Neon Genesis Evangelion - Platinum Edition (DVD9) torrent

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Platinum Edition
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Original run: October 4, 1995 – March 27, 1996
DVD release: July 27, 2004 - April 19, 2005
Running time: Approx. 750 Mins
Rating: TV-14 - Graphic violence, mature situations, language
DVD Encoding: Region 0 (Region Free), Originally Region 1
DVD Format: DVD-9
Video Format: NTSC (MPEG2 Video 720x480 (4:3) 29.97fps ~8500-9000kbps)
Audio Format: English 5.1, Japanese 5.1 (Dolby AC3 48000Hz 6ch 448kbps)
Subtitles: Optional English (Japanese Dialogue/Signs/Text) or English (Signs/Text only)
Special Features: English commentaries, Animatics (moving storyboards), Clean Opening/Closing Animations, Featurettes, Trailers
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A DVD-only release including all 26 episodes plus four Directors’ Cut episodes presented in both English 5.1 and Japanese 5.1 with English subtitles.

First broadcast on TV Tokyo in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion marks a watershed in the history of anime. Not only did Eva raise the bar for mecha anime visually, with its innovative designs and rich animation, but the series explored an array of biological, military, religious, and philosophical concepts in a unique and thoughtful way. Through the course of 26 episodes, what begins as a regular (if exceptionally beautiful) giant robot show soon becomes a metaphorical journey into modern psychoanalytic theory.

Produced by the acclaimed studio Gainax, Neon Genesis Evangelion’s trailblazing blend of action and philosophy immediately elevated it above the pack and accounts for its enduring popularity. The series, which originally aired in Japan from 1995 to 1996, has exerted a strong influence on anime ever since.

Synopsis: At the turn of the century, the Angels returned to Earth, seeking to wipe out humanity in an apocalyptic fury. Devastated, mankind’s last remnants moved underground to wait for the day when the Angels would come back to finish the job. Fifteen years later, that day has come… but this time, humanity is ready to fight back with terrifying bio-mechanical weapons known as the Evangelions. Now it’s up to Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the rest of the mysterious shadow agency NERV to save Earth from total annihilation!

Each episode of the enormously influential Evangelion television series has been officially revised and digitally remastered for this new release by original creators GAINAX to create beautiful, vibrant video and crisp, sparkling new English and Japanese 5.1 surround sound audio, creating the ultimate Evangelion DVD experience.

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The text following this paragraph are just extra notes about this torrent for interest sake. The short version is that this torrent is very likely the best possible way at present to view the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series in English (sub and/or dub), assuming that bandwidth isn't an issue for you (if it is, then there are plenty of other smaller torrents that would probably be more than sufficient.. for what you're used to). Simply mount/burn the images once downloaded and play with your preferred media or DVD player (Media Player Classic and PowerDVD 13 worked fine for me). Similar to episode by episode TV show uploads, you can download disc by disc as you watch the episodes on them.

I found this torrent around the web on a number of trackers, but not The Pirate Bay, so I thought it would be a good idea to upload the torrent here to help revive it. There are still a few seeders at time of writing, which is a miracle since a few of the tracking sites report it being dead. I should note that other people have recommended this same torrent in the comments of some of the other NGE torrents here.

This upload from what I can tell are disc images of the original seven "Platinum Edition" NGE single volumes released in North America from 2004 to 2005 (see my reasoning below), as opposed to the later released (but virtually identical) seven disc English releases: "Platinum: Perfect Collection" (2007) and "Complete Platinum Collection" (2008). The region code appears to have been disabled.

As far as the original NGE TV series in English goes, this is almost as perfect quality as you can get. It is said that the 6 disc Platinum Edition (similar release but with special features cut) has a higher average video bitrate, and that the Japanese 'Renewal' DVDs (that the Platinum Edition is based on) has both a higher bitrate and progressive (not interlaced) scanning, so these would be the only superior (in terms of video) editions produced. However, overall I feel that this is the most well rounded version to get for English speakers. More on this topic here: http://forum.evageeks.org/thread/12882

I have noticed that the first disc is the allegedly 'bad disc' that was first released (some lines of Shinji's English dialogue in Episode 3 are missing), which ADV was later offering a replacement disc for. Most likely the later "Platinum Editions" had the replacement disc already. Unfortunately I do not know where to get a DVD image of the replacement, so if you desperately need the few missing lines of dialogue, you'll have to buy one of the aforementioned Platinum collections (or somehow buy an original Volume 1 disc which IS the replacement one). Read more here: http://madboards.madman.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=16001

The original Platinum Edition came with booklets translated from the Japanese 'Renewal' booklets. As far as I know, no one has ever scanned and uploaded them (would be amazing if someone did), but there is a transcription of all the text from the booklets here: http://www.evamonkey.com/platinum-booklets

One last note is that the DVD file directories are set up rather bizarrely (some of the episodes are split across multiple files), so if you are planning to transcode using this source, then be aware that you would probably have to be very proficient and experienced in this area. I'm not, so don't expect any help from me.

Anyway all credit must go to whoever ripped the images (I suspect it was for the private torrent tracker Asian DVD Club long ago, but I couldn't be bothered getting an account there to check if this was true), and to the various information sources I've used in this description.

I will seed this torrent as long as is needed until it is sufficiently healthy. While this is a public tracker and you are able to leech without repercussion, you would be contributing greatly to the public torrent community if you seed this torrent, however much you can afford to! Furthermore, if you enjoy this product, consider actually buying it! You will even have the missing Shinji dialogue! Otherwise we can only blame ourselves if there comes a day when piracy is no longer an option available to us! But enough preaching.

One more thing, this is the second time I've tried to upload this torrent. I needed a hash clear first by the TPB staff. Apparantly this torrent WAS on TPB before, but was deleted. Hopefully that won't ever happen again!

Any corrections/feedback .etc feel free to leave in the comments. Do enjoy!