Lost inTranslation: Why Netflix’s “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is So Problematic

One of the titans of “giant robot” animation, Evangelion USED TO feature a bisexual main character… or at least a character who was as confused about sexuality as he was about everything else.

Why all the changes? That’s what a lot of fans of the classic anime series said when it was recently brought to Netflix. With a new voice cast and the loss of their iconic ending song (a cover of Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon”), the most obvious changes soon became a side topic of conversation as fans realized that the new translation seemed… off.

To bring a new, polished version of the massively-popular series to streaming, Netflix went with Studio Khara, the splinter studio formed by Hideaki Anno, director of the original anime. This is not the first time that Khara has re-envisioned Evangelion, as they started making a 4-film retelling of the original series back in 2007. The fourth and final film of that series still has not been released, with many crediting the delay due to…you guessed it, Anno’s unhappiness with voice-over and translation issues.

So what’s new in this story? Is this just another series with a huge fanbase that produces a lot of pressure on the creators to ‘get it exactly right’? Recently controversial properties like Star Wars, Joker…