With the recent series' Box Set release and the highly anticipated American debut of its two

theatrical follow-ups approaching, Neon Genesis Evangelion is once again on the minds and mouths of the anime fan community. Since it's premiere in 1 !, director "idea#i Anno's dar# mecha-

masterpiece has left it's indelible mar# on the anime industry, and....as such wor#s that fore$er alter the course of all that follow it are wont to do....it has alternately been described as a wor# of Sheer %enius and the most &$errated 'iece of (rap in recent memory. Whate$er your feelings regarding Evangelion, it cannot be denied that the limits of what the animated film could con$ey were expanded to a le$el that had ne$er pre$iously been reached. 'erhaps no other wor# in the history of anime has been as scrutini)ed, psychoanaly)ed, and generally pic#ed-apart to such an extent. But to paraphrase a less-complicated American 'toon, Evangelion is li#e an onion* layers of allegory and hidden meanings are peeled bac# only to re$eal se$eral more underneath. With new legions of fans poised to experience this complex psycho-roller-coaster for the first time in the coming months, it seems li#e a good time to try and get to the core of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Evangelion began as a +,-episode anime tele$ision series but -uic#ly e$ol$ed into a cottage industry of models, merchandise, feature-films, and e$en a sort of -uasi-religion. .eenager Shin/i 0#ari is summoned to 1234, a secret organi)ation headed by his estranged father %endo. "uge creatures #nown only as Angels ha$e mysteriously appeared and are ra$aging the earth, and only 1234's gigantic humanoid 2$angelions can defeat them. Shin/i must enter into the Evangelion and control it in hand-to-hand combat with the Angels if man#ind is to sur$i$e. .ogether with fellow 2$a-pilots 3ei Ayanami and Asu#a 5angley Sohryu, Shin/i must wor# under the guidance of his commander and surrogate mother 6isato 7atsuragi to defeat all 18 of the enigmatic Angels and pre$ent the dreaded .hird 0mpact which will trigger the end of the world.

5i#e many wor#s of fiction Evangelion is an allegory, but most allegories function on only two le$els* the story itself and it's symbolic meaning. &ne of the remar#able things about Evangelion is that it functions on no less than four distinct le$els. 0t can be en/oyed at face $alue as an expertly reali)ed sci-fi action ad$enture, but it is also a blea# satire of the genre, a

coming-of-age parable, and a treatise on confronting loneliness and uncertainty in the adult world. 2arly episodes bely the true nature of the series, and indeed after $iewing the first few installments one wonders what all the fuss is about, as Evangelion appears to be nothing more than another ho-hum entry into the already o$ercrowded Boy-'ilots-%iant-3obot genre. But $ery -uic#ly is becomes apparent that there is much more here than meets the eye, as a global conspiracy of literally Biblical proportions is slowly re$ealed in tandem with the degeneration of the main character's psyche, illustrated...in a mar$elous brea#through use of animation...inside Shin/i's mind. As if this weren't enough, Evangelion is at the same time a re$isionist parody of the %iant 3obot show, e$en as it mas-uerades as a serious entry into genre. &n a simpler le$el it is an extraordinary character piece, containing some of the most belie$able and in$ol$ing personalities e$er put to film, be it animated or li$e-action. 0t was perhaps ine$itable that in trying to contain all these weighty elements that something would brea#, and in Evangelion's case it was the story. .he labyrinthine plot is constructed with the delicacy of a "ouse of (ards, and as later

episodes pile on multiple -uestions for e$ery answer gi$en it becomes impossible for Anno to resol$e any of them by the series' end. 0nstead Evangelion's infamous final two episodes are de$oted entirely to examining the internal conflicts of its troubled protagonists, which had at any rate become as much a part of the show as giant-robot battles or apocalyptic conspiracy. Still, from a pragmatic standpoint this is hardly an ending at all, and from this perspecti$e Evangelion is a $ery unsatisfying $iewing experience...li#e eating a chocolate only to find the nugget in the middle is missing. An attempt at supplying a more con$entional conclusion to the story was made in the two Evangelion feature films that followed in 1 8* 9Death and Rebirth9, which was a

recap of e$ents from the series with a few new tidbits of information added, and 9The End of Evangelion9, which re$ealed the ultimate purpose of the 2$angelions, the Angels, and the mysterious "uman 0nstrumentality 'ro/ect. While the second mo$ie pro$ides a definiti$e finale to the Neon Genesis Evangelion saga, it still cannot explain the reasons behind the actions that ta#e place, and ultimately in the final section of the film Anno returns to the animated psycho-analysis of Shin/i that mar#ed the end of the tele$ision series.

