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Neon Genesis Evangelion
The title screen from the opening sequence.
Format	Anime
Run time	25 minutes per episode
Creator(s)	Hideaki Anno
Starring	Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, Yuko Miyamura, Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Koichi Yamadera, Fumihiko Tachiki
Country	Japan
Network	TV Tokyo (Japan), PBS (USA) (2000), Adult Swim (USA) (2005-)
Original run	October 4, 1995 – March 27, 1996
No. of episodes	26

Neon Genesis Evangelion (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 AD 2015, 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).

Although the series starts as a regular mecha anime, the focus tends to shift from action to flashbacks and analyses of the primary characters, particularly the main character Shinji Ikari. The creator/director, Hideaki Anno, suffered from a long period of depression prior to creating Evangelion; much of the show is based on his own experiences in dealing with depression and in psychoanalytic theory he learned from his psychotherapy. As a result, characters in the anime display a variety of mood disorders and problems with emotional health, especially depression, trauma, and separation anxiety disorder.

The television series aired in Japan from 1995 to 1996, ran for 26 episodes, and was released on VHS and DVD in North America and the UK by ADV Films. The show premiered on Adult Swim on Thursday, October 20, 2005, although it had been previously debuted in the United States on KTEH, a PBS station located in San Jose, California.

Contents 1 Composition 1.1 International versions 1.1.1 USA 1.1.2 UK 1.1.3 Australia 1.1.4 Italy 1.1.5 Germany 1.1.6 Portugal 1.1.7 Chile 2 Characters 3 Plot summary 4 Symbolism 5 Historical context 6 Response 6.1 Different endings 6.2 Commercial origins 7 Influences 8 Translation notes 8.1 Title 8.2 Other words 9 Related releases 9.1 Manga 9.2 Merchandising 9.3 Live action movie 9.4 Super Robot Wars 10 Sub-topics 11 References 12 External links 12.1 Fan sites

Composition

Evangelion consists of 26 television episodes which were first aired on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1995, to March 27, 1996, and was followed by two movies: Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, each first screened in 1997. Death and Rebirth is essentially a highly condensed re-edit of the series (Death) plus the first half of The End of Evangelion (Rebirth), while The End of Evangelion is a fully developed extension to the end of episode 24, intended as an alternate presentation of the series ending. The two movies were subsequently re-edited and re-released as a single movie, Revival of Evangelion (1998).

International versions

Neon Genesis Evangelion's Ratings

USA	TV-14 V (some TV-PG)
GBR	15, PG, 12A (some episodes)
CAN	14A
JPN	PG-12
DEU	16
AUS	PG, M (episodes 24-26)
NZL	PGR

USA

In the United States, the television series debuted on VHS and later on DVD by ADV Films, while the movies are distributed by Manga Entertainment. Most of the voice actors used in the English dubbed versions are the same in each version. The series was one of a small number of anime to have the honor of being broadcast on San Francisco Bay Area PBS member station KTEH (in Japanese with English subtitles,) and has also been broadcast on The Anime Network. The first two episodes were aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami block as part of a special called "Giant Robot Week" in 2003 (albeit in edited forms which, among other edits, hid Misato's mass consumption of beer and omitted the character Pen-Pen altogether). The entire series began airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block Thursday nights at 12:30 a.m. starting October 20, 2005; this second showing was considerably less edited than the previous showing.

UK

In the United Kingdom, the show and its accompanying films were released on VHS and DVD by ADV Films and Manga Entertainment's UK divisions and has aired on the UK's Sci-Fi Channel along with Martian Successor Nadesico and Blue Gender during the Summer of 2002 and finished its run in the January of 2003. Later Evangelion and Nadesico were repeated on the channel. In these showings the show had no edits to the episode's content but occasionaly sped up the ending in favor of airing the next episode preview alongside the ending theme. This ended around episode 16 when the block that aired the two shows was canceled and the shows themselves moved to 5 a.m.

