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Rating: 
Summary: Volume one to the greatest story ever told
Review: Evangelion is without a doubt, my favorite animated series ever made. The story is beyond compare: it is the year 2015, in a post-apocalyptic setting. Creatures called Angels are attacking the city of Tokyo III, and the only way to combat them is with massive and mysterious robots called Evangelions, which can only be piloted by a 14-year old Child, born during the Second Impact. Confusing, right? Well throw in some incredibly deep philosophical ponderings, and religious ideologies, and you have a show that will drop your jaw with it's action-packed battles, stir you with it's intricate dramatic storyline, and ultimately change your life forever. Volume One has the first four Evangelion episodes, which basically introduce you to the story and the main characters: Shinji, Katsuragi, and Rei (unfortunatly, my favorite character, Asuka, isn't introduced until later episodes). The DVD features both the English version, and the Japanese subtitled version (as well as Spanish and French versions), and of course, enhanced picture and sound as well as some other goodies, making this the ultimate Eva. Now I can't wait for the others.
Rating: 
Summary: The Eva DVD is good, but it could be better.
Review: Evangelion was the first anime series I ever saw and I loved it. I saw nth generation subs of the original Japanese verison, though, so the quality wasn't that great. The DVDs are nice, but there are a few technical difficulties. I have a PC-DVD player, so maybe it's just something weird with my software, but if you set subtitles to "On," and language to "Japanese," then go back to the main menu and launch an episode, it forgets you set the language to "Japanese." I haven't seen the VHS version, as one reviewer has, so I don't know if the quality of the video is as bad as he/she claims. One thing that avid fans may notice is the amount of English in the text that appears in the video. Having seen the subs, the only English that was in it was what was originally there, I think the video source for the DVDs comes from the English dub release with a lot of the actual text changed, but I could be wrong (I've never seen more than 5 seconds of the dub because I gagged at the English voice actors so I didn't really get to see any parts where the text may have been changed). You can also see where ADV put in their own shots of the episode names and it looks a little cheesy compared to the original flash of "Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode # Title" that GAINAX had originally. The subtitle font is in yellow, sometimes looks a little fuzzy and has a couple minor typographical errors ("7:5%" vs. "7.5%" for instance), but these may have existed in the original subtitled VHS tapes (they look different from the ones that I've seen). So, the conversion to DVD could have been better. If you are a stickler for DVD perfection and a die hard Evangelion fan, you may be somewhat disappointed, but I for one am satisfied. I'm just happy they're finally releasing the series on DVD; can't wait for the next volumes!
Rating:
Summary: A decent first disc for the greatest anime ever
Review: I don't know how popular it was in Japan, but in the American anime scene Evangelion is like Titanic; its degree of success and acclaim has caused a sizeable backlash. In my opinion, the series deserves all the praise that reviewers and fans have heaped upon it, as its characters and story show a level of speculative intelligence rarely found in science fiction of any kind. That said, it must be pointed out that the show doesn't really start to get good until a few episodes in, once all the main characters have been introduced and the writers start to throw some pretty brilliant plot twists into the mix. Check it out and you might love it as much as I do. Many fans have complained that the DVD image quality is lacking, and indeed the colors seem a bit faded at times, but that problem would be due to how the film has been stored and maintained over the last few years; I wasn't in Japan when the show first aired and all I've seen previously are ADV's videocassette editions, which are just as visually subdued, so maybe this is actually how the series was meant to look. Everybody's been completely spoiled by those beautiful-looking Serial Experiments Lain discs. What's more important is the fact that ADV has inserted English words into certain shots, like signs and notes that were in Japanese in the original version of the show. Certainly it's much easier for Americans to read a sign that just says "All rail line operations are cancelled" in English than a sign with Japanese lettering and accompanying English subtitles that say "All rail line operations are cancelled," but there are many, many purists out there (guys like me who only watch the subtitled Japanese version) who will notice the visual changes and feel cheated. That's enough complaining. It's great that we can finally have this series on DVD, and any anime fan should have this disc in his collection.