(reator:Writer:;irector "idea#i Anno has claimed that, in his opinion, the mo$ies were not a necessary conclusion to his wor#, and that the tele$ision ending, told in abstract animation entirely in the character's minds, was all the ending that was needed. .hough it is hard to /ustify the series' abandonment of it's own plotline, Anno is correct when he says that at it's heart Evangelion is not about giant robots in the slightest. .he 2$angelions, the Angels, and the myriad other plot de$ices present are all allegorical symbols for more basic struggles of a personal nature. Anno continues to use these symbols in the final episodes but dispenses with the unimportant <to him= story they were engaged in and instead applies them directly to the meanings they hold for the $arious characters, who at this point are themsel$es allegorical representations of different sides of Anno's, and by extension our own, personality.

At the heart of this maelstrom of symbolism and allegory is Shin/i 0#ari, the classic .ragic "ero. 0mbued with character flaws that ultimately pro$e his undoing as he spirals into depression and insanity by the series' end, Shin/i is a departure from the more idealistic heroes commonplace in mecha anime <or

ad$enture fiction in general, for that matter=. Ad$enture heroes customarily represent the audiences' aspirations* they are people we'd li#e to be. Shin/i, con$ersely, is representati$e of the audiences' reali)ations* his flaws we recogni)e in oursel$es. While he certainly -ualifies as an 9ad$enture hero9 <he single-handedly sa$es the world no less than 1> times in Evangelion=, he has much more in common with the doomed protagonists of %ree# .ragedy and Sha#espeare than 0ndiana ?ones or Amuro 3ay. Abandoned as a young child by his seemingly uncaring father, Shin/i belie$es himself unworthy of lo$e and acceptance, which gi$es rise to a total lac# of trust in himself and in others. .he first half of Evangelion sees him build confidence in his own abilities <through piloting the 2$a= and de$elop friendships for the first time with his classmates and cowor#ers. .his is all destroyed in Evangelion's second and third acts, when through an unfortunate series of e$ents Shin/i plunges into an e$en more despondent state than which he began. @ltimately, Shin/i is left utterly alone to -uestion the meaning of his existence. 0t is during Evangelion's final soul-searching episodes that Shin/i becomes a mirror on our own sel$es, and his fear, doubt and loneliness is the fear, doubt and loneliness that exist in us all.

Evangelion is about being alone, about feeling alone and coming to terms with loneliness. But Shin/i is not alone in feeling alone. Evangelion's other main players suffer from the exact same fears and uncertaintiesA they /ust deal with them in different ways. .he reclusi$e pilot of 2$a @nit->>, 3ei Ayanami, is completely intro$erted....e$en more so than Shin/iA one might say she represents the end result of Shin/i's downward spiral. 1234 &perations 6a/or 6isato 7atsuragi mas#s her loneliness with a playful, carefree attitude....and large amounts of alcohol. 0n 9The End of Evangelion9 it is re$ealed that e$en the minor characters ha$e this fundamental emptiness at their core. But of these supporting players it is most interesting to compare Shin/i with the hot-tempered pilot of 2$a @nit->+, Asu#a 5angley Sohryu. At first glance the two are complete opposites* Shin/i is passi$e, -uiet, and unassuming, while Asu#a is aggressi$e, outgoing, and seemingly full of confidence. But through the lens of Evangelion's extraordinary character de$elopment we learn that deep down Asu#a is exactly li#e Shin/i. Bundamental feelings of inade-uacy and worthlessness dri$e Asu#a to proclaim herself 9the best9 at whate$er she sets out to do, and her fear of abandonment is

allayed by con$incing herself that 9she doesn't need anybody9. When it becomes apparent that she is in fact not 9the best9 2$a pilot, she begins a mental collapse that parallels Shin/i's. .heir mental brea#down, and that of the similarly troubled 3ei and 6isato, is illustrated onscreen in a spectacular manner that redefines the boundaries of animation, ta#ing the medium's potential to portray anything the mind can concei$e to a new extreme.

