Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion S2 Works

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most fantastic anime series available, with it's epic story, deep characters and great action. The background music is very well done and the individual character songs are immediately recognizable when the start.

Due to the greatness of the series and how much of a fan of the music I am, particularly the soundtrack for the first movie (Air and Heart) and the Symphony of Evangelion, I was expecting a lot of creamy goodness out of the S2 works. However I couldn't spring for the $120.00US price tag that most outlets were asking.

Luckily there was a copy available at Anime Expo 2000 that I was not only able to get for $50.00US, but the also threw in a copy of the Metal Gear Solid soundtrack to seal it. I immediately rushed up to my shared hotel room, admired the packaging, a very clean and nice white, and slammed the cds into the player.

An hour and a half later I was glad for the hugely discounted price, though it could have been much lower.

The quality of the cd's and the music is very high, however each piece is repeated several times in different versions, sometimes only differing in very minor ways. The 6 main cd's could have easily been reduced to 3 if each song had only appeared in the main iteration and all the additional versions had been left off. The remaining 3 cd's could have been used for music from the movies, or a dvd-rom to view online artwork or just about any number of additions.

The "bonus" 7th cd was a very nice addition however, featuring the 3 children, Shinji, Asuka and Rei, tuning their individual stringed instruments, playing short samples pieces and then coming together to play Kanon in D.

On a whole, while having the S2 works can gain you bragging rights in certain circles, I would not recommend paying full price for it as, while classy, it is not worth the cash.