One of the most important and influential anime Gainax ever made is undoubtedly Neon Genesis Evangelion and Netflix will start streaming it next year.
It’s difficult to quantify the impact that Evangelion had back in the 90s and its legacy over the years since.
Written and directed by Hideaki Anno, it dealt with what at first appeared an almost prosaic and trope-filled narrative premise.
Mysterious monsters called Angels are attacking the last vestiges of humanity and children piloting giant mecha are seemingly the only thing between us and utter oblivion.
However, this monster of the week approach and other super robot trappings were only part of what made Evangelion so fascinating.
From the wonderful nuanced and complex characters to the very intricate narrative and groundbreaking mecha design, Evangelion was and is an anime like no other.
While Evangelion is ostensibly a mecha franchise, as its various appearances in the Super Robot Wars games over the years attest to, its influences were broader in many ways. So having it widely available again on Netflix is something that fills me with a great deal of joy.
This release on Netflix will include the original 26 episode TV series as well as the two movies, Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion.
While I am glad Netflix will offer the latter two movies, the TV series works fine enough on its own.
The interesting thing here is that the Rebuild of Evangelion movies appear to be absent from this release but that is likely because they are still ongoing, with the last entry released sometime in 2020.
In any case, Evangelion is coming to Netflix and all’s right with the world.
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