Approval of God: Ryan Bartley, who voiced Rei Ayanami and Yui Ikari in the Netflix release of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, congratulated her original voice actress Amanda Winn-Lee and her fellow cast mates for their participation in the Amazon Prime Video release of the Rebuild films.
Bury Your Art: Due to its negative audience reception, Studio Khara had Funimation re-dub You Can (Not) Redo for its home media release in 2016; the theatrical dub has never been re-released. Khara would also re-dub it and the previous two films again, this time with Dubbing Brothers USA, when they were picked up by Prime Video in 2021.
It took a fan who had a copy of that dub (which aired around Comic Con 2014), releasing it to the Internet circa 2023.
Celebrity Voice Actor: In the English Amazon Prime Video release, Ritsuko Akagi is voiced by actress/singer Mary Faber, best known for originating the role of Heather in American Idiot.
Colbert Bump: The airing of You Are (Not) Alone on Toonami in March 2013 garnered nearly one million viewers and led to the film taking the #1 spot on Amazon's top selling anime list after its airing (with You Can (Not) Advance not too far behind).
Creator Backlash: While Tiffany Grant enjoyed playing Asuka in the English dubs, she was disappointed that her character never spoke German and wasn't obsessed with Kaji as in the original TV series, and considered You Can (Not) Redo the worst Evangelion film of her 25-year tenure as Asuka. Grant later admitted that she disagreed with translator Dan Kanemitsu's script rewrites for Funimation's home video release of You Can (Not) Redo as well as the Amazon Prime Video release of the Rebuild films.
Creator Breakdown: Anno's experience with the Rebuild films proved to be so exhaustive that he fell into another depressive episode by the time he finished You Can (Not) Redo, as he revealed in an October 2014 interview. The fact that Khara nearly went bankrupt didn't help matters either. Anno would explain in a later interview that his depressive state at the time was so bad that he found himself unable to show up at the studio for a whole year and even toyed with thoughts of suicide when it was at its worst. Fortunately, he had his wife Moyoco and his good friend Hayao Miyazaki to lean on and successfully shook off suicidal depression once more, although Anno was sufficiently frazzled by the experience that he would postpone working on Thrice Upon A Time to make Shin Godzilla and announced his intention of taking a break from the Evangelion franchise after Rebuild had concluded.
Creator Couple: In the Amazon Prime English dub, real-life couple Michael Ross and Amy Seeley reprised their respective roles as Kozo Fuyutsuki and Maya Ibuki. So did Amanda Winn-Lee and Jason Lee, the respective voices of Rei Ayanami and Shigeru Aoba.
Creator Recovery: Working on Shin Godzilla finally gave Anno enough of a break that at the opening of said movie, Anno finally felt that he could return to make the fourth movie. It says something when the darkest Godzilla movie since the original, full of Body Horror and Nightmare Fuel, is the Lighter and Softer project you undertake to recover from working on these films.
Creator's Pest: Tiffany Grant has frequently admitted her dislike towards Mari at conventions and interviews.
The 2021 Amazon English dubs were produced by Dubbing Brothers USA in Los Angeles, but recording also took place in multiple other studios in different regions due to actor availability and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Spike Spencer (Shinji) recorded in Gold Coast, Australia, where he was living at the time; Allison Keith (Misato) and John Swasey (Gendo) recorded in Houston, where they're both based out of; Tiffany Grant (Asuka) recorded in Atlanta; and some others (including Brett Weaver, who lives in Austin) recorded from their home studios.
In the Latin American Spanish dub:
Zima's release had most of the cast recorded their dialogue at the now-defunct Elefante Films in Cuernavaca,note including Víctor Ugarte (Shinji), Circe Luna (Rei) and Azucena Martínez (Asuka) while only five actors recorded their dialogue at CBAudio in Mexico Citynote including Jesús Barrero (Toji), Marú Guerrero (Ritsuko), Ernesto Lezama (Kaworu) and Jesse Conde (Fuyutsuki).
For the Amazon Prime Video release, Víctor Ugarte (Shinji), Circe Luna (Rei), Georgina Sánchez (Asuka) and Mireya Mendoza (Mari) dubbed their lines in Mexico while the rest of the cast dubbed it at Argentina's Marmac Group.
Delayed Release Tie-In: The "Evatchi" (an Evangelion-themed Tamagotchi) was released in June 2020, tying into the fourth film's original release date prior to its delay.
Denial of Digital Distribution: Funimation's first English dub of You Can (Not) Redo hasn't been released since its limited run in late 2013.
