Neon Genesis Evangelion/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The following are Subjective Tropes relating to Neon Genesis Evangelion.

General

  • Awesome Art: Most of the fight scenes are very visually impressive, especially considering the production issues the show faced.
  • First Installment Wins: Despite the debates in the fandom on whether Rebuild of Evangelion is better or worse than the original series as well as Rebuild largely replacing Neon Genesis in merchandise, the TV series has always been the best-remembered and most iconic incarnation of the Evangelion franchise. The franchise is still (in)famous for its True Art Is Angsty reputation despite it being toned down in the first two Rebuild movies and most spinoffs, Rebuild Angels are frequently referred to by their original series names, and Asuka is better-remembered as "Soryu" than as "Shikinami". And even though the latter two Rebuilds do crank the tone back up to the seriousness of the original, they just still can't match the popularity of the original's Gainax Ending.
  • Common Knowledge: In the early days of the Internet, Evangelion used to be lauded as a super-original anime that killed the "toy commercial robot cartoon", some even going as far to proclaim Eva to be the only mecha anime that "is about the characters and not the mecha". This is not true in the slightest, as there had been at least several dozen otaku geared mecha anime that had excellent character development in the 80s, and even Super Robot shows from the 70s had very clear character growth despite their monster-of-the-week plots. The origin of this likely stems from the fact most Americans were used to either the 80s Transformers cartoon or various Macekres of mecha anime (such as Voltron or Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs) which usually severely dumbed down the plots and the character growth so these could be watched, without parental worry, by small children.
    • Hideaki Anno's supposed hate of the mecha genre, which likely stems from the incorrect conclusion that his depression from around the time-span of Evangelion's production was centered on the concept of mecha. The man actually loves giant robots to death, and Evangelion is more-or-less his take on Ultraman and Space Runaway Ideon.
    • Evangelion's supposed "deconstructive" qualities often get somewhat overinflated by fanboys when it comes to the influence on the anime industry and originality. Most of Evangelion's positive influence in the industry actually came from the TV executives realizing there was a market for gruesome violence and dark themes on television after a period during which anime seemed to be in a state of irreversible decline, while imitations of character tropes from Evangelion are nowhere as clear-cut as the fanboys will tell you. As for the originality, the series simply wasn't the first to toy around with mecha as a concept. That was Zambot 3, and even then mecha anime didn't (and still doesn't, mind) have a defined template that could be considered completely subvertable. Mazinger Z had a Jerkass for a hero in 1972. Getter Robo introduced outright anti-heroes in 1974.
  • Fan Hater: The wider mecha fandom harbors a very nasty grudge against Evangelion fans, who are stereotyped as obnoxious, up-the-ass pseudointellectuals who don't understand a thing about the mecha genre, or Hideaki Anno and his personal views as a creator for that matter. This does have some basis in reality sadly - EvaGeeks is widely known as one of the most toxic anime forums ever, with other mecha anime being bashed to the point of absurdity for even the tiniest of flaws while Evangelion is held on an arbitrary pedestal of perfection. Other gatherings of the Evangelion community, such as Reddit and Twitter are no better.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • In the West, the franchise is generally more popular with college/university-age anime fans (some of which grew up with the series) than it is with younger fans, who generally skew towards newer series such as Attack on Titan and One-Punch Man.
    • The show is very popular in Latin America, where it was broadcast on satellite TV between 2000 and 2005, at least one of its Spanish dubs is widely considered a Superlative Dubbing, and many fans grew up with the series. In an "evangelion shitposting"[sic] group on Facebook, many of the members are Latin Americans, and a large portion of the posts are in Spanish despite English being the lingua franca of the group. One of the chief features of that dub is Asuka being given a heavy German accent.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Spike Spencer (Shinji) was once married to Kendra Benham (Maya) when the two started their voice acting careers. In fanfiction, Shinji is sometimes paired with Maya.
  • Internet Backdraft: The fact that Asuka and Rei, two fourteen-year-olds, are heavily sexualized in the merchandise for the series.
  • Periphery Demographic: Evangelion was primarily meant for teens (hence the 14-year-old protagonists), but mostly due to the show's age and very mature and deep content, it has a very active adult fanbase that's much more prominent than for newer shonen series, with some fans even in their 30s or 40s (the late Robin Williams was a fan of the show).
  • Sacred Cow: Many fans consider the series this due to its status as a critical darling. Just as many, however, disagree, considering a lot of the reputation of the anime comes from poorly written hitpieces that don't accurately represent it - specifically, those hitpieces do not take into account Anno's personal history as a devoted otaku and his liking of stuff that look visually distinct (hence all the crosses). Furthermore, those hitpieces tend to veer off into overanalyzing minute aspects that are very secondary at best and do not really contribute to what would be worth analyzing - the story and the characters themselves.
  • Spiritual Successor: Series director Hideaki Anno also played a prominent role in the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind film, animating the God Warrior, another gigantic and dangerous Living Weapon. Given that Nausicaa director Hayao Miyazaki and Anno are good friends, it's no surprise that the two share so many similarities despite being from completely opposite corners of the Anime world. They both feature young characters on their Coming of Age journey, a post-apocalyptic setting, and humongous living weapons. Even the Angst storm in the later episodes has a counterpart in the later chapters of the Nausicaa manga: the God Warrior Ohma feels exactly like an Eva going berserk.

