The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise is a multi-billion dollar umbrella of Japanese media properties generally owned by the anime studio Gainax. In chronological order, the first release was an issue of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga, written by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, in the February 1995 issue of Shonen Ace (which was published in December 1994). The manga was intended to raise interest for Gainax's next major anime project, a mecha TV series also named Neon Genesis Evangelion (directed by Hideaki Anno with character designs by Sadamoto), which was in development at that point. The TV series succeeded wildly beyond expectation and has spawned countless derivative works and imitators[1]. Neon Genesis Evangelion consists of 26 television episodes which were first aired on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network from October 4, 1995 to March 27, 1996.[2] It was later aired across Japan by the anime satellite television network, Animax. The series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1995 and 1996. The TV series's success guaranteed Gainax's financial success, and established a number of distinctive features of future works in the franchise: a stock set of distinctive characters such as Shinji Ikari, Asuka Langley Soryu, Rei Ayanami and others such as Misato Katsuragi (for a fuller list, see List of characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion); a number of philosophical, psychological, and religious themes; and an idiosyncratic vocabulary of symbols and allusions drawing heavily on Christian and Kabbalistic symbolism, Buddhist beliefs, and the Japanese otaku subculture. Similarly, Evangelion properties consistently focus on a number of themes and dilemmas:
"'Eva' is a story that repeats.
It is a story where the main character witnesses many horrors with his own eyes, but still tries to stand up again.
It is a story of will; a story of moving forward, if only just a little.
It is a story of fear, where someone who must face indefinite solitude fears reaching out to others, but still wants to try." --Anno[3]
Contents |
After the series
Gainax launched the project to create a movie ending for the series in 1997. They first released Death and Rebirth, consisting of a highly condensed character-based recap and re-edit of the TV series (Death) and the first half of the new ending (Rebirth). The project was completed later in the year, and released as The End of Evangelion; The End of Evangelion is an alternate version of the series ending, which either supplements or replaces episodes 25 and 26, depending on how they are viewed. The three were compiled as a single movie, the Revival of Evangelion in 1998. The two endings are similar in plot, but while in the film Shinji rejects Instrumentality, in the television series his decision is left ambiguous. In still frames in episodes 25 and 26, Unit 01 is depicted with wings and the corpses of Misato and Ritsuko are shown, hinting that these events had been planned. In the English-language Director's Cut version of episode 24, the preview of the next episode shows concept frames from the fight between Asuka and the mass-produced Evas, and the title of the next episode is presented as "Air", which is the title of the first chapter from The End of Evangelion, rather than showing scenes from the TV series ending as it does in the original cut. There was a sudden shift in tone around episode 16 of the series. This was partly due to scheduling restraints, which drastically reduced the number of frames that could be drawn for each episode,[4] and partly due to the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995, which occurred while the series was under production; Anno decided to remove elements of the series plot that he felt were too similar to the real-life attack.[5] Anno stated before production that he did not know how the show would end, nor what would become of the characters.[6] Reaction was decidedly mixed; reception of the latter quarter of the TV series had often been hostile to the point of death threats, and the movies were seen as being even more incomprehensible (such as the the ending), bizarre and even disgusting (like the infamous hospital masturbation scene that opens the film). In May 1998, Gainax was audited by the National Tax Agency: Gainax was suspected of committing tax evasion on the massive profits on various Evangelion properties. Eventually Takeshi Sawamura was arrested for concealing income of 1.5 billion yen failing to pay corporate taxes of 580 million yen.[7] Yasuhiro Takeda defends Sawamura's actions as being a reaction to Gainax's perpetually precarious finances and the shaky accounting procedures internally:
"Sawamura understood our financial situation better than anyone, so when Evangelion took off and the money really started rolling in, he saw it as possibly our one and only opportunity to set something aside for the future. I guess he was vulnerable to temptation at that point, because no one knew how long the Evangelion goose would keep laying golden eggs. I don't think he purposely set out with the goal of evading taxes. It was more that our level of accounting knowledge wasn't up to the task of dealing with revenues on such a large scale."[8]
Other movies
In 2003, the US distributor of the series, ADV Films, announced their intention to create a live action Evangelion film which has been partly financed,[9] but a director or production date is yet to be announced. On September 9, 2006, Gainax confirmed a new animated film series called Rebuild of Evangelion, consisting of four movies to be released in 2007 and 2008. The first three movies will be an alternate retelling of the TV series (including new scenes, settings, backgrounds, characters), and the fourth movie will be a completely new conclusion to the story.[10] The first of the new movies was released in Japan on September 1st, 2007 under the name Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone.
