Recap of Rebuild: Evangelion 3.33 – You Can (Not) Redo

We conclude our look back on the first three Rebuild of Evangelion films…a day after the final one has already come out. Even with eight and a half years to write these, I still end up being late, haha. Though as those waiting for this movie probably know full well, being late in production is nothing new for this series. Back when the original plan for these movies was announced, it was initially proposed to have all four released by 2008. But then the first movie came out in 2007, the second in 2009, this third one in 2012, and the final one pushed allllllll the way into 2021 for a plethora of reasons, including Anno’s depression that came from working on the third film, going onto make Shin Godzilla which released in 2016, and finally the global pandemic that delayed numerous other films. 

Now that we’ve gone on that trip down the memory lane of this series’ crazy production timeline, let’s discuss this third installment, which is honestly even crazier. Frankly, it’s probably the most insane that Evangelion has ever gotten and that includes the legendarily freaky deeky TV ending and following End of Evangelion movie. 3.33 takes the Evangelion cast and setting to places it has never thought of venturing before, fully embracing its post-apocalyptic nature…which is then followed by ANOTHER apocalypse, which only then sets the stage for YET ANOTHER APOCALYPSE in the final film. Once again, like the previous two films, this movie does grab elements from a slice of the original series plot, in this case episodes 20-24. Some of these elements, such as Shinji emerging from his Evangelion after accidently being absorbed by it, are fleshed out and used to their intended role in the story. But in others, we see things zoom off in the total opposite direction.

3.33 starts FOURTEEN YEARS since the end of the last movie (incidentally, this film series ended up lasting fourteen years as well, 2007-2021), with Shinji emerging from Unit 01 to find weary, broken and battle hardened versions of his friends, NERV having broken off into two factions, and no one happy to see him or bothering to tell him much of what’s going on or what happened. I know that it’s usually a good thing when you feel emotionally connected to the protagonist, but it honestly felt like the film itself did not want to explain things to me or have me around, and that’s even when we get into the major plot points. It truly feels like we skipped an entire movie regarding what happened in those fourteen years, partly due to the fact that nothing in the preview shown last time ends up happening in this movie (which will also be the case next time too, it seems). Best guess we can hazard is that SOMETHING SIMILAR to that preview and/or the events from the TV series MAY or MAY NOT have happened during that time, and it seems unlikely we’ll ever get a full explanation.

But the real heart of the movie, as confused as it is, would have to be the relationship between Shinji and his new co-pilot, Kaworu Nagisa. Kaworu was a very late addition to the original series, only appearing in the third to last episode as the final Angel for Shinji to defeat. But despite his brief appearance, Kaworu showed himself to be maybe the only person at the time who bothered showing Shinji any kindness or love…and Shinji had to kill him with his own hands, leaving Shinji completely broken down by the climax of that story. Kaworu’s appearances in the Rebuild were short but very loaded. He was shown briefly at the end of the first film, only gets involved in the second film to stop Shinji from causing Third Impact, and now gets a starring role in the third film (possibly with even more screentime than his time on the TV show). His growing love and bond with Shinji is quite sweet and sincere, offset by how much just about everyone else despises him, and while Kaworu meets a similar death (though not before stopping Shinji from doing ANOTHER Impact), it’s likely that his influence on Shinji is not done quite yet.

Evangelion 3.33 doesn’t have quite the same mental and emotional darkness and violence that its source material had near the end of its run, but it does put viewers right in the face of chillingly unfathomable madness and destruction and how that can warp people in the worst ways. And yet, I would also say that it is an optimistic film as well. Even if he is the only one saying it, Kaworu tells Shinji that there is hope, that he can find redemption for his mistakes and that happiness and love can be found, which seems to progress naturally into the final film that will no doubt be exploring that theme to its logical end point. Although I guess I’ll only find that out by watching the film itself. Thank you for reading these retrospectives, if you made it this far, and tune in tomorrow for our review of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01: Thrice Upon A Time.