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SUMMARY

According to official reports, in the year 2000, a meteor crashes into The Antarctic. Called the Second Impact, this causes massive flooding and environmental disasters all across the globe. In the resulting chaos, a new United Nations was formed, under the auspices of a group called Seele. Using information from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Seele knows that strange creatures called Angels are coming. According to the scrolls, if the angels succeed in their mission, the Earth will be destroyed.

Fifteen years later, the organization known as NERV has been created. It's purpose is to defeat the Angels by any means necessary.

Shinji Ikari, son of Gendo Ikari, is recruited to be the pilot of Eva unit one by the Marduk Institute, upon the orders of his father. Despite the tenuous relationship between the two, Shiji agrees to pilot the Unit One Evangelion (test type). During his first battle he meets Rei Ayanami, pilot of the prototype, Unit O.

As Shinji adjusts to his new roll as hero, he begins to discover that his actions can affect others. Soon, he must make a decision. Stay and fight, or run away, like always.

The battle for Earth begins now.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO:This series has gotten a royal treatment by ADV Films. The quality is sharper, clearer, and cleaner than on the Japanese Laser Disc. A lot of the graininess has been cleaned up and the colors are brighter. The level of detail is more apparent, as is the quality of animation. With our setup, we did not notice any artifacing, rainbows or color bleeding. Please keep in mind that we have the initial release of volume one. The re-release has improved video quality, and some modified scenes that had problems in the first issue.

Overall, ADV's version of Evangelion shows why DVD is such a great format for anime.

AUDIO: 4 (count em 4) separate audio tracks. English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. All in Dolby 2.0 sound. None of the tracks have a solid surround sound mix, but you do get background noise and echoes from the rear speakers.

English: Very good mix of the voice actors, music, and background noise for the most part. There are times when the music blasts out and overpowers the voices, but it is manageable with some equalization adjustments. We do get occasional pops and white noise when we turn it up to loud, but adjustments to our Sony computer helped fix that problem.

On our GE TV without our Sony Stereo, the sound is great. Crisp and clean with no dropouts or sound problems.

Japanese: Since it was a TV series, the sound is the same as the laser disc, only quieter. No real surround sound elements. The voices were always low in the Japanese version, so no real surprise there. This is as close to the broadcast version as you will get, so you anime purists will be happy.

French: Has the loudest sound overall, and almost edges out the English track in clarity. If French was my primary language, I would be very happy with this track.

Spanish: Well, this is a fly in the ointment, if Spanish is your native tongue. The sound completely sucks. Sounding like it was being played back through a mono headphone, this is the worse audio track I have ever herd on a DVD. You can barely hear the voices, the music is almost gone, and the sound effects are way too muted. The only cool part is that all the English titles are read in Spanish.

EDITS: Any and all Japanese titles have been edited out, and some of the writing on documents have been replaced with English text. The Opening and closing themes use the "clean" versions and so replace the Japanese titles with English.

FYI: The big black part is where Hideaki Anno's name goes.

The episode titles have been removed and replaced with English as have any flashes of Japanese on black screens. Only when the Japanese is on animated portions, are the titles left on. Some of the eye catches have also been altered.

Also, on the English version, the background music for the "Next Episode" segment is different from the Japanese version.

EXTRAS: Very skimpy compared to other ADV films. Character bios of the characters, EVA's and of course, Angels. Other than that, there is nothing else.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: One of the best written series of all time. Credit is due largely to series creator and director Hediaki Anno (who also worked on the movie) and his group of script writers. This series is hard core science fiction. The scripts tackle a wide range of topics, and they pull no punches. From nerve wracking fights, to X-Files paranoia, this series will keep you riveted to your seat.

ACTING: This is going to be the start of another huge debate. The hardcore "sub or die" folks will say that Japanese is the only way to watch this series, and the English dub is fine for the casual fans. If you want to see the way the series was intended to be, Japanese is it.

