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Leave it to one song to mess with a glorious day. At long last, Netflix has become the first U.S. streaming service to add the beloved anime Neon Genesis Evangelion to its library. However fans of the original series are outraged that the this new addition is missing one major piece: “Fly Me to the Moon.”
But before we jump into this latest anime outrage scandal, let’s take a step back. Released in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion follows the story of Shinji, a teenage boy who is pressured by his father to fight and kill a humanoid batch of creatures called Angels. The series is beloved for its authentic and nuanced depiction of PTSD, depression, and trauma. It’s also credited as portraying one of anime’s first queer-coded leading characters. It’s a beautiful piece of art that’s influenced pop culture on a global level.
And now it’s missing one of its most iconic elements. “Fly Me to the Moon” is the ending song of Neon Genesis Evangelion the series, and it also appears in all of the franchise’s movies. The song has been performed by everyone from Claire Littley and Megumi Hayashibara to Hikaru Utada. That’s right — the queen of pop anime themes herself has put her stamp on this one. “Fly Me to the Moon” sorrowfully and jazzily captures the complex emotions of this intricate series in one catchy number, a number that’s now missing from the Netflix version of the series.
Fans were quick to notice, and they were not happy:
However this doesn’t seem to be a global problem. At least one tweet mentions that “Fly Me to the Moon” is featured in the Netflix Japan version of the series:
It’s a travesty almost on par with all of the sadness in Evangelion. If you really need to get your “Fly Me to the Moon” fix, the song is on YouTube. Because it looks like for now you’re not going to find it on Netflix.
UPDATED, Friday, June 21 at 11:47 a.m: Sources at Netflix clarified that the exclusion of “Fly Me to the Moon” is, in fact, a licensing problem. As you may imagine, moving a show from 1995 to a streaming service in 2019 involves a lot of moving parts, and unfortunately this one did not work out.
