The are fictional entities in the anime television series ''

Neon Genesis Evangelion , also known simply as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and animated by Tatsunoko, directed by Hideaki Anno and broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996. ''Evangelion' ...

'', which was produced by

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; ja, 株式会社ガイナックス, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ) is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', ''Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, Roya ...

studio and directed by Hideaki Anno. Angels also appear in the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation of the same name, which was illustrated by

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio. Personal life Before Gainax was founded under the official name (it was originally called Daicon Film), Yoshiyuki served as animator o ...

. In the original animated work, almost all of the Angels are antagonists of mankind who repeatedly try to reach the headquarters of the special agency Nerv in the city Tokyo-3. Most of the Angels originate from an entity called Adam, but the eighteenth specimen, humanity, is descended from Lilith, the second Angel. To counter the Angels' invasion, Nerv builds the Evangelions, mechas that just like the Angels have a force field called an AT Field. The Angels appear in works from the animated series, in spin-off manga, video games, visual novels, in the '' yonkoma'' manga '' Petit Eva: Evangelion@School'', and the film tetralogy '' Rebuild of Evangelion''. Their names, which are revealed in the fourteenth and twenty-third episodes of the series, refer to the namesake angels of the

Judeo-Christian The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's borrowing of Jewish Scripture to constitute the "Old Testament" of the Christian Bible, or ...

tradition, except for Adam and Lilith. The characteristics and functions of each Angel are deliberately similar to those of their namesakes in ancient sacred texts. Their designs have been praised by critics and animation enthusiasts, and influenced subsequent animated series.

Conception

During the making of ''

'', the production staff decided to set the work on a battle between gods and humans.Interview with Sadamoto in In one early draft, which was published about two years before airing,

included enemies named , which they conceived as ancient relics scattered all over the globe and left in hibernation by a species called . These enemies were referred to as simple weapons with almost no biological component. According to Gualtiero Cannarsi, the writer who was in charge of the first Italian-language edition of the series, the Gainax studio members might have been inspired by James P. Hogan's ''Giants'' series as well as to a lesser extent

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

's short story "The Sentinel" and '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. The Apostolos would have been the servants and apostles of the giant Adam, the divine sentinel of a distant alien race formed long before humanity, drawing on Hogan's evolutionary and science fiction themes. The original authors intended there to have been twenty-eight enemies, the first of which, Adam, would have been found in the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

region but destroyed in an explosion fifteen years before the events of the series. The initial scenario also included the introduction of two Apostolos named , which was described as the "Angel of silence" and , "the rock of God". The first, an "optical combat weapon of light energy condensed into a solid state", would have had a polygonal body and would have been equipped with a rotating, crystal-shaped organ that would be capable of capturing electromagnetic energy from the environment and hurling it against its enemies. The second enemy would appear in the twelfth episode of the series, ; Turel would also perform a suicide attack using its body. The project was shelved during the production, but the ideas were recycled for the Angels Ramiel and Sahaquiel. The first episode would have featured a confrontation between the Eva-01, which is piloted by Rei, and an Angel named Raziel, which was later replaced with Sachiel. Raziel was described in the original project as a "metal Angel", which would have had more anthropomorphic features than Sachiel, similar to those of a giant. In the twenty-fourth episode, titled , there would be a great lunar battle against twelve Apostolos; humans would realize their helplessness in the face of their enemies' overwhelming superiority and "the promised time" would approach. For their number, the authors took inspiration from the twelve apostles of the Lamb that are mentioned in the book of Revelation, but the idea of multiple clashes on the Moon was abandoned and recycled for the battle against the Mass Production Models in the 1997 theatrical conclusion. In another scenario, two ancient prehistoric civilizations equipped with advanced technology appeared on Earth before the appearance of humanity. The first of the two, known as the "First Ancestral Race", would create artificial humanoids Evangelion, which would rebel against their creators, causing their extinction. A "Second Ancestral Race" would then create the Spear of Longinus in an attempt to defeat them, scattering the dormant Angels around the globe in case anyone tried to reactivate the humanoids. Moreover, in a draft of the twenty-first episode of the series, Misato would mention the origin of the enemies, saying; "I know the Angels aren't just battle weapons left by the First Ancestral Race". In the final version of the show, the Angels were renamed and indicated in the characters' dialogue with the word rather than the term , with which the angels of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

tradition are usually indicated. Within the series' narrative, Gainax chose to use the English translation for Angel, "messenger", which is written in

Latin characters The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

and is readable in graphemes and written in overlays, as in the case of Nerv's computers. In the Christianity, the Greek term ''apostolos'' (''απόστολος''; "sent", "messenger"), indicates the twelve disciples whom Jesus Christ chooses among his followers in honor of the

twelve tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( he, שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, translit=Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit=Tribes of Israel) are, according to Hebrew scriptures, the descendants of the biblical patriarch Jacob, also known as Israel, throu ...

. Their names, however, are not those of Christ's apostles, but angels mentioned in religious writings. Michael House, the only American member of Gainax, protested about the juxtaposition of the two terms, but Hideaki Anno decided to keep the dual naming of the enemies. In one early draft of the series, the Nerv's supercomputer, the Magi System, would assign a name to each Angel. The director gave general guidelines for the design of each Angel. Their shapes became reflections of the feelings of Anno's generation, reflecting the climate of Japan in the 1990s. During the broadcast of the series, the Japanese economy and society were perceived in the country as inherently corrupt and decadent, with no one being able to trace the causes, making the concept of "enemy" ambiguous. The enemy of twentieth-century Japan, according to Anno, was neither political nor defined, as in the case of the religious sect

Aum Shinrikyō , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says th ...

, which in March 1995 attacked the Tokyo subway with

sarin Sarin (NATO designation GB G-series, "B"">Nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for Nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound. The Angels and the character

Gendo Ikari is a fictional character from the ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' franchise, created by Gainax. In the original anime series with the same name, Gendo is the supreme commander of the special agency Nerv, which is dedicated to the study and annihila ...

were represented as amorphous beings, since for the director the concept of "enemy" is per sé undefined. Mahiro Maeda drew Gaghiel and Israfel, while Yoshitō Asari designed Sachiel, Shamshel, and Zeruel. The artists avoided giving them anthropomorphic designs, which would have been more challenging during production. In the first two episodes, in which Sachiel appears, the staff had enough resources to hire animators, but for the fifth and sixth they already changed course.

Characteristics

Angels are organic beings whose atomic structure has both particle and wave nature, and therefore characterized by the wave-particle duality of light. At the beginning of the series, their objectives and motivations are unknown, as is the reason for their collective name. The special agency Nerv with its scientific knowledge cannot analyze their mode of action but they are all attracted by an Angel – called Lilith – that is locked in the deepest section of the Nerv's headquarters. The Angels' genetic makeup has a 99.89% affinity with that of humans. They can change shape from vaguely anthropomorphic to that of a geometric solid, and equally variable sizes. Many are equipped with a red sphere known as the "core" or "sphere of light", which is also their main source of energy and weakness. The "fruit of life", an organ of unknown nature, is responsible for their regenerative abilities. Humanity, the last example of an Angel, has the "fruit of knowledge" instead. Angels have the universal ability to generate a force field called the AT Field, which is similar to that of Evangelion units, and to regenerate their tissues. Their names and attacks have been prophesied in the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient documents in the possession of a secret organization called Seele, but few people in Nerv seem to be aware of them. The reason they appear in Tokyo-3 one at a time, never attacking collectively, is unknown. In the first episode, Commander Ikari and Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki, observing Sachiel and its regeneration, claim the Angel has acquired a rationality of its own; according to Gendo, "If it couldn't, it wouldn't be capable as an autonomous weapon". In the opening sequence of the seventeenth episode, after Leliel's appearance, Misato Katsuragi claims "there is nothing to suggest such a systematic organization among the Angels", and a member of a mysterious organization known as the Human Instrumentality Committee claims; "It is obvious that they have worked independently, so far". Dissolving the meeting, Nerv director Gendō Ikari says the Angels "are beginning to attain intelligence". According to a guide on the series contained in a manual for the card game , there is a connection between the Angels; each Angel seems to be an evolutionary outgrowth of the previous one, and the fact they attack one at a time suggests they are aware of the status of each of the other specimens and react accordingly. To verify the nature of an Angel, Nerv analyzes a wave diagram of unidentified objects, which is indicated by the expression "Blood Type: Blue".

In ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''

Adam

is the progenitor of most of the Angels. In the original animated series, it is represented as a giant of light with features similar to those of an Evangelion. The Katsuragi research team finds Adam in Antarctica and begins to examine its energy source, a perpetual energy system named S² engine. Scientists awaken Adam, applying the Super-Solenoid theory, but because of an accident during the experiment a planetary catastrophe known as Second Impact occurs, and Adam is reduced to an embryonic state. Behind the event is the secret sect Seele, which is devoted to the search for the ; "the approaching of a divinity both ageless and undying". from the video game ''

Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 is a Japanese video game for the PlayStation 2 developed by Alfa System and published by Bandai. It has role-playing video game and world-controlling elements, and allows the player to follow a number of characters (such as Asuka Langley Soryu ...

''. In 2015,

Ryoji Kaji The Japanese anime television series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' has an extensive cast of characters that were created by Gainax. The show's protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy whose father Gendo recruits him to the shadowy organizati ...

transports Adam to the Nerv headquarters, handing it over to the commander of the agency, Gendo Ikari, who calls it "the key to the Human Instrumentality Project" and "the first human being". Adam's soul is incorporated in the seventeenth Angel Tabris, and Adam's embryo is implanted into Gendo's body. According to the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

book of Genesis, God created

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, the first human being, in His image. On the etymological origin of the name Adam () have been formulated several theories, for which it would mean "earth", "red" or "created". God then creates Eve, the first woman, from Adam. In the twenty-first episode of ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', it is revealed the Evangelions were created from biological material from Adam. In the Jewish Kabbalah, Adam is described as a kind of deity, a being that is capable of giving life and as an entity to which all things are destined to return at the end of time. According to writers Kazuhisa Fujie and Martin Foster,

Kaworu Nagisa , real name , is a fictional character from the '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'' franchise created by Gainax. In the series of the same name, he is the pilot of a giant mecha named Evangelion Unit 02 for the special agency Nerv. Kaworu is the s ...

states those who come from Adam must return to Adam referring to this tradition. In Hermetic terminology, humanity in a state of mental and spiritual perfection is referred to as Adam Kadmon. Critic Marc MacWilliams noted ''Evangelion'' Adam is portrayed as a giant being of light "as portrayed again in Kabbalistic texts before his Fall". Carl Gustav Horn noted; "the Kabbalistic view is that all other creatures without exception – even the angels and archangels – are based on Adam (Kadamon) but were left incomplete: only Adam (of Genesis) was a complete image of the Divine". A being named Adam, "the first human being", is introduced in the thirty-seventh episode of the series '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water'', which Gainax produced and released before ''Evangelion''.

Lilith

Michelangelo, Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden 03

is the second Angel. It is kept in the Terminal Dogma, the deepest section of the Nerv headquarters. Lilith's face is covered with a mask on which are drawn the seven eyes of a symbol called the Seele emblem. Lilith has the appearance of a white, anthropomorphic giant whose hands are nailed to a red cross. Instead of lower limbs, it has small, humanoid legs. Few people know Lilith's true identity; even those who know about its existence are made to believe it is Adam, the first Angel. Lilith is revealed by the Angel Tabris in the twenty-fourth episode of the series; Tabris cannot identify Lilith until seeing it. The soul of the Angel is kept inside Rei Ayanami; when the soul joins the body, Lilith initiates the Third Impact, an event in which the souls of all human beings merge into one being. In the film ''The End of Evangelion'' (1997), the Angel's body unites with Rei, takes on the form of a girl, and grows to the size of the Earth, developing a giant AT Field. In a scene in the twenty-third episode, an image of two white giants without the lower part and attached is visible; according to Gainax, this image shows Lilith and the Eva-01 unit. Lilith, according to the video game ''

'', arrived by chance on Earth in a celestial object called Black Moon, which along with a White Moon of Adam was sent by an alien "First Ancestral Race". The Angels are thus the legitimate successors of Adam and the original inhabitants of Earth. The video game also says; "Some ngelswere trying to access Lilith and reset all life, some of them had nothing in mind, and some were trying to recover their progenitor Adam". In ancient Mesopotamia, the name Lilith () denoted a nocturnal female specter, which is named in the Old Testament

book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

. According to rabbinic literature, Lilith was Adam's first wife, and demons called

Lilim Lilin () were hostile night spirits that attacked men in ancient Mesopotamian religion and Jewish folklore. Judaism In Jewish mythology, ''Lilin'' is a term for night spirits. Biblical apocrypha In the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, ''lilin'' c ...

were born from their union. The Angel Lilith's design was elaborated upon by Mitsuo Iso, animator and screenwriter of several episodes of the series. According to character designer

, the original scenario did not include Lilith, which was introduced following the airing of the series and some staff research on Christianity because "not touching Lilith seemed to hurt Anno's pride". In the '' Rebuild of Evangelion'' tetralogy, Lilith is present from the beginning. According to an official pamphlet, the purpose of the Angels is to reach and merge with Lilith, which is the reason for the Angels' attacks on Tokyo-3. In the saga, Lilith's aspect has been modified by animator Okama and Hideaki Anno: in ''

Evangelion 1.0 is a 2007 Japanese Anime, animated science fiction action film, written and chiefly directed by Hideaki Anno. It is the first installment of the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' tetralogy, based on the anime television series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion ...

'' (2007) Lilith has scars on its chest, the result of scientific experiments; its mask, without the seven eyes of Seele, is similar to that of the Angel Sachiel. Lilith, along with Rei and Eva-01, has been compared to the

Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

ian archetype of the Great Mother, the feminine authority that represents protection, fertility, darkness and inescapable abyss. An official encyclopedia also noted that in astrology there is a concept named Black Moon, which is also named Lilith.

Sachiel

is the third Angel and the first to attack Tokyo-3 city in the episode " Angel Attack" fifteen years after the Second Impact. Sachiel stands, walks on two legs, and is equipped with two mobile arms. On the upper part of its trunk, it has a disk that is similar to a face, while on the outer sides of the legs it has two gills which it can use both at sea and on land. Once on land, the armed forces of the United Nations (UN) attack Sachiel, which can survive heavy bursts of fire from tanks and rocket launchers, and the UN's most powerful weapon, the N² mine. The attack damaging Sachiel's face and temporarily stop its advance. Sachiel then regenerates and replaces its face with a second mobile disk. After the crash, Sachiel learns how fighter aircraft work and can replicate their effectiveness, developing the ability to launch explosive beams. Sachiel is capable of making short-distance leaps while remaining at low altitudes. It has strong hand-to-hand combat abilities and can use a pair of f, which are luminescent pointing weapons that are incorporated into the forearms. In the second episode, Sachiel fights with Eva-01 which, after neutralizing Sachiel's AT Field, breaks its upper limbs. Sachiel becomes liquified and transforms itself into a soft sphere that wraps itself around the humanoid's body in a suicide attack, and explodes. The name Sachiel means "covering of God". In religious writings, Sachiel is considered the angel of water. Sachiel is counted in the choir of cherubim, who according to the Old Testament protect the tree of life with spears of fire, a detail that possibly inspired the fictional Angel's protractible spears. The authors initially intended the Angel to fight at sea against Unit 02 in the eighth episode "

Asuka Strikes! is the eighth episode of the Japanese anime television series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', which was created by Gainax. The episode, written by Hideaki Anno and Yoji Enokido and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, was first broadcast on TV Tokyo o ...

