Over the years, Studio Gainax has been responsible for some of the greatest achievements in the field of Japanese animation. Masterpieces like WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, TOP O NERAE: GUNBUSTER! and SECRET OF BLUE WATER have now become the stuff legends are made of. It has been four years since the completion of that last work, which was probably the studioÕs greatest success, and it is now time for a brand new Gainax TV series. SECRET OF BLUE WATER had been heavily inspired by Jules Verne's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and, as such, featured a Victorian era atmosphere and technology. The new series, called SHINSEIKI EVANGERION (NEON GENESIS EVANGELION), is much closer to MEIOU PROJECT: ZEORYMER and TOP O NERAE: GUNBUSTER! and refers to the Christian bible, Hebraic scriptures, Babylonian mythology, even to the Kabbalah, as parts of its inspiration. It indicates the possibility of the "Tree of Life" (or "Zephiroth"), which is seen in the opening animation, being an important detail in the unfolding of the story.

The direction, by Hideaki Anno, is rather similar to TOP O NERAE: GUNBUSTER! and shares the same feel that is unique to Anno. The events also unfold much the same way as in GUNBUSTER. NEON GENESIS EVANGELION offers the viewer a terrible and unstoppable menace from outer-space, a assortment of huge, weird monsters, special forces created to counter them, the gigantic humanoid machines designed and built with tax payer's money and a bevy of cute girls running around in skimpy pilot outfits. One exception is that the principal character, Shinji Ikari, is a boy instead of a nubile, teary female teenager.

The character designs, by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, are similar to the ones that were found in SECRET OF BLUE WATER, yet somehow different. They look less "cartoon", especially Shinji, who has the haunted look of a autistic child who is suddenly forced to wake up from his dream world. The most beautiful design is definitely Rei Anayama, nearly a female version of Shinji, but with light blue-silver hair. Those two characters are the most interesting to date, but, since the series is only a few episodes old at the moment this article is being written, it is quite possible that more interesting ones will pop up as time goes by.

However, the most "special" feature of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is its mecha designs. Done by manga artist Ikuto Yamashita, who specializes in weird, high-tech shapes (he did DARK WHISPER, one of the most visually stunning manga of the last decade) and worked on both GUNBUSTER and SECRET OF BLUE WATER, they are truly unique in the world of Japanese animation mecha. The way they are built, the way their cockpit is designed, their very shape, breaks the mold of the giant robots as the genre's fans know it and even challenges the viewers to re-adjust their way of thinking about such machines. Their unique color schemes (the EVA-01 is dark purple and neon green!) are the finishing touches to these strange, but wonderfully detailed designs.

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is a worthy successor to TOP O NERAE: GUNBUSTER! and SECRET OF BLUE WATER. It has only been playing for a few weeks, but has already collected a huge amount of praises for all its aspects, be it story, character development, mecha designs and music. It will very probably join the likes of SUPER DIMENSIONAL FORTRESS MACROSS and MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM in the ranks of the groundbreaking mecha series. This only shows that, contrarily to the rumors, Studio Gainax was not dead. It was only taking a breather and preparing its next attack upon the unsuspecting animation world.