The , also referred to as Evas, are fictional biomechanical humanoid mechas introduced in the anime television series Neon Genesis Evangelion, produced by Gainax and directed by Hideaki Anno and in the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. In addition to the original animated series, Evangelions appear in its derivative works, including spin-off manga, video games, visual novels, the original video animation Petit Eva: Evangelion@School, and in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, with considerably different roles and guises.
In the original animated series, the Evangelions are giant humanoids, which the research center Gehirn and the special agency Nerv research to fight beings called Angels. They have mechanical components and a basic organic structure derived from Adam and Lilith; for this reason, they have eyes, epidermis, internal organs, and nails similar to those of humans and have been classified as cyborgs rather than mecha in the traditional sense. Those assigned to pilot an Evangelion are called Children and are selected by an organization called the Marduk Institute. Their designs, inspired by the oni of Japanese folklore, Ultraman, Iczer-One, Devilman, and other sources, caused problems during the production of the animated series but have received a positive reception from critics and audiences and have been used for merchandise.
Conception
Hideaki Anno, director and principal screenwriter of Neon Genesis Evangelion, initially sought to create what he called "a simple work featuring robots". He began by focusing on vague images and ideas rather than defined concepts, thinking other staff members would contribute by adding details. According to King Records' Toshimichi Ōtsuki, producer of the series, at the beginning of production, the idea was to create a series about an Ultraman in armor, the franchise of the same name's protagonist. The staff took inspiration from an old project by Gainax, a darker version of Anno's previous work Gunbuster; for the project, Anno came up with the idea of a female pilot in the wake of the original video animation Fight! Iczer One, starting from the image of a girl in a capsule-shaped cockpit full of liquid – prototypes of the Eva-00 pilot Rei Ayanami and the Entry Plug – but without having a precise plot in mind. Other images became the basis of Evangelion, such as skyscrapers emerging from the top of mountains, robots carrying batteries, people dragging large cables, and a city among the Yatsugatake Mountains named Tokyo-2 in Nagano Prefecture.
During production, the staff decided to have teenagers pilot the mechas and follow the tradition of other robot anime. However, Anno did not initially think to give a reason regarding their ages. An explanation came to mind to the character designer of the series, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. While watching a documentary on the Japanese TV station NHK named the artist learned of the existence of A10 nerves. Sadamoto then pitched new ideas for the anime, such as explaining the age of the pilots, who are all teenagers without mothers.From the interview contained in Genesis 0:0 as part of the Evangelion Renewal edition bonus extras. Sadamoto tried to create something similar to Space Pirate Captain Harlock's Arcadia, a spaceship with a computer that contains the soul of its creator, Tochirō Ōyama. Anno compared the interface system of the Eva to a modern version of Gō Nagai's Mazinger, a giant robot whose cockpit is located in the head of the robot. The staff thus conceived the Evas as custodians of the soul of the pilot's mother, controlled through a psychic link with her son. Sadamoto also compared the Nerv with the Solo Ship from Space Runaway Ideon, whose crew faces hostile aliens of the Buff Clan and other humans, with mecha that go out of control and communicate only with children.Interview with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto in Writer Alexandre Marine noted how Evangelions role as mere copies of Adam can be traced to Ultraman, in which Zarab aliens or Imitation Ultra are represented as evil copies of the titular character; moreover, Yūichi Sasamoto's Ariel also presented a scientist who creates robots which can be controlled just by her descendants. As early as 1994, when Gainax drew up its planning document for Evangelion, the staff had already established the maternal relationship between the Evangelions and their pilots. The planning document also introduced the Marduk Institute, an organization that operates on the "hypothesis of new mental cranial nerve vibrations".
