Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Shi to Shinsei

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 ... 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.

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 ... has been licensed Stateside by Manga Entertainment, and was originally released on July 30th, 2002.

So, what we're left with is Death -- which is more or less the entire series in an hour-long recap with minimal new footage, and lots of flashing text, like we saw more in the second half of Evangelion.

Do I think this was worth it? Having just finished the series and gone onto this, I found that I didn't really need a complete recap of the series, as Death covered the most important events from the series, most of which were pretty memorable anyways.

There's not really a lot to say about anything besides that, as you've pretty much seen it before this if you've watched the series.

All in all, if you don't have the time to watch the entire series, then yes, this is worth a watch. But if you have seen the series, it's a waste of your time.

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 ... since the people that were already Eva fans were really excited to see a new ending, and I can assure you this movie didn't create any new Eva fans. Did Anno owe a large sum of money to the Yakuza!?

This movie is divided into 2 parts with the largest part being an overly crammed re-telling of the first 24 episodes and the smaller part being a glorified teaser of End of Eva. Remember when EA pissed off Mass Effect fans with the shitty original ending of Mass Effect 3? Even fucking EA had the dignity to make a better ending fixing some of the original plot holes and release it for free as a DLC. If Mass Effect were made by Gainax, they would promise fans to make a new game that was just a "fixed" ending for Mass Effect 3, but the new ending would end up being shittier than the original ending. Death and Rebirth is like a 40$ Mass Effect DLC entirely consisting of pasted together cutscenes from the first 3 Mass Effect games in order to make fans excited for a new shitty ending! When EA has THAT much more dignity than you...that ain't good. To drive home this point, Gainax even got in legal trouble because one of the studio executives tried to evade taxes on the massive profits made by this movie. Those sons of bitches are so greedy that they rob their own devoted fans, then try to avoid paying taxes on the money that they stole!

Why did I rate this a 5 then? The art and animation is actually very well done. In addition, Death and Rebirth has a lovely classical music soundtrack that is both calming and majestic. Also this isn't technically the the worst Eva cash in ever made. Only the worst directly made by Anno himself. The worst would probably be the innumerable Eva dating sims that seem to sell like hotcakes in Japan. That type of creepy otaku merchandise actually makes enough money that it is the real reason that Eva is still getting reboots and rebuilds. This isn't something Eva fanboys want to admit, but it is true. Eva isn't deeper than Serial Experiments Lain or better than Cowboy Bebop, but unlike those it keeps trucking on because creepy guys in their 30s REALLY want to bang a certain blue haired 15 year old. It kind of makes me sad to be an Eva fan.

When it comes to Eva, people are mostly divided into the zealous 2deep4you fanboys and the vitriol spewing Eva bashers. I occupy a middle ground and whereas I recognize the kinks and flaws of the series, I generally appreciate its contribution to anime culture and Anno's efforts to explore psychoanalysis and heroically battle his own clinical depression through the medium of art. Unfortunately, I just can't defend Death and Rebirth. Unlike the original series or End of Eva, this movie wasn't an example of Anno daring to bare his problems, his sorrow, his soul to us and break the conventions of shonen anime storytelling. Death and Rebirth is nothing but a shallow attempt to gouge some cash and betray all those otaku and hikikomori that idolized Anno.

"Your greed sickens me!" - Ayn Rand to Studio Gainax

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 & ... Rebirth very difficult to follow, and left the viewer to come to their own conclusions with help from flashing text that appears throughout the movie.

Death & Rebirth leaves out a vast amount of core elements that should be present (especially in a recap), near the point of being unbearable to watch. It goes as far to include characters that you would have no idea of who they were unless you weren't new to the franchise.

It is highly recommended that this should not be chosen to be your first installment in the series to view, as it leaves you with little to no understanding of the plot and characters when it is viewed as a standalone piece. To get the most out of Evangelion, I suggest that you watch the 26 episode series and The End of Evangelion before watching Death & Rebirth, as this movie is more or less meant to be reflected on by the viewer after watching them to better understand the overall story of Evangelion.

