"Neon Genesis Evangelion" from 1995 is... infamous. Mostly because of the ending. Due to issues with funding and scheduling, the final ending of the tv anime was rushed, leaving more than a few questions never to be answered. In particular, it felt like there was an entire segment missing in between episodes 24 and 25, where it appears the battle between angels and man is finally over, man winning by the end of 24, and the apocolypse already underway at the beginning of 25. Surely, something was meant to have been told in between that span of time.In 1997, new films were released to provide the true ending Hideki Anno supposedly wanted. The releases, re-released, and re-edits are complicated to cover, so I'm sticking to how they were released in North America: the 2002 DVD releases of "Death and Rebirth" in one set, and "End of Evangelion" in another, by Manga Entertainment instead of ADV Films (who had released the main series). There's a lot of confusion about what exactly "Death and Rebirth" IS, and whether or not it is mandatory viewing. The general answer is "no": one can watch the main series and walk immediately into "The End of Evangelion," keeping in mind that it takes place immediately after episode 24 of the show. "Death and Rebirth" consists of two parts (complete with a five-minute intermission, likely kept from the theatrical release): "Death" retells the first 24 episodes of the seires in about 75 minutes, ignoring episodes 25 and 26. "Rebirth" is entirely new, taking place after episode 24, and in actuality, is just the first third of "The End of Evangelion," as a sort of early preview to Japanese fans who simply couldn't wait to see the final movie. There exist countless examples of anime television series being re-edited into theatrical films, sometimes as newly-scripted and animated work, and sometimes as simply re-using elements from the original series. It's cost effective, and in the age of YouTube is already often done for free by fans, but to have it re-edited by the original studio makes such a project feel more genuine, and a fair way to relive fond memories in a concise format. In theory. Almost consistently, such edits will cut out major story threads and character developments, resulting in a viewing experience that becomes impossible to follow for people who KNOW the story, and newcomers would completely miss the best of the franchise.So how does one try to summarize "Evangelion," originally 650 minutes, down to about 75 minutes? The show had a lot of filler, but also had complex emotions and character development, especially near the end. It's an impossible task to reduce, but somehow, "Death" does so in the only way I can now imagine it being done. Using newly-animated footage of the main four Eva pilots (Shini, Asuka, Rei, and the other one) preparing for a string quartet recital as a container and metaphor, "Death" quickly cuts between shots from the beginning and end of the series, each segment focusing on the perpsective of one of the main characters, while doing its best not to miss any important details from the final few episodes of the series. Like the conclusion of the main series, "Death" tries to portray internal turmoil rather than the details of universe lore. The start shows that the world is ending, then quickly cuts to us seeing a broken version of Shinji, then cuts to footage from early episodes to give us a sense to how Shinji got to be where he is by the end. This is repeated for the other pilots. Bizarrely, for fans who have seen the series, this editing style almost works out. By the end of the series, one would likely be left confused in one way or another, and "Death" does a fair job summarizing the details that matter, and summarizing the depression all the characters are left in by the very end. And more importantly, making it understandable where that depression is coming from, both from traumatic experiences that occur as Eva pilots, and from the distant past of these characters' histories. While I am impressed that it manages to do its job (refresh existing fans in preparation for a true sequel), I also can't say that there's anything new to make it worth watching, outside of the edit. Aside from the quartet practice, almost all scenes are taken directly from the series, including the "director's cut" episodes of 21-24. And for newcomers who haven't seen the series at all? After spending so much time with it, it's impossible for the creators to know how to edit this in a way that could be well understood, and for that matter, impossible for me as a viewer to fully understand a newcomer's perspective. I imagine remembering character names will be the most difficult thing, but otherwise, the movie should give enough context for the viewer to be able to read a Wikipedia page and grasp the entirety of the story. But on its own, it will come off as a mess, more like an abstract experiment in film-making than a proper movie.
Which leads us to "Rebirth." While the editing style of "Death" is at least novel, it's harder to recomend "Rebirth" as anything other than preparation for where "The End of Evangelion" will take us next. The animation is a bit better than the series ever was, assisted by Production I.G. (the opening of "Death and Rebirth" lists out almost a dozen different logos of groups involved). It makes clear that any contraints that existed on broadcast television are gone: "Rebirth" opens with the infamous masterbation scene. It helps prepare us of the context of where and when "The End of Evangelion" will take place, and what will occur. That right mindset will be helpful, as the movie is known for being one of the most bizarre pieces of anime in theatrical history. But documentation suggests that "Death and Rebirth" was meant to be the final ending, only separating into "The End of Evangelion" due to budget and time constraints. Again. A keen eye will recognize a few animated shots that are copied frame-by-frame from the original series, just used in a different context. One can't help but wonder what the full story was behind the production of these movies: were budget issues real during the television series, or had director Anno accomplished what he wanted? Were the movies meant to satisfy his own ambitions for the franchise, or made to sate die-hard fans, some of whom sent death threats after the television series had finished? At the time of this writing, I haven't yet sat down to watch the entirety of "The End of Evangelion," so these are are speculative ideas. Increasingly, a common trend occurs across the entirely of the franchise's production: the artists behind it and the making-of process is just as interesting, if not moreso, than the series itself.The art lacks some of the power of the original series, as the best shots and designs of the mechs are entirely reused: of all the new material, nothing stands out as effectively. The animation of "Death" is identical to the series (literally reusing existing shots), but "Rebirth" is a bit more polished. Many of the iconic themes of the series don't make their way into these films, leaving us with a complex audio mix, but less memorable. Finally, the English dub and American DVD release... While the dub for the television series started to hit its stride by the second half, it still feels mixed in quality for the movies. Some of the original cast simply wasn't available by the time the movies were dubbed (almost five years after the orignal series' release), requiring recasting of some side (but key) characters. Sue Ulu, who voices scientist Ritsuko Akagi, was one of the voices who seemed to crack by the end of the series, and her voice stands out as the weakest performance in the movies. Some of the side characters are not only weak, but come off as entirely miscast, especially for "Rebirth." Worst of all is new inconsistencies in pronounciation: is it pronounced "ee-va" or "eav-a?" Is it "ko-wa-ru" or "kwa-ru?" Right or wrong, it was at least more consistent in the series than it is in the movies, sometimes shifting between options in the same scene. An interesting note is that the entire dialogue of 'Death" and "Rebirth" is completely re-recorded, and the production team makes it clear they worked hard on the translation effort. Sadly, it doesn't come off well.Manga Entertainment's DVD release remains one of the most unfortunate anime releases I can recall, as well-intentioned as it was. "Death and Rebirth" comes on a double-sided disc, with the second side holding a second copy of the movie with additional "interactive" elements to bring up descriptions of what's happening, plus an insightful audio commentary by the English team. The DVD menu is designed to be purposely abstract, using mirrored-text and flashing words like the film, but is a bit too agressive, and it can be difficult actually navigating the menu to find what you want. But the real issue is the video, presented in "widescreen" at a time when most DVD releases still had 4:3 video, to match common television sizes. But it's widescreen, encoded in a 4:3 file... so on a modern television, you get black bars on the bottom, top and sides, the video taking up only about 1/4 of the screen in the center. And it isn't great video quality, coming out worse than a VHS tape, and noticably worse than ADV's remastered DVD release of the main series. Unfortunately, no other legal option exists to watch the film in English; pirated copies of the films on Bluray with English subtitles might actually be better in this situation."Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death and Rebirth" is, for the most part, unnecessary, especially when taken on its own. But any material about "Evangeion" is worth looking up, and fans will still find some value in watching this. And I should give credit for "Death" being creative in the challenge it took.