Just watched Evangelion 2.0 at Cathay E@Curve (formerly known as Cineleisure) thanks to the free tickets I got from Sunday's Star newspapers. It really impressed me since I wasn't expecting much considering that Evangelion 1.0 is pretty much a summary of the TV series and wasn't very exciting to me. Evangelion 2.0 headed off in a slightly different direction than the TV series by making Shinji more courageous, Asuka having a more gentle side and Rei being more sociable. A fantastic experience including the unexpected ending where Shinji actually managed to save someone but I will leave the suspense for your own viewing pleasure!

Cinema was more than half full but there were still plenty of tickets left since they had about 200 to give away. I don't think everyone appreciated the anime though since it is pretty hard to grasp unless you have watched the original anime before and appreciate the Christian abstract references to Angels being destroyers of the world. It is pretty sick too with children music playing when the killing was going on! I am not a dark person but I still love Evangelion's core concept of destroying the world when God is awakened. The ending might be different this time around since the story has been changed in Evangelion 2.0. I can't wait for Evangelion 3.0 to see if everyone dies again like last time - I wonder how many times they are going to remake this but I guess it all makes sense if the world ends and and everyone is reincarnated again so that every remake is like a different dimension or reincarnation. Hmm...Christianity to end the world and Buddhism to bring it back come to think of it. Never understood or appreciated Evangelion until now. Crazy creator but definitely thought provoking if we look at the abstract meaning of it.

*LOL* You should label your post as a spoiler, my friend. ;;; Are you sure about that pairing though? It's still to early to say since it's only Evangelion 2.0 although it does seem that way towards the ending.

*Spoiler warning ahead*
Asuka is still alive so maybe don't write her off so soon? Rei just doesn't seem into Shinji at all. She's doing everything for the sake of Shinji's father only. Besides, is it really Asuka at the ending of the original series + movie? It would seem that she has the same bandages as Rei so I would have thought of her as some reincarnation of Rei + Asuka or something. Shinji became God after all and chose his own new beginning with him as Adam and the combo girl of his choice as Eve. *LOL* Or maybe Anno just wanted to mess with our minds.