EDIT: Apparently, this post is so ridiculously awesome, it initially warped time and published a week before I published it. Date manually altered to be more accurate.
Hello! I hope you’re all enjoying Thanksgiving break. And even though the last true showing of the semester is over, this blog will continue to live on and bring you confusing things from Japan. Speaking of confusing things:
Neon Genesis Evangelion. A show any anime fan worth his/her weight in moe has heard of, and one that many have seen. A show that has been the center of thousands of pages of forum discussion and debate. A show that has spawned countless gigabytes of fanart, fanfiction, and doujinshi. A show that is supposedly one of the most influential works in the last 20 years.
A show that has successfully confused a large chunk of its viewers.
Sometime last summer, while apathetically standing in the shower staring at the showerhead, I challenged myself on a whim to create a brief synopsis of the series. And although I had seen the show within the last couple of years, I found the task more daunting than I had anticipated. A group of young teenagers suit up in giant mecha to combat aliens.Was that it? The more I thought about it, the more I realized I wasn’t really sure. One of the most well known anime in existence, and all I knew about it was that there were some kids trying to fight aliens in giant mecha, and Shinji was a pussy. It bothered me enough that I actually went back and watched the whole series over again, trying to pay attention to the background and history behind everything. While I still can’t really claim I understand everything, I hopefully have a functional knowledge which I will now try to express in text. The background, the lore, the people, and the politics of NGE.
Do I really need to say there will be spoilers? If you haven’t seen NGE, and would like to, you may pretend this post doesn’t exist and keep yelling at me to post something new. On the other hand, if you haven’t seen this, and are too lazy to, and still want to sound smart in internet debates (lolwut), feel free to read ahead and spoil yourself senseless.
Also, long post is loooong. Get yourself some pocky and find a comfy seat.
The beginning of everything can be dated back to a time shortly after WW2, when the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Although their existence is common knowledge (in both the anime and the real world), there was one particular scroll which was kept secret from the public. It predicted the coming of Angels, and Third Impact, which together would destroy all of humanity. This scroll fell into the hands of the organization SEELE.
Angels: These are the prophesied creatures that will initiate Third Impact by coming into contact with Adam. They possess what is called an AT field, a defensive shield able to repel most conventional arms. Despite their freakish, unearthly appearance, Angels are actually related to humans. They represent different evolutionary paths humans could have taken, and are therefore something like super-distant cousins to humans. Adam and Lilith, the first two angels, are the predecessors of ther other angels, and are the “missing link” between humans and angels. There are 18 angels in all, the final angel being mankind itself.
SEELE: SEELE is an organization that has supposedly existed since ancient times, and essentially represents the greatest political power on earth. They secretly control the UN, and in turn, all global politics. There are twelve members in all, and their identities are kept secret, though their leader is revealed to be a man named Keel Lorenz.
BAD SEELE
See, at this point, any normal, sane group of people would begin trying to devise a plan to prevent this stuff from happening. The end of the world is supposed to be a bad thing, right? Well…SEELE decides otherwise. Instead of listening to the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are actually a guide left behind by an ancient alien race to tell people how to prevent Angels), SEELE ends up creating this terribly convoluted plan called the Human Instrumentality Project.
Third Impact: This is the cataclysmic event that is supposed to end all humanity. It is initiated when two Seeds come into contact-that is, Adam and Lilith. All of humanity will merge into one, and become a single supreme being that surpasses all other life.
Human Instrumentality Project: This is SEELE’s ultimate goal: Third Impact on humanity’s terms. If carried out correctly, this will result in humanity ascending to godlike power.
With the knowledge from the scrolls, SEELE pinpoints the location of the first Angel, Adam, which appears to be lying dormant in Antarctica. SEELE needs to contain Adam in order to carry out Instrumentality. In 2000, SEELE launches an expeditionary force to contact it, led by Misato Katsuragi’s father (Misato herself, 14 at the time, accompanied her father). By using an ancient artifact called the Lance of Longinus, a weapon specifically designed to penetrate AT fields, the expedition plans to revert Adam to an embryonic state, which will then be stored by SEELE. However, Adam awakened when it contacted by the expedition, and it releases a powerful anti-AT field. The resulting explosion melted the entire Antarctic ice cap, tilted Earth’s axis, and caused drastic climate shifts all over earth. Natural disasters, combined with global wars over what few resources remained, caused about half of humanity to be wiped out. The only survivor of Second Impact from the original expedition was Misato, who had been stowed away in an escape capsule by her father as Second Impact began.
