Most of the time there are giant mechs, that usually means there’s an entire team behind them, even if it’s just a single mech. Mechs are massive machines, they require crews of engineers, technicians, mechanics, and scientists to maintain them and develop them. NERV is one such organization that is used to fight against a monstrous threat to the world. So what is NERV and who are they? Let’s find out!
To get to NERV, we must go back to when the Earth was formed and experienced the First Impact, where a planetoid hit causing a chunk of the planet to create its own moon. Millenia later, during the mid-point of the 20th century, the Dead Sea Scrolls would be discovered, revealing prophecies of a Second and Third Impact. This began the organization known as SEELE, a way to research these coming Impacts and to develop humanity for a forced evolution, the Humanity Instrumentality Project.
While the organization had a public face of researching how to understand the concept of Impacts, the hidden goal was to bring about humanity’s evolution, for good or ill. In 1999, during an Antarctic excavation, the discovery of Adam, the first Angel entity would occur. In the year 2000 for the Second Impact to arrive. A meteor causing global devastation with massive natural disasters and then human civil war following soon after.
When the dust had settled and treaties were signed, what remained of humanity began to rebuild. The Evangelion project, a bio-mechanical mecha to protect against threats too big for regular munitions begins. The main concern being Angels who were prophesized in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The head of this project is Gendo Ikari who works with his wife, until she goes missing, never to be found. The project makes leaps and bounds in the field of bio-mechanics and it would be discovered that the pilots of these Eva mechs would be children who can attune with the machines to control them.
As the project was reaching its conclusion, SEELE would create NERV as the UN’s Eva agency. Gendo Ikari would lead the team from its command center and his own son, Shinji, would become one of the Eva pilots. Alongside Asuka Langley and Rei Ayanami would be the core Children, as the pilots were known, even as other Children would be discovered as time went on. Gendo would lead from a distance, putting his son and the other Children in danger to deal with Angels and aide with the Human Instrumentality Project.
Since all the pilots were teenagers, all around fourteen years of age, NERV was just as much about prepping Eva-units to fight Angels as it was dealing with the raging hormones of their pilots. While some of the staff began doubting if they were doing the right thing, having child soldiers fight for them, it was becoming clear that NERV was an organization built on shady ideas become horrifying reality.
There you have it! Without giving too much away, Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably one of the most popular anime series out there, what’s interesting is how the manga that goes with it is often overlooked. Thankfully it’s getting a rerelease in the coming months and while it mostly follows the plot of the anime, there are some differences that any fan might find interesting to view. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
