By Alison L. Roberts

Go to your local video store, and look in the anime section. You'll see a variety of series: television programs, original animated videos (OAVs) and theatrical movies; action adventures, sci-fi, drama, comedy and romance. There is something for just about every taste or interest.

However, there is another, unofficial category. Every once in a great while, an anime work is produced that astounds and shakes the established foundations of storytelling, animation or character design. Love it or hate it, EVERYONE has an opinion about it. One such series is Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The opening title screen for NEON GENESIS EVANGELION.

Since its TV Tokyo debut on March 27, 1996, Neon Genesis Evangelion (known as Shin Seiki Evangelion in Japan) has easily earned a well-deserved reputation as the "most controversial anime of the 1990s" and, perhaps, of all time. What makes "Eva," as it is often abbreviated, so different? It took the basic ingredients found in other series and mixed them up in a truly unprecedented way. A way that resulted in a series that many anime fans feel turned the "big robot" genre inside out.

Fast Forward: 2015 A.D.

Mankind entered the 21st century battered, but not broken. In the year 2000, a comet struck the continent of Antarctica with such a force that half the earth's human population perished while the other half was left scrambling to pick up what pieces were left. This is a future where, due to "Second Impact," the icecaps have melted, causing flooding of biblical proportions. The atmospheric fallout of the catastrophe has resulted in global warming and other ecological changes. Fifteen years later, some semblance of normality has been regained... until the "Angels" start attacking.

Nerv, a secret agency under the United Nations, was created in preparation for this day — to fight off these mysterious intruders of unknown origin. Their secret weapon, the Evangelion, can only be piloted by children with special abilities. Our story begins with the introduction of Shinji Ikari, the 14-year-old son of Nerv's Commander: he arrives just in time to witness an Angel attack and find himself the unwilling pilot of Eva-Unit 01.