An incredible Japanese Anime series, with 26 Episodes of amazing animation and enthralling story-line. With a highly debateable topic that will keep man-kind questioned for years to come.

The story revolves around a boy named Shinji Ikari who is on the brink and top toeing on the edge of insanity. He hates himself and cannot love or show true emotion. He has serious trouble expressing himself. The story is inexplicable. It is hard to grapht onto words. You have to watch all of the episodes to get a full grasp on the story, all I can tell you is that it involves Human Instrumentality which is the 'real' human state; a liquid called LCL. Where Humans have no soul but are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Weird eh? Just watch the story and be taken into a level of thought which you have never experienced before.

There are 3 Steps to Neon Genesis.

The Series.
Death and Rebirth (A Quick recap of the whole series)
The End of Evangelion (Which is basically expanded versions of the last 2 episodes, the creator of Neon Genesis recieved death threats because of the last 2 episodes)

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an interesting anime with an equally interesting history. The director, Hideaki Anno, had clinical depression which got worse after the previous series he worked on didn't get the ratings.
Giant robots had long been a big part of Japanese television. Giant robot shows were cool, fun, and filled with things exploding, which was awesome. Anno, having depression, decided to take this formula and make it depressing, so he could spread depression to everyone. This concept became Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Anno and his team made Eva a unique giant robot show with interesting characters and backstory. They also put in a bunch of religious symbolism and mythological references, quote, "to give the show a more exotic feel." This is producer-speak for "No, they don't mean anything, we just threw those in there because we could."

They burned through most of the budget halfway through the series. Some scenes toward the end consisted mostly of a single frame and nothing happening. With all of their budget gone, Anno threw together some stock footage from earlier episodes and called it a finale. The most coherent part of these episodes was an extended scene that had no relation whatsoever to the rest of the series. I am not making this up.
The fans responded in a calm and collected manner by sending Anno

a great and awe-inspiring series that brings about many unanswered questions and debatable topic. a true anime masterpiece

An anime that revolves around psychoanalysis, particularly of the main character, Shinji Ikari. Ayanami Rei, whom Shinji developed romantic emotions toward at the beginning of the series, as well as Eva Unit 01, are later revealed to be, respectively, a clone(s) and the soul of Yui Ikari, Shinji's mom. LOLWTF.

A Japanese animated show, of 26 episodes (the film, End of Evangelion offers a more tangible conclusion than the series), which aired between '95 and '96. The plot is typical:

- A government agency is set up to save the world.
- Three 14 year olds pilot humanoid cyborgs and kill monsters.

It is interpreted as a number of things:

- An intricate look at ourselves and others.
- An attempt to make animé original; to broaden its the limits(See my definition of animé).
- A cruddy non-sensical, contradictory, boring, drawn-out, pointlessly violent, perverted, pessimistic, and pretentious cartoon.
- A safe-card/fall back/name drop for self-proclaimed animé know-it-alls who've never watched the show.
- A series easily insultable.
- A calling card for unfounded animé-haters.
- An excellent source for debate (:P).
- A prime example of character development (or lack of).
- A test of patience.
- An escape from reality.
- A reflection on reality.
- A kik-ass animé w/lots of gre and BOOBIES.

And finally, for the immature, "laisser-faire" types (not in an economical or politcal sense), and/or emotional lacking:

- A waste of time.

On of the coolest anime series ever!
It screwed me up for awhile due to it's cool-ness. It's cool up to episode 25-26.

And then End of Evangelion was oh so fucked up...

1. Quite possibly the worst anime ever made...and that's saying something, since most anime sucks.
2. An anime show that involves a bunch of stupid kids who must defend the Earth against God (seriously...that's the story). God, for some reason, takes the forms of retarded dolls and geometric shapes to destroy Earth. Some say there is lots of symbolsim...but it really just plain sucks nuts...considering the fact that the creator was a depressive alcoholic and drug addict. No likeable characters (they actually get WORSE as the story progresses), and everyone dies in the end. The end itself is a crime against film making...you don't begin movies with 15 year old kids masturbating on other, comatose japanese 15 year olds...that's just wrong. People who think this is "teh gr8st anime 3var" have a pole up their ass or simply just can't get the fact that it contradicts itself over hundreds of times. People who watched this show and enjoyed it are the people who need to be sent to the front line during war.