Australia

In Australia, the series was broadcast by SBS Television. This was the first anime series to be broadcast on SBS, and in prime time. News of the broadcast slowly spread, and as a result, there was an upsurge of viewers midway through the season. Consequently, SBS decided to rebroadcast the entire series, despite the fact that it had not yet fully completed the original run. As a result, SBS broadcasted Evangelion twice a week, with the original run shown on Saturdays at 8:30pm, beginning on the 2nd of January 1999, and the second run shown on Mondays at 8:30pm, beginning on the 22nd of March, 1999. The success of Evangelion prompted SBS to gain the rights to several other anime series and many anime features, including the two Evangelion movies, which it later broadcast in their entirety, with both Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion screened again in 2005. Cartoon Network also played the series in Australia after it had concluded its run on SBS. The entire series and the two movies are now available on DVD through Madman Entertainment [1], along with a new "Platinum" edition of the series, remastered from a fully restored video source.

Italy

In Italy, the series was first released on DVD by Dynamic Italia (now called Dynit) and then it was broadcast, dubbed in Italian, on the local MTV. It enjoyed great success. Dynamic Italia didn't cut or censure the series in any part; the Italian Evangelion is the most complete in the world because Dynamic dubbed the japanese home video version, including a few scenes never aired in Japan. Many people think that this version of Evangelion is the best of the foreign ones, with a very professional dubbing. The manga, also translated in Italian, is being released by Panini Comics (previously called Planet Manga). The Evangelion movies were never broadcast on TV and were released in 2005 on DVD by Panini Video, changing a few voice actors.

Germany

In Germany NGE was broadcasted in December 2000/January 2001 by VOX once a week after midnight as a subtitled version, i. e. the original Japanese version subtitled with more or less correct German translations. There never had been a completely and professionally synchronised German version till the so called Platinum Edition has been released in 2005 by ADV Films.

Portugal

In Portugal, the series is fairly popular, since it was originally aired weekend mornings on the most popular channel in Portugal (SIC). It started on the 8th of December 1997. Many believed the schedule a mistake, since the timing meant that many small children could watch it. It was soon moved to after midnight, and later re-aired on a cable channel, SIC Radical. The series was dubbed in Portuguese. At the same time, the now-extinct Locomotion channel aired the series in Brazillian Portuguese language. DVDs and manga are available in major stores, they have the original version, the Portuguese version and some have the French dubbing.

Chile

In Chile, the television series was broadcasted by Chilevision during the time slot between 6:00 and 6:30 PM in 2004 with episodes dubbed to Latin American spanish. After the series ended was re-brocasted twice. All the airings have not suffered censorship cuts. None of the movie have been broadcasted due to the fact the broadcasting rights have not been paid. Also, It was internationaly broadcasted in Latin America by cable channel I-Sat during 2003 and 2004.

For the rest of Latin America, and between 2000 and 2003 (in numerous occasions) Neon Genesis Evangelion was broadcasted on the Argentinian based, Anime and animation satellite channel Locomotion (which later, on August of 2005, became Animax).

Characters

Main article: Characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion

The main character of Evangelion is Shinji Ikari, a shy, dour adolescent boy and Eva pilot. For many years he had lived away from his father with one of his teachers until he was summoned mysteriously at the start of the series. Fellow pilots Rei Ayanami, a silent girl frequently mistaken for being unemotional; and Asuka Langley Soryu, a fiery, proud, red-headed girl; are also primary characters, as well as Shinji's father and NERV commander Gendo Ikari, NERV's head of strategy and tactics Misato Katsuragi, and NERV's head scientist, Ritsuko Akagi. Most characters are, in their own way, socially maladjusted, and the patterns of relationships between the characters are fairly complicated.

A commonly held theory (also supported within the series itself) as to the meaning behind the characters is that Rei, Asuka, Shinji, and Misato all represent different methods people use to validate their own existence/individuality and separate themselves from their fellow human beings (analogous to the concept of AT-Fields). The characters' personalities reflect their tactics, and their interactions reveal the nature of each in respect to each other.