6idway through the production of the tele$ision run "ide#ai Anno suffered a ner$ous brea#down, and it is at precisely this point in the series that the first of many animated 9head-trips9 occur. Anno begins to use his characters as sounding boards for his own internal struggles, but rather than ha$e them $oice their concerns in a more traditional manner Anno utili)es the medium of animation to ta#e us inside their own thoughts. 0ronically the first sub/ect of these experimental character-analyses is not the protagonist Shin/i but 3ei. As her subconscious spea#s offscreen her train of thought is illustrated through -uic# cuts of abstract animation and static bac#grounds. 3andom images of flowers and s#y segue into 3ei -uestioning the meaning of her $ery self, and a

transparent image of 3ei floats by which in turn is replaced by a $ision of many 3eis in an endless row. .he effect is /arring, and more than a little surreal. 6ost of the ensuing hallucinations are de$oted to Shin/i although Asu#a and 6isato get some time under the microscope as well. .hese scenes appear with increasing fre-uency in later episodes, and e$entually their length and intensity are compounded to the point where it is no longer Shin/i and his friends who are being mentally examined but the $iewers themsel$es.

By the final two episodes these animated therapy sessions ha$e completely o$erridden the rest of the show, and as stated pre$iously Evangelion's finale is played out entirely in the minds of the four main characters. A barrage of existential -uestions such as 9What do you fearC9 and 9Why do you pilot 2$aC9 are flashed across the screen as Shin/i and company struggle to answer them, and the audience listens for solutions to -uestions of identity that plague all man#ind. As the -uestions are repeated their answers gradually change until the root of all their troubles is laid bare* all fear being abandoned by others due to a percei$ed lac# of worth. .he last episode )eroes in exclusi$ely on Shin/i, and as his $ery mind is deconstructed the animation

complements the process in Evangelion's boldest artistic endea$or. Bull animation regresses to storyboards that in turn gi$e way to a blac#and-white scribble of Shin/i floating in a white $oid. .old that he is free of all worldly restraints, Shin/i is uncertain of is own existence. .he $oice of his father, %endo, obligingly offers to gi$e his son a restriction to orient him, and a blac# line is scrawled across the screen for Shin/i to wal# upon. 9Dou now ha$e a top and a bottom,9 6isato tells him, 9but you may no longer fly.9 <.he effect is not unli#e the classic (huc# ?ones' 5ooney .une 9;uc# Amuc#9, in which ;affy ;uc# finds his cartoon uni$erse deconstructed by an unseen animator=. Brom these innermost recesses of his mind Shin/i is told he can create whate$er reality he desires for himself, and as this blea# series comes to a close it's ultimately positi$e message is re$ealed* &ur world is what we ma#e of it, truth is sub/ecti$e, and one must learn to lo$e oneself before they can lo$e another. Shin/i chooses to face his fears and return to the world he #new, and the other characters welcome him bac#.

.hroughout these final episodes...indeed throughout the entire series, Anno continually brings to our attention the many symbolic $alues of Evangelion's characters, creatures, and e$ents. %endo 0#ari,

Shin/i's estranged father, is the specter of 3e/ection, 6isunderstanding, and Betrayal. Shin/i's brief friendship with the cryptic 7aoru 1agisa is representati$e of blind, total and unconditional lo$e and acceptance, but li#e those things 7aoru turns out to not be real at all. .he most complex symbol in the series, howe$er, is the Evangelion itself. 'iloting the 2$a pro$ides the means by which Shin/i and Asu#a ac-uire their sense of purpose. 2motionally stunted in all other areas of her life, Asu#a has focused exclusi$ely on the Evangelion, her 9/ob9, to gi$e meaning to her existence. As she loses the ability to control her 2$a late in the series she loses the only sense of $alue she #new. Shin/i also feels that his 9/ob9, piloting 2$a, is his only worthwhile -uality. @nli#e Asu#a, who happily turned a blind eye to this dilemma until it was too late, Shin/i frets o$er finding meaning to his life outside his wor#. .hus, the Evangelion is representati$e of our duties and responsibilities....those things we don't necessarily want to do but ha$e to do. 0t important to ta#e pride in them but it is also important to find other things to ta#e pride in as well, else they become your only identifier. Were that all the Evangelion represented it would be impressi$e enough, but there is an additional, Breudian side to the mecha monster as well. .he central Evangelion, Shin/i's @nit->1, is literally

and figurati$ely his own mother. Dui 0#ari was absorbed into @nit->1 in an experiment during her son's toddler years, and the percei$ed indifference of his father has made it impossible for Shin/i to come to terms with what he was told was his mother's accidental death. 0ronically, years later Shin/i is dependant on @nit->1 for a means to sur$i$e. Beginning his /ourney into adulthood, Shin/i is both resentful of this dependence and at the same time afraid to lea$e the comfort and safety it pro$ides. 0t has e$en been suggested that Shin/i's entering into @nit->1 is a Breudian 9return to the womb9, and that his struggle to be free of the 2$a is his 9rite of passage9 into manhood. Shin/i must learn to let go of his mother before he can grow as person if he hopes to attain a serious adult relationship with the girl he cares for. 1ot surprisingly, his dealings with his female costars are mar#ed by a se$ere lo$e:hate relationship.

