Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Complete Series + Movies - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Complete Series + Movies



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
While Shout Factory does put out quite a bit of anime in recent times, usually they don’t put out too many series, and the series they DO put out aren’t the mainstream ones (outside of Studio Ghibli stuff). Color me really surprised when Gkids was able to get the rights of Neon Genesis Evangelion from Netflix resulting in them releasing this for them. For those in the know, this needs no introduction. For those not in the know, Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most controversial and influential mecha anime shows from the golden age of Anime during the 90s. The show is violent, disturbing, twisted, sweet, and a true work of art that has earned itself the label of one of the most influential shows of all time in the anime genre.

Evangelion revolves around 2015 (20 years in the future at that point) when Earth is under attack by an alien force known as “Angels”. The humans form a resistance to these alien forces using mechas that neurologically link to their pilots minds. The head of the resistance (known as Nerv) uses his son Shinji to pilot the first mecha, only to bring in other damaged and troubled children (Rei and Asuka) to pilot additional mechas in their battle against the Angels. However, as the plot unfolds, it becomes clearer that the Angels are not just “some aliens”, but have a link to humanities past and future, and their very interactions with Rei, Asuka and Shinji will form the basis for one of the biggest anime reveals of all times.

I hate to go into too much detail about the show simply because it is THAT dense. The 25 episode show is layered with tons of lore, and you really have to pay attention to the show to get it all. The history of the angels, their link to us, and the emotional turbulence of psychologically damaged Shinji and Asuka are better watched than told about. One thing I can say is, this is a very disturbing series. The show seems to be a basic mecha anime show on the surface, but it gets very psychologically twisted and dark as the show goes on. The last couple episodes really had me freaked out as a 14 year old kid, and even today it’s uncomfortable to watch. The show takes on child abuse, PTSD, and coming to grips with being a child when you’ve suffered so much. In short, it’s an absolute experience rather than simple entertainment.

The rest of this review is going to be me breaking down the boxset from Gkids more than gushing about the anime itself. The show has been release, re-release, and then kind of “remade” with the Rebuild of Evangelion 4 volume set. However, the main show and the movies are really the base of the show’s lore and is the most important. Netflix got ahold of the show a few years back and completely re-did the dub and the subs from the ADV release, and myself and many others consider it definitely inferior to the old ADV effort in that department. Although there is also a crowd out there that believes it's more accurate to the source script, as certain points in the original dub were added in even though they weren't called for and the Netflix dubs/subs are more mood appropriate.

GKids has actually two boxsets for the show. This one is the standard release with both the TV show and the dual movies The End of Evangelion and Evangelion: Death (True) 2. Simple, a few extras, and a 5 disc Blu-ray case for it all. The second box is the ultimate edition, which is an 11 disc set, with art cards, fold out packaging, and a really nifty cover art. HOWEVER, here’s where I also have a slight point of contention with Gkids. I understand an ultimate swag boxset with extra swag and new packaging, and more extras (which that set has), but Gkids did something strange. They doubled the discs for the show. They gave 5 discs with the Netflix Dub and Subs (which is included in this standard release), and then they put out 5 more discs in the Ultimate set that uses the older (and much more accurate) ADV Subs and Dubs! Something which is going to irk hardcore fans as there is ZERO reason not to include the ADV subs and dubs on the standard release. As I said, I can understand putting extra swag in the ultimate set, along with new extras etc, but keeping a critical component like the original audio and subs exclusive to that set is just going to rub some people the wrong way. It’s not the end of the world as the Netflix subs and dubs aren’t that bad at all (they’re serviceable, but those ADV ones are the classic ones we grew up with), it’s just a minor irritant that really shouldn’t have happened in my personal opinion as an anime geek. Could it have been due to rights issues? Possibly, as Evangelion is pretty much a mess in terms of who owns the rights to what pieces, but I wanted to mention it as Netflix subs/dubs only may be a deal breaker for some people.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Here’s the fun part, the video and audio sections. Being that they were transferred to film from the source animations for production this will have grain and a few bits of print damage to it. I noticed a few wavering blue lines here and there, the typical speckles and grain spikes, but overall this is an impressive release. I still have my old Platinum Edition set on DVD that I haven’t watched in ages, and this set easily outclasses it. I remember viewing the Japanese edition a while back in the raw form and I think this set actually beats even THAT as the Japanese edition had some light DNR to it. This set appears more organic with the grain structure and not artificially smoothened (although I’m going from memory so take that with some grains of salt). I’m not sure whether this is an upscale or whether they made a new master for everything, but I’m guessing so as I didn’t notice the problems from the ADV releases on this set at all. It’s great with punchy purples, reds and blues, and while there’s some issues with line art being a bit rough (the art was always a bit rough) this is a VERY solid release and a nice upgrade from the DVDs.







Audio:

As I mentioned above, this set has the newer Netflix created Subtitles and Dubs for the disc (although the Japanese audio is the original and has never really changed naturally) in both 5.1 DTS-HD MA and 2.0 DTS-HD MA for both English and Japanese. I always ALWAYS will choose the subtitles in this case as the Japanese voice acting is drastically superior, and while the Netflix subtitles haven been tweaked over the last year or so to be a bit more accurate, the dubs have some strange verbiage changes which take away some of the impact (the old “I love you” line changed to “I like you” was especially odd as it sucked the gravitas of the situation out of it). On a technical level this is a good mix. Nice bass response, a solid 5.1 mix that isn’t overly aggressive (it’s more of a 3.1 mix with some mild surround usage), but an all around pleasing mix.










Extras:

Show
• Animatics

End of Evangelion
• Deleted Live Action Scene
• Making of Live Action Scene
• Theatrical Teaser
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Final Scene:Alternate Take
• Full Song - Musunde Hiraite
• Music Videos

Final Score: ​

All in all, this is an absolutely seminal show that should NOT be missed for anime fans. It’s a show that influenced countless other mecha shows in the future, as well as still holding the title of one of the top 10 greatest shows of all time. Gkids did a solid job with the audio and video encodes for the show, with some decent extras too. As I said above, the ONLY thing that I feel was a distinctly bad move was putting the ADV dubs and subs on the ultimate edition, AND creating unnecessary doubling of discs in that set as well. Great show, solid release, although the splitting of the original ADV audio and subs may be frustrating for some people. Audio and video generally look great, and I have to say it. If you haven’t seen or bought Evangelion, you really should.

Technical Specifications:

Starring: Megumi Ogata, Megume Hayashibara, Kotono Mitsuishi
Created by: Hideaki Anno
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 AVC (Show) / 1.85:1 AVC (Movies)
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Songs and Signs
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 779 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 9th, 2021

Recommendation: Highly Recommended