So if you want the most authentic version (particularly if you speak fluent Japanese) have at it. That’s great! All the emotion and tone survives completely intact.

The Japanese voiceover, on the other hand, appears to just be the original version the series aired with. If you’re not familiar with anime, just know that you get used to it. If you’re familiar with anime, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. Specifically, characters pause at strange times mid-sentence to better match mouth movements. You’re still going to face the same dubbed over weirdness that… Well, you’re probably so used to by this point that you don’t even notice it anymore. Vitally, Casey Mongillo plays a much subtler - more authentically “high school” - version of protagonist Shinji Ikari than the original version. For one, most people would tell you that the new dub sounds “better.” I certainly think so! The modern voice cast is stacked with professionals with years of experience in video games and other anime. Of course, the new Netflix dub of Evangelion comes with its own pros and cons. Shirobako Has a Lot to Say About Women at Work.So the “subs or dubs” debate has a whole new layer this time around.

So the version you hear now isn’t even the version that was available back in the day. Part of the company’s licensing deal to stream the show included producing a completely new English dub. Netflix added one more wrinkle to Neon Genesis Evangelion, however. And in the year 2000-and-ever-loving-19, English voice over is actually pretty good anyway! It’s nowhere near the obviously inferior product you got 20 or 30 years ago. Meanwhile, English is more accessible to, well, native English speakers. Japanese audio is obviously more authentic to the animation and even original vision of the show.

Sure, there’s always the debate over what’s better. Sadly, that’s a surprisingly complex question - and not just for the usual reasons. But here’s an age old anime question: Should you watch the subs or dubs of Neon Genesis Evangelion? People knew it was important, but barring illegal downloads it was hard to get your hands on the anime. But its limited availability in English truly gave it legendary status in the west. It’s guided decades of other media that, in turn, spiraled out to influence a million other things as well. Neon Genesis Evangelion is an undoubtedly influential anime.

Neon genesis evangelion episode 19 sub