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There is many reasons why Neon Genesis Evangelion has been praised as a postmodern masterpiece ever since its first broadcast in 1995. It was able to blend psychological aspects with mecha in a post apocalyptic setting which also questioned the very meaning of one's existence and purpose in dire situations. Hideaki Anno modeled the characters after himself(especially Shinji) and how he struggled with and overcame his depression. Since these themes were used were handled so well, many aspects of Evangelion has been copied by many anime series to follow, in terms of plot, style, setting and characters. But despite being so highly praised, they has been many people who find it utterly confusing due to its "plot holes", non existant explanations and heavy Christian symbolism. This is not true, almost everyone of these things has been addressed in the show and the film, the main reason that people don't understand it is that they have just not been paying attention when they were watching it or that they forgot to watch the director's cut episodes in place of the original.


The purpose of my new blog is to fill in the questions and state the reasons why people do not understand it. *note there may be heavy spoilers ahead*
I will be covering most of the main points, if you want explanations to other things, please let me know and I will add it later on


1. The religious symbolism in Eva means something and the story alludes to the Revelations in the Bible


-This is not true as the producers such as the assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki has stated that the symbolism means nothing and was only used to make it stand out from other anime. The story does not allude to anything as well, it is a psychological drama about how people deal with their depression in dire circumstances as evidenced by Anno himself.



2. The tv episodes 25 and 26 are just huge WTFs! that make no sense and resolves nothing

-The last tv episodes were are not the true endings and do wrap up the story, character-wise. Gainax was not granted approval to make and broadcast the true ending(ie End of Eva) due to the lack of money and it being too violent. The tv episodes clearly explain that it takes place in everyone's minds during Instrumentality and focuses directly on Shinji more as he was the one who decided to start the 3rd impact. The end result and setting of the tv ending is the same as End of Evangelion, it's just all Instrumentality scenes.


3. What happens in End of Eva?
from eva geeks:
"With the defeat of the final Angel, Gendo Ikari turns on the Seele organization, each of them wanting to initiate Third Impact under their own control. Through Seele's control of the United Nations, it orders a massive leave-no-survivors assault on Tokyo-3 by the JSSDF. Asuka, piloting Eva-02, is able to repulse the JSSDF, motivating Seele to deploy the nine Mass Production model Evangelions against Eva-02. After a titanic battle, Eva-02 is destroyed, killing Asuka. Meanwhile, Misato fights her way through the JSSDF's invasion of Nerv HQ to bring Shinji to Eva-01. Rei merges with embryonic Adam and then Lilith, rejecting Gendo, and instigates Third Impact and Instrumentality using Eva-01, the Mass Production Evangelions, and the Spear of Longinus. After examining his life's meaning with Rei/Lilith, Shinji decides to reject Instrumentality, and return to the world even though that means being hurt. Some time later, Shinji wakes up on the beach of the Sea of LCL formed by Instrumentality, and finds Asuka alive next to him."


4. What caused the 2nd impact?
Explained by Misato in End of Eva,showed in director's cut episode 21.


5. What is Rei?
Clone of Shinji's mom Yui, evidenced by Ritsuko's mother in episode 21. Kaworu also mentions that Rei is the same as him, she carries the soul of Lilith


6. What is the 3rd impact and Instrumentality?
Again explained in End of Eva by Misato. Basically 3rd impact would cause everyone on Earth to fuse into a superbeing similar to an Angel which is Instrumentality. The angel's version would actually kill all people on Earth instead.


7.Purpose of the Evangelions?
Developed to fight the Angels, but the real purpose is to use them in place of the Angels to cause the 3rd impact.


8.Where did Adam and Lilith come from and where did the Angels come from?
http://wiki.evageeks.org/First_Ancestral_Race


I hope that clears up a lot of confusion surrounding it. Most of the main points are explained throughout(especially in the director's cut) but requires viewers to pay close attention in order to do so. Lastly, a lot of other "plot holes" were not explained in the show itself, Gainax provided a booklet called the "Red Cross Book" with their releases of End of Evangelion that explained it all. Translated version: http://www.evaotaku.com/html/rcb-glossary.html

*The commentary and various other bonus features on explaining Eva done by its English translators(ADV and Manga) are inaccurate and embarassing. They have been disproven many times by both fans and Gainax. Only watch them if you want to torture yourself.

The following image is from Evageeks and shows how incredibly bad the ADV features are(I've watched them and this picture is a very accurate depiction of the entire thing)

http://wiki.evageeks.org/images/0/0f/Dr-nick-greenfingers.jpg