About the characters

  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Even back in the day when the latter was much more hated, people found the horrors both Asuka and Shinji went through in EoE to be awful.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Intentional on the creator's part, but especially noteworthy in some cases:
    • Gendo: a manipulative monster, a misunderstood genius, a loving but misguided father who wants to make his son strong, the show's biggest Woobie, or a mix of the four? Also, during his death scene in The End of Evangelion, was he truly sorry for all that he'd done to Shinji and put him through, or was he apologizing because he didn't want "Yui" to take out her wrath on him and show him how it feels to be on the receiving end? The look of abject terror we see in the scene strongly suggests the latter, though it's not necessarily mutually exclusive if it's because he knows and/or accepts there's no way out of this, and/or that he deserves it.
    • Is Yui a soft and idealized mother/Virgin Mary figure (close to being the series' Canon Sue), the actual manipulative monster who's responsible for messing up Shinji, Gendo and the fate of the world, or just off her rocker?
    • Is Shinji a neurotic, obnoxious "wimp", a normal person dealing with impossibly overwhelming odds, or actually a courageous young hero? Is he "pure" or a pervert with Yandere tendencies? Since we're at it, is Shinji similar to Gendo, his polar opposite, or a complex mix of the two?
    • The entire organization of SEELE: is it a group of complete monsters out to end the humanity just to create a god, a way too well-intentioned group who just wants to end the insecurities and suffering that humans suffer because AT field seperates them from each other and makes them unable to understand each other? Or maybe they are just bizzare.
    • Is Kaworu a Too Good for This Sinful Earth Tragic Hero who doesn't understand how he hurts Shinji, an Anti-Villain who pulls a Heel Face Turn after Shinji shows him love, a Manipulative Bastard who played with Shinji's emotions, or some combination of them? There's enough evidence for each of these interpretations, and different depictions of Kaworu pick whichever one they agree with best.
    • The Super Robot Wars games also dabble in this (as they usually do with the series) giving Shinji a backbone and changing story details. For example Toji does not suffer the fate that he does in the TV series and can occasionally join the team as a playable character. Likewise Asuka, in her famous scene from the movie, does not die when she is attacked by the group of EVAs but can actually wipe them out instead.
    • A humorous example on this website, overlapping with What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: Shinji is a far more polarizing character in the West than he is in Japan.
    • This most likely comes from the fact that Americans generally don't like whiny characters. Shinji's softy behaviour is integral to the plot, and the whole show's message kinda revolves around Shinji's behaviour not being something you want to replicate... which is, once again, not the kind of character writing Americans tend to like.
  • Angst Dissonance: No matter how much hell he goes through, many viewers still attribute Shinji's issues to him just being a whiny, bratty wuss. Not even witnessing Asuka getting disemboweled is an adequate excuse for him not taking insane amounts of tragedy and misfortune, cosmic horrors and near-constant abuse in stride.
  • Badass Decay: Gendo arguably goes through this late into the manga and in The End of Evangelion.
  • Base Breaker: Pretty much every major character.
    • A specific example is Gendo. He's ranked around 50% most hated anime character in quite a few polls. This likely overlaps with Love to Hate, so it may not be so bad.
  • Broken Base: The entire series itself. Either it's an awesome, inspired Deconstruction that gave the Super Robot Genre a breath of fresh air, or it's a nonsensical over-convoluted trainwreck with unlikeable protagonists and too much angst.
  • Complete Monster: Keel Lorenz, head of SEELE, the organization dedicated to cause the Third Impact so that all life can be assimilated into one being, with humanity as the new God of Earth. He'll bring about his apocalypse no matter how many men, women, and children at NERV he has to have killed to do so! He is notably the only noteworthy, named character to not be presented with any deep-rooted reasons or excuse for his motivations and actions... he's just a depraved Knight Templar with a Messiah Complex.
  • Crazy Awesome: In direct opposition to the above trope is the more recent trend in fanon to think of him as this. This isn't as unprecedented as one might think.
  • Crossover Ship: Shinji has been paired with Orihime. The fact they're very divisive and get flak for being 'useless' probably has something to do with it.
  • Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Many detractors of the series will point to this as being the main reason they dislike this series. The main characters are either unlikeable or have so many issues, you at best feel sorry for them. Even when it seems to be getting better for everyone, somethings knocks them back down. That's not even mentioning the many creepy and/or WTF moments the show has.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Some Evangelion fans utterly despise Asuka because out of all of Shinji's possible love interests, she's traditionally the one given the most romantic attention and therefore is perceived as the biggest threat, instead of whomever the fans in question believe to be Shinji's "true love". Such Asuka-haters may go to extraordinary lengths to not only remove her as a "threat" to their preferred romantic option, but sometimes even go as far as to punish her for the sin of "daring" to presume she's worthy of getting close to Shinji in any way, shape or form.
    • There are also other fans who give the same kind of treatment to Rei, somehow believing that she's a threat to Shinji and Asuka's implied relationship. Nevermind that she barely interacts with either character in any way that is remotely relevant for such a thing.
