Neon Genesis Evangelion/Trivia

Trivia Tropes

 * Acting for Two: Notably, Megumi Hayashibara voices Rei, Yui and Unit-01 (...and Pen-Pen). The trope is employed very deliberately in the case of the first three, seeing how they all share a connection.
 * Anime First: An odd example. The Manga ran for almost a year before the series began, but it was made specifically for promoting the anime.
 * Cash Cow Franchise: Let's face it, the volume and variety of merchandise that's been created for Evangelion is up there with Kiss.
 * Creator Breakdown: So much of it, it actually originated from Creator Breakdown. Some parts of the manga suggest Sadamoto isn't too happy or wholesome either, though not as "broken" as Anno.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: For Shinji only in the original Japanese. Spike Spencer voices him in the English dub.
 * Defictionalization: Operation Yashima, the plan to reroute all of Japan's electricity into a single sniper rifle to take down an Angel, was the name given to a Twitter campaign to support Tokyo Electric's plan to conserve electricity after the 2011 disasters.
 * Development Hell: It's largely forgotten by now, but The End of Evangelion was in this for a brief period, which is why so many Japanese viewers who went to see Death and Rebirth were pissed off at the sudden cut-off of an ending.
 * There's also the live-action movie (a co-production between GAINAX, ADV and WETA), which was "in pre-production" starting 2003 -- and ending with the death of ADV Films in 2009; nothing has been heard about it since.
 * Rebuild of Evangelion also counts; 2.0 was delayed a full year after its original release date, and 3.0s is around three years after 2.0s. The tetralogy was then put on hiatus, and 3.0+1.0 was only released in 2021, nine years after 3.0.
 * DVD Commentary: The Movies feature commentaries by Amanda Winn-Lee, her husband and Taliesin Jaffe, which are generally beloved/despised (some have even nicknamed it "Commentary of Evil") for being mostly riffing, with a lot of conjecture about the possible meanings behind the films' abstract symbolism, and details on the process of dubbing the films and remastering the audio. The Platinum Edition of the TV series featured commentaries on several episodes as well, albeit less memorable ones.
 * Enforced Method Acting: Yuko Miyamura allowed herself to be strangled by Megumi Ogata in the recording room during Shinji's vision of strangling Asuka in The End of Evangelion.
 * Executive Meddling:
 * One of many theories regarding how the final episodes came to be as notoriously bizarre as they are is that the original scripts for the last two episodes were rejected by the network due to their graphic content; thus the current ending was made due to last-minute budget cuts and/or as a way of giving the network the finger, and the rejected scripts eventually became The End of Evangelion.
 * Also, Anno's original intent was to use a piece of the Polovtsian Dances for the opening theme. The studio, concerned that viewers would be confused by such an opening, requested that it be replaced with a catchy J-pop number, and thus "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" was born.
 * Fan Nickname:
 * "Tang" for LCL.
 * Mind Rape (The Trope Namer).
 * GNR, or Giant Naked Rei, for the so-large-as-to-be-very-easily-visible-from-space.
 * "Puppy-kun" for Shinji, at least for Evangelion fans who like him.
 * EMK, or Evil Manga Kaworu, for the Kaworu who in the manga.. hence the meme "every time you masturbate, Kaworu ."
 * "Yui-sama" for.
 * "Uberpimp" for Gendo. and others for  in the manga.
 * "Harpies" for Evangelion units 05-13 because they look like grotesque cyber-vultures.
 * Fountain of Expies: You know you're one when you have your own page dedicated to your Expies.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!:
 * Misato is Sailor Moon. Now you can never unhear it. And Shinji is Sailor Uranus. And Kurama. Motomu Kiyokawa, Fuyutsuki's dubber, also dubbed Gargoyle. As for Megumi Hayashibara... well, she's Megumi Hayashibara. Alternately, most of the show's English cast were relative unknowns at the time, but have provoked this response for every subsequent dub they've been in.
 * Rei in the English dub of Rebuild of Evangelion: Ennis, is that you? Naw, sounds more like a stoic Child Soldier abused by a callous, single-minded commander. Or maybe a certain extremely beautiful and cute... Boy?! Or a loli-cious demon, and also a powerful, fan-wielding, fire-spell casting yet classy high school student. One of the two.
 * Toji is DOMON KASSHU!
 * Fuyutsuki is voiced by Motomu Kiyokawa, one of the more classic "older men" seiyūs.
 * Lying Creator: The amplitude of self-contradictory and at times seemingly absurd statements about the series from Hideaki Anno has led many to accuse him of this.
 * No Export for You: On the Western market, the series saw its last release on DVD under ADV Films in 2008, after which the series went out of print due to ADV's financial problems, and while the show saw occasional re-releases in Japan, the opportunities for Western viewers to get their hands on a legitimate copy of the series was steady dwindling, and the outlook became worse when ADV later lost the right to license the series entirely. Subsequently, the complete series was released in a HD version on a Blu-ray boxset in 2016 on the Japanese marked, but despite large interest in the West, the boxset never saw a release there. It was first with Netflix announcing in November 2018 that they had gained the streaming rights to the HD version of the series on the Western market that the situation was somewhat rectified, and the event also renewed the Western fanbase's hopes that the Blu-ray boxset might also see a release in their part of the world some day.
 * Old Shame: Shinji's French voice actor Donald Reignoux had a terrible time on the set, and for a long time, he refused to work at the Chinkel recording studio again.
 * The Other Darrin:
 * Rei's first English VA Amanda Winn-Lee was replaced with Brina Palencia for the Rebuild of Evangelion dub.
 * The majority of the characters in the Evangelion dub have been recast at some point, but likely the most infamous case was that of Hyuga in Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, wherein he was replaced by a black man who sounded nothing like the previous voice whatsoever. What makes it even worse is that he might have been cast out of spite by Manga Entertainment, who pulled the license for The End of Evangelion out from ADV Films, since Matt Greenfield, the former voice of Hyuga, was the co-founder.
 * An eerie case for Kensuke in the English dub. Greg Ayres had a role in the original series as Kowaru Nagisa as well!
 * The Other Marty/The Other Darrin: While the Japanese cast has remained remarkably consistent over the years, the English dub is notorious for being recast with every subsequent iteration of the series (four so far, for those keeping track). Most characters have had between two and four different voice actors, with poor Toji having at least six. The only characters who have retained the same voice between every version so far are Shinji, Misato and Asuka. And that's before Netflix have announced that they gained the rights of the series and are re-dubbing the whole thing.
 * It's even worse in the Spanish dub. Only Shinji retains a single voice actor through the franchise, while the rest of characters have at least two or three, and often very different sounding among them. Asuka and Kaworu, who have a different VA in almost every medium of the franchise, are the worst examples.
 * The French dub does not fare much better. Only Shinji and Misato retain their voice actors through the majority of the franchise, with The End of Evangelion shuffling up most of the cast and 1.0 recasting everyone. Fortunately, a decent chunk of the original cast (including the aforementiond two) return for the later films.
 * Playing Against Type:
 * Rei's voice actresses all invoke this. Her Japanese VA Megumi Hayashibara is famous for her roles as Lina Inverse and the female Ranma. Her original English VA Amanda Winn-Lee is well-known for her roles as Rio Kinezono and Miss Deep. Finally, her English VA for the Rebuild of Evangelion series, Brina Palencia, made her mark in anime as Silvia de Alicia and Juliet Capulet.
 * For Mari's Japanese VA, Maaya Sakamoto's not always put in an Ax Crazy role, and considering that Maaya's debut role is Hitomi Kanzaki, it is jarring enough.
 * Rule 34 Creator Reactions:
 * The opening to EOE has been seen as Anno's response to a portion of his fanbase fetishizing over the characters...which is weird, given the amount of ecchi merchandise that came from the series.
 * There's also the manga. We have several Does This Remind You of Anything? moments, Kaworu killing a kitten, Shinji saying emphatically "Guys don't like guys!", Shinji and Kaworu's relationship downgraded to an unrequited Stupid Sexy Flanders, Kaworu calling Rei a fool and saying "I figured you'd be a heftier girl.", Shinji and Kaworu in the ladies' room with Asuka... Yeah.
 * Running the Asylum: Ikari Shinji Raising Project, like most of the show's spinoff products, is quite obviously done by a Promoted Fanboy, is entirely powered by Mythology Gag and Fan Service, and is incredibly Doujinshi-esque. The same could be said about the Angelic Days manga. Not that we complain; it's Eva characters, so we'll buy it.
