Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, Shin Seiki Evangerion, lit. New Century Evangelion), commonly referred to as Evangelion, is a Japanese anime series, created by Gainax, that began in October 1995. The anime was written and directed by Hideaki Anno, and co-produced by TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems (NAS). It gained international renown and won several animation awards, and was the start of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series.

The name Shin Seiki Evangerion translates directly as New Century Evangelion or New Era Evangelion. The term Evangelion is in relation to the ancient Greek term for good messenger or good news. The name was chosen in part for its religious symbolism, as well as for the fact that Hideaki Anno said he liked the word Evangelion because it sound complicated.

The Evangelion series revolves around the organization NERV, using large mechas called Evangelions to combat monstrous beings called Angels. They are piloted by several of the main characters, including Shinji Ikari, Asuka Sohryu, and Rei Ayanami. While the initial episodes focus largely on religious symbols and specific references to the Bible, the later episodes tend to go deeper into the psyches of the characters, where it is learned that many of them have deep-seated emotional and mental issues. Through the exploration of these issues, the show begins to question reality and the existences therein. Much of the seriess content was based on Hideaki Annos own clinical depression

Setting

The story of Neon Genesis Evangelion primarily begins in 2000 with the Second Impact, a global cataclysm which almost completely destroyed Antarctica and led to the deaths of half the human population of Earth. The Impact is believed by the public at large and even most of NERV to have been the impact of a meteorite landing in Antarctica, causing devastating tsunamis and a change in the Earths axial tilt (leading to global climate change) and subsequent geopolitical unrest, nuclear war (such as the nuking of Tokyo), and general economic distress. Later, Second Impact is revealed to be the result of contact with and experimentation on the first of what are collectively dubbed the Angels: Adam. The experiments were sponsored by the mysterious organization SEELE, and carried out by the research organization Gehirn.

In the year 2010, Gehirn had accomplished a number of its scientific and engineering goals and corporately changed into the paramilitary organization NERV which is headquartered in Tokyo-3, a militarized civilian city located on one of the last dry sections of Japan; NERVs central mission is to locate the remaining Angels predicted by SEELE, and to destroy them. However, NERV has its own secret agenda, as directed by its Machiavellian commander Gendo Ikari: the Human Instrumentality Project, which, according to Gendo in episode 25, is the task of uniting all human minds into one global spiritual entity. Associated with NERV is the Marduk Institute, which has the task of selecting the pilots for the Evas, the most capable being children conceived after the Second Impact (14 year-olds). The institute consists of Commander Ikari, and NERVs chief scientist Ritsuko Akagi; supporting the two are 108 companies which are all revealed to be ghost companies.