There have also been many hypotheses on the nature of the relationships between the characters, including:

• Shinji, Rei, and Asuka represent the Ego, Superego and Id
• Rei and Asuka represent the Thanatos and Eros drives in Shinji's psyche, Shinji himself represents the Destrado
• Shinji, Rei, and Asuka represent the Japanese gods Susanoo, Amaterasu, and Ama-no-Uzume
• Shinji, Rei, and Asuka are respective archetypes of three personality disorders: avoidant (cluster C), schizoid (cluster A), and narcissistic (cluster B).
• Gendo, Shinji, and Rei represent the three parts of the Christian Trinity
• Shinji and Asuka represent Orient and Occident
• Ritsuko and Misato represent the Antagonism of intellect and emotion
• Ritsuko represents the industrialised and technocratic north, while Misato stands for the rural south
• Toji and Kensuke represent pacifism and militarism

The character designs have also contributed to the popularity of Evangelion. The attractive designs of the three main female leads, Asuka, Rei, and Misato have been immortalized in the doujinshi community and in subsequent anime. Other designs, such as the sleek Evangelions, created a great counterbalance to the bulky super robots of old.

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.

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 Gendou 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 Gendou, is the path to becoming one with God.

The Evas have the outward appearance of massive humanoid robots and can apparently be piloted only by children conceived after the Second Impact. Pilots are selected by the Marduk Institute, which is later discovered to be composed of about 108 ghost companies (108 is the number of sins in Japanese Buddhism, and the number of beads on a typical Buddhist rosary) and is really just Gendou Ikari and Ritsuko Akagi themselves. 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 under the influence of the soul inside it, when uncontrolled, most prominently displayed by Unit 01 as a "berserker" and Unit 00 apparently lashing out at old enemies). Each Eva has its own designated pilot to pilot it, due to the bond between the pilot's soul and the soul of the Eva; otherwise, any other person who tries to synchronize (simply put, to technically work as one mind) with the Eva is more likely to be refused. That is not to say that it is impossible to synchronize in such a situation, as is shown in an experiment in Episode 14, in which Rei and Shinji synchronize with each other's Evas. It is later apparent that the Evas are not really "robots" but rather living, biomechanical organisms, in contrary to the popular belief of the general public. While Ritsuko does mention at the beginning of the series that the Evas do have some biological components to them, the extent to which the Evas are biological is not immediately apparent; it is finally revealed, towards the end of the series, that Eva is essentially human (made from Adam) onto which mechanical components are incorporated during its creation — part of the reason being to restrain and control them.

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 and humanity's becoming one with God. 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.

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 follows through or if it occurs 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 ultimately rejects it at the last moment. 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, as his realization that he is an individual identity is the deciding factor in whether or not Instrumentality will occur (therefore, the characters are congratulating Shinji because his decision to remain an individual means that they can all remain individuals) -- this interpretation 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.

Symbolism

One of the many intriguing features of Evangelion is its extensive use of symbols, imagery, etc. from outside sources, and the depth of the meanings that may be found in them. The interpretation of them vary from individual to individual.

The most prominent use of symbolism takes its inspiration from the Judeo-Christian religion dogma. The staff of the project have said that they originally used the symbolism of Christianity (a religion practiced by around only 1% of the population in Japan) only to give the project a unique edge against other giant robot shows. In assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki's own words: "We just thought the visual symbols of Christianity looked cool." Whether this mindset changed during the course of making the series, influencing the intended depth of meaning of the symbols, is another question altogether.

It is clear that Adam and Eve (in other languages, such as Spanish, called Eva) are a direct reference to one of the first human beings from the Jewish book of Genesis. The Christian crucifix sign is often shown, frequently as energy beams that shoot up to the sky. The angels may well be in reference to the angels of God from the Hebrew and Christian texts. It has been theorized that Kaoru represents Jesus, as he is an Angel in human form. The Magi supercomputers are collectively named after the "Magi" (wise men, or astrologers) who were mentioned in one of the synoptic Gospels as having visited Jesus at his birth. (Some fans have also chosen to interpret the triplet nature of the magi to represent the Holy Trinity of Christianity, or—in the field of psychology—the Freudian concept of the Ego, superego, and id of the unconscious mind, among others.) The Tree of Sepheroth (Tree of Life)—an illustration of ten orbs showing the relationship between heaven and earth—is also mentioned. The list goes on and on, with multiple equally plausible interpretations existing, and references to areas other than Judeo-Christian concepts also appear, most notably concepts held by Freudian psychology.

