Offical Neon Genesis Evangelion Info/Update Thread

[keitaro]

Originally Posted by Albie989

Also, "Fly Me to the Moon" is a song I associate with the franchise but I understand why it's missing.

Fry me to the moon~~

[samlop10]

I ordered the Japanese box set and and got the English subs online (yes, I know the new English-friendly box set (which I have on pre-order) is coming out soon but bad decisions and all that). I watched the first two episodes and I’m quite impressed by the series so far. I had never seen it any of it before (original nor the new movies) as I’m very selective of the anime I watch, but that was certainly an explosive way to begin the series.

And the 5.1 audio is phenomenal. I was very impressed by the dynamic range, directionality, and especially the placement of objects around the sound field. A few of the effects are a tiny bit ‘crackly’ (I’m assuming due to the age of the effects) but I still would not hesitate to give what I’ve heard of the first two episodes demo-worthy scores.

Does anyone know the history of the 5.1 mix of the 26 episodes? I’m assuming the 2.0 mix is the original. But I’m curious about it. It honestly reminded me of Akira’s innovative 5.1 (Hypersonic?) mix but I was more surprised here given this is a series and not a movie.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

To be fair, Netflix doesn’t really bother clearing music issues for any show on their service. Dawson’s Creek is still missing almost all of its original music, including its absolutely iconic theme song. You think it’s hard watching Eva without FMTTM, try watching that show without Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Wanna Wait.”

Speak of the devil. Maybe there's hope for FMttM after all, at least on Netflix?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by samlop10

I ordered the Japanese box set and and got the English subs online (yes, I know the new English-friendly box set (which I have on pre-order) is coming out soon but bad decisions and all that). I watched the first two episodes and I’m quite impressed by the series so far. I had never seen it any of it before (original nor the new movies) as I’m very selective of the anime I watch, but that was certainly an explosive way to begin the series.

And the 5.1 audio is phenomenal. I was very impressed by the dynamic range, directionality, and especially the placement of objects around the sound field. A few of the effects are a tiny bit ‘crackly’ (I’m assuming due to the age of the effects) but I still would not hesitate to give what I’ve heard of the first two episodes demo-worthy scores.

Does anyone know the history of the 5.1 mix of the 26 episodes? I’m assuming the 2.0 mix is the original. But I’m curious about it. It honestly reminded me of Akira’s innovative 5.1 (Hypersonic?) mix but I was more surprised here given this is a series and not a movie.

The 5.1 remix is heavily revisionist and I’m not a huge fan as a result, even if it is rather good from a technological standpoint. The 5.1 remix was first produced for the 2003 Japanese renewal DVDs. Many King Records owned titles gained 5.1 remixes in the 2000s, and Eva’s is perfectly fine, but I think the best of the lot was Revolutionary Girl Utena, which, while revisionist, was the strongest in actual mixing and had less drastic changes than Eva. (It’s the rare case where I outright prefer the remix to the original mix)

As for the films (D&R and EoE), they’re also remixes. They were originally 2.0 Dolby Surround mixes theatrically, as evidenced by the Dolby Surround credit in the credits and no mention of 5.1 surround. The Laserdisc was also 2.0, and this was not a technological limitation, as AC3 5.1 had been on Laserdiscs since 1995 with Clear and Present Danger and True Lies being the first two titles.

The comparison to Akira’s Hypersonic mix is interesting, as I prefer the Akira Hypersonic mix to the Eva 5.1 mix, even though Akita’s mix was far more revisionist, simply due to the Hypersonic having absolute reference level fidelity and very good mixing, with only the sound and music changes being frustrating.

Still, the 5.1 remix is perfectly fine, and on its own I have few complaints in its overall quality, but only when compared to the 2.0 stereo original do I prefer the original mix.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by professorwho

The 5.1 remix is heavily revisionist and I’m not a huge fan as a result, even if it is rather good from a technological standpoint. The 5.1 remix was first produced for the 2003 Japanese renewal DVDs. Many King Records owned titles gained 5.1 remixes in the 2000s, and Eva’s is perfectly fine, but I think the best of the lot was Revolutionary Girl Utena, which, while revisionist, was the strongest in actual mixing and had less drastic changes than Eva. (It’s the rare case where I outright prefer the remix to the original mix)

As for the films (D&R and EoE), they’re also remixes. They were originally 2.0 Dolby Surround mixes theatrically, as evidenced by the Dolby Surround credit in the credits and no mention of 5.1 surround. The Laserdisc was also 2.0, and this was not a technological limitation, as AC3 5.1 had been on Laserdiscs since 1995 with Clear and Present Danger and True Lies being the first two titles.