", but this idea was set aside and used for Gaghiel. Sachiel is based on Ishtar, an android that appears in the manga ''Wahhaman'' by Yoshitō Asari; its back is inspired by that of a cat. At the

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

stage, Sachiel's figure had different connotations and its fight was similar to the ''Ultraman'' battles. In the first episode, Sachiel appears among the buildings of a submerged city called Odawara and is attacked by a line of tanks placed on the Manazuru road between Nebukawa and Yugawara. In the film ''Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'', the first installment of the ''Rebuild'' saga, Sachiel is referred to as the fourth Angel instead of the third. The animators superimposed images of a light reflecting on an expanse of water and one of the Milky Way on its luminescent core.

Shamshel

Diagram showing a double helix of a chromosome CRUK 065

is the fourth Angel and the second that attacks Tokyo-3. Shamshel has a vaguely insect-like appearance and its form fuses that of a mollusk and that of a

cetacean Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...

. Although it has limbs, Shamshel slowly flies at low altitude, a few tens of meters above the ground, to avoid detection by Nerv radar equipment. Above Shamshel's head are circular spots that resemble eyes; when attacked it can hit its targets with precision even when they are out of the hypothetical field of view of the spots, excluding their function as optical apparatus. Shamshel uses two weapons that are similar to luminescent whips that have drilling and cutting capabilities, which can to pierce the abdomen of the Eva-01 in battle. Shamshel has a particularly developed intelligence that allows it to be precise in its movements and to change disposition according to the situation and the target's behavior. Shamshel is shot down by the Unit 01, which pierces its core with the Prog-Knife, and Nerv scientists examine its lifeless body and lock it inside a research site. Samshel is composed of matter with a wave structure whose wavelength corresponds to that of blue light. Moreover, according to

Ritsuko Akagi The Japanese anime television series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' has an extensive cast of characters that were created by Gainax. The show's protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy whose father Gendo recruits him to the shadowy organizati ...

, the DNA map of the Angel corresponds with 99.89% of that of human DNA. The Angel Shamshel was inspired by the figure of

Shamsiel Shamsiel (Hebrew and Aramaic: שִׁמְשִׁיאֵל ''Šīmšīʾēl'', "God is my sun" Greek: Σεμσιήλ Semsiḗl), also spelled ''Samsâpêêl'', ''Shamshel'', ''Shashiel'' or ''Shamshiel'', was the 16th Watcher of the 20 leaders of th ...

, whose name means "Sun of God", which in the book of Enoch is one of the fallen Watchers and is also believed to be the angel of the day. The name, according to official sources, is an allusion to its fight with Unit 01, which takes place in daylight and ends just before sunset. Shamshel attacks Tokyo-3 from Manazuru city. Its appearance is similar to that of an Alien Bira, an alien race that appears in '' Ultraseven'', and is inspired by that of a creature called "the three-meter extraterrestrial", whose garage kit was made by a Gainax-associated company called General Products. In the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'', Shamshel is the fifth Angel. Its interior contains luminescent matter, while its body has bone-like, semi-transparent shades and mechanical tentacles. After the battle, like all ''Rebuild'' Angels, its body liquefies and a rainbow emerges. Its tentacles remain suspended in the air, retaining their shape due to contact with Eva-01 and its AT Field. During the animation process of ''Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'', the animators drew Shamshel's two whips entirely by hand. During the fight, Shamshel, which is aware of the consequences, severs the umbilical cable of the Eva-01.

Ramiel

is the fifth Angel. Its body is a regular octahedron, and has a shiny, smooth, blue surface. A wide drill, which pierces the ground and comes close to the underground Nerv headquarters, extends from the lower body. Ramiel is equipped with an accelerated-

particle cannon A particle-beam weapon uses a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles to damage the target by disrupting its atomic and/or molecular structure. A particle-beam weapon is a type of directed-energy weapon, which directs energy in a part ...

, which, exploiting the collision of

subatomic particle In physical sciences, a subatomic particle is a particle that composes an atom. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, a subatomic particle can be either a composite particle, which is composed of other particles (for example, a pr ...

s, emits a powerful beam of photons through a gap between the two pyramids of the octahedron. Ramiel's core, unlike those of previous Angels, is located inside the body, overcoming the weakness of its predecessors and revealing the existence of their collective and individual cognitive, mnemonic, and evolutionary abilities. In the fifth episode of the series " Rei I", Ramiel strikes the Eva-01 with its light beam before the mecha's exit to the surface. The event suggests Ramiel can detect the presence and position of enemies, even underground. To face the threat, in the episode " Rei II" Misato Katsuragi elaborates a strategy called Operation Yashima to destroy Ramiel. During the operation, Ramiel again attacks the Eva-01, which is outside the estimated area of the fire. At the end of the fight, the mecha hits Ramiel with a

positron The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. It has an electric charge of +1 '' e'', a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. When a positron collides ...

cannon, permanently destroying it. As a source of inspiration for Ramiel, the authors took the monster , which is introduced in the '' Return of Ultraman'' series, whose sound effects were used.

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

's Lynzee Loveridge described Ramiel's design as "Anno's shout out to ''Future Police Urashiman''", while Yasutaka Yoshimura compared it with some abstract shapes in the final scenes of

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. The Angel's name

Ramiel Ramiel ( arc, רַעַמְאֵל, he, רַעַמְאֵל ''Raʿamʾēl''; gr, ‘Ραμιήλ), not to be confused with the holy angel "Remiel", is a fallen Watcher (angel) while the other is an Archangel in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. Rami ...

(Hebrew: ) means "the angel of thunder", in reference to its particle cannon. Initially, in correspondence of each face of the octahedron Ramiel would have had a solid, floating, triangular shape and its beam of light would have used positrons; its body would have been high and its cannon would have had a range of . In the first ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' film, ''Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'', Ramiel is referred to as the sixth Angel, and it can transform its regular octahedron form into a variety of solids. For the ''Rebuild'' design, the staff took inspiration from the microorganism Andromeda from the science fiction film of the same name and an image depicting a four-dimensional body moving in a three-dimensional world that Takashi Watabe drew twenty years earlier.

Gaghiel

, the sixth Angel, appears in "

" in the Pacific Ocean and goes to attack the UN fleet, which is transporting Eva-02. Gaghiel resembles an aquatic creature; its body has fin-like appendages and a hydrodynamic shape, allowing it to quickly move through water. The upper body has a small, disc-shaped face located above the mouth that is identical to the two disc-shaped faces of Sachiel. The Angel, while not acting upon a well-defined attack strategy, attacks the naval fleet using the bulk of its body, sinking ships. When approaching its targets, it opens its mouth and squeezes its enemies in its jaws. Gaghiel's core, unlike those of previous Angels, is located inside the mouth. During the fight, Gaghiel jumps onto the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

''Over the Rainbow'' and moves to attack the Eva-02, which has crashed into the sea in the Itō area. Its body is long; Gaghiel is thus by far the largest of all the Angels seen so far. Its annihilation requires an operation conducted by Unit 02 in collaboration with the UN fleet: the mecha, momentarily imprisoned in the jaws of the being, neutralizes the Angel's AT Field and opens its mouth to allow two armored warships, which were evacuated and sunk with the Kingston valves, to penetrate its jaws and fire on the Angel's core. The operation is successful and Gaghiel is defeated by Asuka Langley Soryu and Shinji Ikari. The behavior of the Angel, which appeared at sea away from Tokyo-3, is attributable to the presence of the first Angel Adam, on the ships of the fleet. The name Gaghiel (Hebrew: ), also called Gagiel, Daghiel or Dagiel, in Judeo-Christian folklore is the angel of the fish. Its Hebrew name can be translated as "roaring beast of God", and has been interpreted by writer Will Raus as a possible allusion to its appearance, which is similar to that of a beast fighting in the water.

Israfel

is the seventh Angel. Like its predecessors, it approaches Tokyo-3 by sea, and is intercepted by Units 01 and 02 in the

Suruga Bay Suruga Bay (駿河湾, ''Suruga-wan'') is a bay on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is situated north of a straight line from Omaezaki Point to Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula and surrounded by Honshū ...