The third film, which looked like it was on the verge of release, suddenly dropped back a bit and actually went through revision after some scenes had been fully animated, completely removing them from playing a part in the story.
And then came the unbelievable Schedule Slip that sank in for the final installment of the tetralogy, which has been delayed over and over and may finally come out on June 27, 2020... until the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world and forced Anno to delay it yet again to January 23, 2021, only to be delayed one last time to March 8 due to "emergency concerns" in regards to COVID-19. Talk about history.
Mike McFarland was the ADR Director for the Funimation release as well as Makoto Hyuga's voice actor.
In a similar vein, Joe Fria directed the Prime Video release's English dub and voiced Hyuga. He mentioned that this was intentional, as the original ADV dub of the original series was directed by Matt Greenfield, who also voiced Hyoga (under an alias) in that production.
Zima's Latin American Spanish dub of the first two films was co-directed by Jesús Barrero, Toji Suzuhara's voice actor. For the third film, Hugo Núñez was the ADR director and Hideki Tama's voice actor.
Two English dubs of You Can (Not) Redo were produced by Funimation using the same voice cast. The first was for its North American theatrical release in 2013. However, due to the negative reception of that release, Khara re-translated the film and worked with Funimation to re-record some of the English dialogue for an eventual home media release in North America in February 2016. The original version of the dub was impossible to find until a rare screener DVD containing it leaked on Twitter in March 3, 2023.
For the Amazon Prime Video release, another English dub was recorded at Dubbing Brothers USA. Spike Spencer, Allison Keith, Tiffany Grant, John Swasey and Amanda Winn-Lee reprised their roles as Shinji, Misato, Asuka, Gendo and Rei from their previous releases. This also meant that Redo got a third English dub from most of the same cast.
The same happened in Spain where, after an incredibly irregular dub by Selecta Visión, Amazon Prime Video released shockingly a redub bringin back all the original voice actors from the anime series that were available.
Executive Meddling: After You Can (Not) Redo ended its theatrical run in North America, Funimation worked directly with Dan Kanemitsu to re-translate the film and re-record some of the English dialogue for its home video release, reportedly due to the negative audience reception of the initial release. Then when Amazon re-dubbed the initial three movies thanks to legal issues with Funimation, Kanemitsu further rewrote the scripts for the cast and crew to redub, on top of him handling the localization of the then-untranslated Thrice Upon a Time. Tiffany Grant and some of the voice cast had to fight to keep certain elements in.
God-Created Canon Foreigner: Anno apparently thought up Mari specifically for the Rebuild movies, and has described her as the only character who is not "a part of him."
God Does Not Own This World: For a while. When production began, Khara was merely licensing the Evangelion franchise from Gainax. As of late 2014 however, Khara stopped crediting Gainax in their Eva-related work. Coupled with Gainax having been ailing for years now due to their staff quitting and migrating to other studios, all indications are that Anno, being Khara's president, bought the rights to the Evangelion franchise and now owns it completely.
Hostility on the Set: When the Amazon Prime Video English adaptation was being produced, the cast reportedly fought against translator Dan Kanemitsu's script changes, Tiffany Grant included.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Funimation released the first three films on Blu-ray and DVD in North America. As of 2021, they are now out of print, leaving the Funimation dubs in limbo.
Lying Creator: This goes hand in hand with Trolling Creator, but it's clear that Anno and the rest of the creative team can't be fully trusted, from Mari's "no psychological issues" line, to a very high usage of Never Trust a Trailer and whether or not the series is actually a remake or a sequel.Case in point, in the preview for 3.0 at the end of You Can (Not) Advance, only one thing is accurate: Asuka's eye-patch.
The Merch: Regardless of Mari's future relevance to the plot, Studio Khara marketed the crap out of her. She gets a very popular schoolgirl uniform, two unique plugsuits, and is already catching up to Asuka and Rei in sheer number of non-canon outfits (such as yukatas and swimsuits — it's only a matter of time before she appears in Meido uniform and Gothic Lolita), making for a staggering diversity of dolls to unleash upon the already glutted Eva figure market. And let's not even get into her Awesome, but Impractical EVA-05, a robot that only really makes sense as a toy. And now that she has her own hot pink EVA-08 (in different forms!), and all the pilots don new plugsuits for You Can (Not) Redo, we can only imagine the deluge of new toys waiting in the wings.
It was originally scheduled to be released on June 20, 2020, only three months and 14 days before the 25th anniversary of the franchise. The film was finally released on March 8, 2021, just one day short of the 25th anniversary of the premiere of episode 23.
