It is a legend of Anime, a mecha title with few equals,
if any.
You know its name.
And you know the kind of endless debates,
discussions and college level lectures it’s capable of producing.
It’s been 25 years since Hideaki Anno
unleashed his magnum opus that changed the face of the Anime industry forever.
The actual anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion
was back in October, October 4
th to be more precise.
I didn’t hop on some kind of special then but
I still wanted to do something to commemorate the historic occasion.
So, I threw this little retrospective together
thinking I’d release it in several parts like my Gundam Wing: Glory of the
Losers or Final Fantasy Retrospective’s earlier this year.
But hey, it’s been a crappy year worthy of Third
Impact…and it’s also Christmas.
So
today, Dear Readers, you’re getting my complete Neon Genesis Evangelion
Retrospective in one epic sitting.
I’ll
be covering all three main eras of the Anime here: The TV Series, The Movies
and the Rebuild of Evangelion Films.
Might not be the most comprehensive of guides.
But if you’re new to Eva or a long time fan, I
hope you find something to enjoy.
Now, let’s
get Shinji in the damn robot and take a look back at one of the most epic
stories of all time.
Welcome to the
Gundam
Anime Corner’s Neon Genesis Evangelion Retrospective.
Part 1-The TV Series
Neon Genesis Evangelion
In 1988, Director Hideaki Anno made his directorial debut
with
Gunbuster, a love letter to every mecha Anime from the 70s and
80s.
In the following years, he had
several successes and a couple of stumbles but eventually Anno was granted the
OK by Gainax to work on what would become his magnum opus and one of the most
important shows in the entire history of Anime.
Neon Genesis Evangelion debuted in October
1995. The story takes place in the year
2015, 15 years after a cataclysmic event known as Second Impact, which wiped
out half of the human race. Learning
through the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls that a race of giants called Angels would
return to finish the job, a secret organization, NERV, set to work preparing for
a fight. The city of Tokyo-3 is created
as a fortress and beneath it houses NERV’s special fighting force, building
sized robots called Evangelion. Three
special children: Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu, are
selected to pilot the Evas, each pilot bringing their own instabilities,
personal hang ups and heaping helping of puberty into the ultimate battle for
the salvation of humanity.
In the beginning, Evangelion seemed like your ordinary
super robot series with Shinji and NERV battling various Angels of amazing
designs week after week.
Under the
surface, however, Anno sought to tell a different kind of giant robot
story.
From the get go, it was clear
that Shinji, Rei and Asuka had their own hang ups from years of less than ideal
upbringings.
Not only that, half of the
main cast were battling their own demons as well as the Angels: Misato
Katsuragi being the sole survivor of the expedition that set off Second Impact;
Ritsuko Akagi having to live with the shadow of a dark legacy her mother left
behind; and Gendo Ikari, Shinji’s father and the master manipulator of all
events for his own nefarious ends.
Around the halfway mark of the series, Evangelion took a
turn into far more psychological territory: focusing on the cast handling their
relationships and inner turmoils sometimes more so than battling the
Angels. While this does allow for the
ultimate psycho analysis that psych students dream of, this is also the result
of some behind the scenes dramas. The budget for the TV Series was quickly
being used up and Anno’s own depression was causing problems as well. Still, work continued and work arounds for
were found. This included some now
infamous still frame moments that lingered on for minutes either in silence or set
to the sounds of a very metaphysical dialogue between several characters. This hindered Evangelion from achieving its
true visual potential but also kind of gave Evangelion a memorable signature
look.
By the time the series reached it’s climax in Episode 24,
it was clear that the finale Anno had envisioned couldn’t be completed.
This led to Episodes 25 and 26 becoming more
of a art house style clip show with a special alternate reality segment thrown
in as well.
There are many who see this
finale as one of the greatest in all of Anime.
Others felt very, very differently and reacted less than kind to Anno’s
choice to go through with storyboard drawings and long monologues with no
action considering the series long build up.
Honestly, the death threat letters sent Anno’s way are incredibly unfair
and the man should be praised for delivering a finale with what he had to work
with…but that’s just me.
Personally, I
think the TV ending is interesting but I prefer what came later even more so.
Part 2-The Movies
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Revival of Evangelion
Due to the budgetary troubles of the project, the final
two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion capped off the series with a very experimental,
art house style deep dive into the psyches of the cast, most importantly Shinji
Ikari, taking us through what was pretty much the highly feared Third Impact.
