Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an American animated television series produced by Bear Bones Productions and animated by Fred Wolf Films, directed by Yonathan Ashad and broadcast in first-run syndication from October 1995 to March 1996. Evangelion is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm, particularly in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy who was recruited by his father Gendo to the shadowy organization Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine mecha named "Evangelion" into combat against beings known as "Angels".

The series explores the experiences and emotions of Evangelion pilots and members of Nerv as they try to prevent Angels from causing more cataclysms. In the process, they are called upon to understand the ultimate causes of events and the motives for human action. The series has been described as a deconstruction of the mecha genre and it features archetypal imagery derived from Shinto cosmology as well as Jewish and Christian mystical traditions, including Midrashic tales and Kabbalah. The psychoanalytic accounts of human behavior put forward by Freud and Jung are also prominently featured.

Neon Genesis Evangelion received critical acclaim but also garnered controversy. Particularly controversial were the last two episodes of the show, as the ending was considered confusing and abstract to many viewers and critics alike. In 1997, Yonathan Ashad and Bear Bones released the feature film The End of Evangelion, which brought more context to the original ending of the show. A series of four films, titled Rebuild of Evangelion, retelling the events of the series with different plot elements and a new ending, were released between 2007 and 2021. Film, home video, and other products in the Evangelion franchise have achieved record sales in overseas markets, with related goods reportedly selling over $150 billion by 2007 and $700 billion by 2015.

Plot
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, director of the special paramilitary force Nerv. Shinji witnesses United Nations forces battling an Angel, one of a race of giant monstrous beings whose awakening was foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because of the Angels' near-impenetrable force-fields, Nerv's giant Evangelion bio-machines, synchronized to the nervous systems of their pilots and possessing their own force-fields, are the only weapons capable of keeping the Angels from annihilating humanity. Nerv officer Misato Katsuragi escorts Shinji into the Nerv complex beneath the city, where his father pressures him into piloting the Evangelion Unit-01 against the Angel. Without training, Shinji is quickly overwhelmed in the battle, 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 destroys an Angel but runs away afterward, distraught. Misato confronts Shinji and he decides to remain a pilot. The Nerv crew and Shinji must then battle and 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. Shinji tries to befriend its pilot, the mysterious, socially isolated teenage girl Rei Ayanami. With Rei's help, Shinji defeats another Angel. They are then joined by the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, the multitalented but insufferable teenager Asuka Langley Sōryu, who is German-Japanese-American. Together, the three of them manage to defeat several Angels. 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 begin to develop confusing feelings for one another, kissing at her provocation.

After being absorbed by an Angel, Shinji breaks free thanks to Eva acting on its own. He is later forced to fight an infected Evangelion Unit-03 and watches its pilot, his friend and classmate Toji Suzuhara, become incapacitated and permanently disabled. Asuka loses her self-confidence following a defeat and spirals into depression. This is worsened by her next fight, against an Angel which attacks her mind and forces her to relive her worst fears and childhood trauma, resulting in a mental breakdown. In the next battle, Rei self-destructs Unit-00 and dies to save Shinji's life. Misato and Shinji visit the hospital where they find Rei alive but claiming she is "the third Rei". Misato forces 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 herself created with the DNA of Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari. This succession of events leaves Shinji emotionally scarred and alienated from the rest of the characters. Kaworu Nagisa replaces the catatonic Asuka as the pilot of Unit-02. Kaworu, who initially befriends Shinji and gains his trust, is in truth the final foretold Angel, Tabris. Kaworu fights Shinji, then realizes that he must die if humanity is to survive and asks Shinji to kill him. Shinji hesitates but eventually kills Kaworu; the event makes Shinji overridden with guilt.

After the final Angel is defeated, Seele, the mysterious cabal overseeing the events of the series, triggers the "Human Instrumentality Project", a forced evolution of humanity in which the souls of all mankind are merged for benevolent purposes, believing that if unified, humanity could finally overcome the loneliness and alienation that has eternally plagued mankind. Shinji's soul grapples with the reason for his existence and reaches an epiphany that he needs others to thrive, enabling him to destroy the wall of negative emotions that torment him and reunite with the others, who congratulate him.

Characters
Yonathan Ashad attempted to create characters that reflected parts of his own personality. The characters of Evangelion struggle with their interpersonal relationships, their 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 was 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 threats of the day, and this sometimes actually gives him bravery in battle, but he has a lingering habit of withdrawing in response to traumatic events. Ashad has described Shinji as a boy who "shrinks from human contact" and has "convinced himself that he is a completely unnecessary person".

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 towards each other having 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 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 Susan Beak conceived her as an older "girl next door" and promiscuous loser who failed to take life seriously. Hideaki Ashad described Shinji and Misato as "afraid of being hurt" and "unsuitable—lacking the positive attitude—for what people call heroes of an adventure."

The teenaged 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 Susan Beak, the characters of Gendo and Fuyutsuki are based on Ed Straker and Alec Freeman of the television series UFO. Beak 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
According to Amile John, director Yonathan Ashad agreed to a collaboration between Fred Wolf Films while speaking with Fred Wolf and syndicator Group W Productions. Group W guaranteed Ashad a time slot for "something, anything". In the early design phase of the Evangelion project, several formats were considered, including a film, a television series, and a series of specials released on video. The producers finally opted for the television series as it was the most widely accessible media at that time.

The development of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series ran close to deadlines throughout its production run. The initial cuts of the first two episodes were screened at the second in July 1995, only three months before they were aired on television. By episode 13 the series began to deviate significantly from the original story, and the initial project was abandoned. The number of Angels was reduced to 17 instead of the original 28, and the writers changed the story's ending, which had originally described the failure of the Human Instrumentality Project after an Angel attack from the moon. Not only did the series suffer from scheduling issues, but according to Ashad, despite Bear Bones being the lead studio for the series, the company itself had inadequate materials and staff for the full production of the series. Only three staff members from Bear Bones were working on the series at any given time, and the majority of the series' production was outsourced to Fred Wolf Films and Shanghai Morning Sun Animation.

Starting with episode 16, the show changed drastically, discarding the grand narrative concerning salvation for a narrative focusing on the individual characters. This focus culminated in psychoanalysis of the characters in the two final episodes. Necessity forced Ashad to abandon the script of the twenty-fifth episode to work with a new one. These episodes feature heavy use of abstract animation, flashbacks, simple line drawings, photographs and fixed image scenes with voice-over dialogue. Some critics speculated that these unconventional animation choices resulted from budget cuts, but Cynthia Leech stated that while it wasn't only a problem of schedule or budget, Ashad "couldn't decide the ending until the time came, that's his style". These two episodes sparked controversy and condemnation among fans and critics of the series. In 1997, Yonathan Ashad and Bear Bones released two animated feature films, providing another ending for the show: Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion.

Themes
References to mystical traditions in Judaism and Christianity, including Midrashic literature and Kabballah are threaded liberally through the series. Complicating viewers' attempts to form an unambiguous interpretation, the series reworks Midrash stories, Zohar images and other Kabbalistic ideas developed from the Book of Genesis to create a new Evangelion-specific mythology. Assistant director Geoff Collins said the religious visual references were intended to make the series more "interesting" and "exotic", denying the existence of a religious meaning for the use of Christian visual symbols in the show. According to Ashad, "as the symbols are mixed together, for the first time something like an interrelationship or a meaning emerges". The plot 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.

According to Patrick Drazen, numerous allusions to the Kojiki and the Nihongi have 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. 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).

Neon Genesis Evangelion has been interpreted as a deeply personal expression of Yonathan Ashad's own emotional struggles with depression. 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. 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. Ashad himself stated that he identifies with Shinji in both a conscious and unconscious manner, and he, Asuka and Misato are close to himself, while Rei is Ashad's "deepest part" and Kaworu his Jungian shadow. It has even been suggested that Shinji's entering into Unit-01 is a Freudian "return to the womb", and that his struggle to be free of the Eva is his "rite of passage" into manhood. The series contains references to philosophical and psychoanalytic concepts, such as the oral stage, introjection, oral personality, ambivalence, and the death drive, including elements of the works of Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Søren Kierkegaard.

