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It should be a time of celebration for anime fans: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno’s seminal anime series, is finally streaming worldwide, as Netflix secured the rights to the classic anime. But the fans who should be cheering are not happy.

Evangelion originally aired in Japan in 1995, and it quickly earned a reputation as a controversial, psychologically and philosophically complex series that deconstructed the mecha anime genre. Unfortunately, the series has rarely been widely available, as its English-language licensee, ADV Films, went out of business in the 2000s. The only way you could legally get the series in physical format was by spending over $30 on the VHS release that only had two episodes per tape, or by spending over $100 on the DVD collection in 2005–and aftermarket prices for those versions have skyrocketed since then.

But many of Eva’s most dedicated fans quickly voiced their concerns with the version of the show that was released on Netflix. Fans flocked to Twitter and Reddit to describe the changes made to the show. It all started with Netflix removing the covers of the song “Fly Me to the Moon” at the end of each episode, a change which The Wrap says is due to licensing fees. But that was just the beginning. We listed the biggest changes to Evangelion on Netflix, which includes the lack of translation of some on-screen text, a completely new and more literal script that takes away from the nuance of the original text, a new voice cast, the omission of swearing in the new translation, and the omission of a key piece of gay subtext.

This resulted in many people recommending newcomers to skip the Netflix version altogether and instead seek out the long-available bootlegs in order to watch the show as they experienced it back in the day. This raises some interesting questions: Sure, some of the changes are significant, but is preserving the nostalgia for the original anime really more important than it being easily available for everyone? Are fans overreacting?

I spent most of the weekend Eva hit Netflix debating whether my first experience with the classic anime should be with the apparently inferior version on Netflix, or the various lower quality but higher integrity bootlegs. The question instantly brought to mind memories of another big sci-fi franchise that was only available in low-quality VHS tapes before going through several controversial changes once it was made widely available for the second time. That’s right, I’m talking about the Star Wars original trilogy Special Editions.

The mere mention of the phrase “Special Editions” is one of the scariest and most controversial things in all of Star Wars. You can ask any fan of the franchise and they’ll all have an opinion of the 1997 theatrical re-release of the original trilogy. Sent to theaters with great fanfare, the remastered and altered versions of the original trilogy are nowadays remembered with a predominantly negative connotation. George Lucas decided to update his iconic trilogy of films with updated effects, sounds, and scenes, few of which landed with hardcore fans. There’s a reason those t-shirts with the phrase “Han Shot First” are sold everywhere.

Like Evangelion, the changes to the Star Wars trilogy ranged from big ones like Greedo shooting first, the addition of “Jedi Rocks,” and the loss of “Yub Nub,” to kind of random changes like adding a ring of fire to the Death Star explosion and adding a bunch of new aliens on Mos Eisley. People hate the Special Editions so much that fans have taken it upon themselves to reproduce the original appearance of the movies with fan restorations.

Sure, many of those changes were unnecessary beyond George Lucas wanting to show off his new special effects technology that wasn’t available in the ’70s, but look at the state of Star Wars fandom before the Special Editions. They’re one major reason why Star Wars is still around.

Before the Special Editions were released in early 1997, Star Wars was no longer a pop culture giant. Those who grew up watching the original trilogy had already moved on to new and shinier franchises like Terminator. Though there was Mel Brook’s Spaceballs, Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, and the Dark Horse comics, the beloved galaxy far, far away hadn’t been relevant since 1983’s release of Return of the Jedi. Those who didn’t get to watch the trilogy in theaters had it worse, as they could only watch the films in cropped pan-and-scan VHS copies.

Then came the Special Editions. Say what you will about the changes made and how much you hated watching CGI Jabba meet Han in Episode IV, but the Special Editions put the original trilogy back in the public spotlight. The Special Editions also came out at a changing time for the moviegoing experience, as theater chains were expanding and the multiplex started to become the norm, with stadium seating preparing audiences to experience Star Wars in a new way years before DVDs became a thing. You may hate the changes, but those who hadn’t seen the movies before didn’t even notice them, and the re-release turned an entire new generation into fans. Star Wars was nowhere, and suddenly it was everywhere again.