Obviously, SEELE couldn’t just be all like “lol, our bad, kthxbai,” and reveal everything about Angels and Third Impact and all that. Therefore, they covered it up by stating that the events had been caused by a near-light-speed meteorite striking Antarctica, traveling too fast to be detected in time. The event was dubbed Second Impact, though obviously, no impact had actually occured (for the curious, First Impact was an actual meteor strike 4 billion years ago that caused the moon to form). Still, despite all of the, err…unexpected collateral damage, SEELE actually succeeded in their original goal: Adam reverted to an embryonic state, which SEELE scooped up and carried off to their dastardly lair.
Giant Robots - Protecting humanity and…stuff
SEELE’s next order of business was to find a way to defeat the incoming Angels, which according to the Dead Sea Scrolls were virtually invulnerable due to their rather annoying AT fields. Their solution? Create a bunch of giant robots (under the super-secret codename Project E)! SEELE created a sub-branch, called Gehirn, for R&D. Using Adam as a reference, Gehirn attempted to create a cyborg (mostly organic) that possessed a lot of the same abilities as Angels-in particular, the ability to form an anti-AT field to make the Angels killable. After many failed attempts, they finally succeeded in creating EVA-00, the first prototype.
Evangelions (Eva): The resident giant mecha used to defend earth from hostile Angels. Derived from the first Angel, Adam, they are mostly organic with armor plating. Like Angels, Evas are capable of producing an AT field, shielding them from conventional weapons damage and allowing them to disable other AT fields. Early units are piloted by humans (“Children”) submerged in LCL through an empathic link. The stronger this link (measured by “synchronization ratio”), the better the pilot is able to control the Eva, but the more dangerous it becomes; the pilot experiences damage inflicted on the Eva as pain, even going so far as to experience physical injury at very high synchro levels. Early units also lack an S2 (Super Solenoid) Engine, the limitless source of power Angels use, and must be powered by an umbilical cord or internal battery (lasting just 5 minutes). The Mass Production Series Evas seen near the end of the show are piloted by dummy plugs (containing the personality data of Nagisa Kaworu) and possess internal S2 engines and Lance of Longinus replicas.
Unit 01 was produced shortly after Unit 00. For some reason, they decided to perform the first activation test on Unit 01. Ikari Yui, Gendo’s wife, volunteered to be the subject for Unit 01′s contact experiment, despite her husband’s and mentor’s (Fuyutsuki Kozou) protests. During testing, Yui experienced abnormally high synchro levels (400%) and was absorbed into the Eva itself. The incident was labelled an accident by Gehirn, though it is implied that this was Yui’s intention. Gendo was heavily impacted by the loss of his wife, and it was around this time that he hatched his grand plan: to twist Third Impact to his own ends, joining with Yui and becoming God. He sent off his son Shinji to live with one of his teachers and focused entirely on his job. Using what was left of Yui, Gendo created what he planned to use as a human vessel for Lilith: Ayanami Rei. In order to ensure her survival, Gendo creates a vast number of Rei clones. While she has something of a disposable body, Rei has but a single soul that is transferred to a new clone should she die, memories hazy but intact (Higurashi-esque).
Rei was chosen to be the subject of the contact experiment with Unit-00, but an unexpected accident caused the Eva to go berserk. Rei’s entry plug was ejected, and was saved due to Gendo’s actions. The second activation test was successful, and Rei officially became the “First Child,” the pilot of Unit-00. Now armed with a functional Eva and pilot, SEELE was ready to begin setting their plans into motion. They created another sub-branch, NERV, and placed Ikari Gendo in charge (with Fuytsuki Kozou as his right-hand man). Though NERV’s official duty was to protect Earth from Angels and prevent Third Impact, its real purpose was to carry out the Human Instrumentality Project.
Episode 1! Hooray!
In true anime style, the first (well, technically third, after Adam and Lilith) Angel, Sachiel, appears at a pretty crappy time-the only successful pilot, Rei, is still critically injured from her first synchronization attempt. The UN decides to throw some prop tanks and planes at it, which unsurprisingly prove to be completely useless against Sachiel’s AT field. As Sacchin is merrily stomping all over Tokyo-3, NERV pulls out a last resort. Gendo’s son, Shinji, is whisked away to NERV HQ. Since Unit-00 has already been claimed by Rei, they toss Shinji into Unit-01 for a hasty synchronization test (the Eva which, mind you, is still 0/1 for successful contact). Continuing in true anime fashion, Shinji appears to be quite the match, and synchronization goes smoothly (probably related to Yui pulling strings in the Eva). Unfortunately, Shinji sucks complete balls at piloting the Eva, and it’s not long before Sacchin gains the upper hand. To make up for his failsauce, Unit-01 utilizes its mad h4x, goes berserk, and beats Sacchin to death with its own rib. The next morning, Shinji awakes with no memory of his encounter with Sacchin. Um…cue Shinji doing Shinji things.
