Evangelion: Death and Rebirth

The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise opens its theatrical run with this 1997 double bill, known in Japan as Shin Seiki Evangerion Gekijō-ban: Shito Shinsei. Hideaki Anno supervises the whole production and shares writing duties with Akio Satsukawa, while Masayuki directs the DEATH half and Kazuya Tsurumaki handles REBIRTH. GAINAX and Production I.G produce, and Shirō Sagisu composes the score. The 115 minute program reaches Japanese screens on 15 March 1997 as an answer to the television show's popularity and to fans who wanted a different conclusion.

The Japanese subtitle carries a deliberate double reading. Written partly in katakana, SHITO shinsei can be parsed as "death and rebirth", matching the English title, or as a nod to shito, the word the series uses for its Angels.

DEATH condenses the show's first 24 episodes into roughly 70 minutes. Rather than a straight chronological digest, the segment threads its material through scenes of a string quartet, with each movement centering on one of four pilots: Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu. The theatrical cut also premieres footage nobody had seen before, material that later slots into the director's cut versions of episodes 21 through 24.

REBIRTH offers 27 minutes of wholly new animation, an unfinished rendering of what becomes Episode 25'. It follows SEELE's opening moves toward the Human Instrumentality Project and the armed invasion of the Geofront, then stops as the Mass Production Evangelions descend, well short of the conclusion of Asuka's battle against them that the finished film depicts. Yoko Takahashi's song "Soul's Refrain" plays over its ending. Four months later this material, completed and extended, forms the opening third of The End of Evangelion. The version screened in Japan also differs from the finished episode in dozens of small ways, from tank designs and explosion colors to scene order, pacing, and a distinct Japanese dub.

Between opening day and October 1997 the double feature earns 1.1 billion yen in Japan. Its afterlife is defined by re-edits. A version reworked personally by Masayuki, titled DEATH(TRUE), airs on the WOWOW satellite channel on 02 January 1998 with most of the new episode footage removed, then plays in Toei cinemas across Japan that March. A further pass, DEATH(TRUE)², debuts on 07 March 1998 as half of Revival of Evangelion, adding fresh effects and a revised sound mix that brings out the music and background dialogue; this cut anchors the Manga Entertainment home release and remains the version available on Netflix and on current Blu-ray and digital editions. The original theatrical DEATH finally reaches home video through the 2015 Japanese Blu-ray box of the series, while DEATH(TRUE) has appeared only once, in the 2015 Archives of Evangelion DVD set.