Shin/i harbors semi-romantic feelings for the three women closest to him, but his distrusting nature pre$ents him from de$eloping any #ind of meaningful relationship with them, and inside he angrily belie$es them of intentionally building barriers to pre$ent him from getting close. Again it is Asu#a that it is most interesting to consider in this light. Sensing a #indred soul beneath her aggressi$e exterior <or

perhaps admiring the determination he lac#s=, Shin/i comes to lo$e her, but does not #now how to express it. 5i#ewise, it is hinted that Asu#a has similarly romantic feelings for Shin/i, but her ego pre$ents her from admitting it e$en to herself. .his is illustrated in an hilarious se-uence in which Asu#a, feigning boredom, as#s, 9"ey Shin/i, you wanna #iss meC9A Shin/i stammers and blushes until an exasperated Asu#a wal#s up and #isses him until he literally turns blue. Afterwards she runs off screaming 92ww, grossE9. Set against this lighthearted se-uence is a similarly staged scene in 9The End of Evangelion9 that is one of the most disturbing moments in the entire Evangelion canon. 0n another of his head-trips, Shin/i imagines the time he and Asu#a shared their first #iss, although instead of said #iss Shin/i confesses his lo$e to Asu#a. Asu#a accuses him of lo$ing her purely for selfish reasonsA that he is only running to someone...anyone...for comfort. @nsure of his own self, Shin/i has feared this to be true all along. At the end of his rope, feeling absolutely re/ected and angry at her for denying him, Shin/i strangles Asu#a. ;ri$en mad by his internal struggles, Shin/i almost strangles Asu#a for real later in the mo$ie. She is sa$ed by finally admitting her feelings to him, and as she gently caresses his chee# he snaps out of his delusion and collapses in tears. By opening their hearts to one another Shin/i and Asu#a at last ha$e a

chance at happiness. @nfortunately the brutality of this scene obscures its tender meaning, and the Evangelion saga ends on a dour note despite reprising the positi$e message from its tele$ision conclusion.

0n fact the entire film is mar#ed by a per$asi$e dar#ness that eclipses the already dar# tele$ision series. 0llustrating the real-world e$ents that occurred during the final introspecti$e .4 episodes, the action is as sa$age and uncompromising as the internal struggles that complement it. As Shin/i's mental world collapses, .hird 0mpact is at last initiated and the physical world begins to end as well. 6irroring the dar#est hours of its protagonist's brea#down, the apocalyptic e$ents of 9The End of Evangelion9 are fittingly nightmarish. While Shin/i e$entually decides that his life is worth li$ing, his return to a barren and ra$aged reality reminds us that merely changing your perspecti$e on life will not immediately alter it. Shin/i must continue to stri$e to attain happiness* no one is going to hand it to him on a sil$er plate. (learly Neon Genesis Evangelion has a lot to say. .he garbled manner in which it sometimes says it, howe$er, has lead some to accuse Anno of crafting an elaborate Wild %oose (hase, pretentiously spewing a bunch of existential babble with no real meaning. While it is

true that Evangelion ta#es the long road to get to it's conclusions, the basic truths at the /ourney's end are no less $alid. Anyone who has e$er felt alone, unsure, and afraid should be able to identify with Shin/i's plight, and 0 daresay that includes e$ery one of us. @ltimately deciding to ta#e the good along with the bad, Shin/i will continue to plug away at 5ife, e$en if he is literally the last man on earth. But one must dig e$en deeper to get to the true heart of Evangelion's lasting appeal, and it ultimately pro$es to be remar#ably simple. 6any of 2$a's detractors belie$e, incorrectly, that the show owes it's widespread popularity to it's psychological mumbo-/umbo. .he fact is, howe$er, that none of 2$a's existentialism would wor# without totally con$incing human personalities to bac# it up. .he real mar$el of Evangelion is not it's abstract ending but the carefully crafted characteri)ations that inhabit it. "ad Anno not ta#en the time to carefully delineate his character's personas the experimental sections would be meaningless and insufferable, a point many of Evangelion's imitators fail to ta#e into consideration. 2$a's more sane, early episodes are choc# full of intense character de$elopment, sometimes e$en to the exclusion of the action...something unheard of in a so-called 9action show9. Anno will often spend two-thirds of an episode's airtime exploring the interplay between his $arious

