Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime series created by Gainax. It began broadcasting in Japan on TV Tokyo on October 4, 1995 and ended on March 27, 1996. WOWOW aired the series again during 2003. It was written and directed by Hideaki Anno and produced by Project Eva, which included TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems (NAS). Evangelion is an apocalyptic anime in the mecha genre. It focuses on a teenage boy recruited by a paramilitary organization named NERV to control a giant cyborg called an Evangelion to fight monstrous beings known as Angels. The show takes place largely in a futuristic Tokyo years after a worldwide catastrophe. It also centers on other Evangelion pilots and members of NERV as they try to prevent another catastrophe.
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The series was first aired in North America on San Francisco-area PBS member station KTEH (now KQEH) in 2000. The first two episodes first saw nationwide broadcast in dubbed format on Cartoon Network as part of Toonami's Giant Robot Week on February 24–25, 2003; both episodes were heavily edited for content. Later, the entire series aired nearly unedited on Adult Swim from October 20, 2005, to April 21, 2006.
In 2004, A.D. Vision, the English language licenser, released the director's cut versions of episodes 21 through 24 on its Platinum Edition DVDs. The director's cuts included several new and reworked scenes to better explain the events that occurred in The End of Evangelion.
Airing history
After several episodes were produced, the first episode aired on October 4, 1995, long after originally planned. Initially ignored (although received positively by those Gainax fans invited to early screenings), viewership grew slowly and largely by word of mouth.
The 16th episode marked a distinct shift that would characterize the second half of Evangelion as being more psychological than action or adventure. This change in emphasis was partly due to the development of the story, but also partly because by this point, production had begun running out of funding and failing to meet the schedule; this collapse has been identified by at least episode director Kazuya Tsurumaki as the impetus for Evangelion's turn into internal conflict:
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."
Despite this, by the 18th episode, it had become enough of a sensation that Eva-01's violent rampage "is criticized as being unsuitable on an anime show that is viewed by children", and the 20th episode would be similarly criticized for the offscreen depiction of Misato and Ryoji having sex. With this popularity came the first merchandise, "Genesis 0:1" (containing the first two episodes). Beginning a trend, it sold out. When the series finale aired, the story apparently remained unresolved: Third Impact and the Human Instrumentality Project are implied to have begun or even finished, but the episodes focus largely on the psychology of the characters, leaving deeply unclear what actually happens. The End of Evangelion was meant to replace or complement the original episodes 25 and 26, in order to better explain the events of the ending.
Episodes (1995-1996)
Each episode has two titles: one is the original Japanese title, and the second is an English title that was chosen by Japanese studio Gainax itself. Most often, the official English title is not a direct translation of the Japanese title. For example, the direct translation of the Japanese title of episode 2 is "Unfamiliar Ceiling", but the English title is "The Beast". Sometimes, however, the two titles are either similar or exactly the same, as was the case with episode 10, "Magmadiver". Many tracks on the original soundtracks are named after the English episode names in which they are first used.
Reception
While the entire series has received wide attention, individual episodes have also earned praise and occasionally been recipients of awards. For instance, in the 19th Annual Anime Grand Prix, a readers' choice award hosted by Animage magazine, seventeen episodes of Evangelion gained enough votes to be included among the one hundred "Best Loved Single Episodes". Episodes 24 and 26 took first and second place respectively with roughly six hundred votes each.