Average Shinji Activity
Realizing Sacchin totally caught them with their pants down, Gehirn wastes no time bolstering their ranks, and Unit-02 is quickly produced. This time, research scientist Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu is chosen as the subject for the contact experiment. As with the first contact experiment with Unit-01, it goes horribly wrong and while Kyoko survives, her mental stability goes kaput (note the rather dismal success rate of synchronization with adults, EVA WANT UNDERAGE FLESH). She ends up “replacing” her daughter, Asuka, with a doll, attempts to strangle her, and eventually commits suicide. Asuka is chosen as her replacement pilot, and after successfully synchronizing with Unit-02, becomes the Second Child.
NERV attempts to replace the Evas with a low budget program, the Jet Alone program, which basically calls for a huge walking nuclear bomb to defeat Angels. It turns out to be about as retarded as it sounds, the thing horribly fails, and Shinji and Misato work together to prevent from ending the show prematurely.
LAWL HAI GUYZ
Angel 5, Ramiel (aka Derp Cube) appears, and sits around for a bit. Shinji is sent to fight it (Rei is still feeling a bit under the weather), and the second he pops up, Derp Cube rapes his face off. Feeling all good about itself, Derp Cube then proceeds to waltz over to Tokyo-3 and begin slowly drilling downwards in an attempt to reach NERV HQ. And so begins a period of inactivity, where Derp Cube is serenely drilling down while the rest of Tokyo-3 is shitting bricks. A plan is devised to defeat Derp Cube; Shinji in Unit-01 would use a positron sniper rifle to fire at Derp Cube’s core while Rei in Unit-00 would distract it with her PLOT…er, shield. It works spectacularly, Rei smiles, and fans are trolled into thinking Evangelion would end happily like a normal anime.
Deciding that they were through putting up with Shinji’s failsauce, NERV has the UN Pacific Fleet ship over Unit-02 with Asuka. They also stow the embryonic Adam with it and try to keep it a secret, even from SEELE. Angel 6, Gaghiel, isn’t having any of it and decides to crash the party in an attempt to capture Adam. Misato comes up with another weird plan, and Shinji and Asuka work together to stop the flying shark from destroying the entire fleet.
Angel 7, Israfel, has the interesting ability to split itself into two copies that need to be destroyed together, and thus requires perfect coordination to defeat. Since Shinji and Asuka have about as much teamwork as Furude Rika has PLOT, they fail miserably. Remaining consistent, Misato formulates another weird plan, Shinji and Asuka learn DDR, and Israfel is defeated to some pimpin’ classical music.
NERV catches wind that an 8th angel, Sandalphon, is lying unborn in Mount Asama, a volcano. Deciding to get the initiative for once, they decide to send an Eva to capture it. To allow it to survive the journey under lava, Unit-02 is equipped with armor designed for extreme conditions (which Asuka bitches about, because it looks bad). The plan basically goes well, except that it basically doesn’t. Asuka loses her prog knife in the lava, and Sandalphon ends up hatching while Unit-02 is being reeled back in. It attacks, and since Unit-02 now has no prog knife, it’s largely defenseless. Shinji suggests Asuka use some lolphysics (that she taught him) to defeat it, she does, the rope reeling her back in snaps and Shinji (in an unprecedented display of male genitalia) goes down himself to pull Unit-02 out of the magma. Cue obligatory hot springs scene.
Angel 9, Matariel, basically sucks as an angel. To compensate, it decides to cheat and show up while Tokyo-3 is experiencing a huge power outage. Deciding that they aren’t going to put with that kind of shit, NERV straps huge extra battery packs to the Evas and sends them (all three) up to surface. Asuka defends against the Angel’s acid (pretty much the only thing it can do) while Shinji and Rei go on the offensive. Matariel ends up being so lame, Shinji kills it with his rifle. No Misato-plan required.
