Evangelion Series Synopses
Episodes 1-8
Episodes 1-8 | Episodes 9-16 | Episodes 17-24 | Episodes 25-26 | Death/Rebirth and End of Evangelion
Episode 1: Angel Attack
With an unknown creature approaching from the sea, a small army of UN tanks and artillery meet it headon...and it is revealed to be a giant creature of incredible destructive power. While this is going on, a young boy named Shinji Ikari is on the abandoned streets waiting for a woman named Misato Katsuragi to pick him up. Misato finds Shinji and after much tribulation takes him to the headquarters of the international agency known as NERV to meet his father, Gendo Ikari, who is the supreme commander of NERV.
The UN empowers NERV to do battle against the impending threat of the 3rd angel, known as Sachiel. Once Shinji arrives, he is told that he must pilot a giant entity known as Evangelion Unit-01 to fight the Angel. When he refuses, Rei Ayanami is brought in to pilot EVA, but her injures make this option seem dim. After the Angel's attack provokes Unit-01 to move automatically to protect Shinji from falling debris, Shinji agrees to get inside the EVA. He is able to psionically synchronize with Unit 01, making it capable of battle, and the giant robot with Shinji inside is launched to battle the attacking Angel.
Episode 2: Unfamiliar Ceiling | The Beast
Shinji attempts to learn how to control Unit 01 while standing face to face with the angel, Sachiel. The Angel takes advantage of the situation and badly damages the Evangelion, and the next thing Shinji knows is that he's in a hospital bed.
With no one to live with, Misato insists that he live with her so that he not be alone. Shinji moves into her apartment with feelings of trepidation, and those feelings are only strengthened when he finds it messy, complete with the fridge full of beer. Misato welcomes Shinji with a small party, just the two of them. After dinner, while in the bath, Shinji's shocked to discover that he's not Misato's only roommate, a hot-spring acclimated penguin named Pen-Pen (sometimes seen as Pen2). When Shinji is lying in his bed, he remembers what happened to him after he passed out....
After sustaining heavy damage and synchronization was cut, the Evangelion assumed a mind of it's own (referred to in the series as berserker), regenerated its damaged body, tore through the Angel's AT-field (a type of force-field), and beat the Angel to the point that it initiated a self-destruct sequence. Shinji then relives the terror he felt when he realized that EVA isn't just a giant robot. However, Misato reassures Shinji, telling him to hang in there.
Episode 3: A Transfer | The Phone That Never Rings
Shinji goes about his piloting drills in a half-hearted manner, and shows his loner nature. Ritsuko Akagi, the chief scientist of Project Evangelion (Project E, for short), mentions to Misato that he exhibits the characteristics of Hedgehog dilemma. This is a condition where, as the closer Hedgehogs get to each other the more they hurt each other, likewise some people don't want to enter into relationships because they may get hurt. This rings true, as Shinji hasn't made any friends at his new school and goes unnoticed until his classmates find out he's an EVA pilot.
Not everyone is impressed though; Toji Suzuhara, whose sister was injured during the previous battle, punches Shinji out. That same day, the third Angel (Shamshel) attacks, and everyone seeks protection in the underground shelters of Tokyo-3. Kensuke Aida wants to see the battle between EVA and Angel, so he brings Toji with him in an escape from the bunkers and to the nearby mountainside. They manage to see the battle all too well, getting so close that Shinji has to rescue them by letting them into the cockpit of the Eva. Toji comes to understand the enormous strain placed upon Shinji and is apologetic for hitting him.
Episode 4: Rain, Escape & Afterwards | Hedgehog's Dilemma
With the pressure mounting, Shinji runs away from his new home as well as his NERV duties. While on the move, he runs across Kensuke, who is camping and playing war games in the countryside. However, NERV security apprehend Shinji and incarcerate him at NERV HQ. Misato gets all over Shinji for disobeying her commands, and tells him that with his attitude the EVA will eventually kill him. Disgusted, she tells him if he hates it so much that he can leave.
While at the train station, Toji and Kensuke arrive to wish him good luck. Toji also asks Shinji to punch him, in order to make them even for his punching him earlier. After being chastised for holding back, Shinji lands a haymaker on Toji's head. Misato arrives to see him off, but the government train has already left station. However, as it clears the depot, Shinji is revealed not to have actually boarded it at all, and they leave together.
Episode 5: Rei- Beyond her Heart | Rei I
At the start of this episode is a flashback sequence, 22 days before while Rei Ayanami was undergoing testing with Evangelion Unit-00. However, during the test the EVA went berzerk, flailing about at the holding cell and causing massive damage both to the facility and itself. When the entry plug was jettisoned, it did so with such force that the friction and subsequent bouncing around super-heated the plug and burned the hands of an uncharacteristically concerned Gendo who opened the hatch to rescue Rei.
After this sequence, it is instances of Gendo expressing similar affections toward Rei that confuse Shinji. While Ritsuko suspects mental instability on Rei's part as the reason for the EVA malfunction, Misato isn't so sure. While examining the remains of the most recently defeated Angel, NERV learns that the Angels's DNA matches that of humans by 99.89%.
All the time, Shinji is becoming more curious about Rei; she's so quiet and alone, yet she seems to show genuine fondness to his father and, stranger yet, the feeling seems mutual. Ritsuko asks Shinji to deliver Rei's new security card at her home, which was difficult for him given his own reclusive nature. However, when he enters her room after she doesn't answer and tries on a pair of glasses he recognizes as his father's, he notices that she just came out of the shower and she's visibly peeved at him wearing the glasses. They tip over and he falls on top of her, which makes him even more nervous yet curious about her. However, when he questions her as they enter NERV HQ, and he expresses his distrust of his father, she shows more emotion as she walks up and slaps the snot out of him.
