Neon Genesis Evangelion: Difference between revisions

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In the year 2000, a global cataclysm known as Second Impact changed the entire world. The event annihilated Antarctica (which caused global flooding), shifted the planet's axis (which caused global climate change), led to half Earth's human population dying, and resulted in geopolitical unrest. Fifteen years later, fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari finds himself summoned to the fortress city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo for a single purpose: to pilot for a [[Humongous Mecha]] called an Evangelion and battle physics-defying beings known as Angels, which threaten to destroy what remains of humanity (though the show does not explain exactly how they plan to do so, and for what reason, until much later). This relatively standard [[Humongous Mecha]] premise gradually transforms into a dramatic character study rife with psychological analysis, religious references, genre [[Deconstruction]], social commentary and exploration of themes such as societal alienation, depression and the repressive pain of human subjectivity. Prior to ''Evangelion'', people considered this approach unprecedented and revolutionary—and after ''Evangelion'''s runaway success, [[Follow the Leader|numerous other anime producers created shows with a similar approach]] (with varying degrees of success).

[[Netflix]] released the series for their platform on June 21, 2019, with a different translation and re-recorded English dub.

 

 

'''Other Adaptations'''

 

* The manga version, written and drawn by character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, which tells the same story as the anime (albeit with a number of changes)... and is a '''glaring''' modern example of [[Schedule Slip]] (see below for details).

* ''Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel'' (also known as ''Iron Maiden''), a [[Visual Novel]] in the style of an episode. This adaptation featured [[Canon Foreigner]] Mana Kirishima, who went on to reappear some years later in ''Shinji Ikari Raising Project''.

* ''[[Shinji Ikari Raising Project]]'', another [[High School AU]] manga: this one is based on a video game of the same name. Six words: [[Lighter and Fluffier]] '''and''' [[Unwanted Harem]].

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse|Neon Genesis Evangelion Campus Apocalypse]]'' (a.k.a. ''Gakuen Datenroku''), another [[High School AU]] manga: this one involves a Catholic school setting, the Evangelions as [[Empathic Weapon]]s instead of actual mechas, aspects of Norse mythology, and [[Puppeteer Parasite|body-swapping Angels]].

* ''[[Petit Eva: Evangelion@School]]: Evangelion@School'', a [[Super-Deformed]] comedic [[Parody]] which has most of the principal cast (including Unit 01 and three Reis at once) in silly hijinks around the high school. Can be found [http://www.evangelion.co.jp/petit_eva/ here].

* ''[[RE-TAKE]]'', one of the most notable [[Doujin]] manga in the ''Evangelion'' fandom.

* ''[[Adeptus Evangelion]]'', a fanmade [[Tabletop Game]] that uses the rules of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' game ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' as a template and features an [[Alternate Universe]] as a setting.

* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]:

** Rei Ayanami is basically a walking satire of [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]. Not a subversion, but [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] taken to a ridiculous, logical extreme. [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]s are supposed to be stoic and selfless: Rei is so stoic she has difficulty conceptually grasping emotions, and she's so selfless that she's willing to needlessly sacrifice herself on suicide missions.

* [[Yandere]]: The Akagis. Like mother, like daughter.

 

** "I'm home." "Welcome home."

* [[Ascended Fridge Horror]]: ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' takes the idea of a child as the pilot of a [[Humongous Mecha]] and strips it down to spotlight the fact that these shows are basically about [[Child Soldiers]]. [[Mind Screw|We think]].

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]:

** This applies to pretty much every bit of technology NERV owns.

* [[Baka]]: Part of Asuka's catchphrase. According to her, Shinji, Kensuke and Toji are also the "stupid trio": this is rendered as "the Three Stooges" in the dub.

* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: According to the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is, however, an interesting interplay between destiny and [[Gambit Pileup|human will]].

* [[BFG]]: Any EVA gun, but especially the Positron Rifle, which is the size of a train and utilizes the entire power output of an industrialized country.

* [[Big No]]: Asuka, {{spoiler|at the end of her [[Mind Rape]]}}.

