Good video, slight issues here and there but for the most part it was pretty solid.

The audio is a very good stereo mix. I didn't give it a 5 because the R1 release has DTS and DD EX 5.1/6.1 surround which sounds many times better.

The audio is a very good stereo mix. I didn't give it a 5 because the R1 release has DTS and DD EX 5.1/6.1 surround which sounds many times better.

Honestly this is something I would probably suggest getting the R1 release from. Death and Rebirth is unecessary and if you have a surround sound setup you'll absolutely love the DD EX and DTS mixes in the R1 version of End of Evangelion. But that's my opinion. About the show itself, Death and Rebirth was a teaser that was released in Japan to get fans riled up for the real deal which was the movie, End of Evangelion. The movie is basically an alternate ending to the TV series, so you have to see the entire Eva TV series in order to understand this as End of Evangelion replaces TV episodes 25 and 26. For those that didn't like the boring way the TV series ended you'll want to see this for sure.

This is undoubtedly the strangest set I own. The first disc is a sort of collage from the episodes combined with plenty of screens containing just Japanese text [with no translations]. It feels like an MTV ad campaign: loud, flashy and without any sense The second disc actually makes more sense and contains a movie. The bad news is this is a crap movie and as far as sense goes there's little to go around. The animation is impressive, one of the best I've seen and the soundtrack is also good. The subtitles are passable, there's no much talk involved anyway. Unfortunately most of this movie is an absurdly violent fight - the number of scenes pondered by huge explosions, tons of people getting shot in the head, all-round hysteria and incessant screaming get to the point of being disturbing. An equally absurd, overblown ending, full of two-cent existentialist questions, probably targeted to the more impressionable audience, follows all this. It's artsy pointless crap that says absolutely nothing. Despite the brilliant technique of the animators I wouldn?t recommend this to anyone. This is more violent, disturbing and downright stupid than the average Tom Clancy novel.

Video: Very solid LD transfer. I've compared it to the AS (1 DVD version) wich is a rip, and this one is defenately better. While the AS runs at bitrates of 2-4mbs, this one has bitrates of 7-9mbs, and it shows. While AS version had quite a lot of pixelation this one almost has none. It also is a tad sharper. Audio: Once again compared to the AS version. While the AS version had humming in the back, I couldn't hear it in this one. Sounds very good. Subs: Death:Rebirth: Very good subtitles, probably from a fansub script, or VERY good HK originals. Only some little timing problems, and the usual HK stuff (of the screen a few times etc.) EoE: The're not as good as D:R subs, but they're very understandable and very good translated. Sometimes you have to think a little about what you read (Engrish -> English) but most of the time it's very good. Some little typo's offcourse too. Overall, If you can't wait for EoE by Manga, get this one!

This is a review of the Anime Cartoon version. Anime Cartoon is the same company as Manga International. The video and audio quality were good. However, the "intro" screens were not translated. There were one or two missing subs. There were a few wrong subs. (eg: Mama is looking us!). However, I could determine what was going on from context. (Not so in the intro screens.)The DVDs do not show the menu; they go right into the movie. The menu shows up at the end. If you can overlook these problems, I strongly recomend this title, especially since the "official" version by Manga Entertainment is a mangled version.

Reasonable. It's a spectacular piece, so...

Seems to be in order

Seems to be in order

The menu can be a little hard to navigate, so let me say: watch the whole thing all the way through. That includes how even though Death and Rebirth are on the first disk, and the second disk [End of Evangelion] reprises part of that, you should watch it all the way through because it has added [and important!] footage.
This is an incredible movie, and covers a lot of the important things: the real nature of Rei and Kaworu, what happened to Shinji's mother, the completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, Asuka's synch ratio, the breadth of the Seele organization, and all sorts of crazy stuff. A must see for anyone who liked the tv series.

