Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009) Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha (original title)

Directors:

Masayuki
Kazuya Tsurumaki
(more)

Writer:

Hideaki Anno (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 June 2009 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

In The War Between Heaven and Earth, Salvation is Machine.

Plot:

Under constant attack by Angels, NERV introduces two new pilots: the mysterious Makinami Mari Illustrous and the intense Asuka Langley Shikinami...

Plot Keywords:

Impalement | Secret Agent | Post Apocalypse | Father Son Relationship | Conspiracy

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Kotono Mitsuishi	...	Misato Katsuragi (voice)
Megumi Ogata	...	Shinji Ikari (voice)
Megumi Hayashibara	...	Rei Ayanami / Pen Pen / Yui Ikari (voice)
Yûko Miyamura	...	Asuka Langley Shikinami (voice)
Fumihiko Tachiki	...	Gendo Ikari (voice)
Yuriko Yamaguchi	...	Ritsuko Akagi (voice)
Maaya Sakamoto	...	Mari Illustrious Makinami (voice)
Miki Nagasawa	...	Maya Ibuki (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Ryoji Kaji (voice)
Motomu Kiyokawa	...	Kouzou Fuyutsuki (voice)
Hiro Yuuki	...	Makoto Hyuga (voice)
Takehito Koyasu	...	Shigeru Aoba (voice)
Tetsuya Iwanaga	...	Kensuke Aida (voice)
Tomokazu Seki	...	Toji Suzuhara (voice)
Mugihito	...	Kiel Lorenz (voice)
Junko Iwao	...	Hikari Horaki (voice)
Akira Ishida	...	Kaworu Nagisa (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Greg Ayres	...	Kensuke Aida (voice: English version)
Shelley Calene-Black	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Leah Clark	...	Hikari Horaki (voice: English version)
Colleen Clinkenbeard	...	Ritsuko Akagi (voice: English version)
Justin Cook	...	Toji Suzuhara (voice: English version)
Terri Doty	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Caitlin Glass	...	Maya Ibuki (voice: English version)
Tiffany Grant	...	Asuka Langley Shikinami (voice: English version)
Cassandra Hodges	...	Additional Voice (voice: English version)
Bill Jenkins	...	Kiel Lorenz (voice: English version)
Jerry Jewell	...	Kaworu Nagisa (voice: English version)
Allison Keith	...	Misato Katsuragi (voice: English version) (as Allison Keith-Shipp)
Josh Keller	...	Bethany Base Commander (voice: English version)
Mike McFarland	...	Makoto Hyuga (voice: English version)
Trina Nishimura	...	Mari Illustrious Makinami (voice: English version)
Brina Palencia	...	Rei Ayanami (voice: English version)
Phil Parsons	...	Shigeru Aoba (voice: English version)
Monica Rial	...	Pen Pen (voice: English version)
Spike Spencer	...	Shinji Ikari (voice: English version)
John Swasey	...	Gendo Ikari (voice: English version)
J. Michael Tatum	...	Ryoji Kaji (voice: English version)
Kent Williams	...	Kouzou Fuyutsuki (voice: English version)
Stephanie Young	...	Yui Ikari (voice: English version)

Directed by
Masayuki
Kazuya Tsurumaki
Hideaki Anno		(supervising director)

Writing credits
Hideaki Anno		(screenplay)

Produced by
Hideaki Anno	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Shirô Sagisu

Production Design by
Hideaki Anno
Masaki Asai
Yoshitoo Asari
Takeshi Honda
Seiji Kio
Mohiro Kitou
Hiroyasu Kobayashi
Daizen Komatsuda
Shigeto Koyama
Mahiro Maeda
Shôichi Masuo

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Daizen Komatsuda	....	assistant director
Masakazu Nakayama	....	assistant director

Art Department
Hiroaki Aida	....	storyboard artist
Hideaki Anno	....	storyboard artist
Shinji Higuchi	....	image board
Shinji Higuchi	....	storyboard artist
Kazuko Kikuchi	....	color designer
Daizen Komatsuda	....	storyboard artist
Mahiro Maeda	....	image board
Masayuki	....	storyboard artist
Sôichi Masui	....	storyboard artist
Shoichi Nakayama	....	storyboard artist
Atsushi Nishikiori	....	storyboard artist
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto	....	original character designer
Jun'ichi Satô	....	storyboard artist (as Junichi Sato)
Masaki Tachibana	....	storyboard artist
Kazuya Tsurumaki	....	storyboard artist
Sayo Yamamoto	....	storyboard artist

