Neon Genesis Evangelion is a Mecha Anime about kids with suicidal depression getting stuffed into their mothers’ soul-carrying ‘robot’ wombs to fight Angels or all of humanity goes extinct.
As its name suggests, this is an adaptation of the story of Genesis. No it isn’t? I could have sworn…
Anyway, it’s a good time. A very good time.

On the surface, Evangelion is quite confusing…well, actually, the original series is pretty straight-forward. That’s what’s kinda interesting about Eva, since it’s not difficult to follow what’s going on…provided you pay attention. The mindfuck reputation is thus…deserved? Well, while the plot itself is quite straightforward, the worldbuilding and motivations of everyone involved is a bit harder to figure out. That’s probably where most of the confusion comes from. Notably, what SEELE and Shinji’s mom were doing is up for speculation…but otherwise, yeah, it’s great.
What may come as a shock to some are the comedic elements, particularly in the first few episodes…even I was surprised by them on my re-watch. In fact, I thought that some of the jokes weren’t from the series, but some spin-off manga…like Gendo and Fuyutsuki in the buckets of water.
The animation looks pretty damn nice, although can come off as dated now…the animation for the fights and Evas is incredible in particular.
The last few episodes is where Eva starts breaking down as it’s clear someone was off their meds. The long frames vary from ‘okay’ to obnoxious in execution. The last two episodes are the big example of a major fuckup, since the series was doing pretty well until then. The issue with those episodes is that they basically come out of nowhere and are mostly a philosophical discussion, written by someone depressed.
During a re-watch, my first re-watch of the series, I came to the realization that Eva appealed to me because I was depressed myself in the past, so I kinda just ‘got’ what the series was on about. To be clear, it’s pretty obvious that the person who wrote Eva was depressed and that most of the characters are depressed. That’s precisely what makes it so interesting to watch. It’s important to note that loneliness is a big cause of depression and most of the characters are lonely…and loneliness is a big focus of the series.
I think that…Evangelion is almost a masterpiece. The last two episodes are what really holds it back. I’ll mention the End of Evangelion later.
Oh yeah, there are some Kabbalistic…Jewish/Christian stuff in this series that some people like to downplay for some reason. It’s interesting because Kabbalah is so fucking weird that most westerners probably find it just as alien as the Japanese do.

This movie is a better ending to the series than the last two episodes are…but, there is still an issue. End of Eva likes to focus on the action, rather than the philosophy, like the last two episodes did. A way I’ve started looking at it is that EoE is the physical ending to the series, while the two episodes are the spiritual ending of it. Watching the episodes over the movie, or the movie instead of the episodes, is stupid…because you’re missing the other important half. And, yes, this is something people really recommend and really do. I’ve seen one guy on YouTube completely ignore the last two episodes for example.
Ideally, Evangelion’s ending would merge the two together, but that didn’t happen, so we’re stuck with this.
There are some people who think this is a bad ending (in a feels sense), rather than a good one. I can see how people think that…but they’re wrong. Speaking from the actual context of the movie…it’s definitely a good ending. The world was temporarily destroyed, but it’ll be rebuilt. It’s heavily implied that people will start rejecting instrumentality and coming back to the world eventually. The manga’s ending is probably the closest to what would really happen in that scenario.

The manga basically remixes the anime, except the story and what’s going on is clearer. There are a number of obvious changes, like giving Shinji a backbone. The ending isn’t as ambiguous as the TV or movie, making it very…clear…what’s going on. That said, I think that something similar to the Manga’s ending is what happens anyway. About the only downside to the manga’s clarity is that it’s less suited to speculation.
Honestly…I think the manga’s story is better than the anime.
What’s strange about the manga is that it tries to line up with the anime at times…like an adaptation…but due to the changes made in the manga, some stuff just doesn’t work. The one that sticks out to me is Misato’s ‘adult kiss’. Misato and Shinji’s relationship is different enough that it feels jarring.