    • And people just LOVE to call Mana Kirishima from Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel a Relationship Sue, just because she's a possible Love Interest for Shinji in the aforementioned visual novel as well as other Neon Genesis Evangelion spin-offs she appeared in, gets a lot of spotlight in Girlfriend of Steel, is one of the few characters who are genuinely and/or openly nice to Shinji (and arguably the only one among all of Shinji's Love Interests), and is comparatively much more stable as a person than most of the cast, let alone Shinji's other non-Crack Pairing Love Interests (which, in a Dysfunction Junction cast, makes her come across as "too perfect" for some people). This was actually likely an Intended Audience Reaction in order to set the mood for the Deconstructed Trope she ends up being.
  • Ear Worm: Listening to "Cruel Angel's Thesis" is like eating Pringles: you can't do it just once.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Kaworu. From being the only person to express love for Shinji, to being the only Child who's generally happy he's well loved by the fans and popular enough to be made a major character in all subsequent spin-offs despite being just the final Monster Of the Week who appeared in only one episode of the original anime.
      • In a Newtype poll in 2010, Kaworu was ranked as the 2nd most popular male anime character of the 1990's. Yeah...
    • Kaji, to a lesser degree. Toji Suzuhara is also popular. Maybe the reason he ultimately ended up more important than his classmates Kensuke and Hikari.
    • On the villainous side, the Angel Zeruel and Ramiel are incredibly popular to this day, the former being the first to actually physically breach NERV headquarters and being a full-on Hero-Killer, and the second for its unique, utterly alien design (which only improved with the Rebuild movies).
    • Rei is fairly popular with the fandom. She even got her own game. See Moe and Misaimed Fandom below for details.
  • Epileptic Trees: Notable here because there's one very simple question in particular that's vexed fans ever since the series first aired: "Okay, if the Evas are run in part by the souls of the mothers of the pilots... who's in Unit 00, then? I mean, Rei doesn't?..." Fifteen goddamn years, and there is no definitive answer to this at all. Anno and the other writers seem to love being coy about this one, in fact. Of course, some think this means they don't really know themselves. There are two leading contenders: either Naoko Akagi or the "soul" of the first Rei that got strangled. Either one has a number of questions and inconsistencies, however.
  • Fan Dumb: Let's stop and take a look at the way Shinji Ikari is labelled whiny. Throughout the series, Shinji first heard from his dad for the first time in SEVEN YEARS to pilot this giant robot for him. When Shinji quite rationally points out that he'd have NO feasible clue as to HOW to pilot the thing, it's treated as if he is a coward. Face, meet palm. After that, he is chewed out for NOT being a coward a few episodes later, in the fight with Shamshel. Yes, he disobeyed orders, but if Shinji had retreated, then the Angel would've been left to rampage in Tokyo 3 for however long repairs would take. That he had the sheer guts to simply charge it down and kill it is treated as a BAD thing (overall, it HAS to be labelled positive, even if only from a monetary perspective). He then, over the course of the series, has to pilot the emotionally damaging machine, all to get approval from his Dad, desperate for affection - both "Well Done, Son" Guy, AND Freudian Excuse because of how little Gendo has ever shown affection. He is forced to feel Eva Unit 01 tear apart and attempt to murder one of his only two friends as if he did it himself - While he is held responsible for the injuries Toji Suzahara receives in the process, despite not being in control of Unit 01 - another marvellous gift from Badass Gendo Ikari, Shinji is AGAIN chastised for choosing to leave the Nerv base and refuse to pilot the machine again. Cue more accusations of cowardice. And some of the people in Nerv actually DO count as the good guys. And this is BEFORE you get into the mini arc with Kaworu, having to see Rei blow up Tokyo 3 and Unit 00 to save him, cause he couldn't do anything about it, and End of Evangelion itself. Of course, internet being internet, Gendo Ikari is awesome while Shinji is a Wangst machine.
    • Much more meta. Some fans sent Anno death threats (which can see in EOE) because they didn't care for how the tv show ended. Because you know, Eva is about the fans wants.
    • Fans of Evangelion on certain sites (most notably the Eva forum EvaGeeks) are incredibly hard-headed in their quest to prove Evangelion is some sort of deep philosophical masterpiece. As a result of the collective God complex those particular groups developed, they decided to go ahead and attack fans of other mecha anime purely because they don't share the same overinflated opinion of Evangelion. It contributed to the Fandom Rivalry quite a bit.
  • Fandom-Specific Plot: What if the show was a normal MECHA anime or was simply less terrifying and depressing?
    • The group finding a way to destroy all the angels without ending the world.
  • Fetish Fuel: Some people find the concept of a giant, naked, china-white, red-eyed teenager somewhat arousing despite the Fan Disservice of the fact said giant teenager has a giant forehead vagina with an eye in it, and the fact the thing falls to pieces and sprays blood everywhere...
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Historically, Asuka has been a far more popular character than Rei among Western audiences, whereas the complete opposite is true in Japan—even Word of God has commented on this. Rei is still quite popular in the US and Asuka popular in Japan as well.
