30 Years of ‘Evangelion,’ the Show That Changed Anime Forever

On a Wednesday evening in October 1995 at 6:30 p.m. in Tokyo, animation changed forever.

Neon Genesis Evangelion stunned a nation with its mix of Freudian psychoanalysis, existential angst and a metaphor for a country in the midst of an identity crisis, all wrapped in the deceptive guise of a story about giant robot suits fighting monsters. Until recently, the timeslot had featured the iconic US cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.