5 Ways The Evangelionverse is More Advanced than Ours

The lore of Evangelion might already crazy with its post-apocalyptic setting, giant robots (that are not actual robots), and various Judeo-Christian reference, but there’s more than meets the eye in Tokyo-3. Elements in the backstory and the main story itself tell hints about the world

Elements in the background and the narrative itself give us a glimpse of the bigger society Shinji, Asuka, and other characters live in. Some of those hints even look suspicious because they are not in line with our history. Easter eggs or not, we’re here to discuss some of them and prove that the world of Evangelion is more advanced than ours.

A quick note for those who are not familiar with the series yet―or haven’t been emotionally-scarred by The End of Evangelion movie. Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime series that is set in 2015 where humanity’s existence is threatened by giant monsters called Angels. To fight those Angels―which look more like a bunch of Eldritch abominations than Godzilla’s cousins―the United Nations arms its secret organization NERV with the eponymous Evangelion giant mechas that are piloted by teenagers. Everyone’s goal is basically preventing a “Third Impact”, an extinction-level event that would surely eliminate all of mankind. In case someone is doubting NERV’s mission, just remind them about the Second Impact that happened fifteen years before the main story and killed half of the world’s population. It’s actually much more complicated than that with a global conspiracy involved, but we hope that you already got the point by now.

The Eva series began as a deconstruction of the mecha genre by not presenting a hot-head kid as its main protagonist and ended up revolutionizing the whole industry. It has spawned multiple spin-offs and merchandise lines from action figures to video games like the Girlfriend of Steel. The Rebuild of Evangelion movie series that started in 2007 came as a refreshment of the franchise with an increasingly-branching storyline.

As for our discussion in this article, we will differentiate between the details taken from the original series and the Rebuild one. Some corroborate, while others contradict each other. For the sake of realism, we will not include all that is directly related to the Evas themselves save some support systems (computers, defenses, and so on). Come, sweet spoilers!

1. Seven Sides

The first movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion series is Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone that has an out-of-this-world ending, literally. After Shinji and Rei managed to defeat Ramiel with the gigantic Positron Rifle, a new development happened on the Moon. Across the desolate lunar landscape on Mare Tranquilitatis, a huge red stain smeared like a trail of blood. A secret installation called the Tabgha Base was built close to it as NERV’s Seventh Branch. This was the location of the nine enigmatic coffin-like objects, from one of which Kaworu woke up. Like many things in the Evangelion universe, the origin of these sarcophaguses is still left to the imagination. It might be related to the reason Tabgha Base is also called the Provisional Excavation Base. What were they excavating on the Moon, you say? A Moon giant, of course! An Angel-like being that would be augmented with armor as the Evangelion Mark.06 unit. Older fans would start to feel threatened by this confusing revelation, but that’s a story for another time.

Let’s go back to the whole setting of SEELE’s hidden agenda. It was located on the Moon. In our timeline, 1972 was the last year we set foot on our celestial companion with the Apollo 17 landing. The project was then canceled due to budget cuts and the resources were diverted for the Space Shuttle. Several new lunar missions were proposed and planned but by the time this article is written, no more humans have reached it. In the Evangelion universe, it seems that human engineering capability has been only slightly hindered by the Second Impact. It’s a fully-functioning excavation base instead of just some landing modules for planting national flags. Moreover, regular transportation between Earth and the Moon seemed available since we could see several space tugs moving the shrouded Spear of Cassius.

Rebuild holds no bar in its depiction of aviation and space technology. Another example is the massive pyramid-shaped boosters contraption that helped the two Eva units reached Earth’s orbit to retrieve Shinji Ikari in the opening of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. The consensus of the mechas’ size is 40 meters in height and a minimum of 700 metric tons in weight. This measurement can easily be done by looking at the shield (described as the underside of a disassembled Space Shuttle) held by Rei’s Unit 00 when protecting Unit 01 during Operation Yashima. Thus, the boosters’ performance would be comparable to NASA’s launch system in our world. Keep in mind, though, that the scene took place after the catastrophic Near Third Impact event at the end of the second movie. The organization that sent Asuka and Mari wasn’t even NERV with backings from SEELE and the United Nations. It was the WILLE splinter group that wages guerilla warfare against their former employers. Not every day that you can find space-worthy rockets for groups like that.