January 23rd, 2021 also carries a significant meaning when read as 1/23/21 (1, 2, 3, then back to 1) - it ties into the series' themes of character development - after Shinji starts off Rebuild in You Are (Not Alone) learning that he is not alone, or that he is unable to progress his relationships in others in You Can (Not) Advance, he hits his lowest point in You Can (Not) Redo (unable to get a second chance at making things right/or relive his hopeful moments), with the final film (Thrice Upon A Time) suggesting that he will not be alone again, just like repeating the beginning lesson of his arc in 1.0.
The film being released in March 2021 has a similar pun — 3/2021 looks like a numerical sequence going backwards, forwards, then backwards again. Alternatively, 3/21 looks like a countdown.
Missing Episode: Funimation's 2013 dub of You Can (Not) Redo was only shown in the initial limited theatrical release before Khara worked with the studio to re-dub it for its home video release. For a decade, this initial dub was a holy grail for the fandom until it resurfaced in 2023 after a fan discovered a screener DVD containing the missing dub and uploading a rip online.
No Export for You: 3.0's Japanese theatrical release and the Blu-ray and DVD releases of 3.33 contained a live action short film produced as a collaboration with Studio Ghibli. It was a prequel to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (which was one of Anno's early works as an animator) called Giant Warrior Appears in Tokyo that also laid the groundwork for the Shin Japan Heroes Universe. Unfortunately, all international releases cut the short film out for their releases of 3.33. And Japanese releases would follow as the short was cut out of the 4D Updated Re-release of 3.33 and the 3.333 IMAX Enhanced Updated Re-release of the film on both cinemas and 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray. note The earlier 3.33 version is still available on both Blu-ray and DVD in Japan, containing the short film.
For some strange reason, the updated IMAX Enhanced 3.333 version of 3.0 has yet to be released outside of Japan. Even when 3.0+1.11 finally had its home video release outside of Japan, 3.333 was not released alongside it, or they rereleased the older 3.33 version.
Spike Spencer, Tiffany Grant, John Swasey and Allison Keith return to respectively voice Shinji Ikari, Asuka Shikinami Langley, Gendo Ikari and Misato Katsuragi after being replaced by Casey Mongillo, Stephanie McKeon, Ray Chase and Carrie Keranen for the Netflix release of the original series.
Kimberly Yates, Tom Booker, Michael Ross and Amy Seeley reprise their roles as Hikari Horaki, Keel Lorenz, Kozo Fuyutsuki and Maya Ibuki from the Manga dub of Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion after being respectively replaced by Leah Clark, Bill Jenkins, Kent Williams and Caitlin Glass in Rebuild and by Abby Trott, D.C. Douglas, JP Karliak and Christine Marie Cabanos in the Netflix dub of the original TV series.
In the European Spanish dub by Selecta Visión, after being replaced by Graciela Molina for You Can (Not) Advance, Ana Pallejà returned to reprise her role as Asuka Shikinami Langley from the original TV series for You Can (Not) Redo, and stayed there for the Prime Video release of the tetralogy. The latter redub also brought back other actors from the TV series, specifically Juan Carlos Gustems (Gendo), Jordi Ribes (Fuyutsuki), María Moscardó (Misato), Claudi Domingo (Kensuke) and Alex Meseguer (Aoba). Eduard Itchart was also brought back by both dubs, albeit with a different character (he voiced Aoba in the original series, but SV put him as Kaji in Rebuild and it sticked for APV), as well as Aleix Estadella (he voiced background characters in the series, but he plays Hyuga now), and solely in the SV dub, Ángel de Gracia (he played Touji in the series, but was oddly put to voice Hyuuga in '2.22'').
In the Latin American Spanish dub of You Can (Not) Redo, Georgina Sánchez and Humberto Solórzano, the second and original voice actors for Asuka and Gendo, respectively,note Sánchez haven taken over for Norma Echevarría, who voiced her in the Locomotion dub reprised their roles here after being replaced by Azucena Martínez and Alan Miró for the first two films; Sánchez would later become The Other Marty for the Prime Video release. Enzo Fortuny, the original Hyuga, also returns here after being replaced by Roberto Mendiola for the Animax dub and by Héctor Moreno for the first two films.
The Italian Prime Video release brings back all of the original cast, including Daniele Raffaeli as Shinji Ikari, after replacing them for the 2019 Netflix digital release of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The Brazilian re-release of the movies on Prime Video corrects the sudden change of the voice actors of Rei and Kaworu in the original release of the second movie in the country.
In the Funimation English dubs, everyone besides Spike Spencer (Shinji), Allison Keith (Misato), John Swasey (the second Gendo) and Tiffany Grant (Asuka) was recast due to the first dub dating back to 1996 and some of its cast having retired, died or moved away from Texas long ago.
