#eva 1.11

[seeuonadarknight]

New album cover by Yoko Takahashi

[seeuonadarknight]

i’m taking the rest of the year off. This shit just made 2017 worth it.

[yello80s]

I’m going to veer off course here for a moment out of the 80s and speed up to- 2 days ago, 2nd February, 2016 which was Funimation’s U.S. release date for Evangelion 3.33 (You can (not) Redo) on blu-ray. It’s no secret I am an  Eva freak (though I grew out of collecting all the Japanese stuff a while ago, or rather, my salary did!) , I have the Director’s cut box set of the original series, the end movies and soundtracks and of course, the Rebuild of Eva blu-ray sets from the latest installment. If you’re not up to speed on Rebuild, it’s a series of 4 feature films that started off pleasantly enough retelling the original story with some nice additions and then went off on an angle more painful than a busted femur. At this point nobody is sure if the 4th movie is being made at all with director Hideaki Anno on another major project and it’s anybody’s guess how the story is going to end up because in the ambiguity of the ‘rebuild but not remake but not sequel’ concept, Eva fans just want more.  And we want it done as well as the X-Files is managing.

U.S. Blu-ray releases of 1.11, 2.22, 3.33

That notwithstanding, I’m not going to go over the storyline here because that would take too long and if I get started talking about the whole mythology of Eva you’re going to hate me and beat me to stop me talking. So I’m going to focus on something totally superficial: the packaging , or rather the difference between the U.S. Funimation release of 3.33 in 2016 and the Japanese release of 3.33 in 2012. Yes, it took that freaking long to get this movie over here on disc. Not that most of us haven’t seen it in parts in fansubs on the internet somewhere, but I don’t know anything about such tomfoolery…  So when it finally hit blu-ray I took to Amazon and paid a stupid sum to get it the second it popped up. Well that was a stupid move because I never do stuff like this but I didn’t read the description all too well and don’t you  know I bought a Japanese copy as in Region 2. The U.S. is in Region 1, so unless I had a region-free player or broke my own to make it region-free thereby voiding all warranties and with no guarantee it would work, I could not play the disc I had and you know of course it was not returnable. So hey, we all throw money away at one point or another. I paid half as much for the U.S. release on pre-order and got it the same day as release with no added cost.

So, when it came I ripped open the envelope and immediately noticed something startling- a difference of size in the Japanese and US versions. Now I assume the content on disc is the same with of course the addition of English subbing on the Funimation disc. But the Japanese disc included another goodie- the soundtrack. Now at this point there’s not a whole lot you can add to Eva other than some new character themes and an actual theme song to make radio listeners happy but seeing that songstress Utada Hikaru recorded Beautiful World in both original and accoustic versions for Rebuild 1.11 and 2.22, I wasn’t holding out hopes for something new. While it is still Ms. Hikaru on the 3rd soundtrack, she does have a new song which I found so so, although I’m not a huge fan of her music to begin with. Otherwise, morose classical pieces are an Eva hallmark and those guys are dead so again, a limit unless they start remixing Bach. Someone, please remix Bach! I’m not slamming the soundtrack- I LOVE Rei’s theme, the TV theme Cruel Angel’s Thesis and most of its remixes and of course Beautiful World, but I sorta felt like, this is a rehash of earlier music.

Now the cases for these discs are quite different- not in appearance so much but the slipcovers themselves are worlds apart. The U.S. disc case seems really flimsy to me, where the Japanese cover is quite stiff and heavy, almost a book in itself. Inside both are a ‘guidebook’ but again, the Japanese book has a black matte cover with black printing and is larger in dimensions. The U.S. book is very flimsy, almost like a book whose jacket has been torn off. The art is both is identical with the exception of Japanese/ English page titles, disc track listings and what I assume are film credits but also credits for the tv ads, as well as page numbers on the Japanese version.

The other main difference relates again to the soundtrack- the Japanese art book has several pages of lyrics for the soundtrack.  I’m really disappointed here. I have a longstanding dislike of U.S. releases of Japanese film starting with Disney’s cultural-bleaching of the Studio Ghibli films. Leave those confusing little phrases and images in, Disney, make people ask questions about other cultures. Just subtitle it so we can have a clue who’s saying what. So knowing that Funimation was behind the Eva releases in this country from 1.11 on, I grudgingly buy them (it’s EVA– I’ll buy it in any language, I just prefer to know what the hell is actually being said but these are trivial things after all. ) but inside I’m just cringing at some of the dialogue. If you ever want to know what exactly is being translated, watch anime in English dub and turn the English subtitles on. Read em, it’s often not what you’re hearing.

NOW BRING ON 4.44 (3.0 + 1.0)!!!!

  Evangelion 3.33: US vs Japanese releases I'm going to veer off course here for a moment out of the 80s and speed up to- 2 days ago, 2nd February, 2016 which was Funimation's U.S.

[bsaapiers]

EVA 1.11 is on I dont think im gonna liveblog this time, i came outta akira DED last week yall had me dying

[steeplewack]

AAAAAAAAAAAHHH

I watched Evangelion 1.11 tonight.

[shoukounetsu]

I also like how Evangelion Units are these amazingly powerful, last hopes of humanity, yet they still need to be plugged in

[shoukounetsu]

I like how Gainax keeps putting rainbows in shots like that makes everything better

[shoukounetsu]

Should I be more annoyed at -Adult Swim for constantly interrupting this movie with commercials although I may forgive them if they show more Hobbit dvd ads -Shinji for moping about his fucking ceiling of all things OR -this app for crashing infinity-times while I'm trying to make this goddamn post?