The 5th Angel, Ramiel, is now attacking Tokyo-3. Shinji is dispatched in Unit-01 to combat the Angel, but it's powerful particle beam smashes into Unit-01's chest, dealing major damage and knocking Shinji comatose.
Episode 6: Showdown in Tokyo-3
With the newest Angel's fearsome particle cannon destroying anything attacking it and a giant boring mechanism drilling it's way into the Geofront, and NERVs main Evangelion unit and pilot temporarily out of commission, a new plan to destroy the Angel is formulated by Misato. An experimental Positron cannon from Japan's Strategic Self-Defense Force (JSSDF) would be used by one of the EVAs to pierce the Angel's AT field and destroy it. Knowing that the Angel would counterattack as soon as a threat was noticed, the EVA firing the weapon would require shielding from the particle beam, so a shield from a space shuttle would be held by the other operational Evangelion. This was known as Operation Yashima.
Rei visits Shinji in the hospital and briefs him on the plan, although Shinji is still not sure about piloting EVA. The decision is made that Unit-01 fire the rifle due to his higher synchronization ratio and the necessity for the utmost precision; Rei in Unit-00 would defend him. Before Operation Yashima begins, Shinji and Rei converse about why they both pilot for NERV; Shinji does it because that's his only use, and Rei claims to have a bond with EVA as well as the world but nothing else. However, as they leave, she ominously says, "goodbye."
With Unit-00 watching over Unit-01, all the electrical power in Japan is diverted to power the Positron cannon, but just as Shinji fires it, the Angel fires back, distorting the beam fired by the cannon, forcing a miss by both snipers. And as Unit-01 attempts to reload, the Angel finally drills through NERV Headquarters, activates its AT Field, and starts firing at Unit-01. Unit-00 leaps in front with the shield in place, but it can only last for 17 seconds; meanwhile the cannon must be reloaded and allowed to cool off. When Shinji fires again, the positron beam pierces the Angel's AT field and kills it. Immediately following this, Shinji frantically opens Unit-00's overheated entry plug to get Rei out. When he does, and she wakes up, he tells her that it's not true that she has nothing else but EVA, and that not to say goodbye before a mission. When she wonders how she should react to Shinji's tears, he suggests smiling, which she does.
Episode 7: The Human Creation
Shinji is disappointed by the way Misato behaves outside NERV; she's slobbish, immature, and a drunk, and it bothers him to no end. Shinji's all the more mortified when she shows up at his school for a conference and awes his envious classmates, particularly Toji and Kensuke. While they see her as a goddess, Shinji can't help but think that they don't really know her.
Although the UN told the populace that the Second Impact was caused by an asteroid that hit Antarctica, Ritsuko informs Shinji that it was actually an Angel that exploded there and that NERV was there to prevent a Third Impact from happening. However, a private company has built a new robot to combat the Angel threat with, Jet Alone (known as JA). With Ritsuko and Misato on hand to witness a demonstration of the robot, the on-board computer goes haywire, causing the nuclear reactor powering JA to reach critical mass and explode. Misato attempts, with Shinji and Unit-01's help, to manually override the computer, but the password given her doesn't work. While Shinji holds JA stationary, Misato struggles to push in the reactor control rods herself, but at the last minute the computer shuts the reactor down and the threat is ended. However, Misato can't help but think of this as convenient.
Shinji has been unimpressed by Misato's outward expression of professionalism since he has known her more slobbish ways, but his friends tell him that she lets him see her in that way because she's his family, which satisfies Shinji's concerns.
Episode 8: Asuka Strikes!
Misato takes Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke to the UN South Pacific Fleet, which is currently carrying the new EVA Unit-02. Misato argues with the fleet commanding officer, who won't relinquish the new EVA to her command until he's delivered to the port at New Yokosuka as ordered. Along with Evangelion Unit-02, the fleet is also carrying it's pilot, Asuka Langley Sohryu, who almost instantly rubs the boys the wrong way. Also on board is Asuka's guardian, Kaji Ryoji, who is on a mission for Gendo Ikari at the same time. It becomes apparent that he has a somewhat torrid history with Misato, and she can't keep far enough away from him.
Without warning, the fleet comes under attack from below...by Gaghiel, the 6th Angel. While the fleet attacks to no avail, Asuka and Shinji board Unit-02 and commence attack! But, the B-type equipment the EVA is supplied with is useless in a watery environment, and when the EVA is pulled underwater, it becomes almost uselss as well. Nonetheless, Misato uses the fact that Unit-02's umbilical electrical cable is still attached to the ship and uses it to wind in the Angel, while sinking two other ships with their forward weapons ready to fire. As Unit-02 opens the Angel's mouth, the ships fire into it, completely destroying the Angel.
Misato speculated that the reason for the Angel attack was that it was after Unit-02, but, in actuality, it was really after Kaji! His other mission was to deliver a cryogenically frozen, embryonic entity to Gendo at NERV...Adam, the first Angel! We also find out that Asuka will be in the same class as Shinji, much to the disappointment of the three boys.
Episodes 1-8 | Episodes 9-16 | Episodes 17-24 | Episodes 25-26 | Death/Rebirth and End of Evangelion
~ Shwiggie