. Asuka Langley Soryu, aboard her Eva-02, strikes it with its Sonic Glaive splitting it in half. After the attack, the Angel regenerates into two parts, both of which able to fight individually. Israfel attacks and defeats the two mechas, which return to their base to await a second confrontation. Following their first defeat, the UN armed forces attack Israfel, the two parts of which they nickname Kō and Otsu. Thanks to their use, the UN can temporarily stop its advance. The main characteristic of Israfel is its capacity of

fission Fission, a splitting of something into two or more parts, may refer to: * Fission (biology), the division of a single entity into two or more parts and the regeneration of those parts into separate entities resembling the original * Nuclear fissio ...

, similar to that of a single-cell organism, and its reversibility. In addition to the body, the Angel changes its color and can also divide its core, which before the division is positioned at the center of the trunk. These features, along with the brightness of its body, resemble those of

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. The only way to defeat Israfel, according to Misato, is "a double coordinated attack on its core"; between the two parts of the divided Angel is a bond that allows Kō and Otsu to share their behaviors and vulnerability. After a regeneration process, the Angel merges, regains its original form, and again begins its advance. In the second clash with the units, Israfel imitates the weapons used against it in the first battle, launching rays with high destructive potential against the Eva and using its upper limbs as blades. During the fight, Eva-01 and Eva-02, moving in synchronization, attack the Angel. Israfel splits again, and the two units jump into the sky, launching a synchronized kick that destroys its cores. The seventh Angel is named after the messenger of music and resurrection,

Israfil Israfil ( ar, إِسْـرَافِـيْـل}, ''ʾIsrāfīl''; or Israfel) Lewis, James R., Evelyn Dorothy Oliver, and S. Sisung Kelle, eds. 1996. ''Angels A to Z''. Visible Ink Press. . p. 224. is the angel who blows the trumpet to signal ''Qiy ...

( Arabic: إسرافيل). In Jewish Kabbalah and

Islamic culture Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices which are common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to the early Umayyad period and the early Abbasid period, were predomi ...

, Israfel is the angel in charge of blowing the trumpet on the Day of Judgment, a detail related to the attack of Eva-01 and 02, which is harmonized to a sixty-two-second melody. According to Will Raus, Israfel's role of resurrection could allude to the Angel's ability to split, thanks to which it can regenerate after an apparent defeat. The names by which the Nerv calls the two individual parts of Israfel, Kō and Otsu, are equivalent to the

Latin letters The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

A and B, the typical schematic nomenclatures attributed to the first two elements of a series. The terms Kō and Otsu come from the series of Heavenly Stems, ten kanjis corresponding to the days of the decades into which the months of the year were divided in ancient Japan.

Sandalphon

, the eighth Angel, is detected inside the volcanic crater of Mount Asama in a human-embryo-like state and enclosed in a

chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

. The Nerv decides to attempt to capture it; the being awakens during the attempt and quickly mutates. In its adult form, its body resembles the Limanda fish in both shape and the arrangement of its fins and eyes, which are positioned in pairs on the left side of the frontal part of its back. It collides with Eva-02, demonstrating high levels of physical endurance. Its core is concealed within its body and is not visible to observers. During the fight, Asuka and other Nerv members using the concept of thermal expansion to develop a plan to defeat it. Eva-02, using a coolant in its equipment, causes Sandalphon to undergo thermal constriction, resulting in damage to its body structure. The fictional Angel's name alludes to

Sandalphon Sandalphon (Hebrew: סַנְדַּלְפוֹן ''Sandalp̄ōn''; el, Σανδαλφών ''Sandalfón'') is an archangel in Jewish and Christian writings, although not in scripture. Sandalphon figures prominently in the mystical literary traditio ...

(Hebrew:), which in Judeo-Christian mysticism is the angel of embryos and unborn children. During its metamorphosis into its adult form, the producers included a plaintive background voice using the electronically distorted howls of an infant. The Angel's design took inspiration from prehistoric creatures such as the trilobite and the '' Anomalocaris'', an extinct

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

predator that was at the center of scientific debates during first airing of the series. The idea of an enemy-capture attempt was planned for the eleventh episode, but moved to the tenth during the production. According to a guide on the original series contained in the game ''Neon Genesis Evangelion RPG'', the Sandalphon episode suggests dormant, larval Angels are hidden around the world. An official encyclopedia on the series links its appearance with the biblical Book of Enoch, in which the word "Heaven", the abode of angels, actually refers to an Earthly location; because Sandalphon is discovered in the magma chamber of a volcano, ''Evangelion'' Angels exist "in the same world as ours".

Matarael

The ninth Angel , also known as Matriel, resembles an arthropod arachnid chelicerate. Unlike arthropods, it has a single central body, from the top of which extends four long, slender limbs that are oversized compared to the rest of the structure, making it akin to the opilionid subclass. The main body is similar to a geometric solid obtained from the section of

ellipsoid An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the ...

. Nine human-eye-like drawings are evident. The first eight are arranged in an equilateral triangle, and one is placed at the center of the body's lower section; for this reason it is called "central eye", from which it pours a corrosive, ocher-colored liquid on its enemies. The acid is likely produced by an exocrine gland inside the Angel. Matarael is first detected in Sagami Bay by the radar surveillance of the

Fuchū is the name of several places in Japan. The name means capital of a province (Kokufu). According to the provisions of the 8th-century Ritsuryō system, there was a ''fuchū'' in every administrative province. The placename Fuchū remains in many ...

headquarters of the UN Armed Forces, which identify it as the eighth Angel and not as the ninth, being unaware of the existence of Lilith. Once ashore, Matarael invades Tokyo-3 and decides to penetrate the Nerv by corroding an armored portcullis leading to the organization's headquarters. The Angel pours its acid into the wells dug in the sixth episode of the series by the Angel Ramiel, and its strategy suggests it is mindful of its predecessor's actions. It clashes with Eva 00, 01 and 02, which defeat it with gunfire. The staff wanted to create something reminiscent of an upside-down turtle. The name

Matarael Batriel, Batârêl (Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and d ...

(Hebrew:) also comes from the Book of Enoch, where he is described as the angel of rain. The name of ''Evangelion'''s Matarael refers to its offensive strategy and its powerful, corrosive acid, which it rains on its enemies.

Sahaquiel

is the tenth Angel, which appears in Earth's orbit above the Indian Ocean, using its body as a bomb. Its symmetrical body shape is similar to that of some single-celled organisms such as amoebas. The Angel's body is very large; more than twelve times larger than an Eva, making Sahaquiel the largest Angel in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''. Its skin is orange with small, blue inserts. On its body are three geometric, yellow-and-green figures that resemble the human eye. The Angel's core is located within its central eye. Before attacking the Nerv headquarters, Sahaquiel detaches some small portions of its main mass that are equipped with an AT Field and high destructive power, and hurls them to the ground as missiles to correct its trajectory. Its ability to divide, which is similar to Israfel's, resembles the budding of

protozoa Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histo ...

and mesozoa. It can materially interfere with Nerv's military equipment, destroying a research satellite and jamming enemy ground communications. Once it arrives at Tokyo-3, Sahaquiel is jammed by Unit 01 while its AT Field is breached by Unit 00. Eva-02 destroys its core, defeating it. For Sahaquiel staff took inspiration from the angel of the same name mentioned in the Third Book of Enoch as the angel of the heavens and guardian of the fourth heaven of Paradise, which is referenced in the fictional Angel's aerial attack strategy. The connection with the biblical Sahaquiel's guardian function is realized in its elongated shape, which resembles that of a deformed eye. The name Sahaquiel (Hebrew: ) is translatable as "Ingenuity of God", which Will Rauss interpreted as a possible allusion to the Angel's uses of its AT Field. Its design was inspired by surrealist art. In the initial draft, Sahaquiel had a sharp, string-shaped body similar to Armisael's. Sadamoto drew the Angel to show ''Evangelion'''s enemies may not always be anthropomorphic, like the Seele. In the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' saga, Sahaquiel is introduced as the eighth Angel. Its design by Mahiro Maeda has several changes; in the movie ''Evangelion 2.0'', its AT Field is powerful enough to distort the path of light and its body, which was initially spherical, unravels and changes shape, revealing silhouettes of humans on its surface. At the bottom of its main body, Sahaquiel develops an anthropomorphic entity that pierces Unit 01's hands with spear-like weapons, which were designed by director Takeshi Honda. During the production, Maeda proposed human shapes dancing on the lower part of the sphere. In the trailer, Sahaquiel is shown with a mosaic effect to hide its features from the audience. The new design of Sahaquiel was difficult to animate; the staff were on a tight production schedule, and experimented and remade scenes in a state of confusion, changing them up to the deadline. Masayuki, assistant director in the storyboard phase, suggested having Sahaquiel die in a wave of blood that floods Tokyo-3, which was inspired by the '' tokusatsu'' tradition and the scene in which Sapporo collapses in the Japanese science fiction series '' Japan Sinks'' (1974).

