What is there to say about Neon Genesis Evangelion? From an otaku's perspective, a lot, seeing as how this mere TV anime spawned other media based on it. Some recognize the anime as a failed result in merging two different religions, on top of blending it in an apocalyptic mecha. Even so, it found its fans.
After the Second Impact in the year 2000, the continent of Antarctica was badly damaged, and nearly half of the human population were wiped out. In the year 2015, life seems to continue as normal in what's left of the world... if it wasn't for a small yet major problem. Areas like Tokyo-3 is in a bind, thanks to malevolent beings called Angels, hellbent on wiping out humanity. With powers unknown to common man (like the AT Field), the United Nations (UN) seems to be powerless to stop them. The planet is doomed, or at least it would be. The people of NERV HQ, led by Commander Gendou Ikari, fights these beings in ways the UN can't, making them the last defense for planet Earth.
Called by Gendou after 3 long years, the protagonist Shinji Ikari is Gendou's son. Bitter at him for reasons explained later, he reluctantly becomes the pilot of the humanoid titan Evangelion Unit 01. As the story progresses, he encounters different Angels, and interacts with his allies, namely Captain Misato Kisaragi, and fellow "Children" pilots Asuka Langley Sohryu and Rei Ayanami. However, while he deals with haqnds-on combat with his Eva, he must also deal with his mental problems as well, should he wish to maintain control of (and understand) Eva 01.
The TV anime originally ran for 26 episodes, licensed for US under AEsir Holdings. Succeeding the 1996 anime were 2 movies: Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, and The End of Evangelion. People weren't thrilled with the original conclusion to the series, which was mainly why these two were conceived. After that, as well as tax issues Gainax dealt with, it was proposed years later that another series, called Rebuild of Evangelion, would be made. It was planned that 4 movies would be the series: the first 3 being a retelling of the anime, and the last featuring a new ending. So far, only 2 has been released from this series: Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, and Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance. Originally, they planned for all 4 to be out in 2007 and 2008, but only Eva 1.0 released in 2007, and Eva 2.0 released in 2009. As of now, the 3rd film is in progress. However, there are some differences in the movies that weren't originally there. For starters, as with nearly half of anime titles released in this period, Rebuild of Evangelion features 3D CG Animation. To add, and this is perhaps the main difference, it involves new scenes and characters, among which is Mari Illustrious Makinami And even Asuka features a different last name in the films (from Sohryu to Shikinami). The storyline of the first film is faithful at best, with designs for Rebuild striking a solid, but altered resemblance to the original. The changes happens in the second film, as the story is altered somewhat. Rebuild of Evangelion, at least the first 2 movies, have been dubbed already, licensed for US under Funimation. In all dub works, Shinji Ikari is voiced by Spike Spencer. In fact, his voice is one of the few that were unchanged in all Evangelion dub media, the other two being Asuka's (Tiffany Grant) and Misato's (Allison Keith).
Neon Genesis Evangelion was a mind trip in general, but not an awful one, just... hard to get at times. While the ending failed to meet my fancy, it became a name well known in the anime world for a reason, so in all, I say that the original series gets 7.8 of 10, while Rebuild of Evangelion, for the time being, gets 8.1 of 10. I can only wait to see how they end the series this time.
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