Other media
The popularity of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime has ensured its longevity in other media as well. The series has spawned numerous computer games. A manga based on the series, by series character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, has been serialized since February 1995, eight months previous to the official premiere of the series. Evangelion was originally conceived as an anime series, and the early publication of the manga appears to be a way of promoting the anime even before its actual release. Two other manga based on the video games have been created: Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, by Fumino Hayashi, and Shinji Ikari Raising Project.
Merchandising
Merchandise for Evangelion is released regularly. Action figures of the Evas, the Angels, and the pilots have been created. A large range of video games have been released around the franchise for the PC and Sega Saturn including RPGs and dating simulators; these have only been marketed in Japan. Asuka and Rei in particular are popular subjects for garage kits and models. There have been two very popular pinky:st figure sets based on the show. A great deal of the merchandise is otaku oriented and has a much lighter tone than the series, something for which Anno has expressed considerable discontent, although he has not been involved in production for any of the merchandise.
Video games
- Evangelion's popularity spawned a few video games based on the franchise which appeared on the PC, Mac, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Playstation, and Playstation 2. For details, see here.
- Evangelion has also appeared in the long running Super Robot Wars video game franchise. The EVA characters appeared in Super Robot Wars F, Super Robot Wars Alpha, 3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha, and Super Robot Wars MX.
- In the video game KOF: Maximum Impact 2, the character Leona Heidern has alternate costumes based on Asuka and Rei's plug suits.
References
- ^ Takeda 2002, for example, mentions that no one in Gainax was expecting NGE to succeed on the scale it did (beyond anything else Gainax had done); indeed, the stress of just handling all the money made by the franchise caused Gainax's accounting scandal and the 1999 arrest of its president.
- ^ With the exception of the first two episodes, which were first shown in a rough form three months before (in July 1995) airing to approximately 200 Gainax fans at the second GAINA Matsuri or "GAINAX Festival" (a "camp-style convention" for fans) in Itako, Ibaraki. Pg 162 and 175 of Takeda 2002
- ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-02-20/hideaki-anno-releases-statement-about-new-evangelion-movies
- ^ Gainax (1998-02-20). A Story of Communication: The Kazuya Tsurumaki Interview. Red Cross Book. Retrieved on 2006-08-15.
- ^ Woznicki, Krystian (1998-02-20). Interview with Azuma Hiroki. Retrieved on 2006-08-15.
- ^ Anno, Hideaki [July 1995] (December 1998). "What were we trying to make here?", Neon Genesis Evangelion, Vol. 1, translated by Mari Morimoto, English adaptation by Fred Burke, San Francisco: VIZ Media LLC, 170–171. ISBN 1-56931-294-X.
- ^ [1], [2]
- ^ pg 170, Takeda 2002
- ^ Roth, Daniel (2005-12-12). It's... Profitmón!. Fortune Magazine. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
- ^ Rebuild of Evangelion. Gainax (2006-09-10). Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
- Takeda, Yasuhiro; Yu Sugitani, Yasuhiro Kamimura, Takayoshi Miwa; translated by Javier Lopez, Jack Wiedrick, Brendan Frayne, Kay Bertrand, Gina Koerner, Hiroaki Fukuda, and Sheridan Jacobs (2002, 2005). The Notenki memoirs: studio Gainax and the men who created Evangelion. ADV Manga, 190. ISBN 1-4139-0234-0.
