Reception
The film was well received by fans of the series and audiences alike, with some forming lines outside theaters on the films opening day. Eiga reported users gave the film "A-" while on Japan Yahoo! Movies fans gave the film an average of "4 out of 5 stars". Anime News Network gave the film an overall "B-", stating that while the film had "great animation, excellent fight scenes, some hints at exciting changes to come and a cool cameo at the end," it was stated as "feeling pointless and dull at times with the cast's previous emotional complexity being dumbed down"; Tom Tonthat of The Escapist Magazine criticized it for being, beneath "the shiny new packaging...a dumbed-down version of the original series", "truncating the subtle exposition and character development". Miguel Concepcion, writing for the Examiner, praised the artwork on the animation, and singled out Ritsuko Akagi's voice actress as making Akagi "sound one-dimensional at times". The New York Times reviewer Mike Hale criticized 1.0 because "nearly everything that made the first two-thirds of the television series distinctive — the deliberate pace, the wry humor, the subtle (for anime) characterizations — is lost. Evangelion becomes just another giant-robot story."
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone received the 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair award for anime of the year and Anno received best director. The film was also nominated for Animation of the year at the 2008 Japan Academy Prize, but lost to Tekkon Kinkreet. The film was awarded the DCAJ Chairperson Award during the 22nd Digital Contents Grand Prix in Akihabara on October 11, 2007. The film also won the Tōkaimura Genpachi Award at the 7th Annual Japanese Otaku Awards on January 5, 2008 and the Theatrical Film Award at the 13th Animation Kobe Awards on November 2, 2008. The film was judged ineligible for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Oscar because of its 2007 Japanese release.
At the 2009 Anime Expo, FUNimation Entertainment premiered the English dub of the film and once the credits rolled, the film received a standing ovation from its audience. The AX audience was overwhelmingly pleased with the voice acting direction that ADR director Mike McFarland had with the film, while also noting the more realistic performance than the TV series was known for. Also, the voice actress rendition of Rei Ayanami, Brina Palencia, was very well received by fans for her performance as Rei, and many noted it was on par with Amanda Winn-Lee's performance, or in some cases, surpassing hers; Animation Insider described Palencia's voice-acting of Rei as having "subtle hints of emotion lingering under her facade". Asian Weekly listed it as the 7th best 'Asian film' of 2009.
Read more about this topic: Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
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