"The meat of Evangelion, for which these elements are mostly trappings, is in the psychological complexity of its characters and its philosophical examination of the nature of relationships and the self. Structured around eschatological Judeo-Christian imagery and a Freudian mother-worship of religious proportions, Evangelion takes us on a nightmarish ride of existential angst and brutal physical violence, climaxing in an elaborate fantasy of return to an idyllic, primal state of oneness. Through this lurid mix of confession and spectacle is woven a complex examination of apocalypse and self-definition, a death-rebirth narrative that consciously exists in the shadow of Hiroshima."

"In Japan, Evangelion is an enormous content and merchandise industry with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Images of its biomechanical Eva robots are on everything from coffee mugs to smartphones and even airplane wraps."

"The child soldiers of Evangelion are a fairly direct embodiment of the "kids are our future" axiom: By accident of biology or design, they're the only ones capable of piloting the only devices capable of staving off Armageddon."

"When monstrous angels invade the world, the children of Evangelion are recruited to pilot the giant cyborg Evangelion units against them. Most are reluctant soldiers, recruited just as reluctantly by their adult supervisors."

"Anno's project is a postmodernist retelling of the Genesis myth, as his series title implies—Neon Genesis Evangelion. It is a new myth of origin, complete with its own deluge, Armageddon, apocalypse and transcendence."

"Rei is someone who is aware of the fact that even if she dies, there’ll be another to replace her, so she doesn’t value her life very highly. Her presence, her existence—ostensible existence—is ephemeral. She’s a very sad girl. She only has the barest minimum of what she needs to have. She’s damaged in some way; she hurts herself. She doesn’t need friends.."

"I’m laying in bed in my hotel room in Japan. At the time there is no Netflix, no cable, no nothing — just three channels playing game shows. All of the sudden there were these five kids in spandex fighting monsters. Don’t ask me why, but I fell in love. It was so campy!"