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新世紀エヴァンゲリオン
Directed by Hideaki Anno, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a 26-episode television anime first broadcast in 1995–1996. Teenagers pilot Evangelions against the Angels, while the story follows their strained relationships and changing sense of self.
After the catastrophe called Second Impact, fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari is summoned to Tokyo-3 by his father, Gendo. Misato Katsuragi takes him to the special agency NERV, where he is asked to pilot Evangelion Unit-01 against an Angel. His strained relationship with his father is part of the opening conflict.
Shinji pilots Unit-01, Rei Ayanami Unit-00, and Asuka Langley Sōryū Unit-02. Rei has a close connection with Gendo; Asuka joins the central group in episode eight. Cooperation, rivalry and isolation shape their relationships. Sōryū is Asuka’s surname in this television series.
Gendo commands NERV. Misato directs operations and shares her home with Shinji, while Ritsuko Akagi leads technical research on the Evangelions. The adults support and command the teenagers while withholding information. Their actions gradually reveal NERV’s history and the Human Instrumentality Project.
An Evangelion is described as a multipurpose humanoid fighting weapon, operated through a pilot’s synchronization with it. It is an artificial humanoid with a biological body beneath external restraints, rather than simply a mechanical robot. Angels take different forms and demand different tactics.
In episode six’s Operation Yashima, Shinji and Rei take the shooting and defensive roles. Alongside the battle, Shinji tries to understand Rei and their relationship develops. The episode connects an external threat with a change in their personal contact.
The official episode-six synopsis first establishes the constraint: an Angel’s beam has left Shinji near death, and its offensive and defensive abilities are formidable. Misato gathers electrical power from across Japan for an extremely long-range positron shot from beyond its firing range. The plan changes distance and firepower before assigning the pilots different shooting and defensive tasks.
Shinji takes the shot while Rei provides protection. Their separate jobs require cooperation, bringing previously distant characters into contact. Rei’s smile is visible in the official still above. Tactical cooperation and changing personal contact develop together within this episode.
Later episodes increasingly expose Shinji’s, Rei’s and Asuka’s dependence on recognition from others. Episodes sixteen and twenty use interior dialogue. Kaworu Nagisa’s arrival in episode twenty-four places Shinji’s longing for connection beside a painful choice.
The Human Instrumentality Project brings the incompleteness of individual inner lives into focus. The final two television episodes centre on inner experience. Questions, written words, drawings and changing situations examine self-image and relationships. Their form differs sharply from the earlier operations, leaving aspects of the external story without a fully depicted final battle.
The official finale synopsis describes Shinji facing anxiety and learning of a world of possibilities. Compare two published stills from that episode. The preceding image shows his smiling face against a blue sky; the image below places faces inside star-shaped outlines with spiral eyes and exaggerated expressions.
The visible contrast offers a concrete example of the finale’s changing presentation. Inner experience is explored through changing character images as well as dialogue. The stills establish two drawing modes used within one episode; read alongside its questions about selfhood and possibility, they help explain the contrast with the earlier combat narrative.
Shinji wants acceptance but fears the hurt that closeness can bring. Related tensions run through the other characters. Military success cannot automatically resolve their family histories or isolation. The series repeatedly places self-perception beside the imagined judgement of others.
Animation production involved Gainax and Tatsunoko Production. Anno directed the series, with character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, mechanical design by Ikuto Yamashita and Anno, and music by Shirō Sagisu. Masayuki and Kazuya Tsurumaki were assistant directors. The Japanese cast includes Megumi Ogata as Shinji, Megumi Hayashibara as Rei, Yūko Miyamura as Asuka and Kotono Mitsuishi as Misato.
Yōko Takahashi sings the opening theme, Zankoku na tenshi no tēze, commonly known in English as A Cruel Angel’s Thesis. Rapid cuts connect images, characters and words to the music. The ending uses Fly Me to the Moon in different vocal and arrangement versions. King Records released related singles on 25 October 1995, carrying the television music into recorded circulation.
The 26 episodes first aired from 4 October 1995 to 27 March 1996 on the TV Tokyo network and other stations. The work first reached audiences as a television serial, then circulated through home video and rebroadcasts.
Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s manga began in the February 1995 issue of Monthly Shōnen Ace, before the television premiere. It developed alongside the animation and ended in 2013, spanning 14 volumes. Its own narrative choices mean that the television series should not be treated as a scene-by-scene adaptation of the manga.
The 1997 theatrical films present events beyond the television ending in a different form. The Rebuild of Evangelion films, beginning in 2007, rework the story and setting. Names, scenes and outcomes can differ, so their events should not simply be inserted into the 1995 television narrative.
King Records released the ARCHIVES OF EVANGELION DVD set on 26 August 2015, explicitly including the twenty-six on-air television versions. Its description distinguishes it from the Blu-ray set issued the same day. Identifying a version requires its contents, not merely the shared title.
A 2019 tvk announcement scheduled the remastered television series for 2020 broadcasts with TV Saitama and Chiba TV. Remastering a television work differs from creating the Rebuild films: one recirculates an existing serial, while the other is a separate film series.
Discussion of the mysteries and characters continued after broadcast. The official work introduction identifies the growing internet as one channel for that conversation. The Oya Soichi Library’s index records discussion in general-interest magazines such as Shūkan Bunshun and Nikkei Trendy in 1996–1997, beyond specialist anime magazines. Evangelion received an Excellence Award in animation at the first Japan Media Arts Festival; the award entry covers both television and theatrical animation. An anime stamp issue on 23 February 2007 featured Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the Evangelions, a concrete example of the work’s circulation beyond television.
The 26-episode television series first broadcast in 1995–1996.
Unit-01.
She directs operations and shares her home with Shinji.
Inner experience, self-image and relationships.
No. The on-air and other video contents need to be checked.
It gathers national electrical power for a high-energy shot beyond the Angel’s range, with separate shooting and defensive roles.
A smiling face against the sky contrasts with star-shaped outlines, spiral eyes and exaggerated expressions.