| English | Korean | |---------|--------| | Korean dub | 한글 더빙 / 한국어 더빙 | | MBC dub | MBC 더빙판 | | Daewon dub | 대원 더빙판 | | Voice actor | 성우 | | Shinji voice | 신지 성우 | | Rei voice | 레이 성우 | | Asuka voice | 아스카 성우 |
The Evangelion Korean dub is more than just a translation; it is a historical document. It represents Korea’s awkward, painful, yet enthusiastic embrace of Japanese pop culture after decades of rejection. You can hear the tension in the voice acting—the struggle to convey existential horror in a language that usually favors melodrama.
For a Western fan who has seen Eva a dozen times, listening to the Korean dub is like viewing the series through a prism. The colors are slightly different. Shinji is Shin-woo. The blood is black. But the hole in the heart of the pilot remains the same.
If you ever get the chance to listen to Lee Myung-hee scream "싫어!" (I hate it!) as Asuka in Episode 22, you will understand why Korea fell in love with Evangelion—not despite the localization, but because of it.
Keywords: Evangelion Korean dub, Shinsegi Evangelion, Tooniverse, Kim Seul-ha, Korean voice actors, Lost anime dub, Evangelion censorship, 1999 Evangelion Korea.
Which is better?
Unlike the Western dubs, which often re-cast roles for the Rebuild films, the Korean voice actors for Evangelion became legends due to the limited number of roles available in the industry at the time.
There is a twist in the tale. When the Rebuild of Evangelion films (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.0+1.0) were released theatrically in Korea, the distributors made a clever choice. They resurrected the original voice cast.
This created a surreal experience for fans: hearing their childhood voices coming out of the high-budget, modern animation of the Rebuilds. It bridged the 25-year gap and canonized the original dub actors as the definitive Korean voices of these characters. For the final film, Thrice Upon a Time, theaters in Seoul reported audiences crying not just at the plot, but at the nostalgic weight of hearing these veteran actors deliver their final lines.
This is where the Evangelion Korean dub gets uniquely controversial. Because the broadcast occurred shortly after the cultural ban lifted, Korean broadcast standards were extremely strict regarding "Japanese imperialism" and graphic content.
1. The "Japan" Problem In the original script, the "Second Impact" is caused by an experiment in Antarctica. In the Korean dub, any visual or textual reference to "Japan" as a political entity was scrubbed. NERV's origins were altered to be a generic "United Nations" project. Furthermore, conversations regarding the Pacific War (which are a heavy subtext in Eva) were sometimes paraphrased to remove specific historical locations.
2. Visual Censorship Tooniverse was a children’s cable channel. As a result, the infamous "Rei hospital room" scene in The End of Evangelion was never broadcast. In the TV series, blood was often recolored black or darkened to "mud." However, the psychological violence was left intact, leading to a paradox where a child could watch Shinji break down mentally, but the color of the blood had to be muted.
3. The Name Changes To "Koreanize" the series (a common practice at the time), most names were altered:
For purists, this is jarring. For Korean fans in the 90s, this made the characters feel "local." They weren't foreign Japanese pilots; they were Korean kids stuck in a terrible situation.
The history of the Korean dub is not monolithic. There are essentially two major versions that fans discuss:
Evangelion Korean Dub -
| English | Korean | |---------|--------| | Korean dub | 한글 더빙 / 한국어 더빙 | | MBC dub | MBC 더빙판 | | Daewon dub | 대원 더빙판 | | Voice actor | 성우 | | Shinji voice | 신지 성우 | | Rei voice | 레이 성우 | | Asuka voice | 아스카 성우 |
The Evangelion Korean dub is more than just a translation; it is a historical document. It represents Korea’s awkward, painful, yet enthusiastic embrace of Japanese pop culture after decades of rejection. You can hear the tension in the voice acting—the struggle to convey existential horror in a language that usually favors melodrama.
For a Western fan who has seen Eva a dozen times, listening to the Korean dub is like viewing the series through a prism. The colors are slightly different. Shinji is Shin-woo. The blood is black. But the hole in the heart of the pilot remains the same.
If you ever get the chance to listen to Lee Myung-hee scream "싫어!" (I hate it!) as Asuka in Episode 22, you will understand why Korea fell in love with Evangelion—not despite the localization, but because of it. evangelion korean dub
Keywords: Evangelion Korean dub, Shinsegi Evangelion, Tooniverse, Kim Seul-ha, Korean voice actors, Lost anime dub, Evangelion censorship, 1999 Evangelion Korea.
- Characteristics:
Which is better?
Unlike the Western dubs, which often re-cast roles for the Rebuild films, the Korean voice actors for Evangelion became legends due to the limited number of roles available in the industry at the time. | English | Korean | |---------|--------| | Korean
There is a twist in the tale. When the Rebuild of Evangelion films (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.0+1.0) were released theatrically in Korea, the distributors made a clever choice. They resurrected the original voice cast.
This created a surreal experience for fans: hearing their childhood voices coming out of the high-budget, modern animation of the Rebuilds. It bridged the 25-year gap and canonized the original dub actors as the definitive Korean voices of these characters. For the final film, Thrice Upon a Time, theaters in Seoul reported audiences crying not just at the plot, but at the nostalgic weight of hearing these veteran actors deliver their final lines.
This is where the Evangelion Korean dub gets uniquely controversial. Because the broadcast occurred shortly after the cultural ban lifted, Korean broadcast standards were extremely strict regarding "Japanese imperialism" and graphic content. The Evangelion Korean dub is more than just
1. The "Japan" Problem In the original script, the "Second Impact" is caused by an experiment in Antarctica. In the Korean dub, any visual or textual reference to "Japan" as a political entity was scrubbed. NERV's origins were altered to be a generic "United Nations" project. Furthermore, conversations regarding the Pacific War (which are a heavy subtext in Eva) were sometimes paraphrased to remove specific historical locations.
2. Visual Censorship Tooniverse was a children’s cable channel. As a result, the infamous "Rei hospital room" scene in The End of Evangelion was never broadcast. In the TV series, blood was often recolored black or darkened to "mud." However, the psychological violence was left intact, leading to a paradox where a child could watch Shinji break down mentally, but the color of the blood had to be muted.
3. The Name Changes To "Koreanize" the series (a common practice at the time), most names were altered:
For purists, this is jarring. For Korean fans in the 90s, this made the characters feel "local." They weren't foreign Japanese pilots; they were Korean kids stuck in a terrible situation.
The history of the Korean dub is not monolithic. There are essentially two major versions that fans discuss:
