Neon Genesis Evangelion: Encyclopedia II - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Plot summary

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Plot summary

In 2000, a group of scientists conducted an expedition in Antarctica where a large being of light, deemed by them as the first Angel, Adam, was discovered. After they made contact with the Angel, it self-destructed, creating what would be called the Second Impact. The true nature of the Second Impact was concealed from the general public, who was led to believe that the devastation was caused by a small meteorite, traveling close to the speed of light, impacting in Antarctica.

In the conflict with Angels, mankind is represented by the mysterious organizations NERV, GEHIRN (which started out as the investigation team for the Second Impact but became NERV later on), SEELE, and the Marduk Institute. NERV is, in theory, under the control of SEELE, but NERV has its own agenda, driven by its commander Gendou Ikari. NERV carries out two tasks: to defend the Earth from Angel attack with a small number of Evangelions (Evas), and the Human Instrumentality Project, which, according to Gendou, is the path to becoming one with God.

The Evas have the outward appearance of massive humanoid robots and can apparently be piloted only by children conceived after the Second Impact. Pilots are selected by the Marduk Institute, which is later discovered to be composed of about 108 ghost companies (108 is the number of sins in Japanese Buddhism, and the number of beads on a typical Buddhist rosary) and is really just Gendou Ikari and Ritsuko Akagi themselves. Some have speculated that qualifying pilots must have lost a mother, whose soul is used as the soul of the Eva (the Eva also behaves under the influence of the soul inside it, when uncontrolled, most prominently displayed by Unit 01 as a "berserker" and Unit 00 apparently lashing out at old enemies). Each Eva has its own designated pilot to pilot it, due to the bond between the pilot's soul and the soul of the Eva; otherwise, any other person who tries to synchronize (simply put, to technically work as one mind) with the Eva is more likely to be refused. That is not to say that it is impossible to synchronize in such a situation, as is shown in an experiment in Episode 14, in which Rei and Shinji synchronize with each other's Evas. It is later apparent that the Evas are not really "robots" but rather living, biomechanical organisms, in contrary to the popular belief of the general public. While Ritsuko does mention at the beginning of the series that the Evas do have some biological components to them, the extent to which the Evas are biological is not immediately apparent; it is finally revealed, towards the end of the series, that Eva's are essentially Angels (made from Adam, the first Angel) onto which mechanical components are incorporated during its creation — part of the reason being to restrain and control them.

The secret second task, the Human Instrumentality Project, intends to start an artificial evolution of mankind. Considering the religious implications of the term "evangelion", this event was said to bring about the salvation of mankind in the context of a newly created Earth and humanity's becoming one with God. SEELE is the main driving force behind this project, for reasons unknown, but they mention that humanity must evolve or it will die, thus the need for a forced evolution. This artificial evolution strives to merge all human souls into one by disposing the individuals of their AT-Fields that separate egos from each other. This causes their bodies to revert to LCL. When everyone comes to this state, they will no longer feel the pain or loneliness that would typically precipitate from interaction between humans; it is comparable, but not equal, to death.

The plot of The End of Evangelion and the plot of the series seem to diverge at the end of series episode 24. In the series, episodes 25 and 26 consist of abstract introspection by the characters, especially Shinji. The ending is left open to interpretation: clearly, Shinji eventually overcomes his issues with others and comes to accept being with them, but whether Instrumentality follows through or if it occurs at all are left unanswered, directly. The specifics of Instrumentality are not explored in the series, either. In End of Evangelion, Shinji is directly involved in the initiation of Instrumentality, but ultimately rejects it at the last moment. There is some debate as to whether The End of Evangelion is a complement to, or a replacement of the TV episodes 25 and 26. The highly stylized nature of these episodes leaves them very open to interpretation. Some fans believe that the final scene of episode 26 where all of the characters are shown telling Shinji, "Congratulations" is a sign that Shinji accepts the Instrumentality Project and therefore is at odds with End of Evangelion. Others believe that the characters are congratulating Shinji for finding his own identity, as his realization that he is an individual identity is the deciding factor in whether or not Instrumentality will occur (therefore, the characters are congratulating Shinji because his decision to remain an individual means that they can all remain individuals) -- this interpretation is reconcilable with End of Evangelion. The line is sometimes considered to be a reference to the end of Space Runaway Ideon, in which case it ironically implies a pyrrhic victory and death. Yet another group of fans sees the final two episodes as being a part of the introspective detours from the second half of End of Evangelion. In the Platnum Collection of the 7th DVD, it is shown that episodes 25 & 26 and End of Evangelion are in fact just two separate endings to the series, such as multiple endings in video games, and have no real connection to one another other than both are separate contenuations of episode 24.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Plot summary", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki