Watching Evangelion has been a rite of passage for budding anime fans for the better part of three decades. The series’ unconventional structure, narrative, and lead characters have captured the hearts of countless viewers, while the mystique surrounding its lore and symbolism has kept fans digging for answers for years.
Though the original TV anime series wrapped in 1996, Evangelion has been kept alive and relevant through endless collaborations with well-known brands and other media franchises, as well as its very own series of Rebuild films that ended in 2021. There’s a lot to watch when it comes to Evangelion, but finding it is pretty simple.
What’s the Best Way to Watch Evangelion?
There Are a Number of Ways to Find and Enjoy Evangelion
Evangelion is a pretty straightforward series to enjoy, despite how out there and confusing some of the actual material can be. It starts with 1995’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is available to stream both dubbed and subbed on Netflix. The streaming giant acquired the series in 2019, and has remained the only service to feature it in its lineup.
When bringing Evangelion in, Netflix added their own original English dub and subtitles, which wasn’t exactly to the liking of long-time fans who grew up with the original ADV dub of the ’90s. However, the script featured in the Netflix version of the series is far more faithful to the original Japanese version. The ADV dub is not available to stream, but can be found on DVD releases.
Netflix also includes the director’s cut version of the series, which strips the 1997 film Evangelion: Death (True)2 of much purpose. The one-hour movie is nothing more than a recap of the series’ first 24 episodes, initially released because The End of Evangelion was not yet ready to be screened. It can still be found on Netflix.
The same goes for 1997’s The End of Evangelion, which also features the updated English dub and is a must-watch for those who finished the original series. The film is a retelling of episodes #25 and #26 from a new perspective, bringing Neon Genesis Evangelion to a more definitive close than the series was initially able to do.
It all gets a bit more complicated when it comes to the Rebuild movies. There are four of them, with the first being officially labeled ‘1.1’ on streaming services and online stores, and the final version of the last being ‘3.0+1.11’. These can all be found on Prime Video in the U.S., but with a new team dubbing the series of movies, rather than Funimation, which was responsible for each up to the third.
The messages at the heart of the series are as relevant now as they were three decades ago, and it’s all simple to stream for those unfamiliar with it.
The English dubs of the films aside, the versions available for streaming are all practically identical to the final versions released on Blu-ray, despite discrepancies in their numbered titles.
Evangelion May Be Easy to Find, But It’s Never Been Easy to Understand
The Franchise Has Remained Successful As Long As It Has Thanks to Its Many Mysteries
Neon Genesis Evangelion and its subsequent films may be easy to find, but they’ve never been the easiest to grasp in a single sitting. They’re best enjoyed in the order they were originally released, but it might be a good idea to re-visit each, as there’s bound to be something missed on first viewing. For many, just about everything is missed during their first watch.
The lore of the series is somewhat vague. It’s outright told to the audience that the events are set in 2015, 15 years after the Second Impact wiped out half of all human life on Earth. The series is a bit more vague on what exactly happened on that day, but it’s later told that the awakening of the First Angel, Adam, resulted in catastrophe in the Southern Hemisphere.
During the series, Nerv and Gendo Ikari are secretly trying to re-trigger the events of that day, in order to push humanity into its next stage of evolution. All of that is delivered in just about the least straightforward, most emotional way imaginable, but many of the nuances can be caught in later viewings.
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The Rebuild films then take that original premise, and make it all the more complicated—starting from the beginning fans know, and then deviating from the original narrative, revealing an alternate timeline sort of situation. The final film is meant to act as a definitive finale for the Evangelion franchise, finally freeing Shinji from the miserable events of the last 30 years.
Evangelion is one of the most successful anime franchises in history, and remains as popular today as it ever was. All the mystique and complicated, vague lore give way to hopeful and relatively simple central themes about human connection and new beginnings. The messages at the heart of the series are as relevant now as they were three decades ago, and it’s all simple to stream for those unfamiliar with it.
