[EVA] The End of Evangelion DVD

[Brendan Jamieson]

>How come this hasn't reached the list?

I was wondering the same thing. I remember way back
when Genesis 12 and 13 were released on VHS, all the
buzz and talk here.. then all the envy when retailers
broke street date and sold them weeks early.. :P (I
remember, I was in Boston at the time, and was at
TokyoKid - who was selling the tapes early as well,
and trying to talk myself out of buying them early
there - or waiting to get them at the real time at
home, hehe)

Anyhow, enough reminiscing. Although I've been talking
about this DVD so much since Monday that I feel like
it's back to those old days anyway.

I've had a while to think about this DVD and get over
its shortcomings, so this review may not sound as
harsh as my initial one I posted elsewhere on Monday
(AnimeonDVD.com, AnimeNation forums...) ... or maybe
it'll sound more harsh :P

Bottom line: This is an average DVD, for a movie that
is anything but. And frankly, I feel betrayed and
disappointed because of that.

So here's my rundown -

Good:
- Cover art design. This was an unpopular choice for
cover art, but imho - it works beautifully. Kudos to
Manga for this.

- Audio/Video Quality - again, the best Eva has ever
looked Stateside. The video is beautiful. I don't have
DTS or DD support, so I can't comment on how that
worked out. Personally, I don't care much about these
bonus audio formats. The original mix for End of Eva
is 2.0 stereo, so that's what I listen to.

- Menus are as cool as they were in D&R. Nice haunting
design, images and music. 

- The subtitle script does *not* have Misato say, "So
fucking what if I'm not you?!", she simply says, "So
what if I'm not you?!" --- consistent with the
Japanese script. (of course, this kind of thing should
go without saying, but..)

- "How disgusting." *is* the best translation of the
final line - and thank God Manga (well, Winn-Lee) used
it. Of course, if you've followed Bochan Bird's
translations the past several years, you knew that
already ;)


Stupid mistakes:
- Manga's credits appear too quickly. This is the
theatrical edit of the film, and thus originally there
were no end credits after the final frame of the
movie. I understand that Manga needed to insert the
English language credits somewhere. However - they
appear way too quickly after the film and kinda hurt
the overall mood. This is pretty much a nitpick, but I
did feel it needed to be mentioned.

Bad:
- There is no silkscreen, just bare DVD, making for a
pretty cheap looking disc. Which is a mind-numbing
decision, since Manga has had some nice silkscreens in
the past (Perfect Blue, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja
Scroll). This also may have caused a glitch in the
disc. But more on that below.

- Japanese trailer / TV spot placement. If these had
been their own chapter, and noted as "Trailers" on the
chapter titles, it would have been fine. But instead
they're just there, before the film (leading people to
call them "intro" scenes or what have you =
misinformation). Normally, I'd hardly care about
something like this, however the lack of notation of
what exactly these two things are before the film
kicks it into the "Bad" category. These should have
been relocated to the trailers section. Failing that,
they should have been their own chapter and labled as
such.


Very Bad:
- Dub editing, writing, mixing.

- Misato's line about Lilim, Angels, Adam and Lilith
is *still* translated wrong.

- Someone still needs to slap Amanda Winn-Lee and say,
sternly, "Stop being stupid." This commentary just
serves to show how out of touch with Evangelion she
is.

- Extras? What's an extra? After delay after delay
being attributed to "extras" like a commentary from
Yamaga and/or Tsurumaki, an Anno interview (remember
"early October 2001?"), interviews with cast members,
large printed booklet for the "double disc side case",
all the "easter eggs" AWL promised would be on the
DVDs, how this would "Probably be Manga's most complex
DVD ever content wise" - it turns out Manga's DVD has
virtually nothing special. Trailers and a horribly
horrible commentary by AWL (& co.).


Is this a bad DVD? No. Far from it. It is certainly
worth $30 - if only to be able to see the masterpeice
of filmmaking that is 'The End of Evangelion' in a
rich, clean digital transfer. So in that respect -
this DVD is what it needs to be. It has a movie, and
it looks and sounds good. 

But this release had so much potential. There was so
much more that could have been done for a film as
important as this. Basically - it just could have been
so much better.

And that's what I find disappointing.

Oh - and apparently the DVD is botched.
http://forums.animeondvd.com/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=581&forum=DCForumID5&omm=0

I played it fine on my Pioneer DV-333, but apparently
a lot of people are having problems. So buyer beware.
And if you already got the DVD and are experiencing
these issues, write manga at "manga at manga.com" and
respectfully and tactfully, but in no uncertain terms,
ask for attention to this situation.

-brendan
www.EvaOtaku.com

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