Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版: 破) is a 2009 Japanese animated film written by Hideaki Anno. It is the second of four films released in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy based on the original anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was produced and co-distributed by Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara.

Plot
The movie opens with a new Evangelion pilot, Mari Illustrious Makinami, being launched in Provisional Unit-05 to destroy the resuscitated skeleton of the Third Angel in its attack on NERV's arctic Bethany Base. She successfully defeats the Angel by self-destructing Unit-05, safely ejecting at the last moment.

The film cuts to Shinji Ikari and his father Gendo visiting Yui's grave and the following attack of the Seventh Angel, which is dispatched by the newly arrived Unit-02 and its headstrong pilot, Asuka Langley Shikinami, via an emergency airdrop. Chief Inspector Ryoji Kaji, present at the battle with Unit-05 and arriving alongside Unit-02, delivers a suitcase to Gendo containing an object referred to as the "Key of Nebuchadnezzar."

As the movie progresses, Kaji takes the children on a field trip to an research aquarium tasked with resuscitating the ocean ecosystems lost in the Second Impact and all three Evangelions engage the Eighth Angel, showing a previously lacking teamwork. Unit-01 is critically damaged and Unit-00 loses the use of its arms, but SEELE's members declare that only Unit-01 need be repaired and that Unit-00 has served its purpose.

Meanwhile, Gendo and Fuyutsuki visit the Tabgha Base on the Moon to view SEELE's progress on the mysterious "Evangelion Mark.06" and while they are denied access, they confirm that Mark.06's construction is fundamentally different from the other Evangelions and briefly even see Kaworu Nagisa sitting on its finger. On Earth, Shinji decides to cook an extra meal for Rei, a gesture that inspires her to invite everyone over for a self-cooked meal during the following week with the hope of improving Shinji's relationship with his father. Meanwhile, Mari arrives in Tokyo-3 by parachute, but accidentally lands on top of Shinji at his school.

Soon after, Evangelion Unit-04 and NERV's U.S. branch are destroyed during a test of an experimental engine, driving the U.S. government to send the completed Unit-03 to Tokyo-3. In accordance with the "Vatican Treaty", where Japan and all other nations are forbidden to possess more than three functioning Evangelions at a time, Unit-02 is sealed away. Rei is initially chosen to pilot the new Eva, but Asuka offers to do it for her so she can still host her dinner, earning a rare "thank you" from Rei. The activation of Unit-03, however, goes awry and is revealed to be possessed by the Ninth Angel. As NERV's only functional Evangelion and pilot, Shinji is ordered to destroy it, but refuses, even on pain of death, to fight back for fear of killing Asuka, who is trapped inside. Gendo orders the activation of Unit-01's dummy plug system and the now autonomous Evangelion savagely dispatches the Angel/Unit-03, finally crushing Asuka's entry plug. Shinji is disgusted with his father's actions and, after an unsuccessful assault against NERV headquarters, decides to quit NERV. Asuka is revealed to be alive, but badly wounded and in quarantine for fear of mental contamination by the Angel.

After Shinji says his goodbyes and boards a train headed out of the city, the Tenth Angel attacks. As Unit-01 refuses to accept the dummy system, Mari hijacks Unit-02 but fails to defeat the Angel, even after initiating a controlled "berserker" mode by removing Unit-02's limiters. Rei pilots Unit-00, despite its arms being barely functional, and manages to penetrate the Angel's AT-Field with the help off Unit-02 to use an N² mine-armed missile. The Angel emerges unscathed from the blast and consumes Unit-00, with Rei still inside. Mari happens upon Shinji in the damaged Unit-02 and tries to take him to safety, but, upon witnessing the destruction and Unit-00's consumption, he decides to return and pilot Unit-01 once more.

While forcing the Angel out of NERV headquarters, Unit-01 runs out of battery power. Resolving to still save Rei, Shinji proceeds to return to a "berserker" mode and defeat the Angel, while making a mental connection within the Angel to save Rei. The result is Unit-01 and Shinji, now fused into one being, combining with the Angel's spattered core, which takes the form of a giant Rei, into a being described as being close to "godhood". Ritsuko declares that the Third Impact is about to occur, while Gendo and Fuyutsuki note this is the result they have hoped for and Kaji comments that SEELE will not be happy with this occurring before the other units are ready.

After the credits, the Third Impact is halted by a Lance of Longinus falling from the sky and impaling Unit-01 mid-apotheosis. It is revealed that the lance was thrown by the Mark.06 descending from the moon. Kaworu is revealed to be the pilot and he proclaims that "this time, I will make you happy".

