Synopsis: In the near future, humanity is threatened by aliens called “Angels”. To fight the Angels, mankind has created biological constructs called “Eva’s” that function as very maneuverable mechas. Unfortunately, these Eva’s are limited by their own power supply and that only a few individuals in the world are able to pilot them. One of these people, Shinji Ikari, is called to pilot Eva 01 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari (who happens to be leading Earth’s Defenses) and is pushed to fight the Angel menace. However, as Shinji continues to pilot his Eva it becomes clear not everything is as it seems. What mysteries lie in the construction of the Eva’s? How did Shinji’s Mother die? Why are the Angels attacking humanity? And who, or what, is the very distant Eva Pilot Rei Ayanami?
Pros:
- Some visually stunning scenes. The “End of Evangellion”, particularly, had some of the most artistically brilliant scenes ever animated.
- Great action. The mecha fights in Evangellion were never alike and each fight was unique in it’s own way. The fights themselves linked to the main theme or plot of that episodes.
- There is a real sense of tension and danger when the main characters go out and fight. No character feels safe and the show maintains a feeling that everyone on the show is in real danger and that many of them may not survive.
Cons
- The plot makes no sense.
- There are a LOT of loose ends in the series that are never tied up. Fans argue that the endings the left open to interpretation, and while it’s good to leave some things to the audience’s imagination, Evangellion leaves far too much open.
For People that Liked: Gundam Wing, The ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Final Fantasy 7, The Evangellion Reboot Series
Things to Know: It’s not a show about god or actual angels. While there is a lot of Christian imagery on the show, there is fairly little actual commentary on religion.
Overall: It’s one of the genre’s defining shows and is a solid anime worth seeing for the art and characters alone. Just don’t expect any resolution outside of the one you make up.
The Show That Changed the Genre
Way back in the year 1995, anime had gotten into a rut. Goku would once again triumph over impossible odds, Gundam Zero would defeat it’s enemies, and Sailor Moon would triumph over evil with sparkles and love. In short, things stank.
Then writer and director Hideaki Anno decided they were going to do something different. They created a mecha show where the mecha’s were new, unreliable, technologies as opposed to perfect machines of war. Writing that featured an abusive father with a god complex named Gendo Ikari and his mentally unstable son Shinji Ikari. A series that began as a happy show about high school students that pilot giant robots that quickly descended into being a dark exploration of the human psyche. Characters that had real flaws and could be killed off or go insane at any moment. Controversial topics such as incest, madness, child abuse, abandonment, Oedipus Complex, suicide, homosexual relationships with aliens that plan the destruction of humanity, pedophilia, human cloning, genetic engineering, human evolution, and post apocalyptic themes. This was a show that didn’t hold anything back. And by the logic of the time, the show should have been a complete failure. Instead it became a runaway hit.
The genius of Evangellion was that it thrived on the flaws of it’s characters as opposed to their strengths. Shinji Ikari, and emo whiny brat, becomes a sympathetic character during the series. Both Rei, a near emotionless and submissive girl, and Asuka, a hot headed ultra aggressive German girl, both became sex symbols. The thing was that this was a time when Anime was polluted by perfect people with super powers that didn’t have any real problems other then “How will I defeat today’s impossibly difficult to defeat villain” or? “How do I get the girl of my dreams this episode?”. By Evangellion using characters that were truly flawed and had real problems like “My mother went insane when I was a little girl and I found her body after she committed suicide”, the characters became more realistic and sympathetic to audiences. This happened to work for the series giant mecha fights.
The Evas in Evangellion distinguish themselves from 90% of the other mechas in the genre by being presented as an unstable and dangerous technology. The Evas built as a walker because they are grown and a biological construct rather then a mechanical one, they are handicapped by a power source that only allows them to operate for 5 minutes without an external supply, and only a few individuals in the world are capable of piloting them. Because of these design flaws, Evangellion’s giant mecha fights do not come off as Gundam Zero effortlessly destroying his enemies, but as a desperate struggle where humanity is fighting a losing war. These battles are furthered by the fact that the show was willing to put it’s main characters in real jeopardy and that the battles with the Angels had real consequences. Fights with Angels result in characters being wounded, dying, or going completely insane, making each battle more than a simple “giant robot fight.”
