Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death & Rebirth

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death & Rebirth
by Hideaki Anno, Hiroyuki Ishidô, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Keiichi Sugiyama, Masahiko Ôtsuka

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DVD Reviews of Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death & Rebirth

DVD Review: Interesting, but mostly nothing new.
Summary: 3 Stars

The first of these movies, entitled DEATH AND REBIRTH, is actually two movies in one. The first section of the "feature", DEATH (running for about three-quarters of the 110 minute film), is basically a recap of the first 24 episodes -- all out of order and interspersed with additional footage and/or scenes of the protagonists (including lonely Shinji Ikari, enigmatic Rei Ayanami, and bitchy Asuka Langley Sohryu) at violin lessons. I did find this somewhat interesting, poetic, and artistic to look at -- the tricks they performed with the credits in particular are really impressive -- but what "new" scenes included are scattered and few, and the material isn't really much more than stuff that we've already seen.

Following the "movie", which concludes with the death of the "final" angel, Kaworu, (yes, the infamous one-minute pause in-between his final sentence to Shinji and his death is included), is a brief intermission which eventually leads into the second "part" of the movie. REBIRTH is the first 20 or so minutes of the "remakes" of the last two episodes. I could talk about them here, but these 20 minutes are actually identical to those of the second EVANGELION movie, END OF EVANGELION, the supposedly "final" entry in this confusing, labyrinthian tale.

In other words, DEATH & REBIRTH doesn't really feel like a great purchase if you've already seen the show. I should have listened to those who warned me in advance. EVANGELION completists may find it to be rewarding, but I was a little disappointed with it, especially since I was expecting more.

On an even more ironic note, the DVD presentation feels uneven. The video quality is decent throughout, and the interactive menus are beautifully constructed. The MOKUJI interactive feature is also said to be helpful, but I haven't checked it out yet.

The audio seems to be one of the unfortunately weaker aspects of the DVD. The English dub can be heard in either 5.1 or 2.0 sound, but the Japanese track is in 2.0. And the dub feels unpolished. It benefits strongly from having most (if not all) of the actors from the original EVA dub return to once again lend their voices to this dysfunctional cast of characters, but at the beginning, they sound a little out of it, and the new actors, although decent for the most part, don't seem to suit the characters well. In addition, the pronunciations are slightly different from ADV's release of the series -- mainly that of EVA. On top of that, the dub feels poorly mixed -- the music, dialogue, and sound effects are not as vibrant or equalized as on the Japanese language track.

There is an audio commentary track by Amanda Winn Lee (the dub director and voice of Rei Ayanami) for people who are interested, me included. I have yet to hear the entire track, but what I heard so far did sound interesting, especially since I'm a bit more of a dub enthusiast.

The only real drawback of the DVD, however, is the mere fact that it's DOUBLE-SIDED. I hate it when DVDs are presented like this; it makes it easier to lay fingermarks or scratches on it when you don't want to. Plus, you have to FLIP the disk (thankfully not to see the entire movie) to get to the other features that "SIDE A" doesn't have. MANGA ENTERTAINMENT has received a lot of flak about their DVD releases lately, and it's unfortunate that this DVD suffered as a part of that trend. I will not go so far to slam-dunk this release, but I think it could have been much better.

All in all, DEATH & REBIRTH appears to be restricted for diehard EVA fans, enthusiasts, and completists only. For others, I wouldn't suggest this as a good introduction, as it will feel disjointed and confusing -- as if the show isn't already enough of that. I don't know what to think about my choice to purchase it, but I fall in the middle of regretting it and being glad that I did. I guess I'll never know what to think. Still, the cinematography is interesting and the music is beautiful.