Production
In September 2006, it was confirmed the second film would be produced as part of the Rebuild of Evangelion series, with a release date tentatively set for January 2008 release and a 90-minute running time. In November 2006, the December edition of the Japanese anime magazine Newtype confirmed the second film was written during post-production on the first film. Anno stated the introduction of new characters and Evangelion units would begin from the second film onwards.

The release date was pushed back several times from the original announcement of January 2008: first, to a December 2008 release before an update on the official website on October 6, 2008 announced the official English title and a "early summer 2009" release date. A final postponement revealed that the film would be released on June 27, 2009.

Marketing
The film's initial teaser trailer, shown after the end credits of Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in the style of the "next episode" previews in the original TV series, showed the film would feature scenes based on the original anime such as the adoption of Unit-02 and its pilot Asuka Langley Shikinami as shown in an air-drop sequence, the disappearance of Unit-04 upon the startup of its S² engine, the possession of Unit-03 by Bardiel, a fight between Misato and Ritsuko (as from the battle with Leliel), Evangelion Units 01 and 02 fighting Zeruel, and the characters Ryoji Kaji and Kaworu Nagisa. Among the new material teased was the newly-designed Units 05 and 06 (with Unit 06 and its pilot flying down from the Moon), unidentified ghostly floating humanoid entities with halos (with the words "Adams" and "Lilin+?" flashed on either side of the cut), and the unintroduced new character of Mari Makinami.

A full trailer, released on April 2, 2009, showed scenes derived from the anime, such as Unit-00 and Unit-01 running in the fight against Sahaquiel), Gendo and Shinji in a cemetery, Tokyo-3 transforming into battle mode, a berserk Unit-01 fighting Bardiel, and Zeruel's face firing lasers. New material included a dark Eva preparing to fire a weapon, an unidentified pilot in an entry plug wearing a helmet embossed with "Evangelion Unit 05", Eva-02 with two Progressive Swords in its shoulder pylons, a view of a lunar base, satellite weapons firing on an unidentified Angel's AT-Field, shots of a city being flooded by an ocean of red, battleships rocked by waves in the now-red ocean, and the new designs of the Third and Seventh Angels.

Mari Makinami, teased in the teaser trailer, made a brief appearance in the Nintendo DS game Petit Eva: Evangelion@Game (ぷちえゔぁ～EVANGELION@GAME～) as a character picture available as the game's final prize on the last level (with the name of Mari (マリ) and the simple description of "Mysterious girl"). The April 18 EVA-EXTRA01 paper magazine announced Mari's full name of Mari Illustrious Makinami (真希波・マリ・イラストリアス) (Makinami Mari Illustrious under Japanese naming conventions), following the Evangelion naval naming convention, and would be voiced by Maaya Sakamoto.

Theatrical posters revealed that the character Asuka's family name would be changed from Sohryu to Shikinami, also continuing the Evangelion naming convention. '''

International release
Despite former announcements Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance was not screened on the Animotion festival in Bonn because of licensing problems.

The film competed in the Sitges Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain on October 4, 2009 in the Anima't category.

By country (ordered by date):
 * United States: Hawaii International Film Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 24, 2009.
 * Italy: Lucca Comics 2009 on November 1, 2009.
 * Germany: Asia Filmfest 2009 in Munich on November 6, 2009.
 * Singapore: November 12, 2009 at The Cathay/The Picturehouse.
 * Canada: November 21, 2009 at the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema in Waterloo, Ontario.
 * South Korea: December 3, 2009.
 * Hong Kong: Scheduled to be released on December 3, 2009.
 * Malaysia: March 4, 2010 at The Cathay Cineplex e@Curve and TGV at Sunway (after fans' petition in the forum and Facebook).
 * Belgium: Anima: Brussels Animation Film Festival 2010. February 13 and 20, 2010.
 * United Kingdom: Glasgow Film Festival on February 15, 2010 at 5:45pm. http://www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk/films/381
 * Ireland: Irish Film Institute Anime Weekend on March 20, 2010.
 * Estonia: 4.JAFF(Japanese Animation Film Festival) in Tallinn and Tartu on April 4, 2010
 * Canada: Fantasia Film Festival 2010 in Montreal, on July 10.
 * Indonesia: screening nationwide, beginning from July 16, 2010, only at Blitz Megaplex theaters. Distribution rights held by Pratama Film.
 * Australia and New Zealand: Reel Anime Festival 2010, September 2010.

Box office
In its opening weekend in Japan, the film reached number-one at the box office with a revenue of 510 million yen in just the first two days. The film subsequently grossed the equivalent of over US $40 million at the Japanese box office, making it the third highest grossing Japanese anime of 2009.

