Well, after writing something up about the Resurrection DVD I couldn't
help myself also dumping something here about the second DVD; Genesis
Reborn. The director cuts which feature episode 24-26.
Unfortunatly my impression of this DVD isn't as good as the first one.
If I had to describe the DVD in a single line it would be "More of the
same".
This DVD is also remastered but some added scenes really don't make too
much sense; the new scene is just too much. For example; First you see
Asuka talking to Shinji then you see her lying naked in the tub. A 7 day
jump ? First they discuss Kaji, then she's a wreck and talks about
syncratio 0. IMO this doesn't add up. I also didn't like the brighter
pictures; in the original you saw a siloet (wrong spelling) of Asuka;
here you get to see more of her but the earlier version looked a lot
better IMO; it left something to guess. Now you basicly see... well, a
naked Asuka, not even much flattering at that. And moving a little
along; Ikari with an eye in his hand (Adam embryo) also was a little too
much for me.
The sound is simply horrible too... When Ritsuko is being questioned by
Ikari she cries when he leaves the room. It almost sounds as if she's
dripping right into a metal bucket of water or something, horrible.
Continueing with sound... Kaoru's English voice simply sucks IMO. Its a
young boy and now his voice also has a "young tone" to it; while in the
original the voice had something elusive, something forbidden.. The way
he talked was... eery. They threw all of that overboard which I consider
a drag. When he "orders" Unit2 around it sounds... I'm sorry to say
this but: laughable.
So is this DVD a waste of money ?
That still depends on your point of view. The added scene's weren't that
special IMO. The first DVD was more spectacular, for example the meeting
between SEELE and Kaoru wasn't as spectacular as I hoped it would be,
and the same can be said about some other scenes. Although the sound
sucks IMO I don't think you can take this into consideration when
looking at this DVD since some things can't be helped... After all; its
not a full remake which was meant to replace the older episodes.
However, some things were interesting. The scene where AIR starts for
example (after episode 24); there we're treated with some 'design'
animation of the scenes and you can see a "preview" of the EVA battle in
EoE which is pretty interesting.
The last 2 episodes are also edited and some scenes have been edited.
Some for the better, others for the worse. I guess the new episodes
could make a little more sense to an outsider since the story line seems
to be left a little more intact; no more heavy Kanjii to explain certain
things.
Still... I prefer the originals, but do consider the director cuts
something which a fan should have in his/her collection. Having seen
these does add something to the EVA experience. Even if at times this is
a thought of "I'm glad some scenes *didn't* make it in the original".
Oh well; I'm going to watch Angel Invasion again ;-)
--
Groetjes, Peter
.\\ PGP/GPG key: http://www.catslair.org/pubkey.asc
I think the scene of Asuka running in to see her mother hanging (directly
before the scene of Asuka and shinji talking) and the scene of Asuka and
shinji talking are suppose to symbolise Asuka's thoughts while she's in the
bath, and possibly her coming to terms with the death of her mother and
Kaji.