Photo: YouTube/Netflix
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'Evangelion' returns to legal English-language distribution with Netflix streaming deal

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By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Whether you find its mix of mecha action and psychological drama enthralling or baffling, there’s no denying that the "Evangelion" TV series has one of the most important legacies in anime, with its themes continuing to echo throughout brand-new series being made today. But what’s as impressive as the fact the anime fans around the world are still discussing "Evangelion" more than 20 years after it first aired on Japanese TV is that they’re still discussing it almost a decade after you could legally buy the original anime, or watch it online, translated into English.

Original English-territory "Eva" licensor ADV Films closed its doors in 2009, and since then the series has been unavailable for purchase or streaming. In the meantime, appreciation for the series has lived on and spread to new fans largely through unauthorized copies posted to video sharing sites, but director Hideaki Anno’s masterpiece is about to return to legitimacy in English-speaking territories.

Netflix has announced that it will be streaming the original 26-episode "Neon Genesis Evangelion" TV series, as well as the theatrical features "Evangelion: Death (True)" and "The End of Evangelion (aka "Evangelion Episodes 25 and 26: What’s Happening Outside Protagonist Shinji’s Head Edition").

The company hasn’t set a release date more specific than spring of 2019, nor has it made any comment as to whether it will be using the remastered visuals from the Japan-only Blu-rays. It’s also still unknown if Netflix will be utilizing the existing ADV Films translation and English dubbing, so you may or may not be able to hear the origins of such old-school anime dub memes as “EVERY SINGLE MISSLE HIT THE TARGET!” but at least you’ll be able to see the series that was one of the biggest turning points ever for the anime world.

Sources: YouTube/Netflix, Anime News Network/Rafael Antonio Pineda

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© SoraNews24

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3 Comments
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I have to correct you on your assertion that,

(o)riginal English-territory "Eva" licensor ADV Films closed its doors in 2009...

While ADV Films has ceased to exist in its original form, the concern was broken into its component parts, as even acknowledged by Funimation's events manager Adam Sheehan, who responded to a question about ADV going out of business thusly:

ADV isn't out of business. ADV did remaster itself, as you might call it, and change itself into multiple different companies (Section23, etc.), holding different parts of its brands, of its marketing, so [it's] still around...the best way I would describe it is to think of it as Voltron: if it turned back into the five lions, so it's not the one Voltron robot anymore, so the ADV logo is no longer around, but the lions and all the properties are still around.

The former A.D. Vision (which included ADV Films) has been reborn as Section23 Films, which consists of Sentai Filmworks (anime licensing and distribution,) Switchblade Pictures (live action film licensing and distribution,) Maiden Japan (classic and niche anime licensing, distributed by parent company Section23,) and AEsir Holdings (which holds the licensing for several titles that ADV Films previously held, including NGE,) among others.

It's entirely possible that Netflix has obtained the streaming rights from AEsir Holdings, which could mean that the original ADV English dub would be utilized. That would still leave unanswered the question as to whether the remastered BluRay visuals would be used but with Netflix's deep pockets, I wouldn't put it past them to shell out the funds to make it so.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hideaki Anno’s masterpiece is about to return to legitimacy in English-speaking territories.

At last.

But will it be on Netflix Japan, though?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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