As of this writing, the fourth Rebuild of Evangelion movie—Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Timeis exclusively showing in Japanese theaters. There’s currently no word of an international release, but it’s probably just a matter of time.

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However, there’s no better time to look back on Neon Genesis Evangelion’s soft reboot/remake tetralogy. The movies—for the most part—were well-received, but some of their aspects did a disservice to the source material. While these don’t void the movies’ impact, they do retell parts of Evangelion but worse.

10 Focusing On Action Contradicts Evangelion’s Themes

Evangelion Unit 1 Gatling Gun

Evangelion is one of the mecha genre’s crown jewels—but it’s anything but a traditional mecha anime. Giant robots punch giant monsters on an episodic basis, but the anime is more interested in the pilots’ and crews’ mindsets than action. At times, the fights even come off as more terrifying than amazing.

The Rebuild movies delve into characters’ psyches, but they can be overshadowed by action scenes imbued with adrenaline. Every pilot from Asuka to Shinji has cool moments in their EVAs that validate how cool riding a giant robot is—which is the opposite of everything presented in the anime.

9 The Angels’ Threat & Symbolism Are Non-Existent

Evangelion Zeruel

The Angels seem like generic kaiju at first, but there’s a lot more them than that. They’re the imposing alternate outcome of human evolution, and they’ve been attacking Tokyo-3 to reunite with Adam. They’ve come to symbolize different things to fans—from Judeo-Christian imagery to metaphors for the pilots’ fears.

Little if any of this substance is present in the Rebuild continuity, and it’s mentioned off-handedly at best. Evangelion 3.0 went as far as removing the Angels altogether. It’s possible that Thrice Upon A Time will explain the Angels in the reboots’ context, but now they're just monsters Shinji punched around.

8 SEELE Was Rendered Irrelevant

Evangelion SEELE

It could be argued that the real threat in Evangelion was the humans—specifically SEELE and NERV. Best known as talking monoliths, SEELE was a shadowy organization that bankrolled NERV in the hopes of uniting humanity through the Human Instrumentality Project. Despite Shinji reversing Instrumentality in its final moments, SEELE won in The End of Evangelion.

SEELE returns in Rebuild, but Gendo almost immediately thwarted their plans. He put the monoliths out of their misery in Evangelion 3.0, where they even thank him because their goal of causing another Impact was achieved. Since Gendo is the overall antagonist, SEELE’s return felt redundant.

7 Gendo Is Too Omnipotent & Unstoppable

Evangelion Gendo Ikari

Gendo is one of anime’s most Machiavellian masterminds, but even he was prone to human folly. Aside from being outsmarted by SEELE, he was a lonely man who had a self-absorbed motive. This didn’t diminish his threat and impact—it actually made him a more compelling antagonist for his son, Shinji, to face.

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As of this writing, none of this characterization is present in Rebuild. Gendo claims that anything and everything that happened went according to his calculations–despite this being logically and logistically impossible. Instead of being a human threat, Gendo was an immovable object in the reboot movies.

6 Gendo (Currently) Has No Motive

Evangelion Gendo NERV Staff

One of the many tragedies in Evangelion was Gendo’s reason for trying to end the world. By using NERV’s resources, the Evangelions, and everyone around him, Gendo tried to trigger the Third Impact to reunite with his deceased wife, Yui. This ultimately became his downfall, with Rei betraying him last second and leaving him to die alone during Instrumentality.

In Rebuild, Gendo’s motivations are vague. As a result, he’s an empty antagonist who hinders Shinji instead of doing so for understandable—or sympathetic—reasons. Thrice Upon A Time could rectify this, but it still took three movies and nearly 14 years to even get a hint as to what drives Gendo.

5 The Side Characters Were Pushed Aside

Evangelion Shinji Classmates

Evangelion has a rich cast of characters who are all well-developed in their own ways. From the NERV staff to Shinji’s classmates, everyone had a fair amount of substance to them—and their stories were as interesting as that of the EVA pilots. It’s come to the point where even supporting characters like Ritsuko Akagi or Toji Suzuhara gained dedicated fanbases over the years.

In Rebuild, most—if not all of these characters—were relegated to cameos. The only exception is Misato Kutsaragi, but even her characterization is minimal when compared to her depth and nuance in the anime. This is an expected compromise of adapting a TV show for the big screen, but it’s still a glaring issue.

4 The Main Characters’ Original Emotional Issues Were Overly Simplified

Evangelion Main Pilots

Shinji, Rei, and Asuka are driven by the same burdens they had in the anime, but they’ve been simplified. Shinji is more assertive, Rei values her individuality, and Asuka doesn’t engage in self-destructive habits.

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While it’s nice to see the three be emotionally stable, they lack the previous complexity that made them some of the most tragically relatable anime characters of all time. Only Shinji goes through a spectrum of emotional extremes—but even then, it’s not as intense as the anime. His emotional state is understandable since he unknowingly ended the world twice.

3 Mari Sticks Out Like A Sore Thumb

Evangelion Mari Cockpit

Mari Makinami Illustrious is one of the few but very noticeable newcomers to Evangelion. Aside from having no counterpart in the original anime and enjoying piloting an EVA, Mari draws a lot of attention to herself by merely existing–but not for the reasons anyone would expect. Almost nothing about Mari was explained, which left veteran fans confused.

She had a mission to infiltrate NERV in Evangelion 2.0 for mysterious reasons, but this was rendered irrelevant by the sequel’s desolate post-Impact world and reality. Thrice Upon A Time has been said to clarify Mari’s purpose in Rebuild—but her presence is more distracting than anything else.

2 Evangelion 1.0 & 2.0 Didn't Add Anything New To The Anime

Evangelion Movies 1 And 2

When a beloved anime gets a movie adaptation, the expectation is that it would add new material or retell a familiar story in a better way. The Rebuild movies do both, at least from Evangelion 2.0’s last act onwards. The first two movies are basically the first 20 anime episodes crammed into roughly three hours, with anything but the iconic moments excised for runtime’s sake.

Minus other additions, such as revealing Adam and Lilith’s natures earlier, the first two movies are frame-for-frame remakes of the anime. Not only does this deny fans something new to experience, but it’s a rushed and truncated summary of Evangelion for newcomers. Thrice Upon A Time may wrap things up nicely, but there are a few recap episodes to get through first.

1 Evangelion 3.0 Was Too Experimental For Its Own Good

Evangelion 3.0 Shinji Asuka

In brief, Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo is incredibly divisive. The movie is set 14 years after the previous one. It presents more questions than answers, everybody’s characterizations were flipped upside down, most of the characters barely get screen time, and Shinji is blamed for ending the world. Worse, Evangelion 3.0 basically renders the first two Rebuild movies pointless.

Nearly everything set up beforehand was rewritten or dropped in the third chapter. Some fans thought this to be a masterful subversion of expectations, while others vehemently disagreed. Thrice Upon A Time could finally clear things up, but this may be too little and too late for those who dropped the tetralogy following Evangelion 3.0’s overly ambitious storytelling.

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