See also Neon Genesis Evangelion glossary

Historical context

From the period from 1984 to the release of Evangelion, most highly acclaimed anime had a style somehow distanced from the usual styles of anime. For example, Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) were both low-key works, and Akira (1988) took most of its influence from American comic books. Mamoru Oshii had been quoted as saying that nobody wanted to watch "simple anime-like works" anymore. Evangelion, however, shows the reversal of this trend. It fully embraced the style of mecha anime, and in particular shows a large influence from Yoshiyuki Tomino's Space Runaway Ideon; particularly, there are scenes in End of Evangelion which are clear homages to the last movie for the Ideon series.

The series started broadcast after the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995, and production occurred around the period of the attack. The feeling of constant anxiety in Evangelion can be seen as a reflection of the constant anxiety Japan felt after the attacks destroyed the image of Japan as a clean, violence-free society.

Evangelion is thick with allusions to biological, military, religious, and psychological concepts. Though the religious and biological concepts are sometimes (perhaps intentionally) used in ways different from how contemporary Christianity or biology used them, Anno's use of Freudian jargon and psychoanalytical theory is fairly up to date with what was contemporary theory at the time. For example, we can see in a paragraph, circa 1990, from literary theorist Victor Burgen which might be described as "Eva in a nutshell":

In the terms of the thermodynamic model which informs Freud's concept of the death drive, what is feared is the "entropy" at work at the heart of all organization, all differentiation. ...By this same token, however, the woman also signifies precisely that desired "state where everything is the same": the pre-oedipal bliss of the fusion of bodies in which infant and mother are "inextricably mixed", that absence of the pain of differing, condition of identity and meaning, whose extinction is deferred until death.

Response

When first aired in Japan at a time slot intended for teenagers, Evangelion was not especially popular. However, when aired again in a time slot more suitable for adults, its popularity exploded and rekindled many adults' interest in anime.

Different endings

After the ending of the TV series, Gainax and Hideaki Anno received numerous letters and emails from fans, both congratulating and criticizing the last two episodes. Among these were death threats and letters of disappointment from fans who thought Anno had ruined the series for them. Prompted by these responses, Gainax launched the project to create a movie with a "proper" ending for the series in 1997. Due to scheduling difficulties, they released Death and Rebirth, consisting of a character-based recap of the entire series (Death) and half of the "proper" ending to Evangelion (Rebirth). The project was completed later in the year, and contained the complete section of Rebirth, i.e. End of Evangelion. The film made around $12 million at the Japanese box office. (Blockbusters in Japan usually make $40-60 million, and a movie is considered to have done well if it makes more than $10 million).

Despite the success of End of Evangelion, its ending was considered controversial by many fans. Some believe that it was a manifestation of Anno's frustrations with the fan culture that attacked his original ending, and used End of Evangelion as revenge against those. Others have argued that Anno intended End of Evangelion to be the proper climax all along but that he was unable to show it because of budget restraint and television content laws.

The theory of a pre-planned ending in addition to episodes 25 and 26 is backed up by some evidence, including a still in the intro depicting Unit 01 with wings and still-frame shots of the deaths of Misato and Ritsuko which appeared in the TV ending. The deaths of these two characters correspond to events in End of Evangelion and would tend to disprove the theory that the tragic and violent end of various characters in End of Evangelion is due to Anno's frustration towards some fans. In addition, the plot of End of Evangelion does seem to match that of the TV series, providing closure to things such as the Instrumentality Project, the true purpose of NERV, and the private agenda of Gendou Ikari.

On the other hand there is some evidence that Anno's frustrations began earlier than End of Evangelion, and that this film was the culmination of a growing anger as evidenced by the sudden shift in tone around episode 16. Several sources (interview with Kazuya Tsurumaki, interview with Hiroki Azuma) seem to indicate that although Evangelion was sketchily pre-planned, the story details were open to alteration, possiblly for the purpose of adapting to audience demands or more likely (regarding Anno's tastes and fights with sponsors) free directorial decision making. The shift in tone and style corresponded with a shift in Anno's worldview that would lead him to abandon the "otaku lifestyle" and temporarily leave anime for live action film making in the early 2000's. A hiatus from animation that has continued (excluding his participation in the Cutey Honey OAV Project) to this day.

