Date: 2020 June 01 20:06
Posted by Joe
During the online convention Cloud Matsuri, on their panel Anime Limited revealed that they have the rights for the original Neon Genesis Evangelion TV Series and the original Evangelion movies Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion.
Anime Limited will be releasing the super hit anime as a blu-ray boxset in the UK some time in 2021. They intend to release it as an Ultimate Edition. Generally Anime Limited grade their releases into three tiers, standard (which is a normal release with the disc and maybe a few postcards etc), collectors editions which often have lavish packaging, artbooks and all sorts of extra content. Then their top tier is the Ultimate Edition, which is an over the top collectors edition with as much content as they can gather. Ultimate Editions in the past from Anime Limited have been very special, they've had a Cowboy Bebop Boxset shipped in a special Cowboy Bebop branded vinyl flight case along with tons of soundtrack content and art books. Their Fullmetal Alchemist Ultimate Boxset included a 5kg (yes, five kilogram) of The Gate from the series.
At the moment all Anime Limited are able to say is that it'll be released sometime in 2021. They have not been able to say which dub will be on the discs, if it's the original ADV dub or the new Netflix version or even if it'll include both. It's not even clear which regions the discs will be. They could be Region B only (which will work in the UK and Australia) or also Region A (US and Japan). As of yet It's not certain who will be releasing Evangelion in other English speaking countries.
Normally what the company includes in their editions depends on how much official content they can acquire from the original licence holder. Evangelion has tons of content available, so there can be plenty of speculation as to what they'll release.
The series has been out of print for a long time on DVD, leaving fans to either buy expensive old DVD editions or resort to bootleg copies of the show.
Last year the show was released on Netflix remastered in high definition with a new English dub.
Evangelion is regarded as one of the greatest anime series of all time. It's been hugely influential and cause an anime boom in the mid to late nineteen-nineties. The franchise has caused an endless stream of merchandise. We'll wonder if they'll include any of this merchandise in the the boxset?!