One of the most beloved anime of all time,Neon Genesis Evangelion, spent a long time in copyright limbo before coming to Netflix in 2019. This copyright fiasco stopped the beloved 1995 psychological mecha anime from receiving home media releases following the closure of ADV Films, the studio behind the original English dub.The announcement that Netflixwould be picking up exclusive worldwide streaming rights in 2019 gave many fans hope that the anime would finally see a physical release on blu-ray in the future and, announced at the “digital anime convention” Cloud Matsuri, All The Anime have announced that they have acquired the license to finally bringNeon Genesis Evangelionto blu-ray, however the announcement has one major downside: the blu-ray is only planned to release in the UK and Ireland.
The “Ultimate Edition Blu-ray” release, which is planned for release in the UK in 2021 and includes the original 26 episodeanime seriesalongside theEvangelion Death (true)²andThe End of Evangelionfilms. No US distributors have yet announced any plans to bringNeon Genesis Evangelionto blu-ray in the region 1 format and it is unknown if All The Anime’s blu-ray release will be region locked to the region 2 format that is standard to the UK and Ireland, or if the release will be region free.
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It has also not been confirmed if the manga will feature the original ADV English dub of the series, however it is more likely that it will include the controversial Netflix dub, as it was developed by the franchise’s current rights holders, Studio Khara, the studio lead behind the recentRebuild of Evangelionfilm series.
The Netflix translation ofNeon Genesis Evangelionhas been widely criticizedby fans for changing iconic dialogue from the original translations, recasting the entire English dub cast, and it has also been accused for misrepresenting certain characters. The Netflix release also removed the series' iconic “Fly Me to the Moon” credits music from each episodedue to licensing issuesand changed certain parts of the show’s audio editing. It is unknown if these edits will be present in All The Anime’s English blu-ray release.
While it is surprising to seeNeon Genesis Evangelionfinally get an English-language blu-ray release, it is disappointing to see that the United States will likely not see this release for quite some time, if ever.
