After Evangelion 1 was pretty much just a reboot of the first six Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes, I certainly didn't expect its sequel to deviate from the series quite this much.
While there are some parallels, most importantly the introduction of Asuka as the pilot of Unit-02, many things have outright changed for a more dramatic impact. As with the first movie, the events of the series had to be highly compacted to fit into a single movie, only more than twice as many episodes that had to be reduced here. This means that many scenes were outright left out. While that's no problem for the more silly stuff of the series, I highly enjoyed the background episodes that filled in a few characters' biographies.
Still, Evangelion 2 is a fantastic sequel to Evangelion 1 and a worthy reboot of the series. The visuals are gorgeous from beginning to end. The ending admittedly felt a bit... odd to me; I had my problems with the weird pseudo-biblical spiritual twist in the series as well. The ending of Evangelion 2 is much more open compared to Evangelion 1, so I'm eager to see what the third movie will bring.
My biggest grievance of Evangelion 2 is the introduction of Mari, a fourth EVA pilot that wasn't part of the original series. I'm not sure if she's going to play an indispensable in the third movie, but she felt quite tacked on in this one, pretty much just fanservice. Sure, she's interesting enough, I guess, but she pales in comparison to the other characters. Then again, I already know the other characters from the series; perhaps Mari is as (non-) many-faceted as the other characters if you watch the movies as a stand-alone.
While there are some parallels, most importantly the introduction of Asuka as the pilot of Unit-02, many things have outright changed for a more dramatic impact. As with the first movie, the events of the series had to be highly compacted to fit into a single movie, only more than twice as many episodes that had to be reduced here. This means that many scenes were outright left out. While that's no problem for the more silly stuff of the series, I highly enjoyed the background episodes that filled in a few characters' biographies.
Still, Evangelion 2 is a fantastic sequel to Evangelion 1 and a worthy reboot of the series. The visuals are gorgeous from beginning to end. The ending admittedly felt a bit... odd to me; I had my problems with the weird pseudo-biblical spiritual twist in the series as well. The ending of Evangelion 2 is much more open compared to Evangelion 1, so I'm eager to see what the third movie will bring.
My biggest grievance of Evangelion 2 is the introduction of Mari, a fourth EVA pilot that wasn't part of the original series. I'm not sure if she's going to play an indispensable in the third movie, but she felt quite tacked on in this one, pretty much just fanservice. Sure, she's interesting enough, I guess, but she pales in comparison to the other characters. Then again, I already know the other characters from the series; perhaps Mari is as (non-) many-faceted as the other characters if you watch the movies as a stand-alone.