Iruel

, also known as Yroul, Yrouel and Ireul, is the eleventh Angel, which first manifests itself as corrosive stains on a wall of the Nerv headquarters. At this early stage, Iruel behaves in the same manner as an obligate anaerobic bacterium. Nerv attempts but fails to eradicate Iruel by increasing the presence of ozone in the air. Unlike its predecessors, Iruel is a colony of Angels and microscopic nanomachines-sized individuals rather than a single individual. These singularities, similar to bacteria, are united in an agglomeration that quickly evolves radically to take on the form of a computer. After acquiring the typical characteristics of a living organism and an electronic circuit, Iruel seeks the access code to the three Magi supercomputers, the most important part of the structure, to activate a program of self-destruction at the headquarters. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi devises a "reverse hacking" strategic plan, believing it is better to increase the enemy's evolution and insert a program to make Iruel choose to coexist with the Magi System. Ritsuko's program defeats Iruel, the headquarters is saved and the central computer returns to ordinary mode. Animator Mitsuo Iso, scriptwriter of the thirteenth episode of the series, suggested a battle against an invisible enemy and the basic plot of the installment during the production. In religious texts, Iruel is referred to as the angel of fear. Writer Will Raus interpreted the sense of dread felt by Nerv members during its attack as a reference to the biblical angel. The Angel's program of self-extinction can be likened to cellular

apoptosis Apoptosis (from grc, ἀπόπτωσις, apóptōsis, 'falling off') is a form of programmed cell death that occurs in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (morphology) and death. These changes incl ...

; coexistence with the Magi System brings it into a condition of

symbiosis Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

with the Nerv's computers. Iruel's properties, such as self-replication, data processing, and colony self-regulation are similar to those of a universal molecular assembler. In common language and science fiction, it indicates a hypothetical, microscopic assembler that can build anything atom by atom, a process modern science considers impossible. ''Evangelion Chronicle'' encyclopedia noted this detail suggests Angels are technologically superior to humans.

Leliel

is the twelfth Angel. Its body is divided into two parts, each with different physical characteristics; the first is a black-and-white-streaked floating sphere while the second looks like a black shadow. The spherical body is its true shadow, while the apparent shadow on the ground is the main body. The Angel is wide and thick. It extends its AT Field in the vicinity of its enemy, a process that coincides with the manifestation of the apparent shadow, which is capable of engulfing the matter it encounters. This physicality is maintained using an inverted AT Field, within which extends a number-imaginary space, a parallel dimension named Dirac Sea. During a fight, the dark shadow extends to the feet of the Eva-01 and begins to engulf it, trapping it within its space. It is not made clear whether Leliel's goal is the absorption of the humanoid or direct contact with its pilot, Shinji Ikari. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi devises a strategy to destroy Leliel and recover Unit 01. The plan calls for all existing N² bombs to be dumped into the Angel's shadow, interfering with the AT Fields of the two Evas left for a thousandth of a second in the enemy's imaginary number space. During the countdown to ordnance release, the floating, spherical body breaks and Unit 01 emerges, causing an anomaly in the imaginary number circuit and shooting down the enemy. Leliel Neon Genesis Evangelion

In Judeo-Christian tradition, Leliel is the angel of the night and is called the "prince of conception". The fictional Angel's shadow and the outflow of Unit 01, which resembles childbirth and gives it the characteristics of a womb, allude to the biblical angel. Geometric figures similar to female genitalia are visible in the geometric pattern of the spherical body. The name Leliel (Hebrew: ) means "jaw of God", which Will Raus interpreted as a reference to the fictional Angel's ability to consume any object that comes into contact with its real body. The image of a dark shadow wandering in a summer setting and the geometric pattern of the Angel's spherical body are inspired by

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and

optical art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, ...

. Japanese architect Yasutaka Yoshimura compared Leliel's design with Bridget Riley's work ''Fragment 5''. To explain the Angel's nature and its Dirac sea, Ritsuko said its body is made up of

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

. While trapped inside the Angel, Shinji encounters and converses with another self, which is presumed to be Leliel. The scene, which is set on a train, was the idea of assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki, who was inspired by a dream he had as a child. According to the official film books of the series, the two Shinji in the sequence represent the psychological concepts of

ego Ego or EGO may refer to: Social sciences * Ego (Freudian), one of the three constructs in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche * Egoism, an ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality * Egotism, the drive to ...

and

superego The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical const ...

. The Dirac Sea depicted in the anime was inspired by Paul Dirac's concept of the same name and is also drawn from the novel by Japanese writer

Ryu Mitsuse Ryū Mitsuse ( ''Mitsuse Ryū'', March 18, 1928 - July 7, 1999) was a Japanese novelist, science fiction writer, alternate history writer, historical novelist, and essayist. Mitsuse is the author of ''Hyakuoku no Hiru to Sen'oku no Yoru''. Among his ...

. The Leliel episode was originally intended to include a simple, traditional battle following the track established by the previous episodes; the production staff, however, decided to include an episode with an Angel that is more interested in humans than in their annihilation to avoid revealing the riddles about the Angels' true nature. For the clash, Gainax condensed the ideas of what should have been a trilogy of episodes with the same theme. In the initial scenario, Leliel would select Japanese from the verses of some animals and several human languages so it could communicate with Shinji. Tsurumaki and the production staff changed their minds, finding the idea of an Angel conversing in human language "too anti-climactic" and " pulp fiction", and devised the final scenario, in which "Shinji converses with himself".

Bardiel

is the thirteenth Angel. Its nature is similar to that of a fungus or a parasitic bacterium, allowing it to infiltrate the body of the Eva-03, which is being transported by air from the US division to the Japanese headquarters of Nerv. Bardiel's incubation period is extended; symptoms only become obvious during the mecha's activation test and after its pilot, Toji Suzuhara, is exposed to the infection. After the contamination, a crack opens on the unit's back, inside which molten filaments similar to

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

are visible. Bardiel does not need an external energy source and does not draw energy from the Eva-03's internal battery. Its wave diagram is orange, like that of Leliel, a factor that does not allow its immediate identification. During its advance towards Tokyo-3, Bardiel fights against the 00, making a white, irritant liquid drip inside the unit's body. Bardiel's attack mode does not belong to a single being that acts upon its own will, but to a colony of microscopic Angels with dimensions equal to that of bacteria that cooperate and work in a community like Iruel. Eva-03 undergoes rapid morphological mutations that are normally impossible for humanoids, such as the elongation of its arms, which in the course of combat become three times their normal size. The Angel is defeated by Shinji Ikari's Eva-01, which is activated by a new piloting system named Dummy System, which destroys the infected Evangelion. In Jewish mystical tradition, and particularly in the writings of Enoch,

Bardiel Barachiel (Hebrew language, Hebrew: בַּרַכְאֵל ''Baraḵʾēl'', "God has blessed") is one of the Archangels in Judaism, as well as Byzantine Catholic and Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox tradition. He is the Archangel of Blessings. ...

