Amazon Prime Streams Final 'Evangelion' Film This August
Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of anime's most successful franchises. The original 1995 TV series by GAINAX spawned dozens of clones and a new boom in TV anime. The controversial ending was (sort of) retconned in the two-part theatrical release Death and Rebirth and The End Of Evangelion. In 2007 original creator Hideaki Anno co-wrote and directed Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, the first part of the Rebuild Of Evangelion series, an ambitious four-part theatrical remake of the series. The series continued with Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance in 2009 and Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo in 2012. Initially seeming to be a straight retelling with a bigger budget and slicker animation, it began to diverge from the original, introducing new characters and taking a radically different path in the third movie.
There was a long wait and multiple delays before the final part (confusingly titled Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time) finally hit Japanese cinemas earlier this year. Audiences outside of Japan will be able to see the film this summer when it will stream exclusively via Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon will stream the film globally outside of Japan from August 13. The version that will be available will actually be Evangelion 3.0+1.01, which is an alternate edit of the film that was re-released in Japan in June. The film will be offered with subtitles for 28 languages and dubs in 10 languages including English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Prime will also begin streaming the first three movies, which were originally available in the US on Blu-Ray and DVD from Funimation and Manga Entertainment in the UK.
The news seems to have come from nowhere and signals an interest by Amazon in taking on their main rival Netflix in the world of anime. Netflix holds the exclusive streaming rights to the original TV series and two movies, after having been unavailable in English for over a decade. Amazon has been going after anime for some time, typically licencing a handful of exclusive shows a year and briefly experimenting with the add-on Anime Strike channel in the US. This is by far their biggest coup to date and could indicate they're really getting serious about this Japanese animation thing.
The news was announced via a new trailer- check it out, below. Get in the robot Shinji!