The 2 hour time frame simply can't do a complex story such as Evangelion's justice. Go watch the Neon Genesis Evangelion series as well as The End of Evangelion to get the fullest experience of this wonderful story, because Death & Rebirth falls flat on it's face in attempts to do so. It's still worth a watch for people interested in the complexity and depth of the story, but beyond that, don't expect anything extraordinary.

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 ... the release Assassin’s Creed Revelations Ubisoft has been desperately been milking the franchise by making poorly done squeals such as Assassin’s Creed Unity to unnecessary spinoffs such as Assassin’s Creed Chronicles which was a side-scrolling/Puzzle/Stealth game that not only bored me to tears but it perfectly represents how the Assassin’s Creed series has fallen just by being milked to death.

The same cash grabbing bullshit can apply for anime and the biggest offender for this is easily the Naruto franchise. Not only they have made countless pointless Naruto movies but the creators for that show constantly tried it’s hardest to keep it alive by having a crap tone of filler episodes to having an awful squeal series Burto the next generation which was the creators attempt to keep the Naruto series alive even though it’s getting One For All smashed by My Hero Academia constantly. How does this cash grab bullshit relate to Neon Genesis Evangelion Death and Rebirth? Well to put this straightforward Neon Genesis Evangelion Death and Rebirth is one of the most shameless cash-grabs to ever come out from this medium. Unlike the other two series that I just mention where I slightly give them points for trying to make they series reverent in the modern era for they respective mediums this movie has no reason to exist whatsoever and it should be burned to the ground.

The first 67 minutes of this movie being the death part is a lazily done recap off all the events of the first 24 episodes off the show including the director’s cut stuff that was released later by ADV Films? Not only does this part of the movie does an aboustly horrendous job at telling all the important events off the series but it somehow manages to completely butcher certain iconic scenes from the series by adding in shitty visual directing as well having a laughable script that wasn’t present in the original series at all.

Before we talk about my favorite part of this movie let’s quickly talk about the rebirth part of the movie. Despite being the first 30 minutes of End Of Evangelion where it actually has new scenes that never existed in the TV series it’s still a pointless teaser for End Of Evangelion movie where once again it only exists just to lazily draw people in. I won’t be talking about the Rebirth part of the movie because I will be talking about it in my End of Evangelion review.

Now with that said let’s get to my favorite part of this movie the 4 minutes and 24-second intermission. No joke. That intermission countdown along was the best thing to come out from this movie because not only it features relaxing and chilling music but the almost fully black screen fully symbolize that the series from this point onwards is going to hell. This is easily the best part about this pointless movie.

As for the visuals minus the intermission screen and the rebirth apart of the film, the visuals were shit overall thanks to the creators lazily reusing footage of the series but somehow making the visual and audio quality worse than the TV series.
Music is still great as ever but that’s should be expected at this point. The same thing can apply for the voice acting not counting that horrendous English Dub for it.

Overall minus the amazing intermission countdown screen, this movie is absolutely pointless. The Death part of the movie was horrendously directed to the aboustly core, the rebirth part of the movie despite being a 30-minute teaser of End Of Evangelion is a shitty attempt at drawing the audience in and the visuals quality in the movie is shit.

If your planning to check out the Evangelion series go watch the TV series instead. This movie is not worth your time at all.

Final Score 2/10

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 ... and made it as cheap as it could). The scenes aren't really presented in any good order either. It was an attempt to pin together the important events that effected each of the EVA pilots, but in such a way that anyone who wanted to go from this movie to End of Evangelion wouldn't understand the most important base elements from the show. For example,

1. What's an Angel?

2.Why did the South Pole explode?

