Neon Genesis Evangelion (Japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, Hepburn: Shinseiki Evangerion, lit. 'New Century Evangelion' in Japanese and lit. 'New Beginning Gospel' in Greek), also known simply as Evangelion or Eva, is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax, animated by Tatsunoko, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996. Evangelion is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm called the Second Impact, particularly in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy recruited by his father Gendo to the mysterious organization Nerv to pilot a giant biomechanical mecha called an Evangelion and fight against beings known as Angels.

The series explores the experiences and emotions of the Evangelion pilots and Nerv's members as they fight to prevent Angels from causing more cataclysms. In the process, they are called upon to understand the ultimate cause of events and the motives behind human action. The series has been described as a deconstruction of the mecha genre, and features archetypal imagery derived from Shinto cosmology as well as Jewish and Christian mystical traditions, including Midrashic tales and Kabbalah. The psychoanalytic accounts of human behavior put forward by Freud and Jung are also prominently featured.Neon Genesis Evangelion received critical acclaim, being widely considered one of the best anime series of all time, but was also subject to controversy. Particular controversy centered on its final two episodes, as the ending was deemed confusing and abstract to many viewers and critics alike. In 1997, Hideaki Anno and Gainax released the feature film The End of Evangelion, which serves as an alternate ending replacing the final two episodes. A series of four films, titled Rebuild of Evangelion, retelling the events of the series with different plot elements and a new ending, were released between 2007 and 2021. Film, manga, home video, and other products in the Evangelion franchise have achieved record sales in Japanese markets and strong sales in overseas markets, with related goods selling over ¥150 billion by 2007 and Evangelion pachinko machines generating ¥700 billion by 2015.