Evangelion: 1.11 - You are (Not) Alone) - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Evangelion: 1.11 - You Are (Not) Alone



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
As a child of the 90s (at least during my heavily formative years when I was able to watch media), Neon Genesis Evangelion was one of the biggest and most influential shows of the time. For an anime fan, if you didn’t watch Evangelion, Slayers, or Helsing, you weren’t really a fan of adult anime. It was THE show you watched to show you Anime “street cred” card, and to this day is probably one of the most intense and nuanced of the popular shows coming out in that same time period. Created by writer Hideaki Anno, the show aired from 1995 to 1996, and even spawned a couple of movies after the show was over that were received with various levels of critical acclaim. BUT, being that Anno had used the show as a creative outlet for his chronic depression and grief during the 90s, he wasn’t happy with how things turned out. So, around 2006, Anno once more went back into the realm of Evangelion, reimagining the series into 4 feature-length films over the course of 14 years, ending with Evangelion 3.0+1.11 – Thrice Upon a Time.

The first 3 films were released by Funimation (and are long out of print, sadly), leaving Shout! Studios to release the 4th film a couple of years ago, and fans BEGGING Shout!/Gkids to re-release the original 3 films to get a complete set for those of us who never completed the series. Well, that time is here, and Shout! Studios are releasing the first 2 of the 4 films on Blu-ray (sadly, no 4K UHD like Thrice Upon a Time) with the 3rd film supposedly coming soon.

Evangelion: 1.11 – You are (Not) Alone basically remakes the first 1/3rd (ish) of the original series in a fairly beat-for-beat manner. Sure, things are truncated and the fat trimmed, but the hour-and-forty-minute film is pretty similar to the original TV show’s first arc. Humanity is under attack from extraterrestrial aliens known as Angels, who are impervious to humanity’s weapons. In order to fight them, Japan has created NERV, a super-secret, clandestine governmental agency that has been working on advanced weapons and technology. Which includes the creation of giant mechs known as the Eva program. These mechs are a hybrid of human and technology, and run by special children who can interface with them. The most powerful being is young Shinji Ikari (Megumi Ogata), who just so happens to be the estranged son of the head of Nerv. Now, with no time to spare, Shinji is forced into piloting one of the test Evas and sent out to do battle against enemies who want to tear humanity apart.

As simple as the plot sounds in my description, there’s actually a LOOOOOT of depth to the film. Much like the original series that it came from, Evangelion: 1.11 is steeped in allegory and alliterative plot devices that hearken back to -based religions (while not completely Christian, it borrows bits from Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, ancient Orthodoxy, and even Jewish mythology) and hints at divine intervention. Shinji himself is one of the 3 avatars for Anno himself, dealing with all of the pain and suffering he dealt with over his life. But at the same time, Anno doesn’t get too lost within the alliterative plot devices and allusions that he steeps the narrative in. Evangelion: 1.11 is a wildly kinetic action ride with blood, gore, psychological torture, and some amazing Mech battles that put the animation of the original series to shame (Seriously, 2005-2015 had some of the best Anime art styles ever created in my opinion).

The only real complaint that I can have with the first film is that, like many other remakes, it treads well-covered ground as it sets up the changes that Anno is going to make later. As such, it feels a bit too familiar if you’re already a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion. But again, that is 100% a minor quibble as there’s no way around it when you’re retelling a story, and Anno does a great job of keeping things exciting and fresh, despite the same plot beats being recycled from his 1990s show. And something I’m not really counting too much against the movie.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some nudity





Video:

I have no idea if Gkids/Shout! is re-using the same master as the 2010 Funimation disc, but that disc got really amazing reviews, and this disc looks just as stunning as the reviews I read back in the day. Set on Blu-ray with a 1.78:1 framed AVC encode, the disc just sparkles in 1080p. Bright and vivid colors dominate the screen, with rich purples for Shinji’s Eva, combined with bright red and blues and various greens as the Evas and Angels destroy the Japanese cities in their conflict. The series takes place underground and at night quite a bit too, so black levels are paramount, and this shows no signs of any major problems. I think I saw a flicker of banding here and there, but nothing too wild, and there are no compression artifacts that I could make out. Fine details are WAY better than anything Anno did with the 90s show, and fans of the re-imagining should be very pleased with how this came out.









Audio:

I’m guessing the 6.1 Dolby TrueHD track is a clone of the Funimation disc, but the English 5.1 track most likely is not, as the original English track on the Blu-ray was 6.1 as well. My guess is that this is simply a slight downmix rather than a new dub or anything, but I can’t tell, as there is no tech info out there with any differing information. That being said, the 6.1 Japanese track is SUPERB from beginning to end. The track is just FUN, with tons of activity all over the sound stage, and a wildly exciting score that just pulsates through every crack and crevice it can insert itself. Action bits with the Evas are by far the highlight of the film, with violent combat and powerful explosions that shake the listening position with sheer power. LFE is just spectacular all the way around, dropping well into the teens and giving so much midbass I felt my theater room door start to vibrate more than a few times.









Extras:

• Rebuild of EVANGELION: 1.01 (Shiro SAGISU version)
• Rebuild of EVANGELION: 1.01 (Joseph-Maurice Ravel version)
• Angel of Doom Promotional Music Video
• Theatrical Teaser 1
• Theatrical Teaser 2
• Theatrical Teaser 2
• Beautiful World Trailer A
• Beautiful World Trailer B
• Theatrical TV Spot A (15 sec)
• Theatrical TV Spot B (15 sec)
• Theatrical TV Spot A (30 sec)
• Theatrical TV Spot B (30 sec)
• Special Edition DVD TV Spot A (15 sec)
• Special Edition DVD TV Spot B (15 sec)
• Special Edition DVD TV Spot A (30 sec)
• Special Edition DVD TV Spot B (30 sec)
• Standard Edition DVD TV Spot A (30 sec)
• Standard Edition DVD TV Spot B (30 sec)
• Rental DVD TV Spot (15 sec)
• Rental DVD TV Spot (30 sec)

Final Score:

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It’s so amazing to see Shout!/Gkids rescue the original films after Funimation got absorbed by Crunchyroll. I was one of those guys who watched the original discs on DVD back in the day, and forgot to ever rebuy them on Blu-ray when Funimation had the license. After they went out of print, I was stuck with the 3rd film as the ONLY film on Blu-ray until the 4th film came along 2 years from Shout! Studios. Now we can finally complete those collections and keep one of Anno’s best works in production once more. The Blu-ray itself seems to be a clone of the old Funimation disc in regards to extras, but since I never watched the Blu-ray, I’m not so sure about the video encode. Either way, it’s a great-looking/sounding release with the only downside being the same downside the Funimation disc suffered from. Fairly mediocre extras. At the end of the day, though, this is a solid re-release and well worth picking up.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuriko Yamaguchi
Directed by: Hideaki Anno, Hiroshi Haraguchi, Masayuki
Written by: Hideaki Anno
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 6.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Shout! Studios
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 101 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 21st, 2025

Recommendation: Great Buy

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[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I can't remember if I saw this or not. Will have to re-visit it.