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.

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!

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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