I love "Death and Rebirth", I really do. In my mind, it's probably the least flawed segment in the Evangelion franchise. But I guess I know why people are rating it so low.
There are two reason people tend to give this movie a low score. The first reason is that this movie is split cleanly into two halves, and the first half, named "Death", is essentially a recap. I think most people just aren't as patient as I am and loathe recaps in general. "Death" deserves mention though, because they're probably the most well done recaps I've ever watched. It's not just scenes from the
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Evangelion series edited together, there is a considerable amount new footage and narration added in that combine to make the events that happened in the series a lot clearer (though there is still a good deal I didn't understand by the time I finished it). The edit is done extremely cleverly, retelling the story from several personal perspectives, all revolving around the theme of Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Kaworu turning up to the auditorium for a rehearsal of Pachebel's "Kanon in D-dur". I love the rendition that piece along with others such one of Bach's cello preludes. The classical music is used throughout the "Death" segment to great effect, lending it a certain elegance that the series, often riddled with cliches, sometimes lacked. This isn't the only improvement either. Since the recaps cherry picked key moments from the series really well, and got rid of most of the less interesting angel-of-the-week padding, it's not only easier to connect the dots in the story, but also gives "Death" a greater intensity and urgency when compared against the series. It's through this that I caught a glimpse of the greatness that people often go on about when they talk about Evangelion.
The second reason people hated this is because of the second half, "Rebirth". And no, it's not because "Rebirth" itself is crap, not by any stretch of the imagination. The reason people hate it is because "Rebirth" is repeated in its entirety by the follow up movie, "End of Evangelion", which kind of reduces "Death and Rebirth" to nothing more than a recap movie. But to be fair, since "Death and Rebirth" came before "End of Evangelion", I think it make sense that the latter should be one that gets the heavier penalisation for repeating what's already been shown in the former. The segment in question itself is excellent. Though it lasts less than half an hour, it's a very compelling watch with sky high production values. It really sets up the "End of Evangelion" movie in style, ending on a scene that made me want to continue on to the final movie immediately.
There really isn't anything majorly wrong with "Death and Rebirth", the few complaints I have are all rather minor. For one, some of the words that flash up on screen during "Death" disappears far too quickly and I couldn't read a lot of them - what's the point of having it at all if they're so hard to read? For another, at the start of "Rebirth", Shinji does something pretty f*cked up that I feel isn't really consistent with his cowardly character, so I chalked that scene down to something that's there for shock value more than anything else. Finally, there's the intermission. Yeah, that's right, this movie even has its own built in intermission. In a way, I didn't mind the idea itself. But considering the intermission lasts not one but TWO songs, and comes after the 5min+ ending credits of "Death"... that totals up to about ten minutes of doing nothing (although the ending credits of "Death" does have "Kanon D-dur" as backing music, so I didn't mind it so much")! It's all a bit too much really.
If you haven't seen the series, there is no point at all in watching this. Prior to "End of Evangelion" coming out, watching "Death and Rebirth" after the series made perfect sense - I believe it was released a year or two after the series (though don't quote me on this), and so the first half served as a nice condensed reminder (with bonus new footage) of what happened in the series while the second half wets the appetite for the finale. "Death and Rebirth" served its purpose as a bridge perfectly back then, but with "End of Evangelion" eliminating the need to watch the second part entirely, is this still worth watching just for the (admittedly beefed up) recaps? Well, it really depends on you. If you're a hardcore fan of the franchise, or if like me, you want to watch these kind of things for completeness, then yes. If there's only one recap that you'll ever watch, then make it this one.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Shinseiki Evangelion Gekijouban: Shi to Shinsei, Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death and Rebirth
Japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン劇場版 シト新生
More titlesInformation
Type:
Movie
Episodes:
1
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Mar 15, 1997
Source:
Original
Duration:
1 hr. 44 min.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
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Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
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Your Feelings Categories May 5, 2010
I love "Death and Rebirth", I really do. In my mind, it's probably the least flawed segment in the Evangelion franchise. But I guess I know why people are rating it so low.
There are two reason people tend to give this movie a low score. The first reason is that this movie is split cleanly into two halves, and the first half, named "Death", is essentially a recap. I think most people just aren't as patient as I am and loathe recaps in general. "Death" deserves mention though, because they're probably the most well done recaps I've ever watched. It's not just scenes from the ... May 11, 2008
Death and Rebirth is a two-hour long movie that consists of two halves -- Death and Rebirth, each about an hour long. Rebirth will not be covered in this review, as its footage was expanded on and included in The End of Evangelion. It was produced by Production IG (famous for their work on the Ghost in the Shell series and xxxHOLIC) and Gainax (famous for their work on His and Her Circumstances and FLCL), and directed by Hideaki Anno (famous for his work on the original Gunbuster OVA and His and Her Circumstances). It was released on March 15th, 1997, and
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Jan 7, 2015
NGE: Death and Rebirth should have been titled NGE: Completely Unnecessary Series Recap For Purpose of Make Profit From Guys with Ayanami Waifu Pillows.
I have seen a lot of shameful "cash ins" in my years as an anime fan, but I have seen very few examples that were quite this blatant in picking the pockets of a loyal fandom. This movie was supposedly made in order to get fans PUMPED UP (read in Hans and Franz voice) for End of Evangelion, which promised to remake the final 2 episodes of the original series that so angered Japanese fans in 1996. However, this was completely unnecessary ... Apr 25, 2010
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth is essentially a 2 hour recap of both the 26 episode Neon Genesis Evangelion series and The End of Evangelion.
