Hideaki Anno (chief) Masayuki Kazuya Tsurumaki |
| Produced by | Toshimichi Otsuki Hideaki Anno |
| Written by | Hideaki Anno |
| Starring | Megumi Ogata Megumi Hayashibara Yuko Miyamura Maaya Sakamoto |
| Music by | Shiro Sagisu |
| Cinematography | Susumu Fukushi |
| Editing by | Hirofumi Okuda |
| Studio | Studio Khara |
| Distributed by | KlockWorx & Khara |
| Release date(s) | June 27, 2009 |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | $41,023,004 (worldwide)[1] |
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版: 破 Evangerion Shin Gekijōban: Ha, lit. "Evangelion: The New Movies: Break") is a 2009 Japanese animated film directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Masayuki, and written by Hideaki Anno. It is the second of four films released in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy based on the original anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was produced and co-distributed by Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara.
Contents |
Mari Illustrious Makinami, a new Evangelion pilot, is launched in Provisional Unit-05 to destroy the resuscitated skeleton of the Third Angel in its attack on NERV's arctic Bethany Base. She successfully defeats the Angel by self-destructing Unit-05, safely ejecting at the last moment. Meanwhile, Shinji Ikari and his father Gendo visit Yui's grave, and following this the Seventh Angel attacks, which is dispatched by the newly arrived Unit-02 and its headstrong pilot, Asuka Langley Shikinami. Chief Inspector Ryoji Kaji, present at the battle with Unit-05 and arriving alongside Unit-02, delivers a suitcase to Gendo containing an object referred to as the "Key of Nebuchadnezzar", and comments that the destruction of Unit-05 went as they had planned it. Later Shinji, Asuka and Rei engage the Eighth Angel, showing a previously lacking teamwork. In the battle Unit-00 and Unit-01 are damaged, but SEELE orders only Unit-01 repaired as the prototype Unit-00 is no longer needed.
Gendo and Kozo Fuyutsuki visit Tabgha Base on the Moon to view SEELE's progress on the mysterious "Evangelion Mark.06". Though they are denied landing, they confirm that Mark.06's construction is different from the other Evangelions and briefly see Kaworu Nagisa sitting on its finger. On Earth, Shinji decides to cook an extra lunch for Rei. Inspired, Rei asks Gendo to attend a meal with Shinji. After remembering Yui's request he take care of Shinji, he agrees, and Rei invites everyone to her home for dinner for a home-cooked meal. Mari arrives in Tokyo-3 by parachute and lands on top of Shinji, who overhears her say she was intended to enter the country covertly, and departs after telling him to pretend he didn't see her. Soon after, Evangelion Unit-04 and NERV's U.S. branch are destroyed during a test of an experimental engine, causing the U.S. government to send the completed Unit-03 to Tokyo-3. In accordance with the "Vatican Treaty", where Japan and all other nations are forbidden to possess more than three functioning Evangelions at a time, Unit-02 is sealed off.
Rei is initially chosen to pilot the new Eva, which is to be tested on the same day as her dinner, but when Asuka realizes how she feels about Shinji she volunteers in Rei's place. The activation of Unit-03 goes terribly wrong, and the unit is possessed by the Ninth Angel. As NERV's only functional Evangelion, Unit-01 is sent against it but Shinji refuses to fight for fear of harming Asuka, who is still inside the unit. Gendo orders the activation of Unit-01's dummy plug system and the now autonomous Evangelion savagely dismembers the Angel, crushing the entry plug in its teeth. Shinji is distraught with his father's actions and decides to quit NERV. Asuka survives, but is grievously injured and is placed in quarantine for fear of mental contamination by the Angel. After Shinji says his goodbyes and boards a train headed out of the city, the Tenth Angel attacks. Gendo attempts to send out Unit-01 in the dummy system, but it refuses. Mari hijacks Unit-02 and heads out to fight the Angel, activating a "berserker" mode that removes the unit's restraints. Rei emerges in a damaged Unit-00 and the two work together to penetrate the Angel's AT-Field and damage it with an N² mine-armed missile, but this fails to destroy it.
Mari happens upon Shinji while fleeing in the damaged Unit-02 and takes him to safety as the Angel consumes Unit-00, growing the body of a nude woman with it original body as the head and reconfiguring its genes so it will not be recognized as an Angel by NERV's security. Witnessing this Shinji runs back and demands Gendo let him pilot Unit-01. The Angel breaks into the command center but Shinji is able to fend it off and take the fight back to the surface. However, the unit runs out of power and shuts down before the Angel can be killed. Enraged and determined to save Rei no matter the cost, Shinji forces Unit-01 to reactivate in berserker mode, glowing red with a halo over its head. Shinji beats down the Angel and searches its core for Rei, metaphysically reaching inside it to take her hand and pull her into the cockpit of Unit-01. The Angel is destroyed with this act, its blood taking the form of a giant Rei before being absorbed into Unit-01. The Eva floats in the air with wings of light, which Misato recognizes from fifteen years ago during Second Impact. Ritsuko confirms that the Eva has transcended humanity to become a divine being at the cost of all life before it being destroyed, beginning Third Impact and the end of the world.
In a post-credits scene, a Lance of Longinus flies through the atmosphere and impales Unit-01, neutralizing it and stopping Third Impact. Kaworu descends from the Moon in Evangelion Mark.06, declaring that he will show Shinji "true happiness".
In September 2006, it was confirmed the second film would be produced as part of the Rebuild of Evangelion series, with a release date tentatively set for January 2008 release and a 90-minute running time.[2] In November 2006, the December edition of the Japanese anime magazine Newtype confirmed the second film was written during post-production on the first film. Anno stated the introduction of new characters and Evangelion units would begin from the second film onwards.[3]
The release date was pushed back several times from the original announcement of January 2008:[2] first, to a December 2008 release[4] before an update on the official website on October 6, 2008 announced the official English title and a "early summer 2009" release date.[5] A final postponement revealed that the film would be released on June 27, 2009.[6]
In May 2009, Hikaru Utada was announced to return to the series and provide the theme song for the film, "Beautiful World -PLANiTb Acoustica Mix-."[7] Utada previously released "Beautiful World" for Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in 2007.[8]
A soundtrack album featuring the film's score by Shirō Sagisu was released on July 8, 2009 in both the regular and special editions. The special edition contains a bonus disc featuring score selections not edited to fit into the film.[9]
The film's initial teaser trailer, shown after the end credits of Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in the style of the "next episode" previews in the original TV series, hinted at the adoption of Unit-02 and its pilot Asuka Langley Shikinami and showed scenes inspired by the original series (the disappearance of Unit-04 upon the startup of its S² engine, the possession of Unit-03 by Bardiel, Evangelion Units 01 and 02 fighting Zeruel) as well as new material (the newly-designed Units 05 and 06 and the unintroduced new character of Mari Makinami). A full trailer was released on April 2, 2009.[10]
The character Makinami Mari Illustrious, teased in the teaser trailer and appearing in the Nintendo DS game Petit Eva: Evangelion@Game (ぷちえゔぁ～EVANGELION@GAME～ Puchi Eva ~Evangelion@Game~) as a character picture prize with the name of Mari (マリ) and the simple description of "Mysterious girl",[11] was introduced in the April 18 EVA-EXTRA01 paper magazine by her full name, following the Evangelion naval naming convention, with Maaya Sakamoto as her seiyū.[12] Similarly, theatrical posters revealed that the character Asuka's family name would be changed from Sohryu to Shikinami.[13]
Evangelion 2.0 made its international premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival on October 24, 2009.[14] On December 3, 2009, the film was released in Hong Kong[15] and South Korea. In Australia, the film made its premiere at the Reel Anime Festival in September 2010.[16][17] The film premiered in Ireland on March 20, 2010 as a part of the Irish Film Institute Anime Weekend.[18] In Canada, the film was originally released on November 21, 2009 at the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema and was later released on July 10, 2010 as a part of the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.[19]
The film made its European premiere at Lucca Comics 2009 on November 1, 2009 and was screened at the Asia Filmfest in Munich on November 6, 2009. Despite former announcements,[20] Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance was not screened at the Animotion festival in Bonn because of licensing problems.[21] The film also competed in the Sitges Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain on October 4, 2009 in the Anima't category.[22]
In North America, Cinema Asia Releasing, Eleven Arts and FUNimation Entertainment announced that Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance would premiere in the United States in January 2011. It was originally planned to premiere in 70-100 theaters.[23] However, Funimation released a statement in December 2010 confirming that it would be released in 22 theatres.[24]