(Hebrew: ) is the angel that rules hail. In Western angelology, he is considered the angel of lightning. The fictional Angel's contamination during the passage of Unit 03 in a blanket of storm clouds alludes to the biblical angel. Most of the scenes of Bardiel were produced by

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

, which also contributed to the animation of the fight against the Angel Iruel. In the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'', Iruel is introduced as the ninth Angel.

Zeruel

, the fourteenth Angel. Zeruel is almost anthropomorphic, with an appearance similar to that of a mutilated man. It has upper and lower limbs, both without extremities, a long, square trunk, and a skull-like upper opening at the height of the neck. On its back are signs of a pair of wings, which in classical and popular iconography are the symbol of angelic creatures. In combat, Zeruel shows great physical strength, becoming the first of all the Angels in the series to invade Central Dogma. Zeruel is able to evade detection by radar equipment, allowing it to penetrate the headquarters of the organization unimpeded. Zeruel has two main modes of attack; it emits explosive beams of light from its eyes, and can use its thin upper limbs by means of a blade-and-bellows-like mechanism, spreading them out from its shoulders and recoiling them after striking its opponent. Although the Angel's core is exposed in the center of the chest, unlike the previous Angels it has a protective armor to hide it in case of danger. Using this security system, Zeruel defends itself from Rei's Unit 00, which tries to conduct a

suicide attack A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...

by means of an N² bomb. This ability suggests the enemy is aware of the N² device and that there is some kind of communication system between the Angel specimens. Zeruel is defeated by the Eva-01, which entered the berserk state to devour it, introjecting its S² engine. Zeruel's first attack technique is inspired by that of ''Ultraman'' Jet Beetle. In the Judeo-Christian mystical tradition, Zeruel is the angel of power, a reference to its physical strength. Its name can be translated as "arm of God", to which its second offensive technique alludes. According to Will Raus, its limbs are as thin as a sheet of paper and suggest a pun on the Japanese words for and . The mangaka Yoshitō Asari collaborated in the conception of its basic structure; according to Asari; "When I was asked to collaborate, I was told that the Angel's body should appear slow and clumsy, but that it was so strong that it could make fun of he Evangelion. For the episode's basic theme, in which Shinji chooses to fight against the enemy after temporarily leaving Nerv, some ideas originally planned for the fifteenth episode were used. In the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'', Zeruel is introduced as the tenth Angel. Asari again designed the creature; except for the skull, which is almost identical to the one in the classic series, the movie's Zeruel has paper-like tentacles it wraps around its body like the bands of a mummy. During the fight, it devours Unit 00 with Rei Ayanami, assuming the appearance of an anthropomorphic female figure, but it is defeated by Eva-01. For the likeness of the new Zeruel, the animators took inspiration from the monster King Joe from ''Ultraseven'' and an Angel in the original draft of the series, a cube-shaped " origami Apostolo" inspired by the

Möbius strip In mathematics, a Möbius strip, Möbius band, or Möbius loop is a surface that can be formed by attaching the ends of a strip of paper together with a half-twist. As a mathematical object, it was discovered by Johann Benedict Listing and Augu ...

. Its anthropomorphic female form is inspired by Riderman from ''

Kamen Rider The , also known as ''Masked Rider Series'' (until Decade), is a Japanese superhero media franchise consisting of tokusatsu television programs, films, manga, and anime, created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. ''Kamen Rider'' media generall ...

''.

Arael

is the fifteenth Angel. It appears and remains in

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

for the entire duration of its observation. Its body is luminescent so its actual appearance is never shown. At first, it is motionless at a constant distance from Earth, deploying giant luminescent wings. Asuka Langley Soryu with her Eva-02 positions herself at the center of Tokyo-3 to intercept it, but the Angel begins to erode her mind using a wave that radars cannot detect A similar ploy is used by the later Armisael and Tabris. According to Ritsuko, Arael's attack is an attempt to investigate the human heart and contact the unit's pilot. The energetic light beam is visible to humans, a phenomenon attributed to the presence of an AT Field of unknown characteristics. The Angel makes Asuka relive her childhood trauma in an attempt to investigate her mental wavelength by learning her mechanisms and rendering the human on board the Evangelion harmless. Unit 02 and 00 attack Arael with their firearms, but their attempts are thwarted by its strong AT Field. When it appears in orbit, Arael is aware of the enemies' firing range, making it strategically superior to the Nerv. Arael is defeated by Eva-00, which launches into orbit a weapon called Longinus' spear, which quickly reaches the orbit and destroys Arael's AT Field. In the Judeo-Christian mystical tradition, Arael is the angel of birds; its bird-like appearance in the show is a reference to this. The name Arael (Hebrew: ) can be translated as "light" or "vision of God", and it is also regarded as the angel of the vision, which Will Raus interpreted as referenced by the beam of light through which the fictional Angel attacks Asuka's psyche. During the production of the series, its role underwent changes: Arael was planned to appear in the nineteenth episode; it would appear in the Earth's atmosphere and would use its twelve semi-transparent wings as a high-frequency cutting weapon. The Evangelion units would face it in an aerial confrontation, in which Shinji would attempt to save Asuka. The sequences of the psychological battle between the Angel and Asuka have been compared to Gestalt psychology, in particular by the field theory of the German psychologist Kurt Lewin, according to which each individual is part of a context in which each one creates a personal reality.

Armisael

is the sixteenth Angel, the penultimate to appear in the original series. Initially, it has a luminescent body and an ill-defiled circular shape that later stabilizes above the valley of Ōwaku, rotating around its axis. Once its rotation stops, the Angel metamorphosizes into a string, in which form it is able to stretch its body and perform fast movements. Taking advantage of its speed, it launches an attack against Unit 00, piercing its body at the level of the womb. Armisael seeks physical and mental contact with the target, violating the components of the unit, which is led by pilot Rei Ayanami. It is speculated Armisael continues Arael's psychic incursion, launching into a communicative attack on Rei. Under attack, Rei loses her senses and inside her mind she meets another self that is Armisael, which sweetly speaks to her using the words from her own unconscious mind. The Angel asks Rei to unite with it to alleviate the pain caused by the attack. After awakening, Rei activates a process of self-destruction of her unit, sending its core out of control and causing a reversal of the AT Field. Rei causes a violent explosion that engulfs and annihilates the Angel, and much of Tokyo-3. In religious texts, Armisael (Hebrew: ) in esoteric writings is the angel of the womb; in Jewish tradition, a woman could relieve the pain of childbirth by invoking his name. During the battle on 00's back, a heteromorphic organism with contours that recall the forms of the previous Angels develops. Armisael thus contains the genetic information of the other Angels. Its shape is similar to a double helix ring and is reminiscent of the genetic structure of human beings or a mathematical surface that cannot be oriented, such as the

and the Klein's bottle. Shortly before the explosion and the Angel's defeat, Eva-00 assumes the silhouette of Rei Ayanami while Armisael is arranged on her head like a halo, an iconographic Christian attribute of angels and saints. It is not clear whether this form constitutes the true physiognomy of Unit 00 or if it is the result of Armisael's control or one of its possible evolutions. Armisael, confirming the hypothesis of a communication between the Angels and mindful of its predecessors' experiences, is aware of the human psyche. During the clash, it is scratched by the Prog-Knife of 01, emitting a cry similar to that of a human.

Tabris

The seventeenth Angel is the last to appear in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''. In the animated series, it is known as

, the new pilot of the Eva-02. After arriving in Tokyo-3, Tabris takes possession of the unit in an attempt to break into the deepest part of the Nerv headquarters, where it believes Adam, whose soul has been implanted in its own body, is kept. Upon discovering the white giant guarded in the Nerv is Lilith, Tabris decides to stop its attack and entrusts its fate to Shinji's Unit 01, which is chasing it, allowing itself to be killed. According to the ''Nuctemeron'' of

Apollonius of Tyana Apollonius of Tyana ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Τυανεύς; c. 3 BC – c. 97 AD) was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. He is the subject of ''L ...