This review is for the End of Evangelion version of this DVD set. This is the movie to watch when it comes to the Evangelion series. The set is very good as well, and given the proper sound and video settings will look very very nice. But I need to see a source in order to make an accurate assumption. The original TV series had some OK looking animation, but there were a lot of things that made the animation look cheap or blurry (spraying paint on to the cels for 1). So my comments are made entirely from what I can tell based on the previous disc, and the TV series. Video 4/5 The video in this set is ok. The video is a bit too bright in a lot of occasions. I need to turn the brightness down a bit, but once I did that, all the forms that were hard to see came back, and were once again viewable. There are some cases where the animation is very crisp, and others where the animation has that blurry sprayed look that makes it look a bit more bright. Overall the transfer is ok, but is also kinda lacking in how the set COULD have been made. As I said in the previous review, the video is a bit cut on the sides, and they made it wide screen in a 4:3 window (720x540) instead of a 16:9 video (960x540). those are really my nitpicks, and I think that the video is ok in most cases. Some artifacting appears here and there on motion scenes, but isn't always apparent. The live-action film is pretty grainy though. I'm not sure if it's meant to be that grainy, or if that's like that for "effect" that Gainax likes to put in. Audio - 4/5 I watched the Anime Studio equivelent (which is just a rip of this set), and they had the levels boosted too high, as for this set, the levels are set at good levels so that you can hear it without distortion. The Audio is clear without hiss, popping or hums of any sort. There is however sounds of that sort in some of the live action parts.....but like I said before, I think it's in there for artistic effect, and nothing more. Subs - 3.5-4/5 Like I said in the last review, the subs tend to sometimes get a little bit awkward, yet are also understandable. The subs sometimes go off screen, but only in cases where the character is repeating the same thing over and over again, so it's no loss. The set is a pretty good buy, as Manga is going to be doing the R1 release. I for one don't trust Manga at all. They really screwed up Black Magic M66, and made ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell really low in Bitrate, so I Don't know what they will do to Eva. I'm just glad I spent about $20 on these DVDs instead of about $30x2 for the R1 dvds. Both of the movies use almost all of the DVD, so that at least means that the quality of the Movies isn't skimped on. Overall, I say get this set unless a better HK set comes out. I made 15 different Screen Caps for you guys, they're the second 15 that I posted. edited by kakomu on 03 Aug 2002 2:01 am

This review will be done in two parts for both the End of Evangelion and the Death and Rebirth movies. This review is for the Death and Rebirth portion of the Movies. I'll start off by saying that this movie really isn't a movie. It's more of a clip show, where they show different parts of the movie over again, and really isn't all that necessary to watch. The beginning of End of Evangelion is included in this set, but since this set includes the End of Evangelion, it's a little moot :P. There is a bit more footage, which is also included in the director's cut, which is also in the Evangelion TV series set by AC/MI. But now on to the review. Video 4/5 The Video in this set is pretty good. It looks really pretty good, and could be directly from the DVD sets. The problems that I have with this set are kinda nit picky, but still kinda bother me. First of all, the movie is widescreen, but they encoded it in a 4:3 video screen (720x540) with letterbox bars. So the movie is lower res, with less dpi. Second, the widescreen doesn't reach the edges of the screen, but rather is a little closed in. I suspect this was to be able to fit all types of TVs (NTSC and PAL), or that may be how the source was. Third, this is nit picking on the original source, but they made Death and Rebirth Widescreen, so they actually took Full screen footage, and cut the top and bottom off, That kinda pissed me off a bit since in this case you are actually missing bits and pieces of the video here and there. Overall the video is really good, but they could have made a better transfer with 16:9, and enlarging the footage. Audio 5/5 Evangelion Audio has always been really good. And this set is no different. The audio is really crisp, and full. There is no hum, hiss or pops. The EQ seems to be really full, and using 48khz as well, the spectrum is really wide. Subs 3.5-4/5 The subs in this set are kinda mixed. Sometimes the subs are really really good, and sometimes they just kinda stink. The subs never dip into super Engrish territory, but there are some awkward sounding lines ("We can't loss", etc.). But since all the lines are understandable without an Engrish to English translation, I feel that this set diserves a 4, but the Engrishness still looms, so I'm indecisive. :P. The disc which houses this movie is used to the brim with the data, so there isn;t any skimped quality. Overall This movie is pretty good. Though I would reccomend you watch the TV series rather than this movie, and go straight to the End of Evangelion, for those of you who would want to watch this set, I give it a thumbs up, and feel that if you would in fact decide to watch this, you won't be disapointed. I also made 15 different Screen Caps for you guys, these are the First 15 I posted. edited by kakomu on 07 Jun 2002 12:48 pm

video, sound and subs i give em all 4/5. Overall it's a good set, if you've got the series, u gota have the movies. I found no problems with it, and just like the series nice video quality.

Sorry, made a mistake and didn't see this set includes both movies. The naming is quite strange here. This also contains the second disc which is EOE. The video and audio are the same as below, very excellent. The subs though well translated have LOT of errors in them. Spelling mistakes happen quite frequently and subs move quite fast or too fast in parts. The subs are very well translated, seen several versions of the script. The problem here is the large amount of spelling errors or mistakes in subs such as calling Unit-1, Unit-2 in a scene. Stuff like that is annoying, but it makes sense. People will watch this and likely be confused, don't really blame the subs, because the translation is pretty spot on, its the MOVIE itself that confused you :)

The release of Death and Rebirth by Manga was originally released under the Circle K logo. Good stuff here. Video, excellent, very vibrant, no problems with low bit rates. Only places of note is some dark scenes where you get blocking in the black scenes in parts. Not bad at all though, you see this on legal releases. Audio, awesome audio here. Hopefully people don't get the reviews mixed up here because the AS set of this movie had out of synch audio. The AC version here has no problems in the audio. Very strong, sounds great on the surround. Subs - Better subs and EoE, well translated, almost perfect at times but like EOE there are lots of spelling mistakes and formatting problems such as screen going off screen. Subs move a little fast at times too. But the subs are very easy to read. Good stuff.