Evangelion: Death (True)²

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth is a 1997 film that acts as both a recap of the original series Neon Genesis Evangelion and a preview for the at-the-time upcoming film The End of Evangelion. The Death and Rebirth in the title refers to the two segments of the film; Death being the recap, and Rebirth being the first half an hour of EoE.

At the time of the film's release, the film was supposed to act as an alternative to watching the original 26 episode series, most likely to draw in non-fans to come and see End of Evangelion. In my opinion however, the film isn't a very good alternative to watching the original series. It's organised out of chronological order and forgoes a lot of the plot to give brief outlines of the main character's personalities, which could lead to a fair amount of confusion. Most of the animation in the "Death" segment is just reused footage from the series. The only parts of the film that are not reused are scenes where the three main leads practice classical music, which are more or less purposeless and really only serve as an excuse to listen to nice music. If you had not seen the original series before watching this, I would guess that you would be rather confused.

However if you are a fan of this franchise (like me), you'll probably quite enjoy it. Though the recap is strangely organised, it's still Evangelion, which is inherently pretty cool if you love the show. The organisation can be seen as an interesting new way to experience the show, and it can also act as a nice refresher on the events of the series. While The End of Evangelion segment is kind of pointless, it's still the End of Evangelion, which, in my opinion, is one of the best animated films ever made, so watching a bit of it is hardly a bad thing.

Still, the film only really functions as a curiosity piece for super fans. If you are not super invested in the franchise already, you probably don't even know it exists, and if you do, you probably don't care.

"Evangelion - Death & Rebirth" is, obviously, a film of two parts. "Death" is a futile attempt to stuff the content of the first 24 episodes of the "Evangelion" TV series into a running time of just under an hour. It succeeds in getting the very bare-bones of the plot in, but leaves out all of the subtler moments, the moments of psychological drama, and the fully-realized character developments that helped to make the TV series so popular to begin with. The few minutes of animation made help fill up this immense loss fails miserably.

But it does its job. And its job is to promote "The End of Evangelion". It is virtually impossible to watch "EoE" without some significant background knowledge of the TV series, and that is exactly what "Death" does.

"Rebirth" is, essentially, the first few minutes of "EoE", there for the sole purpose of whetting the appetites of audiences all over Japan for the initial release of "EoE". But since "EoE" has since been released, what's the point of keeping "Rebirth" around, anyway?

As far as promotional packages go, this is one brilliant piece of marketing. But viewers expecting to be thoroughly blown away by "Evangelion" are best off watching the TV series and then "EoE" (all in one sitting is NOT recommended, due to the sheer length of it all). "Death & Rebirth" has served its purpose, and now is no longer needed.

The series itself is a true masterpiece, I spoiled it by watching "The End of Evagelion" first, do NOT do that. "Death & Rebirth" is a good re-cap if you've seen all but the last 2 eps. It's a bit back and fourth but overall it erases any confusion. Again, this series is beautiful, it's not just 'robots' fighting monsters it's SO much more...they are NOT robots... DO NOT pass this series up! It's an experience.

The Evangelion series itself may well be a true masterpiece, a rare example of a popular work that transcends its commercial origins and enters the realm of great art. Unfortunately, this film fails to really do it justice as it consists primarily of material already seen in either the television series or the film End of Evangelion. Additionally, they redubbed many of the voices for the English version, and the new voices often fall quite short of the old ones (even if they didn't necessarily live up to the Japanese ones to begin with). Touji's lines, in particular, fall spectacularly flat. On the positive side, it does introduce some new and hard to get footage interspersed with some nice musical numbers from Bach and Pachelbel.

It's more like the Teacher's Edition.

"Evangelion" can be a life-changing experience when seen in it's entirety; if nothing else, it will redefine the way you look at anime. "Evangelion: Death/Rebirth" will not affect you quite so profoundly, but it's still worth viewing and, in my opinion, owning when the official U.S. DVD release hits stores in late July 2002.

Originally released in Japan prior to "End of Evangelion" to promote the theatrical finale to the series, the first half ("Death") is a summation of the first 24 episodes meant to "refresh the memories" of long time fans of the anime, and initiate those who have not seen the series into the mythology of Eva's world circa 2015 A.D.; The second half ("Rebirth") is a sneak peek at the first few minutes of "End of Evangelion" (the two part movie which - sort of - wraps up the series).

To say that "Death" is largely redundant if one has seen the series is fair enough; To say that "Rebirth" is redundant because the movie itself will be available domestically on DVD in September is also fair. But "Evangelion: Death/Rebirth" is not a total waste; a great deal of new animation was created for the film, including a number scenes which were given the "director's cut" treatment and which have been, until now, mostly unavailable in the U.S. except as fansubbed movie files off the internet. This alone is enough to recommend the title to many longtime Eva fans.

Granted, I won't watch it as often as the other episodes or the movie itself, but I'll own the DVD when it comes out. Bottom line, if you haven't seen Eva yet, watch the 24 episodes in their entirety first. You'll get more out of the movie AND out of "Death/Rebirth" that way.