Neon Genesis Evangelion's first episode proves the connection between the EVAs and the kids is real in one scene, and that scene sets the tone for everything that comes after.
Hi there, if you're new here, my name is Oren, and I'm a nerd who likes to talk about my favorite shows, games, and books. Today we're talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion episode 1.
Video: Oren Cohen's YouTube Channel.
Shinji Ikari's father pushes him into a life and death situation
We begin this episode with Shinji in the middle of a ruined city in Japan, waiting for Misato to come pick him up. The show doesn't tell us why he's there. Is this a job? Is this just a visit? Shinji doesn't know either, and that's on purpose. He's a teenager who got a summons from a father he hasn't seen in years.
It's clear his father asked him to come and sent him some information about the project to read via Misato, but none of it has prepared him for piloting a giant robot.
The military throws everything at the Angel and loses
The JSSDF spends the first act shooting at the Angel and nothing breaks through. So they escalate all the way to an N2 mine, a blast that levels the landscape around it. The Angel takes the hit and then repairs itself. And it doesn't repair mechanically. It heals, like a living thing. That's the first sign these enemies are not machines, and it's why the military finally hands control over to Shinji's dad.
It's funny to me that this show is set in 2015 and we're now 11 years past it. How do you think we're doing? Are there going to be EVAs soon? Let me know in the comments.
The EVA moves on its own to protect Shinji
This is the scene the whole episode is built around.
Shinji is afraid and rejects piloting the EVA. So his father calls in Rei, who arrives on a stretcher, clearly hurt from whatever happened on her last mission. While this is going on, the Angel's attack shakes the base and girders come loose from the ceiling right above Shinji.
Unit-01 breaks its restraints and raises its hand to shield him. No pilot. No power connected. Nobody commanded it. An EVA moved on its own to protect a boy it never met.
Everyone in the room is stunned, and the show doesn't stop to explain it. It doesn't need to. In one moment we learn the EVAs are not robots and the bond between them and these kids is real. Shinji goes to Rei, sees her blood on his hands, and agrees to pilot. The empowering beat lands because the EVA chose him first.
The moment nobody can explain yet
There's one more strange beat, and it happens earlier, on the street. A girl Shinji never met - Rei - appears to him for a moment and then disappears. On the one hand, I'm thinking it's the anime effect of dramatizing everything, but why would they do that? How does it serve the story in addition to being a spectacle?
I don't have an answer yet, and I think that's the point. The episode plants it and walks away. File it next to the hand in the cage: two moments that tell us the rules of this world are bigger than giant robots fighting monsters.
The episode ends with Unit-01 launching to the surface, Shinji inside, the Angel waiting above.
In episode 1 the EVA protected Shinji. In episode 2 the bond turns terrifying.