* [[Big "Shut Up!"]]: In a funny scene in Episode 16.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Episode 24. The Angels are gone and mankind is safe... {{spoiler|but Tokyo-3 has been ruined; Kaji is dead; Toji is a cripple; Kensuke, Hikari, and their families have moved away, taking Pen-Pen with them; Asuka is catatonic; Ritsuko is in prison; Misato is a nervous wreck; Rei is [[We Have Reserves|"the third one"]]; and Shinji is utterly broken psychologically after having to kill the only person who has offered him unconditional love in the course of the whole series}}. And hey, don't worry! [[It Gets Worse]]!

* [[Description Cut]]/[[Ironic Echo Cut]]: Episode 11 sets up long chains of both. After all, the whole point of the episode is how the characters, while isolated by a power outage, still manage to think the same. The ''Death'' segment of ''Death & Rebirth'' is practically nothing but these.

* [[Determinator]]: [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] by Asuka, since playing it straight leads to her breakdown when she is no longer able to keep up.

* [[Downer Ending]]:

** Episode 26, depending on interpretation, especially seeing as, whatever the hell happened, at least Shinji ends it finally happy. Played ''very'' straight by ''The End of Evangelion'' though: although a brighter future is possible, the film ends with Shinji weeping.

* [[He's Back]]: Played straight with Shinji; subverted with Asuka, who {{spoiler|comes out of her coma, but simply dies fighting 5 minutes later}}.

* [[Hidden Eyes]]: Shinji and Asuka on various occasions; Shinji's uncle, aunt and bullies in the manga. Yui does this a few times too.

* [[High-Pressure Blood]]: The Angels, and Unit 01 in the first episode, spray enormous fountains of blood that can literally paint the town red. {{spoiler|The Rei/Lilith hybrid actually paints a stripe of blood on ''the moon'' when she dies}}. Justified, perhaps, when you consider how much blood there is in something taller than office buildings and what's needed to move it around, and when you consider how much pressure is required to pump blood in an organism that size.

* [[Hint Dropping]]: Asuka does this towards Shinji a couple of times. Since Shinji is too socially inept and unsure of himself to pick up on these attempts, this also fuels much of Asuka's anger towards him. Ironically, her anger towards him is also a big part of what keeps Shinji from realizing how she feels.

* [[Marshmallow Hell]]: Misato accidentally does this to Shinji when they, along with Asuka, Toji, Kensuke and Kaji, are stuck in a too-small elevator.

* [[May–December Romance]]: At the very least, toyed with.

* [[Million-to-One Chance]]: Ritsuko likes to predict that there's a 0.000000001% chance of Misato's plan succeeding, with lower probabilities as the series progress. There's also a subversion since {{spoiler|the chances were actually 100% each time, as the happenings ride on a pretty accurate prophecy-based schedule}}.

* [[Mind Screwdriver]]: Yes, this is what ''The End of Evangelion'' was meant to be, YMMV on how well it succeeds.

* [[Wall Slump]]: {{spoiler|Misato}}'s death in ''The End of Evangelion'', where she leans against the wall to hide her mortal injuries after being shot from Shinji, then collapses against it when he leaves.

* [[The Watson]]: Sometimes Maya, sometimes Misato, sometimes Shinji. Actually, so few characters know what's ''really'' going on that they ''all'' have their Watson moments.

* [[We Have Reserves]]: {{spoiler|The Reiquarium}}. Also, {{spoiler|all of Shinji's classmates are potential EVA pilots}}.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Shinji is a textbook case. Asuka is arguably a closet "well done daughter girl".

* [[Working with the Ex]]: This applies to Kaji and Misato, who was none-too-pleased when she found out that Kaji would be staying with NERV after delivering Asuka and Unit 02, and lashed out at him at nearly every chance she got afterwards. The bickering led Ritsuko to comment that they sounded like an old married couple.

* [[Yank the Dog's Chain]]: Shinji, over and over and over...

 

== Themes ==

* [[Covers Always Lie]]: A mild example at the back cover of ''The End Of Evangelion'''s DVD: Toji and Kaworu are shown wearing plug suits, even though Toji does not appear at all, and Kaworu only at the very end of the series.

* [[Cut Short]]: Not the series itself: controversial as it is, the TV ending does wrap things up pretty neatly, if only from a thematic standpoint. Rather, in the original cut of ''Death & Rebirth'', the "Rebirth" episode just... ends. Right in the middle. This effectively pissed off a number of Japanese fans who saw the movie in theaters (and Western fans who bought the VHS/DVD) expecting the final conclusion to the series, only to find out that they had to wait for ''The End of Evangelion''.