Gendo and Fuyutsuki go to Antarctica on some business, and leave Misato in charge of the pad. With impeccable timing, Angel 10 appears as a huge-ass…thing with eyes in low orbit around earth. It jams communicatione between Antarctica and NERV, so it’s up to Misato to figure out how to kill it. It attacks by actually dropping pieces of itself on its targets in some crazy kamikaze-esque fashion. Once it finds Tokyo-3, it moves to drop its entire body on it, with the intention of turning it into extra ocean. Since that would kinda be bad for NERV, we see the return of the Misato-plan. Shinji catches the thing (anyone want to do the physics on that?), Rei neutralizes its AT field, and Asuka stabs it. Boom.
The 11th angel, Iruel, is unusual in that it exists not as a single entity, but a colony of nano-scale machines. It attacks NERV by hacking its Magi supercomputer system, and because Gainax decided that they needed to let Ritsuko do something significant in the show, it’s up to her to back-hack Iruel before it takes over the entire system. She uses the last of the three Magi to rewrite Iruel’s code, engineering it to evolve to destruction.
MAGI Supercomputer System and the Akagi Family: The MAGI system is a series of three AI that essentially form Tokyo-3′s government. They run all of the electronic systems in NERV, run legislation, decide on political policy, etc. They are also able to self-destruct, which is what Iruel was attempting to cause (the action requires unanimity among all 3 Magi). The MAGI system was designed by a scientist named Naoki Akagi, who actually programmed each of the three Magi to represent a different aspect of her personality (Melchoir as a scientist, Balthasar as a mother, and Casper as a woman). Gendo entered in an affair with her to manipulate her. When she found out, she flipped a bitch; she strangled Rei to death (enter clone #2) and committed suicide. Naoki was succeeded by her daughter, Ritsuko, who took her place as NERV’s head scientist. She is one of three people who are aware of the true origin of the Evas, and of the true intent of the Human Instrumentality Project (the other two being Gendo and Fuyutsuki).
In a periodic moment of idiocy, NERV decides to run some pilot/Eva compability tests by placing Shinji in Unit-00 and Rei in Unit-01 (a switch). While Rei is able to successful sync with Unit-01 (and indulge in some introspection and philosophy while at it), Unit-00 responds to Shinji like it did with Rei’s first test, going berserk, confirming that it’s overall a pretty angry Eva that doesn’t like people. Later, Rei recovers the Lance of Longinus from Antarctica, and Asuka kisses Shinji because she gets bored.
At this point, Shinji begins doing better than Asuka in his synchro tests (probably because of his mom), and therefore begins to have delusions about the size of his male genitalia. He bravely volunteers to take point when Angel 12, Leliel, appears in the form of a weird black-and-white sphere. Unfortunately for Shinji and his exaggerated male genitalia, Leliel knows LOLphysics, and it turns out that Loliel is actually the shadow, and the sphere is Loliel’s shadow. Shinji tries to shoot at the sphere, it disappears, and Loliel eats Unit-01. NERV plans to drop their remaining 992 N2 bombs (which are basically non-nuclear WMD’s) into Loliel to defeat it, despite the fact Shinji is still in it. Meanwhile, within Loliel, Shinji has undergoes some psychoanslysis, Unit-01 goes batshit, and busts out of Loliel by itself. Everyone is horrified.
Somewhere in Nevada, the 2nd Branch of NERV attempts to install the S2 engine from Shamshel into Unit-04. Instead of a shiny, physics-defying Eva like they wanted, they get an embarassing 200-km wide crater and some awkward silence. Moving on.
SUCCESS
NERV has Unit-03 shipped over to them, and realizing they need a pilot, pick up one of Shinji’s classmates, Suzuhara Toji. The contact experiment begins, but thigns go haywire as Angel 13, Bardiel, hijacks Unit-03. It begins to go berserk, much to the dismay of pretty much everybody. The external power is severed, but Bardiel generates an S2 engine from scratch to power Unit-03. Rei, Shinji, and Asuka are sortied against Bardiel, though they are understandably hesitant to fight it-after all, Toji is still inside. Taking advantage of the situation, Bardiel quickly disables Unit-02 (Asuka) and Unit-00 (Rei), and begins attacking Unit-01 (Shinji). Despite this, Shinji still refuses to attack, as his friend is inside. Seeing failure as unacceptable, Gendo orders Unit-01′s control system to be switched from Shinji to a dummy plug.
