[EVA] The End of Evangelion DVD

[RJN]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brendan Jamieson" <bjamieson1 at yahoo.com>
To: <evangelion at eva.onegeek.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 9:22 AM
Subject: [EVA] The End of Evangelion DVD


: >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 know. I have read them! Shame forums are taking over so much.
:
: 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.

I will always prefer the R2 Eva "family" picture. It was done by
Sadamoto for Gainax's Eva movies release, & has Misato in the picture.
*Neither* Manga cover has her, and she was very important in the story
IMO.
:
: - 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..)

Um..what's her "kiss now" promise like for both versions?
:
: - "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 ;)

Hmm. She does not look disgusted, but she *does* look unwell "I feel
sick" could mean ill physically *and* because of Shinji mentally.
So.....
:
:
: 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.

And Allison Keith is omitted as Misato, someone wrote previously.
:
: 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.

Be interesting to compare with UK R2 and Australian R4. IIRC the UK is 2
x DVD-5s & Australian DVD-9. How do the French DVDs look?
:
: - 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.

Is that both sub & dub, or just dub? If just dub, & they had recorded it
already, it would be too late to change maybe.
:
: - 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.

Her Animerica interview struck me as more reminiscing from Eva TV, than
an in-touch director.
:
: - 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=DCF
orumID5&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

Thanks Brendan. I'm getting the US VHS sub and UK DVD (R2 PAL), I'll
post on the latter if anyone wants me to, when it is released.
RJN
:
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