EVANGELION: DEATH (TRUE)²

This is not a sequel but a recap rearranging the first twenty-four episodes of the series. The narration is not chronological: it circles four characters, Shinji, Asuka, Rei and Kaworu, and the events are reordered under thematic headings. Between them are scenes not in the series, in which the four meet at a music rehearsal. The subject is not plot but how the characters are defined. For someone who has seen the show, this arrangement delivers the same information in another order and makes some connections visible for the first time. Being a recap, the form is cramped: short scenes, hard transitions, no context supplied. Its release history is tangled. It first appeared in 1997 as Death and Rebirth, whose first half was this recap and whose second half was the opening of a new film that could not be finished at the time. End of Evangelion came out the same year and delivered the actual ending. The Death (True) version is a re-edit of the recap released afterwards, which is why several versions of the same material are in circulation. Masayuki directs, with Megumi Ogata, Kotono Mitsuishi and Megumi Hayashibara in the voice cast. Who it is for: viewers who have seen the series and want the events in a different order. Who it is not for: anyone entering here; the film introduces nothing and does not stand on its own.