Episode:Index

This is a list of episodes in the Neon Genesis Evangelion series.

Airing history
After several episodes were produced, the first episode aired on October 4, 1995, long after originally planned. Initially ignored (although received positively by those Gainax fans invited to early screenings), viewership grew slowly and largely by word of mouth.

The 16th episode marked a distinct shift that would characterize the second half of Evangelion as being more psychological than action or adventure. This change in emphasis was partly due to the development of the story, but also partly because by this point, production had begun running out of funding and failing to meet the schedule; this collapse has been identified by at least one Gainax employee as the impetus for Evangelion ' s turn into metafiction: "I didn't mind it. The schedule was an utter disaster and the number of cels plummeted, so there were some places where unfortunately the quality suffered. However, the tension of the staff as we all became more desperate and frenzied certainly showed up in the film … About the time that the production system was completely falling apart, there were some opinions to the effect that, 'If we can't do satisfactory work, then what's the point of continuing?' However, I didn't feel that way. My opinion was, 'Why don't we show them the entire process including our breakdown.'"

But nevertheless, by the 18th episode, it had become enough of a sensation that Unit-01's violent rampage "is criticized as being unsuitable on an anime show that is viewed by children", and episode 20 would be similarly criticized for the offscreen depiction of Misato and Kaji having sex. With this popularity came the first merchandise, "Genesis 0:1" (containing the first two episodes). Beginning a trend, it sold out. As the series concluded on 27 March 1996 with "Take care of yourself.", the story apparently remained unresolved: Third Impact and the Human Instrumentality Project are implied to have begun or even finished, but the episodes focus largely on the psychology of the characters, leaving deeply unclear what actually happens. The End of Evangelion was meant to replace or complement the original episodes 25 and 26, in order to better explain the events of the ending.

Episode list
Each episode has 2 titles: one is the original Japanese title, and the second is an English title that was chosen by Japanese studio Gainax itself. Most often, the direct translation of the Japanese title is not the same as the official English title that was chosen. For example, the direct translation of the original Japanese title of episode 2 is "An Unfamiliar Ceiling", but the English title chosen was "The Beast". Sometimes, however, the two titles are either similar or exactly the same, as was the case with episode 10 "Magmadiver". Many tracks on the original soundtracks are named after the English episode names in which they are first used.

The End of Evangelion
The End of Evangelion is a 1997 Japanese animated film written and directed by Hideaki Anno along with Kazuya Tsurumaki. It is a movie based on Episodes 25' and 26' which were alternate versions of 25 and 26.