In contrast, the original series was more grounded in its depiction of related technology. Multiple real aircraft from the ‘90s made an appearance, such as the Sukhoi Su-33 Flanker-D and Yakovlev Yak-38 fighter aircraft from Episode 8, as well as the Sikorsky CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters. Few of the more advanced vehicles seen were the flying wing-type Eva Transport Planes and the suborbital passenger aircraft that carried Gendo Ikari with a flight path close enough to Antarctica that we could see the crimson hell at the bottom of the world.

2. No Nukes Allowed!

What’s a mecha anime series without explosions? You could find that Neon Genesis Evangelion has no lacking of that, from the cross-shaped pillars of light that have become somewhat of a visual staple to those N2 weapons that were usually used in futile strategy to stave off the Angels. The destructive power of these took a toll on Tokyo-3 and the Geofront beneath it.

The N2 weapons (pronounced as “N-Two” instead of “N-Squared”) is particularly interesting because it’s a human technology, not an energy release from the Kabbalah-inspired Eldritch abominations. It behaved like nuclear weapons with high yield explosion that’s accompanied by shockwaves, mushroom clouds, even strong electromagnetic disruption. Yet, the N2 stands for “Non-Nuclear” so our presumed understanding is already faulty. If it’s not produced by an atomic reaction, that what in the world is an N2 weapon?

The first suspect is a thermobaric weapon, a type of explosive that uses oxygen from its surrounding environment to produce maximum heat and damage. Because it utilizes the air in the vicinity instead of using the usual fuel-oxidizer inside the casing, the blast wave of a thermobaric weapon is more powerful and durable than other similar weapons.

The largest thermobaric weapon in our world is the Russian Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power or ATBIP that was first tested in 2007. It was intended to replace some of the smaller types in Russia’s nuclear weapon arsenal. It was nicknamed “Father of All Bombs” in clear rivalry with the US-made Massive Ordnance Air Blast that was before the jokingly-called Mother of All Bombs.

It’s a good candidate for the N2 weapon in Evangelion universe, but with some problems. The FOAB’s yield was recorded as equivalent to 44 tons of TNT, way below even the earliest atomic bombs like the one dropped in Hiroshima. It also couldn’t produce a significant electromagnetic pulse as shown in the Eva series. Lastly, the several United Nations bomber aircraft that pounded Sachiel (clearer in the Rebuild series)

Last but not least, we can go back to the very beginning of the series, both in the original and Rebuild, when the UN army took the fight against the incoming first Angel, Sachiel. Several bomber aircraft that were deployed used thermobaric weapons that spread its fuel payload moments before erupting, way before the high command switched to N2 weapon option when it was apparent that their strategy was failing.

The second suspect would be in the realm of science fiction for us: antimatter bombs. The delicate yet potent annihilation reaction between normal matter and its “evil twin” would produce energy much greater than the atomic one. A weapon containing even a gram of antimatter would explode with a force as powerful as 4 kilotons of TNT, close to one-third of the Little Boy atomic bomb’s yield. If the N2 weapons are proven to be antimatter-based, it would be the definitive proof that the Evangelion universe is much more advanced than ours.

In our world, the problems surrounding the production of antimatter is both technical and economical. We only have limited facilities that can produce the elusive particle and even that with the minuscule amount. It is estimated that producing one-millionth of a gram of antimatter would cost us around US$60 billion, not to mention its storage technology. No one wants to trigger an accidental annihilation reaction when kept antimatter touches its container walls, so a powerful magnet system should be employed. There is another option to use a small amount of antimatter just for a catalyst or “trigger” for the main nuclear explosion. It is the middle ground between the unreachable price tag and the unlivable radioactive wasteland that everyone agrees to avoid.

