Don't know if ya'll are a good resource, but I'd rather ask here than wade through a bunch of other anime-weirdo sites. I'm familiar with a few anime works (Paprika/Perfect Blue, Miyazaki stuff, Akira, Ghost in the Shell movie), but I have not seen Neon Genesis Evangelion. It seems to be very well received, and I'd like to.
But how am I supposed to watch it? The wikipedia article says not only is there a series, but also bonus episodes after the end of the series, and then a movie recutting the series, and then a movie redoing the ending, and then like four extra movies. (!)
Is there like a single, definitive, authorial vision which I should watch? Some stuff I should leave out? Should I watch it all, but in a particular order?
I wasn't trying to get too much spoiled, but the wiki article seemed to imply that there was an original, "artistic" ending, which got remade/recut because fans threw a fit because there wasn't enough robo-fighting. If the additional shit is just robo-fighting slop thrown to dumbdumbs, maybe I don't need to bother. But if the additional robo-fighting really enhances the work, and is quality, I'm down.
edit: appreciate ya'll's input and the clarifications. i look forward to getting felix's references now, at the very least!
Are the Rebuilds good? Ehhh maybe? Will I still watch them all? Please Anno feed me more slop.
if you're gonna go english dubs, the original english dub is decent despite a little inconsistency and a few weird sound effects they added in EoE, and I'd recommend against the netflix dub because of its awkward, overly literal translations
I loved the original english dub (even though I never finished watching the show (I stopped somewhere after episode 22)), and I'm curious about the netflix dub but.....I prefer the original VAs.
In your bed huddled in a blanket for hours on end until the sun rises and you have to go to work
Imo just watch the original series. The Netflix dub is really good, the actors actually emote and don't sound like they're on Nickelodeon. I don't think EoE is worth it, it turns the original series's highly experimental and sci-fi ending into animaayy schlock
Watch all of the original show. Then watch End of Evangelion (a.k.a. Air/まごころを、君に). End of Evangelion is a remake of the last two episodes, kind of. Officially. You'll see. The rebuild movies (1.11, 2.22 etc.) are an alternate history version if you're interested.
But it does get more complicated than that. Make sure you watch the director's cut or special edition or platinum edition or whatever versions of episodes 21-24. These are much longer in order to set up EoE properly. You'll know it's the directors cut if episode 21 has a cold-open. The Netflix version is technically this, but they cut out the ending song and redid the translation due to licensing issues. The new subtitles are ok, but mostly worse. The new dub is godawful.
Just watch this: https://nyaa.si/view/831686
If you want to know why there's a director's cut, then things get really complicated.
Warning, absolutely nobody should read this. Just know that there are a bunch of recap movies with names like DEATH and you don't need to watch them.
After the original show ended, and before the EoE movie, there was a lot of backlash around the ending. So when they made a recap movie (DEATH), they added a lot of extra footage to flesh things out, but stopped at episode 24. Then they had a replacement for episode 25, called REBIRTH. It would have been episodes 25 and 26 but they ran out of money. I think these were shown as a double-header at arthouses or something, as 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン 劇場版 DEATH & REBIRTH シト新生.
When they edited the movie for time to fit in a TV slot, they removed all the new scenes, and called it EVANGELION:DEATH(TRUE).
The new scenes from DEATH plus a couple short extra ones were edited back into episodes 21-24 of the original series for the laserdisc release as special directors cut versions. For a second promo TV movie run of DEATH they added the new scenes from the laserdisc version to make EVANGELION:DEATH(TRUE)². It still didn't have the extra scenes from the original DEATH.
Some time after this they finally had enough money to finish REBIRTH, in which REBIRTH became episode 25「Air」, followed by the new episode 26「まごころを、君に」. Which are presented as the End of Evangelion movie.
All of these except EVANGELION:DEATH(TRUE) I think found their way onto various DVD and blu-ray releases.
See if you can get the platinum cut for the series, some scenes were cut from the original airing which expand on some of the main characters' backstories. Not absolutely necessary, sure, but damn is it a more complete package.
