Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shin Seiki Evangelion; animated science-fiction drama series, Japan, 1995; D: Hideaki Anno, S: Megumi Ogata, Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuko Miyamura, Megumi Hayashibara, Fumihiko Tachiki, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Seki

Tokyo III, 2015. A mysterious 100 ft tall robotic monster shows up, called 'The Angel', against which all human weapons are powerless. At the same time, the shy 14-year old Shinji is picked up by Commander Misato and brought to the NERV headquarters, headed by his elusive father Gendo, to pilot a similar giant robot, Eva 1. Reluctantly, he agrees and wins in the fight against the Angel. He settles in Misato's apartment and 14-year old girls, Asuka and Rei, are also summoned to pilot Evas and fight against the Angels. It is eventually discovered that scientists discovered the first Angel, Adam, on the South Pole 15 years ago that triggered a huge explosion that wiped out half of humanity, known as 'Second Impact'. Yet Adam's body was used to assemble Eva. At the end, Gendo starts the Instrumentality project that would advance the human kind and bring it to a new level of existence. In that dream state, Shinji finally grows up without fear of life.

A shining anime, the most popular Japanese animated show of the 90s, "Neon Genesis Evangelion" is one of the heaviest examples of deep genius of that genre, a series that rightfully enjoys the reputation of one of the most imaginative pieces of anime of that decade, even though its story is at times so hermetic, multi-layered, complex and symbolical that it can fly right over the viewers' heads. Though it's based on the standard 'mecha genre', it audaciously mixes Judeo-Christian mythology and psychology in something never seen before that, yet some of the crucial things needed for the explanation of the story were never spelled out. As a consequence, many have difficulties understanding it: but whether the Angels represent a race born out of the "Tree of Life" which makes them invincible for the human weapons, and humans a race born out of Lillith and "Tree of Knowledge" which is why they are weak but have technology, or not; whether the Human Instrumentality Project actually represents eugenics that would remove all the bad things from life and make humans the more dominant race in the Universe than Angels or not; the story is actually not about them, but about something on a far more smaller scale, an intimate 'coming-of-age' story about the 14-year old Shinji and his acceptance of his life and the role in the world, his realization that he is worthy. Looking at it that way, and having in mind that Eva could be Id, Shinji super-ego and both ego, then this becomes a psychological character study and an unlikely masterpiece.

It is very clever from Anno who lures audience into this anime by making the pilot episode a sci-fi action comedy, but then slowly turns it into an existential drama. The first 10 episodes were quite funny—Misato talks Shinji into staying at her apartment. Sharing an apartment with her makes Shinji even more embarrassed when he sees a dozen of her bras hanging in the bathroom. And when he meets Misato's penguin, Pen-Pen, he runs out of the bathroom naked (an amusing scene in which his intimate part is cowered by a can of Misato's beer). Episode 2 has a fantastic "jump cut" from a suspensful sequence of an Angel beating up Eva 1 to Shinji suddenly waking up in a medical bed the next day, not remembering what happened. One fun battle stands out in episode 9, in which Shinji's and Asuka's Evas have to conduct a synchronized atack on an Angel, but have only one minute of energy to accomplish the task, leading to a bravura directed sequence with the clock ticking from 60 seconds to zero on the screen: it is so simple, and yet so genius, but you have to think of it first. But then the story gets darker: Shinji has almost no friends in school and feels worthless in this world. He thinks that every person around him is more important than him and that's why he is often passive. That's why the Angels have no other function than to be a symbol of Shinji's combat with low self-esteem—because they represent a problem only he can solve, which is why suddenly the world needs him. That's why the more of Angels he beats, the more self-confidence he gets.

The appearance of "Angels" is almost like a Divine intervention in his life, elevating him into someone important: for the first time in his life, Shinji realizes that he is worthy of living in the society. Anno once said he put everything he knows about life into this story, and that is really visible. Almost every scene, no matter if its epic (giant chalked outlines of "Angels" on the "scene of the crime" that cover the whole hill), action-packed (episode 6, where Shinji and Rei defeat Angel Ramiel, shaped like a giant octahedron, firing a laser beam that consumes the whole electric power of Japan, is bravura directed; the magnificant duel in episode 19 when an Angel "crashes" through the screen and enters the NERV control room, but Eva 1 engages it) or humorous (episode 8: Toji accidentally looks under Asuka's skirt and she slaps him. He asks why, she says because of a pervert tax. He puts his pants down in front of her and she slaps him again) are brilliant. And the ending is simply genius to the tenth power: by replacing the whole real world with a dream state where Shinji is at one point even drawn just by black lines in front of a white background, floating in a universe without rules and boundaries, it dwells on some of the most deepest philosophical themes about what life is and expands the frontiers of our mind by showing how problems that burden the humanity should be "restructured" in a world without them, a world where the human mind molds the rules of the Universe, not vice-versa. In the end, "Evangelion" is not the Gospel of religion, but a new Gospel of self-improvement and gainging a great talent within yourself.

Grade:++++