End of Eva commentary (is there a Japanese one?)

[ericm]

Watching the EoE commentary for the first time, and I have to say, it sucks. Lots of bad jokes, talking english voice actors up as being "great, great actors" even if they have minimal lines, and seemingly more about the translator's own experiences translating than about the real script/filming etc. itself (at least as far into it as I am).
I really liked the proposed connection between Ritsuko and Kaoru (I'm kidding.)


Is there a Japanese commentary from Gainax?

[svenge]

No.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Nope. Though for whatever it's worth, Eva Mailing List has stated various times that Manga Entertainment tried to get Anno to do a Commentary on EoE and he refused. I always thought that was interesting and wondered his exact reasons why. (Burn out? Wanting people to figure things out for themselves?)

[Tarnsman]

I would like to see a commentary by Anno, but only if it was him rambling about stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with EoE. Like what he had for breakfast.

talking english voice actors up as being "great, great actors"

I think that's more them not being dicks. I don't think I've heard a non Uwe Boll commentary that criticized the acting in the film.

[TehDonutKing]

Spike and Allison were excellent in the dub. And asides from AWL's Yui, that was it.

[gatotsu911]

and seemingly more about the translator's own experiences translating than about the real script/filming etc. itself (at least as far into it as I am).

Well, I mean, what were you expecting, exactly? They didn't make the film, they just localized it. Would you rather have a Sean McCoy-style ultra-pretentious diatribe on "WHAT IT ALL MEANS" from people who had nothing to do with the actual creation of the film? I'd much rather listen to a handful of people who enjoyed watching and translating the film dicking around about it for a couple hours, myself.

Is there a Japanese commentary from Gainax?

Anno? Record a commentary?? To shed light on his experiences and intentions with Eva??? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Reichu]

It would have been nice if they could have gotten any Gainax staff at all... Tsurumaki, at least, has demonstrated that he's willing. (And he did direct the first half of EoE...)

Well, I mean, what were you expecting, exactly? They didn't make the film, they just localized it.

Incidentally, one of the Italian localizations went to the trouble of doing research -- i.e., drawing from actual Japanese print sources -- when they wrote up booklets for their release... Even localizers can have gold standards.

[ericm]

Early on in the commentary the woman states how they changed something from the original script, and the guy that plays Aoba says "that's the only thing we changed in the whole script"..then throughout the commentary she continues to point out things they changed or added.
I actually thought the movie dub borders on great, especially if you've watched the series in dub format.
Like Reichu brought up, would have liked to see them give insight into the movie itself rather than a bunch of instances of translating parts. As the translators they were given an intimate look at the material.
But really anyway, all they do for MOST of it is make bad jokes. I'd rather hear the guy everyone here hates theorizing over that.

[gatotsu911]

As the translators they were given an intimate look at the material.

Maybe this is just semantics, but you do know that none of them were actually, literally translators, right? None of them speak Japanese. (Actually, I don't know about Jaffe, but I know the Lees don't.) They just adapted the script. The actual translation was done by three completely separate people (at least one of whom, as I recall, is alluded to by name toward the end of the commentary).

But really anyway, all they do for MOST of it is make bad jokes. I'd rather hear the guy everyone here hates theorizing over that.

To each his own, I guess. I think talking about their personal experiences with and interpretations of the film is the most "insightful" thing they realistically could have done, and I'd take that over hours of fanwankery any day of the week. (Also, I thought some of their "bad jokes" were actually pretty funny.) I'd be curious to see you re-evaluate this statement after listening to the Sean McCoy Platinum commentaries.

Also, just pointing out, the Manga release of Death & Rebirth did contain excerpts from the Red Cross Book as special features, so it's not like there was no information of objective merit in the Manga releases.

[ericm]

I have the platinum box..are you saying there are commentaries on it? I've never seen them.
Which guy is Sean Mccoy again?

[gatotsu911]

The Platinum Thinpak doesn't have the commentaries (or any of the other special features) on it. They're only on the individual DVDs and the "holiday" box set. Probably for the better.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Eva Mailing List has stated various times that Manga Entertainment tried to get Anno to do a Commentary on EoE and he refused. I always thought that was interesting and wondered his exact reasons why. (Burn out? Wanting people to figure things out for themselves?)

Probably both. He wasn't in the happiest part of his life working on the film. I wouldn't want to revisit the origin of those ideas if I were him, so everyone else can just figure it out on their own for all he could have cared. In fact, I'm kinda surprised he's been doing so well within terms of personal moral when it comes to his NME films.

[ath]

Incidentally, one of the Italian localizations went to the trouble of doing research -- i.e., drawing from actual Japanese print sources -- when they wrote up booklets for their release...

Do you mean the "Evangelion Encyclopedia" that they included with the first few volumes of their VHS release or their more recent Platinum & EoE booklets?
I've read only a few chapters of the Encyclopedia but as I didn't find anything groundbreaking or really interesting in it, I became slightly suspicious that they had just made up most of the stuff...

[Stryker]

I bet if Anno would do a commentary, it would be him either laughing/crying/other onomatopoetic sounds through the entire film. Anything else would be some epic... stuff that everyone would want to know.

[gatotsu911]

I bet if Anno would do a commentary, it would be him either laughing/crying/other onomatopoetic sounds through the entire film. Anything else would be some epic... stuff that everyone would want to know.

I imagine he would spend it either talking purely about the production of the film rather than the meaning behind it, or talking about something else altogether.

Worth noting: Anno is hardly the only director who doesn't record commentaries. David Lynch, Woody Allen and even Steven Spielberg don't, either; the Coen brothers have recorded exactly one "serious" commentary (for The Man Who Wasn't There), a good ten years ago, and never since. (The only other commentary track ever to be attached to one of their movies is a joke-commentary, not recorded but likely written by them, for the 20th-anniversary edition of Blood Simple.) And there are many other examples. A filmmaker doesn't need to be crazy or reclusive to not want to record commentaries; some of them just don't do it, as a matter of policy. Chances are they believe that their films can and should represent themselves purely on their own merits, and I applaud that.

Still, though, I had never heard that Manga asked him to record a commentary. That's actually pretty damn cool.