Directors: Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki

Wrister: Hideaki Anno

Starring (English Dub – Dubbing Brothers): Spike Spencer, Allison Keith, John Swasey, Amanda Winn-Lee, Mary Faber

Rating: ★★★★

Released in 2009, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance is the second part of the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. While the first film pretty much sticks to story of the original TV series, with a few deviations, the second film has some much bigger changes and is a lot better for it. It improves on the first film in every way, with better pacing, action, and character development.

From the opening scene you know this is going to be something special. It starts with an incredibly cinematic fight between a new pilot, Mari in Eva Unit 05 taking on the Third Angel. Mari is a completely new addition to the series, and solidifies that this is going to be something different to what we’ve seen before. There are scenes throughout that fans of the anime series will recognise, but they’re presented in different ways, and sometimes diverts from the original story completely. The ending also sets up a completely different story for the third film.

The animation is mostly brilliant throughout the film, especially in the fight sequences. It’s stunning to watch. Then there’s also some CGI animation that looks quite bad and stands out quite a bit. That’s easy to forget though as the story is so strong. There’s so much happening in every scene that when the end credits start, you want to go back to the beginning to watch again as there’s definitely stuff you’ve missed. It’s rammed with plot, action, characters.

The best thing about the film is the character development, which is absolutely brilliant. Shinji and Rei’s changing relationship is one of the highlights of the film. It’s incredibly well done. Likewise, Asuka being introduced in this entry is great. She’s quite different from the version of her character in the TV series, and a stronger character because of it.

You Can (Not) Advance is essential viewing for any Evangelion fan. The first film for the most part was re-treading ground, but this is completely new and brilliant from start to finish.

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