Dubbing Wikia

Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, Shin Seiki Evangerion) is a Japanese animated television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1995 to March 27, 1996 and consists of 26 episodes.

It has gained international renown and won several animation awards, influencing an artistic and technical revival of the anime industry.

Synopsis

Earth is under attack from unknown entities called Angels, and SEELE has created a specialized organization for the defense of humanity, known as NERV department. Gendō Ikari is the enigmatic leader of NERV and has designed robots with bio-mechanical control mechanisms (EVA) which are the only ones capable of defeating the Angels. But as his star driver Rei Ayanami is seriously injured, Gendō forcibly recruits his son Shinji. There he unwillingly accepts the task of becoming the pilot of a giant robot by the name EVA-Unit 01. Even though he repeatedly questions why he has accepted this mission from his estranged and cold father, his doing so helps him to gradually accept himself. However, why exactly are the angels attacking and what his father's true intentions are has yet to be unraveled.


Dubbing History[]

The series was first dubbed by ADV Films using their Houston-based recording talent, and released straight to VHS from 1996 to 1998. Commentary for the English dub will often make reference to it being made on a tight budget, involved renting out space to do recordings with substandard equipment, and a good portion of the cast was played by members of the production team. Tristan MacAvery even claims the dub was transcribed from fan translations. Nonetheless, Evangelion became one of ADV's most popular titles, and one of their higher regarded dubs.

With the remastered release of the "Renewal of Evangelion" DVD sets in Japan, and the Director's Cut of Episodes 21-24, this required ADV to go back and do vocal additions/remastering to their dub. Unfortunately, not all the cast from before were available, so some changes were made to the cast (Gendō's original voice actor, Tristan MacAvery, had moved from Texas to New York in the interim) though most of the voice cast was left intact. A positive was that ADV had since acquired a larger talent pool, so it allowed some of the poorer performances to be polished. The Rebuild of Evangelion film series was dubbed by Funimation, only including three voice actors from the ADV dub for Asuka, Shinji and Misato - while retaining John Swasey as Gendo from the Director's Cuts, and changing the rest of the cast.

Netflix later acquired the streaming rights to both the series and the films on November 26, 2018 and released them on June 21, 2019. This release featured a new dub recorded in Los Angeles by VSI with none of the original cast returning (though both Spike Spencer and Amanda Winn Lee said that they were allowed to audition).

It is publicly unknown how much involvement and oversight Gainax/Khara had on each dub and sub, but the director for the Netflix dub stated they made the new casting choices. Additionally, there is several evidence indicating they have much stricter control on new English localizations after the first dub of the Evangelion 3.0 film.

This has led to the Netflix release, translated by Khara themselves, containing several changes relative to the older ADV ones, which made it much more accurate to the original Japanese, fixing dozens of mistakes thanks to much closer oversight.[1] The dub has however received mixed reception, with many deriding the dub for the perceived overly literal scripting choices, most notably referring to Shinji as the "Third Children" rather than the proper grammatical "Third Child" - a decision reflecting Khara's standardization with their marketing. On the flipside, the dub has been praised, with some finding it more natural than the old dub in addition to being more faithful. The new cast, chosen by Khara themselves, is also more faithful to the original Japanese cast.

On the 25th anniversary of Evangelion, October 3, 2020, GKIDS has announced they are releasing a Blu-Ray set of the Evangelion series and films in November 2021. This release includes both the ADV and VSI dubs of the series.[2]

Cast[]

Image Character Seiyū Dub Actor
ADV Dub Netflix Redub
Original Director's Cut[N 1]
Main Characters
Shinji Ikari Megumi Ogata Spike Spencer Casey Mongillo
Cristina Vee
(young; ep. 26)
Rei Ayanami Megumi Hayashibara Amanda Winn Lee Ryan Bartley
Asuka Langley Sōryū Yūko Miyamura Tiffany Grant Stephanie McKeon
Misato Katsuragi Kotono Mitsuishi Allison Keith Carrie Keranen
Gendō Ikari Fumihiko Tachiki Tristan MacAvery John Swasey Ray Chase
Kōzō Fuyutsuki Motomu Kiyokawa Guil Lunde JP Karliak
Ritsuko Akagi Yuriko Yamaguchi Sue Ulu Erica Lindbeck
Ryōji Kaji Kōichi Yamadera Aaron Krohn Greg Chun
Secondary Characters
Tōji Suzuhara Tomokazu Seki Joe Pisano
(eps. 3-18)
Brett Weaver Johnny Yong Bosch
Michael O'Connor
(eps. 19-20)
Brett Weaver
(ep. 26)
Kaworu Nagisa Akira Ishida Kyle Sturdivant Greg Ayres Clifford Chapin
Makoto Hyūga Hiro Yūki Matt Greenfield Daniel MK Cohen
Shigeru Aoba Takehito Koyasu Jason C. Lee Vic Mignogna Billy Kametz
Maya Ibuki Miki Nagasawa Kendra Benham Monica Rial Christine Marie Cabanos
Naoko Akagi Mika Doi Laura Chapman
Yui Ikari Megumi Hayashibara Kim Sevier
Kensuke Aida Tetsuya Iwanaga Kurt Stoll Benjamin Diskin
Hikari Horaki Junko Iwao Carol Amerson Abby Trott
Keel Lorenz Mugihito Rick Peeples D.C. Douglas
Pen Pen Megumi Hayashibara Amanda Winn Lee Mandy Clark Cherami Leigh
Other Characters
Kyoko Zeppelin Sōryū Maria Kawamura Yvonne Aguirre
Notes:
  1. Eps. 21-26.

Additional Voices[]

Original

Credits[]

Notes[]

  • Due to licensing restrictions, Netflix's release of the show and the GKIDS and All the Anime Blu-rays do not include "Fly Me to the Moon" as the credits song.

Transmission[]

Date(s) Channel Country
2003* Cartoon Network
(Toonami)
United States United States
2005-2006 Cartoon Network
(Adult Swim)
United States United States

*From February 24-26, as part of Toonami's Giant Robot Week

Video Releases[]

Distributor Year Format Contents Dub Region Country
ADV Films 1996-1998 The Complete Series ADV
(Original)
NTSC United States United States
13 Volumes
2002 The Perfect Collection 1
NTSC
8 Volumes
2004 The Platinum Edition ADV
(Director's Cut)
7 Volumes
GKIDS 2021 BD The Ultimate Edition Both A
DVB-T
5 Discs
Anime Limited The Ultimate Edition B
DVB-T
United Kingdom United Kingdom
5 Discs

Transmission via Streaming[]

Company Date Format Classification Country
June 21, 2019 Digital 16+ United States United States

References[]

External Links[]

vde
Series

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Films

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & RebirthNeon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) AloneEvangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) AdvanceEvangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) RedoEvangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

External Links