3. Why is Shinji such a grouse?

4. Why is Asuka's mom talking to her inside of the EVA if she's dead?

5. Why make kids pilot mechs to save the world?

6. What in Sagan's name is the Human Instrumentality Project?

... And it goes on and on. Now, I have seen the show, so I do know what is happening when we reach the second half, but the editing in the first half throws all the important bits out and leaves you with a mess of hatred and confusion that leads into the mess to come.

The only redeeming part of this comes from Shiro Sagisu's once again great score. But at this point, you might just as well watch the show. It'll make a hell of a lot more sense and will anger you less.

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 ... worth watching...the movie even gets even better when their is literally a FIVE MINUTE SCENE THAT IS AN INTERMISSION before cutting to the Rebirth section which is and pardon my rage:
THE FIRST THIRTY MINUTES OF THE NEXT FILM ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME YOU MONEY GRABBING MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!
I apologize for the language, but I really hate this piece of shit and if anyone was considering to watch the series before watching the reboot films, just watch the original episodes and then the end of evangelion to get the full experience.
FUCK THIS MOVIE!
Once again, sorry for the rage.
On the upside, the music is still good like the original series but it barely makes up for the choppy editing, music, story and the art which is barely an improvement of the last few episodes of the original.
Overall: 3/10

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 ... del episodio 1 al 26.
Solo que con una mejor animación y la verdad te puede confundir si no viste desde antes la serie.
Desde mi punto de vista tienes que ver necesariamente la serie original para poder ver está recapitulación.
No tiene nada de especial (ademas de el supuesto nuevo final que en verdad no vale la pena) la verdad no vale la pena verla, solo en el caso de que ya no te acuerdes de nada de lo ocurrido en la serie (aun así vale la pena más ver un resumen de la serie por otro lado).

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 ... would be more appropriate for the original series or the End of Evangelion, both of which I find far superior, but all of the animated Evangelion content is worth a watch.

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 ... film).

The second part, Rebirth, is undoubtedly much better, being footage from the then soon to be released End of Evangelion, but still incomplete and unsatisfying.

I understand the circumstances behind this film and why it was made - people wanting a "proper ending" to the series, time constraints limiting the Rebirth segment, etc. I get that. I just feel it leaves a lot to be desired.

Unless you're an Eva superfan who just wants to consume literally any related media you can (which is admittedly why I've watched this), you can probably skip this and go right to EoE.

If you REALLY want to see the Death segment I would recommend watching Revival of Evangelion instead, it's far more complete and a much better watch.

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 ... just lonely with the weight of his own expectations and what he thinks everyone else expects of him on his shoulders. i do like the fact that the series took the time to show the psychological impact of being a pilot on the kids, it adds more depth and interest to the already really interesting idea and great battle scenes

just end of evangelion left to watch, i hope i get the chance to see it soon because i am also very excited about that!! (and the 1.0+2.0+3.0 films but let's not get too hasty here maia)

:)

--- watched 29/10/2020 ---

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 ... happened. But not like the rest of the series. So in conclusion just watch the show instead.

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 ... alot of missing elements and development but that is inevitable since it is a recap. I only watched it just for completeness.

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 ... franchise is full of symbolism and stuff that are more emotional than logical, in this case, I can say that the order of the scenes doesn't feel justified.

Personally, I felt that my time wasn't rewarded, as the movie failed to bring a new perspective or depth to the episodes that the anime offers to the viewer. Despite the extra scenes, I can't ignore the feeling of disappointment and the impression that the movie is a waste of time. If you're a fan of the anime, you might find yourself questioning whether this movie truly adds value to the overall experience (long story short: NO)

The only reason I'm not giving it a terrible rating is because the anime is excellent, and practically the entire movie consists of the anime itself. However, when considering that it's a separate film, that's where I`m afraid that I have to lower the rating.

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 ... vs. The World when compared to the six mangas that comprised the entire Scott Pilgrim series

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 ... watching it at some point; as there is animation and voice-overs unique to it.

The remaining purpose would be a nostalgia trip. Hey, maybe anyone out there would like to experience a summarized depression experience before watching Thrice Upon a Time. Who knows anyways.