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Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production and directed by Hideaki Anno. It began broadcasting in Japan on TV Tokyo on October 4, 1995 and ended on March 27, 1996. Evangelion is an apocalyptic anime in the mecha genre. It focuses on a teenage boy recruited by a paramilitary organization named NERV to control a giant cyborg called an Evangelion to fight monstrous beings known as Angels. The show takes place largely in a futuristic Tokyo years after a worldwide catastrophe. It also centers on other Evangelion pilots and members of NERV as they try to prevent another catastrophe.

In 2004, A.D. Vision, the English language licensor, released the director's cut versions of episodes 21 through 24 on its Platinum Edition DVDs. The director's cuts included several new and reworked scenes to better explain the events that occurred in The End of Evangelion.

Airing history

After several episodes were produced, the first episode aired on October 4, 1995, long after originally planned. Initially ignored (although received positively by those Gainax fans invited to early screenings), viewership grew slowly and largely by word of mouth.

The 16th episode marked a distinct shift that would characterize the second half of Evangelion as being more psychological than action or adventure. This change in emphasis was partly due to the development of the story, but also partly because by this point, production had begun running out of funding and failing to meet the schedule; this collapse has been identified by at least episode director Kazuya Tsurumaki as the impetus for Evangelion's turn into internal conflict:

I didn't mind it. The schedule was an utter disaster and the number of cels plummeted, so there were some places where unfortunately the quality suffered. However, the tension of the staff as we all became more desperate and frenzied certainly showed up in the film ... About the time that the production system was completely falling apart, there were some opinions to the effect that, "If we can't do satisfactory work, then what's the point of continuing?" However, I didn't feel that way. My opinion was, "Why don't we show them the entire process including our breakdown."

Despite this, by the 18th episode, it had become enough of a sensation that Eva-01's violent rampage "is criticized as being unsuitable on an anime show that is viewed by children", and the 20th episode would be similarly criticized for the offscreen depiction of Misato and Ryoji having sex. With this popularity came the first merchandise, "Genesis 0:1" (containing the first two episodes). Beginning a trend, it sold out. When the series finale aired, the story apparently remained unresolved: Third Impact and the Human Instrumentality Project are implied to have begun or even finished, but the episodes focus largely on the psychology of the characters, leaving deeply unclear what actually happens. The End of Evangelion was meant to replace or complement the original episodes 25 and 26, in order to better explain the events of the ending.

Episodes

Each episode has two titles: one is the original Japanese title, and the second is an English title that was chosen by Japanese studio Gainax itself and appears as an eye catch. Most often, the official English title is not a direct translation of the Japanese title. For example, the direct translation of the Japanese title of episode 2 is "Unfamiliar Ceilings", but the English title is "The Beast". Sometimes, however, the two titles are either similar or exactly the same, as was the case with the first episode "Angel Attack". The 2019 Netflix release uses the direct translation of Japanese titles, which are those shown below.

Many tracks on the original soundtracks are named after the English episode names in which they are first used.

Complementary ending

The complementary ending to Neon Genesis Evangelion is first teased in Rebirth, the second half of the theatrical film Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth. Rebirth comprises the first twenty-five minutes of Episode 25' and ends as the Mass Production Evangelions under the control of SEELE sortie to combat Asuka under command of NERV. The full ending, split into two 45-minute long episodes, 25' and 26', is shown in the theatrical film The End of Evangelion.

Reception

While the entire series has received wide attention, individual episodes have also earned praise and occasionally been recipients of awards. For instance, in the 19th Annual Anime Grand Prix, a readers' choice award hosted by Animage magazine, seventeen episodes of Evangelion gained enough votes to be included among the one hundred "Best Loved Single Episodes". Episodes 24 and 26 took first and second place respectively with roughly six hundred votes each.

See also

• List of Neon Genesis Evangelion chapters
• List of Neon Genesis Evangelion media

Notes

1. According to Matt Greenfield at the 2011 Sydney Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Gainax, who titled the English episodes, kept insisting on calling an individual Evangelion pilot a "Children", as Japanese has no plural to differentiate one from several if a number is not stated. Greenfield says the English team kept correcting it as "child" and that they "eventually won" with their version of the word.
2. Alternatively translated as "The Beast that Shouted 'Love' at the Heart of the World"; the katakana word アイ (ai) is deliberately ambiguous as to whether it is the transliteration of "I" or the Japanese word for love (愛, ai), in reference to Harlan Ellison's book and short story of the same name.
3. Alternatively translated as "My Purest Heart for You", or with the additional bracketed title, "My Purest Heart for You (Sincerely Yours)"

References

1. "The rise of apocalypticism: What on earth is the world coming to?". The Montreal Gazette. Currently, says DiTommaso, we're in an upswing of apocalypticism, both in traditional forms and in new hybrid varieties. 'Beyond the biblical aspect, it's gained a secular aspect as well ... in music, in videos, in role-playing games, in graphic novels, in fiction,' he says, citing The Matrix, the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, and books such as Cormac McCarthy's The Road as examples.
2. "Fans liked the concept, praising it for a psychoanalytical look at anime that had never been attempted before. Sato sees Episode 16 was of particular importance. A spherical black Angel called Ririeru (Leliel in English) appears and Shinji's Eva Unit 01 is absorbed into it. Normally, such close contact between an Evangelion and an Angel would have resulted in combat. Instead, in this episode, Shinji is confronted by another version of himself. The two Shinjis engage in conversation as the young boy probes 'himself' about who he really is and the meaning of 'self.' The episode clearly shows how Shinji explores his inner self as he continues asking why it is that he has been selected to pilot the Eva. The series continues in this way with a strong focus on Shinji's internal struggles until Evangelion draws toward its climax." From the Mainichi News article "Evangelion Special: From phenomenon to legacy"
3. "A Story of Communication: The Kazuya Tsurumaki Interview". End of Evangelion theatrical program book, translated by Bochan_bird.
4. pg 162, Fujie 2004
5. "19th Annual Anime Grand Prix". Animage (228). Tokuma Shoten. June 1996.

• Neon Genesis Evangelion lists
• Lists of anime episodes
• Lists of Japanese television series episodes