Homer Simpson was ahead of the cartoon curve back in May 1999 when, during an episode called "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo," he said he wanted to pilot a giant purple robot once he got to Japan.

That was a reference to the blockbuster animated series "Neon Genesis Evangelion," which aired on Japanese TV in the mid-1990s.

Now, it's spawned a film called "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone," playing Friday through Sunday at Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Melwood Screening Room.

As someone who barely remembers the "Simpsons" episode, I was lost at first but the movie won me over ... until the dreaded end. It concludes with the three worst words in moviedom: "To be continued."

That might be fine for a TV episode but not a film, as "The Golden Compass" also proved. As for the preceding 98 minutes, "Evangelion" introduces a 14-year-old named Shinji Ikari who may hold the fate of mankind in his quivering hands.

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'Evangelion'

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: Voices of Spike Spencer, Allison Keith-Shipp, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Caitlin Glass.
• Rating: PG-13 for violence, brief animated nudity and language.

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We meet him at a time when half of Earth's population has been wiped out and all that remains of Japan is Tokyo-3, a city under attack by giant creatures paradoxically called Angels. Shinji is asked to pilot an enormous robotic weapon called Evangelion Unit One, called humanity's last hope for survival.

Shinji is not a happy boy, upset that his long-absent father has summoned him for this impossible task. "He didn't really need me," he laments. "No one does."

He grapples, in a movie replete with religious symbols, about being the chosen one (or one of the chosen ones) but is told, "There is no why. That destiny happened to be yours, that's all."

"Evangelion" is the first of four planned movies and Hideaki Anno, creator of the series, directs. The voices are distinctly American but not star-studded, with Spike Spencer as Shinji leading the way.

The realization of Tokyo-3, located here on the shores of Lake Ashinoko, is wonderfully inventive with shifting shapes on and below the surface and the nerve center of NERV (a government agency) sunk deep in the earth.

In addition to a depth and realism in the backdrops, the story has the requisite awkward adolescent moments, a little bullying and much mooning about. "It's expected that I always do well so no one ever thanks me for it and if I fail everyone hates me unless I get killed," Shinji muses.

I was glad to have a rudimentary press kit telling me who was who. "Evangelion: 1.0" seems designed for those already in the know instead of welcoming newcomers into the tent, even ones who can appreciate the animated artistry on screen.

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