characters, de$oting only the closing minutes to 2$a-$s-Angel actionA hinting that e$en early on Anno is less concerned with mecha battles than with what ma#es Shin/i and company tic#. &ne would thin# that this would ma#e for a $ery dull action show, but nothing could be further from the truth. Anno fleshes out his characters so completely that the $iewer becomes totally engrossed in their actions, and e$ery Angel battle <all excellently animated= is an edge-of-your seat e$ent. Wisely choosing .ragic o$er 2pic heroes, Anno also ma#es it easier for the audience to get inside their heads and behind their cause.

Evangelion's critics are -uic# to point out that the series' celebrated cast members are mere stereotypes of classic mecha anime characters. Shin/i is the timid youth piloting a giant robot built by his mad scientist fatherA 3ei is the shy intro$erted girl with the dar# secretA 6isato is the sexy, boisterous lady-in-chargeA and Asu#a is the angry, impulsi$e competitor. (oncei$ed in part as a postmodern ta#e on earlier shows in the Gundam tradition, Evangelion's characteri)ations are indeed adapted from what has come before.... though there is nothing 9mere9 about them. 0mbued with extra dimensions to their familiar personas, the heroes of Evangelion are much more belie$able than their predecessors. .he ways in which they

interact with one another bring all sides of their personalities into focus, and the result is sometimes somber, sometimes shoc#ing, sometimes hilarious...but always entertaining. Asu#a's competiti$e nature pi-ues a similarly competiti$e side in Shin/i's usually passi$e, compromising personality. Shin/i's $ocali)ations of his troubles in$ariably elicits an angry 9What are you, stupidCE9 from the seemingly confident Asu#a, which ser$es to bring into sharper focus the fact that she too suffers from the same doubts. "is superiority in battle creates feelings of resentment in Asu#a, and she mas#s her concern for Shin/i's safety when he is in danger with an air of nonchalance, though her telltale dialogue subtly re$eals her true feelings. .he chronic drin#ing habits of 6isato amplify her sense of playfulness and fun when she's around the young 2$a-pilots, but a night on the town with her ex-lo$er 7a/i re$eals the dependent and insecure woman underneath. 2$en the -uiet 3ei is gi$en depth to her otherwise onesided persona by her interactions with Shin/i and %endo, which re$eal a growing mistrust of the elder 0#ari and an increasing lo$e and respect for his son. By the time Evangelion comes to a close, e$en comparati$ely minor players li#e %endo and 1234 scientist 3itus#o A#agi ha$e re$ealed multiple facets to their personalities, ma#ing for an anime world inhabited by a cast of totally con$incing human

indi$iduals.

0t is because of this remar#able depth of characteri)ation, seldom achie$ed so successfully in anime or any other medium, that the audience stic#s with Evangelion through its tangled and ultimately unfinished plotline. By the time the story begins to unra$el in the series' third act its players ha$e been so well established they are able to entertain on a blan# stage <which indeed they do=. 0f nothing else, the narrati$e abandonment ser$es to illustrate that in the end it is the characters that ma#e or brea# the success of any wor# of fiction. 'aradoxically, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a wor# that suffers ma/or shortcomings yet still has managed to become a resounding critical and commercial hit. Bew animations dare to attempt such an enormous encompassment of story, character, and philosophy, coupled with inno$ati$e artistic endea$ors. 0t is a wor# that is fantastic escapism e$en as it is a grim reminder of reality. 0t's heroes li$e out the ultimate fantasy ad$enture only to find it cannot compensate for the basic humans needs of lo$e and friendship. .heir -uest to attain inner peace is so passionately con$eyed it holds it's audience e$en as the $ery framewor# of the show falls apart. .hough in the end Evangelion falls short of filling it's own shoes, it's feet are bigger than

many other anime series put together. 5o$e it or hate it, it is destined to fore$er stand as one of the most significant and influential wor#s in anime history.