Evangelion 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone Review

Copyright 2007 Hideaki Anno

Released in 2007, and starting a tetralogy of Evangelion "Rebuilds" which is set to end in 2020, Evangelion 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone is a film whose only goal seems to be setting up the next three films, 1.11 serves as an introduction to this new continuity of Evangelion which could be jarring even to series veterans. It plays out the first few episodes at a breakneck pace getting us up to speed for the mind bending 2.22.

Evangelion 1.11 follows Shinji Ikari, a fourteen year old who has been summoned to Tokyo 3 by his estranged father Gendo. When he arrives the city is being attacked by a creature known as an angel, he is eventually picked up by NERV's Misato Katsuragi but not before he can almost be crushed by a falling plane. He is taken to NERV, a military base located underneath Tokyo 3, in a space called the Geofront.

And this is when we are introduced to the Eva, well not quite yet as we need to get a few more character introductions out of the way, NERV's head scientist Ritsuko Akagi and Gendo's right hand man Kozu Fuyutsuki. Then finally Shinji is introduced to the Eva. Evangelion Test Type Unit 01. Gendo forces Shinji into the cockpit of the Eva and is sent into battle against the angel which is the monster attacking. Predictably Shinji fails to perform even basic maneuvers in the Eva falling over just as it is released. The angel starts to attack Unit 01 and manages to disable it but the Eva goes into a berserk mode and tears the angel apart violently.

Shinji wakes up in hospital, apparently passing out during the fight, Misato becomes his guardian and he is enrolled into the local school. In school Shinji actions the previous night provoke Toji Suzuhara, who punches Shinji for putting his sister in hospital due to the destruction caused by the Eva. Toji's friend Kensuke Aida apologizes on Toji's behalf. Later that day the next angel arrives in Tokyo 3 and again Shinji is forced to pilot. Now at this point your probably thinking "If this is a multi billion dollar or yen organisation then surely they must have more than one Eva and pilot". And they do, a girl named Rei Ayanami, however she has been critically injured in a reactivation test of Evangelion Unit 00. So shes kinda out of action, anyway back to the 5th angel. Unit 01 is sent into battle meanwhile Toji and Kensuke sneak out of the bunker to watch the battle, just as they get out Eva 01 is thrown into the cliff their watching from, narrowing missing them, Misato recognizes Toji and Kensuke as Shinji's classmates and orders them to get into the Eva's entry plug for protection, they do this as Shinji is order to retreat as civilians cannot be involved in angel battles, but Shinji uses Eva 01's knife to stab the angel in its core killing it.

Back at NERV he is shouted at by Misato for going against a direct order but this is broken up once the sixth angel arrives, this one though appears to attack anything that might be a threat to it, shooting a beam at Unit 01 just as it is launched, this destroys Unit 01 and because Shinji is synced to the Eva he feels he pain as well. With the angel dangerous at range and close quarters combat out of the question NERV is stumped, this is made worse when the angel starts to drill into the security layers of the geofront. NERV scientists work out that they don't have long before the angel has breached the geofront, so Misato organised a desperate plan, she plans to requisition an experimental positron rifle to fire at the angel, and use Unit 01 to fire the rifle, except its not quite powerful enough, so they plan to direct all of Japans power to this one rifle, and this time because Unit 01 cannot move Unit 00 will protect Unit 01 with a large shield.

The only kink in this plan is that Shinji doesn't want to pilot the Eva again after what happened to him, which is understandable so to help the despondent Shinji, Misato takes him to the lowest levels of NERV and shows him a huge white being crucified to a cross like restraint, this is revealed to be the second angel, Lilith. Misato explains that the angels are attempting to make contact with Lilith to bring about the Third Impact which will end all life on Earth.

Shinji agrees to pilot Unit 01 alongside Rei in Unit 00, with him in position behind the rifle he fires a single shot at the angel, it makes contact but doesn't kill the being, the angel fires back at Shinji, but Rei and Unit 00 protect Unit 01 while Shinji fires again killing the angel.

And that was Evangelion 1.11, and its really good. Not only is it a great introduction for new fans but it allows returning fans to see these classic scenes re imagined. And sure maybe some characters weren't given the development they had in the TV series but lets face it this had 90 minutes, it did a pretty good job.

And next time we'll be looking at Evangelion 2.22, will it improve on the original story or will it suffer from artistic differences.