, also known as simply Evangelion or Eva, is a Japanese anime television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from October 1995 to March 1996. The story, set in 2015, fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3, follows Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy who is recruited by his father Gendo Ikari to the mysterious organization Nerv. Shinji is tasked to pilot an Evangelion, a giant biomechanical mecha, to fight and destroy beings known as Angels.
The series has been described as a deconstruction of the mecha genre; it delves into the experiences, emotions, and mental health of the Evangelion pilots and Nerv members as they are called upon to understand the ultimate cause of events and the motives behind human action. The series features archetypal imagery derived from Shinto cosmology and mystical Judeo-Christian religions and traditions, including Midrashic tales and Kabbalah. The psychoanalytic accounts of human behavior put forward by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are also prominently featured.
Neon Genesis Evangelion received acclaim from critics and audiences and is regarded as one of the greatest animated series of all time; however, its final two episodes drew controversy, as many viewers found the ending confusing and abstract. Gainax attributed the episodes' abstract style both to the severe time constraints imposed by the production schedule and to Anno's deliberate artistic choice. In 1997, Gainax released a remake of the last two episodes in the feature film The End of Evangelion, written and co-directed by Anno. A series of four films, Rebuild of Evangelion, retelling the events of the series with different plot elements and a new ending, were released between 2007 and 2021. Evangelion has had a profound influence on the anime industry and influenced numerous future works. Films, manga, home video releases, and other products in the franchise have achieved record sales in Japanese markets and strong sales in overseas markets, with related goods earning over by 2007 and Evangelion pachinko machines generating by 2015.
Plot
In 2015, 15 years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari, who is the director of the special paramilitary organization Nerv. Shinji witnesses United Nations forces battling a giant creature named Sachiel, one of a race of monstrous beings known as Angels whose awakening was foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because of the Angels' near-impenetrable force fields known as Absolute Terror Fields, or simply AT Fields, Nerv's Evangelion bio-mechanical mechas, which are synchronized to their pilots' nervous systems and possess their own force fields, are the only weapons capable of combating and destroying the Angels. Nerv officer Misato Katsuragi escorts Shinji into the Nerv complex beneath Tokyo-3, where Gendo pressures him into piloting Evangelion Unit-01 to fight the Angel. Without training, Shinji is unable to destroy it, and Unit-01 suffers cranial damage. Because of the nervous system synchronization, Shinji is overwhelmed by the pain and loses consciousness, causing the Evangelion to go berserk and savagely kill the Angel on its own.
Following hospitalization, Shinji moves in with Misato and settles into life in Tokyo-3. In his second battle, Shinji defeats the Angel Shamshel but runs away afterward, distraught. Misato confronts Shinji, and he decides to remain a pilot. Shinji and Nerv's crew must defeat the remaining fourteen Angels to prevent the Third Impact, a global cataclysm that would destroy the world. Evangelion Unit-00 is repaired shortly afterward, and Shinji tries to befriend its pilot Rei Ayanami, a mysterious and socially isolated teenage girl. With Rei's help, Shinji defeats the Angel Ramiel. They are joined by Evangelion Unit-02's pilot, the multitalented, fiery-tempered teenager Asuka Langley Soryu, who is German-Japanese-American. The three of them manage to defeat several Angels, and as Shinji adjusts to his new role as a pilot, he gradually becomes more confident and self-assured. Asuka moves in with Shinji, and they develop a complicated relationship with each other, which includes confused romantic attraction and a kiss at Asuka's provocation.
After being absorbed by the Angel Leliel, Shinji breaks free thanks to Eva-01 acting on its own. He is later forced to fight Evangelion Unit-03, which has become infected by the Angel Bardiel, and its pilot, his friend and classmate Toji Suzuhara, becomes incapacitated and permanently disabled. Asuka loses her self-confidence following a defeat, which is worsened by her next fight against the Angel Arael, who psychologically attacks her mind. It forces her to relive her worst fears and childhood trauma, resulting in a severe mental breakdown. In the next battle, Rei sacrifices herself to self-destruct Unit-00 and save Shinji. Misato and Shinji visit the hospital, where they find Rei alive, but claiming she is "the third Rei". Misato forces the scientist Ritsuko Akagi to reveal the dark secrets of Nerv, the Evangelion boneyard, and the Dummy Plug system, which operates using clones of Rei, who was created using the DNA of Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari. Kaworu Nagisa replaces the catatonic Asuka as Unit-02's pilot and befriends Shinji, gaining his trust. He is revealed to be the final foretold Angel, Tabris, and fights Shinji, realizing that he must die to allow humanity to survive. He asks Shinji to kill him, who hesitates but eventually kills Kaworu. This succession of events causes Shinji to be overwhelmed with guilt, leaving him emotionally scarred and alienated from the rest of the characters.
After the final Angel is defeated, Gendo triggers the "Human Instrumentality Project", a forced evolution of humanity in which the souls of humankind are merged for benevolent purposes. He believes that if unified, humanity could overcome the loneliness and alienation that have plagued them. Shinji's soul grapples with the reason for his existence and experiences an epiphany that he needs others to thrive and to accept himself by seeing a potential Shinji in another reality. This enables him to destroy the wall of negative emotions that torment him and unite with the others, who congratulate him.
Characters
In the development of Evangelion, Hideaki Anno attempted to create characters that reflected parts of his own personality. The characters of Evangelion struggle with interpersonal relationships, personal problems, and traumatic events in their past. The human qualities of the characters have enabled some viewers of the show to identify with the characters on a personal level, while others interpret them as historical, religious, or philosophical symbols.
Shinji Ikari is the series protagonist and the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit-01. After witnessing his mother Yui Ikari's death as a child, Shinji is abandoned by his father, Gendo Ikari. He is emotionally hypersensitive and sometimes does as expected out of fear of rejection, but he has often rebelled and refused to pilot the Eva because of the excruciating harm that has been done to him or to his friends. Throughout the series, he says to himself "I mustn't run away" as a means of encouraging himself to face the imminent threat, and this sometimes actually gives him bravery in battle; however, he has a lingering habit of withdrawing in response to traumatic events. Anno has described Shinji as a boy who "shrinks from human contact" and has "convinced himself that he is a completely unnecessary person". In an interview, Anno further clarified that Shinji's motto, "I mustn't run away", should not be understood as either the series' theme or a positive exhortation. According to Anno, the series does not advocate refusing to run away, as the final episodes explicitly tell Shinji that it is acceptable to flee from unpleasant situations; instead, its central theme is making a choice rather than remaining in a state of limbo akin to death. Assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki also concluded Shinji is not as weak as is commonly perceived; he is obstinate and "doesn't really pay attention to other people", just like Anno.
The withdrawn and mysterious pilot of Evangelion Unit-00, Rei Ayanami, is a clone made from the salvaged remains of Yui and is plagued by a sense of negative self-worth stemming from the realization that she is an expendable asset. She at first despises Shinji for his lack of trust in his father Gendo, with whom Rei is very close. However, after Shinji and Rei successfully defeat the Angel Ramiel, she takes a friendly liking to him. Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that she is one of many clones, whose use is to replace the currently existing Rei if she is killed.
Asuka Langley Soryu is a child prodigy who pilots Evangelion Unit-02 and possesses a fiery temper and an overabundance of pride and self-confidence, which often gets her in trouble and difficulty, especially during battles. As a little girl, Asuka discovered the body of her mother shortly after she committed suicide, leading the child to repress her emotions and vow never to cry. Asuka and Shinji develop intense but ambiguous feelings toward each other and have difficulty reaching out to others. Their relationship was initially modeled on the one between Jean and Nadia in the earlier anime series Nadia. Similarly to Shinji, Asuka and Rei are presented with their own flaws and difficulty relating to other people.
Misato Katsuragi is the caretaker and commanding officer for Shinji and Asuka. Her professional demeanor at Nerv contrasts dramatically with her carefree and irresponsible behavior at home. Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto conceived her as an older "girl next door" and promiscuous loser who failed to take life seriously. Hideaki Anno described Shinji and Misato as "afraid of being hurt" and "unsuitable—lacking the positive attitude—for what people call heroes of an adventure."
The teenage Evangelion pilots are ordered into battle by the steely Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father and the commander of Nerv. He abandoned Shinji and recalled him only to serve as an Evangelion pilot. Gendo salvaged the remains of his dead wife's body to create Rei, whom he viewed as a mere tool at his disposal to defeat the Angels and enact Instrumentality. Similar to Shinji, he is somewhat asocial and is afraid of being insulted by others and often runs away from such, often committing immoralities in the process. This fear is also what drove him to abandon Shinji. He is depicted as relentless in his drive to win, a man who "takes drastic and extreme measures, by fair means or foul, or by hook or by crook, in order to accomplish his own purpose." According to character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the characters of Gendo and Fuyutsuki are based on Ed Straker and Alec Freeman of the television series UFO. Sadamoto designed the visual appearance of the characters so that their personalities "could be understood more or less at a glance". The distinctive aesthetic appeal of the female lead characters' designs contributed to the high sales of Neon Genesis Evangelion merchandise. The design of Rei, in particular, became so popular that the media referred to the character as "Premium Girl" due to the high sales of books with Rei on the cover.
Production