The issue that I had while watching this despite it being a recap is that it felt almost hollow in how the story and other coexisting elements were conveyed to the viewer. The story seemed incredibly rushed, and there was hardly any focus at all on the character's psychological struggles as there is in the series, which is in itself a large part of Evangelion. The lack of character development coupled with the chronological displacement of clips made Death & ... Aug 17, 2018
If there is one thing I hate about in any medium it would be cash-grabs to existing and popular properties.
Cash-grabs, in general, is just a shitty scheme for companies in any medium to make poorly done squeals, to having unnecessary remakes and spinoff of existing properties. 95% of the time cash-grabs to popular works fail because not only do the companies would often run out of ideas but they will also heavily milk that cow even when it’s dead. Assassin’s Creed is the worst example of this. For a series that I use to love has now turned a milking cow for Ubisoft where after ... Oct 13, 2013
Neon Genesis Evangelion. Easily the most polarized series in anime. You either Love it, Hate it, or swing from liking it as a teen to hating it as an adult. And I most definitely can say I fall under the last item mentioned.
But that is the main series.This, on the other hand, is Death and Rebirth, the recap of the entire series, and the first 30 minutes of End of Evangelion. And how well does it handle recaping? It doesn't. Flat out, The entire recap segment is a mess of scenes cut from the show (it's as if Gainax still ran out of money after NGE ... Nov 10, 2015
I can not scream enough about how much I hated this movie when I watched it. I had just finished Evangelion and like most people I was annoyed with the ending so when I heard from a friend about the Evangelion movie I thought she was talking about the 'End of Evangelion' but no she was talking about this piece of...well to put it likely shit.
The movie is basically the entire series up to the last 2 episodes but the editing is choppy which makes it look like it was done by a five-year-old and whilst their are some new scenes which are not even ... Oct 8, 2022
English.
This is a recap of the original series from episode 1 to 26. Only with better animation and the truth can confuse you if you haven't seen the series before. From my point of view you have to necessarily watch the original series to see this recap. There is nothing special about it (besides the supposed new ending that is really not worth it) the truth is not worth seeing, only in case you no longer remember anything that happened in the series (even so it is worth worth more to see a summary of the series on the other hand). Español. Esto es una recapitulación de la serie original ... Apr 4, 2022
The modern/current official version of this is a recap of a series that is absolutely amazing, nice if you need time to absorb and think about NGE before moving on or if its been a while and you need a reminder. Otherwise go on to End of Evangelion.
Still a 7/10 because the original series is so amazing and a lot that isn't lost in the abridged version, though in no circumstance should this be viewed as a replacement of the original series. Apparently I need to write a review but I've really said all I need to say here and any adintional commentary ... Nov 16, 2018
I have been a huge Evangelion fan since its first US VHS release in the 90s and I love everything to do with the franchise. It's my absolute favorite and I have no issues with the series itself. That said I must say Death and Rebirth is overwhelmingly mediocre.
The first part, Death, is a rather convoluted retelling of the anime that doesn't do a particularly great job of showing everything that really happened, let alone in a way that would be understandable to anyone unfamiliar with the series (which I feel would be nice, if someone wanted to watch it as a standalone ... Oct 29, 2020
i needed this as a recap of the series because i just haven't been able to sit down and FINISH this series... life is kind of kicking my butt right now and all i've watched lately is masterchef lol
but i do really love this show, the art style and the robots and all the different interpretations and the grey characters. it's fab and i'm so glad it matched the hype in my head!! i love misato and even kaworu (i don't know why but i'm really attached to him even though he was there for such a short time) and shinji isn't that bad, he's ... Oct 9, 2020
Let's get this straight, It's a clipshow movie. Not a clipshow movie like 'Gamera Super Monster' it is just a recap with almost no original animation. You're supposed to watch it before End Of Evangelion but if you're going to watch end of evangalion you have likely just seen the show, so you know what happened and who the characters are, and the plot of the original. So if you might be thinking that you should just watch it instead of the original series to that I say: NO!!! because they are played in a way that will just leave you confused on what just
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Feb 16, 2021
An alright recap considering the fact that the series was 10 hours long and was condensed into only 1 hour and 44 minutes.
There were some scenes that were not in the series so that was really nice. Instead of going by order they had these short introductions for each of the characters throughout the beginning of the series until the end and then all of a sudden it went all over the place. I don't think a newcomer would really understand alot from this recap. And the other "half" was Rebirth, which was the beginning of the End of Evangelion. Overall an ok movie with ... Aug 9, 2023
Evangelion, one of the most iconic and cherished franchises in the world of anime and entertainment, has left a profound mark on the hearts of its followers. Faced with the anticipation surrounding its latest movie, I decided to dive into it with great interest. Although I wanted to highlight positive aspects, I find it difficult to do so, as the movie seems to be a faithful recapitulation of the events from the anime, with some additional scenes and subtle visual improvements being the only "notable" changes.
However, the narrative suffers being presented in a confusing order, making comprehension challenging. And while I know that the ... Oct 19, 2013
Death & Reborn was a flawless Neon Genesis movie you could give, but I do see the things about the movie that made people turn an eye to it. From what I see its the main character designs as well as the ending. I'm not going to go into detail about it because it'll contain massive spoilers but I should say the character designs and the story line of NGE: Death & Rebirth is very interesting, but it could be a turn off to the people that have seen the original Neon Genesis Evangelion before seeing the movie. Almost like the review with "Scott Pilgrim
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Apr 13, 2021
This isn't completely useless nor inherently bad, in my sense of understanding, this recap could serves as two prominent purposes:
1. If you wanted to make sure to not miss or forget anything from the original anime, before moving on to the continuation such as The End of Evangelion. Because admittedly, Evangelion is famed for having such a heavy and complex story that some people might find it hard to digest. So instead of re-watching the entirety of 26 episodes for making sure, you could watch this condensed version as a replacement. 2. This doesn't contain any plot-new information, it's a matter of fact. But I would still recommend ... |