Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth

"Death and Rebirth" is a well-done recap of the Evangelion franchise, focusing on Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu attending a rehearsal of Pachebel's "Kanon in D-dur." The movie is split into two halves, with the first half, "Death," being essentially a recap. The recaps are well-done, with new footage and narration added to make the events clearer. The story is retelling from various personal perspectives, with the classical music used to great effect, lending it an elegance that the series often lacks. The recaps cherry-pick key moments from the series and remove unnecessary padding, making it easier to connect the dots in the story and giving "Death" a greater intensity and urgency compared to the series. This highlights the greatness that people often talk about when discussing Evangelion. Despite its flaws, "Death and Rebirth" is a must-watch for fans of the Evangelion franchise.

The series itself is a true masterpiece, I spoiled it by watching "The End of Evagelion" first, do NOT do that. "Death & Rebirth" is a good re-cap if you've seen all but the last 2 eps. It's a bit back and fourth but overall it erases any confusion. Again, this series is beautiful, it's not just 'robots' fighting monsters it's SO much more...they are NOT robots... DO NOT pass this series up! It's an experience.

Basically what we got here is a 100 minute recap of the 1995 Japanese cult TV anime series "Neo Genesis Evangelion". It cuts up pieces from the 24 episodes and pretty much strings them together with a choppy narration, until it gets to it abrupt ending. Then you got the movie which ended the series "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion" to watch and there's some scenes from that thrown into it as well. So, if I was going to give it a outline of this film I'll be here all day explaining, as it's a 24 episode show which explored different themes, plus giving away too much detail away can spoil the story and surprises for you. I found this to be more for the fans of the series, but if you're a new comer I recommend watching the 24 episodes instead and then watching this to refresh your memory. Also there's some new additional scenes popped in too.

I remember when I first started watching this sci-fi anime, I became remotely hooked by its stirring context, straightaway actually. It seemed to get better with each episode! It was my favourite anime series, well along with "Astro Boy", that is the series from the 80's. But this post-apocalyptic story is stunning entertainment. Sure this summary is hugely disjointed, with hectic editing and a plot that goes back and forth through its time line, but that's because there's so much to squeeze in. The many involving sub plots and specifics on mankind makes this an incredibly complex experience where your ask to ponder a lot on what your hearing and seeing on screen. When I first saw the show I was expecting something fairly childish, but the concept was very mature and this recount proves it. There's always a moral to the story and notions are vividly depicted in an very emotional state, but they aren't too hard to swallow, or pushed onto you. A lot of it focus on people overcoming the things that bring them down and stop them living their life to the best. Plus another look at man's fate and arrogance and how we would easily turn on each other. Really, there's more too it then that of its stunning animation and arty visuals that cover the running time. I agree it might be hard to follow at times, but there's some beauty and mystic within this moody series that keeps you compelled. What makes that so, is the perky characters that are believable and simply appealing to watch. We truly get to know these characters and to see what makes them tick, therefore you honestly care for their well being. Worked into it is a moving, whimsical score, which at times enters some nice classical music. The dialogue is strongly put, with cunning idea's, natural conversations and snappy humour flowing through it. Then you got the action, which is a sight to behold… it's always at full ball and not afraid to show blood splatter. For some I see where they are coming from when they claim it's strained and hard to understand, but I still recommend watching the whole series first before looking at this. Because it's pretty deep stuff.

Engaging and overwhelming to the highest agree. So check out the series and then this piece, for a better understanding on what's truly going on.

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.

It's more like the Teacher's Edition.

"Evangelion" can be a life-changing experience when seen in it's entirety; if nothing else, it will redefine the way you look at anime. "Evangelion: Death/Rebirth" will not affect you quite so profoundly, but it's still worth viewing and, in my opinion, owning when the official U.S. DVD release hits stores in late July 2002.

Originally released in Japan prior to "End of Evangelion" to promote the theatrical finale to the series, the first half ("Death") is a summation of the first 24 episodes meant to "refresh the memories" of long time fans of the anime, and initiate those who have not seen the series into the mythology of Eva's world circa 2015 A.D.; The second half ("Rebirth") is a sneak peek at the first few minutes of "End of Evangelion" (the two part movie which - sort of - wraps up the series).

To say that "Death" is largely redundant if one has seen the series is fair enough; To say that "Rebirth" is redundant because the movie itself will be available domestically on DVD in September is also fair. But "Evangelion: Death/Rebirth" is not a total waste; a great deal of new animation was created for the film, including a number scenes which were given the "director's cut" treatment and which have been, until now, mostly unavailable in the U.S. except as fansubbed movie files off the internet. This alone is enough to recommend the title to many longtime Eva fans.

Granted, I won't watch it as often as the other episodes or the movie itself, but I'll own the DVD when it comes out. Bottom line, if you haven't seen Eva yet, watch the 24 episodes in their entirety first. You'll get more out of the movie AND out of "Death/Rebirth" that way.