I know this has already shown up on the Eva thread, but Amazon have revealed their new dub cast for the Rebuild films, and they're mostly using the original ADV cast whenever possible. This was actually something of a surprise to me, as I suspected Netflix creating a new dub meant the original was in some sort of limbo due to Khara actively disavowing it (we know the executives weren't happy with the fan reaction to 3.0's premiere in the US). As someone quite partial to both dubs, particularly the latter, this gives me some measure of hope that the ADV dub will make it to the physical releases. Considering there's no way I'd purchase a ultimate/premium edition that somehow didn't manage to include the dub, I'm actually far more excited in seeing what the release includes now.
Does anyone know what the situation even was that caused Netflix to produce their own dub? Was it a vanity thing, or are there certain material or license issues behind the scenes?
With this situation it's very difficult to speculate about why this or that was done and the specifics as there's some details here but also a lot of assumptions (including my own) that may be very wrong.
What we do know is the Netflix English dub was commissioned but no one is quite sure if Netflix did so with their money or if the licensor paid for it. After that, auditions were held for at least the main characters and, to borrow the first of two quotes from one the VAs on it, Ray Chase (English Netflix/VSI voice of Gendo Ikari) said in response to what the casting process direction (ie were they told to emulate the previous VAs)
"They wanted whatever you (the actor) brought to it. I know the audition process was kinda weird for that because the previous VAs wanted to audition for their part too so we all just sent completely blind they had all of our auditions in and Gainax (note: this is perhaps an error on Ray's part to what the differences between Gainax and Khara are, or maybe not) just chose us on not knowing anyones name or anything like that, just a complete clean slate"
So that seems to paint a picture of wanting to produce a new cast without selecting/emulating from the previous VAs as a basis and yes this does seem odd based on the recent news. During recording, the involvement of the licensor seemed to suggest a level of control really that isn't common in anime dubbing as suggested in this other quote from Ray on the whether Japanese clients are nearly as involved with the production of an english dub of an anime as they seem to be with video games (contrasting with questions asked about his role as Noctis in FFXV and the recording for it)
"Evangelion was very, very full of Japanese influence like that one Gainax sent notes every week, we recorded some lines 30, 40 times just to get it right. They were very particular about pronunciations, translations, subtext and stuff like that. I've never seen anything like that"
Ray does also note that Aniplex of America do often have a representative of the company sit on recordings of dubs recorded in LA but it isn't the same process in comparison.
What we got from that all process, along with the thing with Dan Kanemitsu being the Translator, who is on these new Amazon dubs as well as "Project Translation, English ADR Script Translation Supervisor" (I also know theres some debate of aspects around his involvement too in the Netflix production), is what is out there now. It has it's fan like me who prefers it to the ADV dub of the series (the Funi dub of the Rebuild series is an improvement though and I also do like it) but obviously many fans, both long term and younger too, want continued access to the old ADV dub.
Where does that leave us with the Anime Limited release? Hopefully we will get access to both dubs but who can say. You could point to the involvement of the licensor with the Netflix dub (especially if the licensor owns the dub and Anime Limited/GKIDS don't need to pay Netflix's demand to get access to the dub) and say that the ADV dub might be banished. You could also point out that the other releases like in Italy where that doesn't have the Italian Netflix dub (whether it was cost or due to its quality is another question however) that maybe we won't get both.
Guess all we can do is wait and see for details.
Ray Chase interview used for source:
Mixed in with other questions about his career and roles, the first quote timestamp: 4:55 second quote timestamp: 15:41
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