* [[Depending on the Artist]]: The show's artwork and animation quality varied a good bit from episode to episode. For example, Episode 19 has noticeably thicker lineart in close-ups, Episode 16's coloring is somewhat lighter and saturated, and Episode 9 brought us a [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|very bishie Shinji]]. Episode 11, having been animated with help from Ghibli, has received some flak for the significant difference in art style. Also, due to the budget shrinkage that led to, well, [[Gainax Ending|you know]], much of episodes 21-24 needed to be redrawn for DVD, leading to further variation in the styles. Also, see [[Off-Model]] below.

** For some reason, whether Misato has lipstick on or not rotates, sometimes several times in the same scene.

** The entire work as a whole though averts this trope most particularly. A lot of the science end of things are skewed and fantastic, but still fundamentally based fairly religiously in reality. This has the added effect of making a lot of the neurological disturbances the pilots go through all the more horrifying for anyone with a running knowledge of human physiology.

*** Furthermore, for as much scrutiny as the use of religious symbols in the show has come under, there's no denying that Anno did his homework, as the series manages to work in numerous allusions not only to mainstream Judaism and Christianity, but Kabbalah, Gnosticism and even more obscure Jewish and Christian apocrypha that many Jews and Christians themselves would not likely be familiar with (e.g. the Chamber of Gaf). It is the application, not the authenticity, of the symbolism that generates controversy.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The less said about the points related to [[Freud Was Right]], the better.

* [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]]:

** Shinji is essentially a [[Gender Flip]] of [[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water|Nadia]] (see [http://wiki.evageeks.org/Image:Sadamoto_nadia-shinji.jpg here] for notes from [[Word of God|Sadamoto himself]]). He was described by Sadamoto as looking like "a boyish young girl" (more evidence [http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd325/Synapsidia/EVA/048272545b0140dfe444054e96364e821.jpg here]), and was made as such to distinguish him from the mecha heroes at that time. Shinji's feminine facial features are brought up by Misato in the first episode, and during the eighth and ninth episodes, he's made to look like a girl from nothing more than [http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd325/Synapsidia/EVA/FemmeShin1.jpg a wardrobe change].

** One of the official games that had its scripts designed from interviews with Anno also had Fuyutsuki say that Shinji looked just like Yui and then [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r26VFYHj1dY&feature=related crossdress Shinji] for the role all while saying how beautiful "she" looks; Fuyutsuki's actions soon become overtly sexual.

* [[Easter Egg]]:

** ''The End of Evangelion'' has an awesome one. Early in the movie, when Misato checks the computers, the screen with orange text has her saying "So that's what happened during Second Impact." However, the text is in fact a brief bio of [[Studio Gainax]] with IMPORTANT-LOOKING, ALL-CAPS phrases like SECOND IMPACT and ADAM inserted at random.

* [[Expy]]:

* [[Fan Disservice]]: Many instances, with Shinji {{spoiler|masturbating over a comatose Asuka}} and the more bizarre aspects of {{spoiler|the Rei/Lilith hybrid}} in ''The End of Evangelion'' being two of the most extreme, as well as the {{spoiler|"naked Yui tempting Shinji" sequence}} in the manga.

* [[Fandom Gank]]: Those fans who gave Anno and Gainax in general the benefit of the doubt will consider the ending of the series an example of this trope instead of a [[Gainax Ending]].

* [[Fan Service]]: Every character below the age of 31. The anime actually lampshaded this in each of the "next episode" previews, as Misato always promised "more fanservice!". Ironically, episodes that Misato promised would have fanservice, always seemed to have ''less'' than episodes where no such promise was made in the previews.

* [[Filk Song]]: Everything by Fight Star. Also "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0j5XWnb8aE A Thousand Angels]" and "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I9XkHgveyg With Me Now]" by Rachel Macwhirter.

* [[Gag Dub]]: ''[[Evangelion: ReDeath]]'', which is notable not only for becoming one of the first highly popular and [[Memetic Mutation|meme-spawning]] [[Gag Dub]]s in Western fandom, but for doing so years before the genesis of [[YouTube]] and the [[Abridged Series]] phenomenon.

