Neon Genesis Evangelion
1995
Original language: Japanese
- sci-fi & fantasy
- animation
- drama
The story
At the turn of the century, the Angels returned to Earth, seeking to wipe out humanity in an apocalyptic fury. Devastated, mankind's last remnants moved underground to wait for the day when the Angels would come back to finish the job. Fifteen years later, that day has come... but this time, humanity is ready to fight back with terrifying bio-mechanical weapons known as the Evangelions. Watch as Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the rest of the mysterious shadow agency Nerv battle to save earth from total annihilation.
What it’s like
Jagged 1990s cel animation with sharp angular faces, long held frames of empty corridors and dusk-lit streets, and sudden cuts to stark white text or flat red backgrounds that jolt the eye. The score swings between mournful orchestral strings, choral swells and pulsing electronic cues, with abrupt silences that can feel like a held breath. Much of the running time is quiet interior drama: characters alone in cramped apartments, long static takes of people not quite talking, rain on windows, the glow of a city at night. Those stretches are broken by bursts of frantic, heavily stylised combat in which giant mechs and monstrous Angels tear through urban sprawl, with some blood and dismemberment, and the show grows increasingly abstract and unsettling toward its end. Its vibe is anxious and melancholy, the mood of sitting alone with a heavy thought. Depression, self-loathing, suicidal ideation, emotional cruelty and sexual themes are present throughout, and the violence lands harshly rather than as spectacle. Suited to viewers who want a psychologically raw, dread-soaked story about fragile people, not something gentle or light.
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