For a long time, this manga had more written about it than the original anime, End of Evangelion and manga combined. On one hand, that shows how much I seem to like it…on the other, it shows that I should probably write notes while I’m watching something instead of writing about it a long time afterwards.
What am I saying? It still is the most detailed section.
Anyway…this manga is a slice-of-life romcom spin-off, although I don’t remember how it came to be. It’s more focused on comedy than romance.
The manga has story arcs which are interrupted by one-off stories, which don’t really have any long-term plot relevance.
At this point in the writing I want to bash my head against the wall because my notes don’t make it easy for me to figure out how to structure this review. Fuck it, let’s just go.
Shinji’s personality is closer to his manga counterpart than the anime. He’s also the accidental pervert trope.
There are two main girls that Shinji has pursuing him: Asuka and Rei. That’s not too unusual, although their personalities differ from the canon. Asuka is an actual tsundere and Rei is not herself at all. My notes state that Rei was similar to one of the Reis in ANIMA, but I didn’t specify which one. Asuka is very snarky and the source of most of the funny quotes from this series.
Based on my reading of the manga, I figure that Shinji will eventually end up with Rei rather than Asuka. This is painful for me to admit, because I am and always will be a loyal member of Team Asuka,^A) but that’s just how this is.
Some evidence in favor of this is: Asuka appears to get more frustrated with Shinji’s antics as time goes on; the last few chapters strongly hint that Asuka is okay with Shinji going with Rei; Shinji and Rei work together better than Shinji and Asuka; Shinji and Asuka are often in discord while Shinji and Rei are often in concord; many chapters are based around Asuka ‘catching up’;^B) Shinji also seems to prefer Rei; when Shinji loses his memory in Volume 16, he assumes Asuka is his sister but Rei is his girlfriend;^C) Asuka asks Shinji if he’s in love with Rei in the final volume and while he doesn’t answer, she seems to know something he doesn’t and is alright with it.^D) I got a lot of this from re-reading the series and writing stuff down. To be clear, I’ve read it about twice and started reading it three times.^E)
Anyway, besides the two main girls, there are four other girls who are questionably relevant to the whole Shinji thing. Those are Misato, Kirishima Mana, Satsuki and Maya Ibuki.
Misato and Shinji’s relationship isn’t romantic this time, but she’s otherwise the same as normal. She does say she’d love if Shinji lived with her forever, though this is in more of a ‘he makes my life much easier because I don’t have to cook or clean anymore’ way. Misato is Shinji and Asuka’s homeroom teacher, who works with Nerv for free. She’s in charge of taking care of Shinji and Asuka, which means keeping them in her home and training them. The training she comes up with is often insane. Misato is also aware of the romantic tension and frequently attempts to use it to help Shinji…evolve.
Kirishima Mana is basically girl #3…well, next to Kaworu, but we’ll get to him later. Mana appears later in the series for mysterious purposes to seduce Shinji,^F) but she seems to legitimately come to like the guy later on. Her deal is mostly to be overt about seduction and to force Asuka/Rei to action.
Satsuki is one of the Bridge Bunnies^G) this time around. The wiki wrote that she had a crush on Shinji, but this wasn’t clear to me until later on in the manga. She’s mostly a tease and calls him cute. My notes claim that it was never clear to me if she really had a crush on him. I’m noting it anyway.
Ibuki is mentioned just because I like Ibuki: she’s barely plot relevant. She’s mostly a victim of Shinji’s antics.
Now it’s time to talk about the gayman himself: Kaworu. Kaworu appears early on in the manga, then disappears. The fandom wiki claims he appears in volumes 2, 3 and then doesn’t reappear for the remaining 18 volumes.

Notably, he is completely absent from the remained (sic) of the 18 volumes after his appearances in Vol 2. and 3. Mana Kirishima later appears in a very similar role.¹⁾

It’s time for me to show off how much of a loser I am by proving this is incorrect. Well, ‘proving’: a claim against a claim. Initially, I thought that Mana straight-up replaced him, as I remembered him disappearing before she appears. This is not correct either. I’m only writing this so that stupid note of mine doesn’t go to waste.

Proof from the manga. This is in Volume 7.

