Like many Singaporeans, I caught Evangelion 1.0 in one of the theatres over here today (or rather yesterday, since its past midnight). I am one of those who have not watched original Evangelion TV anime (1999) because to put it simply, the animation quality is teh shitz compared to KyoAni-level stuff I’m getting now. I only started getting into anime seriously after my A-levels when I was 18, which is a short two years plus ago.

I guess I can be considered a “contemporary Otaku” who has not seen the older stuff, but accelerated into being one by mass absorbing information from the net. The end result? A slice-of-life, moe loli, renai anime junkie.

That being said, I didn’t have high expectations for Evangelion. Even though I’ve heard tons of good things about it, the basic premise just isn’t appealing for a 2D Bishoujo addict like me. 14-year-old male mech-pilot who is mankind’s last hope against huge alien thingies called Angels? Sounds bloody dumb to me. Plus, there wasn’t any moe at all or even ONE Bishoujo.

Despite this, I knew this was an excellent chance for me to catch-up on what many of the lao jiao Otaku have seen many years ago. However, since I wasn’t really hyped up about it at all, I figured that I should just call up a bunch of non-Otaku friends to accompany me. I mean, if I really really liked a show, I’ll just watch it alone because I don’t want anyone disturbing me at any point of time in the show.

I went down about 45 mins early to get tix for the show yesterday (wednesday). BIG MISTAKE… only the front row was left. It seemed that I vastly underestimated the popularity of the show. It was a real shock to me because I thought Singaporeans didn’t like anime movies with superficially dumb plots. Both slots available that night had very limited front row sitting left. However, I managed to avert the disaster by getting everyone to watch 10,000 BC instead. Hey, at least everyone generally felt it was not bad ok!

Anyway, none of my friends wanted to watch another movie so soon, so I was forced to give it a try today (thursday) since I’m not going to be on off any time soon after this thursday off. I booked my ticket online this time round so I wouldn’t be dissapointed.. I couldn’t afford to be.

And boy was I impressed. I finally understood why people were calling Suzumiya Haruhi “The Evangelion of 2006″.

The first thing that I noted was that the school girls in the movie were drawn well. Sure, they ain’t Bishoujos or lolis, but good enough to make the overall feel of the movie very enjoyable.

Secondly, oh my god… now I know why everyone is raving over Ayanami Rei. She is truly THE original tsundere. I actually punched my fist and shouted “yes!” softly to myself during the parts when Shinji tripped over her, and towards the end when she smiled. The dere dereness felt really pure, not forced, when I compared it to KyoAni’s depiction of Kyou. Really, really amazing stuff. I NEEDS Rei doujinshi NOW XD

Even though I don’t really care about battle scenes, I must say that they are beautifully animated especially when they fought the 5th angel, or the last angel in this movie. The whole premise also feels REALISTIC, like how Shinji was given a punch even though he saved the city after defeating his first angel. The fact is, nobody gives a damn about you even if you are a soldier serving your country. I didn’t feel that it was surprising at all because I know how its like. I have been a conscript before. The (female) civilians just bloody take what us guys do for granted, and you get used to it. To quote one example, one of my friends just came back from 7 days outfield training, which is BLOODY HELL tough for a first timer, and when he booked out of camp and went for an outing with his friends one of the girls said “so? Field Camp only wad” which really, really shocked me. But he took it like a man and sucked it up. I had thoughts of giving her one bloody punch but hey, all part of growing up in Singapore man. Just suck it up and life goes on.

The non-combat scenic parts of the movie were also incredible, especially the parts where they retracted and extended the key buildings. I guess I’ll have to check out Gurrenn Lagann soon as Gainax really impressed me. Put off GL for too long.

I was impressed with the realism, because in the first 20 mins of the movie I was expecting it to take a Shounen slant and felt slightly embarrassed watching it. In the end, it contained everything that I would expect from a Seinen show: some mild fanservice, doesn’t hold back on the violence and gore, and in-depth character/archtype exploration and development. Not some stupid teen pilot mecha show to dread (semi-pun intended). Overall a very immersive feel.

Needless to say, I’ll be watching sequels to this movie ALONE. I’m also getting the DVD/Blu-ray Discs when they’re out, and I’m glad that they’ll definitely be available locally for a slightly cheaper price than R1 imports.