, Tabris is a demon and the angel of free will. ''Evangelion'' Tabris, echoing the function of ancient religious sources, chooses to die at the hands of Ikari, leaving humanity to survive. ''Nuctemeron'' also mentions a demon called Cahor, pronounced in Japanese, which is referred to as the angel of deception, a detail the ''Evangelion Chronicle'' encyclopedia relates to Tabris' deceptive, anthropomorphic appearance. Like Arael and Armisael, which attempt to make contact with Asuka's and Rei's souls, Kaworu aggressively tries to touch Shinji's thoughts through a peaceful human exchange rather than an open attack, using words and expressions to demonstrate its friendly feelings. Tabris claims the Angels' AT Fields are "the walls of the heart" everyone possesses, so it neutralizes Shinji's AT Field by eliminating the wall around his heart. Following previous Angels, which have taken various forms, Tabris adopted the form of a man by gathering information from its predecessors.

Lilin

, or , is the name used by Kaworu Nagisa to refer to human beings. According to rabbinic scriptures, the Lilim, known as Lilin, are the children of Adam and his first wife, Lilith. In the movie ''The End of Evangelion'', it is revealed humans are the eighteenth and final Angel, and direct descendants of Lilith.

In ''Rebuild of Evangelion''

Other Angels are introduced in the film tetralogy '' Rebuild of Evangelion'' and those that appear in the original anime have a different numbering. In the films, the Angels were made with three-dimensional and CG models, with the exception of the ninth and tenth Angels, which are based on Bardiel and Zeruel. A rainbow appears when the Angels are killed; according to Comic Book Resources' Danny Hernandez, the symbol may refer to Genesis, according to which God placed a rainbow in the sky by God as a testimony of His covenant with

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

. In the ''Rebuild'' series, the Angels do not have names; according to Masayuki, their names were excluded in the scripting phase because they were never used by the staff, who barely remembered them. The new Angels that appear in the films are: *The . Its body, which is composed of bones, is similar to a snake skeleton. The third Angel is equipped with four small limbs for walking, an Evangelion cockpit, a tail and a long neck that is similar to wings, which it uses to fly. It is unearthed from

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

in the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

, and is sealed by the European branch of the Nerv to be researched and dissected. To kill its enemies, the third Angel uses light beams, which it uses to fight against the Eva-05. The fight takes place in the Bethany base, where it is defeated. Its basic design was conceived by Hideaki Anno, who during production thought of giving it the ability to spit acid, taking inspiration from the monster from ''Ultraman''. Anno asked

Mohiro Kitoh is a Japanese manga artist. He created the manga '' Shadow Star'' and '' Bokurano: Ours'', both of which were adapted into anime series. Biography Kitoh's first manga '' Vendémiaire no Tsubasa'' debuted in ''Afternoon'' magazine in 1995. ...

to redefine its appearance, suggesting something in the style of '' Narutaru''. *The is shaped like a grandfather clock; its head is identical to Sachiel's mask and is capable of rotating like the hands of a clock. It has a fake oscillating core that it uses as a decoy and an authentic core that is hidden inside its body. The seventh Angel moves by freezing the sea's surface; it uses water to kill its enemies and is defeated by Eva-02. It reprises the role of Gaghiel, which appears in the eighth episode of the classic series. The seventh Angel was included in the movies due to technical necessity; the ''genga'' or

key frames In animation and filmmaking, a key frame (or keyframe) is a drawing or shot that defines the starting and ending points of a smooth transition. These are called ''frames'' because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film ...

of the eighth episode were lost and the production staff rethought the entire scenario of Asuka's arrival. It was designed by second unit director Daizen Komatsuda to resemble a drinking bird. The creature's face is the work of animator Shigeto Koyama, while the body, which was designed by Anno, is inspired by the Toshiba IHI building at the 1970 Osaka Expo. *The , which is introduced in the film '' Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo'' (2012), takes the form of a set of black filaments that emerge from Mark.06 and is eaten by Evangelion 13.

In other media

Angels appear in works based on ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' with different appearances and roles. In the comic book adaptation of the series, which was drawn by character designer

, Sandalphon, Matarael, Iruel and Leliel do not appear and the number of Angels is reduced to twelve. More differences are introduced in the manga '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse'', in which they are depicted as creatures that take possession of dead bodies to obtain gems called "cores". In the video game ''Shin seiki Evangelion: 2nd Impression'', an Angel called is introduced. The Angel presents itself in different forms. In the first form, the Angel's body is formed by disc-shaped plates, from which sprout small, scissor-like spines, and on the bottom some limbs similar to those of an insect. After a metamorphosis, it transforms into a pupa and then evolves into its final flying-insect-like form. In its third form, the Angel splits its AT Field and absorbs the energy of the Evangelion units. In the course of the video game, all three of Nerv's Evas confront Original Angel, inflicting severe damage to 00 and 02. In one of the video game's scenarios, Shinji is nearly defeated in combat but Unit 01 goes into the berserk status and confronts it. Its body, which is an immaterial shadow with no substance, allows it to revive after each apparent defeat. Original Angel's core is hidden inside a girl named Mayumi Yamagishi. The Angel, in another scenario, is allowed to absorb all of 01's energy so it goes into overdrive and is defeated. Original Angel was designed by Mahiro Maeda, who had also worked on the classic series. In the board game , which was published by

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...

, Angels Sachiel, Shamshel, Ramiel, Gaghiel, Israfel, Materael and Sahaquiel, and two new Angels appear. The first, , has the appearance of a purple-colored mollusk. On the top of the shell is a graphic motif in the shape of a human eye. The second, called , is orange and spherical. Additional Angels appear in a board game called : , similar to an aquatic spore that shoots energy projectiles; is a humanoid Angel equipped with an energy cannon; is dinosaur-like and attacks with its claws; and is shaped like a virus and able to attack by manipulating gravity. The Angels have also been used in video games based on the television series and other games detached from the ''Evangelion'' franchise, as in '' MapleStory'', ''

Million Arthur is a Japanese media franchise created by Square Enix, consisting primarily of a series of video games. The first release was an online free-to-play card battle game titled , which was released for iOS and Android in 2012. A sequel ga ...

'', '' Monster Hunter Explore'' and in the video games and ''Summons Board'' by GunHo Online Entertainment. In the ''

Divine Gate is a 2013 Japanese smartphone game developed by Acquire for iOS and Android devices. An anime television series adaptation by Pierrot aired from January 8, 2016 to March 25, 2016. Plot The living, heavens, and underworld become connected af ...

'' video game by the same production company, the Angels of the ''Rebuild'' series are depicted in anthropomorphic robes and have different names. An enemy similar to ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' Angels appears in a crossover episode of the anime ''

Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion is a Japanese toy franchise created by Takara Tomy, in association with the Japan Railways Group. It is a spin-off of the long-running Plarail model train franchise, with the toys first launched back at March 16, 2015. An anime adaptation b ...

'', whose design combines those of several ''Rebuild'' Angels.

Cultural references and interpretations

Writers

Patrick Drazen ''Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! Of Japanese Animation'' is a book of essays about anime written by Patrick Drazen. It was published on January 1, 2002 by Stone Bridge Press. The first half of the book defines "what anime is, what it is n ...

and Dani Cavallaro analyzed the series' cosmology, comparing it with the Shinto cosmology in the texts of the ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'' and '' Nihon shoki''. According to Drazen, the

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...

proposed by Anno, despite the Judeo-Christian references, presents a strong Japanese background. He compared the First Impact, and the presence of the White Moon of the Angels and the Black Moon of humanity to the Japanese myth on the origin of the world, according to which the cosmos was born from a primordial, chaotic, egg-like soup, from which light and darkness were separated. The Spear of Longinus has also been compared with , the spear of the two creator '' kamis''

Izanagi Izanagi (イザナギ/伊邪那岐/伊弉諾) or Izanaki (イザナキ), formally known as , is the creator deity (''kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can b ...

and Izanami; according to the myth, with Amenonuhoko, the two creator deities formed the first island of the Japanese archipelago. Drazen, noting the Black Moon is placed on the

Izu Peninsula The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The peninsul ...