With Evangelion now available worldwide on arguably the most popular streaming platform, it will only help turn more people into fans. Maybe they’ll finish the series and then seek out the original dub and listen to “Fly Me to the Moon” on repeat, or maybe they won’t–but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Netflix release is doing more right than wrong.

Preserving art is an important task. I’m not saying you should feel happy that they changed the lines you spent years memorizing. All I’m saying is that glorifying the version of a piece of pop culture you saw when you were younger, and getting in the way of a new generation experiencing that same piece of pop culture now, is not a battle worth fighting.

The changes made to Eva won’t stop brand new fans from enjoying the show, just like the Special Editions didn’t destroy Star Wars, but instead set the table for a world of prequels, sequels, and spin-offs. Netflix didn’t ruin Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it introduced millions of viewers to the magic of Cruel Angel’s Thesis and “Get in the Robot, Shinji.”

Season 2 of Apex Legends is now officially underway on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and a lot has changed in Respawn’s battle royale game. Not only is there a new playable character, the science genius Wattson, there’s a new Battle Pass to purchase, which means a load of new rewards to unlock.

Unlike Season 1’s Battle Pass, Season 2’s works much more like Fortnite‘s Battle Pass, offering a regular stream of challenges to complete as the season progresses. Clearing these tasks will help level your Battle Pass up, which in turn will allow you to unlock this season’s new skins, emotes, loading screens, and other cosmetic rewards.

While the general gist of the Battle Pass is similar to Fortnite, the new Season 2 challenges will work a little differently. Like in Epic’s battle royale game, Apex Legends Battle Pass holders will have access to seven new challenges each week. However, three of these tasks will raise your Battle Pass by one full level when completed. On top of that, there will be three recurring challenges every week, as well as three random challenges (pulled from a pool of 200) to complete each day.

Season 2’s first weekly set of challenges is now live, and they’re all fairly self-explanatory, so you should be able to complete them with a little persistence. The three that will level your Battle Pass up once completed ask you to deal 7,500 damage with assault rifles and finish in the top three using either Bloodhound, Lifeline, or Wraith. There’s also a multi-step challenge that begins by having you to land in Relay. The remaining challenges run the gamut from getting 35 knockdowns to looting five care packages; you can see the full list below.

That isn’t all that’s new in Season 2 of Apex Legends. The game’s map, Kings Canyon, has also undergone some changes, and Titanfall 2’s L-Star has been added as a Legendary Gold energy-based weapon. The more competitive Ranked Leagues are also now available. You can read more about Apex Legends Season 2 in our roundup.

Apex Legends Season 2, Week 1 Challenges

• Land in Relay (step 1 of 4) — +1 BP Level
• Deal 7,500 damage with assault rifles — +1 BP Level
• Finish in the top 3 as Bloodhound, Lifeline, or Wraith — +1 BP Level
• Get 25 kills — 6,000 Stars
• Loot 5 care packages — 6,000 Stars
• Get 35 knockdowns — 6,000 Stars
• Outlive 200 opponents — 6,000 Stars

A new series of cast shots for Disney’s The Lion King show a very different side to the characters, in more ways than one. The posters show almost every major member of the cast in profile, facing eye-to-eye with their animal counterparts.

The pairings posted to Disney’s Twitter include Donald Glover as Simba, Beyonce as Nala, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, and Alfre Woodard as Sarabi. Other shots show ensembles of characters together, like Billy Eichner, Seth Rogan, and John Oliver as Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu, respectively.

This is the latest in a series of live-action remakes of Disney’s classic catalog. But as the characters are still computer animated and no live actors are on screen, it has instead been commonly referred to as “photorealistic.” It was directed by Jon Favreau, following his successful and similarly realistic take on The Jungle Book.

Disney had released character posters in May showing each of the photorealistic animals head-on, not in profile with their human voice-actors. The original Lion King is one of Disney’s top-grossing animated films of all time, and so anticipation–and expectations–are running high for the remake. Its initial teaser trailer almost matched Avengers: Infinity War in views in the first 24 hours.

The Lion King releases on July 18.