In a preliminary draft during the early planning stages of the animated series, staff suggested the existence of two ancient prehistoric civilizations that appeared on Earth before humans, both of whom were equipped with advanced technologies. The Evangelions in the original scenario would have been created by the first civilization, known as the First Ancestral Race, and would have rebelled against their creators, causing their extinction. The Second Ancestral Race would have created a weapon known as the Longinus Spear in an attempt to defeat the humanoids, scattering warriors named Angels in a state of hibernation around the globe as a countermeasure in case anyone tried to reactivate the Evangelions. The Eva units were conceived from the beginning as living beings and dangerous androids rather than simple weapons; the scenario was designed to contain elements similar to those in video games or role-playing games, such as the units' weapons being hidden in the buildings of Tokyo-3. In the last episodes, there should have been a lunar battle against twelve Angels. The official encyclopedia Evangelion Chronicle linked the initial scenario to the clash between Eva-02 and the Eva series, introduced in the 1997 theatrical conclusion. The American continent and the Eva-06 would also vanish, while the ancient remains of a ruin named Arqa would be revealed. A similar scenario with ancient superior civilizations can be found in Hayao Miyazaki's manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Anno's previous work Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
Eva-00 was initially envisioned to be the first Eva unit to appear in the anime during a battle with an Angel in the first episode. In the second half of the story, there would be preparations to invade an enemy stronghold along the lines of a role-playing game. One of the preliminary drafts of the twenty-fourth episode, written by screenwriter Akio Satsukawa, also introduced a prototype mini Evangelion, a five-meter mecha named αーTypeーEva000, also known as α Eva. When the α Eva goes berserk, it would have attacked the Angel Kaworu Nagisa with animal fury, who would have dodged his blows in a scene inspired by the legend of the samurai Benkei on the Gojo Bridge; at the end of the fight, the Evangelion would have swallowed the Angel Tabris and Rei Ayanami, to be then violently disemboweled by the Prog-Knife of Shinji Ikari's Eva-01. In another proposal, there were two units called 05 and 06, manufactured in Germany, while the Evangelion after 01 would be equipped with a power system known as a positron engine.
Two years before airing, Gainax published a project presentation document to find backers entitled , which included the initial unit designs. In the Proposal, the Evangelions were described as humanoids made of artificial metal muscles and replicas of Adam, which was described in the document as an artificial giant left by the First Ancestral Race, which would have left the enemies of the series, the Apostolos, for the globe. The document also describes robotic anime on one page as a "compensation for the complexes and various suppressions that children hold, a means of resistance, compensatory behavior". Animator Mitsuo Iso made further suggestions during production; his proposals included the inclusion of a human-sized Eva-05, conceived as a miniaturized version of Eva-01 with a roar similar to a dinosaur from Jurassic Park (1993). Eva-05's size would have foreshadowed the revelation of the Evangelions' human origins. Eva-05 would have eaten a cat Angel, which later became the character of Kaworu Nagisa, while emitting canine sounds. Gendo would have maneuvered Eva-06 in the finale. A Super Eva, similar to Patlabor'''s Type Zero, was also planned, capable of remaining active for three hundred years.
For the main character of the series, Shinji, Anno himself was used as a model, linking the act of piloting the mecha with his work; according to Kazuya Tsurumaki, assistant director of Neon Genesis Evangelion, while "Shinji was summoned by his father to ride a robot, Anno was summoned by Gainax to direct an animation". Moreover, during the development of the series, the director included scenes in which the mecha are mutilated and lose their limbs. Academic scholar River Seager described the result as "eerie and gothic, often blurring the line between the genres of mecha and horror". The mutilations of the Evas became a product of his personal experience. Anno's father, Takuyo, injured his left leg in an accident with a power saw and was forced to wear a prosthesis for life; following the accident, Hideaki developed a certain attraction to deformity, believing that he could not love "anything perfect". He also compared this to Tetsujin 28-go, where a robot loses an arm. In the twentieth episode of the series, "Weaving a Story 2: oral stage", he also introduced the concept of cannibalism. He added a scene in which Eva-01 devours an Angel in an attempt to disgust and scare a young viewer; he stated, "What would be ideal is that kids who watch it start to vomit". Cannibalism, according to Yūichirō Oguro, curator of extra content of Evangelion's home video editions, would negatively depict the act of eating meat and could also be influenced by Anno's personal experience, who has been vegetarian since childhood and had already transposed this detail of his life in his fictional works.
Design and inspirations The design of the Evangelion was conceived and edited by Anno and Ikuto Yamashita, the official mecha designer of the series who previously worked with Anno on Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. The director took inspiration from the demons of Japanese folklore, the oni, and wanted to give them a modern look that differed from other mecha, such as the Gundams of the Mobile Suit Gundam series, giving them a more human-demonic nature than strictly robotic. He commissioned Yamashita to create "a demon", "a giant barely under the control of humankind". Yamashita thus drew inspiration for the design of the machines from Gulliver's Travels, with the idea of representing an enormous power restrained, a giant that resembled a relief in a wall. Since the delivery of the preparatory sketches, Yamashita's drawings caused such a stir that even Neon Genesis Evangelion's staff members were divided, causing problems for Gainax. Toshimichi Ōtsuki introduced Neon Genesis Evangelion to a well-known toy company, but a representative of the company told him that a robot with such a design could never sell, especially because the lower limbs were considered too skinny. Anno, after the episode, decided to create a different series compared to the other mecha anime, all financed by private toy companies; moreover, to avoid any possible interference from the financial backers, he designed mecha that were difficult to reproduce in toy form to have more artistic freedom and revolutionize the genre, which he said had been stagnant for a long time and caged in a ready-made model.