In the world of Evangelion, it seems that mankind had already solved these challenges quite a long time ago since the official history confirms that the weapon of mass destruction that erased original Tokyo from the map along with its 500,000 inhabitants during the turbulent year right after Second Impact was indeed an N2 weapon. As a side note, there was some nuclear power mentioned in the story, but those were limited to the propulsion of the old USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier (renamed Over the Rainbow as part of the United Nations Pacific Fleet) and the compact nuclear reactor used by the Jet Alone giant robot.

3. Cost Him An Arm and Leg

Hidden in the background of everything that happened in the Evangelion universe was Chief Lorenz. As the head of the mysterious organization SEELE, Keel Lorenz controlled the world through the expanded United Nations. With such power, it was an easy task to construct a worldwide cover-up story about Second Impact. The general public now believed that the most deadly event in human history was caused by a meteorite that somehow traveled at a considerate fraction of light speed. It could be assumed that the moving of the United Nations’ headquarters from New York City to Tokyo-2 was also his doing.

Lorenz’s role in the main Evangelion story was mainly related to the Human Instrumentality Project, an elaborate scheme with an end goal in coalescing the souls of all mankind into one vessel. While he and the rest of the SEELE council justified it as a forced evolutionary process to end individual human suffering (and Gendo Ikari used it to be united with his wife, Yui), it was clear that their motivation was power.

During the United Nations formal investigation team’s press conference, Lorenz could be seen sporting black sunglasses along with Gendo in the background. In 2015, we didn’t see much of him other than being the obsidian VOICE-ONLY monolith number one during meetings. When we got the chance to see him though, it was clear that Lorenz chose to switch his shades with a white futuristic visor that closely resembling Geordi La Forge’s specs from Star Trek.

Although Lorenz looked older, he was relatively healthy aside from greying hair, considering his age was determined to be around 67 when facing Second Impact in the early 2000s. At the End of Evangelion movie, we got the reason. As the Third Impact started, Lorenz’s body dissolved into an orange puddle of LCL. What’s left were cybernetic augmentations that made up most of his body, particularly his spinal column. Because viewers only saw the old man in his long, formal uniform throughout the original series, this came as a revelation.

The level of sophistication required to have functioning cybernetic replacement of your spine, let alone a major part of your body, is surely above our own. There has been only limited success around this technology in the real world, proven by occasional electronic implants, intervertebral disc replacements, and the artificial vertebrae that was reported by Chinese media. The last one seems incredible as it used a 3D-printing technique to customize titanium alloy material following the patient’s need. Yet, it was only applied only to restore three thoracic components instead of the entire vertebral column in the year 2020.

4. Three’s A Crowd

One of the most intriguing characters in the Evangelion series was Rei Ayanami, the blue-haired silent girl who pilot Evangelion Unit 00 in her iconic white plugsuit. While she showed indifference to Shinji at the beginning of the series, Rei eventually opened up to show more emotion and even smiled at him at the end of Operation Yashima. r

Rei was always an enigmatic character from the start. She spoke in a cold, almost monotonous voice, she lived in a dilapidated apartment complex that didn’t even have a working doorbell, and she was often seen close to Commander Gendo Ikari. Even Shinji wondered about the identity of the girl when Ritsuko Akagi told the origin story of his father’s burn marks.

Throughout the episodes, we were given some hints. After his wive’s fatal experiment in 2004, Gendo Ikari brought Rei to the newly-constructed Geofront base for the first time, claiming that she was his friend’s daughter. While everyone’s look unnerved (pun intended) by her presence, things took a turn for the worse when Dr. Naoko Akagi was enraged by Rei’s constant insult of her being an “old hag”. Somehow, it reminded her of someone she knew so well, but it couldn’t be since Yui Ikari died in the experiment. Dr. Akagi ended up choking the poor girl until she went limp. This incident led to her suicide.