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A match-three puzzle game, Dr. Mario World was announced back in February 2019. The game sees you using capsules to eliminate viruses like a good doctor, but there’s more than meets the eye. We’ve now learned of the game’s multiplayer offerings, which allows you to connect with friends to send hearts or viruses.

Dr. Mario World lets you see your friends’ progress in the game’s single-player Stage mode. You will also be able to send your friends encouragement hearts, though these can only be sent once per day. Dr. Mario World features solo play, but it will also launch with a Versus mode in which you can challenge your friends in online, real-time matches.

The crux of Versus is similar to previous Dr. Mario games: You eliminate viruses on your board to fill up an attack meter, which sends viruses in your opponent’s direction, causing their board to fill. Whoever’s board fills first loses. Each doctor has their own attributes, like attack power (which dictates the number of viruses sent) and skills (which act as special movies like clearing one whole column at random). Check out the trailer below.

Microtransactions will make an appearance in Dr. Mario World in the form of Diamonds purchasable through the in-game shop. They can be bought in an assortment of packs–starting with 20 Diamonds for $2 USD / $3 AUD / £1 GBP running all the way up to 1,050 Diamonds for $70 USD / $100 AUD / £55 GBP–and are used to continue gameplay, obtain items, and restore stamina.

Dr. Mario World releases for Android and iOS on July 10.

The rollout of new content in Destiny 2‘s Season of Opulence continues today with the next chapter in the Thorn-Last Word storyline. Another Exotic hand cannon, this one called Lumina, is now available in the game for Annual Pass owners. Here’s what you need to know, how to start the quest, and some tips on more time-consuming aspects of it (such as an apparent shortcut involving Blind Well completions).

Lumina is a hand cannon that, as the trailer below shows, both damages enemies and can be used to heal teammates, which would set it apart from any other weapon in the game. It’s possible that, to get it, you’ll need to have previously completed the Thorn questline. When you first log in after the latest weekly reset, you’ll know you’re on the right track if you’re presented with a message teasing that you should return to a clifftop in relation to the man with the golden gun; it’s referred to as the “same place as before.”

A Message From Shin Malphur — Head To EDZ

To get started, you’ll want to head to the EDZ and work your way through the Salt Mines, located just north of Trostland. You’ll come upon a Fallen transponder that transmats you to the next area. From there, make your way to the end of the path and hug the ledge; you’ll see an opening with various abandoned camps. There, you’ll find a chest you need to open. Once you’ve completed that step, you’ll need to proceed through a series of additional quest steps to obtain the new Exotic.

Visit The Original Thorn’s Location (System Positioning Device)

The Exotic quests step you receive–A Fateful Gift–tells you to “identify the location of the original Thorn using your system positioning device.” You’ll have an item called a System Positioning Device in your Triumphs; hover over this to see where you need to head. Based on what we’ve already seen, this location will move, possibly on the hour. One example we were told to visit is Excavation Site 2 on Io.

Head to the designated area and search for a chest. It won’t be marked on your radar, but when you’re close, your Ghost will notify you in the upper-right corner of the screen, like when you’re near an item that can be scanned.

Bearer Of Evils Past — Generate Orbs Of Light

Next up is a quest step that asks you generate 250 Orbs of Light. That sounds like a lot, but thankfully the Orbs generated by your teammates count toward your progress. That makes an activity like Reckoning ideal; you can potentially complete this objective in a single go. Make sure to use a Masterworked gun to speed things up even further.

Rose Revealed

At this point, you get the Legendary hand cannon Rose, as well as three Legendary quest steps found in your Pursuits. These are all available to you simultaneously. You don’t need to use Rose to complete these:

Defend The Light — Kills Without Reloading

Defend the Light asks you to get 100 “streaks,” which are achieved by killing multiple enemies in a row without reloading your weapon.

Face The Hordes — Blind Well, Black Armory Forge, And Escalation Protocol Completions

One of the other two steps at this point involves completing encounters at the Blind Well (in the Dreaming City), Black Armory Forges (scattered around, including the EDZ and Nessus), or Escalation Protocol (Mars). Any of these will do, so take your pick and knock it out–but based on our experience, your best choice is the Blind Well. Each “bubble” during a run counts as an encounter, comfortably making it your fastest option. It’s unclear if this is intended functionality or if Bungie will patch this.

