Evangelion Platinum complete DVD box set: review

Evangelion Platinum DVD BOX front

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Platinum complete
DVD box set
(by ADV films)

"Evangelion" was one of the biggest selling Japanese animation in the world that changed the idea of what animation should be in Japan. The year 2005 was the 10th anniversary of "Evangelion" so Gainax (the creator of Eva series) opened many events and released special products/action figures to celebrate the birth of Eva.

The DVD box set of Evangelion TV series was released in 2002 in the US by ADV films. In 2004 ADV films released a "Platinum" version of Evangelion TV series DVDs. The Platinum DVDs have Digital dolby 5.1 soundtrack in both English and Japanese, new commentaries from English cast and crew.


The "Platinum Complete" is a Platinum DVD box set. The box has Rei and Asuka on each side, metalic finish and very well-printed. The box set has all 26 episode plus four director's cut episodes in 6 DVDs. The four director's cut episodes are so called "Death and Rebirth" played in theaters in Japan in 1997. As far as I know, Manga entertainment has released"Death and Rebirth" and "The end of Evangelion" as a DVD. I don't know how different the two "Death and Rebirth"s from ADV films and Manga Entertainment. One thing I know is the ADV version of "Death and Rebirth" didn't have the original endings, "Kanon D-dur" and "Tamashii no Refrain". The complete Evangelion Movie Box (containing "Death and Rebirth" and "The end of Evangelion") by Manga Entertainment is ~$24.95 (in deepdiscounteddvd.com). For more information, check Manga entertainment website (www.manga.com)

The reason why I bought the box set was that it was cheaper then individual ones. Amazon.com sells "platinum complete" in $ 46.26. One bad thing about the box set is there is no extra material what so ever while the individually released platinum DVDs have commentaries and booklets. Also the previously released "Evangelion Perfect collection" DVD box set (~$160) has 4 different language channels - English, Japanese, Spanish, French but this new "Platinum complete" box set only comes with English and Japanese soundtracks.

The case design came from original Japanese Eva DVD covers but the individual Platinum DVDs has more similarity to the Japanese version than ones from the box set. The Japanese Eva DVDs are total 8 discs which have Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Misato, Ritsuko, Kaji Ryoji, Nagisa Kaoru, and Gendo as their covers. However, the US versions didn't have Ritsuko in the individual release (the individual platinum Eva DVDs have seven volumes) and didn't have Ritsuko and Kaoru in the box set. The DVDs in the box set are in thin cases and there is no extra booklet inside. The DVD disc design was also rather plain.

If you are a big fan of Eva, I would recommend to buy the individual release of the Platinum edition of Evangelion DVDs with all commentaries and extras. If you miss the Spanish or French tracks, the original "Perfect collection" of Eva DVD box set is now $74.99 in Best Buy. I'm overall satisfied with my "Platinum complete" but I will buy the "Evangelion Movie Box" to have the new ending songs for "Death and Rebirth". I have also heard that "Manga entertainment" version DVDs have unedited screens/features as they are in Japanese original version. Not bad thing to compare two companies' approach for editing.