Product: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Resurrection (Director's Cut, Episodes 21-23)
Rating: 4.0
Even better than before.
Evangelion fans will surely rejoice on some level that their beloved series is being somewhat redone. This is the first of two director's cuts, and the change are simply astounding.One thing nobody's said yet is that this is actually a remaster as well. Seems ADV lifted the redone video from that Eva project in Japan that cleaned up the video and gave it a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The colors are more vibrant, the lines more distinct, and scene changes less visually jumpy. There is no Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, however.Not much is different in episode 21, however, things change with episode 22. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that there is an incredibly powerful new scene involving Asuka...the fact that it wasn't included in the original is apalling. The eva battle in episode 23 is COMPLETELY different then in the original, and gives loads of new insight not seen before. This newly redone battle sequence somewhat hints at what's to come in End of Evangelion.One bad thing is that there's a redub, and while I didn't mind the fact that some actors were dropped, it does seem that nearly everyone is far less enthusiastic. You can tell that, upon listening to it, most of them are thinking "I've gotta do this again? I thought I was done with Evangelion years ago." One exception is the voice actress behind Asuka. She's actually improved since the series, and her presence is every bit as powerful and moving as it was on End of Evangelion, if not then more so. This is definately good, Asuka's new scene is, without a doubt, the most important addition to the disc.There's an excerpt on the Eva live movie with Weta workshop, which would be some of the lads behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This would be a good thing for fans, but it ended up being more like a rude awakening. One of the men being interviewed continuously refers to the series as "Evanjellion," which makes me question just how do care about the series. A concept drawing for one of the female characters in a blue suit had the name "Ray" on it. These things and their vague explanation of what the series was about was enough to destroy whatever faith I had in the project.