Dummy Plug System: Dummy plugs are AI pilots that are designed to be inserted into Eva to control them unmanned. The AI are modeled after human combat data, and come in two flavors: Rei and Kaworu. All Evas come with two pilot slots-one for a human pilot and one for a dummy plug. It should be noted that Unit-01′s dummy plug system appears to incompatible with the Eva, and is rejected during every test activation; the only successful activation is during Unit-01′s encounter with Bardiel. This is probably due to Unit-01′s resident soul, Ikari Yui, who only allowed activation of the dummy plug to save Shinji’s life.
Control is cut off from Shinji and the dummy plug (with Rei’s data) takes over. Now with 100% less humanity, Unit-01 begins raping the shit out of Unit-03, ripping it to pieces and crushing the entry plug (with Toji still inside). While Toji survives the encounter and recovers (with the help of his classmate-crush, Horaki Hikari), Shinji throws a hissy fit anyway and resigns as Unit-01′s pilot (again).
Zeruel appears shortly afterwards as Angel 14, and promptly begins destroying everything. It is equipped with an exceptionally powerful beam weapon, a powerful AT field, a virtually impenetrable outer shell, and extendable, razor-sharp arms for close-combat, making it one of the more powerful Angels. Since Shinji is /sulking in the corner, Asuka and Rei are sortied against the Angel alone. However, the Angel proves invulnerable to conventional Eva firearms, and disables Unit-02 by severing both arms. In a kamikaze GAR moment, Rei grabs a N2 bomb and charges Zeruel, pushing the bomb through its AT field and detonating it point blank. Though Unit-00 is disabled, Zeruel goes LOLNO and survives unscathed. Kaji (Misato’s former lover, and something of a triple agent that sneaks around everywhere trying to uncover the truth) gives Shinji a lecture, Shinji picks up his male genitalia, and gets his ass back into Unit-01. Unfortunately for Shinji, Unit-01 runs out of power, and Zeruel begins pounding on him (cutting off an arm in the process). Unit-01 decides it’s fed up with this shit, goes berserk (reaching the mythical 400% synchro level in the process), and begins stomping Zeruel. Unit-01 sheds its armor plating (which is revealed not to be armor, but binders that constrain the Evas’ true potential and allow NERV to control them) and eats Zeruel’s S2 engine, integrating it into itself.
Just like the last time Unit-01 underwent 400% synchro (Yui’s contact experiment), Shinji is absorbed into the Eva, and Misato begins freaking out. An ugly amount of introspection and flashback occurs here, and Shinji eventually decides that he wants to return to human form. Unit-01 spits him back out (nekkid). Cue Misato and Kaji sex scene, where Kaji tries to pry information out of Misato.
SEELE is rather pissed at this point. Unit-01′s transformation has granted it near godlike status. Not only is this something that will be difficult to control in the future (remember that SEELE’s true intentions are not to simply destroy all of the Angels, but to trigger Third Impact on their own terms), but it puts Gendo under heavy suspicion. In retaliation, they send Kaji (who is secretly “working” for them) to kidnap Gendo’s right-hand man, Fuyutsuki Kozou, to interrogate him and discover Gendo’s true intentions. Realizing something is afoot, NERV kicks Kaji off of the roster and begins investigating Fuyutsuki’s disappearance, starting with Misato (who is suspected to be Kaji’s main contact). SEELE gets the information they need out of Fuyutsuki, but is later rescued and returned to NERV by Kaji. Kaji meets with Misato a final time, and gives her a capsule containing SEELE’s true intentions, the Human Instrumentality Project. Soon after, Kaji is killed by an unknown assassin.
Angel 15, Arael, is detected in low orbit (much like Angel 10, Sahaqiel). Still sketchy about Unit-01′s condition (and whether or not it’ll try to eat everything), NERV sends out Rei as point and Asuka as backup. However, her pride injured by her slowly decreasing synchro rates and Shinji’s steadily increasing rates, Asuka ignores orders and assaults Arael alone in a last-ditch effort to prove herself. Unfortunately for Asuka, Arael is capable of psychic attack, and begins “raping her mind” to Handel’s Messiah. Forced to relive traumatic events in her childhood, Asuka completely loses synchronization with Unit-02. With Unit-02 out of commission, Gendo orders Rei in Unit-00 to use the Lance of Longinus (the only effective weapon at such long range) to penetrate Arael’s AT field and destroy it. While Rei successfully destroys Arael, the Lance leaves Earth’s orbit and becomes lodged in the moon, making it essentially inaccessible for the time being.
