Evangelion TV Anime Series

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime series that began airing on Japanese television on October 4th, 1995. It was produced by Studio GAINAX and directed by Hideaki Anno. Many characters were designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and music for the series was composed by Shiro Sagisu. The series itself is comprised of 26 episodes and later spawned a massive fanbase, as well as numerous movies, video games, collaborations, and a plethora of different kinds of merchandise.

Inspiration and Development

In an article by GMA News Online, director Hideaki Anno mentions that one of the main sources of inspiration for creating Evangelion was the sense of dread and terror that he experienced growing up in the Cold War Era and the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The director goes so far as to say “there was a real sense that if atomic war broke out, the world would be destroyed… that was the reality at the time, that fear of Armageddon… I sincerely thought that the world would end in the 20th century.” These fears are realized within the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is set in an Earth that experienced a massive, wide-scale catastrophe called the Second Impact that occurred 15 years before the first episode of the series. Anno also mentions Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam) and Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) as being personal inspirations in a roundtable discussion that took place at Anime Expo in 1996. In this same discussion, he mentions that Shinji is very much a reflection of his character and that, through the development of Neon Genesis Evangelion, he portrayed a lot of his feelings and thoughts he had while fighting depression.

The series also went through numerous changes and edits throughout the developmental process. The original ending of the series had to be scrapped in exchange for an extremely abstract analysis of the main characters’ psyche that utilized limited animation because the allocated budget for the series had run too thin by that point. These budgetary woes were caused in part by the 1995 sarin gas terrorist subway attacks in Tokyo. Anno claims that there were too many similarities between the narrative of the anime and the tragic event, leading to Anno and the team at GAINAX heavily revising the original story. Despite these struggles, however, the series quickly gained popularity, much to Anno’s surprise.

Summary

The series is set in 2015 (20 years in the future at the time of airing). 15 years prior, a catastrophic event called the Second Impact destroys a significant portion of the world and strange, incredibly powerful beings called Angels begin attacking Tokyo-3. Shinji Ikari, a timid teenage boy with a tendency to isolate himself, is the protagonist of the series. He is called by his father Gendo Ikari to pilot an unusual, giant robot-like creature called Evangelion Unit 01. The first Angel begins its attack on the city and military attacks are launched against it, to no avail. It is revealed that Evangelion Units are the only weapons capable of effectively destroying these Angels. Shinji, not quite understanding the gravity of his decision at the time, agrees to pilot the Evangelion Unit after an injured Rei Ayanami is brought in to replace him. Shinji learns that piloting an Evangelion Unit is equivalent to becoming a protector of the world, which puts an incredible amount of physical and psychological strain on the 14-year-old boy. Other Evangelion pilots are introduced, like the hot-blooded Asuka Langley Soryu and the quiet, mysterious Rei Ayanami. Much of the series revolves around the mental struggles of Shinji and the other Evangelion pilots as they attempt to prevent the destruction of the Earth.

Meanwhile, a secret organization named SEELE is seen holding meetings in the shadows to discuss its plans to enact what it calls the Human Instrumentality Project, which is supposed to be foretold by prophecies written in ancient texts predating humanity called the “Dead Sea Scrolls”. This plan essentially calls for the individuality of humankind to cease to exist, resulting in the fusion of every single human in the world into a single entity. SEELE employs NERV, the organization under the command of Shinji’s father, Gendo Ikari, to further this plan with the Eva Units that it has developed. The Dead Sea Scrolls allegedly contain the number of Angels that will attack the Earth as well as when they are to appear. Once every Angel is defeated, a Third Impact will take place and the Human Instrumentality Project will be considered a success.

Reception

Ever since the release of the Evangelion franchise in its many forms has gained an extravagant amount of publicity on a global scale and become a cultural icon for anime. With a global fan base, the franchise achieved record sales in both domestic and international markets. Related goods alone sold over ¥150 billion by 2007.

However with this publicity came positive acclaim and also controversy. In particular the vague ending of the Evangelion anime TV series, lead to controversy within fans, resulting in the creators of the series to ‘make things right’ and releasing The End of Evangelion, a movie that depicts the original intended ending to the series.

Despite the criticism, the anime series has gone on to win a large number of awards such as taking the "Best Loved Series" category of the Anime Grand Prix in 1996, 1997 and The End of Evangelion in movie in 1998. Also, in 2007, a large-scale poll by TV Asahi found Evangelion was the second most appreciated anime in Japan of all time, just to name a few.

Links

Japan’s new anime king Hideaki Anno haunted by fears of nuclear apocalyple
Hideaki Anno: Before Evangelion
Hideaki Anno: After Evangelion
Archive of Anno’s Roundtable Discussion from 1996 Anime Expo
Cast and Crew Page of Neon Genesis Evangelion