Sound Department
Mike McFarland	....	adr director

Special Effects by
Ikuto Yamashita	....	mechanical design

Animation Department
Rumi Abe	....	secondary key animator
Akiko Asaki	....	key animator
Atsushi Hashimoto	....	key animator
Akemi Hayashi	....	key animator
Yuu Honda	....	animation director
Nozomu Ichijo	....	assistant animation checker
Masahiko Inuzuka	....	animation checker
Tomoyuki Kojima	....	assistant animation checker
Akitoshi Maeda	....	key animator
Osamu Maruyama	....	assistant animation checker
Hidenori Matsubara	....	animation director
Kyoko Nakajima	....	assistant animation checker
Atsushi Nishikiori	....	assistant animation director
Kaori Ogawa	....	assistant animation checker
Jun Okuda	....	animation director
Sachiko Okumura	....	assistant animation director
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto	....	assistant animation director
Eri Shikita	....	assistant animation checker
Yutaka Sugiura	....	assistant animation checker
Shunji Suzuki	....	animation director
Mitsuaki Takabe	....	assistant animation checker
Akira Takada	....	key animator
Kumiko Terada	....	animation checker
Kaori Usui	....	assistant animation checker
Akihiko Yamashita	....	key animator
Mao Yumoto	....	assistant animation checker

Editorial Department
Casey Barteau	....	video engineer: FUNimation

Other crew
Hideaki Anno	....	planning
Shinji Higuchi	....	script assistant

Production Companies

• FUNimation Entertainment
• Gainax
• Khara Corporation
• Studio Khara Digital-bu

Distributors

• Cathay-Keris Films (2009) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Cinema Asia Releasing (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
• Eleven Arts (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
• Innoform Media (2009) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Klock Worx Co. (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Asia Video Publishing Co. Ltd. (2010) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• Dynit (2010) (Italy) (DVD)
• FUNimation Entertainment (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Neovision Company (2009) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Studio Khara Digital-bu (2009) (Japan) (all media)

Other Companies

• Code  in-between animation
• Continental Far East  Dolby consultant
• Dogakobo  second key animation
• Feel  in-between animation
• Gainax  in-between animation
• GoHands  second key animation
• Hoei Sangyo Co. Ltd.  film stock supplied by
• Imagica  digital film output
• Imagica  prints
• Nikkatsu  distribution assitance
• Orange  modeling: Evangelion
• Production Reed  in-between animation
• Production Reed  second key animation
• Sony PCL  post-production facilities
• Star Child Recording  music production
• Studio Takuranke  in-between animation
• Taikan Anime Kabushiki Kaisha  in-between animation
• Tokyo TV Center  post-production sound services
• Totonyan  background art
• Triple A  in-between animation
• Wish  in-between animation
• Xebec  second key animation

Also Known As:

"Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha" - Japan (original title)
"Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance" - International (English title) (DVD title)

Runtime:

112 min (extended cut) | Japan:108 min (theatrical version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | German

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Japan:Unrated | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Germany:16 | Canada:G (Quebec) | USA:TV-14 | Australia:PG | UK:15 | New Zealand:PG | Italy:T

Company:

FUNimation Entertainment

Trivia:

The release date was pushed back several times from the original announcement of January 2008: first, to a December 2008 release before an update on the official website on October 6, 2008 announced the official English title and a "early summer 2009" release date. A final postponement revealed that the film would be released on June 27, 2009.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Shinji is with Kaji in the garden of watermelons, Shinji and Kaji don't keep the same position, every camera angle place them in different positions. In the first shots, there is a small dirt path between the two characters, but in subsequent shots, there is no path. And in the same scene, Kaji has dirt stains on his face, which change position between shots.

