Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン Shin Seiki Evangerion) is an anime television series, begun in 1995, directed and written by Hideaki Anno, and produced by Gainax. It takes place in 2015 AD, fifteen years after the catastrophic Second Impact, reportedly caused by a meteor strike, which wiped out half of Earth's population and tilted its axis. Just as humanity finished its recovery from this disaster, Tokyo-3 began suffering attacks by strange monsters referred to as Angels. Conventional weapons are useless against the Angels, and the only known defense against them are the biomechanical mechas created by the paramilitary organization NERV, the Evangelions (Evas).

Plot summary

In 2000, a group of scientists conducted an expedition in Antarctica where a large being of light, deemed by them as the first Angel, Adam, was discovered. After they made contact with the Angel, it self-destructed, creating the Second Impact. The true nature of the Second Impact was concealed from the general public, who was led to believe that the devastation was caused by a small meteorite, traveling close to the speed of light, impacting in Antarctica.

Related Topics:
2000 - Antarctica - Adam - Meteorite

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In the conflict with Angels, mankind is represented by the mysterious organizations NERV, GEHIRN (which started out as the investigation team for the Second Impact but became NERV later on), SEELE, and the Marduk Institute. NERV is, in theory, under the control of SEELE, but NERV has its own agenda, driven by its commander Gendo Ikari. NERV carries out two tasks: to defend the Earth from Angel attack with a small number of Evangelions (Evas), and the Human Instrumentality Project, which, according to Gendo, is the path to becoming a God.

Related Topics:
NERV - GEHIRN - SEELE - Marduk Institute - Evangelion - Human Instrumentality Project

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The Evas have the outward appearance of massive humanoid robots and can be piloted only by 14-year old children, those conceived during or after the Second Impact. Pilots are selected by the Marduk Institute, which is later discovered to be composed of about 108 ghost companies and is really just Ikari gendo himself. Some have speculated that qualifying pilots must have lost a mother, whose soul is used as the soul of the Eva (the Eva also behaves like the soul inside it, often lashing out at old enemies). However, this may be a coincidence, as nobody's mother is still alive in the series. There is also a misconception that only the designated pilot of an Eva can pilot it, due to the bond between the pilot's soul and the soul of the Eva, and that any other person who tries to synchronize (simply put, to technically work as one mind) with the Eva will be refused. This is disproven in an experiment in Episode 14, in which Rei and Shinji synchronize with each other's Evas. It is apparent that the Evas are not really "robots" but rather living, biomechanical organisms, even though the pilots' classmates continually refer to them as robots.

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The secret second task, the Human Instrumentality Project, intends to start an artificial evolution of mankind. Considering the religious implications of the term "evangelion", this event was said to bring about the salvation of mankind in the context of a newly created Earth. SEELE is the main driving force behind this project, for reasons unknown, but they mention that humanity must evolve or it will die, thus the need for a forced evolution. This artificial evolution strives to merge all human souls into one by disposing the individuals of their AT-Fields that separate egos from each other. This causes their bodies to revert to LCL. When everyone comes to this state, they will no longer feel the pain or loneliness that would typically precipitate from interaction between humans; it is comparable, but not equal, to death.

Related Topics:
Evolution - Evangelion - AT-Fields - LCL - Pain - Death

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The plot of The End of Evangelion and the plot of the series seem to diverge at the end of series episode 24. In the series, episodes 25 and 26 consist of abstract introspection by the characters, especially Shinji. The ending is left open to interpretation: clearly, Shinji eventually overcomes his issues with others and comes to accept being with them, but whether Instrumentality followed through or if it occurred at all are left unanswered, directly. The specifics of Instrumentality are not explored in the series, either. In End of Evangelion, Shinji is directly involved in the initiation of Instrumentality, but rejects it in the end. There is some debate as to whether The End of Evangelion is a complement to, or a replacement of the TV episodes 25 and 26. The highly stylized nature of these episodes leaves them very open to interpretation. Some fans believe that the final scene of episode 26 where all of the characters are shown telling Shinji, "Congratulations" is a sign that Shinji accepts the Instrumentality Project and therefore is at odds with End of Evangelion. Others believe that the characters are congratulating Shinji for finding his own identity, an interpretation that is reconcilable with End of Evangelion. The line is sometimes considered to be a reference to the end of Space Runaway Ideon, in which case it ironically implies a pyrrhic victory and death. Yet another group of fans sees the final two episodes as being a part of the introspective detours from the second half of End of Evangelion.

Related Topics:
Introspection - Space Runaway Ideon

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