Neon Genesis Evangelion -dub- [ Android FAST ]
The Good:
The Bad:
Verdict on ADV: Nostalgic, passionate, but uneven. If you grew up with it, it’s irreplaceable. If you’re new to Eva, it can feel dated and melodramatic.
When ADV Films (A.D. Vision) licensed Evangelion in the mid-90s, anime dubbing was a Wild West. Budgets were low, translation scripts were handled by a handful of people, and directors often prioritized matching lip-flaps over thematic accuracy.
The Cast:
The Controversy: The ADV dub took liberties. Character names were Westernized (Soryu became "Langley"). Some dialogue was rewritten to sound "cooler" or more vulgar. Crucially, the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu Nagisa was heavily sanitized. In the 90s, the word "love" was often replaced with "like," and the overt homoerotic tension was softened to "deep friendship" by some translators—though the voice actors themselves (specifically Spike Spencer and Aaron Krohn) played it with clear romantic intent.
Why people still love it: Nostalgia and energy. The ADV dub sounds like a group of passionate college students in a basement who understood the vibe of Evangelion if not the literal translation. It is rough, it is inconsistent, but it has soul. Neon Genesis Evangelion -Dub-
To speak of the English dub of Neon Genesis Evangelion is to speak not of a single artifact, but of a fractured, ghost-haunted lineage. More than almost any other anime, Evangelion is a work of piercing interiority—a raw nerve of anxiety, depression, and existential dread. Its characters do not just speak; they fail to speak, they stumble, they cry out against the silence of an indifferent universe. Thus, the task of the English voice actor is not mere translation. It is to become the scream inside the plug suit.
The Classic Era (ADV Films, 1996-1998): Raw Nerve and Garage Band Grit
For a generation of fans who discovered the series on VHS or late-night cable, the ADV Films dub is Evangelion. Recorded in Houston with a cast of then-newcomers, this dub carries the unmistakable energy of a low-budget, high-stakes passion project. It is not always polished—background voices can be wooden, and the audio mixing has a certain analog warmth that borders on tinny. Yet that rawness becomes its strength.
Spike Spencer’s Shinji Ikari is the defining performance. Spencer made a choice that still resonates: he plays Shinji not as a stoic hero but as a genuinely frightened, whiny, overwhelmed fourteen-year-old. When Shinji screams “I mustn’t run away!” it is not triumphant—it is a sob. Spencer’s voice cracks, wavers, and pleads, capturing the boy’s desperate, failing grasp at courage. For many, this is the definitive Shinji: unbearably human, not cool.
Tiffany Grant as Asuka Langley Soryu (her preferred pronunciation of “Soryu” became canonical for fans) is equally iconic. A native German speaker, Grant insisted on authentic German dialogue for Asuka’s outbursts, adding a layer of abrasive authenticity. Her Asuka is all brash, broken armor—a loud, furious, and deeply wounded performance that matches the character’s tragic arc blow for blow.
Allison Keith’s Misato Katsuragi walks a fine line between boozy surrogate sister and haunted soldier, while Sue Ulu’s Rei Ayanami deliberately delivers her lines as if speaking through a pane of glass—flat, ethereal, and unnervingly blank. The ADV dub has flaws (some early episode translations are loose), but its emotional immediacy is undeniable. It sounds like real people falling apart. The Good:
The Redux (Netflix / VSI Los Angeles, 2019): Precision Without Heartache
When Netflix acquired Evangelion in 2019, they commissioned a brand-new dub. The result, produced by VSI Los Angeles and directed by Carrie Keranen, is technically superior in every measurable way: cleaner audio, more accurate translation, consistent pronunciation (no more “Nerv” vs. “NERV”), and a cast of seasoned professionals.
Casey Mongillo as Shinji offers a quieter, more internalized performance—less whimper, more hollow exhaustion. They capture Shinji’s depression with a haunting stillness. Stephanie McKeon’s Rei is more subtly detached, less alien than Ulu’s version. And Greg Chun’s Gendo Ikari finally sounds less like a cartoon villain and more like a man frozen by grief.
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.
The Netflix dub is a fine piece of modern localization. It is polished, faithful, and safe. But Evangelion is not a safe show. It is jagged, uncomfortable, and raw. And that is why, for many, the ADV dub remains the true voice of the Third Impact.
The Third Option: The Director’s Cut & The Final Compromise The Bad:
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.
Conclusion
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.
The ADV dub is famous for taking liberties. The script writers, including Matt Greenfield and Tiffany Grant herself, opted for a "localization" rather than a direct translation. They changed character names slightly (Soryu remained instead of Shikinami, but that's a detail), and punched up the dialogue to sound natural to American teens.
If you look up "Neon Genesis Evangelion Dub" on Reddit or Twitter, you will not find a consensus. Instead, you will find a civil war. The conflict exists between two primary versions: the ADV Dub (1996-1998) and the VSI/Netflix Redub (2019).