Commercial origins

Despite being generally highly regarded, the series has received criticism due to the many religious and psychological references, which some viewers saw as being superficial. Additionally, the primary corporate backers were toy companies Bandai and Sega, giving rise to the criticism that the series was simply intended as a strictly commercial venture.

In response to this, fans argue that the show reveals an extremely complex understanding of psychological theory and that if the show was strictly a commercial venture, it would not have such an uncommercial ending. It can also be argued that the show's content was, in the end, more influenced by Anno than by Bandai, though despite creative conflicts between the sponsors and the director, the series was not widely perceived during it's run (1995-96) as being the work of a visionary director or auteur such as Hayao Miyazaki.This general opinion changed somewhat when the twin Evangelion movies came out in the late 90's,bringing Anno more respect and recognition as a filmmaker as well as fair amounts of fans of his work.It can be argued also that the wide distribution of his series through ADV films and television in Europe,Australia,and the Americas has also contributed to his standing.

Influences

Evangelion is a work with a variety of different source materials for its core composition. Its central themes are heavily based on Freudian Psychoanalysis mentioned above as it concerns the characters and general plot creation, as well as Existentialism, which itself owes much to Psychoanalysis.

The core tenet of Existentialism is that human beings ultimately influence their own reality, through the choices they make. Because human beings are physically trapped within their own bodies, their thoughts and actions are trapped within their own realm of knowledge, never to be shared in their most personal form with anyone else. Essentially human beings are alone, without any sort of method by which to break away from such loneliness. However, according to Existentialism, human beings, partly because of their isolation, are uniquely free to choose their own interpretations of events, to create their own realities and most importantly, to own these realities as true expressions of their world and themselves. As such, the Human Instrumentality Project of Evangelion is an attempt to break down the barriers that separate mankind, and Shinji's ultimate decision is whether or not the limitations and inherent freedoms of the human condition as individual creatures are good things, or whether they should be denied. Though open to speculation, this is evident in both the televised and Movie endings of the series.

However, there are more specific instances of Existentialim's influence on Evangelion. For instance, episode 16's title was translated as "Sickness Unto Death, And..." in the English subtitled version. The Sickness Unto Death is a book written by Soren Kierkegaard (one of the first, and most religiously-oriented Existentialists) regarding the human condition as a type of Despair. Namely, that Despair comes in three forms: Despair at not being concsious of having a self; Despair at not willing to be oneself; and even Despair at willing to be oneself. Viewers of the last episodes of the series will instantly see that Shinji is ultimately attempting to reach and understand the third form of Despair: willing to be oneself, and moving onwards from there.

As well, in the very final televised episode, Shinji is shown a world in which there is absolute possibility. It is depicted as a simple white background in which the only drawn figure is Shinji, floating about in absolute nothingness. Through Shinji's own free will, he is able to create the ground, rules, in fact the whole world around him. To view it another way, only by negating certain possibilities does Shinji's reality form. In other words, he is absolutely free to create the world as he wants, to negate only what he wishes, and leave only what he knows will give him happiness. This is a direct echoing of Jean Paul Sartre's assertion in his book Being and Nothingness, in which he views concsciousness as the ultimate factor in determining reality - it is a power which can negate certain things, and create a new subjective reality in the process.

However, as much as Evangelion owes to the past, it also had a large influence on a variety of anime shows in the present as well. The psychological nature of the show influenced later works such as Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997) and Serial Experiments Lain (1997), both of which, like Eva, center around an ambiguous world-changing event to come. More superficially, it started a wave of using Christian symbolism in other anime and related fields. While many find that the video game Xenogears (1998) shows obvious and major signs of being heavily influenced by Evangelion, its creators (Xenogears co-creator/co-writer Soraya Saga in particular) have denied this vehemently. Some feel that RahXephon is another work that bears influence from this series.

