Neon Genesis Evangelion
In 2015, fifteen 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. He 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, Nerv's Evangelion bio-mechanical mechas are the only weapons capable of combating and destroying them. 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.
The series 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. Shinji 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.
Asuka Langley Soryu 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, Nadia's love interest and eventual husband in the earlier anime series Nadia. Similarly to Shinji, Asuka and Rei are presented with their own flaws and difficulty relating to other people.
References to mystical traditions in Judaism and Christianity, including Midrashic literature and Kabbalah, are threaded liberally through the series. The plot also combines elements of esotericism and mysticism of the Jewish Kabbalah, including the Angels, which have common and individual features with the angels of the religious tradition, such as Sachiel, Sandalphon and Ramiel. Assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki stated the religious visual references were intended to make the series more "interesting" and "exotic" for a Japanese audience, denying the existence of a religious meaning for the use of Christian visual symbols in the show.
According to Anno, "as the symbols are mixed together, for the first time something like an interrelationship or a meaning emerges." Elements of the Judeo-Christian tradition also feature prominently throughout the series, including references to Adam, Lilith, Eve, the Lance of Longinus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon, and the Tree of Life. The merging of all human souls into one through the Human Instrumentality Project at the end of the series has been compared to the Kabbalistic concept of tikkun olam.
The Evangelions have been likened to the golem of Jewish folklore, and their visual design resembles the traditional depictions of oni, Japanese demons or ogres. According to writer Patrick Drazen, numerous allusions to the Kojiki and the Nihongi play a prominent role in Evangelion, along with the Shinto vision of the primordial cosmos and the mythical lances of the Shinto deities Izanagi and Izanami.
Director Hideaki Anno fell into a depression following the completion of work on Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and the 1992 failure of the Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise sequel project, Uru in Blue. He conceived the series as a metaphor of his four-year depression, as he tried to put his whole self and imprint his own feelings into the work. 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.
Anno himself stated that he identifies with Shinji in both a conscious and unconscious manner, while Rei is Anno's "deepest part" and Kaworu his Jungian shadow. Shinji's entering into Unit-01 has been interpreted as a Freudian "return to the womb", and his struggle to be free of the Eva as his "rite of passage" into manhood. During the production of the series, he became interested in mental illness and psychology. According to him, Rei is a schizophrenic character and a representation of Shinji's unconscious, while Shinji has an Oedipus complex and is characterized by a libido-destrudo conflict.
Similarly, Ritsuko has an Electra complex, in which she loves Gendo, a sort of substitute for her father figure. 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.
Starting with the sixteenth episode, "Splitting of the Breast", the show undergoes a drastic change, discarding the grand narrative concerning salvation for an intricate exploration of the lead characters' psyches. This focus culminated in the two final episodes filmed from a completely introspective perspective. These episodes feature heavy use of abstract animation, flashbacks, simple line drawings, photographs, and still image scenes with voice-over dialogue. Some critics speculated that these unconventional animation choices resulted from budget cuts, but Toshio Okada stated that it was not only a problem of schedule or budget, since Anno "couldn't decide the ending until the time came. That's his style".
Following the conclusion of the series' original television broadcast, the public and critical reception to Neon Genesis Evangelion was polarized, particularly with regard to the final two episodes. The experimental style of the finale confused or alienated many fans and spawned debate and controversy; the criticism was largely directed toward the lack of storyline resolution in the final two episodes. When commentator Eiji Otsuka sent a letter to the Yomiuri Shimbun, complaining about the end of the Evangelion series, the debate went nationwide.
In 1997, Hideaki Anno and Gainax thus released two animated feature films, providing another ending for the show, named Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, the latter being a more traditional, narrative-based ending. The second film, The End of Evangelion, which premiered on the 19th of July 1997, provided the complete new ending as a retelling of the final two episodes of the television series. Rather than depicting the series' climax within the characters' minds, the film provides a more conventional, action-based resolution to the series' plot lines.
A new animated film series called Rebuild of Evangelion by Gainax was also made, consisting of four films. The first film, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, was released in Japan on the 1st of September 2007, with Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance released on the 27th of June 2009, and Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo released on the 17th of November 2012. The final film, titled Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, was released on the 8th of March 2021, after two delays.
The first film retells the first six episodes from the series, but from the second film onward, the story changes, introducing new characters, Evas and Angels. In 2015, Evangelion:Another Impact, a 3D-rendered short film directed by Shinji Aramaki that served as a collaboration between the Khara studio and the media company Dwango, was released and streamed as the twelfth anime short from the Japan Animator Expo on February 8. It depicts "the story of an Evangelion's activation, rampage and howling in another world".
The popularity of Neon Genesis Evangelion extends to its merchandising, which exceeded $400 million within two years of its release. The series has established itself greatly on the Japanese market, developing a varied range of products for consumers of various age groups, such as cell phones, laptops, soundtracks, DVDs, action figures, telephone cards and an official set of Japanese coins. However, its stylized mecha designs were initially criticized by certain toy companies as being too difficult to manufacture, with some expressing concern that models of the Evangelions "would never sell." Eventually, Sega agreed to license all toy and video game sales.
At the time of the release of the films Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, estimated sales of Evangelion merchandise topped $300 million, of which 70% derived from sales of video and laser discs, soundtrack and single CDs, computer software and the three-volume manga. By 2015, more than two million Evangelion pachinko and pachislot machines had been sold, generating revenue in the billions of yen. A 2007 estimate placed total sales of 6,000 related goods at over hundreds of millions of dollars.
The series, airing at a time when the anime industry and its televised series were in a slump period, is credited with revitalizing the industry and raising the standard for high-quality Japanese animation. In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese animation saw decreased production following the economic crash in Japan. This was followed by a crisis of ideas in the years to come. Against this backdrop, Evangelion imposed new standards for the animated series, ushering in the era of the "new Japanese animation serial", characterized by innovations that allowed a technical and artistic revival of the industry.
The production of anime serials began to reflect greater artistic control, the concentration of resources in fewer but higher quality episodes, typically ranging from thirteen to twenty-six, a directorial approach similar to live film, and greater freedom from the constraints of merchandising. According to TV Tokyo's Keisuke Iwata, the global spread of Japanese animation expanded dramatically due to the popularity of Evangelion. In Japan, Evangelion prompted a review of the cultural value of anime, and its success, according to Roland Kelts, made the medium more accessible to the international youth scene.
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Common questions
What is the plot of Neon Genesis Evangelion?
In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to Tokyo-3 by his father Gendo Ikari. He joins United Nations forces in battling giant creatures named Angels using bio-mechanical mechas called Evangelions.
Who created Neon Genesis Evangelion and when was it released?
Director Hideaki Anno conceived the series following a four-year depression and released it during the mid-1990s. The original television broadcast concluded with two final episodes that premiered on the 19th of July 1997.
How does Neon Genesis Evangelion use religious symbolism?
The series incorporates references to Judaism and Christianity including Midrashic literature, Kabbalah, Adam, Lilith, Eve, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki stated these visual symbols were intended to make the show more interesting for a Japanese audience rather than to convey specific religious meaning.
What happened in the final episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Starting with the sixteenth episode Splitting of the Breast, the show discards its grand narrative for an intricate exploration of the lead characters psyches. The final two episodes feature abstract animation and flashbacks which confused many fans and led to nationwide debate regarding the lack of storyline resolution.
When were the Rebuild of Evangelion films released?
The first film Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone was released in Japan on the 1st of September 2007. The final film titled Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time was released on the 8th of March 2021 after two delays.