As promised (a while ago now, stupid busy summer!) it’s time to finally tackle this behemoth. “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is not only massively influential but it also has thousands of pages, podcasts and videos analysing every frame, slight story nuance and every potential reference, meaning I didn’t know whether to really bother reviewing the series in my more casual format, but you know what? It would be weirder if this site never had Evangelion on it at all, so now I’ve watched the official blu-rays its now or inevitably later, so may as well be now! The first half of the series is undeniably great, which won’t take any of you by surprise, so let’s take a look!
The basic set up is that fifteen years prior to Episode 1 beings known as Angels appeared and wiped out half of humanity and did enough damage that the event was called the “Second Impact”. In response the surviving governments created an organization called NERV to create partly biological mechs called Evangelions to combat the beings should they return, and wouldn’t you know it? They do indeed return in the futuristic year 2015 (always weird when a series/film you like is set in the future then when you rewatch it it’s now set in an alternate past…) In an intentional parody of the likes of the Gundam series out main hero is just a teenage boy called Shinji but series creator Hideaki Anno decided to look at the realistic psychological effects of piloting a mech to save the Earth from terrible creatures would do to a boy, right down to him being understandably afraid to get into the suit when his father, Gendo, tries to force him to. It’s only when a young female pilot called Rei Ayanami is injured but tries to get on board anyway that he gives it a go, and it turns out that he mentally synchronises with the machine perfectly and destroys the Angel threat. Sadly the experience of the fight has a pretty bad mental effect on Shinji, made worse when his father treats him like crap. It’s only when Captain Misato Katsuragi decides to take him in as a lodger that anyone actually treats Shinji nicely.
Certainly not your typical looking mech battle, that’s for sure!
Shinji settles in Misato’s flat quite well and even starts going to school but an encounter with a second Angel involves Shinji losing all control as the EVA unit goes berserk and rips its opponent to shreds with our protagonist forced to watch. It leaves him in such a state that he quits being a pilot and tries to move away but at the last moment changes his mind and heads back. There he properly meets Rei as her EVA unit is reactivated, and the two struggle to get along as she is the zero-emotions type. A new Angel soon arrives (that’s just a floating diamond that fires beams, I do like the odd designs they have) and both EVAs manage to take it down with a massive energy rifle shot. This was followed up by an episode focusing on a rival type of mech to the Evangelions created by another organisation going out of control with a nuclear reactor on board and Shinji managing to hold it at bay while Misato shuts in down. It was interesting, but the revelation that Gendo was behind it was more fun… he’s just not a nice guy in a really interesting way (well, back when I first watched the series and didn’t know what was coming, anyway.)
Now I’ve watched (and reviewed!) the UFO series, I can’t stop seeing the leads in Gendo and Fuyutsuki (on the right) knowing that was the inspiration. It’s funny how that can happen retrospectively!
Our next episode certainly gets things moving as not only are we introduced to Asuka, an EVA pilot from NERV’s German HQ complete with her own machine, but we’re also introduced to Ryoji Kaji, Misato’s old lover. While Shinji and Asuka team up to take on another Angel (which is awkward as Shinji finds Asuka’s overbearing and loud nature to be off-putting) and manage to take it down we see Kaji deliver Gendo an Angel they call “Adam”. Episode 9 is a classic, it involves an Angel appearing that splits in two and both halves have to be destroyed at exactly the same time, leading to Shinji and Asuka, the latter of which moved in with Shinji and Misato, having to spend a lot of time together despite not getting along. In the end they learn a strict routine that more like a dance to take out the Angel in an all-time classic sequence. It’s followed by a more standard episode that sees Asuka try to study a dormant Angel in a volcano only to have to fight it under-lava, with her having to be saved by Shinji, much to her distress.
I’ll save the rest for the spoiler section but there are a couple of important other things to mention here: The music, when it’s used, is great, and I LOVE the designs of the Angels and EVA units. Both still hold up now. In general this first half of the series re-affirmed the idea that the show is great, it’s just I have a distinct memory of hating the ending when I saw it as a teen, so I guess we’ll see what happens in the next review there…
Overall Thoughts:
Our trio of pilots! … No I don’t know why in this screenshot Asuka looks so… weird, but hey-ho.
The first thirteen episodes of “Neon Genesis Evangelion” show why the show was such a hit when it came out in Japan, and why it only gathered more steam as it released elsewhere. The production, animation, sound and designs are all on top form, and the story has its moments as well, though it’s more focused on the characters and their mental state than a long-connecting narrative (though a good chunk of that comes in the next half) A good first half then, no doubt, but it’s the second half where things get a bit less… clear-cut.
Really the stand-alone stories just continue here. Episode 11 has the power to NERV HQ shut down leading to not only the NERV staff having to struggle to get it back online but the pilots struggling to get back into the HQ. The three of them do eventually get back in, pilot their EVAs and destroy an intruding Angel. Episode 12 has a massive Angel appear in orbit out of reach of the EVAs and drop shrapnel down onto the planet before trying to kamikaze itself into the NERV base, but thanks once again to the combined effort of Shinji, Rei and Asuka its defeated in time. Gendo actually praises Shinji for the first time, something that makes him happy… Sigh, poor naïve Shinji…
The classic dance/attack sequence! I know it happened earlier in the review, but I had to throw a screenshot of it in somewhere…
The last episode of this batch has an Angel that’s made up of countless small organisms infect the NEV HQ supercomputers and nearly initiate a self-destruct but computer whiz Ritsuko and Misato manage to stop it just in time. It’s fine, but not much of an ending… which is fair enough as this is just the halfway point!
Hogan Reviews 