Ask John: What’s the Background on the Evangelion Movies

Question:
Because the “Ask John” answer regarding the Evangelion movies posted last Tuesday was accidentally deleted from the Ask John archive page, I’ve done some research and rewritten a more detailed answer that I hope will prove interesting and informative.

Answer:
The discussion over the background of the Evangelion movies is one of the most controversial fact based debates in anime fandom, so what I present here is not intended to be final or authoritative, but only a guide for people unfamiliar with the topic.

The Evangelion TV series premiered in October 1995 and ended in March 1996. At the 1996 AnimeExpo in California, at which series director Hideaki Anno was a guest of honor, he told the American public that TV episodes 25 & 26 were his definitive conclusion to Evangelion and that people that weren’t happy with those two episodes were simply out of luck. Apparently, shortly after, the overwhelming demand from fans that didn’t like or didn’t understand the original final TV episodes convinced Anno to create a new, more comprehensive and traditional conclusion for Evangelion.

Evangelion: Death & Evangelion: Rebirth premiered in Japanese theaters on March 15, 1997. Death was a 45 minute long summarization of TV episodes 1-24 that focused mainly on the personalities of the main characters, and included a small amount of new transitional animation created specifically for “Death.” Death was a double-feature with Rebirth, a 27 minute long, totally new ending to Evangelion that began right where TV episode 24 ended. Rebirth had a cliff-hanger ending.

There has been some discussion of whether or not Death & Rebirth constitute a single film or two separate movies. There are separate ending credits for each segment, and they were released on home video separately. But, the similarity in the titles suggests that Death & Rebirth are to be taken as a single entity, similar to the way the Pokemon movies consist of a separate short and a longer film, although both are released on home video separately. Furthermore, the two films were created by Gainax to be theatrically released together, reinforcing the idea that Death & Rebirth are one unit. On the other hand, the double-feature is still very common for theatrical anime releases, so a double-bill, alone, is not an adequate qualification for considering two features a single entity. The Lodoss Island and Maze Bakunetsu Jiku movies, Slayers movie and Legend of Crystania, and Akihabara Dennougumi and Utena movie were also double-features but are not considered a single film, even though they were also created, albeit by different studios, specifically to be theatrically released together. As the purpose of this thesis is not to count the number of Eva movies, this determination will be left to the reader.

Four months after the premier of Death & Rebirth came the theatrical premier of Neon Genesis Evangelion the Movie: Air (Love is Destructive)/My Pure Heart for You (I Need You), more commonly known as, simply, The End of Evangelion. The End of Evangelion movie took the 27 minutes of existing Rebirth footage and continued the cliffhanger ending with another 43 minutes of new animation. End of Evangelion, while still quite strange, provided a more comprehensive, action oriented and less revolutionary ending for fans that had expected a traditional ending to the revolutionary TV series.

When End of Evangelion was released on home video in August and September of 1998, it was cut in half and released as two episodes, “Air,” and “Yours Sincerely.” The theatrical title screen “End of Evangelion” was removed from the home video version, the theatrical ending theme vocal song was removed and each half of the home video version received its own new TV episode style title screen and a new ending credits sequence with new music. Japanese TV series home video release volume 13 contained original TV episode 25 and “Air.” Japanese home video volume 14 contained original TV episode 26 and “Yours Sincerely.” To further complicate matters, a re-edited director’s cut version of Death, titled Death (True) was broadcast in January 1998 on the Japanese WOWWOW satellite TV network during the TV broadcast of Death & Rebirth, and then a further re-edited version of Death, this time titled Death (True)² was combined with End of Evangelion and theatrically re-released as a single film in Japanese theaters in March of 1998 under the title Revival of Evangelion. The new footage created for Death (True)² was also added into the Japanese home video “director’s cut” versions of original Evangelion TV episodes 21-24.

For more information about, specifically, the events in The End of Evangelion, I recommend Brendan Jamieson’s Neon Genesis Evangelion FAQ. Please note, though, that this FAQ does contain very detailed specific references and examples from End of Evangelion that would constitute spoilers for fans that have not yet seen the Eva movies.