 * Schedule Slip: The manga, and how. The first chapter was released months before the anime started (December 1994), but the last chapter was published in June 2013. That's over 18 years for 14 volumes of material! The English translation took 11 years for its production run, from February 2004 to February 2015.
 * Short-Lived, Big Impact: Evangelion was one of the most influential anime shows of the Giant Mecha Genre, but only lasted one season and 26 episodes.
 * Shrug of God: After fans were upset with the ambiguity of the series, Hideaki Anno basically declared that it was up to viewers to determine their own meaning and reprimanded them for expecting all the answers on a silver platter. Over the years he has offered, at best, several vague and contradictory statements as to the meaning(s) and intentions of the series.
 * Talking to Herself: In the Girlfriend of Steel game series, Megumi Hayashibara voices both Mana Kirishima and Rei.
 * Technology Marches On: Back in the series' heyday in the mid-to-late 90's, Shinji listened to his music on an S-DAT player. Nowadays, with the sporadic manga releases, it's been replaced by a Mini iPod. Rebuild of Evangelion has him keep the S-DAT player despite being released in 2007.
 * Troubled Production:
 * The show began after Anno suffered from a clinical depression, and relied on several sponsors for its support. Several of these sponsors pulled out as the show became increasingly dark. Given that this was before Evangelion became a Cash Cow Franchise, it's a wonder that Anno and Gainax got the show finished.
 * Not to mention a severe case of Real Life Writes the Plot: a whole chunk of a mostly finished script for the second half of the series ended up being trashed and rewritten from scratch, because of a central plot point in it had a strong resemblance to the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995.
 * This trope also extended to the American side of the Pacific with ADV Films. Commentary for the English dub will often make reference to it being made on budget that consisted of a metaphorical shoestring and paperclip, involved renting out space to do recordings with substandard equipment, and had a good portion of the cast played by members of the production team besides the voice actors, among other things. They weren't exactly in danger of going out of business, but it's still pretty amazing that the dub was as good as it was all things considered.
 * Unintentional Period Piece:
 * The JSSDF soldiers that raid NERV in The End of Evangelion all carry H&K G11 rifles, which would have been considered futuristic... in 1997. The G11 program fell apart in 1990 and the rights repurposed by 2004 with only a few functioning rifles ever being built and is considered an abject and expensive failure instead of the future of military arms.
 * Plus, the series is set in a fictional vision of 2015. Notice the lack of smartphones.
 * What Could Have Been: The proposal provides various examples.
 * Many of course think we never got to see how the anime would have ended originally. In fairness, The End of Evangelion had two different endings before the final one was settled upon. In addition, the live-action sequence was supposed to be much longer, with an older Asuka, Rei and Misato played by their voice actors (the sequence was included in the Japan-only Renewal release as an extra).
 * More generally, the original proposal for Evangelion has been translated. Fans are particularly curious about the "Ruins of Arqa". Also, some have pointed to similarities with Rebuild of Evangelion. Finally, the humanoid angel (likely a Kaworu prototype) was initially described as having a cat; this is Hilarious in Hindsight considering the manga, and was probably a Shout-Out.
 * The live-action movie (see Development Hell above).
 * The Wiki Rule: EvaWiki
 * Word of God: Anno has issued a few surprising or controversial statements about Evangelion, for example his quip that it shouldn't be analyzed because it was just "a scream" on his part.
 * Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Downplayed. The series does by and large follow the plot as it was outlined in the original first draft proposal, with the first half or so being more or less beat-for-beat to the outline. But a case of Real Life Writes the Plot with the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway leading to much of the script having to be scrapped and Anno being in heavily treatment for his clinical depression, meant that the show starts seriously deviating from said proposal around Episode 16 and forwards.

