ADV would be the main distributor of the show to the Western world for about a decade, and evidently had some greater plans for it, as they secured the license from Gainax to do a Live-Action Adaptation and were even in talks with WETA about the prospect for some time. In particular, the series' confusing and controversial ending (and the ending of The End of Evangelion to a slightly lesser degree) became the first instance of what would come to be known as the Gainax Ending, as the studio embraced the surrealism necessitated by budget shortages and made it a cornerstone of their later works.Įvangelion was first broadly introduced to the English-speaking audience through the Texas-based ADV Films, who released the first officially sanctioned English dub of the show on VHS between 19. Anno has since come to fully own it, even as it grew into an enormous multimedia empire comprising a bevy of merchandise, corporate partnerships, and spinoffs which often play with the original's themes or even ignore them. As a result, Evangelion would come to define the career of Anno, whose personal battles with depression during production directly inspired many of the show's themes. The show is today seen as one of the cornerstones of Japanese pop culture, comparable to the impact Star Wars had in the West, and as such, its influence still looms heavily over the anime industry to this very day. Eventually, Gainax was able to complete the rest of "Rebirth" and released the finished product four months later as The End of Evangelion note Or Shin Seiki Evangelion Gekijouban (meaning Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Movie/Theatrical Edition) in Japanese, finally bringing the story to a definitive, if still controversial, conclusion.ĭespite the numerous difficulties surrounding its production and first airing, Evangelion became a massive surprise hit that would go on to both revolutionize and redefine TV anime as a medium for the rest of the 1990s and well into the 2000s, paving the way for a wave of original Anime First properties exploring darker and more mature themes, as well as a slew of more or less successful imitators. Budget was still an issue, however, and only 27 minutes of footage were completed and debuted as the second act of the Compilation Movie Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, another unpopular decision with the audience. This didn't sit well with fans, partly motivating Gainax to adapt the scrapped series finale to a feature-length film. The series would instead leave the plot hanging and end with a decidedly literal (and, conveniently enough, visually conservative) summation of the work's themes: an introspection on the principal cast's respective motivations and neuroses, taking place in their own minds. The production schedule and budget also became perpetual concerns as the project wore on, eventually forcing the studio to throw out their original plans for a two-part, action-packed finale. However, the series' mature content also resulted in pulled sponsorships, conflict with network censors, and a radical change in time slot (from evening to late-night, only increasing popularity among its older demographic). This unprecedented approach is credited with the work's runaway success and inspired a number of productions imitating the formula to varying degrees of success. What starts off as a relatively standard Humongous Mecha premise gradually transforms into a dramatic study examining the implications of its genre and themes like societal alienation, depression, and the pain of human subjectivity, surrounded by slick visual design and an air of religious mysticism. But can a young, damaged boy like Shinji bear the weight of humanity's survival? By the time the dust finally settled, half of Earth's human population had perished.įifteen years later, 14-year-old Shinji Ikari finds himself summoned to the fortress city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father, Gendo, for a single purpose: to pilot a Humongous Mecha called an Evangelion in order to defend civilization from physics-defying monstrosities known as Angels. The ensuing destruction and global refugee crisis created such extreme unrest that nuclear exchanges broke out in mere days. The event annihilated Antarctica and shifted the planet's axis, resulting in catastrophic flooding and drastically altered climates worldwide. In the year 2000, a global cataclysm known as Second Impact changed the world. Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, Shin Seiki Evangelion) is a 26-episode science fiction/action/horror/drama anime series, produced by Studio Gainax, Studio Ghibli, Production I.G and Tatsunoko Production and directed by franchise creator Hideaki Anno, which first aired on TV Tokyo from October 1995 through March 1996.
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