I’m introducing Neon Genesis Evangelion to my lady who’s watching it for the first time ever. Evangelion was the gateway drug; I was hooked on anime after watching it through the first time some decades ago. When Netflix announced they were bringing Evangelion to their streaming service, I was ecstatic! I wanted nothing more than to binge the show on repeat for a week. However, life had other plans, and it would be years before I would sit down to watch it again. Now, I have the opportunity and motivation to do so.
We started watching Evangelion on Netflix earlier this week, and right away something seemed off. Now, I know some of you anime purists will shit a brick when I say I prefer watching anime dubbed, but I do. Go shit a brick elsewhere if this is you. I bring this up only to address the fact that the English dub on Netflix is fucking terrible. I sat there for two episodes trying to figure out if something really was off with the audio or if my memory of it was just bad. Furthermore, the end credits of each episode were not accompanied by alternate renditions of “Fly Me to the Moon.” I knew that was off for sure. It bothered me so much, I fuckin’ dug up my DVDs. If I was going to introduce Evangelion to my lady love, I wanted to make sure she received the best experience of it.
Sure enough, after rewatching the second episode from the DVD, I confirmed that the English dub for the Netflix adaptation was, in fact, absolute garbage. The subtle witticisms spread throughout each episode not only add to the charm of the series, but often times offer deeper nuance to character interactions. It’s as if Netflix just didn’t care about viewer experience. And I know anime purists will be like “if you just listened to it in Japanese with English subtitles you wouldn’t have this problem,” to which I would reply:
1. Why are you still here? and
2. Subtitles suck when you don’t need them.
Anyway, I digress. The point is, I’m super unhappy with what Netflix did to my beloved Evangelion. But also, damn, am I happy that this is one series I kept the DVDs for. Total fucking win. Great job, nonsense! Now, my lady gets the best Evangelion experience, and I’m unbothered by the audio. God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world.
