Few anime have as complicated a history of English dubbing as Evangelion, but recently a fan unearthed the original theatrical dub of Evangelion 3.33 from Funimation. With it now circulating online, it seems appropriate to chronicle the history of this buried gem, how different it is from the dub fans received on Blu-ray, and why it was changed in the first place.After the Japanese premiere in 2012, 3.33 saw a theatrical release on January 10, 2014, distributed by Eleven Arts with an English dub by Funimation, but that was just the beginning. Due to a combination of factors, the dub had to be reworked and re-scripted after the theatrical run, meaning fans didn’t see a home video release until two years later in 2016, and the original would presumably be lost to time.
How Was It Found?
On March 3, Twitter user @pkmncrystalVEVO announced that they had found the original dub and promptly released it to the masses. But how did they find something that had eluded even the most committed Eva fans for years? After all, it was only ever released in theaters. When asked in the replies, they revealed that they’d purchased a screener DVD on eBay.
Despite damages to the disk and without even the certainty that the dub was on the disk, they managed to extract the full audio. Many in the community were overjoyed by this discovery, from fans to fellow critics such as Mike Toole of Anime News Network, who hadn’t even considered that screeners were sent out. The Cartoon Cipher on YouTube even created a Google Doc comparing the theatrical dub to the home release. [FIND HERE]
What Prompted The Change?
With the benefit of the entire dub now available, the changes extend beyond a handful of scenes as previously thought and include minor changes throughout the entire film. But a question still remains: why exactly did Studio Khara want to change the dub so badly? The simplest answer was that the dub didn’t quite follow the studio’s creative vision for the film, but it seems like there’s more behind the story.
The English dub premiered at New York Comic Con in December 2013, where members of Khara were in attendance. Discussion boards pertaining to the premiere suggest that the dub was changed in regard to the negative reception by fans, but this claim is purely speculative. Eva’s dubs have always been divisive, no matter which one is being discussed.
Some have responded to the above claim by saying that Khara might have simply been surprised by the reactions of anime convention-goers, which seems like a very real possibility. Given the delay following the theatrical release, the prevailing theory is that the accuracy of the dub was what Khara was really interested in, but what exactly was so different?
What Are The Differences?
Looking at Cartoon Cipher’s breakdown, as well as a few of the clips posted matching the audio with the film, the differences for the bulk of the film are more minor. In the theatrical version, there are small omissions, renamed technical jargon, lines that are the same but with tonal changes, and nicknames or pronunciations that are altered. For instance, Maya’s comments about her dislike of “young men.”
Similarly, Mari refers to Shinji as a “puppy boy” rather than “Nervling” like in the prior dubs, and Asuka says “Idiot Shinji” instead of “Stupid Shinji.” It reads as an effort to keep terms of familiarity consistent. But there are also bigger changes that stick out. In the theatrical dub, Sakura is nervous to be on the bridge during a battle, while in the home video release, she’s excited.
Of the clips that have existed since the original release, many cite lines between Kaworu and Shinji as big sticking points. Much of the pivotal lines pertaining to the philosophizing and the explanations of the events between 2.22 and 3.33 were altered. These alterations could be argued to be minor or major depending on the exact line and the implication, with some perhaps not noticing the difference in meaning at all.
Working Closely With Khara
It makes sense that some of Funimation’s creative liberties might have gone too far. During Shinji’s breakdown, the theatrical dub has lines from Misato in the background such as “I couldn’t care less whether you lived or died” and “what kind of parents would raise such a child?” These lines are only in this scene, so it stands to reason they are imagined by Shinji, but it's quite a bold addition that wasn’t in the original.
Obviously, almost a decade passed between 3.33’s release and 3.0+1.0’s and there were a lot of rewrites, so it isn’t as if the story was fully formed. However, it stands to reason that without more collaboration with Khara, there were interpretations of the story that not only are inaccurate in retrospect but didn’t work with what the creators had planned at the time.
Khara likely took issue with the handling of major dialog in what was a pivotal film in the series but desired to oversee the rewrites across the board just to ensure accuracy. It leads to some more egregious changes that some might find unnecessary and removes some of the swearing, which - while not essential - is certainly missed in newer Eva dubs.
Why Is It Special?
Khara’s involvement in 3.33’s re-dub set a precedent by which they became heavily involved in all English translations from then on, such as Netflix and Amazon's dubs. With Amazon's dubs of all the rebuild films deemed the "official" now, it means Funimation's work is effectively lost media. It means that the scripts are closer to the original vision, but does that truly make them better?
Translation can be argued to be an art far more than it is a science, and some liberties can truly elevate performance while also making it sound natural in a given language. In the end, it was the creators that felt that these liberties infringed upon the intended meaning, and it’s hard to outright disagree. Ultimately, fans can decide which dub of Evangelion 3.33 they like more. After all, now fans can actually listen to both.
Sources: zinnbuster/Twitter [1] [2], The Cartoon Cipher/Twitter, Lost Media Wiki