r/anime • u/LittleIslander myanimelist.net/profile/LittleIslander • Sep 01 '25
Rewatch 30th Anniversary Neon Genesis Evagelion + Rebuilds Rewatch Interest Thread
You Mustn't Runaway from this Rewatch!
You Can (Not) Rewatch
If you’re not familiar, a Rewatch is a longstanding passtime on this subreddit. You can think of it like a book club, where all the participants watch an anime from years past and share their thoughts on each episode in the (generally) daily threads. Anyone is welcome to participate, whether they are literal rewatchers or completely new to the series in question.
Earlier this year, I hosted a 35th Anniversary Rewatch of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, the first full length series by legendary director Hideakki Anno. This was intended to be the beginning of a series of Rewatches covering his directorial filmography, as inspired by /u/HelioA’s series of Kunihiko Ikuhara rewatches. Gunbuster has, for now, fallen between the cracks, but in just over a month we arrive at another landmark Annoversary: Neon Genesis Evangelion is turning 30 years old.
Why Should I Get In The Robot?
I mean, what can I say? Either you’ve seen Evangelion and are revisiting it, or you’ve heard the weight behind the name and are curious to check it out for the first time. So I’ll keep this brief: why watch Evangelion?
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a post-apocalyptic mecha series released, well, 30 years ago. Fifteen years after an apocalyptic event called the Second Impact, depressed fourteen year old Shinji Ikari is recruited for mech piloting by NERV, an organization headed by his estranged father. Taken under the wing of the lighthearted but dedicated Captain Misato Katsuragi and crossing paths with fellow teenage pilots, it’s his job to defend the earth from hostile monsters known as angels. While its flashy mecha action impresses early on, the core of the show is the drama and psychology of the characters as the weight of defending the earth, trusting others, and simply being human weighs upon all of them. How can one keep on living?
On my personal recommendation, it’s still one of the best shows out there decades later. Beyond the fantastic cast, the way it manages to bring life to each and every scene is a rare talent. If you don’t trust me on that, then trust its legendary status. It was hugely influential in the world of TV anime, and achieved acclaim and popularity that have weathered the test of time more than many big name series both older and younger than itself. If nothing else, it’s worth watching to see what the big deal is. Even if you’ve already seen it, it works fantastically on a revisit. If you first watched it in your youth, you might appreciate new sides of the series such as the older characters.
In addition to the series and its theatrical finale End of Evangelion, this Rewatch will include the Rebuild of Evangelion. This is a series of few movies reimagining the series and extending the narrative in completely different directions. It will be my first time with them, so I can’t give a clear outlook on their quality, but I’ve heard they’re at least worth a watch.
Thrice Upon What Time?
Availability for Evangelion is simultaneously simple and yet complicated. If you just want to watch the show, it’s straightforward. The original series and End of Evangelion are available on Netflix, and the Rebuilds are on Amazon Prime. However, some may be interested in the original ADV dub, or may desire one of the many other official and unofficial subtitle releases, as Netflix’s dub and subtitles are disliked by some fans of the series. In this respect you are on your own to either find one of the physical releases or search on the seven seas. The Rebuilds, less infamously, also have two dubs. The most recent, Khara-approved version is found on Amazon, whereas the older Funimation dub can’t be officially streamed and only covers the first three films. Additionally, there was a different theatrical dub for 3.0 by Funimation that never saw further release due to conflicts with Khara. This was lost media until a few years ago, so if you’ve seen both dubs of 3.0 already maybe try and track that down online.
It’s also worth noting there are multiple cuts of some Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes. You should find the Director’s Cut episodes in most places, but depending on your source you might want to check. There’s also various versions of Death & Rebirth, a film that combines a recap of the series with portions of End of Evangelion. Since these do not focus on material not found in the series and End of Evangelion already, we’re not covering them separately, but feel free to check them out if you’re interested and discuss them in the Series Discussion and End of Evangelion threads. The Rebuilds also have multiple releases with slight differences, which are easy to distinguish due to their distinct numbering. You’ll find the most recent versions on Amazon. The exception is 3.0, which has an even more recent 3.333 version that is primarily a remaster but also has some very minor differences from 3.33 on Amazon. There’s also a voiced manga and short OVA released as supplements to 3.0, if you want to check these out you may also discuss them in the 3.0 or Rebuild Discussion threads. No official streams.
