Neon Genesis Evangelion is a controversial and extraordinarily popular Japanese animated television series, begun in 1995, directed and written by Hideaki Anno, and produced by Gainax. It takes place in 2015, fifteen years after the catastrophic event known as the Second Impact, reportedly caused by a meteor strike, which wiped out half of Earth's population and tilted its axis. Just as humanity is finishing its recovery from this disaster, Tokyo-3, a militarized civilian city located on the last dry sections of Japan, began suffering attacks by strange monsters referred to as Angels. Conventional weapons are useless against the Angels, and the only known defense against them are the biomechanical mecha created by the paramilitary organization NERV, the Evangelions (Evas). Evangelion consists of 26 television episodes which were first aired on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1995, to March 27, 1996, and was followed by two movies: Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, each first screened in 1997. Death and Rebirth is essentially a highly condensed re-edit of the series (Death) plus the first half of The End of Evangelion (Rebirth), while The End of Evangelion is a fully developed extension to the end of episode 26, intended as an alternate presentation of the series ending. The two movies were subsequently re-edited and re-released as a single movie, Revival of Evangelion (1998). Two additional DVDs, subtitled Genesis Reborn and Resurrection, were released. They contain both the original final six episodes and director's cut of episodes 21, 22, 23, and 24 of the series. |