Rei’s close resemblance to Yui was not a coincidence as she was born―more precisely, created―from NERV’s own cloning program using the late scientist’s remains from the experiment. What kind of remnant was up for debate, Rei’s statement about “If I die, I can be replaced” somewhat confirmed a theory that she was not the physical clone of Yui Ikari per se, but rather of her soul. We have seen her died at least two times on screen, first by Dr. Akagi in 2010 then by the suicidal strategy against Armisael in Episode 23. The empty vessels or “spare parts” as referred by Ritsuko Akagi were used every time death happened. It was implied that every time she was cloned, the soul transfer process was not perfect and resulted in a partial memory loss.

The cloning concept in Evangelion was more transcendental, but it still involves the basic process of copying human bodies. It can be assumed that Hideaki Anno was influenced by the world’s most famous sheep. Dolly was a female domestic sheep from Scotland. Her trivial characteristics were originated from an unnatural birth through somatic cell nuclear transfer. Dolly had three mothers: one that provided the egg cell, one that gave the nucleus DNA from an adult cell, and another acted as a surrogate mother that gave birth to her. Dolly’s birth was called a milestone in cloning technology, but the progress took a deep dive from there.

In 2005, the United Nations released a ban on human cloning that was deemed incompatible to human dignity and the protection of human life. It was a nonbinding law though and therapeutic cell projects were considered legal. The closest thing we had related to human duplication technology was the first successful cloning of primates done by Shanghai’s Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2018. Two identical crab-eating macaques named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were born through the same cloning process as Dolly in 1996.

It seemed that the moral restrictions of our world were lifted after the Second Impact, at least for powerful individuals such as Gendo Ikari. Gendo would most likely persuade the SEELE committee to give Rei project permission since it played a significant role in their Human Instrumentality Project. It should be clarified that the Evangelion project itself is a massive cloning program as the units were built from the embryonal Adam’s organic tissues. Like the spoilers before, the Eva units are not mechanical robots but closer to cyborgs.

5. A Name to Remember

For the finale, we are going back to a better time before the Second Impact killed three billion people worldwide. Episode 21 of the original series takes us on a flashback trip to the early days of NERV and their leaders. One scene tells the story of how Kozo Fuyutsuki met Yui Ikari in 1999 when he was a professor at Kyoto University. Yui was a bioengineering student under his care until she announced her withdrawal to pursue married life. To Fuyutsuki’s amazement, her choice came to Gendo Rokubungi (later, Gendo Ikari).

One interesting detail in this episode comes from a one-second frame that shows the placard above Fuyutsuki’s research room. He was a professor who specialized in “metaphysical biology”. While the term itself exists in our world as part of the philosophy of science that deals with ethics and analysis of the relationship between exact science with religion, it has nothing to do with bioengineering as depicted in the episode. The official explanation has been vague, but it can be deduced that this branch deals with “biology of the soul” given how the Evangelion universe plays out.

A different impression would be made entirely if metaphysical biology is brought up the characters after they become part of NERV, SEELE, and Gehirn organizations who like to hide the truth from the world. Their soul manipulation projects gave birth to the infamous Contact Experiment that triggered the Second Impact anyway. The series instead shows metaphysical biology as an unremarkable, albeit a complicated further study, department in a national university. That shows how advanced the society of Evangelion even before hubris gave way to their demise.

Those are just some evidence that the author could give you to support his opinion on the topic. All things considered, some would argue that assessing the technological level of a fictional universe, let alone an anime series, is not an urgent matter. But I beg to differ since it can be a powerful tool to judge our own society’s progress in the real world. Do we let our fantasy beat us or does our advancement inspire our imagination?

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