All 26 episodes plus The End of Evangelion and Death (True)² arrive September 1. The headline is the ADV dub, out of print since 2009 and never before on any streaming service. Netflix’s 2019 release used a different one, and fans have argued about it ever since.
Neon Genesis Evangelion arrives on The Criterion Channel on September 1, and it brings something that has been effectively unavailable for over fifteen years.
The set includes all 26 episodes of the 1995 series, plus The End of Evangelion and Evangelion: Death (True)², distributed through GKIDS. Japanese audio with subtitles is there as expected.
So is the original ADV Films English dub, streaming officially for the first time anywhere.
Why the dub is the story
The ADV dub was recorded for the series’ VHS release in the 1990s and last pressed on the Platinum Edition DVDs in 2004 and 2005. When ADV shut down in 2009, it went out of print and stayed there.
Every streaming viewer since has heard something else. When Netflix added Evangelion in 2019, it commissioned a new dub with a different cast and a substantially revised translation, and the reaction split the fanbase.
The complaints were specific rather than nostalgic. The Netflix translation was widely criticized as overly literal, and it altered dialogue between Shinji and Kaworu in ways many viewers felt softened the relationship as originally written.
The ADV dub was recorded on a shoestring, sometimes using production staff rather than experienced voice actors. It is objectively a little rougher than the Netflix version, but still the preferred dub by many oldschool fans.
What the ADV track offers is the version American audiences actually encountered in the nineties, with the translation choices that shaped how a generation understood the show.
Criterion is being deliberate here
The Criterion Channel is selective about what it carries and more selective about television.
Its anime catalogue has been deepening for a while, with Ghost in the Shell, Paprika, Makoto Shinkai films, and Hideaki Anno’s other mecha series Gunbuster already on the service. Adding Evangelion places it in a film-history context rather than an anime-genre one.
One limit: this applies to the Criterion Channel only. No physical Criterion Collection edition has been announced.
The timing
The franchise is in the middle of a revival.
A new Evangelion series was announced in February, in development at Studio Khara with CloverWorks. A separate series from NieR creator Yoko Taro is also in production. The four Rebuild films are not part of the Criterion lineup.
Neither Anno nor Khara has commented publicly on the release. For a show whose original ending was so divisive that its creator made a film to answer it, a streaming service quietly restoring the version people first argued over feels like the right kind of full circle.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Cartoon Brew (July 2026), verified for the September 1 date, the full title list, the Classic English dub making its streaming debut, the Netflix 2019 recast and revised translation, the Criterion Channel-only scope with no physical edition announced, and the new series at Studio Khara and CloverWorks
Complex and Collider (July-August 2026), verified for the ADV Films VHS-era recording, the 2004-2005 Platinum Edition DVDs, ADV’s 2009 shutdown taking the dub out of print, the GKIDS distribution, and the Yoko Taro series in production
Inverse and Comics Beat (July 2026), verified for the ADV dub’s shoestring production and use of non-professional voice talent, the criticism of the Netflix translation as overly literal, and the Shinji and Kaworu dialogue concerns