Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth

Death

The first part, Death, is a 70-minute-long edit of the first 24 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion in the form of a clip show, with additional footage not seen in the original broadcast. (The footage would later be integrated into the Japanese Laserdisc and the American and European Platinum Collection releases of the series, as "Director's Cut" versions of episodes 21-24.)

Rebirth

The second part, Rebirth, consists of 27 minutes of entirely new animation that would eventually form the first third of the film The End of Evangelion, released four months later. Because of time constraints, Rebirth only covers the initial preparations of the Human Instrumentality Project and the invasion of the Geofront by the JSSDF, ending with the arrival of the Mass Production Evas. (In The End of Evangelion, the final version of episode 25 concludes with the end of Asuka's fight with the Mass Production Evas.)

Release

Between March and October 1997, Death and Rebirth grossed 1.1 billion yen.

On July 26, 2005, Manga Entertainment released Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion together in the United States as a two-disc set.

The English production made similar creative changes in the dubbing of the film, as had been made to The End of Evangelion. One notable change was the alteration of the sound effect between the scene featuring Kaji to one of Shinji informing Asuka of his death. According to the DVD commentary, English ADR director Amanda Winn-Lee, also the voice of Rei in the dub, felt the sound was not a proper "gunshot" and replaced it with a more overt effect. However, the Japanese screenplay mentions that the sound effect is not a gunshot at all, but rather the sound of a slap (the following scene implies Asuka has slapped Shinji's face).

Versions

Evangelion: Death(True) screened on January 2, 1998 on the Japanese satellite TV channel WOWOW; this version of Evangelion: Death was personally re-edited by Masayuki, removing much of the new footage from episodes 21–24.

Another version titled Revival of Evangelion was released on March 8, 1998 and is a unification of the movies Death(True)² (a further edit of Death(true), with a few removed shots edited back in) and The End of Evangelion. It is considered the final form of the Evangelion movies, which had been released in several forms prior to Revival. The two were released on the ninth and tenth discs of the Renewal of Evangelion box set with the labels of Revival of Evangelion and Evangelion – The Feature Film. Death(true)² is also the version released in the west.

Reception

Chris Beveridge from Mania gave it an overall "A-" score. Robert Nelson of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews gave it a 3 out of 5. Japan Cinema gave the film a C+. Adam Arnold from Animefringe gave the film an overall score of 72%.