  • Ho Yay: Shinji with Kaworu, which is also Foe Yay. Episode 24 basically drives it home as hard as it possibly can in under twenty-five minutes of time, what with the two explicitly stating their love for one another on separate occasions, the whole holding hands-in-the-shower scene, and Shinji almost constantly blushing and being incredibly open to Kaworu in almost all of their scenes together, Kaworu blushing and telling Shinji "I really was born to meet you"... yeah. Taken Up to Eleven in the manga. In Campus Apocalypse, it's his entire motivation. To some extent, Shinji with Kaji, although this seems to be only on Kaji's side, and it's not clear if Kaji is genuinely interested or just falling on his standard bag of tricks for how to interact with people.
    • Female example: Maya's crush on Ritsuko.
  • Incest Yay Shipping: Some Shinji/Rei fans embrace the implications.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Asuka is the most famous example, but Gendo Ikari and Ritsuko Akagi also qualify.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Shinji in Evangelion fanfiction. Let's see, he gets paired up with Asuka and Rei like always. But he also gets paired with Hikari, Mana, Maya, Mayumi, Misato and Ritsuko on the side and there are fans for these pairings with recent ones for Shinji being paired up with Mari. I don't wanna mention Kaworu's involvement... And then there's Shinji being paired up with his mom...
  • Les Yay: Maya's crush on Ritsuko.
  • Love to Hate: Gendo.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Gendo is this in the anime and manga, and somewhat a milder version on Rebuild of Evangelion. He manipulated everything and everyone from the very beginning, using and discarding people like puppets for his own ends, and planning ahead in a manner that would make the original Trope Namer proud. What's really impressive is that he managed to completely manipulate SEELE (who are an entire evil council of Manipulative Bastards). The only reason he didn't get exactly what he wanted in the end was because he didn't count on Rei actually developing human feelings and growing to care for Shinji.
      • That's also the only reason SEELE didn't get exactly what they wanted, and they arguably still did. They certainly came closer than Gendo to their ultimate goal.
    • Yui Ikari also qualifies, thanks to certain scenes during The End of Evangelion.
  • Mary Sue: This is one of the less flattering thoughts about Mari, but it's subverted. While her name is Mari and has numerous powers and abilities that none of the cast has ever hinted at, her middle name is extremely elaborate, she's an original character to a preexisting series, she is the one Shinji ends up with and she has yet to win a battle that doesn't end in her own EVA being totaled by the end of it.
  • Memetic Badass: People say Gendo's omniscient in his manipulations. He might as well be. Because of Gendo, steepled fingers have become a way to make you feel like a Magnificent Bastard. See also the "Gendo pose" on the Internet. One word: GENDOWNED. Ironic in a way, as his final words make it quite clear that he's actually an adult Shinji, terrible understanding of people and all.
  • Memetic Molester and Memetic Sex God: Gendo, also known as the Über-Pimp.
  • Never Live It Down: The way Shinji gets described sometimes, makes it sound like he all does in the series is nothing but angsting and whining ineffectively about his daddy issues, only occasionally pausing when he masturbates to the sight of comatose girls (though that last event did undeniably and understandably leave a strong impression with viewers, to put it diplomatically). But Shinji, as a matter of fact, rarely ever angsts out loud, instead being mostly just brooding and quiet. If anything, Asuka is possibly the most vocally angsty and emotionally unstable character.
    • For Kaji detractors, the moment he pinned Misato to an elevator wall and forcibly kissed her. Also his weird interactions with Shinji came off more gross than funny for some fans.
  • No Yay: Save for Kaworu, Mana, and Mari. All of Shinji's major relationships have at least one factor that stops them from being fully liked.
    • Asuka/Shinji for Shinji masturbating on her and Asuka being too mean and aggressive towards him.
    • Shinji/Rei. For some, the fact Rei is a clone of Yui is just too much for them to ship them.
    • Shinji/Misato for obvious reasons (i.e their ages).
  • Nightmare Retardant: Rei was meant to come off as an unsettling person to invoke case of Uncanny Valley. Fans instead found her to be adorable, especially with her sympathetic characterization. Likewise, Kaworu was supposed to come as disturbingly cheerful. Instead seeing him acting happy at such a dark point in the series, coupled with his friendship with Shinji, turned him into fan favorite for completely different reason.
  • Ron the Death Eater: There are a surprising large amount of fanfics out there that have Kaji cheating on Misato as the reason they originally broke up, despite extended scenes in the anime directly contradicting this. And that's saying nothing on what some fans do to Kaworu in Shinji shippings.
    • Worse are those who call Shinji a selfish emo brat and budding psychopath who values himself more than the rest of humanity so much that he brings about the end of the world, those who call Asuka an abusive narcissist with no redeeming qualities who only acts the way she does towards others just to be a bully and deserved the torment she got put through by Arael, those who demonize morally ambiguous characters like Ritsuko, Yui or Gendo while overlooking their good qualities, and those who like to paint Kaworu as a Depraved Homosexual.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Many fans think Pen Pen doesn't really fit in with Evangelion's mood.
    • Dr. Naoko Akagi gets much hate for strangling a small child to death in a jealous rage, and being a terrible mother to Ritsuko to the point where a part of her mind refuses to follow Ritsuko's self-destruct command, choosing Gendo over her own daughter!