However, the English dub is quite good. In many cases, it is better than the Japanese language version. ADV Films has done a great job of helping some of us cross the line from pure sub. Others here applaud getting to watch great anime in English.

Every voice fits each character. They are distinctive, and easy to tell who is who. Amanda Winn is perfect as Rei Ayanami. She does a fantastic job at keeping the low, quite tone that is her character. Cheers for Spike Spencer for his Shinji. He does some great yelling.

The Japanese cast is nothing to dismiss either. Since this is how we saw the series the first time around, they still can pack a wallop. The thing we miss in the English version, is Yukio Miamura's Asuka, and her rally cry of "Anta Baka!". There are times when the actors voice doesn’t match the urgency of the scene, but most of the time, they are right on the emotional mark.

The Spanish and French are pretty boring overall, and not a lot of variation between happy and sad. It seems like they are trying to hard to match their voices with the mouths. It also can be difficult to differentiate between the female characters.

FAN SERVICE: Well, plenty of hints of the bodies that are under those tight uniforms. We do get some shots of Rei and Asuka's breasts, and a couple of butt shots of boy toy Shinji. Never directly showing nudity, this series comes very close.

CONCLUSION

It is the year 2015............

With that simple statement started one of the most interesting experiences in Anime, Neon Genesis Evangelon.

A joint venture of Gainax (Nadia and Gunbuster) and Tatsunoko (Macross and Mach Go Go Go), Evangelion appeared to be (at least on the surface) the traditional story about a boy and his robot. Peal away that veneer, and you find a story that covers such a wide range of topics like, family relationships, psychology, religion, and the empowerment of women in Japan.

When we first meet Shinji Ikari, he is caught up in the middle of a fight between the UN forces and a giant monster. Despite a quick rescue by a girl named Misato, he is not out of the fire yet. Taken to the top secret base under the city Tokyo 3, he is quickly pressed into service to fight the monster. His weapon is a giant robot called and Evangelion. At first reluctant, he takes control when it appears that his father is going to place an injured young girl into the machine.

After the battle, the rest of the episodes deal mostly with the young boy trying to settle into his new home. However, Shinji is such an introvert, it is hard for him to reach out. He does have a talent of getting people angry at him. His first meeting with Toji, a fellow class mate, ends up with Shinji on the ground. The reason for Toji's disgust with they young pilot is because Toji's younger sister is injured during the fight.

War does make for strange bedfellows, and soon Toji and his buddy Kenoske learn what it means to be Shinji. Will they become friends, or will the hate grow?

Evangelion could so easily have gone the way of so many "Giant Robot" series in the past. Typically, the son, at his fathers request, arrives at his fathers secret lab to pilot the super giant robot he has developed. With cool music in the background, the son then rushes into the cockpit, and takes off into battle.

This series will have nothing to do with that.

Instead of a joyful reunion between father and son, you are treated to a very cold welcome by Gendo, Shinji's father. The young boy, terrified to pilot the robot, refuses. After severe goading by the staff, and his father wanting to place a wounded girl into the robot, Shinji agrees. Things do not get easier as he starts to settle in. With Toji's assaultand the fact that his father has noting to do with him, our hero decides to quit.

The stories runs the gambit from action packed (episode one), to character driven and dull (episode four). Episode two tells its tale in a non linear format, and episode three introduces two new characters, Toji and Kenoske. These two will have a major part to play in the future.

There are some scenes that many would consider cost cutting. Others would say that Hideaki Anno is playing with convention again, and showing that a scene can be interesting if the dialogue is written well. I am one of the latter. Everything in this series is done with purpose and reason. I don't think that a series, produced by the otaku kings at Gainax would attempt to take the easy way out.

Despite the slow start, Neon Genesis Evangelion is perhaps one of the most successful experiments in animation. While it may not have the flash of other anime, it still keeps you interested by its unique storytelling devices.

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