NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (SHIN SEIKI EVANGELION)
Genre: Mecha / Action / Drama
Parental Guidance Recommended

Cover Description:
In the year 2015, the Angels, huge, tremendously powerful, alien war machines, appear in Tokyo for the second time. The only hope for Mankind's survival lies in the Evangelion, a humanoid fighting machine developed by NERV, a special United Nations agency. Capable of withstanding anything the Angels can dish out, the Evangelion's one drawback lies in the limited number of people able to pilot them. Only a handful of teenagers, all born fourteen years ago, nine months after the Angels first appeared, are able to interface with the Evangelion. One such tenager is Shinji Ikari, whose father heads the NERV team that developed and maintains the Evangelion. Thrust into a maelstorm of battle and events that he does not understand, Shinji is forced to plumb the depths of his own inner resources for the courage and strength to not only fight, but to survive, or risk losing everything.

(26 episodes)

Beauty and destruction in one complex package >>> by skysenshi (09.01.2001)

The year is 2015 A.D.... the world is recuperating from the damage left by the Second Impact -- a planet-wide catastrophe that massacred half the Earth's population. Mysterious alien beings known only as the Angels are attacking. Mankind's only hope of surviving are the humanoid fighting machines called the Evangelion. But the Evangelion can only be piloted by children who were born exactly nine months after the Second Impact. Why were these children chosen? What links them to the Angels? And why do the Angels want to annihilate the human race?

Evangelion is a beautiful piece of work that has combined artistic sensibility with a great storyline and plot. It can be somewhat depressing, with all those dark undertones and tragic issues swimming around the series, but it touches a lot of philosophical questions that many people have only imagined asking out loud. The most fascinating thing I've noticed is how the characters seem to make some situations funny despite the gravity of their war-stricken plight. Another observation is that unlike in most anime where children (aged somewhere between 12-14) are so obviously forced into mature roles, the grown-up attitude that the EVA pilots display here is extremely well-woven into their innocence and faith. The young characters mature quickly and yet manage to retain the basic essence of their true ages. This could very well be the result of having grown up in an environment ravaged by death and carnage. The art and animation are simply superb. Whether it's how the characters look or how the EVAs and Angels fight, nothing is compromised. The same high quality is consistent throughout the whole series. I highly recommend watching this anime. It has made me look at us human beings in an entirely different light.