Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Original Title	新世紀エヴァンゲリオン (Shin Seiki Evangerion)
Original Language	Japanese
Dubbing Studio 1	ADV Studios
Dubbing Studio 2	VSI Group
Voice Director 1	Matt Greenfield
Voice Director 2	Amanda Winn Lee
Voice Director 3	Carrie Keranen
Voice Director 4	Kevin Hoffer
Translation & Adaptation	Kuni Kimura Shoko Oono Matt Greenfield (ADV Dub) Dan Kanemitsu Carrie Keranen Oscar Garcia (Netflix Dub)
Recorded	1996 2004 (Director's Cut) 2019
Dub Country	United States
Original Country	Japan
Episodes	26
Year	1995-1996

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 Jon 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. 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 25h 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 is slated to include both the ADV and VSI dubs of the series.

Cast

Image	Character	Seiyū	Dub Actor
			ADV Dub		Netflix Redub
			Original	Director's Cut
Main Characters
	Shinji Ikari	Megumi Ogata	Spike Spencer		Casey Mongillo
					Cristina Valenzuela (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

Additional Voices

Original Yvonne Aguirre George A. Arriola Bryan Bounds Rob Bundy Jessica Calvello Charles Campbell Laura Chapman Melinda DeKay Angel Fisher Hiroko Fukumori Matt Greenfield Tiffani Harris Kevin Hinnant Michael House Gene Kato Scott Kilgore Paul Killam Larry Koteff Stuart Krohn Amanda Winn Lee Jason C. Lee Tracy Leftridge Guil Lunde Doug Medford Brenda Mikeska Ben Nunez Craig O'Conner Andy Orjuela Layton Payne Rick Peeples Rod Peters Lorraine Reyes Dan Rockwell Julio Rodriguez Erin Rosaire Phil Ross Jennifer Rutherford Kim Sevier Doug Smith Spike Spencer David Spray John Swasey Lew Temple Holly Vitemb Brett Weaver David Williams Janice Williams Jessica Williams

Director's Cut Yvonne Aguirre Christine Auten Bryan Bounds Shelley Calene-Black Charles Campbell Victor Carsrud Mandy Clark Melissa Cybele Melinda DeKay Jason Douglas Lauren Goodnight John Gremillion Mike Kleinhenz Kelly Manison George Manley Andy McAvin Chris Patton Lorraine Reyes Erin Rosaire Phil Ross Randy Sparks Lew Temple John Tyson Brett Weaver

Netflix Zach Aguilar Julie Bersani Henry Dittman Lucien Dodge Doug Erholtz Robbie Friedman Chris Hackney Edward Hong Billy Kametz Alan Lee Xander Mobus Paul St. Peter Doug Stone Kirk Thornton

Credits

2019 Netflix Dub

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
2005-2006	Cartoon Network (Adult Swim)	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
			13 Volumes
	2002		The Perfect Collection		1 NTSC
			8 Volumes
	2004		The Platinum Edition	ADV (Director's Cut)
			7 Volumes
GKIDS	2021		The Ultimate Edition	Both	A DVB-T
			5 Discs
Anime Limited			The Ultimate Edition		B DVB-T	United Kingdom
			5 Discs

Transmission via Streaming

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

External Links

• Neon Genesis Evangelion at the Internet Movie Database
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia