Quick question on origins of the franchise

Eliaskar

Who originally created the whole concept? Was it the creator of the Manga series or Anno who created the Anime series? Basically what I'm asking is who originally created Neon Genesis Evangelion?

C.A.P. · Lilin Joined: 25 Nov 2010 Gender: Male Location: America

Short answer: Anno

Long answer: "Anno proposed the first in-house draft of "Evangelion" to Gainax for consideration on September 20, 1993 -- over two years before the start of the series."

Longer answer: Click here. That's where I got the above quote.

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**The Eva Monkey** · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:47 am Post subject:

Hideaki Anno gets the most creative credit, however you've got to acknowledge the significant contributions from other Gainax staff who worked on the show, like Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, for his character designs, and Ikuto Yamashita for his mecha designs. You also have to give some credit to other creators, like Yoshiyuki Tomino and Arthur C. Clarke, whose works have contributed significant ideas to Evangelion. You might also want to give some credit to Hayao Miyazaki for his concept and outline for "Around the World Under the Sea" which Anno redeveloped into Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Gainax's first television series which offered Anno and company opportunity to explore a number of elements which would later be reused as creative substance for Evangelion.

TLDR: Evangelion is Anno's baby, however there are other Gainax staff and other creators who deserve creative acknowledgement.

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Henry Spencer · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:32 pm Post subject:

In case you're wondering, the Manga series was originally written to promote Anno's Anime before it came out. Production was already well underway by the time Sakamoto's comics came out.

And, oddly enough, in the time it's taken the Manga to nearly finish, the series has been completed, 4 Evangelion movies have been released, and a shitload of vaguely-related apparel has gone into the market.

Japan is funny like that.

The Eva Monkey wrote:

You also have to give some credit to other creators, like Yoshiyuki Tomino and Arthur C. Clarke, whose works have contributed significant ideas to Evangelion.

Arthur C. Clarke? What idea in specific influenced the show?

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**The Eva Monkey** · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:16 pm Post subject:

Henry Spencer wrote:

In case you're wondering, the Manga series was originally written to promote Anno's Anime before it came out. Production was already well underway by the time Sakamoto's comics came out.

Sadamoto's manga has been described as an offshoot, as the project began its lifespan as an anime, but I don't think it was ever defined in promotional terms. It find it degrading to describe it in such terms.

Henry Spencer wrote:

And, oddly enough, in the time it's taken the Manga to nearly finish, the series has been completed, 4 Evangelion movies have been released

If you're including Death and Rebirth in there, then you would have to include Revival of Evangelion. So it's either three or five depending on how you look at it. Three if you're talking about distinctly original films, and five if you're talking about distinct theatrical releases.

Henry Spencer wrote:

Arthur C. Clarke? What idea in specific influenced the show?

Pretty much the most central element of the story. The Seeds, Lilith and Adam, the progenitor of Humans and Angels, are certainly based upon the monoliths from Arthur C. Clarke's books. In Evangelion, the Seeds were created by the First Ancestral Race to spread life throughout the universe. In Clarke's books, the Monoliths were created by the Firstborn to spread intelligence to existing life throughout the universe. There is also the monolith itself, which is used for Seele. There are also a number of visual references to the film 2001, however these are more Stanley Kubrick than Clarke. But that's a weird topic as well. 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke is based upon the screenplay by both Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, which in turn is based upon the short story The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke.

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gwern · Sahaquiel Joined: 02 Jun 2010 Age: 82 Gender: Male

Eliaskar wrote:

Who originally created the whole concept? Was it the creator of the Manga series or Anno who created the Anime series? Basically what I'm asking is who originally created Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Besides my linked page of resources, you should really read the TNM: http://www.gwern.net/docs/2002-notenki-memoirs#the-new-gainax

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BornIn1142 · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:30 am Post subject:

The Eva Monkey wrote:

Pretty much the most central element of the story. The Seeds, Lilith and Adam, the progenitor of Humans and Angels, are certainly based upon the monoliths from Arthur C. Clarke's books. In Evangelion, the Seeds were created by the First Ancestral Race to spread life throughout the universe. In Clarke's books, the Monoliths were created by the Firstborn to spread intelligence to existing life throughout the universe. There is also the monolith itself, which is used for Seele. There are also a number of visual references to the film 2001, however these are more Stanley Kubrick than Clarke. But that's a weird topic as well. 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke is based upon the screenplay by both Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, which in turn is based upon the short story The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke.

Not to mention the concept of "Instrumentality" itself. Clarke didn't exactly invent it, but Childhood's End is one of the most famous uses of the whole "humanity mindmelds into a single consciousness" idea out there. Its ending reminded me of EoE somewhat - though I admit there could have been some confirmation bias at work there.