The Amazon Prime Video redub recast almost all (save one) of the cast filled in by Funimation's pool of actors including Mary Faber as Ritsuko (taking over Colleen Clinkenbeard), Deneen Melody as Mari (taking over Trina Nishimura), Joe Fria as Hyuga (taking over Mike McFarland), Bijou Vann as Midori (taking over Tia Ballard) etc.
In the Latin American Spanish dub, quite a few of the original voice actors from the Locomotion and Animax run of the TV series did not return to reprise their roles, not even Toni Rodríguez (Misato Katsuragi in the Locomotion dub) and Alma Wilheleme (Maya Ibuki in the Locomotion dub). Makes sense with Touji Suzuhara, Keel Lorentz and Asuka Shikinami Langley, since their original voice actors (Enrique Mederos, Esteban Siller and Norma Echevarría) died in the intervening years between the TV series and Renewal.
With the exceptions of Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Mari's Mexican voice actors, everyone else in the Amazon Prime Latin American Spanish dub was recast with Argentina-based voice actors.note And even in that case, it's heavily implied that they would had being replaced as well, since the ADR direction was done in Argentina, hadn't Amazon likely considered the possible public backlash, so keeping them was a compromise, while replacing the rest of the cast in order to keep the dubbing costs down.
For the European Spanish dub, everyone besides Albert Trifol Segarra (Shinji Ikari) was changed, with some characters getting a new voice either in the original movies (like Misato, who was played by Carmen Calvell in Death and Rebirth), or at some point during Rebuild (like Rei, who changed in You Can (Not) Advance).
Reality Subtext: In You Can (Not) Redo, Shinji and Asuka turning 28 years old in terms of their mentality becomes more meaningful when you consider they're respectively played by Spike Spencer and Tiffany Grant in the English dub, who despite their Role Reprises from the original series, were 47 years old by the time the film was released on home media in February 2016.
On the dub side of things, Funimation planned on releasing 3.33 on home video in North America in January 2014. Thanks to the negative reception of its initial theatrical run, Khara worked with Funimation to re-record some of the English dialogue, pushing its expected release back to February 2016.
The COVID-19 Pandemic and ensuing theater closures forced 3.0+1.0 off the original release date of June 20, 2020. It’s one of many big-budget 2020 movies to get this treatment. It was later rescheduled for a January 23, 2021 release before it was eventually postponed to March 1 after the Japanese government declared another state of emergency on 11 prefectures. Then, it was postponed one last time to March 8.
Remake Cameo: In the Funimation English dub, Monica Rial (the voice of Maya in the "Director's Cut" episodes) voices Pen-Pen and Taliesin Jaffe returns from the Manga dub of the first two films to provide additional voices.
Spike Spencer, Tiffany Grant and Allison Keith respectively return as Shinji, Asuka and Misato for the final time in both the Funimation and Amazon Prime dubs. John Swasey is also back as Gendo Ikari for both after voicing the character in the "Director's Cut" episodes of the original series.
In the Prime Video release, Amanda Winn-Lee (Rei), Amy Seeley (Maya), Brett Weaver (Toji), Jason C. Lee (Aoba), Michael Ross (Fuyutsuki), Kimberly Yates (Hikari) and Tom Booker (Keel) also reprise their roles again for the first time since the first End of Eva dub in 2002.
Felecia Angelle (Sakura) remains as the only new cast member from the Funimation dub to reprise her role in the Amazon Prime Video redub.
In the European Spanish dub, Albert Trifol Segarra reprises his role as Shinji Ikari from the original TV series and films, while Joël Mulachs (Rei) and Ana Pallejà (Asuka) did the same in one film each. The Amazon Prime redub brought all of them back and added Juan Carlos Gustems (who voiced Gendo in the TV series), Jordi Ribes (Fuyutsuki), María Moscardó (Misato), Claudi Domingo (Kensuke) and Alex Meseguer (Aoba).
Many of the Latin American Spanish voice actors from the original TV running returned to reprise their roles in the films, including Víctor Ugarte as Shinji, Circe Luna as Rei (at least for the first two films and as The Other Marty for the Prime Video release of You Can (Not) Redo), Ernesto Lezama as Kaworu, Jesse Conde as Fuyutsuki and María Eugenia "Maru" Guerrero as Ritsuko. For You Can (Not) Redo, Georgina Sánchez and Humberto Solórzano return to reprise their respective roles as Asuka from Animax's remastered dub and Gendo from Locomotion's original dub of the TV series. Sánchez, Luna, Ugarte and Conde would later go on to reprise their roles for the 2019 Netflix re-release. As for Lezama, You Can (Not) Redo would be the final time that he voiced Kaworu before his retirement in 2020.
