It's trickier than it seems to figure out how to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion in order, but we're here to help in case you're planning to watch the saga anytime soon. The beloved anime classic started with the original series, consisting of 26 episodes, but things only got more complicated after that.
Set 15 years after a global disaster in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3, the story follows a teenage boy who is recruited by his father to the mysterious organization Nerv and tasked to pilot a giant biomechanical mecha known as Evangelion to fight beings known as Angels. The first series was followed by an End of Evangelion movie, and then the 'Rebuild' entries came into play. These are big-screen installments, which are re-imaginings, remakes, and quasi-sequels, making everything a bit complicated.
How to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion in order – anime, End of Evangelion, and Rebuild movies
Watching Neon Genesis Evangelion in release order is undoubtedly the best way to do things. That’s helped enormously by Netflix having the worldwide streaming rights to the mainline series, including the director’s cuts of episodes 21-24.
The original versions of those episodes are harder to track down and, honestly, not worth it. The director’s cuts are more comprehensive.
One thing to note is the subtitles for the Netflix versions have been tweaked slightly – and led to some controversy over the relationship between two of the characters. The choice is yours, but Netflix is far more accessible.
So, that makes it quite easy: watch all 26 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix. Then, you’ll need to complete Shinji's story with the feature-length End of Evangelion movie (also on Netflix).
The initial Neon Genesis Evangelion watch order for the anime only, then, looks like this:
- Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes 1-26 [1995-1996]
- End of Evangelion [1997]
In the 21st Century, show creator Hideaki Anno retold the story of Evangelion in a series of four movies titled the Rebuild of Evangelion.
As you might expect, they are confusingly titled: Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time.
For their home releases, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 were all given extended cuts with additional scenes, called 1.11, 2.22, 3.33. They’re the ones you need to seek out – and they’re all available on Amazon's Prime Video streaming service.
For pretty heavy spoiler reasons, the Rebuild movies should be watched after the mainline series even though they are (mostly) separate versions of the same story and stand alone as their own adventures. Here’s the order – making particular note that, again, you should watch 1.11 instead of 1.0, 2.22 instead of 2.0, and so on.
- Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone (2007)
- Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (2009)
- Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo (2012)
- Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)
As they're all available on Prime Video worldwide, you’ll need both an Amazon and Netflix membership to get the complete picture of the series outside of forking over serious money for the physical releases.
TL;DR? Watch all 26 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix, End of Evangelion, then the four Rebuild movies. Simple!
The full Neon Genesis Evangelion watch order looks like this:
Complete Neon Genesis Evangelion watch order
- Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes 1-26 (inc. episodes 21-24 director’s cuts) [1995-1996] Available on Netflix
- End of Evangelion [1997] Available on Netflix
- Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) Available on Amazon Prime Video
- Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (2009) Available on Amazon Prime Video
- Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo (2012) Available on Amazon Prime Video
- Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) Available on Amazon Prime Video
How to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion in chronological order
Honestly? Watching Neon Genesis Evangelion in chronological order is a tough ask. Mercifully, the first 24 episodes can be watched as normal. Then, it gets a little tricky.
Series protagonist Shinji then becomes part of a major event that technically takes place during episodes 25 and 26 and also the End of Evangelion movie. If you want to go super in-depth and granular with the chronological order, you can watch episodes 1-24, the first hour of End of Evangelion, then episodes 25 and 26 for a more introspective look at the main characters during a significant plot beat. Then you’re free to finish up End of Evangelion before moving on to the Rebuild movies.
We’d recommend just sticking with the main order above – but the option is here if you want it. At the very least, it gives greater context to the utterly bewildering final two episodes of a series that, famously, ran out of steam (and budget) during its original run.
Neon Genesis Evangelion order – should I skip Evangelion: Death(True)2?
The only skippable piece of mainline Evangelion media is a curiosity that can also be found on Netflix called Evangelion: Death(True)2, otherwise known as Evangelion: Death and Rebirth.
The ‘Death’ portion of the movie is a recap of the entire series with some newly-drawn scenes, as well as some larger world-building that's covered in the series' director cut episodes. The ‘Rebirth’ section is just the first third of End of Evangelion – and was released as a teaser for Japanese audiences in 1997. Our advice? Skip it. You’re not missing out on anything important, but it does technically come after episode 26 and before End of Evangelion in terms of release dates if you're in a completionist mood.
Phew. We made it! For more, check out the best anime on Netflix and how to watch Attack on Titan in order.
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