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**The Eva Monkey** · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:31 am Post subject:

BornIn1142 wrote:

Not to mention the concept of "Instrumentality" itself. Clarke didn't exactly invent it, but Childhood's End is one of the most famous uses of the whole "humanity mindmelds into a single consciousness" idea out there.

It may be famous, however I'm fairly sure the idea was first taken from Kabbalah. I mean, the Tree of Life with the Sephiroth and all that is pulled straight from Kabbalah. Kabbalah is all about meditating on the aspects of God to reform a shattered divinity. This is... more or less... basic mythology that has influenced everything else. These days I approach religion as mythology and storytelling, so if you view it from that angle, the idea has been around forever.

It has been demonstrated that Anno and company are well read on western science fiction, so it's not a leap to say that they probably saw similar implementations and thought about those while doing their own.

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Ceimoa Nan · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 4:59 pm Post subject:

^Well, somewhere in Childhood's End, there's a line saying something along the lines of, "maybe this [the Overmind] is what the world's religions were getting at."

I don't know much about Kabbalah, but I'd imagine this "reforming a shattered divinity" thing is more of a personal process than something that happens to all of humanity in one apocalyptic event? It's just that I'd consider the ending of Childhood's End to be a much more direct inspiration for Instrumentality, since it's portrayed as a physical process where all of humanity (actually, just one final generation in Childhood's End, but...) joins the Overmind all at once, causing a lot of trippy, planet-scale damage. (Well, it was actually destroyed, while in Eva it was more like terraformed, and then bombarded by an alien corpse.) There was also a mention of glowing lines in the sky that reminded me of the glowing crosses, but that's a more tenuous, confirmation bias-y connection.

Uh, tl;dr, I'd expect Kabbalah's description is all vague and metaphysical, while when you read the end of Childhood's End, you think, "that was definitely the inspiration for Instrumentality." At least I did.

**Mr. Tines** · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:10 pm Post subject:

Ceimoa Nan wrote:

when you read the end of Childhood's End, you think, "that was definitely the inspiration for Instrumentality." At least I did.

It depends how many other stories with an Overmind/species mentality/... plot element you've already encountered beforehand.

BornIn1142 · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:44 pm Post subject:

Mr. Tines wrote:

It depends how many other stories with an Overmind/species mentality/... plot element you've already encountered beforehand.

The fact that there are other, more concrete elements inspired by Clarke/2001 reinforces the connection to Childhood's End though.

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Ceimoa Nan · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:33 pm Post subject:

Mr. Tines wrote:

It depends how many other stories with an Overmind/species mentality/... plot element you've already encountered beforehand.

Hmph. Do you have to insult my knowledge of sci-fi? Well... that's a list of hive minds, not a list of apocalyptic events where a large number of people join a hive mind. So hah. (Sigh, I really should start reading more. And watching/playing more.)

Theshiggityshwa · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:17 am Post subject:

I recently attended a panel at Anime Detour 2012 that was centered around Evangelion. According to Greg Ayres and Allison Keith-Shipp, The storyline was based on these "death-cults" from Japan. These cults believe that the only way we can achieve a paradise is through the extermination of every living human on Earth. Somehow, Anno has a connection to these cults.

Not sure if I should be posting something like this.

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AuraTwilight · Evangelion Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Location: Za Warudo

Given the track record of Greg Ayres and Allison Keith-Shipp, and the sheer obscurity of the statement, I call bullshit on it's validity.

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**Mr. Tines** · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject:

There have been some connections supposed between the final shape of what we saw and the Aum Shinrikyo subway attacks, usually peddled by Matt Greenfield, though the influence seemed to have flowed more in the opposite direction

http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/oldeva/1999-December/032976.html wrote:

1995 (IIRC), and I am pretty certain that the cult had no influence whatsoever on Evangelion.
*However*, they did show scenes and episodes from Evangelion (introspective scenes, etc.) at recruiting/training seminars. In fact, that was part of the draw for the seminars -- the cult would distribute fliers saying that there would be an airing of Evangelion at a certain place and time (ie: piggy-backing on Eva's popularity), and then when unsuspecting (and mostly younger) victims showed up they would try to equate some of their teachings with the soul-searching in the show and 'recruit' them.

http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/oldeva/1999-December/032993.html wrote:

I have seen some of these weird fliers when I was in Japan 2 years ago. Now, what I am curious about is what's the name of the group that produced these fliers. I hope that's not the infamous Aum Shinrikyo...

Yes, Aum Shinrikyo is the cult that used Evangelion in its fliers. They don't use Evangelion outwardly (eg: fliers) any more because it received attention by the media and also probably because GAiNAX threatened with a lawsuit. As for internal use, who knows...

More in this thread, and also in the interview cited -- http://forum.evageeks.org/post/278102/Anno-Hideakis-Evangelion-Interview-with-Azuma-Hiroki/