Soo..Evangelion

[Vivaldi]

For whatever reason, I've never gotten around to actually watching more than the first episode of evangelion back when it aired on adult swim. Now I finally want to finish it, both for enjoyment, and amv purposes.

My question, should I start with the original TV series, and then go on EoE or death & rebirth? Or is the rebuild of evangelion a faithful enough remake? I ask because as this is partially for scene hunting, and I a: know rebuild will have better animation, and b: Think it would get very boring essentially watching the same series two times in a row (three if you count "death") in a short period of time. I'm putting overall enjoyment of the series above all else, but I'd like to know.

[Ishbalan]

If you want to be like everyone else, you'll watch the whole series, start to finish and rage at the ending.
Then, you'll watch Death and Rebirth for a few minutes, realize you already watched this crap and immediately move on to End of Evangelion.
You'll watch End of Evangelion, and you'll love it for the first half, then you'll get to the second half, you'll be OH GOD NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN but you'll watch it anyway because its almost over. Then you'll finish, think it over, decide you didn't know what the hell happened, and then read the wikipedia synopsis if you hadn't already.

Then you'll watch Rebuild and appreciate it for what it is: a beautiful rerendering that totally owns the old series. Unfortunately, only the first movie is out and at this point your just waiting with the rest of us for the highly anticipated movies to come out with a supposedly fantastic brand new ending that will be satisfying for everyone.

[The Origonal Head Hunter]

fantastic brand new ending that will be satisfying for everyone.

And, like your ex-wife, it will leave you sadly disappointed.

[LeapofFate]

The original Evangelion is one of those animes that you have to watch if you are an anime fan.

Though, I agree with Ishbalan. Rebuild seriously kicks the original series ass already.

Rebuild>End of Evangelion>NGE

I'd say you watch all of them except for Death and Rebirth.

[GloryQuestor]

You will definitely want to start with the TV show. Even though the original DVDs are still out there (and probably at a pretty low price), picking up the Platinum edition thinpack is the best buy for you, as you'll get all that you need (except for End of Evangelion, which you need to buy separate) to enjoy the series.

The best reason to get Platinum is so you can have all you need to follow the two separate paths the story takes -- the original cut and the Director's Cut (aka the "prime" episodes). The original cut is the on-air 26 episode run, which are all in Platinum. The Director's Cut diverges at Episode 21 and is number 21' (21 "prime"). From there, it goes 22', 23', and 24' -- these four are in Platinum's 6th and 7th discs. After 24' is End of Evangelion, which is actually episode 25' and 26'.

Only after watching the TV show should you give Eva 1.0 (or 1.01) a view. I'd caution you not to see it first because 1.01 goes right through the first episodes of the TV show in a rapid way reminiscent of Evangelion: Death. It's certainly one to pick up if you liked the TV show and wanted to see a few alternate takes on it (and the 5th angel fight, which is completely redone into a masterpiece battle sequence imho )

(Also, while Death & Rebirth may be nothing more than a recap-meets-End of Eva peek-ahead, the extras that come with it are nice enough -- including an encyclopedia of the Eva universe. Still, if you can get End of Eva separately, that's the only one you really need.)

[xexyzl]

The best reason to get Platinum is so you can have all you need to follow the two separate paths the story takes -- the original cut and the Director's Cut (aka the "prime" episodes). The original cut is the on-air 26 episode run, which are all in Platinum. The Director's Cut diverges at Episode 21 and is number 21' (21 "prime"). From there, it goes 22', 23', and 24' -- these four are in Platinum's 6th and 7th discs. After 24' is End of Evangelion, which is actually episode 25' and 26'.

Whoa wait a minute, there are alternate versions of the last 4 episodes? Can you spoiler tag the differences? I don't know which I've seen. (I rented it from Netflix, I dunno if it was the original release or the platinum version).

[Ishbalan]

I'm pretty sure the "Director's Cut" version just had a few scenes that were not shown in the original broadcast, such as Unit 00 expanding giant tumors with faces as the 16th angel violated it's body.