Neon Genesis Evangelion

"Evangelion is my life and I have put everything I know into this work. This is my entire life. My life itself."

"I wrote about myself. My friend lent me a book on psychological illness and this gave me a shock, as if I finally found what I needed to say."

"Evangelion is like a puzzle, you know. Any person can see it and give his/her own answer. In other words, we're offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his/her own world. We will never offer the answers, even in the theatrical version. As for many Evangelion viewers, they may expect us to provide the 'all-about Eva' manuals, but there is no such thing. Don't expect to get answers by someone. Don't expect to be catered to all the time. We all have to find our own answers."

"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.."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"Neon Genesis Evangelion imaginatively reinterprets elements of Christian eschatology and Jewish mysticism and combines them with Oedipal and Mother Goddess imagery to construct a painful but ultimately liberative narrative of personal and social self-revelation."

"...the series questions the construction of human identity [. . .] in relation to the nature of reality itself. Providing more riddles than solutions, the series takes the viewer on a journey into both inner and outer reality before ultimately leaving both its characters and its audience floating in a sea of existential uncertainty."

"The basic concept is simple: Huge bio-machines called Evangelions, or Evas, piloted by specially recruited teenagers, battle monstrous giants known as Angels that are wreaking havoc on the human survivors of a global calamity. However, Anno and his team at the Gainax animation studio created a world highly developed not only visually — the mechanics of the Evas in particular were so realistic that they seemed less drawn than designed — but also narratively, emotionally and spiritually. The Eva pilots — especially the troubled, sensitive Shinji, whose coldly calculating dad had developed the Evas — were strongly individualistic types whose turbulent lives were as much a part of the series’ appeal as its titanic Eva-versus-Angel battles. The show also incorporated a melange of religious symbolism, and a wealth of psychological and philosophical themes reflecting Anno’s own investigations and beliefs, as well as his long struggle with depression."

"Oh this is... this is nice, this is the end, okay. Where exactly am I? Oh grea… here's the song, oh good. Um, there's some things that are still unresolved here, guys! How do I get home? What do I eat? Was Rei my-my mom? Or a clone? Or, hell, was this all in my mind? Wha-what's an EVA? Is that sort of a Freudian thing? Er… um Am I real? Oh, hell, does a bus run through here? I mean, I'd like to go home now but um… Oh God… Where's home? Okay, okay, okay. I mustn't run away, I mustn't run... Okay I got that, good, okay. Now, if I were to run away, let's analyze that: Where the fuck would I go? I'm on a big blue ball! Uhh, is this how you end the series? I mean, is this where we go from here? Okay, the movie better sure as Hell make up for this, I'm telling you right now, 'cause I'm stuck in Nowhereland! You ran outta ink too, didn't you, ya bastards?"

"I didn't mind it. The schedule was an utter disaster and the number of cels plummeted, so there were some places where unfortunately the quality suffered. However, the tension of the staff as we all became more desperate and frenzied certainly showed up in the film ... About the time that the production system was completely falling apart, there were some opinions to the effect that, "If we can't do satisfactory work, then what's the point of continuing?" However, I didn't feel that way. My opinion was, "Why don't we show them the entire process including our breakdown."

"There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice."

"Often anime are perceived as shallow children's films punctuated by the occasional adult-themed anime, centered around violence or sex. One of the many elements of Neon Genesis Evangelion that sets it apart is that it is aimed at children and teens while dealing with sophisticated themes in a manner that is subtle and inoffensive. These complex themes are much more present in the films than in the television series, perhaps due to the nature of television censors. On the surface, EVA appears to be like many other anime. Yet EVA is intrinsically different not just due to its handling of potentially controversial subject matter but because the films are self-reflexive of the genre itself."

"Lauded by some as the “single greatest anime series ever made,” Neon Genesis Evangelion has been interpreted in a variety of ways by Western scholars. Susan J. Napier has said that the subject matter of EVA consists mainly of sexual, psychological and Judeo-Christian religious content. Although there is some merit to such interpretations, there is a great deal of evidence in the series and films that has been ignored by Napier and other Western scholars that points toward a Japanese, rather than Western, heritage. In particular, I suggest a deep understanding of Buddhist cosmology and philosophy is present in EVA. In other words, as one delves deeper into EVA, one finds that the Judeo-Christian imagery – while clearly present – cannot account for many of the narrative twists, turns, and developments. Similarly, the Western identification of sexual and psychological traits are also supportable to some extent. These features may also reflect indigenous Japanese and specifically Buddhist concepts. In addition, I suggest that there is a larger contextual basis at work in this series and the two films that can account for the specific elements that many scholars have deemed "confusing.""

"Even fans of the sci-fi genre who avoid anime altogether have likely heard of Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, which were each landmarks of both style and substance. But arguably the greatest and certainly most thematically dense of the three 90's sci-fi anime masterpieces is Neon Genesis Evangelion. It has one of the most enduring worldwide cult franchises and passionate fanbases in all of geekdom ... the most celebrated cast in anime ... [and] poster boy/protagonist Shinji is one of the most nuanced, popular, and relatable characters in anime history."