    • Because of the deep seated level of Your Mileage May Vary when it comes to Neon Genesis Evangelion, you can and will find that every single one of the characters is considered as The Scrappy by someone somewhere.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: Pairing Kaworu with Asuka is surprisingly popular despite the fact that the latter spends the entirety of the former's screentime unconscious in a hospital room. Pairing Kaworu with Rei has much more plausibility, given their shared backgrounds and the subtle but powerful interactions they have in their limited screentime together, but is still mostly a case of this as they say all of three sentences to each other in total.
  • Too Cool to Live: Charismatic, wisecracking and perhaps the main person Shinji (and in the manga, Asuka too) can have for a good father replacement? Way to seal your fate, Kaji.
  • Ugly Cute: Believe it or not, some fans consider Sachiel to be this.
  • Uncanny Valley: Anno wrote and designed Rei to serve as this. For the major part (which is really an understatement), it completely and utterly failed. Even so, there are still people here and there who see her as creepy and inhumane. Even then, she does show emotions...
  • Unfortunate Implications: SEELE bears some uncomfortable similarities to a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (*cough*The Illuminati*cough*), so much so that some fans have suggested that their chairman Keel Lorenz (who, incidentally, is named after a real-life biologist who was briefly a member of the Nazi Party) is a representation of the "Wandering Jew", even though that theory has been Jossed.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Rei Ayanami.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Occasionally happens when Maya is mistaken for Shinji and the other way around. The source of this confusion is that, Word of God, Shinji's character design is actually a female head slapped onto a male body: he's based on Nadia, the main character from Gainax's previous series, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, just with shorter bangs and the jewelry removed. So when people accuse Maya of looking "butch" its actually the other way around: Shinji is based on a girl. Maya is just how Gainax draws generic girls.
    • It happens a lot in the Alternate Continuity Gakuen Datenroku ("Records of Heaven's Descent"), where Shinji is at his most androgynous and really looks like Maya and where it's sometimes necessary to have a close look to realize that the cute short-haired girl is actually him.
  • Wangst: This is a common complaint about the show, especially about Shinji. Of course, opinions on whether the characters' have justified reasons for their angst are subjective, like other things on the show. Shinji is a very special case when it comes to Wangst designation, in that people agree that the amount of Shinji's angst is completely justified considering what happens to him, but they still find it excessive anyway. Asuka also gets stuck with the same situation, and it seems to be one of the more inevitable consequences of having a Dysfunction Junction series with such a high Dysfunction/Instability quotient that it's a wonder any of the characters can actually function at all.
  • The Woobie: Everyone, to some extent. Except Keel Lorenz and possibly the rest of SEELE too.

About the story

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The latest in the endless stream of licensed games is a title developed by Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer7, No More Heroes) and featuring remixes of the series/movie soundtracks by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill, Shadows of the Damned). Exciting news for three different fandoms, but anybody who falls into two or more is likely rejoicing indeed.
  • Anvilicious: Did you know that people are full of ugly fears and impulses? Also, did you know that modern technologies are a mixed blessing? Or that science (and scientists) don't have the answer to everything?
    • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Both of the endings contain speeches that are meant to encourage Shinji to overcome his depression. While a speech may not be enough to save him, or anyone, they address the issue head-on.
  • Awesome Music: Enough to have its own page.
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The Jet Alone episode... never comes up again. Aside from giving a Moment of Awesome to Misato, foreshadowing the Mass-production EVA units, and filling some space, it doesn't ever show up again.
  • Broken Base: One of the few irrefutable statements that can be made about Evangelion is that it is the most divisive anime ever. Virtually everything about this series has been, is, and will be the topic of heated debate. Is [insert character here] a sympathetic character? Do the religious allusions really mean anything? Did the series change direction over its run, or was it all planned out from the beginning? Which ending is better? Are they the same, or do they conflict? Is the ADV English dub as good as, better than, or vastly inferior to the Japanese? What about the Netflix dub? Is the series itself one of the greatest in the history of anime—or even cinema—or merely one of the most overrated? Can the live-action movies be done right? Which girl would you bang? If you wonder it for even a second, there is absolutely no question that it has been the subject of fierce debate inside or outside the fandom. The fact that, one way or the other, people generally tend to form very strong opinions about this series helps cement it firmly within this trope.
  • The Chris Carter Effect: The original series hit this trope hard by completely dropping the plot for the last two episodes, but with the addition of The End of Evangelion its placement under this trope became ambiguous. Some felt that The Movie provided an adequate payoff for all, or at least most of the plot threads built up over the course of the series; others felt that it was just another cop-out.
  • Common Knowledge: No, while Hideki Anno did get tons of death threats, he didn't create EoE just to piss those people off, it was always going to happen.
  • Cult Classic: The series itself, outside of Japan, especially as the fandom has aged over time. While obscure outside of the anime fandom, it's very well-known and held up as an anime milestone (good or bad) within it. In Japan, it's about as mainstream as Star Trek or The Matrix.
  • Ear Worm: Twenty-two versions of "Fly Me To The Moon" will catch up to you. There's also "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" (the theme song), the infamous "Komm, süsser Tod" (which becomes really creepy when you consider the lyrics), and "Good or Don't Be", the instrumental version of the main theme that plays in the background of the "congratulations" scene.
  • Ending Aversion: For the half of the fans that hate The End of Evangelion and consider it to be a horribly written, pointless Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending that involves numerous Ass Pulls and Take That, Audience!. The ending is so badly received that a sizable portion of the fanfics are devoted to fans coming up with their endings, which some argue are Better Than Canon.
  • Epileptic Trees: If you thought that the show was disturbing and insane, you clearly haven't read the Fan Wank. Some of the more nagging theories floating about in the aether include:
    • Keel Lorenz is one of two things - either:
      • The Wandering Jew... despite the fact that there isn't any evidence that he's immortal or even Jewish; plus, the fact that that theory was Jossed. Or...
      • A Nazi, based on his German name, obsession with perfection, and access to the Spear of Destiny.
    • There's one very simple question in particular that's vexed fans ever since the series first aired: "Okay, if the EVAs are run in part by the souls of the mothers of the pilots... who's in Unit 00, then? I mean, Rei doesn't?..." Fifteen goddamn years and there is no definitive answer to this at all. Anno and the other writers seem to love being coy about this one, in fact. Of course, some think this means they don't really know themselves. There are two leading contenders: either Naoko Akagi or the "soul" of the first Rei that got strangled. Either one has a number of questions and inconsistencies, however.
      • What makes it even worse is the fact that Unit 00 clearly tries to kill Rei more than once. Another theory all together is that a part of Rei's soul is actually in Unit 00, and that's what allows for her memories and emotions to be transmitted from one clone to the next. And then you've got the thousands of theories coming off from that... honestly, you could analyze this anime for decades and never come up with concrete answer. What makes it even worse is that the writers know this (there's a reason why there have been so many death threats towards them)!
    • Another particularly wacky one that's been floating around for a while: the idea that Asuka is pregnant in the final scene of The End of Evangelion, as she is somehow bearing Shinji's child due to the trippy, hallucinatory sex they had during Instrumentality. In all fairness, this one has (allegedly) been hinted at by Anno, although that in itself might not be saying much.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Works particularly well. Shinji as a pathetic messiah/Jesus figure; the Jesus imagery/connotations that can be applied to Rei and Kaworu; Gendo as Judas or Satan, or alternately as the God of the Old Testament; angels/apostles; crosses... It's hard to tell whether the Evangelion verse is meant as a kind of Hell or as a purgatory, though...
  • Fandom Gank: The series' finale left vast swaths of the fandom puzzled and angry at the complete non-sequitur ending.
  • Fandom Rivalry: Given how it's one of the most (in)famous series in the anime world, it's bound to run into competition.
    • Since the 90's, several fans have started a rivalry between Evangelion and fellow Humongous Mecha series Gundam. Some people have come to believe that Evangelion is deep and philosophical while all of Gundam is childish and stupid, conveniently ignoring that Gundam also has a dark War Is Hell theme and has very serious entries like Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. While mostly discredited, this stereotype prevails to this day, much to annoyance of Gundam fans. Conversely, the opposing belief is that Gundam is Closer to Earth and more relatable while Evangelion relies too much on grotesque shock value and pretentious Faux Symbolism. This latter view holds much more of a sway over today's anime fandom.
    • Evangelion and Puella Magi Madoka Magica fans have formed rivalries over which entry is the better Genre Deconstruction (respectively of Humongous Mecha and Magical Girl). The same rivalry occurs between Evangelion fellow mecha deconstruction 'Bokurano. Although Hideaki Anno himself is a huge fan of Madoka, praising it for the same kind of ruthless Deconstruction of a popular genre that he was trying to do.
    • Evangelion and RahXephon fans are rather contentious towards each other given how much RahXephon borrows from Evangelion. This of course is rather ironic given how their respective directors are good friends who worked on many projects together.
  • Fan Dumb: Massive amounts; come in multiple different varieties.
  • Fan Hater: Ditto.
    • Most notably the mecha fanbase absolutely can't stand a sizeable portion of the Evangelion fandom that attacks other shows just because somebody dared to claim "Eva" is not the "greatest anime ever".
  • Fan Myopia: Due to the amount of critical praise the show has received, the fandom has a tendency to overestimate itself. It's gotten to the point where it's seen very frequently on this wiki.
  • Fanon: A general note: so many things about the series and its mythos are implied and left open to interpretation, rather than explicitly stated, that drawing the line between canon and fanon can in some cases be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible. As a rule of thumb: if you heard it from somebody on the Internet (including This Very Wiki and even The Other Wiki), or in a magazine, or at a convention, or even in the freaking DVD special features... don't assume it's canon. Hell, even the CREATORS tend to make contradictory statements about the series, so you might not want to trust them so much either.
    • No, Gendo and Kouzou never actually have a drinking party in the series. And no, Shinji isn't some kind of sex master, thank you very much. Also, for heaven's sake, Shinji and Kaworu never really get into a relationship in Canon. This also extends to Toui's sisters' name, Misato's father's name, Hikari's sisters' personalities, Shinji's wardrobe, and many other things. The "SEELE dudes" have been given the fanon names Teddy, Vlad, Nigel and Pierre.
    • Also worth noting: No matter how you might remember it, Gendo does not officially have a theme song.
    • In some fanfics, the angels can turn into more attractive humanoid versions of themselves.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Both the endings to the original series. The show one for being too confusing and the movie for being too WTF/brutal. Some have ditched both endings for these reasons, applying the manga's ending or simply making their own ending.
  • Fan Wank: So, so much of it.
  • Faux Symbolism: Debate rages to this day (and on this very wiki) regarding the degree to which the religious symbolism is meaningful, but at least according to one statement from assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki (whose other work you may be familiar with), most of it was thrown in simply to make the series appear "mystical".
  • Fetish Fuel: The plugsuits worn by the pilots. What's not to love about skin tight, vacuum-sealed costumes made out of what one can only assume is some kind of vinyl or latex? Asuka's in particular seems to have been designed to draw extra attention to her breasts.
  • Freud Was Right:
    • Shamshel is essentially a flying penis with tentacles.
    • Ramiel's drill. 'Nuff said.
    • Arael rapes Asuka's mind.
    • Armisael shifts from a halo-form into a single tentacle that tries to "stab" Unit-00.
  • Gannon Banned: Due to the series' aforementioned divisive nature, so much as starting a discussion thread about it on certain message boards can result in this.
  • Growing the Beard:
    • The first half of the show is a fairly straightforward (albeit highly entertaining) character-driven mecha series. Starting around Episode 14, the focus shifts decisively from the Monster of the Week battles onto the relationships, internal struggles and schemes of the characters as the pacing picks up, the action and drama become more intense, and the series gets progressively darker. It's in the latter half of the series that it develops an identity truly its own.
    • The English dub also takes some time to grow its beard. For the first few episodes, it is admittedly rather clumsy and over-the-top (albeit no more so than most dubs of its time), leading many viewers to dismiss it entirely and question why it was ever so well-loved in the first place. Around the time of Asuka's introduction, it starts noticeably improving, and the main cast (Shinji, Rei, Misato, Asuka, Gendo, Ritsuko and Kaji) become progressively better as the series goes on, until by the end of the show they are delivering the iconic, emotional performances that fans love them for.
    • Jump the Shark: For fans who preferred it as a mecha series without heavy melodrama and Mind Screw, the same turning point marks this.
  • Hell Is That Noise: The Helltrain, and the sound inside the entry plugs. Also, "Fragile Ego Boundary" (it's the music that plays during Asuka's mind-rape) and "Separation Anxiety", which heralds a Mind Screw moment whenever it shows up.
    • The hum of the Entry Plugs also gravitates from soothing to disturbing over the course of the series, as the events associated with being inside the Eva become progressively more nightmarish. Speaking of which...
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Aoba's Instrumentality scene can be downright hilarious once you realize his (English) voice actor is married to Rei's (English) voice actress. Let the Freudian subtext wash over you.
    • At the end of the DVD Commentary for The End of Evangelion, Jason C. Lee and Taliesin Jaffe make a crack about the (un)likelihood of Eva 2: Electric Boogaloo. 10 years later, guess what one of the fastest-growing fan theories about Rebuild of Evangelion is...
  • Internet Backdraft: Evangelion generates so much heated debate that some forums forbade launching threads about it.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks
  • Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
  • Misaimed Fandom: ...Though what part of the fandom is misaimed is up for tremendous debate.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • While the Human Instrumentality Project is twisted enough, Keel Lorenz and the old men of SEELE truly cross the line in The End of Evangelion when, having deemed NERV and the Eva Units past the point of use to them, they send the JSSDF to slaughter everyone at NERV Base, and also send in their own mass-produced EVA Units to kill Asuka, a 14 year old child, in a merciless and gruesome manner.
    • Gendo Ikari, in all versions of the story, becomes virtually irredeemable when he activates the Dummy Plug System on EVA Unit 01, turning it into The Berserker and forcing his son Shinji to completely crush Unit 03 with his friend still inside (Toji in the anime and manga, Asuka in Rebuild 2.0), all while Shinji is screaming and pleading for his father to stop making him fight against his will and Gendo can clearly hear him over the transmission but does nothing.
    • Naoko Akagi was a real piece of work to start with, but when she strangled the first Rei Ayanami, a small child, to death with her bare hands, in a jealous rage all because Rei had repeated unflattering words about Naoko that Gendo had said in front of her, she went over the line. And she seemed to recognize it, given what came next.
    • It's debatable if the Angels are even capable of crossing the MEH given their nature, but the last couple of Angels do some downright unforgivable things: Arael's notorious Mind Rape of Asuka in Episode 22, Amishael's sexual penetration, Mind Screw Breaking Speech, and destruction of Rei II and Unit 0 in Episode 23, and Adam/Lilith/Giant Naked Rei utterly breaking Shinji's psyche to the point where he sets Instrumentality in motion in The End of Evangelion. And VERY arguably, Tabris/Kaworu befriending Shinji despite knowing that one would have to kill the other eventually played a big part in making that last one possible.
    • SEELE deliberately engineered Second Impact by tricking the Katsuragi Expedition into waking Adam in order to fulfil their plans. Or to put it differently: SEELE wilfully orchestrated a massive disaster that inflicted horror, chaos, and misery on a global scale for years and ended up causing a death-toll of in the ballpark of 3 billion people, while gambling the rest of Earth's population in a war against the Angels, who by the by had an Instant-Win Condition on their side, just so they could have a shot at achieving godhood.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: The characteristic "ping" of an AT field, regardless of whether it's used by friend or foe.
  • Narm:
    • Most of the series's more intense moments are so extremely serious that they will either come off as utterly spellbinding or hilariously over-the-top, depending on the viewer. Even many fans who adore the show agree that its dramatic extremes and rampant weirdness make it ripe for lampooning.
    • It's not too difficult to stomach the declining animation and artwork in the final two episodes if you tell yourself it fits the psychological themes. However, sometimes the sketches are so simple that Rei looks like she's incredibly exasperated... this face, basically: ¬_¬
  • Narm Charm: Even some of the weaker moments in the ADV English dub have their fans, such as the now-memetic "EVERY SINGLE MISSILE HIT THE TARGET!!!!"
  • Never Live It Down: Evangelion has the reputation of "that one robot show that nobody understands." In reality, it's pretty easy to understand on the surface, with the confusion really only coming in towards the very end. It's when you analyze everything going on below the surface and all the symbolism, themes, and ideas that it gets harder to understand, not helped by the fact that supplementary material from the creators and literal "manuals" were only released in Japan.
  • Nightmare Retardant: Rei was meant to fit in the Uncanny Valley as a deconstruction of the Moe archetype. Apparently, someone in the animation department didn't get the memo, since half the time she's utterly adorable.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Good gravy. The show's a cracking good watch, even today, but to a modern viewer some of it might seem pretty cliche, (Rei in particular). However, you have to remember that everybody copied this show like mad after it aired in 1995. Strange, godlike robots, everyone having emotional problems, conspiracies within conspiracies, noodle-like protagonists... for anime, it all really did start here.
  • So Cool Its Awesome: For fans of the original anime, it's up there with Cowboy Bebop as a contender for best anime of all time.
  • Squick:
    • The End of Evangelion pegs the Squickometer multiple times; heck, even Shinji has been touched (ahem) by the disease. There's also pretty much everything Gendo does, especially in The End of Evangelion.
    • The whole Shinji-Rei relationship is also some subtext for you.
    • The manga goes extremely far in making all the Freud Was Right explicit when Shinji, trapped in the EVA, is "tempted" by a seductive apparition of naked Yui, or rather Unit 01's Angelic side in her guise. Even for Evangelion, that scene was seriously disturbing.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: A lot of the changes in the manga have gotten this reaction, to say nothing of Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • This Is Your Premise on Drugs: As anything by Gainax usually is.
  • True Art Is Angsty: Many people who love the original Neon Genesis Evangelion cite this as one of the series' strengths, and use it as a point against the first two Rebuild of Evangelion movies due to their lighter and saner tone. Not to mention haters who feel Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.
  • True Art Is Incomprehensible: It's also been accused of having this mindset, particularly from haters with the opposite mindset.
  • Unfortunate Implications: The Hate Dumb's reaction to most of the cast says bad things about the stigmas of mental disorders.
    • Divisive among the fanbase, but any scene Shinji/Rei ship tease knowing Rei is a clone of Shinji's mom.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: According to Word of God, the target demographic for the series is children and adolescents. Many people—not least among them Japanese parents—have found this claim a bit hard to swallow. Some people suggest that the show is similar to a seinen series in terms of graphic content, although Evangelion is far from unique in this regard... other teen-oriented shonen franchises such as Death Note and Attack on Titan have similarly mature and dark content, and teenage anime fans are quite often familiar with the level of violence and depth shown in series such as Evangelion.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?: The director actually researched some academic psychology, and when a man climbing out of a depression reads a psychology textbook you know he's paying attention. Consequently, its usage is fairly accurate in the show, although it suffers from All Psychology Is Freudian. For example, one of the episodes, "Oral Stage", is named after one of Freud's psychosexual development phases. Many of the music titles derive from mainstream psychology (e.g. "Borderline Case", "Separation Anxiety", "Mother Is the First Other", "A Fragile Ego Border").
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Cross-shaped blasts, and the Judeo-Christian (often fitting) names, to name a few.
  • What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: More likely is that series was made because Hideaki Anno wasn't taking his meds.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Badass?: Shinji.
  • Woolseyism: Ample amounts: see the entry on the Woolseyism page for Anime.
    • A somewhat unusual case of Woolseyisms being enforced by the original creators: Anno himself oversaw the series' translation and dubbing, and personally selected translations for some of the terms in the series. These include the Angels (shito, which would ordinarily translate to "messenger", whereas tenshi would mean "angel"); the Human Instrumentality Project, more literally translated as "Human Complementation Project", was translated as such as a Shout-Out to the writings of Cordwainer Smith; the English episode titles (see Shout-Out entry) were in most cases completely changed from the Japanese originals, initially to titles of songs from the series' soundtrack, but later to original titles (e.g. "Splitting of the breast"); and of course the title of the series, which is a pretty accurate translation from the Japanese... to Greek, not English.
      • On the Angels thing, the English word "angel" is derived from the Latin "Angelus", which in turn derives from the Greek "angelos". Both of which mean messenger...
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