Evangelion has also been explicitly referenced and parodied. In the Digimon Tamers series, a lot of Evangelion elements were used in the backstories for the three main children, their friends, and D-Reaper. The same can be said for both WarGrowlmon and Gallantmon Crimson Mode, as they were modeled after EVA-01. Gainax's own His and Her Circumstances and FLCL had a few Eva parodies, as did Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi and even Invader Zims Christmas Episode had a cameo parody of Evangelion.

Furthermore, "Evangelion" has also been referenced in American media as well. In the 2002 movie "One Hour Photo" starring Robin Williams, the "Evangelion" real model action figure by Bandai, can be seen in several parts of the movie. The first time we see the figure, is when the York family visits the SavMart (a parody of Walmart) chain store, whereas the character Jake (Dylan Smith) begs his mother to buy him the "Eva" 04 action figure. In another scene, we see Robin Williams's character, Sy, offering the figure to Jake for free. However, Jake rejects the offer after telling him that his parents do not allow him to accept gifts. It is interesting to note that despite EVA 04 being mentioned as a good guy in the film, the series of the toyline is still referred as "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and that the graphics on the blister card (with Japanese writing) are left untouched; some movies and shows usually rename or repackage an existing product with a generic name/graphic logo to save money from royalty fees.

Even Anno himself decided to poke fun at his work. In the Eva soundtrack Addition, a twenty minute audio drama was included that reunited the entire voice acting cast, titled "After the End". The drama is set after episode 26 and has the characters discussing a sequel to the show, clearly breaking the fourth wall. Anno is believed to be featured as a guest voice in the piece, taking on the roles of the "Space God" and "Black Space God".

In the online community, Eva is a common source of parody. English image board 4chan has a meme ("zOMG! It's Rei!") based on the character Rei Ayanami. Numerous webcomics, such as Okashina Okashi, Tsunami Channel and Punks and Nerds have featured Evangelion tributes.

Translation notes

The translated dubbed versions of the series and movies of Evangelion were done by ADV Films and Manga Entertainment. In some aspects they can be misleading, and even contradictary to the original, causing increased confusion towards the show, and increasing the likelihood of outrightly wrong interpretations for numerous English-speaking audiences.

Title

The Japanese title for the series, Shin Seiki Evangelion, is composed of two parts: "Shin Seiki" and "Evangelion". The two translate literally from Japanese and a borrowed term from Greek, respectively, as "New Era/Century" and "Gospel". The decision to call the series Neon Genesis Evangelion in English was originally made by Gainax, and not, as some fans have believed, by translators.

The title, Neon Genesis Evangelion (νέον γένεσις εὐαγγέλιον), appears to be wholly Greek. It literally translates to "New Beginning Gospel" and is read in two parts. Neon, the neuter form of the word "Neos" (νέον, νέα, νέον), literally means "new" or "young". Genesis (γένεσις, εωσ, ἡ) means "origin, source" or "birth, race" and is also the Greek title for the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures, describing the creation of the universe and early Hebrew history. The Japanese term for the first book in the Bible is "Souseiki," perhaps a wordplay (with two different beginning and ending kanji) with "Shin Seiki" in the Japanese title. Evangelion (εὐαγγέλιον, τὸ) means, literally, "the reward of good tidings" and in later Greek is the term for the Gospel.

Additionally, the term "Eva", a frequent abbreviation of Evangelion used in the anime, is the name of the biblical Eve in Greek, coming from the Hebrew name "Chavva" meaning "breath" or "life". There are frequent allusions to the biblical Adam and Eve throughout the series, as well as to the Evangelion's relationship with the Tree of Life.

Other words

The term Gehirn is German for "brain". Seele is the German term for "soul". Nerv is the German term for "nerve".

"Children," the plural of "Child," is used to refer to each of the Eva pilots in the singular (i.e. Shinji is the "Third Children," not the "Third Child.") This is intentional, and not a translation error. The English language dub produced by ADV, however, uses the word "Child" instead of "Children."

The Japanese word used to refer to the Angels is shito (使徒), which literally means "messenger" or "apostle." The usual Japanese word for "angel" is tenshi (天使). It should be noted, however, that the English angel is derived from the Greek for "messenger" (ἄγγελος, ου, ὁ). Unlike the translation of "Children" into "Child", which was altered by ADV, the use of "Angel" in the English dub was specified by Anno and Gainax. Furthermore, the word "Angel" can be seen appearing on video screens in NERV HQ during Angel attacks, and this was the case in the original version of the series as broadcast in Japan; it is not an alteration to the ADV release.