DVD release
The DVD and Blu-ray release was 26 May 2010; unlike the 2 DVD versions of 1.0, it was released as 2.22 with "readjustments". Universum Film's German release on 16 July will also include the Blu-ray of Evangelion 1.11. The Japanese release set an Amazon.co.jp record for pre-orders, with more than 88,000, and ultimately over 800,000 pre-orders in general; upon release, it set first-day sales records (124,000 DVDs and 195,000 Blu-ray discs), topping Blu-ray sales for 4 weeks.

At Otakon 2010, North American anime distributor Funimation Entertainment announced that they have licensed Evangelion 2.0 and will plan a theatrical release followed by a DVD and Blu-ray release in 2011. Earlier in May, British anime distributor Manga Entertainment had announced plans to release Evangelion 2.0 in the U.K. and were waiting on Funimation to announce production dates.

Reception
In a positive review for Anime News Network, Justin Sevakis praised the new character interactions and development, stating "Evangelion 2.0 feels as though the project has been put on mood stabilizers: it's not any happier, but it's more stable and certainly more focused. And in the end, it's a vast improvement".

Mania.com reviewer Chris Beveridge wrote that "Watching the second installment of Evangelion is more rewarding and more difficult than the first. It's more rewarding because you're seeing this interpretation taking on its own life fully, from the way Asuka is introduced, the new character of Mari and the larger scope of how the world works with Evangelion units...They go big here with a lot of changes, changes that could annoy and irk the faithful, but it's an interpretation that is doing something different at this point and it does it well, giving it all the kind of smoothness it needs, even if it does feel rushed sometimes when there are so many Angel fights throughout it."

Awards
The film won first place in the Animation category of the French Lyon Asian Film Festival, narrowly beating Symphony in August in an audience vote. It won the award for Excellent Animation of the Year by being nominated for the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in 2010.

Sequel
The next film in the series, Evangelion: 3.0, was previewed in a trailer following the credits, continuing the story with Shinji and Rei still frozen within Unit-01, Tokyo-3 and the Geofront being abandoned, "NERV personnel [being] held in confinement", "Eva Unit-06 descend[ing] on Dogma", "the quickening Eva Unit-08 and its pilot", and the assembling of "the children chosen by fate". Among the images shown are the impaled Unit-01, Kaworu meeting with four shadowy figures, Gendo and Fuyutsuki in mountain climbing gear, Kaji angrily shouting while pointing a pistol at someone, Mari confronting Rei while three other Reis hide behind her, and a restored Asuka wearing an eyepatch. The trailer ends with the customary promise of more "fanservice".

Soundtrack
In May 2009, Hikaru Utada was announced to return to the series and provide the theme song for the film, "Beautiful World -PLANiTb Acoustica Mix-". Utada previously released "Beautiful World" for Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in 2007.

A soundtrack album featuring the film's score by Shirō Sagisu was released on July 8, 2009 and is available in two editions. The disc contained in both the regular and special editions features Sagisu's music as edited for the film as well as two bonus tracks. The special edition contains a bonus disc, Shiro SAGISU Music from EVANGELION: 2.0 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE., featuring selections from the score that have not been edited to fit into the film.

Merchandise
Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto designed three Be@rbrick figures of Asuka, Rei, and Mari, which went on sale on March 14, 2009 and were also available as a bundle with advance film ticket purchases. NTT DoCoMo and Sharp released a production model of the "SH-06A NERV" phone featured in the film, which Hideaki Anno and Studio Khara supervised in designing. The phone, only available in Japan between June and July 2009, was originally set for 20,000 pre-order units and 10,000 for retail sales. After selling out all pre-orders in only five hours, NTT docomo announced they would be manufacturing an additional 7,500 units to meet all orders.

In August 2009, ABC-Mart, King Records, and Achilles released sneakers based on the design of Evangelion Unit-01 as part of "The Footstep Instrumentality Project". Ueshima Coffee Co., as with Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, released coffee cans decorated with Evangelion characters and their Evangelion units.

Medicom released "Real Action Heroes" action figures of Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu in restyled plugsuits in August, September, November 2009, and May 2010, while Bandai released its own line of action figures with Mari Illustrious Makinami and two separate sets of Gashapon figures in May and July 2009. Lawson released an Asuka and Rei PuchiEva figure with advance ticket purchases along with a Pen² pen. Revoltech introduced several other action figures, including Unit-01 (normal and "berserker" modes), Unit-02, and Unit-05 (normal and repainted) as well as special exclusives available from magazine inserts (Unit-03) and 7-Elevens (Unit-00).