So, it's rare that I get sucked into a TV series.  I've just finished watching the platinum edition of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a Japanese animated series (and an edition with outstanding American voice-over work) and...

Wow.

It tackles all the same issues as 2001, and it does it from exactly the opposite place.  Whereas Kubrick made it a point to show humanity as a species on an irreversible course towards evolution, guided by a higher mind...

...Gainax, creator of this series, opts to allow human frailty and flaw to drive us towards our next stage of existence.  It's an incredible piece of work, and an unbelievably human story of hope for a better future.

If you know anime, then you might expect the act of human evolution to be exposition-heavy.  You'd be right.  In the Matrix sequels, they were lifting their right to monologue from content like this.  At the same time, by the last two of the 25 Evangelion episodes, they've earned their right to get preachy.  Shinji Ikari, the main character, is a 13 year old boy with the weight of the world literally on his shoulders, and if having an extended, angry dialogue with the universe is what it takes to let him be happy, well, he's worth it.  He's a good kid, you know.

If, on the other hand, you're still reeling from the comparison between a Japanese action television program and one of the defining films of Stanley Kubrick, then maybe you'd better watch the series.

Don't you think?

There seems to be a movie that caps off the series (for the folks that don't realize that humanity has become a collective conscious mind and want a big explosion to top it off instead).  I'll watch anything these guys do, and at the same time, for my money, the series stuck the landing with ideas as vast as it's overflowing heart.