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NGEM
is a two disc boxed set comprising, Death and Rebirth, and End of Evangelion,
the final two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It also has an extra disc
of single episodes of upcoming titles.
Having only seen the original NGE and not been too impressed, this was a
pleasant surprise. The original weirdness I first witnessed continues and
ends in this series, which is fine as this is one of the strengths of this
series. The main protagonist Shinji is wracked with doubts and uncertainties
in himself as he attempts to do his best to pilot EVA 01.
So
for those of you who haven’t seen any NGE, I’ll give you a basic synopsis.
Humans have created EVA’s, which are big armored suits a couple of stories
tall which are used to battle the ANGELS which are aliens that have come to
eliminate humankind. Shinji and his compatriots Rei and Asuka, pilot EVA’s to
help defeat the ANGELS. They work for NERV who created the EVA, but NERV is
also controlled by a secretive organization called SEELE.
Death and Rebirth gives a very short summation of each episode so far, and
then recommences with the story again. SEELE appears to have double crossed
NERV, and attacks the NERV base in Japan. This is done in order to procure
LILITH, the original ANGEL that NERV have crucified deep in the safest part of
their base.
At
this stage there is only Shinji in EVA 01 and Asuka in EVA 02. Asuka is
unconscious in hospital, but she is deposited into her EVA where she wakes up
and destroys the incoming SEELE forces. Shinji is slowly being taken to his
EVA against his will, as he has folded and has no will to live. The last scene
that we see is the approach of the SEELE controlled EVA’s 5-13 that descend
upon EVA 2 and the NERV base.
This
is when End of Evangelion starts, and shows Asuka destroying the new EVA’s but
once her energy runs out and she dies, the SEELE controlled EVAS regenerate,
and come to life again. By this time the NERV base is destroyed EVA 01 breaks
of out of the debris holding him, picks up Shinji and goes to battle.
Rei
has melded with LILITH, and she then goes to the surface to where the battle
is happening. From here the weirdness starts, the SEELE controlled EVA's hold
up the beaten EVA 01, and LILITH melds with the Shinji’s EVA to create the
rebirth of the human race. A very potent Rabbinical structure is shown, (the
tree of life) and from here humanity is ended.
Some
very weird scenes ensue, including the final scene where all that is left is
Shinji and Asuka, and Shinji sits atop Asuka and strangles her. She awakes
from unconsciousness and caresses his face. He then stops strangling her, and
starts crying with his tears falling onto her face. She then says “how
disgusting”….
I
found the ending to be a little over the top and not really conclusive as to
what really happened to like it at all. However, if you enjoyed this series,
then you will be used to the morbidity and over the top religious themes, so
you may well enjoy this ending. Either way, it’s still interesting to watch
purely to see what happens next.
I would recommend
anyone wanting to watch this boxed edition to watch all previous episodes
before you watch this. This series is very well scripted and delves
thoroughly too deeply into complex emotional and relationship themes, with
some magic fight scenes to boot.
1.85:1
letterbox widescreen. The animation in this series is quite good, however I
feel the character design is quite hit and miss. The Angels themselves most
times look like a child has attempted to draw a monster, and sometimes the
background scenery is quite washed out when it doesn’t need to be. In
contrast to this EVA 01 is one of the maddest figures in Manga. The human
characters have a very wide range of expression and the shading and
interactions with their environments are very good.
English 5.1 Dolby Digital with the
options of titles, and subtitles as well.
Japanese 2.0, 5.1 Dolby Digital, and 6.1
DTS Surround
The sound reproduction was clear, and
even on my pitiful sound system I was able to make hear some clear differences
between the 5.1 and 6.1 surround. If anyone considering watching this has a
remotely good system, the sound clarity will be brilliant.
The translation to written English had a
fair few differences from the English Audio, which is the only downside to an
otherwise brilliant package.
This is easily the best package of extras
I have ever seen.
Each disc has its own menu of extras as
well as a third disc with single episodes from upcoming shows: Escaflowne,
Fruits basket, Initial D, Transformers G1, and Angelic Layer.
The menus for the DVDs were simple, with
some nice classical music that was played in Death and Rebirth.
Death and Rebirth extras were:
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Photo Gallery: A decent look at some of
the pictures from the DVD
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Magi Archives- the background
information on the series for those who haven’t seen this series before, or
need reminding of what the main story is. Very comprehensive and made it
easy for me to watch these last two titles. It has character profiles,
episode summations and other cool stuff.
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Madman Propaganda- Vampire Hunter D,
Cowboy Bebop, Armitage, Gundam
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Evangelion Trailers- with out text
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Mokuji Interactive- A cool feature
that allows you to watch the show and get information on concepts people and
place that occur in the course of the episode.
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Audio Commentary- Not bad, I suggest
you watch these episodes first otherwise this commentary will not make much
sense.
End of Evangelion:
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Audio Commentary: Three different
people give their takes on the story
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Madman Propaganda: Vampire Hunter D,
Hellsing, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Robotech and Ah! My Goddess.
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Evangelion Trailers: Two
different trailers for End of Evangelion, One for Death and Rebirth, and the
original Trailer.
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