Neon Genesis Evangelion Watch Order: Two Endings, Two Timelines, One Existential Crisis, in order

The first is the 1995 TV series: 26 episodes of giant robots, teenage trauma, and a plot that gets stranger and more introspective as it goes. Watch it, then go straight to The End of Evangelion for the finale everyone still argues about decades later. Death & Rebirth sits in between, but it's mostly a clip-show recap of the series with the opening 25 minutes of the ending glued on. Unless you want the exact theatrical experience from 1997, skip it. The real ending shows you everything it does and more.

Somewhere in the same stretch is Petit Eva: Evangelion@School, a 3-minute-per-episode chibi comedy spinoff with zero connection to the actual plot. Optional, but harmless fun if you like the cast.

Then there's the second story: the Rebuild tetralogy. Hideaki Anno took the original premise and rebuilt it from the ground up across four films (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.0+1.0), changing enough of the plot, characters, and ending that it works as its own complete continuity rather than a straight remake. You don't need to have seen the original series to follow it, though most people watch in order anyway since a few references land better that way.

Tucked between the films are two short music videos (Beautiful World, Sakura Nagashi) and a 7-minute promotional short that surfaced years after 3.0. None of them move the plot forward. Nice extras if you're deep into the franchise, skippable if you're not.

3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time closes out Rebuild in 2021 and, this time, is the actual end of the story.

There's also a new Neon Genesis Evangelion series in the works: a fresh continuity, separate from both the original and Rebuild. It hasn't aired yet, so there's nothing to watch there for now, but it's listed below so you know it's coming.

Bottom line: the original TV series plus The End of Evangelion covers the first story. All four Rebuild films cover the second. Everything else here is optional color.