Asuka barely has time to lament her uselessness when Angel 16, Armisael, appears. Again, Asuka and Rei are sent to face it. Armisael transforms into a set of double-helixes, penetrates Unit-00′s AT field, and begins attempting to merge with it (Rei-introspection goes here). Asuka finds herself unable to synchronize sufficiently with Unit-02 (<10%) and is therefore helpless to assist Rei. In desperation, Gendo sorties Shinji in Unit-01, but Shinji is unable to combat the angel effectively. Realizing she is out of time and options, Rei sets the Eva’s self-destruct sequence and allows Armisael to merge with her. Unit-00 briefly takes the form of Lilith (as Rei is designed to be her vessel), but self-destructs before anything else occurs. Armisael is defeated, but Eva-00 is destroyed and Rei is killed. Clone #3 is activated and confuses the hell out of Shinji. Asuka runs off and goes insane/catatonic, as her confidence derived from her abilities as a pilot was the only thing keeping her sanity afloat. In the meantime, Misato, following the clues left behind by Kaji, forces Ritsuko to reveal the secrets behind Rei, her purpose, and the truth of Second Impact. Lamenting the fact she was used by Gendo, just like her mother, she proceeds to destroy all of the Rei clones to spite him.
Some time after, while randomly /sulking and /soul-searching, Shinji comes upon a boy, Nagisa Kaworu, who introduces himself as the Fifth Child. Since Asuka is missing/useless, his job is to fill her position as Unit-02′s pilot. During his stay, he becomes close friends with Shinji ( very… close).
The original Shirai Kuroko
Without warning, however, he takes unauthorized possession of Unit-02 and begins descending into Terminal Dogma (where Adam is kept). Kaworu reveals himself to be Tabris, the 17th Angel, taking the form of a human. He possesses the strongest AT field of any Angel, capable of completely shutting out all interaction with the outside world, even at subatomic levels. Furthermore, he can assume control of any Eva whose resident soul is inactive.
While NERV is panicking, this scenario is actually a trap set by SEELE. Their original plan was to use an Eva with the Lance of Longinus to initiate Third Impact, aka the Human Instrumentality Project; when the Lance was lost when Gendo used it (unauthorized) against Armisael, SEELE had to form a new strategy. If an Angel is tricked into coming into contact with Lilith, the same end could be achieved. SEELE replaces Adam with Lilith in Terminal Dogma, and allows Kaworu to “infiltrate” their ranks, hoping he will take the bait and unknowingly contact Lilith.
NERV sorties Shinji (the only battle-ready pilot) to stop Kaworu. He is able to reach Terminal Dogma before Shinji, but realizes the Angel before him is Lilith, not Adam, therefore ruining SEELE’s plans. Shinji catches up to Kaworu and disables Unit-02. In a fit of human free will, Kaworu states his unwillingness to end humanity by initiating Third Impact, and asks Shinji to kill him. After 65 seconds of classical music, Shinji does so, once again foiling SEELE’s plans (if Kaworu merged with Unit-01, which was born from Lilith, Third Impact would still have been possible).
With all 17 Angels defeated, Gendo finally begins his true plan: initiating Third Impact himself. Realizing Gendo’s intentions, SEELE breaks off relations with NERV and plans to invade to retrieve Adam and Lilith.
It’s at this point that the series actually branches, and we get two endings. The original ending consists of a two-episode shrink session in which each character questions their existence. Shinji realizes his existence in the universe is his to control, and that his fate is determined by him alone. After affirming his desire to live and create a future for himself, the entire cast of NGE appears to applaud his amazing epiphany. That’s right: this entire show was a metaphor, Shinji’s allegorical journey to discover himself. Angels, NERV, Third Impact-all of it was just a psychological situation designed to push Shinji to his final conclusion. NGE is a show about the meaning of self!
My face when
Cue some epic rage from the fanbase. Here they were expecting an epic ending consisting of love and betrayal, the revealing of the whole truth, and huge awesome mecha fights, and instead they get a bunch of freeze frames and psychological mumbo-jumbo. Essentially, what we originally got was the result of two things: Anno Hideaki wanting to try something artsy, and Gainax running out of money. Unsatisfied with their ending, fans demanded a proper conclusion to NGE.
The year after the original airing, Gainax released The End of Evangelion, a series of two OVAs, which was made as an answer to their fanbase; it’s something of an “alternate ending,” presenting a real-world conclusion to the NGE in lieu of the metaphorical one we originally got. While it was a “proper” ending to NGE, it was no less confusing. Rife with religious symbolism and packed with convoluted plot, it’s these two movies that really cemented NGE’s place in the history of anime.
SEELE first attempts to “peacefully” take NERV by hacking their MAGI system, but Ritsuko is able to lock them out for 62 hours. Having asked once politely, SEELE then proceeds to take NERV by force. They order the JSSDF to invade NERV, exterminate its staff, and capture the Evas and their pilots. Desperate to save the Children, Misato stows Asuka within Unit-02 and hides it under the lake outside NERV. She takes Shinji to Unit-01 and tells him to escape and find the answers he has been seeking, but is mortally wounded in the process. Misato dies as Shinji takes flight in Unit-01, now in its true form.
About this time, Asuka, in her endless introspection under the lake, suddenly realizes that her mother has been watching over her all this time as Unit-02′s resident soul. Her confidence and old personality back in a flash, she activates Unit-02 and rockets to the suface, where the JSSDF’s mass-production Eva series (with Kaworu-flavored dummy plugs) have arrived to complete the invasion. She battles them, gaining the upper hand. Though her umbilical cord is severed, she is just able to defeat the ninth MP-Eva as her internal battery runs out of power. Unfortunately for her, the MP-Evas are equipped with S2 engines, and though they lack the regenerative ability of a true Eva, they are able to continue fighting despite fatal injuries. Using their replica Longinus Lances, they impale Unit-02 and proceed to eviscerate it, presumably killing Asuka with it (since her synchro ratio was so high).
Also around this time, Gendo proceeds with the final stages of his plan. He takes Rei to Terminal Dogma where Lilith is being stored, having already fused Adam to his own hand. Though Ritsuko makes a last-ditch attempt to prevent Third Impact by self-destructing Tokyo-3, her action is vetoed by the MAGI supercomputer system, and Gendo quickly disposes of her. Gendo merges Adam into Rei, beginning Third Impact. However, Rei, declaring independence from Gendo, takes control of the process and refuses to realize Gendo’s vision of Third Impact. Having absorbed Adam, Rei then merges with Lilith, completing the union and initiating Third Impact herself. The GeoFront dissolves and reveals Lilith’s Egg, the source of humanity and LCL (primordial soup).
Unit-01 calls the Lance of Longinus back to it, and seeing their opportunity, SEELE orders the MP-Evas to seize Unit-01 to complete the Human Instrumentality Project as they originally planned. Instead of humanity ascending to godlike power as SEELE foresaw, however, Lilith+Adam (Rei), together with the nine MP-Evas, form a global anti-AT field. Humanity, aka the 18th Angel Lilim, begins reverting to LCL as their AT fields begin dissolving. Rather than form a physical barrier like the other Angel’s, humanity’s AT field separates its individual members from others, creating independent human beings. With this field removed, humanity turns back to a sea of LCL (aka Tang) and flows back into Lilith’s Egg.
I AM YOUR NEW GOD LOL
Shinji, who throughout this whole process has been screaming his male genitalia off in horror/mind rape, is suddenly put in an interesting position. With the Lance of Longinus, Unit-01 makes contact with Lilith/Adam/God thing (which takes the form of Kaworu to make Shinji feel a bit better about it all). Rei hands control of Third Impact to Shinji, and everything is placed in his hands. Humanity has reverted to a single soul, a sea of LCL. Individual humans are no longer “alive,” instead coexisting in a sort of limbo between life and death-there is no pain and loneliness, but no individuality and existence. Shinji can now proceed with Third Impact as he wishes-he can fulfill SEELE’s vision and retain the world as it is now, or accept pain and suffering in exchange for individuality and a chance at true happiness.
In true anime style, Shinji chooses the latter. Third Impact ends, Lilith/Adam/God thing dissolves, and Shinji returns to earth. With Lilith goes the Anti-AT field, and though the Sea of LCL still persists, it is no longer an absolute fate; those who choose individuality over limbo like Shinji are given the option of regaining their human form. Unit-01, with Yui still inside, fossilizes and heads into deep space, an eternal testament to the existence of humanity. Shinji finds himself ashore, with Asuka (who has also chosen to live individually).
This is how healthy relationships begin
So ends Neon Genesis Evangelion. So what? Why does that make this such a well-known show? Let’s look at that:
NGE was a deconstruction anime. Though it’s a quite popular genre today, it wasn’t at the time, and it was particularly interesting given that mecha anime was very common in the ’90s. On a similar note, because there was so much mecha anime at the time, it was refreshing to see a show so different from its peers. Its characters were more realistic, its plot was more intricate, and it was so packed with religious symbols it was impossible not to notice.
