Evangelion: Death and Rebirth

Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hideaki Anno Masayuki Kazuya Tsurumaki
Produced by	Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Written by	Hideaki Anno
Starring	Megumi Ogata Megumi Hayashibara Yuko Miyamura
Music by	Shiro Sagisu
Cinematography	Hisao Shirai Yōichi Kuroda
Editing by	Sachiko Miki
Studio	Production I.G Gainax
Distributed by	Toei Company
Release date(s)	March 15, 1997 (1997-03-15)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン 劇場版 DEATH & REBIRTH シト新生, Shin seiki Evangerion Gekijō-ban: Shito Shinsei^?) is the first movie in the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. It consists of two parts, Death and Rebirth, respectively. It was released, along with the follow-up, The End of Evangelion, in response to the success of the TV series and a strong demand by fans for another ending. It has since been re-edited and re-released several times.

In Japan between its release and October 1997, Death and Rebirth grossed 1.1 billion yen.^[1]

Plot summary

Death

See Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime)

The first part, Death, is a 70-minute long edit of the first 24 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with additional footage not seen in the original broadcast (the footage would be later reintegrated into the Japanese Laserdisc and the American and European Platinum Collection releases of the series, as "Director's Cut" versions of episodes 21 to 24).

Death was later re-edited when Death & Rebirth premiered on the Japanese "WOWOW" satellite TV network, and renamed Death(true), which omitted much of the new footage. Death was finalized with the release of the film Revival of Evangelion, and named Death(true)². This version is identical to Death(true) with the exception of a couple of new shots never before seen in either prior incarnation (this new footage is also integrated into the Japanese Laserdisc and the American and European Platinum Collection releases of the series).

Rebirth

See The End of Evangelion: Episode 25'

The second part, Rebirth, consists of 27 minutes of entirely new animation that would eventually form the first third of the film The End of Evangelion released four months later. Because of time constraints, Rebirth only covers the initial preparations of the Human Instrumentality Project and the invasion of the Geofront by SEELE, ending with the arrival of the Mass Production Evas (in The End of Evangelion, the final version of episode 25' concludes with the end of Asuka's fight with the Mass Production Evas).

Releases

Revival of Evangelion promotional poster

On July 26, 2005, Manga Entertainment released Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion together in the United States as a two disc set.

The English production made similar creative changes in the dubbing of the film as it made in The End of Evangelion. One notable change was sound effect between a scene featuring Kaji and one of Shinji informing Asuka of his death. According to the DVD commentary, ADR director Amanda Winn-Lee felt the sound was not a proper "gunshot" and replaced it with a more overt effect. However, the Japanese screenplay mentions that the sound effect is not a gunshot at all, but rather the sound of a slap (the following scene implies Asuka has slapped Shinji's face) and fans have criticized this change as an example of dub actors and directors overstepping their bounds when adapting Japanese animation into English.

Evangelion: Death (true)

Screened on the 2 January 1998 on the Japanese Satellite TV channel WoWoW this version of Evangelion: Death was re-edited personally by Masayuki. It appears that Masayuki really didn't want to include all the excerpts of the new scenes from episode 21 to 24 because he removed some of them from this new version of Evangelion: Death.

Revival of Evangelion

Revival of Evangelion (Revival of Evangelion: Death(true)²/Air/まごころを、君に, Revival of Evangelion: Death(true)²/Air/Magokoro o, Kimi ni) was released March 8, 1998 and is a 157-minute unification of the 1997 Neon Genesis Evangelion movies Death(true)² (largely the same as Death(true), except with the re-addition of the image of Adam on Gendo's hand and several other minor edits) and The End of Evangelion. It is considered the final form of the Evangelion movies, which were released in several forms prior to Revival. The two were released on the ninth and tenth discs of the Renewal of Evangelion box set with the labels of Revival of Evangelion and Evangelion - The Feature Film.

Reception

Chris Beveridge from AnimeOnDVD gave it an overall "A-" score.^[2] Robert Nelson of THEM gave it a 3 out of 5.^[3]

See also

Anime and Manga portal

• Evangelion: Death -(OST)
• List of Neon Genesis Evangelion media

References

1. ^ December 1997 NewType, p.90
2. ^ http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/1532.php AnimeOnDVD
3. ^ http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=304 THEM Anime Reviews

External links

• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth at the Internet Movie Database
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth at MusicBrainz
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Anime Jump! review