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"An Evangelion is a being created by Man in the image of Man . . . I really can't describe it any other way." —Ritsuko Akagi

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime series written and directed by Hideaki Anno and produced by GAINAX studio. The series ran for 26 episodes from 1995–1996, and was finished by a finale movie released in 1997, the aptly named "The End of Evangelion."

History

Often considered a watershed event, Evangelion reached unparalleled popularity with Japanese audiences. Evangelion sought to revive the "giant robot" anime genre-style which had flourished in the early 1980s and which Anno felt current anime had strayed from. Evangelion was immensely popular, but also incredibly controversial, with disturbingly high levels of violence and psychological trauma. Anno suffered a psychological breakdown midway through the series' run, making the series' second season even darker and in many ways a critique of the introverted otaku (anime fan) culture. The series proved so controversial that eventually, even Japanese censors put pressure on to cut the series' funding, resulting in the final two episodes being mostly made up of clips of old episodes, and focusing on the characters' internal psychology without any resolution to the series' ongoing plotlines.

This sparked near-riots and a wave of vandalism and complaints against Anno. Once GAINAX was able to collect enough funding, Anno created an alternate-ending movie which replaced the final 2 episodes of the original run, and simultaneously addressed the unresolved plot as well as Anno's "revenge" on fans who had complained about the original ending: the now-infamous (and aptly named) The End of Evangelion (1997). Containing unparalleled levels of graphic violence, teenaged sexuality, and psychological violence combined with an apocalyptic, now-notorious "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" ending, Evangelion left an undeniable mark upon anime as a whole. So much so, that a common criticism is that most anime released after 1997 has essentially been copying Evangelion without doing anything new, leaving many (including GAINAX) to sarcastically refer to it as "the post-Eva period."

Story

In the year 2000, a mysterious alien race codenamed "Angels" was first encountered by mankind; the first Angel, codenamed "Adam," a massive giant of light, exploded for reasons unknown upon being discovered in Antarctica. The explosion, dubbed "Second Impact" melted all of the ice in Antarctica, resulting in a massive global tsunami which instantly killed billions of humans and destroyed most coastal cities, as well as drastically altering global weather patterns. Tensions caused by the ensuing catastrophe and refugee problems led to a year of warfare between many countries. By the time the dust settled, the human population of Earth was halved.

For the next 15 years, the United Nations's special branch "NERV" conducted a research project to create awesomely powerful giant robots termed "Evangelions" as a means of combating the Angels should they return.

In 2015, the Angels began appearing again, and the Evangelions are humanity's only hope of stopping them. Angels are capable of generating an "AT Field," a super-force field which renders conventional weapons useless against them. The only thing that can neutralize an AT Field is another AT Field, which the Evangelion Units are also capable of creating because they are secretly not actual robots, but clones of the first Angel with cybernetic components and combat armor grafted onto them so that a human can control their movements.

However, only 14-year-olds can "synchronize" with the mind of an Evangelion to pilot it. Shinji Ikari, the 14-year-old estranged son of NERV's leader, Commander Gendo Ikari, is called upon (actually, forced) by his father to pilot Evangelion Unit 01 to fight off the threat of the Angels and prevent them from carrying out a "Third Impact" which will completely wipe out humanity. The defense of Earth from the Angels' attack is coordinated at NERV's primary base, the state-of-the-art new fortress-city of Tokyo-3. Joining Shinji in the defense of Tokyo-3 is the pilot of Evangelion Unit 00, the stoic and mysterious Rei Ayanami, and later on, the fiery German pilot of Evangelion Unit 02, Asuka Langely Soryu.

Together, they must fight the threat posed by the Angels, as well as their own deep-seated inner psychological problems, and find out what NERV's real agenda is. As NERV's tactical commander, Captain Misato Katsuragi jokes, "with three Eva Units and no Angels left, we could rule the world, couldn't we?"