Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (1997)

Powerful

Please don't spend money on this.

Admirable film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I would like to preface this review by saying that I absolutely love the original series of NGE. It has aged astonishingly well, and I think it's truly timeless. However, this film occupies a bit of a strange spot in the franchise. About an hour is recapping the series, and the final half-hour is a "sneak-peek" at the next film in the franchise, "End of Evangelion" (which I have not seen at the time of writing). This begs the question - if your intent is to follow the storyline of the franchise from start to finish, what point does this film play? You could watch the series and (I'm assuming) go straight to End of Evangelion and you wouldn't have missed anything. It's a bit like having a "previously on evangelion" segment, then a half-hour trailer for something you're probably going to watch afterwards anyway. I will admit, the recapping of the series did make me view some of the themes in a different light by juxtaposing scenes I didn't connect thematically before, so it's got that going for it. But it hasn't got a lot else I'd recommend it for other than that, or for revising the story so far if you haven't seen the series in a while. It's not bad. There's just not much reason for it existing.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth is a 1997 film that acts as both a recap of the original series Neon Genesis Evangelion and a preview for the at-the-time upcoming film The End of Evangelion. The Death and Rebirth in the title refers to the two segments of the film; Death being the recap, and Rebirth being the first half an hour of EoE.At the time of the film's release, the film was supposed to act as an alternative to watching the original 26 episode series, most likely to draw in non-fans to come and see End of Evangelion. In my opinion however, the film isn't a very good alternative to watching the original series. It's organised out of chronological order and forgoes a lot of the plot to give brief outlines of the main character's personalities, which could lead to a fair amount of confusion. Most of the animation in the "Death" segment is just reused footage from the series. The only parts of the film that are not reused are scenes where the three main leads practice classical music, which are more or less purposeless and really only serve as an excuse to listen to nice music. If you had not seen the original series before watching this, I would guess that you would be rather confused.However if you are a fan of this franchise (like me), you'll probably quite enjoy it. Though the recap is strangely organised, it's still Evangelion, which is inherently pretty cool if you love the show. The organisation can be seen as an interesting new way to experience the show, and it can also act as a nice refresher on the events of the series. While The End of Evangelion segment is kind of pointless, it's still the End of Evangelion, which, in my opinion, is one of the best animated films ever made, so watching a bit of it is hardly a bad thing.Still, the film only really functions as a curiosity piece for super fans. If you are not super invested in the franchise already, you probably don't even know it exists, and if you do, you probably don't care.

Evangelion is a good series, but stay away from this. If you've seen the anime before, there is really nothing you can get out of this. Most of the film "death" is just recycled footage rearranged in cool ways. There are also violin solos in between "intermissions" that are very nice, but I came here to watch a psychological mecha anime, not to hear people play music. It might be useful to someone who hasn't seen the anime, but I feel they're better off watching the TV show. All that rapidly flashing text isn't going to be very helpful, and might knock seizure prone people out. "Rebirth" is something new, but it's made redundant by End of Evangelion so if you've seen the series, head to that instead. Like many before me have said watch the series first, or else it will really mess with your head! One thing that rebirth has that EoE doesn't is the ending song "Tamashi no Refrain" which is a very cool song sung by the same woman who sang "Cruel Angel's Thesis," the title song of the series. Speaking of that, you're much better off watching the series as I really love that song. For the Lazy:Pros: Violin Solos are pleasant Ending song is great Interesting way of organizing the eventsCons: You can get most of this content elsewhere Mainly recycled stuff, making you feel you got ripped offCheck the CD's out for the music, check the series for the story, and check the End of Evangelion for the ending. But don't check here, unless you are a devoted fan and MUST have everything eva-related.

"Cliff's Notes" of the series. Not a new chapter, not a new side plot, just a distillation. Despite being a redux there are long silences. It frankly spoiled the series for me. It felt more like an essay than a movie; rather than chronological development it was as though a point was made and evidenced and then moved on to the next point - I much preferred the chronological growth of the characters in the series. I do not feel like I understand a single part of the series any better. In fact, this feels like the "bonus features" pointlessly added to "new editions" just to entice me to buy the latest "collectable" version of a movie. In short, I want my money back. Don't waste your time. Watch the series before you watch this "movie." If you've seen the series, watch something else before you watch this "movie."