All of the Italian voice actors from the original TV series and films reprised their roles for Rebuild. Kaworu Nagisa's first voice actor in End of Evangelion, David Chevalier, also came back to voice the character.
The tetralogy was supposed to have been concluded in 2008, which, to put things into perspective, is before the second film was first released. This may have to do with the plot of You Can (Not) Advance being revised during development, as the You Are (Not) Alonepreview would suggest.
According to a Summer 2011 interview with one of Gainax's animators, You Can (Not) Redo hadn't even entered pre-production by then. It finally came out in November 2012, with Thrice Upon A Time scheduled for sometime in 2013. The fact that 90% ofYou Can (Not) Redo's supposedly already-existing story was scrapped in favor of the 14-year fake out may have had something to do with it.
It was then delayed even further thanks to Anno directing Godzilla Resurgence. In July 2016, an interview with him revealed that working on 3.0 did bad things to his mental health, but now that he's finished with Resurgence, he finally feels ready to begin work on the fourth movie.
Screwed by the Lawyers: According to ADR director of the Amazon dubs, Joe Fria, the first three films were redubbed due to legal issues involving Funimation's dubs. He also said that many of their cast members couldn't reprise their roles due to contract issues.
The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Funimation had made it no secret that You Can (Not) Redo's home video release in North America was delayed until 2016 thanks to Khara's involvement in the re-translation process.
Sequel Gap: Thrice Upon A Time was released nine years after You Can (Not) Redo.
Whereas the TV series was produced by Tatsunoko Production and the first two films were produced by Production I.G, this film series was produced by Studio Khara. However, King Records was still involved.
Klockworx distributed the first two films. Then, Toei Company took over for the third and fourth films. The fourth movie added Toho as a distributor.
In July 2021, Amazon announced that they would stream all four films worldwide on their Prime Video streaming service and a new English dub was recorded at Dubbing Brothers USA. Due to Amazon streaming Thrice Upon A Time in the first place, this is also the only Rebuild film not to be licensed by Funimation, who released the first three films in North America.
Swan Song: Thrice Upon A Time was Motomu Kiyokawa's final performance as Kozo Fuyutsuki before he succumbed to pneumonia in August 2022.
Throw It In!: In You Can (Not) Redo, Shinji's silent coma near the end of the movie came up due to Megumi Ogata, his Japanese VA, being too distraught to continue reading her lines after Kaworu's death.
Trolling Creator: Well, someone is trolling anyway. This promo for the third movie begins with clips from the first two movies and ends with a piano. And then there is this poster for the third movie. Yet another piano. One even appeared on the official Japanese website. The piano actually did have relevance to the plot, but it's not the kind of thing that fans were hoping for when getting new information about a hotly-anticipated movie.
Troubled Production: You Can (Not) Redo was plagued by massive script rewrites, some very unpopular creative decisions, Khara's near-bankruptcy, the legal battle in obtaining the Evangelion rights from Gainax, and Anno experiencing another Creator Breakdown while working on it. In interviews, Anno revealed that working on the series again had brought back his serious bouts with depression, and that he'd often go for long periods of time without even showing up to the studio. He credits his friend Hayao Miyazaki and working on Shin Godzilla for helping him through this troubled period and his eventual Creator Recovery. Incidentally, that Shin Godzilla gig led to the fourth and final Rebuild film rotting in Development Hell, with its release date (initially in 2013) being repeatedly pushed back or revised until 2020... and even then had to be delayed a couple more times because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfinished Dub: The Funimation dub by all accounts, as Amazon and Studio Khara opted to produce a new dub for the series rather than have Funimation finish off the series with their own dub. The same happened in Spain with Selecta Visión, which (fortunately, given its very controversial dubbing practices) never got to dub the fourth movie.
Word of Saint Paul: Tiffany Grant, the English voice of Asuka, confirmed that Khara took extensive creative control of the English release for You Can (Not) Redo reportedly due to the negative audience reception of Funimation's initial dub.
Working Title: The fourth film was originally announced as Evangelion: Final before being renamed Evangelion: 3.0+1.0.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Several comprehensive staff interviews make it clear that the writers had no idea what to do in You Can (Not) Advance when they started writing the script, as this time they weren't just straight-up adapting episodes.
Evangelion:3.333 You Can (Not) Redo. and the premiere version of Evangelion:3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, alongside Sia's Music, are the first non-documentary films to be released exclusively to IMAX theatres.
, after massive delays.