The TV Series finale continues to be one of
the most controversial in all of Anime: some consider it a triumphant
conclusion to a perfect series; others believe it’s the worst decision and
Hideaki Anno should pay for this failure with his life.
True, the director received death threats
from fans who felt betrayed by the finale.
However, between his own desire to see his original vision completed and
the success Evangelion had become across Japan, two years later, everyone was
gonna get their wish…whether they liked it or not.
Originally envisioned as one large and epic ending, the
Evangelion Movie project would be split into two separate films. The first, released in March 1997, was Neon
Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth.
The first half of the movie, Death, spends about an hour
recapping the events of the TV Series through the eyes of its principal
cast. The TV Series animation was
spruced up and new segments from the “Directors Cut” of Episodes 21-24 were
also included. Fittingly enough, Death
ends at the conclusion of Episode 24 before segueing into Rebirth, which
is basically the first 25 minutes of The End of Evangelion, and offered fans a
brutal sneak peak of what was coming…oh boy.
In July 1997,
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of
Evangelion hit theaters with major hype and anticipation behind it.
Taking place right after the events of
Episode 24, The End of Evangelion is essentially the true vision of the last
two episodes of the TV Series in two 45minute segments.
The first half of the film sees the doomed
final stand of NERV as it’s backer, SEELE, and their own Commander Gendo Ikari,
both seek to instigate Third Impact now that the Angels have all been
defeated.
The second half takes us right
into the titular Third Impact with the weight of an entire species in the hands
of the most traumatized and unstable 14 year old in all of Anime; Shinji Ikari.
Fans we understandably stunned by The End of Evangelion
but then again, they were warned weren’t they?
One could think of seeing the horrific deaths of many main and beloved
cast members (oh, whoops, SPOILER ALERT), as Anno giving his fans the
finger (double the bird if you count him flashing his death threat notes on the
screen for all to see). However, if you
look at how Anno presented Evangelion in the TV Series and knowing he was
inspired by 80s classics like Space Runaway Ideon, you knew this series
wasn’t going to have a happy ending for everyone. Regardless of the body count or the lack of a
truly defined ending, The End of Evangelion is considered by many, myself
included, to be the true final note on the legacy of Neon Genesis
Evangelion. With stunning animation and
action sequences, a chance to see all our favorite characters get their closure
and a finale of truly biblical proportions, Anno gave the fans exactly what
they more or less wanted, the true end he’d always wanted.
In subsequent years, Death and Rebirth and The End of
Evangelion have been reedited into their original, single feature form, known
as
The Revival of Evangelion.
However, this aside, The End of Evangelion lived up to its title as just
that…The End.
Sure Evangelion would live
on as the biggest merchandise juggernaut in Japan.
But that was all…or was it?
Part 3-The Rebuild Era
Evangelion 1.11-You Are (Not) Alone
Evangelion 2.22-You Can (Not) Advance
Evangelion 3.33-You Can (Not) Redo
Evangelion 3.0+1.0-Thrice Upon A Time
In the early to mid 2000’s rumors began to circulate
about a new Evangelion project.
Seeing
as how The End of Evangelion put THE END at the forefront, one could only
wonder what this meant.
Ok, so if it
wasn’t a sequel what was it?
A new
series based on one of the many Manga spinoffs?
A prequel?
The answer came in
2006 when Director Hideaki Anno announced the
Rebuild of Evangelion
project-a four film series intending to retell the series in a bit of a
different fashion, creating the Eva he’d always wanted to make.
A schedule was announced as well: the first
film,
Evangelion 1.0, would be released in the Summer of 2007; the
second film,
Evangelion 2.0, would arrive a few months later in January
2008; and the final two films,
Evangelion 3.0 and
Evangelion 3.0+1.0,
would be released back to back in the Summer of 2008.
By todays standards, seems pretty simple
considering most trilogies or multifilm series are all made at the same time.
Evangelion 1.11-You Are (Not) Alone eventually
arrived in September of 2007.
While the
film itself is basically a beat for beat retread of the first six episodes of
the TV Series, there are nuggets of new moments and story cues that let people
know this wasn’t going to be just a compilation project, this was gonna be a
whole beast altogether.
That case could
be made more clear than when
Evangelion 2.22-You Can (Not) Advance
arrived two years later in 2009.
