Neon Genesis Evangelion Review

Created By: Hideaki Anno

Starring: JAPANESE: Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara and Yuko Miyamura

ENGLISH: Spike Spencer, Amanda Winn Lee and Tiffany Grant





At the end of this month the third installment to the rebuild of Evangelion series finally will hit North American theaters (that is if Funimation is lying to us all). In order to prepare myself for the possible mind numbing greatness of this movie I thought it was a good chance to go and revisit the rest of the series. Of course the best place to start is with the original series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. First airing in Japan on October 4th 1995 the show has quickly become an anime phenomenon both in its home country and overseas. The series has received critical praise and many mixed reviews during its 20 year run but it still remains that Evangelion revolutionized the mecha genre and the anime medium as a whole. With video games, manga adaptations and a few movies under its belt, Evangelion has remained a fan favorite to this day and the original series has still met the standard and has aged pretty well since it first premiered. My first experience with Evangelion was during my first year of high school; this was back when I wasn't really that into anime accept for the obvious giants like Dragon Ball Z and a few Gundam series. My friend let me borrow the series and I eat it up, I finished the show in one sitting and that was probably one of the biggest mistakes (due to the nature of the show) yet most enlightening experiences of my life. I don't think my little fourteen year old brain was prepared for what I was about to witness. I bought the series the next year in the Platinum collection box set, which I've just discovered is not out of print and could cause a big hole in your wallet if you want to buy it.

The story of Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place in the not too distant future. In the year 2000 a giant meteorite fell on the Earth causing massive damage to the planet and the atmosphere. Humanity was almost completely wiped out by this event and was forced to slowly rebuild in order to survive; this event became known as Second Impact. The meteorite was not all of man kinds problems, giant creatures called Angels slowly emerged and began attacking mankind at random. Conventional weapons are no match against the giant beasts so the secret agency called NERV created the Evangelion series, giant robots which can combat the alien invaders, each Evangelion is piloted by a child (selected at random) between the ages of twelve and fourteen. The story centers on Shinji Ikari the son of Gendo Ikari the commander of NERV. Shinji was abandoned by this father at a young age and has been contacted by his father because he had a “use” for him. Unfortunately that use is not what Shinji had in mind. Gendo wants Shinji to pilot the Evangelions and destroy the Angels in order to protect the planet. Shinji however is not all gung ho about the idea, he has his own deep mental problems and constantly refuses to accept this heavy burden thrown upon him. Accompanied by the stoic Rei Ayanami and the obnoxious Asuka Langley Shoryu they must combined their might in order to defeat the angels and save mankind from a dreaded third impact.

Shinji Ikari is probably the best protagonist written in any form of fiction in the last twenty years. I am not over exaggerating when I say that Shinji Ikari is probably better written and more realistic than any other character in any other series. Shinji was a character that many fans, including myself loathed and detested upon our first viewing. This is because Shinji Ikari is a wimp, he doesn't want to fight, he constantly runs away from any sort of stressful situation and to top it all off Shinji is sort of mentally unstable and thats putting it lightly. As I've grown up and watched the show a considerable amount of times my affection towards the character has grown as has my understanding of his problems. Many people were used to having there protagonists be strong, willing to jump into any situation and fight for the good of mankind. They are people we wish we could be, characters we inspire towards; Shinji Ikari is none of those things. He does not have the strength of Goku, or the charm of Naruto. The reason why people didn't and still don't like Shinji is that instead of creating a character that people wanted to be like Hideaki Anno created a character that we already are. No one likes to look in the mirror and see their faults; Hideaki Anno loves to show everyone their faults with an acute and masterful precision. I fully accept Shinji as a character because he honestly does what I would do in any situation, anyone would say that “no I would jump in that robot and constantly fight and be the ultimate bad ass ” given the situation but Shinji doesn't learn to control the robot, he's just thrown into it and expected to know how to pilot it. To top it off he has to fight a giant alien that could kill him and if he fails the world would be destroyed. If anyone would say that they wouldn't be the least terrified are blatantly lying. As the show goes on Shinji develops an incredible character arc, he slowly starts allowing people in and starts making friends. Piloting the Eva gives him a confidence and a purpose in life he has never had before, but of course in this show no one can be happy and Shinji’s world and mind come crashing down. Shinji is a character that shows and embraces the best parts of humanity and many times the worst, sometimes sinking down to low and detestable levels, but that is all of the charm of this very complex and real character.



What starts out as a typical mecha/monster of the week show slowly turns into a heavy psychological and philosophical drama, as the show continues to darken we slowly witness the degradation of almost every main characters mind, we bear witness to Shinji slowly losing his sanity and go insane and we see the angels constantly changing tactics in order to damage the psyche of the children. The great thing about this show is how real each character is, every character has their deep psychological issues that slowly get exploited during the course of the show. These problems are what makes these characters seem as real as any person you would meet on the street. There goals and ambitions are all rooted in a disturbing past that comes hurtling towards them and the viewers near the end of the series. I can understand why someone might not like this show because not only does it analyze the main characters but you might find your self going under your own analysis, people hate confronting the truth about the world and themselves and this series constantly does that. Not only is it good writing but it is some dammed good science fiction that should appeal to even the most non initiated of anime viewers.

The animation in this series constantly dips and rises, sometimes the animation is crisp and smooth while other times its jerky and the quality is off. Now the artists are not to blame for this, during production of the show the crews budget got cut. This caused many problems for the staff and crew, the ending of the show turned into the strange infamous ending that it was. Many times the same scenes are used constantly but that is only noticed after you watch the show a few more times, but other times the budget cut is a blessing allowing them to add in some silent and still dramatic scenes that actually improve on many of the series episodes. Scenes like Asuka and Rei in the elevator are classic and shows how cutting the budget actually helped in one case.





The heavy religious mythology added into the show really makes for a unique anime experience thats unlike anything ever seen in the genre. (Creator)Hideaki Anno did have a complete mental breakdown during the course of the show that really shows in the more mentally aggressive episodes. Neon Genesis Evangelion is anime perfection, if you haven't watched it yet then why the hell are you not watching it right now!! I admit that the one thing that this series has over the Rebuild is the psychological and heavy religious symbolism which the Rebuild seems to have not put in. Now the Rebuild films so far are fantastic but they are more of an explosion fireworks show than the heavy layered drama presented in the original source material. If you don't understand the ending thats perfectly fine, Anno created a two part film series to end the series. But I really recommend only watching it when you think you have grasped the themes of the original show. The movies throw allot on the plate and make it very hard to take in.

I give Neon Genesis Evangelion a

8.5/10

This isn't me being a fanboy the show is really that good. Evangelion is a love hate show you either will think its the best thing ever written or the most over hyped piece of garbage ever. Its not for everyone but anyone can find something to enjoy in this series, its a perfect anime series and probably the best science fiction story ever. Next I'll be revisiting Death/Rebirth the first part to Annos End of Evangelion movie series.