When Netflix acquired the streaming rights, they chose to completely re-record the series under the strict supervision of , Hideaki Anno's production company.
As the battle settles into a rhythmic, bloody stalemate, the "Dub" layer of this reality begins to bleed through. The dialogue is sharper, more cynical. arrives weeks later, her voice a jagged glass edge of "Anta Baka?" (Are you stupid?), masking a girl who is terrified that if she isn't the best, she doesn't exist at all. Rei Ayanami remains a ghost in the machine, her voice a hollow echo of a girl who knows she is replaceable.
But the Netflix dub sparked fierce controversy. The most painful loss was the replacement of Tiffany Grant—a decision that felt, to many, like erasing history. New Asuka, played by Amanda Winn Lee (the original director of the ADV movies and voice of Rei in those films), delivers a technically adept but less explosive performance. More critically, the script famously changed key relationship lines—the Shinji/Kaworu “I love you” became “I like you”—softening the show’s explicit queer emotional core. Neon Genesis Evangelion -Dub-
In 2006, ADV Films, a now-defunct anime distribution company, acquired the rights to dub Neon Genesis Evangelion. The company assembled a team of voice actors, including Megumi Hayashi, Amanda Winn, and Derek Pleavin, to revoice the series. The -Dub- version, also known as the "Dub" or " ADV Dub," was born.
The -Dub- version of Neon Genesis Evangelion holds significance for several reasons: When Netflix acquired the streaming rights, they chose
The Evangelion dub war is not about accuracy or audio quality. It is about feeling . The ADV dub feels like a group of young actors throwing themselves into the abyss without a net. The Netflix dub feels like a surgical reconstruction—clean, precise, but missing the blood. In the end, the best way to hear Evangelion is perhaps the way Shinji hears the world: broken, subjective, and desperately searching for a voice that understands. Both dubs try. Neither fully succeeds. And that, ironically, is the most Evangelion thing of all.
if you want 90s nostalgia, high-octane emotional outbursts, and the original "memetic" lines. arrives weeks later, her voice a jagged glass
In reality, most modern fans experience a hybrid. When GKIDS and Shout! Factory released the Evangelion Ultimate Edition, they included the original ADV dub (with its original cast) for the TV series, alongside the Netflix dub for the Death(true)² and The End of Evangelion re-dubs. This acknowledges the impossible truth: there is no perfect Evangelion dub. There is only the one that first broke your heart.