"N² mine", as translated by ADV, is technically not an error since Japanese word heiki (兵器) is a term that means weapon; but fails a semantic test as mines are not used in the same manner they are used in the series (for example, being dropped from planes and being used in suicide missions).

Related releases

Manga

A manga of the series, drawn by series character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, was published by Kadokawa Shoten. It covers the same story as the series, but from the perspective of Shinji Ikari, whose personality is altered to be somewhat more decisive than his anime incarnation. The manga is currently still in production, though its first volume was actually released prior to the airing of Evangelion's first episode. In Japan, the manga is serialized in the magazine Shonen Ace. The manga is translated into English in North America by VIZ Media and in Singapore by Chuang Yi, and the Singaporean translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment. The manga is also translated into Brazilian Portuguese by Conrad Editora, Argentinian Spanish by Editorial Ivrea and French by Glénat.

Merchandising

Merchandise for Evangelion still comes out fairly regularly despite the fact that it is a decade old. A large deal of the merchandise has an amusingly detached or hilarious non-relation to the dark nature of the series. The series has also spawned various computer games, including Girlfriend of Steel. While Girlfriend of Steel was shoehorned into the original plot, the sequel to the game, Girlfriend of Steel 2, takes place in a complete alternate universe. This later inspired a manga, which uses most of the Evangelion characters in a "normal" schoolyard drama series.

Live action movie

Main article: Untitled Evangelion Project

Production of a live action version of Evangelion was announced in May 2003 by the American company ADV Films (which holds world-wide rights to the series outside of Asia and Australia), and will be made by ADV, Gainax, and Weta Workshop Ltd.. It is estimated to be released from as early as 2006 to as late as 2010. Hideaki Anno, the director of the anime, will not be directing this live-action film, and a director has yet to be chosen. Currently, there is no definitive information on what the movie will focus on.[2]

Super Robot Wars

Aspects of Evangelion have made numerous appearances in the Super Robot Wars series by Banpresto. First included in Super Robot Wars F Final, characters and mecha from Evangelion have since become extremely popular parts of the series, and have appeared in Super Robot Wars Alpha, Alpha 3, MX, and other releases.

Sub-topics

• Angel (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
• Evangelion (mecha)
• Characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Neon Genesis Evangelion glossary
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Timeline
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Official Expanded Universe
• List of Neon Genesis Evangelion media
• List of Neon Genesis Evangelion topics
• Cruel Angel's Thesis (musical theme)

References

• Burgen, V. (1990). Geometry and Abjection. In J. Fletcher and A. Benjamin (Ed.), Abjection, Melancholia, and Love: The Work of Julia Kristeva (pp. 104–123). New York: Routledge.

External links

• Neon Genesis Evangelion – Gainax's Evangelion page.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion at the Internet Movie Database
• Wowow's Evangelion page
• Madman Entertainment's Evangelion page
• Anime or Something Like It: Neon Genesis Evangelion – Japanese cultural critic Hiroki Azuma analyzes Evangelion.
• An extended interview with Azuma covering the same topic

Fan sites

• Evafics.org – Evangelion community for fiction and discussion.
• Evafics Evangelion Wiki – Wiki dedicated to the Evangelion franchise.
• Evamade: Eva for the Fans – Evangelion community for discussion and fiction.
• Eva Monkey – News, forums, archive of essays, interviews, scripts, omake, and commentary.
• Live Action Evangelion – News site on the upcoming movie adaptation.
• The japan.anime.evangelion newsgroup from Google
• The japan.anime.evangelion FAQ
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Primer (spoiler free)
• AnimeGalleries.net – Neon Genesis Evangelion Images
• Guide to... Neon Genesis Evangelion
• The Evangelion Otaku Page
• Vandire's Guide to Neon Genesis Evangelion
• The Anime-Manga Web Essay Archive's Evangelion section
• Entry Plug – an interesting Italian site about Evangelion (in Italian).

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