Score 50k In A Nightfall

The last of these tasks sends you to the Nightfall, where you must score at least 50,000. Moving quickly will help, as will avoiding death. You can use a challenge card from Xur to add modifiers that will increase the multiplier on your score; we used the Solar Singe and a 175 Power level handicap, giving us a 2.15x multiplier.

Fireteam Leader — Activities Completed With Rose

Another quest step with a fair amount of flexibility, this one asks you to complete activities of your choice, but you must have Rose equipped. You’ll receive bonus progress if you’re in a fireteam with other people wielding Rose.

Dataminers have allegedly uncovered all of the steps and shared them on Reddit. As the questline only debuted a short time ago, we’re still working our way through it and waiting to find out if the datamined steps are correct or were missing anything. We’ll report back with additional information as it becomes available.

In terms of backstory, this gun is the original Thorn, and you’re now being tasked with cleaning it of the Hive corruption that caused Dredgen Yor to turn evil. It’s tied to a long-running story that’s actually quite fascinating, and among the best lore to be found in Destiny.

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Avengers: Endgame changed the face of the MCU in more than one way–but thankfully, its lack of a credits scene doesn’t seem to be a trend. With Spider-Man: Far From Home the MCU has returned to its mid and post-credits stinger formula with a vengeance, providing us with some of the meatiest teases yet for things to come in the mysterious phase 4.

If you couldn’t already tell–there are a lot of spoilers to follow, so please tread carefully.

Threat or Menace?

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is surrounded by a relatively new supporting cast–he doesn’t have a Gwen Stacy, and his Mary Jane isn’t actually Mary Jane at all–but some side characters are just too big to change to omit entirely. Take J. Jonah Jameson, for instance–the head honcho of the Daily Bugle, who has been a featured part of Spider-Man films of days gone by, finally gets his MCU debut here in the mid-credits scene of Far From Home.

Oh, and he’s played by J.K. Simmons. Again. Some things really do never change.

The major reveal happens after Peter and his classmates return from Europe safe and sound, only to learn that Mysterio had one final trick up his sleeve. He recorded the footage of his confrontation with Peter and edited it to make Peter look like the mastermind behind the attack who murdered Beck in cold blood. And then, just to really nail that coffin lid shut, he revealed Peter’s secret identity and sent the whole package to the Daily Bugle for broadcast.

That’s right: Not only did Jameson and the Bugle air a story to make Spider-Man look like a psychotic killer, the tape also outed Peter Parker to the world. And all Peter could do was watch helplessly as the footage played on a jumbotron in the middle of New York City.

The real question is what happens next. Historically, identity reveals haven’t gone very smoothly for Peter. Back in Civil War (the comics event, not the movie), Peter was encouraged by Tony to go public as the face of superhero registration. He wound up regretting it so hard that he ultimately went to Mephisto, an incarnation of the devil, to have it undone in a story called One More Day which effectively magically reset Peter’s status quo entirely, including erasing some of his long term relationships (and marriage to Mary Jane.)

Now, the MCU doesn’t have a Mephisto (at least, that we know of) so that particular storyline probably won’t make a one-to-one jump from page to screen. However, Peter Parker is one of Marvel’s few superheroes who heavily rely on having a secret identity–which makes the next logical step for Peter’s MCU a focus on that particular problem. He doesn’t have to make a deal with the literal devil (though that would definitely be cool to see) but priority number one for our dear old Spider-Man come phase 4 is going to be putting that genie back into the bottle.

Perhaps even more interesting is the potential fallout around Jameson and Peter. Though the two have no working relationship in the MCU–Peter’s way too young to become a crack photographer for a newspaper–one of Jameson’s biggest “redeeming” qualities (if you could call them that) was the fact that, as far as he’s ever been concerned, his hatred for Spider-Man has been aimed at a full grown adult. In this particular turn of events, however, Jameson publicly announces that Spider-Man is a teenager with all the gusto and bravado you’d expect from J.J.J.–something that adds a whole extra layer of cruelty and danger to the mix. Which begs the question: Is Jameson really just evil and deluded enough to want to ruin some kid’s life? Or does he actually believe Mysterio’s lies?