With
the inclusion of a brand new character, Mari Illustrious Makinami and the
animation factor dialed up to 11, fans got to experience the promise of a new
Eva, one that was embraced by fans of Anime in general, not just Eva fans.
The hype for the third and fourth chapters
was enormous…and then we had to wait a few more years and eventually
Evangelion
3.33-You Can (Not) Redo arrived without Evangelion 3.0+1.0.
Ok, wouldn’t be to big a deal if the latter
wasn’t quite as ready as promised but the reception to 3.33 was the exact
opposite of 2.22.
While the animation
and action was praised, the new direction the story took caught many off guard
and many felt it might’ve been a detrimental step backwards.
Evangelion 3.33 made fans worry if the
Rebuild series could be saved after this…and they weren’t the only ones.
As you might’ve noticed, the Rebuild films didn’t exactly
meet their intended release dates. 1.11
came out the closest but 2.22 came out a year after it’s announced date and
3.33 didn’t arrive until 2012, four years after its scheduled double billing
with 3.0+1.0. Later it would be revealed
that Anno was feeling the pressure over this new project and even found himself
in a bit of a corner as to how to pull it all off. The building pressure to finish pushed Anno
away from Evangelion, leaving many to wonder if this was really it for the
Rebuild Saga. Then, Hideaki Anno and his
good friend Shinji Higuchi were asked to direct the gig theyd both dreamed of
for…well forever. Together, both men
who’d worked on the Evangelion TV Series, while Higuchi rose to further fame
with Attack on Titan, got to direct the latest relaunch of the Godzilla
franchise, Godzilla: Resurgence (known best in other territories as Shin
Godzilla). The experience reignited
Anno in a way that we kind of should be thankful to Shin Godzilla for. It also helps that Shin Godzilla is an
awesome movie and one of the best in the Godzilla franchise, becoming the
highest grossing film in Japan in 2016.
With his dream project completed, Anno was recharged and ready to return
to Evangelion, to finish his Rebuild.
And for a time, progress was great.
The first ten minutes of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 were
shown at Anime Expo 2019, giving viewers their first taste of the epic Rebuild
of Evangelion finale, and a release window of Summer 2020 was announced.
Finally, after 8 years of intense waiting,
the final chapter would be upon us.
And
then…March 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic
swept the planet and impacted every aspect of the entertainment industry.
Highly anticipated Hollywood blockbusters
such as the 25
th James Bond 007 film
No Time to Die and
Marvel’s
Black Widow were both rescheduled for later dates, leading to many other
studios to follow suit.
Japan was no
different with many theatrical releases being halted and delayed until the
situation was deemed safe enough.
Hideaki Anno himself took to Twitter to break the news that Evangelion
3.0+1.0, would not meet its June 2020 release window to encourage social
distancing.
We’d almost made it…but now
we’d have to wait a little bit longer.
Thankfully,
that wait won’t be as long as many of us probably thought.
In October 2020, news broke that 3.0+1.0 was
coming and it was coming quickly in 2021.
As of this retrospective, the final chapter of the Rebuild of Evangelion
Saga,
Evangelion 3.0+1.0-Thrice Upon a Time, is slated to be released in
Japanese theaters on January 23, 2021…now 9 years after You Can (Not) Redo, one
of the few initial bright spots of the forthcoming year.
Regardless of the chaotic state of the Rebuild series,
Neon Genesis Evangelion continues to be one of the most financially and
critically successful Anime franchises of all time.
The TV Series continues to be required
viewing for Anime fans of all walks and the shows recent resurgence on Netflix
has opened Evangelion to a new generation of Anime viewers (debates about the
new English dub aside).
The End of
Evangelion is widely regarded as one of the greatest Animated features of all
time.
There are countless Manga, Video
Games and other spin off tales either expanding the story or giving alternate
takes on its events (like
Angelic Days or
The Shinji Ikari Raising
Project).
And the ladies of
Evangelion: Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley Soryu and Mari Illustrious Makinami,
continue to be some of the most marketable poster girls in the industry,
headlining not just products for their own series but for every other product
in Japanese society from toothpaste to horse races.
Hideaki Anno changed the landscape of Anime
with Neon Genesis Evangelion with its deep, introspective study and well
executed approach to giant monster combat.
The franchise has had its ups and downs but its successes far outweigh
its faults.
Neon Genesis Evangelion may have come and gone 25
years ago.
But for fans, old, new and
yet to be seen, Eva isn’t going anywhere.
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