【Neon Genesis Evangelion】The apex of Japan’s mecha anime/manga genre!! One of the highest-grossing media franchise of all time!

Neon Genesis Evangelion (literal translation: “New Century Gospel”) is a mecha (giant robots or machine) manga series created and illustrated by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Began in December 1994, the manga was serialized by Shonen Ace. It took the original manga 19 years to finally be completed in June 2013, with a total of 14 volumes.

Neon Genesis Evangelion resonates with the youth of Japan and is often praised as the apex of Japanese mecha anime/manga genre. While on the surface, Evangelion appears as a standard mecha series, sets in the post-apocalyptic world and features battles between giant robots to save humanity. The story explores multiple religious, philosophical and psychological topics and the struggles against depression.

Due to its overwhelming popularity, the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion has spawned numerous adaptations and additional media, such as original anime series, movies, video games, novels, and audio dramas. In September 2007, 13 years after the release of the original manga, the story of Evangelion and the original vision of its creator has been fully reimagined and visualized as a tetralogy theatrical film titled “Rebuild of Evangelion”. With this tetralogy, the epic story of Evangelion has finally found its respectable conclusion and ending.

The year was 2015 A.D, amidst the ruin of a sunken city, a giant shadow was lurking in closer. On the other end was numerous of heavy tanks, all lined up and ready to shoot on sight.

A special state of emergency was declared for the entire region of Central Kanto, all residents must evacuate to the local shelters. War was about to happen between humanity and an unknown force.

Clueless to what was going on, Ikari Shinji, a 14-year-old teenager, found himself stuck in the middle of the city.

He was on his way to an important appointment with his father, but all the phone lines and public transportation were cut-off. Without anywhere else to go, Shinji decided to walk the rest of the way to their meeting point.

Over Shinji head, a fighter jet zipped by and fired a cruise missile. It was attacking something very close-by. When Shinji looked in the direction of the explosion, a giant figure emerged.

It was a gigantic monstrous humanoid being that withstood countless explosion and barrage from nearby fighter jets without a single scratch. The monstrous being flicked its hand at the swarming helicopters and destroyed them all in one swing.

Some of the debris fell dangerously close to where Shinji was standing. But luckily for him, help had come in the nick of time.

Katsuragi Misato, one of Shinji’s father’s personnel had come to pick him up on his order. The two of them had narrowly escaped the crossfire in Misato’s car. On their way, Misato briefly explained to Shinji that the monstrous being was called an “Angel”. And no amount of missile or machine gun rounds was going to bring it down.

Their conversation was cut short due to a stray missile landed right in front of Misato’s car. The two of them were lucky to escape with only a few scratches. However, they were spotted by the giant Angel and it started to attack them.

When the Angel leaped into the air and was about to crush both of them, an unknown shadow intercepted the attack.

It was another giant – a robot, and this one was on humanity’s side. Thanks to that, Misato and Shinji were able to escape with their life intact. Shinji looked over his shoulder as the two giants continued to wrestle each other.

The two arrived at a giant shelter door that led directly underground. It was a secret entrance to the base of an unpublicized organization, a special agency named “NERV”.

As the elevator took them deep underground, the tunnel opened up before Shinji’s eyes.

It was a marvelous sight of sci-fi engineering. A vast underground space with buildings that had been heavily reinforced to withstand explosion and attacks. And at the end of their ride was a strange looking pyramid-like structure that Misato briefly explained as NERV’s head-quarter, humanity’s last stand.

Shinji’s father was the man in-charge of this secret organization. As they entered NERV’s head-quarter, Shinji’s father looked down upon Misato and Shinji with a devilish smile.

“The reserve pilot has just arrived”, he whispered to himself. It seemed like this would not be a joyous and heart-warming reunion moment between father and son.

What awaits Shinji at the end of that corridor? Is he going to be a pilot of that giant robot battling the Angels and save humanity?

Find out as the next chapters of Shinji’s life unfold!