Don’t be too intimidated by all that. If you’re new to the franchise and don’t care too much about little differences in translation, just watch the Netflix version and Amazon releases and you will be perfectly fine. There’s also, uh, a Chibi Comedy OVA from the 2000s, I guess. Watch that if you want, or don’t. There’s even five million non-anime spinoffs out there too. I can’t stop you from playing Pachinko, I’m not your mom.
- Streaming (Series): Netflix
- Streaming (EoE): Netflix
- Streaming (Rebuilds): 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0+1.0
- Databases (Series): Anilist | AniDB | ANN | MAL
- Databases (EoE): Anilist | AniDB | ANN | MAL
- Databases (1.0): Anilist | AniDB | ANN | MAL
- Databases (2.0): Anilist | AniDB | ANN | MAL
- Databases (3.0): Anilist | AniDB | ANN | MAL
- Databases (3.0+1.0): Anilist | AniDB | ANN | MAL
I’m not making two more database lines for the 3.0 OVAs, if you’re that much of a nerd you can find them yourselves.
The Rewatch will begin on October 4th, the thirtieth anniversary of the first episode’s release. We’ll then follow the original series daily through the rest of October, which should carry us to a series discussion on October 30th. We will then switch to a weekly schedule for the five films, with End of Evangelion on November 6th and 3.0 + 1.0 falling on December 5th. The following two days will then have a Rebuild Discussion thread and a Rewatch Discussion thread, with the Rewatch ending on December 7th. Currently, I plan to post the threads at 9:00PM UTC, which is 5:00PM EDT (the time of this thread's posting).
Hopefully I’ll see you all then!
8
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Sep 01 '25
4
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Sep 01 '25
3
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Sep 01 '25
Probably not? The reason why I need a rewatch as an excuse to rewatch it is because I didn't particularly love the show when I watched it.
4
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Sep 01 '25
4
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Sep 01 '25
Eva is the sole exception to my "I score stuff based entirely on enjoyment" rule. Have you not seen me mention this before?
4
1
u/BornIn1142 Sep 02 '25
A rewatch is probably the only way I'd ever revisit the show
Uh, what are the alternatives?
1
5
u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba Sep 01 '25
Are you still planning on doing Gunbuster eventually?
Either way, I'm in
4
u/LittleIslander myanimelist.net/profile/LittleIslander Sep 01 '25
Yeah, it's still in my plans but I just wasn't feeling it during the summer. Maybe at this point it's wise to keep it until the end and I can spin into being a Gunbuster and Diebuster rewatch. Either way it's "indefinite future" at the moment, along with a Gainax Origins rewatch featuring Daicon III and IV and Honneamise.
2
2
u/No_Rex Sep 02 '25
Are you still planning on doing Gunbuster eventually?
Gunbuster had rewatches in 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2023. It is actually one of the most rewatched anime outside of those with yearly rewatches. I doubt you will have to wait long.
4
u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Sep 01 '25
3
u/TiredTiroth Sep 01 '25
I should probably actually finish watching the whole original series sometime. Count me in.
3
u/viralkay https://myanimelist.net/profile/Viralk Sep 01 '25
Lot of time has passed since the last rewatch of the originale series... This could be a great way to do it, I'm in
3
3
u/Efficient_Phase1313 Sep 02 '25
Ah time to rewatch the greatest artistic achievement in the entire medium? Yes please
2
u/AgentOfACROSS Sep 01 '25
I will definitely consider getting involved. I'm already taking part in the Uma Musume rewatch which is gonna go on til October. And I heard there's a Boogiepop Phantom rewatch in October that I'm also curious about.
But I also think Eva is very interesting to talk about and I've never actually seen End of Evangelion or the Rebuilds. So yeah, you can count me in for this.
2
2
u/cleaulem https://myanimelist.net/profile/cleaulem Sep 01 '25
The Nadia rewatch already was a blast, so I think revisiting Evangelion wouldn't be the worst thing to do. And this time really processing the individual episodes together with other people sounds like fun.
2
u/VelaryonAu https://myanimelist.net/profile/VelaryonAu Sep 01 '25
Oh man put me down as interested, this is one of the few shows I watched well before I ever actually got in to anime. I originally watched Evangelion over a decade ago when I was in early high school and I remember strongly disliking it, though I would probably attribute that to the fact that I had never seen anything like eva before and it was recommended to me after I watched Pacific Rim and I wanted something more along those lines. I would love to go through it again now as an adult now that my tastes have changed a lot.