That will inevitably be the major challenge for Peter going into Phase 4. Not only does he somehow have to regain his secret identity, but he also has to convince the world that Spider-Man isn’t a murderous villain. No pressure.

The Man On The Wall

The major revelations didn’t stop there. The second post-credits scene features Maria Hill and Nick Fury as they leave the scene of Mysterio’s major disaster–or, well, sort of at least. It turns out that the Maria and Fury we’ve been with for this movie aren’t actually Maria and Fury at all–they’re Skrulls (Talos and his wife Soren from Captain Marvel, to be exact).

It turns out that Fury has actually been off-world this whole time with a full-on Skrull army based out of a space station, and he sent Talos to fill in for him while he caught up on a bit of a vacation.

Of course, this asks way more questions than it answers: Just how long has Fury been working with the Skrulls? Since the ’90s? Pre-Avengers? Has Talos really been dipping in and out of Earth since Captain Marvel? What are the Skrulls doing working with Fury? What’s the goal? There’s a throwaway line from Talos-Fury in the movie about “Kree sleeper cells” which might be some indication of their mission, but there’s no way to know if that’s the whole story or not.

The situation vaguely echoes one of Nick’s many comic book storylines, when he worked as “The Man On The Wall,” a sort of intergalactic protector of Earth from outer space. The duties weren’t always the clearest or the most moral–as part of his job Nick often found himself making the tough choices and involving both himself and his operatives in less-than-ideal situations. But ultimately, as far as he was concerned, it was for the betterment of mankind.

Fury’s stint as The Man On The Wall was formally introduced and ended after an event called Original Sin, which involved Fury’s conditional immortality (don’t worry too much about that) finally giving up. Bucky Barnes briefly took over in his stead–though it’s pretty doubtful we’ll see anything like that happen in the MCU, at least in the foreseeable future. Bucky will be busy running around with Sam Wilson on their Disney+ mini-series.

Meanwhile, Fury and his Skrull colleagues are likely to crop back up in the MCU relatively soon. It seems like we’re heading for a full-on Kree/Skrull war (though, one that will be significantly different from the comics event of the same name) in Phase 4. So, even if he’s not a featured part of the plot, we can probably expect to see Fury, Talos, and company skulking around somewhere very soon.

Japan’s Osaka Prefectural Police will use Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise to recruit for investigators focused on cyber-crime. According to Capcom, it “aims to contribute to curbing the sharp rise of cyber-crime by utilizing [Street Fighter’s] popularity and image of strength.”

Capcom, which has its headquarters in Osaka, has previously worked with various police departments in the city to raise awareness about crime, but this represents the most significant partnership between the game maker and the law enforcement, and it comes at a time when cyber-crime is on the rise.

Characters from Street Fighter will be featured on 3,000 flyers and 1,000 posters that will be placed at Osaka Prefectural Police stations and police boxes, as well as at train stations, beginning July 2. “The characters will be featured in investigator recruiting advertisements with the aim of boosting awareness of and the number of investigators specializing in cyber-crime–a field that has seen a conspicuous rise in the number of incidents in recent years,” Capcom explained.

“Capcom hopes its characters will contribute to crime prevention activities in Osaka and throughout Japan by broadening the reach of police investigator recruitment. Capcom is committed to serving as a responsible corporate citizen and will continue to conduct proactive CSR activities that include the use of its games to invigorate communities and contribute to society.”

On paper, this is excellent. Street Fighter is an incredibly popular and recognizable franchise that also has a certain inspirational quality to it. All for it. Good stuff. Down with Shadaloo.

However, it’s also a franchise based on characters physically punching, kicking, and spinning piledriving their opponents into the ground. Cyber-crime, meanwhile, is … cyber. You can’t tatsumaki senpukyaku a hacker or flash kick a phishing scam–it’s all digital. It would have made more sense to use Mega-Man–or Rockman in Japan–who has a history of traveling into networks like the internet to combat evil. Additionally, he’s as iconic a character as much of the Street Fighter cast.

I dunno, whatever. It’s fine. Street Fighter is great. The poster looks cool.