Pretty much this. To quote the relevant section from the Platinum/Renewal DVD booklets:

"For this DVD release a great deal of effort went into effecting a drastic renewal of both the video and audio of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series.

The focus of the renewal plan for the audio was building 5.1 sound. The sound for the Evangelion TV series was produced in 2.0 stereo. For this renewal, rather than choosing to use specialized software to mechanically split the 2.0 stereo sound into 5.1 audio, the three elements that make up the sound: dialogue, music, and sound effects, were each remapped for every episode. This work required a tremendous amount of time and in fact took almost half a year to complete. Some of the additional recorded dialogue is material that was intentionally left off the 2.0 stereo recording, even though Director Anno originally planned for it when the show was being produced, because it was surmised that including those lines would be information overload, making everything harder to hear. In other cases, there was dialogue added to tighten up certain areas that had too little information in terms of the audio. Specifically speaking, the majority of these lines are reports and announcements from the NERV staff at the command center. Others include background crowd noise in school scenes and announcements at train stations. Of the cast members who participated in the additional recordings, the only original cast member is Megumi Hayashibara. And her part was to play the super computer, MAGI, not Rei Ayanami. In other words, of the characters with names, the only one to have additional dialogue was the MAGI.

The fundamental concept behind the sound renewal was to respect the original. With regards to musical pieces, the original materials were mixed down into 5.1 sound, but musical selections were not made anew, and the additionally recorded dialogue was to augment the already existing voice recordings basically using the original recordings as is. In other words, it was polished into a higher quality product by adding positive elements while still making the most of the original material."

[Hydra Spectre]

I love the 5.1 remixes of the TV series and movies. It is interesting to point out that NGE was one of the very first full TV series in Dolby Digital 5.1 when it got the Renewal remix.
Some other TV series were in 5.0 (like Friends) or only select episodes in 5.1 (like the Uncut Ultimate Edition of DBZ, which only got the first 27 episodes).

[Damned]

Hey everyone,

New fan here. Can someone give me a rundown on all the different versions of the TV series / movies, as well as all the different dubs that exist? So far, I know the following...

1. TV series has 26 episodes. The original run was dubbed by ADV and available in their "Perfect Collection" DVDs. The original run is also available on the "Archives" JP DVD.

2. The TV series had its video (Both content and quality.) remastered and its audio remixed (Again, both in content and quality), in a Japanese set called "Renewal", which is what is on the JP BD release. While all the episodes have new / altered content, episodes 21-24 are immensely different from the original run. ADV created a new audio mix for this "Renewal" instance of the show in their "Platinum" line of DVD releases, which is included on the US BD.

3. Netflix did their own dub of the "Renewal" version of the show, which is also included on the US BD.

Beyond that, I know the "Re-Build" films have a FUNimation dub and Amazon dub for the first 3 movies and just an Amazon dub for the fourth. Wikipedia also lists a second episode 25 and 26 for the TV series that mystifies me. Additionally, I'm completely lost about all the different "Death" and "Rebirth" stuff.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by Damned

New fan here. Can someone give me a rundown on all the different versions of the TV series / movies, as well as all the different dubs that exist? So far, I know the following...

I'll start with the mid-late 90s source material and then work my way over to their English dubs.

Editorially speaking there's three versions of the TV series:

- Broadcast version (1995-96) - Japanese "Archives" DVD box (1-26), US VHS & "Perfect Collection" DVD releases (21-26)
- "Video Format" version (1996-98) - Japanese VHS/LD/DVD (1-20, 21'-24', 25-26), US VHS & "Perfect Collection" DVD releases (1-20), US "Director's Cut" DVDs (21'-24', 25-26)
- "Renewal" version (2003) - Japanese DVD/BD (1-26 + 21'-24'), US "Platinum" DVD releases (1-26 + 21'-24'), upcoming GKIDS BD box sets (1-20, 21'-24', 25-26)

For the movies, there are several versions to contend with:

- Death & Rebirth (original theatrical cut) - Japanese BD box only
- Death[True] & Rebirth (1998 WOWOW broadcast version) - Japanese "Archives" DVD box only
- Death[True]² & Rebirth - Japanese VHS/LD/DVD, US VHS/DVD

- The End of Evangelion (original theatrical cut) - Japanese VHS/LD/DVD/BD, US VHS/DVD
- The End of Evangelion ("Video Format" version) - Japanese VHS/LD/DVD/BD, US BD box set (11-disc UE and LE SKUs only)

- Revival of Evangelion (i.e. Death[True]² + The End of Evangelion) - JP DVD/BD, US BD box sets (all SKUs)

As for the dubs:

ADV Films did a dub of Episodes 1-26 back in the late 90s, but when they put out their "Director's Cut" DVDs in 2004 that had the longer versions of Episodes 21'-24' they basically did a redub of just those four episodes while keeping the original dub of the shorter version of 21-24. So on the later "Platinum" DVDs 1-26 are the original 90s dub, while 21'-24' are the 2004 redub.

Manga Entertainment did the dub for Death[True]² & Rebirth and EoE in the early 2000s.

Netflix commissioned VSI to do a full redub of 1-20, 21'-24', 25-26, and Revival for its 2019 debut on the streaming service. Note that Khara refused to license out the original versions of Episodes 21-24 nor "Rebirth" to Netflix, and this decision would carry over to GKIDS' Blu-ray license as well. My theory is that the Director's Cut versions of 21'-24' + Revival of Evangelion are deemed as the canonical versions of their base content and Anno won't allow the previous versions to be licensed internationally going forward.

And now to put everything together as applied to the upcoming GKIDS BD box sets:

The $60 5-disc regular edition will have 1-20, 21'-24', 25-26, and Revival using only the Japanese audio & Netflix/VSI dub.

The $175-$275 11-disc LE/UE editions will have that same content using both the "official" Netflix/VSI dub *and* the "classic" ADV/Manga dubs as appropriate for the content in question, albeit on separate discs. It will also have the "Video Format" version of EoE, but my hunch based on the Italian set's stated specifications is that it will be sub-only with a single Japanese 2.0 audio track.

[rayeknor]

So the differences between the video format and theatrical versions of EoE is only the credits/intermission and a live action segment, right? No additional animated footage etc?

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

Speak of the devil. Maybe there's hope for FMttM after all, at least on Netflix?

The song probably only needed to be cleared once. Supposedly FMTTM's problem is they want clearance for each instance.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by rayeknor

So the differences between the video format and theatrical versions of EoE is only the credits/intermission and a live action segment, right? No additional animated footage etc?

One small scene is changed in which the theatrical version has Asuka saying "iya" while the Video Format version has the word written on-screen instead. But other than that, it's just title card & ED credit changes plus the addition of a live-action "next episode preview" for Episode 26' ("Magokoro wo Kimi ni") at the end of Episode 25' ("Air").

[BigOnAnime]

If anyone needs a laugh...

Originally Posted by WTK

via RACS

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...742#post799742

A reminder...

Originally Posted by WTK

09-07-2011, 06:44 PM

RACS Edition - Looking @ some of their OOP stuff... :sweat:

• Neon Genesis Evangelion the Movie DVD Boxed Set (Both Movies!): $289.98
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, Platinum Edition Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak): $78.98
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Edition Collection DVD Boxed Set (Holiday 08 Limited Edition) (Thin-Pak): $78.98

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...184#post123184

Originally Posted by WTK

03-11-2012, 05:10 PM

For the fun of it, here is another RACS update...looking at their OOP stuff. The previous listed was posted back in September.

• Neon Genesis Evangelion the Movie DVD Boxed Set (Both Movies!): $289.98
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, Platinum Edition Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak): $78.98
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Edition Collection DVD Boxed Set (Holiday 08 Limited Edition) (Thin-Pak): $78.98

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...253#post179253

Originally Posted by WTK

04-13-2013, 10:56 AM

I haven't done a list like this in quite a while...here are some interesting "OOP" prices from RACS: :sweat:

• Neon Genesis Evangelion the Movie DVD Boxed Set (Both Movies!): $289.98
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, Platinum Edition Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak): $78.98

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...845#post308845

[gundamcero]

Lol. What a hypocrite.

