Khara announced that an “unedited” version of 1.0, You Are (Not) Alone, will air on NTV this Friday (July 3rd) at 9pm. Although there’s nothing known about what will be different from this version and the 1.0/1.01/1.11 versions, there is a hint from NTV that says “If you watch until the very end, you will definitely notice something different.” So it’s possible that the 2.0 preview has been updated. Don’t be surprised to see a 1.0-TV version of Evangelion 1.0 floating around in a few days.

• AnimeNewNetwork
• Mainichi
• Announcement

Update 7/3: Looks like the only thing that was different was the preview for 2.0, which was updated to reflect what was actually used in the new film.

Evangelion 2.0, You Can (Not) Advance, opened at #1 this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) totalling 512,180,200 yen in earnings. The film was seen 354,852 times on 120 screens, while the first movie, Evangelion 1.0, You Are (Not) Alone, only earned about 280 million yen on 84 screens.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork

Wildarmsheero has done a series of blog entries about his outing to see 2.0. His Japanese isn’t spectacular, so you won’t be getting tons about the dialogue:

http://blog.mistakesofyouth.com/2009/06/27/evangelion-2-0-prelude-to-terror/
http://blog.mistakesofyouth.com/2009/06/27/evangelion-new-theatrical-version-division/
http://blog.mistakesofyouth.com/2009/06/27/evangelion-2-0-you-can-not-advance-spoilers/

Holy balls. Firstly, as if it needs to be pointed out, things in this movie have irrevocably changed from the TV Series. So different are the events in this movie, that, even with the 30 second preview at the end of the film, I have no clue what’s going to happen in the next movie (which will be called Evangelion Q, Quickening). Another thing is that things that were considered mysteries of the original TV series and movies are either gone altogether, changed, or spelled out.

I went to a 7:20pm showing of the movie at a 109 Cinemas, bought a T-shirt and one of the Eva Extra 04, then a coke that had a plugsuit Asuka sitting on top (similar to the ones from 1.0 that had Rei and Eva-01), and of course, a theatrical program. The theatre was the largest I’ve ever been to and it happened to have Bach’s Air playing. Then some trailers, a warning about the jail sentence you’d get if you tried to use a camera during the movie, the usual stuff.

A lot of the visuals were eye popping stunning. However, there were times that it looked a bit grainy, kind of like an image that had been upscaled. The music was a bit hit or miss, with some corny music playing at seemingly inappropriate times. But when it was hit, it was really good, especially the music that played at the end of the Bardiel and Zeruel fight.

The movie starts with pure action, and as expected from seeing the trailers, there was a good bit of action throughout this movie. To balance it all out, there is also some character interaction and development, enough to flesh out the characters like Asuka and Mari. I especially liked the cuts of Tokyo-3 bustling and filled with people doing their thing and living their lives. Asuka seemed much more likeable, probably closer to the definition of tsundere. Rei smiles a lot more and her caring of Shinji is made obvious. Asuka’s animosity towards Rei is, in no small part, due to Shinji. Mari is crazy, and she has a nice rack. Kaji got an unexpectedly large amount of screen time and seems to play a bigger role than in the TV series (whether this is true is yet to be seen). There’s also a good bit of Penpen, who does a bit of “almost” talking.

Overall, great movie, I enjoyed it quite a bit. For people who want spoilers, click on the “Discuss” link at the bottom.

I’ll write my thoughts on the film later today after I’ve seen it for myself, but for those (who don’t mind spoilers), Otaku2 has written a compelling review of the latest movie.

Otaku2 Review of Evangelion 2.0, You Can (Not) Advance

These guys have created a large stainless steel and titanium model of Evangelion Unit-00, using a special technique employing a laser to heat the metal so that it can be bent and folded. The actual model, standing at about 1 meter tall, isn’t for sale, but will be displayed at their store at Tokyo Bay from June 26th to July 5th. Along with making this 1 meter tall model, they’ve also made 150cm tall stainless steel mirrors of Asuka and Rei cut into them. They’re being sold for 98,000 yen, includes tax and shipping, and only 10 of them have been made.

 

• SUS Project Evangelion @ ECO’s website
• Project Evangelion blog
• Gigazine article, includes lots of pictures of the plant and youtube videos.
• Asuka and Rei mirrors @ ECO’s website

With only a week before the premiere of Evangelion 2.0, Kadokawa Cineplex has posted that the running time of this second installment of the new Evangelion theatrical releases will have a running time of 108 minutes. This makes the movie about 10 minutes longer than 1.0. This is probably a good thing since the trailers seem to indicate that there will be a lot of action, and some fans have speculated that there won’t be much time for character development or that everything will just feel rushed.

• Kadokawa Cineplex website
• Show times for Evangelion 2.0
• Official website

There will also be a fourth EVA EXTRA that will be released on June 27th to coincide with the premiere of the movie. Unlike the previous issues of EVA EXTRA, this one features a box cover and will cost 1,300 yen instead of it being free. It will only be available at the theaters.

Source: MyCom

Funimation has released a trailer for Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0. It has people speaking English in it. It also has stock trailer music that you’ll never hear in Evangelion. If that interests you, you can find it at the following location.

http://www.funimation.com/Evangelion/

We get a sneak peak at the 3rd (and presumably final) trailer for the second Rebuild of Evangelion movie. Nothing exceptional about this one; we get to see more Asuka, Evangelions fighting, some more Mari, the familiar Shinji sitting in a train car, and something that might be the “clock angel”. So far, we’ve only got a crappy cell-phone camera of it, but expect an HQ version on the Bandai Channel soon.

• Min nano Eva Fan
• Eva Emergency News, includes images.

Update (6/19): RVR posted this TV spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-h2HHoZzU0

YANA is getting a nice limited release in North America. All but 7 of the cities are in Canada. As mentioned previously, Houston and Seattle will see screenings as well as Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, Riverside, and Boston. All the rest are being shown across Canada on September 30. Info on dates and theaters is here. Another item of note is that Funimation is streaming the dub trailer on their Evangelion site.