Character Trivia

 * Many of the characters were named after various WWII-era naval vessels, most often aircraft carriers. Katsuragi, Akagi, and Soryu were all aircraft carriers; the Akagi led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ayanami and Fuyutsuki were destroyers; Fuyutsuki rescued survivors from the great Yamato when she was sunk near Okinawa in 1945. Kirishima and Hyuga were battleships that were part of the fleet which attacked Pearl Harbor. Ibuki, Maya and Aoba are names of heavy cruisers; the Ibuki existed only on paper, it was never built. The Hyuga is another warship. Langley is also the name of two American aircraft carriers, and the Graf Zeppelin is the name of an uncompleted Nazi-German aircraft carrier.
 * Similarly, Ikari means "anchor."
 * Katsuragi was also one of Japan's very last operational aircraft carriers, surviving mostly through delayed construction. All the other ships lending their names to characters, including the first Langley were either sunk in battle or never completed.
 * At an almost esoteric level, the Akagi was also the name of a Russo-Japanese War-era Maya-class gunboat. How quaint.
 * The Ayanami bears mentioning that not only is it the name of a destroyer; it means "wave pattern" as in "frequency." Similarly, Shikinami (from Rebuild) literally means "wave equation," as in "wavelength." If we combine these two together, we get the equation for the speed of light. This allows for Fridge Brilliance: Both Rei and Asuka were designed to be two parts of the same whole.
 * Even more Fridge Brilliance when you realize that Shikinami was only mentioned in Rebuild. Remember that the Ayanami is a Destroyer-class battleship. Exactly what happened during the original series?
 * Looks like everyone has an interesting Meaningful Name. Makinami, the Meganekko in Rebuild, has two variants:
 * When the kanji for nami (波) is placed behind maki (真希), this will literally mean "wave winding", which can reference "momentum" and/or "velocity". In turn, this relates over to the speed of light mentioned earlier, in which light is found to have both mass and velocity in the form of an electron/photon. For comparison to this "speed of light", her personality (as it is on the Characters page) is most often described as a hard-hitter who normally presses Berserk Buttons on the battlefield.
 * The second variant is when the kanji for unusual(!) (which is 希) is removed from the above. This new term (波真, which is now nami shin) now has an entirely new meaning: True Wave. This would be best represented by how, near the ending of Rebuild 2.0, Makinami unleashes an entirely new form of the EVA. She explains this as a pilot "rids itself of its humanity", and she uses code word to unlock this new form: The Beast. Note that the Angels are, as per NERV's research, supposed to bear a 99.89 percent similarity to humanity. That research, along with the above information, makes this "Beast" form not a coincidence.
 * On another note, the interconnecting theme to the pilots here is how they have some usage of the equation for momentum of light used in Chemistry(!) and other sciences. Applying Fridge Logic based on the above given information, we have (in SI Units): Makinami (representing momentum, in kg*m/s) = Ayanami (representing frequency, in "1/s") x Shikinami (representing wavelength, in "m") x Shinji (representing mass, in "kg"; remember his name literally means anchor).


 * The US voice actors for the three main Children all married to the original voice actors for the Bridge Bunnies: Amanda Winn-Lee (Rei) is married to Jason C. Lee (Aoba); Spike Spencer (Shinji) was formerly married to Kendra Benham (Ibuki); and Tiffany Grant (Asuka) is married to Matt Greenfield (Hyuga).

Shout-Outs

 * The Evangelions were based visually on Go Nagai creations Devilman and Mazinger Z. Anno cites the terrifying face, slender build, hunched back and chest plate as coming from Devilman, while its glowing eyes with the red markings were derived from Mazinger Z. The first shot of Evangelion, with its large head, was a direct homage to the first episode of Mazinger Z.
 * The opening shot of The End of Evangelion is a mirror image of the closing shot of Evangelion: Death. The opening shot of Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 is a reflection of the closing shot of The End of Evangelion, with a few... scenery details removed.

Other Trivia

 * Frame by frame on Episode 22, during the Mind Rape sequence, we get some...creepy analysis of what the Angel is doing. In order (apply Does This Remind You of Anything? throughout):
 * Gnoll is a cross between a gnome and a troll. "Groll" (German for "resentment") is also accurate.
 * Menarche is female puberty.
 * Schema is an pattern of thought-behaviors. In other words, automation of the human mind.
 * The kanji for "Baka!".
 * A series of German lines that, when combined, mention that Asuka was actually saddened when her mother died.
 * And then repeated use of Nein (No) and Tod (Death).