Evangelion: Death

Note this article is about the first part of Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, you may be looking for the soundtrack album

Evangelion: Death is a 70 minute long recap of the first 24 episodes of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV Series, directed by Masayuki, created for the purpose of accompanying a brand new, theatrical ending to the series. (The latter eventually became the End of Evangelion). It features the performance of a string quartet as its framing device; the quartet appears to consist of Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu, with each section of the film relating to one of these characters. Death depicts the events of the series out of chronological order, focusing instead on individual character arcs and themes. At the time of its release in theatres with Rebirth on March 15th, 1997, it featured brand new footage that was later incorporated into episodes 21'-24'.

Masayuki personally edited a second version of the film, Death(true), which aired on January 2nd, 1998, on WoWoW (Japanese Satellite TV). For this cut, Masayuki removed approximately 4 minutes of the extra footage; the vast majority of the cut material pertains to Death's depiction of the events of Episode 22, and was incorporated into Episode 22'. (Another notable change is the lengthening of the long still shot from Episode 24, restoring it to its duration in the TV series.)

Death(true) was subsequently edited again, resulting in the film's final version, Death(true)². This cut of Death features only minor edits relative to Death(true) - mostly short additional shots and minor timing edits. This version premiered in theaters on March 7th, 1998 as part of Revival of Evangelion, a compilation of Death and End of Evangelion.

Death(true)² replaced the theatrical Death for the original home video release of Death and Rebirth, and has been used as the default version of the recap movie for nearly all subsequent releases. Neither of the previous two cuts saw release on home video until 2015, when the theatrical version of Death and Rebirth was included in the Neon Genesis Evangelion Blu-ray Box, and Death(true) appeared in the Archives of Evangelion DVD box set.