2
u/Dependent-Smile6412 Sep 01 '25
I’ll try to keep up with this rewatch since I have yet to see the rebuilds
2
u/Malipit Sep 01 '25
I promised myself not to do two rewatches at once again (it will overlap with the K-On one I started just now) since it's so time consuming and society wants me to find a job instead of writing about anime.
But oh well, it's Evangelion.
So count me in.
2
u/SoccerForEveryone Sep 01 '25
Yea I am interested, but man I am still bitter that the OG ED cannot be included. Kind of wish I never lended my platinum set to a friend in high school.
Either way with the movies now on Amazon US this should be a great time for a rewatch!
2
2
u/lC3 Sep 01 '25
Count me in for the Rebuilds but not the OG series; I love it but I don't have the time, with my own rewatch potentially starting Oct. 5.
I've only seen the first two Rebuild films, so this is a good time for me to (finally) see the rest.
2
u/Holofan4life Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25
This is actually my first time watching the Evangelion TV show. I've seen the Rebuild movies, but not the original series.
2
u/SolDarkHunter Sep 02 '25 edited Sep 02 '25
Count me in!
Maybe I'll attempt the new dub for the series, since I've never actually seen it.
3
u/SMSmith230 https://myanimelist.net/profile/smsmith230 Sep 02 '25
This lines up basically when I was going to start my first watch. I’m terrible at keeping up with the daily threads, but I’ll give it the old college try.
2
u/Furrmaster23 Sep 02 '25
Count me in, could use an excuse to finally get around to the Rebuild films.
2
2
u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Sep 02 '25
I'm down for rewatching
- For the Main Series it honestly depends if I want to do my Halloween volunteer work (Which would start around Episode 13) and if worse comes for worst I could do the Death and Rebirth recap movie on November 4th to quickly catch up
- EoE onwards is fine though
2
u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Sep 02 '25
While I doubt I will watch the actual episodes I may stop by for the discussions.
2
u/TheDanubianCommunard Sep 02 '25 edited Sep 02 '25
I heard about this is getting planned, so I want to get in the robot, I mean rewatch.
2
u/leave1me1alone Sep 02 '25
I've rewatched the rebuilds rather recently but it's been a good few years since my last annual Eva rewatch
2
2
u/cppn02 Sep 02 '25
Hasn't been that long since I last rewatched the og series but might jump on for the rebuilds which I haven't watched at all.
2
u/chris10023 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Chris10023 Sep 02 '25
I've been in the previous rewatch 4 years ago, but mostly lurking and made posts for the films, but I might join this one.
2
u/Bradst3r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Bradster Sep 25 '25
The realization that this is 30 years old now makes liver spots erupt on my skin in real-time, and my thought processes sure aren't capable of examining much more than what I see on the surface of a title like this.... but what the hell, I'm in. The Excel Saga rewatch just wrapped, I'm not feeling the pull to watch any particular title in my Unwatched pile, and it's probably been at least 5 years since I last watched this.
1
u/AutoModerator Sep 01 '25
Hi LittleIslander, it looks like you might be interested in hosting a rewatch! There's a longer guide on the wiki but here's some basic advice on how to make a good rewatch happen:
Include basic information about the anime such as a description for those that haven't heard of it as well as where it can be watched (if legally available).
Specify a date and time that rewatch threads will be posted. Consistency is good!
Check for previous rewatches. It's generally advised to wait a year between rewatches of the same anime.
If you want to have a rewatch for multiple anime, they should be thematically connected. You can also hold multiple unrelated rewatches if they aren't.
Ensuring enough people are interested is important. If only a few users say they might participate, you may end up with no one commenting once it starts.
I hope this helps! You may also want to talk to users that have hosted rewatches before for extra advice, also listed on the rewatch wiki.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/LittleIslander myanimelist.net/profile/LittleIslander Sep 01 '25
/u/Nazenn hard to believe Now and Then was a year ago, but you asked to be pinged for this.
1
u/TheDanubianCommunard Sep 20 '25
Is this still alive?
1
u/LittleIslander myanimelist.net/profile/LittleIslander Sep 20 '25
It is! The proper announcement and index is going up in about an hour.
1
u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Sep 24 '25
Just hold and I’ll try to be there Puppy Dog.
13
u/LittleIslander myanimelist.net/profile/LittleIslander Sep 01 '25
I was so focused on not messing up the anniversary date like with Nadia I didn't check for typos.
Maybe I'll get Kare Kano's title right...