Now if Only The Plot Made Any Sense (Some Spoilers)
Despite all the praise I give the show, I keep coming to the unfortunate conclusion that the plot makes no sense. And it’s not that it’s not explained or that the show is ment to be open to explanation- it’s that even the parts that are explained to the audience make no sense. Either the audience has to accept that the characters of Evangellion are insane morons, or that the writers of Evangellion didn’t know what to do or how to actually end things.
Take the SEELE and NERV conflict for example. NERV is a subsection of SEELE that is under Gendo Ikari’s control. SEELE is a world wide conspiracy that wants to bring about the “Human Instrumentality Project”, a goal which would combine all the souls and consciousness of humanity into one super being.
Ok that’s great, they’re nuts, cool, I completely follow that part.
But then Gendo Ikari, the leader of NERV, has a different agenda that SEELE doesn’t like. Ikari doesn’t seem to like SEELE’s plan to combine all the souls of humanity into one super being and has his own plan. At times it looks like Ikari is an anti-hero that is planning to destroy SEELE when he says lines like “Death is No Beginning.” This causes SEELE (who is the conspiracy that created NERV) to plot against NERV (SEELE’s subordinates), and for NERV to plot against SEELE (NERV’s Boss).
Still with me here? Got that two parts of the same organization are fighting each other? Ok, good.
Then at long last, the audience discovers Ikari’s secret plan that SEELE hates… it’s that Ikari wants to push forward “The Human Instrumentality Project” just like SEELE does… just somehow it’s different from SEELE’s although it’s not explained how… or why Gendo wanted to have his own special “Human Instrumentality Project”.
Some friends argue to me that it’s a conflict of religions or ideology and SEELE just can’t stand someone to do something different even if it will have the same results… but it’s made clear several times that SEELE doesn’t care how we all merge into one super being so long as it happens. I guess you could argue that he wanted to somehow use the project to make himself a god (his plan in the manga), but then why do his subordinates support him in his quest for godhood? Really, who’d want this guy as the god of all mankind? The sad but logical explanation is that the writers didn’t know why Ikari and SEELE were fighting, just that they wanted a big backstabbing conspiracy so they just hoped the audience would accept it.
Don’t believe me? Well consider this: Why is Gendo Ikari such a ladies man?
No, I’m absolutely serious here. This man shows no redeeming qualities throughout the series. He is portrayed as being completely selfish, mentally unstable, emotionally distant, arrogant, and a sociopath. And he doesn’t hide these qualities, he treats everyone like they are pawns in his personal chess game- yet he is shown constantly to be able to seduce women during the show. I guess the audience is just expected to accept that there is something that make women like him. Maybe he’s just really good in bed or he got his hands on love potion No. 9. Or maybe the writers wanted to shock the audience more and figured if that their audience would accept anything at this point. Who knows?
And that is my real problem with Evangellion. Nothing is explained. We are just asked to accept it and interpret it ourselves. Now it’s good when writers don’t spoon feed their audience with what is happening and leave parts open to interpretation, but Evangellion goes too far for my tastes. Little of anything in the show is explained in any of it’s endings and there is no resolution other then what fans make for themselves. And as for the endings, all of them (three different endings in total) are more artistic renditions of Hideaki Anno’s decent into madness then conclusions to the story.
And People Love That it Makes No Sense
As much as I hate the ending, it is why fans of Evangellion enjoy the series so much. It’s a wonderful piece of modern art that allows the observer to interpret it however they want, and it’s fans appreciate the artistic rendition of it. And despite my misgivings about it not having a resolution that I accept, it’s a solid series worth watching from start to the finish of all three of it’s endings. Even if you are watching the OVA’s like Evangellion 1.11 now, it is still worth looking this classic up and witness a piece of anime history.
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Victor Vargas is the manager and editor of Anime-Alberta. He's the former chair of Animethon 16 & Animethon 15 as well as a former president of BAKA (The Banzai Anime Klub of Alberta)