How can you tell Evangelion editions and printings apart?

Evangelion identification starts with the companies. Original television era releases credit Gainax, with King Records on Japanese media and ADV or Manga Entertainment on classic English releases. Rebuild and current releases credit Studio Khara. That single line on the back of a box dates a release to its era more reliably than the artwork, which was often reused across editions.

Japanese books and discs carry their printing information openly. Manga volumes print the edition and printing date on the final page and the back cover, and first printings of Sadamoto's volumes and the art books typically carry an obi band and any publisher inserts, both of which later printings and second hand copies often lose. For discs, the catalogue number on the spine and the disc face identifies the exact release, and box sets should be checked disc by disc because individual volumes were also sold separately.

Rebuild films add version numbers, which are content differences, not marketing. Theatrical cuts were revised for home video, so Japanese and English discs are labelled 1.11, 2.22, 3.33 and 3.0+1.0 in updated forms such as 3.333, and a listing that does not state its version number has not told you what film you are buying. The same caution applies to the television series, where the later episodes exist in broadcast and extended cuts.

Finally, condition traps repeat across the line: LaserDisc sleeves split at the corners, large art books stress at the spine, DVD era English box sets lose their booklets, and obi bands are swapped between copies by careless sellers. Photographs of the spine, the back cover credit block and the contents laid out are worth more than any seller's summary, and a price that assumes completeness should always be matched against those three views.