* [[Gainaxing]]: Especially Misato.

* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: The title itself is gratuitous Greek which would translate into English as "New Beginning Gospel" or "Gospel of the New Genesis" which may be more appropriate {{spoiler|considering the way Shinji and Asuka are left at the end of ''The End of Evangelion''}}...

* [[Gratuitous German]]: ''Gehirn'' = brain, ''Nerv'' = nerve, ''Seele'' = soul. Also, Asuka's dub dialogue features the occasional German word or phrase, and she has an entire conversation in German on the phone in one episode.

* [[If You Can Read This...]]: The show's scripts are periodically used as dummy texts.

** On the other hand, in one episode, freeze-framing the show during a particular scene will reveal a shockingly detailed account (written in [[Surprisingly Good English]], no less) of the official cover story for Third Impact.

* [[Psycho Strings]]: Unit 00's [[Leitmotif]] and its derivative "The Beast". ''The End of Evangelion'' also has the track "The End of Midsummer".

* [[Public Domain Soundtrack]]: The series uses various pieces of classical music for half or more of its soundtrack. The frequency of classical music appearing goes up as things [[It Got Worse|get worse]]. Also when they started to run out of money.

* [[Rewatch Bonus]]: This series has a very dense plot. If you only watched it once, you probably missed something. Watch it again, and you'll notice a lot of foreshadowing.

* [[Rousseau Was Right]]: Hidden so carefully under a thick veil of cynicism that you'd be forgiven for missing it entirely. But at the end of the day, all of the characters — {{spoiler|even Gendo and SEELE}} — want nothing more than to be loved and accepted, and their actions, however twisted, all stem from their fear and misunderstanding of themselves and others. See the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]] entry below for more details.

** The American pilots who fly Unit 03 to Japan and NERV employees heard during its activation test speak perfect, unaccented English accompanied by Japanese subtitles. This is because Gainax actually had an American in-house translator Michael House working for them at the time of the show's production, and used him to voice the roles, [http://www.evamonkey.com/platinum-booklets/episode-commentaries-14-20.php along with two of his friends].

** Several vocal pieces in ''The End of Evangelion'' soundtrack, namely "Thanatos ~ If I Can't Be Yours", "Escape to the Beginning", "Komm, Susser Tod" and the unused "Everything You've Ever Dreamed" are performed in English, by British and American singers, with natural-sounding lyrics. ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' does this for numerous tracks, as well.

* [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]]: Not just music. Sometimes the characters will be watching a movie or TV show, or listening to the radio, or, hell, really any indirect dialogue, and what is being said always relates to [[Dysfunction Junction|their mindsets]], their situations, [[A World Half Full|their world at large]], or [[Contemplate Our Navels|philosophic inquiries]] that appear later in the series. For example, in Episode 4 "Hedgehog's Dilemma", after Shinj slips out of his [[Ten-Minute Retirement]], he and Misato stare at each other at the train station right after his train leaves. The woman at the intercom then says:

{{quote|'''Woman''': If you are accompanied by small children, please keep them close.}}

* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: Whenever "The Beast II" plays, something's going to die.

* [[Theme Naming]]:

** Episodes 18 to 24, each to varying degrees.

** To a lesser degree, Episode 14. Even though half of it is a clip show and nothing particularly dramatic happens, it's the point at which the show begins to switch tracks from a by-the-numbers mecha show to a bizarre [[Mind Screw]] with existentialist undertones. Notably, this is the first episode with a mind trip sequence, as well as hints about the connection between the pilots and their EVAs and the first appearance of the [[Plot Coupon|Lance of Longinus]].

* [[Writer on Board]]: ''The End of Evangelion'' apparently subverts this: [[Word of God|Anno]] has made several statements (supported by [[Foreshadowing|hints in the TV series]]) to the effect that it was the planned ending, but there are still fans who say otherwise. A lot of people believe that the hospital scene is nothing but this.

* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]: Misato and Kaji (dark purple and sorta greenish respectively): both can be argued to be stylized blacks. Rei and Kaworu are subversions: her blue hair and his gray hair are side effects of {{spoiler|her being partly cloned from Lilith and him being the 17th Angel}}.

 

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