His role in the series is severely reduced from Volume 6 onward; he’s left out of Volume 8 entirely and he disappears in Volume 9. He also has a cameo appearance in the last Volume.
I will say that Mana does basically take his place in the manga, but they do exist side-by-side for a while.
The manga art gets progressively better. It initially looks amateurish to me, but gets pretty good in the end. I’ve noticed this happen a few times with manga, like with Touhou Ibarakasen, so I’m assuming this is some kind of ‘prove yourself’ stuff.
What makes this manga a little interesting is that it has some mystery elements. Unfortunately, that’s also where the main flaw of the series lies: they fail to pay some things off.
For example, Misato’s father is stated to have gone missing, but we never find out what happened to him. Shinji starts wondering about Rei’s backstory, like who her parents are and why she looks so similar to his Mom, but this is never resolved.
However, the mysteries act as an incentive for the reader to keep reading. My notes state that it’s ‘particularly interesting that most of this seems to go over Shinji’s head’. I don’t remember why this is interesting in particular.
The mystery elements are, unfortunately, toned down and it’s more focused on slice-of-life comedy. This is unfortunate if, like me, you enjoy mysteries but isn’t unfortunate if, like me, you like slice-of-life.
An unfortunate side-effect of the mysteries that are never resolved is that they disappoint readers like me, who do want to know what’s up with them. Of course, it’s important to note that the comedy, small amount of romance and ecchi content is entertaining enough on its own. Though that doesn’t change the fact these mysteries are unresolved.
I think that if the series either hyper-focused on the slice-of-life or worked the mysteries in better, the series would be better overall, rather than this weird middle-ground.
My guess as to why it’s like this is that it intentionally wants to avoid the mystery elements that are inherent in all Eva-related media. One other reason it may have done this is that it existed alongside another Eva-spinoff-manga called Campus Apocalypse which, yes, I have also read. It’s possible that Campus Apocalypse and this would have been direct competitors if they improved the mystery elements. My notes reveal that I initially thought Campus Apocalypse did a better balance of mystery and slice-of-life, but I’m now laughing at my past self for not knowing.
Why would you, reader, want to read this? Well, mostly to see how the characters interact with each-other. Seeing how Asuka’s snark shines in each situation, how Shinji will slip and fall into another woman’s cleavage this time, whatever the hell Gendo will be doing this time. It’s fun.
Note that this manga is fanservice heavy. I saw stupid people complaining about it. They are wrong, but if you don’t like that, you should keep it in mind when thinking about reading it.
I realized I kinda neglected to talk about anything too important. I might re-write this in the future. The series is good, has a few flaws and the overall plot isn’t anything special, but it’s still fun if you’re into comedy slice-of-life.

Campus Apocalypse was a decent manga spin-off that took an alternate approach to Evangelion’s ideas. Actually, when I started reading it, I thought that it handled the balance between mystery and the rest better than Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Unfortunately, it was cut short…my guess being that it was cancelled halfway through, because it otherwise doesn’t make much sense. My notes tell me that there were a few setups that didn’t have payoffs…and I vaguely remember this, but I don’t remember any specifics, so screw my past self.
Campus Apocalypse has more overt Christian elements and is less esoteric and Qabbalistic, so it feels a bit different from regular Eva.
The short length and abrupt ending kinda seriously hurt the quality of the manga, so I can’t recommend it.

Sometimes referred to as the ‘New Theatrical Edition’…because that’s what these films are called in Japanese: ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版. For simplicities sake, I’m referring to the films as the Rebuilds.
They are a remake of the original series and set in a separate continuity.
For…reasons, they have a dedicated article.

In Evangelion, Lilith is the progenitor of mankind and really freaking weird. The LCL that we see throughout Evangelion is, in fact, her blood…and also the goop that all life on Earth (sans the Angels) originates from. This means that humans, the Lilin, are technically demons, which is relevant when we get to Adam.
Thematically (and literally-ish), Lilith is the counter-part to Adam. Adam is the progenitor of all the Angels.
Since Adam’s progeny are Angels and Lilith’s are Demons, well…it’s only natural they’ll start fighting. In fact, from the POV of the Angels, humanity is a foreign invader. Though that’s not immediately relevant to this speculah.
So, okay, we’ve got Adam and Lilith…but where is Eve? Well, Eve comes in the form of the Evas. Yeah, it’s pretty obvious once you put the two together, right? I must admit that it took me a hot minute to realize this myself.
This also fits in with the folklore surrounding Lilith. Lilith was initially created separately from Adam…as a sort-of equal/counterpart to him. However, in the standard story, she leaves…and then Eve is created from Adam. This is mirrored in Evangelion, where the Evas are clones of Adam, which is why they resemble him.^H)
There’s a bit more to the Evas, which I’ll get to now. Evas are intended to be what helps humanity survive the second impact and, well, pilots enter the Evas from the back…and then enter into the chest/stomach area of the Evangelion…which I’m almost certain is meant to be the womb. Just as the womb in a real woman (yes, they exist) is the future of humanity…since that’s where new humans come to be. All the Evas are female…and we know this because, well, first of all…no penis…but, more importantly, they contain the souls of the pilots’ mothers.
The last thing I’ll note is that Lilith and Adam’s progeny are fundamentally incompatible with each-other, basically guaranteeing that one side will drive the other to extinction. Seems a bit of an oversight considering Adam and Lilith are technically performing the same job, but I’m not the expert here.
That is all I have, for now, on the themes here. Just note that this is definitely not all coincidental.

• Official JP Site
• aniDB
• AniList
• This set of articles always kind of scared me, because Eva is so huge.
• I was procrastinating writing this out for so long, man.
• There is an Evangelion ANIMA article locked in the playground. It is unlikely to surface for a while as I have a semi-rule to never write a review for something I didn’t finish.^I) I dropped it because I found it boring, but it’s not like I don’t want to finish it some day.
• I had a few notes on RE-TAKE, but I figured I can leave that for later, considering it’s a fanfiction.