Rating:
Summary: I Love this show
Review: I wrote a reviews earlier and said this show was horrible, but that's before I watched the show I love it now I am so sorry for saying that stuff before.
Rating:
Summary: "God's in his Heaven, all is right with the world."
Review: This is the first disc of the Anime series Evangelion. It is slow at times, but that's what you expect considering this is the beginning. The story is as follows: young Shinji Ikari recieves a letter from his father saying he needs him, but Shinji doesn't know what for. Mysterious creatures known as Angels are attacking Tokyo 3 and when the UN forces can't do it they call on the mysterious organization NERV, who sends a robot called an Evangelion, which can only be piloted by a 14-year old child, (this will probably be explained in later episodes) which is the reason Shinji's father sent for him. Shinji is the only one can do it since their only other pilot, the mysterious Rei Ayanami, was severly injured from a previous battle. Shinji is reluctant at first but he ends up doing it anyway. I'm not gonna reveal anymore, except that it was fairly entertaining and I can't wait to get volume 2. The DVD is okay. Not many Special Features besides Trailers, character Bios and the Japanese language track.
Rating:
Summary: Not a perfect series. A classic nonetheless.
Review: To paraphrase a review in "Animerica" magazine, "Neon Genesis Evangelion" may in fact be the most important modern anime created. "Important," however, does not necessarily imply "best" or "worst" or indication of technical or artistic quality. On the whole, my opinion is that the assets far outweigh the liabilities of this series, but the liabilities are noticable and have been hotly debated ever since the show's ending. The TV show and concluding movie has inspired passion among anime fans and even outsiders (in Japan at least) that is rare for any TV show or movie, let alone an anime. It's easy to see why--while this DVD may start with many of the cliches and conventions of the mecha anime, what is immediately noticeable is the following two things: 1.) The characters are the focus, not the action or plot. And these characters inspire all sorts of emotional reactions in the viewer rare in anime. In particular, Shinji is an atypical hero for this sort of show, and his attitude toward life and those around him has been the cause of no small debate over whether he is a worthless coward deserving of contempt (as he often states that he is!) or a traumatized child who deserves compassion and empathy. Immediately, even in these episodes and especially the fourth, the introverted, psychological nature of this show is established, and Shinji's is not alone in his trauma and inner torment--Misato, Asuka, Gendo, and Ritsuko all have their own issues to deal with that are explored throughly later. In my opinion, when character-oriented and psychological aspect of the narrative was emphasized more in the second half of the series, that's when "Eva" truly shined as a compelling drama and revealing portrait of the modern Japanese psyche. 2.) The direction is idiosyncratic and often experimental. Director Anno Hideaki is perhaps anime's most well known creative iconoclast, and he breaks numerous anime directing conventions and establishes his own animated film vocabulary in the shot composition camera angles (especially still shots of inert objects or certain ways of framing faces), fluid and often brutal action sequences, and later in the series, psychological montages remniscent of Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" and French New-Wave films. The stark, serious nature of the series is established immediately in this DVD as well, though the idiosyncrasies of the direction are relaxed in the semi-comedic middle parts, and become much more pronounced in the latter half and especially in the endings. And with all this--for the most part, it's not that intrusive and the storytelling is clear and compelling. I love it. Character and style are the great strengths of "Evangelion," and combined with the fact that I can identify a bit with Shinji and not feel the same contempt for him that other viewers often have, I think "Eva" is TV-anime's most important recent work. "Escaflowne" may have the better storytelling, "Serial Experiments Lain" may have more intellectual conundrums, and "Cowboy Bebop" may have the cooler music and balanced, if a bit detached, characters. But art, emotion, intelligence, and drama come together in "Evangelion" in a way that has set the standard for all the anime that has come afterwards--no matter how enthralled or enraged this series has made anime fans ever since.
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