The Stranger

For every sort-of-accessible Japanese animated film like Akira or Princess Mononoke, there are thousands of movies about ninja assassin bears and cross-dressing robots that are just impenetrably weird. Evangelion 1.0 falls somewhere in the middle. Introverted teen Shinji Murakami is enlisted to pilot a giant robot—which may or may not be alive—for a secretive government agency and tasked with defending Tokyo from giant space monsters (called "angels"), which mysteriously appear, stomp buildings and screech their screechy space sounds. Evangelion 1.0 is filled with giant robots, esoteric biblical references, teenage angst, and space aliens, but the series has (thankfully) been pared down from its original 15-year-old, 26-episode run into four films with some slightly-redone effects and animation, apparently in an attempt to breathe new life into a series that developed a sizable following back in its heyday. If you hate anime, you'll hate Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's weird, it sometimes makes little sense, and it's packed with the strange tropes common in Japanese cartoons. However, if you're a sci-fi nerd—meaning you can get past lines like "Either we stop that angel, or humanity's future ends here!" and "Retracting umbilical bridge!"—or fondly remember Neon Genesis Evangelion from your virginal days in the high school A/V club, there's still some life and enjoyable space monster weirdness left in the revamped series. By Jonah Spangenthal-Lee