Neon Genesis Evangelion

Collection 0:8

Review by Matthew Anderson

26 Episode TV Series

Company: ADVision

Running Time: 90 Min (3 Episodes)

Region: 1

Rating:PG-13 (Language and Violence)

EXTERNAL EXAM

In the year 2000, a meteor crashes into the Antarctic. Called the Second Impact, this causes massive flooding and an 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.

Their leader, Gendo Ikari, has assembled some of the finest scientific and military minds to work on creating and maintaining the Evangelions, gigantic robots created with unknown technology to combat this new threat.

A new pilot arrives to replace the hospitalized Asuka. His name is Karou, and Shinji instantly forms a connection with the young man. Misato, on the other hand, is suspicious about the new arrivial, due to his similarities to Rei Ayanami.

Unknown to both of them, Karou holds a secret that may give Shinji peace, or destroy his fragile grip on sanity!

The end of Evangelion starts 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.

In Japan, there is a directors cut of the episodes on this disc. The biggest addition was a scene where Karou is talking with the members of Seele before he enacts his plan. Since AD Vision is releasing the "original broadcast" version, and not the director cuts, this is really more FYI.

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

With scenes like this, you know there was going to be a movie! 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 hard-core"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. 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 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: With all that's going on, there is very little need for fan service.

FINAL EXAM

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 enpowerment of women in Japan.

This is it, the last disc, the last three episodes of the series.

Episode 24 starts out with Shinji all alone. All of his friends have moved away, and his fellow pilots are no longer on active duty. While reflecting on his current situation, the next pilot, Karou introduces himself. The two of them form a connection that will affect Shinji's life more so than anything that has happened to him before.

During the battle with the finial angel, the last piece of the puzzle falls into place, and at last we understand what the angels are after, and why stopping them was so important.

The last two episodes take place during the Third Impact. Unfortunately, we don't actually see this cataclysm happen. We only see what is going on in Shinji's mind during the Third Impact. This consists of rapid flashes of images from the past, bizarre art, and what looks like production sketches.

Many people believe that the last episodes were done in this fashion because their budget had finally ran out and that they had to use everything to complete the series. I find it hard to believe that any series as well planned and written as this one would resort to cheep, cost cutting measures in order to fill out 26 episodes. Honestly, I believe this strange ending was done in order to get people to watch the movies.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Collection 0:8 is the end of the AD Vision release of this groundbreaking series. It has been a long, strange journey. Now that the series is over, it's time to move on.........to the movies!

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