, interpreted the mythopoiesis of the series as a cosmogony according to which all human life on Earth springs from Japan, as a hi-tech version of ''Kojiki''. According to writers Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy, the use of Western religious symbols, such as cruciform explosions generated by Angels, leads one to think of Western beliefs as an alien invasion within ''Evangelion'', but in their view the symbols are rooted in Anno's insights into

archetypes The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...

and Jungian psychology. Writers have interpreted ''Evangelion'' as a recreation of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

from the Japanese point of view, especially regarding the final apocalyptic events.

Susan J. Napier Susan Jolliffe Napier (born October 11, 1955) is a Professor of the Japanese Program at Tufts University. She was formerly the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of Texas at Austin. She also worked as a visi ...

, an American critic and writer, linked the monstrous creatures in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' and other anime to the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

trauma suffered by the Japanese people after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to researcher Marcello Ghilardi, the Angels reflect the feelings of a part of Japanese youth of the 1990s, a time when Japanese society was in the midst of an economic crisis and when "the ability to react and trust in the future seemed to have vanished", while the impossibility of clearly identifying the origin of the difficulties paralyzed society and made it made "prey to a sense of expectation and precariousness". Their identification code, "Blood Type – Blue", is an homage to the alternative title of the sci-fi film ''Blue Christmas'' (1978) by Kihachi Okamoto, an influential author for Anno. In some doctrines of the Jewish Kabbalah, angels are not conceived as alien entities but as beings that were present and newly awakened in the

Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...

. Critics compared the Angels to the ''

kaijū is a Japanese media genre that focuses on stories involving giant monsters. The word ''kaiju'' can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monster ...

'', monsters typical of Japanese science fiction. Anime Academy reviewers linked ''Evangelion'' to earlier monster-of-the-week products, such as ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 52 individual chapters were published in 18 volumes. The seri ...

'' and '' Power Rangers'', tracing influences to '' Macross'' and the works of Gō Nagai. Art magazine Real Time also analyzed the Angels, saying their design reflects ancient and modern archetypes, comparing them to Aztec paintings,

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

murals and Donald Judd cubes.

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

's Ramsey Isler interpreted the battles against the Angels as a metaphor for Anno's attempts to defeat his internal demons and depression. Scholar Mariana Ortega, noting the mythological Lilith represents "the Other Side", a dark world in which deep libidinal and unconscious desires are not controlled, interpreted ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' as a possible tale of psychic struggles between ego and unconscious, Jungian shadow and anima/animus. According to Ortega, the purpose of the Nerv, the Seele and the Angels is a return to the womb. Dani Cavallaro said the Angels can be seen as concretizations of the main characters' anxieties and fears. Fifth Wall Renaissance's Alexander Greco also interpreted them as representations of Shinji's fears. Other scholars have described the Angels as representations of the Other that Shinji must face to form his identity. Japanese writer Kotani Mari also interpreted the Angels as a representation of the concept of

abjection Abjection is a concept in critical theory referring to becoming cast off and separated from norms and rules, especially on the scale of society and morality. The term has been explored in post-structuralism as that which inherently disturbs conven ...

, which was formulated by philosopher

Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...

. Susan Napier, noting the Angels are explicitly associated with Gendo throughout the series, described them as father figures. Hideaki Anno himself compared Gendo and the first Angel Adam to father figures, saying he wanted to trace the Oedipal complex postulated by Sigmund Freud.

Cultural impact

Popularity and critical reception

The Angels' designs and fighting styles received positive reviews from critics and audiences. In 2017, the news magazine Livedoor News opened a survey asking the fans to choose their favorite Angel; in the poll, Adam and Ramiel ranked first and second, respectively. The magazine, talking about the reasons for Ramiel's popularity, discussed the beauty of its geometric features and felt sorry for Arael's low position of the eleventh place.

's Nick Creamer praised the first confrontation against Sachiel, calling its disc face "iconic". Creamer also lauded the battles against the Angels, describing them as "a captivating combination of eerily distinct monster designs, creative tactical setups, and gorgeous, horrifying fight animation". The synchronized battle against Israfel received positive reviews from critics. Comic Book Resources described the fight as one of the best action scenes in the entire series. The fights against Bardiel and Zeruel also drew positive opinions. The US magazine ''Anime Invasion'' ranked the Zeruel battle as the eighth-best fight in Japanese animation history. Stuart Nilson, a reviewer for Hoopla.nu, praised the changes introduced in the film ''Evangelion 2.0'' and the variety of Angels' appearances. Martin Theron of Anime News Network and Nicoletta Browne of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews also made positive comments about their design, describing them as "jaw-dropping" and "nothing short of astounding". Anime News Network's Justin Sevakis appreciated the omission of their names in the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' films, removing the Judeo-Christian references from the original series, which he described as "confusing and problematic".

Merchandise and legacy

Images of the Angels have been used to produce merchandising items, such as action figures, T-shirts, paperweights, bags, underwear, collectible models and foodstuffs. In 2005, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first airing of the series, mangaka Mine Yoshizaki designed several action figures of the Angels in anthropomorphic likenesses for a line titled Angel XX; among the various models, he designed Lilith and Sachiel puppets inspired by Rei Ayanami's character design. The website Evastore, the official distributor of articles and merchandise inspired by ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', adopted as its mascot an Angel named Yuru-Shito, which was later used for products and an official role-playing game of the series. According to Guido Tavassi, a scholar and critic of Japanese animation, the "revolutionary" appearance of the Angels is among the stylistic innovations introduced by the anime, " hichproposes a complete abstraction of the shapes of the enemies ... with a choice that will have an enormous impact on the design of the series of the echagenre that followed". Matarael's design inspired

Nobuhiro Watsuki , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his samurai-themed series '' Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story'' (1994–1999), which has over 70 million copies in circulation and a sequel he is cur ...

to create the eye costume of Usui Uonuma, one of the characters in the manga '' Rurouni Kenshin''. A parody of Matarael appears in '' FLCL'', an OAV series produced by Gainax studio. Leliel inspired Yūichirō Oguro to create the enemies of '' Gekiganger 3'', the aliens of the Kyo'akk Empire who come from a dimension called "Dark String Universe". Staff of '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'' also took inspiration from the Angels of ''Evangelion'' for the design of the panda Hei Bei. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy have traced a possible ''Evangelion'' influence on the Dolems, '' RahXephon'' main antagonists. For '' Sci Fi Weekly'' Tasha Robinson, '' Aquarion'' Shadow Angels were influenced by ''Evangelion'' Angels.

's Jemima Sebastian compared a scene in ''

Godzilla vs. Kong ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' is a 2021 American monster film directed by Adam Wingard. A sequel to '' Kong: Skull Island'' (2017) and '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' (2019); it is the fourth film in Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse, the 36th film ...

'', in which King Kong on a ship suffers an underwater attack from Godzilla, to the fight between Gaghiel and Eva-02 in the eighth episode of the series. Following its release, '' Polygon'' and IGN noted the unfurled design of the flying

cryptid Cryptids are animals that cryptozoologists believe may exist somewhere in the wild, but are not believed to exist by mainstream science. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience, which primarily looks at anecdotal stories, and other claims rejected by ...

Jean Jacket in

Jordan Peele Jordan Haworth Peele (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his film and television work in the comedy and horror genres. Peele's breakout role came in 2003, when he was hired as a cast membe ...

's '' Nope'' to have been based on that of a Throne, with ''Polygon'' noting Jean Jacket's near-identical appearance to

Sahaquiel Sahaquiel is listed as one of the seven great archangels in the Third Book of Enoch from the Apocrypha of the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;

, and Peele having publicly made his fandom of the series known in the days leading up to the film's release. On July 25, 2022, '' Slashfilm'' confirmed via Peele's production notes for ''Nope'' that the film's principle premise and movie monster (Jean Jacket) had been specifically inspired by and based on the Angels of ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', with Peele having been in particular impressed their "hyper minimalism" and "biomechanical design flair", and