[Hatter]

Now granted I haven't seen the anime before, but reading the Netflix changes the only issue I actually see is the end credits song being missing. All the other outrage seems to just be centered around artistic license of the original dubbing team and childhood memories, not so much that the new dub is actually inherently bad or unfaithful (given it's technically a more accurate dub).

Spending a 5-6 multiplier for that and still wind up with an incomplete version seems incomprehensible to me. I could see it more if the end credits theme was actually present in that version

[The Collector FX]

GKids and All The Anime (U.S. and U.K.) Ultimate Edition's are now officially "Sold Out".

[Damned]

Thanks svenge!

So the video content was changed in the original home video JP releases, and then the audio was remixed for the "Renewal" DVDs (with the video content being un-altered from the previous release), if I'm understanding you correctly.

You mentioned that 1-26 were not re-dubbed for the Platinum DVDs, but I did see this post earlier on in the thread...

ADV did not redub the series when they got the Renewal footage; they only remixed their existing dub in 5.1. They considered redubbing it from scratch, but Matt Greenfield thought the original dub was too well-known, and compared redubbing it to the Star Wars special editions. All they redubbed was:

1. Redubbing this single line at Gainax's request:
Video

2. Redubbing the next episode previews (since the new footage didn't match the old previews).

5. Redubbing those same characters (and only those characters) in 25-26 for consistency. The Platinum editions credit the original VAs by mistake, but have the partially redubbed versions.

I was planning on buying the Archive DVDs and syncing the "Original" ADV dub from the Perfect DVDs to them, but is this not possible (Your list mentions the Perfect DVDs aren't the "Original Broadcast" versions for 1-20.)?

Also, Death[True]² & Rebirth isn't on the JP nor the US BDs? I swear on Rightstuf it was mentioned in the product description.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

The song probably only needed to be cleared once. Supposedly FMTTM's problem is they want clearance for each instance.

No, Sony likely had to pay a fee for every single use, although it may not have cost nearly as much as FMttM. That's how music licensing works. It's why IDWW was on the season 1-2 DVDs, but not the rest of the series. They could afford it for those episodes on home video at the time, but not for the rest.

Originally Posted by Damned

I was planning on buying the Archive DVDs and syncing the "Original" ADV dub from the Perfect DVDs to them, but is this not possible (Your list mentions the Perfect DVDs aren't the "Original Broadcast" versions for 1-20.)?

Not if the Archive DVDs have the Renewal version. The ADV dub was remixed because it wouldn't possibly sync with that footage.

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

Lol. What a hypocrite.

I mean, it is RACS we're talking about.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by Damned

Thanks svenge!

So the video content was changed in the original home video JP releases, and then the audio was remixed for the "Renewal" DVDs (with the video content being un-altered from the previous release), if I'm understanding you correctly. [...] Also, Death[True]² & Rebirth isn't on the JP nor the US BDs? I swear on Rightstuf it was mentioned in the product description.

1) There were a rather large amount of video tweaks done for "Renewal" plus the addition of 5.1 audio, with all scene cuts being stabilized to remove the "telecine judder" and some scenes being reanimated. You can't just take subtitles timed according to the "Video Format" version and transplant them to "Renewal" without adjustments, as they'd lose sync over the course of an episode.

2) The JP "Archives" set uses the broadcast version of 1-26. The only episodes that were put on US DVDs using that version are 21-26 in the "Perfect Collection" box set. The Perfect Colleciton set's Episodes 1-20 were based off of the JP "Video Format" version and may not sync up with the JP broadcast version as such.

3) GKIDS' BD box sets include Death[True]² + The End of Evangelion (aka "Revival of Evangelion"). Rebirth is not part of the package.

[BIO-FOREST]

Originally Posted by Hatter

Now granted I haven't seen the anime before, but reading the Netflix changes the only issue I actually see is the end credits song being missing. All the other outrage seems to just be centered around artistic license of the original dubbing team and childhood memories, not so much that the new dub is actually inherently bad or unfaithful (given it's technically a more accurate dub).

I'd be fine if the few instances of FmttM in the actual episodes played.

[Show spoiler] It plays in key scenes with Misato and Kaji, I haven't seen the Netflix version in a while, so I don't know if it's replaced.

I'd be fine if they cheaped out on the credits, but not those scenes.