Quotes:

Ryoji Kaji:[Shows up behind Ritsuko] You lost a little weight, huh, Ritsu?
Ritsuko Akagi:Nice try, but I gained more than I'd like to admit.
Ryoji Kaji:Maybe you're just wearing too many clothes.
Ritsuko Akagi:I'd show you, but this room's being monitored.
Ryoji Kaji:Was monitored. I replaced the main feed with a loop.
Ritsuko Akagi:Thoroughly prepared as always, huh?
Ryoji Kaji:Hey, when I play, I play to win.
Ritsuko Akagi:But you've lost.
[an angry Misato watches from the window]
Ritsuko Akagi:You should've covered the windows too.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Kosupureiyâ: Ha (2009) (V)

Soundtrack:

Beautiful World -PLANiTb Acoustica Mix

8.5/10 - satisfying

I watched Evangelion as a teenager and liked many aspects of it. However the series was very weak and repetitive in the middle and clearly suffered production difficulties near the end. The movies didn't do much for me after the initial epic-scope aesthetics of End of Evangelion had worn off. Now more than 10 years later I'm pretty happy that things have been reordered and re-rendered to make the series into what it should really have been in the first place.

I don't like the fact than Anno Hideaki has been able to milk the somewhat unfinished series for so much cash and so many editions (not to mention pachinko machines) so far, but taking 1.0 and 2.0 as stand-alone works (and ignoring their pretentious titles) is pretty satisfying.

Story 8/10 Good: much more than a rehash of the series. The story is fleshed out in some of the most necessary places and feels so much tighter and more concentrated than anything that has come before. Some awesome new snippets of what is to come later in the series add some satisfying excitement.

However, there is still an element of "here comes the next baddie" which gets a little tiresome. It is dealt with much more effectively here than the series, but it's still predictable. Nevertheless, despite giving the impression of being about to enter the full-on "monster of the week" barrage, it never really does, which is a blessed relief. The interactions of the characters are becoming more believable, and individual personalities are being better exposed and explained.

But, and it's a necessary but, what's the deal with the fan-service? Come on, man. Take yourself seriously, won't you? Animation 9/10 Well, it teetered between absolutely superb and a little disappointing. The budget was clearly insanely high. Action sequences are fantastically detailed and choreographed for the main part, although suffer from gratuitous flailing of limbs and ridiculous acrobats which unfortunately dumb it down a little. Backgrounds are simply amazing. The detail and range is incredible. The failings lie in the characters. Sometimes character faces and expressions look out of place by their simplicity. The broad pen pines and over-simple shading are a bit of a let-down.

Sound 7.5/10 Not particularly amazing. Again we see the technique of using a mixture of classical and children's music for depth and vulnerability. I'm surprised at some of the choices though. For example, one of the children's songs used is very popular in Japan and often used in elementary schools. The manner in which it is normally used makes its appearance in the film almost comical; which can't have been the intention. Not really knowing many Japanese people who care that much about anime I haven't been able to ask what they though, but it seemed a bit silly to me.

The Japanese people speaking English throughout the film are incredibly embarrassing. What a huge mis-calculation. How hard is it to train people to say a small number of lines in a natural way? Characters 8.5 Although some of the characters (particularly Asuka) seem to have become even less likable, for the most part the big-hitters have only improved. Although there is little time left for the minor-characters to develop or even really be involved, the well-developed personalities of the leads take somewhat new directions in their relations to one another. The relationship between teen-sap Shinji and his father has a more satisfying and somewhat relatable edge to it now, and Rei's annoyingly hyperbolic meekness has been flatted out to something more forgiving. All in all, satisfying.

And the new lead, Mari, is much better than (at least I) predicted. She has a very interesting relationship with herself, and pain. I am definitely looking forward to her future development.

Eva designs seem to have changed slightly around the waist which was a curious choice, and doesn't add much to their attractiveness. In contrast, the Angels have been changed for the better. The old, sometimes Ultraman-ish designs were sometimes a little... Ultraman-ish. The reduced number and better designs have helped things along well.

Overall 8.5/10 Overall satisfying. For me the film didn't quite have the intensity ascribed to it by others, and the ending I thought actually lacked a little emotional attachment. I also thought that the amazing animation and choreography discussed above wasn't nearly as good near the end as it was earlier in the feature. But despite this, as a whole this movie blows the series out of the water. So much which was unsatisfactory is now shiny and new. Whether or not I would feel this way about the film without having seen the rest of the franchise is anyone's guess, but I really enjoyed it. Good work, keep it up.