Quotes / Neon Genesis Evangelion

Quotes about Evangelion

"This is a giant robot saga the same way Twin Peaks was a cop show."

—Comic Buyer's Guide

"It's strange that Evangelion has become such a hit — all the characters are so sick!"

— Hideaki Anno

"The lesson for fans: be careful what you ask for, especially when you're asking an artist whose emotional Happy Meal is missing a few fries."

— DVD Verdict's Bryan Byun on The End of Evangelion

Taliesin Jaffe: This film is meticulous in its ability to be completely incomprehensible.
Amanda Winn-Lee: (laughs) It delights in disturbing and confusing its viewers!
Taliesin Jaffe: Violence, on the other hand, we can all understand.

— The End of Evangelion DVD Commentary

"Yes, it is a creative, spiritual, and artistic masterpiece unrivalled in the anime world, an evolving, personal, and complex expression of insecurity and anxiety, but let's be honest here. It never made a lick of sense, not ever. Still, it's okay to love it."

— Adam Arseneau, dvdverdict.com review of Evangelion 1.11

Maya Ibuki: Unit 01 and the Angel have entered into a loving relationship based on mutual respect and clear communication!
Ritsuko Akagi: IMPOSSIBLE!

— The Woman With a Mole in the Pathway of Her Tears

>2#. Before you read this: _NEVER_ eat a salami-tuna-mushroom-extra-hot
Pizza while watching End of Evangelion and having the flu.:
Jeez, why didn't you take a few hits of acid while you were at it?

— Blob and Polychrome, Eyrie Productions Unlimited Website, 11/2/01

"Evangelion is the greatest invention of mankind! It's these really big robots with extension cords which run around and blow up evil Angels."

— Kensuke Aida, Cruel Lina's Thesis

"Evangelion is my life, and I have put everything I know into this work. This is my entire life. My life itself."

— Hideaki Anno

[Beat]"...Evangelion..." [montage of batshit insane scenes from the series and movie while "Ode to Joy" plays] "Fuuuuucckkkk..."

— Bennett the Sage, the standard reaction

"I can summarize the entirety of Neon Genesis Evangelion in one sentence: Shinji Ikari is fucking obnoxious."

— Bennett the Sage, saying what many Western viewers think about Shinji.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Final Boss of anime."

— Bennett the Sage on End of Evangelion

"Third Impact has occurred. The world has ended. And now, where Angels fear to tread, Shinji must go alone."

— Genesis 0:13 (Dub.VHS 13 of 13)

"I think it's better to show repugnant things just as they are. If we succeed to transmit the emotion that atrocious things are atrocious, its mission succeeded. When someone tells me "It's too horrible, too violent", that pleases me, because it's a healthy and normal reaction. When they tell me "I cannot watch, it's too much", I say "Okay!"

— Hideaki Anno, Interview with Go Nagai

"I feel that otaku have already become common to all countries. In Europe, in Korea, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, in America, otaku really do not change. I think that this is amazing. I say critical things towards otaku, but I don't reject them. I only say that we should take a step back and be self-conscious about these things. I think it's perfectly fine so long as you act with an awareness of what you are doing, self-conscious and cognizant of the current situation. I'm just not sure it's a good thing to reach the point where you cut yourself off from society. I don't understand the greatness of society, either. So I have no intention of going so far as to call for people to give up otaku-like things and become more suited to society. Only, I think there are many other interesting things in the world, and we don't have to reject them.

However, I take offense when otaku are criticized by non-otaku. Stupid idiots, I think, [criticizing] though you don't understand anything (laughs). There are truly many people who don't seem to really understand. I know these things without being lectured to by these people. It's like, why now? But saying those things is still better. There are many who completely missed the mark. When people don't even try to understand speak about otaku as though they were far above them, I think: what stupid people."

— Hideaki Anno

"For who would lose

Though full of pain

This intellectual being

Those thoughts that wander through eternity

To perish rather; swallowed up and lost

In the wide womb of uncreated night"

— Milton's Paradise Lost (used in the English trailer for End)''

Quotes in Evangelion

"Attempting to harness the engine of our own destruction... only humans are so foolish."

— Misato Katsuragi

"Why are you [Shinji] there, damn you?! You don't do anything, you won't help me, you won't even hold me, you're no-one, no-one, NO-ONE!"

— Asuka Langley Soryu, Episode 22

"I hate myself.
But, I might be able to love myself.
I might be allowed to stay here.
Yes. I am nothing but I.
I am I. I wish to be I.
I want to stay here!
I can stay here!"

— Shinji Ikari, Episode 26

"I still don't know where to find happiness...
But I'll continue to think about whether it's good to be here... whether it was good to have been born.
But in the end, it's just realizing the obvious over and over again.
Because I am myself."

— Shinji Ikari, End of Evangelion

"Congratulations!"

— The entire cast, minus Shinji and Kaworu in the televised ending.

Shinji: No one understands me.
Rei: You never understood anything.
Shinji: I thought this was supposed to be a world without pain and without uncertainty.
Rei: That's because you assumed everyone else felt the same as you did.
Shinji: You betrayed me! You betrayed my feelings!
Rei: You misunderstood from the beginning — you just believed what you wanted to believe.
Shinji: Nobody wants me. So they can all just die.
Rei: Then what is your hand for?
Shinji: Nobody cares whether I live or die. Nothing ever changes. So they can all just die.
Rei: Then what is your heart for?
Shinji: It would be better if I never existed. I should just die too.
Rei: Then why are you here?
Shinji: ... Is it okay for me to be here?
(Silence).
Shinji: (screams).

— The End of Evangelion

Gendo: When Shinji is near me, all I ever do is cause him pain. I thought it was better when I did nothing at all.
Yui: Were you afraid of Shinji?
Gendo: I didn't believe that anyone could love me. I never deserved to be loved.
Kaworu: So you were running away, and you rejected the others around you, so there was no chance you would ever be hurt.
Yui: And you were terrified by the invisible bonds that people form.
Rei: You were afraid, and so you closed off your heart.
Gendo: And now this is my retribution. Forgive me, Shinji.
(Unit-01 devours Gendo.)

— The End of Evangelion

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