Author: Catherine Ramos
Source: Suite101
Dated: December 19th, 1999
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" is another anime series that has been produced and distributed by A.D.Vision (the people that brought us my personal favorite, "Blue Seed"). Evangelion, or Eva for short at first appears to be a mecha/fighting anime about man's last battle - a battle against the thirteen angels of the dead sea scrolls. The story focuses on the young Shinji Ikari, a 14 year old boy who is chosen to pilot the Eva Unit one, a massive robot built specifically for destroying the angels. There are also other pilots such as Rei Ayanami, a mysterious, quiet and strangely familiar blue haired girl, and Asuka Sorhyu Langsley, a Japanese born, German raised girl with a self confident fighting spirit.
On the surface Evangelion appears to be a typical mecha anime. Many other robot shows came and passed on Japanese screens, several- like Rei Deen went by with almost no recognition and barely any chance of being seen on American screens. However, something about Eva made it different. Anime fans in Japan became engrossed in the show, and a similar pattern came about in America. Otakus raced to see the newest installments of the series, curious to discover the fates of their favorite characters. While many couldn't understand the attraction at first, a few episodes of Eva were enough to draw them in and slowly it became apparent why the show had been so captivating.
Eva is not about robots, God, war, or anything that one might initially see as the focus of the show. The earlier episodes which were often simple fights and battles with occasional lighthearted comedy merely set the scene for the later part of the series, which unveiled the true meaning of the show. While battles were entertaining, they didn't really carry the meaning that Anno (the creator of the show) was trying to get across. Many fans have written essays and commentaries, even devoted webpages to what they believe to be the true meaning of Eva. A common, if not popular opinion is that apart from any hidden religious themes, Evangelion is really about the struggle of identifying oneself, and learning the truth about self-worth. Shinji's battles with the angels become secondary to the battle he faces with himself.
Evangelion's last episodes caused what can only be described as an uproar in Japan. All the fans disliked the ending because all the fighting was gone from the show- and an abstract, philosophical ending replaced the spectacular finish they had all expected. After the end of the series, movies were made to end the series they way the fans had anticipated. The movies were not part of Anno's original vision, and for this reason some people dislike the movies and consider them to be separate from the true story of Eva.
Whatever your opinion may end up being, there are plenty of reasons to begin watching the show. First of all, the quality of the animation is fantastic. Many people use Evangelion's battle scenes for comparisons with other shows as examples of excellent animation. Also, Eva manages to emulate real life extremely well because of it's use of still, and low motion scenes. One of the best examples is the well know "elevator scene", in which Asuka and Rei travel several floors in an elevator with nothing but a mechanical whoosh sound. Finally after over 40 seconds of near silence, Rei breaks the silence with a comment about Asuka's piloting. When I saw this episode at an anime convention, everyone suddenly began talking about the scene, and commenting on the long silence. After rewatching other parts of the series, similar scenes came to my attention and I began to realize than unlike characters in other series, real people often stand and sit still for long periods of time. The artists of Evangelion worked hard to create a sense of realism in the animation, which I thought was extremely impressive.
Eva's music is slightly repetitive, but the show does not suffer at all from this. Several of the characters have theme music, and several fight scenes reuse the "angel" music but this music becomes something familiar in a show with always presents the unexpected. The opening theme "Cruel Angel's Thesis" is on of my favorite anime themes. The opening sequence is a mixture of character shots and religious elements and is easily linked to the plot of the show; however, the ending theme, "Fly me to the Moon" is a completely different story. Each chow closes with an image of Rei's silhouette spinning in water underneath a reflection of a moon. Despite Eva's complexity, love is not really to be considered a major theme of the show, so a love song seems like an odd and unlikely choice for an ending theme. The song was originally sung by the artist CLAIRE- but later on many of the female voice actors took a turn at singing. I found it especially interesting when Megumi Ogata, Shinji's voice actor sang the theme. (Yes, Megumi is a woman)
My tapes of Evangelion have been lent to several of my fellow students. Some had never heard of the show, but quickly became interested in it and came back asking for more. Even people who are new to anime often find something to like about the show, and many people who have never seen Japanese animation become interested in it because of Evangelion. I recommend Eva to any fan of animation, and even to those who are new to anime, but are looking for something "different" to watch.