Young people in their 20s may have heard of the name of Evangelion. Fans of Japanese animations/cartoons that have aged somewhat by now would have spent their youth with this animation. In 1995, when I was I the military, a coworker that worked in the engineering unit of the Capital Defense Command and drew cartoons with me copied a collection of paintings of Rei from Evangelion and sent it to me by mail. That was the first time I’d seen Evangelion. When I went on leave, all the underground shopping malls dealing with animation and cartoon related products in Daegu and the alley shops near Daegu Department Store were the full of things about Evangelion. Posters, videotapes (illegal, of course), and related products were selling tremendously.

Of course, it was even more popular in Japan. The animation drew so much enthusiastic support from the young generation to the point of it being a social phenomenon, and later rose to the status of one of the most important works in Japanese animation history. It literally became a legend.

Just how popular was Evangelion at the time? Let’s have a look at a few figures.

In 1997 alone, 3.66 million CDs of the animation soundtrack, 2.56 million video tapes and laser disks, and 1.52 million sets of Eva plastic models by Bandai were sold. The comic book series drawn by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki in charge of character design, boasts a cumulative circulation of more than 23 million copies for 14 volumes. After 13 years, the box office revenue of the theater version of Evangelion was four billion yen. 830,000 copies of Blu-rays and DVDs later released were sold, which was an unbreakable record until the arrival of Disney’s Frozen.

What made Evangelion so successful?

Let's have a look at the plot of Evangelion.

The father of the middle student Shinji is the commander of a secret organization whose goal is to protect the human race of SELEE. He developed a giant doll (giant robot) called Evangelion to protect the mankind from an unidentified race called the Angels, and the main character Shinji must go aboard the robot to defeat the enemy. Beautiful female pilots that help the hero soon appear, and although they argue and confront him at times, they eventually become close and defeat the enemy one after another.

Looking at it like this, there’s nothing new. It has the typical plot of giant robot animations for boys that has poured into the history of Japanese animations.

Looking more closely, however, many things can be noticed. First, this animation was drawn by otakus, maniacs particular to Japan, and aimed towards such otaku. Second, the show ended with several details uncompleted due to various problems with the production environment. Third, the psychological situations, conditions, and behaviors of the characters in the story at a time when the giant social premise enveloping Japan was disintegrating…and then…

An interesting keyword before the next chapter.

1995 is the year Evangelion was released, but it was also the year when a certain animation with the dialogue, “The lines and nets containing the term ‘sea of information is vast this year” was released. Yes, it’s the year when the masterpiece of Mamoru Oshii, the theater animation ‘Ghost in the Shell’ was released.

They keyword is [Internet].

(Continued)