Evangelion 2.0 was broadcast on Japanese TV (NTV) on August 26, 2011 under the name Evangelion 2.02'.[32][33] Simultaneously, the TV edition was played in 5 Japanese theaters;[34] the TV broadcast of 2.0 received higher ratings than did 1.0.[35] At the end of the broadcast, a trailer for Evangelion 3.0 was included, with an official release date of Fall 2012.[36]
In its opening weekend in Japan, the film reached number-one at the box office with a revenue of 510 million yen.[37] The film subsequently grossed the equivalent of over US $40 million at the Japanese box office, making it the third highest grossing Japanese anime of 2009.[38]
The film's North American box office take was over $130,000, an improvement over 1.0.[39][40]
The DVD and Blu-ray release in Japan took place on May 26, 2010;[41] unlike the 2 DVD versions of 1.0, it was released as 2.22 with "readjustments".[41] Universum Film's German release on July 16 also included the Blu-ray of Evangelion 1.11.[42] The Japanese release set an Amazon.co.jp record for pre-orders, with more than 88,000,[43] and ultimately over 800,000 pre-orders in general;[44] upon release, it set first-day sales records (124,000 DVDs and 195,000 Blu-ray discs),[45] topping Blu-ray sales for 4 weeks.[46]
At Otakon 2010, North American anime distributor Funimation Entertainment announced that they had licensed Evangelion 2.0 and would plan a theatrical release followed by a DVD and Blu-ray release on April 5, 2011.[47][48] The release date was later brought forward to March 29, 2011 for the United States,[49] but the original release date was retained for Canada.[50]
In May 2010, British anime distributor Manga Entertainment had announced plans to release Evangelion 2.0 in the U.K. and were waiting on Funimation to announce production dates;[51] in December 2010, the release dates for the Blu-ray and DVD of 2.22 were announced to be June 2011.[52] Later, the date was changed for an early release on May 30, but then finally pushed back to the original month, on June 20.[53]
Australian distributor Madman Entertainment released Evangelion 2.22 on Blu-ray and DVD on June 15, 2011 under exclusive license from NTV & Manga Entertainment.[54] This time, Madman's DVD included all special features on the one disc, unlike its DVD release of 1.11, which came with one disc (whereas the North American DVD releases of both movies have two discs) and missing some special features (the Blu-ray came with all intact).
Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto designed three Be@rbrick figures of Asuka, Rei, and Mari, which went on sale on March 14, 2009 and were also available as a bundle with advance film ticket purchases. NTT DoCoMo and Sharp released a production model of the "SH-06A NERV" phone featured in the film, which Hideaki Anno and Studio Khara supervised in designing. The phone, only available in Japan between June and July 2009, was originally set for 20,000 pre-order units and 10,000 for retail sales.[55][56] After selling out all pre-orders in only five hours, NTT docomo announced they would be manufacturing an additional 7,500 units to meet all orders.[57][58]
In August 2009, ABC-Mart, King Records, and Achilles released sneakers based on the design of Evangelion Unit-01 as part of "The Footstep Instrumentality Project."[8] Ueshima Coffee Co., as with Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, released coffee cans decorated with Evangelion characters and their Evangelion units.[59]
Medicom released "Real Action Heroes" action figures of Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu in restyled plugsuits in August, September, and November 2009 and May 2010, while Bandai released its own line of action figures with Mari Illustrious Makinami and two separate sets of Gashapon figures in May and July 2009. Bandai also released several action figures from their Robot Damashii line of Unit-00 (Tamashii exclusive), Unit-01 (regular and night combat version) Unit-02 (regular and beast mode), and Unit-03. Lawson released Asuka, Rei, and Pen² PuchiEva figures to be sold with advance ticket purchases.[60] Revoltech introduced several other action figures, including Unit-01 (normal and berserker modes), Unit-02, and Unit-05 (normal and repainted) as well as special exclusives available from magazine inserts (Unit-03) and 7-Elevens (Unit-00).[61]
The 320-page art book for 2.0, Groundwork of Evangelion 2.0, was released May 28, 2011 for 3,675 yen.[62]
Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network praised the new character interactions and development, stating "Evangelion 2.0 feels as though the project has been put on mood stabilizers: it's not any happier, but it's more stable and certainly more focused. And in the end, it's a vast improvement."[63][64] Reviewing the US Blu-ray release for ANN, Theron Martin[65] wrote that 2.0's Asuka is "distinct from the get-go, too, as she is less bratty and more aggressively antisocial than the first one. She may have initially seemed to be the most socially adjusted Eva pilot in the TV series, but here she makes no pretenses about liking anyone – not even Kaji, whom she hopelessly mooned over in the TV series but doesn't give a second thought here – and seems motivated as much by establishing herself in a future career path in NERV as she is by her personal pride. " and praised Anno's technique where "the peak moments of the most gruesome [scene] are set to a gentle, vocalized children's song which, paradoxically, makes the scenes all the more horrific".
Mania.com reviewer Chris Beveridge wrote that "watching the second installment of Evangelion is more rewarding and more difficult than the first. It's more rewarding because you're seeing this interpretation taking on its own life fully, from the way Asuka is introduced, the new character of Mari and the larger scope of how the world works with Evangelion units...They go big here with a lot of changes, changes that could annoy and irk the faithful, but it's an interpretation that is doing something different at this point and it does it well, giving it all the kind of smoothness it needs, even if it does feel rushed sometimes when there are so many Angel fights throughout it."[66]
Many reviews praised the action scenes (the Boston Globe criticizing them as "exhausting"[67]); The Toronto Star writes: "Sparing no time to get newbies up to speed, Evangelion 2.0 will undoubtedly confound some viewers with its jam-packed narrative and jargon-heavy dialogue but the intricately designed, hyper-kinetic visuals more than compensate, especially when seen at the scale they deserve."[68][69] The Chicago Sun-Times likewise praised the action, but criticized the soundtrack for being "a weird array of elevator-style music"[70] The Kansas City Star's reviewer wrote "The peripheral characters are hard to keep track of, and a medieval theologian would be weirded out by all the mystical gibberish", but also praised the "terrific battle scenes and gorgeous animation. Those elements don’t compensate for every shortcoming, but they make a challenging genre much easier for novices to enjoy."[71] (NAW: "Having introduced Mari so vividly, though, the film forgets about her for about 40 minutes....She doesn’t reappear until halfway through the film. And her purpose remains elusive."[72]) Fort Worth Weekly's reviewer, on the other hand, praised the mystical gibberish and otaku references: "this movie trafficks in Judeo-Christian symbolism and references that often lean toward the obscure. This, along with its meta-commentary on anime itself and the ways its fans relate to it, helps set the movie apart from its fellows."[73]
The film currently holds a 71% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[74]
The film won first place in the Animation category of the French Lyon Asian Film Festival, narrowly beating Symphony in August in an audience vote.[75] It won the award for Excellent Animation of the Year by being nominated for the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in 2010.[76][77]
Stills and draft materials from 2.0 by Hideaki Anno were exhibited at Künstlerhaus Bethanien as part of the Proto Anime Cut exhibition in January–March 2011, with a European tour planned in summer 2012.[78][79]
The next film in the series, Evangelion: 3.0, was previewed in a trailer following the credits, continuing the story with Shinji and Rei still frozen within Unit-01, Tokyo-3 and the Geofront being abandoned, "NERV personnel [being] held in confinement," "Eva Unit-06 descend[ing] on Dogma," "the quickening Eva Unit-08 and its pilot," and the assembling of "the children chosen by fate." Among the images shown are the impaled Unit-01, Kaworu meeting with four shadowy figures, Gendo and Fuyutsuki in mountain climbing gear, Kaji angrily shouting while pointing a pistol at someone, Mari confronting Rei while three other Reis hide behind her, and a restored Asuka wearing an eyepatch. A statement that a private conference was being held between Mari and an unknown person, while its name was being crossed out, was also shown in the trailer. The trailer ends with the customary promise of more "fan service".
The third movie was confirmed to be released in Japanese theaters in Fall of 2012.[80]
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