Many people who watched NGE when it aired were able to connect to the characters, as Japan was going through an economic recession at the time. Depressed people watch a depressing anime and relate.
NGE was able to reach out to a pretty wide fanbase. It had action, it had comedy, it had psychology, and all of the symbolism made a literary paradise for interpretation. As a result, many people either got into anime or got back into anime through NGE.
Because no one really knows what happens/what everything means, NGE was and still is very open to debate and speculation. There is a lot of controversy and division between its fans, which gives the show a lot of attention.
Whether intentionally or not, NGE set many standards and trends for future anime. It inspired other shows to pursue darker themes and introduce psychological elements. It also popularized a number of character archetypes, as well as the high-school setting.
Voice Actor Notes
Mitsuishi Kotono, the VA for Katsuragi Misato, is also the VA for Sailor Moon and Excel.
Hayashibara Megumi, the VA for Ayanami Rei, also VA’d Ikari Yui, the berserk Unit-01, and the penguin from the same show. She is also the VA of Faye Valentine ( Cowboy Bebop), Ranma, Paprika, Anna Kyouyama (Shaman King), and Hello Kitty (yes, you read that right) . Very experienced VA.
Ogata Megumi, the voice of Ikari Shinji (yes, his VA is female, it happens all the time in anime), is also the VA of Kurama ( Yu Yu Hakusho) , Sailor Uranus, and Naoi Ayato ( Angel Beats!)
Tachiki Fumihiko, Ikari Gendo’s VA, played basically every male extra in Lucky Star and Kyousuke’s and Kirino’s dad in OreImo (good luck unhearing that).
Extra Notes
Ayanami Rei is one of the most oversexed characters of all anime, and is perhaps what popularized the concept of moe. After NGE, many shows attempted to emulate her character archetype-pale, short, quiet, and emotionally withdrawn-and the concept is still around (Nagato Yuki of the Suzumiya Haruhi franchise is something of a reference to Rei). However, Rei wasn’t actually designed to get the response she did-quite the opposite, actually. Rei was intended to creep us out by being mostly human but lacking that soul-driven warmth that normal people have. Thus, she would sit on an uncomfortable position on our humanity scale, making her difficult to classify, and our gut instinct would be to reject her (this is why things like living dolls, clowns, and zombies tend to scare us). But as it turned out, we love this kind of thing, and Gainax was just like “lol, whatever” and made a bunch of ridiculously profitable figurines of her.
The fourth Eva (Unit-03) is ripped to pieces by Unit-01. Its pilot was Toji, the fourth child. Unit-04 is vaporized by in an accident when it’s equipped with the S2 engine salvaged from Shamshel, the fourth Angel. If you don’t already know, the number 4 is commonly attributed with death in Asian culture (they’re pronounced similarly), to the point that many multi-storied buildings have no floor 4, 14, 24, etc.
Many of the characters are named after WWII-era Japanese warships. The Akagi (Akagi-class aircraft carrier) and Soryu (Soryu-class aircraft carrier) were sunk in 1942 at Midway, the Ayanami (Fubuki-class destroyer) was sunk in 1942 at Guadalcanal, the Fuyutsuki (Akizuki-class destroyer) was scrapped in 1948, the Katsuragi (Unryu-class aircraft carrier) was scrapped in 1947. “Ikari” means anchor, and “Shinji” (named after a co-founder of Gainax) translates to “child of God.”
This brings us to the conclusion of a rather long synopsis of a rather confusing series. Hopefully, I was able to communicate something to you. Or maybe your headed asploded.
Obligatory Random Picture
Enjoy the rest of your break all, and good luck on finals!
And the concentration of revelations caused mass catatonia.
Really good read, actually. I’m surprised that someone was able to sum up the whole series so well. I never would have thought of trying to do that. This post does make me feel less bad about liking Evangelion so much, though. Most of this stuff I knew, but seeing a lot of the more tricky and decidedly ‘wtfh’ stuff so orderly and concise was very nice. I daresay I learned some things, too!
The trivia at the end was also pretty neat, haha. I had no idea Rei’s VA was everywhere like that. Faye? Ranma? HELLO KITTY? Oh, my.
Anyway, yeah, I liked the post. I think anybody who cares about Evangelion for any reason should read this–especially if they were ever confused at any point, which is probably likely as long as you aren’t Hideaki Anno.
