Evangelionfinally concluded in 2021 withEvangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time, Hideaki Anno’s long awaited ending to the groundbreaking anime saga. Almost a year later, it’s been up in the air when a physical release could be expected, much less if the movie would come to theaters, especiallygiven Amazon’s history of not bringing their licensed animeto home video in a timely manner.
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The (Final) End of Evangelion
TheEvangelion Rebuildsbegan in 2006 withEvangelion 1.11: You Are (NOT) Alone, kick-starting a mission to re-explore the story for a new generation with the best artists in the industry. The subsequent sequels2.22: You Can (NOT) Advanceand3.33 You Can (NOT) Redoreleased in 2009 and 2012. The story began to follow the original TV show, before diverging greatly into new territory.
After nine long years, the final film was finally released and thankfully seemed to satisfy fan’s desires, despite the long hiatus that cast doubt in people’s minds. The story chroniclesShinji Ikari’s journey to find the will to liveafter the events of3.33, and him regaining his hope in the world. Meanwhile, the members of the organization “Wille” rally to prevent the end of life on Earth.
Amazon acquired the rights to not only3.0+1.0, but all the Rebuild films and released them on Prime Video the same day as the final one. They were re-dubbed courtesy of Dubbing Brothers with the original English Cast, some reprising their roles from the Funimation dub of the early films. A
Where Are The Rest?
Now that GKIDS is bringing3.0+1.0to theaters and Blu-ray, it begs questioning when they’ll do the same for the rest of the series. While there has been no announcement yet, it would stand to reason that the publisher would license the entire series, along with Amazon’s dub. As it stands,Funimation’s Blu-rays of films 1-3are becoming expensive and hard to find.
Unfortunately, this means that the Funimation dub of the first threeEvangeliondubs may very well vanish into obscurity, something that may not come as a concern to fans who prefer subtitles. However,among the series' complicated dubbing history, Funimation’s work is what many in the fandom consider the best of the bunch.
Just last year, GKIDS brought the original TV seriesNeon Genesis Evangelionto Blu-ray in America for the first time. In the limited and collector’s editions, the Blu-rays featured the original ADV dub in addition to the standard Netflix dub. There remains a possibility that GKIDS could do something similar with the release of the Rebuild films, but the chances are admittedly slim.
Regardless of the show’s messy history with localization, soon the entireEvangelionseries will likely be available on videofrom the same publisher, and that is something everyone can be happy about. Too many franchises get tied up in licensing battles that can leave some parts available and others trapped behind another service, which can put dubs to an end and delay home video releases.
For those yet to get intoEvangelionwho are interested in consuming everything, there’s never been a better time than now to get caught up in what Allegra Frank of Vox calls “One of the most powerful, visually stunning, intellectually probing anime in the medium’s history.”
Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Timeis set to release on Blu-ray this fall. The Rebuild franchise is available to stream throughAmazon Prime Video. The original series,Neon Genesis Evangelion, is also available for purchase through GKIDS and can be streamed throughNetflix.