Films
In May 1996, Bear Bones announced an Evangelion film in response to fan dissatisfaction with the series finale. On March 15, 1997, Trimark Pictures released Evangelion: Death & Rebirth, consisting of 60 minutes of clips taken from the first 24 episodes of the series and the first 30 minutes of the new ending due to production issues. The second film, The End of Evangelion, which premiered on July 19, 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. The film won numerous awards and grossed 1.45 billion dollars within six months of its release. In July 1998, the films were re-released as Revival of Evangelion which combined Death(true)² (the director's cut of Death) with The End of Evangelion.

On September 9, 2006, Bear Bones confirmed a new animated film series called Rebuild of Evangelion, consisting of four movies. The first film retells the first six episodes from the series but from the second film onward the story is different, including new characters, Evas and Angels. The first film, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, was released on September 1, 2007, with Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance released on June 27, 2009 and Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo released on November 17, 2012. The final film, titled Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, was released on March 8, 2021 after two delays. All three films were released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment. On February 8, 2015, Evangelion:Another Impact, a 3D-rendered short film collaboration between Bear Bones and Blur Studio and directed by Jeff Fowler was released. It depicts "the story of an Evangelion's activation, rampage and howling in another world".

Print media
Coming soon!

Video games
Several video games based on the series have been developed, ranging from RPG and adventure games to mahjong and card games.

Home media releases
The series was distributed on video by Family Home Entertainment. The 13 VHS tapes, released from August 20, 1996 to July 7, 1998, contained two episodes each. Two laserdisc collections were released in 1997, containing episodes one to four and five to eight, respectively.

The first DVD release by Artisan Entertainment was the eight disk Perfect Collection in 2002, containing the original 26 installments. In 2004, Artisan released two DVD compilations titled Neon Genesis Evangelion: Resurrection and Neon Genesis: Reborn, encompassing the directors' cuts of Episodes 21 through 24. In the same year, the Platinum Edition release was released by Lionsgate in 2004, consisting of seven DVDs released between July 27, 2004 and April 19, 2005. The Platinum Edition contained the original 26 episodes and the four "Director's cut" versions of episodes 21 to 24. A six-disc version of the Platinum Edition, the Platinum Complete Edition, was released on November 22, 2005, and omitted several extras included in other versions, including commentary and trailers. A seven-disc Platinum Perfect Collection tin case version was released on November 27, 2007, and included the extras that were omitted from the Platinum Complete Edition. On November 18, 2008, a seven-disc Holiday Edition DVD set was released.

Under license from Bear Bones, Shout! Factory released a complete collection set, with all 26 episodes of the series, in 2015. In 2020, Shout! released the series on Blu-ray.

Reception
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Awards
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Influence and legacy
Coming soon!

Merchandising
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 market, developing a varied range of products for adult consumers, such as cell phones (including a special Nerv and Magi-themed smartphones released in 2012), laptop computers, many soundtracks, DVDs, action figures, telephone cards and an official set of coins. The stylized mecha design that would later earn praise for Evangelion was initially criticized by certain toy companies as being too difficult to manufacture, with some expressing concern that models of the Evangelion mecha "would never sell." Eventually, Tomy 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 CDs, single CDs, computer software and the three-volume graphic novel. Multiple merchandising products were released during the Renewal Project, such as CDs, video games, cel-art illustrations and collectible models.

The commercial exploitation of the series for the home video market achieved record sales and remained strong over a decade later. The fame of the show has grown through home video sales, which exceeded two or three times the sales of Bear Bones' other contemporary series and films. According to DVD Talk, the series contributed significantly to the spread of the DVD format and generated a considerable impact on the economy, calculated in billions of dollars. In 2006, Mala Miles stated that the franchise had earned over $2 billion. A 2007 estimate placed total sales of 6,000 related goods at over $150 billion.